There’s a handful of good things about this deck. First off, it’s a Strike Deck which most everybody can enjoy, and it has no plot card so you can pair it with anything you want in Nemesis. The other nice thing is that for perhaps the first time in second edition, we have a deck that is designed for you to stay in your own territory. We haven’t had much in the way of defensive builds – even Emberstone Sentinels, the only Take and Hold option, pressures you to invade. A few others are somewhat territory agnostic, and we finally have an option for us folks who like to castle up and stay home. As your foolish prey steps into your Hunting Grounds, let’s look at what options the Spitewood has chosen to grace us with.
Thank you to Games Workshop for providing the page with an advance copy of this product for review and content creation.
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Hunting Grounds: The Lore
“The defenders of Kurnotheal know their environment like the back of their hand. With grace, speed, and sharply honed instincts, they outmaneuver the stumbling foes, moving to safeguard the forest’s hidden secrets and exacting a bloody toll on whoever dares to challenge them”
That last line is giving “Crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women”
This deck is all about fighting on territory you know best and using the natural advantages of that terrain to outpace bumbling invaders. Whether Kurnothi defending the spirit grove of their fallen god, ghouls defending a corpse pile rations larder, or goblins defending their dank caves, any warband can draw on the mysteries, magic, and natural elements of their homes to fight back against those who would seek to destroy them.
A few of my favorite flavor text quotes from the deck help bring this theme through:
- “Get back, wretch. None but the faithful may pass” – Leona Stratosi
- “This is my land now. Leave, or I will drench it with your blood” – Theddra Skull-Scryer
- “Welcome to my garden, little flies” – Gulgoch the Butcher
- “Get off my land, or I’ll burn you to ashes!” – Zuldrakka the Hateful
Overview
According to the marketing materials for this deck, “Strike deck that favours warbands who want to stay in their own territory, letting you manipulate the position of your warband while playing Ploys and Upgrades that spell disaster for anyone foolish enough to take the fight to you.”
As mentioned in the introduction, I love the idea of a deck that rewards you for having the fight be on your turf. So many of our decks ask us to run over the line into enemy territory, and often you get matches that devolve into a flip-flop and then a scrum in the middle. Other times, one player sets the tempo (shoutout to Matt Penner) and does the hard aggro invade, and you’re stuck choosing between dealing with their initiative or trying feebly to get over to their side and take some inertia back.
Why run when the fools will do the running for you? As we will see, you’ll get to score for attacking, hitting, and slaying in your territory, and will have the power cards to help you do it. The trick will be convincing your opponent to join you on your side of the board if their build doesn’t compel them to do so.
Who is this deck for?
This deck can realistically be for anyone, but especially for warbands whose warscrolls have special mechanics that work in friendly territory, slow warbands who struggle to invade, or warbands whose warscrolls don’t require them to be in enemy territory to get their benefits.
I’ll rate each card by specifying which of the following types of warbands will like it best. Here are my classifications of warband composition archetypes:
- Elites (3 fighter warbands)
- Big Boys (Warbands with one large fighter and a handful of lesser ones)
- Standard (4-5 fighter warbands with rough equivalence between the models)
- Hordes (6-7 fighter warbands)
Surge Objectives
Back Off!
This card is pretty solid. You don’t have to hit to score it, and a drawn attack will still get the job done. You don’t even have to push them out of your territory – you can push them out of neutral, or even out of their own. If you can manage to drive them back into your territory you’ll score this card and set yourself up for more scoring down the line.
Who likes this? Everybody
Hands Off!
This deck is starting to look like it should be called Leggo my Eggo. This is another solid choice which does not specify a territory at all. Any feature token anywhere on the board can be used to score this card. Some warbands might not care about treasures or cover tokens, but remember that Spitewood has introduced the Aqua Ghyranis token, which is a feature token. Odds are they’ll want to stand on one or the other at some point and you’ll get a shot at this surge. And if they’re intentionally avoiding tokens to counterplay this card, you’re still happy.
Careful to note though – if you slay the fighter outright, you do not score this card.
