Let's chat: Garrek's Reavers

[Killax]

What I like about long boards is the following:

- 2 neutral hexes, 3 enemy and 3 ours, means its exactly our Warband size in width.

- long board obtains a dimensional length of 8 hexes as opposed to 5, meaning again that in theory it favours our movement advantage. In practice it has worked favourably aswell.

- long board allows the mid objectives to largely be out of reach for Guard and Stormcast, at least phase 2 if they dont run Sprint.

I guess that generally these are the 3 things that are largely exclusively good for us Reavers.

Its also time to start painting!

[Skinnyboy]

I've actually been having a lot of success with the Reavers and find them just as effective as the other warbands but definitely more difficult to use. I favor a more defensive, counter punch play style with an objective deck that looks like:

Objective Deck

Hold Objective 1-5

Supremecey

Conquest

Denial

Khorne Cares Not

It Begins

Ploy Master

Determined Defender

 

The aim is to get 2-4 glory in the first turn from objectives and weakening/ killing 1 "priority" enemy. First activation of turn 2 should see an enemy dead with a second one finished off by the end of turn 2.  By high profile enemy I mean Any Stormcast, Any Orruk, The Warden, Karsus or Saek. 

If I place the first board for deployment Ill play the long board edge and stick 3 objectives in the mid-back field. Targor and Arnulf will deploy in the back and jump on objectives. Everyone else will deploy mid field, at least 4 hexes away from an enemy starting hex and within 4 hexes of one of the others if possible. If not possible Garrek is the one that gets deployed closer as he is the least likely to be one shotted.

If I place second then I make sure I can deploy Garrek, Karsus and Saek 4 hexes away from an enemy starting hex and within 4 hexes of one of the others. Arnulf and Targor stay in the back and jump on objectives.

I will spend activations milling my objective deck if I need to in order to score at the very least 2 Glory  in the first turn. I'm a firm believer that 2 Glory now is worth more than 4 glory later.

The strategy behind this deployment is that there wont be a fight unless its on my terms, allowing me the best use of my ploys. 4 hexes away means I can charge you but you cant charge me unless its a mirror match. Keeping Targor and Arnulf in the back scores me glory for objectives, keeps easy glory away from my opponent and can provide counter charge if needed..

Karsus is generally who I use to initiate fights, him pinging a wound off something usually means it can now be taken out by Saek. He doesnt even need to charge, just walk up and start throwing axes. His range means that he can (often) attack and must be charged for a counter attack, this will draw an enemy fighter in so that they in turn can be counter charged without fear of reprisal by Saek or Garrek (even arnulf or targor if you need to do one wound, they're utility goes way up if you can stack supports. Things that can kill Karsus in one charge are generally worth trading him for and if he didnt get one shotted you are likely up one kill. If he doesnt move up but decides to play defensive thats what denial and conquest are for.

This is the key I've found to having success with my Reavers, you have the ability to threaten a charge without being charged back and if something does come into you everything pounces on it. It allows me to control the flow of the game and forces my opponent to make decisions where most outcomes are bad. Come into me and get counter charged, stay where you are and have Karsus attack you or move back and let me move up and score denial and conquest.

As Killax has mentioned we don't have a lot of extra damage cards so I like to focus on damage mitigation (insensate, soultrap, illusory fighter) and increase chance of hits or extra dice (frenzy and blood offering) ploys and upgrades. The demonic weapon and shardeblade are also great one use additions to arnulf and targor,  I try to think of these as ploys that cost glory. Also any ploy or upgrade that can get glory is seriously worth considering like Grizzly trophy, daylight robbery and scavenge.

[ledha]

Honestly, keep the wicked blade. It make arnulf a scary can opener, and he make a VERY good use of any " + dice roll" cards. Unlike Targor, he can be efficient ! 

[Biboune]

11 hours ago, ledha said:

Honestly, keep the wicked blade. It make arnulf a scary can opener, and he make a VERY good use of any " + dice roll" cards. Unlike Targor, he can be efficient ! 

