This week, we’re treated to a warband overview by Davy, longtime showrunner at What the Hex, who recently won the NOVA Open with Da Kunnin Krew and an ES/PP build. It’s part of the Love Letters Series, where readers discuss the warbands and pairings that they enjoy the most, and Davy has a lot to say about how best to use DKK in the current meta. When the warband first released, it was pretty well undercooked, and even after the rules update improving the warscroll a touch, most people continued to write it off as a lost cause.
Not Davy! A fellow ‘play what you enjoy and it’s all gonna work out‘ player, he decided to take something fun to a grand clash regardless of what the meta might suggest, and came away the winner anyways, even taking down a Zarbag in the finals. He did something similar earlier this year with The Dread Pageant, and he’s making quite the competitive statement this year, taking ‘lesser’ warbands and finding success after he finds fun.
That’s twice this year Davy has won a Grand Clash, and has double-punched a ticket to Worlds now. He and I were co-streamers at Worlds last year, during which time he was recorded saying ‘there’s a reason I’m behind the microphone instead of sitting at the table’. Those excuses are gone, sir, GONE! Let’s peer into Da Kunnin’ mind of Wisconsin’s finest and hear how to leverage Da Kunnin Krew in Embergard.
Well folks, I finally did a thing, and that meant my podcast brother from another podcast mother came a-knocking to see if I’d be willing to write an article. So here goes.
I’m writing this love letter to tell you why I played Da Kunnin Krew at NOVA and maybe why you’d want to do so too. (Don’t worry Thricefold, I still love you. Slaanesh demands it, even across editions). I’ll caveat this by saying that I have now played the Krew (in second edition- I did love them in first) for a total of 10 games, with eight of those being at the NOVA open. I’ve also played against them once. So my sample size is about as small as it could be when writing one of these.
In the lead up to NOVA, I found myself with just enough time to paint one warband, which was going to be Zarbag’s Gitz for my son who was also going to NOVA. That meant I needed to bring something I’d already painted. My general rule is to not bring something I’ve already won big with. Thankfully for me, that list is very, very small. I wavered on whether I’d bring something unthinkingly smashy (Gorechosen on Reckless Fury/Raging Slayers) or with a playstyle that I really liked (getttin’ on tokens!). I was so uncertain that I actually left it to the last minute, bringing both warbands and our binder of cards. In the end, I decided that one game of practice was a lot better than no games of practice and that I’d probably have more fun playing and losing with a hold playstyle than playing and winning with an aggro one.
Warscroll
What caught my attention about the Kunnin Krew was the warscroll… the fighters aren’t bad, but they aren’t going to straight up stat-check anyone either. So let’s take a look at that real quick:
The inspire has been modified so that you can still access your inspired side even if someone is rude enough to play Brawler against you (I’m looking at you Jesse). For this, you need to land a kill, or a successful hit while the opponent is flanked or surrounded. The latter half of this inspire led me to really, really trying hard to build a deck for this warband that included Blazing Assault so I could bring Hidden Aid. (Also a contender: Wrack & Ruin, for Phil’s favorite upgrade, Henchman. https://www.themortalrealms.com/whatthehex/thebestaround). But I found that more important than getting help with the inspire was finding ways to force your opponent to come to you with the threat of less interactive scoring (see Emberstone Sentinels’ big end phases). In general, the highest priority inspires are your two big fellers- Torka and Mannok, with Krookgrin being a distant second tier. Nobody cares about Shank, or Gikkit. Sorry guys.
The next ability up is Kneebiter, which is fairly specific. So specific that I forgot about it until my final game of the tournament, but it was game winning in that one. This lets any of the minions (that means you too Krookgrin!) provide double duty for supporting. So one guy can flank and surround an enemy. This is particularly effective when paired with defensive abilities like guard cards (see Settle In or Wary Delver) or 2/3 of your warscroll abilities. Once a minion has tanked a hit, hopefully scoring or helping score an objective, they’re likely in great position to help inspire the big dogs.
Now back to the good part! A Kunnin’ Plan is the ability that brought my boys to the yard, especially after the errata that made it much tastier (bye move token on Mannok, not gonna miss ya). Push up to three of your fighters (just the minions, boo!) a number of spaces equal to the round number? The biggest problem with this one is that the sky is the limit- you will often feel like there’s a better time to use this amazing ability and sit on it for too long. Too long is defined as: 1- Mannok being straight pasted by a rude Borgit. 2- The game already being decided before you use it. 3- All your minions being toasted before you get a chance to finish Plannin’. But if you told me I had an ability that was a “once per game you can get a free sidestep” I’d be there in a heartbeat. The slightly awkward part of this ability is that it is so…. very… close… to being an ability you play during the power step. Instead, you have to use it after an action step, yours or the opponent’s. This means that it’s a window that you can potentially miss if there’s a lot going on. The applications here are myriad. With my build, the obvious one was for jumping on tokens, but I often used it to set up a juicy inspire or to retreat from a big threat (bye Uglug, ya big bully!). As the event went on, I found myself triggering this ability earlier and earlier. Cover up crucial feature tokens and you can slow the scoring of even silky smooth decks like Pillage and Plunder. Even getting on tokens early to trigger a big By the Numbers was worth it.