Who likes this? Everybody
Home Advantage
If you stay home, there’s a good chance they will eventually miss an attack. The more you can convince yourself that you’ll remain in your own territory, the better you like this card. Extra points for warbands with good defensive profiles and abilities.
Who likes this? Everybody
No Business Here
This one is a solid surge too, and this deck is shaping up to be pretty awesome four objectives in! You do not need to succeed with the attack, simply make one. The target does have to be in friendly territory and they also need to be flanked or surrounded, so you’ll require a little setup, but this is solid, especially the more fighters, pushes, and ranged attacks you have
Who likes this? Everybody, especially Hordes, Standard, and Big Boys
No Trespassers
Here’s our first card that isn’t rock solid, and it’s still all right. It’s a kill surge which we generally don’t appreciate, and it does specify that the fighter needs to be slain by an attack – so warscroll abilities and power cards can’t satisfy the condition. In Underworlds you’re often losing if you’re not killing at least two fighters, but will you do so in friendly territory while also having this card in hand?
Who likes this? Maybe Everybody, with higher preference for Elites and other warbands with higher accuracy and/or damage for killing potential
Usurped
This one is our worst surge in the pack. The good news is that it can happen in any territory. However, you need a target on a feature token, and you have to drive them off or slay them, and then you have to Overrun onto it. I could be wrong, but I think you cannot score this if you slide onto it with Duelist or something similar. Immediately after the attack is over, you’re not on the token. Then after the attack you can duelist, but the window for this card has closed.
Who likes this? Nobody, but maybe some select warbands with overrun mechanics or lots of dice to get crits with.
End Phase Objectives
Bloodscent
This one is pretty scorable in many games. Put two damage on somebody (or leave a 2 health fighter with 1 left). This might be a challenge if they don’t come into your territory and you don’t become Underdog. It also doesn’t score if that fighter is in neutral territory even if you are the underdog. Then, you might choose not to finish somebody off in hopes of grabbing this card, for just one glory. It will happen naturally in plenty of games so it’s fine, but there are better 1 glory cards out there.
Who likes this? Maybe Everybody, and it’s matchup dependent
Lead by Example
Whoa nelly, 2 glory end phase! Your leader has to stay home, survive, and attack twice, though they don’t have to hit. If your leader dies, this card dies too since they’re no longer in your territory, even if they attacked twice at home this round before they bit the dust. You’ll do best with this card when you have a sturdy leader with range 2 or 3, and the fewer friendlies you have to get in the way of charging out, the better.
Who likes this? Elites and Big Boys, and maybe Standard
Pinned!
Our 3 glory bomb, which immediately gets the radar going. You have to drive an enemy back into an edge hex in your territory, so they’ll be able to position intelligently and force you to maybe hit them two or three times to score it. But it will force them to have to think about it and maybe play sub-optimally, and if you’re pairing with Wrack and Ruin, now they have to decide if they’re in or out of edge hexes. Choose wisely…
You’ll do best with this if you have accurate attacks to improve your odds to drive back, and while there will be plenty of games you don’t score it, 3 glory is hard to overlook.
I want to make a special call out that Enraging your fighters with the Raging Slayers plot takes a HUGE step down the meta tier list in a world where this card exists. Yes, the Poor Footing push is not a drive back, but your opponent is guaranteed to push you closer to the edge hex for next time. Brutal.
So at least some of the time you play HG, you’ll be taking this card. Let’s look at some strategies to help you score it, since you can make things a little easier on yourself:
- Orient the board in the fives/wideboard to maximize the number of edge hexes in friendly territory
- When placing treasure tokens, place yours as close to the edge as possible, ideally within 1 of the edge. Then, pray they care about holding or delving in your territory.
- When placing your Aqua Ghyranis token, place it within 1 hex of an edge hex, close enough to the midline that they can reach it
- When deploying your fighters, if you have this in your opening hand, dangle an easy target in a frontal edge position to bait/compel them to charge into it and then you can take 1-2 attacks to drive them sideways.
- Compliment your opponent’s haircut and choice of footwear, then ask them politely to help you score a fun and cool card
Who likes this? Maybe Everybody
Ready or Not
Our last multi-glory end phase, we have a handful of restrictions. You need two or more enemies in your territory, and still alive in the end phase. Two or more of them also have to be damaged or adjacent to your fighters. This can be a big ask for some teams and some matchups. You’ll do best with lower damage attacks so you don’t kill as often, and/or plenty of fighters so you can improve your adjacency odds. Pushes and/or multi-move abilities will help you here too.
