WathLab

We dwarves have other priorities, but yes I guess every craftsman must first sharpen his tools...

That in particular would be great - you could spend an attack action to try to destroy this intriguing ancient Sigmar Kurnous statue... To find what ? Glory points, ancient artififacts (best upgrades in the game), inspiration, other buffs, new objective tokens... or hidden beasts ! Wow.

Like these very nice unofficial ones ? Revears Resin Terrain Guard Resin Terrain Chosen Axes Resin Terrain Only 3 warbands seem to have their own... I think they're from Poland. Yes, if GW made them I would buy them all... All the ones relative to dwarves, of course...

Due to the today New BAR LIST (with Spiritbond being restricted), our (chimeric) dream of Spririt of War Combo seems definitively dead now... Apart from that, this new list seems quite good news for our hairy stunties... Since everyone is getting down, I guess we'll be able to make beautiful uppercuts again very soon !

Thanks ! Of course you can ! I just hope the answer won't be too disappointing, because... Because the way I play Mad Maegrim is strongly linked to (the very personal) way I play Chosen Axes*... In fact, when I play them, I value reliability** and flexibility more than anything else. Here my reasoning is quite simple : Because most of the current warbands are faster than them, most of the time, when I play my Aggro / Flex / Invasive Chosen Axes, (even if I do my best) I don't have complete control on the path of the game and can't really decide who lives or dies... And, at the same time, because all of the Chosen Axes fighters are at least solid and decent (don't lie to ourselves, they're all very good (!)...), I've learned that the best thing I could do was to faithfully rely on the remaining ones... And maybe because I'm also a go player***, I tend to pay a bit more attention to the Where ? than to the Who ?... ... I don't have perfect builds or secret techs for anyone, and I want all my ploys and upgrades to work well with all my dwarves... (Imo giving specific build & use works better with strong AND fast warbands, where you can control more easily the path of the game...) So there's no specific build**** for Mad Maegrim in my current deck (and no specific build for anyone either), but many nice (VERY common knowledge) loadouts, using VERY simple things like Great Strenght, Duellist Speed, Concealed Weapon, Activated Runes or Potion of Rage... I've found this to be the best for my own playstyle... And by far... * I explained this recently : https://www.reddit.com/r/WarhammerUnderworlds/comments/by7g3c/how_do_you_play_your_chosen_axes_now/ **So that's why I like MM so much... *** I also explained this recently : https://www.reddit.com/r/WarhammerUnderworlds/comments/c3th1o/go_chosen_axes_5_useful_concepts_i_learned_from/ **** But yes, there are specific uses : killing low wounds fighters, killing Stormcasts, Orruks or Fiends with Concealed Weapon, being the CA unexpected threat, being the (last) one scoring Unstoppable Advance and Conquest because nobody cares about him, taking 2 wounds from uninspired Mollog when needed and sometimes, being #1 bait when Vol is away...

Hi everyone ! I was thinking about it recently... Because of their reputation for being a kind of hard-mode faction, Chosen Axes can deter many newcomers from playing them. Which is a bit sad, as our favourite warband can be really fun and very rewarding to play... Because I am a sort of all-time / die-hard Chosen Axes player, I wanted to write this short guide for new players. So here it is : some very simple advice for this nice finesse warband ! Chosen Axes for Beginners ! https://www.reddit.com/r/WarhammerUnderworlds/comments/c8qn9u/last_post_before_summer_chosen_axes_for_beginners/ Have a nice summer ! (Post edited after July 2019 BAR LIST!)

Happy times ! When you scored Spike, would you say that in both cases it was in the natural course of your game ? Or did that lead you to some kind of sub-optimal strategies or moves (here I mean for instance : attacking twice the same model even if you could have killed it with a single blow / or using Great Strenght on Fjul while not needing it for something else / things like that...) ?

Too bad for Spirit War... That's why I don't like combos in general. Do you run all the inspiration tools available to us now ? Inspiration Strikes, Blazing Soul AND Regal Vision ? And that's nice if spike can be easily scored (how often in your case ?). I'll try it in my deck !

