Intro
Da Kunnin’ Krew are a bunch of low down, stinkin’ backstabbers, and they’re proud of it! Led by the Kunnin’ Mannok, they’re looking to slink, shank, and weasel their way to victory in Embergard by any means necessary, especially if it includes stabbin’ some lads.
Warscroll Card
Starting with the team’s Inspire condition, we see that you have to make an attack where the Opponent is Flanked or Surrounded. This will become a bit of a theme for this faction, as we’ll see shortly. This is a pretty ok Inspiration, though it does require a successful Attack from you, so sometimes the dice will dice. That said, there’s a lot of good synergy here with Push or bonus Move cards to get into position and maybe Inspire a lot of fighters at once.
Pain In The Knee is a solid little passive Ability. Mannok and Torka are the two fighters you really want to be Attacking with, so getting them extra Accuracy from Surrounded is very good. This does, of course, require your Minions to survive and have proper positioning, but they’re not called Kunnin’ for nothing! You’ll need to think ahead and set up good attacks to get the bonus and to Inspire, so keep your Finkin’ Cap on.
The first Active Ability is Kunnin’ Plan. This is a pretty interesting ability, giving you multi-pushes on all your Minions. There’s a lot to unpack here. First of all, having a Move Token on your Leader is fairly restrictive, as you’ll usually want to Charge. Secondly, the timing doesn’t really let you use it to set up Attacks, though it can be used to punish an enemy stuck with a Charge Token. Thirdly, it gains value over the course of the game, though you likely will be losing Minions over the course of the game as well. This means that it’s a hard ability to use, but a clever player can use it to really change the state of the board. It has a lot of use for Flex plans that want to position smartly, and you can definitely consider using it aggressively if your opponent gets in a bad spot. Overall, it’s a bit of a tough Ability, though I think you’ll find a use for it in most games.
Dirty Tricks, however, is extremely powerful. The mindgames alone are extremely strong at putting pressure on your opponent, since effectively you can turn off an Attack or Save roll in the right moment. This is an ability that really wants you to draw cards, either through Focus or through cards like By The Numbers or Burnt Out. When you have a strong hand of cards that includes a mix of Upgrades or Ploys, you can basically decide the results of one Attack per game, and that is insane. While this does require you to sit on cards and not play them, that’s a very small price to pay for one of the most powerful effects on an Ability. Plan around this Ability and use it at the right moment, and you can change the outcome of the game in one go.
Murk Lurkers isn’t quite as good as Dirty Tricks, but 3 out of your 5 fighters get to 2 Save dice, so getting the full effect of Surrounded on an attack is very, very strong as a defensive tool, especially if you get some other defensive boosts like rerolls or can ignore Cleave/Ensnare. Nothing flashy here, just a very solid defensive button to push when you need a fighter to survive.
Overview
This is a pretty wild Warscroll Card. While the Inspire isn’t great, and Kunnin’ Plan is a bit hard to use, you have a great Passive, one solid Ability, and one potentially broken Ability. When your opponent figures out how strong those Abilities are, they will have to completely play around them, which gives you the upper hand in a number of ways. This is a great Warscroll card.
Fighters
Now onto the fighters. Mannok, your Leader, starts on the hefty 5 Health and Shield Save. His attack, however, leaves a bit to be desired, not having good damage at Range 2 means he’ll often have to be put into tough positions to get his damage going. However, he gains insane accuracy when Inspired, picking up the very terrifying 3 Hammer profile, which, alongside Pain In The Knee, should almost guarantee hits a lot of the time. While I would have preferred him to have a Damage 2 attack at Range 2, his profile is good for poking a bit before moving in for the kill, so I think he’s overall a good fighter.
Mannok’s right hand Orruk, Torka, is another great fighter. While he’s only 4 Health on a Shield (still respectable), and starts with the same attack as Mannok, things change upon Inspiring. First, he gains the dominant defensive profile of 2 Shields, and then he gains a great attack boost. 2 Damage at Range 2 is awesome, providing lots of poking and prodding opportunities, and then flat 3 Damage at Range 1 makes Torka a serious threat to basically everything on the board! I think there’s a big push to get Torka Inspired as early as possible in any way you can, because his Inpsired side is such a massive upgrade in stats. His accuracy may not be as great as your Leader’s, but his damage is fantastic, and the two of them will leave your opponents quaking in fear.
Krookgrin is the first Minion, and he has a decent but not great 3 Health. His 1 Dodge goes to 2 on Inspiring, which you’ll very much want, and his mediocre attack goes to a very respectable one. While he does not benefit from Pain In The Knee when he attacks, per se, he can still benefit from regular Flanking to make his Uninspired Attack just that little bit better, and his Inspired Attack into something extremely solid. If possible, Inspire him early like Torka, but keep in mind that he’ll be exposed while getting there. Luckily, he’s only 1 Bounty, so if he bites it early while trying to Inspire, it’s not as big of a loss as your two Orruks.
Gikkit is a pretty interesting Minion. While he’s only 2 Health, he does start on a respectable 2 Dodge. His attack is awful, and Inspiring only helps it marginally, though realistically if you’re attacking with either of the small Minions and they’re not holding a Weapon Upgrade, something has probably gone horribly wrong. He doesn’t need to inspire in the same way that Krookgrin does, but honestly he’ll likely get there due to his Save stat making him a good piece to position with, at least in the early game, and makes him a decent Weapon holder.
Finally, we look at Shank. Oddly not bad, starting on a Shield is good, and his Range 3 Attack, while pretty bad overall, is still a Range 3 poke that can benefit from Flanked/Surrounded to get a surprise Inspire on some fighters. He’s an odd Minion, not really a damage powerhouse or a defensive one, but the utility of Range 3 can’t be ignored, even if it’s pretty poor until he Inspires. Don’t count on him, but also don’t ignore him.
Overview
Da Kunnin’ Krew, perhaps logically, comes with 5 fighters that require, well, cunning to use well. Your Leader is a bit weak but very accurate. Your second in command is strong but open to Attack whiffs preventing him from getting Inspired. Your Minions are utility pieces that can sometimes be great fighters, and sometimes be just chumps that you use for Pain In The Knee and then throw away.
Every game will feel a bit different for this team, depending on how many Pushes you have, what Upgrades you get, and how Attacks roll out. And while that’s true for every team in Underworlds, Da Krew really can have massive swings if Flanking lines up or you use Dirty Tricks at the right moment. I think smart players will have a field day using this team to their full potential, while people who just want to make 3-4 Charges per turn may bounce off of them since you can’t really just play yolo Strike.
I feel that this team, oddly, might be good with Emberstone Sentinels at least in some capacity. It has the best Draw card in the game, Kunnin’ Plan is a great card for getting on Treasure, and their Range 2+ attacks will come in handy for hitting opponents while holding Tokens. That said, they’re not really super amazing at Take and Hold, since you have two very squishy pieces that don’t Raise, and you don’t quite have the speed to get onto enemy Treasure reliably, so perhaps it’s not great.
Your deck ultimately is going to want Pushes and perhaps Weapons, as well as the standard Stat buffing cards like Great Strength. While I have a few ideas on how I’d run the Krew, I’m interested to hear what the community will do with them! I think they’re a solid team in the right hands and perhaps one that will see a lot of wins when piloted well.
So backstab and lie your way to victory! And as always, best of luck on your Path to Glory!
