Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… forest, it’s Jaws 2 Gnarlspirit Reborn! Many, many fans of this old Flex Warband will be over the moon to have them back, and many, many of the rest of us are going to read this article with baited breath in fear of what might be in store this expansion. So Flex your Conan the Barbarian muscles and pick a side – a side of your fighter card, of course! Join me as we explore some binary puzzles and think a few moves ahead with the Gnarlspirit Pack.

Thank you to Games Workshop for providing the page with an advance copy of this product for review and content creation.

If you would like to see other products that have been reviewed on Spent Glory, click here to jump to the list

Click here to see a Master List of all warbands in the game

Gnarlspirit Pack: Lore

The Gnarlspirit Pack were originally released with the Gnarlwood box, which heralded the Nemesis Format and effectively Underworlds 1.5. They were BUSTED strong on release, but had a cool little twist – the fighters could inspire as per usual, but could also take Beast forms, each granting different benefits. Canny players learned to choose which to use and when to use them, as the fighters either demonstrated mastery over their primal urges or gave into the chaotic spirits that shamanistically dwelled within them. A cool take on chaos that wasn’t explicitly the ruinous gods, they had a huge fan following.

Sarrakkar Blackwing, the leader, is a wizard with a bird spirit dwelling within him (I have it on good authority from LegenDerek that this is a Canada Goose). Super tall and gaunt, he is capable of communing with the spirits that possess his warband and getting them to actually cooperate for a time. Gorl Spinehammer is a bear of a man who also has a bear inside him, and will, as you’d guess, shatter your spine with his hammer. Crimson Kheira is a psychopath who carves runes into bones when she makes oaths and then gets red everywhere with those paired axes. I think her spirit animal was like a wildcat or something?

Either that or a honey badger, yeesh she was scary. Lupan Longcut, the consummate sadist and hunter of the group, acts out his lone wolf and wolf spirit tendencies by silently stalking his prey with spear and knife.

Gnarlspirit Pack: Warscroll

Inspire (and Uninspire)

So if you take a spirit token off, you inspire. But if you add one back on, you uninspire. What’s that even mean? The next box will tell us the whole story, but the long and short of it is you can inspire immediately BEFORE a core ability is used, IF that fighter has activated once already and has a spirit token. You can uninspire and/or gain the benefit of Spirit tokens immediately AFTER a core ability, so knowing which state you want to be in for during and/or after an activation will be important to keep track of.

Spirit Tokens

We will cover these in more detail on the specific fighters, but when each of your models gets a spirit token they gain a unique benefit. They’re all good and do different things for you, so who you want beasted and who you want inspired will change based on your gameplan, and allows for flexibility across matchups. Cool!

The first time you activate a fighter, they will not be in beastmode nor will they be inspired. Then you can give them a token after the fact to put them in beast mode. If you activate a second time, then you may choose to remove the token and inspire.

If you gain another spirit token, you uninspire. Additionally, having any spirit tokens means you cannot hold treasure tokens, so be very careful with Take and Hold strategies/decks when playing Gnarlspirit

As we go through the fighter cards, know that their uninspired profile without the benefit of their unique spirit counter will only be in effect for the fighter’s first activation. From that point on you’ll be able to flip back and forth between the two whenever you activate and so have lots of flexible choice – and as a Flex warband, that’s what you want.

In Control

If you have any inspired fighters, once a game you can push every other uninspired fighter 1 hex. Depending on who is alive and who is uninsipired, this is potentially a triple sidestep as early as activation 2 of the first round. Very potent ability – though you may be tempted to save this sidestep for an ideal time, and then will have to manage the specific fighter you want to push being uninspired, but another fighter being inspired so you can still choose this ability.

The precision and timing are going to take some practice, and there will be times when the only one you NEED to push is the inspired one, or you don’t have any uninspired, or any inspired, etc. You can definitely shoot yourself in the foot with this, so be mindful and plan ahead an activation or three. However, when this works how you’d like, it will help you do all kinds of great things.

One of the things it can’t do though is help you hold treasure, since fighters with spirit tokens cannot do so. BUT, if they are uninspired with no spirit tokens (i.e. you haven’t activated them at all yet, or did activate but chose not to apply spirit) then you can.

Self-command

In a power step, put a fighter on guard and inspire them (though they lose the benefit of their spirit token if they had one). Note that you’re selecting an uninspired fighter – the ability does not specify ‘with any spirit tokens’. This means you could do this for somebody who hasn’t been activated yet, should you so choose.