I understand that you say that Arnulf cumulates his basic attack capacity and the capacity of the special attack of an upgrade. I don't think that is true.

Edit: I misunderstood, I did not translate correctly "wicked blade" to match my french card. Sorry.

Edited November 16, 2017 by Biboune

[Killax]

10 hours ago, ledha said:

Honestly, keep the wicked blade. It make arnulf a scary can opener, and he make a VERY good use of any " + dice roll" cards. Unlike Targor, he can be efficient ! 

Initially sure! With the Core Set in mind (and that set only) Wicked Blade is actually good. Now however I'm fairly certain in thaking Shadeglass Sword (and first Daemonic Weapon offcourse) instead of it. Prime reason being that they make both Arnulf and Targor possible worthy fighters instead of Arnulf alone. Considering the very mediocre survivability of the both of them I've had many situations where Wicked Blade was found after Arnulf was taken out of action, both Daemonic Weapon and Shadeglass Sword don't suffer from this problem. If Wicked Blade was available to Targor too I'd play them all  

Quite frankly, for Bloodreavers in particular the favour goes to non-specific Upgrades pretty much all the time. As before I'm more confident in winning games with the new cards but ultimately we have very little to say about the durability of Targor or Arnulf.

@Skinnyboy nice write up! Give the Arnulf and Targor front a go too, easy bait and again going backwards with them is a true option aswell. What I like about this strategy is that the following occurs:
1. Your opponent charges either and they die (happens most often).
2. Your opponent ignores one them and either Arnulf or Targor moves to Objectives but still can threat opponents in phase 2.
3. Your opponent is unable to kill them and you can charge another model in while supported.

So with all the games, I've always liked my Targor and Arnulf forwards. The downside is offcourse that at that point your suddenly a Glory behind but it also should open a path for Saek, Karsus and Garrek to charge relatively savely and indeed in some cases even supported.

Edited November 16, 2017 by Killax

[Skinnyboy]

@Killax  you've got some good points there, I think I will have to try a more forward arnulf and targor but not with my currant objective deck, right now i need those guys sitting on objectives. I think if I had an opening hand with and aggressive set of objectives and a Demonic weapon or Shardglass sword id like them up front. My main reservation with them up front is that they dont actually pose that much of a threat to anything so they are not pressuring my  opponent. However, a cheeky demonic weapon will turn them into a one turn saek and something my opponent thought was safe is now in big trouble.

Edited November 16, 2017 by Skinnyboy
double post

[Skinnyboy]

On 11/15/2017 at 4:22 PM, ledha said:

Honestly, keep the wicked blade. It make arnulf a scary can opener, and he make a VERY good use of any " + dice roll" cards. Unlike Targor, he can be efficient ! 

Im sorry, I think wicked blade is really bad. First its a unique upgrade for arnulf which is just a wasted space in your power deck and second its cleave on a crit is only useful against an inspired stormcast that rolls a crit and a success to defend if you roll a crit and success to attack which is a pretty niche scenario. Id look at shardblade sword or demonic weapon instead. With those upgardes both targor and arnulf can be efficient!

[Killax]

17 hours ago, Skinnyboy said:

@Killax  you've got some good points there, I think I will have to try a more forward arnulf and targor but not with my currant objective deck, right now i need those guys sitting on objectives. I think if I had an opening hand with and aggressive set of objectives and a Demonic weapon or Shardglass sword id like them up front. My main reservation with them up front is that they dont actually pose that much of a threat to anything so they are not pressuring my  opponent. However, a cheeky demonic weapon will turn them into a one turn saek and something my opponent thought was safe is now in big trouble.

