Friday evening Amanda and I finally got back to playing Warhammer Underworlds. This was to be our final Battle in Beastgrave/Direchasm (for the time being). We are saying that Morgweath's Blade-Coven found a portal they believe could be a way home... More on that next game...
Before they could make it through the portal, they had to pass through a cavern occupied by Mollog the Mighty- a Dankhold Troggoth and his assorted squig-beast hangers on!
THE GAME
Amanda won the roll-off to determine who selected a board first, and she made me do that - giving herself the advantage of being able to orient the second board as she pleased. I chose the Hive of Sacrifice, largely because of the distribution of Start Locations on it, I wanted to be able to start with MOST of my warband as close to Enemy Territory as possible, regardless of how she oriented it. Amanda selected the Abandoned Lair and set it up short end to short end - making a long hall to play in. She has speed, and Mollog moves slowly, so it was to her advantage to do so.
I got to set up objectives first, though. So I set up the first one in Enemy territory as close to my territory as possible, but positioned as such that no others could be placed FURTHER from my territory. Amanda's warband is ALL ABOUT controlling objectives, and mine was just about SMASHING the other warband, so I wanted to keep them all as close to the middle of the board as possible.
I finished set up first. Stalagsquig is set up AFTER everything else is set up and can be set up ANYWHERE on the board... I had thought of setting it up in Enemy Territory
But unless I set it up completely out of the way in a corner where it could do NOTHING, I figured it would just get murderified on the first activation... So, I set it on the objective location nearest Enemy Territory... Sure, they'd probably move up and kill it... but then someone else would have to move to take the objective... and that would just bring them closer to Mollog...
ROUND ONE
We rolled off and I got to choose whether I went first or not, and so I did... I probably should have gone second, but whatevs...
I had objective cards that gave Glory if three moved into enemy territory (or something like that...?) and one that gave glory if ONE character made four activations during the round. So, I could potentially do one or the other. I think the other objective was to kill someone and deal twice the damage needed... which COULD happen if Mollog inspired as he deals FOUR damage then (and 3/5 of the Blade Coven only has two wounds!)
Mollog shambled up into enemy territory. Not within range of anybody. but close enough to that objective location that he could SMASH anyone that stepped onto it...
In retrospect I should have moved into range of Morgwaeth... Sure, she might have stabbed Mollog... But that would have been a GOOD thing - as the warband inspires when he takes 3 damage!
Khamyss danced onto objective #3 and Amanda played Regal Vision - which inspired Khamyss...
I moved up Spiteshroom, thinking I'd go for the move my guys into enemy territory objective. Morgwaeth then charged off to the side and chopped up poor Spiteshroom... though the spores that burst out from it as it died dealt one damage to Morgwaeth... so...
Morgwaeth then inspired and Khamyss was upgraded with Champions Fortitude (allowing her to re-roll a defence die)...
I decided to charge Kyrae, the bow-armed Melusai Blood Stalker that hadn't activated yet... and hopefully be in a position to smash Khamyss the next round without having to move.
Kyrae was taken out of action with a single shot gaining me the Primacy token. I think I upgraded Mollog with something...? Great Fortitude?
Khamyss attacked Mollog and dealt two damage!
Bat Squig Charged Morgwaeth. I rolled a crit and a success - looking pretty good! and Amanda also rolled a crit and a success... so bat squig pushed her away. Probably not the greatest idea, as Bat Squig was still in range of Morgwaeth's attacks... but Bat Squig would have to charge to attack again...
Khamyss attacked Mollog again, but missed this time.
ROUND END
I gained one (spent) glory point for having the Primacy token.... that was it. So I had two Glory Points and Amanda had nne? Both of us discarded a pile of cards and drew new handfuls of Objective and Power cards
ROUND TWO
Amanda won the roll off and decided to go first.
Khamyss charged away from Mollog and over to where Stalagsquig sat on Objective #2.... and killed it, gaining one Glory Point. Morgwaeth Inspired Lethyr. Amanda then played Consecrate to Khaine to gain a second Glory Point for taking out an enemy on an Objective. I played Illusory Fighter and moved Mollog to an empty start space in my own territory (adjacent to Morgwaeth). Amanda played Catechism of Murder to inspire Kyrssa (now all of her warband was inspired) and upgraded Khamyss with Great Fortitude (so now she got to re-roll a defence die and had +1 wounds)
On my turn, Mollog took a swing at Morgwaeth... and missed.
