May 2025 Balance Changes Review/Analysis

Hello! Michael here. Today I’m back with some more crazy balance reviews. If you would like to discuss them with me, I’m always active on the Staggerers discord server. Let’s get right into it with no more dilly-daddling!

RULES CHANGES

Here we have some major changes.

Weapon changes clarify something, I think. Not too major.
TREASURE TOKEN PLACEMENT CHANGED. The player who loses the roll off still gets three tokens, but they get to place their first token in ANY place on the board. Then, the second player’s first token must be in neutral territory.
- This is super interesting and losing the roll-off no longer feels like a major disadvantage.
Underdog has been changed to only count the BOUNTY of dead fighters and not all glory points.
- This is pretty big, Determined Effort stocks are at an all time low. Notably Grymwatch somehow got a buff out of this so that’s funny.
Persisting Abilities got clarified.
- This is a good buff to Borgit and Hexbane (who gets more!)

FAQS

The most boring part for me but still important to review.

The first review clarifies that you can’t play a card if you cannot resolve the card when it is played.
The second one clarifies that a charge is only one core ability and not three.
- This is a nerf to Farstriders and to Misfortune as an upgrade as well as some other cards.
A ploy is now played when it is played.
The deleted bit is in reference to the Underdog changes.
Morgok’s ‘counterspell’ had some clarification.
- This is a buff technically speaking albeit very small.
Brethren of the Bolt can now Heaven’s Charge with uninspired fighters.
- This is a very nice quality of life buff! Brethren needed it.
Bellowing Tyrant got slightly nerfed, you now MUST have a charge token to use it.
Misfortune got a MASSIVE buff allowing you to use it even if you are immune to precisely one damage.

WARBAND UPDATES

Blackpowder got a buff!

He now has the only Range 3 2DMG attack in the game. This is a huge boon for the pirate ogre and now makes Swag gathering actually kind of fun!
My one complaint (which I kinda like honestly due to not playing Blackpowder that much) is that the warscroll still does nothing if you miss the shot you buffed up, leading to lots of negative player experience.

Borgit’s archer (Dregg?) no longer has a ranged/melee attack and is now just ranged.

The Crimson Court got a hefty rework.

Their inspire has been changed to be like last edition, no fighters being hungry.
At the start of the first round, everyone starts with two hunger tokens and gets an additional one each round.
After a fighter hits an attack, they remove one token. If they kill with that attack, you can remove all of them instead.
Bloodthirst fighters exist if they have 3+ tokens and can’t be on Guard and get +1 Move.

These are nice changes! Their inspire is now slightly easier to achieve and no longer needs card discarding or objective holding.
I think even if it doesn’t make them strictly better it makes them MUCH more accessible to play. A good change for sure!

Quests for the Looncourt were updated. All that changed is now you can only abandon Quests in a power step instead of anytime which is a very minor nerf.

Hexbane got a WILD buff (all V1 players are shaking now). The dogs NO LONGER cannot move if they have a move token. They now only cannot use Loyal Hounds if they have no CHARGE token.

This is massive, opening up some better Pillage and Plunder options and making holding/supporting – as they were in V1- slightly easier.

Da Kunnin Krew got some kunnin’ buffs . The inspire now only works if the target was slain or as usual. And A Kunnin Plan no longer needs a move action to be activated.

The inspire buff is very welcome and now makes inspiring slightly easier.
The ability buff is nice, you no longer feel obligated to give Mannok move tokens and can now play more flexibly, opening some more options.
This lets you play more aggressively with the warband.

Mollog now has less rules controversy about the rock.

This is a nerf to the Stalagsquig, though some may consider it a buff. Nobody knows what the old version was so this is a nice and welcome clarification.
- This does effectively kill Wings of War as a card choice for Mollog as the only reason anyone would EVER play that in a warband with Mollog ( a super slow hard hitter) is to let the Stalagsquig charge.

The Guard got a slight rework. Bone Shrapnel can no longer be used if the fighter gives no bounty, however it CAN kill now. Arise! no longer damages fighters, and Relentless Blows is gone and replaced with a WARDEN TELEPORT????????? This rework is the biggest question mark for me this update.

The Bone Shrapnel rework is actually for the better as it effectively stops your opponent from attacking you if they are vulnerable.
Arise! change is very nice but it does hurt the popular Wrack/Cata pairing that the Guard was known for. Overall I like it.
Startling Reformation is a whole new ability which is a very conditional teleport for the Warden. It replaces Relentless Blows (as shown below). Honestly I like Blows more but the teleport can be nice to have in some cases. It in theory can extend the Warden’s lifespan… got to play with it to say more though.

Thricefold Discord got a deserved Evasive nerf, now only usable if they have no Move/Charge tokens.

I’m super confused as to why no one played the 3XD cause they were kind of overtuned still after their previous ‘nerfs’. This is a very welcome nerf and raises the stocks for Spiteful Traps and the new Hidden Knowledge.

This is what we all came here for! The Zarbag nerfs now make them harder to inspire by requiring MORE glory than fighters instead of more/equal to. Also, their ability that prevented them from giving 9 bounty is gone and replaced with a ban on the squigs from Delving/holding.

I feel like there should be much more. Zarbag’s damage output is still hilariously high, that should be toned down a little in my opinion.
Scurry is also untouched and is definitely the reason for Zarbag’s success.
The squigs are the scariest fighters so their nerf isn’t really significant. If an upgrade ever gets printed that gives people flying Zarbag won’t play it though.
The inspire nerf is good.
The removal of the bounty cap is not big enough. I have never killed more than 7 gitz cause their defense is just too good. With the inspire nerfs this may change but still, I believe they will remain in super strong shape.

