Once the scariest warband in the game with the most potent ranged counterpunch available, Ephilim’s Pandaemonium were reborn at the launch of Embergard as a 5-fighter Standard Mastery warband in the Grand Alliance boxes. Uniquely anti-horde and in many ways anti-Deadly Synergy, they’ve had significant portions of their time in Embergard and Spitewood characterized by strong win rates despite having been dramatically toned down from their first edition power level. Let’s crack open a forbidden tome and learn about one of the true Mastery warbands the game has to offer.
Click here to see a Master List of all warbands in the game
Underworlds Underground covered this warband in our Hot or Not vibes cast for the Despoilers and Daemons Grand Alliance Box, which you can listen to here.
Ephilim’s Pandaemonium: The Lore
In first edition, Ehpilim was an agent of Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways, God of Magic and deception. Ephilim ‘The Unknowable” is appropriately pronoun’d as They/Them, since what’s a gender to something that’s constantly in flux? Ephilim was on a mission to catalogue all the daemons of Tzeentch throughout the realms, and while filling out their Pokedex came upon the Wyrdhollow and was drawn to the warping magic of the Realmshaper Engine that had crashed there. Seeking to understand its magics and reshape the very ground, and a few enemies besides, their minions known as Changers would tear pretty much everyone limb from limb.
Now in Embergard, they’ve found the allure of Aqshyan Realmstone too strong a magical prize to resist. They have brought along four absolute freakshows with eyeballs in all the wrong places, and I love it. You do too – these are some of the sickest models ever produced for this or any GW game.
Ephilim’s Pandaemonium: The Warscroll
Inspire
This ability combos with Glorious Change which will be covered next, but the long and short of it is that this warband has a reliable and predictable function that can be controlled by the Ephilim player. You will get to inspire a minion per round, and you’ll get to choose who it is. If you have two alive at the same time and inspired, then your leader also inspires. Normally (as we will see below), you’ll be waiting until round 2 or 3 to inspire the leader.
I want to let you know you can cheat out inspiration early with a few cards: Do or Die from Countdown to Cataclysm, or Bounty of Ghryan from Hunting Grounds. I’ve done both things before! While those only temporarily inspire a fighter, during the time they’re inspired if you so happen to have another minion inspired, Ephilim will inspire as well. The minion’s inspiration will wear off with the card’s expiration, but not your leader’s. It’s a fun little trick and reason to bring cards that very rarely see the table otherwise. First power step slapping inspiration on somebody about to charge and getting an inspired Ephilim out of the deal is actually a good use case for a power card, especially considering how often they’ll headhunt your inspired minion to prevent Ephilim getting theirs.
Glorious Change
This ability is where the minion’s inspiration comes from. After the first action step in a round, you inspire any one minion of your choice and then stagger any one other minion. Choosing the correct person to inspire and the correct person to be staggered is a huge point of skill expression in this warband and there is not an obvious and clear answer in most games. Staggering Kindlefinger is often a reasonable idea because he’s not as useful as your other fighters on offense, and he has two dodge so he may survive the attack anyway. If he’s still on the table when the staggering window arrives, of course.
An important point to be aware of is that the inspiration happens after the first Action step (which can be yours, or that of your opponent depending on who goes first). If you go first, you get the opportunity to put somebody in a risky spot and then improve their defense before any reprisals. If you go second, you get to inspire somebody before their action and get a better attack and also have a staggered fighter for one fewer of your opponents’ attacks.
I typically prefer going second (in the first round) for this reason, as you have more knowledge of who you might want inspired. Maybe they tagged one of your minions for 2 damage and they’re not long for this world – inspiring them may be a poor choice. Ephilim’s Pandaemonium is also one of the few warbands that has both Cleave & Ensnare on demand. Pick the correct minion to get the runemark you need, and if you’re going second, you’re more able to determine who that should be.
In rounds 2 and 3, if you still have a living inspired minion, going first is great because it means you’ll get to inspire a second minion and then inspire your leader before your opponent can do anything about it.
