Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Entering the Nightvault

I got a chance to play with the new Warhammer Underworlds edition the other day. Def gonna be picking that up as soon as I can manage it.
I didn't think to take a pic until our last game, when I was playing Magore's Fiends, instead of the one when I was playing the Thorns

Each of the three of us got a chance to play as the Nighthaunt Warband, the Thorns of the Briar Queen, and we were all very pleased with how they worked, even just using a deck that consisted of their Faction-specific cards and a few very generic ones to round it out. Varclav's ability to spend an Activation to Push all the Chainrasps 2 hexes each is amazingly powerful, the ability to move through anything is cool, and they have a bunch of cards that are both flavourful and strong. On the flipside, getting them Inspired can be difficult, and will generally result in a couple of them getting taken out, and the number of Models can be very difficult to manage, especially if someone manages to take Varclav out.

Model-wise, they're fantastic sculpts, but even more fragile than the Sepulchral Guard. Be very careful handling and working with them, and there are a number of bits I'm almost certainly going to have to reinforce with brass rod/wire.

The Sacrosanct Chamber Warband, Stormsire's Cursebreakers, we were less impressed by. I didn't bother playing them after watching the other two each spend a match fighting more against their own deck than the other Warbands. We do think there's some potential there, but they're definitely a Band that's going to need some experimentation and careful Deck-building to get to work. Just tossing all their Faction-locked cards into a deck with a few generically useful fillers is not a workable option here.

They also fall down a bit compared to the Thorns Model-wise. They're still cool Models, definitely better than Steelheart's Champions, and far better than the first Stormcast we saw, but when they're set next to the Thorns, the latter unquestionably steal the show.

The Rules updates didn't all come into play, but those that did were mostly very good. The clarifications about how a Charge Token restricts further Activitions is my fave. Lethal Hexes are a cool addition, adding a nice middle ground between the extremes of open and blocked hexes. Not only do they open the possibilities for being able to take certain paths, but have them hurt, but there is also definite potential in Pushing your Opponent's Models into them for a bit of extra damage.

Spells, we were less impressed by. The ones that require two successes, even if they're Channel (the more common of the two, the lightning bolts), are pretty hard to cast, with even a level two Caster having less than a 50/50 of succeeding. Some of them are certainly potentially very powerful, but they're very unreliable. There are bonuses available, but from what I've seen so far, they're currently very limited. We'll see as the rest of the Warbands for the second season come out whether or not there's enough support to make magic a viable strategy.

We also had the new Terrain pieces around to mark Blocked and Lethal Hexes. They work well for Blocked Hexes, but less so for Lethal ones, since few of them allow a Model to be easily placed in the same Hex. I like all the sculpts, myself, but the throne with all the imagery of Nagash was kind of divisive among the group. Also, while I don't really care much one way or another about coloured plastic in general, the specific shade of teal they chose for these is pretty questionably. But really, they are intended to be painted, so that shouldn't be an issue for the most part.

Overall, it all seemed really cool, and a good start to this wave of expansion on the foundation laid by Shadespire. I'm glad someone brought it by, and I'm very much looking forward to picking it up myself at some point here. Until next time, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

11 comments:

  1. I'll be picking Nightvault up tonight, but probably be a few weeks before I play it being we're mid-Blood Bowl season.

    Yeah, some factions just work out of the box and others need work. I also feel that Orruks and Steelheart's Champs are the same way, more so with the Orruks. I'm also generally not interested in Stormcasts of any type, though I did Steelheart's Champs for fun, so guess I won't really bother with the new dudes.

    The ghosties I am interested in though, and glad to hear they're fun to play. I've been very tempted to get Guard, but I think I'll only do one "horde" warband and it's going to be the Nighthaunt. I say that and will likely own them all at some point though...

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    1. Yeah, I built my Ironjawz deck pretty much the same way, and it works fine, tho I'm sure it could be improved. I think I might be getting the hang of the Skaven now, but I need a few more games to be sure, and the trial and error stage has involved a lot of error.

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    2. Eh, it's that trial and error that keeps it interesting to me. I enjoy trying to solve a problem, and if the answer is too apparent then it doesn't tend to hold my interest as much.

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    3. I need a mix. I can have a pretty low frustration threshold sometimes, especially when I'm tired. If I'd only had Skaven, Dwarves, and Farstriders available, I never would have got very far with Shadespire. I need those solid reliable* options like Steelheart's Champions, the Sepulchral Guard, the Ironjawz, and Magore's Fiends to kind of recharge in between experiments.

      *They don't necessarily win any more frequently, but at least I feel like I'm getting beat by my Opponent(s), and not by my own deck.

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    4. I completely agree. I'm the same way depending on my mood. Lately I'm using my Bloodreavers, which are pretty straight-forward, but I'll bounce back to something more complicated when my mind needs the challenge.

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  2. Damn you Westrider, I will resist! Thank goodness you didn't review the Eyes of the Nine or the Gitz. I probably would have caved in immediately.

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    1. It's probably going to be a couple more weeks before I get a chance to play with those. It will happen, tho!

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  3. I am seriously in love with warhammer underworlds, so this release has me very excited!
    I’ve played one game so far of nigjtvault, and I was using the sacrosanct chamber dudes. Got to say not impressed so far. The banshees absolutely kicked my arse! I think their cards are quite weak at the mo, but they will probably come into their own as people deck build and more specific cards are released. Great game though!

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    1. I'm pretty sure I've played more games of WHUW in the past year than all other forms of tabletop gaming combined. Such a great game.

      And yeah, I think the Cursebreakers have potential, but it's going to take more experimentation and work on their deck to figure it out. Sheer numbers plus Varclav's ability give the Thorns a very solid base to work from regardless of the cards.

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    2. The thorns are excellent I think. I played with the skellies in a game on fri and I think the thorns do everything they can do but 10 times better. My friend played the curse breakers and absolutely kicked my butt with them. I must have missed something when I used them 😂

      Yeah I have played it much more than anything else too. Life is super busy right now for me so it fits in perfectly both hobby wise and gaming

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    3. The one big advantage that the Guard have is being able to bring Models back. That can really turn things around sometimes.

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