Gnarlwood Rivals Review 2: Grinkrak's Looncourt & Fearsome Fortress
Other Rivals reviews available in previous articles!
In this blog, we give our Rivals/Nemesis review of the 3rd Gnarlwood warband and Rivals deck: Grinkrak's Looncourt and Fearsome Fortress: both the Warband and deck are available here (jumps to underworldsdb.com) https://www.underworldsdb.com/rivals.php.
Gnarlwood Rivals Decks
Grinkrak's Looncourt
Grinkrak's Looncourt is a 7-fighter warband featuring Grinkrak the Great and his "royal" court. Explore the fighter cards below.
Grinkrak the Great has one of the best defenses in the game at 2 block. His attack is a respectable 2 Smash for 2 Damage that jumps to 3 Smash when he inspires (whenever three or more friendly fighters are Inspired).
He has the Dub reaction, which lets him inspire another surviving friendly fighter after you score a non-Quest objective. Currently, the rulebook states you cannot use reactions during the end phase, so this ability can only be used to Inspire other fighters after Surge objectives are scored.
Quests
Grinkrak's Looncourt introduces a new Objective concept called Quests. These Objectives can be placed under fighters to be scored when their conditions are met (and used to directly inspire the other fighters in the warband). These cards could allow you to have more than 3 objectives in play at a time, since you draw up to 3 Objective cards in hand during the end phase and draw a new Objective anytime you score a Surge Objective!
Grib, da Wonky Lance is one of 3 3-Wound members of the Looncourt and is likely to be your main damage dealer. The Squig Horn doing 3 damage on a Charge is a big deal! Like the rest of the Looncourt, he inspires when you score a his Quest objective. When inspired, he is faster, has better defense, and is more accurate!
Pokin' Snark is the next 3-wound Goblin and one of two Goblins with weaponized Squigs. His Squig Spear has Crit Gnashin' which lets you break one of the target's upgrades on a Critical hit! Once inspired, he goes to a respectable 4 move and gets more accurate.
Skolko and Pronk are the last fighter(s) to have 3 Wounds, though I guess that's shared between the two of them. They wield a Squigapult (the other weaponized Squig), a range 3 or 4 (thanks to the Steady! ability), 2 Damage attack that has Crit Gnashin' as well! Once inspired, they go to 2 Block defense and their Squigapult gets more accurate.
The last 3 fighters have 2 wounds each and fairly similar profiles. Snorbo's Spore Trumpet is a ranged attack that can hand out Stagger, while Nagz and Burk fight in close quarters. When inspired, Nagz gets more accurate, while Burk does more damage.
Key Cards
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Objectives:
- Mob 'em! - You'll need the pushes, but it's easy enough to set up
- Run 'em Down! - You have decent options for accurate attacks and the supports needed for Mob 'Em will help
- Looncourt, Scrag 'Em! - You don't even need to be adjacent to an enemy fighter
- Gambits:
- Bold Pile On - A really good push, helps set up other Gambits (Stick the Boot In) and Upgrades (Kunnin' Knight)
- Gittish Resilience - Keeps your fighters alive longer (hopefully)
- Stab, Stab and Stab Again - Helps with accuracy. Note it can't help you score Run 'em Down!
Upgrades:
- Downtrodden Squire - You know we love pushes!
- Extra Pointy Boots - You know we love +1 Damage!
- Fortifying Fungus - Turns a 2-wound fighter into a 3- or 4-wound fighter
Boards
Play Style
Aggro, with some light hold Objectives. They're really reliant on their Gambits and Upgrades and you'll likely have to choose between scoring the Quests and Inspiring more fighters.Playing Against This?
Farm the Glory. Play against the quests.New Player Rating
Silver. We think they have a high skill ceiling but they'll bleed glory.Nemesis
Fearsome Fortress
Plot Card
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This plot card lets you place an additional feature token, your fortress we suppose. Feature tokens within one hex of no one's territory will help you score many of the Objectives in the deck and are crucial for many of the Gambits and Upgrades.
Key Cards
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Objectives:
- Bold Sortie - Easy enough surge to score, but it relies on having pushes in hand.
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- Earthworks - Another Surge that's relatively easy to score, especially if you have pushes in hand.
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- Conquered Domain - One of the better End Phase objectives. Guaranteed 1 Glory, but could net you more if you're deliberate with your feature token placement and your movement during the Action Phase.
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- Bold Sortie - Easy enough surge to score, but it relies on having pushes in hand.
- Gambits:
- Bound Spirit - A Trap & Denizen card. This brings some much needed plink damage to a deck that is lacking in damage upgrades.
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- Makeshift Bombardment - A card that lets you push an enemy fighter or stagger them. We think the Stagger is going to be invaluable to ensure the attacks you make actually go through.
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- Take Your Positions - A great push that is more valuable early to set up other cards and is only usable while your leader is alive!
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- Upgrades:
- Mason's Greathammer - A good attack action upgrade that lets you rearrange the board state.
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- Starmaw - Who doesn't love a Range 4 Attack that passes out Stagger?
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- Walking Wall - Let's just take "feature tokens" with us!
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Boards
Play Style
Hold feature tokens and demolish anyone who comes into your territory.Playing Against This?
Either get on feature tokens within 1 hex of no one's territory or attack with Range 2+ fighters.What Warband Should I Play?
We think the elite, high wound Warbands that already want to be on objectives or feature tokens work best here. Steelheart's Champions, The Wurmspat, Morgok's Krushas
