https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/10/1/taste-for-flesh/

Tabletop Admiral updated

Anyone want to take a wild swing at that surge modifier? No existing upgrade exists that Obscenes can equip that requires surges. Looks like there might be one more Uthuk only upgrade in the spread somewhere. We see a music upgrade, so probably a non-figure Champion or a training.

Im not commenting on the units themselves yet. Still processing. My single first impression is that they will work well as blockers for Vipers.

First impression is that they can reform at I3 and skill, meaning they can shift someone out of combat before they swing.

Another unit which can regenerate.

And more importantly:

Berserker with Front Line Obscene and Ritual Venom (choose blight).
Viper Legion with Viper Trap Master and Ritual Venom (choose blight).

Uthuk has blight generation on par with Waiqar.

This upgrade. Wow. I know it's totally dependent on your local meta, but with a Waiqar-heavy area here in SoCal, Uthuk can put this upgrade to great effect.

Bad = I can't take away Obscenes' dice
Good = they keep blight on, granting easy access to my Carrion Lancers' Mortal Strike ability
Bad = the things are only 2 defense, 4 wound threshold, so a mortal strike is only so-so
Good = I have been running solo Carrion Lancers, so mortal strike is still better than a damage.

Also, as @Viktus106 pointed out, they can push a unit away at I3, which makes my 12-tray of Reanimates shake in their little metal greaves. Can't do much damage if you can't attack. I'll have to think about how best to counter/predict that move.

9 minutes ago, Parakitor said:

Also, as @Viktus106 pointed out, they can push a unit away at I3, which makes my 12-tray of Reanimates shake in their little metal greaves. Can't do much damage if you can't attack. I'll have to think about how best to counter/predict that move.

Thankfully it takes at least 4 Obscenes to push so many Reanimates, so at least if they want to disrupt you so much it's going to take considerable investment.

1 hour ago, Viktus106 said:

Berserker  with Front Line Obscene and Ritual Venom (choose blight).
Viper Legion with Viper Trap Master and Ritual Venom (choose blight).

Uthuk has blight generation on par with Waiqar. 

Eh? Not really.

Reanimate archers built for blight are going to drop 1 every shot, usually 2, and max of 4. Viper Legion can do one guaranteed for 1-3 turns, but they take the same number of wounds. Also, everybody forgets that Derpwoods can use Blackthorn Assassin. Same as Vipers where it is one blight for 3 shots and then done. Just that Derpwoods use a more expensive figure that adds HP instead of losing them.

So Reanimate archers are still by far the kings of ranged blighting.

Melee:

Ardus reigns king of blight in melee if he is near CI archers. If you put Ardus’ Fury and Dimodian Blades on him (a viable build), you guarantee two and could focus on 1-2 more.

Blighted Vilexium is still a good one off for Reanimates, but not consistent. I suppose embedded Ardus could make them apply a few blight in a game

Blackthorn Assassin and Ritual Venom are still comparable for melee as they are for ranged. One is cheaper and costs HP and the other adds HP. Both can be taken in small formations. 2 tray for Berserkers and 4 for Darnati.

The only difference is that Uthuk now gain this Siege. A unique surge to apply 1 is really good though. So Uthuk probably have an easier time applying blight in melee, but Waiqar can still vomit (see what I did there) out more blight than anybody else.

Though it looks like the factions are solidifying into their Boon/Bane patterns now. Daqan get mostly Inspiration and some Vitality. Waiqar inflict mostly blight and some panic. Latari inflict a little of everything. Uthuk inflict a lot of panic and a little of everything else.

10 hours ago, Church14 said:

Looks    like there might be one more Uthuk only upgrade in the spread somewhere. We see a music upgrade   , so probably a non-figure Champion or a training.  

As I count it, there are 6 Uthuk upgrades and 2 neutral. The neutral upgrades are Trumpets and a training upgrade. The 6 Uthuk upgrades should be 2x Support Obscene, 2x Frontline Obscene, 1x Odious Hunger, and 1x Ynfernael Blood.

11 minutes ago, Budgernaut said:

As I count it, there are 6 Uthuk upgrades and 2 neutral. The neutral upgrades are Trumpets and a training upgrade. The 6 Uthuk upgrades should be 2x Support Obscene, 2x Frontline Obscene, 1x Odious Hunger, and 1x Ynfernael Blood.

Yeah. I must have had a derp looking at the spread.

Really interesting unit and card. Very different type of siege unit from the Spined Thresher, and he opens up a very different style of play from what the Uthuk currently have. We're going to see a very different meta in a month or so when all of these units hit the stores. Stylistically, I still like the Spined Thresher better, but the Obscenes will fit well with the archers, and maybe a ranged Kethra if an FAQ ever settles her ability favorably.

On 10/1/2018 at 6:11 PM, Church14 said:

Eh? Not really.

Reanimate archers built for blight are going to drop 1 every shot, usually 2, and max of 4. Viper Legion can do one guaranteed for 1-3 turns, but they take the same number of wounds. Also, everybody forgets that Derpwoods can use Blackthorn Assassin. Same as Vipers where it is one blight for 3 shots and then done. Just that Derpwoods use a more expensive figure that adds HP instead of losing them.

