One of our two Wintermaw warbands, for the first time in a long time we have a core box warband that just doesn’t spark with me. I’m sure at least some of you aren’t shocked to hear that, as two folks in a trench coat just isn’t the kind of jolt you want from a warband. That said, mechanically I’m experiencing a strong current of excitement about this warband.
Plot Card
This is another plot card that really needs the fighter cards next to it to properly interpret, but lets look at what we’ve got here. Firstly, the warband is starting inspired, so we have to hope there’s some kind of explosive stats on tap. Secondly, there’s a unique mechanic unlike anything we’ve seen before! The Brethren of the Bolt can conduct their attacks through friendly fighters to reduce the counted distance to their target, effectively increasing their range while still getting to play with any/all modifiers for range 1-2 attacks. This also includes a way to inspire friendly fighters, which as we will see, will come in handy as they do all have an un-inspire condition.
Fighter Cards
First up we have Filius Inspired, or Pater Filius while uninspired. He is a Leader and a Priest, with a fairly uninspiring set of physical stats at 3 Move, 1 Block, and 4 Wounds. As he will start the game inspired, he does boast a nicely accurate range 1 attack at 3 Smash and 2 Damage with Stagger, and a solid range 3 attack at 3 Fury 1 Damage with Cleave and Grievous 1.
Like the rest of the warband, he has the Electrostatic Discharge ability, which will cause him to Un-inspire in the Inspire step of a turn in which he made one or more successful attack actions.
Once he is uninspired his stats become even more lacklustre, with his range 1 attack diminishing to 3 Fury and only 1 Damage, and his range 3 attack dropping down to 2 Smash and losing Cleave and Grievous 1. Like the rest of the warband, while Uninspired he also gains the inspire condition “this fighter supports an attack and is adjacent to the target” which gives you another option to reinspire without actually conducting your attack along the hex he is in to satisfy the plot card ability.
In a vacuum none of this is much to write home about but once we start factoring in the plot card things can become more interesting – if he has a friendly fighter in position to channel his attack along, his range 1 attack could be made at range 2 or even 3, and his range 3 attack could reach 4 or more, letting him hit from a safe distance away, or without charging.
On the whole, there is potential here but it will require careful juggling of the positions on your Inspired and Uninspired fighters so that you don’t have to take attack actions with your uninspired profiles.
Next up is Galvic Inspired, or Friar Galvic. Another fairly immobile and fragile profile at 3 Move, 1 Block, and 3 Wounds, he does have a similar range 1 attack to Pater Inspired, at range 1, 3 Smash, 2 damage, with Stagger and Knockback 1. He has the same Electrostatic Discharge ability, and when uninspired his attack action diminishes to 2 Smash and 2 Damage. He gains the same Inspire condition as Pater Filius and the rest of the warband as well. Everything that applies to Pater Filius applies here, with the caveats that he is more fragile and lacking a range 3 attack.
Getting more fragile as we go, the next fighter is Tazat Inspired / Soror Tazat. She has the same 3 Move as Pater, Galvic, and the rest of the warband, with only 1 Dodge and 3 Wounds.
She has a range 1, 3 Fury, 2 damage attack with Stagger, and another range 1 attack with 2 Fury, 2 Damage, and Scything. As before, she has the Electrostatic Discharge ability. When Uninspired, she diminishes to a single attack action with range 1, 3 Fury, and 1 damage, as well as the same Inspire condition shared by the rest of the war band. While Scything is a nice tool to have access to, only 2 Fury and such a fragile body to have it on keep it far from being a reliable option to counter hordes. Additionally, as Scything attacks cannot benefit from the warband’s Plot card, she has only limited additional usefulness.
First of the two-wound fighters we have Arcus Inspired / Acolyte Arcus, with 3 Move, 1 Block, and 2 Wounds while inspired. His attack action is a respectable range 2, 2 Smash, 2 Damage with Ensnare and Stagger, as well as the Electrostatic Discharge ability. When Uninspired, his Defence characteristic drops to 1 Dodge, and his attack action changes to 2 Fury, 1 Damage, as well as losing the Ensnare ability. An exceptionally fragile fighter, he at least has decent use as a fire-and-forget weapon against Dodge warbands. Additionally, starting at range 2 can give him more flexibility to stretch his threat range via the warband’s Plot card.
The last fighter of the warband (and we didn’t save the best), is Yakob Inspired / Scorched Yakob, with another squishy profile: 3 Move, 1 Block, 2 Wounds while Inspired. His attack action is range 1, 3 Fury, 2 Damage, with Stagger and Knockback 1. As always he has the Electrostatic Discharge ability, and once Uninspired changes to 1 Dodge and his attack action becomes range 1, 2 Fury, 2 Damage.
