Warhammer Underworlds - Vampires, Gobins, Beastmens, and Murder Aelves

With enough of the snow cleared away Orion and Nic were back for another Sunday of Warhammer Underworlds! 

(between my birthday and the following Sunday over 55cm of snow was dumped on Saskatoon by a pair of winter storms... the first dump slowed things down, the second, LARGER dump, last weekend, pretty much shut the city DOWN for a few days!) 

Normally we play in the afternoon, but Amanda had a meeting in the middle of the afternoon. Not wanting to miss out, She suggested they come by earlier... but it turned out they were in Regina for a show and would be driving back Sunday morning and probably wouldn't be back in time to do something earlier... 

So Amanda suggested they come by later in the afternoon when they get back... play a three-player game.. stay for pizza... and then play a four-player AFTER supper, when Amanda was home! This was agreed to... but then Nic and Orion didn't get back into town until after 4pm... 

but they still came for PIZZA! 

While they were in Regina they visited game stores and found this Beastgrave era carry case - which hey got for me as a late birthday present?! They said they got it because it was poop brown and therefore perfect for Wurmspat.... (they know me so well! It was quite touching...) 

and conveniently it perfectly fits Wurmspat and has space for cards and my assorted poo-coloured dice (from the Gnarlwood and Wyrdhollow boxes - which now belong to the Wurmspat!) and tokens - everything you'd need to take with you to play... 

After pizza we did set up for a four-player game of Warhammer underworlds. Nic decided to play Grashrak's Despoilers (with just their Rivals deck) on A Root-Hall Bleed board. Otion brought The Crimson Court (Also with just their Rivals deck!) and chose the Soul Refractor board. Amanda was back to playing Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven with her Paths of Prophecy Nemesis deck - on The Cursed Oubliette. I decided to take a break from Wurmspat and dug out Grinkrak's Looncourt - and just played with their Rivals on The Stricken Swamp board.

I was feeling a little picked on, right from the start, when Gorath the Enforcer charged Pointy Burke! Burke Survived, though! (for this round...) 

I pushed all my goblins towards the nearest enemy (thanks to a plot card!) and Pokin' Snark was able to take a bite out of Gorath with his Squig-on-a-Stick! 

This actually inspired Pointy Burke as they'd been given a Quest-Surge-Objective that scored and inspired him if he attacked while supported or supported an attack against an adjacent fighter! 

Burk's inpiration was short-lived, however, as Ennias Curse-Born swooped in on the very next activation and killed poor Burk... 

Elsewhere Beasts were moving and shooting arrows at Goblins. Kyrae made some "Hail Morathi" play dashing across the table to take an objective right amongst ALL THE BEASTMEN. 

She died. 

Amanda said she knew it was a HUGE risk, but if Draknar had missed, she would have scored 3 Glory... As it was she scored NOTHING in the entire first round!? 

For a brief moment, it looked like the Vampires might not ALL dog-pile on my warband and slaugher them all before the end of the second round, when Vellas von Faine went wandering over into the Daughters of Khaine area and murdered Kyrssa - OUCH! 

In response, though, Morgwaeth stabbed von Faine and dealt some damage and then one of the Beastmans charged in and finished her off... Then Morgwaeth killed the beastman... 

Then I forgot to take pictures for a few turns... I did finish off Gorath - but failed to do it with Grinkrak the Great (which would have gotten me a bonus Glory - for an objective card where my leader had to finish someone off... I'm thinking that would have to go when I build a Nemesis deck... It was too much fussing around to try and arrange it so Grinkrak could deal the final blow... and then missed... all trying to get ONE extra Glory - when I could have killed Gorath a turn earlier with a plot card!?)

Grinkrak was seriously wounded... I THINK by one of the Beastmen...? Luckily I'd upgraded him with something that gave him +1 Wounds! 

