Author: Rob Zayin

Magore's Fiends and Steeheart's Champions make their appearance in Warhammer Underworlds: Online at Warhammer Fest

Warhammer Underworlds: Online – Interview with Steel Sky Productions

Posted on by Rob Zayin

Last week the WHU community was requested to drop the most relevant questions about the release of WHU: Online (Check the article here). 1182 votes from 52 countries decided which are the most relevant questions. WHU truly has a fantastic community.

Neil Rennison and Amelia Laughlan from Steel Sky Productions in Australia took the time to go through these questions and gave interesting Insights into the current state of development of Warhammer Underworlds: Online.

Before we head to the interview, let’s take a moment to understand the roles of Neil and Amelia in the development of this game and most important: Which warbands do they play!

Neil Rennison

Neil is the Creative Director for the project and handles all the business development side of things. With a background in 3D animation and twenty years of experience in video games, Neil has worked on almost every aspect of development except programming. He’s a dwarven loyalist, so The Chosen Axes have long been his favourite warband, although now that Thundrik’s Profiteers have been released, he may have a new favourite. 

Amelia Laughlan

Amelia works in production, marketing, and narrative for Warhammer Underworlds: Online as well as doing community management for the project. When she first started playing Underworlds back in the Shadespire days, she was a big fan of her Sepulchral Guard objective deck. These days she gravitates between the Farstriders and trying to pull off a decent deckbuild for Eyes of the Nine.

Alright, let’s head over to…

The Interview!

WUO players in Europe are excited as a playable demo version will make its debut at Warhammer Fest (Coventry, UK, May 11th & 12th). Which warbands will be playable at Warhammer Fest?
Steelheart’s Champions and Magore’s Fiends will be playable at Warhammer Fest. And yes, this means you’ll be able to play with everyone’s favourite Khornite doggo – Riptooth – as part of your warband.

Will the multiplayer version be playable at Warhammer Fest and/or the single player version?
The demo is two player multiplayer – so make sure you bring a friend to play with!

Which steps players know from the board game will be playable at Warhammer Fest (e.g. board placement, action phase, power step, end phase)?
The demo is pre-alpha and we’ve custom crafted an ‘express’ version of Underworlds to serve the format of the event. Decks are pre-crafted and board, objective, and fighter placement are randomised. You will then play through two rounds of Underworlds with normal action, power, and end phases. The game ends after this second round and third end phase objectives are instead scored here. 
We’ve also decided to ramp things up by giving each player one starting glory, so they’ve got the chance to get some of their upgrades into play. 
We will be continuing to add more features during development, and players can expect to see full board setup and rules, deckbuilding and full length games at Early Access release.

Will Warhammer Underworlds: Online be a 1:1 port of the board game?
We will be striving to make WUO as close as possible to the board game. There will be some aspects of the game that will need to be tweaked and changed in order to make the game function smoothly as a digital version. Our goal with any changes of this nature will be to make the digital game as great an experience as possible for all players.

Will the game maintain the tabletop Banned and Restricted card list?
This is yet to be decided. As we will be releasing the cards in a different order from Games Workshop’s physical releases, our meta during Early Access will be different. We intend to work closely with Games Workshop to address any problem cards that arise in this divergent meta.

Will the cards release similarly to the board game?
While warband cards will always be made available alongside their associated warband, we are planning on releasing universal cards in a different order from the physical game.

Will microtransactions be a thing in Warhammer Underworlds: Online? If so – will players who engage in microtransactions have advantages compared to those players who do not (in terms of gameplay)?
Warhammer Underworlds: Online will not feature microtransactions. The game will be premium priced with no hidden costs. All players will receive two warbands at launch and an extra two warbands during the Early Access period at no cost, making for a total of four warbands. New content will be distributed in two ways: 

  • All players will receive continuous, free card releases at regular intervals. 
  • Extra warband DLC expansions will be available for an additional cost.

In short there are only two things you will be paying for in the PC release of the game – the base game and warband DLC.

Will there be a multiplayer mode for more than two players? 
The Early Access release will focus on two player online multiplayer. We will consider developing additional modes based on feedback and production demands following Early Access release.

