Thanatek's Tithe
Welcome to our rundown of Thanatek’s Tithe. 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
[D]AVY, [P]HIL, [B]RIAN, [S]KYLER, & [Z]Ach
P: It’s tax season so you know what that means!? handing over your bones! wait, wait, checks notes actual bones? oh boy… These servants of Nagash are here to collect, let’s see how they plan to do it.
WARSCROLl
Z: Similar to Kainan's Reapers, you'll need to collect 7 of these cadavers to inspire your whole warband. You'll also need to use them for some of your warscroll abilities, so balancing where you use them will be extremely important.
D: Yeah, this feels very similar to Kainan, so differences will hinge around how cadaver tokens are getting picked up.
Z: This is the only way to get cadaver tokens and there's only two retainers so it'll be very important to keep them alive. It also means that you only have 12 chances to get a token. Worth noting that you don't get a cadaver if you slay the target, so keep those enemies alive to farm those dead body tokens!
D: Aaaand you can't drive the enemy back. The limits here are pretty substantial. Initially, you're probalby only landing about half your hits, so accumulating these is challenging. There's a very small handful of cards that permit additional attacks with Improvised Attack being the most reasonable.
Z: Super cool ability here. Basically, allowing the leader to sit back and not have to get up in the fight. Between this and getting cadavers, Retainer position looks like it'll be the key to the warband. Bit of a shame you can't make use of Thanatek's ranged weapon or make modifications of any sort to his melee attack.
D: Not that it's easy to modify ranged attacks in general, but I'm not sure why he can't modify his ranged attacks if his melee attacks are the only ones that can channel through his retainers. You'll see that melee attack starts pretty darn modest, so despite being very unique, there's only so far you can take this. But you absolutely *should* take another look at cards that interact with this in interesting ways. Score Aggressive Defender with your leader while being nowhere near the target! Score Lead by Example from the safety of your back line. So on and so forth. This feels like the ability that might have a lot of skill expression available.
Z: Getting stand fast is always powerful, increasing the likelihood by even just a little bit certainly isn't a bad thing. I'm just not sure how often this ability will actually proc. The attack needs to be successful, so no draws, and you need to roll a success on a 1 dodge fighter. On top of that, half of your successes are crits anyway, so there's a decent chance you were already standing fast anyway with a success in the roll.
D: This ability rapidly compounds as you hand defensive buffs out like guard, extra dice, re-rolls, or supports. Even a little more stand fast is a great thing.
Z: I really like this ability. The mind game alone, of calling your shot and giving your opponent the tough choice of how to deal with that is right up my alley. This'll be really helpful for setting up better angles to get those retainers in for cadavers or onto feature tokens to score.
D: What Zach said! I rescind my previous comment- this might be the one that has the highest ceiling on skill expression!
D: Worth noting that if the Tithe is made to go first, they'll have an action without this ability for the round. Small bummer there.
Z: As we'll see, those reapers are rather strong offensive pieces, so being able to bring them back in a power step is nice. Having to spend your hard earned cadaver tokens and potentially still not reviving them is not so nice. I think I would've rather seen it be a roll for one token or an automatic success if you spend two
D: Yeah. Or at least bring them back inspired, since they're lackluster uninspired. You probably want to roll 2 to feel like you're going to get them back, and then need another to inspire? Rough. Some utility in deny objectives that are looking for a number of out of action fighters, or some of the Reckless Fury charged objectives. Surprisingly doesn't need your leader alive!
Z: I think you should be able to inspire them without a token since they'll be at 0 bounty from the raise. Still pretty rough, though.
Z: Another way to spend those precious cadaver tokens. I think this is the first ability this edition to remove an enemies guard token. That alone makes both sides of this attractive. Though you know you'll get the ping when you need to get rid of a guard and then only end up with a stagger when you need that killing ping. The for each enemy fighter clause makes this potentially very interesting, but it will require a dangerous position for those important retainers.
D: Oh boy, I wish this was something like- if you get the roll, you can pick which effect. If you don't your opponent picks. Being able to try for the Guard removal would be really spicy. Kind of another ability that feels like they're expecting you to have a lot more cadaver tokens than you actually will.
FIGHTERS
Uninspired
Z: Might as well paint this guy up with a big ol' bullseye. 1 block, 4 health, and 3 glory will make him a juicy target, especially without really threatening anything on the crackback. At least from this side, I don't really see a reason why his attacks had to be unmodifiable.
D: Vasilac vibes in that respect! Hide, boss!
Inspired
Z: There we go, now he's got the juice. Extra defense, extra damage, cleave, and ensnare. A huge boost up. The three glory means you'll need to have collected 3 cadaver tokens and not have spent any on another fighter or ability, but it might just be worth it.
D: Oh wow, great glow up. But three cadaver tokens is probably half of what you'll earn all game, and you're also not inspiring this guy till the end of R1, or until R2.
Uninspired
Z: Love seeing that two block considering how important these guys are to getting those cadaver tokens. The offensive output isn't anything special, but threatening 2 damage at range two isn't the worst thing.
D: Honestly, pretty decent profile for one bounty. Two block out of the gate is spicy.
Inspired
Z: Converting that crit grievous to a flat extra damage is a worthwhile inspire, even if it's the only thing.
D: It also leaves the door open for granting grievous from an upgrade, and 3 damage at range 2 is very nice.
Uninspired
Z: Exactly the same as Xar-Tamok. Having these two on 2 shields and 3 health should mean you won't lose both of them early in most games.
D: Oof, yeah that would be mega feels-bad.
Inspired
Z: Again, exactly the same as the other one. Pick whichever model you think looks cooler to inspire first (or the one in a better position if you're a tryhard).
D: What if you're a tryhard, but still get it wrong? Asking for a friend.
Uninspired
Z: Yikes, that's not a great offensive profile for a fighter that looks to be a glass cannon. Crit grievous on 2 dice is unlikely to trigger very often, and only doing 1 damage at range 1 just doesn't cut it. The 1 dodge defense also means he'll be very killable.
D: Speed 4 is a welcome surprise, but it's a pretty disappointing attack profile. These guys need crits to do more than one damage before inspires, which... yikes.
Inspired
Z: Extra dice and the customary change from crit grievous to flat 2 damage. Feels like he'll often be an early inspire. The only problem then is keeping him alive so you don't have to burn more cadavers to bring him back.
D: Agree. Plus extra accuracy increases the chance that you actually get more cadaver tokens, I guess?
Uninspired
Z: Just like the retainers, the reapers also have the exact same uninspired stats. Just as with Tukhar, Sekhmor doesn't have great stats and will need to be inspired before doing much.
D: As we'll see on the inspired side, you'll probably have an idea of which one has priority on inspire. Which means you know which one is sacrificeable. Though maybe the answer is "neither" and you're trying to tank hits with the retainers?
Inspired
Z: The ensnare counterpart to Tukhar's cleave. Depending on the matchup, he may be the one to inspire. I like the versatility and redundancy between these two.
D: I vote for this guy, smoke-bomb vial is cool.
Summary
P: I guess they will get that tithe by being weird rather than efficient. As new warbands go this one ranks up there in terms of complexity and I imagine it will take some tinkering to tally up the wins with these guys, but I think their toolset should be fun for players that like a bit o’ thinkin’