Warhammer Underworlds - Da Kunnin Krew versus Wurmspat

On Sunday Orion and Nic weren't available, so Amanda and I had a quick one-on-one game later in the evening. We'd been talking, for days, about playing more before the Underworlds Event on the 30th... and then just getting too busy... 

For this game, Amanda pulled out Da Kunnin Krew which she'd pretty successfully put down Zondara's Gravebreakers with a few weeks back! So she thought she'd have a go with them again. 

I decided to try out Wurmspat with the newer Rimewyrm's Bite. Everyone's been telling me it makes Wurmspat "playable"...

I don't think either warband had much in the way or HOLD objectives, so it was VIOLENCE from the word "go"! 

Just a nasty, stabby slugfest... 

Gulough just destroyed Gikkit in one blow... 

Then kind of got ganked.

Fecula moved in and squashed Krookgrin... 

Sepsimus charged and took out Shank... 

And that left Fecula and Sespsimus versus Mannok da Kunnin' and Torka Tuffskull.

Now, usually Amanda causes me GREAT FRUSTRATION but rolling a RIDICULOUS number of Crit Defences... I'll roll one or two successes. Amanda will roll a single die and get a crit result that beats all of my successes. 

This didn't happen THAT much this game... She only did that twice in the whole game. But she didn't really NEED all those Crit defenses... because after Round one, Sepsimus, who I got up to a 3 Dice attack, just could not roll successes... like, ever... He attacked Torka, like SIX TIMES over the course of the game and didn't deal a single point of damage... 

I DID take out Torka, at some point, but it was from a series of pings (one damage) from cards or one attack by Fecula's spell or pushing him into Lethal Hexes... it was ridiculous.... 

At the very end it was just Mannok da Kunnin' and Sepsimus... who were both not looking great. 

Fecula was down to one would at the end of the second round... but after a couple of lucky card draws, I was able to heal her back up to full (or... ALMOST full..?)but then the constant combo attacks of Mannok and Torka finally finished her off... 

It wasn't ALL bad... I have hardly EVER been able to use the special damage reduction that all of the Wurmspat fighters have... but this game it worked out at LEAST four times, much to Amanda's annoyance! 

DEPSPITE all of these frustrations... I still WON!? It wasn't an overwhelming victory. The final score was only 9-5... a pretty low scoring game... but I think Rymewyrm's Bite definitely has some potential. I'll need to play it more and then build a Nemesis deck around it... Probably WON'T be taking Wurmspat to the Event on Sunday with it... 

Warhammer Underworlds - Da Kunnin Krew versus Zondara's Gravebreakers

 The Lost Post. 

Amanda and I played this game a few weeks back on... the 8th of June!? When I first suggested maybe we should get some one-one-one games in with Rivals decks so we at least look like when know what we're doing at the event at the end of the month... and then we didn't play again for almost two weeks! And apparently I forgot to do a quick game report!?

Amanda wanted to try something new so she grabbed Da Kunnin' Krew - which she has played against - at least once or twice - but had no recolection of... never played herself, let along looked at the cards. 

Up until this point, I'd been having pretty good luck with Zondara's Gravebreakers. I went into this game genuinely worried that I was just going to DESTROY Amanda and discourage her from attending the event with me... 

If you can't read her new hat, it says: "I will meditate and then DESTROY YOU!"

I'm not sure WHEN, exactly, she was able to do any meditation, but it worked out!?

It's been a while since we played, so I don't remember exactly how it all went down. 

Up until this point I'd pretty consistently won with Zondara's - except for one (but that game was super close - lost by a point, and would have won, except I'd read an objective card that I EASILY would have been able to score... but because I hadn't read it properly, did the wrong thing...) scoring 12-13 points... 

This game just didn't work out... and Amanda just wrecked every chance I had to score Objective cards... without even knowing she was doing it... It just kind of worked out that she happened to do the EXACT things needed to wreck every plan I made... 

Took out a zombie that I REALLY NEEDED to get to a particular objective token... Jumped on an objective token I needed to get on to score... 

I THINK Zondara and Ferlain made it to the end... or... maybe not, because then I would have had the BOTH STILL ALIVE card I could score...? or I just drew that at the wrong time and... Yeah... I don't know... Things just didn't work out. 

