Today’s article continues our Love Letters Series, in which readers of the page submit an ode to their favorite warband. The Love Letter Series was kicked off by this post encouraging people to play the warbands they love and tell others about the experience, inviting readers to contribute their passion to this website – if you have something to say, by all means let me know wherever you found this posted or by emailing me at SpentGlory@Gmail.com.

This time around, we will be hearing from Konsul/Mikkel of Denmark, who brought the Headsmen’s Curse with BA/CC to the Copenhagen Clash amid a field overrun with pillaging goblins. Let’s dive in to a ghost tale from a friend of the page and hear about the reasons behind the warband choice, deck composition, and strategy before getting to a 7-round tournament report. Hope you’re ready, because this one’s to die for

---

This year, I managed to plan ahead enough to go to the Copenhagen Clash.
Since I live in Denmark close to the capital, it’s just one day, but with a family, house, and garden, etc., a whole Saturday for playing with little dolls works best when scheduled a bit ahead of time, I find.

Choosing a Warband

Since the release of Embergard, I’ve had a hard time settling on a warband to invest time in. Getting 30+ warbands at a time will do that to you, and the whole Dromm/RF meta also made it hard to gauge what was good. Since the rules update, I’ve been playing around with a few warbands: Spiteclaw, Razors, Emberwatch, a little bit of Crimson Court, and such. I decided to dust off my Headsmen’s Curse when the rules update hit. I played them for a while at the end of V.1 with both Voidcurse and Parasite, and looking at their warscroll and fighter stats, I think they retained much of what I liked.

In my mind, Headsmen’s Curse is a positional/surgical aggro warband. They have some obvious strengths:

·   A very scary leader with 3 damage, move 4, 2 dodge, flying, and 5 health. Inspires to 4 damage flat so potentially doing 5 damage with grievous.

·   A very solid backup in The Bearer of the Block who, if you manage to inspire him, gets 2 damage + grievous. But even uninspired, he’s a great number two.

·   Ranged support from the scriptor, who’s 4 wounds and 1 bounty.

·   You can resurrect everyone except the leader (only one raise per game though). Getting the bearer back at zero bounty is really something.

·   A great accuracy tool on the warscroll.

·   Built-in card draw.

·   Good board presence thanks to flying, move 4, and a very flexible teleport that is balanced out by being a core action.

They also have weaknesses:

·   Lynchpin fighter. You need to make successful attacks with your leader, especially if you want to 1-hit your targets and bring back dead ghosts.

·   The two main hitters stay on 2 hammers. That’s fine at the start of the game, but as defensive buffs via cards and inspire go down, 2 hammers fall off pretty quickly.

·   You’re also looking at only making R1 attacks, which makes charged-out attacks unlikely unless you have the right pushes in hand.

·   Inspire requires attacking a specific target, only one target per battle round, and your opponent can play around it. The inspire’s not crucial, but getting the scriptor or bearer on 2 dodge is great. In some matchups, the flat 4 damage on the wielder is pretty important, and the third damage on the bearer can be too. However, Twist the Knife / Great Strength could also get you there.

·   As I said, they have strong board presence but not strong board control. They can get almost anywhere but they can’t be everywhere at once and also do not lock down the board efficiently

The Deck

I chose to go with Blazing Assault and Countdown to Cataclysm. The big thing with this pairing is that BA offers incredibly easy surges, and Countdown supplies three solid 2-glory end phases. The BA power deck is just so good, and CtC has a few things to top it up. Countercharge is great, and for Headsmen, it’s even better as you can get attacks Without charging while setting up Cackling Court, Violent Blast is an incredible tool, and Hurled Weapon (combos nicely with duelist and allows your bearer/wielder to take shots and try for an inspire at safe distance. Desperate Rage can come in very handy. In one of my practice games the scriptor got this and promptly killed a Farasa who thought she was safe and out of harm’s way.

With so many of the surges relying on dice, there were a few instances where I’d sit with two end phases in my hand and one surge that just would not score. This happened mostly with Critical Effort but any one of them can elude you at times. That’s the price you pay for the times when you just score all your surges during the first battle round by making a few attacks.

This deck combination flows very well, and it theoretically allows you to spend more mental energy countering what your opponent is doing.

