Nethermaze Rivals Review 4: Gorechosen of Dromm & Deadly Depths

Previous Rivals Reviews

In this blog, we give our Rivals review of the fourth Nethermaze Warband: the Gorechosen of Dromm and the Deadly Depths deck. You can review the decks here (jumps to Underworlds DB): https://www.underworldsdb.com/rivals.php.

Podcast: https://podcast.battle-mallet.com/e/episode-42-hex-ed-the-professor-at-nova-the-gorechosen-of-dromm-deadly-depths/

Nethermaze Rivals Decks

Gorechosen of Dromm

This is a 3-fighter warband with some beefy fighters. All three fighters inspire when they have three or more blood tithe counters and they all have the Khorne keyword and Blood Tithe rule on their cards. Blood Tithe: After set up, give this fighter one blood tithe counter. After an activation step in which this fighter dealt damage or was dealt damage, other than by a lethal hex, give this fighter one blood tithe counter.

Dromm, Wounder of Worlds is the leader, has the Priest keyword, and is 3 Move, 1 Block, and 5 Wounds. His Bloodblessed Axe & Staff is a Range 2, 2 Smash, 2 Damage attack. He also has the Enrage action: Remove X blood tithe counters from this card, where X is the round number. Choose a visible fighter with no Move and/or Charge tokens within 4 hexes. The chosen fighter's player makes a Charge action with that fighter, then Stagger that fighter. +1 Dice to friendly fighter's Range 1 Attack actions during that Charge action. We think that his Enrage action, while it won't be used every game, especially in later turns due to the cost, can be extremely disruptive! When inspired, Dromm goes to 4 Move and his attack action goes to 3 Fury with Grievous.

The Gorehulk is the next fighter and is 3 Move, 1 Block, and 5 Wounds. His Crushing Grip is Range 1, 2 Fury, 3 Damage and his Choking Grip is Range 1, 2 Smash, 1 Damage with Throttle and Stagger. Throttle: After the deal damage step, give the target one Move token and they cannot be driven back by this Attack action. Then you can remove one of this fighter's blood tithe counters. If you do, deal 1 damage to the target. When inspired, the Gorehulk goes to 4 Move and 6 (!) Wounds. His Crushing Grip goes to 3 Fury and his Choking Grip goes to 3 Smash and gains Ensnare.

Skullgrinder Herax is the last fighter and is 4 Move, 1 Block, 4 Wounds. His Forgewrath Weapons are Range 1, 2 Smash, 2 Damage with Bloodchains and Stagger. Bloodchains: Remove one blood tithe counter from this card: Range 2 utnil resolved. When inspired, his attack action goes to 3 damage!

Key Cards

  • Objectives:
    • A Brutal Reckoning (Surge, Dual: Score this immediately after: A friendly fighter's Attack action takes an enemy fighter out of action. If: That friendly fighter had one or more blood tithe counters and/or one more wound counters. - Easy enough to score since all of your fighters start with one blood tithe counters.)
    • Untouchable Fury (Surge, Dual: Score this immediately after: A friendly fighter is dealt damage by an enemy fighter's Attack action If: That friendly fighter is not taken out of action by that damage. - Always nice to score glory during your opponent's activation and with 5, 5/6, and 4 wounds, you're very likely to survive an attack.)
    • A Worthy Offering (Score this in an end phase if your warband has two or more blood tithe counters - You have 3 fighters that each start with a blood tithe counter.)
    • Khorner Case: Glorious Battle & Worshipped in Battle (These and other objectives allow you to score with a combination of tokens and counters, providing a lot of flexibility into your ability to score.)
  • Gambits:
    • Blood-curdling Roar (Reaction: Use this before you would remove one or more blood tithe counter from a friendly fighter with zero or more blood tithe counters. When you do, you are considered to remove one additional blood tithe counter.)
    • Call of Blood (Restricted to Dromm; Choose up to two fighters. Push each chosen fighter 1 hex towards the nearest fighter from an enemy warband. If a chosen fighter has one or more blood tithe counters, you can remove on of that fighter's blood tithe counters. If you do, push the chosen fighter up to 2 hexes towards the nearest fighter from an enemy warband instead. - Everyone knows how much we love pushes!)
    • Domain of Wrath (Restricted to Dromm; Domain, Prayer: When activated, fighters must make a Charge action if they can. This effect persists until the end of the next activation, or until another Domain gambit is played. When you play this card, you can remove one blood tithe counter from a friendly Dromm. If you do, this effect persists until the end of the round, or until another Domain gambit is played. - This could be very disruptive if you have the blood tithe counter to remove, forcing every activation to be a charge can mess with a lot of warbands' plans.)
    • Khorner Case: Overhead Smash (Paly this only in a power step following your activation. You cannot play this in your last power step of the round. Choose a fighter adjacent to a friently Gorehulk. At the start of your next activation, deal 2 damage to the chosen fighter if they are adjacent to a friendly Gorehulk. When this card deals damage, you can remove one blood tithe counter from a friendly Gorehulk. If you do, this card deals 3 damage to the chosen fighter instead. - While this card requires a significant amount of setup, the ability to do up to 3 damage without rolling dice is too powerful to ignore.)
  • Upgrades:
    • Aura of Wrath (Fighters within 2 hexes of this fighter cannot be driven back - This allows your warband to stay where you want when they're attacked.)
    • Bloody Worshipper (At the start of each round, give this fighter one blood tithe counter - This upgrade is the only way to gain blood tithe counters outside of dealing damage or being dealt damage and you definitely want it early.)
    • Paragon of Slaughter (In the declare Attack action step of this fighter's Range 1 or Range 2 Attack action, you can remove one of this fighter's blood tithe counters. If you do, when that Attack action succeeds, pick one: Heal (1) this fighter or draw one power card - This card would be amazing if you could remove the blood tithe counter after you know whether the attack will succeed or not, but it's still a good upgrade that will let you cycle through your deck or keep a fighter alive longer than expected.)
    • Khorner Case: Final Frenzy (This fighter cannot be taken out of action. This effect does not prevent damage being dealt to this fighter. At the end of the action phase, break this card. When this card is broken this fighter is taken out of action - We can always debate the merits of forcing a fighter to go out of action, but the fact that it happens our terms AND that we've never seen anything like this before makes this card worth mentioning.)

