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 Thorns of the Briar Queen! As you might have expected, a number of the truly busted options this warband had available to it are coming in with nerfs, but I think overall they’ve done a great job replacing them with new and interesting cards and mechanics. Of the 4 warbands redone in this set, I might even go so far as to call them the “winners.” They did a great job with this one, I think it’s a great example of the kind of revamp you wanna see for these old warbands. It retains the concepts that allow them to do what they do best while cleaning up/modernizing their mechanics, particularly for play in Nemesis, but even in Championship I think their efficacy will be relatively undiminished.
Fighters
Starting off with The Briar Queen herself, who offers the perfect opportunity to talk about the huge buff to the warband as a whole, which is to restore their original inspiration mechanic using the inspire step prior to the activation so you get to use your inspired stats during it. While there are ways in which this is not as impactful as it once was (we’ll see those shortly), the Wave of Terror ability that has been given to the whole warband is definitely impactful. When any fighter in the warband now has a charge token, they count as two supporting fighters instead. This is quite strong as a mechanic on its own between move actions and pushes, but cards that grant you support from range such as [
Stalking Terror] or [
Beastcaller] make for similarly intriguing options. Of course, she did eat a nerf in her inspired stats, dropping from flat 3 Damage to 2 Damage plus grievous. This is certainly a big deal and it’s not fully overcome by the Wave of Terror addition, but at least there is potential for that damage spike still.
Next up is Varclav, who at first glance appears to have eaten a massive nerf, but I think we need to give this one some proper evaluation. The drop from 2 Dodge while uninspired is a bit tough since you’ll have to hide him if you want to make the most use out of his ability, and he also has lost his flat 2 Damage while inspired. He also no longer gets to push all of the Chainrasps, only two of them. You might say, “Mark, these are massive nerfs.” However, the silver lining, and perhaps it’s more than that, is that you get to push those two fighters in any direction as opposed to towards the nearest enemy fighter and you can use it multiple times a round. Much like the Sepulchral Warden, you can, if you need to, spend activation after activation just bumping Chainrasps around onto tokens or whatever positional requirements you need for scoring. Sure, you can’t resurrect them, but their inspiration to 2 Dodge and the need for the warband to support their hold gameplan I think makes this a massive buff to his ability. Losing out on his and the Queen’s damage may hurt the kill potential of the warband, but I think this change in particular will help push them back toward the play lines of old where you’re looking at difficult-to-deny HO scoring. One other consideration here is that you have the option to give these Chainrasps Charge tokens after you push them, which not only unlocks Wave of Terror, but also opens up some potential to actually leverage the charge out rule.
Everhanged has a bit of a mixed bag, but mostly good I think. While he did drop from 2H to 2S on his attack while uninspired, the addition of Wave of Terror certainly helps, along with his new Throttle ability, which allows you to, after your activation, stagger each enemy fighter adjacent to him on a roll of a channel or crit on a magic die. While this is, in some ways, just a worse version of Snyp’s post-activation reaction, you’ll note that it just says “after your activation,” not “this fighter’s.” Most notably, you can push with Varclav’s action to get Everhanged up against a number of enemy fighters, then attempt to stagger them with the reaction. I like this addition quite a bit, and it makes that [
Time Freeze] niche even stronger for them. Since he still inspires to the same stats as before, I will absolutely take this, really nice changes for him.
The Ironwretch and The Exhumed, in addition to getting names, just had a little swap in uninspired stats, adding a die and losing a damage, but retaining the exact same inspired stats as previously. Some minimal changes to The Silenced, just gaining stagger on the inspired attack profile, as well as The Uncrowned, who is now 2S uninspired instead of 1H. I like that they’ve standardized their accuracy uninspired without harming their inspired stats, and the addition of Wave of Terror is just some nice gravy on top.
