Warhammer Underworlds: Two Games on Thursday Night!

Thursday evening Amanda and I played TWO MORE games of Warhammer Underworlds! We're still trying out options for what we're going to play on Sunday! I'm pretty much settled... Amanda's not so sure... After these games (and the game on Wednesday... and the game on Tuesday... AND the game on Sunday, though that wasn't with Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven) she was in pretty low spirits and not even sure if she wants to go on Sunday.... 

GAME ONE

In our first game Amanda was still trying to find a Rivals deck that might work with Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven and decided to try out Rimewyrm's Bite - one of the newer decks that came out with Warhammer Underworlds: Wintermaw. A lot of people have been raving about the deck. I know Nic's been doing well with it (as a Nemesis pairing!).

I tired out Grimkrak's Looncourt. They're really FUN, but I've had... mixed results with them. I'm pretty sure the only game I won was a multi-player game where no one was paying attention to me and I did my own thing and scored a bunch of cards and won!? I came close a second time - tied for first with Glory, but lost on the tie-breaker. The other games I lost by a LOT!? But they're FUN, so I wanted to give them a try!? 

Amanda won the board placement and decided to long-board me... She used to do this all the time when she used to play Morgwaeth regularly - because it really benefitted her in the style of play she use with her old Relic deck... 

And it was a smart choice considering the opponent was a horde with seven, I would have to occupy EVERY starting location on the board leaving a significant portion deep in my territory where they would likely not be able to do much at all in the game - considering their move of 3.... (Moonface Nagz is so far back, I didn't even capture them in the picture!?) 

Morgwaeth's set-up.

Amanda was pretty frustrated by her initial draws as it wasn't immediately intuitive how to play the deck... 

In her first move he move up Lethyr... then used some gambit card that staggered Skolko and Pronk and then played the Dominion card that made all Starting hexes and Objective hexes into LETHAL hexes... which is, generally speaking, not a bad thing to do... it would stop me from immediately jumping on an Objectives... 

But then Skolko and Pronk launched a Squig at Morgwaeth - who happened to be within 4 hexes... hit and dealt 2 damage... and drove her back onto the Objective hex dealing another point of damage... 

Yikes... 

Khamyss charged Skolko and Pronk, but only hit them with her second attack, dealing one damage. 

Grib, da Wonky Lance, charged in... and missed... 

Morgwaeth charged in and attacked Skolko and Pronk - they tied, so Skolko and Pronk were driven back... 

But then Grinkrak charged Morgwaeth... and finished her off, scoring me two Glory (because I had an Objective card - Meanest Of All - which gave me a point if my leader took someone out of action!) 

I think this was the situation at the end of Round One and I don't even remember what happened in the last activations... 

In the first activation of Round Two, Grinkrack charged Khamyss and took her out of action. I think Kyrae just shot at someone with her bow...? 

Them Grib, da Wonky Lance, charged Lethyr and took her out of action.

Amanda used a gambit to retrieve the Dominion card that dealt damage to anyone that moved onto a Starting hex or Objective hex... 

So, Snorbo, using a card that gave them extra move, charged across the table and shot spores at Kyrae... pushing her back into an Objective hex, which dealt her another damage...

that's only two... and she has three wounds... so she must have taken damage somewhere else... Maybe Skolko and Pronk had hit her and she only had one left and snorbo tied and pushed her back dealing the final wound...? I don't know... But she was pretty upset that her card worked AGAINST her TWICE!?

Then everyone dog-piled on Kyrssa and that was the end of the game. 

Yiiiiikes... I tabled the Blade-Coven without a single loss and scored most of my cards. It was nuts. 

At this point, I think Amanda gave up on the idea of playing Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven with a generic Rivals deck for the Event on Sunday... 

GAME TWO

In our second game, Amanda decided to try out Storm of Celestus, thinking a smaller more elite warband might be easier - less fighters to keep track of, they all have four wounds (except the Gryph-hound who had three) and more or less do the same thing (shoot great bow, deal damage, inspire!) 

