Calamari and Catclysms
Movie poster, pose, go!
Well, well, well. Here comes another attempt at Hexodus. Historically I’ve managed to put out (checks notes) one article every time I’ve tried this. So… see you in a few more years!
Which is all to say, no promises. It turns out writing blogs (at least for me) is hard and I’m not sure how people like Fishmode, Vintro, and Jake do it. I really don’t. But this time out, I’m doing this in loose partnership with the last guy on the list. Which is to say, he’s going to release something in a timely professional manner, and I’ll slop out some half-baked, Johnny-come-lately thoughts. In that way, Jake’s article will shine all the brighter. And if there’s one thing I learned at Worlds, its that I’m pretty good at boosting other people up.
So what warband did we start with?
It was always about the squid.
Cyreni’s Razors
The warband that launched a thousand salt barges in first edition. Without the ability to longboard, are they still a pain to deal with? A good question to investigate. And this one’s first because… Jake literally has a squid in his handle on most places you might talk to him, so this seemed like a decent place to start.
Have You Played Them Before in second edition?
Before this project, no… and only against them once!
Have You Painted Them?
I have not, but my good bud Payvand has and his look absolutely fire:
Sometimes people are so good at painting, I question why I even bother.
What deck did you use?
For this project, I was specifically inspired by Vintro’s praises of the warband, and in particular his vortex o’ pings decks. There’s a few on there and I dabbled back and forth with a few changes. But mostly, the idea was all the pings. So yea, Cataclysm and Wrack. I think Jake tried some other options, and I know when Payvand kicked my butt before, he was definitely using Emberstone. Staggerers also has a Cata/Hunting Grounds build that I’d like to at least try. In one of our recent episodes, Phil theorized that this warband might be able to get something done with Hunting Grounds, so I might have to trot one more run to check that out.
“Fishy Explosions” courtesy of Vintro
Caveat: A few of these games were quite a bit ago, so I haven’t recorded accurate scores or notes for the more distant ones. I vow to do better going forward.
Game 1: Alexx with Khagra Ravagers, using Emberstone and… Pillage? Knowing exactly where Alexx wanted to be (on tokens) meant it was much easier to set up Hammertide shots and these plus pings really ruled the day. I was able to get a modest lead and the set up a situation where the only treasure available for Khagra was underneath Cyreni, and Khagra was on one health. So a charge plus overrun would just see Khagra hammered right back off.
Game 2 & 3: Vs the Tithemaster with Kainan’s Reapers, (I believe using Blazing and Pillage). A Bo3, and I thankfully this was a Vassal match for which I kept a log. Looking at the first one of the set, I’m having a hard time believing I won this, as Kainan blitzes down Cyreni in the first Battle Round. But a couple pings at the end of the round on Kainan sets the table for Cephanyr getting smoked off the table first action of Round 2. Again, I apparently win this. I’m surprised too. But Alathyrr and two more pings (including an absolute carpet-bombing from Sunder the Realm) drop Kainan and Blazing Assault scores slowly and steadily until lowly Renglaith is the last Aelf standing and there’s a big Wreckers/Alone in the Dark combo for a 2 point win. The second one of the set is almost an inverse. Hammertide and pings shred all the little guys and then one squid and one Aelf run around delving things back to treasure to prevent Torn Landscape and Strip the Realm from going off. The big scores from this deck pairing love empty boards so Alone in the Dark, Stay Close, and Wreckers come out to play once again for big payoff and securing the set.
Game 4: Played vs. Connor’s Headsmen, I believe running Blazing, Cata. Connor was a little newer at this particular warband and committed the wielder too early. He was happily greeted with an avalanche of glaives and pings and then had to run like crazy until the hammertide finally lined up for the kill shot.
Game 5: Played vs. Wellner’s (what else) Exiled Dead. I think this iteration was Wellner running Pillage/Wrack? An intensely weird game where I think I killed a total of nine zombies over the course of the game. I got a cheeky Stay Close when Wellner was distracted and once I had a lead, ended up in the bizarre situation of having to hammertide raised zombies for no bounty just to deny them attacks that would likely kill my dudes. It did trigger some things like Bloody and Bruised, so not totally a lost cause. Never even came close to threatening the dentist and won on tie-breakers 18-18 of all things.
