The Exiled Dead
Welcome to our rundown of The Exiled Dead. Make sure you catch our podcast coverage of the release. For everything out with this release window, follow these links:
More release rundowns! >> 18 warbands + 2 decks = 20 rundowns!
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
D: They're back! The warband so weird they seemed like they were playing a game 25 degrees shifted from normal. Did they retain the insane action efficiency? Let's take a look.
WARSCROLl
D: The minions start inspired, and the bosses have to get a minion to kill something to pop up into gold status. No need for an un-inspire because that comes automatically with dying.
P: Odds seem decent for the inspire here.
D: Admirable speed boost as you lose fighters. In the endgame, I'd expect whatever conductive minion that's still alive to have pretty incredible threat range.
P: I also like how you could get into a bit of a cycle where one zombie dies, boosts the speed of the rest on the next activation, and then gets revived so you are hopefully always able to have the bonus without much of a drop off in zombie efficiency.
D: Similar to their first edition incarnation, there is huge payoff for staggering an enemy. Beside the reroll for attacks (needed for poor base accuracy) these guys pick up grievous. Which means there's a lot of three damage threats as soon as stagger enters the chat. And this warband has multiple weapon profiles that apply the condition.
P: Not to mention how common stagger is in the game from delving as well as a handful of cards that can apply stagger.
D: With a stagger token on the target, this can make a two sword attack deceptively accurate (two dice, double re-rolls). The nightmare scenario for the enemy is getting group attacked by adjacent fighters while staggered. I'm scared to see what this warband can do with the new Deadly Synergies deck.
P: Absolutely! Getting more benefit from being adjacent seems to mesh so well here. I think you have to be very careful about where/when you charge against these guys because if you get surrounded there could be 3-4 rerolling grievous attacks waiting for you...
D: Much more reasonable than the insane highs this could reach in first edition. Once per round still means you've got a very efficient turn in terms of action efficiency. The double charge is the flashy option, but just walking to raise Regulus back onto a feature token you really want is going to really flip the field in some battle rounds. Also, what's up with the core ability icon being so small on Puppeteer? Leaning into the bit?
P: I'm very glad this can't be spammed all turn! Odd that the raise option doesn't let Marcov do anything else... How often do you want to take a whole turn to just raise a fighter?
D: Oh, good catch. I read it and definitely thought it was both options. That's much more limited...
D: Here's why you play this warband. It's huge. Four moves. Multiple attacks. These guys are no longer beasts, so you can flood feature tokens early. There's some scaling back from first edition: Deintalos can't have a move token (!) and won't be able to activate along with the mob. But this is an option for getting an attack off with a fighter who just charged the previous round!
P: Such a huge change to not be able to activate Dientalos alongside the zombies. This likely means that if the zombies move out to tussle Dientalos will be left somewhat vulnerable. Feels like the cards that can hand out move tokens get a big boost if this warband gets popular. Also, I just realized most of this scroll works with weapons and I don't like the idea of zombies packing weapons...
FIGHTERS
Uninspired
D: The boss has serviceable early stats. The stagger at range 2 can set up the crew for success, and a cleave shot can help clear tokens.
P: Definitely need to keep Mr.D safe early! That one block won't hold up too long against some strong aggro bands. Pretty great being able to effectively attack from behind the zombie phalanx if you have to keep him walled in.
Inspired
D: A second defense die for such a pivotal fighter is really, really welcome. Good accuracy boosts, too. But the former is why you might want to push hard for that minion kill shot.
P: I'd even be willing to try for a zombie charge to pick that up. Feels that important to me. Though maybe you can play counter punch and force your opponent into the mass of zombies.
Uninspired
D: Ayyy, Marcov. Two dodge, nice. Base two damage, not bad.
P: Almost a full leader profile. Can't complain about anything here!
Inspired
D: Oh snap, another source of three damage?! The prentice can hit!
P: Is this going to be an aggro warband?!
Inspired
D: Regulus starting with a range 2 attack that can stagger is a nice opener to spook anyone who might be tangling with your conductive fighters.
P: Range two gives a lot of options here, definitely want to leverage this profile early while you can.
Uninspired
D: Regulus drops to swords on returning to the battlefield, which is significant. But the range 2, 2 damage remains, and that's not nothing for giving more positioning options.
P: And assuming you can get a fighter surrounded even two swords is crazy accurate.
Inspired
D: The speed, defense, accuracy will be continuing themes for all these conductive minions. Pretty solid for an opening profile.
P: Kinda have to imagine multiple of these attacks together rather than the single attack in isolation and suddenly the attacks looks scary.
Uninspired
D: Losing damage, crit stagger and a movement point when returning is a lot. But I think it should be. These guys come back pretty easily and you want it to mean something to kill them.
P: Absolutely, attrition will likely add up when fighting this warband so you have to hope to be able to apply some of that same pressure back.
Inspired
D: On the right targets, and especially with stagger or help from conductive minions this is accuracy that you can be totally happy with. I like seeing warbands like this with the ability to tool-box their problems.
P: Certainly more so than warbands that have all the answers on each fighter. This way, your opponent also knows which fighter is the biggest threat. Love it.
Uninspired
D: Vlash at least retains cleave when he dies. That must be a pretty heavy stick.
P: Walk softly and carry a big stick.
Inspired
D: Looks like Ione and Bault are best buds. Same profiles. Probably the ones you're most ok with losing early if you have to pick someone to be at risk. But plenty serviceable on the inspired side.
Uninspired
D: Big drop off. So... maybe not a huge fan of dying quick?
P: Certainly not ideal, but if it keeps the others churning I imagine you'd be okay with the trade off.
Inspired
D: Thought that big beefy arm would give at least crit grievous? But quite possibly having access to true grievous from the warscroll, so...
P: That has to be the reason, already getting grievous on the warscroll
Uninspired
D: Ah, there's the beefy arm. Retaining two damage on base attack when uninspired keeps some damage threat available.
P: Yeesh, gonna be hard to keep this guy from clobbering someone.
Summary
P: Exiled Dead 2, electric boogaloo, can keep dancing the night away, but Dientalos got old and his back hurts so he will just have to watch while everyone else has fun. That means they still have quite a bit of efficiency but some substantial weaknesses they didn’t used to have. I think this warband will still be zigging while everyone else zags but probably not as effective as they once were.