Who likes this? Hordes and Maybe Everybody else.
Spoiling for a Fight
Your leader needs to be surviving in enemy territory again, and you need to be within two hexes of one of your other fighters and one of theirs. This is, again, a ‘it might happen naturally’ but I wouldn’t necessarily work hard to force it for one glory. If you have plenty of fighters around and a solid leader, it will be easier.
Who likes this? Standard and Big Boys, and Maybe Everybody else
This is Our Turf!
You have more guys moved or charged in your territory than they do, and you score this card. Elites don’t dig it because they can have 3 at most, and some Standards might be outnumbered especially if they lose fighters as the game goes on. This does, however, give you some salvage glory if your opponent decided not to come over the line to help you score everything else, so it’s not the worst card. Warbands with the ability to move multiple fighters in an activation like this the best.
Who likes this? Hordes and Big Boys
Quick assessment – There’s a lot to like here no matter which composition your warband is! Very few cards were in the ‘nobody likes this’ category. The Surges are particularly strong, which is always a promising sign for a deck, though the end phases, especially in the multi-glory department, are a little more dubious.
Ploys
Audacious Denial
This might need an FAQ. Can they only select a melee weapon that is printed as damage 1? Or can they select any melee weapon, and it will have a damage of 1 for the purposes of this attack? If it’s the former, it’s fine, but if it’s the latter it is pretty bad since most leaders don’t have one, and you’re absolutely not giving them a 1 -damage melee upgrade just to maybe use it in this card.
Rules as written, I have to say it sure sounds like the leader’s fighter card has to have a damage 1 melee attack printed. You know how many of those there are? I only found 11, and half of them can’t even use it when inspired:
- Uninspired only: Duke Crackmarrow, Hexbane, Vasillac, The Sepulchral Warden
- Only if the cycle is in the right spot: Phlegmus
- Both Inspired and Uninspired: The Briar Queen, Mannok, Zikkit, Daggok, Spiteclaw, Ylarin
That last one makes sense because he’s on the card. Kind of stupid to print this in the Spitewood box and one of the warbands inside can’t even use it. This card, as far as I can tell, is playable by less than a quarter of the warbands in the game, and only useful all game long for 6 of them, and even for them that’s only if the leader is alive and adjacent to somebody in your territory.
Who likes this? Nobody unless you’re bringing one of the leaders listed above, and even then probably not.
Deny Invaders
Now we’re talking. +1 dice to your next attack if you’re in friendly. Always nice to have, and even better that it has no range restriction so you can shoot arrows with it too, and the card doesn’t care about where the target is.
Who likes this? Everybody
Hidden Snares
Situationally this effect will help you, and within 1 hex of a feature (considering Aqua Ghyranis is a feature) can cover a big chunk of the board. However, you have to know which fighter they’re about to make an attack with and pick them. Maybe if they only have one fighter without a charge token left, but it seems like it’s not the greatest effect. Maybe you won’t even have a valid target!
Who likes this? Nobody
Keep Them at Bay
Holy mother of Spitewood, here’s a power card. Any fighter gets a melee range extension if their target is in enemy territory to a max of 2. This brings somebody into charge range who used to be safe. This lets you attack without charging. This lets you avoid charging into a flanked or surrounded position. This lets you maintain Unity if you’re playing Nemesis with Deadly Synergy. Unless your warband is spoiled for range 2 melee attacks, you love this.
Who likes this? Everybody
Mind Your Step
Take somebody in your territory and kick them out. A 2-hex distraction is potentially a massive power move. The downsides are they might be more than 2 hexes deep into your territory and you can’t use this, and then they’re not in your territory for the purposes of scoring cards. But when this takes Kro-Jax away from smashing and biting range, shoves their Arena Mortis or Bloody Momentum into the trash can, or ruins a Take and Hold player’s day, you’ll be in love.
