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The Shadespire News and Rumour Thread


Gaz Taylor

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https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/04/16/warband-focus-yltharis-guardians/

Sylvaneth Warband preview. Preliminary thoughts:

Tricky warband more than a combat-focused one. 2 Hammer at worst on everything is quite reliable, but nothing 3D baseline means they're not focused on killing. 3W other than the tank means they pop fairly easy in combat as well, so they seem more of a "set up and bait" warband than anything brawl focused, other than Gallanghan. Still, it's usually easier and more reliable to add damage than dice, so 2 Hammer base could just be a great template to throw Great Strength/Gloryseeker/Trap/Twist the Knife onto.

The inspiration effect is kinda interesting. I find that, especially with 3W warbands, that you're either full health or dead more often than not, so I feel like you're going to be "wasting" healing more often than not just to inspire, but it is quite reliable as far as inspiration effects go. Tainted Vitality on a blank board to inspire everything on T1 is pretty reasonable, and there are a handful of otherwise mediocre healing effects that you might include just to Inspire easily.

The faction cards seem kinda meh:

  • Leech Power is quite good vs Supremacy warbands or to score Scorched Earth, but can also be fairly pointless beyond just inspiring Ylthari
  • Healing Amorpha is just a worse Healing Potion, only run if you already have Potion in your deck (or if it rotates out with the next city).
  • Glade's Last Hope could be a great Objective if you run Shardgale/Tainted Vitality... but also mostly a dead card since healing is already iffy and healing 3 is a bit of a task.
  • Curse of Dwindling good effect but bad casting without Innate/Tome of Incantations, and idk if these guys are heavy on Spells
  • Writhing Roots is just a worse Invisible Walls
  • Mesmerising Gaze is just a strictly worse Transfixing Stare that I suppose has the potential to turn off Change of Tactics.

It just seems strange, since usually Faction cards are better versions of Neutral cards, but these all seem worse than their equivalents. Still, only a small fraction of the Faction cards, so we'll see more going forwards.

Gut reaction build is to be a disruption/shutdown deck focused on denying the opponent their objective cards while taking Flex cards and just focusing on getting bits of Glory while your opponent gets none. Not sure how effective that is

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Tainted Vitality doesn't do anything unless the fighter has a wound token. Shardgale > TV would be a nice combo, and it would score Glade's Last Hope.

Mesmerizing Gaze is a great second copy of Transfixing Stare, and it has potential use in getting rid of Guard tokens (great to deny Change of Tactics or just push more damage).

A 4W 2B statline is very impressive, and should make for a great frontline fighter. They seem like a warband that really needs to find +Damage ploys and upgrades and the Masterstroke/Trap/Pit Trap package can slot in very easily. I'm excited to see the rest of their cards.

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Initially I was worried about the inspiration condition, given that I don't think stacking healing effects in a deck is generally a good idea (particularly for fighters with 3 wounds), but looking again I'm not as concerned now.  The inspirations don't appear to be a make or break for most of these fighters.

  • Ylthari picks up +1 move and +1 damage on her spell attack action
  • Ahnslaine picks up +1 defense on dodge and +1 range to her bow 
  • Gallanghann picks up a questionable target all adjacent attack action on 2 fury and 1 damage
  • Skhathael picks up +1 dice on his attack and cleave

I suspect that Ylthari and Skhathael are going to be the typical top targets for inspiration.  The other two will have their uses but feel more niche. 

The unique reactions across the team also just look like a ton of fun. I think the potential of Gallanghann and Skhathael's reactions in particular are easy to miss. 

  • Ylthari can crit spellcast into a free heal and inspiration if she isn't inspired already.
  • Ahnslaine can net you a free attack (though the circumstances are pretty narrow)
  • Gallanghann can crit defense to deal 1 damage (don't forget that you can roll defense even if your opponent totally whiffs!)
  • Skhathael can crit attack roll to deal 1 extra damage (which goes off even if the target successfully defends!)

Can't wait to see this team hit the board.

Edited by Skyeline
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2 hours ago, PJetski said:

Tainted Vitality doesn't do anything unless the fighter has a wound token. Shardgale > TV would be a nice combo, and it would score Glade's Last Hope.

Mesmerizing Gaze is a great second copy of Transfixing Stare, and it has potential use in getting rid of Guard tokens (great to deny Change of Tactics or just push more damage).

