Warband Review: The Starblood Stalkers

 

Introduction

Hello my fellow hunters! Today I’ll be reviewing the newest warband to enter the corridors of the Beastgrave - The Starblood Stalkers. This pack of dinos has been long requested by the community and I’ve been one of the people who did wait for them for a very long time. It has been my most anticipated warband ever since Thundrik Profiteers have been released so it is fitting that this will be the first warband reviewed by me on this blog.

Knowing how Seraphon work in the Age of Sigmar and keeping in mind that the WHU development team has upped their game and has been releasing very interesting warbands in this season I’ve been very excited to see what they will do with this warband. So.. without further ado let's move on to have a look at the fighters.

The Warband

The Starblood Stalkers are a six fighter warband and as such they do fall into a horde territory. They’re offering an interesting mix of models - relatively weak skinks are supplemented with more technical fighters like their leader and chameleon skink. On top of that Kixi-taka has taken with him the old blood saurus who can scare anyone in combat.

Inspiration

Inspiration of this warband reflects their nature really well. All the skinks will inspire together if after an activation warband holds three or more objectives. Only exception is our scary old blood saurus. He's cool (cold blooded?) guy. Standing still is not fun or inspiring. No, Klaq-Trok prefers doing what the greatest warriors of their people do best - hitting others with heavy objects. Biting them is also an acceptable option. Be like Klaq-Trok kids. He inspires after making a successful attack action. He is what Magore would like to be.

Overall the way they inspire is interesting. Your smaller units want to control the battlefield and hold the objectives. And they’re rewarded for this with inspiration. In the meantime the main fighter of the warband is not dependent on how well you’ll be able to claim those objectives. Instead you can send him in to do the brawling and if he succeeds landing an attack he will inspire. I’m finding this pretty smart and I like that the inspiration mechanics is not counterintuitive to what you would like to do with your models.

Holding three or more objectives might prove to be tricky at times. But since it is after an activation effect it feels fairly balanced. 

The Fighters

Kixi-Taka, The Diviner

Kixi-Taka is the leader of the warband. He’s a skink priest. I would’ve hoped him being a wizard as Seraphon are rather heavy on magic in general. But this fighter is very decent nonetheless. Uninspired, he's offering a very serviceable range 2 attack. It has decent accuracy and damage 2. Additionally he’s able to attack enemies at range using his Starbolt attack - range 3, 2 hammers, damage 1 - fairly accurate attack that can help set some kills up with chip damage. 

Those attack profiles won’t make him a monster in melee, but that’s not his role. Overall it’s pretty decent fighting power for a 6 model warband leader.

His other stats are: move 4, 2 dodge defense and 3 wounds. Defense profile is fairly decent, however those 3 wounds are making him a bit vulnerable. It is not that hard to deal three points of damage in a single activation, so you’ll want to be careful with him.

Upon inspiration he gains only one attack dice in his ranged attack making it very accurate. It means that your leader will not gain anything meaningful from being inspired.

As mentioned before, skin priests are often magic users - in Kixi-Taka’s case this has been reflected by his fighter action. Once per round you can make an action that allows you to pick a feature token within 3 hexes from Kixi and either flip that token or deal 1 damage to one enemy within 1 hex from that token. This is a very nice option to defend yourself from flip tech that would potentially try to disrupt your scoring. It can also be used to ruin the day for someone trying to play Feed the Beastgrave (or help you score it). Moreover you can try to disrupt your opponent’s holding capabilities making it harder for him to score his hold objectives... or even possibly helping you score objectives like Dominant Position.

Second option can be used to push that last point of damage to kill an enemy fighter. Using an activation to deal one damage feels a bit wasteful, but there might be a case where you’ll want to do it. Only limitation is range 3 on that action. Kixi-Taka is a fairly fragile fighter, so it’s not very likely you’ll want to bring him forward to use this ability on enemy territory.

Klaq-Trok

Cool kid on the block - Klaq-Trok is the bully that will go and ruin your opponents day. His stats are impressive. Uninspired his Celestite Warmaul is sporting range 1, 3 damage attack that hits on two hammers. It’s reasonably accurate and can threaten most of the models in game - it’s not that hard to add one more point of damage to one-shot 4 wound fighters.

