Warhammer Underworlds - Blocked Hex Terrain Project

Didn't do a Work-in-Progress Wednesday post this week as... well... I hadn't done any work this past week (other than finishing up the three undead for Cursed City). Been having some health issues and feeling a bit down... Hopefully this next week will be better! 

Something arrived in the mail this week, though, and I thought I'd share a bit about that.... 

Now, if you've been following along, you are no doubt aware that I am a little HYPER-fixated on Warhammer Underworlds at the moment. I've played forty games so far this year!? Also, I have discovered that I really do like playing with terrain bits sitting in the blocked hexes! I have some that Games Workshop produced for Nightvault and Beastgrave (here and here and here - and there is still more to paint!). But they stopped after that and so I don't have any specific things for the Harrowdeep, Gnarlwood or Deathgorge settings... So I thought I'd make my own... some reefs for Harrowdeep? Log piles for Gnarlwood? Heaps of snow and ice for Deathgorge. 

I've seen that there are laser cut wooden (or plywood or MDF) hexagons of various different sizes available on Amazon for not-totally-insane prices, so I thought I'd try and pick up some of an appropriate size to use as a base... Finding an appropriate size, wasn't as easy and straightforward as one might think it should be. 

The Hexagons on the board are 50mm from flat edge to flat edge, about 58mm from point to point, and each of the edges are about 29mm . A lot of the listings on Amazon were just listed as "60mm" with no diagram or description of WHERE that measurement was taken... flat edge to flat edge? point to point? along one of the edges!?

Posts WITH diagrams weren't much help either... 

A lot that did have diagrams looked like this!? At first glance it seemed like they were suggesting it was 6cm (60mm) both from flat edge to flat edge AND point to point...? That's... not how Hexagons work!

I did notice, on closer inspection that the lower arrows did NOT go all the way from point to point... so... MAYBE this was... accurate... -ish...?

But then I noticed IN THE SAME LISTING as the for the above 60mm hexagon, they had THIS diagram for their 40mm hexagons!? If these "40mm Hexagons" were, indeed 40mm along the edge, then they would be BIGGER than the "60mm Hexagons" in the same listing that were show to have been measured flat edge to flat edge... sort of... maybe... 

So I decided THAT seller could clearly not be trusted with any measurements... 

Another seller had THIS diagram for their 50mm hexagon!? JFC, WHAT!? How do they not see that those two lines are NOT THE SAME LENGTH!?!?

In the description of the produce it even claimed the dimensions were 50mm x 50mm x 2mm.... WTF!? 

NOT HOW HEXAGONS WORK

Math is hard, I guess...?

I did find another seller that had this diagram, which was much clearer... but theirs cost 4x what the others were selling things for... and I just did not want to spend THAT much money on a little project that I didn't really NEED to do in the first place... 

Also, though... which is it? 2" or 50mm...? I mean, they are CLOSE, but not exactly the same?!

And then I found this one... and it described the hexagons as 50mm ( I think) and had an actual picture of a ruler next to it and that was right - as I mentioned, edges for a Hexagon that is 50mm from flat edge to flat edge would be about 28mm along one of the edges... The only problem was it LOOKED like a plywood... but was described as MDF...!? I decided I didn't care if it was MDF and went for it anyway (They were also marginally cheaper than most of the others)! 

Three weeks later (which was this past week) they arrived!

Maybe it's a super thin veneer over an MDF core...? 

And they happen to be the PERFECT size! 

So hopefully, at some point, I will be posting some scratch-built terrain bits for some of the OTHER Warhammer Underworlds settings... Probably Deathgorge first, as piles of ice seem like they'd be the easiest to knock out quickly! 

Warhammer Underworlds - Cyreni's Razors versus Elathain's Soulraid

Amanda and I played a quick game in the afternoon on Sunday to try out the two new Idoneth Deepkin warbands; Cyreni's Razors and Elathain's Soulraid. We'd thought Nic and Orion were coming over in the evening and wanted to try them out BEFORE that... but then Nic and Orion bailed... so we only got the one game in. 