Who likes this? Everybody
Mystical Misdirection
OK fam, what’s the deal here? This is like a worse Switch Things Up from Emberstone Sentinels, but at least that deck had objectives that cared about the number on the Treasure. As far as I can tell there’s no reason this deck cares about this effect. They both have to be treasure side up, they both have to be in your territory, and I don’t know why you want this.
I think the actual reason it was printed from a Spitewood-box perspective is that there is a card in Deadly Synergy that wants a United fighter holding a treasure that was held by an enemy earlier in the round. If they happen to get onto one of ‘your’ treasures, you can switch it out with this card and deny that potentially. It has no other value in the Spitewood box itself.
Outside of that, the only use cases I can find are: you’re playing Khagra’s Ravagers, in which case you can swap tokens (the desecration moves with the token) to help inspire. You are playing Emberstone Sentinels and you’re worried about trying to hold a special number. You are playing Realmstone Raiders and want to score Hoarder’s Hovel. Or your opponent is playing those decks and you want to mess with them.
Probably its best use, and again very situational, is to help you score Broken Prospects from Pillage and Plunder by stealing a held Treasure out from under their feet to delve it.
Who likes this? Effectively Nobody (except maybe Khagra using ES/PP/RR/DS)
Paths Unknown
This one is nice. “Sorry, you can’t attack them” is a solid thing to say (Skittershank knows), though you can only pick one fighter. But if they’re your last fighter, they just can’t attack, period. Sometimes you know which fighter they want to tag. Sometimes you know which fighter you’d really like to not get tagged. Most days you’ll be really happy to have this card.
Weirdly, even in the underdog scenario, you can’t choose a fighter in neutral territory.
Who likes this? Everybody, but especially Big Boys and Elites
Poor Footing
Lol. LMAO, even. What a card to have in hand at the start of rounds 2/3. Play this against a Raging Slayers invader and you can even say ‘Sorry you can’t Enrage and get Poor Footing, since I hit you with Poor Footing’. Backbreaker card in the right circumstances.
Who likes this? Everybody
Secrets of the Realm
Mass stagger can be pretty nice. Maybe there’s only a fighter or two in the effect bubble, but I take Raging Tremors and Ominous Rumbling all the time anyway, and this can potentially get more people. Is it worth a ploy spot? It is if you have poor accuracy and/or lots of fighters to increase the area of effect
Who likes this? Hordes and Maybe Everybody else
Sidestep
You love to see it.
Who likes this? Everybody
Quick Assessment: A solid ploy package with 7 cards most people can enjoy.
Upgrades
Balance of Ghyran
50% chance to do reflected damage within 3 hexes. If the fighter dies or gets pushed outside of 3 hex range by the attack, I don’t think it would trigger. As a result, better on big things that will take more hits and be closer to the action.
Who likes this? Big Boys and Elites, Maybe Standard
Blocked!
Brutal for anybody trying to slip past the point. Choose your favorite Chungus and lay your fly trap – Mollog sitting right in front just enjoying people having to engage him or get blocked right next door, thus becoming bonkable. Alternatively you can protect your leader/important guy by setting up a blocker minion, kind of like Pesky Nuisance from Edge of the Knife, though this one is much more useful and only costs 1 glory. Some games it won’t help you, but some games it will be what wins it for you.
Who likes this? Maybe Everybody with a higher likelihood of Big Boys and Hordes having a fun time.
Bounty of Ghyran
For one glory, get a quick 1 activation inspiration, then get your glory back. As long as you’re in friendly territory. Some warbands are difficult to inspire and/or get significantly better when inspired and will appreciate, say, their elite leader or big boy getting to join the party early. Some warbands only inspire if they do things in enemy territory and probably shouldn’t play this deck. But if they do, here’s an out, for one action.
Also, it’s nice to see Turosh’s hand is still getting modeling gigs.
Who likes this? Big Boys and Elites
Crippling Blow
Range 2 melee upgrade for one damage, which lets you use that first ploy in Rivals. Outside of that, it’s a fine attack and dishing out a move token can be big funny to shut off their charges (and you can do it from 2 hexes away so they can’t easily swing back). This is best for warbands with weaker fighters where this upgrade is an improvement to their printed attack, but it does synergize well with the objectives and can be a good counterplay piece for everybody.
