Age of Sigmar: Wonderous Warbands of Nethermaze
Apparently, the Nethermaze is where you go to get swole…
What an exciting weekend for Underworlds fans, with Nethermaze hitting preorders. The included warbands are pretty fantastic in Underworlds, but as with all warbands they can join Age of Sigmar armies as well. Their rules released earlier this week, and they’re all incredible additions to their respective team. Here’s some thoughts on the Nethermaze warbands in Age of Sigmar, and what other clues their warscrolls provide.
The Shadeborn
The Umbraneth assassins pack a lot of cool special rules, but their primary skill is their ability to teleport from shadow to shadow. To represent this, every model in the unit has the Shadow Leap ability, allowing them to sacrifice their movement to appear anywhere on the battlefield more than 9″ from the enemy. This makes them excellent harassment units, and combined with the 4 attacks each on the standard troopers, incredible cruise missiles.
To top it off, while Slythael stays more than 9″ from the enemy, she and the Shadeborn have a 4+ ward save, so they’re hard to shift so long as she stays back. Finally, Slythael can pick a nearby unit and roll 2d6, locking them out of command abilities if she beats their leadership. Unfortunately, since they have the Daughters of Khaine keyword, they aren’t the herald of Malerion I was hoping for.
Skittershank’s Clawpack
A cadre of Clan Eshin ninjas, these rats are masters of hit-and-run assassination tactics. They all have a huge suite of attacks, and their weapons are lethal in shooting or melee. If you roll a 6 to hit with ANY of their attacks, they deal d3 mortal wounds, an easy prospect thanks to the sheer number they possess. They can also run and shoot, and you can set them up in reserve to arrive anywhere within 6″ of terrain and more than 6″ from the enemy. They can then most likely immediately charge, and throw out their nasty salvo of damage.
Don’t worry about attacks back, though; Skittershank himself gets always-strike-first rule, and then gets to immediately retreat so long as the unit is nearby. While he might doom his acolytes to an early grave, he’ll be free to charge in again next turn to finish off his target. Probably the most exciting thing, though, is the lack of the Skaventide keyword, all but guaranteeing an update in the near future.
Check out our video coverage of Nethermaze and the exciting things it might mean here!
