Khagra’s Ravagers

Desecrate the Direchasm for Chaos!

Welcome to another warband review, this time of Khagra’s Ravagers. This warband is the 3^rd released for Warhammer Underworlds Direchasm. 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.

As an aside, if you prefer video format, I’ve done a YouTube version of the review which you can watch below:

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Narrative

Khagra’s Ravagers were brought to the Beastgrave in order to corrupt it as a dark sacrifice to the chaos gods and gain daemonic ascendence. They plan on doing this by desecrating all areas of the living mountain via dark magic and gruesome sacrifices. Zarshia, meanwhile, plots for her return to power as they quest deeper into the Direchasm. She was the original leader but lost the faith of her followers when she inadvertently led them into a trap within the Direchasm, resulting in her sister Khagra using her might to save the warriors of Chaos and in-turn gaining their favour as new leader. As they venture onwards in their path for glory, Zarshia continues to scheme and plot. While her sister commands authority now, that will not last for long…

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Miniatures

Khagra’s Ravagers are another 4 fighter warband from Direchasm consisting of: Khagra the Usurper, Zarshia Bittersoul, Dour Cragan and Razek Godblessed. Each miniature marks the hallmarks of tradition Slaves to Darkness warriors with traditional chaos armour, markings and weapons. Zarshia stands out as the wizard of the group, with her withered body giving off a creepy and frail appearance when compared to the other fighters. My favourite fighter from the warband is Dour Cragan, partly due to his pose echoing that of SLAMBO. He just has that classic fearsome chaos warrior feel.

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The miniatures come in a dark grey coloured plastic, almost near black but not like your generic grey plastic sprues. Grey can be deep and complex too. Anyway, it’s another unique colour for Warhammer Underworlds. The miniatures go together well enough and are easy to paint separately from their bases. Care needs to be taken with building Zarshia as she is the most spindly of the 4 fighters but she’s still sturdy enough.

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The Fighters

Khagra’s Ravagers are a 4 fighter warband which puts them closer towards the elite spectrum of warband size. As a 4 fighter warband, Khagra’s Ravagers occupies a great space in terms of defensive and offensive deployment while also helping you use your activations more efficiently (1 activation per fighter each round). The warband shares a movement characteristic of 3 (which increases to 4 upon inspiring) as well as defence characteristics of 1 block and a wound characteristic of 4 (except for Zarshia who is 3). The whole warband inspires after an activation if there are 3 or more Desecration tokens on the battlefield.

Desecration tokens are explained in a separate card included in this warband expansion. When you Desecrate an objective, you place a Desecration token on it with any appropriate counter. These are removed at then of a power step when an enemy fighter is in the same hex as a Desecration token or when an objective token is flipped. Fighters cannot hold an objective with a Desecration token, making Desecration tokens great at shutting down Surge objectives like Temporary Victory and Hidden Purpose. You also cannot Desecrate an objective that already has a Desecration token and tokens move with the objective they are on.

Desecration tokens are interesting. They feel more like an anti-meta mechanic that was needed in Beastgrave. I’m also not a fan of having more tokens on the gameboard as it can potentially get confusing once more start stacking up. The rules, however, are very clear and it doesn’t completely shut down hold objectives, just heavily slows them down. Their inspire mechanic is still very difficult to achieve though as a canny opponent can remove your Desecration tokens as you put them down.

Khagra the Usurper

Khagra the Usurper is the leader (for now) of her Ravagers. She is armed with her Daemonbound Mace which is range 1, 2 Smash, 3 damage with Knockback 1. She has the ability called Sacrifice which is a reaction that triggers after an activation when Khagra takes an enemy fighter out of action, Desecrate an objective in the same hex as herself or the enemy fighter. It’s a nice way to quickly gain Desecration tokens while on the move.

