John from the Warhammer studio schooled us on Cyreni’s Razors on Tuesday, and today he’s corralling Thricefold Discord, a band of Slaanesh daemons who absolutely hate each other – and by a cruel twist of fate are now leashed together until they bring Syll’Esske a bounty of 1,000 souls from the Deathgorge itself. Take it away, John!
The Basics
The Thricefold Discord are set to do battle against Cyreni’s Razors over a cache of frozen souls. As daemons of Slaanesh, the insatiable god of excess, these supremely powerful fighters are each a miniscule facet of the Dark Prince. Only their pride and arrogance matches their lethality, and despite their potent abilities they are a fractious lot with a range of vulnerabilities a canny opponent can exploit.
Asymmetrical Menace
As you might guess from a Warband called the Thricefold Discord, the characteristics of the fighters vary tremendously, providing an exciting, asymmetric experience compared with many other three-fighter warbands. You'll need a tight plan for your early game and deployment, otherwise things can snowball out of control quickly as your opponent takes advantage of your uneven selection of fighters.
Unlike most Slaaneshi daemons Vexmor the Excessively Indolent lacks speed, but makes up for it with durability and raw damage output. They won’t rush across the battlefield, but will languidly plant themselves somewhere where their whopping Damage 3 Range 2 Attack punches in the same weight class as the meanest fighters in the game. Vashtiss the Coiled is the middle ground, with a high Move characteristic and handy ranged pokes, while Lascivyr the Bladed Blessing is just a straight-up assassin. They are blisteringly fast and extremely accurate, able to spike to Damage 3 on Critical Hits once Inspired, which isn’t as hard to do as you might think…
Bickering Trio
“Misery loves company” as the saying goes, and the Thricefold Discord embodies this to a tee. Forced to work alongside each other in spite of their mutual loathing, this warband has a fascinating Inspire condition. When one daemon fails at attacking or defending, the one that hates them the most Inspires! The trick here is to try and attack and/or defend in ways where the result is favourable no matter the outcome – and remember your timing is crucial. As the accuracy and damage spike from Inspiring Lascivyr is considerable, you’re better off taking an early swing with their corpulent leader Vexmor, or putting the listless leader up to be the target of early enemy attacks.
A Tempting Offer
The Thricefold Discord brings a banquet of Temptation cards to the table. These offer your opponent an agonising choice to make, potentially playing right into your conniving hands. Illusion of Power is a fine example – does your opponent discard a few cards they don’t need at the time, or take a free upgrade and give you one too? You’ll need to weigh up whether your opponent might have access to potent upgrades they will benefit from more than you, or has two cards they’re willing to part with.
No matter what they pick, you’ll come away with some kind of value. Just bear in mind that an opponent who knows what they are doing may have ways to mitigate your boons. Other Temptation cards like Heart’s Desire and Vision of Wealth offer similarly beguiling choices that may look simple on the surface, but played right can lead your opponents astray.
Trick or Trick?
The Thricefold Discord can also offer their opponents a selection of False Gifts. These are powerful upgrades that both benefit and hamper the user. Doesn’t sound tempting? Well, thanks to the generosity of Slaanesh you can give them to enemy fighters! Having trouble with a pesky wizard with high Dodge with powerful ranged attacks? Look no further than the Helm of Insight, which grants increased defence, whilst reducing visibility to 2 hexes! Sorry Ephilim, you’ll need to move a little closer…
The Perfect Blade is similarly double-edged, preventing long range fighters from sitting back and unleashing hell with all of their fancy upgrades, which all become worthless unless they use the card’s Resist action. If your opponent has loaded upgrades on a key ranged fighter, this has the potential to upset your opponent’s action economy, which as any Warhammer Underworlds veteran knows, is a big deal. If you play these cards at the right time, you can cause some pretty serious headaches, and undo some intricately laid plans.
Final Misgivings
In spite of all the infighting, bickering and general one-up-manship the Thricefold Discord cleave to, you’ll find they are as slick and cohesive a warband as you’d expect from those wrought by the god of excess and hedonism. All that remains is to succumb to temptation and give them a whirl. What are you waiting for?
Thank you again for all those tips and tricks John. The new Warhammer Underworlds Core Set is available to pre-order on Saturday – it comes with everything you need to play the game right in the box, including two universal Rivals decks should you feel like you want to mix up your game a bit more.