Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Warhammer Underworlds - Another Four-Player Sunday

As if playing Warhammer Underworlds at the Warhammer store on Friday evening, and a 2000 point practice game of Warhammer 40,000 (10th Edition) on Saturday wasn't enough gaming for one weekend.... Nic and Orion came by to join Amanda and myself to play a pair of four-player games of Warhammer Underworlds (for a second Sunday in a row!) 

GAME ONE

For our first game I was pretty excited to try out the freshly painted Grinkrak's Looncourt. Amanda decided to change it up and try out Lady Harrow's Mournflight. Nic wanted to try out the Grymmwatch. Orion played with the Chosen Axes - which she was determined to make work (The warband was recently acquired, fully-painted, and she'd played one game with them and they were handed their asses!) 

Amanda and I were just playing with the Rivals decks for our warbands. I'm not sure if the deck Nic used was the Relic deck I'd put together for the Grymwatch (like, years ago... before they were even CALLED "Relic Decks") of if he sorted out the Grymwatch's and just used a Rivals deck as well... Orion was either using Fearsome Fortress... or perhaps had just shuffled the full Chosen Axes deck in with the Fearsome Fortress deck and played with whatever she drew?! 

I don't remember who ended up picking boards first... but the Looncourt ended up on the Chamber of Genesis board (from the Harrowdeep Core Box). Nic also selected a watery board - The Tortured Coil (from the Nethermaze Core Box) - so it ended up looking like the Beastgrave was suddenly a waterfront property with the watery grave of Harrowdeep washing up on its shores! Amanda played on Ambertrap Nest board (from the Direchasm Core Box) and Orion played on the Shrine of the Silent People board (from the Beastgrave Core Box).

Grinkrak's Looncourt all set up and ready to go! 

The Looncourt started the hostilities - as I went first in the first round - with Skolko and Pronk launching a squig at The Widow Caitha... and taking her out of action!!!

Yikes... Had a bad feeling those ghosties would be coming for me! 

(I was not wrong!) 

I did get three Quest Objective cards right off and assigned them to three of my crew. the Quest Objective cards are a new sort of mechanic for the Looncourt. Rather than holding them in hand, they can be assigned to specific goblins who, when they achieve the Quest (Scoring the Objective Card!) are inspired (with the exception of Grinkrak - who inspires when three of the others are inspired). Half of the deck is Quest Objectives and MOST of them are Surge Objectives. 

I probably need to spend some time reading and re-reading these and figuring out who really would be the best to assign them too as they come up... I feel like part way through the game I may have made a mistake - or sould have, at least, chosen a little better as others did the thing that someone else needed to do to score their Quest Objective.

Regardless, it was fun and a bit different. 

Dwarves and Ghould went right at it and started smashing each other. 

The Myrmourn Banshees of Lady Harrow's Mournflight did, in fact, come for my goblinses! 

But they also fought over all the objecive markers on the border with the Dwarves... so it wasn't a total onslaught... 

though for a little bit it looked like a crowded goblin/ghost mosh-pit over at my end of the table... 

Ghouls joining in the party - sending bats after Grinkrak and The Butcher after Da Wonky Lance! 

In the second round, I drew objectives that involved being in enemy territory, so I kind of disengaged and tried to score those, hoping the Banshees would be kept occupied by the Fyreslayers and Ghouls they were fighting elsewhere! 

And... that largely succeeded! 

Huzzah!... though I think that frightening Fireslayer knew we were up to something... luckily he had a charge token and coudln't really mess with my plans! 

Grinkrak, with some help from Skolko and Pronk, chased off the Ghouly bats. 

In the third round, I had an Objective that scored two Glory Points if each surviving friendly fighter is Inspired and/or has one or more upgrades... and Snorbo was the only fighter left in my warband that has neither... so I kind of charged him into combat with the leader of the Fyreslayers - who only had one wound left... I figured I'd either take him out and score some glory, or he'd take Snorbo out and I'd score the card! In the end I think it was Duke Crakmarrow that moved up and took out Snorbo..

The ghosties finally did come for me and took Nagz out of action... 

But Pokin' Snark got out of there and made another attack at the leader of the Chosen Axes... and... I MIGHT have taken him out of action... or maybe it was SOMEONE else I took out of action with a card called "Stick in the Boot" played on a Vulnerable Enemy (with only one wound remainging) adjacent to a friendly fighter... deals the enemy one damage! Ha! Mean little goblinses! I love them! 

No, it was someone else, somewhere else because that fucking stubborn little dwarf was still holding the Objective Marker at the end of the game. 

