How to get started with Warhammer Underworlds in 2024 (Guide)
This guide will teach you how to get started with the miniature boardgame Warhammer Underworlds by Games Workshop — and also how to keep playing. It includes a short overview of the game and a detailed buying guide including future purchases. I will explain the different play formats, as well as link to a lot of useful official and community-created resources. Strap in, because we’re get started right away!
If you have any questions just drop a comment down below or write me directly at raumzeit77@proton.me! I will answer each question.
This guide will always be updated to represent the latest state of the game!
Last updated: Feburary 2024
Table of Contents
Introduction to the Game
What is Warhammer Underworlds?
It is a miniature board game for two players that is a wild but ingenious mix of controlling a board made up of hexagons, playing powerful cards from a deck you can customize yourself, and unleashing the amazing abilities of the miniatures you command. Have you ever seen large tabletop games where people fight battles with large collections of miniatures on a board filled with terrain? Underworlds boils all that down to a small and quick, but surprisingly deep and rewarding system. The miniatures represent unique warbands of fighters with special abilities. The goal is to score glory points — and whoever has the most after three rounds of gameplay wins. But you don’t just mindlessly hit each other. Instead, you have an objective deck laying out feats you need to accomplish while trying to stop your opponent from doing so. In addition, you have power deck containing upgrades, like magical swords, and instant abilities, allow you to perform extra movements or improve your odds at performing actions. And the best thing: It doesn’t take ages. Each player only has 12 turns, with each turn involving only a single fighter. That’s right, only 12 opportunities to score the glory you need!
For what kind of player and occasions is this game for?
I would argue that if you are interested in the concept, you can make this game work for you. This can be a lifestyle game you play regularly with friends as well as strangers at game shops, clubs, or cafés — maybe even at tournaments — and get invested in for months and years. Or you play it during game nights with a selected groups of friends over food and drinks. Or once in a while you pick up the single box you bought a long time ago to play with your partner who enjoys this kind of boardgame, without investing any more time, money, or energy. In this guide, I will focus on the first two scenarios — but you can proceed however you wish.
Understanding cards and decks
We are at the very beginning of this guide, but I need to establish several concepts regarding the cards essential to this game. In Underworlds, there are two most general types of cards: Those that are specific to a warband and have its symbol printed in the top-right, and universal cards with the game’s logo on them instead.
The cards with your warband’s symbol make up the so-called Rivals deck of your warband. Regardless of the format, these are always legal for deck building (which will be explained later on)! Very old warbands from the seasons Shadespire and Nightvault don’t have a complete Rivals deck. However, you can still use their cards for deck building (seasons will also be explained later).
Universal cards have mostly been bundled into universal Rivals decks, which are included in large expansion boxes or sold separately. You can use these decks instead of your warband’s deck or use them for deck building in the more advanced play formats (also explained later).
Warband expansions until the Nethermaze season included a number of universal cards that don’t make up a coherent Rivals deck. For all except the most advanced play formats, you don’t use these anymore and I wouldn’t put in the effort and money to collect these.
Buying Guide
What do I need to buy to get started?
There are 2 main ways of buying into the game, depending on your budget. (Prices are in Euros from the official Games Workshop store. Prices in Dollars are slightly more expensive and slightly cheaper in Pounds. From 3rd party sellers you usually get a 15–25% discount, so don’t buy from the official store!)
The Starter Set (50€)
This includes the warbands Sepulchral Guard and the Farstriders, their Rivals decks, as well as the boards (the cardboard you are playing on), tokens, and dice you need. You don’t get any extra universal decks you might want for some of the popular play formats, but these aren’t necessary to get started. The warbands are good and you can keep on playing them! The Start Set only includes a simpler, more beginner-friendly rulebook and lacks some of the materials used in the current season. (More on that later. The most recent rulebook always is available online, see link below). If you only have 50 bucks, want to test the waters first, or only plan to play a few times a year, this is the way to go. However, if you can spare more money or want to play more regularly, I suggest the second option.