I dug out Thundrik's Profiteers again, as I was pretty sure, at this point, I wanted to bring them to the tournament. I was pretty sure that's what I wanted to do since I finished painting them... because I thought they look cool, and no one around here has ever played them so it would be a bit of a surprise. On paper they don't look great, stat-wise, and that meant if I LOST every game (which is very much a possibility!) I could blame it on a crappy old warband... But went through the motions of trying out other warbands... 

In the first round I drew some Objectives that looked like they were going to be pretty difficult for me to do...One required being on an objective in enemy territory and taking out an enemy... Considering most of her warband had 4 wounds... and all but ONE of mine deal only ONE damage with any of their attacks... to score that, would require an insane 3 activation combo where  Thundrik had to shoot Drakan Celestus - who had jumped on an objective in Enemy Territory. That worked! One damage dealt, and Drakan pushed off objective! then Dead-Eye Lund had to successfully shoot him again. That also happened. THEN Khazgan Drakkskewer had to charge onto the objective and stab Celestus with his Skypike and dealing two more damage!? And THAT WORKED... 

It so totally shouldn't have.. usually Amanda rolls a crit defence at least once a round and didn't... she also didn't mess with any of this with her other fighters.  

Instead she's busied herself killing Enrik Ironhail and trying to kill Garodd Alensen (but luckily didn't!) 

In the next round Thundrik had charged onto an objective in No-One's Territory Sleek Charged Dead-Eye Lund and shot at Aphus the Brave (I think...?). Drakkskewer charged onto an objective deeper in enemy territory... and stabbed... SOMEONE with the Skypike... 

I don't really remember the exact order of things now... There was some shuffling around most of the Profiteers took shots at Aphus or Sleek. Sleek charged Lund.... 

The unrelenting hail of fire eventually took out Sleek and Aphus... 

Melisan and Garodd Alensen kept trying to kill each other

In the end Melisan Star-Sighted was the only Stormcast still alive at the end of the battle... 

I scored TWENTY Glory, somehow... like these guys just went off and I got stupid lucky and scored nearly my whole damned Objective deck?! This just happened to coincide with Amanda having a very unlucky day and not being able to score a SINGLE objective!? (This may have been due to frustration build up over the last few days and just not being able to read and understand the TOTALLY-NEW-TO-HER cards and figure out HOW to score them - which happens to me ALL THE TIME!?)

Amanda was feeling pretty disheartened after this game (and, the last few games) and was feeling like she had no idea what she was doing and was wondering if she should even go out to the tournament at all... 

I'm still thinking about what warband to bring... 

I've been thinking Thundrik's Profiteers all along, for the most part. Largely because I like the models and the idea of playing them in the tournament - because they'll be a bit of a surprise. As far as I know, no one around here even has a copy, other than me, and certainly no one I know has ever brought them out to play a game... 

On paper, stat-wise, especially uninspired, they are NOT GREAT!! 2 move, 2-3 wounds, one defence, all of them only deal ONE DAMAGE to start, except for Drakkskewer... BUT, with Rimelocked Relics, IF I happen to draw cards that work well together, AND they make successful attack actions (which, in theory, they SHOULD - because most are hitting with 2 Smash dice - 75% of the time they should score at least ONE success)... if all those things align, they can do pretty okay (as evidenced in the last two games I played...)... but I feel like any one of those things can easily go wrong - poor draw, miss a few dice rolls, things could go sideways REALLY FAST!?

I also like Skabbik's Plaguepack and Grinkrak's Looncourt - because they're fun and silly and I like the models. Grinkrak's feels a bit trickier to play, and with Skabbik's I get to make lots of jokes about farting and vomiting and noxious fumes and other bodily fluids... So probably leaning towards Skabbik out of those two... 

I also like the idea of Zondara's - i like the models, i LOVE the theme and the fact that the cards are built around that them and they're relatively easy to play and do pretty okay with.. 

I also like the idea of playing the Dread Pageant. They're an older warband, so their faction deck isn't awesome and they can be a bit tricksy to play too... a couple of bad rolls and the warband can be wiped out!?  

