Warhammer Underworlds - Friday the 13th Edition

 Friday the 13th turned out to be kind of lucky this year. I FINALLY got a confirmation email that my cards had been printed THREE AND A HALF WEEKS after I'd place the order (that indicated it should take 1-3 DAYS?!)

So I spent the afternoon doing a bit of crafting - cutting out cards and gluing the fronts to the backs (while watching Dimension 20 with Finnegan - we're on the second season of Unsleeping City) 

In the evening, Orion stopped by to play a few games! 

GAME ONE

I played Wurmspat with the Blazing Assault rivals deck, Orion played Hexbane's Hunters with Emberstone Sentinels. 

I like the new Wurmspat cards. They feel... sufficiently TOUGH and can rock around the board dealing some PAIN! 

End of the first round... one dog and one Hunter down... 

Round two Wurmspat finished off another Hunter and focused their sights on Hexbane, himself. 

Kind of took all three of them to take him down... 

Then they set their sites on Amos and the remaining dog... who were unfortunately on the other side of the board! 

Guloch walk halfway as bait and Amos took it! 

Finished off the dog, lost Sepsimus... ended the game 12 Glory Points to Orions 14... 

It was nice to play Wurmspat and not feel like they totally SUCKED! 

GAME TWO

In round two we switched things up and I tried out Zondara's Gravebreakers with the Pillage and Plunder Deck. Orion took the Skinnerkin and Reckless Fury. 

It was a tough game with a lot of back and forth... At the end I thought I was going to be able to score all three cards in my hands for 5 more points... but then ended up scoring only one... but I'm not sure... I think I might have been able to score the other two...?

Mind you, I'd been kind of cheating earlier in the game, drawing a few extra power cards than I should (thinking when the zombies delved they could just draw power cards, instead of draw power cards equal to the number of zombies out of action!? Whoopsie)

So it probably all worked out in the end. Orion scored 12, I scored 10. Still, a fairly close game! 

Afterwards I watched some TV with Amanda and tried to get a few more warbands cards sorted out... 

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 - Da Kunnin Krew versus Zondara's Gravebreakers

 The Lost Post. 

Amanda and I played this game a few weeks back on... the 8th of June!? When I first suggested maybe we should get some one-one-one games in with Rivals decks so we at least look like when know what we're doing at the event at the end of the month... and then we didn't play again for almost two weeks! And apparently I forgot to do a quick game report!?

Amanda wanted to try something new so she grabbed Da Kunnin' Krew - which she has played against - at least once or twice - but had no recolection of... never played herself, let along looked at the cards. 

Up until this point, I'd been having pretty good luck with Zondara's Gravebreakers. I went into this game genuinely worried that I was just going to DESTROY Amanda and discourage her from attending the event with me... 

If you can't read her new hat, it says: "I will meditate and then DESTROY YOU!"

I'm not sure WHEN, exactly, she was able to do any meditation, but it worked out!?

It's been a while since we played, so I don't remember exactly how it all went down. 

Up until this point I'd pretty consistently won with Zondara's - except for one (but that game was super close - lost by a point, and would have won, except I'd read an objective card that I EASILY would have been able to score... but because I hadn't read it properly, did the wrong thing...) scoring 12-13 points... 

This game just didn't work out... and Amanda just wrecked every chance I had to score Objective cards... without even knowing she was doing it... It just kind of worked out that she happened to do the EXACT things needed to wreck every plan I made... 

Took out a zombie that I REALLY NEEDED to get to a particular objective token... Jumped on an objective token I needed to get on to score... 

I THINK Zondara and Ferlain made it to the end... or... maybe not, because then I would have had the BOTH STILL ALIVE card I could score...? or I just drew that at the wrong time and... Yeah... I don't know... Things just didn't work out. 

I did see how Zondara's can quite easily be countered in this game, though... I like Zondara's Gravebreakers, because they are less dependent on being able to KILL lots of stuff. You can kind of do your own thing, putting zombies on objectives and doing their special grave-break action and scoring points for it... if people try to kick off you Zombies, that's FINE because they can be brought back the very next activation with another gravebreak action - and they come back INSPIRED and tougher! You kind of WANT people to take out your zombies... 

