Intro
Well, if you thought I would write any of the other articles for this embargo lift first, you were absolutely dreaming. I feel like my blog profile pic alone should be enough even for newer folks—hello there new folks, and welcome to Path to Glory!—to know that this warband is not just an old favorite of mine but the old favorite. As with many things, it can be hard to accept when something you love has been drastically changed (seems like the theme of the month), but I will still do my best to give you guys an accurate and (mostly) objective summary of the second edition version of Kainan’s Reapers.
Warscroll
Inspire
First thing to cover on the Warscroll is the inspiration condition which, despite still using bone tithe, is significantly changed from previous. Rather than tithe tokens being collected based on the Health of the target, you now collect a number of tokens equal to the slain enemy fighter’s Bounty characteristic instead (notably no longer requiring Kainan and Khenta to be surviving to collect). With the Bounty restructuring, this will largely work out to about the same as it used to, with the notable exceptions of getting 0 or getting 3 (generally in cases where you used to get 1 or 2). However, the new inspiration condition is singular, rather than universal, making it notably worse at inspiring your whole warband, but better at inspiring select fighters. Each fighter in the warband now inspires when you discard a number of bone tithe equivalent to their Bounty characteristic, forcing a heavy prioritization of inspiring the right fighters. We’ll get into how this affects particular models in a moment, but I am overall very lukewarm on this change. Obviously, you will generally not be getting your whole warband inspired, which feels like a big nerf, but you will be inspiring at least a couple of fighters earlier than you could previously, which is a very intriguing prospect. I like that there is some flexibility and decision-making to be had here, as well as some potential matchup-to-matchup variability that will inform those decisions.
Mortek Advance
Well, it wouldn’t be Reapers without Mortek Advance, but it’s not the one you’ll remember. Rather than chaining your minions around the board, you can instead react after either Kainan or Khenta used a core ability to Move each friendly minion, with the caveat that each must end adjacent to one or more friendly minions. The wording here is a bit awkward, but it seems like it should read “each Move must end adjacent to 1 or more friendly minions.” The only other valid interpretation I could see here is that, if you choose to resolve the ability, then all of your minions (even the ones that did not Move) would have to end adjacent to at least one other minion. If it is the latter, the ability gets much worse, but the former (which I think seems to be the intended use of the ability) is actually quite interesting. Yes, you can no longer chain the moves during a charge, which will be a significant reduction in accuracy for the warband, but it opens up a lot more positional play than the first edition version of this ability. While I was always on the “Reapers are an aggro warband” train then, I think this finally slides them more towards the Flex/Take and Hold side of things. During deployment, you’ll now want to consider having your minions adjacent to treasure tokens such that others can hop onto them after you use your big two fighters. This gives me kind of mini first edition Sepuchral Warden vibes, as you can imagine a deployment where your first activation is to put Kainan or Khenta on guard, then potentially scramble onto a couple of tokens with your minions. An additional buff, compared to first edition, is that you can now still react to move a minion even if they already have any Move and/or Charge tokens, which you could not do previously. I’m not yet convinced that the ability is outright better now, but it is a potent effect. Its purpose has just shifted dramatically and I expect a corresponding shift in playstyle for the warband.
Dire Ultimatum
While I preferred the old flavor text (“Alas, it is not me you that must face”- Binar Khenta), I have to say that this ability got a huge glow-up for me mechanically. Yes, it can no longer persist for the whole round, but rather than forcing -1 Dice onto attacks targeting non-Kainan fighters, it now flat out prevents your opponent from attacking anyone besides him in the next Action step (of course, you can only use it if he is not already slain). While this was functionally how the card was used quite often, the shift in Take and Hold surges to focus on holding a position after your opponent’s Action step means that totally invalidating other fighters as targets becomes even more appealing, especially given the shift in tone for the warband. Stick your leader at the back of your board during deployment, put him on guard in your first action step while moving some minions into scoring positions, then drop this ability to secure those scores. Furthermore, with the general decrease in lethality of the game (especially from greater distance than Range 1), sinking attacks into your leader is supremely preferable to them taking your other fighters off the table, particularly in conjunction with the availability of cards like Healing Potion and even the new Utter Conviction in a case where your cataclysm value might be really high. Probably the highlight of the warscroll for me, despite there being some solid options here.