Aside from maths, if this premonitory vision by the famous 19th japanese artist Utagawa Kuyinoshi is right, I guess the answer is yes... It is called : Dwarf Secret Tech saving poor Orruks from all these cruel new warbands (new warbands that I love too, of course, especially Thorns, Profiteers and Gitz...).

(Sorry for this interruption ! Fore sure I need to test this one ! And Blazing Soul of course. Inspired Attack is nice but I want to be inspired first... and 50% the time I don't need the +1 damage, so I guess it's a bit slow for me... Happy times anyway !)

Everything is in the title... In particular, I would be interested by those who made the illustrations for Chosen Axes, Garrek's Reavers and Thundrik's Profiteers faction cards... Does anyone know ?

Thanks for the maths : I'm the kind of player who always tries to memorize what the odds approximatively are to use them in-game - so I appreciate this very much... With this and Blazing Soul, maybe we've got some kind of rebalance after all... The more my dwarves are reliable, the more I love them. Disclaimer II - I play against Skaven a lot so your odds are fully understandable for me ! (Yes, Lurking Skaven has this very nice habit of making strong guys miss their first attack, but I have to admit here I completely forgive him for this. My own book is full of green(skins/spirits) grievances...).

Really excited too ! I guess we Chosen Axes players will have to struggle a bit more. What we can expect is tremendous progress in skills, cunning and morale !

Ah... I can see there's another real die-hard dwarf fellow here. What you discovered is brilliant. Are Chosen Axes the true winners of the Power Unbound meta shake ? Even if I don't like combos in general, I'll definitely give it a try. At last (and at least), we know what Vol's role and purpose are... Fjul as the Sprit of War, wow and yes : as it would almost be like a permanent Potion of Rage bonus (no comment). I like this drunkard story a lot. Alas, I'm afraid our Runefather might be a bit too severe to enjoy drinking songs. Maybe more a kind of Tefk-thing ?

THAT Archer's Focus is amazing

Exactly ! So let's make it. https://www.underworldsdb.com/shared.php?deck=0,119,124,129,132,133,136,144,383,409,411,N476,N493,N501,N518,N515,378,N503,357,362,327,334,348,349,L42,N436,N441,234,257,260,272,N309,N357,N373,N378,P36,243 Here are the true Profiteers !