A 4W 2B statline is very impressive, and should make for a great frontline fighter. They seem like a warband that really needs to find +Damage ploys and upgrades and the Masterstroke/Trap/Pit Trap package can slot in very easily. I'm excited to see the rest of their cards.

Yeah saw that about TV shortly after. Still potentially a good addition for the warband.

Mesmerizing Gaze would be great if it wasn't adjacent. Sure, you can run up and shut down a charge... but then the target can just attack you. And none of these guys are really throwaway (I'll often throw away a Chainrasp to Transfixing Stare Mollog or Gurzag). Gallanghan can go up and lock down a unit with his solid defense... but that's still pretty iffy play imo. 

18 minutes ago, Skyeline said:

Initially I was worried about the inspiration condition, given that I don't think stacking healing effects in a deck is generally a good idea (particularly for fighters with 3 wounds), but looking again I'm not as concerned now.  The inspirations don't appear to be a make or break for most of these fighters.

  • Ylthari picks up +1 move and +1 damage on her spell attack action
  • Ahnslaine picks up +1 defense on dodge and +1 range to her bow 
  • Gallanghann picks up a questionable target all adjacent attack action on 2 fury and 1 damage
  • Skhathael picks up +1 dice on his attack and cleave

I suspect that Ylthari and Skhathael are going to be the typical top targets for inspiration.  The other two will have their uses but feel more niche. 

The unique reactions across the team also just look like a ton of fun. I think the potential of Gallanghann and Skhathael's reactions in particular are easy to miss. 

  • Ylthari can crit spellcast into a free heal and inspiration if she isn't inspired already.
  • Ahnslaine can net you a free attack (though the circumstances are pretty narrow)
  • Gallanghann can crit defense to deal 1 damage (don't forget that you can roll defense even if your opponent totally whiffs!)
  • Skhathael can crit attack roll to deal 1 extra damage (which goes off even if the target successfully defends!)

Can't wait to see this team hit the board.

Yeah I had similar thoughts. I don't think you stack healing to try and max out Inspiration, but ~3 is probably the right number. 

A nice combo is Healing Pulse - relatively easy cast (75% chance for Ylthari), and if she gets a crit she Inspires as well from her reaction. Could be an easy 2 for 1.

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It doesn't seem worthwhile inspiring more than 1 or 2 members. Ahnslaine could be a useful inspire target, since there aren't many effects that give bonus range. Her reaction is going to be nuts with attack upgrades like Daemonic Weapon.

I think Ylthari is the only member you definitely need to inspire every game. +1 move and +1 damage on her spell attack, and then you can add in the new upgrade for +1 dice on spell casts while inspired. It's also very easy to inspire her with cards like Leech Power (Scorched Earth easy score) and Healing Potion (auto-include).

This warband really needs a warband version of Trap/Pit Trap...

Edited by PJetski
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Mesmerizing gaze feels worth messing around with, though I am skeptical about it. You'll only take it if you're already taking transfixing gaze and you'll probably want at least 1 push card in the deck to try and mitigate the adjacent requirement.

At that point though your gambits are going to be getting very strained in a team that looks downright hungry for gambits since you need to splash in heals for inspiration (Healing pulse is a great call out as an avenue for inspiration). 

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2 hours ago, PJetski said:

Her reaction is going to be nuts with attack upgrades like Daemonic Weapon.

Missed this earlier! It's got some big potential as a high risk high reward play. Get into adjacency with two fighters, swing it twice, land two kills in the best case. 

I'm eyeing Nullstone Spear as a more mild yet reliable/safe alternative. Two range will make the reaction effect more likely to go off and a damage upgrade layered on top could get pretty mean (though this is starting to enter combo territory where the odds of drawing all the right cards is lower and lower). 

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Abosoths unmaking combined with Leech Power could be devastating for hold objective decks, especially those that use keys. In a best of 3 format you could know what objectives to snipe off the board. 

Also, Skhathael with Shadeglass Dagger and  concealed weapon one-shotting Mollog seems really funny. 

Edited by Anthony225
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13 hours ago, PJetski said:

Tainted Vitality doesn't do anything unless the fighter has a wound token. Shardgale > TV would be a nice combo, and it would score Glade's Last Hope.