Khagra Inspired

Khargra Inspired gains 2 Block from 1 when inspired as well as the standard warband movement increase. That’s it really. You don’t really need her inspired, which is totally fine. Maybe Knockback 2 on the Daemonbound Mace would have been nice but she’s already so good while not inspired anyway.

Zarshia Bittersoul

Zarshia Bittersoul is a level 2 wizard. She has a Sorcerer Staff which is range 2, 2 smash, 1 damage. Her magical attack is Spite-Tongue Curse which is range 3, hits on channels, 1 damage which has an ability that triggers Backlash to Zarshia if the attack action is unsuccessful. It’s a fair trade-off considering her high accuracy (88.89% chance to roll a single success on 2 dice). She also has the same Sacrifice ability as Khagra, allowing her to potentially Desecrate at range which makes her unique and still very useful to the warband. She also only has 3 wounds compared to the rest of the warband so you need to keep her safe.

You can also run Addicted to Power for her to try and farm for 2 Surge glory, aiming for a Backlash but I feel this is the same trap as Warning Shot was with for range 3 fighter warbands.

Zarshia Inspired

Zarshia Inspired has her Sorcerer Staff gain Ensnare and her Spite-Tongue Curse increases to 2 damage, making her much better at combat and the bane of horde warbands. Out of all the fighters in the warband, you could argue Zarshia needs to inspire the most to get maximum utility from her.

Dour Cragan

Dour Cragan loves Pringles Sour Cream and Onion. He is also the spiritual son of SLAMBO, armed with Hellforged Weapons that are range 1, 3 fury and 2 damage. He packs the Sacrifice ability along with Despoil, which lets you Desecrate an objective he is holding at the end of the action phase. It’s a really great ability to use in matchups where Desecrating will be hard as well as a use for Cragan to sit-back and play defensively with.

Cragan Inspired

Cragan Inspired has his Hellforged Weapons gain Cleave as well as movement 4. Once again it’s not too much but a nice bonus.

Razek Godblessed

Razek Godblessed has a Hellforged Axe which is range 1, 2 smash, 2 damage. He has all the same abilities as Cragan, just with a shield.

Razek Inspired

Razek Inspired has his Hellforged Axe increase to 3 smash, gains movement 4 and 2 block (his shield finally kicking-in). He becomes a more reliable fighter but he’s good enough to begin with already.

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Faction Cards

Now we’re at the card part of the review! As always I start with faction cards then universals cards, ordering them as cards that I think are eh to alright and then followed by my top picks.

Faction Objectives

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Absolute Desecration grants you 4 glory in the 3^rd end phase for having 4 or more Desecration tokens on the battlefield. That is so hard to do and can be disrupted very easily, especially if an opponent can flip and/or remove 2 objective tokens. I would have rather it been X glory dependent on the number of Desecration tokens on the battlefield, that way it would be more unique and reward the player for focusing on Desecrating. Currently, I’d pass on it. Especially for best of 3 games.

Dark Approval is faction Victorious Duel. That isn’t bad but it’s an objective which will come down to personal taste. I think it is a good choice for aggro builds thanks to Khagra’s high damage output. The important thing is it only mentions the Leader keyword so it opens up a lot of possibilities with Power Reclaimed (more on that later). Still, run at your own preference.

Desolate Domain is a Surge which grants you 1 glory for having a Desecration token on all objective tokens in 1 or more players’ territory. You can play around this by putting only 1 objective token in your territory but then you’re giving your opponent more objectives to score or they could end up placing more in your territory. Desecration builds will likely run it but it’s a risky card that I wouldn’t be able to rely upon consistently.

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Fierce Conquerors has me torn. It is a Dual objective and a twist on Path to Victory. You need 3 or more friendly fighters in enemy territory but also 2 or more Desecration tokens on the battlefield. It’s doable for an aggro build but it takes so much work. I would have liked it more if you needed 2 or more friendly fighters and 1 Desecration token instead for 2 glory. Considering the general movement characteristic of 3 for the warband, I wouldn’t generally run this. The objective is much better for the final round but scoring it during round 1 is very unlikely.

