Hey there fellow fighters! Today we will be taking a closer look at the very fresh, bloodthirsty corpses.. I mean vampires from the Crimson Court. This is the newest warband to enter the Direchasm - one that is strongly tied to hunger counters that were up until now not really a thing to focus on.
Inspire condition
The vampires are having a very interesting model for inspiration. Their interaction with hunger counters can essentially be summarised as two different “inspiration” paths. Your fighters can get inspired, which grants them stats and an access to special mechanics. Or they can get affected by the bloodthirst which grants them a different set of bonuses. It’s entirely up to you to decide which route you would like to follow for each of the fighters. Since they’re inspiring individually nothing stops you from mixing Inspired fighters with bloodthirsty ones. What’s also interesting is the fact that they can lose their inspired status and revert to being bloodthirsty (or vice versa) which allows a certain level of flexibility if you are able to shift large numbers of counters around.
The fighters
All of the fighters are having three rules that are shared by all of them:
Bloodthirst - an alternative inspiration. If the fighter has three or more hunger counters he cannot go on guard and is bloodthirsty, which will enable his individual ability related to thirst.
The Curse - a heavy curse burdens all of the vampires. They feel eternal hunger. And that hunger grows all the time. At the start of every round fighter with this rule will gain a hunger counter.
The Hunger - reaction. After taking an adjacent fighter out action this fighter can react to remove any number of hunger counters. This allows them to shift from being bloodthirsty to being inspired fairly easily.
After inspiration the fighters lose all of the above in favor of:
Lurking Hunger - if the fighter would accumulate 3 or more hunter tokens he will uninspire after an activation regaining his original stats and abilities.
Prince Duvalle is the leader of the warband. He’s a hunter and a level 1 wizard while at it, so he has access to the largest pool of cards from among all of the fighters in this game. He’s also an auto-scoring guy for Master of Many Paths.
Stat wise he’s having a move 4, 4 wounds and defends on a single block. He’s also having range one attack action that hits on three hammers and deals two damage.
On top of that he's having the special rule Possessed Blade. While bloodthirsty his primary attack action is having -1 dice, but gains +1 damage. While hungry Duvalle is less accurate, but hits harder.
Upon inspiring he gains cleave and one defense dice, which is very nice. He is also losing all of his special abilities, but instead he gains a spell reaction called Fiendish Lure. After taking the enemy fighter out of action Duvalle can attempt a spell. It’s cast on a single channel and if successfully cast it allows Duvalle to pull another enemy fighter, that is within 4 hexes, by up to 2 hexes closer to him. This is an excellent tool to either disrupt your opponent, or to line up another body for a kill. Once inspired he’s not hungry anymore and is not gaining hunger counters at the start of the round anymore. Overall a very solid fighter - solid defenses, decent offensive power and has built in ability to reposition enemy fighters.
While hungry he will be your beating stick. While inspired he will shine as a surgical damage dealer who also defends well and has tricks up his sleeve. Inspiring him is probably more beneficial unless you really want to go hard on playing hunger games.
Gorath the Enforcer - big guy with even larger mace. One could expect a brutish, beefy mountain of muscles. And that’s what this guy is… but there’s more! He’s also a level 1 wizard and a hunter! Turns out that there’s more to this guy than meets the eye.
Uninspired he’s having movement 4, single block and 4 wounds. He’s also sporting his range two mace that hits on two hammers and deals 2 damage. Very decent profile - I was expecting him to rock 3 damage base attack, but even without it his attack is good.
While affected by the bloodthirst he’s losing 1 move, but gains 1 wound making him your local tank.
Upon inspiration his attack action goes up to 3 damage and gains Knockback 1. He’s also gaining a spell action - he can transfer one wound or one hunger counter from a friendly fighter to an enemy fighter - or vice versa - if they are within 4 hexes of him. Since he’s level 1 it’s only 60% chance to make this activation work, but sometimes it’s a higher odds of pushing that last point of damage than making an attack.
Overall this guy can be your tank when hungry or your damage dealer while inspired.
Vellas von Faine is a skirmisher of this warband. Uninspired she’s having the same statline as other vampires - 4 move, single block and 4 wounds. Her Paired Blades hit on range 1 with 2 hammers and for 2 damage. Decent offensive power on a very decent body. She’s also a hunter.
While bloodthirsty her attacks gain scything. Upon inspiration she gains cleave and ensnare and also is on guard.
While facing horde warbands make her hungry, give her some accuracy and go reap those little bastards. Alternatively inspire her turning her into a very accurate killer that can be pointed at high defense targets. Being on guard helps her survive, but since she's on a single defense dice this is just a sweet addition to the whole package.
Ennias Curse-Born a.k.a the strange kid. Last of the Court - he’s a hunter as the rest of them. He’s having 4 move, 4 wounds but defends on a single dodge making him the most fragile of the group. When 4 wounds body is counting as fragile one then you know that you’re in a tough company.
His attack has range 1, hits on 3 swords and deals 2 damage. Overall a very decent profile.