On the whole these are some very squishy fighters who don’t hit particularly hard; however, it is possible they can make up for this with fairly high accuracy on their inspired attacks, plentiful access to Knockback and Stagger, and the ability to extend the effective range of their attack actions. Whether it is enough to overcome their squishiness and lack of access to 3 Damage base remains to be seen.
Our Favorites
- Aman: Pater Filius
- George: Friar Galvic
- Mark: Friar Galvic
- Zach: Soror Tazat
Objectives
Our first objective is Batteries of Faith, a Dual scored if one or more friendly fighters are Inspired, and one or more friendly fighters are holding an objective. An important note is that the fighter(s) which is/are inspired do not have to be the one(s) which are holding objective(s).
This is a very easy and flexible end phase, albeit for only 1 glory. Because the fighters all start inspired and you don’t need to match the inspired fighters with the ones who are holding, this card is difficult to deny without tabling the warband.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 3
Next up we have Blessed Fulmination, a Surge scored immediately after an activation if two or more enemy fighters are Staggered. This is potentially simple because of how many fighters in the warband have Stagger on their attack actions and the amount of power card support available for it. That said, the tools this warband has to achieve this do not equal those that other warbands have, making it potentially tricky.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2
Bringer of the Dawn is a Hybrid for a Priest and/or Inspired friendly fighter to hold an objective, or a friendly fighter who made a successful attack action in the previous action phase. Another fairly low-effort but low-payoff end phase, given that the warband starts the game inspired.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 3
Conviction’s Reward is a Dual scored if one or more enemies are out of action and your warband holds two or more objectives, for two glory. Even with the warband’s fragility this is the type of objective it is very hard to turn your nose up at – a better (or at least, side-graded) Path to Victory is exactly the kind of design I want to see more warbands embodying.
Power ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Fulgurian Sacrifice is a Surge scored after a friendly fighter on an objective within 1 hex of no-one’s territory is dealt damage. More often than not this will be damage that killed said friendly fighter but this is another good objective as you have a bit of a win-win situation – either your opponent ignores your fighter who is holding an objective (which likely scores you several other cards) or they kill them, and you still score this one.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 3
Glorious Martyrdom is a Dual scored if one or more of your fighters are out of action, and your warband holds more objectives than each other warband. It is only worth 1 glory, but if at least one of your out of action fighters is Inspired it is worth 1 additional glory. Again, the inherent squishiness of the warband synergizes at least somewhat with this plan as even your inspired fighters are fairly easy targets. It may, however, be difficult to reliably hold more objectives than your opponent when starting with only 5 bodies of such squishiness and lacking any way to bring fighters back to the battlefield after they are taken out of action.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Heaven’s Charge is our next Surge and it is also a Dual, scored immediately after either an activation or power step if an enemy is taken out of action by damage dealt by a Ploy or by an Uninspired friendly fighter’s attack action. While killing with a ping isn’t necessarily difficult, it doesn’t have exceptional synergy with the warband’s plan and you’ll generally want to avoid trying to make Uninspired attacks as they are less damaging, less accurate, or both.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 1
Living Dynamo is another Surge, scored immediately after a friendly fighter makes their 3rd or subsequent action in a single action phase. Each of the three (or more!) actions must be different and consist of Move, Guard, Attack, Stun, or an action printed on an Upgrade card. This seems a tough ask at first (and it is!) but it is comparable to that oldie-but-goodie, Change of Tactics! You may not want to spend action economy taking a guard action followed by a charge, but there are a large variety of upgrade actions so I’m inclined to rate this rather more highly.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Martyred Bloodworks is a straight End phase objective, scored if 2 or more friendly fighters are Vulnerable and/or Uninspired, for 2 glory. This one seems a very tall ask to me as your fighters are far too squishy to reliably exist in a Vulnerable state and Un-inspire by making successful attacks, which is a tall order at times. Perhaps I am under-rating it but I think its quite often that a fighter may make a successful attack, and then be killed.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1
Sparking Furore is a fairly difficult surge, scored after an activation in which your warband made one or more successful attack actions and 2 or more was subtracted from the distance between the attacker and the target by the Holy Vessels ability. This is a tricky situation to engineer, because in real terms it means you needed to have at least 3 fighters alive and standing in the correct positions while you attacked, AND that attack had to be successful. However, since this may be the whole trick of what you are trying to do with the warband, the attack action only has to succeed, not take someone out of action, and the surge is worth 2 glory, I think you will frequently find yourself including this. Additionally, Pater Filius starting with a range 3 attack to let you further game the distance in which you can include those 2 additional friendly fighters offers a decent amount of flexibility.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Unwavering Beacons is the big, splashy 3 glory end phase of the deck – scored for holding two or more objectives in no one’s and/or enemy territory. A 3-glory payoff for holding “just” 2 objectives can seem tempting but I think holding forward positions with fighters as squishy as these will be difficult if not nigh-impossible. There will be times you sneak it or can secure it with pushes or move actions in the power step but I don’t consider it reliable.