Next on deck is the ability that probably won me the most games over the course of the event. Dirty Tricks. It’s awkward. It’s clunky. It is dead in the water late in a round. It feels so, so thematic when you fire it off. When coupled with some card draw, (oh, I see you’re still here, By the Numbers) it really can be very stacked in your favor. It creates your own decision points too- making a starting hand with three upgrades and two ploys a lot more palatable. Over the course of eight games, I think I triggered this ability seven times. Four of those times, I had enough cards in hand to guarantee that whatever my opponent picked, I would still determine the dice results. Twice I had it 2/3 in my favor and the odds were with me. Once, my opponent pulled what they guessed…. and then my consolation card draw solved the problem I was trying to solve anyways! It’s important to note that the dice still get rolled if this ability doesn’t go off. So sometimes you get to have your cake and eat it too. With a more passive build like ES/PP, the defensive bumps are so good. I kept thinking I’d find space to use it on offense (kill Snirk despite 3 dodge? Yes please!) but I never had enough defensive breathing room. Literally every time I used it was on my own defensive rolls or enemy attacks. But the magic is that you can use it on *either* player’s defensive or offensive rolls. That means that if you have a really important attack that you’ve stacked dice and re-rolls on, you can play the odds, take the roll and if you absolutely trip up, and end up with one success on a four hammer, fully supported, one reroll attack (what up, Mannok?) you can tank your opponent’s defensive roll.
And that leaves Murk Lurkers. While Dirty Tricks purports to be an offensive/defensive buff, there’s no mistaking that Murk Lurkers is an out and out defensive ability. It gives each of your defensive dice two more faces that are successful. This pairs very nicely with a deck like Emberstone that often prefers to leave features on their treasure side, rather than their cover side. Couple it with a guard card, and Gikkit can be rolling two dice where you are guaranteed two defensive successes. If I was in a matchup where early attacks were going to have a huge impact on the game (what up, Knives!) then I’d trigger this on even single die defense rolls. Unfortunately, you do have to declare this ability before seeing the attack roll. I’d rate this the weakest of their three “once per game” abilities, and it’s still super solid.
Fighters
With the warscroll sorted, maybe a quick rip through the fighter cards?
Mannok is the boss and the place to start. Five health is his biggest asset. And that’s because he needs to stay alive long enough to proc “A Kunning Plan” His attacks are… not great uninspired. But once he’s up, he’s incredibly accurate, and still lacking desperately in damage. But at range 2 with three hammers and ensnare, he’s a very reliable candidate for bumping folks off of important hexes… be they attack spots or features. I went in to the event thinking Torka was going to be my main workhorse, but Mannok ended up doing way more work than I expected.
Speaking of the Torkinator…. What a great benefit from the inspire. Going from one block to two makes it so that I often hold him back to make sure he doesn’t get too much early damage before real defense comes online. And this is a guy that loves Murk Lurkers. If the opponent is sporting some big health piles on the other side, then this is candidate number one for inspires, grievous, and keen eye.
For the minions, Krookgrin proves to be the most awkward. If I’m facing an opponent with low damage and high accuracy, Krooky goes out in front to tank a hit, then retreat onto a treasure token to nurse his injuries. When uninspired, he’s the easiest to hit at one dodge, but on the plus side he does two damage. At a sad, sad, two swords. Krookgrin’s main job was not to die, which he sometimes even pulled off. I think I made… one attack with this guy all tournament?
Gikkit was a total work horse. As the only fighter who starts on two defense, he’s a perfect candidate to run forward and then curl into the fetal position with Wary Delver or Settle In. His attack is awful. After inspire, it’s one tier above awful. No one cares, but he’ll probably inspire because Torka or Mannok have used him for accuracy. Such is the life of a grot.
Shank… came into the tournament feeling like the worst fighter. And… he probably is. One block that doesn’t improve on inspire is straight doo-doo. But that ranged attack sometimes comes in clutch. It can trigger unexpected inspires. It can help with Hostile Takeover. It can help with Aggressive Defender. It can give you something to do while scoring Share the Load. All combining to elevate Shank from the status of “really bad fighter” to “still a pretty bad fighter, but not as bad as you thought”. When people say “the sky’s the limit”, they’re not talking about grots.
So are they top tier? Probably not. Path to Glory put them in the B-tier, which is probably wise. Go listen to Mark and George’s excellent coverage. But it was a lot of fun, and it let me play in a way that cared about holding treasure, and that felt like a real throwback, which for this grognard, felt like the true win.
Arguably being Dad of the Century and teaching your kid how to win Favorite Opponent/Best Sportsman would have been the true win for me, but Davy’s too humble to say that.
Wrap
Thanks again to Davy for providing this overview, and putting the Kunnin’ Gitz through to the promised land. Let me know if you take them back out for another go! I tried them with ES/RR last week and had a surprising amount of success with Torka going full Chungus – and a Dirty Tricks to set Khagra’s Three Shield On Guard result to three surroundeds was pretty thrilling too. Hopefully you can have some fun like I have!
That’s right, Andrew – I’m showing everybody how bad I thrashed you. Where did all your fighters go? Whatsamatter, Morkrow got your tongue?
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!
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