Game 6: Played vs. Phil’s Wurmspat with Blazing Cataclysm. Oooo, I felt hard done by on this one. I’d set up fairly defensively and almost avoided the global inspire until a single dice Improvised Attack pushed Phil over and then it was just such a pile of health to get through. Sepsimus got super tooled up, stood on a waystone and just went ham. In an incredibly lucky turn of events, I did manage to drag down the other two fighters before getting tabled, but that still only got me to lose 16-18 in a game not remotely as close as that score looks. Seriously the statblocks on those boys.
Game 7: Played vs. Brian’s Gardeners with Blazing and Wrack. Brian had been told many times by “some people on Vassal” that his Worlds choice of Emberstone/Pillage was the wrong pairing to take with Gardeners. In an effort to test this, he was trying a new pairing. Even into the sad, sad defenses of the Razors, it took him until his ninth attack to hit (I did get on to some waystones to help) and in an incredibly rare display, I actually tabled the Gardeners. This is, I think, low key a pretty unpleasant matchup for Gardeners. Being able to chip one damage and stagger one of the rank and file daemons sets up a follow up kill from the Alathyrr or Renglaith very very nicely. And all the pings can nudge the dial to an unpleasant spot if applied in a timely manner. We did not do the final tally, but it was looking pretty 16-3-ish.
Thoughts about the warband after playing it:
It’s a weird warscroll and a weird set of stats.
Award for “If You’re Not Here for this Ability, You Must Just Really Love Squid”
Hammertide: In a game of RNG from dice and card draw, having a guarantee is amazing. If you have the time/space to use this, the damage plus stagger set up is just great. One damage per action isn’t the highest efficiency in the world, but it can change the math on a kill from “I need to successfully hit twice” to “as long as one swing gets through”
Award for “If I Had a Nickel for Every Time This Ability Went Off, I’d have Ten Cents”
Deadly Riposte: So you’re saying they’ve gotta miss your thralls? Okaaaaaay. Can be good if Alathyrr gets a defensive boost (in this pairing, that’d be Utter Conviction) to really punish misses. A little better was Phantasmal Ink, which triggered a bit more and came with quite a few surprise back breaking positioning changes.
Award for “I Thought This Would Be Way Cooler”
Soul Harvest: Wasn’t exactly… bad… just really underwhelming. There are certain times when an uninspire would be back-breaking, so your opponent is happy to just give you cards. There are times when an uninspire literally doesn’t do anything (see Wurmspat with three enemies damaged/dead) and that blanks this ability. Cards are nice. Just think of it as a teeny little bit of extra card draw. Sometimes.
Whaddya Know about those Fighters?
So weird. Sometimes you can kind of tell that different warbands were designed by different parts of the team because an almost identical mechanic will be implemented similarly. In this warband, it feels like that happened between individual fighters.
Alathyrr’s attack profiles become a combined range 2, 2 damage, 3 hammer attack with brutal. Very nice.
Renglaith… still has separate profiles for Range 1 and 2 because why? I’m convinced his job is to hold that lantern and not give up his 2 bounty too easily.
Cephanyr flies, but one or both players will almost certainly forget. The only meaningful defensive boost and a benefit for when this fighter is missed is nice.
I barely know what Cyreni’s inspired side does, because I use it SO rarely.
I think Alathyrr and Cephanyr end up being your primary inspires, and, other than your Hammertide Caddy, I mean, boss- Cyreni, they’re your primary fighters too.
The Wrap-up:
This is hard enough without having to do the non-unique warscrolls. Don’t make me un-hide them.
Games to reach first win: 1
Final record: 6-1
Overview: Some unique mechanics here. Okay, one unique mechanic here. The on-demand inspire would be a great thing to have if this was a bit more of a toolbox warband. But by and large the choice in round 1 was just Cephanyr unless Alathyrr really had a chance to shine with that big beefy glaive.
Fun factor: I kinda expected to hate this warband. It felt like they would just fold like wet tissue paper. And they sometimes did, but four fighters on four health can sometimes buy you just enough survivability, especially when mixed in with a few defensive tricks from the deck pairing. I don’t know how much I should attribute my enjoyment to the warband itself, or to the pairing, but having a full salvo of pings was pretty unique feeling in second edition. I’ll give this one 7/10 squid tentacles.
Other resources: Well, Starting Hex’s coverage of the same topic, obviously. And Vintro has a soft spot for them over on Staggerers.
Final note: Thanks to underworldsdb where I stole many an image and built many a deck!
Who’s Next: Jake and I have some ideas. But we’re probably open to suggestions too.