Morgok’s Krushas

The Orruks return and storm the Beastgrave!

Welcome to another warband review, this time of Morgok’s Crushas. This warband makes up the final 2 teams for Warhammer Underworlds Beastgrave. As always thanks to Games Workshop for providing these to review for free. Still, I always aim to be impartial and honest. With that all out-of-the-way, back to the article at hand.

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Narrative

Morgok’s Krushas are known around all of Ghur for hunting down the biggest and meanest prey they could find, all in the name of their Greenskin deity Gorkamorka. After their most recent kill, Morgok’s Krushas found themselves wondering the plane of ancient bones. In the distance they could hear the familiar sounds of battle. After a long and arduous journey, the Ironjawz Brutes found themselves outside the Beastgrave. From its dark tunnels they could hear the sounds of fighting intensify. Without hesitation, Morkgok quickly led his boyz deep inside for a right proppa rumble!

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Miniatures

Morgok’s Krushas are a 3 fighter elite warband that consist of: Morgok, ‘Ardskull and Thugg. Each miniature is a hulking brute of an Ironjawz Orruk, clad in battered plate armour and bearing blunt but savage weaponry. My favourite model from the pack has to be Morgok as he looks the most unique with a nice commanding pose. Otherwise they do struggle to look unique compared to normal Ironjawz Brutes from Age of Sigmar when compared to other Warhammer Underworlds warbands that are versions of existing units.

The miniatures come in Orruk green plastic. They’re chunky bois but go together without much issue, just always glue the heads on first before the outside armour plates. There area a few gaps here and there but they are cleverly hidden but outside pieces of plastic.

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The Fighters

Morgok’s Krushas are a 3 fighter warband which puts them in the “elite” category for Warhammer Underworlds warbands. They’re the smallest size that a warband can be but make up for it in some crazy stats. For a start they’re all 5 wounds which is insane as it puts them on a total wound pool of 15. To compensate for this they only defend on 1 block and have range characteristics of 1 for their attack actions. Their movement characteristics are also all 3 until they inspire to which it then increases to 4. The warband also shares the same inspire mechanic. A friendly fighter inspires when they have 2 or more WAAAGH! counters on their fighter cards. WAAAGH! counters are gained normally after an activation in which said friendly fighter made 1 or more attack actions. This means you can only get the WAAAGH! counters normally during activation attacks and not from attacks that occurs during the power step etc. It’s reliable but restrictive in a way, which is good.

Morgok

Morgok is the leader of his Krushas. He’s armed with his Boss Chappas that are range 1, 2 smash and 3 damage. He has a unique action where he can remove a WAAAGH! counter to push each friendly fighter up to 2 hexes. It’s a nice mobility boost as an action at the cost of WAAAGH! counters so be cautious when using this early before he is inspired.

Morgok Inspired

Morkgok Inspired has his Boss Choppas go to 3 fury with 3 damage and gains the ability to re-roll 1 attack dice LIKE Gurzag Ironskull. For you maths fans out there he goes from a 75% chance to roll a single success to a 70.4% chance to roll a single success (which increases to just about balance out with his inspired re-roll). The benefit is his chance to roll a crit goes from 30.6% to 42.1% which is what I love to see. You can argue it’s better to not inspire him but I say he doesn’t need to be inspired. It’s just a nice bonus if he does plus you’d probably be doing it for his increased mobility.

‘Ardksull

‘Ardskull is the brawns of the warband. He has his Gore-Basha which is range 1, 2 fury and 3 damage. That’s all he does. He hits hard but not accurately.

‘Ardskull Inspired

‘Ardskull Inspired has his Gore-Basha go to 3 fury. He also gains a Frenzied Whirl which is range 1, 2 fury and 2 damage with Scything. He gains a unique ability to remove a WAAAGH! counter before making the attack roll to increase the damage by 1 for every WAAAGH! counter removed. Doesn’t work for his Frenzied Whirl but great for the Gore-Basha.

Thugg

Thugg is very overpowered. I’ll explain why. His Smashas are range 1, 3 fury and 2 damage.

Thugg Inspired

Thugg Inspired gets the ability to discard WAAAGH! counters before making the attack roll to increase the dice characteristic for his Smashas for each WAAAGH! counter removed. Why is he overpowered? He should have been 2 fury uninspired. There’s no reason to inspire him and he breaks the balance of the warband for the opponent as you just focus WAAAGH! counter generation into ‘Ardksull. I’ll explain more later but this is very bad for fragile and horde warbands. Thugg is point and click, the fighter. Laugh at enemy 2 wound fighters as you mince them up with ease.

