Do you like to go with the flow and ride the waves wherever they take you? Or do you like to wrest control from fate itself and weave your plans around tides only you can predict? Regardless of whether you want complete control or to just ‘ave a good time, this Mastery Warband might be for you. Let’s take a look at our original wax and wane warband who has come back for another flood tide with Elathain’s Soulraid (and the CRAB, who is why we’re all really here).

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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Elathain’s Soulraid: Lore

The Soulraid premiered in Direchasm, to the great joy of all upon witnessing the majesty of Duinclaw, the greatest model ever made. This quickly turned to the despair of basically everybody after witnessing the absolute game-ruining BS of Spinefin, the most infuriating game piece ever conceived.

The warband is led by Elathain Ill-fated. Why’s he ill-fated? Well it’s simple really. The Idoneth need to harvest souls to make new fish aelves ever since they kinds screwed up the whole ‘separating from Slaanesh’ thing, and they had taken a very long-standing practice of heading into the Beastgrave to steal from the Silent People. Elathain selected his favorite thralls, warriors, and sea creatures to take his turn at this illustrious quest, and when he got there found the Silent People had vanished.

This was immensely disappointing to me, too, since I thought the Silent People were awesome and wanted to see them in-game. But alas I had to settle with slaying other foes, as did Elathain. Good thing so many souls kept heading to the Direchasm to get raided!

He didn’t go alone, as I said – he brought along the arrogant Fuirann as an escort, and she is actually the first one to declare her leader cursed. Tammael is a soulbound thrall who, despite being blind, throws a harpoon really good. Duinclaw the crab dutifully follows Elathain around and was robbbed, I say, ROBBED of Model of the Year honors. You know what you did, GW. Spinefin is theoretically many individual ethereal fish that pop in and out of existence to poison people and were every bit as frustrating as they sound.

Elathain’s Soulraid: Warscroll

Inspire

This warband has the same inspire condition it did in first edition. Your whole team will be inspired in round 2. They will be uninspired all of round 1 and again in round 3. Managing what you want to do with your inspired profiles and setting up for it will be very important for this warband, and will reward players who are able to plan ahead multiple activations. Guess that’s why it’s been given the Mastery designation.

Tides of Death

There is good news though! More things to remember across rounds, but also some good abilities you get even in the rounds you’re not inspired. In round 1, you’re not inspired, but you do get to stagger anybody who hits you with a melee attack. This allows you to clap back with a little more accuracy, and might make opponents think twice about attacking you in melee round 1. They get staggered whether they hit or miss!

Round 2, your whole team is inspired AND will have +1 move. That means you can have up to 5 fighters all going move 5, which is a huge advantage in second edition.

Round 3, you’re back to being uninspired, but any melee weapons you have printed on your fighters’ cards will also have grapple in the even you want to yank somebody around to set up some final end phase scoring or grab a flanked attack for next time.

Riptide Harpoon

One of your fighters, Tammael, gets +1 dice on a charge attack with melee weapons. That melee weapon is range 2, 2 hammers, 2 damage (3 hammers with ensnare inspired) so when charging you have a pretty accurate 3 hammers (or 4 with ensnare) for 2 damage at range 2 available to you once a round. Not bad!

Soul Harvest

Immediately after your leader slays someone with a non-upgrade weapon, you can raise Tammael should he be off the board. He comes back in a starting hex in friendly territory, but he does so at full health. I’ll spoil it for you: He’s a 4 health fighter. If he’s charged, died, then been raised, he can charge again and you’ll get yet another shot at that Riptide Harpoon +1 dice, which is cool.

Elathain has two attack profiles on his profile and is pretty accurate, so there’s a chance he will slay somebody at some point. This ability is much better into softer targets/hordes, where he has more opportunities to slay with his 1-2 damage attacks.

Ethersea Predators

Immediately after one of your three aelves does something, you can push each friendly minion 1 hex closer to them. You have two minions that qualify for this, so you’ll get a directional-constrained double-sidestep up to 4 times per round. That’s a power level that’s hard to overstate.

If happens after the core ability, so you can’t scuttle up some seafood to get flanked or surrounded during an attack, but you can set up subsequent charges, occupy territories and tokens, and do lots of big-brain tricks with this. Both players will have to be aware of the relative positions of every Idoneth to every minion if they want to maximize or minimize this one.

Phantasmal Forms

She stands fast, literally every time she is successfully hit. Cheating ahead, she’s a 4 health fighter, so you either need to hit her 4 times with 1-2 damage hits, twice with 3+, or three times with a mix of damage profiles, making her effectively a 5-7 health fighter. And that’s if you even hit through her 2 dodge. She’ll stand where you need her and be a huge nuisance to clear from her position. You actually want to miss her while getting a tie so you can drive her back, because if you hit, you can’t.