Ranks Unbroken by Dissent
While the old Nadirite rules are gone, we do at least get something like it once per game in the form of Ranks Unbroken By Dissent, which grants you grievous on a melee attack if the target is flanked and/or surrounded. One notable thing you’ll read in this ability, however, is that it is no longer restricted only to a subset of your warband’s attacks, it works for everyone. This means that Kainan is threatening that potential 4-Damage hit as early as the first round. While many elite fighters have bumped up to 5 Health, the extra potency is much appreciated in a world where the general lethality of the game has decreased.
Monolith Stance
Another once-per-game ability, Monolith Stance allows you to put a number of friendly minions on guard up to the battle round number after your Action step. While guard is fine, you do have a multitude of 1-Save fighters, which doesn’t fully leverage its potential. That said, guard did get a boost in the second edition, so the value is definitely better than it once was. While you certainly have to be concerned about the fact that your minions will generally drop like flies, this also increases its potential output as the game wears on. If you can weather a slow Round 1 with very little interaction, throwing 2 fighters on guard at the beginning of Round 2, for example, is reasonable return for the ability. This seems like about the best time to use it, as I would be surprised to have more than 2 minions surviving heading into Round 3, if you even have that many, and getting just 1 guard token out of it is not a huge power spike. Notably, the guard tokens can also help to set up Ranks Unbroken by Dissent as well, given that you’d deny your opponent potential drive back on their Range 1 attacks (assuming they don’t outright kill you with the attack). Decent ability, but nothing too special.
Unrelenting Assault
Last, but certainly not least, we have Unrelenting Assault, our final once-per-game ability. This one allows you to remove all Move and/or Charge tokens from a friendly minion after your Action step. While it does give your opponent some time to react to whichever fighter you’ve chosen, the ability to double-charge, for example, in a round has always been an extremely potent ability. Yes, you are quite squishy, but I could certainly see situations where you charge with a minion, remove their Charge token, then drop Dire Ultimatum to ensure they get off the second charge you wanted. This would be pretty busted if you could use it on Kainan, but even with the minion restriction it is quite good and should see use every game. Worth noting that this one will also increase in value as you get later into the game, at which point you will have had the opportunity to put down upgrades and possibly also inspire.
Fighters
Starting with Mir Kainan, as per usual, you’ll notice that his uninspired physical profile is the same as first edition except…oh no. Rocking 2 Move, 1 Shield, and 6 Health is a fat, yet static piece. We should talk about it now, yes the whole warband is at 2 Move uninspired. When I first saw this, I figured it meant the warband would be basically unplayable. However, as I hinted at earlier, I think there is going to be a significant shift in playstyle with the redevelopment of Mortek Advance which makes this sting a little bit less. Additionally, we are seeing some good movement/push tools in the early decks with cards like Wings of War, Commanding Stride, 0-glory Great Speed, etc. which can make this feel less restrictive. Furthermore, no longer needing to worry about getting longboarded or offset should mean you’re getting into the action much more rapidly than you could previously. Apologies for the brief diversion, but it felt needed before we get into the rest of the fighters. Anyway, back on Kainan, he retains a pretty threatening presence (pun intended) in this second edition, sporting a 1R/2H/3D weapon, as well as a 2R/2H/2D. While his scything attack is obviously gone since the whole mechanic got the axe (pun also intended) in this edition, these are both above-average profiles at their respective Range characteristics for uninspired fighters so far in this edition. This is good news because, as you’ll recall from our discussion of the inspire condition, you’re not able to inspire a fighter until you’ve killed at least the corresponding amount of Bounty in your opponent’s warband and Kainan himself is 3 Bounty. While you’d think that would mean he gets a ton from inspiring, he only bumps from Move 2 to Move 3 and merges his profiles into a single 2R/2H/3D attack. While these are nice bonuses, inspiring him essentially means you’re forgoing the rest of your warband’s inspiration until quite late in the game, which I don’t expect to be worth it very frequently, unless your other fighters are very rapidly purged from the table. I doubt I’ll be inspiring him much, barring power card support, but he’s still quite a powerful piece, especially when you factor in that every Action step you use him to resolve a core ability is another opportunity to use Mortek Advance.