Power Leech
Immediately after a friendly minion is slain, if they’re within 2 hexes of your leader, you draw 2 power cards. This requires you to be positionally aware of your minions and also requires you to risk your leader a bit but can be quite impactful. Mark of Path to Glory has told me that 5 cards was his record so far. That’s an insane card advantage over your opponent.
Very often I find I’m running a minion forward for some card reason and they die there, or I have Ephilim deployed too far back for safety reasons and miss out on these cards. This warband requires a lot of pilot skill to use most effectively, and this is one of those reasons.
Summoned Abominations
You might be a little sad at the idea of losing a minion and mollified by the potential for card draw in Power Leech, but you’ll feel even better when you read Summoned Abominations. Once per round, after your last action step, if your leader is still alive, you can bring back a slain minion in a starting hex in friendly territory and then damage them until vulnerable. Regrettably they will be un-inspired when this happens so you can’t cheat to get your slain inspired guy back and then more easily inspire your leader later. Still, having a guy come back is always nice, and they’re an easy pick for staggering next round since they’re now worth zero bounty anyway.
A critical point to be aware of, since this warband has crazy timing windows everywhere, is that the raise happens after YOUR last Action Step. This timing can mess up your opponent a lot but also is easy to forget. If you went first, the opponent has another activation to deal with the newly-placed raised minion. If you went second though, it could ruin a boatload of end phase objectives for your opponent. All fighters have charged? X fighters slain? No fighters adjacent? All can be bricked by something you get for free… Provided you can defend Ephilim.
Another nice wrinkle is they come back full health and then you damage them until they’re vulnerable. Wrack and Ruiners rejoice. If you should so manage to get them in a forward starting hex and then push them into enemy territory you also can steal a cheeky Living on the Edge if you’re the same flavor of risky idiot that I am.
If you place them in a starting hex near Ephilim, the opponent now has yet another hard choice. Do they kill the new thing you just raised to try and score something you blocked that way? If they do, you’ll get to draw two power cards thanks to Power Leech. I can feel the mustaches twirling now, you dastardly villains.
Fires of Change
This ability is potentially bonkers and potentially useless. Knowing when to trigger it is yet another point of skill expression that will reward intelligent play and lots of practice with this warband who is appropriately listed as Mastery.
Once per game immediately after a friendly fighter makes a successful ranged attack, give each enemy fighter adjacent to the target one Warping token. After your opponent’s first Action step in the next battle round, remove each Warping token from each enemy fighter one at a time. After each fighter’s tokens are removed, inflict 1 Damage on that fighter.
Fires of Change can hit multiple enemies, and triggers after the drive back. Potentially after an Improvised Attack, which is incredibly juicy. Generally, you are happy if this does 1 damage in a game. But against hordes, you can potentially gain 2-3 “free” damage. Even in matchups against Standard warbands you’re still happy about this since you may be able to force some shenanigans.
This is potentially devastating if you happen to tag somebody with a ranged attack while they’re surrounded by their friends, and against clumped hordes or Deadly Synergy fans you might be doing 2-4 extra damage on a time delay. Sadly, you don’t get to put a warping token on the fighter you hit, but it does splash to their friends AND this splash happens after the drive back; this allows you to knock them into two or more buddies and warp ’em good.
Key points to note – the ranged attack must be successful to trigger this with, and it must be a ranged attack. Second, this damage does not require the target to be not vulnerable like many pings, and so you can kill somebody with this, though you’ll have to wait. Finally, it’s important to note the delayed damage from Fires of Change happens after your OPPONENT’S FIRST Action Step in the following round. That sadly means they This means it never does any damage if you use this in the 3rd round; additionally, the earlier you use it the more potential targets there will be. It also means they get one activation to do something with the fighter who is about to take the damage and will be very likely to do it if they’re about to die. The upside if you have the opportunity to make them vulnerable with a time bomb on their back if you get to go first.