At the beginning of Round Two I started off with Pokin Snark and Grinkrak running off into the Vampires territory to scored an objective, have more of my fighters in their territory than their fighters... Which was totally possible, now that two were out of action! I spent a LOT of time trying to figure out how to get a third in there by the end of the round and remain alive... but then Ennias LEFT their territory and all I needed in there was Grinkrak and Pokin' Snark! 

So I scored it, but then Grinkrak was promptly murdered by... someone...?

and then Prince Duvall started casting a reaction spell that allowed him to draw fighters to him... and then he would kill them... That was the end of Pokin' Snark... 

He ended up doing this to THREE of my fighters!? 

A big melee and the intersection of the Goblins, Vampires, and Beasts territory.. Moonface Nagx had been present, briefly... Gib, Da Wonky Lance got in a few swings before going down... 

And then it was Snorbo and Skolko and Pronk going into the third round... 

Snorbo got killed... but Skolko and Pronk made a dash for freedom and managed to score a few points for me at the Third End Phase. 

Skolko and Pronkwere quite tooled up, but the end of things... didn't really NEED all those upgrades, the last two were pretty much useless... 

In the end Orion's Crimson Court scored SEVENTEEN Glory Points!!! (Mind you, I think six of them were for killing two wound goblins - which she could just NOT not hit and killed each with a single blow!?). Amanda, despite the rough start, very nearly caught up with FIFTEEN Glory Points!! She did it by sticking to THE PLAN and trying to score all her SIEZE OBJECTIVE Objective cards (while everyone else was trying to murder my poor little goblinses!). In the end I managed to catch up to Nic and tied for last at ten Glory Points! 

By that point it was a bit late and we didn't have time for a second game... Still, lots of fun just playing one.. 

I'm not sure what to do next... work on building Nemesis decks for the Looncourt...? Or finish up one of the OTHER warbands that are currently crowding my workbench!?

This same day it was announced that Zondra's Gravebreakers and a new Rivals deck (Rimelocked Relics) would be available for pre-order this coming Saturday and in stores the following Saturday. I kind of expected Zondra's and a new Relic deck at some point this month - looking at the schedule of releases for the last few years... However, they ALSO announced that the Rivals of the Mirrored City set was going to be released at the SAME TIME!? GAH!?!? THAT I was NOT expecting.. I wondered if they'd be released in the summer - around the same time the latest "Two-Player Starter" was released last summer... 

I'd discussed things with Amanda and decided I'd probably pick up the two core boxes that will likely come out this year - one probably in April/May and being set in Deathgorge, and another in October set in a new location. There would probably be Warbands and Rivals in March, August, and December, which I may or may not buy, I'll probably pick up the Rivals decks... but only get the Warbands that I'm really interested in at that point. 

And then there was the recently announced "Rivals of the Mirrored City" - Four previously released warbands with all new Rivals decks - like they did with the the Farstriders and Sepulchral guard in the 2023 Starter Set - to make them more playable - and AVAILABLE. The set includes two that I would have liked to track down - Zarbag’s Gitz and Spiteclaw’s Swarm - but it also includes Thorns of the Briar Queen and  Mollog’s Mob,... which I really don't NEED... I have the models... but they do come with the new decks - which won't be available anywhere else (other than on eBay...) 

Of course, if GW is releasing THESE now... what other stuff was I not considering that they might end up releasing in the summer?! 

I guess I'll have to see how much it costs... If it's close to $200CAD - the cost of four regular warbands... I don't know... if it's like other big box sets and sells them for a significant discount - like, $120-150CAD - I'll probably end up getting them!? 

I need to get painting the next two weeks, though, to justify getting those now! 

Warhammer Underworlds - Snow Day: The Second!

 School was cancelled and the rest of the university staff were advised to work from home and avoid all nonessential travel... so we had another day at home together! So Amanda did a day and a half worth of work and when she was done said "Hey, want to play another game of Warhammer Underworlds...?"