Amanda won the roll-off to choose boards and made me choose first - a wise choice as otherwise I would have oriented the boards with the short ends together ("longboarding") making it was easier to make channels for Cyreni's Hammertide ability (a target within a straight line is dealt one damage and is staggered!) 

I took the Hall of Sublimination board and then Amanda chose the Tortured Coil board. 

Amanda made the mistake of letting me go first, though, when I had Cyreni set up on with a clear path to one of her warriors... so I did the Hammertide and dealt Fuirann one damage and staggered her. 

As a reaction after my power step, Amanda placed her Shoal Token - where she could, in future turns, place the Spinefish! 

Then Tammael charged and... I think... dealth Renglaith two damage!? 

Alathyrr charged, stepping onto the location where the Shoal Token was - denying Amanda the ability to place the fishy there this turn... but she just replaced it at the end of my turn... 

The Elathain Ill-Fated charged into the brawl. Which, I think dealt Alathyrr two damage!? 

For my Third activation, Cepahnyr charged across the board onto an objective, and gave Fuirann a wallop with one of it's big tentacles... would have taken her out of action... but all successes does nothing against Amanda's single crit... 

(she was back to rolling crits again...) 

The Spinefish showed up... 

...and then Duinclaw, the Giant Crab, charged in... 

...and chopped poor Alathyrr in half with it's Crushing Claws... 

for my final action of the round Renglaith got out of there and stabbed at Tammael, missing... 

The board at the end of Round One... Things did NOT work out for me. I had one out of action, a second that was Vulnerable (one wound left). I'd only scored one objective (for one Glory Point) and wasn't able to score anything in the End Phase because I'd totally misread one of my other objectives... Ughhhh... 

Amanda wasn't doing a LOT better, but was ahead of me with Three Glory Points. 

And that's apparently where I just stopped taking pictures... Trying to sort out all these cards and trying to figure out how to get them to work together, with the warband was hurting my brain and required all my focus and attention...

I did manage to pull ahead by the end, and won nine to five!? Despite her small lead at the end of the first round, Amanda was having an equally hard time trying to piece it all together... and only scored two more point through the rest of the game. 

I think she scored one of them by killing Cyreni ... because Cyreni charged right into the midst of them and with Hammertide and a couple of upgrades staggered the lot of them and scored a few objectives before dying. 

Alathyrr managed to hang on and survive the game by completely disengaging and running away to try and score objectives - holding objective tokens in enemy territory. 

Elathain's Soulraid is a very aggressive warband. they score points for killing enemies and collecting souls... which is, thematically, what the Idoneth Deepkin are all about. They just don't seem as TOUGH or hard-hitting as some of the other aggressive warbands out there. They seem to have some interesting stuff and with some more plays (and maybe a Nemesis deck) could be pretty nasty! 

Amanda actually suggested playing another game when I relayed the message that Nic and Orion weren't going to make it... but this one burned me right out for the day and I suggested I'd rather try and get some painting done.  So, in the evening Amanda and I finished watching Percy Jackson Season One with Keiran and then finished off Season two of Community - and I got some work done on Ephilim's Pandemonium and the GARGANT!

Warhammer Underworlds: TRIPLE-header! (Part Two)

 After playing a standard two-player game of Warhammer Underworlds with Orion on Saturday afternoon, Amanda joined us for a THREE-PLAYER game of Warhammer Underworlds! 

As with the PREVIOUS POST, I'm trying to piece together what happened from the pics I took during the game and my rapidy fading memory of what when down... 

For this Amanda played Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven, Orion played the Sepulchral Guard and I played the Thricefold Discord again... 

Amanda lost the first roll-off and chose the Glacial Tomb board from Deathgorge. Orion lost the next roll-off and chose the Ultimate Engines from Harrowdeep (because it had three hazardous hexes that Skeletons could get knocked into... or just wander into no their own to take damage and potentially get taken out - because being taken out and brought back is now they inspire!?). Finally I selected the Root-Hall Bleed board from Wrydhollow to make a truly pandiensional madhouse of a board. 

I was happy to see that the rules for Three-Player Game set-up has changed in Deathgorge and in all three player games boards are to be oriented thusly... rather than willy nilly with one player potentially being trapped between the other two (as happened to ME in the one other three-player game I've played!). 

