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 - Skirmish Fridays at the Warhammer Store AGAIN!

 I made it out to a second Skirmish Friday at the Warhammer Store this month - two weeks in a row!? This Friday was also Game Night at our place... but most of the Alternating Friday Game Nights didn't get going until almost 8pm, so I figured there would be time to ride out to the Warhammer Store, play a game or two, and get back around the time others were showing up... If I happened to be a little late, Amanda would be there and they could get something set up! 

I'd just finished painting Zondara's Gravebreakers a few days earlier, and just started reading through their cards the night before and I was REALLY EXCITED to try them out, so I only brought them along with their Rivals Decks. 

Sean was the first to arrive so I set up a game with him. 

Sean was playing Garrek's Reavers with Void-Cursed Thralls.

It was clearly a well-thought-out deck by a really good player... I don't think he was expecting how nasty the Zondara and Ferlain combo could get... 

At the end of the game he only had one or two of his guys left. It was a VERY CLOSE game, with Sean winning by one point! (I could have probably squeaked out a victory if I'd only properly read one of my 2-point objective cards which I tried to score at the end of the third round and realized I hadn't quite done it right - I was supposed to place three DIFFERENT objective tokens during the round... but I'd only done the same one three times... there HAD been two others that i coud EASILY have gotten to and moved... but I hadn't read and understood the card and... so... didn't... DOH!!) 

While we were playing Orion showed up and started a game with John, the store manager.

For out second game Sean dug out Mollog's Mob and a Nemesis deck built around Hungering Parasite - which was really funny, because just the day before I'd been reading through the cards of the Hungering Parasite deck and thinking; "This would be NASTY with Mollog's Mob!!

The Zondara and Ferlain combo took down Mollog in the end - but not before Felain took a good walloping from Mollog's Giant club. 

Again, really close and really fun to play against! 

The Warhammer Store was a lot quieter than when we played earlier in the week at The Den. So much easier to concentrate on what I was doing and hear what people were saying to me! Looking forward to playing there regularly (but not this coming Friday, as Amanda and I have tickets to go see a show!) 

Maybe it will just be Fridays and Sundays for now... 

I'm really having fun with Zondara's Gravebreakers... I think I need to sort out some sort of Nemesis deck(s) for them, along with Skabbik's Plaguepack... and maybe Grinkrak's Looncourt and Mollog's Mob...? or Wurmspat...? Those seem the most fun right now. 

These were the 48th and 49th game I've played of Warhammer Underworlds this year! I'd suggested in the last Quarterly Game Plan I'd suggested maybe I try playing TEN different warbands, TEN times each through the year! I'm not sure that's going to happen... I think one thing I'd like to try and do is (assuming I finish painting them all...) play ALL of the warbands I have at least once this year... AND maybe pick four (or five) that I'm going to try and play 15-30 times each - to actually get GOOD and playing them, and maybe even start forging a little NARRATIVE with them! 

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! 

Warhammer Underworlds: Last Game in March!

Yesterday, the last Sunday in March, Nic and Orion came over to play some more Warhammer Underworlds. 

In our first game I rolled out with my new Skabbik's Plague Pack. They had not done well in their first game against Amanda playing Elathain's Soulraid. 

Amanda was playing Elathain's Soulraid again, Nic played Cyreni's Razors, and Orion was playing the Crimson Court. 

Cyreni's starrted off the bullying of the rats by charging in with THE SQUID and killing poor Poxlix... 

Vellas charged in to attack Tammael. 

And quicly found herself surrounded by Elathain's entire warband!? 

I'd had a plan that mostly involved maneuvering and trying to score objective cards... but then Cyreni, herself, came after my warband... 

Grand Melee in the middle of the board. 

Skabbik... maneuvering and scoring objective cards. 

Cyreni made the mistake of NOT killing rats at the beginning of the next round and she was just too tempting a target for Rabidius - and if he DIDN'T do something, she'd be killing rats... so Rabidius took her out! 

but then the SQUID came for Rabidius! 

Elsewhere, Skabbik, just doing his move around the board and score points thing, hoping no one would notice! 

And maneuvering back to befoul multiple territories again at the end of round two ... AND score MORE objectives!? 

Beginning of round three, I had no more passive objective cards or need to maneuver rats around to befoul territories... so we went on the attack! 

Rikit moved up and... hit someone..? 

Gah, I missed a few opportunities for pictures... there was a BIG mess of fighters here in the middle... this is the aftermath. the rats took out Fuirann and made Count Duval afraid enough that he actually ran away! 

I ended up winning this game with 20 Glory points! This was largely because it was a multi-player game and I had a few Objective cards that scored for "X Enemy Fighter out of action AND..." and all I had to do was the "AND..." because it does not matter WHO killed the enemy fighters, just that there are that many out of action! So all I had to do was concentrate on getting my rats to the places they needed to be, and hope that not too many tried to pick on the all too easy targets that they are! There is no way I'd be able to take out that many fighters myself, AND do the other things. Those cards probably have to go... 

I'm still not super sure how to PLAY these. I read some suggestions on Reddit - where someone else asked for tips on how to play. At least one, possibly more, had suggested as using them as "Suicide Aggro" - just charging them into enemy territory to kill things, knowing they are going to die, but hopefully score enough Glory before doing so... 

I never seem to have much luck with Aggro... because it is so reliant on rolling at least average rolls... and... that doesn't seem to work out for me!?

For Game Two I switched it op and pulled out Mollog's Mob to play with the new cards from the Rivals of the Mirrored City box, I'd bought the day before. 

Orion stuck with the Crimson Court, but Amanda decided to try out the new cards for the Thorns of the Briar Queen and Nic switched things up as well and played Grashrak's Despoilers. 

Tried to move up and bonk... and missed... 

See... aggro just don't work so well for me... 

Mollog chasing down Grashrak.

Orion had split his warband and half of them savaged the Thorns of the Briar Queen. and the other half went and killed half of Grashrak's Desppoilers... 

and when there was no more of them they turned on poor little Spiteshroom!?

Chasing down Grashrak! 

Orion did AMAZING. Crimson Court ended up scoring TWENTY FIVE glory in this game. 

I like Mollog's new cards... better than the previous set, but still needs some editing. I've heard some good things about pairing it with the Voidcursed Thralls rivals deck, to make a Nemesis deck! Too many things I want to play with. I'd also like to play more with Skabbik's Plaguepack and make a Nemesis deck for them... of course, as soon as I'm done the other new warbands, I'm going to want to play with THEM!?!?

Maybe I'll just be playing a new warband each week until I'm done them all in September... and THEN I'll start picking a few to try and learn to play really well!?