Hurricane of Violence is another aggro end phase objective.  You need to have taken 2 or more enemy fighters out of action, with your own fighters, while they were in enemy territory. The 2 glory is great but the hoops you need to jump through to score it are not. Especially with no access to Scything attacks. Very situational, even for aggro players.

Ravagers All is a difficult Fired Up. Having all your friendly fighters inspired is difficult, especially for 1 glory. It’s definitely doable but not an efficient way to play the warband. If it were 2 glory I would be more inclined to run it.

Faction Objectives – Top Picks

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Brutal Desecration rewards you 1 glory as a Surge when you Desecrate an objective, which is something you should be doing generally. Score this passively via faction cards, Cragan and Razek or when on the offensive.

Glorious Slaughter is a great faction objective. Score 2 glory in an end phase for having 3 or more enemy fighters out of action. Can be matchup dependent but it’s a great score-more for killing at any time, whether it be early or late in the game. It’s something your opponent can’t stop once you’ve racked up the kills. Horde warbands fear this card.

Malevolent Exploits is a balanced take on passive Surge glory. Score 1 glory immediately for playing 3 or more power cards in a single power step. It’s much more balanced compared to previous faction cards which needed you to play them in a single action phase. Is it worth playing 3 power cards in a power step for 1 glory? Yes if you’re equipping upgrades or using gambits to setup your plays. I would always run this.

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On the Dark Road is a nice Hybrid objective. Score 1 glory for either having a friendly fighter with 3 or more upgrades or having each friendly fighter with 1 or more upgrades. Think of a better Chosen Champion. Difficult to score round 1 but becomes much better as the game goes on.

Power of Chaos is a faction Sorcerous Scouring. It’s fine. Great for players aiming to go magic-heavy with Khagra’s Ravagers.

Razed Realm is simple yet fairly reliable. Score 1 glory for having 2 or more Descreation tokens on the battlefield. Score this with Cragan and Razek or while on the go with kills. It may not seem like much glory but it is consistent.

Faction Gambits

Eternal Vendetta grants a single re-roll to an attack dice in the next activation to a friendly fighter. Not as good as Fuelled by Fury but helps improve accuracy for those important kills to trigger Desecration. It’s alright but you’d probably aim for cards that add dice to your attacks instead such as Sitting Target.

Faction Gambits – Top Picks

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Eye of the Gods is a very situational card but I love it, especially with how it links the narrative aspect of the Slaves to Darkness with Khagra’s Ravagers. It is basically an upgrade posing as a gambit. Play while an enemy leader is out of action to grant one of many different modifiers. Facing multiple defence fighters? Go with +1 attack dice. 4 wound fighter warband? +1 damage, and so on. I love it but it is something you need to build around, which is much easier while playing aggro.

Flames of Spite is Twist the Knife if you CAN ROLL A CRIT! Oh, so good. It works on any range of attack action and is declared after an attack is successful. Surprise! It’s just so good, even ignoring the crits.

Mask of Darkness is a gambit spell that is cast on a Focus which lets you place a friendly fighter within 3 hexes onto an empty objective token in enemy territory and gain a move token. Surprise teleport! Use it on a backfield Cragan or Razek, or even Khagra. Of course Mask of Darkness has a 75% chance to trigger but when it does, it can swing games with the sudden mobility boosts it offers.

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Power Reclaimed may seem bad but it’s great as another way to play Khagra’s Ravagers. Or should I say, Zarshia’s Ravagers haha. Give Zarshia her full power, like she has long been plotting for! She becomes a level 3 wizard and goes up to 4 wounds. This makes her one powerful wizard. Thanks to gaining the Leader keyword, all appropriate Leader faction cards will work with her as well like Eye of the Gods for example. I’ve had a lot of fun going with Zarshia-focussed builds. Send Khagra off to her death, taking as many foes down with her as she can then laugh as Zarshia reclaims her crown. Is it hyper-efficient? No but it opens up another way to play this warband, especially with magic-focussed builds.

