Hey gang – today I wanted to work up a quick reference that will hopefully be useful for new players as well as those who are more established and looking to introduce somebody to the game. Generally speaking, your odds of enjoying the game and wanting to play again are going to be higher if you choose a warband that’s intuitive to use, easy to learn, and gives you a relatively strong chance of winning the game. Obviously, if you or the new player in question really like a specific team, don’t let this list deter you – people can and do have fun with the things they like the look of, even if it’s confusing or hard to play! Plenty of newcomers might play a given faction in AoS and want to use the models from ‘their team’, so to speak, and I don’t want to shut that down.

If you’re more open to playing anything to try out Underworlds, or have no idea where to begin, I’ve put together a list of suggestions below! I’ll categorize them into top choices, solid choices, things you could consider, and warbands best left alone until you’re more experienced.

If you want a more in-depth review of every warband in the game, click here for the master list
If you’re wanting more information about what Underworlds is and how to get started, click here for a beginner’s guide

What Makes a Good Warband for a Beginner?

All things in a vacuum, some warbands are going to be easier to pick up and play without having too much to learn on top of the base game’s mechanics. Underworlds can be overwhelming for some at first, and if your warband throws another layer of complexity on top of your first steps, you might have a harder time. I also want to suggest warbands that you’ll have fun playing and probably be more successful with – something you can win games with even if you don’t play them perfectly. The things I’m looking for when I make these suggestions are:

• Solid stats
• Relative competitive strength to reduce the number of feel-bad games
• Straightforward warscroll abilities
• Lower complexity effects
• Minimal tracking and weird reaction windows etc
• Ideally no need to reference FAQ/Errata and can use the printed material
• Plays well in Rivals format and doesn’t require Nemesis deckbuilding to ‘work’

Top Choices

Ironsoul’s Condemnors – three strong fighters with a braindead-simple inspire condition and really concise warscroll abilities. Minimal reading or need to remember anything extra

The Emberwatch – three strong fighters that won’t die on you right away, will probably hit things, and have good single-use warscroll abilities. This warband also can play pretty much any deck!

The Starblood Stalkers – straightforward token-control gameplan with all-round abilities in Asterisms will guide new player’s decisions, and surprisingly strong defense potential

Xandire’s Truthseekers – relatively simple mechanics and benefits when you lose fighters means new players can stay ‘in the game’ for longer

The Wurmspat – tremendous fighter profiles and capacity to remain on the table allows new players to make use of their models all game long

Myari’s Purifiers – four solid fighters with well-defined roles, ‘always on’ abilities, and the opportunity for rerolls.

Khagra’s Ravagers – strong fighters with a straightforward gameplan and great warscroll abilities

Morgok’s Krushas – three strong fighters that hit hard and have some fun (though a little more challenging to use) warscroll abilities

Solid Beginner Warbands

Kurnoth’s Heralds – solid fighters but limited by wanting to remain in their home territory

The Blood of the Bull – Powerful and straightforward warscroll ability to add dice to attack or defense, slightly complicated by the delving mechanic to generate more dice.

Skittershank’s Clawpack – every warscroll ability is useful and has a straightforward gameplan, though when and where to use each will potentially confound newer players

Mollog’s Mob – Highly accurate with a healing leader and resurrection will allow newer player’s misplays to be forgiven quite readily

Borgit’s Beastgrabbaz – quite accurate and survivable, rated ‘most fun’ warband to play, and have a very simple inspire condition. They do, however, have some more brainy warscroll abilities and might take more practice to learn

Jaws of Itzl – three strong fighters (and a pile of snakes) with relatively straightforward abilities, rated as second most fun to play in the game, though requires slightly more finesse than other top choices

Zikkit’s Tunnelpack – loads of fun, relatively accurate, and mostly straightforward warscroll, but does have a few more things to remember and keep track of than other teams

Ylthari’s Guardians – powerful fighters, with four great warscroll abilities you can use whenever. Unfortunately the inspiration and card draw mechanic is tough to conceptualize for new people

Cyreni’s Razors – very accurate, the ability to inspire whoever you want, and relatively survivable, though the Hammertide ability can be hard to ‘get right’

Worth Considering

Elathain’s Soulraid – Requires forethought when managing changes in per-round abilities and inspiration, but strong fighters and abilities can compensate for some mistakes

The Shadeborn – potentially challenging to manage their warscroll abilities and inspiration, but fighter profiles are potent enough to accommodate new players if they have a good grasp of miniatures games