So... looking at our last seven practice games... 

1. Thundrik's Profiteers - WIN! - 20-1
2. Grinkrak's Looncourt - WIN! - 16-0
3. Dread Pageant - WIN! - 13-5
4. Skabbik's Plague Pack - WIN! - 15-9
5. Wurmspat - WIN! - 9-5
6. Thundrik's Profiteers vs Zondara's Gravebreakers - WIN! - 18-11
7. Zondara's Gravebreakers vs Da Kunnin Krew - LOSS - 6-11

Thudrick's Profiteers seems like the obvious choice. It's worked out against the few games I played against Amanda... Will it work out this weekend...? Well... No, I'm absolutely NOT expecting them to do that good on Sunday. But again... fun... surprise... 

From these last seven games, it kind of looks like I know what I'm doing, but I'm pretty sure my success was largely because in each of these games Amanda was trying out a completely new (to her) warband - or at least one that she was not very familiar with - OR was trying out a completely new Rivals deck which she had not looked at before playing... 

Looking at ALL THE OTHER one-on-one games over the last six month, though paints a less rosy picture for me.. 

Before this last series of seven games, I played 24 one-on-one games. I had 9 wins, 14 losses and 1 draw - with a point differential of -65!! (65 more points were scored against me than I scored in all those games...)

Even just looking at the games I played against Amanda, we'd played 9 games before this last set. Of those, I won 4 and lost 5 and the point differential was -13 - so when she won, she won by considerably more than I would... This last week has been a REALLY OFF WEEK for her!

Including this last series, we've played 16, one-on-one games together this year. I've now won 11 and she's won 7 and the point differential is now +42... which seems like a LOT... but that was just made up in the last three games, where she got frustrated by not knowing at all how to play the deck, and kind of gave up within the first two turns of the game... 

The plan is to play a few more game Friday and Saturday. I'll probably be practicing some more with Thundrik... and maybe Skabbik... 

For Amanda...? Maybe something like Magore's Fiends with Tooth and Claw...? Something simple like "GO HIT STUFF!" 

Warhammer Quest - Hathrek of Gadalhor and Golnir Coalbeard

 I finished up two more Warhammer Quest Heroes (or... Protagonists, at least...?) this week. 

Hathrek of Gadalhor and Golnir Coalbeard

Hathrek of Gadalhor - Darkoath Chieftain

Hathrek is from The Silver Tower and, the interesting thing is, the Darkoath tribes are worshipers of CHAOS!? Different people end up in the Silver Tower for different reasons.... Some have been trapped there by the Gaunt Summoner. Others have sought it out - either to slay the Gaunt Summoner - or ask a boon of it! The Darkoath Chieftain would the latter, I'm assuming! So in a group with a Knight-Questor of the Stormcast eternals and a Warpriest of Sigmar and a Fyreslayer... they would be allies of convenience! Though the stats are the same in both games, I'm not sure Thematically it's going to work with him playing in Shadow Over Hammerhal - where the characters are working to destroy servants of Chaos!? 

Golnir Coalbeard - Duardin Cogsmith

Golnir is the first of the Heroes from Shadows over Hammerhal I've finished. 

I've created a new Page on the Blog, here, where you can see ALL of the Heroes and Hostiles from all of the Warhammer Quest games (that I've painted so far!). You can find it here:

Age of Sigmar - Warhammer Quest Miniatures

Ideally I'd like to finish up the actual Heroes for Shadows Over Hammerhal before we start playing next week! But Maybe they'll end up starting with Coalbeard, here, and the Warpriest and Knight-Questor and Fyreslayer from Silver Tower!? 

Warhammer Underworlds - Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven versus The Dread Pageant

Wednesday evening, Amanda and I played another game of Warhammer Underworlds - still trying to decide on a warband for the event on Sunday. This time I tried out the Dread Pageant and Amanda played Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven again, but this time with the Rime-Locked Relics Rivals Deck. 