Cards were drawn, roll-offs made and warbands set up and we were ready to go! 

And I think Orion started things off with a multi-move of skeletons shambling in the general direction of the living warbands... Amanda had Khamyss take an objective... 

And then Lascvyr charged in and started attacking... 

I don't recall the attack being all that successful... but it seems the reaper was pushed back...? so.. maybe a tie...? Or I deal two damage and that's one of the skeletons that actually have three wounds...? 

The Champion shambled up to Lascvyr... but didn't attack!? Maybe it was part of another multi-move action and it COULDN'T charge...?

I feel like maybe Vashtiss took a zap at the Champion with a spell attack...? 

Then, apparently, Vexmor went barrelling off into the Blade-Coven's Territory, presumably stabbing at Kyrssa (the weak one, standing on the Objective) hoping to either get lucky and take her out with one shot, or fail to roll ANY successes and inspire Lascvyr... I'm pretty sure he did neither, as I rolled a success and Amanda probably rolled a Crit defence... 

Morgwaeth seems to have seized an objective in the Guard's territory and gained the attention of The Champion (I feel like maybe The Champion was taken out by one of my Daemons and then brought back on a starting space next to Morgwaeth... this much be getting into Round Two...? 

Vexmor still trying to stab the annoyingly flexible and acrobatic Witch Aelf... 

The champion and Khamyss going toe do toe-bone

Lascvyr attacking Morgwaeth. Pretty sure she was taken out! 

Daughters of Khaine on the attack - trying to avenge their leader. 

So many fun cards that give my opponent a choice... in this case, though, it was take a wound or get pushed into a hazardous hex and take a wound... I think the targetted Skeleton took the wound...and the STEPPED INTO the hazardous hex, which killed it (denying a Glory Point to either opponents) and was quickly brought back inspired! 

The Harvester, with the Scythe, I thought would be funny to give one of the False Gifts I can equip enemy with - It improves either defence or wounds...? but also gives them -2 movement - which effectively meant that skeleton would not be able to move at all... but the Orion equipped the Harvester with something that gave them +2 move, which offset the -2... Later Orion spent an action to break the False Gift and then the Harvester had a move of FOUR!? 

Daughters of Khaine dancing about, seizing objectives, scoring points... 

Kyrae took out the Harvester... Teh Harvester came back the next turn... and I realized my deamons were all perfectly poised for ALL being hit by a scything attack!? 

So I split them up a bit... VAshtiss had taken a few hits and I really wanted to keep her alive to score an objective or two... So she went running off to a remote objective token deep in the Daughters of Khaine's territory - followed by Vexmor who stood there as a meat shield.

(I left Lascvyr standing all along HOPING someone would take her out - because one of the objectives I was trying to score was having and inspired fighter, that had at least one upgrade, on an objective marker... and, at that time, I thin Vashtiss was the only one with upgrades...? but wasn't yet inspired...) 

board looking pretty thinned out... at this point, four of the five in Morgwaeth's Warband were out of action! Skeletons just couldn't be brought back fast enough to keep them on the field. 

The Champion obligingly stepped up and stabbed Lascvyr - taking her out of action, which inspired Vashtiss and allowed me to score that objective... 

I think this was where everyone was at when the game ended... 

I just dominated this game!? I scorred EIGHT of the twelve Objective in my deck (Rivals decks are getting pretty good. I've NEVER scorred so many of my own Objectives!?) I ended up with MORE GLORY POINTS that they other two, combined?! 17-10-7!? 

Orion and Amanda were unimpressed and decided they needed to gang up on me in the next game! 

Stay tuned for the report of that action in just a little bit... 

Warhammer Underworlds Doubleheader

I played another game with MINIATURES!! 

Earlier this week on Monday evening my friend Orion came over to play some more Warhammer Underworlds! Not a full blow-by-blow, activation-by-activation game report like I've done in the past... but here's how the games went down. 

For our first game Orion took Khagra's Ravagers and I took The Wurmspat. WE played in Beastgrave! 