I did see how Zondara's can quite easily be countered in this game, though... I like Zondara's Gravebreakers, because they are less dependent on being able to KILL lots of stuff. You can kind of do your own thing, putting zombies on objectives and doing their special grave-break action and scoring points for it... if people try to kick off you Zombies, that's FINE because they can be brought back the very next activation with another gravebreak action - and they come back INSPIRED and tougher! You kind of WANT people to take out your zombies... 

The counter, though, is aggresively moving into Zondara's territory and standing on those objectives - denying the Gravebreak action - and hitting zombies standing next to them!

Amanda won 11-6... it wasn't an overwhelming defeat (like when Orion beats me 20-4!?)... and I learned stuff!  

Warhammer Underworlds - Zondara Versus Thundrik

A few weeks ago Amanda and I decided we should probably play a few practice games if we're going out to this Warhammer Underworlds event on the 30th! We did play a game... which I never got around to posting a game report of... and then didn't get to playing any others for nearly TWO WEEKS!!! 

It's been busy... 

and... this weekend is going to be busy... 

Hopefully, starting on Sunday, we'll get in a game or two each night for the next week, to try out some warbands in Rivals format and then settle on one to practice a few more times before playing it at the event!

This week Amanda decided to try out Zondara's Gravebreakers - using the faction's own Rivals Deck. 

I decided to try out Thundrik's Profiteers!? Because the older Shadespire/Nightvault era warbands don't have legal Rivals Decks (their Objective decks only contain nine cards!) I had to pair them with a Generic Rivals deck, and I decided to try out Rimelocked Relics! 

Right off the hop, Khazgan Drakkskewer attacked Pikk and Amanda rolled her first of FOUR crit-defences of the evening?!. I was able to use a Ploy card to push Drakkskewer and Thundrik onto Objectives and scorred my first objective After Amanda's first activation... 

Her first action was to charge Enrik Ironhail with Zondara and kill him... Unfortunately that left her withing range of Dead-Eye Lund, who I'd just inspired and he spend the next two activations shooting at Zondara. Hit both times and that was the end of her. 

The Ferlain charged and shredded poor Garodd Arnesen... 

For my last activation in the round, I moved up Thundrik to the middle of the board, adjacent to Ferlain... Couldn't attack because the push card from earlier in the round required that I put a move or charge token on him. I'd put a move token, so he could move but not charge. 

Ferlain wasn't my objective, though... I was trying to get past Ferlain and over to an objective in Enemy Territory... to score OBJECTIVES. I got there on my first activation in the following round - and scorred the Objective... But then Thundrik was attacked by Ferlain and two of the Zombies 

Throughout the Second Round Amanda rolled THREE MORE crit defences... I'd roll two successes on an attack, she'd roll one crit for defence. Then on one attack I rolled a crit and a success... and she rolled TWO CRITS?! It was nuts... 

At the beginning of Round Three, Thundrik was finished off by Toyle - one of the zombies... 

Then Ferlain came after Drakkskewer... she rolled TWO CRITS for her attack... and now it was MY turn to do something crazy, and I rolled TWO CRITS to defend!? 

Drakkskewer survived and spent his next two activations attacking and finishing off Ferlain! 

Amanda spent most of the rest of her actions doing Gravebreak actions to score a couple of Objective Cards! 

Despite just not being able to hit nearly half of my attacks due to Crit Defences, I won!? Amanda did pretty good herself, considering she'd never even looked at the cards before, let along played Zondara's... 

Will Amanda bring Zondara to the tournament...? Probably not. 

Will I bring Thundrik's Profiteers with Rimelocked Relics...? Maybe. I can't count on them doing this good, but it would be fun to - largely because it would be so surprising as NO ONE had played Thundrik's Profiteers around here! 

People will be familiar with Rimelocked Relics, so that wouldn't be much of a shocker... The other downside is... they are NOT THAT GREAT!!! Only one of them does more than ONE DAMAGE on any of their uninspired attack actions... and they all start with a move of TWO!? (they do inspire to three - except for Drakkskewer - the guy with the dirigible attached to his back - who starts with Four Move, and stays there when inspired) 

Seriously, most of Zondara's zombies are more spry and dangerous than most of Thundrik's Profiteers?!

