Kainan’s Reapers - warband review

 Legionnaire! Are you ready for an inspection? Mir Kainan has arrived and all morteks are expected to report to the training grounds!

Kainan’s Reapers are the 7th warband from season 4 to arrive. It is a 6 fighter group, which does place them in the horde warband territory. Today we will be taking a look at their fighters and faction cards.

Inspire Condition

Kainan’s Reapers - like all horde warbands - have a global inspiration condition. In this case, our Ossiriach Bonereapers will inspire after accumulating 3 tithe counters. But how to get those? Every time an enemy fighter is taken out of action you can put one tithe counter on one of your fighters. If an enemy fighter has 4+ wounds you can put 2 counters instead. What’s important to note is the fact that you don’t have to take the enemy fighter out of action with an attack. You gain the tithe after enemy fighter dies - from any ploy, lethal hex - anything. While this may sound nice, gaining 3 counters is fairly difficult and you might not inspire for most of the game - if at all. This will be entirely matchup dependant. Another important thing to remember is that only two of your fighters grant the ability to gain tithe counters. Kainan and Khenta. Should you lose both, you won’t be able to gain those precious counters.

The Fighters

Reapers have two rules that most of them share. Those are Mortek Advance and Nadirite.

Mortek Advance - this is a special rule 4 of your morteks have. After the fighter with this rule makes a move action he can react to choose another friendly mortek without move or charge tokens and have him make a move action. That fighter must end up being adjacent to the mortek that has chosen him to advance. This is an excellent tool to reposition your warband efficiently. But it is also a fantastic option to provide yourself supporting fighter.

Nadirite - most of your fighters have nadirite weapons. Those have a special rule - if you have a supporting fighter and have single support in your attack roll, your weapon will gain +1 damage. If you have two or more supporting fighters this effect activates on both single and double support rolled. That’s a nifty option to bump up your damage. It’s just not very reliable - on two dice we’re looking at something between 30-60% chance of this triggering, depending on how many supporting fighters we’re having.

Mir Kainan - the leader of the warband. What a juggernaut he is! He’s having movement 3, single block defense, and a respectable 6 wounds. His primary attack is Soulreaper Axe, which has range 2, hits on 2 hammers for 3 damage. On top of that Mir had a range 1 scything attack that has range 1, hits on two hammers for 2 damage. He also has Bone Tithe ability, which allows you to gain tithe counters. 

Additionally, he’s having Invigorated special ability - for 2 tithe counters you can choose between gaining +1 Move or enhancing your Axe attack with either +1 dice or +1 damage. This effect lasts until the end of activation and its price is fairly steep, but once inspired those tokens are good to be spent. Boosting yourself up might tip the scales in your favor, so this is a nice addition.

On top of all that Kainan is also a level 1 wizard. 

Once inspired Kainan gains a defense dice, his Soulreaper Axe goes up to 4 damage and his scything attack gains one attack dice. Inspired Kainan is a force to be reckoned with and even behemoths like Mollog or Hrothgorn cannot ignore him. 

Binar Khenta - he’s the right hand of Kainan and the first of the Morteks. He has movement 3, defends on a single block, and has 3 wounds. He’s operating Nadirite Halberd - range 2 attack hitting on 2 hammers for 2 damage. That’s a fairly standard leader-level attack profile. What makes it special is the Nadirite keyword meaning Khenta has the potential to hit for 3 damage. He’s also having Bone Tithe rule providing a much-needed redundancy for the event of the death of Kainan. Frankly speaking, Khenta could fulfill the leader role in many warbands.

Once inspired his attack gains Cleave - and that’s it. I guess accountants aren’t the type to get a lot from inspiring deeds…

Karu - first of danglebro morteks. He has movement 3, defends on a single block, and has 2 wounds. His Nadirite club has range 1, hits on 2 hammers for 1 damage. It also has the Nadirite keyword so - with a bit of luck - he could hit for 2 damage. He’s also the first model to have Mortek Advance rule.