Will you still be able to choose and orientate boards?
We have yet to determine how many board setups will be available on Early Access release, but players will be able to choose from a selection of boards.

Will there be tournament support for the game?
Early Access will not feature formal tournament support for the game. However, we are well aware that Underworlds already has a thriving tournament scene and we are keen to hear from players and figure out what this might look like for WUO as we move into Early Access.

Amelia and Neil, thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions! I can’t wait to play WHU: Online myself soon.

Please make sure to join the discord channel for WHU: Online which is a great way to stay in touch with Steel Sky Productions.

WHU: Online – Ask the Developer

Posted on by Rob Zayin

A few days ago a bomb was dropped on our community. Steel Sky Productions is developing a digital port of our beloved Warhammer Underworlds and a playable demo will be available at Warhammer Fest 2019.

The feedback of players so far was mainly positive and most of us look forward to spending even more time with WHU in the near future. However we also fail to get rid of some fears swinging along with Warhammer Underworlds: Online.

Will it kill the miniature game on the run while players focus on the digital version? Can we do four player matches online? How is this single player mode going to happen?

So many questions circling in my head right now – and I had to get them out. So I contacted Steel Sky Productions and was allowed to send in questions for an interview (Thank you!).

Now this is your chance to ask the questions puzzling you about WHU: Online.

The poll will be open for one day only, so be quick!


Thorns of the Briar Queen won a Shadeglass trophy in Dubai

Dubai Spring Tournament – Thorns of the Briar Queen

Posted on by Rob Zayin

In my last article I gave insights into my Hold Objectives/ Controll deck for my Thorns of the Briar Queen. At the Dubai Spring Tournament (Battlezone Dubai) it successfully brought in my next Shadeglass Trophy.

Beef #1: Thorns of the Briar Queen VS Ironskull’s Boyz

I played against Terry’s well painted Orruks – a match-up which I have quite a lot of experience with. We played two rounds in which both I was able to do the board placement. My best chance for this (but the most frustrating for an Orruk player) was playing long corridor.

As it was the first round of the tournament Terry was not aware what kind of evil witchcraft my Queen was going to pull out of the hat and he placed the objectives as far behind as possible (one on the edge hex). I withdrew my whole gang to my edge of the board first using Varclav’s super power. He and his queen were placed on my edge in the beginning. End of turn one I made the hyper jump with my Queen by using Hidden Paths and pushed one of my minios onto the objective token in reach of Terry’s Boyz.

Thorns of the Briar Queen VS Ironskull’s Boyz – Objectives secured!

I do not clearly remember which objectives I scored, but it led me to 6 glory end of turn one. Terry had to decide splitting up his gang and attacking both flanks or focusing on my territory while ignoring the Queen holding an objective. To make her harder to ignore she was given the Tome of Glories. Terry decided to kill the Queen who resisted quite a long time before going down. She played her role well and allowed me to score objectives inside my territory leading to a victory in round 1.

I felt bad for Terry when I decided to use the same board placement as if things went not horribly wrong round 2 would go towards the same direction.

Thorns of the Briar Queen VS Ironskull’s Boyz – Sleepy ghosts

Indeed the second round went to my favour. After scoring four glory in turn one I decided to play it save and hide in my corner farming upgrades to score big in turn 3. Eventually the plan worked out and I won the best of three 2:0 with a glory difference of +22.

Terry showed good sportsmanship and I promise not to come back next time with a similar deck.

Beef #2: Thorns of the Briar Queen VS The Eyes of the Nine

Playing top-table against Tzeentch’s advocates was going to be tough for me. They have high range, they can summon an unkillable horror right next to me and they are unpredictable. On top of that Saeed was able to overcome Magore’s Fiends in his first match – spooky!