- Mark: Varclav
- Aman:
- Zach: Varclav
- George: Varclav
Rivals Deck
Objectives
Bypass the Guards is a nice buff on [
Swarming Spirits], trading out the need to move two friendly fighters through enemies in a phase and instead only needing to do it once, with the requirement that it must end on a feature token. Notably, this scores immediately, not just after an activation, so any out-of-sequence moves you make work for this. Play on FF or DD and you also have a lot easier time throwing out feature tokens to land on. I do think you’ll probably want some +Move tech to help score this, as being only Move 3 uninspired means this could be tough to set up, but it’s a nice passive score that doesn’t rely on dice and its better than all but one of the factions surges they used to have, so I will absolutely take it.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
[
Deathly Clutches] got a little buff as well, retaining its original scoring condition while also adding a hybrid condition for after an activation if you have four or more friendly fighters in enemy territory. While this second condition is fairly doable, you’re probably still looking at the first, especially because the timing on it allows you to score it in the pre-activation surge step and cycle into another now. This does get tremendously more difficult if Varclav and/or too many Chainrasps are out of action, so I do think it’s a bit more sequencing-reliant than I’d like if I have other solid options, but it’s not wholly unusable.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1
Distract the Watch is an appreciable buff on [
Death Sentence], scoring immediately after an activation if you have at least 1 friendly fighter adjacent to an enemy while two others are holding objectives. Note that, given the wording, you do need to have at least 3 fighters left alive to score this, but in the early game this will be extremely trivial. If you slam enough Solemn March actions, eventually this is just going to happen, even ignoring any other out-of-sequence push or move tech you might have. I’ll dock it a bit on the consistency only because a late draw is likely a dead draw in this case, but it’s about as easy of a [
Hidden Purpose] type card you’re likely to see these days.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
Our first end phase card is Dread Reputation, which is a hybrid that grants 2 glory in the end phase if each of your surviving fighters has a Move and/or Charge token or each surviving enemy fighter is adjacent to one or more friendly fighters. For 2 glory, I like the design space here a lot. It certainly gets easier as the game wears on, but is also a decent meta call into elite aggro warbands who both have fewer bodies and will be taking yours off the table as well. Where this may run into hiccups, however, is that I think a lot of your positional scoring is going to be focused around holding objectives, so you’re not going to necessarily want to depart from them just to pick up that extra token and/or be adjacent to that last enemy fighter. It might work better on a kind of “checkers” build like we were seeing with early Daring Delvers Championship builds, but I think I’m looking elsewhere for end phase upside here, if I can.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Foreboding Inevitability is a strangely aggro objective requiring there to be only one surviving enemy fighter or have the enemy leader be vulnerable. Leaving people vulnerable in the end phase is a pattern we’ve seen on a few objectives in the past like [
Prolonging the Inevitable]—crazy how many times “inevitable” pops up on cards like this by the way—and the problem is always that it’s better to just kill someone for 1 less glory payout since it can deny your opponent scoring while removing a threat from the table. The hybrid condition is, at best, a Round 2 (but more likely 3) objective and will become borderline impossible in some matchups. Not a fan.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 1
Reclaimed Turf is just a 2-glory version of [
Retake What is Ours]. With the Move token rules being what they are these days, I would hardly say that this version of Thorns has an easier time scoring a card like this than the current version of Sepulchral Guard, so why are they getting docked a point for it? You’d never take this in Championship when [
Supremacy] exists, and I don’t think you’d double up like Sepulchral Guard often does given the meager payout. You might get stuck with it in Nemesis, and it’s definitely scoreable, but I think a lot of their best deck pairings have better end phase options.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Scores to Settle is a new slant on [
Drag Them Down]. 2-glory surges always perk your ears up, but this one I think will be extremely build-specific in either condition. In the first, you probably need to pack a lot of weapon upgrades, as it seems pretty suboptimal to be making the minions attack using their base profiles as your core gameplan. This is especially true given that I think you’ll be wanting to Solemn March twice or more per round. Holding each of the objectives in enemy territory is mildly intriguing given all of the teleport/push tech/flying you have access to, but there’s obviously significantly increased risk to your extremely fragile fighters. This condition definitely has my attention, but it may have missed its era now that [
Treasure Hunter], [
Fearless Seekers] and [
Horrors in the Dark] have rotated, with [
Extraordinary Revelation] soon to follow.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1
