Kainan’s Reapers represent a unique niche in the game – they’re a Take and Hold warband by designation but often play quite differently, fit the Big Boy archetype, yet in many ways constitute a Horde as well. In 2026, the warband underwent a minor tweak to their warscroll’s wording that changed the timing window on a few abilities. This ended up having a much larger impact on their competitive viability than you would expect! They also really like a few decks that have been released since Embergard when they originally launched, and have a fresh new look on un-life. Lock ranks with me as we march into the Kainan’s Reapers review.
Underworlds Underground covered this warband is significant detail in the Faction Focus: Ossiarch Bonereapers, which you can listen to if you’re interested in more info or want Thomas’ take on them skellyboys.
Click here to see a Master List of all warbands in the game
Kainan’s Reapers: The Lore
Underworlds Underground also covered the vibes of the warband and their cool lore on the Hot or Not series – listen to this episode on the Revenants of the Realms Grand Alliance box
Long story short, Mir Kainan is a big guy who has been sent by Nagash to collect some taxes. Originally, he went to the Beastgrave to collect from the quite overdue Silent People, but found they had vanished before his arrival. Determined to get some bones one way or another, he decided to whack everything that got in his way. Accompanying him are his herald Binar Khenta and four Mortek warriors. Today he spends his time in the Embergard and Spitewood settings continuing to gather the bones, which are his money, and his money which is bones.
Kainan’s Reapers: The Warscroll
Inspire
You inspire though a nice bean-counting game of resource management, which is exactly what Kainan’s real-world IRS counterpart probably finds inspiring as well. When you kill something, you get a number of Bone-Tithe counters equal to its bounty characteristic. You keep these to the side until you decide to spend them; the only way they can be spent is for inspiration.
Immediately after YOUR action (so not in a power step, and not after an opponent’s action), you can pick a fighter and spend a number of tithe equal to their bounty to inspire them. I read this as being able to inspire one fighter per instance, so if you slay a 2-bounty fighter you can only inspire one 1-bounty friend now and have to wait until your next action to inspire the second. I can easily see it being ruled the other way – just declare you’re doing it twice and then select the order – but that’s how I have done it.
Whichever way you rule that last thing, the timing is still after your action, so you can’t inspire then hit a guy but instead inspire right after you killed him (or later, if that’s your style). It also means that unless you table your opponent you will not inspire the whole warband, so picking who to inspire when will be a major point of skill expression.
Kainan costs 3 to inspire – do you save up for him, or do you inspire 3 smaller guys instead? The archer is worth zero, and we have it confirmed in an FaQ that you can inspire him immediately after your first action step without spending any Bone-Tithe. He’s actually pretty good too, so that’s nice.
Mortek Advance
The whole warband is move 2 until you inspire anyone, and that presents huge problems for doing almost anything. The good news is you can offset a lot of that limitation through Mortek Advance if you play your pieces correctly.
If either Kainan or Khenta is activated during your action step, immediately after that action step you can take a move action with every friendly minion. You move them one at a time, and each move has to end adjacent to another friendly minion. This means planning your moves very carefully, as you have to have each piece end adjacent to another, either by leapfrogging them all in a big clump, or pairing them off into two doublets to head off in separate directions as they crawl past each other. You’re only moving 2-3 hexes, but you’re moving 4 pieces at a time (including whatever move you got out of the two main guys).
Often I’ll move Kainan to a key position, then scuttle morteks around to either grab tokens or get near Kainan himself to protect him/start flanking enemies so he can spend the rest of the round making standing attacks or move/charge Khenta to do the same. This ability if used correctly can let you do lots of cool stuff, but done wrong you’ll end up with hugely reduced efficiency (especially if the opponent kills a minion and you have none nearby enough for the other one he was with to move next to).
What’s nice is the ability says nothing about the token status of those minions, so they can perform this move even if they’ve already moved or even have a charge token. Plan your deployment carefully and think a move or two ahead and you’ll be playing chess while your opponent plays checkers. It’s also really helpful if you’re playing Deadly Synergy as you’ll be able to get and maintain unity with consistency most other warbands can only dream of.
Last little piece of advice: the minion move happens after your better guys do something. If you hit a guy off a token, your minions can potentially shuffle right onto that token and occupy it even if you didn’t get an overrun. This makes token theft easier for things like Pillage and Plunder or Nexus of Power, and can help deny opponent scores if they are playing a Hold strategy themselves.