I did build a deck with BA/WnR too for the extra accuracy ploy, disruption tech, and survivability, but after trying the deck once, it was clear that I’d need more time to learn it if it was to function at all. The end phases required more thought, and the surge package is way bumpier. So, CtC/BA it is.

1.0  Preparation and Meta Expectations

After one or two practice games, I took Headsmen to our monthly store tournament in February. That went so-so as I finished 3rd out of seven players with two wins, a draw, and a loss, the loss being to Zarbag CtC/PP.

So, as the clash was drawing nearer, I had to settle on a warband. The pillage meta, with Zarbag as the main offender, was pretty obvious. Headsmen, strong as they are, are not great at horde control. They lack range and accuracy when dealing with a bunch of 2-dodge fighters, and missing a few too many attacks just lets the opponent run away with the game. Especially with hordes like Gitz and Grymwatch, which also have some heavy damage potential.

Taking a look at the wider meta I didn’t like the look of Borgit, with all those double defense dice, a troggoth at range 2 with three damage and +1 dice against (probably) my wielder to boot. Being a pretty new warband, I didn’t expect to see many of these, but still. I was expecting some Jaws, and while Headsmen have a very good chance of taking down all of the dinos, the 2-hammer attacks might just end up giving out inspires and getting you pinged back and eaten. So, not an easy match-up. Then we have Gardeners with Imperturbable and heals for days, which also poses a unique challenge. All in all, I saw a lot of hard match-ups.

Then I looked at what warbands I had lying around and the time I had left to prepare. I could either go for Headsmen with the handful of games I had under my belt or pick up something new and try to get a deck and a game plan together. I chose to stick with Nagash’s (or Nagash’?) executioners and hoped that knowing my warband and deck would make up for not being great into the top dogs.

I also reminded myself that any elites like Condemnors, Emberwatch, Gorechosen, or Krushas I’d feel pretty good about. Khagra, Purifiers, Ylthari’s, and Thundrik’s also seemed like something I could deal with.

Up until the night before, I still had my doubts. There was a small voice that said, “Grab Mollog. Mollog has range 2 and great accuracy. Bonk the gobbos. Do it! You don’t need practice games.” I managed to silence that insanity and packed my Headsmen.

As this was my first big tournament, I set some goals to manage expectations:

·   I would like to win more than I lost.

·   I wanted to finish my games on time.

·   I wanted to give my opponents a challenging game while being a good sport.

·   I wanted to avoid tilting if dice, cards, or whatever didn’t go my way.

·   I wanted to deny Strip the Realm wherever I went.

·   I wanted to use the wielder wisely and not loose him to risky or bad plays

2.0  The Event

Just a quick rundown: The event was taking place on the third floor of a community house in Valby, Copenhagen. We had 37 players, which meant 19 tables and one of the two judges acting as the ringer.

The event was organized by Thomas Kyrsting and Jonas Færing, and everything seemed to run very smoothly from my perspective.

There were two golden tickets on the line, some unique trophies, lots of loot, and a complimentary pastry after the 4th game. The first golden ticket went to the winner of the final, and the second ticket was for the overall winner of the day, factoring in team performance, points from the “Most Awesome Warband” votes, most sporting opponent, and the quiz.

Everyone would play seven games of BO1 total. Each game was allotted 1 hour. We had two games, then lunch, two more games, and a coffee break, yet another two games, and then dinner, where we also voted for most sporting opponent and most awesome warband. Before the final game, Jonas and Thomas also had the quiz for us to answer.

 After the seventh round, 1st and 2nd place would meet in the finals, and 3rd and 4th place would be duking it out for the bronze.

So, let’s get into the games. Or at least what I remember. Some of it is hazy, and some moments stand out very clearly.

Game 1: Headsmen vs. Khagra’s Ravagers

In the first game, I was to play Julia from Sweden. She was on a weekend trip with her husband for their 9th wedding anniversary and had decided she might as well learn this game instead of meandering around Copenhagen alone while her hubby was at the clash.

Her Ravagers looked great and had chosen Emberstone and Countdown to Cataclysm as the deck pairing.