Shared Mutations
This one is bonkers in the right matchups. Once per game immediately after YOUR action step, deal 1 damage to every enemy fighter adjacent to any friendly minions. You can kill people with this damage, so take a move action and then drop this as a finisher.
Shared Mutations has a crazy high damage ceiling, even higher than that of Fires of Change. Even just killing off an enemy leader or important fighter after hitting them in an action step can be the winning move. Hitting 5 ghosts or whatever often feels more awesome but can potentially be a trap that leaves you out of position. Remember Power Leech? Don’t get too far from the leader and don’t leave the leader exposed. Unless of course you can dive over there and kill a few guys at once.
Key points for this one: it’s after your action step. It would be cute to Sidestep into somebody and then tag them in a power step, but that’s not how this works. You’ll have to do your pushes beforehand to set this up – but you can drive somebody back in your action step and if they’re next to a minion at that time, well, more the merrier.
You also don’t get to do multiple damage to the same fighter, even if they’re adjacent to two minions. It’s adjacent to any minions (one or more) = one damage. BUT every one of your minions can dish this out simultaneously. If you have a minion adjacent to two baddies over here, and another minion adjacent to two different baddies over there, you hit all four for 1 damage apiece. In a world of Deadly Synergy, Ephilim might have the medicine.
Or, you know, just do the smart thing and charge toward their best fighter and use this as a finisher like an on-demand grievous or whatever.
Ephilim’s Pandaemonium: Fighter Cards
Ephilim the Unknowable
With decent stats to start and a reasonable 4 health 2 dodge, your leader is no slouch but also isn’t invincible. Keeping them, alive is important, so as discussed before be smart about how they’re positioned. If you manage to inspire them by having two inspired minions, they only gain 1 hammer on their ranged attack and have no other boosts. This does make them a substantially accurate ranged fighter though, and thus a key fighter to use if you’re planning to drop a big splash with Fires of Change.
Spawnmaw
In first edition she was a machine. Now she’s… all right, I guess. I often inspire them first as I appreciate 2 dodge and 3 health, and if you don’t inspire them the 1 dodge means you’re liable to lose them – and Spawnmaw gives up 2 bounty where all other minions give up only 1. Be careful with them!. They’re a decent melee threat, especially if inspired with ensnare against dodge targets. Inspiration also jumps their ranged attack to a reasonable 3 swords. 4 move is great too.
Your opponent is very likely to try and kill Spawnmaw early, so in some games I have found inspiring somebody else means they have to choose if they want to remove this threat or block Ephilim’s inspire by killing the other minion instead. You can get away with putting too many eggs in one basket, but if you do make sure they at least stay close enough to trigger Power Leech when they die.
Flamespooler
Flamespooler sadly has no melee attack. The ranged attack is all right, and upon inspiration is becomes range 4 which can be quite nice, though the lack of added accuracy makes me less interested in inspiring this fella. He does become 2 dodge inspired, but I usually don’t get around to choosing him until round 3 if at all, unless I’m planning to play the turret game while hiding on a rear token.
Kindlefinger
The coolest model this side of the AoS/Old World divide, Kindlefinger is a distressingly weak lil’ dude in second edition. 1 hammer for 2 damage is a weird melee attack, but when it hits you’re laughing. He has the same range 3->4 thing when inspiring, but sadly is only 2 health. He does start at 2 dodge however.
I’ve had the most fun staggering him, then hurling him into several enemies to drop Shared Mutations on them. Sometimes he even survives the clapback with 2 dodge. More intelligently he’s a screening piece who can hold a token and be annoying there.
Apo’trax the Starefysh
I’ve come to love this feathered eel. Apo’trax has no ranged attack, but the melee is all right for a 1 bounty fighter, especially once you inspire them to gain cleave. The 3 move is mitigated a touch by the fact they have flying, so you can still get where you want to drop a nasty Shared Mutations or come to Ephilim’s rescue before dying in range of Power Leech. Inspiration is again useful for going from 1 to 2 dodge.