Who likes this? Big Boys (on the minions) and Hordes, Maybe Standard and mayyyybe Elites
Goading Defender
+1 save in friendly territory, where you’re going to be anyway. No maximum defense stat. Doesn’t break if they miss like Desperate Defense from Pillage and Plunder. Phenomenal. They can break it if they cut through anyway or have a ‘pick’ ploy they want to use on that fighter, but a lot of times this is going to make somebody a menace. 3 dodge or 2-3 shield can be a rough prospect for anybody to deal with.
In my field test, Kixi-Taka sat around on 3 dodge with a reroll and tanked 5 attacks thanks to this card. Well worth the 2 bounty.
Who likes this? Everybody
Great Speed
I thought this was a ‘sit on the couch’ deck? Why would I need to run an extra hex? Some warbands will appreciate it but less useful than usual here.
Who likes this? I’m tempted to say Nobody considering the deck makeup. Move 2 sad friends might be into it, and a few move 3 range 1 guys.
Hidden Aid
Yes please. Offense and defense, and all day every day. This is one of the best upgrades in Blazing Assault (and that’s saying something) – you want this.
Who likes this? Everybody
Hidden Traps
Conditional Grievous is still grievous. It’s quite an accurate attack for an upgrade, and can turn into 2 damage more often than you’d think.
Who likes this? Big Boys (on the minions) and Hordes, Maybe Standard
Killing Blow
As I just said, Conditional Grievous is still grievous. Most times you’ll be glad to see this, though some fighters will still be 1-hit or 2-hit regardless. Depending on your opponent though, this could take a 3-hit down to a 2-hit kill, and that’s important.
Who likes this? Everybody
True Grit
Pretty good movie, True Grit. Not so sure about the Upgrade outside of leader-hug warbands like Thorns, Exiled Dead, or Kainan. Sadly Velmorn’s adjacency only works on his sons’ attacks, so no cheating.
If you’re combo-ing in Nemesis with Deadly Synergy, then go for it. Otherwise it’s probably not useful outside of a few warbands, and better if your non-leaders defend on dodges.
Who likes this? Maybe Hordes and Big Boys
Quick Assessment – Less good on some of them, but overall not a bad set of Upgrades either. This ended up being a pretty solid deck with really only End Phases to give the stink-eye to
Flavor Count
Elites: 4 Surge (2 maybe), 1 End Phase (4 maybe), 6 Ploys (1 maybes), 5 Upgrades (1 maybe).
Between 16-24 of the 32 cards are good for them
Big Boys: 4 Surge (1 maybe), 3 End Phases (3 maybe), 6 Ploys (1 maybes), 7 Upgrades (1 maybe)
Between 20-26 of the 32 cards are good for them.
Standard: 4 Surge (1 maybes), 1 End Phase (4 maybes), 6 Ploys (1 maybes), 5 Upgrades (2 maybe)
Between 16-24 of the 32 cards are good for them
Hordes: 4 Surge (1 maybe), 2 End Phases (3 maybes), 7 Ploys, 5 Upgrades (2 maybe)
Between 18-24 of the 32 cards are good for them.
Wrap
The Pros:
- Great surge package, solid ploys, and pretty decent upgrades make this a good choice for Rivals play and many different nemesis pairings
- Useful for nearly any warband archetype
- Benefits to fighting in your territory, which this game sorely needed, while also having options that are territory agnostic so you can make use of it regardless of where the game goes
- Excellently designed for newer players to understand
The Cons:
- A few real stinkers in the cards will hurt Rivals play
- Remarkably easy to counterplay if your opponent simply refuses to invade; if you lose the token priority in roll-off you may struggle to convince the enemy to come fight you
So who is this deck for, actually?
Realistically I believe any warband can do well with this deck, and there’s not really anybody who can’t make it work. There are some warbands that will have a harder time though – anyone who has a warscroll that wants you to be in enemy territory or spread across territories to access some abilities. There are a few others who will like this deck better than others: Anybody with special warscroll abilties that only work in friendly territory or warbands who are slower and thus struggle to play the invader role.