It was a bit late when we got going. Earlier I'd been looking at a few different Rivals decks to see what might pair with Magore's Fiends (since Amanda had taken an interest in it). Initially I'd not considered Voidcursed Thralls, but that might be one to try out. I'd passed it over because all Voidcursed fighter have a defence of One Block... and I thought that Magore's might have increased to two when they inspired, but they don't, so none of the Voidcurse would affect them at all! 

What I was looking through was Tooth and Claw and decided it could be pretty nasty! I'd only just read through all the cards and was just starting to THINK about how they could work together when Amanda said "lets just THROW SOMETHING TOGETHER!?" Which is not really something i ever do... but somehow we bullshit something together in about 10-15 minutes, and we had another battle of Chaos forces in the Gnarlwood! 

Amanda won the boards roll and had me choose first, I took The Mistmarsh Tangle from the Gnarlwood Core Box (because I like the look of it... and I's taken The Burgeoning out of the deck so I didn't NEED a Hazard hex!). Amanda took Moltscape - also from the Gnarlwood Core Box and set it up with long edges matching. 

ROUND ONE

Amanda went first and Zharkus started things off by charging Ghuloch, hitting him and dealing two damage! 

I played Steady Advance, allowing me to push two fighters one hex, which brought Sepsimus adjacent to Zharkus and Ghuloch - hoping Ghuloch would just beat Sharkus down with his three hammer attack. Unfortunately Amanda played Horrifying Howl, which let her pick an enemy fighter that is adjacent to a friendly fighter and push them up to TWO HEXES?! 

So Fecula charged in with the help of Devastating Charge... and ... I think she hit...? 

But then was bounced away because of the impetus (I'd really hoped Amanda would have chose to stagger her - as I had Out of Control in my hand - which I score if the impetus staggers one of mine...) 

Amanda then realized NONE of her other fighters were within charge range of ANY of mine... And I decided to KEEP it that way... 

Sepsimus charged in on Ghuloch's left - to keep him out of charge range (as going on his right would have put him in range of two of the Fiends! Sepsimus totally missed... because Amanda just can't NOT roll Crits... 

Each of the remaining fiends could only move up for the rest of their activations. It took Ghuloch TWO attacks to finish off Zharkus - despite having THREE attack dice to Zharkus' one defence dice. having two or three successes does nothing when Amanda keeps rolling crits... 

He was only taken out because Ghuloch rolled a Crit AND two successes.... so Amanda's solitary crit.... 

Seriously... 

I did score two surges during the round, plus the bounty on Zharkus I ended the round with 3 Glory... 

And then Amanda evened it up in the end phase scoring THREE Glory just for being in my territory and none of mine being in hers!? GAH!?

ROUND TWO

Amanda went first again and Magore charged in and killed Gulloch.... Amanda played a Domain card that staggered anyone that activated and didn't do at least one one or two ... 

Sepsimus then stabbed Magore and dealt two damage! Woo! 

After Sepsimus went I played Slick Ice, cancelling her Domain and and making it very slippery. 

Ghartok charged in and hit Sepsimus... dealing two damage... and bounced back (because of impetus) 

Sepsimus stabbed at Magore again and missed... because single crit beast any number of non-crit successes... 

Riptooth charged in and chomped on Sepsimus - with a crit making it cleave - luckily I rolled ONE shield - which reduced the damage by one leaving him with one wound remainig... 

At this point I stopped taking pictures of the action, apparently. 

In my third activation Sepsimus charged moving adjacent to Fecula and stabbing at Magore, AGAIN... and AGAIN missing... because of a single crit... I'd positioned myself so that no matter where Amanda moved me, Sepsimus would still be within two of Magore. Part of me hoped she'd go for the Stagger.. but she's getting too clever and noted that it would not do ANYTHING for her as she could no longer charge with any of her fighters. So she moved Sepsimus closer so Magore could attack... And attack he did, killing Sepsimus... 

In retorspect, I could have placed him one away from Fecula and Amanda may have been temped to push him AWAY out of range of his stabby spear... Alas... I had no intention of attacking with him, as Fecula needed to charge so I could score one of my objectives... I guess I thought if Amanda did draw him closer and I got lucky and, for ONCE didn't get hit, he's survive and then be in a position to support Fecula's Charge. 

