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!