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Faction Cards

Now we’re at the card part of the review! As always faction cards then universals.

Faction Objectives

Avalanche of Aggression is alright but very match-up dependent. Not bad for 1 glory but not essential either.

Brute Triumph is faction Annihilation. Run if you want to be a true aggro player.

Brutes is da Best is alright but with a generally low movement value, you’ll struggle to score this early. Better as the game goes on but still only just 1 glory.

Called to WAAAGH! is alright but getting 6 WAAAGH! counters will take a while. Great for later in the game but not so much for an early round 1 Surge objective.

In Their Element rewards you for having the warband inspired. It’s alright but not something you can score easily. Better late game but for now just run Fired Up instead.

WAAAGH! Unleashed is 1 end phase glory for removing 4 WAAAGH! counters during the action phase. It’s actually really hard to do and power card dependent, not worth running personally.

Faction Objectives – Top Picks

Good Day’s Work is a solid 2 glory faction aggro objective. Have more enemy fighters out of action than surviving. Once again not easy for round 1 but great from round 2 and onwards which grants you needed end phase glory.

Got It, Boss is so easy. Clever opponents can play around it with canny objective placement but you can be greedy and place it adjacent to no man’s land in enemy territory for a simple 1 Surge glory.

Might of the Orruk requires you do a successful attack action with 4 or more damage for 1 Surge glory. ‘Ardskull inspired easily scores this but so does Morgok with Great Strength etc.

Now Wot. So easy. Too easy. Score with push cards, Morgok’s action or just move on normally. Always take. Requires slightly more effort than Got It, Boss. Don’t want to strain yourself there.

Orruk Kunnin’ rewards you for playing 3 gambits during a round. Easy passive Surge glory.

Proppa Rumble is a great end phase objective. Only 1 glory but just needs 4 or more fighters that are out of action and/or have wound tokens. Score by smashin’ or getting’ bashed ya git.

Faction Gambits

Power of the WAAAGH! is alright. A 44.4% chance to heal at least 1 wound. Sad times if you fail to roll any focus symbols. Still you can potentially heal up to 2 wounds if you’re lucky.

Faction Gambits – Top Picks

Berserk Fortitude is really good. You can argue you don’t need it being at 5 wounds each but that surprised damage negation can really destroy an opponent’s gameplan. Requires a WAAAGH! counter but still amazing.

Berserk Strength is another great way to get extra damage. It’s risky and costs WAAAGH! counters but it’s more ways for extra surprise damage.

Brawling helps you get crucial WAAAGH! counters. Play it after a successful charge at the cost of not driving back an enemy fighter to inspire a fighter immediately.

Brutal Attack is Determined Effort but better. +1 dice to your first attack action and then get a WAAAGH! counter! Basically an instant inspire on a fighter with no WAAAGH! counters.

Brutal Kunnin’ is an Orruk staple, essential with the Krushas as there are only 3 of them and this keeps your fighters fighting without charge tokens.

Brutal Reprisal is silly good. My Turn without the friendly push. You can’t be driven back but then attack immediately for free. Won’t reward you with any WAAAGH! counters but still an amazing card. Make enemy range 1 fighters cry.

Eager Advance is super Sidestep. Push a friendly fighter 1 hex then gain a WAAAGH! counter for free.

Kunnin’ Brutality is excellent for mobility purposes and scoring objectives. Makes the Brutes a really oppressive aggro threat for the opponent.

WAAAGH! Energy is an amazing early game gambit. A 50% chance to gain a free WAAAGH! counter for each surviving friendly fighter. Random but amazing when it goes off.

Faction Upgrades

Berserk Whirl turns ‘Ardskull into a Beyblade. It’s alright but scatter is still too random to be relied upon.

Seething Hatred is alright but there’s no point in investing upgrades into Thugg really. He’s so efficient and good already that you don’t need this.

WAAAGH! ‘Eadbutt is alright. A hilarious way to burn your WAAAGH! counters. Be like me and do a 10 damage 2 smash attack. Remember you discard before the attack roll so it can be a big gamble.

Faction Upgrades – Top Picks

Brute Charge makes your attack actions succeed on smashes and fury when making charge actions. Can go on any friendly fighter too. Makes even charge actions brain-dead easy, more than they were already.