I got a good start being allowed to decide the board placement and once more I went with corridor. I had to delay jumping to Saeed’s territory as he would have wiped the ground with me easily. Drawing a Mulligan left me with some easy to score objectives: Well-Guarded, Keep them Guessing and Tactical Supremacy 3-4 which were placed on my board. I was able to score all of them as Saeed summoned the blue horror in range of my minions. Oh boy this small guy is a pain! I know it is better ignoring him, but once Saeed equipped him with Tome of Diseases and threw Shardgale into the ring I was too scared to leave him alone. I attacked him and wasted an unreasonable amount of ploys to silence him (he still killed one or two of my ghosts). However thanks to the strong start I was able to win round 1 by +5 glory. I was saved by the upgrades Inescapable Vengeance and Faneway Crystal which brought me some extra glory in round 3 along with the suitable keys.
The second match I got to place three objective tokens, but had to say good-bye to the corridor. Until round 3 I was only able to score 4 glory and lost the Ever-Hanged plus three other Chainrasps. These 4 glory though I kept for the last round to equip the Faneway Crystal and provide a key or two (spoiler: I did not draw the right keys). Apart from Faneway Crystal I had Transfixing Gaze, Baffling Illusion and Sudden Appearance in hand.

The objectives I held could net me 7 glory: Supremacy, Making a Statement and Take the City. Saeed hat two objectives tokens on his board and I had the right cards to jump there within two turns.

My plan was clear, but chances pulling off the following were low to say the least:

  1. Varclav was wounded and could be killed with a single blow, so I put him on guard.
  2. I had to use Transfixing Gaze on K’charik who was in range of both a) the place where my Queen would disappear to as well as b) my chainrasp who would be holding an objective on my territory.
  3. Baffling Illusion would deny one turn of successful charging
  4. I hoped he would go for my Chainrasp who was the easiest kill. Even if he killed him I still had 4 more glory from Making a Statement and Take the City which might be enough to still win.
  5. My Queen will escape and make a Sudden Appearance out of reach and move onto an objective in Saeed’s territory.
  6. Varclav will use the allmighty Faneway Crystal to jump straight onto the second objective in Saeed’s territory.

Unfortunately Saeed switched to attacking Varclav once he held the objective in this territory, but I was able to win all rolls thanks to his guard token. I was struck by surprise when I finally scored all 7 glory while denying Saeed’s objectives.

End of round 3 victory was mine with 2:0 and +11 glory difference. Both Saeed and I could not believe what just happened. Sorry for stealing that win!

Beef #3: Thorns of the Briar Queen VS Stormcast Eternals

At that point only Byron’s Stormcast Eternals and my Nighthaunt stood undefeated. Due to personal reasons Byron had to concede this match (I think and hope it was not because I am horrible person!). I am leaving this event with a feeling of unfinished business, but I think somehow my ghosties deserved their Shadeglass.

It was a lovely day at the Battlezone and even though our community here in Dubai is still small it is a big pleasure meeting them and discussing WHU in our WhatsApp-group.

As my Nighthaunt will be sent into retirement with immediate effect The Eyes of the Nine are ready for the next tournament. Stay tuned for my next decklist!

Make Holding Objectives great again!

Posted on by Rob Zayin

Last weekend I participated in Dubai’s WHU Spring tournament taking place at my new home LGS “Battlezone Dubai”. I worked on my Thorns of the Briar Queen deck and thought about how to adjust it to the current meta and the fact that I am able to complete a full Bo3 game without rolling a single crit.

Eventually I came up with this deck.

The main strategy is not being attacked by your enemy while trying to sneak onto objectives through movement shenanigan ploys at the end of each action phase. Apart of that I included five objectives which are easy to score and only need very little interaction with your opponent.

As in round 2 or 3 the opponent will be after you anyhow I included some ploys which allow you to hyper jump onto the other edge of the board. Let’s take a look at the deck.

The objectives

Easy to score: Escalation, Perfect Planning, Well-Guarded, Fired Up, Keep them Guessing

Perfect planning works smoothly with the nighthaunt as Varclav’s ability gives you mobility without movement. Well-Guarded is easy to score especially in early game as there are simply so many minions hanging around which can be pushed adjacent to the Queen with a single action or ploy. Fired up can be scored with a ploy at the end of your opponent’s activation without putting your character’s in too much danger.

