Let's Chat: The Wurmspat

[Clan's Cynic]

Kicking off with the cards:

 

The Warhammer Community article with the roundup of them.

The new Cycle cards are definitely interesting, the question's going to be whether this is their unique mechanic (and presumably Nurgle Daemons if they show up) or whether future Warbands are going to see them as well.

They're also the first Beastgrave Warband to lack a Hunter keyword, I believe? 

 

Edited January 30, 2020 by Clan's Cynic

[Soulsmith]

I think it unlikely we would see cycle for anyone but nurgle, as it's thematically unfitting for others.

I'm hoping they should be a rather flexible warband, as they seem to be packing a lot of objective cards, but also aggro.

Also they have no hunters, but do have a card to give someone hunter as a universal in their set, and also an objective that is scored if you have a character that is leader, wizard, and hunter. So play on Fecula - gain a glory.

[Zimagic]

Looking forward to taking these for a test run.

Not hugely excited by the majority of the faction cards though.

[flemingmma]

Pumped for the models, more order of the fly

[Soulsmith]

For the sake of it I want to build a lost pages deck with them

[Zimagic]

Thoughts on the upgade that gives you Dodge X, where X is the round number, on Fecula?

Gives her benefits on dodge, shield & crits & more defence dice rounds 2 & 3 than she has on her card as well as dome Cleave protection.

 

[Skyeline]

10 hours ago, Zimagic said:

Thoughts on the upgade that gives you Dodge X, where X is the round number, on Fecula?

Gives her benefits on dodge, shield & crits & more defence dice rounds 2 & 3 than she has on her card as well as dome Cleave protection.

 

Are you referring to Substance Siphon? That card won't allow Fecula to maintain shields as successes on defense rolls as it overrides the defense characteristic printed on her fighter card. She'd be changed to Dodge 1/2/3 based on the round number which can't be modified or subject to re-rolls. 

[Soulsmith]

Considering the set is coming with a couple rerolls for defence I would probably suggest against it, but it could work against smaller warbands that are tied up with the blightkings (who presumably you're giving the big tank cards to).

[Bandit-94]

I am working on a test decklist whose aim is to focus on the durability of the warband to create constant pressure on the opponent. The ideal would be to get to the end of the game with the whole band still alive. What do you think?

https://www.underworlds-deckers.com/en/deck-builder/the-wurmspat/?ObjectiveCard=2302,2357,2368,2373,5137,5138,5140,5295,5307,5308,6001,6007,&GambitCard=2427,5145,5148,5150,5324,5328,5341,5359,5363,5366,6014,&UpgradeCard=2486,2527,2543,3050,5153,5158,5159,5160,5396,5398,5431,&DeckTitle=nurgle test 

[Kirby]

Can someone confirm whether the Wurmspat are on 40mm bases, please?
I'd like to use for them for some conversions.

[Hannibal]

On 2/10/2020 at 6:36 AM, Kirby said:

Can someone confirm whether the Wurmspat are on 40mm bases, please?
I'd like to use for them for some conversions.

I can confirm.

[spazz]

A few games in with these guys now and while I'm digging them on the whole there is something lacking & I can't put my finger on it. I don't play competitively so can't speak to them on that front, however they seem like a weaker Stormcast. There is no doubt I need to tweak my deck & likely need to adjust my play style but am hoping the new Ork warband brings me what I need!  

[Zimagic]

On 2/21/2020 at 12:47 PM, spazz said:

A few games in with these guys now and while I'm digging them on the whole there is something lacking & I can't put my finger on it. I don't play competitively so can't speak to them on that front, however they seem like a weaker Stormcast. There is no doubt I need to tweak my deck & likely need to adjust my play style but am hoping the new Ork warband brings me what I need!  

After 2 sold weeks playing them, I can put my finger on loads of things that are lacking: 

Movement/range:
Ok, it's fluffy that they are slow, I'm totally ok with that. However, if they are slow, they need to have a way to interact with opposing figurines from distance or, more importantly, a reason for opposing figs to come interact with them. So, if they don't have movement, they need to score something that forces your opponent to have to react to what you are doing and play your game (this applies to all 3 movement bands). You end up having to play cards just to extend movement which cuts space for cards that do other things. They make up a little for this by having range 2 & 3 attacks but these are on a limited number of figurines to attack with. That brings us to:

Model count:
3 models is limiting in what you can do with certain strategies, notably hold multiple objectives. It also cuts down the range of activations to a reduced number of models. Lose one of those and you're in an even worse spot. Essentially, having 3 models means you have to be very good at at least 1 thing. Not dying easily would be a good thing but some sort of scoring related advantage is a necessity, and the Wurmspat don't do this in any one area better than any other warband: "You want to hold objectives? You shouldn't be playing a 3-man warband. Magic? Cursebreakers", and so on.
At the very least, they should have an extra model (or a way to make one) if they don't have a clear & strong glory path to allow them to go get objectives.

Objectives (& Flavour):
So here is where I feel they dropped the ball. Already being a 3-man warband has inherent disadvantages. In addition, they have no regeneration/reanimation ability and their faction cards are middling to bad. Their glory objectives are very poor. Where they should be defining achievable ways to steer your strategy (Look at Mantrappers: "Make big Ogre, smash face"), instead they are highlighting in different ways what's missing from the fighter cards/model count.

What's even more annoying is that every warband gives an opportunity to make a strategy that's different and unique for them. Sometimes they take that opportunity, sometimes not. With the Wurmspat, it would have been really refreshing to see them look at a different way to score glory or a rule that defined how they interacted with nearby  figurines. Instead, though flavourful, they were blessed with a statistically irrelevant damage reduction ability. How hard would it have been to put in a flat -1 dice to opposing rolls (to a min of 1) if adjacent? It fits the fluff and it's already an effect that's present in the game. Hey, even water it down to "-1 dice if adjacent & wounded" to tie it into their inspire trigger if you want, just so long as it's relevant. 

Or give them innate Guard. They are supposed to be hard to kill and the "no knockback" would be more useful in scoring that pointless Tri-lobe Supremacy than whatever it is an 8% chance of taking 1 damage instead of, em, 1 damage is......

And, unfortunately, Fecula is the biggest victim of the warband's overall weak power level. She doesn't gain a second shield inspired and, as the only Wizard, makes Magic an extremely fragile strategy. No-one wants to go heavy Magic in a 1-Wizard warband at the risk of too many dead cards, more-so when your only Wizard is also your most fragile fighter. Yes, a 3-lightning-dice attack is good, but it's still for only a single damage. Not something you can reliably build an entire strategy around on a 1 Block model.  

 

To be perfectly honest, they don't actuelly need *all* of these things but they do need some of them or et least better access to solutions to some of them. Right now, they feel like one of 2 things: they were once good in development and were seriously nerfed or they felt flavourful and just weren't tested.

 

[Zimagic]

Wow, new low: 2 glory vs out of the box Mournflight.

 

2.

 

And one of those was "Catching Up".

[Despropositoys]

Love the Wurmspat gang. This month I make a Diorama magnetized box to expose the gang and save my deck of cards and dices.Wurmspat Diorama Magnetized Box.

 

Edited April 18, 2020 by Despropositoys