Brute Swing grants Knockback. With all the lethal hexes and push cards about, this helps max out your kills as well us messing up the positioning of your opponent.

Incredible Bellow seems quite weak until you notice the second effect. Spending an activation to push all other friendly fighters 1 hex can swing games in your favour. Great mobility card.

Inured to Pain. 5 wounds not enough? Negate damage by 1 to a minimum of 1. Playing with Morgok’s Krushas are really hard you know.

Keen Choppa grants cleave for Morgok. Makes him an elite fighter butchering machine. Still good against dodge warbands due to people always going on guard now.

Vengeful Glare is a reaction that can block your opponent off like Snarlfang’s Jaws and Pit Trap. It also, more importantly, grants your fighter a WAAAGH! counter. Can be quite crazy, especially when your opponent fails to do successful attacks against you.

Vessel of the WAAAGH! is another nice way to gain WAAAGH! counters if you’re really desperate for them. Even then your fighters generally should be quite close to each other and this is a great way to get early inspires. Also targets ‘Ardskull himself.

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Universal Cards

Now we move onto the universal card aspect of the warband review where I look at and rate the universal cards that come with Morgok’s Krushas.

Universal Objectives

Master of Battle is very situational. Great for warbands like the Sepulchral Guard and even gun-turret Hrothgorn. It’s just a lot of work for 1 glory. You can score it by going on guard then making a charge superaction over 2 activations to score it but it is better for fast and elite warbands.

Over My Dead Body is another copy of Steadfast Defender. It’s alright but just dependent on your opponent.

Universal Objectives – Top Picks

Change of Fortunes is a Surge that grants you 1 glory when a feature token that contains a friendly fighter is flipped. Score it yourself or by your opponent. Really good if you’re building your power deck towards feature token flipping.

Feed the Beastgrave. THE Beastgrave card. Flip/remove ALL the feature tokens! Maybe I’ll share the Ylthari’s Guardians deck I’ve been working on for a while…

Master Poisoner is a card I really like. Great if you’re running a lot of Poison cards and fairly easy to score for 1 glory as an end phase objective.

Meticulous Strategy is something I think is pretty solid if you build your deck correctly. It is a win more card but not too hard to achieve with only needing to score 3 or more Dual objectives. Especially now since we have access to all the Beastgrave cards.

Show of Force is a Surge AND Hybrid objective which is great for 1 glory. Have 3 or more friendly fighters in enemy territory or 1 or more friendly fighters with 3 or more upgrades. Essential for aggro players.

The Avatar Risen. I love it. Great for people dedicating themselves to the almighty Ur-Grub. Fear the Avatar of the Ur-Grub Bat Squig.

Trading Blows. Magore’s Fiends we love you. Still this very good for aggro players who usually have access to reaction attack gambits/effects.

Universal Gambits

It’s alright, easy channel at least. A card for a card is not ideal though it is a welcome addition to turtle magic decks as the spell doesn’t need line of sight and can be cast anywhere on the game board.

Closing Jaws is alright extra damage. Too situational for my liking but still useful and can force an opponent to activate a fighter just to prevent them taking 1 damage.

Headlong Flight is fine if you’re a Quarry master. Otherwise just go with Spectral Wings.

Punch-Drunk allows you to re-enact bar fights. Situational and uses scatter so won’t always work for you.

Scavenged Defences is alright but situational and your opponent can always just choose another fighter instead. Better for elite warbands.

The Ground Shifts lets you push a single lethal hex 1 hex. It’s alright but I don’t see much use for it as you get more use from Distraction.

Universal Gambits – Top Picks

Bloodscent is great for aggro players. Easy to use thanks to the abundance of lethal hexes.

Dulling Dart is great at neutering a key enemy fighter for a round. It’s also a Poison card which is another nice bonus.

Go to Ground is a far more balanced Illusory Fighter. It still offers great mobility and redeployment options. Combine with the Quarry keyword for teleporting onto friendly objectives. Very versatile.

Universal Upgrades

Abasoth’s Auto-Immolation is too situational for my liking but it is a Lost Page so take it to complete your page collection.

Soulward Shard is an alright card at shutting down magic if you really need to but it’s also highly situational. Save for grudge matches.

Universal Upgrades – Top Picks

Amberbone Sword. Arguably the best amberbone weapon. 3 smash makes it super reliable for that extra glory upon killing.