This is a super-classic Direchasm/Beastgrave era match-up. I think the first Warhammer Underworlds game I ever played was Dread Pageant versus Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven. As was the first game I played with Amanda!

I figured if I'm building at Hedonites of Slaanesh Vanguard force to play Spearhead games in the soon-to-be-released new edition of Age of Sigmar, I should at least CONSIDER bringing the one Hedonites warband to the event. I love the models of this warband, but I've always struggled with playing them... things just never really worked out... I don't recall winning very many games with them... It got marginally better when I put together a deck (which would now be called a "Relic" deck) and that did okay... but because I was only playing against Amanda at the time, she got bored of playing against them and I kind of stopped playing them... 

Amanda was trying out a totally new deck again this evening. She's played AGAINST Rime-locked Relics a number of times - Orion's played with them a lot. I used them with Thundrik's Profiteers, just last Friday! But she pays very little attention to what others are doing and what cards they're playing! 

I set up fairly aggressively - I had an objective card called Godseekers - which gave two glory if all surviving fighters were in Enemy Territory... Also I had an objective that required a Friendly Fighter be adjacent to TWO Enemy Fighters and one that required taking an Enemy Fighter on and Objective token out of action... The last one was tough... one one hand I KNEW she would jump Kyrssa and/or Lethyr onto Objectives and 3/4 of my warband could take either out with one successful attack... BUT... my warband only inspires if there are a total of SIX wound counters on fighters... and KILLING them means there are no wound counters on them... so I had to focus on ones that could take more damage (and maybe shoot one of them with Hadzu, who only dealt 

In the first round, Kyae shot Glisette dealing one damage. 

Vasillac charged Morgwaeth and missed. 

Morgwaeth maneuvered around Vasillac and hit. (so that's ME with three Damage tokens!)

Slakeslash charged Morgwaeth and hit, dealing two to her, and one to himself... boom... SIX Damage dealt and my entire warband inspires. 

I had a card that healed one of Vasillacs wounds. 

Is this two of the same picture...? I guess... 

Ah well... So that freed up Glisette to charge Lethyr - who was on an objective token and take her out of action, scoring me a bonus glory for the Objective Card! 

Khamyss charged Vasillac and hit, thinking it was going to take him out -as she had forgotten I'd used a card to heal him! 

Hadzu moved up and shot at Khamyss and missed. 

I scored for everyone being in enemy territory and one for all having move or charge tokens that I'd drawn to replace the surge I'd scored earlier... 

Starting off round two, Vasillac stabbed Morgwaeth taking her out of action. 

Then Khamyss killed Hadzu... and no one got to inspire because Morgwaeth was gone (She has a special ability to inspire a Friendly Fighter every time an Enemy Fighter is taken out of action). I played deadly embrace which allowed Hadzu to attack back before he died, and he hit and dealt Khamyss one damage... 

Slakeslash charged Khamyss... and MISSED!! Whoopsie! 

Khamyss hit Slakeslash and knocked it off the objective it was on.

Glissette stabbed and killed Khamyss 

Kyrae shot and killed Glissette. (I briefly considered using Shared Pain - which allows a Friendly Fighter that takes damage to transfer the Damage to a Friendly fighter within three hexes and pass all the damage dealt to Slakeslash - who could take it! In the end I didn't as it would have left THREE fighters with only one or two wounds left... It meant I couldn't score an objective I had which required holding two objectives... but it would probably keep Vasillac and Slakeslash alive and the two of them could deal some SERIOUS damage! 

Vasillac stabbed and killed Lethyr... 

It was quite the SLAUGHTER!!

The Third Round started with only Kyrae left. Amanda went first and shot at Vasillac, hitting and dealing one damage! (he had only one left... but I was still holding onto my shared pain card from ROUND ONE! 

Then Slakeslash charged and killed Kyrae... 

I had to charge with Slakeslash to keep him within three of Vasillac, in case my first attack missed. If it had been Vasillac that went... and missed... and Kyrae attacked and hit, Slakeslash would not be close enough to use Shared Pain (and pass any damage dealt to Slakeslash - who could take it!)