In my fourth activation, Fecula charged... and Amanda just kept rolling Crit defences... By the Festring Boils of Nurgle, I just needed to hit him with ONE of those last three attacks to finish him off... But EVERY ONE Amanda rolled a single crit and saved him... FML... 

I's scored two surges during the round Out of Control for the Impetus ability affecting an enemy and Wild Impetus for the Impetus ability being resolved for a third time in the round... 

In the End Phase I scored Eager for the Fight - for all surviving members (Fecula) have ing a charge or move token, and Cycle of Doom for having played two Cycle cards in the round... 

Oh, yeah... did I mention that...? I put out Nauseous Revulsion in the first Power Step, THREE of those attacks she made were with one less attack dice and she STILL hit me EVERY SINGLE TIME... 

ROUND THREE

For the third time in a row Amanda went first and Riptooth charged Fecula... It took a bite out of her, dealing two damage.... And again I forgot to take picture during the rest of this round... I had a bunch of upgrades, but they ALL gave Momentum tokens whenever the fighter activated, which Amanda could use to bring her back... and I wanted to RUN! Amanda played another Domain card that reduced move if not charging, but I had Unnatural Vitality which gave me +1 move... For Fecula's first activation I moved her four away and zapped at Magore with her spell attack... and missed (because CRIT Defence!!!). Amanda had upgraded Ghartok with extra move and so he charged Fecula and... MISSED. I think that was the first attack action she made in the game that missed! and then I moved away and was out of range of Magore, so that was it, no one was going to get another attack on her. 

She moved the next two rounds, ending up on an Objective token deep in enemy territory! 

I was able to score three more in the End Phase:

Spread His Blessings - for being on an Objective in Enemy Territory

Need for Speed - for all surviving fighters having at least one charge and/or move token

Too Slow - for having MORE combined Charge and/or move tokens on fighters than the enemy - which only happened because Amanda realized she could NOT catch Fecula and spent an activation discarding an objective to draw a new one! 

This was the second game in the last two days where my tactic for the Third Round was to just RUN AWAY with my solitary surviving fighter so I could hope to score objectives that required my fighters be alive - because that was the safer bet than trying to engage and take enemies out of action for Bounty Glory!? 

In the end it didn't matter as Amanda scored more and ended up with THIRTEEN Glory to my ten... 

It was nuts... I made NINE attacks in the game with two or three attack dice All with Smash attacks - so 50% chance of a success if there weren't anyone aiding the attack... but four of the attacks DID have someone aiding, which meant each die was succeeding 66% of the time....  only three of my attacks hit... because Amanda's solitary defence die which rolled Crits almost every time... two of the times I did hit her were because I rolled a crit AND a success! 

She had more or less the same attacks, except didn't have anyone that had a Three Smash attack (like Ghuloch) - they were all two dice attacks versus one defence die... of her seven attacks, SIX of them hit!?

So for a VERY QUICLY put together Nemesis deck, Magore did pretty good with Tooth and Claw! with a bit more editing, it could probably be even better... 

Or maybe it's time to try Voidcursed Thralls with them... 

Or... Maybe it's just time to try a different warband!?

Warhammer Underworlds - SNOW DAY!

Sunday has kind of become "Warhammer Underworlds Sunday". At this point, we've played Warhammer Underworlds on the last six Sundays in a row (and six of nine  Sundays so far this year)! Almost all of those involved playing 3/4 player games with Nic and/or Orion. This Sunday was to be no different... except then it snowed... like, A LOT. Most of the city was shut down Sunday (AND Monday), and Nic and Orion just couldn't make it over... 

So Amanda and I played on our own... which was fun as i got to try out Wurmspat with Breakneck Slaughter against SINGLE opponents!

