Intro
For a bit different of a slant on this release cycle, I’ve copy-pasted my “love letter” to GW for these 4 articles, as I don’t want it to be missed if you end up only reading the ones on warbands that interest you.
Holy new releases, Batman! A very pleasant surprise in the pre-release WarCom cycle was the announcement that not one, not two, but four old warbands would be getting facelifts to modernize their fighter and faction cards, as well as grant them full 32-card Rivals decks for viable play in that format. Of course, this also comes with an opportunity for (primarily) improved performance for the deckbuilding formats, as you now have some additional cards to pull from in addition to the modifications to existing ones. I can’t express how glad I am that they’ve done this. There was some worry that eventually we’d hit warband rotation, or even soft warband rotation via power creep (see Stormcoven and Pandaemonium vs. Cursebreakers and Eyes). However, the recent redesigns of these older warbands I think looks like pretty strong confirmation that they don’t want to leave any warbands behind. Yes, it comes at additional cost for players that already have the models (it is GW after all), but I’m personally happy to pay it if it means my old favorites are relevant again. I was thrilled by the updates made to Sepulchral Guard (and even Farstriders), so I’m glad to see them continuing to work through the backlog of old warbands, as long as they are mostly retaining the identity we’ve all come to know and love. These changes, even the minor ones, feel like they breathe some fresh gameplay into these warbands that are really struggling (particularly in Nemesis), but that are also some of my personal favorites. Perhaps even more importantly, new players will have access to these teams that otherwise fetch outrageous prices on the secondary market due to being OOP. Tenured players don’t have to worry about stomping new players with OOP warbands, new players get to experience the glory of our old favorites for themselves without having to break the bank, and GW gets to make more money off warbands they’ve already released. Everybody wins. I’m honestly not sure there has been a WHU release I’ve been more excited about. Would I love to be able to buy the cards on their own? Of course I would, but honestly the ~$15 markup from a Rivals deck to a warband these days is trivial enough to me that I personally don’t mind it, and the price tag on this box is even less than that. I recognize that is a privilege for myself to be able to say this, and I can totally appreciate if you don’t want to pay this much to just get new cards and/or you’re not interested in all of the warbands. However, I would point out that, if you are willing to split the box with a friend and/or sell off models you already have (which you can likely accomplish on the secondary market), you can help assuage some of these concerns.
With that out of the way, let’s get into this article’s focus, which is Spiteclaw’s Swarm! Now, I know in my “love letter” that I was supremely excited about these revamps, and I am, but of the 4 warbands redone here, I do feel like Spiteclaw’s the only one that didn’t quite retain its soul. To cheat ahead a bit, I surely didn’t expect something like [
Expendable] to continue to exist in its natural state, but I do think they lost a lot of the tricks that defined their flex playstyle. It’s unlikely to follow in the footsteps of these other redone warbands which, for the most part, seem to be doing the same things they used to do only slightly differently/better. In any case, let’s hop into the cards and allow you to make your own conclusions.
Fighters
For the fighter cards, I’m not going to go over everything, just the changes to their original versions. We, of course, start with the greatest (yes-yes) of the Skaven, Skritch. There’s good here, but there’s also bad. The most prominent good is that he actually starts on 2 Dodge now, so it won’t feel quite so worthwhile for your opponent to just immediately dive him as soon as possible. He also gained the Schemer ability, which grants him grievous when he makes a Range 1 or 2 attack supported by a friendly minion, which can certainly be helpful, but is also very inconsistent. He did lose his (basically useless) cleave on crits, but replaced it with straight cleave on his inspired side, as well as added Thain-esque scything profile reminiscent of a fighter-restricted upgrade he used to have. The unfortunate downside to all this is that he had to trade away his base 3 Damage when inspired. This is obviously a pretty big deal, especially since I would argue that the updates to the warband as a whole seem to point them more toward positional aggro. Overall though, I think the buffs do a lot to compensate here and make this about a wash or slight improvement.
