The Knives of the Crone are almost here, and with them Warhammer Underworlds will have its sixth warband of the new edition. This means it’s getting pretty crowded in the labyrinthine mines beneath Embergard, and the design team have been hard at work collating data and working on new Rules Updates, a Tournament Companion and Organised Play Formats documents.
You can download everything below, and we’re also going to take a brief look at some of the changes.
The difference between melee attacks and ranged attacks has now been codified via Runemarks, rather than range characteristics. Rules for placing Treasure Tokens have been both clarified and updated – with an additional rule that one must always be placed in neutral territory.
The Underdog rule has been changed to kick in when a player’s slain fighters have a greater Bounty characteristic rather than their opponents, rather than activating when they are behind on Glory Points. If they are equal, there is no underdog. Finally a new bullet point has been added to Persisting Abilities, confirming that abilities found on Warscroll cards and Plot cards persist for the duration of the game, unless otherwise specified.
Changes to warbands
Various warbands have had changes to improve overall game balance, with some warbands receiving reworked abilities.
Blackpowder’s Buccaneers: Swag Blast and Swag Mortar both receive an extra pip of damage.
Borgit’s Beastgrabbaz: As per the changes to ranged and melee attacks, Dregg has received the ranged Runemark for his attacks.
The Crimson Court: Savage Bloodlust has been removed entirely, and replaced with three new abilities: the Curse, the Hunger, and Bloodthirst, which use hunger tokens to represent your vampires’ eternal lusts. This change impacts their Inspire condition, as well as Bestial Transformation and Vampiric Might.
Hexbane’s Hunters: Loyal Hounds has been upgraded to allow your dogs to move even if they already have a Move token.
Da Kunnin Krew: Slaying a target now inspires fighters, while A Kunnin’ Plan becomes easier to execute as it just requires your leader to be on the battlefield – no Move token requirement.
Mollog’s Mob: The Always Lurking Stalagsquig can now no longer be pushed and cannot Move, and it may only be removed from the battlefield if it is slain.
Grinkrak’s Looncourt: Quests can no longer be abandoned at any time, and must instead be abandoned in the Power step instead of playing a Power card.
The Sepulchral Guard: Bone Shrapnel now no longer requires its target to be vulnerable. Arise! has been altered so that your fighters come back a little worse for wear, and Relentless Blows has been replaced with Startling Reformation, allowing your leader to collapse into a pile of bones and reform near his allies.
The Thricefold Discord: Evasive has been changed to a Surge ability, and only activates if the targeted fighter has no Move or Charge tokens.
Zarbag’s Gitz: These cheeky gitz now only Inspire after you have more Glory Points than friendly fighters on the battlefield, while Barely Worth It is replaced with Too Bouncy! which stops your squigs from delving or holding Treasure Tokens.
Changes to decks
Only one deck has changes made this time, and it’s plot card for Countdown to Cataclysm, making steps along the Cataclysm track mandatory.
Organised Play balance
Your Organised Play document looks exactly the same for the Rivals format, but if you’re playing Nemesis games, you’ll need to update your decks. Bladecatcher has moved from Forsaken to Restricted, and Delving for Wealth, Illusory Fighter, Mobbed!, Spread Havoc and Supremacy have all joined it.
Changes to the Tournament Organisers Pack
All that’s changing in the Tournament Organisers Pack are a few clarifications in the recommendations section, with advice for tracking who went first in a battle round, and some structure for deciding how to determine territories in events that involve best-of-three matches.
