Shadespire

[Jye Nicolson]

@M_i_J
FYI, Ringtail has free shipping if you order over a certain amount of stuff. The threshold may be more than you're willing to spend on Underworlds. But if you were, for example, thinking to update your Malifaux books and cards...

It's ichiman so with both new Underworlds teams mij'll hit it. I'm not sure of their exact points rate but it's better than Joshin, probably at least equal to Yodabashi so a better deal than GW for sure.

[me_in_japan]

hmmn. all good points. OK, so I'm now leaning towards Ringtail. Might even get some paints off em, too. Need more contrast (although, jeebus. At 1050en per pot, it's hardly an impulse buy anymore...)

[The Other Dave]

The Orc Brutes got their faction focus, and they shared all the cards in the set, so of course people are starting to analyze 'em:

https://canyourollacrit.com/2020/08/10/ ... 9QrNPIl_lI

Sounds like they're everything Ironskulls were supposed to be, to the extent of duplicating some of their power cards. Also looks like the first straightforward "pure" aggro faction in a very long time - there are probably some tactical wrinkles, especially around the Waargh mechanic, but "run at the enemy and bash them" seems to be the order of the day. Should be fun!

Hopefully the witch elves will be up in a day or so.

[Jye Nicolson]

I'm really looking forward to these guys. I already have painted brutes to sub in to get started, aggro with a token economy should be good fun, and I was hanging out for a new deck anyway.

I have high hopes for the Daughters too but they'll probably demand more player skill, which I'm too lazy to cultivate

[The Other Dave]

5 wounds each and a very reliable inspire condition (not to mention two of your models who don't really need to inspire) also looks very nice. Plus Morgok is basically Varclav? (Yeah, yeah, moving two orcs is not the same as moving 4 ghosts, and you need a token to do it, but still. That's probably "lessons learned" and putting the ability about where it should be.)

I may work a deck up just to give my brain a rest from the Mournflight and their shenanigans-heavy playstyle.

Ooh, as I type, speak of the devil - the witch elves are up. Interesting inspire mechanics. Everyone inspires round 3, and if the leader is alive she can do like Thundrik and inspire one of the warband every time they kill someone. Very solid attack stats too, although they're 1 dodge and low wounds across the board. The leapy whip lady also has an instrinsic Combo, so these guys may be the combo-focused warband.

[Jye Nicolson]

Based on the Can You Roll A Crit review the Witch Elves do have a fairly high skill floor. I'm going to stick with my plan of starting with Orruks; waiting until there's a bit more community knowledge on how to play the DoKs effectively will give me time to paint them

They do look fun though, when you can pull off the plays they need to succeed.

[me_in_japan]

the witch elves look reaaaaally appealing to me. Fiddly and technical is right up my alley. Of course, I lack the actual skill to make em work, but it wont stop me trying The orcs look nice and straightforward, mind you. Sometimes one just feels like a bit of clobberin', I suppose.

Btw, do ringtail do pre-orders, or do i need to wait for the warbands to officially release before I can buy em? Can't see on the website (although to be fair I havent looked very hard)

[The Other Dave]

@mij, I don't know about RingTail, sorry!

It's almost trite to say it, but the DoK really do look like Reavers 2.0 (even more than the new orcs are the old orcs 2.0), and the Reavers are well-understood and still pretty effective - I imagine the meta will figure out what to do with them pretty quickly. You have a scary but not particularly durable boss, two squishy hard-hitters, two utter scrubs who are still potentially dangerous, and an inspire condition that wants you to focus on quick kills. (Also I think it's pretty funny that at least three of the card pictures show you exactly how to use the snek lady - park her on an objective, slap guard on her, and snipe everything from 4 squares away.)

It's interesting, actually - now three of the warbands are arguably redesigns / refinements of season 1 warbands: orcs -> brutes, reavers -> DoK, and Steelheart -> Ironsoul. It kind of shows how they might move to make, say, the skeletons or the fireslayers more competitive - by basically re-releasing them as an entirely new warband in the same design space.

[Jye Nicolson]

Btw, do ringtail do pre-orders, or do i need to wait for the warbands to officially release before I can buy em? Can't see on the website (although to be fair I havent looked very hard)

Not sure but even if you can't preorder I expect they'll have them up as soon as they get them, rather than waiting for the official release. Maybe Thursday next week? I'd check on Saturday to see if they have a preorder up either way.

[The Other Dave]

Huh, looks like they're staggering the releases of the orcs and elves. Bother!