Welcome back friends! It’s been a week since we opened the Tiers of Joy community survey asking players which warbands they find the most enjoyable and engaging to play, and which ones they find frustrating, boring, or guilty to pilot. You all provided 1,854 separate data points for me to work though, and as a result we’ve got ourselves a banger of a tier list.

Hopefully this can be both interesting to the wider community, as well as help you think about how to pick your next warband. If you’re a new player who is uncertain about where to start, some of the following might help guide you towards which warbands to begin with, and which warbands to avoid.

I’ll put each warband into the tiers they landed, and then share a few voter comments to provide some context. Let’s get ready to cry some Tiers of Joy!

This post is part of the ‘Avin a Good Time Series, and you can read the other entries here

Let’s refresh what each tier meant for the purposes of this project:

S – SUPER fun warband and I don’t see the point in playing anything else.
A – Awesome to play this warband, and I consistently enjoy bringing them to the table.
B – Baseline fun, playing this warband is as enjoyable as playing Underworlds normally is (which is still a lot!)
C – Can be fun, but either not tremendously so or the risk of disappointment potentially outweighs enjoyment.
D – Dry, generic feel that doesn’t make me interested in bringing them out, or the risk of disappointment outweighs enjoyment.
F – Feels bad, man. I’d rather not play Underworlds at all if I had to use this warband.

S Tier

Borgit’s Beastgrabbaz
– Solid, flexible warband with some tricks and a variety of types of fighters. I feel like it can be one of the standards that other warbands could be measured against.
– The play around Uglug is interesting.
– When paired with Pillage and Plunder these guys are a terror. They’re accurate and can do a lot of damage quickly. Double shields on their important fighters also make them very survivable.
– Just a delight. Sacrifice the littles to move the bigs into place. Hunt Da Trophy? Just good old fashioned gitz-y fun.
– AESTHETIC

A Tier

Jaws of Itzl
– The massive appeal of lizardmen does a lot of the lifting here but it’s also an elite fighter warband with a twist that both makes them more flexible to build around and stops the play pattern from being “ABC – Always Be Charging”
– Giant dinos going round with their little snake buddies. I mean that’s pretty cool right?
– They’re big, they’re mean, and they have a weakness to small arms fire. These guys rely on your opponent trying to hit them with a melee attack and then failing. If they don’t inspire they struggle to stay alive.
– Pairing them with Strike decks are enough reason for them to be played as intended: to S-mash!

The Grymwatch
– Peak horde playstyle. Zarbag should take notes on how to not be annoying.
– Their mobility is excellent, their raise mechanic is VERY good because you can bring back folks in a power step before you activate giving yourself many options that are nearly impossible to counter. Even if Crackmarrow goes down early they’re still very reliable to score what you need to.
– Half the fun is roleplaying being delusional while playing these guys and yelling random stuff which makes no sense
– Love the models! Also a strong warband that kinda rewards your trading

Ylthari’s Guardians
– Love the multiple viable options at every step of the game
– Rapidly becoming one of my favorite warbands ever, the Guardians have such sweet utility in their warscroll and four fighters with varying specialties. Even when playing the same deck pairing over games with them, each game can feel unique.
– Great fighter profiles (without being too strong) and very fun warscroll with built in draw tech. All of the abilities on the warscroll are useful and situationally very powerful but it’s also very important to pick the right ability. Lots of options, high skill ceiling
– Planting seeds is a hoot, and each sylvaneth has their specialty. One of the most fun, with a flexible card.

Grandfather’s Gardeners
– Incredibly unique team that is a fun puzzle to master
– Manage the cycle, be tanky, do decent damage. Really no complaints.
– I like that you basically can’t be tabled, so I’ll always have a model or two to play with all game long
– I like the concept but the mental load can be a lot, especially for an opponent

Zondara’s Gravebreakers
– Peak gaming. Shuffling around and doing a lot of stupid stuff and hoping it works out is basically how I live my life already.
– This is one of my favorite warbands at the moment. Being able to Delve to draw cards and raise a fighter is SO good and provides interesting strategy choices between the two option. Want to run 24 power cards and actually see all of them? You can with Zondara’s!
– You can build your deck with low glory cost upgrades and inspire your wolf quicker… Then dive bomb deep into your enemy’s backfield, so much fun!
– Probably the best lore in the game

The Emberwatch
– The Emberwatch have the unique ability to appear in your backfield and threaten important fighters instantly. It also allows you to threaten treasure tokens that your opponent has hidden from you. Not to mention they have accurate attacks and good defense characteristics.
– Movement shenanigans are interesting to play with/around
– Strong fighters, very toolboxy warscroll that will allow for different playstyles and also give you a lot of ways to adapt as you go.