Holding objectives: Supremacy, Our Only Way Out, Making a Statment, Take the City, Tactical Supremacy 1-2, 1-4, 3-4

Not going into the classics here which are a must-have in this deck, but we should take a look at Making a Statement and Take the City.
Making a Statement looks pretty hard to score as you need to invade enemy territory. That is true, but you will see that we have included some cards which let you escape to the other board edge making it easy to even move three characters over there in the last turn. Importat to remember: If you see that your opponent is placing all objective tokens into No-Man’s territory place one of yours to the far end edge of their territory. In that case you can simply rob the three glory whenever you draw that card.
Take the City is a bad card. Yes, it sucks. However in our deck it has its spot and can add a simple +1 while going for your main objectives.

Gambits

A gambit a day keeps the Mollog away: Invisible Walls, Baffling Illusion, Transfixing Stare, Howling Vortex

Transfixing Stare can win you a match if played well. Frozen in Time is a viable alternative, but again I do not want to rely on dice rolls. Invisible Walls and Baffling Illusion work nice to bring your minions to the safety zone if you need more than one actication to do so. Howling Vortex feels quite broken if you are able to pull it off. Pushing all of your opponent’s models one field is like a horrible version of Great Concussion (do you still remember that card? Back then when we were young…) as you can even push them towards No-Man’s territory from any direction.

Bazinga! Hidden Paths, Illusory Fighter, Quick Advance, Drifting Advance, Sudden Appearance, Earthquake

 

Hidden Paths and Sudden Appearance will do the trick if you need to switch boards. While Illusionary Fighter only lets you jump close to No-Man’s Sudden Appearance will take you to any starting hex on both boards. Drifting Advance requires you to get closer to your opponent which we actually do not want. However if you use it after the last activation to sneak onto objective tokens it is as good as Varclav’s super hero power. I usually use Earthquake to counter Earthquake and/or pushing the opponent off objective tokens (ideally while going onto it myself).

Upgrades

More Bazinga! Shardcaller, Inescapable Vengeance, Faneway Crystal

With Faneway Crystal and Inescapable Vengeance we add two more options to our deck jumpin to where no sun is shining. The beauty of the Faneway Crystal allows us to directly move onto an objective token. With Inescapable Vengeance you need to push your queen at least one more hex. Shardcaller is a nice card, but I tend to forget I equiped it until I realise “Hell, it could have scored me two glory!”.

The Key to Success is Keys: The Blazing, Dazzling, Formless, Fractured, Hallowed & Shadowed Key, Tome of Glories

These will bring in what it takes to crush your opponent end of round 3 even if you were far behind. Obviously try to either equip these at late as possible or use one of them as Red Herring to redirect your opponent towards a worthless minion in a lonely irrelevant corner of the board.

How to…

Place the boards adjacent on the short edges if you win the roll. This way you can split up your team 4:3 on both boards leaving the opponent with three viable targets or the option to split up their warband as well.

If you lost the board placement roll: no problem! You have three objective tokens to place in that case. Make sure you have at least two objectives in hand which you can score round one otherwise you will be screwed.

Should you intend to attack back: go for the Ever-Hanged (Cleave) and your Queen who are already strong without any upgrades. Just make sure to get them inspired before attacking. You will need Varclav for his special power – do not lose him!

Read my upcoming battle report to see how my spooky squad managed this new deck!

 

WHU in the Arabic World

Posted on by Rob Zayin

Previously on Losing in Warhammer Underworlds:

I attended the first Warhammer Underworlds Masters Germany in December.

Bringing along a hold objectives ghost gang I won the first two rounds im a rush of glory. And that was when the sh** hit the fan. I had to play the top-table in round three and faced aggressive SCEs who did not fancy my movement shenanigans at all and crushed me with brute force. Round four I was out of the race for the trophy and got stomped by Magore’s. Even though there was clearly no blood involved in this match-up his fiends clearly enjoyed turning WHU into a Hack’n’Slay adventure.

Well – what did I learn? Going full hold objectives can go well (and if it does the amount of glory obtained is hilarious), but against aggressive decks with a few good rolls, the sun does shine no more.

What next?