Boards

All aggro, all day: Chamber of Genesis

Play Style

Aggro / hold no one's territory.

Playing Against This?

Play away. Use Move actions to avoid being Enraged. When you do attack, focus on one fighter, specifically Dromm as so much of the deck relies on him.

New Player Rating

Silver. The play style is pretty straightforward. Robust fighters mean you're not easy to kill in Rivals. We think this will be a forgiving warband for new players that will help them learn about positioning and counter attacks.

Rivals+

We really like Vainglorious Raiders as the Objectives are better than those in Essentials, the Gambits are just as good, but we'd really like to see some ranged attack upgrades to fuel the blood tithe counters. The Essentials Pack still provides those critical damage upgrades (Great Strength, Fighter's Ferocity, and Gloryseeker) and pushes, but we're not sure those outweigh the Objectives needed for this warband to compete in Rivals+.

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Deadly Depths

No fighters to review, but we recommend warbands below!

Key Cards

  • Objectives:
    • Surging Darkness (Surge: Score this immediately after an activation step if two or more friendly fighters with Charge tokens are on feature tokens - This is the best fo the 3 surges in this deck. The are pushes in the deck that can allow you to score this even if you don't charge onto the feature tokens initially.)
    • Blood in the Deeps* (Dual: Score this in an end phase if: During the previous activaiton step [see note below], on or more enemy fighters were taken out of action And: One or more friendly fighters are within 1 hex of a feature token. - If we're right about the wording, this is a solid 1 glory end phase card.)
    • Plumbing the Depths (Score this in an end phase if one or more friendly fighters are in a cover hex, one or more friendly fighters are on a feature token and one or more friendly fighter are in a lethal hex. - This is scoreable with 2 fighters [since a feature token can also be a cover hex] and is really good for warbands with "Flying" fighters.)
NOTE: We wonder if the "During the previous activation step" was intended to be "During the previous action phase," mostly because there aren't any other end phase objectives with this wording. Our thought here also applies to A War in the Shadows.
  • Gambits:
    • A Hungry Darkness (Pick one feature token. Push that feature token 1 hex closer to the nearest enemy fighter. - A push! But for a feature token. Great for getting enemy fighters onto feature tokens, which helps the rest of this deck. You can also use it to pull a feature token from behind one of your fighters to be underneath them.)
    • The Walls Are Closing In (At the end of the next activation step, deal 1 damage to each fighter in an edge hex - A great source of ping, when it works.)
    • We Must Go Deeper (Choose up to two friendly fighters. Push the chosen fighters 1 hex. After that push, each chosen fighter must be in a cover hex or in enemy territory - Another push?! This card is more restricted than most, but can really help with your positioning in enemy territory.)
  • Upgrades:
    • Cursed Boarding Axe (Attack action, Range 1, 4 Fury, 2 Damage with Cleave, The bounty gained when an enemy fighter is taken out of action by this Attack action is spent glory unless this fighter is on a feature token. - Great attack action with the downside of gaining spent glory. Especially useful for a fighter that doesn't have a good Range 1 attack action.
    • Darkwater Anchor (-1 Damage to Range 3+ Attack actions that target this fighter, to a minimum of 1. In addition, this fighter cannot be pushed by enemy warbands. - The real benefit is the inability to be pushed by enemy warbands, the reduction to ranged attacks is just icing on the cake.)
    • Lurking Horror (Denizen, +1 Dice to this fighter's Attack actions. After this fighter's attack roll, remove one attack dice from that roll. Reaction: After your activation step, if this fighter is in a cover hex, push this fighter 1 hex. - We love accuracy boosts and in this deck, it's an upgrade that doesn't require you to be in a cover hex/feature token.)

Boards

Need 1 lethal hex, otherwise, stick to whatever suits your warband's play style.

Play Style

Aggro, but feature token or cover-hex based (you and your opponent).

Playing Against This?

Avoid cover hexes and keep them off their own feature tokens.

What Warband Should I Choose?

The Shadeborn. They have so much that deals with cover hexes anyway.

New Player Rating

Bronze. There's a lot going on in this deck that relies on you and your opponent being on feature tokens/cover hex and you really can't control that. On top of this issue, there are only 3 surges.

Rivals+ Rating

Bronze. This deck is a mixed bag. There's a lot of utility, but the deck requires a decent amount of finesse. You're going to want to be comfortable with a feature token/aggro flex playstyle. Anything you can do to control where your enemy is will help you a ton.

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