I think you can aim for both to be honest. The advantage for us remains that we have movement 4, experimented with long boards more and more and start to love it with Bloodreavers, It makes such a big difference because you get to decide your opponent can deal with models but only if they charged. This focus makes it much easier on us. As you can bog these boards down and have an Insensate to keep Saek alive for at least one swing. This way the rest can scoot up to Objectives and have a charge range round 2. Wether or not this is relevant can be decided at the start of round 2.

In regards to Arnulf and Targor up front, I still like it, because as you said, they do not pose a threat but still are good bait. For sure you can also go for a mix, this depends on your opponents possible first turn charges. What I like about them up front is that the likelyness that they will die and our guys inspire is increased by a significant factor. As soon as this occurs we are still somewhat in the game. Not the best but still are.
 

9 hours ago, Skinnyboy said:

Im sorry, I think wicked blade is really bad. First its a unique upgrade for arnulf which is just a wasted space in your power deck and second its cleave on a crit is only useful against an inspired stormcast that rolls a crit and a success to defend if you roll a crit and success to attack which is a pretty niche scenario. Id look at shardblade sword or demonic weapon instead. With those upgardes both targor and arnulf can be efficient!

I certainly agree now, for the Core set alone though Wicked Blade was a good card. The Reavers in my opinion are currently looking for any kind of Cleave options. By comparison the Sepulchral Guard have a much better set up against Stormcast because they do have two guys that can obtain Cleave and one that has it allready. (Warden, Harvester and Champion). The moment we can do the same for Garrek or Karsus I feel we're back in any game.

[Skinnyboy]

I don't worry too much about cleave. the way I see it its only useful against half the warbands (in theory, your meta may differ so please disregard this if it doesnt apply) so having an individual-specific upgrade that will only be useful half the time and not at all if that person is dead is probably not worth the space in my deck. Now a khorne specific ploy or upgrade that gave cleave might be something I would consider but I would still rather a khorne specific +1 damage (either ploy or upgrade) or a few more decent khorne only objectives. I've been having a lot of success with the reavers but almost all the cards in both my decks are generic which is a little sad.

 

@killax wholly agree with the long board, been loving it when i can get it. I've been keeping my objectives hidden in the back  but I need to try putting them a bit more forward so I can claim them but still have guys close to the fight. 

 

Ive also come to really appreciate our movement in the final activations of turn 3. Being able to hot foot it into enemy territory has blocked a lot of denials/ scored a lot of conquests

[Killax]

Yeah the last step in phase 3 is essential, Movement 4 really shines for it and even moreso with the long boards. For me personally damage has been a thing but Cleave much more so. The fact that Garrek can do 3 once Inspired is really cool and feels like sufficient, especially because I love to 'ping' someone to death as a trade too. What I am severly lacking though is Cleave options. Now going for Saek both rewards Orruks and Stormcast extremely well. It's true that we only need it for them but having dabbed in Sepulchral Guard aswell I can only state that 3 guys with Cleave is a tons and tons better as 1 versus Orruks and Stormcast. The Warden has his Lunge, the Champion just has it and Grim Cleave is just the cherry on the desert.

I'm totally agreeing with you that it's a shame the Garrek's Reavers exclusive cards feel so-so. There are some good ones but even the additional dice on the charge is a card I'm completely willing to skip at this point. It just does not compete with the movement bonuses granted in Illusonary Fighter, Sidestep, Distraction and even Shardfall in many cases is a better choice, especially if you place it behind someone so Karsus does his almost auto-damage.

With the newer Warbands Ive come to appreciate the Khorne Objectives ever so slightly more, though despite some popular believe on Facebook I actually do think the Sepulchral Guard are currently the strongest Warband option. Reavers are decent against them but it's extremely hard for Reavers to deal with the Harvester multiple times over again. In addition playing the Objective game against them with Khorne is difficult to do. It's not impossible, just hard. The only Saek does 3 damage also still haunts pretty much every game for me. Would love to know why Reavers where designed the way they are and actually are the hardest Warband to Inspire.

