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!?) 

Warhammer 40K - More Training Exercises

 Last weekend i got in another game of Warhammer 40,000 Tenth Edition with my friend Orion - whom I am partnering with for the upcoming Strange Bedfellows Team Tournament in... a little under two weeks now!!

Originally we'd planned to play Friday evening, but ended up playing Warhammer Underworlds at the new Warhammer Store... So we ended up playing Saturday Afternoon instead. 

This was our first 2000 point match. I took the 990 points worth of artillery I'll be using in the tournament, and 1000 points of Leman Russ Tanks! (two of those being Tank Commanders). 

I realized, as I set them out on the table... I USED THE WRONG KHAKI on the Basilisks and Manticores I've been working on!? GAH!?!?! I'd even brought a few of my tanks up to make sure I got the right one... but somehow in the light of THAT room, I hadn't noticed the difference!? 

We were also having to toy with our respective lists as there was a new points update released the week before. My Manticores went up 30 points each - a total of 60 points, so I dropped one of the Scout Sentinels...

Orion also had to make some changes... I'm not entirely sure what those will be in the end...

Everything was really packed into the deployment zone! 

Space Wolves deployment zone. 

Round One - BAM! Wolves charge clear across No-One's-land and smash into one of my Tank Commanders and Scout Sentinels!? The Tank Commander was taken out of action... 

And then they consolidated into the next tank!? 

DAMN these Space Wolves are BRUTAL!!!

Then I just started POUNDING stuff with the guns. The Scout sentinels were amazing as Forward Observers! I'm considering adding one of those back in and dropping one of the Mortar Squads!? 

Not only do the Scout Sentinels reduce the penalty for Indirect Fire on units they spot, they also allow the shooter to re-roll hits of one. Also, I'd originally though the scouts only conferred their bonus to ONE unit... but rather it gives the bonus to ANY friendly unit that fires on the target that's been spotted!! 

That Combined with the Born Soldiers rule for all Astra Militarum (Each time an Astra Militarum unit from your army Remains Stationary, until the end of the turn, ranged weapons equipped by models in that unit have the [LETHAL HITS] ability. i.e. hit rolls of 6 automatically cause wounds!) I actually dealt some serious damage... to a few of the units... before they completely overwhelmed me!? 

I must not have been taking a lot of pictures, because I'm pretty sure this jumps ahead to the third round when these guys dropped into my rear and blew apart that Scout Sentinel... by that point it wasn't really doing it's job anymore because most of the guns were being overrun!? 

I think they survived to do one last spotting mission on the Thunderwolf CAvalry - which actually finished off the unit! 

By the Third Round my shield of tanks was being destroyed by the Space Wolves. 

And then they wree taking out the guns behind!?

One unit of Mortars taken out by a single Thuderwolf Cavalry dude! 

Most of the tanks and artillery were destroyed right where they were deployed. 

Except for this one deplyed on the Tallarn Right Flank... it peeled away from these Wulfen at one point hoping to blast some Space Marine Scouts off an objective and sieze it.. but it failed a battleshock test and couldn't do anything about it... before it was finished off by melta grenades tossed by the Thunderwolf Cavlary making it's way back after ALL of the artillery was utterly destroyed!? 

Last stand of my Commanding Officer!? 

AS a final act of defiance, I brought one of my sentinels back (using Reinforcements Strategem) and brought it on in the Space Wolves Deployment Zone where it promptly dropped some teleport beacons for a few points... not that it helped... 

The Astra Militarum was pretty soundly defeated!? I'm not really sure what they COULD have even DONE!? With the Wolves on me in the FIRST TURN, I couldn't make any forward advance to take any of the Objectives in the middle of the table, leaving them for Orion to score EVERY TURN.. ALL GAME!?!? By the third turn, I couldn't even hold the one in MY deployment zone!? I did take out a couple of characters in the one unit of Thunderwolf Cavalry I destroyed... but wowsers, I bled a lot of points to her with every vehicle she took out! 

On the plus side... hopefully the wolves will be doing that to our opponents in the tournament and I'll just sit back and lob shells on the squishier units that my Scout Sentinels call fire missions upon! 

If this and the Friday evening games of Warhammer Underworlds weren't enough for one weekend... we played MORE Warhammer Underworlds on Sunday!? Should have a brief report of those shenanigans up shortly! 

Work-in-Progress Wednesday - 7 February 2024

Another Wednesday, another update on what's going on at the workbench... 