Dire Ultimatum
Dire Ultimatum is an ability that can be incredibly impactful or do basically nothing, and knowing when and how to spend it will be another key point of skill expression. (This warband is hard).
Once per game in your power step (so after you have activated), if Kainan is still on the board, you can use this ability. In the following activation, your opponent, if they make an attack, must target Kainan. Sometimes your opponent was going to attack him anyway and you ‘wasted it’. Other times they weren’t planning to attack at all, so it does nothing.
However, if there is a fighter of yours you really want to keep safe for a turn, they now can rest assured they won’t be attacked. This can keep somebody alive in activation 4 and secure end phase scoring, or maintain positioning to score a surge mid-round. A fighter other than your leader is in a territory or on a token you’d like to keep? Now it’s close to guaranteed. You are playing Edge of the Knife and need Kainan Tempered but they haven’t decided to attack him? Now they just might.
This ability can potentially compel your opponent to charge into a position they didn’t want to since they have to reach Kainan, maybe even walking into a flanked or surrounded spot to get whapped right afterwards. If you line it up right, they may not even be able to reach Kainan with their eligible fighters and thus cannot attack at all; maybe he’s too far away, or they can’t run around your wall of minions he’s hiding behind. Being able to tell an opponent ‘sorry, you only get 11 meaningful actions instead of 12 this game’ can be quite nice. In other scenarios you can make somebody who is too far away from your slow friends move closer and allow you to get some retribution. Loads of applications for this ability if it’s done at the right time.
Sadly, of course, if Kainan is slain, it’s not usable, and if he dies because you played this, you’ll be big sad (I sure have).
Ranks Unbroken by Dissent
Once per game, when you pick a melee weapon for an attack (including upgrades), if the target is flanked or surrounded, you can gain grievous for that attack. This is pretty nice as +1 damage can be the reason you get a kill when you otherwise wouldn’t have, and that generates bounty glory, scores cards, denies your opponent several things, and gets you Bone-Tithe to inspire. Pretty sweet.
You of course need to have the target flanked or surrounded, but Mortek Advance helps with that, as do cards like Hidden Aid or the United effect from Deadly Synergy‘s plot card. While Kainan is only throwing 2 hammers unless you get +dice effects like Keen Eye or Determined Effort, flanking and surrounding ups the accuracy. You of course still do have to hit to get the extra damage, and you lose the ability whether the attack hits or not, but we can’t look a gift horse in the mouth so to speak.
Kainan can jump to 3-4 damage. Hakor and Khenta can dish out 3 as a nice surprise (the former doing it with 3 hammers if inspired). Desperate Rage becomes a 4-damage slap if you took Countdown to Cataclysm. This ability is great, though beware that you can’t then also use other weapon abilities like cleave, and remember you do need to have a flanked target to use it.
Monolith Stance
For being called a Take and Hold warband, this warscroll really only has one legit ‘hold’ ability, and that’s Monolith Stance. Once per game (again in your power step, so after your activation), you can give 1-3 minions a guard token depending on which round it is. This is a little rough because by round 3 you may not have 3 minions left to give it to, but giving only 1 guard token in round 1 feels like underutilization of the ability.
Ideally you use this to stay on a token a minion is holding, and pray their 2 health doesn’t just have them slain outright and make it useless. It’s also best used on Nohem or Hakor who are one dodge fighters, but you get more benefit from inspired Karu or Senha since they get to 2 shields. I have generally played them as a flex/strike warband and find this is useful for staying United with Deadly Synergy, maintaining flanks for Kainan to hit with, or making it so I don’t get mispositioned and have a hard time using Mortek Advance.
I have found using it at the outset of round 2 to be the best timing, but occasionally you’ll gamble on it for round 1 and just hope it allows you to keep yourself where you needed for scoring with that one minion.
Unrelenting Assault
Our final once-per-game ability is Unrelenting Assault, in which you can remove a move or charge token from a single minion. Regrettably the timing is ‘in your power step’ so after you’ve gone, which telegraphs this ability a lot if you were planning on making a surprise charge with Hakor out of nowhere. There do exist a few cards that score based on presence or absence of move/charge tokens, so you can play with this ability to score them or deny them to your opponent, but it’s limited to be sure.
A reasonable combo is to play this, then also play Dire Ultimatum so the minion you freed up can’t be attacked and will survive and stay in position to then make that charge you planned on and can be fun if you’re also doing this to effectively charge twice with Hakor. You’ll probably use it every game, but you’re going to wish you could play it in any power step and might find it awfully frustrating as it’s written.