Thricefold Discord
– I play this at every opportunity, it is so rewarding!
– I love how they combine “elite aggro” with “crazy mechanics” in a way that isn’t really replicated elsewhere.
– These guys are very awesome. They can deal a lot of damage and its hard to stop. You can build decks around fun ideas with objective holding and aggro with them. Very flexible warband.
– I always enjoy playing against them.

Ironsoul’s Condemnors
– These posterboys are a class apart
– Have you looked at the fighter stats for these guys?! Their warscroll is actually pretty solid as well. You can tailor your plan around Flex, Hold, or Assault pretty easily. I don’t know why we haven’t seen these guys do better at events.
– If you’re into HULK SMASH, and I am, then these are for us

Morgok’s Krushas
– Boy, do I ever love charging. And hitting things. And getting hit back and not being too upset about it.
– They’re big and green and they’ve got armor on. These guys hit hard, have a lot of wounds, and inspire to 2 block. They also have a warscroll ability to prevent a ploy from being resolved. How cool is that? Their only real weakness is mobility, you’ll need to deck build around that a bit.
– Big brutes with strong profiles and some interesting warscroll abilities.
– SHUT IT, PIPSQUEAK!

Knives of the Crone
– The models are so good and the rules are goofy but fun
– Not my speed and low base damage, but the gambling aspect of prophecies can be very fun, especially for fans of dice-rolling!
– Yahtzee!
– I love how often I can score ALL THIRTEEN objectives.
– This is one of the warbands where it can shift up or down a full tier just based on dice luck. When they’re doing their thing, it’s a fun warband to play as and against. When they’re missing and not getting any prophecies, it’s much less enjoyable for either player.

B Tier

Zarbag’s Gitz
– I have no interest in playing with the supposedly best band at the moment
– No thanks. I’ve had my fill. Please get changed to not have stats that rival elite aggro warbands while also having 9 bodies and insane mobility.
– Fun abilities, bit too powerful which can be slightly bad feels to play against, but you get lots of stuff to kill which is usually fun.
– While they are OP Snirk and Scurry do allow for some very fun plays
– As OP as they are, they’re still really cool to play with & combo things into 🙂

Khagra’s Ravagers
– This warband is one of the few warbands that can successfully play “Take and Hold”. They do it well and you can have a lot of fun while doing it. – The warscroll is solid with card draw, pushes, and a flexible ability to increase accuracy or increase the chances of defending that treasure token.
– What we have here is the warband that got most increase in fun in v2 compared to the v1 version
– Drawing cards feels great, the warband mechanic does cool stuff.
– A fun warband to play with even for just the counter-aggression gameplay that doesn’t need much brain power to use

Ephilim’s Pandaemonium
– Pings + epic Starefysh model. Also allows for 200 IQ plays sometimes
– In first edition, they were fun as hell. Even if they got nerfed a bit they’re still cool in a similar way
– The miniatures, lore, and mechanics are super engaging and unique
– ‘Mastery’, as an archetype (if it even exists) was done best in this warband, and you feel masterful when you play them right

Headsmen’s Curse
– I will never get tired of playing this band
– While Mollog might be the oldest Big Bruiser style warband, I think Headsmen’s Curse is the archetype perfected.
– They’re either AWESOME, when your dice are hot. Or they feel awful because your dice are cold. If you can get the big wielder inspired and happy days and you can just chop through everything. If he misses that attack… RIP.
– I feel like there are more bad feels things that can happen than with most aggro warbands, especially if your leader dies early
– Pretty unique take on the surgical aggro. Very strong but not easy to play well

Cyreni’s Razors
– They are one of the most accurate warbands in the game right now and with their inspiration mechanic you WILL get to inspire folks.
– Hammeride fundamentally changes how you play
– Cephanyr is the clear winner here. (I see you, Jake)
– Unique abilities and fun little mini games with Hammertide and a lot of agency in your inspires. Hammertide is less oppressive than it used to be while still a great tool.
– I feel like they are more interesting than most four fighter warbands, and nicely balanced.

