Hey everyone! Today I’ll be covering all the universal cards from Gorlok’s Buccaneers expansion. If you would like to check my review of the warband itself you can find it here.
In this expansion, we’re receiving 32 cards - 10 objectives, 11 gambits, and 11 upgrades. While rating them I’ll be using my usual scale:
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.
Universal Objectives
Find A Path - this is decent for its secondary scoring condition. It’s not hard to park one of your hunters on edge hex in enemy territory. Especially if you’re playing warbands like Rippa or Farstriders. Having two fighters on edge hexes in enemy territory or no man’s land is trickier, but still doable. This might be an option for some warbands - Rippa has the speed and range to make use of it. But for ghouls, this also could be super easy to score thanks to Ghoul Call. It’s not that hot for many warbands though.
Rating: 3
Going In For The Kill - that’s pretty difficult to score early on. Overall this is a quite restrictive card that might be tough to score even if you’re winning when you play an elite team vs a horde. I feel this is a bit of a win more card - to score it you need to have all your fighters in enemy territory and have the numbers advantage. Could work as virtual 3rd end phase for some warbands though.
Rating: 3
Indifferent End - kill surge that requires the target to have an Illusion equipped. It won’t work - not unless Illusions will seriously enter the play big time. But even then it will be situational.
Rating: 4
Last Stand - so… this is a kind of a Scrum married with Unafraid made to be an end phase card. Simply go for Unafraid - it’s much easier and rewards the same glory.
Rating: 4
Let Shadows Die - if this was worth 2 glory I would love it. For 1 glory I’m not sure I would take it. It’s not very hard but forces you to consider how far from those hexes your models are and that’s probably not worth 1 glory when there are easier 1-pointers around.
Rating: 3
Make A Path - this card works for aggressive leaders. Hrothgorn, Mollog, or Kainan most likely won’t have any issues scoring this. Any warband with a strong leader could consider taking this card.
Rating: 2
Ordered Reality - Order simply cannot have nice toys it seems… This is another disappointing Grand Alliance card for them. So far I don’t see Illusions making a sudden spike in popularity - and I don’t expect this to change. With them not being played much any card that relies on them is a dud.
Rating: 4
Generous Blessing - I like this one. It’s Chaos-only Singled Out that can be scored easily if you’re playing Wurmspat.
Rating: 2
Path of Death - hey, look! A great card restricted to Death GA. What a surprise, who would’ve expected that? Honestly, it feels like someone in GW decided to re-scope Death warbands to play a lot more aggro than they ever used to. This faction is receiving nice offensive cards that my destruction warbands would love to get a hold of.
Rating: 2
Path of Destruction - can I use Path of Death instead? Please? This one is difficult to score and I would not advise taking it unless you’re playing a 3-4 fighter warband.
Rating: 4
Universal Gambits
Flitting Shadow - a very limited and hardly worth it, unless you’re playing Buccaneers. Typically your companions are fairly weak and it’s not worth exposing them.
Rating: 3
Grievous Gyre - I don’t like scatter mechanics. In theory, this card could set you up for a great follow-up in the next activation. But it could as well toss you in some random direction. If you like gambling it’s a card for you.
Rating: 3
Halls Of Hidden Eyes - I love the artwork on this one. This is a super-effective card if you’re expecting to face an opponent who likes to use Cover. Most of your opponents lad there at some point, so this could be used as an excellent accuracy option. Just be careful - your opponent also receives this benefit, so don’t play this card if you’re in cover yourself.
Rating: 1
Illusory Maze - most of the time you’ll be staggering the target of the ploy. Is it worth it? I don’t think so. If you want to have a stagger ploy take something you can aim. If by chance you’ve managed to trap a fighter with an illusion upgrade, he’s likely been charging anyway, so that additional charge token won’t hurt him.
Rating: 4
Shadow Balm - a simple Heal 1 card. Nothing really exciting about it.
Rating: 4
Spiralling Confusion - this card is a disengage tool. It might have some uses, as it allows you to put fighters 2 hexes apart. But I get the feeling that in most cases simple Sidestep effect will be enough and more predictable.
Rating: 3
Unlikely Hero - this feels like a good card for Da Kunnin Krew, Spiteclaw Swarm, or for The Grymwatch. Those warbands have minions who are happy to engage in combat. Extra wound until the next power step doesn’t feel like anything unless you want to make a postponed suicide and run through 2 lethal hexes to make an attack… Speed and damage are pretty okay bonuses for a minion.
Rating: 3
Land Grab - it’s very restrictive. I guess it could help get Farstriders into a position that would help ensure inspiration, but overall this card is too limited to be good. Fits great with the rest of weak Order’s GA cards, sadly.