A quick summary of what I did recently: I moved to Dubai with my wife and kids. At Battle Zone Dubai I found (or was found by) a group of great people who run monthly tournaments and play every now and then.

Last week I visited them and played a match against Nic who later that day won the trophy (picture above). Thanks a bunch for letting me play your cards and miniatures, guys! It was a pleasure meeting all of you, even though Nic steamrolled me with his fiends (Full circle.).

I will get back with battle and meta reports from the UAE in my next articles and believe that might be interesting, especially comparing that to the European meta which I am still used to.

On top of that I will again prepare for a series of tournaments in July and August 2019 (staying in Europe for the summer – too freaking hot here o.O). Read you soon!

Warhammer Underworlds Masters Germany

Posted on by Rob Zayin

It has been a while since my last match in competitive play, but I have been busy playing WHU whenever time allowed.

The best experience in Organised Play without a doubt was the event hosted by TG Play! Herford which are now running the WHU Masters which is currently the biggest WHU event in contintental Europe so far (42 registered players to date).

On the registration page we can see which warbands will make an appearance: https://www.tabletopturniere.de/t3_tournament_list.php?tid=22128

We can see that the season 1 warbands take a step back, but skaven went up. I decided to switch from my initial choice (Spiteclaw’s Swarm) to Thorns of the Briar Queen as my old skaven deck was utterly devastated by the BAR-list; while my thorns deck was just fine. Hell, I did not even reach five restricted cards and am now thinking I must have done something wrong! However during training sessions I made the highest score I was able to pull off so far (with any warband).

The event will take place in Herford which is located in the west of Germany close to Düsseldorf and the western borders. Unfortunately it seems the way is still too far for international players even though this thing is bigger than the official Grand Clash at Warhammer Fest.

Back then when the number of players was still below 20 I decided to sponsor a glass trophy for the event. I hope we will still reach the number of 50 players (perhaps with some internationals attending?). If you are free on December 1st join us! You can win lots of fantastic stuff, including the full organised play kit, but also other fancy stuff.

Pokal_Master

I am not the TO, but I wish them the best success possible! You can download the event reader here. Stay tuned for the decklist after the event.

Review: Novel “Shadespire – The Mirrored City”

Posted on by Rob Zayin

So I did a crazy thing: I read a book. Should you read it as well? Yes, it’s a good read! However if you do not have the time to read through (or hate reading?) take five minutes for this article. I will sum up the information relevant for WHU players (spoilers below!).

The Novel “Shadespire – The Mirrored City” by Josh Reynolds gives insights into the afterlife of the Katophranes, as well as the former citizens of Shadespire and those who came to the Mirrored city by coincidence or to seek glory and treasures. Apart of that we get to understand how the time and room mechanics of this city work.

I will ignore the book’s story and get straight to the points which are somehow relevant to WHU:

  1. Time goes by slower or faster depending on where a person is located. E.g. one minute in one place could be 10 years in the next street.
  2. The streets of Shadespire are ever shifting and this way it is hard or almost impossible to navigate towards it. These shifts often result in shards falling from above.
  3. Time in Shadespire progresses in loops and at some specific point/event the loop starts all over again from the creation of the mirrored city. Some individuals seem to remember what happened during prior loops, most do not.
  4. People who “die” in Shadespire will be resurrected. You just do not know when and where! Might be the same spot one minute later; might as well be another district 10 years later. However every time they die, people lose a bit of their character and memories.
  5. Through looping and resurrection there might be multiple versions of one person hanging around in Shadespire.
  6. There are keys hidden in Shadespire which each open the way to one of several vaults. Treasures seem to be hidden there, but of which value are they if escape from Shadespire is not possible?
  7. The Katophranes are bored to death (but can’t die) so they fight each other through crazy mind games. They are caught inside the shadeglasses, but can talk with the citizens of Shadespire (to manipulate them).
  8. Rumor has it that if the broken Faneway Crystal is reconstructed the curse of Shadespire will be broken. Pieces are spread all over Shadespire.
  9. The Warden was the leader of Shadespire’s guardsmen. Now he is strictly following Nagash’s will.
  10. Nagash is always watching the Mirrored City, but seems to no longer have direct control/access to Shadespire.
  11. Chaos gods do not have access to Shadespire. The blood god does not see the blood.