Also, if Slakeslash missed, and Kyrae just attacked again, Slakeslash would be supporting and also support when Vasillac charged. Amanda probably wouldn't have done that, she'd have charged vasillac, but at least Slakeslash would be close to soak wounds and maybe move in and attack after Vasillac did a charge...? I don't know... 

I had given Slakeslash an upgrade that increased its Damage to 3, but Amanda had given Kyrae an upgrade that reduced Damage by one... which meant the blow itself wouldn't take her out... I briefly considered NOT pushing her back into the Lethal Hex and finishing her off... on the chance that I could get Vasillac in next to her and score Excess of Carnality (two or more Friendly Fighters next to the same Enemy Fighter)... but she probably woudn't have stayed there and it could potentially give her a chance to score more things and/or take out Vasillac... so I just finished her off!!

This actually allowed Amanda to score an objective for two points! (a friendly fighter with a rime-locked relic is taken out of action!?) 

I cycled through objectives and move Vasillac to score Excess of Paramountcy (for my leader holding an objective in enemy territory) along with Excess of Indolency (No enemy fighters with move or charge tokens!) 

In the end I scored THIRTEEN Glory!! Amanda only scored... five...? She was pretty cranky about it... but did admit there were some pretty cool cards in the deck she was playing with and there was "definitely something here" and she'd try it again... and acknowledged that it was probably because she hadn't read the cards before trying to play with them!?

I don't fault her for not being able to do that. I know that **I** have a really hard time reading cards and figuring out what they really mean and how they work together without seeing how it works in the game... I need a LOT of plays with a warband/deck before I can remotely feel competent with them... and that's why we're playing games all week! 

Warhammer Underworlds - Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven versus Skabbik's Plague Pack

Tuesday evening  say down for ANOTHER Game of Warhammer Underworlds.

Once again, we trying out options to take to the event on Sunday - less than a week away now! Kind of running out of time.... 

Amanda brought out an old favourite: Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven and tried pairing them with Paths of Prophecy. Now, she has used a Paths of Prophecy NEMESIS deck, and that worked out pretty good for her. But this was JUST the Paths of Prophecy deck. 

I decided to play Skabbik's Plague Pack...  and played pretty aggressively with them - jumping onto objectives where I could and attacking anyone adjacent.

We're both playing warbands that kind of want to hold objectives... but it was WAY MORE important for Amanda with the Paths of Prophecy deck! 

I feel like in the first round there was a lot of attacking but not a lot of hitting...? 

It was quite the brawl going on... which was fine... it meant I ended the round with a bunch of Befoulers next to Enemy Fighters.... which meant those Enemy Fighters would be staggered to start off the new round! 

Also I befouled both my Territory and Enemy Territory and so everyone inspired! 

For my final activation in the first round, Skritter charged way across the board and chewed on Kyrssa in my last activation, dealing a damage and pushing her off the objective she was holding... I had a card that allowed me to push a Friendly Fighter, to keep Skritter next to Kyrssa. Skritter alone on the objective would have befouled the territory, but there were also two or more Friendly Fighters in the Territory, so... 

At the beginning of the next round. Kyrssa was staggered (because starting a round adjacent to a stinky-stinky befouler) and I started things off with Skritter attacking Kyrssa and taking her out of action! 

And then things got nasty and killy... 

I kept focused on the Objective Cards and trying to score them, and if there was a chance of standing on an Objective token or taking a swing at the murder-aelves while doing so... I would do that... but mostly just stuck to the cards... and that kind of worked out! 

I ended the game with FIFTEEN Glory to Amanda's nine! 

I was leaning towards a different warband for the Warhammer Underworlds event on Sunday... but now I have to seriously consider these stinkers... Primarily I want to play something fun and a little silly... and these are super fun and I'm really happy with the paint job on them and the cards are super thematic to the warband - so many bursting sores and rancid vomit and smells... so many smells... I get to make fart jokes all day... AND they can do pretty good in a game!? 