Crimson Court
– Very cool minis!
– Love the revamp (har har) for the Court. The hunger push/pull is back, you’re not throwing away buckets of cards for minimal effect, and their statlines are adequate to do a few different strategies.
– This warband is also surprisingly hard to take down because of their access to their warscroll heal. They feel like proper vampires now.
– You know what? I love hitting attacks. So do these bad boys.
– Pale shadow of their former glory, and I would probably like them more if I wasn’t longing for how it once was

Thundrik’s Profiteers
– I would like them more except for their low mobility, which would force me to play too defensively, nor is it something that’s particularly effective in this edition with the smaller boards and piddling damage from ranged.
– Thundrik’s IMO is a stone’s throw away from being S tier to me. Their warscroll abilities allow you a lot of counterplay options with a variety of good deck choices as well. They are super fun to play. They are also deceptively strong when it comes to damage output due to their accuracy. Good luck trying to play Jaws of Itzl into Thundrik’s…
– If you like a gunline, these are your guys, and alt inspire is fun.

Zikkit’s Tunnelpack
– Tik Tik pressure during the game is quite fun, a little mini game
– 10/10 warband, somehow turns the normally slow paced game into an adrenaline farm while rocking the best models
– Too many hoops to jump through to unlock the fun parts. The bomb is fun, and crashing the big wheel is fun, but pretty standard.
– While I feel like it’s fitting for Skaven, I don’t really enjoy how many abilities have a downside for minimal upside. This warband feels too spread thin to really be able to focus on any one thing without the flexibility that some other warbands present.

Gorechosen of Dromm
– I feel like this will be a hot take, but I like playing with and against Gorechosen. They’re perfect villains being big, beefy bags of health and damage. The plan is straightforward so as a player, I enjoy the lower mental burden. As an opponent, I usually feel like I can predict (roughly) what their plan is. It just comes down to avoiding it or trying to outfight the fight kings.
– The are so so so boring. Boring to play, boring to play against, annoying to play against. The nerf didn’t matter because their actual warband ability is they just have more stats than you.
– Ok to play with but still overshadowed by having been super overpowered early in the edition
– Sorry, Jaws of Itzl are my new best friends sad face

Mollog’s Mob
– Solid dude and solid warband.
– Accurate Bonk. You want to bonk that guy over there? Put a mushroom next to him and make it happen. However, if your big bonker goes down… Its not going to be easy…
– The big dawgg, who doesn’t love the bonks?
– If you make a “choose one” mechanic you have to make all the choices meaningful. Only once choice is meaningful: surrounded. Revamped mollog in v1 was genuinely one of my favourite warbands. This is just so boring. Where is my double charge? Where is my chuck em in? Where are my squigs that do interesting things? I genuinely hate what they did to Mollog

Daggok’s Stab-Ladz
– This warband got a glow up in fun. Their mechanics here are actually better than most, and glad to see a fresh take this edition.
– Love to stab (in an Underworlds context anyway).
– It’s a lot of fun setting up kunnin traps but the models gatekeep them from S Tier
– This warband is interesting. I’ve seen it do so well when their stabs go off, but they do fall flat on their face when it doesn’t
– Throwing away ploys to get benefits that are worse than said ploys, a ping that effectively will never work, and a warscroll that’s half dead weight as a result. Plus, I have to make move actions all day if I want to inspire? Let’s just play any other 4 fighter team.

C Tier

Blackpowder’s Buccaneers
– More animals, more fun
– With the new distinction of having the only damage 2 ranged attacks in the game, Blackpowder fills a cool niche.
– The fact that it’s a giant pirate slinging his gun and cutlass does a lot of heavy lifting here – not a fan of the rules (wish there was more minion stuff)
– The leader is pretty amazing, but if your opponent can ignore him and go for the little guys it becomes hard. Blackpowder also has trouble getting those early swag counters because the minions you want to be collecting your loot for you suck at doing so.

