The sixteen warbands reprinted in the Grand Alliance boxes have emerged in Embergard and are ready for their second edition rules. It’s time to add them into our tier list (found here) that we’ve made for Worlds. Where the first list had been crafted based on assumptions, at this point we’ve seen the results from Worlds to help guide. I’m also going to add the Jaws of Itzl and Grandfather’s Gardeners into the mix now that we have the first 33 warbands (which is more warband choice than we had up until the middle of season 4, Direchasm!).
The Tier Ratings
- S Tier: Super strong warband, near overpowered, potentially dominant in meta.
- A Tier: Strong warband, powerful abilities, good in meta.
- B Tier: Balanced warband, decent abilities, average in meta.
- C Tier: Slightly below average warband and abilities, a slight challenge to perform in meta.
- D Tier: Underpowered warband and abilities, a challenge to perform in meta.
- F Tier: Weak warband, lackluster abilities, will be a large challenge to do well in meta.
The Warband Ratings
Hexbane’s Hunters: If you followed along the previous tier list, I tend to really like my toolbox warbands. I see this falling into that bucket for me. I didn’t play with them in the first edition but I’ve looked at them as Strike in the past, but now I think they are a solid Take & Hold choice. Loyal Hounds is limiting, but allows you to potentially capture two treasure tokens with the pups,and with zero bounty fighters. With proper intial placement, you’ll be on four by activation two. The negatives are the fighter stats themselves, silly weak humans. I think they can do well in the right hands but aren’t powerful to themselves.
Rating: C
Myari’s Purifiers: A strong set of stats married to a unique warscroll. I really like how they kept the Aetherquartz abilities and the warscroll is just those passives. Each fighter has their own special ability to affect the game and each one of them has one reroll of all dice, attack or defend at the cost of giving up that ability. They’ve got speed, decent damage and range.
Rating: B
Thundrik’s Profiteers: I like This is Mine a lot, as it’s not just “can’t be driven back”. I like By the Code for the push. But overall, I think these KO are just limited in this edition. The two move. Very low damage. Aethershot being once per game and with a very specific board state. The best part to me is Alensen and his sword.
Rating: D
Ylthari’s Guardians: The Guardians have leaned into abilities that care about how many of them are out of action. Realistically, you’ll end up building up upgrades on one crucial (and more importantly, alive) fighter. Each fighter can be special in their own way. Everdusk is crucial in rounds two and three to bring a large fighter down from nowhere. On today’s list, Ylthari is higher than C as I believe they have some counterplay into Dromm and other elite Strike warbands.
Rating: B
Ephilim’s Pandemonium: With proper play, you inspire Ephilim at the end of the first turn of round two, but honestly it’s just one dice on the ranged attack so shouldn’t be the main concern. I think the key is to focus on minion placement to draw cards, spread ping damage alongside ranged attacks. Fires of Change I think is hilarious turn one into a clumped together Gitz. Inspire Kindlefinger and launch a long range strike hitting near Drizgit and the Squigs! Overall, pretty average in my books across the board.
Rating: C
Gorechosen of Dromm: What can be said about this super prevalent warband? 17 of 46 World Championship players chose them for the first second edition tournament. Stat-wise, you’ve got a 5 wound Dromm, 6 wound Gorehulk and a 1 bounty Herax. Dromm and Gorehulk hit hard, especially with the Gorehulk’s inspired side having a 2 range, 3 damage attack and Dromm also being no slouch with his 2 range attack. What makes them strong is the warscroll. Consistent blood tithe counters coming from any damage to fighters with extra coming equal to the bounty of the kills you make. Spend those for two gamechangers. One being a power step additional charge, letting Gorehulk potentially smash for 6 damage in one activation. The other being the ability to spend as many tithe as you want, to roll that many dice and heal for each crit. All that in response to lethal damage. They also synergize perfect with the Reckless Fury deck. There’s a reason they’re very prevalent.
Rating: S
Khagra’s Ravagers: I really like the redesign on these chaos warriors. Desecration being easier than in the past and being countered by delve is a much better way to execute the mechanism. The warscroll has some card draw, bonus dice on one attack or save and a hefty push, all around how many tokens are desecrated. Strong fighter stats with decent damage and survivability. They exemplify the pinnacle of elite Take & Hold as we see it right now.
Rating: A
The Dread Pageant: The D is for disappointing. I appreciate the thematic nature of the inspire, but in a setting without lethal hexes, much harder than ever. You’ll have to lean into Rack & Ruin and likely Cataclysm to make this even work consistently. Considering that most of the abilities only work when your fighters are damaged, it’s a risky warband. But the most disappointing are the fighters themselves. Slakeslash and Vasillac lose their heal, Glissete is extremely weak, and Hadzu is keeping on Hadzu-ing. Sigh.
Rating: D
Blackpowder’s Buccaneers: The toughest fighter in the game comes out of this band, with some decent damage. But that’s about all they have going for them. Elaborate warscroll abilities and challenging inspiration. Four fighters with sub-par stats and easily picked off. It’s a shame, but I just don’t see this working well.
Rating: F
Da Kunnin’ Krew: I think it’s interesting to have three minions and two bigger boys be the crux with which the warband works. If you can have some surviving fighters, A Kunnin’ Plan is amazing in round three, especially with a Hidden Paths setup. Dirty Tricks is a really fun shell game that can be a major swing, or completely ineffective. Positioning will be key for these guys with inspiration heavily tied to it. But will they be able to put it all together? I’m not confident.