Maybe I should roll out with a Beastgrave or Direchasm warband that no one's played - and use their faction Rivals deck.... Like Myari's Purifiers...? The only problem is the Faction decks of that era are just GARBAGE to play on their own. 

Warhammer Underworlds - Last Few Weeks at the Warhammer Store!

Getting a bit behind on Game Reports... So these might be short and quick... 

For the last three Fridays I've been heading out to the Warhammer store to play Warhammer Underworlds at Skirmish Game "Night" 

On the last Friday in May I rolled out to the Warhammer Store for Skirmish Game Night to play a few games of Warhammer Underworlds!

No one else was there yet, so I set up a game against John, the store manager. I'd recently finished painting Grombrindal, the White Dwarf, and suggested trying out the Grombrindal scenario! John agreed and dug out his recently painted Stab-Ladz!

The scenario is played a little differently than regular games of Warhammer Underworlds in that the winner isn't determined by how many Glory you've scored during the game (unlike the Chaos Gargant scenario, the Non-Grombrindal player still uses an Objective Deck, but Glory is really just to spend and equip fighters with Upgrades!) but whether Grombrindal is still alive at the end of the game. 

If Grombrindal is alive, Grombrindal wins. 

If Grombrindal is not alive, Grombrindal does not win... 

I set up to the rear so as not to be overrun too quickly in the game. 

But then on my first activation moved up and started chucking axes! 

I'd thought I was safe there for a bit, but it turns out Stab-Ladz have a Range 2 Stabby Spear! Ouch! 

Grombrindal killed half the warband before being killed... although... I realized afterwards that until cards are removed from the game (By Grombrindal raiding the opponents discard pile for cards and using them) Grombirndal reduces all damage to ONE!? So... I would have only taken three damage (instead of the six that took him out!). Ah well... it was a fun game, regardless! 

By the time we were finished, Orion and Sean had showed up and started a game. 

John introduced a new player to the game. 

And I finally got to play a game with Dan! 

Dan played the Skinnerkin and I played Zondara's Gravebreakers! 

I think this was my third game with Zondara's - so I was just figuring them out still, but doing pretty okay with them (but had not figured out how they can be seriously threatened!). I've not played the Skinnerkin, so wasn't really able help out Dan, who was playing them for the first time. 

At the end of first Round, I'd positioned Zondara and Ferlain adjacent to his leader, Gristla Tenderhooke... 

...and went first at the beginning of the second round and took her out! 

From there I think the game went downhill for Dan. Fun game. Great guy to play against! 

The next Friday (7 June 2024) I was out there again and happened to arrive around the same time as Orion, Nic, and Sean.

So the four of us set up a four-player game! 

Sean had never played a four-player game and so quickly looked up the rules and... it was at that moment that we realized that we've been playing four-player games TOTALLY WRONG!? I'll need to check previous edition's rules, but in the current edition (Wintermaw) in three player games you play one less turn each round and in four-player games you only play TWO ROUNDS!? 

I get these provisions are meant to make the games last about the same amount of time as a regular one-on-one game... but how are you supposed to get anything done in so few activations!? 

We ignored these rules and played the way we've been playing all along - three rounds with four turns each! 

I played Grinkrak's Looncourt, Sean Played Mollog's Mob (with Hungering Parasite), Nic played Cyreni's Razors (with Rimewyrm's Bite), and Orion played the Sepulchral Guard (with Rimlocked Relics).

Ugh... I really need to figure out some Nemesis decks...  

Pokin' Snark pokin at Alathyrr....? 

Snorbo shooting spores at one of the Skeletons. 

I scored a few cards... but had a hard time getting TO places I needed to be... 

It was mostly a big rumble between the other three in Orion's territory - completley opposite my own territory. 

I really need to pick ONE (or two) warbands and JUST PLAY THOSE for a bit and really learn the cards... so I can plan in advance and not have to come up with a new plan every turn trying to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do with the cards I've drawn!?

