The incredible new Warhammer Underworlds: Gnarlwood boxed set is available for pre-order, introducing a new setting and big rules changes. The game now has a range of different formats, providing a suitable level of play and competition for everyone from absolute beginners to the most cunning of deck builders.
Rivals Format
The new season is all about Rivals, a style of play which requires no deck building at all. You just need your warband and a pre-built deck of cards. This can either be your own warband’s Rivals deck or a universal Rivals deck – and you’re good to go!
Rivals decks are balanced against each other to ensure a fair match whatever deck you choose, while each new Rivals deck you try out gives you a new way to play with your favourite warbands. There are all sorts of synergies to discover, and a deck will play very differently from one warband to another. This format is ideal for new players, but it also suits experienced players looking for a challenge under new constraints.
Warhammer Underworlds developer Nyle Ajina has been playing in the latest Studio league, and is a big fan of how the new system works.
Nyle: My favourite thing about the Rivals format is that it has greatly increased my local pool of opponents. Because it has removed the deck-building barrier to entry, far more people are willing to play Warhammer Underworlds since they can just open, shuffle, and play. The last time we ran a Championship league here in the Studio, we had fewer than 10 participants – our current Rivals office league has over 30 players in it!
Games Developer John Bracken has also found that the Rivals format has made getting involved in the game much more straightforward.
John: The most appealing thing about Rivals is that I'm honestly not good at building decks. Army lists I can do, but card synergies often escape me until I've played a fairly large number of games. As a competitive player this is a serious hurdle for me, and puts me automatically behind players who can build decks. With Rivals, this isn't the case. My gaming handicap is mitigated, making my practice time much more productive and my games more entertaining as a result.
Nemesis Format
This is the new format on the block. Nemesis lets you combine the cards from your warband’s deck with the cards from one other universal Rivals deck. You then use these to build a deck of your own from this pool of cards.
Battle Report presenter Nick Bayton is a massive fan of Warhammer Underworlds and has been hosting a number of events at Warhammer World. Here’s what he had to say about Nemesis.
Nick: We’ve been using the prototype version of Nemesis at the Bugman’s Clash events at Warhammer World since January, and it’s proved extremely popular. By allowing a small amount of deck building, it’s the perfect halfway house between the structure of the Rivals format and the breadth of the Relic format. It’s a fully fledged system in its own right, letting newer players dip their toes into the joy of designing a deck, with plenty of added challenge for veteran players. All of a sudden, players are looking for cunning combinations. Which warband works best with which Rivals deck?
We have seen warbands that have lurked in the shadows come to the fore with the release of a certain deck as players start to work out the best combinations. It’s certainly added a new depth to the game and provided loads of replayability. Every warband has the potential to be radically different in how they play depending on which Rivals deck they add to their faction cards, and that’s made events incredibly interesting and varied this year!
Relic Format
As mentioned by Nick, there’s one final format – Relic. This is the most complex and allows you to build decks using your full collection of cards (minus a handful that have been Forsaken for gameplay reasons). This format lets your imagination run wild, creating the narrative-based decks of your dreams – or the most scarily efficient deck possible.
You’ll need a deck like that in your Championship games. This subset of Relic uses cards from current and certain previous seasons, giving you a curated card pool to work with when you build your decks. There is also a list of Forsaken cards (which you’re not allowed to use) and Restricted cards (of which you can include a maximum of three in your deck.)* This is the format used at Grand Clash events – the pinnacle for the ultimate competitive miniatures game.
The new season of Warhammer Underworlds kicks off this weekend when the Gnarlwood boxed set goes on pre-order. Sign up for our newsletter to ensure you don’t miss out on any of the latest Warhammer Underworlds updates.
* Keep up to date with the latest Forsaken and Restricted lists on our Warhammer Underworlds FAQ page.