Kainan’s Reapers: Fighter Cards
Mir Kainan
The Grim Reaper himself is an imposing figure, rocking 6 health and 3 damage at range 1 and 2 damage at range 2, which is solid. He is regrettably 2 move, but you’ll be able to judiciously use Wings of War, Great Speed, Sidestep, Commanding Stride, Counter-charge, etc to push him around. He’s the lynchpin of the warband as any Big Boy should be, and charging with him is often the wrong call since he will not be able to activate again afterward. Make move actions with him, give him all your push tech like Duelist, and try and get as many swings out of him as possible.
If you burn 3 Bone-Tithe to inspire him, his attack profiles merge and he gets 3 damage at range 2 which is great, though still only hitting on 2 hammers. He also gets no other benefit from inspiring aside from going to move 3, so I often find the inspiration is better spent on other fighters. If you happen to play Nexus of Power and have him hold a treasure token, he effectively gets his inspired attack ‘for free’.
I won’t mince words – he’s the fighter you live and die by. Heal him. Give him plus defense effects. Keep him safe and swinging, especially if you can boost his accuracy. Every time you use him the minions can move with Mortek Advance, so don’t be shy.
Binar Khenta
Khenta himself is a pretty good fighter for 1 bounty – 1 shield, two melee attacks with the capacity to hit for 2 damage, and when inspired can do that 2 damage at range 2. He’s more than he looks on paper here though, because like Kainan he also can trigger Mortek Advance when he activates. He is only 2 health which is certainly a liability, but any resource the opponent spends on downing him is stuff they didn’t spend on Kainan so you’ll probably be able to stay happy about it.
Being only 1 bounty also means he’s much easier to inspire, and getting to 3 move with a decent range 2 attack profile makes his inspiration a worthy investment, and I often inspire him as one of my first 2 or 3 choices. Giving him Great Fortitude to increase his health to 3 isn’t an awful choice, though you may want to reserve that for the leader (and it will also take him out of Tempered status in the case of Edge of the Knife pairings)
Nohem
This archer is zero bounty, so you’ll get to inspire them for no cost after your first activation. This makes them into 3 move which is quite important as it lets you go further and make better use of Mortek Advance, but also brings them to a surprisingly accurate 3 hammers. While being only 1 dodge 2 health hurts, this fighter can actually do a whole lot for you and makes cards that require hitting or making attacks much easier to do if you’re playing things like Blazing Assault, Deadly Synergy, Nexus of Power, or Edge of the Knife.
Hakor
Your only real damage threat outside of the two prime fighters, Hakor does 2 damage from the rip and inspires to 3 hammers which makes him your most accurate melee option. His 1 dodge makes him easy pickings, but I still find inspiring him early is a good idea as it might take some pressure off of Kainan, increase his move distance and therefore threat range, and/or help kill stuff – especially if you’re using him to charge all sneaky-like with Unrelenting Assault. If he does this with your grievous-on-a-stick from Ranks Unbroken by Dissent, he can pretty reliably dish 3 damage and that can be a difference maker in many games.
Senha
Two of your minions remembered to bring shields, and thus have a 1 shield defense trait. Once inspired, Senha and Karu both go to 2 shields which makes them pretty resilient despite their 2 health. These guys are important if you are trying to play a token/holding game. Senha also has 3 swords so he appreciates flanks and is better at overrunning.
Karu
Karu is nearly identical to Senha except he hits on 2 hammers so he’s better on raw accuracy without flanks but worse when factoring flanking in. His model is significantly cooler though and therefore is my favorite bony-shield boy of the two.
Potential Pairings
Blazing Assault – You need accuracy for Kainan, and can get that with Keen Eye and Determined Effort, Accurate, and Hidden Aid. You want great pushes like Commanding Stride, Sidestep, Lure of Battle, and potential Illusory Fighter. You appreciate speed boosts in cards like Great Speed and Wings of War. Your warband outside Kainan does lack damage output but Twist the Knife and Great Strength are here to help. This deck is as usual, straight gangbusters, and Kainan likes it as much as anybody.
Pillage and Plunder is a reasonable choice for a warband capable of getting fighters in lots of places with few activations, and once you’ve delved a token you don’t care as much if the minions die right after. It also comes with some useful mobility cards and good weapon upgrades to help the minions participate meaningfully. It’s not ‘take and hold’ but if you want to play a token game with this warband, I would start here and NOT Emberstone Sentinels since you’re far less able to hold those tokens you’ve taken compared to other warbands.