The Dread Pageant
– Everything fits together which is nice
– Don’t like the models or leader reliance or the 600 hoops to jump through to get your warcsroll
– What a beautiful warband.
– I haven’t seen them played very often and I wonder why? They have pretty decent stats and abilities
– Their inspiration makes the entire game feel high stakes and suspenseful

Kainan’s Reapers
– Honestly, Kainan’s Reapers would rank higher but I feel like I’m too dumb to ever really get Mortek Advance.
– Kainan’s is still a bit awkward because you have to slay stuff to inspire, but until they’re inspired they don’t really do to much damage and they’re easy to take down. The big bone daddy still hits like a truck and is hard to take down, but if you ignore him and go for the little guys it turns into an uphill battle.
– You couldn’t pay me to play a warband with movement speed 2
– Your resource to inspire is never used in any other way anymore. Give me more ways to get bone tithe, and then more ways to spend it! I want my meaningful choices back

Sepulchral Guard
– With their move mechanic you can easily force hard decisions and score cards like Share the Load in one activation or force scoring something like Careful Survey.
– Because they are so flexible you can use a lot of different decks with them.
– I’m stoked to play this warband post-update, might just be excited too lol
– The “buff” was neat and all, but it hampered the Wrack and Ruin pairing and now they feel kind of homeless without a good deck. I think the smaller boards and utter reliance on the Warden can lead to serious feel bad moments when he gets dived early in round 1 and then they’re just some bones flapping in the breeze.

Spiteclaw’s Swarm
– I think Spiteclaw’s are fun because in the hands of a skilled player you can REALLY force some hard decisions and force your opponent to engage fighters that aren’t worth any glory just to stop you from scoring cards.
– Love the warband and speed 5 base as well as board wide resurrections give a lot of mobility. Sadly their warscroll abilities are a bit too niche and the minions’ stats leave something to be desired. Not enough kill power on the two main fighters either. But still lots to do
– The amount of big brain maneuvers you can do with the abilities are super fun while also allowing to have 100% uptime on your models being on the board
– A strike team that can’t actually strike, or slay anything when they do? Count me out

Da Kunnin’ Krew
– Honestly, I just think they look dumb. The shell game is cute but it’s not enough to make me ever want to play them.
– You want to use the minions… However your minions are going to die instantly as soon as they make it into combat. It makes it hard to take advantage of some of your warscroll abilities. However several of their warscroll abilities are FUN.
– The warband is absolutely a nightmare to paint

Grinkrak’s Looncourt
– Just enough fiddly abilities that you have options without it being an annoying case of book keeping.
– The story behind these guys is just so good…
– They suck in terms of power, but at least they keep their old identity
– This warband is possibly the only destruction warband I actually like. Their warscroll is good clean fun and the models are “chef’s kiss” for goblins. I can see success with the little knights of the realm, but you’re going to need some practice to do well with them.
– They are very silly goblins and it’s just a good time

D Tier

Thorns of the Briar Queen
– Very cool and fun despite being weak in endurance
– Gorgeous models, unique push mechanic, two dodge all around. I’d rate them higher but they can very easily Just Die and have your plans crumble around you.
– After you inspire them everyone does at least 2 damage and there’s 7 of them. They also have a lot of good tools to play a flex plan. The skill ceiling is a little high, but they can definitely be a good puzzle to solve.

Myari’s Purifiers
– There are a few warbands that I just can’t get past the vibe of the models to try. Myari’s Purifiers are one of them. It’s a bunch of dorky elves with absurd hats that remind me of Go Dog Go.
– Mildly interesting tension with their permanent abilities and rerolls, not enough to make it not boring
– I don’t like this warband, I don’t like their design at ALL. They’re a NPE every time because they just sit there and do nothing. I REALLY hate that they brought this warband back into competitive play.
– Really like the “when to use it” choice mechanic.
– They’re all different so it’s fun figuring out how to get the most out of each of them

Hexbane’s Hunters
– Simply too weak to enjoy
– They did their time in the GW penalty box but now they’re back and slinging dogs everywhere which feels great… until the dogs die. But until then, heck yeah!
– Hexbane’s need some more wounds. Having only two 3 wound fighters and the rest being 2 wounds, they guys fall over in a stiff wind. They also are lacking on damage output.
– I love them to bits but I feel like they were more fun last edition so it makes me sad playing them now
– They are so bad now that they make me long for the days of getting retractable pistoled to death

