Monday, November 18, 2024

Warhammer Underworlds: Embergard - First Games

A whole new edition of Warhammer Underworlds was realeased this past weekend on Saturday. While there have been little rule tweaks and minor changes and additions along the way with each new setting/"Season" of the game, this was the first true NEW EDITION for the game! ALL of the stuff released up until that point was still stuff you could play with Warhammer Underworlds: Wintermaw - the last release (realier this year) of the previous edition. It wasn't COMMON to find people playing games with the older cards - but you could use any of them in relic format! It also wasn't terribly common to see people playing with a lot of the older warbands - largely due to "power creep" - the older ones just aren't as effective against newer warbands... but it could all be used. 

ALL the old cards are no longer playable with this new edition. I mean, you CAN still play with ALL THE OLD STUFF... just not in games using this new edition! 

Orion went and picked up her copy early on Saturday and then came by my place to play a few games. We had to use fighter and warscroll cards I printed off at home on our black and white laser printer... which were not the easiest to read!  

GAME ONE

Orion played Ironsoul's Condemnors and I tried playing the Thricefold Discord. Mostly because they only needed three fighter cards printed and cut out each! 

I played with "Flex" deck; Pillage and Plunder, which had me Delving treasure tokens (flipping them over) to gain glory points. 

Orion played with the "Stike" deck; Blazing Assault... which scores a lot for being aggressive and fighting and killing stuff...? 

The new board is... well, ONE board! No more each player picking one and setting them up offset or lengthways! 

Brodus started things off by charging in and giving Vexmore a good bash! 

Bit of a melee going on off to one side and Vashtiss feeling a little left out! 

Tavian taking a swing at Vexmore. I think they took the daemon out... I was down to two by the end of the first Round. 

VAshtiss whacking Brodus in the back, trying to finish him off! 

Ganging up on Lascivyr... they have one more wound than in the previous edition... but wasn't enough to keep them alive against a pair of big powerful Stormcast brutes. 

Starting off the third round, Vahstiss attacked Brodus and Finally finished him off!

Then she moved as far away as she could to just try and stay alive and maybe flip that last treasure token...? I think I had a card that moved her to a Treasure token or start hex in enemy territory... and then I moved to try and stay out of their charge range...? 

Some how Tavian got to Vashtiss... with some kind of boost to speed... I was excited because I actually rolled a crit and a success for defence.... 

Somehow Orion was rolling FIVE dice and rolled a Crit and FOUR successes!?

Orion won 16-9. 

Vexmor is arguably worse in this edition... deals less damage and lost the Locus of Indolence ability... They gained the Indolence ability which gives them +1 attack dice and grievous (+1 damage) IF they don't have any move or charge tokens... Meh... 

Vashtiss also deals less damage AND had lower defence!? Loses the Locus of Paramouncy (adjacent enemies cannot be supported). She and Lascivyr have a new ability called Evasive on the warscroll, allowing them to roll an attack die when they would take damage and on hammers or crits reduces by one to minimum of one... 

Lascyvr has lower defence, but one more would/health... No locus of Carnality. 

Being Daemons of Slaanesh, I really wanted to love these and have some fun with them... they did a lot of FUN stuff in the previous edition... but they're feeling pretty... "meh"... 

GAME TWO

Four our second game we switched things up. Orion had a go at playing the Thricefold Discord, but played them with the "Mastery" deck - Countdown to Cataclysm! I played the only other warband I'd printed and cut out cards for - the Thorns of the Briar Queen - and paired them with the last deck in the box, the "Take and Hold" deck; Emberstone Sentinels. 

I took a lot less pictures for some reason...

This was the state of affairs at the end of Round One/Beginning of Round Two.

Things had NOT been going great for me. I was down three and another was wounded - every activation Orion had (but one) killed one of my Chainrasps (and the other one wounded one...) I had dealt some damage, but the Daemons of Slaanesh were all still there and taking a Chainrasp out with every shot. 

I was concentrating a little too hard on the game and forgot to take any more pictures until the very end!? I finished off the two wounded Daemons and killed the third... but had lost two more Chainrasps in the process. 

I'd gotten my last two fighters onto Treasure Tokens in Enemy Territory (even have Delve one to make it a Treasure Token again) to score one last Objective Card worth THREE POINTS... then realized, after all that effort to get them there, it had said two or more friendly fighter WITH A COMBINED BOUNTY OF THREE holding... ALL of my fighters are only worth ONE bounty... I'd have needed THREE fighters to score it... 

Somehow I eeked out a victory; 14-11...? 

I like it so far. As with everything, it will take some getting used to. I'll need to play a few games with each of the four decks and then maybe start tweaking them. while those that LOVE deck building are lamenting the lack of cards, I don't mind that there is limited stuff, for the moment. Less stuff to learn/keep track of. Less overwhelming when trying to decide which to pair with which. 