The counter, though, is aggresively moving into Zondara's territory and standing on those objectives - denying the Gravebreak action - and hitting zombies standing next to them!

Amanda won 11-6... it wasn't an overwhelming defeat (like when Orion beats me 20-4!?)... and I learned stuff!  

Warhammer Underworlds - Zondara Versus Thundrik

A few weeks ago Amanda and I decided we should probably play a few practice games if we're going out to this Warhammer Underworlds event on the 30th! We did play a game... which I never got around to posting a game report of... and then didn't get to playing any others for nearly TWO WEEKS!!! 

It's been busy... 

and... this weekend is going to be busy... 

Hopefully, starting on Sunday, we'll get in a game or two each night for the next week, to try out some warbands in Rivals format and then settle on one to practice a few more times before playing it at the event!

This week Amanda decided to try out Zondara's Gravebreakers - using the faction's own Rivals Deck. 

I decided to try out Thundrik's Profiteers!? Because the older Shadespire/Nightvault era warbands don't have legal Rivals Decks (their Objective decks only contain nine cards!) I had to pair them with a Generic Rivals deck, and I decided to try out Rimelocked Relics! 

Right off the hop, Khazgan Drakkskewer attacked Pikk and Amanda rolled her first of FOUR crit-defences of the evening?!. I was able to use a Ploy card to push Drakkskewer and Thundrik onto Objectives and scorred my first objective After Amanda's first activation... 

Her first action was to charge Enrik Ironhail with Zondara and kill him... Unfortunately that left her withing range of Dead-Eye Lund, who I'd just inspired and he spend the next two activations shooting at Zondara. Hit both times and that was the end of her. 

The Ferlain charged and shredded poor Garodd Arnesen... 

For my last activation in the round, I moved up Thundrik to the middle of the board, adjacent to Ferlain... Couldn't attack because the push card from earlier in the round required that I put a move or charge token on him. I'd put a move token, so he could move but not charge. 

Ferlain wasn't my objective, though... I was trying to get past Ferlain and over to an objective in Enemy Territory... to score OBJECTIVES. I got there on my first activation in the following round - and scorred the Objective... But then Thundrik was attacked by Ferlain and two of the Zombies 

Throughout the Second Round Amanda rolled THREE MORE crit defences... I'd roll two successes on an attack, she'd roll one crit for defence. Then on one attack I rolled a crit and a success... and she rolled TWO CRITS?! It was nuts... 

At the beginning of Round Three, Thundrik was finished off by Toyle - one of the zombies... 

Then Ferlain came after Drakkskewer... she rolled TWO CRITS for her attack... and now it was MY turn to do something crazy, and I rolled TWO CRITS to defend!? 

Drakkskewer survived and spent his next two activations attacking and finishing off Ferlain! 

Amanda spent most of the rest of her actions doing Gravebreak actions to score a couple of Objective Cards! 

Despite just not being able to hit nearly half of my attacks due to Crit Defences, I won!? Amanda did pretty good herself, considering she'd never even looked at the cards before, let along played Zondara's... 

Will Amanda bring Zondara to the tournament...? Probably not. 

Will I bring Thundrik's Profiteers with Rimelocked Relics...? Maybe. I can't count on them doing this good, but it would be fun to - largely because it would be so surprising as NO ONE had played Thundrik's Profiteers around here! 

People will be familiar with Rimelocked Relics, so that wouldn't be much of a shocker... The other downside is... they are NOT THAT GREAT!!! Only one of them does more than ONE DAMAGE on any of their uninspired attack actions... and they all start with a move of TWO!? (they do inspire to three - except for Drakkskewer - the guy with the dirigible attached to his back - who starts with Four Move, and stays there when inspired) 

Seriously, most of Zondara's zombies are more spry and dangerous than most of Thundrik's Profiteers?!

Maybe I should roll out with a Beastgrave or Direchasm warband that no one's played - and use their faction Rivals deck.... Like Myari's Purifiers...? The only problem is the Faction decks of that era are just GARBAGE to play on their own. 

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!