It is interesting how these points explain why e.g. Magore’s Fiends could fight another version of themselves, why they could die and fight again another day, as well as many of the cards such as “Frozen in Time”, “Hidden Paths”, etc.

Hope this knowledge will enhance your gameplay! Stay tuned.

The Warhammer Underworlds Grand Clash and my way to the shadeglass

Posted on by Rob Zayin

A while ago I set up the plan to take part in as many tournaments as possible until I win a shadeglass trophy. Here is how it went:

I started my tournament season with the toughest challenge available: The Grand Clash at Warhammer Fest in Dusseldorf, Germany. Andrej accompanied me and it was his first Shadespire tournament as well.

We started off with a bootcamp the week before playing multiple matches with time limit as we were afraid we might play too slow. Andrej was running the cannibals (bloodreavers) while I trained with my hybrid skaven deck.

Honestly I did not feel ready for a Grand Clash as I knew I had troubles with whatever Khorne sent towards me, but I was determined to not change my warband.

The Grand Clash

The event took place at Maritim hotel (Dusseldorf airport). The hotel itself was a bit too fancy for our likes, but the location attracted many international players from all over the world; suitable for a Grand Clash!

The event featured four matches and a final match between 1st and 2nd place. The first three matches took place on Saturday while the fourth match and the final happened on Sunday.

We played best of three with a time limit of 90 minutes. In between matches there was enough time to eat (sausages for roughly 7€ – but there was a supermarket nearby) or to risk a look at the fantastic miniatures on display (Golden Demon Awards) and Games Workshop’s new releases.

I won a mirror match against Skaven with a glory difference of roughly 20+ which got me to the top tables in round 2. There I faced the Orruks which I was able to slay apart thanks to a lot of a lot of crits. Afterwards it went downwards. In round I had to face another Skaven warband, yet this time I screwed up. I guess my prior wins pushed my ego too far and I let my poor Skritch die a painful dead.

But it was round 4 when I met my new nemesis. Defensive Farstriders… My opponent did not score a lot of glory, but it was enough to beat me.

Eventually I placed in the upper middle-field which was ok for my first tournament. Let’s take an even less detailed look on the next tournaments.

Headblast Con

Nice location, well organised and I met some fellow players from the Warhammer Fest such as Deniz. Back then I gave his Orruks a tough time. His revenge was brought by yours truly Sanson Farstrider. Lost the first round as well as the second (Magore’s Fiends). However I was able to win the upcoming two rounds against Stormcast Eternals and Farstriders. Again I was ranked in the upper middle-field. Up to the next event!

TG Play!

This was the best organised event I have seen so far (not only for WHU); even better than the Grand Clash. I will be going there again for the Masters in December (this time with my Thorns of the Briar Queen).

Round 1 was against Klaas and his Orruks. It was an intense match-up and ended in a draw (which I believe we were both happy about). Round 2 was a rain of glory against the Warden and his shaky bones. Which let to round 3… Farstriders. Aaaand I lost that one again. No glass for me this time even though my skaven kicked asses in round 4 (which was a sweet mirror match). Time to move on!

Fischkrieg

The fourth tournament happened at a nice store in Siegen which I visited earlier for TCG events and it actually was the shop where I initially bought Shadespire and my Skaven.

This time I made it to the finals despite the fact that I met Farstriders on my way there. I guess fighting them repeatedly helped a lot, because this time I knew what to do and managed to win even with several bad rolls on my side.

It seems this tournament was meant to bring several story arcs to an end. I faced my bro Andrej in the finals who started this journey with me. I would usually lose against these freaking bloodsuckers of Khorne. But not this time! If I remember correctly the earth started shaking while we played three exciting rounds. Our rolls were accompanied by thunder… Perhaps my mind is colouring that moment a bit too much. Long story short: I won the third match thanks to a tiebreaker and ended this journey with my first shadeglass-trophy!

What next?

Shortly after my win Nightvault was released and I decided to take a change. For the next tournament (the Masters) I built a new deck for my nighthaunt with a different playstyle.

