Kainan's Reapers

Welcome to our rundown of Kainan’s Reapers. Make sure you catch our podcast coverage of the release. For everything out with this release window, follow these links:

Thanks go to GW for providing a review copy to make this content possible.

Introduction

[D]AVY, [P]HIL, [B]RIAN, & [S]KYLER

P: The Ossiarch Bonereapers are known for being an unrelenting military force, purpose built for any eventuality. Can Kainan's forces say the same?

WARSCROLl

P: My reading of this inspire is that it is essentially two abilities. After a kill gain bone-tithe equal to their bounty and after your activation step pay bone-tithe to inspire. Seems like a reasonable way to do it and gives them an incentive to hunt down bigger bounty enemies. Note that Nohem is 0 bounty so you should be able to automatically inspire him after your first action step.

D: Inspire him? I hardly Nohem!

P: Free movement is pretty great, even with the adjacent caveat. It will be fun to figure out how to manage using this along with when you want to charge to avoid blocking yourself out of proper positioning.

D: Four free moves on a Kainan or Khenta core ability is wow. Kainan can bring the supports in for a crucial attack.

P: Wow. If Kainan is out of reach you can really hose an opponent playing strike. This will probably feel so bad for some bands as they essentially lose one activation per game.

D: Good final caveat on that ability!

P: Solid. Extra damage as long as you can get a friend to help out. I have said it before, but I keep loving the design choice to add damage using grievous so it doesn't stack and keeps things from spiking too hard.

D: This warband is pretty decent at setting up the flanked and surrounded situation, I think. Solid ability.

P: With guard being a bit more valuable in this edition I think this ability should be pretty useful. The only trick will be trying to get the most out of this ability without running out of minions to get the tokens.

D: This makes the warband a little tastier for Take & Hold strategies. Free moves and extra guards are telling us something.

P: Resetting a minion is pretty neat. I'm sure this will come in clutch all the time but will be hard to know exactly how until faced with the situation in the moment.

D: Stronger in combination with Mortek Advance. I also like holding this for as long as possible as a threat to mess with your opponent's positioning.

FIGHTERS

Uninspired
P: Still a beast with that axe! Having damage 2 at range 2 will be very threatening and anyone who gets in the thick of things will have to contend with that 3 damage smack. Hopefully being move 2 will help keep this bad boy in check a bit. Having so much health will definitely be interesting as well. How reasonable will it be to actually take Kainan out?

D: Whoa, move 2, what? Missed that. Those legs are long, but pretty stiff, I guess. Those are premium attack profiles, though.

Inspired
P: More movement shores up the weakest part of Kainan's uninspired side. On top of that the merger of his weapons can make this guy a turret once he gets to the middle of the fight.

D: Absolute top of the line attack there. Stays on one block though. But six health is a lot to try to carve through. Commit to it hard or don't do it at all.

Uninspired
P: Oh super interesting! Block and the 2 hammer weapon profiles are nice but you will have to balance that with move 2 and only 2 health. Keeping the morteks in the fight might be tricky, that makes for a really nice balance to the super strong Kainan.

Inspired
P: Similar to Kainan, Khenta picks up more move and merges his weapons to be more effective at range 2. Overall a nice inspire for just one bone-tithe.

D: Solid fighter, only one bounty. Can't complain.

Uninspired
P: So the base stats for all the morteks look to be the same. Senha comes in with his sword with 3 dice and only 1 damage. It feels like he will be better for being in the way than trying to put the hurt on.

Inspired
P: Our first fighter who goes to 2 block. That could be pretty useful for trying to avoid getting popped. I could see using Senha to try and hold treasure tokens a bit once inspired.

D: I like the shield guys going to two block. Helps slow the farming down.

Uninspired
P: Similar to Senha, but with hammers instead of swords. I like the theming to keep the attacks matching their actual weapons.

Inspired
P: And again, 2 block! See Senha because everything there applies here.

Uninspired
P: Our one 0 bounty fighter that can inspire for free. While only having dodge for defense, being ranged can help to keep him safe behind the more defensive fighters.

Inspired
P: Three hammers makes this one accurate bow! Keep plinking away from safety to disrupt your opponents.

D: Can't complain if you're getting here for free!

Uninspired
P: Sacrificing defense for extra damage makes Hakor pretty handy but a bit of a risk too since he is so easy to hit back.

Inspired
P: Extra accuracy will make the charges from Hakor that much more reliable. I think you could load this guy up and fire him off like a cruise missile, as long as you can work around the 2/3 move.

D: So... not a cruise missile. More a... shuffle missile? Cruise snail? There's something there, I'll find it.

Summary

P: With the brute strength of Kainan, and the tactical flexibility of Khenta and the morteks minions, I think this should be a warband that rewards a high level of familiarity and strategy while still being somewhat beginner friendly by relying more heavily on Kainan to lead the way. I imagine this will be a very fun warband to play with and against.

The Mortal RealmsNovember 23, 20241 Comment