Krrk is largely buffed I would say. Yes, he dropped from 2 Shields when inspired to 2 Dodge instead, but there’s a lot of backup plan now if Skritch dies. A backup leader, as well as the draw of 2 (3 if inspired) cards allows you to play him more aggressively and pivot if he happens to die. Krrk also gained the same Schemer ability for some potential spike damage. As an extra bonus, he also got bumped to Range 2 on his base attack profile. I will happily trade his reduced defensive capability for these bonuses, especially considering guard tech is good with this warband already anyway.
Lurking Skaven is largely unchanged, only gaining a pretty “meh” 3R/2S/1D attack profile on his inspired side. At least this again means that we later get to dump a horrendous fighter-restricted upgrade from their original deck.
Hungering Skaven also has only minor changes, but, even without seeing the rest of the deck, you can probably guess what they mean. He now has scything on his base attack profile, but it’s come at the cost of [
Black Hunger]. I felt like I had to talk about the two together because, if you only looked at the fighter card, it would appear he’d gotten a slight buff, but in reality he has eaten a massive nerf. I think the fact that you can no longer pull off an attack action upgrade + [Black Hunger] should have at least merited 2 Damage when inspired, but alas, we have what we have. They also changed him to a flat 1 Shield just to kick him while he’s down.
Finally, we have the Festering Skaven, once more with a single change, gaining grievous when inspired. This is another change foreboding the loss of a card, but [
Festering Blades] is less of a loss to me because I don’t love the prevalence of grievous in the first place. I think it’s fine in doses, but pretty much every warband these days has multiple sources of it and it just makes for a lot of variance.
Our Favorites
- Mark: Krrk
- Aman: Krrk
- Zach: Krrk
- George: Skritch
Rivals Deck
Objectives
You might recognize this first one as what was once the end phase [
Brilliant, Brilliant!], but has morphed into a surge in A Brilliant Scheme-Plan. Anyone remember [
Moment of Glory]? I always loved that card for these guys, scoring just for having 3 inspired fighters. Might not always happen in the first round, but things have to be looking pretty dire if you’re not scoring this in most games. You’re looking to inspire anyway, so it’s nice to get rewarded for doing so.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
Against All the Odds is a 2-glory end phase for having two or more surviving minions and having each surviving minion and/or no one’s territory. This one is ok since you can resurrect fighters in enemy territory readily enough, but it will be a hard sell in Round 1, especially since the minions themselves will be operating at reduced potency with the loss of some of their key upgrades. Now, more than perhaps ever before, you are trying to do your damage with Skritch and Krrk, which I think will naturally place less emphasis on the minions throughout the course of the game. I’d like to avoid this one if I can, especially since it requires all three of them to meet the positioning requirement if all three are alive.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1
Bury Them in Bodies is another 2-glory end phase, this time for having two or more surviving fighters while having made successful attacks with two or more friendly fighters in the action phase. While a bit dice dependent, I do think the warband is a bit more aggro leaning than it once was, and this is the kind of end phase a lot of horde aggro warbands would kill for, I think. I know aggro Spiteclaw has been a thing in the past, and that does seem to be where it’s heading in the future, so this might be a critical component of it.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
With Endless Swarm, we once again have a conversion from the previously useless end phase of [
Numberless Swarm]. Now, we’ve got a surge instead for either having more fighters in enemy territory than your opponent, or each of your fighters is in enemy territory. This obviously also leans into that aggro Skaven vibe, but I’m not a huge fan. I don’t think they really have the movement economy to pull this off effectively early, and I don’t like a surge I could be waiting some amount of the time into Round 2 to score, with the exception of select matchups. Even if facing off against elite aggro, you’re still not scoring this until late Round 1, I’m not a fan.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1
While it’s obviously been adjusted to account for the fact that Krrk can become your leader, the renaming of [
Skritch is the Greatest, Yes-yes] just makes me very sad. The objective is still quite solid, especially given the backup plan you have now if Skritch dies, I’m just going to miss the old name.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Numbers Without Limit is more of a [
