Need help coming back to Underworlds

[paul7926]

Hi all

I'm trying to decide if I want to get back into Underworlds or not.  Basically I bought in when it all started, played a few games and bought all of the warbands up to the last ones released for Shadespire.  I think that was Magore's and Farstriders.  I didn't play much towards the end and I don't think I even assembled the Farstriders.  I was buying the boxes for the cards rather than the warbands.  I pretty much only played Ironskulls Boyz once they came out.  So I never got the Leaders card pack or anything after that.

I almost picked up Nightvault but never did as I was buying Kill Team stuff at the time instead.

So now the time has come for me to decide if I want to get back on the treadmill or let it all pass me by.  I want to make a reasonably informed decision so where better to ask than in this community.  The questions that concern me now are:

With the release of Nightvault and magic are any of the Shadespire warbands worth playing (especially Ironskulls as they were my go to warband)?  Has there been a power creep with the new stuff that makes the old stuff less competitive given there was no magic when they were released?

What products would I now need to get over and above Nightvault box itself?  I'm a bit confused by the release of the two starter warbands from Shadespire and the cards that come with them.

Honestly how playable is the game if I were not to keep up with every warband (and the cards from those sets) in the future and just picked up what interested me?  Can you be competitive without needing everything?   Looking at the list of new warbands there are some that I know I'll never want to play but that means missing out on cards which I always assumed was a bad idea.

I do love the game design but not sure about committing to a constant purchase schedule as there isn't a huge playing community where I am.  There are local tournaments once in a while but that's not enough game time to warrant shelves full of warbands I'll never play.

Thanks for the help.

 

 

[riddlesworth]

36 minutes ago, paul7926 said:

1. With the release of Nightvault and magic are any of the Shadespire warbands worth playing (especially Ironskulls as they were my go to warband)?  Has there been a power creep with the new stuff that makes the old stuff less competitive given there was no magic when they were released?

2. What products would I now need to get over and above Nightvault box itself? 

3. I'm a bit confused by the release of the two starter warbands from Shadespire and the cards that come with them.

4. Honestly how playable is the game if I were not to keep up with every warband (and the cards from those sets) in the future and just picked up what interested me?

5. Can you be competitive without needing everything?   Looking at the list of new warbands there are some that I know I'll never want to play but that means missing out on cards which I always assumed was a bad idea.

Broke this down into your 5 questions.

1. Yes. All of the original Shadespire warbands are worth playing and with the exception of Sepulchural Guard, all very competitive (and even they got a boost in the new set and FAQ). While there are good cards and not so good cards in Nightvault, none of the so far released cards is near the power level of the top Shadespire cards (Great Concussion, Quick Thinker). The more powerful Nightvault cards have a balancing element of the RNG for spells. For example, Sorcerous Insight lets you pull a ploy out of your discard pile, which is incredibly powerful, but right now is a 1 in 4 chance of going off without support and there are only 2 cards in the game that will help with casting and neither are particularly reliable.

 

2. The Nightvault box will provide you with new boards, new warbands, the scatter token and magic dice over and above what you have already. Most of the neutral cards in Nightvault are reprints of Shadespire neutrals, so if you don't intend to use magic at all, you don't HAVE to buy it but the warbands are very pretty should you want to play them. 

 

3. The Shadespire core set has been discontinued. So the 2 warbands in there have been released as expansions. However, each expansion has new neutral cards from the Nightvault set. If you already own the Shadespire core box, you can buy these neutral cards in the Echoes of Glory pack, rather than repurchase the warbands.

 

4. If you bought nothing else, you could play your Shadespire warbands and cards against someone who only has Nightvault. The game is exactly the same, just with the addition of a magic mechanic, which only affects wizards, a scatter mechanic (which is used by certain spells, ploys and characters) and the innate mechanic (which gives you a guaranteed symbol on a dice).

 

5. As to how competitive you will be. If you own all the Shadespire warbands, you have access to the top tier cards from that season, which are still highly meta dominating. The more Nightvault expansions that are released, the more there will be support for magic using warbands - although there's at least 1 warband this season that will not use magic - and they will become more competitive, but until the Shadespire neutrals get rotated out of organised play, you will still see Magores, Farstriders, Steelhearts, Reavers and Scaven doing very well. Some of the Nightvault objectives and neutrals should also push more consistent Ironskullz and Chosen Axes decks.

[paul7926]

@riddlesworth

Thanks for the response. 

If I've understood you correctly then it's going to be viable for me to just grab the Nightvault box (because a new board and rules in one place plus magic dice makes sense) and whilst I'm not desperately excited by the included warbands the neutral cards means I don't need to grab the re-issue of the two warbands from the Shadespire box.   From that point onward I can just pick up warbands I like and whilst I may not be racking up first place finishes in tournaments I can still rock up and with older warbands and not be wasting everyone's time. 

If that's the case then I may well jump back in because I do really like the way the game plays.

[riddlesworth]

The re-issue of the warbands contains new neutral cards for Nightvault. I highly recommend the Echoes of Glory pack (which is these cards, but no warbands as you already have them).

Otherwise, spot on

[paul7926]

51 minutes ago, riddlesworth said:

The re-issue of the warbands contains new neutral cards for Nightvault. I highly recommend the Echoes of Glory pack (which is these cards, but no warbands as you already have them).

Otherwise, spot on

Oh I get it now.  Thanks.  Yeah I don't mind a card pack of neutral cards as they can be used across what I have and anything new I pick up.  Think I'm convinced to carry on. Thanks for the explanation.