You will not be able to put an inspired fighter on guard, though they inspire after you use this ability. Using it on Lupan will take him from one dodge to 2 guard – nice boost! Using it on Gorl will take him from (if beasted) 2 shields down to 1 guard – not as great. But if you need to prevent driveback for a scoring condition, guard is still useful and doesn’t rely on power cards, so you’ll often still be glad to have this around.

Surfaced Instincts

Speaking of defensive benefits, this one is situationally pretty strong. You don’t need a specific inspire or beast condition, and you don’t force a change in that condition. You just turn off cleave and ensnare for a fighter for one turn.

This type of ability is becoming more common and carries the usual caveats. It does little if your opponent doesn’t have these runemarks, has another great target (since you have to choose one fighter), or can afford to wait until the next activation when your immunity disappears. They also might still hit you anyway. When it works it will feel great, but there will be a decent percentage of games you won’t even feel the need to use it.

Gnarlspirit Pack: Fighter Cards

Sarrakkar Blackwing

Our leader has +2 move with spirit tokens, so he can rocket 6 hexes which is pretty dang good in this game. When inspired however, he still moves 4 with flying, so he’ll be able to get where you need to him to go.

Another great benefit for this fighter is his 2 dodge at all times, which can be pretty helpful for your leader (and makes him a good candidate for the guard ability on the warscroll). He’s reasonably accurate inspired as well with range 2 and 3 attacks, even gaining cleave on his shot, so I expect most players will get him inspired sooner than later and not prefer his beast mode in most situations.

Gorl Spinehammer

Our thicc king has +1 save when beasted up. This means he can get on 2 shields very early in the game, and while 4 health for 2 bounty, that’s not bad. In first edition people would often use him first, swing, and then beast to up his save before anybody could do anything to him first. The counterplay was to try and win the roll-off and then slap Gorl while he was still one defense. Very reliable and dependable strategy that always worked for me, of course.

While his beastmode is probably the ‘best’ one on the team, you may still want him inspired. He still only rolls 2 hammers, but leaps to 3 damage with Brutal.

Since the timing is how it is, a great play pattern could look like this: Use Gorl at some time in some way to give him a spirit counter and he is a 2 shield fighter now. Later on, go to activate him again, remove his token and immediately inspire him. Make his inspired swing, then give him another spirit token to uninspire him and get him back on 2 shields. In this way, you effectively have a 2 shields, 3 damage fighter here.

Most of us can’t have our cake and eat it too. Gorl Spinehammer has no such problems.

Crimson Kheira

Kheira’s spirit token grants her + 1 dice to melee her fighter card weapons – which means she’s effectively 4 swords on both sides. This plus dice doesn’t extend to upgrades so there’s no benefit to being uninspired at all and once you inspire her she should stay that way – unless of course you want to use a warscroll ability that requires a certain state.

Of course her first action will be prior to beast token time, so if you charge out the gate she’s 3 swords for 2. From that point on I would keep her inspired for the crit grievous, which is decent odds on 4 swords and she becomes your warband’s second fighter capable of 3 damage.

I’m just glad her scything missile is a thing of the past.

Lupan Longcut

Spirit tokens let this guy count surrounded results as successes on attacks. That makes his melee more accurate, but mathematically the ranged is about the same with a slight lean towards inspired being the better choice. His spirit vs inspired choice will be based on whether you need to land that melee hit or if you need that two dodge that he only gets while inspired.

Potential Pairings

First things first, this warband will spend some percentage of their time unable to hold treasure. As such, I would avoid Emberstone Sentinels and consider carefully whether you want to play Countdown to Cataclysm without those cards.

Otherwise, they look primed for brawling aggro like they did in the past. Blazing Assault, Pillage and Plunder, Reckless Fury, and Raging Slayers all fit this mold pretty well.

I don’t think their accuracy is good enough to Realmstone Raiders, especially if you want to be using ranged attacks on occasion. They may be able to leverage some benefits of Hunting Grounds, though it’s likely not their best option.

Wrap

It’s good to see such a popular warband come back around, and a good little brain puzzle to play with spirit vs inspired. This warband seems like one that will reward players who put the reps into them and figure out which fighters they want in which status and when, especially considering some of their abilities work depending on those states and you’ll have to plan ahead an activation or two. So if you lose a few games, don’t get discouraged – I’m pretty sure before you’ll know it you’ll be rolling in the glory.

I just hope it’s not as much as last edition! They look strong but not busted, so fingers crossed they’ll be fun from both sides of the table. Until next time…

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.