IN the end, the Goblins did pretty okay for themselves! I scored SIXTEEN Glory... which TIED with the Chosen Axes... who won.. 

Because they were holding an objective at the end of the game and I was not! 

Considering the game had started with boards looking pretty crowded with 22 fighters (7 Ghould, 7 Goblins, 4 Fyreslayers, 4 Banshees) things were looking pretty empty at the end. Ghouls and Fyreslayers only had one left, each. There were two goblins and two Banshees (Okay, technically goblins started with eight and ended with three - but two of them, Skolko and Pronk, are on the same base!) 

The Goblins were a LOT of fun to play... I think one-on-one play with them could have been an entirely different ketttle of squigs... but I think they'll be a regular on my Underworlds boards! 


GAME TWO

For our second game, I switched things up and tried out Hrothgorn's Mantrappers. I've only played them once before and it... did not go well... Amanda, playing Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven just slaughtered them - taking out Hrothgorn at the beginning of the second round, leaving nothing but a couple of the useless gitz and the sabretooth cat. I figured it was time to give him another chance... Just played with his Rivals Deck. 

Nic took the Thorns of the Briar Queen and quickly put some sort of Nemesis deck together for them. Amanda stuck with Lady Harrow's Mournflight. Orion decided to try the Eyes of Nine with the Force of Frost deck...? I think it was just the Force of Frost rivals deck on its own, none of the Eyes of Nine cards mixed in...?

They were not painted... I... I didn't say anthing. Maybe I just have to get over that. It seems like it's the way things are with Warhammer Underworlds - some people just play with unpainted stuff. 

Or I just say, MY HOUSE MY RULES - get them painted for NEXT TIME!!! 

Eyes of Nine was a warband I'd always wished I could have tracked down - just because they looked really neat... which is, honestly, the main motivating factor in any miniature purchases!? (I also thought they could be handy in Souldbound - the role-playing game - as a number of the canned adventures have Tzeentch minions as opponents!). Never did managed to track them down, and I kind of let the idea go, now that I have Ephilim's Pandemonium (a NEW Tzeentch Warband that came with Wyrdhollow!) 

I digress... 

I was set up on Penitent's Throne board (from the Nightvault Core Box). Amanda picked The Arcane Nexus (from the Shattered City Board Pack). Nic took the Shyishian Stardial board (from the Shadespire Core Box). Orion completely messed up our nearly all Shadespire board with The Iceswirl Maw board (from the Deathgorge Core Box) - which kind of made sense though, playing the Forces of Frost deck!

In the first round, Lady Harrow swooped into my territory and took out Bushwakka - who can set up little traps on the board... but then didn't like being surrounded by other little grots and floated off elsewhere =, 

The Screaming Maiden floated right into the middle of the Eyes of Nine and battled with them for a bit. 

The other Banshees mixed it up with the Chainrasps of the Thorns of the Briar Queen... 

Eventually it was down to Hrothgorn and Luggit and Thwak... trying to deal with a pair of Brimstone Horrors in our territory... I had an objective card that I'd misread and thought it required no enemy in my territory, so Luggit and Thwak stuck around to try and take it out.. but instead were finished off by the pair of horrors... 

Other than the brimstone horrow, the Eyes of Nine had been whittled down to only only their leader; Vortemis the All-Seeing... 

Hrothgorn charged and killed Vortemis... then turned and Shanked the Briar Queen. 

It was a weird game... Nic had started off with a few Glory points - gaining four fairly quickly. I don't think I scored any in the first round. Amanda caught up to nic and went flying past as we went into the third round. Orion and I were fighting over third and fourth place, it seemed... I started the third round with only two Glory Poinsts, and I don't think Orion was much further ahead... but we both kind of pulled it out of the fire! Both Orion and I scored a BUNCH in the final round and the End Game... She ended up with 12 and I had 9 (though, if I'd read the card properly, I would have scored another two (Always Moving - Scored in an end phase if there is at least one surviving friendly fighter AND there are no FRIENDLY fighters in your territory....) I'd thought it said ENEMY and there was that Brimstone Horror... so I would have had 11 which would have propelled me into.... second place... AGAIN!!!

Really having a lot of fun with Warhammer Underworlds at the moment... The obsession has lead me to LISTENING TO PODCASTS about Warhammer Underworlds - where I learned the player that one the Las Vegas Open a few weeks back - for the second time in a row - is from Calgary (for those that aren't Canadian, Calgary is the largest city in the prairie provinces of Western Canada, where I live. I've lived in Calgary, and a small town outside of Calgary, and it one of the places I visit the most - when I ever actually leave Saskatoon!?) 

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