Sorcerous Syndicate is a kill surge for a friendly wizard taking an enemy fighter out of action, which notably includes both damage from attack actions and gambit spells. Given that Varclav is now a wizard, having two of your more potent offensive threats capable of scoring this surge off attacks was already pretty decent. Given that you can combo that with a number of spells in FoF or SS that deal damage, I think this is one of the better kill surges out there. Still some brick potential, but about as consistent of a fighter-specific kill surge as you’re likely to see.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Take the City has been redone to only require you to hold one or more objective and hold each objective in one or more territories. While this is still a notable improvement on its previous design, certainly so because you could just put 1 in no one’s territory and hold that, 1 glory is again pretty lackluster payoff here. You’re going to bleed a lot of glory here and you’ll need to be replacing it with big end phase scores, or at least supremely consistent 1-glory scores. I don’t think this is nearly as consistent as I like my 1-glory cards, and I think most experienced players would be perfectly fine playing to deny it if it were more of a staple 2-glory score.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2
These are Our Streets is another 1-glory score in the end phase for either holding both an odd and an even objective or having taken out an enemy fighter out of action while they were on an objective token. I would never have the second condition be part of my gameplan, but it’s at least a backup plan if something goes south while attempting the first condition, which is the more attractive part of this card. Hold 2 (with only a slight conditionality to it) is not bad for the low payout here, I think I like it a bit more than our previous entry. That being said, my statement about needing glory ceiling still applies. I’m looking for more in my end phases here.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2
Throatcutters is another kill surge, this time for killing an inspired enemy fighter or killing them while they’re on a starting hex in their territory. I’ve never particularly liked either of these conditions. Aggro is prevalent enough that a lot of warbands don’t care to stay in their territory, while inspiration rate is a very matchup-dependent condition. Imagine the sequencing luck you need to have the card in hand and pull the inspired kill off against Soulraid, for example.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 1
Now that I’ve finished the double-take I just did reading this card, LET’S GO! Tide of Death is in-faction [
Dominant Position], properly rewarding 2 glory this time. I can’t pretend to understand the thought process behind making their [Supremacy] pay out less than Sepulchral Guard’s while making this pay out more than [
Lay Claim to it All], but I will absolutely take it. So many warbands would kill for this one, I have a hard time imagining we’ll see any Thorns decks without it. What a fantastic way to round out an objective deck.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3
Our Favorites
- Mark: Tide of Death
- Aman: Sorcerous Syndicate
- Zach: Distract the Watch
- George: Scores to Settle
Gambits
Starting off the gambits strong, we have Backshanker, a reaction after the declare attack action step to teleport one of your minions in adjacent to the target, then give that minion a Charge token. This is insanely good. If you pick your targets well, this could just pop one of your Chainrasps up on an objective token, but even if it doesn’t, this is at minimum granting you full supports due to the Wave of Terror proc. Notably, this also works with any out-of-sequence attacks you might be able to make as well. The only thing not to like about this card is what happens if all 4 of your minions are dead, but I think that should take long enough you shouldn’t have too much issue getting value here. Another fun positional thing is that this card doesn’t say the chosen fighter can’t be the attacker, so this can be a cute way to reposition mid-attack.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
Castigating Scream is our first gambit spell, casting on a focus to grant +1 Dice at Range 1 or 2 in the next activation, with -1 Defence (to a minimum of 1) for the opponent if that attack is supported. I think this is pretty much exactly what you’d want to see for a gambit spell payoff. A stronger effect than a standard gambit with the risk of failure. If you have re-roll effects or such like you might find in FoF or SS, I think this is worth a slot on more flex/aggro builds, especially if you are pushing for spellcasting objectives. Pair this with our previous card, for example, and you’re sitting on +1 Dice, -Defence, and double support on the attack.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Endless Malice is mostly the same, but with a slight buff actually. Instead of having to wait until the end of the attack action, you now interrupt the sequence after the defence roll, which can disrupt your opponent’s defensive reactions and critical abilities. Already a very solid card, but now even better, it’ll be hard to pass up on all but the most passive of builds. It really only bricks in cases where you’re not whiffing, and you should have enough passive scoring to force most opponents to engage with you, so I think there’s very few cases where it gets stuck in your hand that things aren’t already going well for you.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 3
Grasping Chains is the same as it was, just with slightly modernized wording. Given the addition of Wave of Terror, this is somehow worse than it was before. It will gather even more dust than it already was.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2
Spectral Parry is also unchanged. While guard is definitely useful for this warband, particularly once inspired, I think you’re going to need those gambit slots elsewhere. Probably this one ends up on the cutting room floor come the end of your build.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 3
Spectral Touch got a small touch of its own, adding stagger in addition to granting cleave. Stagger on attack actions is arguably the least useful of the attack action keywords, so I don’t think this really moves the needle for me. I’d rather add accuracy before my attacks than after.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2