Lives are Cheap] substitute, a 2-glory end phase for having two friendly fighters taken out of action in the preceding action phase and having taken out an enemy fighter in that action phase. Definitely an interesting “fight and die” aggro card, but needing to rely on your opponent killing you is starting to become a concern. Even in Nemesis, warbands like Razors, Sepulchral Guard, Mournflight, and now possibly also Thorns and Gitz, seem capable of winning games without farming kill glory. In Championship, the resurgence of HO gameplay makes this even more true. That’s not to say this card is bad, but I do think it will end up being pretty matchup dependent, and the reduction in the threat of the minions from this new iteration of the warband means that your opponent may not be quite scared enough to try and get you before you get them for this card to work consistently.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1
Safely Does It is a slight upgrade on [
Arm’s Length] in that you can still score it if you have an adjacent supporting fighter. While I do think Skritch and Krrk will be the best options for this usually, the ability to score it with others makes it roughly as flexible as our prior kill surge, especially if you start packing in some Range 2+ weapon upgrades from the universal decks.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Send in the Next Wave is a surge that scores when an inspired friendly minion is taken out of action. I actually like this one quite a bit. Assuming you have enough tech to get people inspired quickly, this gives some [
Martyred]/[
Everything to Prove] vibes. Worst case, you could force this out on a board with lethal hexes just to cycle your hand. I think this is pretty likely to find a spot in your deck.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
Skaven are Supreme! is the big 3-glory end phase, and it’ll make you work for it. You score this if each of your surviving fighters is inspired, which is fairly doable, but you also need to have your opponent with one or fewer surviving fighters. This might be an ok meta call if you expect a lot of 3- or 4-fighter warbands, but hordes, particularly ones with resurrection potential, can brick this in a hurry. I think it’s probably too unreliable to merit a slot in your deck.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1
Standing Out is a surge that scores for making a successful attack action with a friendly minion. As I mentioned a couple of times already, I think the focus of the redesign will likely be less on using the minions as your offensive centerpieces than it has been in recent seasons, but just hitting with one of them is relatively doable. Again though, I don’t love this one in Round 1, it’s too dicey, but if you can get some weapons out early enough, it could become a reasonable ask. Tough to rate this one.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1
The Perfect Plan is a bit of a weird one, scoring if one of, but not both of, Skritch or Krrk is dead. I really dislike these kinds of objectives, especially when it involves arguably my two most important fighters. Best case, this is a bit along the lines of a [
Lost Leader] type of card, where you throw one of them into the fray, they do some work, then die, but I think it’s almost always going to be favorable to play to preserve your key pieces instead.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 1
Lastly, we have Vermintide, a 1-glory end phase for having more surviving friendly fighters than enemy fighters and having one or more of your fighters in enemy territory. The second condition is pretty trivial between your resurrections and high movement, but the matchup dependency of the second condition gives me pause. I think this will be fairly trivial against 3-fighter warbands, but I need my 1-glory cards to be nearly automatic, regardless of matchup.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2
Our Favorites
- Mark: A Brilliant Scheme-Plan
- Aman: Bury Them in Bodies
- Zach: Standing Out
- George: The Perfect Plan
Gambits
The art on Cautious Skitter again forebodes the loss of a card, this time being [
Scratching in the Shadows]. As solid of an effect as pushing each of your minions can be, losing a [
Distraction] hurts. I think this once again points toward the focus of the revamped warband on fighting rather than taking objectives from your opponent, but I should rate the card on its own merits and it certainly is good, especially for pushing in supports to activate Schemer. One rules thing I will note is that you have to push all of your minions in this way, if you are able to, but you can still use it as long as at least one of them can be pushed in towards the nearest fighter.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
Frenzied Stabbing is unchanged and still pretty decent. I would like if they’d made it a choose gambit, but the warband is hungry for damage, especially now, so it may have slightly appreciated in value.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Kind of weird they renamed this one, but Furious Scrabbling is just what [
Aversion to Death] was, with the ever so slight change that the reaction window is after the out of action check, not after the attack action is fully resolved. Still a decent push option, but it again lacks “choose” and can also sometimes stick in hand if things aren’t dying.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1