GAME ONE

In our first game Amanda took Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven with Paths of Prophecy. I won the roll-off for boards and had her place first. She took from Glacial Tomb from Deathgorge. I took The Mistmarsh Tangle from the Gnarlwood box, because I like the look of it... it seems like the sort of swamp that my Nurgling trio would want to hang out in... and because I am an IDIOT completely forgot there's a card in my deck that REQUIRES a HAZARD hex... (Doh!) 

If we were being all themaic and stuff, we probably should have played ONLY with the icy Deathgorge boards... alas, we did not think of that! (Or I didn't..) 

Fighters and objective tokens were placed and I think I won the roll-ff for deciding who goes first and let Amanda go... 

First move of round one was for Morgwaeth to jump onto an objective and stab Ghuloch! Ouch! 

I used a ploy card that allowed me to push two fighters one hex each... I could have attacked with Sepsimus and had Ghuloch supporting.. but I think I ended up going with Ghuloch because a) he was wounded and might not be around long, and b0 MORE DICE - he's got a three smash attack versus Sepsimus' two smash - and they both deal two damage... 

BAM! Ghuloch knocked Morgwaeth off (and, I THINK dealt two damage... I wasn't taking notes.... there was someone I knocked off of some objective at some point because we tied... but I'm not sure this was it...) and Kyrae moved onto it and stabbed Gholoch again.. or tried at least... 

I think it was Khamyss moving up that finished him off.. 

Sepsimus moved up to stab past Kyrae to try and take out Khamyss... and failed.. 

Fecula moved up and bashed with her staff and took Morgwaeth out of action! AND had used a combo of ploys to get extra dice...? and/or move...? which gained momentum tokens... but I had the Ploy reaction that allowed ME to choose which way she got to move...  

... and shot her over onto an objective! 

Taking out Morgwaeth that early on is a big deal. It's her best fighter AND she inspires the group as they take out enemy. Now all the others would have to wait until the third round to inspire. Also Glory... and an objective as I was holding an objective card that scored for taking out an enemy leader. 

At the beginning of round two, I made Fecula do a crazy charge around Sepsimus to attack Kyrae, dealing her two damage and transfering momentum to her to knock her TWO off the objective! 

Then I played Slick Ice, which is one of my favourite cards - for all the chaos it causes - or, causes my opponent(s) to really think twice about what they want to do for the rest of teh round and if they REALLY want to make that charge - which will give them Momenutm counters and send them flying off in random directions and/or stagger them! 

(just realizing I only had two Glory here... and I should have had three... I took out Morgwaeth and I know I had two objecitve cards that I would have scored... One for taking out leader, the other for being on an objective in enemy territory at the end of the round.?) 

Amanda's figuring stuff out, though.. She used Headlong Fury - a ploy that allows her to move an inspired fighter (Khamyss had been inspired when Ghuloch was taken out - before Morgwaeth was taken out) during the Power Step and not get a move counter. This allowed her to put Khamyss next to Sepsimus, withouth charging and incurring a momentum token! 

Then I forgot to take pictures for a few rounds... I think Khamyss dealt Sepsimus three damage (inspired she usually deals four if she hits with both combo attacks - but for ONCE the Damage Reduction worked and Sepsimus only took three!) - and didn't have a charge token... so I moved Sepsimus out of the way... Khamyss charged Fecula and took her out of action!? 

I kind of spent the rest of the game keeping Sepsimus away from Khamyss (though, really, ANY of them could have taken him out with any successful attack! it's just that she gets TWO attacks!) 

I did manage to charge and take out Lethyr in the third round... 

Then kept Sepsimus away... I COULD have charged someone. He had all sorts of upgrades giving him five or six move... 

But I was holding at least one objective that I'd only score if he was still alive. I might have had another surge I scored in round three that required being alive... and... something... I can't remember!? 

I shoudl really go back to taking notes - at least when I'm playing one-on-one with Amanda... 

Amanda scored a bunch at the end of the game and won 13-10... 