[Rintrah56]

Cleave also helps against any ‘dodge’ defence fighter who goes on guard, of course... although I’m not sure how often people are using ‘guard’ so far (possibly a topic in itself...)

[Skinnyboy]

1 hour ago, Killax said:

 Would love to know why Reavers where designed the way they are and actually are the hardest Warband to Inspire.

Wild speculation but I think the Reaver "motto" from a design perspective is 'Everything Counts In Large Amounts'. That is to say we dont get very high damage or cleave but you can have a fair amount of extra dice, you get all the movement to get multpile charges on an isolated enemy and start stacking support bonuses. Who needs cleave when you roll 5 dice and hit on anything but a sword??? With rolling that many dice you also increase your chances of rolling crits which is obviously fantastic. I think the reavers were designed to roll lots of dice with lots of guys and to make the most use out of support and aim more multiple successes or a higher chance of crits to overcome shields rather than straight up ignoring them. Certainly less reliable than a cleave but its how I've gotten them to work.

Our inspiration mechanic is rough though, i think dropping it to 2 out of action fighters would not have driven the reavers into overpowered territory but thats just my 2 cents

[Killax]

16 minutes ago, Skinnyboy said:

Wild speculation but I think the Reaver "motto" from a design perspective is 'Everything Counts In Large Amounts'. That is to say we dont get very high damage or cleave but you can have a fair amount of extra dice, you get all the movement to get multpile charges on an isolated enemy and start stacking support bonuses. Who needs cleave when you roll 5 dice and hit on anything but a sword??? With rolling that many dice you also increase your chances of rolling crits which is obviously fantastic. I think the reavers were designed to roll lots of dice with lots of guys and to make the most use out of support and aim more multiple successes or a higher chance of crits to overcome shields rather than straight up ignoring them. Certainly less reliable than a cleave but its how I've gotten them to work.

Our inspiration mechanic is rough though, i think dropping it to 2 out of action fighters would not have driven the reavers into overpowered territory but thats just my 2 cents

I almost get that but the difference remains that none of our guys except Saek actually do much un-inspired. Even Karsus has to be in regular melee range to matter un-inspired. Though to date I'd still love to see the Blood and Glory Reaver deck that became second. Somehow I don't get why we got shown the 1st and 3rd place deck but not the second. I mean you'd reckon that it would help us in a way  plus there are enough reasons to get a Starter set if you show how good those Warbands are.

For me the crux remains, rolling dice is nice but if 2 out of 5 only deal 2 damage max and 2 out of 5 deal usually 1 how does that really compair to the rest of the Warbands? 

On the latter I agree too, I think there would be multiple routes to go about it, personally I'd give Garrek Cleave on his un-inspired side, one of the things we commonly see is a Leader that really matters, Be it because he has a range 2 weapon, 5 health or Inspires into a massed model murderer while Garrek inspired just becomes Steelheart un-inspired. 

Enough of the 'doom mongering' from me though. Had a nice quick game againt Sepulchral Guard, lost eventually but had a nice quick first phase inspire which certainly helps but stops mattering the moment a Inspired Harvester is returned with Great Strenght on him. Better luck next time I guess  

Cheers!

Edited November 17, 2017 by Killax

[Skinnyboy]

33 minutes ago, Killax said:

I almost get that but the difference remains that none of our guys except Saek actually do much un-inspired. Even Karsus has to be in regular melee range to matter un-inspired.

I agree thats why upgrades and early glory scoring objectives are so important to us. I usually dont inspire till late turn 2/early turn 3 so i need the upgrades before that happens to make my guys do work. I aim for 2-4 glory end of turn 1 and spend it all as soon as I can. Inspiring is nice if/when it happens but is too unpredictable to rely on. The thing to bear in mind about our inspiring mechanic is that the whole warband gets better at once rather than piecemeal.... I havnt really gotten a ton out of that but its unique so its something I try to keep in mind in case I can figure out an advantage from it. When i first started I couldnt see the advantage that the reavers extra movment gave and thought the stormcast were just hands down better. Now that Ive played that last 20 or so games with the reavers I wont go back.