Countdown to Cataclysm is a great deck for nearly everyone, but this warband has some extra affinity for it. You like the pushes, the pings, and several scoring conditions since you can swarm the field, get some upgrades the warband enjoys, and can bring Kainan up to 4 shields is the tracker is advancing quickly.
Edge of the Knife – five Tempered fighters and a sixth who almost surely will become so means lots of power cards and objectives are on the table for you. I have very much enjoyed Edge with Kainan’s Reapers as it forces the opponent to either deal with the minions (thus letting Kainan play all day) or ignoring them and letting you score lots of Tempered stuff.
Deadly Synergy is potentially the best deck for the warband in my opinion. You’ll Unite all day long with Mortek Advance, and can stay that way with Dire Ultimatum and Monolith Stance. You’ll be flanking forever to increase your defensive resilience, augment your lower accuracy, and give plenty of opportunities for Ranks Unbroken by Dissent. Your biggest challenge will be that you’re so slow and the deck wants you in enemy territory, but if you can work around that you’ll have a field day making United attacks and stealing tokens with united fighters to grab Closed Down.
Hunting Grounds – This deck is iffy for most people but remember that you are suuuper slow and the fighting will more than likely happen in your territory anyway, so you might as well get advantages for that. You can bait people into your territory with Dire Ultimatum, or LMAO as you combo that with Paths Unknown. If you do, they can’t attack anyone but Kainan but also can’t attack Kainan. You already want to make multiple swings with your leader to score Leading By Example, will definitely have more move tokens in your territory than they will, and will be one of the only warbands that finds a good use for Blocked (with extra flavor because Kainan is on the card).
Nexus of Power – as discussed above, if you get your leader on a treasure you’ll get Kainan’s inspired attack fo FREE with a Doctor Pepper to wash it down. Your warband is more capable of getting to multiple tokens and flipping them back up for Covetous purposes, and you’ll really enjoy Starmaw for making more covetous attacks and triggering Mortek Advance if Kainan or Khenta is shooting it. It’s not the easiest deck out there, but Kainan and Co can poentially make it work.
In Practice
Data from the Nemesis Statistics Project has Kainan and the boys winning 52.5% of the time across second edition. In every recorded meta, they land safely in the 45-55% expected win rate, which means they’ve been reasonably balanced all along, and that’s always nice to hear.
Please submit your own games to the record! All you need is to document who won and what the warbands/pairings were. Honestly easy to do and helps everybody understand what’s good at the moment.
Our ITC analysis demonstrated that in Grand Clashes over the past year, Kainan’s Reapers landed themselves in the C tier, which means they are competitively around the middle of the pack, while perhaps trending to the lower half. The liabilities the warband has probably keep them out of the podium across larger events, and you can’t likely keep up the degree of intellectual geometry and ‘seeing the board ten moves in advance’ level of chess wizardry the warband asks of you for more than a few matches before you burn out. That said, they do all right and can certainly hold their own!
I personally have played this warband 7 times and have gone 4-3 across that time and with an average +1.3 differential. I’ve played against it 4 times going 3-1, which had me averaging +0.8 glory. This warband in my experience often plays in tight games that are decided by small glory differences, which is cool to see. I find them really fun to play with Edge of the Knife (and that’s been where my best successes have been as well), and DS ain’t a bad choice either.
In terms of high level competition, Mark/Baconborne of Path to Glory is probably the best pilot in the world for these fellas. Both of these decks are invalid with the current FaR lists, but are a great starting point for you. Mark went to the World Championships of Warhammer in 2024 with this Kainan BA/PP list. He then went to Adepticon in 2025 and took first place with this Different BA/PP list.
At the World Championships in 2025, Cyril D of France brought Kainan with Countdown/Deadly and got really close to unseating me in both games we played. It’s a tough deck to puzzle out, but when played right he smoked a few top-tier players with it.
Staggerers as usual has lots of decks for us to try out. Some of my favorites are:
Wrap
I know I wrote a lot here, but this is one of the most big-brain warbands out there and you have so many things to consider. When played well, they’re actually pretty good, but those moldering bones will crumble if you make missteps. Don’t be discouraged if you lose a good string of games as you start to figure them out, and once you start seeing the matrix you’ll be getting all tithed up like nobody’s business (Except Nagash’s). Whether you’re collecting or you’re the one late on taxes, I hope you enjoy spending glory in the bone zone/Spitewood.
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