Why not? All the cards have "Even if this fighter doesn't have a wound"

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I haven't kept up with the release policy concerning Underworlds. Therefore I'm wondering what the chances are that they'll release a warband for each of the major factions eventually (mostly wondering about DoK). I'm not invested in Underworlds but would be interested in the new models.

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Info on the KO warband is up...

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/04/17/warband-focus-thundriks-profiteers/

Looking forward to picking these boys up.

@Turin with the new Sylvaneth & KO war bands that's in almost all likelihood it for this 'season' (there's the dreadfane release too I guess if you count that), so assuming there'll be a 3rd season you'll probably need to wait for that. I imagine DoK will have a fairly decent chance of a release in that set.

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KO look fantastic. Much like Sylvaneth, lower on the damage scale (most things 1, 2 damage when inspired, only one fighter gets to 3D naturally), but the inspiration effect and reliable ranged output make them super interesting. 

 

JPjr is correct, these are the last Nightvault warbands (other than the supposed warband rules for the easy-build Banshees and Castigator kits), so I assume we'll hear about the next expansion sometime during the summer. 

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Now there's a team that wants to inspire to really get the most out of their stats. 3 Range firepower across the entire team and some potent cleave on shooting for Lund and Inspired Thundrik.

Really liking the objectives they showed off too. Headshot might have you cursing the dice gods, but the odds of landing a crit before the action phase is over should be pretty good. Focus Fire should also be pretty reliable unless you're exclusively shooting 2 wound fighters and never missing.

The one gear they showed off appears underwhelming. Fighter specific upgrades usually have to be pretty damn great and/or for a linchpin fighter in order to be worth it. I don't think Rapid Reload is going to make the cut in most decks.

The gambits are a mixed bag.

  • Timed Charge being saddled with a dice roll knocks it way down in usefulness.
  • Toxic Gases looks like it aligns well with the warband. I can definitely see adding it in alongside Distraction.
  • Protect The Boss feels tough to justify. I feel like in a lot of cases I'd rather just have sidestep, but maybe it'll prove more useful in practice.

Overall I'm expecting this to be another team that is hungry for Trap / Pit Trap and probably encroaching shadows. Anything that adds to the chipping away at fighters from the safety of range.

Edited by Skyeline
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3 range is great for dealing with Mollog, but 2 movement and not enough damage to kill anyone in one shot... KO will really struggle with aggressive bands like Magore and Stormcast. Fast warbands like Reavers, Skaven, and Guardians will be able to close the distance without taking volleys on the way in.

Not totally impressed with the fighter stats, but I love the inspire mechanic. Really excited to try out both the new warbands.

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On 4/16/2019 at 9:43 AM, Requizen said:

The faction cards seem kinda meh:

I had the opposite reaction. The movement and range are very appealing, and I think they will reward skilled use of both. For some reason they have just a bit of a similar feel, or maybe just trigger a particular nerve for me, as the Thorns, which is my current favorite. I'm excited to get them.

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20 hours ago, Anthony225 said:

Abosoths unmaking combined with Leech Power could be devastating for hold objective decks

It's not like the game needed more help to make Objective play worse, but ...

I think this combo, plus the Orruk one that does the same could make it fun to try to score the objectives that say 'hold them all.' It gets a lot easier when there are only 2 or 3 instead of 5.

 

Just reading the Overlords now. Holy schnike! Their Fyreslayer cousins are going to jealous of that inspire condition. Plus, is this leader the first fighter to get +5 (so to speak) when inspired?  Isn't it usually +3?

Edited by Sleboda
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17 hours ago, Sleboda said:

I had the opposite reaction. The movement and range are very appealing, and I think they will reward skilled use of both. For some reason they have just a bit of a similar feel, or maybe just trigger a particular nerve for me, as the Thorns, which is my current favorite. I'm excited to get them.

Yeah the fighter cards are great, I meant the Ploys/Upgrades that they showed off in the previews. Other than Leech Power they're all pretty bad. 

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Their site says that there will be free card releases with "Extra Warband DLC expansions". That leads me to believe everyone will get all Universal cards and then just buy the Warbands you are interested in playing. I think that's probably the best split for "good for the devs" vs "good for the consumer". Obviously we would love the game to just be free, but that's really not sustainable without some sort of things like cosmetics or whatever. 

I'll be playing and perhaps streaming as soon as I get my Early Access :D

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