(If you later buy certain warband expansion [will be explained next], you might need magic dice that aren’t included in the Starter Set. You can use attack dice instead [Smash = Focus; Fury + Single Support + Double Support = Channel]. There is an even cheaper version of the Starter Set available from some book and game stores like Thalia, Müller, and GameStop. You need to find a retailer in your country yourself. Don’t confuse the current Starter Sets with the older one from 2021. I do not recommend to buy that one unless it’s heavily discounted.)
A Current Season’s Starter Box: Deathgorge, Wyrdhollow, or Gnarlwood (80€)
It doesn’t matter which one you pick from this list, but Deathgorge is the most recent and probably the easiest to find. In these boxes, you get two warbands and their decks, together with boards, tokens, and dice (including magic dice and tokens specific to the theme of the season). In addition, you get two extra universal Rivals decks you can either mix and match with the warband’s decks or play as a replacement. If you can spare the money, I recommend this purchase over the Starter Set. The extra decks will give you a wealth of options and can get you started with some of the more advanced play formats right away.
I only want a specific warband that is sold separately. Is that enough to get started?
Unfortunately not. The warband expansions don’t contain the basic game components you need. You might be able to borrow these from other players or get the additional materials from online marketplaces — in this case, you are ready to rock. I regularly see ads for game components on eBay and similar marketplaces.
Do I need any additional accessories?
Not necessarily, but I recommend plastic card sleeves with opaque, colored backs in two colors (e.g. blue and black) to clearly differentiate between Power and Objective cards. Underworlds cards are Standard size, so 63x88 mm (2½"x3½"). You might also want deck boxes and a card storage solution. These are typical supplies for trading card games and can be had rather cheaply. Popular brands include Ultra PRO, Ultimate Guard, Dragon Shield, or Gamegenic.
How do I build these minis? Do I need to paint them?
These questions in part go beyond the scope of this article. But there are very good videos [1, 2, 3] for getting you started in no time with painting the minis — if you want to do so. In any case, you definitely need to build the miniatures. First, use hobby pliers to remove the parts from the plastic frame they come in. The pliers should look like this one:
You don’t need glue as you can push-fit the parts. Personally, I glue the minis using plastic glue, snapping off the little nubbins that are normally used to hold the pieces together. To be clear: You don’t have to paint the minis. Even if you play at a public place with acquaintances and strangers, in this game, painted minis usually aren’t expected.
So there is a lot of other stuff to buy for Underworlds. How does this work?
The game is being released as a lifestyle game, meaning that there is a constant schedule of new expansions that you may want to get more variety and experience new types of gameplay. But you definitely don’t need these expansions to properly enjoy the game, nor do you need to buy everything to “stay competitive”.
Every year, there two “seasons” containing a number of releases. Releases beolonging to the same season are connected by a common theme, e.g. ice in the case of Deathgorge — the current season. Every season is introduced by a core box that I recommended for buying into the game. These are followed by two waves of releases, with each wave including a separate, ready-to-play warband as well as a universal Rivals deck you can use with basically every other warband in the game. Then, the next season starts and the cycle begins anew.
One note on availability: Releases stay in production for about a year, then stock gets increasingly limited. Therefore, it can be hard to track down older expansions.
One very important note on cards and decks: These are very important for this game. But there are no “booster packs” with random assortments of cards with different rarity. A certain Rivals deck always includes the same selection of cards. If you want to try out a deck you haven’t bought yet, you can also print out “proxies” (see community resources linked below).
What should I buy in the future?
This depends on the type of player you are. I lay out four scenarios:
I only play casually with my friends and family on occasion.
Then you can just decide on the decks, warbands, and big boxes that look cool to you, with no need to keep up with releases. Core boxes are the best value. The included universal decks also give you more variety for your whole collection of warbands. So if you buy one core box and maybe one additional warband a year, you’re looking at an additional 115€.
I want to play this game in a more competitive fashion, maybe even with strangers, but keep the costs down.
In this case you should buy the two big core boxes each year. You will have access to the latest board, the most popular decks, and probably very good warbands. The only thing you really lack are the Rivals decks released separately, which would open up more playstyles. However, this won’t really reduce your chance at winning! This will run you 160€ per year, which might be a pretty good deal for a regular leisure activity.
I want to play competitively and have all the options but still save some money.
