With the rise of the Warhammer Underworlds Rivals format it’s now easier than ever to pick up and play with any warband. Morgwaeth first showed up back in Beastgrave, but can she hold her own in Rivals? We’re here on behalf of Morathi-Khaine to give you some tips on taking this Hag Queen and her entourage into battle, and how you can find success in the blood-soaked frenzy.
Grab your sacrificial knives, as we prepare to learn how to win with Morgwaeth’s Blade Coven.
Strategy
Morgwaeth’s Blade Coven can be a little tricky to play, but there’s a lot of potential if you know what you’re doing. Their faction cards will have you trying to stay on objectives while being highly aggressive, but the warband’s low wounds and the fact that most fighters start on 1 dodge makes them a bit of a ‘glass canon’, and means you have to be very conscious about who you’re putting in danger.
They also have a fairly unique inspire mechanic. They have a guaranteed inspire at the start of the third round, but Morgwaeth’s ability means you can also choose a fighter to inspire whenever an enemy fighter is taken out of action. This makes games against high model count warbands a breeze, but taking on an elite warband can be a real struggle. You want to focus on inspiring the fighters who start with a defence characteristic of 1, such as Khamyss, in order to improve survivability.
Of your 5 fighters, Kryssa and Lethyr are probably the most disposable, so you can afford to be a little aggressive with them in early rounds. If Lethyr does survive the early rounds, then it’s worth looking at the wording of the Sacrificial Knives ability when she’s inspired. It lets you resolve the deal damage step twice, which effectively doubles the effect of any cards which give her attack plus 1 damage.
Being aggressive with the two Witch Aelves helps to distract attention away from Morgwaeth and Khamyss, who are by far your most important fighters. Ideally you want to be a little more conservative with these two and use them to pick off easy targets or take advantage of support. The fact they both have range 2 attacks is ideal for keeping them on the outside of any risky situations. Morgwaeth is essential for inspiring throughout the game, and Khamyss can become incredibly hard-hitting with the right upgrades.
Kyrae has some good range and a high chance to land attacks, but a slightly disappointing damage output, which makes her best suited to capturing objectives and chipping away at fighters from afar. Once on an objective, upgrades such as Invigorated Attack can help turn her into a bit of a turret.
Key Cards and How to Use Them
Triumphant stance, Purposeful Strike and Proof of Devotion
When looking at objectives, there are 3 key upgrades which involve getting on to objectives, and making sure your enemy isn’t. Thankfully, as of Harrowdeep, this is a little easier to achieve, thanks to objectives starting as gloom tokens.
Triumphant stance is going to be the main goal. You want to try and get a fighter (Ideally Kyrae) on to an objective and use her ranged attack and other fighters to ensure your opponent doesn’t do the same. By holding Kyrae back until your 4th activation in the round, you might be able to charge on to an objective and shoot at a nearby enemy, giving your opponent less time to react and potentially, scoring Purposeful Strike at the same time.
Harrowdeep has been particularly helpful for scoring Proof of Devotion. Part of this hybrid objective is to hold all objectives in enemy territory, which would usually be a hard task, however in Harrowdeep there’s a good chance that not all objectives are face up. This means you would only have to hold one objective to gain the 3 glory. If you keep this in mind from the start, then you should be able to achieve this without your opponent having enough fighters to block you.
Ritualised Formation works against these objectives a little. I would personally switch it out in Rivals+, but if you do plan on scoring it, try to limit the amount of objectives you delve in enemy territory.
Daughters of the First Temple, Perfect Kill and Consecrate to Khaine
There’s no short supply of aggro objectives to score in Morgwaeth’s Blade Coven, but there are a few that reward you for picking and choosing your targets carefully.
Daughters of the First Temple is a fairly straightforward card that you’ll hopefully score anyway, but it’s good to keep in mind that your deck contains this reward for picking off a couple of weaker targets.
Perfect Kill on the other hand asks you to think a little carefully with your attacks. If you have this card in your hand, you’ll want to look for fighters with one or two wounds remaining to pick off. If an enemy fighter has more remaining wounds, consider using Morgwaeth’s inspired 3 damage attack, or upgrading a fighter’s attack, rather than using a power card or lethal hex to finish them off.
While Consecrate to Khaine might be a little more situational, it also ties in with the gameplan we mentioned above of keeping your opponents off objectives.
Headlong fury and Death Dancer
Morgwaeth’s Blade Coven already have naturally good mobility, with most fighters having a movement value of 5 when inspired. This gives you the ability to pick and choose your positioning on the board better than many slower warbands, which you should try to use to your advantage. There are a few cards which work together nicely to ensure this happens.
Headlong Fury is an absolutely fantastic card, which essentially gives you a free move action, without gaining a move token. If you’ve been holding Morgwaeth or Khamyss on the back line at the start of the game, you can use this card to get them stuck in the action. If you’re 4-5 hexes away you can move in and take advantage of multiple attacks, but if you’re too far back, or there’s an enemy on an objective you need to target, you can follow this free move up with a charge action in your next activation to cover a potential 10 hexes in one go.
Speaking of knocking fighters off objectives hexes, Death Dancer is a great upgrade to have. If there’s an enemy on an objective that you need, then you can attack the opponent, knock them back off of the objective and use the card’s reaction to push your own fighter onto that same objective.
Rune of Slaughter and Whirling Whip
I mentioned previously that Khamyss is an incredible fighter when she’s correctly upgraded. There are two cards that really combine into a terrifying attack.
Khamyss benefits from having a combo attack, meaning that as a reaction to her Barbed Whip attack, she can follow up with her Bladed Buckler attack. When inspired, that means she rolls 5 attack dice per activation. This makes her without a doubt the best fighter to upgrade with Rune of Slaughter. on a perfect roll this means a potential 9 damage in a single activation. Ouch.
Realistically though, you’re more likely to have a number of 2-4 wound fighters to take out. If you add in the Upgrade Whirling Whip, then you can give Khamyss a scything attack. Combine these two upgrades and you can target multiple adjacent enemies with a potential 2-5 damage each.
If you follow these instructions closely then you might just be able to slaughter your way to victory. After all, the joy of violence is its own reward to Khaine’s faithful.
How are your games using the Blade Coven going? Have these tips helped you stab your way to success? What advice would you give to someone struggling with Morgwaeth and her fellow Daughters of Khaine?
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