To all the newer reaver players that feel like they are struggling I say hang in there! I feel that they are currently the warband with the lowest floor but the highest ceiling and can certainly compete with all the other warbands. There are no easy wins with the Reavers but that makes them all the more satisfying to play.

[Rintrah56]

I agree they are hugely satisfying when things go well.

I’ve only played half a dozen or so games now (spent most of my time painting the models and trawling through the cards!). So wouldn’t claim to be any kind of expert. But so far I think movement/positioning is important for bloodreavers.

I’ve enjoyed stacking several objectives that give multiple glory points for your fighters being in enemy territory and for no enemies in your territory. Combine that with putting your objective placements in (or as close as possible to) enemy territory to reduce the incentive for the opponent to come forward in the first place...

And careful movement/positioning obviously gives support bonuses. Plus I’ve found Karsus can repeat-attack from 2 range without much retaliation (eg against an enemy fighter who charged) if positioned carefully.

So much to explore with this game...

[Biboune]

On 15/11/2017 at 1:13 AM, Killax said:

Upgrades
[...]
- Bloodslick, it's not amazing by comparison but not bad either. Keeping Garrek around is a plan, ensuring that plan is a good one.
[...]

I just remember that the bonus given by the Guard action is only cancelled by the Charge action.

Did you, or someone else, try to use Garrek+blooslick on guard? It takes 1 activation but it makes him harder to hit than a inspired Stormcast.

A bloodreaver gets a bonus more important than a stormcast or an orc by beeing on guard...

A new plan(?):

-get on guard

-move close to a stormcast (but not just next to him)

-charge the sormcast with another reaver to hit on single support if he/she charged or continue the process to grab objective or terrain (denial or/contained as objective card in our deck).

Edited November 19, 2017 by Biboune

[Killax]

6 hours ago, Biboune said:

I just remember that the bonus given by the Guard action is only cancelled by the Charge action.

Did you, or someone else, try to use Garrek+blooslick on guard? It takes 1 activation but it makes him harder to hit than a inspired Stormcast.

A bloodreaver gets a bonus more important than a stormcast or an orc by beeing on guard...

A new plan(?):

-get on guard

-move close to a stormcast (but not just next to him)

-charge the sormcast with another reaver to hit on single support if he/she charged or continue the process to grab objective or terrain (denial or/contained as objective card in our deck).

Well I havn´t yet but we certainly have talked about it locally. I think there are some examples of where it would be good but mostly those apply in phase 3, where usually we have Activations enough but don´t have massive ammounts of models. In that case you can still keep a fighter in enemy territory and hopefully score Denial/Containment so they cannot score theirs. Now this doesn't work against all Warbands offcourse, sometimes Stormcast just don't have any guys killed and then there is no reason for them to not simply step into your territory and cancel out the same.

In theory I have no issues with being on guard. In practice though, especially now with the Orruks and Sepulchral Guard I think that there still is too much Cleave to really have On Guard matter. Obryn has it Inspired, Steelheart can obtain it too with Heroic Might and frankly there are a lot of good reasons to run that. In addition the Harvester can obtain Cleave with Grim Cleave, the Champion has it and the Warden has Lethal Lunge.

Give it a try though! I still think that Garrek's Reavers lack some things from a design point of view. Now if there will be an Universal upgrade that grands Cleave the Warband will be that much of step closer to being relevant against any match up. As from an opponnents point of view the Reaver match up remains quite simple. Kill Saek, then see what Upgrades either Karsus or Garrek have. Frankly speaking once it occurs the game goes downhil quick. 

To me the best defences are also those you don't need to roll for. Sidestep, Shardfall, Illusory Fighter, Distraction, you name it. Dodge defences are very shaky and the only reason Sepulchral Guard don't care is because they can return models.

