Welcome to another installment of Starting Hex, a series about Warhammer Underworlds. This is the next installment in the Hexodus series which was originally kicked off by Davy from What the Hex?!, so be sure to check out his entries in the series as well. Hexodus is a journey through every warband in the game, playing multiple games with a warband and (ideally) painting it if it wasn't already painted. This is a long journey so expect periodic entries in this series for quite some time to come!

Kamandora's Blades

After I had bullied Davy into back-to-back Idoneth entries for this series (Cyreni and then Elathain), it was his turn to nominate a warband. He made the call to pick Kamandora's Blades this time and I excitedly agreed. You can find his own companion piece to this article where he does his own dive into Kamandora's Blades over here. I think we were both hyped about the somewhat recent changes made in the February Rules Update, in particular the complete overhaul of how this warband's Bleed mechanic worked.

Updated Kamandora's Blades warscroll. credit: UnderworldsDB.com

Unlike the other warbands we've covered so far in Hexodus, this is one that was released brand new for this edition of Underworlds. There's no baggage of how it used to function in previous iterations… well, sort of. The release version of this warband differed in how the Bleed mechanic worked. It was essentially a condition that lasted for one turn on an enemy that was hit and would deal a damage to them if they did a core action on their next turn. Incredibly niche and very quickly outclassed by the Barbs rule that Skittershank came out with very shortly after.

When I did my initial review, I was pretty excited about the mobility that this warband had. The push at the start of each round combined with above average movement speed meant they were able to get everywhere on the board and do it quickly. This is usually a recipe for success for a warband. The downside is that they were quite squishy, especially considering they were a melee only warband. Another issue was that their damage output was lacking; the warband was a bunch of one and two damage fighters and you couldn't even use runemarks to pump up their accuracy/damage without sacrificing the (marginally useful) bleed.

Fortunately, the bleed got a rework. For me, the main draw of testing out Kamandora's Blades this time around was this new bleed mechanic. I saw it as a potential counter to Pillage & Plunder which has been running rampant across the edition from the first day. P&P is just such a strong deck that almost any warband is capable of utilizing, so you see it constantly – quite often at the top tables of any event. Notionally, the fact that P&P fighters have to stagger themselves while scoring objectives is a downside, but it's often one that's inconsequential.

This is where the new bleed comes in. Effectively, the first successful attack you make against an enemy fighter while using this runemark is going to stagger them, then each subsequent attack (which is inherently more accurate due to the stagger) is going to have an extra point of damage. If the enemy is already staggered from delving or anything else, it basically means your warband has built in grievous on their attacks. There's also some fun stuff you can do with the various stagger ploys that turn them into pings if the enemy runs away while bleeding!

Going off raw fighter stats here and ignoring the slashing runemark, they feel a little bit below average for what you'd expect from a Khorne warband. Two reasonably accurate fighters on two damage and three mediocre accuracy fighters with only a single damage mean the offense is nothing impressive. Defensively, their saves range from "alright" to "the worst the game has" which doesn't bode well when you look at their low health values, too. They're basically made of paper. Their main strength is their speed, especially if you factor in the start-of-round push.

The newly revamped bleed does help their punch, provided they can live long enough to make attacks. Their speed guarantees they'll be able to reach whoever their target is, but their durability means it's a question on how long they can hang there. Real glass cannon vibes here. My gut reaction before getting games in is that I'll want to either find ways to boost their staying power or lean into the aggro as hard as possible in attempts to table the opponent before they can do the same to me.

Kamandora's Blades fighter cards. credit: UnderworldsDB.com

Their inspired stats are a little more aggressive looking. Kamandora and Throkk both get more accuracy, Ghalista and Antro Krast pick up more accuracy and more damage, and the ~~corn dog~~ Khorne dog minorly improves in accuracy. Another welcome change is that the whole warband winds up on two save dice when inspired which is helpful considering they are made out of paper otherwise with only Kamandora herself starting on two dice. They do get a fairly substantial glow up when inspired, so I see incentive in chasing that inspire as early as possible.

Previous Experience with Kamandora's Blades

I had only played this warband a couple of times prior to their revamp and all games were as part of my review. I just wasn't particularly wowed by their mechanics. There are so many intriguing options in this game that it meant they didn't get much play from me. Likewise, I have only played against them a single time before the last update. They simply weren't showing up much in my Underworlds bubble.

I've seen them pick up in popularity on various Underworlds focused Discord servers just prior to the update, and naturally after their tweak there's been even more discussion and brewing being done. Right after the change, I had a game playing against them (while I was playing as Thorns of the Briar Queen) and I was impressed by how well they performed even if the new bleed only came up a couple of times in that game. They haven't won any events that I've been to (or heard of) but I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen.

Are Mine Painted?