So Reanimate archers are still by far the kings of ranged blighting.

Melee:

Ardus reigns king of blight in melee if he is near CI archers. If you put Ardus’ Fury and Dimodian Blades on him (a viable build), you guarantee two and could focus on 1-2 more.

Blighted Vilexium is still a good one off for Reanimates, but not consistent. I suppose embedded Ardus could make them apply a few blight in a game

Blackthorn Assassin and Ritual Venom are still comparable for melee as they are for ranged. One is cheaper and costs HP and the other adds HP. Both can be taken in small formations. 2 tray for Berserkers and 4 for Darnati.

The only difference is that Uthuk now gain this Siege. A unique surge to apply 1 is really good though. So Uthuk probably have an easier time applying blight in melee, but Waiqar can still vomit (see what I did there) out more blight than anybody else.

Though it looks like the factions are solidifying into their Boon/Bane patterns now. Daqan get mostly Inspiration and some Vitality. Waiqar inflict mostly blight and some panic. Latari inflict a little of everything. Uthuk inflict a lot of panic and a little of everything else.

Good points, however; (and this is purely from my local meta)

Waiqar generally have only one Reanimate Archer unit (2 x 2) and they are really dependent on hitting those surges. Depending on deployment and when the engagements happen, they may not be able to put that blight on the unit that needs it when it needs it. They may not fire, they could be harassed and once they are engaged, they deal ZERO blight. I kind of find it inconsistent.

Our Waiqar player doesn't take Ardus either because if you are paying 40 plus points for a hero to just sit next to Archers, that's a chuck of your list doing nothing and if you are running Ardus around, he frequently ends up out of range of the Archers, unless the archers are moving and if they are moving, they are not generating blight and if they are not generating blight, why did you bring them?

We don't even field Carrion Lancers anymore either (Thanks Spined Threshers!) so our blight generation is pathetic. Waiqar for us are more morale deck abusing then Blight stacking.

As for the Latari, I haven't seen anyone take Blackthorn Assassin yet. I appreciate that if you took a Deepwood and a Darnati unit, both with Blackthorn, you have some consistent blight but I tend to see Dispatch, Dreamweaver, Storm or Maegan over Blackthorn.

The point I am trying to make here is that armies have to change to bring in blight and generally lose something in the process. For Waiqar, you have to specifically build a "Blight Battery" army and then pray you actually do damage or even apply significant amounts of blight for it to have any effect. For Latari, they lose damage or stuns and our Latari meta would rather remove ranks of units then a dice or two.

For Uthuk, we can add blight to our army and still take all the stuff we want. We can take a 3 x 3 Warsprinter, Aggressive Shrieker, Ritual Venom and a Front Line Obscene Berserker unit which NOW deals out blight tokens on the unit that they are engaged with 100%, potentially two if you land a surge AND the surge on the blue dice does something for the Berserkers. Our Viper Legion, which can still take Dispatch Runner/Viper Trap Master and Rallying Shrieker, can now add blight tokens to the panic that it may already hand out via Ritual Venom. Also, Ritual Venom works on both melee and ranged, unlike Waiqar Reanimate Archers which only works on ranged.

Essentially, Uthuk loses NOTHING in the list building phase, granted we take 1 - 3 wounds but honestly, that's worth it when you think about the damage you will be saving from the blight tokens. I am not saying this is going to be the defacto build going forward, but it is another tool in the box for Uthuk should a player decide to do so and I think it's more viable than Latari doing it for example.

So, after a few days of trying to unpack this thing and that dial...

Ynfernael Blood for 3 is a cool, meta dependent upgrade. Similar to trying to poison Sterling Archer, the number of toxins this thing already ingests has built up some kind of immunity to poisons.

Odious Appetite - 6 point regen mechanic that requires a lot of inspiration or rallies to keep going. Good news is that they have a red rally. So heal after causing a wound and ready the card nearly instantly. Nice. Bad news is that basically every mechanic Uthuk have to help each other involves causing wounds and defeating the point of this card in the first place. So you’ll get a wound a turn out of it.

The dial: Hey, they really made this thing feel like a less capable Ravos. Thematic dials ho!! A few key notes though:

- I5 melee: welcome back to the world of other siege units.

- Surge, hit, and rally as red mods - nice. Surge literally doesn’t do anything at this moment in the game, hits are nice, and that rally keeps the unique going.

I3 rally- Nice to combo with the white skill. Makes it hard for most things to flank melee you. Let’s you mess up dials when you forcibly disengage the target of the skill from a different one of your units. Unfortunately, lack of a late reform (and no wheel March) makes this a lousy unit to defend a flank.

Single tray - neither unique really works here. One is situational and the other requires you to be able to take a few hits and be around real damage to have a worthwhile effect. 9 damage to clear a tray is right at the reasonable range for most brawling units to kill in a swing. Protection one and 2 armor does make this amazing against MSU though. Probably going to be an excellent blocker for Viper

On 10/3/2018 at 8:54 PM, Church14 said:

- Surge, hit, and rally as red mods - nice. Surge literally doesn’t do anything at this moment in the game ...

... and it remains so now. Completely useless. 😞