This past Friday (14 June 2024) I rolled out there again, and no one else showed up... 

So I set up a game with John. I loaned him my copy of Zondara's Gravebreakers to try out, as I knew he was interested in them. 

I played with Skabbik's Plaguepack.

After drawing my first hand I realized I was playing with a Nemesis deck I'd tried to put together a number of weeks ago using Paths of Prophecy?! So not only was I having a hard time remembering what cards were in Skabbik's deck... I was trying to remember what had been removed and what had been added and what THE PLAN was for using it. 

I'm pretty sure the idea was to lean into the flex-HOLD nature of Skabbik's - and, indeed, the very nature of Skaven themselves - stealing stuff and cowardly avoiding contact, unless cornered! 

That meant focusing on holding objectives and mostly ignoring the opponent, when I could! 

This worked out very well against Zondara's because they kind of want to ignore the enemy and just dig up objectives to get good upgrades and bring back the few zombies I did kill. 

At one point, I had killed two of the zombies (mostly by charging onto objectives that were adjacent to Zombies - who had just done the Gravebreak reation and thus had an Objective next to them -  and hitting them... and killing them!?) and, looking back, probably could have focused on killing the third, which makes it WAY harder to bring any of them back! But I stuck to the plan of trying to score Objective Cards and that meant holding objectives and ignoring Zombies

Yikes! this was a bit scary - moving Skabbik onto an objective right next two Zandara and Ferlain - who had their Salvaged Intelligence upgrade in play and could double-team Skabbik! But he survived! AND Scored objectives! AND killed Ferlain!!!

The Skabbik retreated away to hold an objective back in my own territory and Itchitt replaced him on that Objective. 

By the end of the game, John had all of his zombies back... but ultimately lost. 

For playing with a Rivals deck... that he'd never looked at.... against an opponent who had some idea what both warbands were trying to do... and had a nemesis deck that just happened to work really well against the particular warband it was facing... John did pretty good - scoring 9 to my 14. 

Certainly better than I did with with Zondara's the previous weekend when I played a one-on-one game against her with the Da Kunnin' Krew - which she had not ever played or even looked at the deck -  and still beat me 11-6?! Not sure if I'm going to get around to posting that game report... Maybe... we'll see... 

Anyway, it has been good fun heading out to the Warhammer store on Fridays. I'll be heading out there again tomorrow and every Friday for the foreseeable future! 

Age of Sigmar - Hedonites of Slaanesh Spearhead Box

 I did a thing... 

I fell for all the hype surrounding the immanent release of the new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.... 

In the upcoming new edition, there is a new format of play called "Spearhead". It is similar to the Combat Patrol format of play in Warhammer 40,000 Tenth Edition - where there are set army lists for each faction that you play with - each, conveniently sold in a single box, at 30-35% off what it would cost to buy them separately. 

For the new edition of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar all of the old Vanguard boxes will be the Spearhead forces at the start of the new edition (and some new Spearhead boxes will probably be released as they release new battletomes over the next few years..?)  These are generally about 600 points worth of stuff (give or take) - consisting of a Hero/Leader of some sort and two to four units - often one foot, one mounted - if there are such troop types in the given factions forces. 

I think it's meant to be a "gateway" game, but that's really the size of game I most prefer playing these days - something bigger than a tiny skirmish, but smaller than a HUGE EPIC BATTLE. I really enjoyed are small short games in the Paths of Glory campaign that Finnegan and I played in just after Third Edition was released. I know there will be a Spearhead league at the Warhammer store after the Fourth Edition release, so I though I'd make sure I had one together by then! 

Unfortunately, looking at the forces in all the boxes, I wasn't really even close to having the appropriate troops for ANY of them - despite having around a half-dozen different faction forces of 500-600 (or more) points... The closest I am is Daughters of Khaine - I have the Melusai Ironscale (the leader) and the Blood Stalkers... I'd still need to buy a box of Witch Aelves, and a box of Doomfire Warlocks (those two boxes on their own would be $130CAD... the whole Spearhead box is $175CAD... I'd rather just buy a Spearhead box and have an extra Melusai Ironscale and another unit of Blood Stalkers!?) 