Morgwaeth ran off to Objective #2
Mollog slowly turned around and moved one hex closer to them... bringing him within range of both Morgwaeth and Khamyss AND Objective #4.
Lethyr moved to Objective #4 and Amanda scored Swift Capture (+1 Glory for holding one Objective in her own territory and one objective in my territory).
Mollog took ANOTHER swing at Morgwaeth... and MISSED AGAIN. Amanda scored Steadfast Defender (+1 Glory for being attacked while holding an objective and surviving)
Kyrssa moved onto Objective #3
Mollog took a THIRD swing at Morgwaeth and took her out! I gained +1 Glory and the Primacy token for taking out a leader. I upgraded Mollog with Great Strength (+1 Damage - now dealing 4!).
ROUND END
In the round end Amanda scored Dominant Position (+2 glory for holding more objectives than opponent) bringing her to seven Glory Points. She'd also had TWO other cards that EACH would have scored her three Glory Points for holding objectives, but I'd wrecked that plan by killing Morgwaeth... PHEW!
I gained one spend Glory point for the Primacy Token, and scored Master of Battle (for a fighter taking three or more actions in the Round) and Unassailable (Scored if my leader as the only surviving leader, or I had the Primacy token... I had BOTH! But still only scored it once) for two more, bringing my total to six.
ROUND THREE
I went first this round and Mollog smashed Lethyr, gained the Primacy Token and scored Crushing Force (for making as attack that dealt at least twice as much damage as needed to take their target out of action...)
Khamyss ran away - all the way to Objective #5, deep in my own territory. Further than Mollog could go in one move... So I played Predatory Growls - allowing me to push an Enemy one hex... and moved her OFF the Objective.
Amanda was displeased...
She did play Drilled to Perfection (giving a Guard Token to Kyrssa) and Fanatical Faith which would reduce any damage I did in the next round to 1... which didn't matter, because no one was within RANGE of Mollog and I'd be spending the round moving...
Mollog moved on my turn. I COULD have moved towards Khamyss... and gotten to withing range to hit her... but she has Range 2 attacks as well... and 2 defence dice with a re-roll... Kyrssa had a Guard Token... I went for Kyrssa...
Amanda discarded an objective card and drew a replacement.
Mollog took a swing at Kyrssa. For the SECOND TIME this game, I rolled a crit and a success and thought that was the end of Kyrssa, only for Amanda to roll the exact same result... but I tied, so I knocked her back into the Lethal Hex dealing ONE damage!?
Kyrssa charged out of the Lethal Hex, past Mollog, onto Objective #4, and took a stab at Mollog. THAT was a tie as well!?
Mollog turned around and smashed Kyrssa (+1 Glory for me!)
ROUND END
I scored Unassailable Primacy (for having the primacy token two rounds in a row) and Awesome Predator (which can be scored for having the Primacy token OR having one or more Attack actions with a Damage characteristic of 4+... again, I had BOTH) and an additional spent Glory, just for having the Primacy Token... bringing my total to THIRTEEN!?
Amanda had nothing she could score... Her total remained at seven Glory Points
So Mollog's Mob turned out to be pretty BAD ASS! I did do a fair bit of deck editing before the game, though...
Normally, when trying a new warband, I generally try using the cards that come with them - to get a sense of what they're supposed to be about and how well those cards work.
Mollog's Mob is one of the Shadespire releases (the first group of releases) and... it shows... Just a quick glance through the cards it became pretty apparent that a LOT of the cards were just garbage and playing them would be very, very frustrating.
So Friday evening before playing, I quickly edited the deck... I ditched all but two of the Objective cards and got rid of almost half of the Power Cards. I mostly just grabbed things that would be easily attainable. With a bit more deck editing, it could be a really, REALLY nasty warband to face!
It was nice to finally get back to playing Warhammer Underworlds. This was the final game we were playing in Beastgrave/Direchasm (for now). I've played TEN games in that setting so far this year, ticking off one of the games on my 10x10 Challenge list.
For the rest of the year we are planning to play game set in Harrowdeep on Wednesday evenings (plus two extra games over the holidaze), which will get in a futher 10 games of Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep - for the 10x10 Challenge.
My plan is to also paint a new warband every week for Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven to face...
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