Cataclysm is now required to be advance.

Oh no Wreckers is no longer free.
This is still a good change and it allows for some cool coutnerplay.
However, it is the only change to Cataclysm (except for one small other one) so I feel like it will still be the best plot-deck (with Edge of the Knife being nerfed, more on that later).

THE NEW FAR LIST

My favorite part! First, some notable changes from last edition: you can now only have ONE restricted card per deck, down from three. This is pretty good as it allows for more creative expression in a deck.

Now, the commentary:

Bladecatcher is now un-forsaken, which is a welcome change. I don’t feel that it’s TOO op to be shutting down several warband mechanics as there are still other targets to attack.
Delving for Wealth is restricted for obvious reasons. My main gripe with this is it’s the ONLY card in PnP that’s restricted which makes no sense as Broken Prospects is still super free two glory and half the surges are still busted.
Illusory Fighter – personally a welcome restrict for me, even though it’s unexpected. It’s really annoying to play around and now being slightly telegraphed is super helpful. It harms the BA/CtC pairing the most.
Mobbed! is here for no particular reason. Edge of the Knife wasn’t problematic or anything and this card kind of carried the upgrade deck (of course there are good upgrade but it’s still the best in my opinion). This probably shouldn’t be here but oh well, what can we do. It is a pretty strong card.
Spread Havoc – great to see here. However, there is a slight problem with it, which Ben will go into detail with later.
Supremacy – another unexpected but not unwelcome restrict. It was super strong and particularly in Khagra was super annoying to deny and gave three glory. I don’t think ES needed the nerf and the ES/CtC pairing is effectively starved of end phases now that Wreckers/Supremacy/Spread Havoc were hit but oh well.

Ben has noticed something super important about the list though:
Ben: While waiting for the list, I was really hoping for a successful implementation of the Restricted list, but on my first glance it seems to have been implemented very poorly. The restricted list importantly changed to only allow 1 restricted card per deck. I come from a background of playing Pokemon, where I immediately noticed the similarities between the current restricted list and ace specs (in case you know what those are). For ace specs, there was an objectively best one, Computer Search, which was way more powerful than any of the other options. I see the same with this list, as they decided to put spread havoc on it. This makes the choice very easy, as starting the game with two glory is way better than all of the other cards on the list by far. This is the one decision I don’t like, as, for example, if we want to build ES/CtC, we now lose our main glory source with Supremacy, making the pairing so much worse. I feel like the good solution was to just ban Spread Havoc instead of restricting it, which basically bans all of the other cards on the list.

Michael: I do agree with Ben. Spread Havoc is still spreading havoc in the meta. All deck pairings love CtC as I described before and probably still do. Yes, Wreckers is worse and technically Spread Havoc is restricted but like I don’t see any cards on the list that compete with it.

RF/CtC maybe you take Bladecatcher due to lack of upgrades.
PnP/CtC there’s few worlds you take Delving for Wealth now.
BA/CtC has about 14 good ploys to pick from.
Edge can’t play with CtC.
Supremacy is the one objective I see competing for Spread Havoc.

Yeah so overall I love the effort and I do feel like it makes the game better but I feel like Spread Havoc needs some more nerfs.

OVERALL WINNERS/LOSERS

Major winners include:

Blackpowder. The damage buff is major for him and gives him a nice niche in the meta!
Brethren – as Filthy Kasual on Discord noticed, the faq that states all abilities on warscrolls persist eternally means they can get all three Hymns each game.
The Crimson Court – a nice accessibility buff is always good
Hexbane: With the changes to the dogs as well as the fact that marked is no longer disappearing randomly they get way better!

Minor winners:

Sepulchral Guard – they lost some but gained some as well. It makes them more easier to play but not all sunshine and rainbows. Still a net buff.
Kunnin’ Krew: Not a major buff but definitely a buff that makes them easier to play, not as significant as CC though.

Minor losers:

Mollog: the nerf to the squig sucks but it isn’t a major one. It won’t change how you play Mollog that much.
Zarbag: I stand by my first statement that Zarbag needs more nerfs. They still have absolutely cracked stats, are hard to kill, and still have crazy mobility. Yes they lose a surge OR (not and!) an end phase in their best pairing but the surge is super easy to replace – just play the Perfect Cut or Aggressive Claimant (not the best) instead. I expect to keep shuddering from Zarbag in the short term.
Looncourt/Borgit – yeah no comment on this one.

Major losers:

Thricefold got butchered. They aren’t unplayable now but actually need to think before acting which I like. They still have the best ability in the game from Wicked Slice and Vile Temptations has never been better with Dark Horse existing (as an example). Still, this nerf hurts the warband.

Obviously there’s more warbands that are affected by it. I put Brethren there as an example of one of them but there’s many more.

Do I feel the meta will change cause of this? Yes. Significantly? Unlikely. Some warbands are now much more playable than before and not many of them got seriously knocked down from this FAQ/FAR. Still, it is proving to be an interesting time for Underworlds.

That’s it from me today! Due to the short notice on this article I expect many errors here so if you have any feedback please reach out to me on Discord (I am very active on the Staggerers one). With that, good luck with the new stuff and I hope to see you again soon!