Rating: 3-
Victory’s Reward - I like it. You can heal yourself or put on guard after making a kill (or both if you’re playing Khorne). It’s nice, but most often those effects won’t have a huge impact as most chaos fighters have a single defense die or won’t care about heal 2. Rumors say Khagra has 2 dice fighters, but barely anyone has seen one inspired.
Rating: 3
Plunder The Graves - if used early on allows you to re-use some of your best gambits. It’s becoming less useful the more cards you play - most often you’ll get something good out of it, but getting THE card you wanted becomes difficult.
Rating: 3
Playful Shake - I love the flavor of this card. Made me smile. Generally, it’s pretty bad, but could be taken by the Buccaneers as a finisher I guess.
Rating: 3
Universal Upgrades
Adept’s Smoke - turning your fighter into an assassin might be nice. But not very if that’s the only thing this card does. And that’s essentially the case. While the reaction’s effect is nice, it is way too limited and too slow to matter.
Rating: 4
Bound Bolt - I’m a fan of magic and I do miss the glory days of the Nightvault era. Because of that I kind of like this card. It’s not strong - it’s a 66% chance to do the ping damage for the cost of an action and breaking this card, so the effect is not worth including. But I have some weird sympathy towards it - I will for sure play it in some games for fun and flavor. Championship-wise it’s not worth taking at all. Might have been better if it didn’t require an action to use it.
Rating: 4
Darkening Stone - I like this one. Not only does it turn your fighter into an assassin, but it also gives the benefit of a cover hex. This gives a decent defensive boost for your fighter and has synergy with cards like Master of Shadows. It also helps score objectives that require your fighters to be in cover hexes, which is nice.
Rating: 2
Encrusted Key - keys are way too slow for my liking, but if you really want to play them this one is fairly nice to take.
Rating: 3
Keen Sense - restriction to companion kills this card. It would’ve been a great damage option for 3+ dice attacks, but in this case, it’s just not worth it.
Rating: 4
Shadow Keeper - ladies and gentlemen, please meet a future restricted card. If you ever wanted to turn one of your fighters into Gallanghann, who is on permanent guard - with this card you can! It would’ve been very strong with the Guard effect alone. That extra chance to deal damage to the attacker is just the icing on a cake.
Rating: 1
Staff of Ciphers - the attack profile on this one is too weak to consider including this card. Draw mechanic is a good touch, but you won’t get a lot of mileage out of it with this attack profile.
Rating: 4
Shared Glory - when I first read this card I’ve been excited about it. I’ve had the vision of playing it in Da Kunnin’ Krew. But then I’ve noticed the Grand Alliance symbol… From a must-have it fell down to the bottom for me. Another misplaced card in Order’s arsenal. As an Order fan, I’m finding this frustrating.
Rating: 4
Gifted Speed - The mutation effect is fun, but plain +1 Move is not exciting at all. I don’t think it will see the play - it’s simply too weak.
Rating: 4
Vital Spear - a weak attack action with not too bad reaction attached. It’s super inaccurate, so I don’t expect it to be taken too often.
Rating: 4
Wrecker’s Scorn - one-time use feature token removal. It would’ve been weak in BG/Direchasm with all the removal objectives that were in play back then. It’s even weaker now.
Rating: 4
Closing Thoughts
While reviewing this set one thing has struck me - I don’t think I’ve ever handed out so many 4’s before. 14 out of 32 cards have earned a 4 in this batch of cards. And I think I’ve been fairly generous with a few 3’s that could easily be turned into a 4 and no one would blink an eye. It’s really bad. Upgrades were hit the worst with a staggering 8 out of 11 being rated as 4. Among that pile of garbage, there are two gems hidden in there - cards that are strong contenders for a slot in the deck. One of them is a guaranteed restriction in the future. The rest… is forgettable to the point that I don’t remember most of them already. Gambits have it slightly better, but again - it’s one very strong card and a bunch of very mediocre, but playable options. Objectives are just mediocre.
It is clear that Harrowdeep brought a certain level of power reduction when it comes to universal cards. But I’m starting to wonder if someone didn’t set the dial too far down. I do appreciate the creativity of the team - many of those cards are fairly unique in rule writing and they explore new areas of the game, but their effects are simply too weak or the cards are too restricted to be worthwhile. Many of those cards made me think that this would’ve been a great card for certain warbands, or even universally, but the restrictions are forcing it away from those warbands which would use those cards best. This is making those cards useless or very weak at best.
Overall I’m very disappointed with this pool of universal cards. I really like Buccaneers, so the expansion as a whole is worth getting in my eyes, but if those cards came with some weak warband it would be a Shadow Keeper pack and not much else. I really hope the next expansions will be more exciting.
And that’s it! As always - I’m really interested in your opinions - what do you think about the cards discussed in this article? Let me know in the comments!
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