I deployed on a line in the middle of my half of the board (don’t remember who won the roll-off) and made sure the Scriptor had some people to point his finger at. In my first activation, I debated a bit between condemning Razek and Khagra, who were off on one flank within range of the Wielder. I chose Razek. I think my reasoning was that I had Determined Effort and Twist the Knife in hand, so both my Bearer and Wielder could one-shot him in round one. I think I charged up the Scriptor to try and inspire him and work on some of my “roll dice” surges.

Julia then wisely chose to move Razek backwards onto a treasure token, out of charge range of my Wielder. The Wielder then decided that the Scriptor’s list was more of a guideline and charged Khagra. With Determined Effort and Twist the Knife, Khagra went down. Turns out, folding up the necks of your Chaos Warrior armor is not enough to keep your head safe.

Julia was pretty shocked by this, and I felt great about the board state at this point, even though she was on two tokens and both were desecrated. Not much of importance happened in the rest of the round. The Bearer charged forward, Zarshia took a shot, and my Sharpener moved onto an objective. Before the end phase the Ravagers inspired.

After the first round, we were at 6-6, as Julia scored nicely (Set Explosives, Iron Grasp, and… some other stuff) in the end phase. I had some bounty from the kill, a surge, and also scored Wreckers, I think. Going into round 2, I had Loaded for Bear, Spread Havoc, and Set Explosives in hand. So, no surges but a reliable end phase.

I don’t remember round 2 too well. I got Cragan down at some point, but it took my Wielder and Bearer to get the job done. Julia got some surges off, and Razek and Zarshia were still on treasure tokens with defensive upgrades going down. I scored Set Explosives and Spread Havoc, but Julia also got some big scores, Supremacy being one of them, so we were still pretty even. I think I kept Loaded for Bear (hadn’t seen enough upgrades yet) and drew into Fields of Blood and Critical Effort.

This game was mine to lose. I had all my fighters, Julia had only two. Zarshia was in the mid-board, and Razek was in the backfield. I don’t fully remember what happened, but I think my Scriptor did some unsuccessful crit-fishing against Zarshia. In one of my final turns I charged with the Wielder, rolling three hammers with a reroll. I got a bunch of successes, but no crits, unfortunately, and Razek got a single crit to reduce the damage by 1, leaving him on 1 wound to grab a token or whatever. I lost 16-14.

It was a really nice game, and Julia was a lovely opponent, so no complaints there. But I would certainly have liked to start with a win and also felt like I didn’t quite capitalize on the momentum I got from the early Khagra kill. Ah well, on to the next game.

Game 2 vs. Grinkrak’s Looncourt

Next up, I was against John and his (very) shiny Loonknights. Looncourt is a warband I think looks super interesting, always fun to play against them.

John was a relatively new Underworlds player with only a bunch of Rivals and a small handful of Nemesis games under his belt. He had paired his Looncourt with Edge of the Knife / Pillage & Plunder.

I set up more or less the same way as before. With seven fighters there’d be plenty of people to single out for the Scriptor.

In the first battle round, I took out a condemned Poking Snark and scored some surges. John also scored some glory and put Mobbed on Grib before launching him into my midline. I don’t remember if the attack landed or not, but in the next activation, the Wielder hopped in and cut both the wonky lancer and his mount in two. With this threat eliminated, I could relax a bit.

John played well, teleporting a goblin into my backline to grab a token and definitely did what he could to stay in the game. In the end phase, we both scored some stuff, with John getting Strip the Realm off because I didn’t remember what I’d promised myself. I was still ahead, but I could not breathe easy just yet.

Round two, I cleared off a few more of the valiant knights, and while John fought heroically (as brave knights are wont to do), he could not keep up. In the end, only one or two goblins remained, and I had secured a 19-12 victory.

It was time for lunch. Anders who famously won with Wurmspat last year came by with his little nurgling (baby) for at chat during lunch. Very nice of him to poke his head in and even nicer to give the rest of us a chance this year.

Game 3 vs. Zarbag’s Gitz

Back from lunch and ready to face Stefan and his CtC/PnP Gitz. Stefan was also a very nice and amiable fellow (he did end up winning Most Sporting Opponent), so even if I didn’t exactly look forward to the matchup, he was a pleasure to play with.