Ravaging Advance is a great faction push card that is balanced. Push all friendly fighters not in enemy territory, 1 hex towards it. Gives them needed mobility while not being too strong and allowing the opponent to play around it if they are in your territory already.

Ritual Desecration lets you immediately Desecrate an objective token you are standing on. Great for speedy Desecrates as well as with Khagra or Zarshia when they fail to get a kill. Opens up a lot of momentum for the warband without needing to kill/against elite warbands.

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Spurred On is another good positioning card. Let’s you move another friendly fighter after a Leader’s move action. Use it to get support for an attack action or onto objectives to Desecrate. Remember you can use this on friendly fighters even if they already have move and/or charge tokens. Such an awesome card with lots of potential.

Whispers of Chaos is another strong faction gambit spell. Cast on a focus then push an enemy fighter within 3 hexes and then you either Deal 1 damage to them or give them a move token. Shut down an opponent trying to hold an objective token and then ping them for 1 damage/kill after pushing into a lethal hex or lock the enemy fighter out of the round with a move token. Flexible and powerful.

Wrack the Land Desecrates an objective token in an empty hex and while within 1 hex of a friendly fighter. Once again another flexible and non-kill dependent way to Desecrate an objective token. Play after a failed attack when driving back an opponent off an objective or before your next activation.

Faction Upgrades

Blazing Runeshield is great but wholly situational. The equipped fighter cannot take damage from spells, which is great. The issue is spell builds are not popular or rampant at the moment. Always use against your Cursebreaker friend. ALWAYS.

Faction Upgrades – Top Picks

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Blasphemous Cuirass is an odd one. Generally, this is a 33.33% chance to reduce damage by 1 on single defence fighters. However, if your fighter can get more than 1 defence dice (such as with inspired Khagra and Razek) then it increases to a 55.56% chance to negate damage by 1. It’s not guaranteed damage negation but has a high chance of going off, which is still important in this current meta with so much damage 4 floating about. Stack with Great Fortitude and other +1 wound upgrades for Nurgle-lite durability.

Bolstered by HATE. Wait, not my HATE. Either way this is now my favourite card. Such a good name, a strong name. Also it’s faction Great Fortitude. Amazing. Always run it.

Conqueror’s Cloak provides +2 move during a charge action. Savage Speed is more flexible but this is still a great choice. How does a cloak make you faster? Let me know your thoughts as to why! My personal head-cannon is that it has the same power as Bullseye’s trenchcoat from the Daredevil film that lets him teleport everywhere.

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Desecrator Gauntlets are amazing. Push an adjacent enemy fighter 1 hex after a move action. Abuse with fighters that have range +2 attacks. Even then you can just use it as a guaranteed push to disrupt the opponent.

Gifted Sorceror lets you re-roll magic rolls for Zarshia. Once again this is a great choice for going down the magic-heavy route.

Grudging Defence. Survival Instincts with no Quarry keyword. Amazing. Stand your ground and frustrate the opponent. Makes it even more difficult for your opponent to remove your Desecration tokens while you just stand on them.

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Hellfire Sword is limited to Khagra and Razek but it is amazing. Range 3, 2 smash and 2 damage! Threat range of 6! Blast apart horde warbands with ease. Such a good attack action upgrade.

Ruinous Might is faction Great Strength. Once again, always take. Khagra’s Ravagers has so much access to +1 damage that, eventually, no one will be able to stand in your way!

Unearthly Charisma offers an interesting twist to modifiers. Other friendly fighters get +1 dice to their range 1 attack actions while within 2 hexes of your Leader. It’s a new way to get more accurate attacks, similar to Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 character aura buffs. It has a generous range but it depends on how much milage you want to get out of Cragan and Razek.

