A major change to the game came about in the last year which will be important for both new players and returning players alike: formats, or ‘ways to play’. In short, you can now play two different game formats, each with their own deckbuilding rules – Rivals and Nemesis. There exist a few other formats, some of which I covered in my Multiplayer Games article, and some more which I’ll cover in another article in the future, but the main ones are those two. Let’s take a look at each one below.

Rivals

Rivals is the most basic format, and the best introductory way to play the game for new people. In the Rivals format, no deckbuilding is required (or allowed) – you simply use a ‘Rivals’ deck, which is pre-built, and play with those cards. You should have 12 objective cards, 10 upgrades, and 10 ploy cards in a given Rivals deck. In most cases, you will be using rivals deck that matches your warbands’ designation – Strike, Taken and hold, Flex, etc. – but you can pair any warband with any deck should you please. Keeping the archetypes aligned generally works well with what your models are able to do and makes the best use of their special rules and abilities on their warscrolls. They all can be played, but you will have a harder time winning in some cases if you don’t have the optimal number of fighters, or the best abilities to make use of the cards’ conditions.

Another use for the Universal Rivals Decks is variety of play. Since there is no deckbuilding in the Rivals format, you may find that you are looking for more ways to mix it up and change how your warband plays – perhaps you only own a few warbands, and/or either you or your opponent isn’t trying to take the step up to Nemesis and begin deckbuilding. Taking a different Rivals deck with your warband can be a great way to spice things up and make games more interesting. If you have played a bunch of games with The Emberwatch and want to try something new, you could always replace the deck you’ve been using, for example trying Pillage and Plunder rather than Blazing Assault. This will feel familiar as you’re using the same fighters, but different because you now have new objectives and power cards to work with.

Nemesis

The Nemesis format is the next step up from Rivals, and is the most supported format for tournament play at official Games Workshop events. Nemesis introduces an element of deckbuilding into the game – no longer are you using a single preconstructed Rivals deck to play. In Nemesis, you will combine two Rivals decks with the cards of your choosing to create a Nemesis deck.

I wrote an article called Building Your First Nemesis Deck which is targeted at beginners, but I will cover some basics for this discussion as well. Your deck must include at least 12 objective cards, and no more than 6 of them can be ‘Surge’ (score immediately) cards. While it isn’t required that you take 6 surges, it’s generally the smartest move. Your power deck must be a minimum of 20 cards, no more than half of which are allowed to be gambits. You can take more than 20 cards, but again the general recommendation is to take 10 upgrades and 10 gambits. The last thing to know if you can’t include duplicate cards with the same name – even if both Rivals deck contain Great Strength in them separately, your Nemesis deck can only have one copy of it.

The benefits of playing within the Nemesis format are many – a chance to flex your creativity and build a deck that suits your personal style, an opportunity to drop some cards from a given Rivals deck that are just difficult to make use of, a smoother gameplay experience (things ‘just work’ and you can actually play all your cards), and more opportunities for glory. Overall the competitive flavor of the game is much better in Nemesis than in Rivals.

One thing for newer players to consider is that you have several Universal Rivals Decks to choose from, but not every one of them with mesh as well with your chosen warband. There are some combinations that work better with certain fighters, certain warband abilities, etc that make some pairings difficult to succeed with. Over time and experimentation you’ll begin to learn what might or might not work well, but if you’re interested in the opinions of others you can see my season articles linked above, or check out the nemesis deck library from BattleMallet for helpful tips to get you started.

Wrap

Returning players from the old days may recognize the Championship format as the only way the game was played for the first few years of Underworlds. In the new framework, Championship no longer exists – you won’t be building a deck from hundreds of options across dozens of releases. This reduces the complexity of the deckbuilding process in a positive way, but also means you do not have to ‘buy everything’ to be competitive. This game is NOT pay to win like you might find in other deckbuilders.

Hopefully this has provided a little clarity for the newer and returning players out there who are confused about the new ways to play formats in Warhammer Underworlds. As always, feel free to shoot me any questions or comments about any of the above, and until next time, I hope you enjoy spending your glory!