Grinkrak's Looncourt
Welcome to our quick rundown of all the new cards with Grinkrak’s Looncourt. Make sure you catch our podcast coverage of the release. As always, thanks to GW for providing a review copy of the Looncourt and to our patrons for their generous support.
For coverage of Fearsome Fortress, check out this link:
First Impressions
[D]AVY & [P]HIL
The first thing you might struggle with is the quest mechanic. We talk through some of the complexities down near the objectives where you can see some examples. Seven fighters (well… seven figures, there’s some squigs and a duo here) means that you know these guys can’t be all that elite. Lacking some of the movement tricks that other big warbands like Thorns, Gitz, and Exiled Dead can bring to bear may be the biggest hurdle to overcome. But let’s take a look…
P: The leader of this knightly court is a surprisingly competent gobbo fighter. The 2 block should help keep him alive to inspire a few fighters. Being able to inspire off of scoring objectives is always good, even if it can't be from quests.
D: Solid profile. If you're not going to have a lot of health, having a good defensive line is helpful. I like that with the new reaction setup you don't have to worry about an ability like Dub getting blocked. Not that this was a big reaction window anyways...
D: I guess Dub also gives you a way to abandon quests altogether and inspire off of super reliable non-quest objectives in championship builds.
P: Thankfully, Grinkrak really doesn't need to inspire so you can save him for last. One extra dice is never bad though.
D: Makes him feel like a late game cleaner- coming in with higher accuracy to finish things off. Getting him inspired will be more about scoring certain objectives.
P: He might have a wonky lance but he looks ready bring down the hammer! A 2 smash 3 dmg charge is certainly scary and I think this guy will be your heavy lifter. The only thing that concerns me is 3 wounds but being gitz it's about what you expect.
D: Mama mia. As is the tradition with Gloomspite, the secret sauce is squigs. A range 2 option is really nifty if you've taken heavy casualties and want to keep attacking after everyone has charged out.
P: Wow, get this knight inspired early and go to work! He becomes a real monster after inspiring.
D: He has an challenging dual role as a big damage dealing piece that is definitely "gettable" by the enemy. If someone can put together enough to rip off those 3 wounds, there's a pretty big hit to damage output for the warband.
Pretty cool looking for the danglebros of the warband.
P: While Burk and Nagz are said to sit back until late you may use these dangle bros to screen your better fighters. One block is fine but probably won't save this guy. His very poor attack won't get much work done either.
D: Maybe matchup dependent as far as screening goes. With the speed issues on this crew, you don’t want push important fighters too far to the back. I know warbands that would love for their little guys to start on one block instead of one dodge. And inspire to two dice defense.
P: Inspiring to 2 dodge is pretty solid and would be my main reason to inspire these guys. Inspiring off a quest might be difficult though.
D: Dub them! If you need it… For whatever reason, I really like that Nagz and Burk don't inspire to identical profiles. The difference is pretty minimal, but you can look at a matchup and prioritize accuracy or damage. Or like you said, just buff your defense and call it a day.
TBD
P: This guy is fine I think, not very accurate but the ability to crit into a broken upgrade could be clutch.
D: The extra wound over your little guys can be meaningful early game. Like the squigapult, Gnashin’ can create some hail mary moments.
P: Accuracy and speed being improved could make this guy a decent missile, but his weapon is still pretty mediocre.
D: I'm putting at 50/50 whether I remember that this guy buffs his speed. Extra speed *and* extra accuracy feels like a nice one to dub if you get a chance.
TBD
P: Weird fighter. Very slow, a pretty meh ranged attack you can only use once per round. Not really sure what role the two are supposed to be filling.
D: Even with Steady!'s range buff, they can threaten farther if they move, but if you get them in a good spot (feature or cover) they can sit there a little more effectively. A 2 damage attack at range is a nice lower risk early activation.
P: Inspiring these guys make them more of a turret with the extra defense, increased accuracy certainly helps but the once per round will hamper them.
D: Can you call something a turret if it can only shoot once? The Gnashin' on a crit is going to create some fun possibilities. And more crit fishing.
P: This guy feels nice in a support role. Range 3 stagger could be very useful
D: A nifty early play to set up a target you're hoping to drag down with the rest of your crew. There's a couple buffs in the deck that don't care about range, which Snorbo can benefit from.
P: You get almost nothing from inspiring our bugle boy so probably wait to inspire him last.
D: Yeah, about as close to a “no change” inspire as we’ve ever seen. Like the boss, this will probably be more about achieving objective conditions than anything else.