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Universal Cards

Now we come to the part of the review where I go over the universal cards which come within this warband expansion.

Universal Objectives

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Arcane Cleansing is a Surge objective which grants you 1 glory for removing 2 or more counters from any fighter via a friendly spell. Super situational for just 1 glory. It is open-ended in terms of what counters are removed (cough, Hunger counters) but it’s still not that appealing to me.

Underdog is…interesting. It is a Hybrid objective that gives you 2 glory if your opponent has the Primacy token or has scored 3 or more objectives than you. The latter part is very interesting, especially when going 2^nd at the start of the 1^st round in a game. Still, it’s too situational to get the most out of it. A fun card but not consistent for competitive decks.

Wrested Dominance is a Surge and Hybrid objective. You score it via either gaining the Primacy token from your opponent or holding an objective your opponent held at the start of the round. During round 1, only the first part is scorable. Still, it’s very situational and only more consistently scored when your opponent can easily get the Primacy token.

Universal Objectives – Top Picks

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Magical Mark gives you 1 glory for having a wizard holding an objective. It’s so good. Myari’s Purifiers love it but so do any defensive magic users like Vortemis.

Pitiable Death is a Surge and Hybrid objective which gives you 1 glory for taking out an enemy fighter with 1 or more Hunger counters or is in a starting hex. Doesn’t seem too great currently as you will rely on your opponent being on starting hexes, but that part is so easy to setup. Even the Hunger counter aspect will likely get better as time goes on. Such a great card for aggro players.

Starvation is a Surge objective which gives you 1 glory after an activation where 1 or more enemy fighters has 3 or more Hunger counters. It’s not great now but gives a lot of potential for the Hunger mechanic in general. Yes, it’s just about dumping Hunger counters on stuff but it does open up the mechanic more.

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The Hunt Advances is a super Swift Advance for Hunters. You need 3 or more friendly fighters who are Hunters in enemy territory but you get 2 glory for it! Borderline broken for Rippa’s Snarlfangs but any Hunter-heavy warband that is fast will love this objective. Or even any player with Hunting Season.

Turned Tables is amazing. 1 Surge glory for when a Quarry takes an enemy fighter out of action. So good right now considering how the meta is with the focus on Quarry fighters. Even then, Slakeslash from the Dread Pageant will love this too.

Unafraid makes aggro even more overwhelming. Score 2 glory for having all your surviving friendly fighters within 2 hexes of 1 or more enemy fighters. Rippa’s Snarlfangs meta? Fast aggro in general will love this. Such a strong and easy to score objective card.

Unassailable is another great card for Primacy. It is a Hybrid objective which gives you 1 glory for either having the Primacy token or having the only surviving Leader. Great 1 end phase glory primarily due to the Primacy aspect, although it will be strong in certain builds like with Mollog and Hrothgorn.

Universal Gambits

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Colossal Blow grants you Knockback 2 to a range 1 or 2 attack action, which is alright. The better part is how it deals 1 damage to the enemy fighter if they cannot be driven back the full distance. Situational, as you’ll want the damage effect, and doesn’t really boost your accuracy when we already have so many damage modifying cards.

Hopesink is another Trap card. This triggers after an enemy fighter’s move action, giving them a -1 defence modifier as well as making them a Quarry which is generally a benefit right now. It persists until that fighter is taken out of action but it is a nice way to reduce your opponent’s defence characteristic. Just, is it worth the risk of making them a Quarry?

Macabre Feast heals a friendly fighter based on the number of Hunger counters they have when taking out an adjacent enemy fighter. Just run Ferocious Resistance, it’s much better and doesn’t need you to trigger off of kills while also not burning your Hunger counters.

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Shocking Ferocity damages an opponent who attacks 1 of your fighters while adjacent to another of your own. It’s a nice way to deal damage to the opponent but it’s just incredibly situational.