There will be two more decks in two and a half weeks. Reckless Fury is another Strike Deck, and Wrack and Ruin is a Mastery deck... 

Hopefully I can find something good to pair Wurmspat with and they won't suck so bad in this edition!

By the time we were done, it was later in the afternoon and there'd been some freezing rain and the streets were like skating rinks and I was just not feeling like going out in that... I figured I would wait until Sunday when it was forecast to be +7°C! 

Indeed it did warm up - and was really quite nice out! 

So I rolled out to Dragon's Den Games and picked up my copy.  

all the stuff in the box!

I also rode out to Staples to pick up the cards I'd ordered printed... I only uploaded four of the warbands to start with. I've never had things printed there before and didn't want to just PRINT THEM ALL in case the print quality or paper quality sucked (I ordered them on card stock). They turned out pretty nice.... 

After an evening of "arts and crafts" (cutting and then gluing the fronts and backs of fighter cards and warscrolls together) I have fighter cards and warscrolls for four warbands ready; Thricefold Discord, Mollog's Mob, Zondara's Gravebreakers, and Cyreni's Razors. The first three are ones I like the idea of and thought would be fun to try playing. Cyreni's Razors was one of the ones that got it's own separate pdf and custom Warscroll that I thought Amanda might play. 

All the warbands that were released in the last year got separate pdfs with Fighter cards and custom Warscrolls. There are sixteen that are being re-released in four boxes of four that are only getting printed fighter cards and warscrolls - either in the boxes with the miniatures, or in one deck including all sixteen (conveniently, I have fifteen of the sixteen, so I'll be buying the deck!). 

The rest of the warbands - those not released in the last year that are not being re-released... did get PDF fighter cards, but did not get custom warscrolls. There are two very generic warscrolls for each Grand Alliance (Order, Chaos, Death, Destruction) from which those could be picked. They were released in one big 47-page pdf... and I didn't want to mess with print ranges and stuff the first time I uploaded stuff, and definitely didn't want to print off all 47 pages in that first go around - since I didn't know how it would all work out.... I'll probably be printing off all the cards for all the others soon enough. 

That'll be a lot of cards to cut and paste... which will I do first!? Maybe the Generic Grand Alliance Warscrolls... and then Wurmspat (for me!) and Morgwaeth's Blade Coven and Elathain's Soulraid for Amanda! The soulraid looks fun, 

Saturday, November 16, 2024

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City Hostiles - Vargscyr

Another Hostile ready for Warhammer Quest: Cursed City

The Vargskyr!

A large, horrifying, bestial vampire... I hadn't planned on painting this just now, but reading through the rules, realized it was the subject of the first of the Decapitation missions (not Watch Captain Halgrim, as I'd initially assumed!) and it happened to use a similar colour palette to the Vyrkos Blood-Born I was also working on earlier this week! 

the Host of Hostiles keeps growing!

Really, REALLY need to get those corpse rats and zombies done!!

All the Soulblight Gravelords - playable in Age of Sigmar! Currently 1480 points worth of stuff! 

Formed into an army, it would look a little like this:

General’s Regiment 

  • Hero - Cado Ezechiar, the Hollow King (1) 170 - Any Soulblight Gravelords 
  • Unit - Zondara’s Gravebreakers - )5) 120 - Unique, Deadwalkers, Infantry
  • Vargskyr (1) 180 - Beast
  • Vyrkos Blood-born (3)  150 - Infantry

Total: 620


Regiment 

  • Hero - Radukar the Wolf (1) 170 - 0-1 Vyrkos Retainer, Any Soulblight Gravelords 
  • Unit - Kosargi Nightguard (2) 120 - Deadwalkers, Infantry
  • Unit -  Watch Captain Halgrim (1) 110 - Any Deathrattle 
  • Unit - Deathrattle Skeletons (10) 100 - Deathrattle, Infantry

Total: 500


Regiment 

  1. Hero - Wight King (1) 120 - Any Deathrattle
  2. Unit - The Sons of Velmorn (5)  130 _ Unique, Deathrattle, Infantry
  3. Unit - The Sepulchral Guard (7) 110 - Unique, Deathrattle, Infantry 

Total: 360


Army Total: 1480


Friday, November 15, 2024

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City Hostiles - Vyrkos Blood-Born

In addition to Jelsen Darrock, I also finished up a few adversaries last night: the Vyrkos Blood-Born.

Vyrkos Blood-Born

The Vyrkos were once the mortal nobles of Mournhold before Radukar seized control of the city (and renamed it Ulfenkarn). They are now feral creatures that stalk the streets of the city at night. 

The trio can also be included as a unit in a Soulblight Gravelords army for 150 points! 

All the Cursed City Adversaries, so far... 