Power ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1
Our final objective is Wrath Made Manifest, a Surge scored for an Inspired friendly fighter taking an enemy out of action with an attack action. This is a fairly straightforward kill surge, and while I don’t love that, the Inspired attack profiles of the warband are reasonably accurate albeit lower on the damage scale so I consider it achievable.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2
Our Favorites
- Aman: Conviction’s Reward
- George: Conviction’s Reward
- Mark: Conviction’s Reward
- Zach: Living Dynamo
Gambits:
Our first gambit is Accepting Capacitor, a Reaction played after a friendly fighter is Inspired, Staggering each enemy within 1 hex of the friendly fighter who became Inspired. I’m generally low on niche reaction windows and even lower on a card that jumps through this many hoops just to stagger enemies; while there is some synergy with one of the previously shown objectives, I don’t think it is enough, especially with such a relatively difficult positional component.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 1
Next up we have Bolt from the Blue, a gambit that Inspires a friendly fighter that is holding an objective, then Uninspires them at the end of the next turn if they are still Inspired. Given that a number of the faction’s objectives have special care for fighters being Inspired or Uninspired, and that this can be used to Uninspire a fighter even if they aren’t going forward to hit an attack, I’m inclined to rate it somewhat positively, depending on your objective plan. That said, because you have a number of ways to re-Inspire fighters already and your fighters begin the game Inspired, this is substantially less impressive than it might be for a different warband.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Final Spark is another Reaction, which we can play after an activation in which one of our Inspired fighter’s dealt damage to an enemy fighter with a Range 1 or 2 attack to deal 1 additional Damage to one of the damaged fighters. While its got a couple of hoops to jump through extra damage is extra damage and there is something to be said for the threat of this card forcing your opponent to evaluate all your potential attacks as if they dealt 1 more Damage than is printed.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Furious Abandon is a well-needed push card – allowing us to push any friendly fighter up to 2 hexes as long as they end adjacent to an enemy fighter. The adjacency requirement does hurt quite a bit as it means you won’t be able to reliably snag objectives with this card, but given the warband’s unique plot card and that even a bad push is still a push (and therefore usually good!) I’m quite positive on this card.
Power ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
Heavenly Hymn is a niche way to add extra supports to an attack action. Each friendly fighter within 3 hexes of the target (other than the attacker) should be quite feasibly 2+ fighters, but the synergies stop there. More supports are always good for your accuracy, but this card is not a sneaky way to satisfy the inspire condition on Uninspired fighters’ cards as that requires adjacency to the target (and so they would already be supporting) and it doesn’t do too much with the Plot card abilities either, although the presumption is perhaps that if you are positioning to chain your attack to a longer range you are perhaps not positioning for supports. In any case, the fact that it is Priest-restricted and doesn’t do all that much by itself make me rather low on it.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2
Reverse Charge is yet another Reaction gambit and it may be the best one yet – you can react after a friendly fighter’s attack, if that fighter doesn’t have a Charge token, to make a move action. This is very flexible to let you perform a literal “reverse charge” by attacking before moving, but also offers interesting synergy with the plot card’s ability to let you stretch the reach of your attack actions. It also permits you to react to attack actions made in the power step, which can be a very powerful way to surprisingly reposition a fighter if you have support for that.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
Share the Burden is another gambit to let you Inspire your fighters in the power step; it will Inspire any fighter you choose reliably, as well as a 2nd fighter within 1 hex of the chosen fighter 66% of the time. The biggest issue I have with this card is that I don’t think I need even more support to re-Inspire my fighters; there are already a plethora of mechanics to achieve that and I would rather be seeing more pushes or positional support to help me Inspire them using the Plot card or their Inspire condition once they have hit an attack and become Uninspired. Being restricted to a Priest is just more salt in the wound.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1
Thunderous Blast is yet another gambit that Inspires a chosen friendly fighter; however, unlike the previous gambit, this one then can choose an enemy within 1 hex of the chosen friendly fighter and deal 1 Damage to them 66% of the time. It will also Uninspire the chosen friendly fighter at the end of the next turn, if they are still Inspired. I rate this a bit higher as any chance at more damage has to be respected; additionally, this can be used to cause my fighters to Uninspire for some of the objectives, in a pinch.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Ultimate Resistor is a Reaction played during an attack action to reduce incoming damage that would take an Inspired friendly fighter out of action. Then, it Uninspires the friendly fighter and gives them a charge token. These are rather steep conditions, as it means that its quite likely that the fighter you ‘saved’ is still going to be unimpactful for the rest of the round as if they had been taken out of action, but in a warband this fragile I will take any way to keep my bodies on the board that I can. The requirement that the fighter be Inspired does add additional value to the otherwise lacklustre previous gambits we have seen to Inspire friendly fighters.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
