Faction Insights: The Deep Dwellers

Clad in chitin and stolen steel, the Deep Dwellers are savage goblin tribes that thrive in the flooded warrens beneath the Bay of Bones, raiding the Stoneways for slaves, meat, and plunder in a brutal cycle of tribal warfare and conquest. Since the Tear, they’ve poured into the surface world, driven by hunger, cruelty, and the lure of the Eternal City’s ruinous bounty.

On the Table

Deep Dweller Warbands are made up of Goblin Tribals, Trappers, and Redcaps; backed up by the mighty Depth Troll. The goblins are small and weak individually, but cheap and numerous, while the Depth Troll adds some much needed punch, being the strongest Warband Unit in the game by a large margin. 

Strengths

Deep Dweller Warbands have the ability to place more Warriors on the field than any other faction, and their cheap Units means that a Deep Dweller Warband will almost always outnumber its enemy. 

Deep Dweller Warbands have access to debilitator Units like the Trapper, which, while hardly the finest Warriors in the game, are capable of reducing the Melee Score of Enemy Units, or even incapacitating them with a net! 

Finally, Deep Dwellers gain access to a single Depth Troll, a mighty monstrous Unit capable of slaying most Warband Units easily. They cause Fear, can Regenerate lost Wounds, and can even use their Onslaught Special Rule to fight twice in the Fight Phase! 

Weaknesses

For all their numbers, the Deep Dwellers are individually very weak, with poor Melee scores almost across the board, and their poor courage means that they won't be sticking around, when the going gets tough. 

Finally, the Deep Dwellers have only a limited range of weapons, with Units like the Tribal having to make-do with Improvised Hand Weapons, missing out on the benefits of fighting with a dedicated weapon of war.

Deep Dweller Leaders

Despite their weaker stat line, Deep Dweller Leaders can be surprisingly durable, able to use nearby allies as meat shields, should an enemy try to cut them down. What's more is that all Goblin Units within this Warband treat Ruins as open ground, and automatically pass any Climb Tests they are required to make on Ruins, which in Halgrad is no small boost!

Colour Scheme

Deep Dwellers tend to wear muted, natural colours, like browns and greens, though some tribes enjoy the odd flash of colour. The Slaverkin wear faded purple loincloths, and the Crabeaters daub their faces in crimson war paint. 

In the Deeps, tribes rise and fall as often as the sun, what rules the warrens today might live on only in memory come the 'morrow. But if muted palletes and natural tones are your thing, then the Deep Dwellers are the place to start!

Interested in starting your own Deep Dweller Warband? Start with the Slaverkin Pack. They're a fantastic base for any warband, giving you access to every Unit on your roster, including the fearsome Depth Troll!