Warband Review - The Wurmspat

Introduction

The Wurmspat lumbered to the edges of the twisted, knotted forest known as the Spitewood. The dense thicket of tangled boughs loomed ahead, its lush and vibrant vegetation entirely untouched by the taint of rot. Fecula Flyblown halted at the forest’s border, tapping her Rotwood staff against the soft earth as she surveyed the shifting treeline.

“Something potent lies in there,” she muttered, a smile cracking across her bile covered lips. “Aqua Ghyranis, and plenty of it.”

Ghulgoch and Sepsimus exchanged eager, gurgling chuckles. Wherever life bloomed brightest, Grandfather Nurgle’s gifts brought the most exquisite decay. To the sound of scraping rusted iron and the wet squelch of suppurating flesh, the Wurmspat stepped into the Spitewood intent on finding the sacred waters and befouling them in Nurgle’s name.

Fighter Characteristics

This three fighter warband has a total of 15 Health, with all fighters starting at Move 3. Their melee attacks all deal 2 Damage, with Septimus improving to 3 Damage once inspired. Alongside this, each fighter gains an accuracy boost. This may be through extra attack dice or access to abilities such as Cleave or Brutal.

Fecula, the leader, also brings a ranged attack that deals 1 Damage and applies Stagger. This is useful for softening targets, disrupting enemy plans, or pushing fighters away from Treasure tokens.

The primary benefit of inspiring the Wurmspat is the upgrade to their defence. All three fighters improve from 1 Block to 2 Block. This is particularly impactful when combined with their warscroll ability Disgustingly Resilient.

The Roles of the Fighters

Fecula Flyblown

Capable in melee, especially when inspired, but also very effective at range. She excels at applying chip damage, driving enemies away from key objectives, and applying Stagger to set up the next charge.

Ghulgoch the Butcher

A reliable melee fighter with strong early game accuracy. He puts pressure on the opponent in the opening activations and helps you progress toward the inspire condition.

Sepsimus

Your main damage dealer in the later stages of the game. Once inspired he becomes a serious threat thanks to his increased damage and additional weapon abilities.

How Do the Wurmspat Inspire?

The inspire condition is simple and offers two options.

1. Spread damage across three or more enemy fighters. This inspires the entire warband and should be easy to achieve thanks to their solid accuracy.
2. Kill an enemy fighter using a weapon with the Bile ability. This interacts with the warscroll ability Grandfather's Gifts.

In most cases the first option is preferable because it inspires the whole warband at once. However, the second option is still very useful when the opportunity presents itself.

How Do Their Characteristics Compare to Other Warbands?

All ratings out of 5 (What do the stats mean?)

The Wurmspat have fighter characteristics that are very similar to other elite three fighter warbands. There is nothing unusual in their basic stat lines. Like all elite trios, their performance depends heavily on how well they use their warscroll abilities. Fortunately, these abilities are where the warband truly shines.

Warscroll Abilities

Multi Use Abilities

Disgustingly Resilient

This is the key ability of the Wurmspat. Before inspiring, each fighter rolls 1 Save die. This gives a roughly 33 percent chance to block 1 Damage. Once inspired, they roll 2 dice, increasing this to around 55 percent.

This can be stacked with Standfast, allowing you to reduce the damage by 2. Remember that you cannot reduce the damage to zero.

This ability greatly increases the warband’s durability and allows them to endure fights that would break many other warbands. Access to additional Save dice or rerolls makes this even stronger.

Grandfather's Gifts

This ability appears on some melee profiles, but because it is a weapon ability, it cannot be used with Cleave, Ensnare, Grievous and similar effects.

Reducing an enemy fighter’s Move by 2 is extremely powerful. Without significant Power card support, they cannot escape from the Wurmspat. They are forced into a grinding melee which strongly favours your fighters thanks to Disgustingly Resilient. Minus 2 Move on most fighters will reduce their movement to 1 or 2, which is extremely oppressive.

One Use Abilities

Steady Advance

A flexible and strong mobility tool that lets you push up to two friendly fighters in any direction. A free push effect with complete freedom of direction is always excellent for a slow warband. This is even better as it is push two!

Nauseous Revulsion

A potent defensive ability. Enemy fighters roll one fewer dice on their melee attacks for the next turn. This makes the Wurmspat even harder to damage, and it helps resist Drive Back so your fighters stay engaged.

Blades of Putrefaction

A simple but effective ability that grants access to Grievous. I like how it lets you spike Septimus to 4 Damage for a turn without any Power card support.

Deck Pairing

As an elite three fighter warband, the Wurmspat naturally fit the Strike playstyle. They benefit greatly from movement boosts, pushes, accuracy buffs, extra Save dice, rerolls, and healing. Anything that increases their durability only improves Disgustingly Resilient.

A strong starting point is the reliable Blazing Assault. It offers good push effects, healing, and upgrades that boost your damage output. The objectives tend to score modestly, but the Wurmspat can survive long enough to collect consistent glory from easy to score cards.

Blazing Assault and Reckless Fury

This classic Strike pairing encourages the Wurmspat to crash into enemy territory and start fighting immediately. Blazing Assault offers excellent ploys and upgrades, while Reckless Fury adds valuable two and three glory end phase cards. It also provides welcome speed boosts through Headlong Charge and strong ploys such as Reckless Fury, Diving In and Push Through.

Hunting Ground and Emberstone Sentinel

A less common pairing, but one that works surprisingly well. Emberstone Sentinels objectives tempt enemy fighters into your territory. The upgrades Sharp Reflexes and Agile improve your Save rolls and strengthen Disgustingly Resilient even further.

Hunting Ground then helps you score as you hold your territory and fend off the opponent. This is something the Wurmspat are naturally suited to.

Final Thoughts

My Wurmspat

Grandfather Nurgle has gifted the Wurmspat with a range of powerful tools. Their basic characteristics are similar to other elite three fighter warbands, but their warscroll abilities elevate them well above that foundation. Disgustingly Resilient dramatically improves their durability and makes them extremely difficult to remove from the board. Against most three fighter warbands you can usually expect to slay two fighters and earn 4 or 5 Bounty. Against the Wurmspat most opponents will struggle to kill more than a single fighter, earning only 2 or 3 Bounty. This difference makes the warband extremely competitive, as Strike warbands in particular will find it much harder to outscore them. Alongside this resilience they also have access to strong push effects, rule breaking weapon combinations and the ability to hinder enemy movement.

Taken together, these strengths position the Wurmspat as a serious threat within the Underworlds.

What do you think of this warband? Will you be trying them out, and which deck pairings are you planning to run?

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