Elathain’s Soulraid: Fighter Cards

Elathain Ill-Fated

The man with the soul-harvesting plan, Elathain rocks a very accurate 3 hammers 2 damage melee attack to open the game. He inspires to 2 shields which he will enjoy for all of round 2, as well as gaining cleave. The range 3 attack is just icing on the cake. Remember if he slays something he can resurrect Tammael, so be mindful of that (and a message to Soulraid opponents – just kill this guy first, ideally before he gets to that 2 shield in round 2)

Fuirann

Fuirann should not be underestimated, since her 2 dodge 4 health is already pretty awesome for a 2 bounty fighter, but is made even more so by her ability to guarantee a stand fast if they do happen to hit. When inspired she only inmproves to 3 hammers, but that’s doubling her accuracy on 2 damage. Remember all of your fighters go to 5 move in round 2 also, so rocket her into whatever needs a bashing, and then sit comfortably on that spot with Stand Fast for as long as you like.

Tammael

The thrall with it all, Tammael gets +1 dice on the charge for melee attacks per the warscroll. That makes him a fantastic choice for the opening attack, since he’ll be your most accurate fighter in round 1 (regardless of whether he’s charging or not). While he’s only 1 dodge uninspired, he does have 4 health so he’s not easy poickings, and should Elathain slay somebody after he dies, you get to bring him back FULL HEALTH.

One thing to pay attention to is the inspire condition is ‘at the start of the second battle round’. If Tammael isn’t on the board at that time, he will be uninspired when you bring him back even if you do so in round 2. If he dies during round 2 while inspired, he will uninspire when slain and will come back uninspired later, so you can’t game the mechanic.

Duinclaw

#JusticeForKrabnos

The model of the decade, and no I will not be swayed, Duinclaw rocks 2 shields and 3 health. Considering he will get a free reaction push every time an idoneth moves, you can potentially put this fighter on a treasure token and he will hold it pretty reliably. While two swords isn’t anything to trust, he does have the potential to put out 2 damage, and when inspired he goes to 3 swords with cleave (while also elevating to 4+1 move), so you could absolutely do worse for a 1-bounty minion.

Spinefin

This guy sucks now. That’s a good thing. Try being a regular fighter, deploy like normal and see how it feels! Zero bounty means he retains some of his old flavor, and he can push around after an Idoneth activation so he’s still going to be a pain to deal with. But he doesn’t come back, so if you want to waste an attack or a card on a one-health zero-bounty fish you’ll actually be rewarded somewhat in second edition.

Soulraid players will have the best time attacking with him in round 2, but why waste one of those precious inspired activations on Spinefin? Use his push to score cards, set up flanks, or grab tokens. That’s going to be his main use.

Potential Pairings

In a quick assessment, this warband has decent accuracy with lots of instances of 2 damage, pretty good mobility, a resurrection, and a fighter who can auto-stand fast. This means they can probably pull off a fair amount of strategies and can make use of many decks. I don’t have any experience with them in first edition and effectively no experience playing against them either, so I am mostly spitballing here.

They can probably do well enough with any of the usual aggro things starting with Blazing Assault, though with so many fighters and a resurrection/minion pushes it may not pair as well as usual with the other charge staples like Reckless Fury and Raging Slayers. They have too much health to make use of Edge of the Knife probably as well. If you want to play Aggro with them, I would actually recommend Realmstone Raiders due to their solid melee accuracy and the ability to flex those pushes, or Deadly Synergy since again the pushes (and stand fast preventing enemy pushes) gives you good tools for forming up Unity ranks and maintaining them.

You could certainly attempt to hold/delve with either Emberstone Sentinels or Pillage and Plunder. If doing this, you should have a reasonably good time pairing those together or tacking on Countdown to Cataclysm or Hunting Grounds.

Wrap

Hear the Siren’s Call? That’s the Crab, who is clearly an opera singer.

This warband has a ton of options open to it, and while I don’t know that they will excel in any one area, they will be able to adapt to most threats and shouldn’t be a pushover against any matchup. If you get the practice reps in with them, I expect them to reward you with solid results, so take the time to become a Master and get your Mastery game on. Whether you’re surging with the tides or being drowned in their flood, I hope you enjoy spending your glory with Elathain’s Soulraid in the Spitewood.

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Thanks again to Games Workshop for providing me with this product so that I can produce this review content.