Warhammer Underworlds - Game 16

Friday evening we were at it again with Warhammer Underworlds. I was pretty excited to try out the freshly painted Grymwatch. I wasn't really sure how well they might do... they had some interesting tricks up their sleeve and there were a lot of them AND the leader has an ability to bring some of them back, if they die, and even gets to use that ability for free at the beginning of each round (or as an action during the round). Which on the surface seems cool... But they're all, individually, pretty weak and brining them back might just mean then dying over and over and over again and, each time, awarding the opponent with more Glory! 

Amanda won the roll-off for board placement and made me pick first. 

I picked the Ambertrap Nest and Amanda picked Teh Pool of Fangs - which was a bit of a surprise, as she usually avoids board with Lethal Hexes. She set hers up end to end with mine, with the Lethal Hexes on my board being as far from her territory as possible. 

My initial Objective draw. Some fun stuff to play with. Seemed unlikely to score Winged Death, as nothing had the ability to move that far... yet... The other two? Seemed like I had to draw someone in, surround them and kill them in my own territory! Easy-peasy. Or... not... 

Some fun Power cards. Slick Rock looked fun - because I know she's all about grabbing objectives. Appalling Vidage might be handy for driving someone into the clutches of a larger group of Ghouls, deeper in my own territory, far from help... 

All set up and ready to go. 

Having seven in the warband means I need to use all the starting positions, but the board I selected at least allowed me to keep most of them together in the middle of the board. 

Amanda parked her weaker Witch-Aelves at the back to take her own objectives and  Khamyss, Kyrae and Morgwaeth up front to do some damage! 

ROUND ONE

Khamyss started things off charging onto Objective #4... 

Whoopise, that objective was a bit slippery and she slid right off of it - unfortunately she was still in range and attacked Valreek, doing two damage. 

The Royal Butcher then charged Khamyss and... did one damage.... because that's what most of my warband does... but I did play Appalling Visage...

Which scared the willies out of Khamyss and pushed her two next to Valreek and Master Talon. 

Kyrae then charged up to seize objective #4 and shot at Valreek - tying and pushing her back. 

Gristelwel, with his "Greatsword" moved in and just stood there... Attacking might mean I actually took her out, which I didn't want to do, because I wanted to score Ghoul Pack (+1 Glory for having three Ghouls next to the same Enemy Fighter at the end of an activation). With that Glory I upgraded Duke Crakmarrow with a Hunter's Talisman (+1 die to attack actions). 

Lethyr leap onto Objective #1 

Duke Crakmarrow attacked Khamyss, rolling three successes! 

Of course Amanda rolled a Crit for Defence... so... NOPE! 

Kyrssa jumped on to Objective #3. I had flashbacks and visions of Amanda scoring, like, EIGHT GLORY POINTS in the end phase... 

Duke Crakmarrow took another swing at Khamyss and finally took her out, so I was able to score Defending the Hearth and score TWO Glory Points. 

AT the end of the Action Phase, there were NO enemy in my territory, so the whole warband inspired! Woo! 

ROUND ONE - END PHASE

Amanda was holding only ONE of the three cards that give her 2-3 Glory for holding 2-3 objectives and this scored three Glory, tying up the game at three. She upgraded Kyrssa with Tome of Glories and the Formless Key (most stuff that scored Glory Points).

I scored Glory of the Court - one of the objectives I drew to replace one of the Surge Objectives I scored earlier in the Action Phase - this is scored in an end phase if three or more surviving friendly fighters are inspired. Boom! One more Glory Point - bringing my total to four. I was able to upgrade Duke Crakmarrow with Heroic Vision (ANOTHER +1 dice to attack actions!) 

While we were doing this, I realized Kyrae SHOULD have killed Valreek... Her bow has Ensnare and rolling the dodge result that tied her success, shouldn't have counted and the solitary damage would have taken her out - having been damaged previously by Khamyss. Amanda said not to worry, as she'd forgotten, but I insisted I remove her, Amanda take the bonus Glory Point and inspire one of her warriors (Morgwaeth) . Duke Crakmarrow would have moved into Valreek's place (to score Ghoul Pack) and then still killed Khamyss on the final activation, like he did... Tied again at four Glory. 

ROUND TWO

Amanda went first, again. Morgwaeth charged the Royal Butcher and choped him down with a single blow! That gained her the Primacy Token and one Glory Point and then she scored two more for Hidden Purpose (a surge scored when holding two objectives - one of those other ones...). She also inspired Kyrae and upgraded Kyrssa with Rapturous Defence and Morgwaeth with Hunter's Tenacity. 

I upgraded Duke Crakmarrow with a Severed Trophy and the Herald with Trophy Belt. 

The Herald charged Morgwaeth and hither causing one damage. I then upgraded the Herald with a Seized Weapon, which dealt her another point of damage! 

Kyrae took a shot at Gristlewel and did one damage. 