Binar Khenta is back again, of course, but he’s looking a bit less shiny in this edition, sporting a pretty miserable physical profile of 2 Move, 1 Shield, and 2 Health. Given that he is the only other piece who can trigger a Mortek Advance now, I find 2 Health to be pretty outrageous, especially considering that they made a big deal about fighters that would previously have been 2 now being 3 when they talked about Nitch and Krittatok from Tunnelpack. His weapon profiles are fine at 1R/2H/2D and 2R/2H/1D, but it’s also a bit of a stretch to imagine myself putting him at risk via a Range 1 attack early in the game. Thankfully, he is only 1 Bounty, which is not only important from a glory:ease of killing ratio, but also for inspiration, which he desperately needs. While he gets a similar treatment to Kainan in that all he gains is an extra hex of movement and the merging of his weapons into a single 2R/2H/2D profile, I think those boosts are a lot more important in this case. Being able to swing from Range 2 and actually still put out damage gives lot more positional flexibility, which is pretty critical if you intend to activate him more than once in a round to get the minions moving around. It certainly also helps that those boosts are much easier to access at just 1 Bounty worth of slain enemy fighters rather than 3. Still, I would very much liked to have seen him at 3 Health, he’s going to get one-shot far too often given his importance.
Our only 0-Bounty fighter in the warband, Nohem has the worst physical profile you’d expect any fighter to have at 2 Move, 1 Dodge, and 2 Health, not that you’d expect much more from a little minion archer. Fortunately, he can leverage his bow to shoot from relative safety on 3R/2H/1D. Sure, he can’t make use of Ranks Unbroken by Dissent without a weapon upgrade, but we’ve already talked previously on the channel about the decrease in lethality increasing the value of positional play for these attacks. Additionally, pending FAQ that states otherwise, he gets to inspire for free right at the end of your first Action step since he has 0 Bounty, which is phenomenal considering it bumps him to a very accurate 3R/3H/1D while granting him the obligatory 3 Move. No more Nadirite and the slight reduction in defensive capability is definitely unfortunate, but I think the ability to immediately access his inspired side should make up for it in the long run.
Next up is the dude with the big sword, creatively named Hakor. He is your 3rd (and final) fighter in the warband capable of doing 2+ Damage (without abilities to add extra damage), sporting the same physical profile as Nohem, but with a 1R/2H/2D weapon, which is certainly respectable for a minion fighter like this. Things get even better when inspired, adding the customary additional hex of movement as well as an additional die on his attack, leaving him at 1R/3H/2D. Given how potent his attack is, I’m definitely looking to keep him safe in my mid-to-back line early to hopefully reduce the risk of him getting blitzed. I think he’s also a great candidate for an early inspire via tithe removal, probably only in competition with Khenta for that choice on your first Bounty-laden kill of the game. Again, the 1 Dodge and 2 Health is a concern here, but I think the accuracy of his inspired attack makes it worth it. Inspired, he’s likely to be your ideal candidate for Unrelenting Assault.
Finally, I’ll cover Senha and Karu together given that they are basically the same. They both start on 2 Move, 1 Shield, and 2 Health. The only difference is Senha’s weapon is 1R/3S/1D while Karu’s is 1R/2H/1D. Given that neither fighter’s attack particularly inspires confidence, I think you are avoiding using them, if you can, but boosting them with Ranks Unbroken by Dissent or such can be ok in a pinch. Unfortunately, they’re not really meant to attack when inspired either, as their weapon profiles remain the same. However, they do bounce up to 2 Shields while gaining that additional movement, making them the ideal pieces for holding feature tokens. I think gameplan will heavily dictate whether you prioritize these inspires. If you are playing a matchup where you need more throughput on your attacks (likely most of them), I think you are prioritizing Khenta and/or Hakor inspires first. However, if you lean very hard into the Take and Hold side of things, it’s not the worst thing to get these guys up and running early. For example, if you manage to inspire them both by the end of your first Action step of the second round (presuming they’re both still alive), dropping a Monolith Stance while they are both standing on tokens would be a nice way to potentially keep them around long-term while getting some positional scoring out of them.