Unleashing His Fury chooses an Inspired friendly fighter to Uninspire, then deals 1 damage to an enemy within 2 hexes of the chosen friendly fighter. This is a very reliable ping, to my mind, and further plays with the Inspire/Uninspire “economy” of the warband. I like that the positioning on it is more flexible than the previous ping gambit, and I like that it doesn’t require a dice roll.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3
Our Favorites
- Aman: Reverse Charge
- George: Reverse Charge
- Mark: Reverse Charge
- Zach: Reverse Charge
Upgrades
Broad Shoulders is our first upgrade, giving +1 Wounds to any fighter other than Pater Filius and in addition, if Pater Filius is out of action, elevating that fighter to be a Leader and a Priest. With how many of the gambits are Priest-restricted this card would already be tempting; with how fragile the warband is, +1 Wounds is mandatory.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 3
Burgeoning Saint is an upgrade with an unusual effect: the upgraded fighter cannot be Uninspired. While this seems to be all upside, and indeed it might be nice for your final-survivor to continually attack and stay Inspired, it comes with drawbacks in that the fighter this is upgraded with cannot be chosen by the last (and one of the best) gambits, Unleashing His Fury. Additionally there are at least a couple of objectives that may get trickier with this card down. Still, once you are down to just 1-2 fighters Reinspiring may become tricky and you’d rather stay punching from your strong side.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Damaged Machinery is the kind of reaction gambit I can’t rate very highly. During a Range 1 or 2 attack action targeting the upgraded fighter, *after the deal damage step*, you can react to Inspire the upgraded fighter and stagger the attacker. The problem is that if there is a deal damage step, the attack was successful, and you are quite unlikely to be alive to care about Inspiring. The reaction does happen before the out of action check, but Staggering one enemy isn’t much of a disincentive.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 1
Determined Resistance has the upgraded fighter on Guard as long as it is holding an objective. This is another effect that would be more powerful in a different warband, but here, with fragile fighters that roll only a single Defense dice and largely defend on Block, Guard just isn’t that appealing.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Fervent’s Release is a Reaction after the upgraded fighter is Uninspired to Heal(1). It is a very cool concept but I have to wonder, how often a Heal(1) will be relevant to fighters as squishy as these? There’s some synergies if they can be paired with a deck to allow someone to become very tanky and then shift in and out of Inspiration to Heal(1) repeatedly, but it seems a tricky situation to engineer.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1
Holy Spasms, on the other hand, is a Reaction that I can see myself playing. After the upgraded fighter Inspires or is Uninspired, you can push them 1 hex. Turning every single one of the Inspire/Uninspire a fighter gambits in the deck (some of which were otherwise lacklustre) into a push 1 or even 2 (albeit delayed) is a really interesting payoff that can synergize with the warband’s desire to hold objectives while still making attack actions. Of course, the upgraded fighter still has to survive to use it and you have to line up those Inspire/Uninspire situations.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2
Master of Conduction is another fairly unique effect, adding +1 range to all the upgraded fighter’s attack actions (other than Scything attack actions). In a vacuum this can be difficult to evaluate as on its own it is purely advantageous to have more range especially in terms of enabling further shenanigans with the plot card, but it may also move your attack action to a new “bracket” of upgrade synergies. Ultimately, the value for this card will depend on the deck paired with this warband, as if you commit to substantial benefits for range 1 attacks you may not want to have an upgrade that has anti-synergy with your other upgrades. That said, gaining more range as a surprise in the power step will almost always be a relevant tool comparable to pushing yourself 1 hex to put an attack in range or gaining +1 move so that a previously impossible charge becomes possible. It also may give you ways to attack without charging.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3
Powerhouse offers similar functionality to the previous card but with different synergies; letting you count enemy fighters in the same way as friendly fighters for the Holy Vessels ability on the Plot card. This is another card that can be difficult to calculate the exact power level, but I’m inclined to rate it rather highly. Being able to “chain” your attacks through enemy fighters can offer massive extensions to your threat range, especially in certain matchups where enemies are incentivized to clump their fighters together. It can let you reach otherwise unreachable fighters and attack exactly the fighter that enemies do not want you to attack. That said, because it is dependent on the positioning of enemy models you have less agency in when and how it will become most effective.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