Gristelweal then charged Morgwaeth and, with the aid of the Herald, took her out! I socred one Glory for the kill, a second for Bravely Done! (Scored when a friendly fighter with one or more supporting fighters takes an enemy fighter out of action!) and seized the Primacy Token (for taking out a leader) 

Kyrassa used the Tome of Glories to score another Glory point 

Duke Crakmarrow charged Lethyr (because these ghouls move FAST when inspired) and took her out of action - scoring two Glory points (as his Severed Trophy upgrade allows him to score bonus glory when he takes someone our himself. 

In the Power Step following my activation Amanda played Jealous Defence which allowed Kyrae to take a shot at Gristlewel and that did one damage to him. 

On her final activation, Kyrae followed the bonus shot up with another, which finished off poor Gristelwel... dammit... she took out my two Ghouls that COULDN'T come back (Gristelwel and Valreek - the two that suck the least)!? 

For my final activatin, Master Talon shuffled onto Objective #1

ROUND TWO - END PHASE 

Going into the End Phase Amanda was leading 9-8... but then didn't have anything she could score in teh end phase. 

I did.... 

First, I gained one Glory for holding the Primacy Token, tying things up. Then I scored Mouths to Feed (+2 Glory if there are fewer surviving enemy fighters than there are enemy fighters out of action) and Conquering Heroes (+1 Glory for my warband holding one or more objectives in enemy territory). That brought me up to TWELVE! 

ROUND THREE

Of the three Ghouls taken out of action, ONE was a Crypt Ghoul that could be brought back by Duke Crakmarrow's Muster ability... 

Master Talon could not have returned to the field of battle at a more ideal location... 

Amanda started things off with Kyrae shooting at the Herald scoring one damage.

In the Power Step, she upgrade Kyrae with Great Strength, Great Fortitude, and played drilled to Perfection to give Kyrssa a Guard Token. 

The "Duke's Harriers" (Bat Swarm) then charged Kyrae.

They moved six hexes to do so - enabling me to score Winged Death - which I'd been holding since the beginning of the game. They totally missed, but they would have only done one damage anyway. Unfortunately, Amanda was able to score Steadfast Defender (Scored after an Attack action that targets a friendly fighter holding an objective, if that fighter is still holding that objective.... BOOO!) 

I played Confusion, to swap spots with her - knocking her off the Objective (but, more importantly, removing the last friendly fighter from my territory). I had been thinking I'd hold onto it to use on Kyrssa... to get HER off her objective, in case I missed... but just went with this, as it would mean scoring another objective in the end phase!

Kyrae took another shot at Mater Talon... and took him out of action... (+1 Glory) 

Duke Crakmarrow charge Kyrssa and took HER out of action (+2 Glory) and seized the Primacy Token. 

Amanda, thoroughly displeased with how things were going. She had ONE fighter remaining, to my four... mind you, her remaining fighter was actually dangerous... Only one of mine really was. 

Kyrae attacked the Bats and missed.

Then used Zealot's Rage to try again and did 2 damage. If she'd used her Sacrificial Knife, she would have taken them out... but she used the bow because it had a much higher chance of hitting... but only did two damage... 

The Herald moved up and took Objective #1 - hoping that Kyrae didn't give chase... 

Kyrae went in the opposite direction.  She charged to Objective #2 and shot at the bats again, finishing them off. (+1 Glory, +1 more for Blood Rite - for taking an enemy out while holding an objective) 

The Royal Butcher shambled onto Objective #3 and scored Shifting Madness ( a surge objective awarding one Glory point after an activation if your warband holds the objective with the same number as the current round  - Third Round, Objective #3!) 

Wowsers. 

ROUND THREE - END PHASE

Amanda did score Purposeful Strike (+1 glory Scored  in an end phase if a friendly fighter with one or more Charge tokens is holding an objective). That brought her total to fourteen. 

I scored one for holding the Primacy token and then The Hunt Advances (+2 Glory if three or more friendly fighters in enemy territory AND each friendly fighter in enemy territory is a Hunter), Incomprehensible Scheme (+1 Glory  for my warband holding more objectives than the enemy warband), AND Charnel House (=2 glory if all surviving friendly fighters are in enemy territory OR there are no enemy fighters in your territory). This all brought my total to.... TWENTY-TWO!? 

I have a new favourite Warband... 

In Other News... 

On Saturday I picked up my copy of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City! 

It begins.... 

We'll be continuing to play Warhammer Underworlds for some time as I'm sure it will take me at least a few weeks to paint all these up. It took me all bloody afternoon and evening on Saturday just to assemble them. All of them are primed now, painting begins tomorrow. 

I may not be posting pics of finished models, right away, however. I wanted to do these all on fancy bases and rather than spending $100 on the plastic sculpted bases from GW, I actually ordered a couple of rollers from Green Stuff World to try out... unfortunately I JUST ordered them on the weekend and it said it could take 30-60 days to get here!? In the meantime, all of these are temporarily affixed to bases for painting and, when they do arrive, I'll be doing up their bases with cobblestones and flagstones.