Claws of the Ur-Grub. Do you like claws? Do you hate to dodge like Gohan? Then take this amazing upgrade. Only works on range 1 attack actions but that amazing access to Ensnare is essential. Rippa’s Snarlfangs are in love.

Cursed Blade boosts your movement and gives you access to 3 damage. You’re forced to activate the fighter at the start of each round (unless you equip it mid-round) but then it also damages the equipped fighter. Great but keep in-mind the restrictive and limited use. Eventually your user will die from the Cursed Blade or it will help make them easier to kill.

Hunter’s Will is amazing for Hrothgorn. Never escape his clutches.

Prescient Blow just is great for the annoyance factor. Potentially ruin the day of a range 1 enemy fighter. Yeah it’s super situational but it’s also a COMBO card! For the risky but so good when it goes off. Also great for scoring Trading Blows.

Strength of Terror. Become a Quarry, get +1 dice to your range 1 and 2 attack actions. Amazing with the slight downside (or upside!) of becoming a Quarry.

Warding Companion, despite some dodgy wording, is another great defensive upgrade. Multiple defence fighters love this.

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Decks

Now to the deck section! Once again these are sample decks to get you going and build off of. They’re not super competitive but designed to be optimal and fun. First I’ll do a deck with only Beastgrave cards and then a deck for Championship Format.
Decks will be made available once Underworldsdb.com is updated so for now deck links are blank. Once again though, thanks to all the amazing work Underworlds DB does!

Beastgrave Only Cards

Playstyle: Aggro

Decklink

The Beastgrave only deck for Morgok’s Krushas is pretty simple. Smash in and occasionally hold an objective or 2. The glory ceiling is low from the objectives on a consistency basis but offset via the aggro nature of the warband. You have some easy hold objective Surge cards for quick glory when not killing due to multiple reasons. Path to Victory and Brutes is da Best are the only difficult card to score consistently but that’s not a huge issue. Gambits are pretty much all faction cards because they’re all just really good. They give you needed WAAAGGH! counters while also having very strong effects. Upgrades boost damage while also granting Cleave and Ensnare, meaning no one is truly safe from your Krushas. It’s simple but a lot of fun and a great way to get a grips with Warhammer Underworlds.

Championship Format

Playstyle: Aggro

Decklink

Building off of the Beastgrave deck, the Championship Format version adds more universal cards to improve the efficiency of the deck. Keep Chopping is a nice end phase objective that can be scored far more reliably than you’d think thanks to the faction gambit cards as well as the ranged 3 attack action upgrades. Solid Gains also grants more reliable end phase glory. Spectral Wings gives more mobility to the warband which is sorely needed while uninspired. Nullstone Darts is the only new upgrade as it’s an imporant range 3 attack action that keeps up the pressure on the opponent while also packing a re-roll against wizards.

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Warband Overview

So far, Morgok’s Krushas are really good. Too good almost. They will almost play themselves due to amazing stats and faction cards. This isn’t bad but it will be a problem for competitive play where I fear they will skew the game into either full aggro with them and keep away control playstyles to beat the Krushas. The extent of their impact is left to be seen but they’re far too good internally balanced and externally. I would have loved to have seen Thugg at 2 fury uninspired so you have a reason to actually inspire him. They’re kept in-check with weak end phase objective cards but even then their faction cards are immensely strong to compensate. Running pretty much all of their faction gambit cards is very viable.

Overall I’d recommend Morgok’s Krusha’s because they’re the aggro Cursebreakers. Unfortunately. They’re just amazingly good no matter what you’re aiming to do with them and a very forgiving warband to play as well whatever your skill level.

If you want to buy Morgok’s Krusha’s you can get them via the direct link to Games Workshop here or via my affiliate link to Element Games here which will net you a minimum 15% discount while helping to support my content, all at no additional cost to you.

Closing Crit

So there you have it. All of Warhammer Underworlds’ warbands and cards. Finally, after such a long and understandable delay. There’s still a lot of time to go in regards to how Morgwaeth’s Blade-Coven and Morgok’s Krushas shall effect the game as whole, especially with all the universal cards they come with. Overall I feel they’re both fun editions to the game even if they’re both very polarising, mainly due to being paired together. I hope you enjoyed this early review and check back again at the weekend for the full review along with some other surprises!

So until nest time, sharpen dem choppas and take dem dents outta your armour ya lazy gitz! Morgok’s Krushas are ‘ere and dey plan to bash everyone up gud un proppa-like. It’s time for some WAAAGGH!-powered crits!