Generally, still trying to get some more work done on the Tallarn self-propelled artillery.... But Warhammer Underworlds warbands keep getting in the way... 

Also... I realized, when I played a game with them over the weekend... I'd used the WRONG khaki colour... so now I'm kind of repainting that part of them.. They're mostly done except for some lettering and weathering and a detail or two, here and there... 

For Warhammer Underworlds, the warband I'm most interested in finishing up is Ephilim's Pandemonium. It just looks like fun. 

Apparently the dude that won the Warhammer Underworlds event at the LVO this year was playing these (and he won the previous year - and he's from Calgary!)

Probably the CLOSEST to being done is Blackpowder's Buccaneers. Ogor pirate and his monkey and murder parrot and a pair of grot crew...  I should really just focus on finishing THESE off and get them OFF the painting table!!

Also close to being finished in Domitan's Stormcoven... mostly just because they're pretty easy to paint... They're apparently pretty good in the game... but I'm kind of bored of the Stormcast...

I also dragged these out of storage the other day - laregly because I recalled that they were pretty close to being done.. and I'd like to FINISH some things!

I also have a few others on the workbench. Some should be moved into the on "deck boxes" (Hexbane's Hunters, The Exiled Dead, Skittershank's Clawpack, and The Shadeborn) that I'm clearly not getting to... With the exception of the Exiled Dead, there's a part of me that would really LIKE to paint those others... but they keep getting shoved to the side, so... 

A few assorted heroes (and villains) from various Warhammer Quest games have also made their way onto the workbench... for something different and fun to work on ... also because I would like to PLAY Warhammer Quest at some point... and also they might be useful in a game of Wahammer, Age of Sigmar: Soulbound (the role-playing game!) 

Also... I did a thing... (and it arrived today!) 

I'd been thinking of picking up the Fearsome Fortress Rivals Deck as I'd read it was good for pairing with a number of the older warbands I have for a Nemesis deck... but then Orion went and bought the last one in town... and they'd disappeared from Games Workshop's webstore... So I went looking about to see if I could find one and The Sentry Box in Calgary, not only had one, but it was discounted (40% off!) AND they had a couple other Rivals decks similarly discounted AND some of the old Beastgrave play matts even MORE deeply discounded (about 70% off...?!)... so.. I went ahead and ordered those. (Hey! at least it's not MORE MINIATURES!?)

The matts were rolled - rather than FOLDED into the box (like the Nightvault matts were!) so there are no fold kinks, but because of the way they were rolled they're not totally laying flat. So I rolled them the other way and put them back in the box and hopefully, over time, they'll eventually lay flat! 

Oh, those guys at the Sentry Box... (the postal worker that delivered this was highly amused and said it was probably one of the funniest things he'd seen written on a box!). 

What's EVERYONE ELSE working on this week?!

Warhammer Underworlds - at The Warhammer Store

A week or so ago a friendly fellow named Jared contacted me through THIS BLOG!?  He said he was in Saskatoon and recently started playing Warhammer Underworlds and suggested we meet up to play. I noticed the new Warhammer Store had a series of events listed on their Facebook page called "Boxed Game Skirmish Night - Warhammer Underworlds" every Friday this month... the weather was nice... so I suggested meeting up there. 

("Night" seems to be a bit of a misnomer, as it's from 4-6:30pm)

The weather has indeed been nice.. which I somehow forgot meant that it would be all ice (from melting and refreezing and melting and refreezing) and MUD all the way there... That, combined with some DRAMA at home and leaving a bit late, meant I was super late. 

I turned out that Jared was the only other person that showed up for Boxed Game Skirmish Night - Warhammer Underworlds... so I felt even worse for being so late! 

(I guess they do a different boxed skirmish game each month...? So, Warcry, Kill Team, Necromunda...?)

Anyway, I got there... we played games... 

The first game I played The Thricefold Discord and Jared played Ephilim's Pandemonium. 

I played on the Glacial Tomb board from the Deathgorge Core Box. Jared took A Root-hall Bleed board from the Wyrdhollow Core Box. 

My initial Objective cards weren't really ones that worked together... And I didn't really read them and clearly understand what was going on and how I might do ANY of them...  One was for successfully casting a fourth or subsequent spell... except that Vashtiss wasn't close enough to even cast ANY spells... Another was for a successful attack action that was supported.. and the third was for not moving - either my warband all being in contact with enemy... but not having any move or charge tokens, OR four fighters with NO move or charge tokens... it seemed unlikely that they would all be so kind as to surge all the way into my territory in a single move and NOT gang up on one of my daemons... but kindly spread out and attack all of them... 

