Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault - Ghost-on-Ghost

Sunday evening Amanda and I played another game of Warhammer Underworlds. This is the twentieth game of Warhammer Underworlds I've played this year. I think one or two were with Finnegan, and the rest were with Amanda. Amanda's only ever played Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven, whereas I've been constantly switching and trying different things out. 

After our last game, Amanda suggested we switch things up and she could actually try playing a NEW warband!? So I suggested Lady Harrow's Mourngflight versus Thorns of the Briar Queen. I'd played both before - Lady Harrow once and the Briar Queen twice. The one time I played Lady Harrow I totally beat Morgweath's Blade Coven. The Briar Queen beat them once, and lost the other time. 

For this game, Amanda took Lady Harrow's Mournflight.

THE GAME

Rolling off for board placement, Amanda won and made me place a board first. The boards mattered very little as BOTH of our warbands ignored lethal hexes and could pass right through obstructed ones... I guess the placement of Starting Locations and potential spots for objectives could be a consideration... but not something I could think of in the moment, so I just picked whichever one was on top, and that happened to be The Cursed Oubliette. Amanda, likewise, unsure about how this new - to her - warband would work did something similar and ended up choosing the Soul Refractor!

Amanda also won the roll off for warband deployment and started setting up her stuff first.

Al ready to go.

ROUND ONE

Amanda won the roll off and made me go first. 

Varclav the Cruel did his special action and made all the Chainrasps push two - bringing them all together in a bunch. 

I knew they're a bit harder hitting and a bit tougher than mine AND that they inspire by passing through enemy so I wanted to make it as hard as possible for them to do that and not end up next to at least one of mine, ideally TWO... so that mine could inspire (as that's what they did - inspire if as the start of one of my activations they are adjacent to an enemy fighter. 

Amanda played Call of the Grave - which drew the Ever-Hanged away from the bunch. 

I used Sudden Appearance to move The Ever-Hanged. The cared allows a friendly fighter to be moved to ANY starting location. I just wanted to mess with whatever Amanda was up to. I probably SHOULD have just moved them back to one within MY territory... but for some reason thought it would be fun to drop them deep into enemy territory.... right next to Lady Harrow!? 

WTF was I thinking?! I have no idea... 

I guess I was thinking - "Hey, The Ever-Hanged had three wounds and Lady Harrow only deals two, so she'll attack The Ever-Hanged, I'll inspire and goof around in their rear keeping her distracted for a turn or two... Also I knew she had A Chilling Scream (opponent can't play Power Cards for one Power Step) and was going to play it (I knew this because she asked me about how it worked - thinking it meant I wouldn't play them for a whole ROUND...) and I HAD Power Cards that I wanted to play under certain circumstances... 

So she played that. Then Amanda played Spectral Charge... which gives +1 Damage to the next range 1 or 2 attack... THAT did not sound good... 

Sure enough, Lady Harrow dances through Teh Ever-Hanged and shanks him. 

Hey, Look, his solitary defence die came up CRIT!

Of course Amanda rolled TWO crits... so that was the end of The Ever-Hanged... for THIS Game (+1 Glory for Lady Harrow) 

I moved a Chainrasp... 

The maiden Charged a Chainrasp, passing through it first - so as to inspire... and missed. I think that's the ONLY attack or defence Amanda rolled all game that did not include at least ONE Crit result! 

I forgot to take a picture of this, which is really too bad, because it was the most epic thing I did all game.... I played CONFUSION which allows two adjacent fighters to swap places. So the Chainrasp on Objective Four swapped places with The Maiden bringing her right into the midst of Varclav and three  Chainrasps... all of which inspired at the beginning of my activation. 

I also scored Death Sentence - a Surge Objective, scored immediately if three or more friendly fighters are adjacent to the same enemy fighter! Done (+1 Glory for the Briar Queen) 

Varclav then attacked with THREE supporters (not that anything beyond two helps...) and took out the Maiden! (+1 Glory for the Briar Queen) 

I upgraded the Briar Queen with Grasping Thorns.

The Widow swooped through and charged one of the freshly inspired Chainrasps... and missed... 

