Warhammer Underworlds casual evening: training time

 Past thursday I managed to get to the Outpost in Antwerp for some games of Warhammer Underworlds, bringing my Dread Pageant and the Crimson Court to the table.

With the intention of trying out some things for the tournaments in november, Peter was facing me with two of his brews for some battling in the Underworlds as such.

For the first game, my Dread Pageant with Rimewyrm Bite would face the cursed lovers of Zondara's Gravebreakers, who had Seismic Shock added to their cardpool.  A band I had a hard time against in the past, I planned on going for Ferlain first as he is the hardest hitting one of the two, and I wanted to bring him down before he could inspire.

The boards where placed and both warbands deployed.

The first to take the fight to the Gravebreakers was Slakeslash, his wild swings wounding Ferlain.  But as Vasillac joined the fight, he missed and failed to bring the werewolf down.

 

 

Glisette also tried to take the beast out, but she as well failed to do so as such, this was a bummer and Ferlain wounded Slakeslash in return, but never the less the first round ended with a 4-0 lead for the Dread Pageant.

In the second turn, Vasillac, wounded Zondara, and she was pinged by a card as well for some more damage.  With 6 wounds now on the table, the Pageant inspired.

With their stats bettered, Slakeslash now took out Ferlain at last, but in retaliation Zondara kept pummeling my leader, and the noble Vasillac fell to the swoops of the old crone.

Glisette rushed into the whole enemy warband, and her scything attack actually wounded everyone, allowing me to score as well for being faced by two or more enemies.

The second round ended, and the Dread Pageant had extended their lead to a comfortable 10-3.

In the beginning of the third turn, brave Glisette was taken down however, and while Zondara kept healing herself slowly, Hadzu took some potshots at the zombies, finishing Toyle.  This was a playmistake on my part though, I should have taken Cracktomb out instead as the other two zombies had already moved and would not be able to Exhume as such anymore.

Zondara keeps seeking vengeance though for her fallen lover, and now the archer is taken down by her, while her minions are slowly returning to the field of battle.

But Slakeslash decided enough was enough, and he brought the lovers together again... in the afterlife.  The Dread Pageant scored a solid 15-6 win as a result, and honestly I had a good feeling about the warband / deck combo as I never really felt like I was really under pressure, even with not so great attack rolls. There is music in this combination, even though it might be a cacaphony of screams and moans...

For the second game, my Path of Prophecy Crimson Court would face The Skinnerkin and the Voidcursed deck.  I'm still trying to get the hang of this combination, but I will be taking them to Rotterdam for the Benelux Clash so better get some mileage going with them.

Disclaimer: we made some grave play error in this game, allowing the Carnskyr to much mobility (we oversaw the line "once per turn" on the Refashioned Priorities upgrade) until well into the 2nd round, by what time he had a serious effect on the game taking out Duvall early by allowing him to be pushed into a lethal hex and pushing Ennais of an objective I could score, only one could have actually been done.  We decided to keep on playing though, but it might have swung the battle a little, even though failing about 4 out of every 5 attacks didn't help the Soulblight either...

The boards where laid down, and both warbands deployed for the battle.

Vellas immediatly went forward, wounding Gristla fast for a bloody start, but also to put herself on objective number 2.  

But even with her Mirror Duellist upgrade, she was taken down by both the leader of Skinnerkin and the Carnskyr unfortunatly.

Prince Duvalle infiltrated the battlefield then to also reclaim objective 2, but was pushed off by the passing man-bat after he failed to hit Gristla and possibly take her out.  Young Master Kretch assaulted him in return, and pushing him into the lethal hex the royal leader fell.

Ennais had moved onto objective 3 to score that, but a swooping Carnskyr (here the mistake came into play as said above) pushed him back off from it as the Flensemaster pushed him again after attacking and into the lethal hex, making him down to one and allowing Peter to score the objective of having one of my foes vunerable as Ennais had been Voidcursed.  

 

This is as such the sequence the card had a huge influence as the Carnskyr moved a second time through his upgrade: Ennais was pushed of objective 3 denying me to score, while the push from the Flensemaster could now put me into the lethal hex, adding one more would to my vampire, and allowing him to score himself.  But that is what these training nights are for, and with two vampires down I was already looking at a huge 9-1 lead for the Skinnerkin.

In the second round, Ennais tried an assassination run on Gristla, a bit of a hail mary move, but like all my vampires, he missed his attack.  The Bloodthirsted vampire was then extracted using a move card to safer areas.

Gorath engages in combat with both Pewdrig and Young Master Kretch, and he succesfully hits both of them, wounding each one twice.  And he actually survives all the returning attacks with a single wound remaining...

In his final activation he takes down the flensemaster, and if he survives the Carnskyr attack, he can actually inspire!

Which he does, but the vampires still looked to a 12-3 chase, and I couldn't even imagine how to make up for 9 points in a single round (another disclaimer, Peter forgot to mark the wounds on Kretch).

 

So into the third round, and Peter immediatly took down Ennais with the Carnskyr, while Gorath used Vile Transference to heal himself and transferring the wound to Kretch, taking him out.

As a result, the Carnskyr flew over to Gorath to get him out of his larder, but the vampire swung his mighty mace and finally the F16 was taken out.

Only able to advance a bit onto the table, but unable to score anything, The Skinnerkin booked an 18-9 victory, and even though the result might have been a bit different, I think I just would have lost with a few points less difference in all honesty.

But so ends another fun night of trying out warbands.  The coming weeks if I get to play, you will see these combinations keep popping up though, as I really need to get as much mileage in as possible, especially with the Crimson Court.  We'll see where the games will takes us on the road to "Novemament month" in 8 weeks... which will be sooner then expected, because time does those things to you, even when a vampire.