Once inspired he gains 1 defense dice, his attack goes up to 2 damage, and gains Knockback. Overall that’s a fairly decent stat gain. A danglebro with 2 block defense who can hit for 3 damage if circumstances align well? That’s a lot of value.

Senha - Karu’s friend, another Mortek. Has movement 3, defends on a single block, and has 2 wounds. His Nadirite Blade is a range 1 attack that hits on 2 hammers for 1 damage. It also is a Nadirite weapon, so can enjoy potential damage increase. Apart from that, he’s also having Mortek Advance rule.

Once inspired he gains a defense dice and his Blade goes to a 3 fury attack profile and deals 2 damage instead. That is a second bro who, while inspired, defends on 2 blocks and can potentially hit for 3 damage.

Hakor - a greatblade wearing mortek. He has movement 3, defends on a single block, and has 2 wounds. His Soulcleaver Greatblade has range 1, hits on 2 hammers for 2 damage. This is a very decent attack profile, however, the lack of Nadirite rule is a bit disappointing. He does however have Mortek Advance rule.

Once inspired he only gains cleave.

Nohem - company’s archer - he’s a mortek and a hunter. His base stats are the same as any other Mortek - movement 3, 1 block, 2 wounds. His Nadirite Bow has range 3, hits on 2 hammers, and deals 1 damage. It does benefit from the Nadirite rule though. This could potentially turn him into 2 damage turret. He also has Mortek Advance.

Once inspired he becomes more accurate going up to 3 hammers. He has the opportunity to be a quite reliable damage dealer if supported and upgraded a bit.

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What we’re seeing here is a horde warband that is composed of a Mollog style fighter, who happens to be a wizard on top of it, and a troupe of smaller fighters. Kainan is a scary fighter. If inspired and with 2-3 upgrades he could easily wipe entire warbands out. One could argue that once he’s dead his Reapers can’t do much, but I’m not entirely sure this is true. Binar Khenta is a perfectly serviceable replacement - he could easily fill a leader’s role in many warbands. While his 3 wounds aren’t great, his attack is decent and he’s having the same rule as Kainan - allowing the warband to inspire even if the leader has fallen. And his Mortek keyword allows him to benefit from many tricks reserved for those smaller fighters.

And when we’re at the topic of Morteks - yes, they’re having 2 wounds only, so it’s not a challenge to deal enough damage to take them down. But they all are defending on shields. Two of them - once inspired - will go up to two shields defense. That’s a very solid defensive capability. They’re also capable of surprising bursts of damage. While the nadirite damage bonus is far from being taken for granted, you could set up a devastating attack that takes 4 wound fighters out of action with a single ploy. And yes - because they’re 2 wounds cards like Punching Up! can make them very deadly.

Faction Specific Cards

While rating the cards I will be following the 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 a use for it, but in general, most often you’ll be better off with other picks.

Faction Objectives

Craft a New Order - having 5 tithe counters is not an easy task. It takes a lot of killing and/or a generous opponent, who would hand you some extra. This is effectively a win more card, but worth only 1 glory.

Rating: 4

Created For War - Oh my god! This is a new version of Keep Chopping! Why, oh why this is a faction card… Excellent card for an offensive playstyle. What’s great is the fact that those attacks don’t have to take place in four activations. So any scything attacks, reactions, or ploys might contribute to scoring this one.

Rating: 1

Gruesome Certainty - on a two-dice attack you’ve got ~30% chances of scoring this vs a single defense dice fighter. With three dice it goes up to around 40%. The more defense your opponent has the lower are your chances to score this. If you’re planning to make many attacks and have enough +dice options, this might be a good objective for you. You’re very likely to have some critical hits, but… no guarantees.

Rating: 2

Macabre Splendour - Inspiring is not an easy task for those guys. So this objective isn’t something you’re likely to score in the first round unless you’ve managed to pull off some impressive killstreak. The secondary option is very doable and plays well into a big boy who likes to be voltroned.