Objectives
And now… a word about quests. This feels like it could have been a plot card- in the same way as Illusions, there’s kind of a wall of text on every quest card. You basically play with your objectives showing and assigned to one particular fighter. The idea of giving away knowledge is a little rough, particularly since quests can only be played on a fighter with no tokens (that would be charge, move, stagger, or guard). Only one per fighter at a time also makes things a little finnicky. There’s some weirdness with how to manage your objective card hand, too. If a quest is on a fighter, it stays there and you don’t draw a replacement. But if you make it to the end phase with quests still attached to fighters, you’ll draw back up to a full hand of three. If you score a surge, even a quest, the rules tell you to draw a new objective. So there are some oddball situations where you could end up with a larger than normal objective hand.
Because of the timing, it may benefit the Looncourt a little more than others to go second, in order to have a power step to play out a quest before your first activation.
The last caveat we’d like to mention here is that there are power cards that interact with quests, so it’s not all down sides for having a quest out and tipping your hand.
P: A questing we will go! I think it is fine but hard to score early which isn't really what you want for a one score end phase.
D: If you can find a way to scrounge 2 glory early in the round, this does get relatively easier. This does feel like the “have three upgrades” end phase objectives of old, but less passive because of the enemy territory requirement.
P: I can't decide if this is easy or a trap... For 3 glory it is tempting but I feel like you might just get your fighters blown up as they charge forward.
D: Might be neither. Your move is pretty slow at baseline. I'm thinking this is a more reasonable turn 2 or 3, but just too much to ask in round 1. The second condition isn't too bad- but make sure to take note that this isn't "have 3 fighters with upgrades or inspire in enemy territory". You could have three fighters already there and meeting the conditions, but if uninspired Burk accidentally wanders in without an upgrade he ruins the party.
P: Surges for 2 are nice, but this one will be tricky. If you are leaning into the invasion aggro you might just pull off the first piece without too much trouble.
D: Kind of cool to have that second caveat in there, even if it won't go off too often, particularly since this warband lacks the movement tricks of Zarbag’s Gitz and the like. I like that the possibility of this will keep some pressure on the enemy to think about keeping some fighters back in their territory- and to keep an eye on the feature tokens too.
P: Kind of cool to have that second caveat in there, even if it won't go off too often. I like that the possibility of this will keep some pressure on the enemy to think about keeping some fighters back.
D: Potentially a lot harder since you're signaling it (as with all quests). The payoff is modest glory-wise. Ironically, in championship you could get more support for this with Centre of Attention... but you'd probably replace it with something else.
P: We have seen this card plenty. I don't think your leader is who you want on the front line with these guys though.
D: I can see a world where he’s deployed a little more aggressively with that two block to kick things off. Grinkrak will probably have to do some work later, but this is an easy cut in Nemesis or Championship. He's not fast, and he's light on damage.
P: Ooo just make a successful supported attack OR be the supporting fighter? I like this a lot.
D: This is very scoreable by the ranged fellas. If you miss with a supported charge, you may be able to clean up later with a follow grot.
Joke’s on Snorbo- he’s still only doing one damage on the counter attack…
P: With a few two defense fighters this might be pretty doable. Decent but not something I want to bank on.
D: That name, tho.
D: I like the head games that this creates. Do you really want to take a swing at this guy? If you miss, I score a glory and inspire. If you hit and kill, I'll try again on someone else. It may end up just getting that fighter ignored, which might be just fine.
P: I think this is probably pretty good. Many fighters in this band are small and with just a little buff or weapon upgrade they are suddenly pretty deadly. This is get a kill, score 2 for many situations.
D: Two glory surge! Now is your time Nagz and Burk. Presuming you get an attack action upgrade...
P: I don't think I like this much. Not all the quests are easy and this doesn't give a big payoff. If you happen to get objectives 1 & 2 this becomes pretty trivial though.
D: Middling. If you can land the quests, it'll be one of those "this scores no matter what" cards later in the game. There are 7 quests, btw.
P: Another pretty simple surge. Succeed on a charge is about as good as an aggro band can hope for.
D: It's good... but I can say from having Rippa with a similar objective that you only get one chance per round with this... so make it count.
D: Although… I suppose you can throw this on a weak fighter you’re just bombing forward. If they get killed on the counterattack, you can play the quest on someone else for another try.
I love how proud he is here.
P: In the right deck, I think this is a nice multiplier. However, with seven fighters this is still a decent amount of work.
D: That's true, but I think this one's pretty doable and fairly in your control. And much, much easier to score as the game goes on.
P: I don't love this. Assuming you have the right objective available you then have to put this on the fighter before they move into position... That just screams counter play to me.
D: It does... if this was a surge, I'd love it- (see Shifting Madness). This feels like one you drop on someone for a late play after most of the activations and power cards are out.