As I have enough Heroes, I'll be mostly working on more Hostiles over the next week or so. I really need to do the Deadwalker Zombies and Corpse Rats... but the next to be finished will likely be the Vargscyr! 

(I wasn't going to work on the Vargskyr for a bit, but then I realized it is the focus of the first Decapitation Mission! It also happens to use a lot of the same colour palette as these Vyrkos Blood-Born, so I was working on it as I worked on these...)

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City Heroes - Jelsen Darrock

I'm back to working on Warhammer Quest miniatures - in particular, miniatures for Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - and trying to get enough done so we can start playing it in a week and a half! 

Last night I finished up another one of the Heroes

Jelsen Darrock - Vampire Hunter. 

Darrock was apparently a Witch Hunter with the Order of Azyr, but at some point was expelled from the Order and has found his way to Ulfenkarn to hunt Vampires! 

I now have FOUR of the Hero Characters done and could start the game with these... So I should probably focus on finishing up the Adversaries! 

I might try to finish up Dagnai Holdenstock - because he's very close to being finished and I have a feeling Finnegan would have fun playing him! Also maybe Qulathis the Exile, because I have a feeling Amanda might have fun playing her! 

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal - Session Seven - The Auction Hall

In this penultimate session our Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal campaign, our heroes have chased the Chaos Sorcerer behind the strange cult that has gathered followers of all the Chaos Gods together and tried to wreck havoc in the city of Hammerhal! They uncovered and foiled a plot to redirect the flow of magma below the city to flood Cinderfall and the surrounding neighborhoods, potentially killing tens of thousands and destroying much of the industry in the city!

In their final assault on the cult in the catecombs - during the ritual that would have realized their dastardly plans - the Chaos Sorcerer escaped... but a clue was discovered that led them to the House of Venargo - an opulent merchant's mansion built in the classic Azyrute style, that contains auction halls where arcane artifacts are auctioned to a select clientele.  

I'd initially hoped we'd get through the Auction Hall AND the Sorcerer's Lair this evening... alas.. we got started a bit late and fighting ALL THE THINGS in ONE ROOM takes a lot of time!! 

The adventurers set up outside the gilded Auction Hall of the House of Venargo... and the Enemy lurking within. 

Arvios Sunhelm - Lord-Castellant of the Hammers of Sigmar - was the first to enter. He used his Warding Lantern and stunned three of the enemy - and damaged two of them - including one of the Chaos Sorcerer's Bodyguards! 

(The Chaos Sorcerer could not be targetted until the two bodyguards were slain!) 

Archimaine - Sunhelm's loyal Gryph-hound - bounded to his side and chewed on some Kairic Acolytes!

Golnir Coalbeard - Cogsmith - burst in and blasted a few away with his guns!

Alnaryn the Loremaster entered from the North door and cut down a few of the Kairic Acolytes!

Vizrin Kyre - the Black Ark Fleetmaster - charged into the thick of things and got themselves into a spot of bother - finding themselves engaged with two Kairic Acolytes, the Bloodreaver Bodyguard, and the Chaos Sorcerer themselves!! The first three dealt the Fleetmaster three wounds. The Chaos Sorderer then attacked with both Runestaff (one attack d3 damage) and Runesword (two attacks, 1 Damage) - both hit on 2+ - and I rolled THREE ONES!!! 

The Kairic Acolytes, however, in addition to making a few attacks, summned a PINK HORROR!!

Coalbeard and Sunhelm cut down the rest of the Kairic Acolytes... 

Alnaryn blasted the Pink Horror with their arcane bolt, blasting it apart...  

into two Blue Horrors!

Their final attack hit the Bloodreaver Bodyguard, which Vizrin Kyre then finished off... 

Lord-Castellant Sunhelm then stepped up to attack the Putrid BLightking Bodyguard! 

The Chaos sorcerer cried; "FOOLS! YOU THINK YOU HAVE WON!? YOU HAVE FALLEN INTO MY TRAP!" and with that the doors to the Auction Hall were flug open to reveal MORE Kairic Acolytes at the doors ready to charge in! 

Alnaryn blasted a Blue Horror apart... and it burst into two Brimstone Horrors! 

Vizrym Kyre charged in and stamped one of the Brimstone Horrors out and cleaved the other Blue Horror in two, procducing TWO MORE Brimstone Horrors! 

Meanwhile, Coalbeard blasted away at the Karic Acolytes just outside the door he was standing by, taking down two or three of them...? 

The Kairic Acolytes swarmed into the Hall, surrounding Coalbeard and the Lord-Castellant!

Coalbeard actually hit someone with his axe! Rhe Lord-Castellant struck down a few of the Kairic Acolytes! But the Chaos Sorcerer called for even MORE reinforcements and four more Khorne Bloodreavers burst in through the North door attacking Alnaryn! 