Despite having 1675 points of Slaanesh Daemons, I couldn't even put together a Spearhead force of THOSE!? Turns out ALL of the Chaos forces Vanguard/Spearhead boxes are mostly made up of MORTAL elements - not the Daemons (which is what I primarily have!)... 

So if I was going to have to buy one.. which one to get...? Buy one for a faction that I already HAVE - building it up even larger...!? Or start something entirely NEW! 

I did consider the above mentioned Hedonites of Slaanesh and Daughters of Khaine for the former reason (add to stuff I already have). 

I also considered the Blades of Khorne for the same reason - I have a pile of Khorne Daemons and three Khorne Warbands for Warhammer Underworlds - which total well over 1000 points - the contents of the Vanguard box would have brought that to nearly 2000!? (Blood for the Blood God!)

I seriously considered the Soulblight Gravelords, again, largely because I have a considerable force of those already - just from the contents of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City... Those along with the Crimson Court (Warhammer Underworlds Warband) already make up over 1000 points... Some of the Vanguard/Spearhead box would be useful for Warhammer Quest: Cursed City (more city guard, and the Vampire lord contained in the box is one of the suggested models for the Night Wars expansion). With the other stuff I'll eventually need for Night Wars, and what I have , and the Vanguard box... I'd be over 2000 points worth of stuff!? 

There were a few others I briefly considered - Things that would be entirely new - other than, possibly, one or two Warhammer Underworlds warbands... Idoneth Deepkin, Seraphon, Flesh-Eater Courts, Sylvaneth, Lumineth Realm-Lords, Gloomspite Gitz... I only seriously considered Flesh-Eater Courts, Sylvaneth, and Gloomspite Gitz... 

Flesh-Eater Courts were considered because I know there is a bunch of content in White Dwarf magazines for Warhammer Quest: Cursed City for the Dlesh Eater Courts (and I do have two Warahmmer Underworlds warbands, and a few other older things...) 

Sylvaneth... just because they look cool... Also, one of the models in the Vanguard box are playable characters in Soulbound... 

The Gloomspite Gitz Spearhead box... well, that was just because they're so silly and fun... I had a riot painting Grinkrack's Looncourt! I also have Zarbag's Gitz and a Squigherd... and I think they Gobapalooza looks funny and will someday pick that up, regardless if I ever have an army of these... but damn, there are a LOT of them! probably the largest of the Vanguard boxes - in terms of number of troops. If you were painting the grots in their standard black robes and painted all the squigs standard red, it would probably go quickly... but that is NOT MY WAY!? 

In the end I went with the Hedonites... They looked interesting, but not too much effort to paint! I like all the minatures and they were all units that I had in the back of my mind that I'd like to add to my Hedonites of Slaanesh force ONE DAY - whenever I got back to playing and finished up all the Daemons. Well I'm not quite finished up all the Daemons... yet... I do plan on working them into the mix of things to work on this year... 

Soulblight is probably a close second... They're also interesting models... I could use some with Cursed City - or with Soulbound if I make use of the Ulfenkarn book - and follow up the Cursed City Warhammer Quest campaign with a role-playing campaign in the Realms of the Dead... In the end I didn't get them, partly because all the reasons stated above for getting Hedonites, but also I'm hoping I'll get to play Spearhead with a few of the people I'm already playing Wahammer Underworlds with and Nic will probably end up with a Soulblight Gravelords force... and there COULD be two, rival Vampire Lords battling it out... I thought it might be fun to add a little variety to the pool of forces. 

Also, 50% more miniatures to paint in the Soulblight Gravelords box! 29 versus the 20 in the Hedonites box (Sure, 2/3 of them are skeletons which sould be super quick to paint... still...).

(not ruling out the idea of getting a Soulblight Gravelords Vanguard box... but I'll wait and see how much AoS4E we end up playing and if others are as equally enthusiastic about Spearhead play. And I definitely will NOT be buying another if I don't get ALL of the Hedonites box done first!!) 

(For the record, this does not put me back in the RED - I've painted 111x 28mm miniatures so far this year and previously acquired 91... so I am dead even! But I need to paint these up quick before I'm going to allow myself to buy any more new things!)