Heightened Caution received a slight buff in that the additional defence die applies for the entire activation, in the event that an opponent tries to scythe you. You could maybe double up with something like [
Ready for Anything], but I think you’re again hard up for ploys that actually inspire your fighters, so this one likely misses the cut.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2
In a new take on [
Momentary Boldness], we have Malicious Stab, which allows you to make an attack action against an enemy fighter adjacent to two of yours with one of those that doesn’t have a Move or Charge token. This seems pretty tough to set up, but if you can line up enough pushes, the potential for a free attack from Skritch, or even a beefed up fighter with an attack action upgrade, this can have a huge impact on a game. Likely, it ends up too inconsistent to merit a slot, but maybe worth taking a couple test games on.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1
Musk of Fear has some more modern wording now, but is effectively the same. The fact that Krrk now benefits more from guard gives this some additional value. There might be some better ways to pick up guard, but for the easy inspire and significant resulting defensive buff, I think this makes it into a lot of Nemesis builds, although likely left on the cutting room floor in Champ.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Nervous Scrabbling gets a slight buff here, as it now chooses two fighters instead of one. While it’s not quite [
Confusion] since at least one of the swapped fighters needs to be friendly, many of the best uses for that card involve having at least one friendly in the pair anyway.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
[
There Are Always More] is now Plenty More, another card that got a “name-nerf” in my opinion, but in a very real way also got a “nerf-nerf.” Not only do you have the Move or Charge token cost, but being unable to raise onto an objective hurts. Yes, you do have more flexibility now that it doesn’t have to bring them back on a starting hex, and that can be great for setting up supported Schemer attacks, but this is just another nail in the coffin of the hold-flex style Skaven we’d come to know and love. Sure, you can use pushes and such to get back onto tokens, but that’s still pretty damaging to the efficiency of the card, especially since the minions have been hit already. It just seemed like an unnecessary extra jab when, in my opinion, it would have been more reasonable to just reprint it as it was, but with the Move/Charge token addition, similar to how they handled [
Restless Dead].
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
[
Sudden Skittering] has now become Swiftskitter, allowing you to make an out-of-sequence move action for the cost of a Charge token, with the caveat that you also can’t have a Move/Charge token already. That’s a pretty big caveat since the out-of-sequence moves have the most value in those scenarios, allowing you to reposition for your scoring after having gone out of your way elsewhere. One notable upside is that it can help you access the charge out rule and can help with getting fighters into enemy territory for those objectives which require it, but it’s possibly the weakest version of a “make a move action” gambit we have.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1
Our final gambit is Verminus Tide, which grants +1 Dice in the next activation if the attack is supported. Ordinarily, I’d go on about how [
Determined Effort] (throwback!) is a better option, but note that this one is actually a “choose” gambit as well. You also don’t need to be supported specifically by a friendly fighter, so cards like [
Unexpected Ally] or [
Ever-hungry Fiend] do count. While support is not always easy to come by, there are ways to manufacture it in the deck too. Not going to be making your Champ builds, but fine in Nemesis where accuracy is harder to come by.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Our Favorites
- Mark: Malicious Stab
- Aman: Cautious Skitter
- Zach: Malicious Stab
- George: Nervous Scrabbling
Upgrades
Browbeater lets your non-Skritch fighters resurrect minions (albeit at the cost of a Charge token if it’s not Krrk). Once again though, you have the inability to summon them back onto objectives, meaning you’re focusing more on bringing them back to attack or support attacks (particularly something like Malicious Stab). However, at least this time the minion doesn’t come away with any tokens and could conceivably make a charge to wherever they’re needed. I think it will take some games with the new design to see how much impact shifting more offensive responsibility onto Skritch will make on your resurrection efficiency, but I could see something of a shift in roles here if you wanted to make Krrk into the resurrection facilitator while letting your leader go forward and prove why he’s the best. I actually kind of like the sound of that angle.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