Conclusion
Overall, I think this is quite a mixed bag. The warscroll is actually decent (although not the best) and I am less put off by the Mortek Advance change than when I initially read it. Like I said earlier, I think this change will result in a shift in how we (or at least I) have previously thought of them, pushing them more towards Flex or even outright Take and Hold than their previous iteration. I think we’re likely to see a lot of first turn putting Kainan on guard + Mortek Advance onto 2 treasure tokens, if we are deploying to facilitate it. While your minions are squishy, I like the change to Dire Ultimatum and Ranks Unbroken by Dissent to extend the life cycles a bit so that you can potentially get them inspired and/or make sure you score enough before you lose too many of your fighters.
What I am much more apprehensive about, however, is the warband’s stats. Firstly, for all the talk about how warbands are generally bulkier in this edition, Reapers have lost considerable bulk, with every fighter having a decrease (at least when inspired) in their Save dice or Health characteristic except for Karu and Senha, who “make up” for that fact by no longer inspiring to 2 damage. Realistically, you only have 1 fighter who can stat check anything, and the rest of them are either too squishy, too pillow-fisted, or both to allow the warband any significant brawling presence outside of the leader. The drop to 2 Move when uninspired also certainly stings a bit, but the ability to spam Mortek Advance ad nauseum makes me think you’ll play more along the lines of first edition Sepulchral Guard in terms of activating one of the big two just to move your other pieces about the board for whatever positional scoring you need to pull off.
As I’ve hinted that I’d like to send these guys towards more of a Flex route than previously, my current number one Nemesis pairing idea for them is Blazing Assault + Pillage and Plunder. Blazing Assault gives them some much-needed power card support in terms of pushes, movement, accuracy, and damage to compensate for their subpar stats, as well as some of the best surges in the game right now. Of particular interest in this deck, besides its bonkers ploys, is Hidden Aid, because it can serve as an accuracy bump while simultaneously working together with Ranks Unbroken by Dissent. Meanwhile, Pillage and Plunder allows you to fill in the rest of your objective deck with some actual ceiling while also hitting on a few key areas of need, most notably with Explosive Charges, Gloryseeker, and Burrowing Strike. While I think the Blazing Assault portion of the pairing is borderline mandatory, the warband does have more synergy with the Rivals decks in the core set than Reckless Fury or Wrack and Ruin, in my opinion. There’s definite upside to a Blazing Assault pairing with Emberstone Sentinels, allowing you to access some extra glory ceiling as well as two extraordinarily powerful ploys in Confusion and By the Numbers. Similarly, while Countdown to Cataclysm doesn’t offer quite as much glory ceiling, you can expect to have the tracker tick up every round for a friendly fighter being slain. There are also a few clutch power cards to pull from there as well, such as Countercharge, which can help set up those supports for Ranks Unbroken by Dissent, or Desperate Rage, which would give your minions (besides Hakor) some much-needed damage output. Utter Conviction also deserves a shout-out for (at absolute peak value) potentially resulting in a Dire Ultimatum which would force your opponent to target a 4-Shield Kainan in the next activation. Free glory from Spread Havoc is always great too.
While I’m hopeful that the warband will still feel competitive, I think it is fair to say that I expect them to struggle overall. While they can pull off some positional play via Mortek Advance, ultimately the fragility of the non-leader fighters will catch up with that strategy. By the same token, Kainan is bulky, but by no means is he unkillable, and without him the warband will lose considerable juice. Even more so if Khenta bites the dust with him and you lose access to Mortek Advance altogether. You know I’ll be playing quite a bit of them, and intend to push them as far as I can, but I do think there are better options out there right now, even within their own grand alliance.
Well, that’s all for this one. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading to this point and, of course, wish you the best of luck on YOUR Path to Glory!
