riddlesworth

Gallaghann never needs inspiring. A 2 fury AOE attack is meh and he gets literally nothing else. He may get inspired by accident just because as the tanky one, he'll have the wounds to heal. Ylthari is a priority for 2 reasons: 2 damage on the spell attack and well of power for 3 dice. Relying on her reaction isn't the way to get it done but leech power plays into a synergistic objective. The inspiration part is a bonus Much like Chisen Axes, I think the priority for inspiration number 2 depends on who your opposition is. You can set up horrific double kills with Ahnslaine against the swarm warbands using gambit spell damage and her having more range makes that more viable. Against the stormcasts and magores of this world, Skathael ples fighters ferocity, concealed weapon or plain ol great strength is a terror. Inspiration strikes is a staple in a lot of decks with tough inspire conditions. If all Healing potion does is get an inspiration it's worth it. At minimum I'd run healing potion and leech power. I've also taken healing amphora as insurance. On vital surge - until you get an upgrade on Ylthari, it's a 44% cast that's not what I want to rely on.

Theres a couple of options for its implementation: package up the shadespire season warbands with just their warband cards. Maybe sell in packs of two, or a season box set. Package up the shadespire warbands with new universals. Eventually they'll run out of factions. Eventually. In this case, theres precedent with the reaver and steelheart releases to also have a stand alone card product with just the new universals in those expansions - see: echoes of glory Release a shadespire update card pack - tweaked or expanded warband cards for all the shadespire warbands. See: Xwing V2.0

Theory crafting I would agreement with that assessment. Farstriders got some love with this expansion so expect to see more of them. This is the basis of the deck I'm going to start with. 6 score immediately objectives but only 2 rely on killing the enemy so can play defensive and dictate the engagement 3 ways to score lithe spirits plus warband reactions 2 ways to score scorched earth 5 gambit spells for hatred and to compensate for their medium damage (withering, sphere, pangs plus trap) Solid end phase glory, either easy (shining example) or 2 scores (escalation, ktg, reclaim) Upgrades to get 3 dice on ylthari, rerolls on bow boy and potion of rage for when I need the tank to do some work. Fighters ferocity so the danglebro can hit 4 damage on a crit if needed but could pump ylthari to 3 damage when well of.power is applied. Defence dice and wounds for the tank so he can play distraction carnifex and 3 ploy cards that can inspire but have other utility. https://www.underworldsdb.com/shared.php?deck=0,257,N365,272,L24,N340,330,348,369,N388,N389,N476,N503,N268,N269,N266,N309,N271,N274,N282,N290,N557,374,N276,243,N451,N272,N504,N506,N482,N265,320,N529,N501,291

Previews are out: https://canyourollacrit.com/2019/04/20/yltharis-guardians/ https://katophranerelic.com/2019/04/20/yltharis-guardians-first-look/ https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/04/16/warband-focus-yltharis-guardians/ Hella excited for the Treeple warband. They've got a unique way of playing and disrupting the objective game, with access to a faction specific objective removal card, and 2 faction specific objectives based on objective holding. Great faction specific passive scoring (Lithe Spirits, Song of Hatred), a solid in faction gambit spell for a "death of a thousand cuts" style, negating their low on card hitting power (Pangs of Great Lack) and with the release of well of power, really reliable long range hitting power from 2 models. I think they can play a control/defensive style very well but have the speed and range to go after defensive warbands themselves. I can see some struggles with hyper aggro warbands like reavers and magores as they are pretty brittle in the health department but they'll be solid against skritch, mollog and gurzag (i.e. the warbands relying on 1 fighter) due to access to Curse of the Dwindling.