Rating: 3

Nagash’s Will - very matchup dependant card. It’s fairly easy versus other horde warbands, but at the same time, it is very hard versus elite teams. Killing all three Krusha’s might turn out to be impossible - especially with the low movement speed of our fighters.

Rating: 3

Peerless Conquerors - the situation is similar to Nagash’s Will - it’s very matchup dependant. And it’s kind of a chase between you harvesting tithe and your opponent killing your models. Because it’s a third-end phase card I would rather skip it in general, as it will be very hard to score.

Rating: 4

Pitiless Harvest - This card is very similar to Nagash’s Will - it’s heavily influenced by the meta you’re in. Sometimes it will be easier than the former objective, sometimes it might turn out it’s harder because you might struggle to kill two enemy fighters in one round. Versus hordes, it’s probably a card I would rate for ‘2’. But it’s 3 looking at it holistically.

Rating: 3

Pride of the Emissarian Caste - this is a fantastic surge. In a way, it’s similar to Bold Conquest and often you’ll be scoring it just as if you’ve been working towards BC. But it’s much easier objective than Bold. You don’t have to make a charge. You can move onto the objective, be pushed, or simply be there. Enemy territory is a certain limiting factor, but your leader is very likely going to be out there reaping bones anyway.

Rating: 1

Ranks Unbroken By Dissent - an end phase and more limited version of Scrum. Do note, that enemy fighters or your leader cannot contribute to scoring this. I feel like it is a bit too costly to set up and too easy to disrupt. Maybe if this was a surge it would’ve been better. But as it stands now I don’t see myself going for it. There are only a few situations where you’d not make suboptimal moves just to score one glory from this one.

Rating: 4

Tithemasters - this is a decent surge. You could score it from a ploy, you could score it after killing a single 4+ wounds fighter or from cutting down two small fighters. All of those scenarios are fairly likely to happen during the game.

Rating: 2

Pride of the Thorac Caste - not a bad card. It’s a more constrained Show of Force without the benefit of a secondary condition. If you want to go aggressive and live in enemy territory you might want to consider this. Otherwise, Show of Force is your pick.

Rating: 3

Walking Mass Grave - this is pretty solid. You should be able to score this reliably thanks to the Mortek Advance. It gets considerably harder if you’re playing hold objective style though. Overall it’s not your first pick, but it’s there as a very viable option for aggro builds.

Rating: 2

Faction Gambits

Ceaseless Advance - this is a nice mobility card. You’ll push at least one mortek by 2 hexes towards the enemy fighter. You also have the option to burn through your tithe counters to push more of your morteks. That option though is most likely not going to be used until you’ve inspired your warband. Still, this is a very good ploy - especially useful for a warband full of fighters with movement 3.

Rating: 1

Deathless Warriors - by playing this you’re giving your morteks a 16% chance to avoid taking damage from an attack. That’s not a lot and even the fact that this ploy persists doesn’t make it good.

Rating: 4

Dire Ultimatum - this is an interesting defensive card. You could play it to protect your mortek fighters at the cost of making Kainan even more of a priority target. This could find use in hold objective flavored version of the deck. This ploy persists, so you could get quite good mileage out of it.

Rating: 3

Exceptional Efficiency - I love the design of this card. Play this and your opponent is offered two bad options to choose from. I like cards that make your opponent choose. In this case, the choice is between giving you two tithe counters or a full reroll of your morteks’ attack. Both effects are strong and will benefit you in one way or another.

Rating: 1

Lethal Accuracy - this can boost your mortek attack accuracy. It will give you base +1 dice with an option to add more for every tithe counter you’ve discarded. Trouble is that those counters are quite valuable and will most likely be kept to fuel your leader. And this card cannot improve Kainan’s attacks. Overall it’s an interesting option, but I don’t believe it will see play unless you go hard on mortek aggro. There are other accuracy cards in play that are more universal and will probably take the slot in your deck instead of this. Still, you could pull off some crazy accurate attacks with this ploy.