VArclav the Cruel Charged the widow to attack with the Chainrasp's support - rolled a Hammer and One Support - TWO SUCCESSES! Amanda, of course, rolled TWO CRITS... so that missed. 

Teh Briar Queen cast Howling Vortex - which allowed me to push ALL enemy fighters one hex... 

Teh anguished one charged Varclav. Amanda rolled two crits... but then I ROLLED TWO CRITS!!! WOOO!!

Then I noticed I'd used the WRONG DICE! I'd used Attack Dice... I mean, there is only one crit on both Attack and Defence dice... so... still a one-in-thirty-six chance... But I admitted it to Amanda and she made me re-roll them... and, ofcourse, I failed... not even one success. So the Anguished One dealt two damage to Varclav... 

No one scored any Objective at the end of the round - I discarded a few that seemed unlikely or not worth it. One required taking the enemy leader out... another required ALL of my surviving fighters to be inspired (minimum 3) for ONE Glory Point... There had to be better stuff in the deck... 

ROUND TWO

I won the roll off and went first. 

Varclav attacked the Anguished One... and missed. My two successes didn't matter when she can't not roll crits... 

I played Drifting Advance - which would allow all my chainrasps to move two hexes towards the nearest enemy fighter. Amanda played Enervating Sorrow - a reaction which would cancel the Ploy I'd just played unless I discarded another Power Card - which really sucked, because all of the ones I was holding didn't suck (a rare occurrence - I almost ALWAYS have at least half a hand full of junk that is just of no use whatsoever...) so I trashed Vengeful Curse...  

Drifting Advance took effect and Chainrasps drifted into a protective formation around Varclav... and set up to score another Objective...

Amanda upgraded the Anguished one with Debilitating Aura - any enemy fighter adjacent to The Anguished one would have -1 Attack dice (YIKES!: That is AWFUL! and NOT just when attacking the Anguished one...). 

I played... something... that gave Varclav a Guard Token...? 

Then she played Frightful Aspect which pushed one of my Chainrasps away (no problem, I still had sidestep, which would bring it BACK into place for the Objective I was setting up for...) 

The widow charged Varclav...

Heh! Didn't need all that support or the guard token, I rolled two regular dodge successes on my own! 

But Amanda can't NOT roll Crits... 

So... dead Varclav... well... I guess he was already dead... out-of-action Varclav, then... (+1 Glory Lady Harrow) and my objective was now useless... 

I was holding Swarming Spirits and it was the only Surge I had and took a bit of work to set up. It is Score this immediately if two or more friendly fighters moved through a hex occupied by an enemy fighter in this phase... The ONLY way this is possible, is if TWO Chainrasps are adjacent to the same enemy... and then can BOTH be moved two  - by using Varclav's special ability (or, I guess Drifting Advance, the ploy I'd just used)... so a LOT of moving parts in that objective... for ONE Glory Point... Oh, I was also holding Sidestep, which pushed a fighter one, which I was going to have to use to get another back into place... 

so I used that Side Step to bring a Chainrasp into contact with The Widow and charged the Briar Queen across the table to attack! I rolled THREE SUCCESSES... but you only need ONE Crit to beat ANY number of successes... and that's what Amanda rolled... 

Lady Harrow charged a Chainrasp and destroyed it... because... Crits... (+1 Glory Lady Harrow)

One Chainrasp wandered away and sat on an Objective. 

Oh, and the Briar Queen was next toThe Widow - having charged her and not done anything... so she inspired, at least... 

Damn, I should have held onto that one Objective that gave me ONE GLORY POINT if all of my fighters (minimum three) were inspired.... 

The Anguished one swooped around to move into contact with two chainrasps...

Not sure why she didn't just CHARGE... I think it was because it was only the third activation and Amanda wasn't sure what she'd do with the fourth, if not attack...? 

I COULD have left a chainrasp there so there would be two supporting each other... I figured there wasn't much hope. Amanda would just roll Crits and a bonus support wouldn't help anyway... AND there was little point in attacking as she made anyone next to her use one less attack die... so I moved one away to Objective Three. 