On the current model, every player who plays Underworlds as their main game (as opposed to 40k or AoS) will buy at least 1 copy of every expansion. That is consistent, predictable revenue. Shareholders love that. If you split the releases into warband/cards and universals, there's a bunch of stock there that will never get sold (the warbands). That's a bad business model, despite the profitability of universal card packs - they have a ceiling on price though. I use players who play Underworlds as their main game because that's what it is - a main game on the level of 40k and AoS. The organised play support and game size giving it the ability to be played in the same space as games like MTG and penetrating the LGS has guaranteed that. Just like those games, there's an initial investment to play the game (though the Underworlds investment is SIGNIFICANTLY lower than those two) but to play competitively, the investment is both much higher and ongoing (though again, lower overall than 40k and AoS). The GHB and Chapter Approved books change the meta every year, as do new codex releases. Underworlds is the same. Card rotation (and the BAR list to some extent) does a couple of things: - lowers the cost of entry to the competitive side of the game, attracting new players who then provide that predictable revenue stream - gives designers the opportunity to get rid of problematic cards, or cards that no longer fit the design space, or have unintended interactions with new rules/refinements (see: Time Trap) - keeps the meta ever evolving and therefore fresh. the minute the game is "solved" it becomes stale and begins to die. That is not acceptable in a mainline game for the company. Anyone who played pre-BAR list at the end of Shadespire where EVERY deck was 90% the same knows this pain. - opens up differing formats of the game (example: Standard/Modern/Legacy in MTG) to widen the playable options on the competitive stage The vast majority of people I've seen against rotation have used the "invalidating my purchases" line. In some cases, they used the line for the BAR list (we don't have time to go into why that's not logical here) The only things invalidated will be the universals - there's no way they stop selling the warbands until the molds break - and there's still options there to update the warband cards as they have more experience with the design (lookin' at you ironskullz boyz). And all of this doesn't "invalidate the purchase" unless you are solely focused on competitive play. The casual player can still play the game and have a social contract with their partners around deck selection. I've heard more about the negatives of rotation than I have from 40k Centurion-star players after that got nerfed into the ground repeatedly. This is what games must do to continue to have gamer wallet share. TL/DR: the purchase model is sustainable, predictable revenue, which in turn guarantees further design investment in the game. Set rotation is vital for game health, both in attracting new players and keeping tenured players who have Underworlds as their primary game.

Oh yes indeed. With Bloab specifically, if he could cast 2 spells, I think he could be worth his points. I wouldn't say no to having the demon keyword because of the maggoth either, as he make a nice shepherd for plague drones then. As it is, I love the model so he goes in

Right now I'm building towards this. I love the Bloab Rotspawned and Pusgoyle Blightlords models, so it's not going to be wholly competitive, but should be a giggle. If I could find the points for another Blightlords unit I would, but Blight Cyst is just so good and Bloab is non-negotiable. Allegiance: NurgleBloab Rotspawned (260)- Lore of Foulness: Plague SquallGreat Unclean One (340)- Bile Blade & Doomsday Bell- Artefact: Tome of a Thousand Poxes - Lore of Virulence: Glorious AfflictionsHarbinger of Decay (160)- Artefact: The Witherstave Lord of Blights (140)- General- Trait: Grandfather's Blessing 10 x Putrid Blightkings (320)5 x Putrid Blightkings (160)5 x Putrid Blightkings (160)2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)Blight Cyst (220)Total: 1980 / 2000Extra Command Points: 1Allies: 0 / 400Wounds: 136

No Harbinger of Decay? Every time I'm building a blightking based army he's an auto include for that resilience buff. Having said that, I'm massively hero heavy. Running lord of blights, GUO, Harbinger and Bloab Rotspawned in my 2k...

Have a harbinger, and have a mortal sorcerer so 5+ and blades is there, but running a GUO for bell and spell support means no fleshy abundance for them. I mean, they could still be the best option...

Have a question that I hope is relevant. Assume the following: - 300 points left over from a 2000 point army - only 2 battleline choices so far - no battalions - no glottkin What's the best battleline choice for the leftover points? 30 plaguebearera doesn't fit and there's no fleshy abundance or attack buff for marauders. So, more blightkings? 15 warriors as a screen? Units of 10 plaguebearers for a screen (there is a GUO for the bell so locus is available)

So just before the SC box comes out I've purchased a cheeky 1000 points of Nurgle as a hobby project. Love the Maggoth lord models so figured I'd give old bloab a go: Bloab Rotspawned Harbinger of Decay - witherstave 5 blightkings 5 blightkings 2 blightlords I know plaguedrones are seen as the better option but unless the harbinger supports them, I don't see them achieving their true potential whereas blightlords can just get stuck in. Is the best way to expand this a blightcyst? Or favoured sons?