[Skinnyboy]

Just had a cracking game with Revers vs Orruks which really highlighted some of the best features of the Reavers. I lost the role for set up so he placed two open boards short edges together with 3 hexes touching. I deploy objectives 1,2 and 3 in back, mid and forward in my zone and he puts 4 and 5 mid and forward in his. Deployment ends with his Ironskull the most forward and everyone else in the middle and I set up with Targor in the back Karsus and Arnulf mid and Saek and Garrek forward. Crucially none of my fighters are within 4 hexes of his so without ploys he can’t charge me first turn unless I move up. I Draw Hold objectives 1,3 and 5 and a decent power hand containing sidestep. He discards a hand of combat based objectives as he knows he can’t score them turn 1

He wins the roll and elects to go first. We go back and forth moving guys onto objectives. My second to last activation I move Garrek onto my forward most objective (2) which now puts him in range of being charged. This accomplishes a few things 1) I could bait Ironskull into a charge where he can’t kill Garrek and can then be counter charged 2) if he plays some ploys to power up Ironskull so that he could kill Garrek I can simply sidestep away 3) I don’t have the objective card or Supremacy, yet but I’m setting up for future turns. He plays it safe and doesn’t charge Garrek. My last activation I charge Saek at Basha who is standing on Objective 5, I land a hit, push him off and sidestep onto it. At the end of the turn I score Hold Objectives 1, 3 and 5 and the Orruks score hold objective 4 making it 3-1 to the Reavers. I attach a Demon weapon to Arnulf and Greet Speed to Garrek and my opponent put Waaaaagh for +1 damage on the charge onto Ironskull. I draw Ploymaster, Objective 2 and Supremacy for Objectives.

 

At this point I’m feeling good. I’m sitting on four objectives and have a good hand of power cards. Saek is vulnerable but the only guy who can one shot him is Ironskull.  I have more Glory and more Upgrades and none of my fighters are wounded.

 

I win the initiative turn 2 and have Saek take a swing at Basha. He defends put I bush him back. I play Insensate. He goes with Basha and charges Saek for 1 damage and pushes him off Objective 5. I go with Saek again and charge Basha. I made a misplay here and did not move Saek far enough to avoid charges from anyone else, I should have gone around to the other side of Basha. Fortunately, I hit (played Khorne Calls) and kill Basha but Saek is vulnerable to Ironskull. Mistake number two; I don’t even consider that Garrek is in range of an Ironskull charge and he has +1 damage on the charge. I have a Shardfall which could block the charge but don’t see it and Ironskull takes out Garrek. I charge Ironskull with Karsus who has +1 damage from his unique upgrade. Karsus finishes the charge on Objective 2 and manages to wound for 3 and push back Ironskull. Bonekutta charges Saek and finishes him off, Inspiring the remainder of my fighters. My last turn I draw a power card and play shardfall just to score Ploy Master. He moves Hakka onto objective 5.

 

I score 5 Glory and he gets 1 from objectives making the score 9-4 for me. I draw Khorne cares not, objective 4 and Denial for objectives and put Frenzy onto Targor. My power hand contains Blood Offering, Distraction and Illusory fighter. I’m still feeling good but two of my best fighters out for one of his worst is not a great trade. If I can win initiative I can attack with Karsus and maybe kill Ironskull (who also has soulshard and great fortitude at this point…) I’m confident I can score Khorne cares not but need to keep casualties to a minimum and try to deny his objectives.