On top of that he can use his Powerful Jaws - range 1, 1 fury and 1 damage attack that cannot be modified. It’s not impressive by any means. However! After Klaq-Trok’s activation he makes this attack. You can go on guard or make a move and bite a head off while at it! Isn’t it glorious? 

On top of that he’s having a move characteristic of 3, defends on a single shield and has 4 wounds. Slow, bulky, tough. He might require some help to deliver him to the desired target. 

When inspired his Powerful Jaws attack gains extra attack dice. Additionally his move goes up to 4 and he gets second defense dice. While inspired he’s quite a juggernaut. What’s best about him is that if you’ll make a successful attack he will inspire before making his reaction. So if you would hit your first attack his follow up will already be more accurate. If you miss, then you’ll get a second chance at inspiring from Jaws attack. Overall he will like having support or rerolls to make secondary attacks hit.

Otapatl

Also known as the Babyface. This Chameleon skink is quite unique. His attack has range 3, 1 damage and 3 dice hitting on crits. On top of that he has cleave and ensnare. This is the first attack profile on a fighter card that requires crits to hit. His damage is not great and his attack cannot drive back. But what’s important about this little fellow is that his successful attacks will give their target a move token. So essentially this little dude has ~50% chance to immobilize any target within 3 hexes from him. More if he’ll get support. This is pretty scary for elite warband players. Their stacked uber-fighters can get shut down for a round fairly easily. And that is the prime use of this little guy.

From other stats he’s having a movement of 4, defends on 2 dodges and has 2 wounds. He’s also a hunter and a quarry because he clearly likes having many keywords.

Once inspired his movement goes up to 5, he gains another defense dice bringing him to an impressive 3 dodge defense and his Dartpipe will deal 2 damage instead of 1. So not only will it shut the target down, but it will also hurt it quite well. 

I really like this fighter. He’s very technical - using him will require some preparation, but can be extremely rewarding. On top of that he’s a prime candidate for scoring Absolute Stillness.

Huachi

First of the three skinks - Huachi - is a swift hunter. He likes to use Javelins - he can stab his opponents with them at range 1 dealing 2 damage and hitting on 2 hammers. Alternatively he can rain down those sticks on his enemies - when thrown his javelin has range 3, hits on 2 swords and deals a single point of damage. What’s interesting is that he can lob as many of those as he likes. Jagartha and Skaeth are envious.

He’s having movement 4, 2 wounds and defends on a single block. He’s also having a special reaction - he’s skittish. After an opponent’s power step he can be pushed 1 hex away from an enemy fighter within 2 hexes. This is a very interesting mechanic - nicely balanced, as you cannot make a charge in+push away shenanigans. It does however allow you to position your skinks better if there are enemy fighters to move away from. Since the reaction takes place after the power step it is very difficult to reactively counter it. So the opponent will have to be mindful of how he’s moving his fighters in to not help you get your skinks onto the objectives.

Once inspired his movement goes up to 5 and his javelin throwing skills improve as he gains 3rd attack dice and Knockback 1.While the damage component is not very impressive that ranged knockback can be a very useful tool at times.

Overall very decent stats for a dangle bro.

Tok

Tok is second of the three hunter skinks. His Boltspitter blowpipe offers a range 3 attack that deals 1 damage and hits on 2 fury. Not very accurate and low damage. He can also use his Moonstone Club - range 1, 1 damage attack that also hits on 2 fury. He’s also having the same Skittish reaction as Huachi. 

He’s having movement 4, 1 dodge defense and 2 wounds. 

Upon inspiration his club attack gets more accurate going up to three dice. He also gains +1 movement and +1 defense dice. This makes him a very solid objective holding model.

Xepic

Xepic is our final skink bro - also a hunter and he’s also skittish. He forgot his blowpipe, but he packed his shield instead. His Moonstone Club is nothing to write home about - range 1, 1 damage, 2 fury. He’s also having movement of 4, 2 wounds and defends on a single shield.

After inspiration his Club attack goes to 3 dice and two damage making it a very decent attack profile. He will also gain +1 movement speed bringing him to 5. Overall pretty good for a dangle bro. A single block defense can be problematic versus fighters with large dice attacks, but offers pretty decent protection otherwise.