The event will take place on December 1st and until now 36 players are registered. The Masters might easily grow to the biggest WHU event so far.

As by now many WHU blogs post on regular basis I decided to only throw in my few cents every now and then.

Next time I will introduce my Nighthaunt deck (after December 1st). Stay tuned!

Warhammer Underworlds Tournament Warband - Spiteclaw's Swarm

Hybrid Decklist – Spiteclaw’s Swarm

Posted on by Rob Zayin

During the last four weeks I attended a couple of tournaments with Spiteclaw’s Swarm. Yesterday was the last clash and as the dust settles I am starting to review all events.

I am starting off with my decklist which I did not change during these 4 weeks. Players usually tend to either go for full aggro or objectives when piloting Skaven, but I decided to run a hybrid deck. So here’s the list and I am going to explain the decisions behind it right after.

Ploys (10):

  • Musk of Fear
  • Earthquake
  • Great Concussion
  • Hidden Paths
  • Illusory Fighter
  • Quick Thinker
  • Ready for Action
  • Sidestep
  • Time Trap
  • Quick Advance

My ploys mainly cover three aims:
1) Contain the keyword “choose” to inspire my warband. These cards are: Musk of Fear, Hidden Paths, Illusory Fighter, Ready for Action, Sidestep, Time Trap, Quick Advance (7 in total).

2) Push/move my skaven. Cards to do this: Earthquake, Great Concussion, Hidden Paths, Illusory Fighter, Quick Thinker, Ready for Action, Sidestep, Time Trap, Quick Advance (9 in total).

3) Grant actions (or there results) without activations. And this is done by: Musk of Fear, Hidden Paths, Illusory Fighter, Quick Thinker, Ready for Action (5 in total).

Most of these ploys fulfil two or even three of my criteria. Quick Advance for example inspires two skaven and probably pushing them on to objectives which saves me two activations.

Upgrades (10):

  • Sneaky Stab-stab
  • A Destiny to Meet
  • Acrobatic
  • Awakened Weapon
  • Great Fortitude
  • Great Strength
  • Deathly Fortune
  • Incredible Strength
  • Total Offence
  • Zealous Defender

While the main purpose of these upgrades is to transform Skritch into a weapon of mass destruction, sometimes this is not possible as he has been transformed to a skaven-kebab before. So all of these upgrades can be played on any of the skaven.

Most of these are already very famous so I am just explaining the three of doubt here:
1) A Destiny to Meet? Either put it on an unkillable Skritch in late game or put it on one of the three minions who can be revived in any corner of the board when convenient (out of reach for the enemy of course). As my glory threshold is not too high this one glory actually wins games from time to time plus you can use it to distract your opponent by making a useless uninspired minion interesting to attack.

2) Total Offence? Sounds bad as you can not activate afterwards? However: You can still use Time Trap or Ready for Action to get free attacks and guess what? You can again use your four dies to attack. Also it is always good for the last activation. This is one of the most important cards in this deck (upgrade-wise).

3) Zealous Defender? Why not Helpful Whispers you ask now! This deck wants to hold objectives which means the opponent will usually try to kick your skaven down from those. Zealous Defender grants the support in both attack and defence which I believe is a big advantage. Having Skritch sitting on an objective in late game with this upgrade is really nice…

Objectives:

  • Arm’s Length
  • Skritch is the Greatest, Yes-yes
  • Alone in the Darkness
  • Shining Example
  • Change of Tactics
  • Escalation
  • No Remorse
  • Our Only Way Out
  • Plant a Standard
  • Ploymaster
  • Precise Use of Force
  • Supremacy

The objectives follow three directions:
1) Skritch must live and kill! Mainly or exclusively aimed at Skritch: Arm’s Length, Skritch is the Greatest, Yes-yes, Shining Example, No Remorse, Plant a Standard, Precise use of Force (7 in total).