 

He wins the initiative, walks Ironskull forward and plays Brutal but Kunnin to give him a free attack and wreck Karsus. I teleport Targor next to Ironskull with Illusory fighter and power him up with blood offering. Rolling 5 dice I manage one success but he fails to defend and I do two damage and push him back. He has 1 wound left but uses a healing potion to bump him back up to 3. Fortunately, Bonekutta and Hacka are too far away to do anything and Ironskull is not in range to attack anything so he cycles an objective. At this point I can charge with Arnulf, use the demon weapon and go for the kill on Ironskull which scores Khornes cares not. If Ironskull survives and kills Arnulf I still get Khorn cares not but give up a glory either way I have an activation to kill so I draw a power card and get Great Strength. He goes and cycles another card. I attach Great Strength to Targor and charge Ironskull. My reasoning here is that 4 dice on the charge from Targor has the same chance of success as the Arnulf Demon Weapon but more chances to crit and both do 3 damage. I rill a crit and a success and he can’t possibly defend. He roles for soulshard and…..FAILS!! Giving me a Glory and Khorne calls. Since Targor Charged he is now in range of a Great Speed Hakka charge and promptly crit defends and stays where he is. My last move is to run Arnulf into my opponent’s territory to deny his Denial.

 

I score Khornes cares not which will put me at 12-4 for the final score.

 

Man, that was a nail biter but not getting flustered when I made mistakes and lost my two best fighters kept me in the game. I got ahead in turn one and kept that lead. I really appreciate having a fighter in the enemy backfield particularly if there is only one thing that can deal with him in one shot. I was prepared to lose Saek to Ironskull as it would take him too far back into his own territory and out of the game for the rest of the rounds. I’ve got to remember to use my speed even when I’m already fighting to make counter charges impossible or pull enemies into disadvantageous locations. All in all, great game and I continue to love the Reavers!

[Killax]

So @zabbraxas send me a list that is likely the list used at B&G. The player who became second still didn't get a lot of coverage but I will try to use that deck as much as possible for the following games I have planned this Friday. 3 mates of mine are also into the game so we will be able to have quite a lot of games against different people. With this I at least will try Garrek's Reavers another time to see how well it will fare. (As before, I still have only won against Garrek's Reavers with Garrek's Reavers, all other games so far have been losses for this Warband for me). 

The deck zabbraxas send me was the following:

the B&G bloodreavers deck:

Ploys
    011, Blood rain                                
    311, Confusion
    315, Daylight roberry (not sure about this one)    
    318, Distaction    
    320, Duel of wits
    332, Illusonary fighter
    339, Mighty swing
    355, Shardefall
    360, Sidestep
    368, Time trap

Upgrades

    020, Berserker charge
    021, Bloodslick
    024, Frenzy
    025, Grisly trophy
    026, Terrifing howl
    028, Wirlwind of death
    389, Great fortitude
    391, Great streangh
    420, Soultrap
    431, Total offence

Objectives

    001, A worthy skull
    002, Blood for the blood god!
    005, It begins
    006, Khorne cares not
    007, Khorne champion
    247, Conquest
    263, Hold objective 1
    264, Hold objective 2
    265, Hold objective 3
    266, Hold objective 4
    267, Hold objective 5
    292, Supremacy

I will alter some cards from this deck though and it will lead to the following. I'll explain why I want to change the above into the below.

Ploys:
Confusion
Distraction
Insensate
Illusory Fighter
Mighty Swing
On Your Feet
Shardfall
Shattering Terrain
Sidestep
Time Trap

Sadly the only real card I continue to like as a Ploy from the Garrek's Reavers exclusives is Insensate. While Stormcast can play somewhat around it, most other Warbands can't and however we turn it it usually spells a less to no offensive Activation which furthermore increases the life span of our fighters.
Cards removed where: - Blood Rain, - Daylight Robbery and - Duel of Wits. It's most certainly not that I do not like those cards but I simply said like Shattering Terrain, Insensate and On Your Feet more. As Garrek's Reavers have the tendancy (and must) co-operate to generate kills consistantly I want to give the coinflip that is On Your Feet a go. It's an all or nothing situation but I see Daylight Robbery as a less effective way of stopping your opponent. As at that point he has made the kill. While it's certainly true that 3 kills are what flips our guys the choice now is ours. If it means Saek, Garrek or Karsus survives it's more important to me.