While bloodthirsty he gains +2 move.
Upon inspiring his attack goes from swords to hammers making him very accurate. He also gains defence dice going to 2 dodge. In addition he’s gaining the ability to move through blocked and occupied hexes and he cannot be dealt damage by lethal hexes.
While thirsty he will be your guy to easily score speed package objectives - having base speed of 6 makes you score Gathered Momentum, Winged Death or Cover Ground an easy thing to do. Inspire him and it’s very hard to stop him from reaching his target while he’s getting more accurate and defends well.
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My first impression on those guys was… Wow! Those are some serious stats. We’re getting here 4 model warband full of models that could easily fit into an elite 3 model warband. While they don’t have any 3 damage attacks printed on the card you can get there with proper hunger management without having to use upgrades.
Second impression was “are those new Cursebreakers?”. Those guys have two wizards and four very capable fighters. They can make use of most interesting magic based objectives to supplement their hunger based gameplay. While they lack range 3 magical attack they’re getting movement 4 across the board, hunter keyword and an extra fighter. That’s a bargain I will take any day.
My last thought was… boy, those are going to do some serious chopping!
The inspiration condition is not hard and can be made even more reliable with cards. Same with the Bloodthirsty option. I love the flexibility hunger brings to the table. You can make Duvalle hungry just to bump his damage to 3, make a charge to kill a 3 wound fighter and react to clear all the counters to inspire him at the end of the round.
The Cards
While rating the cards I will be following 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
Blood Curse - if you decide to follow the path of bloodthirst then this objective will fit in very nicely. There are many ways for vampires to gain hunger counters. Things like Starvation Snare can hurt you though.
Rating: 2
Courtly Hunt - in-faction Strong Start. It has a good chance of being scored as your fighters are rather resilient. Still - losing a fighter early can delay this for a round, which is a big downside if you’re facing something that can threaten your fighters easily. If you’re looking for a kill surge there are better options out there.
Rating: 3
Crimson Hounds - this is situational. If you can get one of your fighters to support your attack then this is a great card since it only requires making an attack action. You don’t have to kill or even hit the target which is great. With some smart pushes or after defending versus enemy attack this can be fairly easy to be scored.
Rating: 3
Death’s Domain - a well known objective making a comeback in yet another warband. With a bit of a setup can be easily scored with a single objective in your territory. If you plan to hang back with your guys it might be worth considering.
Rating: 3
Gravelords - there are multiple options to get two of your fighters inspired. So this should be fairly easy to score if you choose to have some of your guys inspired.
Rating: 1
On the Chase - both conditions are very doable and with hungry Ennias this is very easy to do. Alternatively you can use options from power deck to bump speed of one of your fighters to 6. Goes along well with other speed objectives.
Rating: 1
Preternatural Speed - a slightly harder version of Show of Force. Still a very strong option for aggro build. No minimum number of fighters required makes it pretty cool as you can score it easily after some of your fighters have been taken out of action.
Rating: 2
Recovered Poise - Fired Up returned. Very solid one glory objective that should be taken unless you want to fully embrace bloodthirst.
Rating: 1
Red Ruin - this one is a bit of a hit or miss. It’s fairly easy versus horde warbands, but gets harder to do when facing more elite teams. Bold deeds are probably better since those are more universal.
Rating: 3
Spirited Attempt - it’s extremely likely your fighters will last for a hit in most cases, so this objective is pretty nice. Things get worse while facing heavy hitting hard aggro - there’s enough damage in the game to one shot 4 wound fighter.
Rating: 2
Superlative Skill - it’s a bit tricky to score this. First condition is very luck dependent. It's essentially Steady Aim - an objective that sometimes I couldn’t score for the entire game while having it in my opening hand. Second variant can potentially be easier - especially at the beginning of the game, when fighters are not wounded and can use reaction to clear hunger.
Rating: 3
Worthy Opponents - it’s a new incarnation of Catching Up. It works, but probably wouldn’t make the cut for an end phase objective these days.
Rating: 3
Faction Gambits
Dark Hunger - if you’re going the hunger route you might want to consider this spell. At wizard level 1 this is a 50/50 chance for it to work. Not super reliable, but the payout is very nice.
Rating: 3
Dark Glamour - this gambit is soooo good. Being cast on channels makes it quite reliable. Having an ability to place a movement token to one enemy fighter at range of 3 hexes is massive. It can easily shut one of the enemy fighters down for a round.
Rating: 1
Blood Vial - a small heal, but also an option for a quick removal of hunger counters. Could be used as a tool to help inspire one of your fighters. Might be worth considering if you’ll find that you’re struggling to inspire.
Rating: 3
Bestial Transformation - If you don’t plan on upgrading one of your fighters, but you would like to give him some accuracy and make all of the enemy fighters' quarries then this card is for you. Typically though you’ll want to have the ability to upgrade your fighters, so this card is probably not going to see play unless you want to sacrifice one of your guys in favor of having all enemy fighters as quarry.