In her final activation Teh Anguished one attacked... AND MISSED!? So, Amanda played Echoing Spite... and attacked again. She rolled a Crit... I ROLLED A CRIT! A Tie! which is a miss, but a pushback... except all those spaces were blocked... and so it's a hit and the Chainrasp was destroyed... (+1 Glory Lady Harrow)

At the end of the round I was able to score TWO objectives - Hold Objective One and Hold Objective Three... for one point each. (+2 Glory for Briar Queen)

Amanda scored Tide of Malice a dual that requires that there are two or more surviving friendly fighters AND each surviving friendly fighter is Inspired.... so, like the one I'd discarded... except that she only started with four that needed inspiring (as opposed to, potentially SEVEN), and only needed two of them to be remaining on the table (as opposed to THREE for me), and has an easier time with inspiring (just has to move through an enemy... where as I had to START an activation next to one... which means being in contact with one BEFORE my activation and not being destroyed.... a dicey proposition, considering each of hers does damage equal to the wounds over half of my warband has in total!) AND she scored TWO Glory points for that (where mine would have only given me ONE...!?) (+2 Glory Lady Harrow)

ROUND THREE

Amada Kicked things off with the Anguished One charging the Chainrasp on Objective Three, dancing through two diffent Objective locations along the way (to score Fleeting Memories, +1 Glory Lady Harrow)... rolling multiple Crits... (SERIOUSLY!?) (+1 Glory Lady Harrow)

I'd had an objective that gave me a bunch of points if there were no enemy in my territory... at the start of the Round I briefly thought of trying to draw them out of there... but with The Anguished One charging and remaining in that spot for the rest of the game, there was no chance that was going to happen. So, I upgraded the Briar Queen with Inescapable Vengeance - which allows her to simply move to ANY start location when moving or charging and she fucked off to the other end of the table... Lady Harrow COULD get to her there... and i really hoped she would, because the last remaining chainrasp would be able to move onto Objective Two and provide support for any attacks... AND I had a Ploy that would make one supporting Chainrasp count as two AND I had a Hold Objective Two card... 

Of course, she did NOT fall for that. Lady Harrow jumped onto Objective Four. Later, The Widow floated over to Objecrtive Three and they scored One Will - for controlling one even-numbered Objective and one odd-number Objective... (+1 Glory Lady Harrow)

The Last Chainrasp shuffled over to Objective Two.. so I could, at least score that one Objective... I discarded and drew new Objective cards for the last two activations... but nothing helpful came up (Hold Objective Four...)

I Scored one more Glory Point for holding Objective Two bringing my total to a whopping FIVE Glory Points! 

Amanda Scored Creeping Dread (score this in an end phase if there are three or more surviving friendly fighters and each has one or more Move and/or Charge tokens, +1 Glory Lady Harrow), and Nagash's Tithe (Scored  in an end phase if there are more enemy fighters out of action than friendly fighters out of action... +1 Glory Lady Harrow), AND Dominion of DEATH (scored in the third end phase if you have scored the most objective cards... +3 Glory Lady Harrow)... Bringing HER total to FOURTEEN GLORY POINTS!? 

Only a marginally less bad defeat than last game's fifteen to one... But Amanda was playing a completely new warband!? (not that I was all-that-familiar with the Briar Queen and her lot... but still...) 

Could just be a bad match-up... Could be that Lady Harrow's Mournflight is wildly unbalanced... Teh Warband did defeat Morgwaeth's the one time I played them. 

Amanda really likes Lady Harrow's Mournflight and thought she might use it more often... but suggested that for next week we switch. She will play the Thorns of the Briar Queen and I'll play Lady Harrow's Mournflight... I reluctantly agreed. I'm not sure I could face the embarrassment of having her destroy Lady Harrow with the Briar Queen.... I mean, what are you going to do when facing an opponent that can't not roll crits 80% of the time!? 

Larger Warbands are tough to play. They're generally weaker - which makes sense because otherwise they'd just dominate - but that also means they just bleed Glory Points to the opponent. They need to be able to make up for that... but it seems like MOST of the Objective Cards only scored one Glory Point each... and were not even all that easy to accomplish... 

I really like this game, but it is so dispiriting always being handed my ass... 

I really need to get some new ones painted - Mollog's Mob looks fun... the Wurmspat... Hrothgorn's.... all have some hard, heavy hitters.