Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm - Game Three

Another Sunday, another game of Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm... 

Being Valentine's Day, I asked Amanda if SHE'd like to play with me.... because... Valentine's...!?  She declined. She did say she'd try it out at SOME point, but just wasn't up for learning a new game that day (Probably because we had stayed up ridiculously late the previous evening, finishing off Season Five of The Expanse... and everyone was feeling a bit tired all day...). 

As I'd finished up a new warband, this past week, we decided we ought to try them out. Finnegan wanted to play The Dread Pageant again, so I played... 

Garrek's Reavers! 

THE GAME

I won the roll off for setting up boards - I knew Garrek's Reavers had little in the way of Objective Cards that involved holding Objectives, so I didn't care where they ended up. To try something different I set up the second board end to end with the first - with as many Deployment locations as close to the enemy as possible. 

I also won the roll-off to determine warband deployment - as I had a larger warband and there was zero chance I'd be able to finish setting up first - and thus get a bonus to the roll-ff for who went first in the first round - I let Finnegan go first again. 

All set up and ready to go. 

ROUND ONE

Vasillac the Gifted - The leader of the Dread Pageant - Charged up onto an Objective Marker and stabbed Arnulf across a Lethal Hex with his Reach 2 Spear... causing two damage and killing him... 

Boom! 

+1 Glory for the Dread Pageant and Finnegan upgraded Slakeslash the Slaangor with... some kind of upgrade....? I forget which....? I think it was the reduce attack dice of any attacker by one?

Karsus charged one whole hex, around that Lethal Hex and chopped at Vasillac, causing two damage, and drove him back onto a different Lethal Hex causing a third point of damage! I played Insensate - a gambit that reduced the damage of the first attack in the next activation to one. 

Hadzu went next, as he only does one damage. He moved up and shot his Blissbarb Bow at Karsus.. and missed! I played Blood Offering - another gambit that gave one damage token to one of my own (Saek) but gave them two bonus dice in their next attack. 

Saek stepped up and gave Vasillac a chop with his mighty axe, doing three more damage, taking him out! 

+1 Glory for Garrek's Reavers. I played Skulls for the Skull throne - allowing me to pick up two more power cards after taking an enemy out of action - and upgraded Garrek with Grisly Trophies. 

Slakeslash the Slaangor went next, moving up to hack at Karsus... and missed...!? 

Garrek then charged Slakeslash and attacked. Originally I'd hit and wounded it... but then we remembered it's upgrade and I should have only rolled ONE attack die. Re-rolling, I missed (and denied an objective - Let the Blood Flow - for having three fighters make successful attacks in one Round). 

Glisette moved onto an objective, scoring Endless Revel (for each surviving fighter having a Move or Charge Token) +1 Glory and gave Slakeslash another upgrade.  

Targor moved up to finish the round - unable to get into contact with any enemy... 

In the End Phase I scored two more Objectives - It Begins (if at least one fighter from each warband is out of action) and A Worthy Skull (for taking an enemy leader out of action) +2 Glory. 

I was able to upgrade Karsus with Terrifying Howl (an action allowing him to Push any adjacent enemy) and Saek with Berserk Charge (which allowed him to count both Smash and Fury attack die results as successes when he charged) 

At the end of Round One - Garrek's Reavers winning 3-2

ROUND TWO

To start things off, Hadzu moved up one and shot at Saek, missing. 

Finnegan then scored Excess of Gluttony (for having a fighter - Slakeslash - with two adjacent enemies) +1 Glory. He also upgraded Slakeslah a third time! I realized, just now, that that is why he didn't START with Slakeslash, as there was a possibility that Slakeslash could have KILLED an adjacent fighter, and thus would not have been able to score that Objective Card. 

Saek Charged Glisete... and missed. 

Glisete tried to stab back at him... and also missed. 

Targor Charged in to join the attack on Glisete... and ALSO missed. I think he might have tied and I got excited thinking I might have driven her back onto a Lethal Hex... but Glisete cannot be driven back! 

Glisete slashed at Targor... and missed... 

I had contemplated moving up Karsus and using Terrifying Howl to shift her off of that Objective, but then realized that would take TWO activations - one to move over there (and NOT attack) and a second to use the Terrifying Howl to Push her one... 

So I just Charged with Karsus and took her right out! +1 Glory 

I was able to use Boon of Khorne - a Reaction Gambit that allowed me to removed a damage token from a fighter when an enemy fighter is taken out of action. 

At this point Garrek's Reavers were all inspired as three fighters were out of action. ANY three fighters. The Blood God cares not fro whom the blood is spilt. Easiest warband to inspire EV-AR!!!

I had a second Reaction Gambit - Fueled bu Slaughter - that allowed a fighter to make an attack after an enemy was taken out of action. Targor attacked Hadzu and took HIM out of action!? +1 Glory!

with all this Glory rolling in, I was able to give Garrek TWO upgrades in teh Power step after all the reactions from Karsus' attack were finally finished. I have Garrek Ever Advancing (when he would be driven back, I can push him instead) and Bloodslick (+1 Defence die) 

With only Slakeslash left, it was time for it to get in on the slaughter! Slakeslash charged Targor... aaaaand MISSED!? 

Finnegan decided, at this point, that the Dread Pageant had just gotten back from a rave when they encountered Garrek's Reavers and were still tripping balls on pleasure drugs and had no time to get all crunked up on combat drugs... 

Garrek followed Slakslash into the melee. I played Frenzy, which gave him +1 attack die (which made up for the -1 attack die sue to Slakeslash's upgrade) and hit the Slaangor! I scored Let the Blood Flow (+2 Glory for making three or more successful attacks in this Action Phase) and Blood for the Blood God (+1 Glory for three or more fighters with charge markers) 

In the End Phase I scored There is Only Slaughter (+1 glory if no fighters hold any Objective Markers) 

Round Three

Things not looking good for Slakeslash, the only surviving member of the Dread Pageant...

Garrek went first and Finished off Slakeslash with a single critical hit. +2 Glory (bonus one from Grizzly Trophy upgrade).

In the End Phase I scored one last objective; Khorne Cares Not (+2 Glory if five or more fighters are out of action... ANY five fighters...) 

So the game ended with Garrek's Reavers with 13 Glory and The Dread Pageant with 3... 

Wow... 

What is with the Dread Pageant... !?

Do they just suck that bad? Do we just not know how to play them!? Were these just bad match-ups?

I feel like it was a bit of the latter two. Garrek's Reavers are pretty bad-ass - they have a super tight, focused deck that is solely dedicated to SLAUGHTER - pretty much ALL the Objective and Power ards reflect that. 

The Dread Pageant, I think, has a deck that begs for some customization. It has some cool cards, but a few seem to be at odds with each other - benefitting different styles of play. I think playing them, one needs to decide on a style of play, keep the cards that are good for that, discard the ones that aren't and replace them with generic cards that benefit the selected style of play....? That's going to take some time, though, until we've got out heads around the differing styles of play and what all the differing cards do... I'm not giving up on the Dread Pageant just yet, they are just TOO FABULOUS not to be playing with! 

I think we'll try Garrek's Reavers against Morgwaeth's Blade Coven next and see how they fare.