Hey lurkers, you’re reading my first public post on the Warhammer Underworlds board game. I will share my considerations on playing the warband Gnarlspirit Pack in the beginner-friendly Nemesis format, specifically together with the Rivals deck Daring Delvers.
(Before continuing, I want to explain my perspective on the game: I have been playing this wonderful board game for about a year now. After having had competitive aspirations in the beginning, I now enjoy laid-back games with the couple of opponents I had the pleasure to get to know here in the South of Germany. So I can offer little insight on the dominant way of playing the game — something called the meta game — nor do I claim to be a really good player. But I think it’s nice to exchange thoughts and have even more fun through this more reflective approach to the game.)
As I currently only play in person a few times a month at best, this ideas are mostly limited to theory-crafting and so-called casual play. Indeed, I was able to test my deck against Hexbane’s Hunters once. So first read the theory, and then stay for the game report on me trying to beat those hunters!
Before we get started, I want to ask you some questions important to me regarding potential future content:
- How should I handle card images? They look ugly to me when embedded directly. On the other hand, only linking them might be inconvenient. What do you say?
- Are you interested in this kind of content from a player not among the best?
- Would you like to see more short-form content on Underworlds? Would you subscribe to my page for that?
A lot of questions, I know, but I would be amazed hearing from you :).
Edits
- Corrected a lot of spelling mistakes. I had to write this post twice basically, as the first version wasn’t saved by the platform …
- As someone on Facebook pointed out, Daring Delvers holds an upgrade which is actually insane for Gnarlspirit Pack: Conqueror’s Circlet. This way, Gorl can reach up to move seven!
Picking Daring Delvers
Link to the full deck list.
Strengths and Joys
- Sudden Demise is one of the strongest objectives in the game, rewarding 2 for dealing so-called ping damage and taking a fighter out of action
- Solid support for this objective through the ploys Flame Wisps, Grasping Rootgrave, and Quickroots
- High card-draw potential in form of the Plundered Knowledge upgrade
- Solid ways of scoring glory without taking enemy fighters out of action through the Exploration mechanic and objectives using it, like Pathfinders or Cautious Venture
Weaknesses and Annoyances
- The deck is quite self-referential, meaning that a lot of card are strongly related to the Exploration mechanic. Of course, you can still pick it just for the ping damage
- Exploration requires a lot of investment and requires you to accomplish one of the hardest feats in the game: moving onto feature tokens in enemy territory before they’re taken and still be standing on them at the end of the round. Furthermore, this strategy is also being telegraphed to your opponent at the start of the game.
- Especially objectives that require a certain Exploration count, like Claim Guardians, can be a dead draw or really hard to score in the early or late game.
- The Domain cards feel so-so to me, but I still play them for Pathfinders.
Playing the Gnarlspirit Pack together with Daring Delvers
Link to their full Rivals deck.
Strengths and Joys
- Everyone except Gorl has movement 4 upwards, peaking at movement 6 in the case of Sarrakkar. So it’s easy to actually reach feature tokens in enemy territory.
- Sarrakkar and Lupan both have quite potent ranged attacks, which is great when being stranded on a feature token without an adjacent target at hand.
- All fighters are reasonably durable, which makes surviving in enemy territory accomplishable.
- Built-in ping damage in the form of Hunting Aspect, although the effect has further limitations.
- Objectives already heavily incentivize storming into enemy territory.
- Decent synergies between their objectives and the objectives from Daring Delvers, e.g. in the form of Survivalist and Raze and Pillage.
Weaknesses and Annoyances
- They are only four fighters. Fast hordes might lean more strongly towards Daring Delvers, as they have more spare fighters to stand on feature tokens.
- Their own Rivals deck is clearly more targeted towards outright taking enemy fighters out of action, so some potential is probably being left on the table.
