Warhammer Underworlds: Deathgorge is the new core set for the ultimate competitive miniatures game, containing two new warbands, their Rivals decks, and two universal Rivals decks, alongside everything else you need to play the game.
Every warband presents new challenges and opportunities, and who better to guide us through the icy caverns of this new season than John – one of the game’s designers. Today he’s kindly putting on a clinic for Cyreni’s Razors, a tricksy band of aquatic Idoneth Deepkin.
The Basics
Buoy oh buoy, Cyreni’s Razors are on the way so it’s time to talk about their capabilities. The Razors are a versatile warband with strong abilities, some unique mechanics, a wizard, and even a giant undersea ally – Cephanyr – to aid them in battle. All in all they are a reliable warband that rewards careful positioning, clever manipulation of the battlefield, and outfoxing enemy fighters. On the flip side, they are still aelves, and can be fragile if caught out of position, so let’s see what we can make of them.
Sink or Swim
Cyreni’s Razors have reliable damage-dealing characteristics. Each fighter comes with a perfectly average Attack action, and three of the four are Range 2, for easy poking at the foe from a safe vantage point. This gives you great positional and tempo advantage over nearly every other warband in the game, a powerful stance from which to start any match. It also helps keep you safe –which is handy because two of your fighters come with a Wounds characteristic of 3…
Cephanyr is your real tank, as this swole cephalopod is tied for the highest Wounds characteristic in the warband, and once Inspired he gets that 2 Dodge Defence characteristic that’s the bane of aggressive warbands everywhere. If your opponent actually takes the chance to attack Cephanyr, he gets a free Push in addition to Staggering an enemy fighter as Cephanyr uses his Phase Ink ability to confuse the enemy as he makes his escape. Nasty.
Your long-range attacker is Cyreni, the leader of the warband. Her powerful Hammertide ability is the star of the show. With this powerful action, you pick a straight line of hexes, and the first enemy fighter in this line suffers 1 Damage and is Staggered. This ability alone makes the warband a real challenge – every opponent is under pressure straight from deployment, as any line from one starting hex to the next could be a threat.
Finally we go to the baseline fighters, Alathyrr and Renglaith. You’d be forgiven for thinking they are a little basic, but once Inspired everything changes. Their Attack actions are incredible, from 2 Damage with Scything, ready access to Cleave, and with the dreaded Range 2 Damage 3 profile, these Thralls are exceptional. It doesn’t stop there, as they even gain a moderate increase in defensive capabilities too. These fighters make your warband supremely reliable, with the right tool always on hand.
As for their decks, cards like Counter-current, Lurking Presence, Great Wake, and Eerie Distortion all have straightforward applications, but with a bit of attention can provide great dividends for clever and careful players.
This whole warband operates at the whims of the tides, with each fighter inspiring in a specific power step of each round, and the Tidal ability causing them to lose their inspired status at the end of the round. Navigating the ebb and flow of their abilities will need a steady hand on the tiller.
Treading Water
So how do other warbands survive against these terrors from the deep? In theory, the counterplay is straightforward. You need to weather the early damage spike, then hit back, and hit back hard before they inevitably all Inspire.
Luckily for any would-be deep sea divers out there, the Razors are relatively fragile for a four-fighter warband. With two fighters with a Wounds characteristic of 3, and another with 4, and a Defence characteristic of 1 Block, you’ll find that Cleave generates a lot of value.
Target priority is essential. Keep in mind that this will not always be the fighter who has the least health, as their tricksy Inspire conditions can turn a previously innocuous fighter into quite the powerhouse, almost without warning. Killing Cephanyr when Renglaith is ready to become Inspired in the next activation might well be a mistake you don’t get to repeat.
Setting Sail
Now all that remains is to raise anchor and sail away on a journey to the icy Deathgorge, to either make use of, or deal with, the horrors that lurk beneath the ice. Good luck, and keep an eye out for ripples in the water…
Thanks for the advice John. The new Warhammer Underworlds Core Set is available to pre-order on Saturday – check back later this week for some more information on how to handle their sultry antagonists, the Thricefold Discord.