The Chaos-Tainted Blades is the Range 1 attack action upgrade for the deck, restricted to minions but with decent stats at 1R/3S/2D with cleave and ensnare. The downside is pretty steep however, costing you a damage every time you actually hit with it. Interestingly, this can help you feed the objectives that require you to lose fighters by killing your own, and you are likely dying in one hit back anyway. My primary concern is that the state of ping makes it very rare that it is worth it to trade free damage away on 2-Wound fighters. That attack profile is definitely intriguing though.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Of course, we have the dreaded nerf resulting in Completely Expendable, a still minion-restricted card that makes them yield no bounty, but it now breaks after use. Certainly, I wouldn’t have expected that it would still deal damage to the attacker, but I was at least hoping it wouldn’t break. The one upside is that the card still has an effect even if it’s not an attack action that takes the minion out. I think you probably still have to take the card to mitigate the glory bleed, but this will certainly rip away a lot of the warband’s performance ceiling, particularly on HO-focused builds.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
In some happier news, the previously terrible [
Flee!] has been rebranded as Conniving Goad, which not only is no longer fighter-restricted, but also allows you to make a less direction-restricted move action with each of the two fighters selected, which, as we’ve seen with the Warden’s action, can be clutch in terms of supporting positional play. While there’s not exactly much in the way of flex components to the warband deck, this is one tool you could potentially use to support that gameplan, if you are so inclined. Note that it’s also capable of moving fighters who have already moved or charged, so it could be a decent way to rope Skritch after a risky charge.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 3
Next up is Desperate Strength, a one-time use [
Great Strength]. Again, a far cry from [Black Hunger], but given how starved for damage this warband is, I think you have to take it. At least they had the good sense to make it only break on a successful attack, but it hurts to only get it once, I think it would be a bit more worthwhile if it was +2 Damage or maybe a +1 Damage and grievous.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 3
The Rusty Shuriken is a 3R/2H/1D attack action upgrade with grievous. It’s fine, but I’d probably rather opt for cards like [
Hurricane Dart] or [
Starmaw] if given the choice. In general though, I don’t know if it’s worth taking upgrade slots on ranged attacks here unless it’s doing a flat 2 Damage.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 3
Ruthless Dodger is a telegraphed version of [
Redirected Attack], but with the ability to resurrect minions, I quite like this as a deterrent card, especially if you can couple up Skritch or Krrk with your Completely Expendable minion. You are a bit vulnerable to disruption if your opponent has ways of displacing your fighters, but it should help with keeping your beaters alive long enough to get a few bites at the apple.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
Sewer Whisperer adds an extra success to your attack rolls, as long as you’ve rolled at least one. This would have been incredibly good back when Skritch could hit base 3 damage, but it’s still a phenomenal accuracy upgrade. On a 2H or 3S attack, this is a >70% chance to just read “innate success.” It may not feel that way sometimes, but that’s pretty solid and it only gets better if you can manufacture supports or extra dice. Of course, you’re not able to add crits with this, so extra dice are likely still preferred where you can get them, but if you just need to land attacks, this can force your opponent into needing a lot of crit defenses.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3
Skitter-Scurry is about the same as it once was, with the exception that it now terminates a superaction if you push during one. While this is clearly aimed at preventing you from using it mid-scything, as well as not using it during and at the end of Conniving Goad, there’s another very niche, but exploitable case here. As worded, this also terminates your opponent’s superactions, so even though it’s not exactly a pairing you would likely consider for them, I’d be remiss to not point out that you can use this with [
Refashioned Priorities] and [
Refashioned Reactions] to break your opponent’s charges, which is just silly and probably even more of a feelsbad than the normal outmaneuvers that VC can pull. Outside of that niche case, this is just a better [
Soundless Step], despite its fighter restriction. I have a hard time seeing a build where you wouldn’t include it. Interesting with Masks too.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3
