Kamandora's Blades

Welcome to our rundown of Kamandora’s Blades. Make sure you catch our podcast coverage of the release. For everything out with this release window, follow these links:

Thanks go to GW for providing a review copy to make this content possible.

Introduction

[P]HIL & [S]KYLER

P: BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! …especially that last part. Kamandora and her blades are roaming the wastes of Aqshy in search of skulls. How will they fare? Let’s find out!

WARSCROLl

P: For an aggressive warband, inspiring for being adjacent to a specific fighter after a power step or killing that fighter is a pretty simple ask. I like that it leaves the door open to using some tricks like pushes and teleports to inspire fighters quickly. A solid condition that I look forward to seeing on the table.

S: And one they'll want to meet quickly for any fighters in the fray to bring them up from one Dodge to two. The other thing of note for me is that this type of positioning requirement pulls them away from the hold playstyle, especially when inspiring means two defence dice.

P: Pick a fighter to hunt each round. Pretty simple stuff but it is seemingly what the whole warband revolves around so plan to be looking to build that Skull Throne.

S: Strap in for Slaughterous Pilgrimage. It's the reason for the season.

 

P: For those who remember Headkrakka's Madmob from first edition they will remember how powerful pushing towards one fighter at the start of the round can be. This is more in your control though because you choose which fighter you will be pushing towards. This should make an otherwise clearly aggro warband quite a bit more flexible in their positioning game. Token placement will be very important playing with or against this warband.

S: Talk Fortkrakkas to me!! (Erm, allow me to translate that.) As Phil alluded to, an ability that allows a push straight out the gate means you can plan on having fighters push onto treasure tokens to start the game out - which opens you up to all sorts of scoring options.

 

P: Essentially just explaining the Slashing weapon ability these fighters have. A contingent bonus damage is some gnarly mind games. Hit, bleed, make your opponent choose if they leave the fighter you just hit adjacent and ready for a finishing blow or get out of there and slowly bleed out. Feels like a high skill ceiling ability, but it will really only apply when fighting elites since most 2 health fighters won't survive to get the bleed token anyways.

S: The first thing I think of is when a warband is one fighter away from charging out and you hit that remaining fighter with this, taxing them a damage (or extra activation) to reach charged out. This also offers a sneaky way to sandwich ploy pings in > apply attack damage, queue up a bleed token, hit them with a ping in the power to make them vulnerable, then see how your opponent chooses to manage a bleed token sitting on a vulnerable fighter.

 

P: Bit of an odd ability. A push 4 is amazing, but doing so only with your worst fighter and only to a spot adjacent to your leader really leaves this limited. Still, there are plenty of tricks you could pull by suddenly having your dog go halfway across the board. Again, feels like a high skill ceiling ability.

S: Agreed. A fragile puzzle. It's a great ability, but Kannat is the most easily killed fighter and is not offering you much on their own outside of positioning and another source of Slashing.

 

FIGHTERS

Uninspired
P: A respectable leader stat line. Decent speed and defense with an attack that could do 3 damage out of the gate should mean Kamandora is a terror... However only being 3 health likely means she needs to be kept safe until she is ready or has a target that can't take her out in one shot.

S: Really glad to see her starting out on 2 Defence.

Inspired
P: Gaining one attack dice isn't a huge deal, but welcome none the less. I don't think you need to rush to inspire Kamandora, she is largely the same uninspired so I think you want to slow play her into the fray and then she should inspire incidentally.

S: Right. Quite the modest inspire, but in this context it’s because she’s a good piece out the gate.

Uninspired
P: Almost identical stats to his leader, but with more health instead of defense. That's not an amazing trade off but at least he is unlikely to get taken out in one hit.

S: The 2-damage plus a bleed present here again means to me that letting a few bleed tokens deal damage can become a dangerous prospect fairly quickly.

Inspired
P: Okay! Extra defense and extra accuracy, very solid. You definitely have to hope you have a bigger fighter you can charge to inspire here so he isn't sitting waiting for the crack back at 1 dodge. I think using power cards to position for the inspire will be very worthwhile for this choppy boy.

S: Without a doubt, the best fighter in the band. And the easiest name to chant and champion: “Throkk Throkk Throkk!

Uninspired
P: A considerable step down from our 2 bounty fighters. 1 dodge with 3 health is again a liability so trying to position safely until ready to get in feels like it will be important. Only having a 3 swords attack for 1 damage is also not great, but the slashing should mean it always has the potential to be 2 which is kinda neat I guess.

S: Yeah, a bit of a rough profile initially. I feel bringing accuracy tech along will be crucial to keep the threat of Slashing persisting.

Inspired
P: Wow! Hunting skulls really gets Ghalista going! Extra defense, extra accuracy, and extra damage. He jumps from being entirely forgettable to a solid threat. Seems like a priority inspire here!

S: Word. Quite the glow up! No wonder he’s got such a wide smile!

Uninspired
P: Despite not getting a cool axe like his partner in crime, Ghalista, Antro is a copy paste duplicate in terms of ability.

S: Well, huh. Don’t particularly expect the ol’ copy paste in a 5-fighter warband, but here we are.

Inspired
P: And thankfully, a copy paste in terms of inspire as well. Getting these two inspired really ups the potential for this warband.

S: A spitting image.

Uninspired
P: Despite being a sweet demon dog, Kannat is no Kujo. 1-dodge with only 2 health is essentially asking to get picked off early so keep him back until you have a need for him to get into danger. At only 2 swords for 1 damage you probably don't miss much by keeping him out of harms way. Likely a positional piece more than anything.

S: Yeah, it’s the 2-swords that really skewer any potential use case outside of simply being a body to position. (Not that any of its other stats stand any taller.)

Inspired
P: Okay so more defense on inspire is seemingly the theme of the warband and certainly welcome on our doggo here. The increased accuracy is fine but you are still not gaining much from attacks here. Use this boy to support your better fighters or stand somewhere important and look menacing.

S: And be prancy while doing so.

 

Summary

P: I think it is safe to say that some skulls are getting added to that throne, though I’m not sure it is clear if it will be the Blades or their opponents… Khorne cares not and all that I suppose! What initially had me thinking they would be an ABC (always be charging) aggro warband now makes me think that it will take a bit of finesse to successfully hunt with these fanatics.

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