Coalbeard and the Lord-Castellant fought off the Kairic Acolytes while Alnaryn dealt with the Bloodreavers... With the two body guards out of the way, Vizrin Kyre and the Gryph-Hound started attacking the Chaos Sorcerer! (and dealt it some serious damage!) 

Bloodreavers try to come to the Chaos Sorcerer's aide, swarming Vizrin Kyre! 

The battle seemed desperate, but eventually the last of the Sorcerer's minions were dealt with... 

But the Sorcerer ONCE AGAIN slipped away through a secret door, evading the Heroes justice! 

Our Heroes located a secret door that lead to a chamber... that lead to a REALM GATE! It was clear the Sorcerer had fled through the Realm Gate and through it they would pursue! But... maybe not that evening! 

At this point it was after 10pm and we decided to call it a night and would finish up the last bit next week... meaning I have TWO more weeks to get enough done to start Cursed City! 

I've been listening to the audiobook of Hammerhal and Other Stories, but I might re-listen to Cursed City over the next two weeks to keep the motivation up (and refresh my memory of some of the background)! 

Tune in for the exciting conclusion next week when our heroes face the Chaos Sorcerer in his own LAIR!!!! 

Work-in-Progress Wednesday - 13 November 2024

 I have cleared a LOT of stuff off the workbench this past week. I finished off all the Minatures for Crypt Hunters, and removed a BUNCH of others that I realistically just wasn't going to be getting to any time soon... What remains are miniatures I'll be needing for warhammer Quest: Cursed City - which we will hopefully be starting in a few weeks - and a few other things that I just couldn't move off the bench - things that were just TOO CLOSE to being FINISHED and a few Warhammer Underworlds warbands I wanted to finish up. The new edition of Warhammer Underworlds is out this Saturday, and I'm hoping that will get us all playing again! 

So... 

(Ugggghhhh... so much stuff out of focus...) 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City Characters! I really only need to get ONE of these done, to get started, as I previously painted three of them... I think Dagni Holdenstock and Qualthis are the priorities... the Witch/Vampire Hunter next... 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City Deadwalker Zombies - I could probably get away with only doing about half of them, as all of the Level 0 Encounter cards only have 2-3 Deadwalker Zombies... I guess if ALL FOUR Encounter cards were zombies, I might need them all... 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City Corpse Rats 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City Tokens - not 100% sure what most of these are even FOR!? and I've read most of the rules...!? 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City Vyrkos Blood-Born - these aren't as huge of a priority. There are three Encounter cards (of sixteen) that have a single Vyrkos Blood-Born show up at zero or first level (only ONE at level zero) so it is unlikely they'd show up... or I could even just leave out that one card. 

I should probably dig out Gorslav the Gravekeeper as well.... Like with the Vyrkos, Gorslav only shows up on ONE Encounter Card. I could just leave it out if I don't get him done in the next two weeks... 

Saviors of Cinderfall (plus bonus gryph-hound) - there are stats for using them in Cursed City... also they're just fun miniatures... I'm actually DONE three of them... just waiting to finish up the rest before posting them. 

Thought they are kind-of-sort-of playable in Cursed City only Lyssa Revenya, Armand Callis, Hanniver Toll, and... Mistress Verentia, the Weaver of Whispers(!?) are useable on the table!? Valius, The Keeper Aqshian, and his Gryph-Hound Balthus, are represented in the game as cards that give some advantage, BUT can be in play if ALL FOUR of the other characters are used... including Mistress Verentia, the Weaver of Whispers!? It's been a while since I listened to the Callis & Toll audiobook, but I don't recall her being a fighty-action character!? I think they called upon her once... for some information...? I didn't think she had all that much of a connection to the rest of the group? 

Warhammer Underworlds - there has been SOME work on the Seraphon... not much (ANY) on the others. motivation to finish up the Gorechosen or Ylthari's has dropped some as they cards for them won't be available for at LEAST three more weeks... The Starblood Stalkers fighter cards were released as PDFs the other day, though... So I might try to finish them up by the end of the week! 

By next week I may have others on the workbench - the two NEW warbands from Embergard... and maybe some others I have that aren't painted but could be used... 

I have been plucking away at the Awakened Wyldwood... regardless if I'm using the Sylvaneth, they'll make nice terrain bits on any table! 

Assorted Vampires and Heroes... These are in the So-close-I-should-really-just-finish-them-off-and-be-done-with-them category... 

Assorted Chaos things that are also in the "So-close-I-should-really-just-finish-them-off-and-be-done-with-them" category... 

Slaanesh Endless Spells... 

What will actually get done in the next week...? I'm hoping the Saviors of Cinderfal and the Priority Heroes from Cursed City... and I hope to at least get started on the deadwalker zombies and corpse rats and tokens and Vyrkos... maybe even finish up one of those...? As ever, we shall have to wait and see... 

WHAT IS EVERYONE ELSE WORKING ON THIS WEEK!?