So... Breakneck Slaughter working... okay-ish.. with Wurmspat against single opponent. 

Paths of Prophecy worked out pretty good for Amanda as well, though she notice that a few cards were so hard to score in a one-on-one game that they really weren't worth keeping. 

GAME TWO

Because I am a glutton for punishment I stuck with Wurmspat for round two (being a glutton for punishment, you'd think I'd play SLAANESH!?). Amanda wanted to switch things up and tried playing Magore's Fiends again - to see how she'd do if she actually used ATTACK dice for her attacks!?

In our last game she'd tried out Magore's Fiends and we only realized she was using DEFENCE dice for her attacks... And yet, she took out FOUR enemy fighters with them... because she CAN'T STOP ROLLING CRITS!?!? 

It's a bad match-up, Wurmspat versus Magore's Fiends... they're basically the same warband; Everyone hits on two smash, dealing two damage, has two move, one block defence and four wounds... except that Magores fiends have FOUR fighters to Wurmspat's three... (the extra one has move move and dodge defence... but still, four wounds, three flurry dealing two damage!) Also, they inspire by simply making a successful attack, whereas Wurmspat all inspires at the same time when three enemy have been wounded or taken out of action. 

Given this, I got it in my head that I'd play Long board and set up way at the back and make them come to me... which would take forever... and hopefully score SOME kind of passive glory... not really realizing that I don't HAVE that much passive Glory in my deck!? 

My initial draw was kind of kick ass... I got Slick Ice - teh card that sits in play for the round and gives momentum tokens to everyone that charges - which would SUCK for Magore's - as they WANT to charge and kill things.... AND I drew the Objective card(s) that scores for the Impetus reaction being used three times in a round (which would totally score with Slick Ice in play) and stand on an objective in enemy territory - which there was one very close to my board... It was an excellent starting hand... I can't remember the other Gambit cards... But it would require going against my initial plan when I placed the boards and would be compltely useless if I went with my original plan of just sitting back in the back part of the board and waited for him to come for me... 

So I dumped the whole hand, hoping I'd draw them all again in the second round... 

and then I drew a hand FULL of upgrades... and objectives that could NOT be scored... 

We took the entire first round moving up towards each other... 

Yeah, I took two pictures of the state of things at the end of Round One/Beginning of Round Two... and then the shit got REAL! 

And I forgot to take any more pictures until the end of the game!? 

It got savage... but I feel like I played it well enough - protecting my fighters, luring them in with bait and then ganging up on them. In the end I lost Sepsimus, but took out Magore and one of the others... 

By keeping mine alive, it WRECKED Amanda's ability to score just about anything - because most of what they score for is MURDER! It was an insanely low scoring game. I ended with FIVE Glory (two of which were for taking out fighters, three from Objectives) and Amanda ended up with THREE Glory (One from taking out Sepsimus and two from Objectives - one of which was for everyone ending a round in opponents territory!?) 

I think that might have been our lowest scoring game EVER!? 

I feel like I could do a bit more deck editing at this point. There are a few cards that I've noticed keep getting drawn and discarded without using... but I'm not sure WHAT I'd replace them with!? 

Do I keep trying to figure out a way to make Wurmspat "playable"...?! Sometimes I feel like I'm butting my head up against a wall!? 

I've played thirteen games with them and won only four! Mind you, EIGHT of those games were multi-player games and those get a little crazy - I only won one of those... 

Of the remaining five, One was two years ago when I played it the first time with Direchasm rules... and I think I had a pretty kick-ass Relic deck (or, what would NOW be called a "relic" deck) and beat-down Morgwaeth's and didn't playe them again until I started playing again with Deathgorge. The other four were played with Deathgorge rules one-on-one... The first I was still using the Relic deck, and lost. The other three were with Nemesis decks (one with Force of Frost and the other two were these games with Breakneck Slaughter..) which I won two of... 

So... maybe they're not doing SO bad...? Maybe I'll keep playing them... at least until I get some NEW warbands painted that I want to try out!