I’d played a few test games against Zarbag and figured it was a good idea to pull some of the teeth before they inspired: Zarbag himself, the Squigs, and Drizgit mainly. Snirk I left pretty much alone, me being primarily relegated to R1 attacks with 2 hammers—I didn’t fancy my odds.

Stefan deployed with the archers in the back and screened the Squigs with Snirk and Zarbag. I condemned a Squig in the first activation and then moved the Bearer onto the treasure token in neutral territory and delved it.

Stefan sent someone forward (don’t really remember who), but I do remember he moved the condemned Squig into his own backline. No inspires for me this round. It’s not a huge deal-breaker in this matchup, as the massive 4 damage on the Wielder won’t make much difference, and even the 2 + Grievous on the Bearer is not really necessary. Getting the Bearer or Scriptor on 2 dodge would have been useful, though, and extra cards can be big. But alas.

Most of round 1, I spent trying to grab tokens and make Stefan’s scoring harder, but it felt like the wrong play. He still scored Broken Prospects, some other stuff, Set Explosives maybe? He ditched Strip the Realm, which did feel good.

The rest of the game is a bit of a blur. There was a lot of back and forth, and I went through my surges pretty effortlessly. I killed some of the Gitz, but not enough. The biggest thing was probably that I did not manage to deny his Torn Landscape.

A 16-20 loss against the Gitz, but a great game nonetheless.

Game 4 vs. Zarbag’s Gitz

I went straight on to tackle another Gitz PnP/CtC, this time piloted by Daniel from Vienna, Austria. When I said I’d just had this matchup, he immediately went, “I’m sorry,” but I assured him that he didn’t need to be. Turns out, I was the one that needed to go “… sorry” in the end.

We set up and started going at it. I don’t remember many details from this game, as there was one major factor during the entire match: Daniel practically could not roll successes on his attacks. Some did go through, but they were few and far between. Again, standing on treasure with my sharpener through round 1, I saw Strip the Realm discarded in the first end phase. Phew.

I killed more goblins this time around, with only Snirk and 1-2 other Gitz alive. The thing that stands out to me the most was that Daniel had moved his Cataclysm value all the way up to three. So, before the final end phase, I played Healing Potion to clear wounds off my Bearer, leaving only three damaged/slain fighters and no Wreckers from him. This, along with his horrid attack dice (they looked really nice, though), meant I squeezed out an 18-15 victory. I apologized for taking advantage of his bad dice.

Daniel did a very nice thing, by the way: whenever he delved a token, he would place a marker next to it so it was easy to count how many delves he had managed and which tokens had been delved. This made it very easy to follow his flipping back and forth, and it was also easy to figure out if the token was a treasure or cover when the delving began at the start of a battle round.

Time for a coffee break and a piece of Danish (a type of pastry, if you must know).

Game 5 vs. Khagra’s Ravagers

Jono from the Thunderworlds crew sat down across from me and let his Ravagers out of the box ready to desecrate some stuff. I was intent on getting revenge on the Slaves to Darkness after the first round loss. I condemned Cragan and I’m not really sure what I did then. Perhaps a charge with the scriptor onto the central token trying to get an inspire off and score one several of the BA surges? In any case brave Sir Robin Cragan ran away to the back of the enemy board, hiding behind Khagra. The first round I played my behind off trying to deny his inspiration. In the end I had managed to grab both of the tokens on his board. One let to a bit of back and forth with him confusing himself back on but then getting pushed away by my violent blast.

It was perfect. The bearer and the wielder were in his backfield, Cragan was wounded and I’d denied his inspire. I hadn’t managed to kill any of his fighters and was on 3 glory when I passed end phase scoring to him. And that’s when I knew. I’d forgotten to delve back one of the tokens. Strip the Realm, Iron Grasp and something else went down. Juno was unsettled by his lack of inspire but was now ahead on glory and started to get defensive tech down. I cursed myself for getting Strip the Realm scored on me for the second time and this time I was on several tokens, just needed to remember delving. Idiot.

The game was still tight, first activation of round two I chopped down Razek (who was still on 3 wounds) with a charge from the wielder. But that meant my main damage dealer was out from activation 1 unless Jono killed one of the other ghosts so I could get charged out. The rest of round 2 I don’t remember too vividly.