- When in beast-form, they can’t hold objectives. This makes Claim Guardians even harder to play, although it is questionable whether that’s a good card in the first place. Besides that card, being a beast doesn’t negatively impact your game plan.
- As you score a lot by being in enemy territory, enemies running into your territory and reducing your Exploration count by standing on objectives is problematic. You might be denied a lot of glory by that.
Top Picks from my Nemesis Deck
Objectives
- Sudden Demise, obviously. Having Knockback on Gorl is a bonus. Combined with 4 potential ping damage ploys there is a real chance to score 3 glory here.
- I think that Cautious Venture is a solid 2 glory end phase objective that might even be scored in the first round.
- Raze and Pillage rewards you 2 glory for doing what you will do anyway.
Ploys
- The 4 ping ploys can easily fill the spots for top picks.
- In addition, Temporary Heaven should make it much easier to stand on a feature token in enemy territory, thus also generating Exploration points.
- I Just love Hunting Aspect, such a flavorful card.
Upgrades
- Plundered Knowledge seems like a strong way of earning even more reward for taking an enemy out of action
- Enshrouded Shot is a solid ranged attack action upgrade that can improve action economy in the second and their round.
- I hate this kind of cards, but I took Nine Lives anyway. This card can waste 1–2 activations of your opponent or might generate enough emotional pressure to keep one of your fighters save.
But only after taking on Hexbane’s Hunters played by one of my regular opponents can we really know whether this fantasy of a deck actually translates into real-world fun :).
Short Impressions from playing against Hexbane’s Hunters
We have a wonderful local game club here in Stuttgart called Wahnzinn (a combination of madness and tin). But as our work schedules are sometimes rather unfortunate, we started playing at a local board game bar. Curiously, it also hosts binge drinking events on Thursdays (although folks don’t seem like picking up on that offer). So off we go, blessed by good old Jesus, Pop music from the last five years, and Disco lights.
Round 1 — The Sudden Demise of a Good Boy
The Witch Hunter start by charge-shooting with Brydget and a supporting Dog into Gorl. They tie, pushing Gorl back. This tank will not reach enemy territory anytime soon (he never did). I start my first activation with bees under my behind as I hold Sudden Demise and that dog is standing next to my lethal hex. So Lupan throws his/her spear, landing the attack and killing the dog by driving it back into the lethal hex. Boom, 2 glory, which makes me care little that the dog itself doesn’t give any glory.
Then Hexbane lock me down really hard with two very interesting cards: Circle of Silvered Gravesalt, which turns hexes surrounding the warband into lethal hexes for a period of time. In addition, Prayers of the Faithuful ban me from playing any Ploy cards. I tend to underestimate the control power of Hexbane, and these two cards were defining for the first round.
Using Call To Heel, Hexbane himself gets into position next to Brydget and shoots Lupan but doesn’t do much. I counter-charge with Sarrakkar, circumventing the lethal effect with my staff. Hexbane goes down to one wound!
We’re kind of locked to our positions due to the Gravesalt, so I let Lupan throw another Spear into Aemos. The attack connects, dealing one damage and leaving two wounds remaining. The ironclad woodcutter doesn’t like that, abandoning the protective flames of the extremely spicy salt in order to charge my furry Shaman. Sarrakkar suffers two damage, hoping for a chance to escape.
Kheira smells enemy blood rather than caring for her elder, charging across the board and finishing the witch hunter with the pathetic hat. He kept on babbling something about a Sikkkmar wanting to purge this forrest. Where is his god now?
It’s scoring time! And I am lucky enough to be rewarded with four more glory by Raze and Pillage as well as Sleepless Sentries. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to activate Gorl, so he didn’t have a chance to show his True Self. His fate will remain unfortunate for the rest of the game. On the Exploration side, I score two points, which doesn’t matter yet.
Hexbane suffered from not killing anyone, supposedly preventing them from scoring (I think they got one glory through a surge). So we enter the second round with already somewhat tilted scales.