The origins of this post relate to my personnal experience as a player... but this time not only as a Warhammer Underworlds player ! So why this post ? If we players very often discuss playstyles and deckbuilding, I find that we more rarely approach purely strategic issues... Maybe because it's much more complex to express. I have to admit I feel this difficulty myself... If we players very often discuss playstyles and deckbuilding, I find that we more rarely approach purely strategic issues... Maybe because it's much more difficult to express. Of course, in many ways, Go game (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)) can be seen as the perfect opposite of Warhammer Underwolds, which is much more similar to Chess - in terms of scale (for both space and time) or of basic mechanics. However, because Warhammer Underworlds is also some kind of spatial / territorial game, I believe that there are several concepts (at least 5) coming from Go that can be useful for us. As a long-time Go player I use them in almost all of my Warhammer Underworlds games (I mainly play Aggro Chosen Axes), not least to look at them with fresh eyes... So let's therefore examine them ! 01/ Shape In the Go lexicon : Shape is the configuration of stones in their flexibility and efficiency at staying connected, forming eyes, and maintaining liberties. Stones are said to have good shape if they are efficient and flexible, or bad shape if they are inefficient. Even if Warhammer Underworlds fighters are not equivalent to Go stones, shape is something I really care about. Firstly while setting-up, looking at boards, objectives and fighters placement, and then during the 3 Rounds, I wonder : objectives-oriented considerations aside, how does my warband look like ? Can she be described as a unique formation or is it more complex ? Where is its core ? Where are its main weapons ? Where are it's main defects ? This kind of questions we keep asking and answering ourselves all the time, and most of the time without realizing it... For our warband and for our opponent's. Of course, such a concept is less relevant at the end of the game, when most of our fighters are out of action... 02/ Sabaki In the Go lexicon : Sabaki (捌き) is the development of a flexible, efficient position that is difficult for the opponent to attack, often by means of contact plays and sacrifice. Sabaki can be seen as the main quality of a good shape. So here the questions would rather be : How great is the threat range of my formation(s) ? Can I improve it in my next activation or using push-ploys ? Won't I spoil it if I chose to do this risky charge ? How many of my fighters can answer the threat I sense my opponent is about to launch at me ? How many supports can be easily mobilized ? What if I lose this mini at the center of my formation ? Here, we can also talk about our opponent's morale, with questions such as : How impressive is my current position ? How strong does it look ? For Chosen Axes, for instance, Sabaki is of major importance, mainly because your fighters are so slow... And also because unlike Mollog*, you often want to look bigger than you really are... *Who is bigger. Period. 03/ Korigatachi In the Go lexicon : Korigatachi (凝り形) is often translated as 'over-concentrated', but more literally is 'frozen shape'. If a player uses his stones in an inefficient way, the result will be korigatachi. Knowing something about this problem should tell you how to avoid it. Placing stones too close together is a fundamental mistake, rather than safe play. Here, it's all about finding the balance between short and long distance within your formation(s), between your minis mutual support (which requieres them to rather near from each other) and board covering (to interfere with your opponent's plans, and of course to achieve yours...). This concept is very important, also because it's directely linked to the next : 04/ Sente In the Go lexicon : A move that overwhelmingly compels a player into a particular follow-up move is said to have "sente" (先手), or "initiative"; the opponent has "gote" (後手). In most games, the player who maintains sente most of the time will win. Gote means "succeeding move" (lit: "after hand"), the opposite of sente, meaning "preceding move" (lit: "before hand"). Sente denotes which player has the initiative in the game, and which moves result in taking and holding the initiative. More precisely, as one player attacks in sente, the other defends in gote, it can be said that they respectively do and do not have the initiative. The situation of having sente is favorable, permitting control of the flow of the game. Applying these concepts to a whole sequence is basic to higher strategy. If Black starts a sequence that properly ends in an even number of plays, Black retains sente in doing this. If Black starts a sequence that properly ends after an odd number of plays, Black loses sente and takes gote. Accepting gote should only be in return for some profitable exchange. A player has sente if he does not currently need to respond to moves made by his opponent. This can be achieved by tenuki (ignoring the opponent), as a kind of gambit. A player can break out of gote, and gain sente by choosing to accept some future loss on the local level, in order to take the initiative to play elsewhere. In the case that neither player directly responds to the other's moves, the game can become difficult to analyze. Though each player has gote on entering the turn, the move itself is sente. Such games often end in large exchanges, or one player will be shown to have a weaker position and eventually have to answer to avoid heavy damage. When we talk about one of our games, we often specify which player dictated its pace. Sente is (almost) simply this : initiative. When I think about sente in-game, most of the time, it leads me to very simple questions such as : Who has it now ? If it's me, how can I keep it ? Otherwise, how can I steal initiative from my opponent ? And, of course : do I need to answer my opponent's move or can I ignore it ? Here, I'd like to say that I was very happy to have the opportunity to speak about initiative, because as we all know, with their stubby legs, Chosen Axes do not often have it... 05/ Kiai In the Go lexicon : In the context of Go, kiai (気合い) often translates as "fighting spirit", i.e. aggressiveness or initiative, but not unthinking greed. Kiai means keeping sente, that is not letting the opponent have his or her way. A sensei might say, "You play too passively — put some kiai in your moves!” A passive player may follow an opponent around the board responding to each move in turn. Kiai moves are the opposite of passive or submissive and a player showing kiai will dictate the flow of play. Kiai moves can catch an opponent off-balance and turn the game around. Examples of kiai moves include snatching sente away from the opponent; defending with a move that also counter-attacks; or answering a kikashi (forcing move) in an unexpected way. Kiai is also a term used in Japanese martial arts, usually as a name for a loud yell accompanying an attack. Obviously this is outwardly more restrained in the context of a board game, but it is intended to be in the same spirit. Morale again. So important in Warhammer Underworlds. The game is short and brutal, so you have to be prepared for anything. And when this anything happens, when this very nice lethal strike you made ON Mollog is countered by Rebound (!), you have to keep your fighting spirit... But at the same time, don't be misleaded by your own agressiveness. in particular, learn when to make strong and calm moves, as very often, those are very hard to counter... So... Any Warhammer Underworlds player also playing Go ?