Suggested Warbands
Kurnoth’s Heralds – It’s pretty clear they were designed with this deck in mind, and have the advantage of fly and inability to be flanked while in their home territory. Additionally, they inspire if they make a successful attack in an activation that began in friendly territory, which this deck will assist with. Like Peanut Butter and Chocolate, these two.
Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers – that trap goes in friendly territory, your leader can grapple people into home territory, Thrafnir can deploy anywhere and shove people into home territory from behind, and it’s pretty thematic.
Starblood Stalkers – This warband can reroll defense at home on 5 of their 6 fighters (if they have no charge tokens), and especially if they get advantage on treasure token placement can convince the opponent to invade them to block their inspire. I gave this one a Rivals test run and it went pretty well.
Cyreni’s Razors – Hammertide is a great mechanism for convincing warbands to come and fight you on your turf, and they’re remarkably accurate for scoring those objectives
Headsmen’s Curse appreciates staying put and counter-punching, and now can be rewarded for doing so
Epihlim’s Pandaemonium would like nothing better than to show you how magic tastes as you march down the field towards them
Thundrik’s Profiteers love the idea of not having to hoof it with their move 2, and can score several cards by shooting from their territory
Kainan’s Reapers are really into the idea of not having to trudge all the way over there, and Kainan can just play whack-a-mole to his black heart’s content
Sons of Velmorn – slower fighters who can enjoy the accuracy and damage benefits, as well as having great defense and the ability to resurrect in their home territory
Beware/Potentially Avoid:
The Emberwatch can’t inspire unless they go to enemy territory, and their Alone I Stand! push requires fighters be in a diferent territoy than any other friendlies.
The Farstriders want to be in enemy territory for most of their warscroll abilities, and will struggle to make use of any advantages without them.
The Shadeborn have benefits to defense in enemy territory and can only teleport to enemy territory
In Practice
I played the deck once in Rivals, using Starblood Stalkers. I was playing it into Thorns of the Briar Queen, which actually made the ‘drive enemies back into an edge/off a token/into a different territory’ really difficult since they’d you know, just be slain more often. Despite that, it was pretty fun and gave me several nice tools. In a more tailored Nemesis scenario, I can see this deck being relatively useful for them, and possibly even more so for other teams.
The biggest issue I ran into was needing – needing the enemy to be in my territory for so much of the deck. If they were in neutral or in their own territory, there was very little I could do to force them other than retreat so they had to come deeper to get me. The right deck will have an easy time counterplaying so much of this, and HG mirrors might look a little stale at times.
Suggested Deck Pairings
First things first, you’ll need something to convince the opponent to come to you. This means you need some way to passively generate glory and/or threaten the enemy from your territory. Outside of specific warbands that have this ability, your other deck will probably need those traits unless you want to gamble on your opponent playing blitz aggro like BA/RF or something. As such, I would suggest:
Emberstone Sentinels allows you to hold treasure, some of which will be in your territory. They’ll have to come at you to stop Iron Grasp and/or Supremacy, and once they do you can start piecing them up.
Pillage and Plunder has a similar ‘mess with tokens in your zone’, though not explicitly as threatening and compelling for the opponent to invade.
Countdown to Cataclysm has several cards you can score with your own territory (and a little neutral)
You can maybe make Deadly Synergy work as it has a few things you can do just by standing around in the right clump, and allows you to do things in enemy territory if they don’t happen to come to you, though it’s less reliable. There are a few angles for Blazing Assault (you will LOVE Illusory Fighter with this deck), Wrack and Ruin, and Realmstone Raiders as well, though I wouldn’t start with these
Avoid/Caution
Raging Slayers wants you to invade very hard and doubles down on leader-centric stuff, which might be too many eggs in one basket
Reckless Fury wants you to invade, though you can finagle some of it into friendly territory things.
With all that said, thanks for reading this Spent Glory Deck Preview. What do you think of the deck, and who do you plan to test it with first? What other Rivals Decks might you try it with in Nemesis? Let me know by commenting wherever you found this or by emailing SpentGlory@gmail.com – and don’t forget to Spend your Glory!
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Thanks again to Games Workshop for providing me with this product so that I can produce this review content.
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