In round 3 I remember an exchange where I was down to three ghosts and all had charge tokens. Jono’s three remaining fighters were also charged out and Khagra was on a token in my territory. I popped illusory fighter to send my wielder onto a starting hex next to Khagra but Jono sidesteps away. Lucky for me I also have commanding stride so here we are again, wielder ready to chop up Khagra. But Jono still had the push on his warscroll so he pushed back onto the treasure token and out of harms way. This was another waste of resources on my part as I should have remembered this push was a thing.

He scored some of the treasure token-glory in the end phase (Supremacy maybe?) and beat me 19-16.

He was, as everyone else had been, a blast to play against and I must say holding it together and coming back after that first round was really well done.

Game 6 vs. Thundrik’s Profiteers

So … no epic tales without a bit of tragedy, right? It was time for fratricide. I was paired against my teammate, Jesper, and his gun-toting dwarves with W&R / PnP.

I deployed pretty wide and tried to force him into a forward deployment if he wanted free pot-shots. He deployed defensively with Thundrik off to one side behind Ironhail and Alensen, Balloon-man at the back center and Lund on the other flank.

Going first, he charged Alensen forward onto a treasure token, shooting my scriptor. I reacted with Counter-charge and sent my bearer up to stand next to him. The attack went through and he did damage. Probably trying to teach the ghost that it’s impolite to point at people. Alensen delved.

In my turn, I condemned Alensen, shot back with the scriptor and did a damage and inspired.

Jesper made a bit of a rash decision, charging Drakkskewer (I don’t care what his fighter card says, that’s his name) into my backfield to take a poke at the sharpener. He whiffed and was now standing there with a charge token. My turn and the bearer swung the block around and crushed Alensen. This inspired the bearer too.

 Ironhail charged forward and shot the scriptor again for another damage.

For my third activation, my wielder made a sideways charge into Drakkskewer. I popped Cackling Court and rolled two successes, and with the wielder and sharpener next to one another, even a crit could not save balloon boy. He didn’t roll any successes, so I also scored The Perfect Cut. I’m not entirely sure what we did for the final activations. I do know that while I scored big and was way ahead, I once again managed to have Strip the Realm scored on me for not remembering to get a ghost onto a treasure token. You’d think I would have learned by now. The only thing I can say in my defense is that aside from that one delve, Jesper had not shown me any PnP cards all round, as he’d been nice enough to bottom-deck his surges.

Anyways, the game unfolded, and it turns out that Headsmen enjoy fighting 3-health fighters with one defense die. I also made a bunch of crits and successes in my defense rolls, so only the scriptor went down. After the second round, Thundrik was holding it down on his own, and everyone else was dead. Jesper did score alone in the dark, but I was up by a lot of points.

Jesper won the roll-off for the third round and charged Thundrik smacked the sharpener down. The wielder thanked him by charging in, swinging three hammers with rerolls, doing 4 damage. As the final head- and beardless dwarf fell, the scriptor materialized next to the wielder in the edge hex to deny Stay Close and close out the 21-10 win. As there was a maximum glory diff of 7 in the Clash. I did give my teammate a bit of free glory before the end, marking the game down at 21-14. You’re welcome, Jesper.

Dinnertime!

Game 7 vs. Grymwatch

Now I got to meet one of my heroes, Pawel, who had been playing Spiteclaw at the 2024 World Championships. An absolute legend in my eyes. I’m repeating myself but he was super friendly.

This time, he had brought the noble Duke Crackmarrow and his noble retinue.

I had a very lucky objective hand with three surges to help me get started. For the first activation, I believe I charged the scriptor onto the token in neutral territory and grabbed two surges off that — Get It Done and Critical Effort, I think.

Pawel sent the valiant greatsword-wielding Gristlewell forward onto a treasure token in my board, but I’m pretty sure the attack whiffed.

Then I made my chess move. I knew getting Crackmarrow was the main thing if I were to have a chance here, so I used Discorporate to teleport the bearer onto a token in his backfield next to two of the little ghouls (Butcher and Master Talon, perhaps), delving it in the process. I think I popped a Guard token on my wielder too with Shields Up. Crackmarrow was off to the other side but well within charge range of my wielder. I hoped this would force him to react defensively or force him to use Crackmarrow to grab tokens and get him out of position.