Kamandora's Blades. Credit: Jake Bennington

Hell yeah mine are painted! The rarity here is that I actually painted them myself. Kamandora's Blades is the first (and currently only) Underworlds warband that I have painted. I was able to get them early enough for the review last year that I was able to have them built and painted for the embargo day and that felt great. I'm not much of a painter, but given my level and the time crunch I was under, I am quite pleased with how they turned out. I keep telling myself I'll go back and touch them up a bit – maybe add a few highlights to the cloth and weapons – but so far I haven't. I tried out some Black Ice paint from Turbo Dork for some of the black metallics, but it just looks like flat black in photos. Alas.

Deck Tech & Games Played

Like I mentioned before, this warband was one of the ones I was most excited about tinkering with after the last big update. I have spent quite a lot of time on the deck builder over at UnderworldsDB.com creating iteration after iteration of decks for these Khornate warriors. At one point, I had over a dozen different combinations saved and awaiting testing. I'll admit that's excessive, but I'm known to be a bit obsessive when something catches my eye.

I was particularly interested in how existing stagger cards could really shine with this warband. Typically, cards like Sudden Blast and Raging Tremors don't see a ton of play because the value of just staggering enemies at the cost of a power card is a bit low, but when you combine it with this warband you gain extra oomph for the cost. The first stagger that an enemy fighter receives each round is the normal accuracy boost for your warband, but subsequent ones (once a bleed token has been applied) shift into pings that often don't have as many restrictions as normal ping cards do. I wanted to lean into decks that had these effects on tap to enhance the offensive output of this warband, so I was primarily looking at various combinations involving Wrack and Ruin, Pillage and Plunder, and Countdown to Cataclysm.

I basically tried pairing the above decks with some of the typical aggro options like Blazing Assault, Reckless Fury, and Deadly Synergy. In the past in their pre-update form, I tried a fairly typical Blazing Assault/Reckless Fury pure aggro option and found Kamandora's Blades just didn't have the damage output nor the staying power to pull it off. Instead, I wanted to temper the all out aggro with one of the "trickier" decks that also had some stagger options.

Credit: Jake Bennington

I managed to get six games in with Kamandora's Blades while using four different decks. As I've mentioned in previous articles, this is hardly enough practice with the warband let alone any of the decks to feel like I have anything approaching mastery. It's just a taste.

Game 1: Kamandora's Blades CC/RF vs Thorns of the Briar Queen EK/DS. Lost 8-13

This was a hard earned lesson. Despite being an aggressive warband with an aggressive deck setup, the Blades are just not durable enough to recklessly throw into the enemy. I went far too aggressive with early rushing that wound up inspiring most of the ghosts because I wasn't capable of one-shotting them. That lead to Kamandora and her crew getting repeatedly attacked by damage 2 surrounded attacks which quickly overwhelmed my Khorne fighters. Reckless Fury is a deck that rewards charging and I was finding that with the worthy skulls push, I didn't always need to charge and would rather get multiple attacks out of one good (and inspired) fighter instead.

Game 2: Kamandora's Blades CC/WR vs Kurnoth's Heralds BA/CC. Lost 12-16

CataWrack is a pretty common pairing for an approach that isn't strictly hold, nor strictly aggro. It's a true weirdo midground that instead scores from doing "stuff" but has many very potent tools, particularly pings and stagger ploys. In this game, I shocked myself (and my opponent) when I took out Ylarin in the first two activations through the magic of bleeding. I should have prioritized Cullon next, but instead went after the archer and as a result I got picked apart. There was a fair bit of scoring even after I was tabled, though (Spread Havoc, Stay Close, Ploymaster, Low on Options) which kept it closer than either of us expected.

I didn't play against Blake Law in these tests, but his models are too good not to show off whenever I get a chance. Models: Blake Law, photo: Jake Bennington

Game 3: Kamandora's Blades CC/WR vs Blood of the Bull CC/ES. Won 19-11

I ran the same deck back this time as the last game because I felt like it had potential to be good even if I was struggling with it. I do have to say that of all the warbands Blood of the Bull could face off against, Kamandora's Blades is probably not high on their wishlist. This is just rough pairing for the dwarves. Between the staggers from my warband and the staggers from my deck, they struggled to get any daemonforge dice. This slowed down their access to the much improved inspired stats but also the boost from the dice themselves. When they did manage to get a treasure delved, it just meant they were staggering themselves and setting up some nice chain reaction bleed attacks. My opponent also missed some key attacks which didn't help.

Game 4: Kamandora's Blades PP/DS vs Skittershank's Clawpack BA/CC. Lost 7-15

I had played a fair bit of Elathain with PP/BA in the recent past, and one cool thing that warband could do is set up the fish and crab onto tokens for easy delving after the first activation. Kamandora's Blades can do a similar trick by setting up the tokens in front of starting hexes and using the worthy skull push to occupy the hexes before the first turn of the game, also placing them in perfect position to score some of the Pillage Plunder objectives.

