Warhammer Underworlds: Game Twelve

 Another Sunday. Another game of Warhammer Underworlds. 

Thigs tim Amanda was trying out her new deck for Morgwaeth's Blade Coven against another warband that focuses on taking objectives - Thorns of the Briar Queen. I think I'd originally suggested Lady Harrow's Mournflight, but then let her choose between the two, and she randomly determined the Thorns.

Amanda had actually wanted to try a 3-player game on Sunday, and was trying to convince Finnegan to join us. Then I pointed out that would take longer and she also really wanted to finish watching Season One of Sense8 and so decided to just play with me, but made Finnegan promise to play with us later in the week. 

Getting things going, Amanda won the roll for board selection and actually make ME go fist! I picked "The Ruptured Seal" from the Nightvault Core Box as it had three lethal hexes... and was different from the standard "Arcane Nexus" that I usually pick... Of course I realized, as soon as she placed the board, that THIS was not the time to pick a different one, when SHE was deciding the orientation. With two Lethal hexes, bunched together at one end, it would have been cool to have them on the boarder between our territories.. Of course, with Amanda choosing second, and dictation the board orientation, they ended up and teh back end of my territory.

Amanda went with her favoured  "Cursed Oubliette", the one from the Nightvault Core Box with NO Lethal or Blocked hexes. She placed them end-to-end again, which I wasn't sure if it was really necessary, as she was not fighting a terribly agressive/dangerous warband...? It would mean, as in the previous game, that there would be objectives, which MIGHT be ones she NEEDED to score for particular objective cards DEEP in my own territory. 

My initial card draw. Not great... not totally useless. As things were, I had three Objective locations in my territory, each next to a start location - so I could move chainrasps onto all of them in the first activation with Varcalv the Cruel's special action (Push ALL chainrasps up to 2 hexes!) Objective 2 was the objective furthest from Enemy Territory which was good and bad - it meant I had to hold a Chainrasp back to try and score that at the end of the Round... but having done so, I could ignore that Objective for the rest of the game and push forward, knowing it wouldn't be coming up later! 

Two were surges, which is good, but not necessarily surges I could easily score in the first round, but I can't remember If I was holding a reaction gambit... I think I was...? So I MIGHT have been able to score that and had to keep in mind I might draw one of the other hold objective cards. 

With seven in the Thorns of the Briar Queen, it's less a question of which starting spaces I'm going to make use of as where are Varclav and the Briar Queen going to go... because ALL of the starting spaces are going to be used! 

I placed Varclav and Teh Briar Queen back a bit - so they weren't so far away that they wouldn't be able to join in a fight, but far enough back that they couldn't be charged on the first turn. Spread the rest of the chainrasps about. 

Amanda kept Kyrssa and Lethyr back - to hold objectives in her own territory and the rest were placed up close to my territory - to charge in and grab objectives? Placing Morgwaeth at the fore was a bold move. She probably did that because I'd assured her that there was no one that did much damage in my warband (when she was moaning about how many there were!) 

ROUND ONE

Amanda won the roll off and made me go first. 

Varclav the Cruel used his special action to make all of the Chainrasps move up. The can all be pushed up to two, but three of them I only puched one hex - onto all the objectives in my territory! Teh other two moved up as far as they could. 

I was also holding Drifting Advance - a gambit that allowed me to push ALL chainrasps two, but they had to move closer to the nearest enemy. I tought I'd hold onto it until I had a chance to put three into contact with a single enemy and score Death Sentance. 

I also played Spectal Parry on The Ever-Hanged, giving them a Guard token, as they were holding the objective closest to Enemy Territory (and TOTALLY in range of Kyrae's long-range attacks!) 

For Amanda's first activation, she moved Lethyr onto Objective #1 and played Forward Planning - giving Lethyr the Guardian Glaive. 

I moved the furthest back Chainrasp (that wasn't on an objective) up - on hoped to swarm forward next round. 

Kyrae took a shot at the Ever-Hanged and tied... but couldn't drive them back because of the Guard Token - not that I NEEDED to keep them on there. I t's not like I could score that objective with the cards I was holding. I guess I thought IF any of the murder elves did move forward and I was able to score one of the surge objective it was possible to draw something that could. 

Varclav the Cruel moved forward. 

Kyrssa jumped onto Objective #5. 

The Briar Queen moved up. 

Khamyss moved up. 

ROUND ONE - END PHASE

well... not a lot of action for the first third of the game... kind of just setting up for Round Two. 

I did score Hold Objective 2 for ONE Glory Point and upgraded the Ever-Hanged with Face of Death - an upgrade that gave a chance of reducing an enemy's attack dice - hoping it might keep them alive... being the least awful of the Chainrasps. 

So, at this point, I was winning.... with ONE Glory Point... pretty sure that wasn't going to last long...