Rating: 3
Deathly Apotheosis - this is an interesting one. I would expect this to be an upgrade. Effects are very interesting - if your fighter went bloodthirsty he will gain more hunger tokens and heal off them. If he is inspired he will get a reroll in his attacks. First option is amazing if you want to make your fighter survive. Second is great for accuracy. No glory needed. Only downside? Can be broken by anti-persist tech. Well worth it.
Rating: 1
Driven to Hunt - another flexible ploy - give one hunger counter to all friendly fighters within 2 hexes of the leader; or push one friendly fighter within 2 hexes of the leader by one hex. Range limitation makes this ploy rather weak. If you care about hunger counters you might consider it, as with some clever positioning you can provide a lot of them. But the secondary option is just a weaker sidestep. Being dependent on the leader doesn’t help.
Rating: 4
Mighty Strike - +1 damage to your fighters next attack. Can be nice at times, but nothing fancy.
Rating: 3
Quicksilver Advance - Now this is an amazing card that brings back Ready for Action vibe. It’s flexible and it's powerful. You can use it to either reposition your fighter (even if he has moved or charged before) or quickly swap charge token into a move token. This gives an ability to make a second attack with a fighter that has already charged. This is very powerful.
Rating: 1
Startling Competence - if your fighter can survive being hit, which is very likely, you can react to gain one of few benefits. Not very predictable but can be nice to reposition your fighter after being hit. Drawing a card option is subpar, as it brings little value.
Rating: 4
Tenebrous Form - if you’re expecting your key fighter to be at risk of getting killed, then play this. Not being able to do anything useful with your fighter can be better than losing him - especially if he’s holding things like lost pages or avatar pieces. Overall super situational as the price for playing this card is very high.
Rating: 4
Faction Upgrades
Blood Chalice - this upgrade means that your wizard will inspire at the end of the round. He also gains additional wizard level. Only downside? He won’t be able to use hunger mechanics anymore. If you want to ensure inspiration and have higher chances to cast spells then this is an upgrade for you.
Rating: 2
Deathly Majesty - an extra layer of protection for your leader. -1 dice to adjacent fighters' attacks is very nice. Won’t help against attacks from a distance though. Still - this is an excellent option for a brawling build.
Rating: 1
Enforcer’s Cloak - this is a nice trick to teleport your Gorath. You can reposition him to a better spot or bring him in range for a returned attack. Especially good to reach those pesky archers shooting at you. Also can stop after an attack reaction for your opponent. Being limited to Gorath is a bit of a downside. Overall worth considering, but might not make the cut since upgrade slots are very contested. I would probably prefer this to be a ploy.
Rating: 3
Glutton for Gore - if you want to stack up hunger counters quickly this can help you a lot. It can also foil your plans as it does double counter removal effects too. Overall rather weak card.
Rating: 4
Mirror Duellist - Vellas gains a support (both in attacks and defense) making her even more accurate. Combined with an option to increase her defense dice would make here super tanky. A very strong option if you want to focus on her.
Rating: 3
Ripping Claws - it’s probably not worth taking over Giant Strength or similar upgrades.
Rating: 4
Undying Evil - a ticket out of jail. It has 33% chance of saving one of your fighters. Worth considering.
Rating: 2
Vampiric Might - in faction Great Strength that turns into Concealed Weapon if your vampire is bloodthirsty. A very nice card - can turn your thirsty vampire into a real monster.
Rating: 1
Vampiric Speed - +1 speed option, that gets stronger once the target becomes affected by bloodthirst. It’s nice for hunger builds, otherwise there are better options.
Rating: 3
Von Marusi Armour - damage reduction for your inspired fighter. Pretty much a must have. Secondary option makes your bloodthirsty fighter immune to lethal hexes or ping damage which can also be very nice if meta will introduce more of it again.
Rating: 1
Closing thoughts
Overall the Crimson Court is shaping out to be a very nice, aggressive warband. Having four hunters with a very strong base stats is great. They’re having access to gambit spells, hunter tech and can utilize hunger mechanics very well. With their decent damage profiles and high wounds they could be good for primacy. This opens up lots of options for them. Their faction cards offer some very strong options and most of them are designed in such a way that they work for both Inspiration and Bloodthirst. If you’re looking for an aggressive warband that is also very durable and offers some interesting tricks to control the battlefield then vampires are the warband for you. For sure they’ll make a splash in the meta as they do look like a very strong option to pick.
In addition they could be played in different ways - while inspiration aggro is a very strong and compelling way to go they still could focus on generating those hunger counters and making glory out of it. Or could opt for things like Lost Pages build since those wizards are not easily killed. It’s one of the most interesting warbands that was released to date. And while I’m a simple man who believes that dead things should stay inanimate I will be making an exception for those guys.
I would also like to give a shoutout to Mcrat and astro_pol for doing a terrific job on card images and updating underworldsdb.com - in my opinion the best deck building website out there. It’s thanks to them this review has such a nice quality of card images. Thanks guys!
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