Warhammer Underworlds - FOUR-Player games!?

Sunday afternoon our friends Nic and Orion came by to play TWO epic FOUR-player games of Warhammer Underworlds!  

GAME ONE

I was a little concerned it might end up being two, two-player games fought side-by-side but waiting for each other to take turns... 

But with the board set up we used it did NOT really feel like that at all!

Orion brought Hexbane's Hunters (and played on the Penitent's Throne board from Nightvault). Nic brought Drepur's Wraithcreepers (and played on the Seamsplit Folly board from Wyrdhollow). Amanda played Mordwaeth's Blade-Coven (on the Frost-Wracked Ruins board from Deathgorge). I played Mollog's Mob (on the Ambernest Trap board from Direchasm - which I mostly picked so that I could use one of the new terrain bits I'd just finished painting!). It was a truly transdimensional battle royalle - with parts of all four of those totally separate locations all ending up adjacent to each other!? The Magic of the Mortal Realms is weird....

I'm pretty sure both Nic and Orion were playing with their warband's Rivals decks (the cards that are individual to that warband). Amanda played the same Relic deck she's been playing forever. I looked through the deck boxk with Mollog's cards and there was a Relic deck I'd constructed to play with the first (and only other) time I played with Mollog. There were some pretty nasty cards in there and I briefly felt like maybe I'd just pull all those cards and add back in any Mollog cards I'd pulled... but then remembered it was a Nightvault era warband and wouldn't have had enough objective cards and I'd need to add in SOMETHING anyway... and doing that while everyone else was ready to go... I said fuck it and went with what I had... how bad could it be...?

When the very first action of the very first player turn was one of DRepur's Wraithcreepers floating across the table and chopping Bat-Squig out of the air.. I felt less bad about taking the Relic Deck...  

Then Orion slapped You Stand Accused on Mollog, and I felt even less bad... 

This one is pretty nasty. There are a LOT of persistent cards out there... but most last until the end of the round... this lasts until the accused moves into the territory of the player that played it... which in a two-player games isn't so bad, you just have to leave your own territory.... 

...but in the four-player set up we were using, it meant crossing two other players territory!? With a model with only a move of 3!? (a little easier now that you can select the same model to move multiple times in a turn. 

I know I scored ONE objective card in the first round. I had one that required at least two models be in enemy territory and NOT adjacent to any enemy - and I managed to do that! 

and then Morgwaeth dashed around to grab an objective.. RIGHT NEXT TO MOLLOG (AND Spiteshroom!?). I mean, I get she has a LOT of Objective cards that score a lot of points for holding a bunch of objectives... but, really... 

So Mollog thumped her once and she was gone! Which gained me the Primacy Token for both taking out a leader. 

(We were using the primacy token because I noted a few of my Ojbective Cards were from the Direchasm set and referred to the Primacy token. I generally they gave a bonus Glory Point if you had the Primacy Token... on top of the one given from the Primacy token!?) 

At one point (I think in the Second Round?) I had an objective that required someone in the warband - other than Mollog - take an enemy out of action. The only other warband member was Spiteshroom... who only dealt one damage... I thought my best option was to charge into this mess... attack the dog - which only had one wound - and hopefully wound it and then hope that someone killed Spiteshroom! (because Spiteshroom has a reaction that, if taken out of action, explodes in a cloud of deadly spores that deals one wound to all adjacent enemies... Alas... no one took the bait before the dog went yelping away! 

Eventually someone did kill Spiteshroom... and it did deal a damage to two of Hexbane's Hunters... but not enough to take either out... 

So then it was just Mollog... and he felt a little like he was standing in front of a firing squad...

Orion got a little excited because she was able to give one of her models enough upgrades that, if she rolled enough successes, COULD concievably deal Mollog seven damage... which WOULD be enough to take it out of action! So I gave Mollog TWO upgrades that increases it's wounds by one, each... 

And then trundled over to the super-buffed axe-man and took him out with one swing of the club! 

Then moved on and murdered a few more in the Warband, before finally running for cover to just survive until the end! 

It was kind of ridiculous how good he got at the end.. 

I'd like to try and build a proper Nemesis deck with this warband, as it is one of my favourites... 