I kept the surges I'd had, as the seemed very possible to score in Round Two and would be replaced by new Objective cards anyway. The only new Objective I drew was Hold Objective 3 - conveniently being held by the Ever-Hanged... but they lost their Guard token at the end of this round, so I'd have to come up with some OTHER way of keeping them on there. 

ROUND TWO

Again, I started off and used Varclav's special action to move everyone up. Rather than keeping those holding objectives ON the objectives, I shuffled all forward, realizing those further back could easily move forward to capture objectives left open by others. I've come to realize it's often better to wait and jump onto the objective later in the round as there is less opportunity for enemies to attack and drive a fighter OFF of an objective, who then can't move back ON because they already have a move token. 

AT the beginning of Amanda's activation, the Ever-hanged and another Chainrasp inspired (Starting an activation adjacent to an Enemy Fighter is what inspires them). 

Khamyss attacked Ever-Hanged twice - I was actually able to use his new Upgrade reaction - and thus able to score Treacherous Foe (+1 Glory for making a reaction). The second attack of her combo hit, causing one damage. 

In the power step I played drifting advance, brining more chainrasps up into contact with enemies.

On my activation, another Chainrasp inspired. One of the other chainrasps charged THROUGH the enemies and attacked Khamyss from behind - with TWO supporting chainrasps. I actually hit and caused one damage... but I actually didn't want to take her out as I was hoping to score Death Sentence (+1 glory for having three Chainrasps adjacent to the same enemy fighter).

I upgraded The Briar Queen with Drive by Hatred (+1 attack die when charging) and upgraded Varclav the Cruel with Shaklegheist Chains (+1 Glory if Varclav takes an enemy out of action) 

Morgwaeth attacked and took out one of the adjacent Chainrasps on her activation, scoring her first Glory Point and inspiring Khamyss. She scored a second with Swift Sacrifice (for Leader or Kyrae taking an enemy out of action) With those she upgraded herself with Great Strength and Kyrssa with Formless Key. She also played a gambit that allowed her to count as holding one more objective

Another Chainrasp charged THROUGH Khamyss and missed, but I was able to score Swarming Spirits (+1 Glory Point when a second Friendly Fighter moved through a hex occupied by an enemy in a round). I upgraded the Briar Queen with Inescapable Vengeance, which allows her to, when moving or charging, to simply move to any unoccupied start hex. 

Khamyss attacked the Ever Hanged, missing on the first attack and tying on the second, driving them back. 

Varclav the Cruel moved onto Objective #4 with my final activation. 

Khamyss attacked a Chainrasp and took it out of action. 

Morwaeth's Blade Coven

ROUND TWO - END PHASE

I scored one more point for holding objective #3 bringi my total, so far, to 5 Glory Points. 

Amanda was able to score Ritualized Formation for holding three objectives (even though she only held two - but had played a gambit that allowed her to count as one extra) gaining three more for a total of 6 Glory Points... 

Going downhill for me... 

ROUND THREE

I forgot to take a picture of the Objectives I started with, but I was had Hold Objective #4 (easy-peasy -that was the last one in MY territory), an Objective requiring I held ALL objectives in one territory (not going to happen as I was rapidly running out of Chainrasps and couldn't even GET fighters to all three in MY territory and the ones in Enemy Territory were already held) the final one required there being no enemy in MY territory... which COULD happen... I would just have to keep them occupied in their own territory. Amanda often gets caught up in fighting and forgets to work towards objectives... So I thought if I coudl keep the pressure on, they might just stay were they are and continue murdering my Chainrasps. 

For the third time, I started off the round using Varclav's special ability to move the three remaining chainrasps up - to try and keep Morgwaeth, Khamyss and Kyrae surrounded and busy, Thinking I'd move in the Briar Queen to try and take some of them down and move Varclav back to take Objective #4 later in the turn. I also upgraded the Everhanged with Chill Touch. 

Morgwaeth attacked the Ever-Hanged, who successfully used their reaction to reduce Morgwaeth's attack dice pool - and she missed! Woo! Then I played Maddening Cackle - Played after an enemy fighter's Attack action that fails - that fighter is no longer Inspired, and cannot be Inspired AND the effect persists... 

Amanda then upgraded a couple of fighters with Upgrades she'd drawn on the previous End Phase and forgot to do in the previous Power Phase; Khamyss got Great Fortitude (giving her an extra wound!?) and Morgwaeth got Hunter's Tenacity (which allows her to push herself into a hex an enemy fighter was in after driving them back with an attack action - an upgrade that RULES if you're a warband wanting to take objectives AWAY from another warband that is trying to hold them!).  After wards she played Confusion, pushing Varclav off Objective #3 - which didn't matter because I already SCORED the Hold Objective #3, but this is exactly why I like to wait until later in the turn to seize objectives, because that exact kind of card can ruin your day if you've already moved onto one you NEED to hold and have a move or charge counter and nothing to push them BACK on. She also played Fanatical Faith - which would reduce any damage I did to any fighter I attacked in the next activation to one - thus making it impossible to take anyone out. 