Then you don’t need all the warbands, but you might want all the decks to have maximum choice and variety when building decks. Mind you: In most play formats you don’t actually mix together all the cards you have, so having more cards doesn’t mean you have a more powerful deck. But having more Rivals decks to pick from means that you will probably have the right one for optimally playing a particular strategy. Let’s assume you buy the two core boxes plus the four separately released decks. This will run you about 250€, which might be reasonable if you really play this game regularly and truly enjoy it.
I only want certain releases — or all of them.
These are the most open and subjective scenarios. You might be a collector and dedicated fan and just buy everything. Or you only wanto to buy the things that look cool. Or you know your playstyle and only want to warbands and decks that support it. These are all valid approaches, and currently the state of the game is so good that even buying very selectively won’t reduce your competitive strength too much. Again: Having more warbands and cards ≠ more power.
What warbands should I buy? Are there bad ones?
All recent releases are fairly powerful, so just buy the ones that look cool to you or whose mechanics interest you (see community resources linked below for reviews). The power level of warbands can be ranked, of course, but this is only relevant for high levels of competitive play (you can check a warband’s tournament performance on the Shadeglass platform linked below, but the metrics are heavily skewed due to the importance of player skill and event attendance.).
What about older warbands and boxes?
There is an overview of all warbands that have ever been released. Unless you really, really want a specific warband from a season long ago, I would advise against hunting it down on eBay. I would only recommend going as far back as the Direchasm season releases. Warbands older than that are still playable, but they’re hard for beginners to pull off. The game has been refined a lot over the years, and some of the older designs don’t hold up.
Play Formats and Essential Documents
You talk about play formats. What are these?
Underworlds includes aspects of collectible card games where you can customize your deck beforehand and then battle it out with an opponent and their unique deck (e.g. Magic the Gathering, Pokemon Trading Card Game). To make this kind of gameplay fair and balanced, you and your opponent need to follow the same rules when making a deck. These rules are different depending on the format you are playing:
Rivals
This is the most basic format, because there is no deck building. You only use the Rivals deck your warband came with (cards with the warband’s symbol on it) or you use one of the universal Rivals decks as a whole. The balancing might be slightly off in some matchups, but it is good fun and games can still be really tight. I highly recommend to stick with this format for the first games. If you dig the format and fear more complexity, it’s totally fine to continue playing Rivals.
Nemesis
So this is where the game’s full potential unfolds. In this format, you can customize your deck, but according to simple and fairly strict rules. These rules also prevent players who buy everything from dominating the ones who don’t. You can only combine cards from your warband’s Rivals deck with cards from one of the universal Rivals decks. So you only have two decks to choose from when constructing your own. This is the most played and best supported format currently, and I highly recommend it. In Nemesis, boards and universal decks “rotate” two years after their release, meaning after that time frame, you can’t use them anymore. This is generally a good thing for more organized forms of play. However, for casual play, you can safely ignore this caveat if your opponent agrees.
Relic and Championship
I won’t get much into these formats, but they give you the most choice. You can mix and match multiple decks as well as single cards that were included in older warband expansions. However, both formats require a medium to large collection on both sides to have a fair game. Relic is intended for casual games between players who want to have access to all of their cards regardless of release date. Championship is fairly well balanced, as you can only play a small number of especially powerful cards. Older cards are also rotated out of the format similar to Nemesis. Championship is still being played actively in some parts of the world and online. While you are at an advantage for having all available decks currently in rotation for deck building, having at least a couple of decks at your disposal should still give you a fighting chance.
Where do I find the rules to these formats? What else do I need to read?
All important documents can be downloaded from the Underworlds section of the Warhammer Community Downloads page. There are different kinds of documents:
Key Downloads - The Rulebook
Self-explanatory. A new rulebook is released with each season’s core box. Updated rules will include minor changes and new mechanics to fit the theme of the season. Among the community resources I link to, you can usually find summaries of changes. I recommend to always play with the latest rules, but you can of course settle with the ruleset of a prior season.
Organized Play Documents
These three documents contain the rules of the play formats we discussed already. These are regularly updated, usually with every expansion. The Relic document includes the rules for both Relic and Championship.