Am I the only one seing this as a kind of provocation ?

I'd say that it mainly depends on your meta / your playstyle. Playing as Chosen Axes since their release with only 13 or 14 glory in my objective deck 90% of the time, I've won most of my games (maybe around 70%-75%)... It's because I favor reliability over risk*. Low glory objectives are often much easier to score. * As I think it's already risky enough to play Chosen Axes...

Even if it's (somehow) a complete different story, here's the Chart of the week : Now season 2 is (almost) over, I was wondering if there were any pattern in the sucession of major tournament winners since Shadespire's release... So... Which warbands have been the most successfull in major tournaments since 2017 ? And what was the succession of leading warbands over time ? Can we see any pattern here ? The charts* are not perfect (and informations are missing for a few events**), but I thought they were precise enough to help us understanding a few things... In particular, in chart n°1 showing Grand Winners, we can see : how Steelheart's Champions (8 Victories), Magore Fiends (4V), Stormsire's Cursebreakers (4V) and Thorns of the Briar Queen (4V) have regularly won major events since their respective release, how Spiteclaw's Swarm (4V) and Sepulchral Guard (3V) also have regularly won major events from their release, but stopped around November 2018 (first BAR List), that every warband won at least one major event, except Godsworn's Hunt... In chart n°2 showing Recurrence in Top 3, we can see : how Steelheart's Champions and Magore Fiends did well since the very begining and how regularly they continued their climbing to the top since then, how Spiteclaw's Swarm did well since their release and continued placing top 3 until November 2018 (around first BAR List), to then stop, how fast and regular Stormsire's Cursebreakers rising is since December 2018... the warband placing in top 3 of almost every single major event since that time, how warbands like Thorns of the Briar Queen, Zarbag Gitz and Mollog' Mob regularly placed top 3 since their respective release, how Ylthari's Guardians' start seems to be good... and again, that every warband placed Top 3 in at least one major event, except Godsworn's Hunt... *Note 1 : How to read the charts ? Every time a given warband wins a tournament (chart n°1) or appears in top 3 (chart n°2), it gains one point and climbs one place on the ladder. So for a given event, the warband's position on the ladder shows how many events it won at that time since their release... **Note 2 : The source is the very nice Tournament Deck List from https://www.underworldsdb.com

Thanks ! Totally agree when you say the Axes need a first hand full of ploys... Currently, I only take Grimnir's Fortitude (which is the ONLY exception to my conditionnal principles, but I love the card so much...) and* Great Fortitude. The simpler, the better. With inspired dwarves you'll trigger Gloryseeker anyway that's why I prefer Great Fortitude over any other defensive card. With Ur-Gold boon or Vampire Weapon, you need to be wounded, which seems too conditionnal for me in this deck... and also doesn't prevent your dwarves from being one-shot. Of course rebound is ok, I often use it myself in my other decks but here I try to build a very reliable war hammer... *(Edit June 2019 : Grimnir's Fortitude replaced by Duellist Speed)

