This warband is a Standard composition 5 Fighter Flex warband released in the Embergard launch Grand Alliance boxes. Originally from Harrowdeep, they have undergone a pretty radical shift in identity and playstyle from first to second edition, and today we will be taking a look at how they play in the current game, especially seeing as they have had a rules update since their original release and none of the available websites and podcasts have covered it in great detail – many of those other resources only tell you about how it was at release, and not how it do be now. And what it do be is better now, ya dig? You’re pickin’ up what I’m puttin’ down.
Please note that Davy of What the Hex took this warband to the Grand Clash win at NOVA in 2025 and wrote this Love Letter for Spent Glory. Inside he reviews his impression of the warband’s abilities and may provide extra context and strategic insights for you.
Click here to see a Master List of all warbands in the game
Da Kunnin’ Krew: The Lore
Da Kunnin’ Krew originally released in the Harrowdeep core box, facing off against Xandire’s Truthseekers. At that time they focused a lot of illusion cards as well as pushes and out of sequence moves to set up flanking and surrounding (supports, as it was called at the time) and they were quite potent. They’ve fallen off the competitive curve a bit since then, but the warband is still lots of fun.
If you’re interested in reading some good lore about them, the Harrowdeep novel from Black Library contains a few good short stories they feature prominently in, and you’ll see than Mannok and his Kruleboyz are not by any means a funny cartoon orc joke and are honestly horrifying. Real eye opener for me. And Xandire too…
Smarter (or at least more kunnin’) than the rest of the field, DKK is no way interested in fighting fair. Mannok is their leader, and he’s the smartest kruleboy you’ve ever met; if you say otherwise, you’ll find yourself with an ear torn off and be made to eat it in front of him. He brings along his famous enforcer, Torka Tuffskul, and together these two orruks command a hobgrot and a duo of regular grots to get out and do sneaky and nasty things with a bag of tricks, steal some loot, and cause some suffering for both some laughs and Mannok’s aggrandizement.
Da Kunnin’ Krew: The Warscroll
This has changed from the original publication as of the May 2025 rules update, and it’s better now. If you’re working off the printed one from the Grand Alliance box that came out with Embergard, use this instead.
Inspire
The new one added ‘was slain’ to the condition, which is nice. As it previously read, if they died then nobody inspired because the target wasn’t there anymore. Now that concern is gone, but you still have one additional challenge to work around. Flanking guys have to be adjacent to the target after the attack is done so you can’t drive them back to every available position and still inspire the flankers. If you do happen to slay something even without flanks, the attacker will inspire with the new wording.
Outside that though, it’s not bad as an inspire condition if you’re playing an aggro game and intending to make lots of those attacks. It also doesn’t specify the source of flanking so you can get it from Hidden Aid or Deadly Synergy’s Plot Card, and it applies to any out of sequence attacks you might make like Countdown to Cataclysm’s Improvised Attack card. As long as you succeed, that is. Bring along some extra dice and cleave or ensnare just in case!
Unfortunately for you, if the target is equipped with Brawler, Involate on a Treasure, or Kurnoth’s Heralds in their own territory (or somebody playing the Grand Alliance: Order Protectors warscroll in their home turf), they can’t be Flanked or Surrounded and you can’t possibly inspire against them. Be mindful! You can still inspire the attacker if the target was slain though, so it’s not completely dead in those cases.
Pain in the Knee
Lore-wise, your minions are extra annoying and therefore are extra distracting to an enemy/supportive to their friends with a little bit of ankle biting. Rules-wise, if one of your big two fighters is the attacker, a minion counts as both flanking and surrounding as part of the attack. That goes a long way toward improving the accuracy of your orruk duo, and once we get to the fighter cards you’ll find that you want to be doing most of the work with those two anyhow. It also gives a pretty sizable increase in their odds to inspire (and inspire the minion) since your attack needs to be successful.
A Kunnin’ Plan
The other ability that was updated in the May 2025 rules change, and it was a very welcome one! Previously Mannok needed a move token which reduced your efficiency a huge amount. No longer!
Once per game immediately after an action step (yours or your opponent’s), if Mannok is still alive, you can push each minion a number of hexes equal to the battle round. In round 1 you’re likely to have 2-3 minions around but they’ll only be able to go 1 hex apiece – still this is really nice to have effectively a triple sidestep in your warscroll. In later rounds you get to push farther but will have fewer surviving minions to do it with (or your leader might be slain), so don’t wait too long!
This ability lets you sneak onto tokens for holding or delving, sneak into or out of territories for objective scoring, and most notably if used right after an enemy action lets you sidle on up to an enemy to make them flanked and set up an inspiration for your activation. Quite flexible despite its conditions, using this ability well will make you feel like a king and help you win games.
Dirty Tricks
This ability is a fun minigame you get to use and can potentially rig things to be undeniable if your power hand is right. It also puts mental pressure on your opponent while being kind of unfair in the right circumstances, so it’s thematic and I love that as well.