Buddy of mine is running Eyes and since the ban list is loving life. Supremacy, Our Only Way Out, Bind the City, are all solid scores for them because of the ability to deploy the blue horror in enemy territory and grab an objective there

A charge is a mkve action followed by an attack action, so i din't see any reason you couldnt scurry off a charge. Stab em in the knee is awesome because they just need to be supporting, you dont need more supporting than you're opponent.

I'm sold on defensive Chosen Axes. Went 2-1 in a best of 3 this weekend. Plays into aggro very well. Skritch and his boys are still my bogeymen though.

I've piloted it. I'm not a good enough player to make it work, though clearly the guy that did gets it. My guess is he placed his objective markers slightly closer to the enemy, then pushed into enemy territory in round 2. What I found was my poor positioning with it meant it was too easy for my opponent to get 2 damage+trap/twist the knife or 3 damage to consistently have the fighting power left in round 2 and 3. The theory is sound, but I think you need to be a better player than me to make it work. On another note, I went 1-5 in a best of 1 tournament this weekend with defensive Chosen Axes. I think the deck is solid, but my placement of boards, objectives and positioning let me down. There's one or two tweaks to the deck, but Imma keep going with it til i git gud.

I tried it. I sucked at playing it. I've gone back to defensive objective dwarves. Be very interested to hear your thoughts though

I think the combo works on Maegrim or Tefk equally well. If you want to use the darts, Maegrim is a prime candidate (why his personal upgrade is straight worse than the darts i don't know...) Being left out of the fight is a problem. One of the reasons I think I'm more comfortable with defensive hybrid decks - there's less room to make that positioning error. That and it lets me play very glory hungry (23 glory total, 9 glory on objectives, 4 on score immediate, 6 end game, 4 on passive).

Maegrim and Tefk are the 2 possibilities for flickering image because they roll 3 dice. Tefk has crit cleave, so is my second inspiration goal after grimnir and maegrim has the reroll on inspire, so can use it quite well to hit, then push into support. Tefk is the priority for it though, especially If I'm up against stormcast, magores, fyreslayers or ironjawz. I tend not to put it on maegrim because best case he inspires turn 1 IF i have 3 objectives AND inspiration strikes in my hand. usually i'm trying to buff up 2 guys, so flickering image goes on tefk or vol. I have tried shifting image on grimnir, which combos nicely with grimnir's fortitude and trusted defender, but its a lot of investment to make. In my aggresive dwarves, i'm rarely on objectives in turn 2. In the defensive objective build above (which i'm leaning towards right now), shadeglass darts may be an option. Will caveat that by saying I am not the best player with positioning and decision making with cards

I got my butt well and truly handed to me last night by aggro skellies. I still think the deck works, but I do think my piloting skill is not up to par - much more comfortable with defensive dwarves. I wasn't so keen on Tyrant's Command as my hidden paths target is usually inspired Grimnir, so it didn't really come up. Quick Advance was gold though. I have a tournament on Sunday and I'm torn on continuing to get reps with the aggro deck, or going back to a relatively successful defensive hybrid deck. Leaning towards going with what I'm comfortable with. Right now it stands at 22 cards. Would love to get it down to 20 but there's some seriously hard cuts in there on both the ploy and upgrade side. Faction: The Chosen Axes Objectives (12) 119 - Ferocious Charge 124 - Scion of Grimnir 235 - Alone in the Darkness 248 - Contained 252 - Defensive Strike 253 - Denial 257 - Escalation 278 - Our Only Way Out 284 - Precise Use of Force 292 - Supremacy 296 - Tactical Supremacy 1-2 297 - Tactical Supremacy 3-4 Ploys (11) 132 - The Earth Shakes 133 - Treasure-lust 310 - Confused Priorities 329 - Great Concussion 331 - Hidden Paths 332 - Illusory Fighter 334 - Inspiration Strikes 347 - Quick Thinker 348 - Ready for Action 361 - Spectral Wings L42 - Quick Advance Upgrades (11) 136 - Activated Runes 142 - Grimnir's Fortitude 143 - Grimnir's Speed 376 - Awakened Weapon 387 - Flickering Image 391 - Great Strength 402 - Legendary Swiftness 420 - Soultrap 421 - Sprinter 424 - Tethered Spirit 433 - Trusted Defender Usually with this deck I'm looking at pulling one of the supremacy time objectives in my first hand to get some glory rolling. Minimum 2 objectives on my board means if I have confused priorities (or I fish for it...) i should be able to score the tacs. 3 objectives on my side is gravy (i never seem to win that dice roll). Of my inspired fighters, 2 guys with 4 (or more) movement covers my whole side of the board to bop anyone coming across plays defence for contained and denial (though not getting contained because of wipeout is a pain). There are 2 upgrades in there to help my 2 dice dwarves hit. Flickering image is a godsend on Tefk. Against defensive decks like skellies, stormcast (both types), hidden paths and grimnir's movement plus push shenenigans is a terror in the opponents half. I've had success with this style of deck in the past at 20 cards, so maybe 22 is too weighty. But as I say, cuts are difficult here. The only one I'm really considering is Illusory Fighter (and one of the +1 speed upgrades). But it's so nice to take Inspired Grimnir from the back of the board to the front of my board and bust off a charge of 3,5 or 7.

