Warhammer Underworlds Sunday

This past Sunday Nic and Orion stopped by to play some Warhammer Underworlds for the first time in a month?! 

It's been almost a week... I didn't take a lot of notes... so it will be mostly pictures with limited commentary... 

Both games were played in Shadespire. Orion played Zondara's Gravebreakers with their Faction Rivals Deck. Amanda played Elathain's Soulraid with their Faction Rivals Deck. Nick played the Skinnerkin with a Hungering Parasite Nemesis deck. I played a freshly painted Garreck's Reavers with a Tooth and Claw Nemesis deck I quickly threw together that morning. 

I don't have a post with pictures of the newly painted Garrek's Reavers because the battery on the camera I use for taking good (well... okay...) pictures of miniatures died and I cannot for the life of me find the recharger!?

The undersea Aelves and Ghouls went at it right away. 

ABC - Always Be Charging - was my policy for the game! 

There got to be a bit of a brawl in the center of the battlefield! 

Sneaky ghoul stabbing Tammael in the back! 

Targor and Armulf were killed off pretty quickly... but that kind of worked out for me as I had an objective card that required all fighters have a charge token and if Arnulf hadn't been killed in the first turn without ever activating, I never would have pulled that off... 

Ferlain attacked Garrek... and missed. I charged Blooded Saek in and took out Ferlain... so Zondara went a bit savage!

it was noted how similar Zondara and Gristla look and it was decided that they must be sisters... Sisters that HATE each other... but sisters, none-the-less! 

Someone killed Saek, so it was only Garrek and Karsus (who had only one wound left!) 

Karsus was killed with a ping and Garrek made a last ditch effort to deal some damage! I had a card that dealt one damage to everyone adjacent to me, and there was this nice group of three... If Garrek hit ONE of them they would have died... but he missed and was taken out before he got another swing. 

It was pretty brutal, both mine and Amanda's warbands were utterly wiped out... Still I won - which is a very rare thing when Orion is at the table!!

For our second game we played the Chaos Gargant Scenario from the December 2018 White Dwarf... 

In this one I played Magore's Fiends (sticking with the Khorne theme!) but this time with their Faction Rivals Deck... Amanda played the Dread Pageant with their Faction Rivals Deck. Orion played Hexbane's Hunters with Break Neck Slaughter. Nick played Cyreni's Razors with...? some kind of Nemesis Deck...? 

I just could not hit that Gargant to save my life... 

Aemos killed Ghartok... and I'm not sure why... it gained her one Glory Point, which could have been four if Aemos had hit the Gargant...? (which would have made it a MUCH closer game..!) Not sure if she thought I was some kind of threat...? (I for sure was NOT!?)

I'm not sure the Gargant Scneario holds up with a lot of the more recent rules and things that can be done... I think it COULD still be a fun scenario with some updates... like.. the Gargant cannot be staggered! Cyreni just stood and pinged the Gargant with Hammertide for an entire round, meaning it did NOTHING but go on guard for it's action... 

While everyone else kept beating on it.. well.. Amanda and Orion's warbands kept beating on it... 

Eventually I just said fuck it and went after Hexbane's Hunters... 

Had tried to kill the second dog.. but missed and Slakeslash finished it off... 

Missed a swing at Aemos... 

But dammit they took down Hexbane.. it only took ALL THREE of them?! 

Amanda won this by lots because of the totally broken Sadistic Goad upgrade - an attack upgrade that deals 1 + the target's current wound counters... so she hit it when it was at 12 damage and dealt 13 damage!? 

I'd noticed this sometime back and realized how OP it would be in the scenario. Me mentioning it was the reason Amanda took the Dread Pageant - just to see if it would work out... and it DID!! 

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! 

Warhammer Underworlds - Back on Sundays

After missing a Sunday or two, Nic and Orion were back this past Sunday to play some more four-player games of Warhammer Underworlds! 

It felt like forever, but it was really only two weeks since they'd been by to play... but it was two weeks between that and the previous game, too, so...? Maybe that's why it was feeling like we hadn't been playing so much. only two games in teh last month, instead of EVERY WEEK, like the previous month!?

For out first game we played in the Deathgorge. I brought out Skabbik's Plaguepack again. Nic tried out the freshly-painted Skinnerkin (which I had just finished the day before). Amanda wanted to try something totally new and selected Mollog's Mob. Orion played the Chosen Axes with a Rimelocked Relics Nemesis deck! 

I'm not sure WHY I though dashing onto this objective would be safe in the first round...? I mean, that little rat scored NO GLORY... why would they hit it!? 

I was blissfully unaware that Carnskry can just fly over things and deal damage while on their way to somewhere else... 

Ghouls coming after the rats! 

Fyreslayers and Carnskyr and Mollog's minions duking it out.. 

Mollog going THUMP! 

For my final move, I had Skabbik charge Fjul-Grimnir... and I actually HIT him... which only dealt 3... but then I played Rancid Vomit and skabbik puked on him dealing TWO MORE damage which too him out and scored me two more Glory! 

It wasn't enough to catch up... Orion still won with SIXTEEN Glory... both me and Nic had 13 and Amanda had 10... 

For out second game we played in the Mirrored City and everyone kept the same warbands, except Orion who switched out the Chosen Axes for Hexbane's Hunters.

 Spent my first round just trying to avoid enemy and get ONE of the Befoulders onto an objective in someone else's territory. The only objective in No One's Territory was waaaaaaay over on the border between Hexbane's, Mollog's and the Ghouls territory... and Mollog started the game immediately adjacent to it! 

Kind of just let them fight it out a bit... 

While everyone was fighting over on Hexbane's end of the table so I started moving out to seize Objectives! 

Then Mollog charged and thumped poor Itchitt... 

Was this my chance to to a scything attack against two Ghouls and Mollog?! Nope. Rabidious got thumped into skaven-like goo by Mollog before I could act again... 

Starting to feel like Mollog was picking on me... 

In my last activation, Poxlic ran from Objective #7 to that next next closest one (#9? the one slightly further from Mollog and the remains of Hexbane's Hunters in Mollog's territory) and then I had a gambit card that allowed me to push my leader and one minion one hex, which put Skabbik on Objective #7 in my own territory, Skritter onto an objective in Hexbane's territory and that allowed me to corrupt THREE territories at the end of the round and score Bringers of Ruination for three glory! (not that it helped.. Orion still won with 14 glory... but it was a bit closer!) 

It also denied Amanda scoring an objective for a second turn in a row which required no enemies being in her territory... 

Fun times. 

We'll be missing next Sunday, again, because Keiran is performing in a musical! Hopefully Sundays will be more open after that, though!