Gambits
P: Lovely double push, especially since this band likes supports. I think this is a must include.
D: Yep, great. Can set up Mob Em and Scrag Em too.
P: Pass. Almost no reason to need to do this.
D: Adjacent is kind of a problem, or I'd like it a lot more. I think this helps you get to a couple of your objectives and gives you the chance to inspire pre-charge which is kind of tough for these guys with how quests work.
P: Eh, +2 move ploys are good but being tied to a quest makes this significantly worse.
D: I think they really want the move help and especially on a git that's about to try to nail it's quest. Or bomb forward on a big squig. The +2 move gambits used to be very prevalent, not so much anymore, and I think these guys really need this.
P: If you had a fighter with a good range 2 attack this might be good to use multiple times, but overall I think this is just a more limited+1 dice.
D: Best for your squig rider... as your only fighter with a natural range 2 attack. Champs builds that might get a Cursed Boarding Pike or the like will be happy to make use. If you’re lucky you can pair it with Run ‘Em Down.
P: Now this is a decent reward for a questing fighter. +1 defense for a whole round could definitely keep a fighter going until they score their quest.
D: This might be overkill when trying to score NehNehNehNehNyeh. But it will certainly help with the End Phases that have been signaled early in the round.
Helpful dooting.
P: In a band of so many small fighters this feels mediocre. It is a lot of healing though
D: Rivals card! Not a warband that can use much healing. The most obvious is to counteract Enthusiastic Dubbing, but even then…
This is either perspective things happening, or Snorbo has some big pockets.
P: Not very reliable ping, but maybe you can use it for a 50/50 kill shot after a charge.
D: Much better pings in champs and even Nemesis, so this gets cut pretty quick outside of Rivals.
P: If it wasn't restricted to snorbo it would be great, as is it isn't bad but will end up dead sometimes.
D: I think Snorbo can hang pretty far back with his range to keep this in play. Actually, I think this is a good enough card that in Rivals or Nemesis, I’m specifically keeping Snorbo back until I’ve had a chance to trigger this.
Light whimsical tone, where did you go?!
P: These cards are always great. Just use it.
D: Yowza. You love to see it. Won't help with Run Em Down, but will help with Mob Em and Pick on Someone. And just doing good work.
P: More ping, but needs support. Probably not bad but not amazing
D: There's a lot of restrictions on this one and you can probably find something easier to use in constructed formats.
Upgrades
P: Double supports makes this pretty interesting. More of a nemesis/rivals card but I like it.
D: Weird one. I like cleave a lot with Gorl running around.
P: This is pretty fun, the trick will be setting it up but if you can it will allow for some great charges.
P: Hmmm, actually might be pretty hard to get a support out of this. The shortest distance to the friendly fighter would be pretty tough to have also end adjacent to an enemy.
D: Feels like some big brain plays are possible with this one. A good way to make Looncourt Conquest more achievable.
I like to imagine Grib’s squig hopping around in pointy boots.
P: Great strength lite is still pretty good. I'd take it.
D: For sure. Lots of R1 in this warband.
P: Yup, these cards are always amazing. Even for 3 wounds fighters.
D: With an in faction Great Fortitude, this is even better.
P: I don't always love these leader action upgrades but a 2 hex push can be very strong especially for multiple fighters. If you need to get on some objectives this could be very strong.
D: Great late, nothing early. Grinkrak can push himself if he's inspired, so that's cool.
P: I like this a lot. Supports seem important to this band and a +1 dmg with no range restriction can be nasty.
D: Yeah the lack of range restriction really opens things up a bit.
P: Before the move token changes this would have been a lot better. Now I think I just pass for stronger weapons.
D: I agree, *but* I think this is an important card to have in faction for Rivals games. The move token is kind of whatever, but the little guys and even your squigapult may be looking for a boost pre or post inspire.
P: Restricted flying and +1 move is fine but probably doesn't make the cut most of the time.
D: And for that, Deintalos is thankful. Plus I love how crazy a push you could end up with using the Downtrodden Squire.
P: Very solid card. A potentially free +1 wounds is very solid.
D: Choice. Great fortitude, but with a situational bonus? Yes please.
P: Meh. Base 1 damage limits this card a lot
D: Same as the Legbiter. Important for Rivals, replace when you can.
Summary
Not packing the crazy faction cards of Hexbane or the raw stats of Gnarlspirit, but there’s definitely some bones to work with here. They inspire too mostly two dice on defense, which isn’t too shabby. We think you’ll see constructed builds that play with abandoning the quests entirely, but it’s a fun mechanic to play. With lower speed and a full seven fighters, it’ll be easy to mess up your deployment if you’re not careful. Looking forward to seeing some new Grotz on the Block.