Anyone seeing value in the leader cards? I've put Tyrant's Command (for Hidden Path synergy), Quick Advance (because double push), Commanding Shout (for more push shenanigans) and Rising to the Challenge (because Tefk or Vol become 5 wounds, 4 damage and either 3 or 4 dice, so sub in for Grimnir without Cleave)

superior tactician is great in decks with a lot of score immediates. i think it can work in lots of decks with easy 1 glory scores though. On Unstoppable Advance and Swift Advance against aggro warbands: - When Vol and Tefk are Inspired, they are are equivalent statwise to the best fighters in the game. Fjul probably only has Gurzag as a counterpart when inspired - No-one starts the game inspired. It is relatively rare to have 3 damage uninspired and requires ploys in hand round one to boost damage. Steelhearts and Gurzag are probably most dangerous in this regard (gurzag because of the amount of extra attack ploys available to orrucks). - an inspired dwarf at the back of your own board is out of the action unless you use hidden paths, spectral wings, tantalising prize. 2 inspired dwarves in enemy territory around the midline present a double threat to your opponent who has to make decisions about who to target. Especially so if you have great fortitude on the non-Fjul dwarf because they're now both in 2 shot range What you are gambling on is that your opponent, while trying to achieve their own objectives, won't be killing more than 2 of your guys without burning all their resources for your crack back. Ironjawzs are a problem with this (daemonic weapon+spoils of battle, brutal but kunnin, kunnin but brutal, more choppin). Steelheart can also be a slight issue with obyrn and steelheart having 3 damage base. Against those, I'd still take that gamble if i have something like quick thinker in my hand, hopefully neutralising 1 of those charges. The probability of drawing a particular objective in your opening hand is 1 in 4. the chance of drawing either Unstoppable Advance or Swift Advance when they are in your deck is 2 in 5. The chance of drawing both is around 4%. So it's not going to crucify your opening hand most of the time and you can afford to mill them out. Is it flawless strategy that wins every time? No. But I find the problems presented to your opponent compensate for the risk you take by pushing forward early.

Or to push 2 hexes, move 2 or 3 more and score 3 glory off unstoppable advance and swift advance... Extra movement tricks are always welcome in a faction with low movement but high hitting power

So a few of my locals have got back into AoS and I sold all my old fantasy models.... My choice is between Seraphon, IronJawz and Fyreslayers. The dorfs seem great but model variety and insane price have put me off. Ironjawz are easy to build with SC boxes but limited playstyle, which leads me here. For casual play, how does this sound? Oldblood on Carnosaur Scarvet on carnosaur scar vet on cold one slaan starmaster Engine of the Gods 20 saurus warriors 5 cold one knights 5 cold one knights 5 cold one knights bastiladon firelance starhost gives me shooting, some combat, some big beasties (which i like). I would have preferred 2 bastiladon, but I hear EotG is great...