Storm of Foreboding is a gambit spell which needs double channels to cast. It then grants +1 dice to friendly fighters’ attack actions for the round. While an amazingly huge buff, the only warband that can cast this reliably while also making the most out of Storm of Foreboding are…Stormsire’s Cursebreakers, who are already one of the most accurate warbands in the game. This spell isn’t bad, just that with the lack of innate cards for those channels, level 1 wizards are locked out from this and other warbands with level 2 wizards don’t have the ability to maximise on the +1 attack dice. Maybe Khagra’s Ravagers but it’s just a lot of work to get this off.

Universal Gambits – Top Picks

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Beast Trail is Hiden Paths reborn! It is limited to fighters with the Hunter or Quarry keyword but I like this new twist on the card. Once again Beastgrave and Direchasm warbands get the most out of Beast Trail but it’s great to see another old mobility card added to the game again.

Energy Drain is an amazing card for Hunger builds. Give a fighter in the same hex as an objective a move token, then all adjacent fighters within 2 hexes get 1 Hunger counter (including the fighter on the objective). Friend or Foe! Energy Drain is really good at racking up the Hunger. Think of the Hunger you could do with Zarbag’s Gits! The best (or worst if you hate Control) thing is how you can do this without needing the opponent nearby.

Feign Strength. Gain the Primacy token. So strong. The downside is you lose it at the end of the action phase, so you don’t hold it for objective scoring or discarding for 1 unspent glory. Still, if you have cards that revolve around ditching the Primacy token, you can use this as a quick starting point without needing to kill.

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Feign Weakness gives you 1 spent glory for giving the Primacy token to your opponent if you have it. Ballsy but a great way to discard the Primacy token, especially if you plan to immediately get it back in your next activation.

Hunter’s Aspect is a gambit spell that seems rather useless at first. All it does is make the caster a Hunter and you can re-roll 1 dice in attack rolls against enemy Quarries and persists until taken out of action. It is, however, casted on a single channel and needs no line of sight. It helps score Master of Many Paths too if the wizard is a Leader as well. Basically, this spell is great for Control builds looking to score glory without needing to interact with the opponent.

Universal Upgrades

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Mundane Razor is an attack action upgrade that allows you to discard persisting gambits after an attack action if you rolled 1 or more successes. It is also range 1, 2 smash, 2 damage. The attack action is alright but the ending of persisting effects is very interesting. It’s not bad but makes this card more of an anti-meta pick/tech card. You need to have a very specific use for this card as there’s a lot to play around with ending your opponent’s or you own persisting gambits.

Rod of the Archmage grants, as a reaction, the Primacy token when the equipped wizard takes an enemy fighter out of action with a spell. It’s not bad but what weakens it is the lack of damage spells currently. If we had more gambit damage spells then I’d rate it much more highly. Probably a good take in a Primacy Stormsire’s Cursebreakers build but that warband is the only one that can make any magic card work.

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Soultooth Javelin is the expansion’s Soultooth Weapon. It is range 3, 3 fury, damage 1 with Cleave. The equipped fighter is a Hunter and also grants +1 damage to the attack action during a charge as well as having the ability to re-roll 1 dice against a fighter with a move and/or charge token. The downside is it has to be discarded after making the attack action. When compared with other 1-use attack action upgrades, the power of the Amberbone weapons just overshadow Soultooth Javelin.

Terror Shield is a long but situational defensive upgrade. You become a Quarry and gain a long reaction. When an enemy fighter ends a move action adjacent to you, roll a magic dice and on the roll of a channel you get +1 defence till the end of that activation. It’s…very situational for a 50/50 to get +1 defence. You may run it just to get the Quarry keyword but there are other better upgrades which do that.

Universal Upgrades – Top Picks

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Charike Claws grants Cleave, basically. It also makes you a Quarry and while you have that keyword you have Cleave. The same applies if you are a Hunter too. It’s basically Predator’s Trinket but slightly better. Having access to easy Cleave is great, especially with the commonality of Guard nowadays.