Sneaky-Stab-Stab has seen a bit of a revamp, but mostly just to clarify the wording and help avoid issues with whether or not you have line of sight and/or have a legal target to declare an attack, as it now simply allows you to take an action to push then attack. I will, however, note that there is a slight nerf here in that it will not work with out-of-sequence attacks, which is something it was capable of doing in its previous iteration. A bit more niche than our previous entry, but still something capable of letting you unleash the wrath of Skritch without necessarily having to charge, especially if you double up with our previous upgrade.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Our Favorites
- Mark: Skitter-Scurry
- Aman: Browbeater
- Zach: Sewer-Whisperer
- George: Ruthless Dodger
Conclusion
As you can probably tell from the body of the article, this is the one warband I am a bit disappointed about with respect to its revamp. Straight up, this warband is a lot worse in Championship now, since whatever additional floor they got in their faction deck is not worth all of the ceiling they lost in a format where you already have a wider card pool to choose from. While I think their Nemesis viability remains about the same, if not a bit better due to now having access to a complete faction deck, I think a lot of the old school minion torpedo play lines from this warband will be gone. I liked having Skritch play more of a facilitator role while Hungering and Festering Skaven went off and applied pressure to your opponent. While you can still execute on this to some extent with weapon upgrades, the ceiling on that route is vastly reduced due to the loss of [Black Hunger] and [Festering Blades] in conjunction with the nerfs to [Expendable] and [There Are Always More]. Instead, Skritch will need to shoulder a lot more of the offensive load here, which it does appear they recognized, boosting his uninspired Defence while providing the warband a decently viable backup plan with Krrk (whose changes I actually like quite a bit). You’ve also lost some play in the realm of holding objectives for a more aggro-centric build, with only Skritch having the ability to resurrect fighters directly onto an objective and no longer having access to [Scratching in the Shadows] to displace an enemy fighter from that key token. For Nemesis, the adjustment to their identity now pushes them further toward that aggro playstyle, with pairings like TnC, BnS, and even TT catching me as some of their better options. BBA and FF still have some play, I think, but I definitely expect to see a reduced focus on HO scoring. By no means is the warband bad now—5 Move and 2 Defence dice plus resurrection will often find ways to stay relevant—but I do think that it’s the only redone warband of the six to-date where I believe they have not successfully retained their identity, which is a shame given that they are one of my personal favorites. I’m not quite sure I’ve written an article yet where I so desperately hope to be proven wrong. While I’ve gotten to say my piece, read below for the rest of the group’s thoughts!
George: Spiteclaw’s Swarm is a warband near-dear to my heart-part. I’m so happy to see them get some updates and love, but have mixed feelings about the quality of those updates. While I am proud-pleased by the rise of Krrk (who now leads!), his rise has sad-sadly come with an equal slip-fall from Skritch (who shall always remain the greatest, yes-yes). Overall, I think that the changes are undoubtedly an improvement for Nemesis but have missed the mark on preserving the core identity and playstyle I most enjoyed previously.
Zach: Spiteclaw is a faction I love a lot, as I think most of us on this podcast do. I’ve performed quite well with them in the past (in fact, I was playing them when Aman and I met!) so I was interested to see what GW did with them in the update. While they’re undoubtedly a different warband, I think overall the deck and most fighters have improved and they will be more viable as a faction in Nemesis, even if the playstyle has changed drastically from what many people might be used to.
Aman: Unlike the rest of the crew, I have no emotional attachment to this warband and as such, I have looked at them as objectively as possible. It seems like the designers chose to revamp Spiteclaw’s into a horde aggro faction but curiously haven’t given them the cards to support this playstyle effectively. When compared to other warband revamps like Sepulchral Guard, Farstriders, and Thorns, this seems like a bit of a miss. Unfortunately, this just isn’t a good warband. If you removed the skaven imagery from the warband and it released today, with a brand new name and set of miniatures, I would say the same thing – not good. There is a lack of identity in their objective deck and a noticeable lack of strength in the power deck. Sadly, it feels like this warband is stuck between the warband they were and the new warband they want to be. Outside of Krrk, nothing really excites me about them and if anything, this finally proves that Skritch is certainly NOT the greatest.
Wherever you land on this one, we want to thank you for reading and wish you the best of luck on YOUR Path to Glory (Yes-Yes)!
