Warhammer Underworlds - FOUR on Friday!?

Wow... i played FOUR games of Warhammer Underworlds on Friday!?

First I make the 22km round trip (by bicycle) out to the Warhammer Store and played a couple of games with Sean with his Ironsoul's Condemnors warband... 

GAME ONE

For our first game I played Skabbik's Plaguepack.

In the first activation, Gwynne Ironsoul killed Poxlix... which, I mean... that's to be expected... 

It was a target rich environment... I tried to set up far enough back that they couldn't charge too many of my fighters... 

In his second activation, Brodus Blightbane charged Skabbik Plagueseeker, my leader, and killed HIM with one shot... 

Ouch... that... that hurt, losing a leader in the second activation... it rendered half the cards in my hand useless.. 

But, y'know, I kept at it... the rats got a LOT of tricks up their grimy sleeves... 

Itchitt, the back-stabbing little git,  even took one out neat the end of the game! 

I was tabled by the end of the game, but despite that, it was a VERY CLOSE GAME! I lost by one Glory Point - 11-10. For a brief moment I was ahead and thought I might win... but then Sean scored an objective or two in the final end phase and just squeaked past!

So.... I can lose a leader in the opponents second activation with Skabbik's Plaguepack and STILL do not-too-bad... 

GAME TWO

For game two, I decided to switch it up and play Grinkrak's Looncourt. 

Once again, Gwynne Ironsoul started things off by charging and just destroying one of my goblins. 

Tavian of Sarnasus followed on killing Skolko and Pronk... 

Grib, da Wonky Lance, charged gored Brodus Blightbane with his squig's horn - on a charge it's +1 damage - dealing three - then I played Stick in the Boot which allows a fighter, after their activation, to deal one damage to an adjacent fighter that is Vulnerable (i.e. one wound left!) to finish him off! Yay! 

I think this was the end of Round One... mostly me running away, trying to score objective that don't require being neat the big scary Stormcast! 

They cought up with me eventually, because I can't move EVERYONE... 

Grinkrak was the last one standing of the Looncourt... I can't remember if he survived... 

Again, a super fun and fairly close game - 16-14!!

GAME THREE

When I got home from the Warhammer Store Amanda suggested a game and I suggested trying out Ironsoul's Condemnors. Sean spoke very highly of them as a fairly easy warband to understand and play - and obviously did pretty good with them against me earlier. 

Amanda, not entirely convinced this was going to work out - especially after she'd played a Stormcast Eternals warband last night... and that one had three PLUS a pretty mean Gryph-hound! 

I took Skabbik's Plaguepack against them, to see how different it worked out in the same match-up, but with Amanda playing! 

Itchitt moved up... Rabidius got pushed back, they all ended up in a line. 

Stormcast charged and murdered rats. 

Rats ran around trying to avoid them and score objectives and BEFOUL territories! 

I did score a few objectives... including one worth three for having three areas corrupted in the first (or second?) round?

They did, at some point, gang up on Tavian of Sarnassus and took him down! 

In the end I won this one... 12-4... So Amanda wasn't totally happy, but I DID point out that she did better than either of the games the previous evening... and that despite me suggesting she READ THE CARDS BEFORE WE PLAYED while I was making supper, she decided to do some work emails and only looked at the cards as they were drawn in her first game!? So, of COURSE she wasn't going to do well... 

GAME FOUR

She decided to give them another chance... 

I decided to switch things up again and brought out Thundrik's Profiteers... Which I'm probably taking to the tournament on Sunday... even though it would be way more sensible to take something like Skabbik's Plaguepack... 

Because all but one of my fighters start with only two or three wounds... and one defence... and all of Amanda's fighters start with a 2-Smash attack dealing either two or three damage... I was pretty sure it was going to go like the other games where they just start killing things on their first activation!

So I set up as far back as I could, with as many as possible out of charge range... 

So, on the first round, Gwynne Ironsoul charged and killed Enrik Ironhail... (I swear, that dude is the first to die EVERY GAME!)

Then Brodus Blightbane charged Thundrik and dealt him 3 damage! OUCH! 

Drakkskewer charged into enemy territory and stabbed Tavian of Sarnassus. 

Drakkskewer got in on the action and poked Blightbane, but then Amanda healed him!?

At some point I took out Tavian... and Amanda took out most of my warband. 

At the end of the game, we each had two left - both thundrik and Gwynne Ironsoul had increased their wounds score to five and had both taken damage that left them vulnerable... but neither were taken out of action!

Rather than taking one more swing at Thundrik (which would have scored 2 Glory, if successful), Ironsoul moved on to an Objective to ensure she'd score one. 

It briefly looked like I might squeak by with another victory... but then Amanda scored FOUR Glory Points in the final End Phase and beat me 10-7... 

My biggest mistake here was forgetting that SO MANY of my objective cards REQUIRE that the fighters have to be in ENEMY TERRITORY... and, for fear of the Hard-Hitting ability ot one-shot most of my warriors, I set up as far back as I could, out of range of their charging... but ultimately was too far back for anyone to get TO Enemy Territory?! 

Lesson learned. Accept that warriors will die. Get them moving forward to score all those IN ENEMY TERRITORY Objectives... 

Hopefully we'll get in a few more games on Saturday. I'm not sure Amanda is fully convinced that Ironsoul's is for them and was suggesting trying Magore's fiends with Tooth and Claw - or The Dread Pageant!?

I'm fairly certain I'm bringing Thundrik's... "for the memes" as the cool kids apparently say...!?

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!