Dominant Defender is a really powerful upgrade. It grants a fighter Guard while holding an objective. However, if the fighter’s defence roll has no success, you then lose the Primacy token. Although if you CAN ROLL A CRIT, as a reaction, you gain the Primacy token on defence. I love it. Honestly though, it’s a really strong upgrade but it also unlocks the Primacy counter. This can be a problem as your opponent will have access to Primacy too and can then gain it from you on failed defence rolls. It’s something to keep in-mind but still a very good upgrade.

Feral Symbiote gives +1 damage to range 1 attack actions. Direchasm is Damage-chasm! The equipped fighter gains a Hunger counter after their activation and then takes 1 damage if they have 3 or more Hunger counters. It helps with Hunger but aggro players will take it for the +1 damage. So much extra damage now with Great Strength, Sting of the Ur-Grub and Savage Strength.

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Geomancer’s Gauntlet. Flip all feature tokens within 1 hex as an action. All the flipping. It costs an activation but it’s so powerful. Maximum objective denial and removes the worry of needing to kill the enemy fighter holding an objective token. Helps with objectives like Feed the Beastgrave too.

Ravening Stone is a Metalith upgrade which makes you a Hunter. Its main effect is that at the end of each action phase, it gives Hunger counters to everyone within 2 hexes or removes 1 Hunger counter instead. Very strong for Hunger builds and essential in you quickly racking up all those Hunger counters.

Scavenged Armour is a great card which grants the user +1 wounds and a Guard token. The downside is you can only equip it while your fighter is not in friendly territory (so basically no man’s land and enemy territory). Aggro loves this, so much. Probably too oppressive with Mollog but Mollog is as Mollog does. That tasty Guard Token is great too, either to provide defence after a move/charge or to let your fighter stand strong before making an end of round charge.

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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 for Vagnuard Format and then a deck for Championship Format.
Special thanks goes to Underworldsdb.com! As Games Workshop released all the cards during the week, I now have an up-to-date deck builder to use for this as well as providing me HD images of the new cards too. It’s a lifesaver.

Vanguard Format

Playstyle: Aggro

Decklink

This Vanguard deck focuses on a mix of aggro in general as well as Primacy. It’s all about running forwards and killing the enemy! With this format, cards like Dark Approval become much better when fighters like Mollog aren’t around. Your objectives are tied mainly to killing and gaining Primacy, with a few end phase objectives which you can score without killing such as Malevolent Exploits. Unafraid is a great 2 glory objective as you will always be aiming to be close to the opponent and it’s something you can score without needing to roll dice. A lot of your objectives revolve around Khagra so do your best to keep her alive.

Gambits focus on Desecrating while also keeping close to the opponent. Spurred On, Ravaging Advance and Hungry Advance help you play around your fighters being movement 3 until getting inspired. Your faction spells also are a massive boon to mobility and positioning too.

Upgrades are heavily faction card-focussed too because they are generally just that good. Hellfire Sword is amazing because IT’S A SWORD OF FIRE and also range 3 with 2 damage to boost your threat range. Savage Strength and Ruinous Might are your juicy +1 damage cards to get Khagra to 4 damage quickly while Savage Speed and Conqueror’s Cloak make that movement 3 not so bad after all. Even then there is a lot of extra durability with the Blasphemous Cuirass and Bolstered by HATE!

Championship Format

Playstyle: Aggro

Decklink

The Championship Format deck builds upon what was established with the Vanguard Format deck, with some of the Primacy and faction cards shuffled out for more consistent Beastgrave universal cards. Team Effort is simple and reliable glory along with Show of Force. The deck excels much better at just scoring glory passively for being in your opponent’s territory/face.