Pawel put Canny Sapper on Crackmarrow and played another ploy, sending the leader down into a snare hex in my territory next to his Gristlewell, the squire. Not sure what he did for his activation — perhaps a move onto the second token in his territory? I charged the Duke with my bearer, and because of Pawel’s insistence on not rolling any successful defense dice, I landed 2 damage on the him while also scoring a surge. Perfect Strike or The Perfect Cut, who knows? Things are blurry here, but I believe we ended the round with the Duke still alive and both of us scoring stuff. Pawel discarded Strip the Realm. Scores were 9-9 going into round 2.

I think Pawel got first activation in round two, but I don’t remember what he did. Maybe he attacked the bearer and pushed him away? I know that after that, I played Illusory Fighter to teleport my wielder down next to Crackmarrow to lop off the Duke’s head with a horrified Gristlewell helplessly forced to watch.

At this point, it was my game to lose. I started killing ghouls left and right, and even with their two defense, Pawel kept rolling double shields. The dice must have bought into the illusion, thinking that the ghouls were armored watchmen, thus defending on shields? At one point, the bearer of the block managed to squash the bats, who were rolling three defense dice in cover with a reroll. No succeses. The bearer also went down but rose again later thanks to Terminus demanding eternal service.

Even with this, Pawel was scoring his deck, and Valreek managed to put three damage on the wielder in the penultimate activation. My big guy was in the mid board on 2 health. Horrifying. It was only because I was able to use Commanding Strike and pull him out of reach of the final ghoul that I managed to save him. Pavel pinged the wielder with total collapse but was still at one health. The bearer cleared up Valreek, leaving a single ghoul in Pawel’s territory to run home to his quaint village and relay the tale of the Duke’s heroic last stand.

Final score was 21-17.

Phew!

I made a lot of attacks this game and Pawel did not have one successful save roll. Brutal.

Afterthoughts

I’m glad I stuck with headsmen. A few more practice games leading up to the event and I might even have done a bit better. Overall I am happy with my performance and aside from a few jarring mistakes (the Strip the Realm Jono scored on me in game five will keep me up at night) I am satisfied with how I played. Most of the games were close and I did not get blown out in any games. So I had a fighting chance in all of them and apart from my insistence on forgetting to stand on treasure tokens I met most of my goals.

I was number 12 out of the 37 players at the tournament and 17^th in the overall scores (including quiz, warband aestethics, sporting opponent and team performance).

I think it’s pretty obvious that we could use a rules update to reign in a few of the top performers, mainly Zarbag’s Gitz, Countdown to Cataclysm and Pillage and Plunder but I’m not going to go into that here. All I will say is that while some decks and warbands are overperforming, I don’t think playing against them is a negative play experience and they don’t auto-win at all. I would like a wee bit more counterplay available (aka. more things for my opponent to score when I forget to do the thing).

Shout out to all my opponents, my team mates Danni and Jesper (sorry man), Thomas and Jonas for organizing, all the international people joining us, Mats from CriticalFocusChannel for setting up the stream of the finals, a special shout-out to Frederik coming back from paternity leave and taking the overall victory after only a handful of practice games. Also a very special shoutout to Michael/Vintro for bringing Spiteclaw and performing so well. There is hope for the skaven master race, yes-yes!

The event was great and the meta feels interesting to me even if the balance is a bit off and I can’t wait to pick up a different warband and deck to start tinkering with. At the moment I’m painting Ylthari, maybe they’re next?

---

Thanks once again to Mikkel for sharing his thoughts with us, and for shedding light on the Headsmen. Despite their struggles into a goblin meta, he did pretty well for himself!

While there are a few Love Letters in the works, there is always room for more. I’d love to hear your thoughts about an older or lesser or weird warband/pairing, what drove you to fall in love with it, and how you’ve piloted it to success – and especially piloting it to fun. If you have a warband you’d love to wax poetic about and serenade the wider community, let me know! I’m always accepting new submissions at SpentGlory@gmail.com. Until next time, grab the warband you love, a couple friends, and Spend some Glory!