Warhammer Underworlds CC tournament recap with Khagra’s Ravagers | November 2021

It’s been a while since our last Warhammer Underworlds tournament at Combat Company, but we are out of lockdown and games are back on again! I took Khagra’s Ravagers for a spin to see if they can handle the new Warhammer Underworlds harrowdeep meta.

The lineup for the day and warbands are below.

• Kent
• Keeva
• Jacko
• Benji
• Craig
• Kyle

The turnout was small, the lower attendance could be attributed to a local AOS event on the same weekend and people still gradually getting back to normal post lockdown.

Why Khagra’s (clown) Ravagers?

This is a very valid question to ask. With the recent errata to Khagra’s ravagers, inspiring them is alot easier as you only need to desecrate 2 objectives. However, the major Harrowdeep changes to objectives starting facedown makes desecrating objectives challenging as you can’t easily violently slam enemies on objectives to claim your desecrate tokens.

My theory that I wanted to test is since many major cards such as [Distraction], [Restless Prize] and [Mischievous-Spirits] are no longer in rotation, it might be difficult to stop [Razek] despoiling objectives. In addition [Scant Resources] has become quite popular, and it’s near impossible to score it against Khagra’s Ravagers, which makes this a bit of a counter-meta pick.

There’s only one way to figure out if this is a legitimately genius idea or if Khagra’s Ravagers have been relegated to clown nonsense: you gotta take it for a spin.

Round 1

• Keeva vs Benji
• Jacko vs Craig
• Kent vs Kyle

First round my Ravagers got matched against Craig’s Wurmspat. Mortal servants of chaos clubbing eachother for the favor of the Chaos gods. Craig’s Wurmspat deck is stacked with Quarry / Hunter tech to cash in objectives, while loading [Sepsimus] with upgrades and turning him into a [killing machine].

Knowing how slow the Wurmspat are, I longboarded Craig the first game. I got off easy desecrates while he waddled over. I fought him inspired in the 2nd and 3rd action phase and scraped a victory 10-9.

In the second game Craig set up the board in a front on deployment and closed in on my Ravagers before I could get going and took a 4+ glory lead. I conceded and moved onto our final game.

I offset the board in game 3 and I got my desecrates off easily, inspired my fighters but couldn’t land key attacks. Craig also whiffed multiple attacks against Razek, the last round just being a round of dissappointment where neither of our fighters could land their attacks. Our game ended in a 10-10 glory draw. As neither of us held an objectives, and I had Razek while Craig had Sepsimus and [ghully boi] . As per the tiebreaker rules… we draw the series 1 Win, 1 Loss, 1 Tie.

Kent took Da Kunnin’ Krew to a victory and took out Kyle’s Wild Hunt, while Benji uses the reapers to win the love of daddy Nagash from Keeva’s wraithcreepers.

Round 2

• Keeva vs Craig
• Jacko vs Kyle
• Kent vs Benji

I lose the initial roll off and Kyle gets the board choice. Kyle offsets the board and manages to run into my territory quickly. He drops [Purifying Rites], [Proud Commander] and [Making a statement] and I lose handily.

Now that I’ve seen Kyle’s objectives, I wanted to make sure it was difficult for him to run past and flip or take my desecrated objectives. I longboard Kyle to narrow field. I kill his overextended leader and land a [Daylight Robbery] and seal the win. Longboarding your opponent is a great way to frustrate and/or traumatise them.

I win the roll off in game 3 and longboard him again. Kyle does a very cute manoeuvre using [Pounce] to set his leader up for a big scything attack with [Gloryseeker]. Fortunately I was saved by a [Whispers of Chaos] to force his leader [Skaeth] out of position and locking it down with a move token. I close the series 2-1 in my favor.

• 

• 

Craig’s Wurmspat vomits over Keeva’s Wraithcreepers and gives them Nurgle’s blessing. Benji’s Reapers collects some bone taxes from Da Kunnin’ Krew.

Round 3

• Keeva vs Kyle
• Jacko vs Kent
• Craig vs Benji

I have Kent as my opponent in the final round and face off against Da Kunnin’ Krew. Kent wins the first roll off and offsets the board by 1 hex. Wait what 1 hex you say? is that legal? Yes it is. Is there a point to do this? Who knows.

For those who don’t know, what is offset by 1 hex? Well, it basically looks something like this

Well Kent absolutely demolished me and won the first game handily. He brings his Goblins with his [B1] and [B2]. With the help of the double supports, Kent kills all my fighters except [Zarshia], who rolled double crits and killed herself with magical brain damage. So maybe the 1 hex offset is actually genius as Kent dispatches me in the first game.

I did notice that Kent discards [Scant Resources] as it’s unscorable against the Ravagers (keeping in mind desecrated objectives are never held). Which supports my original theory that Khagra’s Ravagers may be a counter-meta warband.

Going into the 2nd game I longboard Kent with the most disgusting setup I know of, Ambertrap Nest. Yeah that’s right, it’s this baby right here:

Da Kunnin’ Krew are normally a flex warband, but because desecrate kind of ruins some of their objectives, they are forced to approach me and risk their lives over the lethal hexes. Only their 2 large fighters are able approach while the minions stay back to hold feature tokens. After spending the first round desecrating and inspiring, the Ravagers dispatch the two best fighters in Da Kunning Krew and Kent concedes. Once again [Scant Resources] clogs up Kent’s objective hand.

Game 3 was an offset board with me placing the objectives as far back as possible. My setup is at the bottom leaving Kent with another challenging approach.

After a pacifist first action phase, Kent discards [Scant Resources], I desecrate 2 objectives and inspire for free and Kent moves his fighters closer. A couple of lucky attacks result in a win in my favor. Kent is unable to bring his minions with his large fighters [B1] and [B2]. Without their support he’s unable to land the hits needed to knock out the Ravagers. The Ravagers knock out Da Kunnin’ Krew 2-1.

Benji’s Reapers take the bones from Craig’s Wurmspat and Kyle’s Wild Hunt send Keeva’s Wraithcreepers crying to Nagash.

Final results

The final standings with the respective win/loss/draw count below.

• 1st: Benji 3-0-0
• 2nd: Jacko 2-0-1
• 3rd: Craig 1-1-1
• 4th: Kent 1-2-0
• 5th: Kyle 1-2-0
• 6th: Keeva 0-3-0

Closing thoughts

The Ravagers seem decent in the new Harrowdeep environment, but the new inspire rules kind of make them a little awkward. Since there is no inspire step in the end phase, it means after despoiling objectives, you still need to wait till after the first activation in the next phase to inspire (the same awkward inspire timing issue with Crimson Court and other end phase inspire warbands).

I got my despoils off in almost all of my games. The lack of [Distraction] and other effects to throw you off objectives makes it so your first round desecration is difficult to stop. [Daylight Robbery] is more effective in Harrowdeep. The rules change to allow your opponent to play power cards first after your activation means you will always get to Daylight Robbery first, right after their activation before they can spend their glory on upgrades.

If you want to try the Clown Ravagers, you can do so by taking this decklist for a spin. I’d love to hear if this deck works for you too or if you find that it’s total nonsense.