The Harrowdeep boxed set launched the new season of Warhammer Underworlds last year. The first expansion warband – Blackpowder’s Buccaneers – goes on pre-order this weekend. We’ve already seen the awesome new models so now it’s time to learn what gameplay tricks they have up their piratey sleeves.
Who Are They?
Blackpowder’s Buccaneers are a pirate warband led by the ferocious ogor maneater Gorlok Blackpowder. He’s brought his merry menagerie to Harrowdeep in search of plunder and, as one of his objective cards shows, seeking new Bold Tales to tell.
Accompanying him are two gnoblars, a monkey and a parrot, and while Gorlok is attracted to fame and glory, they’re much more attracted to shiny things. In fact, they all have the Light-fingered rule.*
This means that you can snap your enemy’s shiny new sword into pieces and grab the shards like some kind of sparkly pirate booty. But what to do with your newly found swag? Let’s just say that Gorlock has an unorthodox approach to wealth management.
Shoot it, Don’t Spend it
Pirates usually bury their treasure, but not the Buccaneers – Gorlok sticks it into his grunderbuss and fires it at his enemies. By getting more Swag, you take away your opponents upgrades, supply yourself with more ammo, AND make it easier to score the Broadside objective.
As good as your grunderbuss is, you can still improve it, and a pair of upgrades provide you with extra range and a splash damage effect.
Other Tricks
Both Mange, the monkey, and Shreek, the parrot, have reactions that give them a free push when other specific fighters in the warband make a move action. This helps them scurry across the battlefield and works with the warband’s smash-and-grab playstyle (the minions and companions do the grabbing, and Gorlok does the smashing).
Unlike many other creatures that we’ve seen in Warhammer Underworlds (including the legendary Duinclaw), Mange does NOT have the beast keyword. That means that not only can they claim an objective token, but they can also be given Attack action upgrades – never mind the knife, just imagine Mange swinging the Mutating Maul in that tail!
Beware of giving them too many upgrades though because Gorlok is known to get peckish when he’s fighting and, in lieu of other options, a monkey can start to look really tasty.
The Blackpowder’s Buccaneers warband is arr-iving for pre-order from Saturday along with the new Illusory Might card deck, which we’ll be taking a look at later in the week. Sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date with all of the latest from Warhammer Underworlds.
* They’ve all clearly made some new year’s resoLOOTions.