The new rules that allow moving a model that's already moved - and even activating a model that's already charged as long as all the other models in teh warband have also charged is a HUGE help to warbands like Mollog's Mob... Though I realized if Stalagsquig stays on the table... it would be impossible to keep moving and hitting with Mollog after a charge, because Stallagsquig CANNOT CHARGE... luckily someone took out stallagsquig early in the game and, despite HAVING the card that allows me to bring back Stallagsquig, I elected NOT to!!!

In the end I won the game with 13 Glory points. Nic and Amanda weren't too far behind, both with 11 Glory Points. Orion was just a bit further behind with 9. 

GAME TWO

For our second game we switched things up a little bit. Orion decided to try out the Crimson Court and I busted out The Wurmspat. 

I'd been looking at the Generic Rivals decks that came with and thought the Seismic Shock deck looked really interesting... It's all about casting magic and holding objectives and... it obviously would work WAY BETTER with one of those Stormcast warbands that are ALL WIZARDS, I thought it might work with a warband with a tough wizard like Fecula... 

The inspriation had come from reading through Seismic Shock the evening after playing games the Previous Weekend - with Wurmspat! I figured it would work REALLY well as part of a Nemesis deck mixed in with a few of the Wurmspat cards that really help out the Wurmspat, which discarding a few of the Seismic Shock cards that were less helpful (or objectives that were a bit harder to score)... but I didn't do that before the game and didn't really have time to do that when we were starting the game... so I tried to play with just the straight Seismic Shock Deck...

This... was a mistake... 

I used the Ambernest Trap board again, Amanda took the Pool of Fangs board (also from Direchasm). Nic took the Chamber of Genesis board (from Harrowdeep - and I kept humming the "Under the Sea" song from the Disney movie The Little Mermaid - which I don't think I've ever even SEEN... but somehow have heard that song enough that it got stuck in my head!?). Orion selected the Cursed Oubliette board (from Nightvault). 

Again, Nic started things off by having one of his Wraithcreepers float up and stab one of MY fighters... luckily, Sepsimus was a little tougher than batsquig... 

The other three warbands really went at it hammer and tongs. 

Whereas I kind of just stood in one place DESPERATELY trying to get Fecula to cast a SINGLE spell so I could score the ONE scorable Objective Card I had... cast more spells than any other warband... I case ONE successful spell... her generic spell attack that dealt ONE damage... and gained ONE Glory Point in the first round... Honestly I probably would have done much better if I'd just let Sepsimus and Gulgoch go NUTS and just KILL THINGS... 

In the second round I had a new set of Objective cards... unfortunately ALL THREE required that ALL my fighters be on Objective tokens (and ALIVE!) at the end of the round... before the round started I did some calculation and realized I COULD make it happen... if everyone survived...  But then on the first turn, Morgaeth jumped onto this Objective marker...  The one I needed to Sepsimus on!? And then everyone followed her over there!? 

So... that plan was kind of fucked... 

Morgwaeth was taken out... I can't remember who did it... I don't think it was Wurmspat... but Sepsimus DID charge into the vacant spot and, with the aid of Fecula, took out the Prince - leader of the Crimson Court! Of course, THEY scored an Objective card for me taking him out... so... didn't help much. 

Apparently that was where I stopped taking pictures... 

For the third round, Fecula stood still and zapped at Vellas von Faine... and was able to score ONE MORE Glory for one enemy being the target of my attacks for a third and subsequent activation in the same round... (only because Orion was using all her other fighters to chase members of Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven around the table and score other objectives...) 

I ended the game with 3 Glory Points... 

Orion won this one with SEVENTEEN!!! (which is what the Thricefold Discord scored last weekend!?). Amanda's Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven wasn't too far behind at 13 Glory and Nic had 7... 

I'm still convinced it Seismic Shock could work with the Wurmspat as a Nemesis deck!

Amanda's decided maybe she'd like to try out some other warbands and asked if I had a copy of the Crimson Court... I guess that will be moving up the To Paint List order...

It was a totally fun afternoon! And fun to finally play Warhammer Underworlds with Nic. 

Orion just got a BUNCH of older Warhammer Underworlds stuff in a trade with some dude in Regina, so it will be interesting to see what she and Nic bring next time!