Gambits see Distraction and Nightmare in the Shadows added to mitigate your movement of 3 and mess up opponents trying to sit far away. Spectral Wings is also a much-needed mobility boost without having to rely on upgrades. Upgrades see Amberbone Spear added for more reach and glory. Great Strength and Great Fortitude appear too, making the upgrades full of +1 damage and wounds cards.

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Warband Overview

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Khagra’s Ravagers are a weird hybrid of aggro and control (when it comes to controlling hold objective play). They’re a more well-rounded Magore’s Fiends and a true representation of Chaos undivided. They’re mostly durable and start off with averaging speed. They excel when in the face of the enemy but thankfully aren’t completely neutered when unable to close the distance. While built around Desecration tokens, the warband pretty much starts off inspired. Inspiration is a nice side-grade but not a necessity, a running theme with Direchasm. They also feel a bit like a warband built to counter Surge hold objective cards from the Beastgrave meta, which doesn’t really gel too well in the Direchasm meta. They have great power cards but their objectives are quite lacking, meaning you’ll need a good selection of universal cards to get the most from Khagra’s Ravagers.

Pros:

• Fairly durable with the majority of the warband being at 4 wounds and all defending on block symbols
• Great stats and characteristics while uninspired, Khagra is 3 damage from the start!
• Can shutdown Surge hold objective cards
• Very strong gambits and upgrades
• Fairly forgiving to play, run forwards, kill and desecrate!
• Mirror matches are funny, all of the Desecration

Cons:

• Difficult inspire mechanic
• Desecration tokens are very easy to remove and don’t stop end phase hold objective cards
• Tracking Desecration tokens can be a hassle
• Movement 3 is fairly low and easy to play around with the majority of the warband having only range 1 attacks and inspiring to movement 4 being quite inconsistent to reach
• Meta dependent, strong when everyone is playing hold objectives (with lots of Surges) but suffer when that playstyle becomes rarer to encounter

In summary Khagra’s Ravagers are a great warband to start the game with and have a bit of room for more complex strategies, although that can be more due to how heavy you want to focus on Desecrating or going the magic route with Zarshia. They’re really good for new players, better so than the Direchasm core set warbands. They’re great at aggro and incredibly strong against hold objective warbands. You just have to remember that you’ll need to play around being movement 3 with range 1 attacks, so pack a lot of mobility cards and push cards. Desecration tokens can be an annoyance for both the user and opponent while also being fairly easy to remove by the opponent. It’s just something you’ll need to learn and decide whether it’s worth it for you to tech more heavily into the Desecration mechanic.

So, would I recommend getting Khagra’s Ravagers? If you can regularly play Warhammer Underworlds where you are in the world right now, then 100%. This a great warband that is straightforward but fun to play as well as coming with some great universal cards for all your decks. They can be quite limited and predictable but do the aggro game consistently well. As always, just keep in-mind about that movement 3 with range 1 attacks. Also laugh with glee as you Descrate everything against hold objective opponents!

If you want to buy Khagra’s Ravagers 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 (20% during pre-order week) while helping to support my content, all at no additional cost to you.

The discount is especially nice considering Games Workshop have increased the prices of warband expansions again with this release (going to £25.00 from £22.50 in the UK). As this is the 3rd price rise for Underworlds in 2 years, I am not a fan. Still the option is there if you want to save some money despite the increase in costs.

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Closing Crit

Now we reach the end of this warband review for the Khagra’s Ravagers expansion. They’re quite an anti-meta warband in regards to hold objectives but can focus down on aggro too. On reflection, they’re a bit similar to the Wurmspat. However, whereas the warriors of Nurgle will always do well whenever aggro is in ascendance, Khagra’s Ravagers have their main gimmick revolving around Surge hold objective cards which won’t be as prevalent as time goes on due to rotation. Also more tokens. Direchasm? More like Counter-chasm. Still, they’re an overall great showing at what Direchasm has in-store for us.

So until we get to see the astral might of the Starblood Stalkers, remember to have your torches at the ready as you Desecrate the Direchasm with Chaos and Crits!