Hello Spent Glory Fans, this time we’re back with another of our Love Letters written by the Warhammer Underworlds community. The Love Letter Series was kicked off by this post encouraging people to play the warbands they love and tell others about the experience, inviting readers to contribute their passion to this website. Below is a most noxious love potion brewed by Brian of What the Hex, who has lots of juicy tidbits to share with us on Grandfather’s Gardeners.

Brian played GG (no re) at the World Championships of Warhammer this year, after having been a judge the year prior. You may also recognize him from the Spent Glory Heroes Series, where I shouted out his awesome community contributions over the life of the game. Let’s listen in as he describes his views of the warband in second edition, his deck composition, run at Worlds, and subsequent life updates.

---

• Who are you, and where are you from? How did you get into Underworlds? Do you have a local group you play with, and if so, do they have an online presence to help people find you?

I’m Brian from What The Hex!?! Podcast. I got into Underworlds because my friend Skyler has a phobia of tape measures and wouldn’t play 40k with me. We have a great local scene in Madison WI, which primarily interacts on our channel within the Mortal Realms Discord.

• What’s the warband/deck/pairing you love, and how did you two sweethearts meet?

My current fixation remains the Grandfather’s Gardeners with Pillage & Plunder and Emberstone Sentinels.

I have played Gitz or Chaos since my beginning in Underworlds. Since second edition, I was looking for a new warband that really exemplified what second edition has to offer, rather than reliving a new version of an old love like Dread Pageant.

• What makes the deck so fun to play in your experience?

The Gardener’s cycle mechanic on their warscroll really gave me something to sink my teeth into. With all their defense and living-on-death’s-door vibe, I decided to lean into that and double down. Attack dice always outnumber defense dice and sometimes it can feel absurd rolling 5 attack to 1 defense. Gardeners say, “lol what?”. They just don’t care with Imperturbable. P&P+ES has the token fixation that allowed me to score high and control my cycle, while the power deck is full of redundancy, defense, and stand your ground tech.

• Link to the deck on UnderworldsDB and then describe your theory behind it

The goal is simple, get onto treasure and entrench with Nurgle’s blessing. The biggest skill check to piloting this deck is know when and where to delve the tokens to score, to gain cover, and to throttle your cycle up and down. Embrace the madness and Nurgle’s grin shall be yours too.
Be reserved with Strewg and Phlegmus as they are the 2 bounty fighters, key for Supremacy, and good to deny your opponent the bounty.
Use the single bounty fighters as the invaders typically. The more effort it takes to remove them, the more action economy your opponent loses. Great Fortitude on the Squort-itude plus Guard and cover will cause Nurgle’s despair to infect your opponent.

• How have you found success and/or fun with the deck?

Success? 4th at Adepticon, 2nd place at Canadian Tabletop Championships(ticket), and went 6/4/0 at Worlds. I’m very pleased with that.
Fun? Oh F#ck yeah!

• What advice do you have for other players who might want to try your warband on for size?

Learn the cycle. Learn when a gardener is actually in danger, or will a cycle heal actually be a nasty surprise for your opponent (I warn them at the beginning of every match how the FaQ works, they still forget). After that upset, if you heal again, defend up, add Great Fort… Watch them wilt. Weaponize entropy my friends.

Use two tokens to track your cycle. One left on the mark during your turn, and another to forecast where it’ll land after both players pass. Opponent’s can get excited and quickly play their turn before you realize you forgot to advance your cycle, now there’s a book keeping debate. Just avoid it. Having the history helps enormously.

• What threats do you find most challenging to face? Are there any warbands or strategies that others can use to beat this warband or pairing?

Mirror decks with more movement or cleave. It can be a race onto objectives with both sides entrenching. For example, a very similar P&P+ES deck with Borgit’s. Uglug has the cleave and grievous to Swiss army knife the Gardeners as needed. With the same glory in deck, the Gardener’s have to win on Bounty. Tough all for the Gardener’s to bring down Uglug. If the opponent has studied, then they too can manipulate your own cycle to avoid the Aggro from gardeners. Biggest omission from my deck pairing is no source of cleave.

Aggro warbands don’t scare gardeners. You can usually outscore them while enduring the onslaught, but you must deny at least 1-2 big BA/RF end phases.

• Anything else you’d like to tell the community?

This warband narratively succeeds on so many levels. If your opponent is unprepared, be prepared to hear, “They just won’t die!!”. The despair can set into them and that alone will secure you wins they could’ve achieved had they kept their focus. Be sure to be a good sport. If your opponent studied and is prepared, they can surgically dissect the warband. Respect that.

Wrap

Thanks Brian, for sharing your expertise! This man has probably more experience and playtest data for Gardeners than anyone else alive, and it’s great to hear how he cooked something up that held its own at the World Championships, even as every other player decided not to take the warband and chose something else. Since then, Brian’s been awfully busy with a nurgling infestation at home, so I doubly appreciate his taking the time away to help spread the good word on Gardeners for us all.

While there are a few more 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 your favorite warband, a couple friends, and Spend some Glory!