Upgrades:
Bloodslick
Daemonic Weapon
Frenzy
Grisly Trophy
Great Fortitude
Great Strength
Helpful Whispers
Shadeglass Darts
Soultrap
Whirlwind of Death

More exclusive cards matter here to me. The idea still is to have Garrek be a tank and stick around for the Inspire to occur. Bloodslick remains a fine card, Frenzy and Whirlwind of Death too and the aim of Grisly Trophy is to have soften but easier to score Objectives in our Objective deck. Other than that there are a lot of Upgrades who increase damage output and I like this because it allows us to make Arnulf or Targor easier models to use effectively after Round 1. With these Upgrades they can act as the offensive "throw-aways".
Cards removed where:  - Berserker Charge, I don't dislike it but Army of One leads to compairable results but more importantly isn't Saek exclusive. - Terrifying Howl, have used it in the past but can't say it ever resulted into anything I like. It's an Action that requires you to be in the right position allready, which I simply don't think is always possible. It would have had a greater functionality if it wasn't exclusive to Karsus but it is. Lastly - Total Offense was removed so that I could play Shadeglass Darts. I think that Total Offense does not synergize well with the only advantage we have, which is movement.  Shadeglass Darts on the other hand allows us to practically cover all ground and be offensive too, even while standing on an Objective. 

Objectives:
A Worthy Skull
Blood for the Blood God!
It Begins
Khorne cares not
Conquest
Hold Objective 1
Hold Objective 2
Hold Objective 3
Hold Objective 4
Hold Objective 5
Ploymaster
Supremacy

A very basic but proven effective Objective list for me. I basically removed Khorne's Champion for Ploymaster as I do not deem Khorne's Champion a realistic Objective to get or even want to attempt such strategies with the current card pool we have. There is some nice added survival and for sure we could figure out more ways to keep guys alive but the real issue of the matter is the damage output. Instead the aim is to bank on Grisly Throphy to work out more Glory. In addition the Objectives are easier to score however and do not force us to over commit into anything particular. This flexability matched with speed and reposition options hopefully will lead to some cool games.

Will let you guys know the results later!
 

[Skinnyboy]

Nice set up, very similar to the decks that I use, best of luck with your games!!

[KillagoreFaceslasha]

So i think this may be an issue some may be having with the spanish translation but: does the loser of the first roll-off get to place the first board? To my understanding: NO, it doesn't. But it seems the general consensus that it IS so, rather than the winner getting to place them both.

[Skinnyboy]

I believe the loser chooses a board, the winner then chooses a board and lines them up how they wish. The winner gets to decide if it will be short or long edges that are touching and how much they will touch. the loser then gets first placement of objectives. I have the english version and was playing it incorrectly up untill last week!

[Killax]

"Loser" places first board but also first objective (ending up with 3).

[someone2040]

5 hours ago, Skinnyboy said:

I believe the loser chooses a board, the winner then chooses a board and lines them up how they wish. The winner gets to decide if it will be short or long edges that are touching and how much they will touch. the loser then gets first placement of objectives. I have the english version and was playing it incorrectly up untill last week!

Yeah, I'm a little surprised that so many people are playing it wrong (myself included). The first game I played, my friend pointed this out, and basically got overruled by the GW store manager (even though it's quite clearly printed that way). Will definitely be playing it correctly in future (Although, in the 2 games I've played so far, it's not as if we've had a huge amount of room to configure the boards anyway).

3 hours ago, Killax said:

"Loser" places first board but also first objective (ending up with 3).

I really don't think the terminology 'places' should be used here. The loser just chooses a board, the winner gets to place both boards on the table in such a way that it meets the requirements (grids line up, at least 3 hexes).

[gmulroney]

What are your guys’ thoughts on Flickering Image? I like it in concept on Karaus because he throws enough dice to get the crit, and is great to hit a guy, push him off an objective and steal it. Or hit a guy and run away to force them to charge. But in practice I haven’t seen it get much use