2) Holding objectives. As holding specific objectives (1-5) is a pain in the youknowwhat this deck is only working with unspecific objectives to hold. Supremacy and Our Only Way Out need to fulfil the same criteria in order to get scored. If you are lucky this means five glory in one round. Our aim is to achieve this in round one, but it can also save the day in round two or three. Plant a Standard is not that easy to achieve, but having Skritch in the back of your opponent’s force sitting on an objective is not too bad (e.g. through Hidden Paths or Illusory Fighter plus movement).

3) Easy to score and score immediately. While Shining Example, Escalation, Ploymaster and Alone in the Darkness (4 in total) usually can be scored passively by just going with the game’s flow, Change of Tactics, Precise Use of Force, No Remorse, Arm’s Length, Skritch is the Greatest, Yes-yes (5 in total) will be scored immediately helping you to faster crawl through your objectives-deck.

Strategy:

Most important: Don’t aggressively bring Skritch to the front in the early game. If he is gone skaven-kebab in round one you most certainly will lose that match. Hold him out of reach until he is all tuned-up. Also consider that your opponent might jump the board with Hidden Paths to kill Skritch in early turns. Don’t let that happen!

You must be able to score some glory in round one without killing anything. If your cards do not allow that go for a Mulligan. Before that: If you win the roll for board placement select longboard and keep your enemies on distance. If you lose the roll you have the three objectives on your side which is in your favour as well. Place them as far away from any enemy model as possible.

Best thing to happen: Great concussion in round one! Us it to increase the distance between the opponent’s models and your’s by placing the marker in the  middle of the board. If you made the right set-up you can now place skaven on objectives at the same time.

However should you play against Farstriders or Eternals you might face a defensive deck. In the first match do not place long-board against them. If they play defensively you are in a very bad place otherwise as you will simply not reach them.

That’s it for today! I will post the tournament battle reports one by one soon – stay tuned!

Ploy Time Trap in Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire

Cheap Combos 2: Trapped in Time

Posted on by Rob Zayin

Time Trap is a great card. Especially since the FAQ confirmed that even after a charge that character can use Time Trap for an additional attack.

I want to point out some of the best combos to trigger along with Time Trap and some tactics to make it work in the best way.

The charge: We want to make sure that we are actually able to hit a target with our first charge. Keeping in mind that Quick Thinker might always screw us if we charge only one character, we try to end our movement in range of two possible targets. If you are not playing a character with range 2 this means your opponent will get the support, but that’s better than not being able to attack at all. Why this? A charge consists of two actions – a movement and an attack. Quick Thinker can only be played as reaction to a movement. Which means if your opponent plays Quick Thinker on one of the two models in range you are still able to attack the other character in range.

After the charge: As we moved in range to two possible targets with the charge we might have three different situations now.
1) Still two models in range (you did not kill the target, enemy did not react with a movement)
2) One model in range (either you killed your first target or you did not, but your opponent used Quick Thinker)
3) No models in range (you killed your first target, but your opponent Quick Thinkered away with the second model)

Let’s take a look at 1) and 2) first:
You have the priority of playing cards now. Playing Time Trap right now will not allow the enemy to move away. You will simply have a second attack. However it is a sweet moment to play an upgrade onto your attacking model (if possible of course) should you currently hold Ready for Action. After applying the upgrade your opponent holds priority to play a reaction-ploy, but currently there is no real threat to be afraid of (in terms of available cards). I would try to pull off Ready for Action before using Time Trap simply because dealing three attacks in a row is freaking awesome.

Even though your character charged before this card allows you to hit once more. If there is still a target left after Ready for Action – now is the time to use Time Trap.

After all possible attacks: In the best case you just knocked out three characters and there is no threat left to hide from, but experience says there are bloodthirsty enemies nearby ready to bring on revenge big times. So what we want to do know is: get the f*** away!

My favourite way: You have never been there to start with! Simply return to your board-side with Illusory Fighter. As this is not considered a movement you can add it to your combo after charging.

Illusory-Fighter

Possible option with Skaven: Stay there, but be prepared by playing Musk of Fear which allows you to go on guard even after charging without using an activation.

Musk_of_Fear

Of course there are other options to get you out of range or keep the enemy from attacking you, but consider that your opponent will have two activations in a row. Any good cards to add to this combo? Let us know in the comments below!