Brought forth into Second edition as a Take and Hold Warband, this Horde of slippery skinks is back at it again. You thought your nightmares of Klaq-Trok were a thing of the distant past? If Kro-Jax and the Jaws didn’t dispel that notion for you, the Apex Predator himself if back to terrorize us all anew. Let’s check in to see what the lords of space and time are doing now, and read the Asterisms in the stars with the Starblood Stalkers 2.0!
So that you’re aware, this warband received some rules updates in the February 2026 Errata. I’ll comment briefly on the changes later in the article.
Thank you to Games Workshop for providing the page with an advance copy of this product for review and content creation.
Click here to see a Master List of all warbands in the game
If you’d like ot hear about this warband in Podcast form, check out this Underworlds Underground episode on Seraphon
Starblood Stalkers: Lore
Originally released in Direchasm, the Starblood Stalkers are a set of lizards who are created from coalesced starlight by a semi-divine frog-man and then set on a sacred task: Chill the Beastgrave out and/or destroy it before it destroys the realms. Kixi-Taka, the Diviner, is the leader of the warband and carries around a couple relics to help achieve this: Huanchi’s Device which lets him manipulate Time and Space, as well as an Astrolith Igniter that I guess is like, a fusion bomb or something.
He’s got a couple of tag-along skinks to help, but the main event is their bodyguard Klaq-Trok. Dat boy was an OG Beefcake and hit real hard with his Celestite Warmaul, then would bite you after the fact for fun. You can’t forget (and those who do often find themselves paralyzed with a dart in their neck) the Chameleon Skink Otapatl. A superb scout, nigh-invisible, and a great control piece in 1st edition, he rounds out the six members of this spec-ops party.
It’s worth noting that, of everybody who was sent on some mission or other to justify their inclusion in Underworlds, the Starblood Stalkers are the only warband to actually succeed at their stated goal in canon-official lore. Not ones to rest on their laurels though, I guess they’re back for more holy crusades in Spitewood.
Starblood Stalkers: Warscroll
Inspire
After your opponent’s power step, if you’re holding 3+ treasures you inspire everybody. It works after any power step, so pushes and powers will still help, though the warscroll doesn’t grant you any extra mobility. You’ll have to grab those tokens the old-fashioned way, and as we will see later on, this warband definitely wants to be inspired. Notably it has to be treasure tokens, so careful when you delve!
From the February 2026 Errata: you now only inspire after an opponent’s power step, so they have a chance to drive you off a token or kill a fighter in their activation. This will slow down your inspiration and make you more likely to need power cards to get onto enough tokens. Make sure to save Sidestep, Confusion etc for THEIR power step and reduce their opportunities to respond.
Skink Agility
If a skink (anybody except Klaq-Trok) standing in friendly territory with no charge tokens gets attacked by a melee weapon, you can reroll one save dice. That’s a lot of conditions. At least at the start of the game, you might want to take move actions to grab those treasure tokens back on your half of the board so improve your odds of staying put (or at least reduce the likelihood of getting flat out obliterated on 2 health).
The Diviner
Counterplaying Pillage and spamming pings? Not bad for a Friday night. Notably the Aqua Ghyranis tokens introduced in Spitewood count as Feature Tokens, so you’ll have a couple extra options for dealing the damage (flipping an Aqua Ghyranis does nothing). You can use this once per battle round, so potentially 3 times per game.
The downsides are that your leader has to be alive, within 3 of the token, and take a whole action to do this. The upsides are that this can kill somebody up to 4 hexes away and does not require a dice roll/doesn’t allow for a save roll. Sometimes all you need is a finisher. Sometimes, all you need is one more token flip to secure some objective scoring.
The Bulwark Celestial
The first of our 3 Asterisms, which are like once-per-game Domains you activate in any power step that do not interact with Domain cards. The only way to end an Asterism is at the end of the round or if another Asterism is played (by any player). This will create a fun staring contest in Starblood mirror matches, for sure. It also means you can switch Asterisms mid round, so it’s more flexible than other ‘choose one of these for the round’ effects like the Grymwatch have – it does mean that you don’t get to have it active for the first activation though, since you have to wait until a power step to initiate it.