Rating: 3

Methodical Assault - it’s a very cool card. It’s limited to your morteks and is designed similarly to Exceptional Efficiency. You’re giving your opponent a very tough choice to make. Give two tithe counters or allow another attack, which may very well end up giving one tithe anyway. Some morteks are strong enough to have a kill pressure even on tougher fighters, so the choice can be very hard to make.

Rating: 1

Mortal Contract - it’s an interesting spell. It is giving your opponent a choice between two painful options. Either give you one tithe counter or have one fighter receive damage every time one of your fighters is taken out of action. This is especially impactful versus voltroning fighters. The downside? 66% chance to cast this. Still, I like the idea behind this card and it should be considered as both a source of tithe and a tool to deal with those big boys.

Rating: 2

Never Falter - a global +1 move for your morteks in this round? That’s amazing. This ploy turns your small guys into movement 4, which is super helpful. Especially if drawn in 1st round. It will help to reach your targets and swarm them with skeleton boys. You have to have Khenta alive to play this though.

Rating: 1

Never Sleep - another Khenta restricted card. Having to discard two tithe counters makes it quite expensive. And the effect is quite situational - if you have morteks that are adjacent to another friendly mortek they will get +1 defense. It’s neat, but I don’t think it’s worth that high price. Especially when it can be disrupted without too much of an effort.

Rating: 4

Never Yield - the third ploy of the “Never…” line, again restricted to Khenta. It allows you to possibly save your morteks at the cost of tithe counters. Spending tithe counter to reduce damage taken by a mortek by 1 is not worth it. 

Rating: 4

Faction Upgrades

Artificer’s Blade - an upgrade granting cleave to your attack actions isn’t that hot. It is an accuracy option for sure, however, cleave is worth more or less 0.5 dice - and doesn’t always give any benefits. So that’s not the best option to choose from and I don’t think it’s good enough to be taken.

Rating: 4

Aura of Shyish - that’s a fairly decent defensive upgrade. Taking away dice from attackers can have a huge impact on the outcome of an attack. A good thing to have on your leader.

Rating: 2

Disciplined Charge - having a full reroll on your charge is amazing. It’s especially good on your Nadirite wielding Morteks as it helps them to trigger the damage bonus. This is a solid upgrade if you want to go aggressive with your little guys.

Rating: 2

Empowered Nadirite - now that’s a quality upgrade. Giant Strength coupled with Strength of Terror. It’s limited only to Nadirite wielding Morteks and to their nadirite attacks, but still - it’s a fantastic upgrade for them. Khenta turns into a very formidable fighter with 3 damage hitting on 3 hammers. All thanks to a single upgrade. You probably won’t be giving this to Nohem though.

Rating: 1

Hatred of the Living - so this is an Awakened Weapon style upgrade with a twist. Having a single re-roll on attack dice is great. In addition, you can discard it to reduce the damage taken by 1, to a minimum of 1. That’s great! You can use that reaction after you know you’ve been hit and you want to keep your leader alive. The downside is that your opponent will probably prepare for that event. Still - it means he has to account for 1 more point of damage to kill your leader. And that’s great.

Rating: 1

Horrifying Soultraps - when your leader kills an enemy fighter you can push one enemy fighter 1 hex away from your leader. That’s a nice twist on a Gauntlet of Domination. It doesn’t cost you glory, but you can’t just go on guard to trigger it. So while this is a very good disruption effect, it’s way more balanced than Gauntlet.

Rating: 2

Tithestone - I like how evil this upgrade is. If you plan to play Khenta more aggressively you’ll end up forcing your opponent to choose between giving you a tithe counter or losing a glory point. And this will happen at the end of every round. Both options are bad - except for the third round when giving one tithe counter might not have any impact on the game. And while the value of passive ability is greatly diminished in 3rd round, its reaction is still a very decent accuracy option. So this is a very cool design where this upgrade is both resource builder and resource spender. But it requires Khenta to go into enemy territory to get the maximum benefit out of it, so if you plan on holding him back it does lose a lot of its power.