Sigmar’s Cyclone offers a range 1, 2 Fury, 2 Damage attack action that can be made as a Reaction after the upgraded fighter’s successful attack action, other than a Scything attack action or the Sigmar’s Cyclone attack action. I dislike the caveat that it requires a successful attack action to trigger, but it is still very powerful to have a chance at +2 or more damage on any successful attack action made by the upgraded fighter. It also offers substantial synergies with any cards that can let you take attack actions outside of your activations, and it does not require you to target the same fighter that you attacked previously. Additionally, it can still be stretched out farther than range 1 via the warband’s Plot card. The ceiling on this card is very high; but the consistency is sadly not as it requires you to not only hit any given attack but the payoff is gated behind hitting a 2 Fury attack. Still, many of us have played with Rippa, and rolling more dice usually is a good thing.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2
The Artefact Azyr is an upgrade restricted to your Leader that offers yet another Reaction; this one can be used in the inspire step after the upgraded fighter’s activation if one or more other friendly fighters were Inspired in that activation (by the Plot card ability). You can Heal(1) each of the other fighters that were Inspired. I find this sadly lacklustre; while the ability to heal back ping damage is appealing, the warband is so low on wounds that I find it highly unlikely that there will be many situations in which there are damaged fighters for me to heal, let alone damaged friendly fighters that I can also re-inspire and have it be a relevant heal. The imaginary ceiling on the card is high but in practice I don’t see it doing very much.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1
Our Favorites
- Aman: Master of Conduction
- George: Holy Spasms
- Mark: Holy Spasms
- Zach: Burgeoning Saint
Conclusion
I’m excited to experiment with this warband! I find that overall they seem to be just a bit all over the place, but I love warbands with a strong sub-theme of holding objectives and I find their plot card mechanic extremely interesting. That said, they seem to have a lot of timing issues built into how much of their cards are locked behind reactions and Inspiring/Uninspiring their fighters. Ultimately I think they seem to be difficult to play and quite vulnerable to fast aggro strategies, but I am eager to see what sort of flex builds I can pull off with them.
Warhammer Community described their play-style as ‘control’ and while I don’t quite see that reflected in these cards, I do think they will have to be very cagey early to secure their glory without being tabled. As far as pairings go, I see a lot of interesting potential with the Voidcursed Thralls deck, offering unparalleled ability to reposition my fighters, score glory even as my fighters are taken out of action, and make out of sequence move and attack actions. Additionally, the fact that being Voidcursed prevents range 3 attacks does not prevent me from making attacks at a distance of 3 or more hexes as long as I have positioned my fighters appropriately to use the Holy Vessels ability on their Plot card.
Another possibility I am excited to explore is similarly built around ‘abusing’ the Holy Vessels ability with the Tooth and Claw deck; Tooth and Claw offers some of the best modifiers for range 1 attack actions, which unlike any other warband the Brethren can unleash from afar. Let’s see what the rest of the warband has to say about these zealots.
Aman: Aesthetically, this warband is Warhammer. We’ve got the chains, the religious fervor, and zealotry – it’s so grimdark it’s hilarious. As I’ve said on the show, I love how design team is pushing the boundaries of what is possible in Underworlds. My concern however lies in the mechanical application. Flirting between inspiring and uninspiring is novel in theory but quite cumbersome in practice, and the fighter stats themselves leave something to be desired for. They certainly aren’t going to be winning any Grand Clashes. Nonetheless, they’re going to be a fun warband and I’ll certainly bring them to my local game night. I’m sure sparks will fly (I couldn’t resist).
Mark: While I’m not sure I’m wholly on board with some aesthetic aspects of this warband, the concept is just fantastic. I love the backstory, the ideas behind the mechanics, and just the general zaniness of these guys. I love that they’re branching out and continuing to investigate creative and new ideas for warbands like this.
Zach: Brotherhood of the Bolt is an interesting warband. They were pitched in the preview as a “Control” team, but overall they’re some sort of hybrid Aggro type. They want to attack, they want to be attacked, and they want to get into the mix with some cards. Thier overall low durability is a bit worrying, but they have tricks the like of which Underworlds has never seen. This warband will take some serious skill and experience to pilot, but I think anyone who can use them well will catch even experienced opponents flatfooted with range boosts, tricky scoring, and surprise damage. Very interesting design!
As always, best of luck on YOUR Path to Glory!
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Written by: George Athanail
Edited by: Aman Khusro