FAQs and Errata
The game in total includes thousands of cards and almost 60 warbands. This creates a lot of rule interactions that might not always be clear. Also, the game’s balance might need changes to guarantee fairness. The documents under this category thus clarify rule questions and change the text of some of the cards. When you start out, you can safely ignore these changes and clarifications, but later on you should at least read the changes and clarifications refering to the warbands and decks you are playing. These documents also get updated regularly with new releases.
The Rules Update includes changes to cards and is most impactful. These changes are also used for balancing reasons, altering some warbands quite significantly.
The Designer’s Commentary and Previous Seasons Designer’s Commentary clarify rule interactions. You will encounter open questions and these documents will probably answer them. (There is also a searchable website of all the rulings included in the community resources.)
Community Resources
You already stumbled across this guide as one among the many, many contributions members of the community make.These resources are extremely valuable, will make your life in Underworlds much easier, and will keep you up all night pondering strategies.
Online Deck Builders and Databases
- UnderworldsDB is the most feature-rich deck builder. It also lets you browse all available warbands, Rivals decks, and boards.
- Wunderworlds is a similar deck builder and works better on mobile. Updates to the game usually take a little longer to be implemented. The cool thing about the site is that you can print out cards on the desktop version! This allows you to try decks before you buy them.
- UnderworldsFAQ is a searchable database of the Errata and FAQ documents. It’s really handy for quickly answering questions during gameplay on your phone.
- Shadeglass is an organized play platform where you can register for events like tournaments and leagues, keep a diary of your private games, and look up statistics of how warbands are performing competitively. The site is a little wonky, but really useful.
- The global tournament calendar does exactly that: It lists all organized play events for Underworlds. On Discord you can find individual country feeds. I myself maintain the calendar for Germany.
Resources for Beginners
- The Spent Glory blog is focused on helping new and returning players get started with the game, with guides on how to use your old warbands, get better at the game, and how to participate in tournaments. It also has a database of local play groups.
- The Handful of Dice blog produces beginner-friendly, more casual content for the game. Their quick overview of all available universal Rivals deck is a great start for orienting yourself!
- The Battle Mallet Nemesis Deck Library features prebuilt decks for all warbands, with some of the top tournament decks. This will get you started with Nemesis in no time.
- The Championship Deck Database is basically the same, but more limited in scope and for the Championship format.
- The Monkey’s Hex blog features a classic series on board selection and objective placement. While these aren’t up-to-date, the principles staid the same. In addition, all new boards get reviewed in separate articles. The author also publishes the FAQ of the Italian Underworlds Community, which you can use to clarify rule questions not covered in the official documents.
Online Communities
- Warhammer Underworlds Subreddit
- Warhammer Underworlds Facebook Group
- The Warhammer Underworlds Community
- Warhammer Underworlds Vassal Discord: This Discord server is focused on playing Underworlds online with players all over the globe. But even if you only play at the table, this is the most active and helpful community for the game, with dedicated channels for every warband and their strategies. I usually go there for deckbuilding advice and discussion.
Podcasts, Blogs, and YouTube Channels
- The Path to Glory podcast and blog are hosted by Aman, the Underworlds World Champion. He and his prolific team cover new releases, events, and specific topics related to the “meta game”, meaning the most prominent strategies.
- What the Hex is another major podcast on Underworlds also featuring top players. The team covers similar topics, in addition to audio game reports I highly recommend. Their blog features detailed commentary and analysis of new releases.
- Battle Mallet is a podcast more focused on beginners and the Nemesis format. They cover releases in a more condensed way. Their blog also features detailed reviews of new products.
- Underworlds Undergrounds is a new podcast that focuses less on releases and more on conversations about the game in general, with a breath of fresh air.
- The Sleek’s Bowl blog regularly posts deck building challenges in collaboration with other community members — like myself!
- The Staggerers blog from Austria is focused on the Championship format, regularly publishing deck and card analyses as well as event reports.
- Agents of Sigmar regularly produce gameplay videos on their YouTube channel.
- The Critical Focus Channel also features gameplay videos as well as lore content and rankings of the available warbands.
- Cinderfall Gaming also produce gameplay videos. These are a little bit shaky, but feature beautiful fan art of popular characters!