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Overall the warband is very interesting. The fighters are quite diverse and are offering many options to play with. There are 4 hunters in this warband, a single quarry and they have access to various keywords that can be beneficial during the game. Thanks to their reactions the opponent has to consider how to place his fighters to not make skinks skitter away to hold objectives. 

Their inspiration conditions are not hard, but the skink one can be countered by a smart opponent. 

The Cards

While scoring the cards I will be following rating system as below:

1 - a very powerful card. You should take it in nearly every deck. A staple.

2 - a very strong card that you should consider taking. Might not always make the cut, but should usually contend with other options.

3 - a situational card that might prove to be good in certain situations or with proper card support

4 - a weak card. You might find use for it, but in general most often you’ll be better off with other picks.

Faction objectives

Astromatrix alignment: This is a very nice surge that can be scored by your leader. There are also cards that can trigger it - we’ve got a few ploys and upgrades that can flip a feature token. Because of the requirement of an objective being in enemy territory it might be a bit dangerous to try to score it with your leader. You might also consider whether it is worth flipping an objective that’s close to you - it might go against your overall plan and hurt your scoring in the long run. Overall it’s a strong surge. 

Rating: 2

Balance the Cosmic Equation: Take Dominant Position, mix it with Cruel Hunters by requiring at least two kills. Then set glory value to 1 and you’ll get this card. You could score 2x 2 glory by fulfilling this objective’s requirements. The only defense for this card is that you just might be able to score it while sending Klaq-Trok into town while skinks are working towards Dominant Position. 

Rating: 3

Children of Azyr:  It is fair to assume that in a majority of games you’ll get to inspire your warband at some point. Landing three upgrades is also not that hard. This is a pretty decent option for 2 glory.

 Rating: 2

Formidable focus: this is a weaker Show of Force. Your skinks are fast and have tools to get into enemy territory easily. Trouble is that generally you might not want to do it. Most of your fighters are very easy to kill and you’ll typically need them to score your hold objectives. Formidable focus simply deviates from your desired game plan too much. 

Rating: 3

Heralds of Annihilation: I do like kill surges. But this one is not one of those I would enjoy. Killing an enemy leader typically is not an easy task. Especially when most of your warband hits for 1-2 damage with a mediocre accuracy.

Rating: 4

Instinctive Tactics: This is a very easy surge to score. Thanks to various reactions printed on your fighter cards it's very reliable. You should take it into your decks. 

Rating: 1

Perfect Warrior: While Klaq-Trok is a perfect warrior indeed this objective is fairly weak. Main issues are the same as with Heralds of Annihilation. But on top of that this card is an end phase objective and has an additional requirement of keeping your old blood alive. If it had higher glory value it might be worth considering. But just for one glory it’s not the best deal. Rating: 4

Seeking the Heart: It’s the second card that rewards you for moving into enemy territory. Coupled with Formidable Focus and Show of Force it would certainly provide some decent glory. Trouble is that as mentioned before - going hard into enemy territory is not a thing Stalkers might want to do. They’re too fragile for this kind of action. Secondary way of scoring this could synergise well with Treasure Hunter. Trouble is that this objective is often harder and provides less glory. So if you’re planning on doing some offensive takeovers maybe simply stick to Treasure Hunter. It’s easier and gives better glory. 

Rating: 3

Sotek’s Hunters: I wish this was an universal one. My Thundrik Profiteers would love that one. For Stalkers it’s not great unless you’re feeling hot with dice. Inspired Otapatl is your best hope of scoring this. So if you take it better roll those crits! 

Rating: 4

The Great Plan: Oh boy, this one got me excited. I really like this objective. Reminds me of good old days when Superior Tactician was a thing. This time around you are required to have scored at least 6 objectives. Among those 6 you need to have scored at least one of each: surge, dual and hybrid. You should be able to do this fairly reliably in round 2. It’s a solid 3 glory objective. 

Rating: 1

Vengeance of the Heavens: This would’ve been okay for a heavy aggro warband. And even for them it wouldn’t be the best option. Killing half of the enemy warband can be quite difficult. It is good that the warband is receiving support for a more aggressive playstyle. But his kind of objective is not something you will be considering even for an aggro build. 