So I moved up and tried casting a plot spell of some sort...? Maybe it staggered someone... 

Next I tried to charge Lascivyr to try and score that attack action supported... but failed... but not failed so badly as to inspire Vashtiss... 

I thought maybe if Vexmor and enough of the others didn't move maybe I could score that other one... no such luck. 

A couple of brutal attacks took out Lascivyr and Vashtiss... by the end of the first round. Vexmor was taken out in the second round... and we called it (though we could have played through to see how many Glory Ephilim's Pandemonium could accumulate... but Jared didn't seem super interested in doing so... I'm sure he had a dozen Glory by then anyway... to my...? Two...? or maybe one? 

Aroung the time we were finishing up and considering a second game, Orion showed up and it was decided to try a Three-Player Game! 

We all switched things up and I played the Wurmspat, Jared played Domitan's Stormcoven, and Orion played Hexbane's Hunters... 

I took the The Iceswirl Mawboard from the Deathgorge Core Box. Jared took The Tendon Hollows and Orion took the The Seamsplit Folly board, both from the Wyrdhollow Core Box.

I was just not having a great night for drawing cards... My initial draw for both objective AND Power cards was so bad I discarded both and redrew.... and those weren't much better. The initial Objective draw were all round end and one was for the Third End Phase... 

I thought for sure the two servants of Sigmar warbands would be teaming up on the minions of Grandfather Nurgle... but I guess the Katophrane curse makes everyone a little funny in the head because the Stormcast just attacked the Witch Hunters and those Witch Hunters fought back! 

I discarded almost all of my first round draw... and the second round draw wasn't much better.. I drew BOTH of the "in the Third End Phase..." Objectives!?

Just after we started round two the store staff guy (John?) informed us that it was seven already and he was needing to close up!? DOH!!! I'd completely lost track of time (and had kind of thought he might have mentioned when it was 6:30 and that he'd be closing in half an hour... alas). I would honestly have been okay with just packing it in right there, it was pretty clear how things were going... but Orion suggested finishing the round and John seemed okay with that... so we played on to finish up the round!?

I ended up with 2 Glory...? I think Jared had... like... a dozen.. at least...? No idea what Orion had, but I feel like it was at least a few more than me! The Hunters did take out two of the Stormcast! 

Extra bonus to the evening, we all got some swag for showing up to Game Night! Warhammer Underworlds dice bag. Some fancy plastic Glory tokens and Guard/Stagger tokens and a bunch of Fighter cards for four different warbands... 

Not sure what the deal with those cards are...? alternative art? Maybe they're updated reprints that incorporate errata...? Haven't really looked at them. Three are for warbands I don't even own and don't really have much interest in getting... so... 

The bag and tokens are nice, tho... 

Warhammer Underworlds - Grinkrak's Looncourt

 I've always been a little disappointed that I missed out on Zarbag's Gits - one of the Nightvault Era warbands for Warhammer Underworlds. Zarbag's Gits was a warband of seven little goblins and they looked really fun. If I could ever track down a copy (for a not insane price) I probably still would... So when I found out. upon reentering the world of Warhammer Underworlds that they'd made ANOTHER goblin warband during my absence... and the stocks of THOSE ones were starting to run low. I decided I better get one before they're gone and made a trip out to the new Warhammer Store in Saskatoon to pick one up last week. 

These took a lot longer that they should have... Part of the reason was I got it in my head that I wanted to paint them all in different, fabulous colours - instead of the basic black cloaks they are more often painted as. This is a bit of an homage to some of my earliest goblins - for Fantasy Battle and Blood Bowl! The Blood Bowl team, in particular, were all done in wildly different bright colours. 

I did two photo shoots with two different cameras... and neither batch turned out great.. but I'd rather get back to finishing up TALLARN GUNS than do ANOTHER shoot.... so this is what you get!(Hopefully you will be seeing them lots in games soon, so....) 

Grinkrak's Looncourt. 

Grinkrak the Great!

Grib, da Wonky Lance

Skolko and Pronk

Snorbo da Spore

Pointy Burk

Pokin' Snark

Moonface Nagz

I just love their names... 

I haven't read through the cards in their deck much. There seem to be objective cards called "Quests" that can be assigned to individual fighters and if that fighter succeeds in scoring the Objecitve card, they inspire. Of three or more other surviving fighters survive, Grinkrak inspires... I'm not sure what the rest does... but they LOOK fun, so... I got that if they do happen to suck in the game!