The new season of Warhammer Underworlds kicks off with the Gnarlwood boxed set. This arboreal assault brings with it a raft of rule changes designed to improve the game and offer more tactical options for both new and experienced players.
Perfectly Formatted
Warhammer Underworlds: Gnarlwood focuses on the Rivals format. The boxed set includes two faction-specific Rivals decks – one for the Gnarlspirit Pack and another for The Sons of Velmorn – and two universal Rivals decks that any warband can use. These decks are carefully built and balanced to have you ready to play right out of the box.
The new Nemesis format adds a deck-building element for players who want to experiment, allowing you to mix-and-match the contents of your warband’s Rivals deck with another, universal deck. The Relic format is also available, for people who prefer the full deck-building experience using their entire collection of cards.*
Move, Move, Move!
Movement rules have had an upgrade. In previous seasons of Warhammer Underworlds, your fighters couldn’t make another Move action if they already had a Move token. In the new season, all fighters can make multiple Move actions in an action phase.
You still can’t Move and then Charge,** but this change makes it much easier for fighters to dart around the root-choked caverns beneath the Gnarlwood. It’s great for scoring objectives that need you to enter enemy territory, or jumping on far-flung feature tokens.
Chaaaaaaarge!
There is also a huge change coming to Charge actions. Previously, if a fighter made a Charge action, they couldn’t be activated again – that was their lot for the phase. Now, if all of the surviving fighters in your warband have Charge tokens, you can activate them again!
They can’t make a Move action or perform another Charge, but they can make an Attack or go on Guard if they’re holding a crucial objective. This change is great for small, aggressive warbands such as the Gorechosen of Dromm or Morgok’s Krushas, who want to be charging all the time.
Out of the Gloom
Gloom tokens were introduced for Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep, representing the murkiness of fighting in Ulgu. In the root-halls beneath the Gnarlwood, these are replaced with cover hexes and snare hexes. If you end up in a snare hex – whether you wander there yourself or get shoved – you’ll be staggered, which allows your enemies to re-roll one attack dice each time they lay into you.
In addition, feature tokens now begin the game with the objective side face up – a real boon for warbands such as the Starblood Stalkers or The Chosen Axes, who inspire by holding objectives. You can still delve feature tokens to flip them over – turning an objective into a cover hex and vice versa – but a fighter on top of a hex when it flips will be staggered, so watch your feet.
Warhammer Underworlds: Gnarlwood will be available to pre-order soon, and we’ll have a closer look at the new warbands from the boxed set next week. Sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss any of the action from the root-halls.
* We’ll have more details on the Relic format next week.
** Unless you’re Mollog the Mighty, Elathain’s Soulraid, or have a specific ploy or upgrade.