Sudden Mugging is our next gambit spell, allowing you to teleport a minion into any empty hex, giving them a Charge token if they’re not adjacent to any enemy fighters. Presumably, they wanted to make sure you couldn’t gain Wave of Terror support from this, but it’s incredibly useful in either case, especially given that Varclav can feed them Charge tokens beforehand if you really want them. Probably more often you’ll end up using it to drop a fighter onto that last key objective token, but teleport effects with this little downside are almost always going to be valuable. Appropriately gated behind a spell cast here, but still great value.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
Unsurprisingly, [
Drifting Advance] took a nerf in the form of Terrifying Advance. It was incredibly powerful in its original configuration, but even the new version is a really solid and flexible gambit. Need accuracy? Take the staggers. Need positioning? Take the pushes. Of course, you don’t have pure flexibility here, but with 7 fighters, odds are you should have some in whatever position you need to get value here. More often than not, pushing onto a couple of tokens will likely be the preferred option here.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
Torment’s Lash is another gambit spell cast on a focus. You might recognize the artwork on this one as [
Howling Vortex], which was, in my opinion, the single most powerful gambit in the game prior to this nerf. What’s hilarious is that this is still a phenomenal spell. Ping an enemy fighter within 4 hexes, push a friendly, or push them up to 2 hexes if they’re a Chainrasp. What’s not to like? The flexibility on this card is phenomenal. When a simple [
Sidestep] is the floor of the card (assuming you cast it) that’s pretty darn good.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
Our final somewhat expected nerf was to [
Sudden Appearance], which is another example of one that was stupid good and is now just regular old very good as Unbound Crooks. Sure, you can no longer use it to leash a fighter from a risky charge, or teleport somewhere and then make a charge, but you can still apply a lot of similar playlines or simply use it to drop in some Wave of Terror support. Like the others, it’s not going to be perfectly optimal all the time, but it’s flexible enough in its use that I can’t imagine leaving it on the bench.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
Our Favorites
- Mark: Backshanker
- Aman: Backshanker
- Zach: Torment’s Lash
- George: Torment’s Lash
Upgrades
Awful Leer is a pseudo-[
Piercing Stare] upgrade. Sure, it only stops charges, not all activations of that fighter, but this is a great way to shut down a lot of the aggro that’s prominent in the meta right now, specifically in Nemesis. Sure, it’s at upgrade speed, but being able to potentially slam this multiple times a game and the fact that it rewards you for identifying your opponent’s most desirable charge sequence makes this really attractive for me, especially with all the teleport shenanigans you can pull off to set up the reaction.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
Chill Touch got a very slight buff in the sense that now any of your fighters can use it, but we’ve gone at length both on the blog and the podcast about how ensnare is not worth the upgrade slot on its own and that’s not about to change.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 1
Driven by Hatred is delightfully unchanged and is still fantastic. Not much to say about +1 Dice that you can access in most situations, even more so now with the charge out rule.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3
Enforcer cannot be given to a minion, but prevents friendly fighters within 2 hexes from being driven back. This is mildly intriguing to support your HO gameplan, as you can slap this on Everhanged or such to occupy that key token in no one’s/enemy territory like you might with voidcurse. However, most of your fighters are getting one shot or full missed way more often than they’re getting driven back, so I’m a bit skeptical about the “aura” aspect of this. I think there are preferable “no driveback” upgrades out there for the couple of fighters that are allowed to use it.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2
Grasping Thorns is wholly unchanged. It’s maybe a bit more intriguing now that Wave of Terror exists, and the counterplay against voidcurse is interesting, but I think it’s still a bit too situational to merit a slot.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1
Horrifying Malice is a slightly worse version of an [
Aura of Shyish] type card, requiring a Charge token to come online. The effect is still decent for a warband that is going to need some survivability, but the prevalence of Range 2+ attacks in the meta right now between Stormcoven, Ephilim, and Hexbane is enough that even the better versions of these cards are starting to get left behind, so it’s gonna be a bit matchup dependent. At least you can potentially leverage your teleport cards to set up some awkward situations for your opponent.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Merciless Superior is a pseudo-[
Cloak of Feathers] to protect your Chainrasps. I think there’s some upside here due to the fact they can all potentially get multiple defence dice, and even just giving this to Everhanged is straight up a defensive re-roll for himself at minimum. Alternatively, you’re probably planning to keep Varclav back with a couple minions on tokens, so you could potentially give it to him. Still, when adding defensive tech, I think I am looking for more flexible cards that are single-fighter advantageous, not just stuff that works in a bubble and only for certain fighters.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Shacklegheist Chains got the teeny-tiniest of nerfs, adding the glory for a Varclav kill on a Range 1 or 2 attack action rather than his attack action without a Range limitation. This obviously only impacts Range 3+ attack action upgrades you might have given to him, so the potential this change has any significant impact is quite low, I think, unless some crazy good ranged attack action upgrades start popping up. Given the nerf to his inspired damage and what I would actually consider a buff to his push action, I think this has lost some value, as about 90% of the time I will be activating him these days, I would probably prefer to use Solemn March.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1