Amanda wasn't so sure about using Paths of Prophecy as a deck in a Rivals setting... It's got some good stuff that mixed with a few of the Blade-Coven's cards can make a pretty okay Nemesis deck... buuuuut.... 

She has a couple more decks to try out with them; Rime-Locked Relics and Rimewyrm's Bite. 

Chaos Sorcerer?

I did get ONE thing finished up this week! (the rest of what I've been working on can be seen at Work-in-Progress Wednesday - 26 June 2024)!

 This character looks like it could be a Necromancer or a Lich or something... but I seem to recall seeing it listed in a Citadel Miniatures catalog waaaaaaaay back as a "Chaos Sorcerer"...

I have no immediate plans for it's use... Just spotted it in the drawer with the other AGe of Sigmar undead and thought, I could finished that up super quickly!

Chaos Sorcerer!?

I don't think it's meant to be a Lich, if you look closely, the skull is probably meant to be a mask and the boney hands are bone-covered gauntlets. If anything it looks more like an Ossiarch Bonereaper - decades ahead of their time?!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday - 26 June 2024

 I haven't really got much DONE in the last week... but I've been working on things! Here's what's still on the workbech

Still managed to keep it MOSTLY clear of NOT CURRENT PROJECTS! 

Putird Blight Kings

Shadows Over Hammerhal Heroes

Other Warhammer Quest Heroes

I started work on the Hedonites of Slaanesh Vanguard box I picked up last week. I'm getting them ready for the the upcoming Spearhead League and the Warhammer store (and hopefully, at some point, a Paths to Glory Campaign!). I've been pretty distracted from the MAIN PRIORITIES by these... and they have taken a LOT more time than anticipated to assemble?! 

Shardspeaker of Slaanesh and three Slaangor  Fiendbloods.

Blissbard Archers.... 

These were my nemesis this week... gone are the days of mulitpart plastic figures where you get things that are recognizably Legs, Torso, Arms, Head - that you don't even NEED directions to put together... 

Now it's THIS!? 

The instructions make it LOOK like they should go together real easy like... but not so much... C26 and C27 look like it should be easy enough to put together... but those bits don't obviously slide right into place... SOMETIMES they do and if feels like you're working with a masterpiece of engineering... other times... I'm not sure if i'm looking at part of a head or part of a butt and which way which is to go...

Don't get me started on how soulcrushingly frustrating it is to get C30 and C31 into the EXACT RIGHT SPOTS in the armpit areas and just the right angle so that the arrow is NOT just just waving around in the air like something that desperately wants to be broken the first time you put it on the table... let along trying to make it contact the bow anywhere close to the hand holding the bow... AND keep that fucking army/arrow stuck to the miniature you're attaching it too and NOT YOUR FUCKING FINGERS?!?!?!?

I've only just started assembling the Slickblade Seekers - which look AMAZING... but they are also FREAKING HUGE compared to the older Seekers!?!?

The last two months Free Minaiture-of-the-Month are still lingering on the painting desk as well... 

The Chaos Gargant is STILL on the workbench... I think I did a little bit of work on it in the last week... maybe... but it wasn't that much and I forgot to take a picture of it, so... 

The Chaos Gargant and Warhammer Quest: Shadows over Hammerhal stuff (Putrid Blight Kings and four Heroes) are still, in theory, the priority. While I'm pretty sure I'll get the Warhammer Quest: Shadows over Hammerhal stuff done by next week - when we were planning to start the campaign... I'm not-so-sure I'll get the Gargant done by Friday... I have a feeling it's going to be tough to motivate myself to work on that with all these Hedonites on the desk that I'm super excited about!?

Also this past week, I got RID of some more stuff. 

While organizing the Workbench and putting miniatures back in their permanent storage drawers and taking stock of things... I opened up the drawer that held these and said... yep... these need to go... and so I posted them on my local Miniature Buy/Sell on Facebook Marketplace and within an hour or so, they were gone! 

Well... spoken for... they weren't actually picked up