Rating: 2

Unnerving Synchrony - a very interesting upgrade. You can make this reaction to increase the number of attacks made. If played well you could kill two enemy fighters in one activation thanks to that card. The downside is that it takes some solid positioning to pull this off.

Rating: 2

Unstoppable Juggernaut - again a lot of value in a single upgrade. It helps to turn one of your morteks into a formidable fighter. I like it a lot.

Rating: 2

Witchlight Glimmer - Blazing Soul merged with Awakened Weapon. Amazing. Sadly it is limited to Mortek only, so if you would like to play it, it will be Senha or Karu card. They are the best targets for this upgrade, as they gain a lot from inspiration. Nohem is not a bad option either - going to three dice and gaining a reroll is fairly tempting. Still - this card has the most value when applied to your weaker fighters. And loses a lot of power if you’ve inspired before playing it.

Rating: 3

Closing Thoughts

I have to say I really like this warband. Hordes are not something that I enjoy - I prefer having less, but stronger fighters. But those guys provide an interesting mix of a very powerful leader with a bunch of smaller models, who are still competent fighters. Or can be if they get to inspire or form a death ball. 

They’re open to both aggro and hold objective play, where I believe flexing is probably the best way to go for them. You can see a strong emphasis on aggression in the faction cards. I think this is good. While there’s almost zero support for hold objective play in their faction pool, it can easily be supplemented with universal cards like Path to Victory or Hidden Purpose. Going hard aggro with your morteks sounds like tons of fun, but I’m not convinced whether this is a solid go-to strategy. I would rather treat this as a backup option to take down enemy fighters who will commit the mistake of getting in your range. In this warband backline is not defenseless - it will be more than happy to kill you.

Faction objectives are a mixed bag, but they do provide 3-4 very good cards, which is a great foundation to building a deck. In the power card department, we’re having a lot of value. I especially love cards that force your opponent to choose how to hurt himself. It’s super cool - even if not always you’ll get the option you’ve counted on. 

A lot of very strong cards are limited to morteks, which is a bit of a trap. Most of your little guys are fairly easy to kill and as such aren’t very exciting investment targets for your upgrades. But the important thing to understand is that Khenta is also a mortek and he can benefit from all that goodness himself. With only two upgrades you can turn him into move 4, 4 wounds fighter who has an access to range 2 attack that hits on 3 hammers for 3 damage (and can go up to 4 damage on a good roll). In many warbands this would be your primary fighter. For Kainan’s Reapers, he’s but a second in command to a true juggernaut - Kainan. Depending on how you’ll craft your power deck, you could get a lot of mileage out of our undead accountant.

Kainan himself is a scary model - if stacked with correct upgrades he’s capable of taking entire elite warbands in a single scything attack. He will be able to take down even the most durable enemies while being able to take some punishment himself. Having said that - it’s important to understand that he is not Mollog or Hrothgorn. His ability to solo-carry the game is more limited. Mollog is more impactful thanks to his ability to move/charge twice. Hrothgorn has a ranged attack that he can utilize to clean up the battlefield without having to charge and hope for a Vision of Glory. Kainan is limited to a single charge and good positioning.

The last interesting thing is the dynamic between Hakor, Senha, and Karu. While uninspired Hakor is one of the best fighters on the team. And the best of little morteks. Things are changing once inspiration kicks in. Hakor remains on his stats, gaining only cleave, while other guys catch him up on damage (or in fact can deal more than he does), and while at it they develop a much better defense profile. So Hakor is an early game tool that gets out-scaled by the other fighters later down the line.

Overall I love the dynamic in this warband and I look forward to having it on our boards. What are your thoughts? How do you intend to play them? Let me know!