Once a game, right before an attack roll is made (yours or the opponent’s), you can use this ability and make the opponent declare ‘ploy or upgrade’. You then hand them three face down cards from your hand and they pick one – if it matches what they guessed you resolve the attack as normal. If they picked wrong, however, you get to set the dice for either the attack or defense without a roll being made. I have multiple times won games with this ability!
In an ideal world, you have 6 power cards from having lost the roll-off to start a round, three of them are ploys and three are upgrades. No matter which they pick, you have three of the other and they can’t possibly have chosen right. You get to decide which cards to present AFTER they choose ploy or upgrade, so you can rig the odds in a Kruleboy fashion. The later in the game this is the more cards will be in your discard pile (which is public info) and the later in around the more cards you will have already played, so the earlier you use this the more likely they’ll guess wrong. Even in circumstances where they have a good guess, you can probably hand them 2 of one and 1 of the other so they’ll have better odds to hand you the win in the guessing game.
Once they’re fallen for the trap and picked wrong, set their defense roll to all doubles/surrounds and guarantee a hit, or set your dice to all crits to guarantee an overrun, force a flank to score a card, whatever you need. They spend a ton of resource to get a 3-defense fighter on guard and feel pretty good about themselves and then you hit them with a Dirty Trick and slay that fighter anyway – no better feeling in the world.
If you don’t have three power cards in your hand, you can’t use this ability, so keep that in mind! You also do have to show them all three regardless of which they picked, so be aware you’ll be literally tipping your hand with this ability. Still awesome and potentially immensely powerful to effectively guarantee you hit or guarantee they miss on a crucial attack – the board state and objective scoring implications can be MASSIVE when you get this ability to work.
Murk Lurkers
Our final once per game ability, when a friendly fighter is attacked you can pop this to give them flanking and surrounding as successes on defense. While it can potentially give you another two successful die facings, only three of your fighters go to 2 defense and everybody except Gikkit is only 1 defense uninspired so you likely won’t be able to overcome an enemy rolling 2-3 successes. You also sadly have to use this ability before you see what the enemy rolled on the attack and instead have to use it in an anticipatory fashion. Some games they whiff anyway and you’ wasted’ the ability. I rarely find this is helpful outside the 2-dodge minion left stranded against a 2-3 dice attacker, but it can some games keep a guy alive when they otherwise would die and that’s still nice. Just don’t count on hiding in the mud to help you out nearly as much as the other abilities on this warscoll.
Da Kunnin’ Krew: Fighter Cards
Mannok Da Kunnin’
Your leader, but surprisingly not your best fighter, Mannok rocks 5 health to keep him hanging round a touch longer. 3 move and 1 shield is all right, and his attack profiles are pretty standard for an uninspired spear wielding fighter. Inspired though he becomes quite accurate with 3 hammers on both range 1 and range 2, with the range 2 gaining Ensnare though sadly remaining 1 damage. He’s a great choice for a Great Strength upgrade (Duelist is his friend as well) and often will be called on to shoulder to load for you if Torka goes down early.
Torka Tuffskul
Your MVP in many games, Torka is the fighter that can get to a 3 damage base which you need to win in a hard bounty battle against most warbands. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get that until he’s inspired, and remains on 2 hammers. His range 2 also goes up a damage, and most notably he becomes a 2 shield tak once inspired, so he’s easily your first priority to inspire in effectively any gameplan. His 4 health are a liability though – Great Fortitude on this guy and some other defense tech can be your savior if you draw it in time.
Expect the opponent to try and kill him quickly, but you also need him close enough to make flanked attacks and inspire. Deploy him with caution, you’ll need your most Kunnin’ plan to get the most out of this bruiser. He also benefits a lot from Keen Eye and other plus dice effects, as his 2 hammers may not be enough even with flanking and surrounding from Pain in the Knee minions.
Krookgrin
This guy is a liability until he inspires – only one dodge and only 2 swords are about as bad as it gets. At least he has three health to keep him around for a bit longer, but you till definitely want him to inspire as early as you can to add one dice to defense and attack. The good news is that he does a flat 2 damage on either side of his card, so he’s still a threat to plenty of targets. Just remember that as a minion he gives out the Pain in the Knee flank and surround but does not benefit from it himself – if he attacks a flanked enemy it’s still just a flank. I find him useful as a midfield token grabber or support piece, ideally flanking while he does his business for setting up the big hit from somebody better and then helping to finish the target off.
Gikkit
This lil’ guy has the distinction of starting the game on two dodge and thus is great to deploy up front to ear an early attack or to dive deep into enemy territory to get on a token since he’s more likely to survive retribution, especially if in cover. Beware his two health means he’ll melt if anything gets through. He’s reasonably accurate inspired but stays on one damage regardless.
Shank
Weirdly, Shank is the guy without a melee attack and therefore isn’t going to be doing much shanking. His on shield is OK uninspired but does not improve, and his ranged attack jumps to 2 hammers inspired which is pretty good for a 1 bounty minion. I usually sit him near my big guys to help inspire and then take potshots from safety of an out-of-the-way token. He’s also ok to use as a frontline deployment piece, since his death means less to you than the other two in many cases.
