Warhammer Underworlds: Wild Style – Gnarlspirit Pack Review
Warhammer Underworlds is taking a walk on the wild side with this brand new Gnarlspirit warband. They take spirit animals to a whole new level.
This weekend, Warhammer Underworlds kicks off their new season with a new box set, Gnarlwood, available for preorder. The included rules will bring the savagery of Ghur to the small-scale table with updated special abilities and two awesome new warbands: the Gnarlspirit Pack and the Sons of Velmorn. When GW first revealed them, the Gnarlspirit pack was theorized to be all sorts of things, from a new Cities fo Sigmar branch to a Sylvaneth adjacent. What they ACTUALLY are, of course, is a brand of Darkoath warriors that make pacts with powerful feral spirit of Ghur. They become lycanthropes of sorts as they take on aspects of their chosen animal. This power leads to some potent interactions on the battlefield, but they must use it carefully. As beasts care little for treasures.
Who Are They?
As previously mentioned, the Gnarlspirit pack gain strength from the untamed spirits of Ghur, augmenting their speed and power with the aspects of their chosen totem. While their cards never explicitly state what spirit that may be, their rules give vague hints at the nature of the beast. Sarrakkar, for example, the group leader and presiding shaman, gains speed and the ability to fly. So it’s easy to conclude that his spirit is a falcon or some other bird of prey. The rest of his group can quickly lose themselves to their animalistic side, and Sarrakkar is there to ensure they keep their minds on the task at hand. For the most part at least. They are Chaos at its most primal, and if you squint a little, every one of their totems could be seen as an aspect of one of the Greater Gods.
How Do They Play?
The Gnarlspirit pack wants to shift between their stances as much as possible. Even though their beast forms cannot claim objectives, there are several avenues to gaining glory from having beasts on the field. The prevailing mechanic, and the way to access the animal within each of your fighters, is the Struggle keyword. Struggle allows you to add or remove a Spirit counter to each fighter every turn. Once they gain said counter, they shift into their beast form. Then gaining powerful buffs but losing their ability to become inspired, even becoming um-inspired if they already were.
On the other hand, that’s HOW you inspire; by returning to the human form. Usually, beasts can’t equip upgrades, but the Pack’s rival deck gives you a few specific weapons that can be wielded even by your beasts. To win with this faction, you’ll need to carefully balance when and who you shift into beast form, making sure to unleash the animal at precisely the right time.
Will you be unleashing a few animals of your own?