Rating: 4

Will of the Slann: I really like this card. It’s an older brother of Swift Capture. It’s slower, as it’s an end phase objective. But gives more glory. It has a good synergy with Treasure Hunter, Swift Capture or Seeking the Heart. Definitely worth considering in your deck. Rating: 2

Faction Gambits

Burst from the Shadows: Push ploys are extremely valuable - especially if you’re going to try to hold objectives. Burst allows us to push up to two hunters up to 2 hexes. That is pretty sweet. Most of the warband is or easily can be made a hunter. So it is a very flexible card that you should have in your deck. 

Rating: 1

Huanchi’s Device: This is essentially an in-faction Distraction. But with a twist! Time playing this ploy well and you can devastate your opponents objective holding plan just as you would with Mischievous Spirits. Second option should be used with care though, as it can actually help your opponent position his fighters better. I love how this card gives a very solid value, but can deliver even better results when skillfully used. 

Rating: 1

Invisible Hunter: At the first glance this card looks interesting. It’s a twist on a teleport tech. It is however limited only to Otapatl. It is also very slow and useless should you draw it in round 3. Those handicaps are limiting the usefulness of this card. 

Rating: 3

Light of the Stars: I really like the idea behind this card. It’s not the card that will make it to every single Seraphon list out there for sure, as it covers a certain niche. Right now it’s rather weak, but this might come in very handy if we will get more gambits that are dealing damage. 

Rating: 3

Lords of Space and Time: This is a very nice teleport. It can allow your fighter to blink across the map and sneakily capture an objective in enemy territory. As this is a very powerful effect it goes with a set of its own limitations - your fighter gets a move token. Moreover you cannot teleport a model that is or would be adjacent to an enemy fighter. That means this ploy cannot be used to set up the range1 attack nor can you avoid being hit by one using this ploy. I find this a fairly reasonable set of limitations - effect is still powerful. 

Rating: 1

Sotek’s Venom: As a reaction you can add an additional effect to a successful attack. You can make it place a move token onto its target. What is cool is the fact that this is the first poison that has no range limitation. You can change any of your fighters into an Otapatl for one attack. With this card Huachi can make impressive control moves - hit a range 3 attack with his javelin. Drive the enemy fighter back and apply a move token for him? Yes please. Or have Otapatl completely shut Mollog down by giving him 2 move tokens right off the bat. Only challenge is to land your attack. While it’s not a must have card I can see it making the cut to some of the more defensive decks. Or when the meta is rich in hard aggro teams. Rating: 2

Tepok’s Mystery: You could delay your opponent a bit by meddling with his objective hand. You could as well help him by replacing his bricked hand. Overall you have no control over the effect of playing this ploy and the value you can obtain from it is highly questionable. I don’t see a reason to even consider playing this. 

Rating: 4

The Bulwark Celestial: First Asterism ploy. The whole idea behind Asterisms is cool - your entire warband gets benefits until this ploy persists or until a new Asterism is played. In this case friendly fighters cannot be driven back. This is quite a powerful effect, but it’s unlikely that half of the warband would be able to benefit from it. Having 2 wounds means those fighters aren’t likely to be driven back anyway. 

Rating: 4

The Great Drake: Another Asterism option available to your warband. This time around all range 1 attacks made while this ploy is active get +1 Dice. This amount of extra accuracy is massive. Especially valuable when your Klaq-Trok is in the position to make multiple attacks this round. 

Rating: 1

The Hunter’s Steed: 3rd and the last Asterism ploy. This one grants your warband +1 move. It’s an okay effect. Might be especially useful early on when your warband is not inspired. You might want to consider taking it if you feel you’ll need more speed in your deck. 

Rating: 3

Faction Upgrades

Adaptive Camouflage: -1 dice to all attacks targeting Otapatl if the attacker is not adjacent to him. Otapatl is arguably the best defending fighter in your warband. Adding an additional layer of protection that works only on ranged attacks is not necessary. 

Rating: 4

Astrolith Igniter: Your leader gains the reaction that allows him to spend 1 glory to give one of your fighters Cleave. Having cleave can be nice at times. Idea that you might be able to add it on demand is really cool from the game design perspective and I really like this. Sadly this effect is probably not worth the upgrade slot and spending glory points to apply it.