OK, on to this Asterism in particular. The Bulwark Celestial prevents all friendly fighters from being driven back, full stop. You want to make sure you hold 3 treasures for inspiration in round 1? Meet your best friend. You want to stay squatting on an Aqua Ghyranis token or Waystone Hex? This constellation’s got you, fam. You can only do it once per game, so consider saving it for the round you have your big positional/hold treasure score like Supremacy – though round 1 for inspiration is a great use.
The Great Drake
GET KLAQ-TROK’D
+1 dice for every melee attack all round is the kind of thing many warbands would die for. Keen Eye on everybody, for free? A handful of your skinks either start with 2 damage on their melee attacks or inspire to it, so this can be very useful to you, especially if you’re at liberty to make those charges. It’s also worth noting that this is not only the attacks on their fighter cards, but any Upgrades they bear as well. Do I hear a Desperate Rage out there? Slap this on somebody with a range 2 attack and/or Duelist and enjoy the carnage under some twinkling dragon stars.
The Hunter’s Steed
Every friendly fighter gets +1 move for the round. This one is pretty situational since your boys are already quite fast. Everybody starts on 4 move except Klaq-Trok who is on 3, and most of your fighters inspire to 5 (Kixi-Taka stays on 4 and Klaqqy inspires to 4). Going to 5-6 move with everybody can be big but often won’t. If it’s round 3 and you just need to get away from the big bad or dive across the field to snag that last token, however, this might be a game winner.
In niche cases, you can burn this in round 1 to get to far-flung tokens for inspiration, especially if you don’t need Bulwark Celestial for scoring purposes based on your hand at the time.
Starblood Stalkers: Fighter Cards
Kixi-Taka The Diviner
2 dodge 4 health makes this guy a lot more survivable than you’d expect from a warband of this composition. With good accuracy and range on both attacks, he’ll do good work for you regardless of what you want out of him – especially if you leverage the Diviner ability. It’s interesting that he literally changes nothing when inspired – but I guess permanent inspiration is what happens when you’re licking toads and seeing the future.
Klaq-Trok
Flat 3 Damage from the rip. Crit cleave. Inspiring to 2 shields, 4 move, and 3 Hammers cleave for 3 damage. What a mensch , and all this for 2 bounty! Ole Klaqqy will be a great choice for charging into a contested treasure token. He can’t benefit from the Skink Agility, so you don’t need to avoid charge tokens or stay in friendly territory with him. He will also especially enjoy being in a Waystone Hex, and has the lovely ability to benefit from Grievous if you have access to it in your cards.
Klaq-Trok was a game-defining brawler in first edition and while he’s a little less scary this go-around, he will still do plenty of work for you.
Huachi
Huachi is your Alpha skink with solid accuracy for a 1-bounty fighter and immediately capable of 2 damage. He also has a ranged attack that leaves a lot to be desired, but more options are always appreciated. When he inspires he goes to a stunning 2 shields, gains a die on his ranged attack, and gives it the Stagger runemark. While there’s the chance he dies early with only 2 health, he’s capable of helping the crew out offensively. Plus, he’ll always be GOATed thanks to this old classic:
Xepic
Inspiring to 2 shields and 2 damage with a respectable 3 swords and a massive 5 move, Xepic becomes a problem. Nothing to write home about beforehand, but yeesh, he’s been hitting the gym since being locked in Legends jail. Use him to hold treasure at the start of the round, and then either keep sitting there once inspured or charge in with a respectable profile (potentially bolstered by the Great Drake)
Tok
Tok is the softer of the two mooks, sitting only on dodge, but he does have a ranged option. He goes up to two dodge inspired and gains a die on his ranged attack (also earning Stagger) but remains with a miserable 2 swords melee attack. It surprisingly does 2 damage, so they either make real special stuff in those star forges, or this warband has been busy with the venomous coatings. Regardless, you’ll want him holding a Treasure in the back, just in case.
