Soul Harvesting and Crab Memes: Elathain’s Soulraid Re-Examined

Warhammer Underworlds has always occupied a strange, beautiful space between a tactical skirmish game and a tight deck-builder. It is the thinking person’s GW game, where positioning matters more than just rolling a bucket of dice. Goonhammer’s latest look at Elathain’s Soulraid in their Starting Hexodus series highlights a warband that refuses to power-creep into irrelevance. These Idoneth Deepkin are a masterclass in high-risk, high-reward design that demands you actually know how to play the game rather than just leaning on stat blocks.

Let’s talk crunch. The Soulraid is a finesse warband through and through. You have Elathain himself, a literal blender in combat, supported by a cast of specialized tools including a fish and the community-favorite crab, Duinclaw. The mechanical hook here is the Soul-harvest. You aren't just looking to wipe the board; you are looking to sequence your kills to maximize Glory and inspiration. The warband thrives on a glass-cannon meta where your positioning must be pixel-perfect. If you leave Elathain exposed, your game ends on turn one. If you use Duinclaw as a proper speed bump and zone-denial tool, you control the flow of the entire hex-map.

From a fluff perspective, the Idoneth Deepkin are easily the most compelling iteration of elves in the Age of Sigmar. They aren't tree-dwelling hippies or mountain-dwelling stoics; they are soul-starved raiders from the crushing depths. The Soulraid captures this predatory nature. They don't belong in the mountain; they are an invasive species harvesting what they need to survive. The aesthetic of the Ethersea manifest on the tabletop remains one of the most striking visual footprints in the game's history.

Table feel is where the Soulraid truly shines or fails based on the pilot. This is not a beginner-friendly warband. You will lose games because you forgot to account for a single push card or because you overextended your leader. But when the gears click, it feels like a surgical strike. You’re weaving in and out of combat, snagging objectives, and punishing your opponent for every step they take. For those picking up the latest season, seeing how these older warbands interact with new Strike and Championship formats is a lesson in enduring game design.

While the meta shifts and new warbands bring flashier gimmicks, the Soulraid reminds us that solid fundamentals—movement, sacrificial pieces, and timing—will always win the day. Just don't expect the crab to carry the whole team.