I think on Orion's first turn, Dour Cragan here was teleported across the table to park on an objective in our rear... In the Power Step my sorcerer, Fecula Flyblown, successfully cast a Ploy spell that buffed... something... and then on  my first activation she successfully cast her Stream of Corruption spell attack, dealing a single wound to Dour Cragan and scoring my first Objective card - requiring successfully casting two spells in one Attack Phase (though I don't think it was a surge, I scorred it in the End Phase...? 

Next Zarshia Bittersoul stepped onto an objective location and desecrated it...  

Some fighting happened... Khagra one-shotted poor Ghullogh, there, and gained the Primacy Token! 

More smashy-fighty going on... 

This might be round two now... I did not take notes... memory fades quickly these days... 

I took out Razek Godblessed... but Khagra took out Fecula... and then it was three on one for the whole second half of the game... 

But that turned out okay... we were playing with the new rules from Warhammer Underworlds: Deathgorge, which has some significant changes to activations and movement and who can be activated and when... a movement token doesn't prevent you from moving again... and, indeed, a charge token doesn't even prevent you from activating again if you're the only one left or everyone else in your warband has a Charge token.

(Okay, the rule says you cannot select a fighter with a charge token to activate unless all other surviving members of the warband also had a charge token... and we took that to mean that a single surviving fighter in a warband with a charge token counted as everyone having a charge token and allowed him to activate! 

Sepsimus happened to take out BOTH Zarshia and Khagra and in the Third Round took out Dour Cragan!? BOOM!

Despite tabling the opposing warband, we ended up tied at 9 points!? 

This was playing The Wurmspat with their basic deck of cards versus Khagra's Ravagers which, I think, had a somewhat edited "Relic" deck

GAME TWO

This time Orion played the Sepulchral Guard and I played the Dread Pageant. 

The first turn I slunk around in the back holding two objectives to score an objective and plinked away at the Skeletons trying to do only ONE damage to each (as two would take most of them out, and I had to have SIX damage tokens on fighter cards to inspire my warband - which COULD be my own... but that seems a little reckless, even for Chaos!) 

I scored the Objective and either by the end of the first round or just after the beginning of the second I had inspired my warband! 

During the second round I swarmed into the enemy territory as, again, had an objective requring all of my warband be in the enemies territory... I managed to do that... but kind of got swarmed by all the little skeletons. They're easy enough to smash... but then the leader just brings them back... and once he's done that twice, he inspires... and the skeletons inspire when they are returned to the table... so it's in the skeletons players interested to GET smashed, at the loss of a Glory Point, to come back as a better warrior. 

The Sepulchral Warden gets in on the action attacking Slakeslash the Slaangor. I think by the end of the third round all but one (Glisette...? Hadzu...? one of the weaker ones) were taken out... Or maybe it was just Slakeslash and Vasillac that were taken out and Glisette and Hadzu were just running around the edges trying to avoid the skeletons...? Clearly I did not take enough notes or pictures?! 

I really like the Dread Pageant. With the right cards (lots of "ping damage" plot cards) they can inspire pretty quickly and then they are FAST!!! Like all of them have FIVE MOVEMENT once they inspire! and both Slakeslash and Vasillac have this ability that when they deal damage, they can either deal one extra to the enemy, or HEAL one! Both of which can be SUPER useful. Their deck has been heavily edited, which is fine for playing Relic style (where you can use ANY generic cards). I'm pretty sure they would suck using their own deck of cards as a Rival deck. Not sure what other Rival decks would work for them as a Rival deck or to mix with their base cards for a Nemesis style play?

It's been super fun to play against Orion and try playing against DIFFERENT warbands. I love playing with Amanda... but playing against Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven ALL THE TIME gets a little... tiring... I mean, I get it... If I COULD, I'd like to stick to one warband and get to know how it works really well... but if someone didn't change something, our games together would get REALLY BORING (since we've not been playing against different opponents!). Hopefully we'll be able to tempt Orion's partner, Nic, to join us and add some more variety to our games! 

Currently working on The Thricefold Discord - a warband of Slaanesh Daemons that looks like a lot of fun! After that...? Might be Domitan's Stormcoven - just because Stormcast are so easy to knock off... but I also really love the look of Ephilim's Pandaemonium! (though I do have some Tallarn Armour that needs some immediate attention!)