Warhammer Underworlds

[me_in_japan]

I'm not sure how attractive the 16-to-a-box method is for those who have, say, 4 of those warbands, as it seems (if I'm reading it right) that that is the only way to get those warbands cards? Ie the cards available online are for the warbands who aren't being released in card form?

I've been trying to whittle my reactions to the new UW releases down to their basics, and I thiiiink I can summarise them as:

1) positive - I'm no longer completely out of date compared to everyone else. We're all starting new. Also, the minis are still excellent, and I want a reason to use them.

2) negative - in releasing a new edition/rules/cards, GW have functionally taken away the ability for me to use my stuff and is holding it hostage. The question on my mind is: how much am I going to have to pay them in order to be allowed to use it again? Ideally, this would be zero. As that number creeps up, the less happy I'm going to be. I do, however, realise that I wasn't really using em anyway (but hypothetically had the ability to do so.)

[Primarch]

@M_i_J - I've heard about this wonderful new technology. It is called 2D printing. Apparently it let's you put black (rumours speak of other colours too) marks onto pieces of white paper. I'm sure there must be a way you could get around GW through leveraging this new space age tech?

[The Other Dave]

Yes, the wording in the news article suggests that the 16 warbands being re-released in boxes won't have pdf cards available. Which isn't, like, great, but the other 42 will (and I guarantee scans of those 16 warbands' cards will be available for downloading within minutes of release - underworldsdb usually gets card scans up day of release if not before - and nobody outside of a GW store will bat an eye if you use them).

You will need* to buy some cards, since you'll now need at least one rivals deck to play and those are all new. 4 will be in the new core box, and two more will be released separately "soon" after the core box launches.

*Again, for some values of "need" - scans of the rivals decks, too, will certainly be available basically immediately and the the amount of eye-batting for using printouts will be equally zero outside of GW store contexts.

I mean, I'm going to buy the cards because I like nice physical components and I want to vote with my wallet for GW continuing to support the game, but I promise I will throw zero shade if you don't choose to.

[The Other Dave]

Speakin' of, they just dropped the pdfs with the core rules and rules for all but the 16 hard-copy warbands (which is 45 warbands, god I've been playing this game too long):

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en- ... derworlds/

Interestingly, the non-organized-play-official warbands all just share two warscrolls per grand alliance - which makes sense, I suppose, in a "creating bespoke rules for 32 different warbands" sense but does mean that warbands like the Exiled Dead or the Eyes of the Nine will be waiting for a rerelease for flavorful rules. C'est la vie, and I suppose I'd rather have fewer, more-balanced rules than more, less-balanced ones (and we still have 31 and growing warbands that do have bespoke rules), but it does mean I probably won't be bringing the Eyes until they get a rerelease. (On the other hand, the grand alliance warscroll rules are at least as robust as the rules for a lot of the first-season warbands, so Magore and pals will probably get some play.)

[Jye Nicolson]

I'm just happy more than two teams are playable at launch

It would have been nice to have bespoke rules for everything but there's a solid chance access to the Grand Alliance options will put Eyes of the Nine in the best mechanical position they've ever been.

Main thing is I'm going to have to train myself to look at the little icons next to weapons. Noticing that the crit symbol disappears off Grievous or whatever on inspiring would be kind of important!

[me_in_japan]

Ah well. I had been kinda interested in picking UW up again, but if the current trajectory is anything to go by, I think I'm best off keeping out of it.

One day, I shall find a use for my old warbands. That day is not today, but it'll happen eventually...

[The Other Dave]

I'm just happy more than two teams are playable at launch

It would have been nice to have bespoke rules for everything but there's a solid chance access to the Grand Alliance options will put Eyes of the Nine in the best mechanical position they've ever been.

Main thing is I'm going to have to train myself to look at the little icons next to weapons. Noticing that the crit symbol disappears off Grievous or whatever on inspiring would be kind of important!

I imagine the big Worlds tournament being in like a week had something to do with the pdf drop timing. Seems like they left the Minions keyword off all the minions in Spiteclaws' but aside from that the rules look fine at first blush, and in many cases quite a lot more robust than I was expecting - Skinnerkin and Brotherhood of the Bolt and even the Gravebreakers get pretty much all their (rather complex) warband rules, and I'm actually not sure who I want to bring on Sunday (besides Magore for the old-school flex).

Which reminds me: For anyone who does happen to be interested, this Sunday the 17th the Osu store is having a day-after-launch-day Underworlds play day and a fair few of us are going, and I'll have at least two warbands in tow to try the game out with - I'll probably be getting there a bit after lunch. As I said in the relevant thread, I should also have it along at the Nagoya games day next week.

[Jye Nicolson]

I think there's a lot of subtle improvements in the design that come through too.

Like Brodus has dropped from 3 damage to 2 - but he has Grievous on that weapon, so he actually does 3, it's just he can't easily push that to 4.

Or Zarbag has more than 7 bounty in the team because every fighter has 1, but they all drop to 0 after the 7th is scored. So you still score from your first 7 goblins no matter who they are.

[The Other Dave]

Yeah, the way Grievous works now seems pretty nice - it, like a few other rules changes, seems aimed at making the "power up one fighter until they're unstoppable" meta very hard to pull off.

[Jye Nicolson]

Looks a bit easier for the Grand Alliance warbands though - some nice fighter cards, I reckon they might be good with the right Rivals decks. Fair but of flat 3 damage in Order, trying to take a better look at the rest now.