Potential Pairings
Emberstone Sentinels is a popular choice for this warband as you have multiple fighters who are perfectly capable of fighting at range (some of whom can be raised to keep going at it), so they’re well suited to decks that involve interacting with Feature tokens while dishing out additional ping damage.
Countdown to Cataclysm may be the most popular option for Ephilim’s Pandaemonium. This warband is great at dealing small amounts of consistent damage, gradually wearing down opponents over time. Hey a little positional, a little hold, a little ping? That sounds like exactly what this deck asks you to do. Wreckers and Hounds of War are both legitimate options for Ephilim where other warbands would shy away. On-demand inspiration to cleave or ensnare means The Perfect Cut is much easier to score too.
Wrack and Ruin is always fun, but really, really gels with Pandaemonium. Thanks to the warband’s ability to dish out ping damage and the cards that do the same vs make pushes a problem, it creates constant positional challenges for your opponent, forcing them to choose between taking damage or being pushed out of position. Mustache triwling intensifies.
Hunting Grounds is a solid choice since it adds to the counterpunch options for you, and Ephilim themself is a strong incentive for your opponent to invade. If your minions crowd the center, they may stay away from them and closer to the edge, letting Pinned! come to the fore. You also can make nasty use of Shared Mutations to easily score Ready or Not and have Ephilim make a couple of attacks to score Lead by Example. Paths Unknown means they can’t hit your leader for a turn either, which is great fun.
Deadly Synergy is an option, since you’ll likely want your minions to cluster around Ephilim anyway for Power Leech. It also lets you restore Unity when raising a slain minion so you can sneak out a few things you wouldn’t otherwise have scored. Ephilim doesn’t mind getting flanking for their 2 dodge either, and having a healing option plus some good minion weapons feels great as well.
Finally, Nexus of Power has some potential tough may be quite challenging positionally. If you build with the intent to take a single token and be covetous around it, you’ll possibly be able to thread the needle, but you also wouldn’t be wrong to play a defensive Hold 2 and just turret people as they run in like the good old days.
In Practice
Data from the Nemesis Statistics Project has the Pandaemonium winning 48.8% across the whole of second edition. During he peak of the horde meta when Zarbag and Grymwatch were going insane, they actually rocketed up to 62.7% as they were so effective against that approach. More recently they’re around 45%, which puts them in the ‘not bad, but could be better’ category once again.
Please submit your games to the Nemesis Stats Project! It’s quite easy.
Windy’s recent ITC Meta Analysis for Spent Glory shows the warband landing solidly in the C-tier for registered competitions in the past year, which drops them pretty much dead center in the middle of the pack competitively. They can win against most anybody, but have some liabilities that will keep them out of the podium more often than not. That sounds all right to me!
I personally have played this warband 5 times with a 4-1 record, during which I averaged +3 glory differential. They are pretty good, but don’t often run away with games in my experience. I haven’t commiutted a ton of focus to them obviously, but have won games with ES/CC, BA/ES, PP/CC, and CC/HG.
Pretty much every player that attends grand clashes and the like while playing Ephilim has chosen to do so with Countdown to Cataclysm and Wrack and Ruin. Most recently, Matteo Zani of Italy got 30th at the World Team Championships taking this CC/WR deck, and Nicklaus P of Austria took this one to a 42nd place finish.
Staggerers has also played a substantial amount of this CC/WR pairing and wrote up an extensive guide to “Ephilim’s Pingstorm” which you can read here. It includes card details but also tons of on-board strategies which are applicable to the warband regardless of what decks you’re using.
I have given newer players who are interested in the models a few trial runs with ES/CC, and one of them brought that pairing to a 16-man tournament I held and got 3rd despite only having learned to play that morning. It’s good!
Wrap
All this to say, the warband is still good even if it’s not the same as last edition. You have to play intelligently and be incredibly mindful of positioning and timing windows. However, if you happen to get good at it through practice, you can do very well for yourself with Ephilim’s Pandaemonium. Now grab your weightiest spellbook, gather your freaks, and go dish out some un-blockable damage while spending your glory in the Spitewood!
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