Now Season 2 is over, I wanted to share with you some of my last thoughts about Chosen Axes. What do you guys think of this ? How do you play Chosen Axes now ? As they're my main faction from the very beginning, I've come to pretty solid conclusions with them (of course some of them are very well-known, but some others may be a bit more personnal). By now, this warband is a bit finesse to pilot, but is also very rewarding with a bit of training. Even if it will not last long, at that time my last deck is still undefeated (10 victories in a row, 14-7 average score versus Magore, Thorns, Gitz and Thundrik)... From my experience, the most important idea seems to be this one : as you lack time, mobility and flexibity, you need to give them as much freedom, efficiency and fluidity as you can (you'll notice I don't write anything about match-ups, but that's another advantage you have with this way of thinking - you can very easily adapt to your opponent...). With this general strategy, a Chosen Axes warband will be like a powerful and reliable war hammer, very predictable for the player, and very unpredictable for his opponent... Which means, regarding deck-building : - Take Inspiration Strikes and Regal Vision (because you gain so much when your dwarves are inspired - safety, speed, power, accuracy... it's almost equivalent to adding 3 or 4 good upgrades on each mini), - If possible, every single card in your deck has to be useful regardless of which round you play it / of which dwarf you use it on. So cut everything that's too conditionnal (limit character restricted upgrades, cut ploys with conditions that are too difficult to meet, even if they seem very strong) or too niche, or relies on unlikely combos... - Boost speed using push-ploys (at least 5) and upgrades : you need to be able to reach your opponent and to plan some nasty surprises. Moreover, more push-ploys may also mean less move or charge tokens... thus much more freedom for your dwarves, - Boost accuracy (I mainly use upgrades for this) : as you'll have only few occasions of attacking / scoring, you need them to be successfull... I found that Inspired Fjul is not that reliable, especially against 2 dice dodge defense... - Don't take too many defensive power cards (in my deck, I only have one of them), you have other priorities... If you manage to inspire them correctly (see below), your dwarves are quite durable, - Only take objectives that you are 100 % sure to achieve / that don't lead you to sub-optimal strategies or forced plays / that can't be countered easily. Of course that means that your glory total has great chance to be quite low, but in a best-of-3 match I believe that with Chosen Axes some reliable-quite-low-total-scoring is better that unreliable-high-total-scoring (most of the time, I cycle and score my entire objective deck)... You need to make a good start with them, so reliability is a very important thing. From this peculiar reliabilty perspective, a good Round 3 objective is Conquest, which is very hard to counter and can also be used with Unstoppable Advance, - Also don't be too greedy and don't take too many score immediately objectives (with dwarves I think 5 is ok) : they almost always rely on fighting, which can be bad versus defensive or control opponents or if you don't get them at the right time... - Test your deck, with every available tool, to ensure you reached this fluid quality that seems so important with dwarves : in-game testings, online drawing simulators, debates with friends, etc. (While preparing my deck, using very precise criteria, I made about 500 online drawing simulations - with mulligan when needed - to discover that 90 % of the time both my objective hand and my power hand were good in view of my strategy, and very good 50 % of the time.) And which means, regarding strategy : - Round 1, inspire as many dwarves as you can, using every single tool available to you : inspiration strikes and regal vision, moves, push-ploys, etc. (I almost always have 2 inspired dwarves on the board at the end of Round 1, often 3 and sometimes 4 at the very beginning of Round 2. Here's an example of a good Round 1 sequence I frequently play : Dwarf A moves on objective then I use Regal vision then I push him using some ploy to move Dwarf B on the same objective at the end of the Round...), - For that reason, mulligan your first power cards hand if you don't have at least : Inspiration Strikes or Regal Vision or several good push ploys, - Round 1, even if your first hand is good, consider drawing one card (or even two cards sometimes) if your opponent does'nt threat you too much, in order to get momentum as early as possible, - While setting-up : be very careful about distances and group your dwarves as much as you can in order to set up multiple inspirations... It's very helpful if even with only two objectives on your side, you can reach at least 2 objectives with each dwarf... The Mirror Well, Kathophrane Reliquary and the Cursed Oubliette are nice boards to achieve this, - Don't lose too much time : put your objectives in front of you and play as aggressivley as you can, - Because relying on Fjul only is somehow risky (because he can die early, because he can't be everywhere at the same time, and because using him only is also a kind of telegraphed strategy), also use your other dwarves, especially Tefk (strong and very reliable) or even Maegrim (against low wounds warbands)... For your opponent, multiple threats are harder to counter... - As always, be sure to know your deck by heart. Every single card and every effect... - And of course : yell Khâzad Khâzad !

Regarding my Chosen Axes, I'd say that catch-me-if-you-can Stormsire Cursebreakers and Thundrik's Profiteers are one of the most challenging match-ups now...

Something like a Song of Offerings ! It sounds interesting ! (Even if I don't really play Chosen Axes this way, I mean around Fjul only, I can see that would help...) And yes I hope we'll have some new cards for our old shadespire warbands...

(Everything's in the title !)