Rating: D
Grinkrak’s Looncourt: The questing warscroll of the Looncourt has a very unique style. Where the abilities are tied to how you get all your grots inspired, they also give passive rest of game bonuses to the dubbed fighter of who you can change each round. Importantly, you don’t have to even pick at the start of the round. There’s an interesting mix of abilities here, with the obvious weakness coming from the fact that there’s no double moves for a six model band. I think there’s something here but elaborate as always for a Mastery warband.
Rating: C
Morgok’s Krushas: Tanky, smashy and slow, the playstyle hasn’t really changed. These dudes will plod along and collect Waaagh! for each time they’re involved in an attack. Charging in with Morgok and pushing your other beaters in, a potentially cancellation of a ploy, and the cancel of a drive back or giving the target a stagger for a counter-punch all cost you Waaagh!. No longer will you have a healing, extra attacks or lowered damage from the ploy deck so I think they’re no longer as kunnin’ as they once were.
Rating: C
Kainan’s Reapers: Kainan is still a strong leader with a large axe and the stats to match. The ability of Mortek Advance still allows you to maneuver your minions around, but the two move and that they have to end adjacent to another minion makes it hard to actually capture multiple tokens. (Unrelenting Assault helps with this once). Khenta being on two wounds is quite a limitation, and the mortek stats aren’t great either. I think there are some better hordes out there, and Kainan himself isn’t the hardest to take down.
Rating: D
The Crimson Court: I think that the inspire and bloodthirst abilities did not well translate to this edition. Savage makes them faster, but staggered. The inspiration is heavily tied to holding treasure but weak defensive stats make this very challenging. I think Dark Transfusion is super interesting, but the other abilities force you to lean into both styles. Really I find this whole package underwhelming and confused.
Rating: D
The Grymwatch: The ghouls are back in town, trying to destroy the enemy or keep them in neutral territory. The rework of their inspire I think is amazing and doesn’t overly hinder elite warbands. In the Name of the King gives you an early inspire (likely Gristlelwel), or a raise when someone is down. Gristlewel and Valreek losing a wound is counterbalance by the fact they can be raised now! The delusions are fun round-wide abilities, with balancing survivability, attack dice and double raise or inspiration. I think this is a horde that can punch above their weight class, just ensure you have sympathy for the Duke and keep him safe so that he survives.
Rating: B
The Headsmen’s Curse: I might be overrating the 4 damage on the Wielder, but I think it’s a strong factor for the warband. One raise available, the action to teleport where needed, accuracy and card draw as part of the arsenal. Fast, flying movement alongside some higher health fighters (other than my genergous grievous giver) give the band a good balance. I think they’ve got some good impact on both hordes and elites.
Rating: A
Jaws of Itzl: RAWR! I think this is a really interesting take on an elite warband. Inspiration tied to ping damage in your opponent’s turn, alongside a chance to do it on every failed enemy attack. Defensive upgrades and ping damage ploys will be the friends you want. Really solid stats, a 0 bounty minion that gets to move in for supports (or to hold treasures). Savage Mauling can be a keystone ability and if you can have it go off multiple times a game, you’re likely in a good spot. I think there’s enough uniqueness here that they’ve got a really good niche. I see them as a really good counter-punch to other elite warbands.
Rating: A
Grandfather’s Gardeners: I might overrate the new warbands, but so be it. What an interesting cycle mechanism. I think it’s super interesting to link the damage of four fighters to that cycle, and three at range two! Manipulating and figuring out that cycle is the key. With something like Twist the Knife in hand, you can easily make a 4 damage swing by the end of round one. Healing Potion is the star card for this warband (along with the innate Reap a Harvest), you inspire on vulnerable and most of them gain a wound on inspire. This lets you bring your fighters back on 3 health. Downsides to me are the move characteristic, a few inaccurate fighters and low defenses.
Rating: A
Reshuffling The Deck
Here’s the warbands that I’ve moved since the initial list based on a couple of days of Worlds play and seeing the rules for the further eighteen warbands.
Mollog’s Mob: I had overestimated this smashy troll. I still think that there’s a new large fighter to be worried about in the Gorehulk. I still think they’ve got some legs but average compared to others.
New Rating: C
Thorns of the Briar Queen: I overestimated hordes previously and especially dodges for save. The other hordes have more consistent moves, the ability to raise or stronger damage profiles. I think the Thorns are weaker than they’ve ever been.
New Rating: D
Zikkit’s Tunnelpack: I don’t think it’s an uphill challenge, unfortunately it seems like it’s an impossible one. The super weak warscroll with only four effective fighters make it hard for me to place this anywhere else.
New Rating: F
Ending
Here’s where I’ve landed just weeks into the game and after one tournament. Obviously there’s still a lot to shake out as games are played and people figure out the warbands. Moving into the top 8 cut at Worlds, there were 5 Dromm, 1 Thricefold, 1 Khagra and 1 Headsmen’s Curse. The top 4 was 3 Dromm along with 1 Thricefold. In the end, Daniele using the Thricefold Discord took Dromm down to win the Worlds! But Dromm is clearly the top dog right now and unless there are changes in errata or FAQ, they will need to be the warband to plan against. Other than that, there is a good spread of warbands with a variety of options.
Once again, this one is solely my opinion. I give all this a resounding “play what you want”. There are stronger and weaker abilities as always, but any warband can be played well if you become a student of it. Hey, I rate Condemnors low, but the player at Worlds (Gareth) just barely missed the top 16 cut for the weekend. What are you excited to play? Where am I still misguided? Are the new warbands as good as I think or am I just an optimist? Let me know your thoughts. I’m on the Discords as Matt ~ Set The Tempo, or reach out to me at [email protected]. And make sure to set your own tempo!