The Gnarlspirit Pack – solid fighter profiles, but requires forethought and advanced planning for management of Beast Spirit vs Inspired modes

The Skinnerkin – Dice dependency and resource management may frustrate newer players, especially if they do not find early attack success

The Sons of Velmorn – Straightforward enough warscroll but difficult to use effectively. More dice-dependent than most warbands and may frustrate new players

Thorns of the Briar Queen – Potent teleportation abilities in the form of Mugging, but management of Charge tokens for Wave of Terror and appropriate positioning of mugging fighters may be challenging to track and consider for newer players

Kamandora’s Blades – fragile fighters with some complexity in the warscroll, though they do synergize marvelously with Deadly Synergy

Crimson Court – four solid fighters, but the warscroll both requires you to read a rules-update version and has some confusing bloodthirst vs inspired things as well as weird timing windows

Headsmen’s Curse – powerful leader with some fun tricks, but requires more finesse than usual to succeed with

The Grymwatch – strong warband but requires a few more things than usual to keep track of and remember, and seven fighters (six of which can resurrect) makes activation choices more challenging

Dread Pageant – great warscroll abilities but only usable under certain conditions, inspire is difficult to manage, and the fighters are lackluster uninspired (though awesome if you do inspire)

Gorechosen of Dromm – among the best fighter stats in the game. Warscroll has undergone multiple FAQ and rules updates and is more confusing and harder to use now.

Zarbag’s Gitz – among the ‘best’ competitive warbands in the game, but with 9 fighters, multiple errata to the warscroll, and some finesse required for their abilities, newer players may trip over themselves and/or not remember things

Spiteclaw’s Swarm – lower damage output and difficult to use warscroll, but has potential to be quite strong once ‘figured out’

The Farstriders – straightforward gameplan, but liable to be killed quickly.

Save For Later

Thyrielle’s Zephyrites – the placement of Tzul is a make-or-break thing for your competitive success, as is making sure the correct fighters land in the correct spots (both friendly and enemy) to get the most benefit which can be challenging for a new player to conceptualize and harder to accomplish. Additionally, many of their abilities trigger on crits, which may leave you feeling frustrated when the dice don’t cooperate.

Thanatek’s Tithe – Complex warscroll with a difficult to obtain and manage resource, and propensity to struggle if leader or Retainers go down early

The Thricefold Discord – High-risk ability in Temptations leads to a substantial chance the player will actively work against their interests and truly does require Mastery to use effectively

Rippa’s Snarlfangs – overall poor efficiency in the warscroll and really only one good fighter make it challenging to succeed with even for more experienced players

Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers – a skill-demanding warband that has a huge requirement for deliberate positional management, as well as significant risk to the controlling player when the trap is poorly placed

The Exiled Dead – Remarkably different playlines than any other warband with considerable action complexity, which will make new players’ capacity to play quickly and efficiently very difficult

Kainan’s Reapers – slow team with complex mechanics that is very difficult to ‘play well’ without lots of skill and practice

Knives of the Crone – incredibly dice dependent with lots of reading and need to remember

Grandfather’s Gardeners – challenging to track the cycle mechanic, and overall lower accuracy

Hexbane’s Hunters – weak and squishy fighters with some confusing and hard to remember warscroll mechanics

Thundrik’s Profiteers – low damage output, slow, and difficult to master

Blackpowder’s Buccaneers – too much reliance on one fighter

Grinkrak’s Looncourt – a darn confusing warscroll

Da Kunnin’ Krew – complex mechanics with lower competitive power

Ephilim’s Pandaemonium – lots of reading, strange timing windows, and lots to remember

Brethren of the Bolt – weak fighters that also require you to play Tetris while playing Underworlds

Zondara’s Gravebreakers – complex interactions between fighters that will be easy for a new player to get wrong

Daggok’s Stab-Ladz – wordy warscroll with lackluster effects, and incentivizes you not to charge, when most players will want to charge often to learn the game and get things done

The Sepulchral Guard – lower competitive success, low damage output, fragile fighters, and need for errata warscroll

Wrap

That’s all, folks! This is of course only my opinion, but hopefully it gives you a starting point for choosing a warband to get rolling with as you learn the game. If you want a more in-depth review of every warband in the game, click here for the master list. If you’re wanting more information about what Underworlds is and how to get started, click here for a beginner’s guide.

No matter what you choose, I hope you enjoy Spending Glory in the Underworlds and can help another new player get in on the fun in your own time!