Otapatl
REJOICE! This guy launches with 2 dodge, inspiring to 3, and is a ZERO bounty fighter. He can sit in the front, your opponents will struggle to hit him while he parks on that token, and even if they do kill him they gain no bounty from it. He doesn’t help score Supremacy though.
His ranged attack has cleave and ensnare immediately, so he’s more accurate than the 2 swords would suggest especially if he’s firing into a flanked or surrounded target. If he stays in friendly territory without charge tokens, he’s enjoying 3 dodge with a reroll against melee attacks thanks to Skink Agility, so he’ll be annoying as all-get-out for your opponents in many games – especially if chilling in a Waystone hex.
In Practice
I played two Nemesis test games with the Starblood Stalkers, both times with Emberstone/Cataclysm. Starblood won both times, and one time very convincingly. Like, VERY +14 glory convincingly. It ends up that taking move actions or playing push cards to stand on tokens in your territory, then popping Bulwark Celestial so you can’t be driven back, then getting a reroll on defense for skinks is really tasty. I got a first-round Supremacy both games, Scored Shocking Assault both games (since no driveback/saturation of targets), scored Sally Forth both games (since they have great mobility and ranged options), inspired early both games, and obliterated multiple targets with an old fashioned Klaq-Trokking both games.
Long story short, this warband is a lot of fun. You use the Asterisms round 1, 2, 3 in the order they’re printed on the warscroll, and enjoy counting your big pile of golden coins. It’s just two games, but I am already REALLY tempted to make this the warband I bring to the World Championships. Will they win it all? Doubtful, and I will probably not even end up in the top half, but I think I’ll be laughing most of the time.
I also gave them a spin in Rivals using Hunting Grounds, just to see how their home turf reroll would stack up. The lizards did end up losing that one, but held on pretty well and had a good lead going into round 3. Multiple times Kixi-Taka made a three dodge with a reroll save, Klaq-Trok obliterated multiple opponents, they got on tokens and inspired, the whole thing. Rivals is really vulnerable to card draw problems that didn’t quite work out for me this time, but even in a Strike deck the team has legs.
Potential Pairings
The immediate synergy that jumps to mind is Emberstone Sentinels, since the warscroll wants you holding 3 treasures simultaneously to inspire. With a full round of no drive back thanks to The Bulwark Celestial and 5 of your fighters having a chance for a free defensive reroll in friendly territory, it’s a no-brainer. Countdown to Cataclysm is a nice choice as well, with additional ‘hold treasure tokens’ Objectives and more pings to supplement your Diviner ability. Here’s the ES/CC deck I took to worlds and got 20th with in November of 2025
Edge of the Knife is a decent choice since 4 of your 6 fighters are 2 health and Tempered to start the game and inspire to pretty good defense profiles. Hunting Grounds is a decent choice as well with being incentivized to stay in friendly territory for the Skink Agility bonus, as mentioned in the previous section. ES/HG might be a great combo for them. You can maybe even try Realmstone Raiders as the warband will enjoy some decent melee accuracy, especially in the round you choose The Great Drake, though this is an edge case scenario.
I wouldn’t, but mad scientists out there can also play this warband with Deadly Synergy. You’re faster than average and so will have an easier time getting to your friends to get united, and have an asterism to prevent drivebacks so you’ll stay that way, at least for one round. The biggest issue will be figuring out how to inspire while also doing the united thing, since that’s quite the conga line.
Wrap
Will you be preening your shimmering scales on Treasure Tokens this season, or would you rather fashion yourself some skink-skin boots after slaying a bunch of cold-blooded two health fighters? I personally am pretty excited to see just where the Starblood Stalkers fall in the pecking order, and look forward to jamming a handful of games with them – if for no reason other than to see my boy Klaq-Trok the Brawler King and official Underworlds Rizzler (shoutout Emmett) back in action. My first three tastes left me salivating for more.
Be sure to check out Spent Glory’s other review articles here
Thanks again to Games Workshop for providing me with this product so that I can produce this review content.
Spent Glory 
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