Spectral Coils is the new version of [
Strangling Coil] and is now a 2R/3S/1D attack action with grievous restricted to any Chainrasp rather than just Everhanged. It also comes with an extremely interesting reaction which allows you to pass the attack action to another friendly Chainrasp when the equipped fighter is taken out of action. While it stinks that the second damage here is gated behind grievous, the reaction is incredible. More often than not, if one of your minions is trying to take a swing at somebody, you’d prefer if they did so from a feature token for purposes of scoring. The extra range here can certainly help with that, and while it’s no [
Cursed Boarding Pike], it is effectively +1 Dice and +1 Range for all of your minions, with a less consistent 2 Damage. I like it well enough, and the reaction means it’s not a wasted glory if the equipped fighter dies, which they likely will do quite frequently.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 3
Last, but certainly not least, we have Unliving Overseer, the third in a series of upgrades that cannot be given to your minions. After the equipped fighter’s activation, choose a friendly Chainrasp within 2 hexes to either be pushed 1 hex or to make an attack action. The card breaks if you choose the attack option (as it probably should), but I think just the extra push is extremely valuable. Throw this on Varclav and you effectively get to add an extra push to his action. When the time seems right, you can always just charge in with the equipped fighter, then allow a nearby Chainrasp to leverage their Wave of Terror support for a follow-up swing to potentially drop an elite fighter. This should combo particularly well with Backshanker to surprise your opponent with a target they didn’t think you’d be able to threaten with the reaction attack.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3
Our Favorites
- Mark: Unliving Overseer
- Aman: Unliving Overseer
- Zach: Unliving Overseer
- George: Awful Leer
Conclusions
Well, if you couldn’t tell from the meat of the article, I am extremely excited to take these for a spin. I am a bit worried that the power level on them might actually be too high, they look really good to me. I think they’ve done a fantastic job on these guys of exchanging some of their, frankly, overpowered old cards for new options that are still very solid and, perhaps more importantly, very flexible. The modal design on a lot of these cards creates tons of opportunity for skill expression and also means that you’re going to need reps and a keen sense of optimal play lines to get the most value out of them. In Championship, I expect these guys to jump right up there with Sepulchral Guard and Grymwatch as the preeminent HO threats in the meta, as there’s a lot of solid payoff for hold these days, especially with the wealth of restrictions to ping damage. A Fearsome Fortress plot plus combinations of some key cards across the plotless decks should make for an extremely formidable and consistent warband. In Nemesis, I think there are actually several decks that will work for them, but my initial inclinations are towards 3 in particular. Seismic Shock gives them a lot of the end phase scoring they will be looking for, particularly in the form of [
Claim the Prize], [
Shape the Realm], and [
Sorcerous Treasure-hunter], which means you can very reasonably slap down a deck for them that scores ~20 glory in objectives alone. Similarly, Fearsome Fortress offers [
Stockpile], [
Underground Fortress], and a potentially massive [
Conquered Domain] score while adding some key HO support in the power cards, particularly with [
Take Your Positions!], [
Bold Engineer], and [
Siegemaster]. Lastly, Force of Frost was perhaps their best pairing prior to their buffs, and it still looks primed to slap. They are one of very few warbands that can actually pull off [
Stranglehold], the potential to bump Varclav to a level 2 caster (together with the addition of re-rolls from [
Cool and Calm]) can make those couple of key gambit spells a lot more reliable, and the [Time Freeze] synergy is still insane for Solemn March to set up supported attacks while inspiring your fighters. Don’t just take my word for it though, here are some thoughts from the other co-hosts here at Path to Glory:
Aman: This warband and I have a complicated relationship, often erring on the side of frustration. However, I will say that I am glad they received an update and boy, what an update it is. I have to applaud the design team for preserving the “soul” of this warband while still injecting them with fresh ideas, mechanics, and synergies. Thorns will be a force to be reckoned with on the table. Mainly because this warband has excellent scoring and can really disrupt hard aggro warbands, their traditional weakness. Wave of Terror truly gives them just enough to weather the storm while ramping their fighters through inspiration and accuracy. This warband feels complete, thematic, and well supported – a perfect combination for veterans and newer players alike. This is how you revamp a warband.
Zach: Thorns are a faction I was really excited to see refreshed. I placed third with them at Adepticon in 2019 and they were always a fun pick in Championship for Hold Objective decks. They’ve been a bit underwhelming in Nemesis due to their deck, but honestly I’m really happy with this update! While there have been some nerfs to stats/abilities, the amount of buffs are really exciting and I’m looking forward to playing them again.
George: By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked (good) this way comes! This warband is an iconic call-back to the Nightvault era and remains as potent and flexible as ever after this facelift. The designers really slammed this one out of the park, capturing and supporting the original hold objective playstyle but also leaving tons of support for the more aggro or flex variants we all know and hate or love.
Thanks for reading, and we of course wish you the best of luck on YOUR Path (or should I say Solemn March) to Glory!
