Borgit's Beastgrabbaz - Warband Review
Introduction
Borgit's Beastgrabbaz are the fifth Gloomspite Gitz warband to enter the Underworlds. This group of gitz is searching the Underworlds for Trugg, the Troggoth King.
Fighter Characteristics
Borgit is the leader of the Beastgrabbaz. He has a solid set of characteristics with a Move of 3, a Save of 2 Block, 3 Health, and a Bounty of 2. His attack is Range 1, 2 Hammers, and 2 Damage with Crit Grievous. Upon inspiration, Borgit goes to Move 4 and 3 Hammers on his attack. This is an interesting profile, as, apart from the Health, his characteristics are similar to Ardorn from the Emberwatch. Ardorn is a highly effective fighter, suggesting Borgit will also be—albeit less resilient but with potentially a little more punch!
Next up, we have the minions: Snagz, Dregg, and Rigg and Sham. All three have a Move of 3, a Save of 2 Dodge, 2 Health, and a Bounty of 1. Upon inspiration, they gain Move 4. The Save of 2 Dodge is reasonable, but with only 2 Health, these three fighters are not going to last very long. Each minion has a different weapon, with a different range profile and weapon ability, which will hopefully synergize well with the other fighters in the warband.
Dregg is an archer. He has a standard Range 3, 2 Swords, and 1 Damage attack profile. The miniature has a drop of poison falling from the arrow, indicating there is something special about the arrows. This gives the ranged attack Stagger, which will help when Borgit or Uglug close in for the kill. Upon inspiration, his accuracy increases to 3 Swords.
Snagz is armed with a mancatcher. He has a Range of 2, 2 Hammers for 1 Damage, with the Grapple weapon ability. Upon inspiration, his Damage output increases to 2. If he had more Health, I would consider investing resources into this little gitz as he has the potential to be quite dangerous with his base 2 Damage.
Next, we have Rigg and Sham, who are disguised as a squig on a single base. This fighter is the weakest in the warband. They have a Range 1, 2 Swords for 1 Damage attack with Stagger. Upon inspiration, the accuracy increases to 3 Swords. However, being only Range 1, this fighter will have to be in harm's way, and it does not have the survivability to be there.
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| Uglug |
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| All ratings out of 5 (What do the stats mean?) |
Fighters in this warband inspire when they Delve a feature token. This is a straightforward Inspire mechanic, but it can be blocked with positional play by your opponent. I will be looking to inspire Borgit and Uglug as quickly as possible within my own territory, followed by Snagz. If I can get this done in Round 1, their 2 Block defence, along with their cover Save, should help to mitigate the Stagger resulting from the Delve. Overall, I think this is a reasonably nice Inspire mechanic, which will pair well with certain Rivals decks (Pillage and Plunder)—more on this later.
Warscroll Abilities
Trophy Huntaz
At the start of Round 1, choose an enemy fighter with a Health of 3 or more to be da trophy. When friendly fighters attack da trophy with melee attacks, they gain +1 dice. All warbands have at least one fighter that can be designated da trophy, and this will often be the most important fighter (I am thinking Mollog, Sepulchral Warden, Zikkit, or Snirk). The Beastgrabbaz, on my initial viewing, appear to primarily lack accuracy, and this ability goes a long way to solving this issue. Overall: 4 out of 5.
Da Bait
Immediately after a friendly minion is slain, push your leader (Borgit) a number of hexes equal to the Health characteristic of the slain minion (in most cases, this will be 2 hexes). The push must end adjacent to an enemy fighter. Any free push in Warhammer Underworlds can be extremely useful, especially when it is more than 1 hex. However, as the final position needs to be adjacent to an enemy fighter, and it can be used only by Borgit, this ability is limited in its use. Still, when Borgit pushes next to an enemy fighter, setting up an attack without charging could be immensely powerful. Overall: 3 out of 5.
One Use Abilities.
Gittish Taktiks
Use immediately after a successful attack made by either Borgit or Uglug. The target of the attack becomes da mugginz. Friendly minions that target da mugginz gain Crit Grievous on their melee attacks.
On its own, this ability is OK, especially when used with Snagz, who could deal out 3 damage. However, it gets even better if the target is also da trophy (see Trophy Huntaz above). The +1 dice will help the minion score that required Crit.
Overall: 3 out of 5.
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| Rigg and Sham (top), Snagz (bottom) |
Use after an Action step in which a friendly Uglug used any core ability. Push each friendly minion 3 hexes. After the push, the minion must be adjacent to Uglug.
I intend to use this by moving Uglug onto a Treasure token before pulling all the minions towards him, shielding him from Range 1 attacks. Uglug can then Delve the token to inspire. If enemy fighters attack the minions, Uglug can use his Range 2 attack to reach over the minions to strike back.
This is an ability to use early in the game.
Overall: 3 out of 5.
Stab 'Em Good
Use immediately after an Action step in which a friendly minion used a core ability. Until the end of the next Action step, the first time an enemy fighter is pushed, placed, or enters a hex adjacent to a friendly minion, inflict 1 damage on that fighter.
A nice little ability, if somewhat easily avoided by an opponent. To get the most out of it, cards such as Confusion could be used to swap the positions of fighters. Equally, you could try guarding Treasure tokens with minions.
Overall: 2 out of 5.
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| Dregg (Top), Borgit Wolf-Killa (Bottom) |
Possible Playstyle Pairings
Main Playstyle: Flex
This gaggle of gitz has the ability to take and hold a few Treasure tokens while threatening to murder a few enemy fighters. They are, however, unlikely to outfight an Aggro warband, such as the Jaws of Itzl. Equally, with only five fighters—three of which only have 2 Health—they are unlikely to hold onto many Treasure tokens for long. They will, therefore, need to use Borgit and Uglug to reduce the number of enemy fighters while protecting the minions so that they can jump on Treasure tokens.
Clearly, the Flex deck Pillage and Plunder is highly synergistic with the Beastgrabbaz. These gitz want to Delve Treasure tokens to inspire, so why not score Objectives at the same time?
The gitz would also benefit from extra Health (Great Fortitude), healing (Healing Potion), and accuracy boosts (Keen Eye for extra dice and Accurate for rerolls). As such, Blazing Assault provides a lot of the tech necessary to compensate for some of the warband’s innate weaknesses.
Countdown to Cataclysm could also pair well with this deck. Aside from the easy score of Spread Havoc, this warband will have a few minions that can be sacrificed to increase the Cataclysm value. This could then be useful to increase the survability of either Borgit or Uglug with Utter Conviction and Great Fortitude. Counter-Charge could be useful fro getting Borgit into position without using up a charge. On top of that I could see potential fun being had equipping Dregg or Rigg and Sham with Desperate Rage and then letting them lose on da trophy and da mugginz, for a potential 4 damage grot attack.
As mentioned earlier, I think the warband lacks the staying power for playing too heavily into Take and Hold, and as such, Emberstone Sentinel might not be the best pairing, although it does share some of the tech with Blazing Assault. Equally, Reckless Fury is too Aggro for this fragile warband.
What are your thoughts on this warband? Will you be picking them up?
Checkout my Warhammer Underworlds for more articles.
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