Potential Pairings
Blazing Assault is on the list for everybody, and it’s always good. You’ll appreciate the pushes for flanking as well as Hidden Aid to get inspired and hit. The accuracy cards and damage boosts will help a lot, as will Healing Potion, Great Fortitude, and more. If you plan to tangle, BA gets it done.
Emberstone Sentinels is a pretty solid choice for this warband – you appreciate the power cards pretty well, and can make use of the warscroll pushes to occupy tokens as well as Dirty Tricks to either stay alive on a token or force an overrun onto one and claim it for big end phase scoring.
Pillage and Plunder is likewise a strong choice for DKK. They can push onto tokens with A Kunnin’ Plan, force overruns or force failures with Dirty Tricks to make sure they stay where they need/displace opponents and get Strip the Realm with a little more regularity.
Countdown to Cataclysm is pretty nice for them, as the pings help with damage output, the weapons are good for the minions, and you really appreciate the pushes for inspiration with Countercharge. Putting Utter Conviction on one of the big guys is a nice feeling too!
Realmstone Raiders is not out of the question for DKK – if you make good use of your minions for Pain in the Knee, you’re actually quite accurate. You also can one a game nearly guarantee a hit and therefore guarantee a Raid, thus unlocking scoring for you. It may be an uphill battle as RR often is, especially since Shank has no melee weapon, but if you want to take a crack at RR this is a warband worth considering. I personally have done pretty well with it!
Hunting Grounds isn’t unreasonable either – if paired with something sufficiently passive like ES or PP you can enjoy a crowded friendly territory to get some flanks and inspire, and with a range 2 leader and lieutenant you can get some good scores off. Decent upgrades will make your minions contribute, and Dirty Tricks can force you a Pinned! in the right situation as well!
Deadly Synergy looks to be a phenomenal choice for them – you’ll be flanking much of the time with the plot card and inspiration will be trivial. Your lower damage output doesn’t hurt your scoring, and with the wascroll push you can get united quite early and not feel as bad about burning the ability round 1 (and still get more utility out of waiting if you can afford it).
Nexus of Power isn’t a bad pick either, if you remember you can force an overrun with Dirty Tricks and get back on a token to flip it to Treasure for Covetous purposes. Minion pushes can help claim tokens early for scoring as well, so you have the ability to get some of the harder things done with this objective package thanks to some movement economy. You’ll also appreciate extending the big guys’ range 1 attacks to range 2 and dealing damage with a bigger threat bubble, which also helps you to inspire without optimal positioning.
In Practice
Data from the Nemesis Statistics Project has them winning 45.7% of their games across the whole of second edition, which is within the goal of 45-55% though on the lower end. It remains similar at 46.7% in the most recent meta. If you filter for only World Qualifier tournaments, they do better at 56.4%! Ends up, in the right skilled hands, this warband is pretty strong. If you want to help us figure out where things stand, be sure to submit your games (any games, no matter how competitive) to this project!
Data from the International Tournament Circuit (ITC) show that in registered tournaments for the past year, DKK lands in the C to D tier depending on which analysis you use. This puts them in the bottom half of warbands, but not an unreasonable choice or an auto-lose by any means. Note that these tend to be the toughest competition and major Grand Clash events, and even then they do all right for themselves. While we would hope for more, they’re not explicitly ‘bad’. I’d call them more ‘hard to use’ with a little ‘under-statted’ seasoned to taste.
I personally have played this warband only 6 times but have gone 5-1 with a +35 glory differential in that span, averaging a win by 5.8 glory. My best pairing has actually been RR/DS, though I did pretty well with BA/PP (who doesn’t) and surprisingly well with ES/RR as well. Raid some Realmstone with these ladz! Playing against them I’m 4-2, and have taken both of my losses (which were sound beatings) against ES/PP.
Davy of What the Hex?! took DKK with this ES/PP deck to a championship first place and qualified for Worlds at the NOVA Open in 2025 in a surprise campaign back when people thought the warband was no good. He wrote a Love Letter to describe his approach to the warband which you can read here.
Staggerers put together a Realmstone Raiders/Hunting Grounds deck titled “Kunnin Swamp Raiders” that’s really interesting. Read about the reasoning in their Dexamples series here.
Keeping the RR train rollin’, Konsul built this BA/RR deck that will have you raiding with frightening regularity and confusing your friends with krule mastery
The pairing can be somewhat difficult, but here’s an ES/DS deck where you hold, flank, and score for attacking in the right spots. Use those pushes wisely!
I played against Ross at LVO 2025 where he played with this BA/PP deck and I got lucky to sneak past him, likely because it was the older worse warscroll. Read about our match here
Wrap
As Cabanas says, “if you like shanking people, Da Kunnin Krew might just be for you”. Don’t let their mediocre competitive track record keep you from trying out this fun puzzle of a warband, and I can personally attest to laughing with more than a touch of malice as I do terrible things to people with Dirty Tricks. Whether you’d prefer to be an upstanding citizen or want to get down in the mud with Da Kunnin’ Krew, I hope you enjoy spending glory in the Spitewood!
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