Round 2 — Who let those pumped-up Dogs out??
As second turns tend to revolve, we start with fighters biting the dust. Sarrakkar (I hate his name) escapes the Aemos’ looming axe, smashing Brydget before she can activate god-mode. In return, Aemos takes poor Lupan out of action. The glory Hexbane get rewarded with sets off complete madness: The witches’ best friend Ratspike experiences a Brutal Transformation as well as being branded for protection. I am now confronted with a rabid dog dealing three damage, re-rolling defense dice, as well as being pushed around the board by his fellow hunters. Well played! Unfortunately, the bad boy refuses to hit for the vast majority of the game.
Kheira is faced with another crazy upgrade situation: Looking at his acne-scarred face, Quiet Pimple refuses to be popped as he basically turns into my personal Nemesis Klaq-Trok. My own tank keeps hanging back, his low move keeping me from scoring Oath of the Hunt. I kind of hoped that Aemos and the Hulk-Dog would take him off the board.
Nevertheless, I am lucky enough to score cards rewarding two glory. As my Exploration count reaches five with the help of Prospector, I fulfill both the conditions of Cautious Venture and Claim Guardians. Having them in hand at this point isn’t guaranteed, but the sheer mobility of Gnarlspirit Pack definitely helped to build up the Exploration count fast enough.
As far as I remember, Hexbane score at least some glory for having upgrades or being in enemy territory. Nevertheless, I am leading by ten points now. We keep up the good spirits and play out the last round.
Round 3 — Playing Ping-Pong with the Dog
Quiet Pock proves that Hexbane can indeed take fighters out of action, unloading his crossbow into my Techno-Viking leader. Kheira keeps hitting back, but her axes only scratch the deep scars further. Hulk-Dog, Shining-Guy, and Gorl start hitting each other on my side of the pitch to little effect. I get increasingly annoyed by my own hand (unjustified), because I hold basically all my pings but can’t really put them to work in a way that rewards glory. By sheer luck, the dog comes to halt next to an objective. A combination of Flame Wisps (triggered by two Crits!) and Grasping Rootgrave ping-pongs him right out of the arena. I feel guilty, but also very pleased.
Hexbane end the game the way the should have started, scoring all their objectives. I manage to score one to two glory more, which puts me at 19 total and a comfortable lead.
So how did the Scuba Diving go?
While my opponent couldn’t really translate the benefits of being Savage (the central mechanic of another Rivals Deck, Tooth and Claw) into glory, Exploration has been good to me. It is definitely possible to score a lot if you manage to have both a high Exploration count and the right objectives in hand. Claim Guardians seems especially risky in this regard. Many decks I took a look at don’t rely as much on the mechanic as I did, probably for this very reason. The included ploys are quite strong, however, the upgrades except for Plundered Knowledge don’t quite convince me. If your warband is lacking good upgrades, there might be better options for you elsewhere.
Gnarlspirit Pack can take their chances diving really deep, as they are being considered to be really strong overall. Their high movement and solid durability make them a solid fit for Daring Delvers and I can only recommend trying out this combination in the Nemesis format!
As for Hexbane’s Hunters: They really suffered from not scoring in the first round. As my opponent remarked, the Gravesalt managed to hinder his own plans as much as it hindered mine. Loosing Brydget and Hexbane early probably resulted in a lot of dead cards and loss of damage potential. Hexbane will become my personal bane next time for sure!
Before letting you go: I am really looking forward to your feedback on the questions I posed in the beginning. Just write me here, via mail, or on social media. I might do a similar post for Sons of Velmorn or the upcoming Looncourt if you are interested.
Also: We completely forgot that the German national team would play its last game in the Soccer World Cup on that day. Suddenly, we found ourselves being surrounded by a lot of shouting, it was kind of funny. To my great pleasure, they lost. And as sudden as the madness started, it disappeared. We were the only people left, listening to the post-game commentry. How fitting!
