Post by Fadril Adren on Oct 11, 2017 16:46:50 GMT -5
No Shadespire warband matches Garrek’s Reavers for sheer aggression. Seeming defeats turn into victories, easily ignored fighters become deadly juggernauts and attacks come from every angle – a perfect testament to the power of the Blood God.
Moreso than any other warband, Garrek’s Reavers will allow you to control the rhythm of play, capable of generating a huge amount of momentum very quickly – albeit with no small amount of risk.
The Fighters
Garrek’s Reavers are a large warband, with 5 fighters.
Garrek Gorebeard is a fairly reliable fighter, dealing decent damage and possessing enough Wounds to withstand a blow from a Stormcast Eternal or one of the Sepulchral Guard’s more dangerous fighters. With upgrades, Garrek can become incredibly dangerous and will be the lynchpin of most of your opening moves with the warband.
Saek is an essential fighter in Garrek’s Reavers. While he’s fairly fragile with a mere 3 wounds and Dodge for defence, his great axe excels at killing fighters and, with Cleave when he’s Inspired, is very hard to avoid.
At first glance, Karsus doesn’t seem like much; he’s neither as durable as Garrek nor as deadly as Saek. However, with a ranged attack and the ability to attack multiple fighters at once, he’s a key component to many Khorne Bloodbound strategies. With the right cards, he’s one of the warband’s most dangerous fighters.
There’s not a great deal that’s noteworthy about Arnulf – even when he’s Inspired, he only deals a single damage! Nevertheless, he’s useful for triggering Supports with your other fighters, holding objectives or being sacrificed to score certain objective cards or activate your Inspire condition.
Targor behaves very similarly to Arnulf, but does become a little more powerful when inspired.
Play Style
Games with the Bloodbound tend to be very exciting for both warbands; you’ll score a lot of glory, but you’ll give a lot of it away, too!
The most characterful element of Garrek’s Reavers is their ability to come back and turn disaster into a potential success. Several objectives reward you for losing fighters, like It Begins or Khorne Cares Not.
When playing with Garrek’s Reavers, your game generally has two distinct stages; an early, chaotic part of the game where you throw your fighters at the enemy and see who or what sticks, and a second phase, where the survivors of your initial assault redouble their assault, now Inspired and with some powerful upgrades. Each Inspired fighter has a huge Move stat of 5, allowing them to quickly claim objectives, engage fighters deep in enemy territory and chase down anyone who tries to escape you.
The fighters in Garrek’s reavers all suffer from slightly unreliable attacks, but luckily, there’s a couple of cards that can greatly increase your chance of a success (or an all-important critical hit!). You’ll want to include Khorne Calls and Blood Offering in every Garrek’s Reavers deck you build.
Every fighter in Garrek’s Reavers has at least one powerful upgrade available to them. While it’s tempting to focus on one fighter, the best decks will give you scope to succeed with any fighter, as there’s no telling who will die first! Whirlwind of Death and Berserk Charge make your heavy hitters even deadlier, but Deadly Spin and Wicked Blade are worthy considerations, too.
Garrek’s Reavers are the perfect warband for players that like to take risks, play aggressively and control the pace of play. You’ll be able to start building your decks soon – Shadespire is on pre-order on the 14th of October – that’s Saturday this week! In the meantime, check out the Shadespire website for more information about the warbands, the history of the city and more.