Rating: 4

Cloak of Feathers: +2 move can be very useful. Immunity from lethal hex damage is very nice. An ability to move through occupied hexes also has its advantages. This card brings quite a bit of benefits, but... Kixi-Taka is not very likely to be interested in utilizing them. You might find some corner cases where this will be very useful, but overall I don’t expect many people to take it.

Rating: 4

Heaven-Blessed Weapon: In faction +1 dice upgrade for range 1 attacks? Yes, please. Knockback is a nice addition, but this card would’ve been amazing even without it. It’s mostly a Klaq-Trok card, bringing him to 3 hammers, but since it’s not limited to him you can always make one of your skinks more accurate should you need to.

Rating: 1

Herald of the Old Ones: Kixi-Taka can provide an excellent defensive buff to your skinks if they’re in range. Rerolling defense dice can be a life saver. It is also potentially painting a target mark onto Kixi’s back. Ideally you'd want to cover your multi-defence dice fighters with this aura.

Rating: 2

Selfless Sacrafice: retaliation attack from a skink is not a particularly threatening thing. Having it as an upgrade is hard to justify - most often it would get ignored and bring very little value even if the attack was successful.

Rating: 4

Spawning Bond: This upgrade offers an amazing synergy with Skittish reaction. Using Skittish could even allow you to push 2 skinks, make 2 reactions and potentially score Instinctive Tactics. You can also trigger it off an opponent's Distraction and move your other skink back on the objective that has just been emptied. There are very cool tricks that you can do, however in general the usage is fairly limited and upgrade slots highly contested. But maybe it will find its own niche sometimes.

Rating: 3

Supreme Predator: This card makes me smile. Turn Klaq-Trok into Hrothgorn? No problem. Just apply this upgrade and he’ll be a hunter, all enemies will become quarry and he’ll get a reroll. Old Klaq likes rerolls. Gaining an access to hunter tech is also not shabby at all. Really nice card.

Unfeeling Resilience: This is effectively a Klaq-Trok card. It could find its way onto Kixi-Taka or Otapatl, but most often you’ll want to have it on your biggest and meanest fighter on the table. Damage reduction coupled with wound upgrades is insanely strong so you should be taking this. Your lizard will stay on the battleground longer and that's bad news for your opponents.

Rating: 1

Unhesitating: +1 move, +2 if fighter is a skink. It’s nice, although a bit unnecessary. Main beneficiary of this card would be your slow mountain of muscle and teeth, but he’s not a skink. And I believe there are better options to get +1 move in the game.

Rating: 3

Summary

The Starblood Stalkers are an interesting warband. They have a lot of tools to control the battlefield. Mobility is mixed with more classic suppression elements like adding move tokens to enemy fighters. They’ll jump and teleport around the battlefield but… I feel they suffer a bit from the lack of focus. This is good and bad. It’s good because this makes them a bit unpredictable. It’s bad because they aren’t particularly good at anything. Leader is just a well rounded, average guy with a control twist that is in most cases not a game breaking thing. Klaq-Trok is a beast and he is a terror others have to deal with. But he’s mostly alone at it. And he doesn’t have the range of Hrothgorn or ability to move and charge like Mollog. Otapatl is a very cool control fighter who can also lay down some hurt… but he’s very swingy. He’s sort of all or nothing kind of fighter. Small skinks want to sit on objectives. Huachi and Xepic have the ambitions to actually be able to hurt others, but they need to inspire first. And they die from a breeze. So overall there’s a lot of interesting pieces scattered around. Some objectives might encourage you to be very aggressive, but the question remains whether it will turn out to be healthy for you. As of now most reasonable playstyle appears to be a flex hold objective with a bit of control and aggro. It does however have a weakness versus fast hard aggro. They will not care that Klaq-Trok will absolutely butcher their little dude who just killed your skink. They’ll score decent glory off it and your holding objectives just got harder.

When facing slower warbands they will be very tough to beat. If given time to inspire and score some early glory they will turn to a true menace. 

To be successful with them you’ll have to exercise some very technical playing, but it can be very rewarding. I’m not a huge fan of hold objective play, but I’m very eager to give those guys a try in a competitive setting.

Overall I would recommend them as a warband that is certainly worth the attention. What are your thoughts on them? Please leave a comment and let me know!