The Farstriders
– A bit boring, to be honest.
– Why not just play Emberwatch?
– In the hands of a skilled player you can really take advantage of a lot of their abilities to brutal effect.
– Requires way too much luck and work to get the abilities out of, when other warbands get that or better for free

Brethren of the Bolt
– The aesthetic doesn’t do it for me, the mechanics require more brainpower than I possess, and even if I ignored all that they’re still not offering enough power to be tempting. They do make for sweet Mordheim conversions, though.
– At least they get to do something interesting throughout the game. On the assumption that you still have models by round 3 that is
– The concept is fun and they’re very different to everything else in how they play, I really enjoy the challenge of trying to figure them out.
– Fun to use & thematic, but stats make games too difficult

F Tier

Skinnerkin
– Despite being nominated as the worst band by warscroll, I would play it because I like the minis.
– A case of a lot of hoops to jump through so you can perform your unique mechanics… which aren’t really that cool. Stick a fork in these ’cause they’re done.
– Genuinely shocking in how poorly executed these guys are. Forget them, these guys basically don’t even have a warscroll
– I love Skinnerkin, however they’re a bit weak at the moment. Their damage output is a little low and they rely heavily on dice. If you can’t get meat, you can’t prevent damage. If you don’t prevent damage, your 3 wound models get deleted quickly.

Other Analyses

Most S Votes – while these warbands may have lower weighted averages since some people did not enjoy them (or actively hated them), there are also many people who REALLY like them. If you’re willing to take a gamble, there’s a chance you’ll end up finding these your all-time favorite.
– Zarbag’s Gitz
– Headsmen’s Curse
– Zikkit’s Tunnelpack
– Grymwatch
– Mollog’s Mob

This shakes out to be a reasonable mix of favorite flavors – do you like hordes and/or winning most of your games? Check out Zarbag’s and Grymwatch. Do you like having a Godzilla to bonk people with? Give Headsmen’s or Mollog a spin. Do you like zany abilities, making explosion noises, and sneaky tricks that sometimes work? Zikkit might be your man.

Most D and F votes – these warbands have occasionally been propped up by those who love them enough to drag the average higher, but the following warbands have been voted D tier or F tier the most frequently out of all respondents. You likely will find it best to avoid these warbands, as they have the highest odds of being a real bummer to play.
– The Skinnerkin
– Hexbane’s Hunters
– Brethren of the Bolt
– The Farstriders
– Spiteclaw’s Swarm

The common theme here is “my fighters die easily, don’t have good damage output, and have warscrolls that are either hard to use and/or provide little benefit when used”.

Most A and B Tier votes – these warbands might be considered the “Safest” in terms of enjoyment. Their ultimate tier list placing might not have been the highest, but the substantial number of these warbands’ respondents gave them an A or a B. You might not be blown out of the water, but you’ll probably have a solid time playing these guys.
– Ylthari’s Guardians
– Da Kunnin’ Krew
– Crimson Court
– Ephilim’s Pandaemonium
– Dread Pageant

The theme here seems to be 4-5 fighters with reasonable stat blocks, moderate to high accuracy on attacks, and warscrolls that have some flavor and a sense of control over the abilities. You’ll hit your attacks, have decisions to make all game, and have fighters who will stick around to the end.

Fewest D and F votes – if your main goal is avoiding disappointment, another way to go about it is to look at the warbands almost nobody said they disliked. The following had the fewest votes for D or F tier.
– Borgit’s Beastgrabbaz
– Grymwatch
– Ylthari’s Guardians
– Jaws of Itzl
– Morgok’s Krushas

It’s worth noting that literally zero people voted either D or F tier for Borgit, which might be why he’s the GOAT. Maybe Uglug has something to do with that too. Everybody loves that guy.

Wrap

What do you think? Were you surprised by any of the outcomes? Do you have an impassioned counter-argument to your favorite warband being criminally undervalued by jealous haters and the ignorant fools who read this page? Send comments my way at SpentGlory@gmail.com.

Until next time I hope this tier list has been fun, and helped you decide which warband to spend some glory with!