I don't have Earthquake in the deck at the moment, I use illusory fighter. But it's certainly a contender. Likewise I'm looking at spectral wings and tantalising prize as great 1st turn movement options. Plot space is, as always, tight though. Of the spoiled leader cards, quick advance, tyrant's command, commanding shout, rise to the challenge are all contenders. I'm very interested in Pride of the Lodge as well. I play Chosen Champion in my deck because I have grimnir's speed, grimnir's fortitude and activated runes which, almost without fail, go on Fjul. Having an extra glory card in the for achieving essentially the same thing is great, but if Fjul get's bopped early its unscorable...

I started playing Shadespire with Orruks, but love the Chosen Axe models so I've been playing a lot of them over the past 3 months. I think they are very flexible in how you want to approach the game, despite the tricky inspire conditions. The thing is, we all know when inspired, Fjul is a wrecking ball, but with a +1 strength upgrade (or trap, or twist the knife), both Tefk and Vol will one shot anyone outside of Fjul and Gurzag. Tefk has 3 dice on hammers so he is reliable as all get out. So while Orruks spend most of their activations and cards to enable Gurzag to krump enemy models, when Grimnir's boys get 2 inspirations and/or the right upgrade, they offer multiple threats. Given their low speed, I started with a deck that focused on controlling the Chosen Axe side of the board so I didn't have to go chasing. Contain/Denial as the glory point swing at the end of the game, defensive strike, scion of grimnir, ferocious charge for some score immediates and then alone in the darkness, escalation and hold 1-5. It worked great against aggro decks that would come to me because with the amount of movement ploys available and Inspiration Strikes I could consistently get 2 guys inspired in round 1 then have a point man (usually Fjul) patrolling no man's land. Tefk's knockback upgrade really helped as he and Vol could bat fighters out of my territory. The major issues I had with the playstyle of that deck were: - passive scorers that didn't want to come to me. I usually got round this by including Grimnir's speed and Grimnir's fortitude so Fjul would become a true wrecking ball in enemy territory while the rest hung back to deal with sneaky hidden paths in the end game, but it made life far more difficult because if he got dropped before he'd made too much of an impact, scrabbling for glory after that was a challenge. illusory fighter helps though. Effective farstriders play had me truly stumped though. - skritch. getting to skritch is HARD with those stubby legs and a 7 hex threat range is more than I can manage when my guys are hanging out in their own territory. - hold 1-5. Probably 75% of the time, I would mill my opening objective hand because it had Hold X and i didn't have X on my side of the board. I was still consistently scoring 10+ glory, but there were times it made life significantly harder to snowball, especially if the mullligan then put contained/denial in my opening hand So then the Grand Clash winning deck posted above comes out. My ploy set and his ploy set are identical, with the exception of earthquake (which i don't take as i like illusory fighter). Upgrades are very similar. But the playstyle enforced by the objectives is, I think, far more aggressive. No more tricks never seems to score for me but Swift Advance, Unstoppable Advance and some of the other potential turn 1 scores made me think that this player sets up very aggressively - his objectives get placed in no mans land or close to it and he pushes his guys into enemy territory from turn 1. This gets around the 3 key problems I was finding with my defensive control deck - its own passive scoring gets it into enemy territory where you'll be in range to strike with everyone. Skritch is reachable, and you're not having to divert killing power to holding objectives with half your warband. The challenge I think it presents is the same challenge highlighted over and over when talking about the Chosen Axes - pre inspiration, your 3 supporting fighters only have 3 health. In the first action round there are plenty of models who can do 2 damage +trap and twist the knife, or do 3 damage flat (severin, oberyn, gurzag to name a few), so Vol, Tefk, Maegrim all bite the dust early. And with the guys that do 3 damage, Fjul is at risk as well. I'm playing the Grand Clash deck at the moment with my own tweaks and what I'm discovering is, while yes, I likely lose 1 (and sometimes 2) pieces in the first round to hard hitting decks, my other 2 guys are getting inspired. With the right placement and use of boards, it's primarily the 2 I want. At that point, the Chosen Axes can go toe to toe with any warband in the game in terms of pure hitting power and the aggro scores roll up nicely. Maybe my meta isn't as competitive as it should be, but I'm loving the murder midgets right now.