Remember how I mentioned Kamandora's Blades aren't durable? Self staggering via delving is not good for the health of these squishy glass cannons. It also didn't help that I only landed two of my seven attacks in the first two rounds -- we called it after that because of the lopsided score and board. I actually lost this decklist, so I can't give the exact contents but it's probably nothing surprising.

Game 5: Kamandora's Blades WR/DS vs Hexbane's Hunters RR/NP. Won 24-8

The next game I wanted to change things up a bit and take Deadly Synergy out for a spin along with one of the "support" decks. I figured the pushes can help set up united states and Deadly Synergy has a surprising amount of defense tech between Defiant Duo and United Front that I thought could help keep my fighters around a little longer.

Poor Hexbane. The Blades have the speed to get onto tokens and delve them down to cover (to deny Nexus of Power). This, combined with some pretty unfortunate luck on my opponent's attack dice for a few attacks, let me quickly establish a lead and run away with the game. To be fair, we both forgot a few re-rolls for the Hexbane player when I had a fighter Marked for Death but it's uncertain if that would have been enough to turn the tides. Still, my first game with WR/DS was promising.

Hexbane getting ready to burn some Goonhammer Open 2024 activation tokens. Models: keewa, photo: Jake Bennington

Game 6: Kamandora's Blades WR/DS vs Ironsoul's Condemnors RS/NP. Lost 15-21

I had a good experience with WR/DS last time, so I ran it back again. This time instead of a bunch of squishy fighters, I'm up against three very durable ones. Also, what a wild deck combination on my opponent's behalf! I was not expecting the pain that was to come even though I knew Ironsoul's Condemnors were going to be a dangerous and tough nut to crack.

I wound up going after Brodus first, thinking that taking out the three damage fighter who could one-shot most of my warband was the right call. In hindsight, after the other two inspired and were sitting comfortably on two shields, I am not sure if that was the right decision. I simply couldn't dish out enough damage to Ironsoul or Tavian while they were reliably able to beat down the fragile Blades. I did manage to have one of the hottest first activations I've pulled off yet, pushing two fighters into the worthy skull target, scoring three surges off of a single attack (Infiltrate, Tag Team, Tandem Assault), and then inspiring two fighters which was pretty rad.

Highs and Lows

Overall, I was impressed once again by how mobile this warband can be, but the mobility is a double edged sword. Early in the game, you get pushed closer to one of the enemies which is (typically) what I wanted to do so it felt great. However, in late game situations where I was on the back foot and wanted some breathing room, I was still forced to push toward the enemy and that certainly didn't feel as fulfilling. In the last game in particular, I had both Tavian and Ironsoul decked out in upgrades just staring at poor little Throkk, the last survivor, as he unwillingly pushed himself even closer to them in the last round.

My games were always very bloody. I was losing most of my fighters each time, but I was also typically able to inflict very heavy casualties on my opponent in the process. That alone fits the Khorne theme quite well and brings to mind some of the stories I've heard about early first edition with Garrek's Reavers.

I was surprised how little the bleed actually came into play in these games, but then I looked back and realized I never played into any Pillage and Plunder opponents. I think part of that is that these were mostly fun test games where both sides were trying out things we were curious about, and most players who have been playing for the duration of the edition have had their fill of P&P. Maybe it would play out differently in an event where more focus was on winning rather than exploring wacky options?

Inspiring is such an upgrade for these fighters, but it can be difficult to pull off. I eventually started picking my worthy skull not as the target that I wanted to kill first, but as something I could safely stand by without dying. It's also worth noting that if you get the final point of damage for a kill via the bleed popping, that doesn't count as damage from your fighter and thus they don't inspire.

Final Verdict

Verdict: 5.5 out of 8 skulls for the skull throne.

I guess that's like five skulls and a jawbone. I think the warband is really cool overall. They have solid movement which is typically one of my favorite attributes to have in a game. They also are uniquely positioned to punish one of the top meta decks and that's appealing to me in terms of game design. They're a surprisingly finesse warband though, and I feel like they need a delicate hand to be able to position everyone properly and not just die in a cloud of gore when your opponent fights back. I can definitely see someone taking this warband through a gauntlet at an event somewhere and winning the whole thing if they're familiar and have enough practice.

I liked playing Kamandora's Blades more than I expected I would. I'll definitely be keeping a deck list or two saved to have them ready to play when the mood strikes me, but for now I am probably going to let them take a little break on the shelf while I move on to try other warbands.

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Tags: warhammer underworlds | Starting Hex | starting hexodus