I tried anyway - Everhanged attacked Khamyss and got two successes - as his Chill Touch upgrade meant she didn't count dodge results and had no support, so the ONLY thing that could save her was a crit... so... of course, she rolled a crit. Mind you, it only saved her fro one damage and she now had THREE wounds, so... 

The Morgwaeth danced past all Chainrasps and seized Objective #4... 

f-bomb. 

Well that just potentially ruined my two possible Objective Cards - Holding Objective #4 and keeping enemy out of my territory...

It hadn't even occurred to me that anyone COULD get to it...?

And now, as I type this report, I realized that Morgwaeth COULDN'T have gotten to it... When I'd played Maddening Cackle earlier in the round and uninspired her, she reverted to a move of four and that Objective counter was FIVE away from where she started... Ah, well... She could EASILY just gotten to Objective #3 which would have still denied me the ability to score Denial... and it all would have played out the same, otherwise... 

I had ONE chance to get her off of there... (and potentially score two glory) 

The first move was the Briar Queen charging with the Inescapable Vengeance to move to an adjacent Starting Hex, then attacked with some extra dice thanks to Driven By Hatred! The Briar hit and did two damage! 

Khamyss used her combo attack to knock out the Everhanged and another Chainrasp!? (+2 Glory!) 

She'd complained about my numbers... but seriously, half of those Chainrasps do ONE damage and/or have only ONE attack die. It would take multiple turns to whittle down even her two wound fighters, whereas Khamyss is a murdering machine that can take down two per activation!? 

For my final activation, Varclav moved in and attacked Morgwaeth - and took her out! Because Varclav had  Shacklegiest Chains, I scored TWO Glory for taking her out! But I had no way to get either of them onto Objective #4... Well... if Amanda didn't move anyone into my territory for her last activation, I might still score Denial!?

No such luck. 

Khamyss danced over to Objective #3, flailed at the last of the Chainrasps and took it out of action with her barbed whip (+1 Glory). 

ROUND THREE - END PHASE

I had nothing... 

Amanda scored Purposeful Strike - Scored in an end phase if a friendly fighter with one or more Charge tokens is holding an objective - for one Glory and then gained one more for Kyrssa still being alive and holding a Formless Key...

Damn...  

So Morwaeth's Blade-Coven won 12 - 7... 

Guess that new deck is working out. 

So that's twelve games of Warhammer Underworlds we've played in the last two month - and twelve game reports I've written! I have a few questions for you, my dear reader... 

a) Is anyone still reading these?

b) How do you feel about the activation-by-activation, blow-by-blow format describing all the cards played and such? Do I keep this up? Do I switch to a more narrative description of the action?

c) Would anyone be interested in a post about how we put together Amanda's first customized deck? I thought about doing that... but then it seemed like a bit of work for something that no one at all might be interested in!? (and I'd rather spend the time painting, if that was the case!). 

In other news, still chugging along on a PILE of Stormcast Eternal Warbands. Thought I might have them all done by the end of the month, but... distractions happened... 

I went into my FLGS yesterday. I was in the neighbourhood and had recently had a $50 cash windfall, and it was two weeks about I'd asked them to get in a copy of the Wurmspat warband for Warhammer Underworlds. Usually GW stuff shows up pretty quick. They receive orders weekly. I checked with The Minion (His name is Jordan, but I always think of him as "the Minion" as he is the only staff member that isn't an owner... as far as I know...?). He said they'd got it in... but sold it!?  I mentioned I had specifically asked the owner to get it in FOR me and asked if he knew why would it have been sold? He said they have been getting shorted on a lot of stuff and sometimes don't get as many of a thing as there are people asking for it...?! Which left me wondering... Who else asked for a copy of Wurmspat, in Saskatoon, in the last week or so!? I didn't get the impression from Darren (one of the owners) that there were that many people playing it - and when I've asked on the local Age of Sigmar forum if anyone was playing I got exactly zero responses!? Weird. Hopefully they'll be getting another in sometime... 

In the meantime, that $50 bill was burning a hole in my pocket, so I picked up Morgok's Krushas... it was a toss up between Morgok's and The Starblood Stalkers, the new brand new Seraphon warband for Direchasm... The Starblood Stalkers look cool and, being lizards, presented some opportunities to paint some fabulously patterned minis... but then... that seemed like a lot of work... and there was twice as many of them as Morgok's and, from what I've seem, those Brutes in the Krushas are some hard-hittin' muthafukkas.... So.. I have some Orrucks I'm painting now... because new is shiny! Will I have them done by Friday? Will the Stormcast Eternals be done by Friday? Stay tuned to find out!