2023 Warhammer Underworlds Year in Review

Today’s article will be the first of hopefully a long-running annual series of years in review. I plan to make it a bit of a love letter for the game as a whole as well as a recap of my year’s personal experience. I started 2023 having come off a down-year gaming wise; I was working overtime in the early part of 2022 at a hospital that was still somewhat in the grip of Covid and staffing shortages, and then had my first child. Suffice it to say, I didn’t spend a lot of time on hobbies or playing games that year, and had made a New Year’s Resolution for myself to engage more in Underworlds for 2023 now that the baby lets us have a little more wiggle room for outside activities. WHU was (and is) my favorite game, and I wanted to find ways to spend more of my free time exploring it and less time on things that didn’t ‘spark joy’ such as video games or phone scrolling. I’m happy to report that I did! How rare that I actually succeed in a New Year’s Resolution.

In the calendar year of 2023, I painted 50 Underworlds models and completed 8 warbands, and improved my photography setup to have a better lightbox and use something besides a phone camera. I played my first online games, entering a Vassal League (where I got obliterated and I think only won a single game across five matches). I ran a Summer league here in Seattle which had 8 participants. I personally played 171 games this year (scoring 2,138 glory in total!). 29 of those games were with Sons of Velmorn and 24 of those games were with Gryselle’s Arenai, my two top warbands of the year. In terms of Rivals pairings, I played 38 games with Fearsome Fortress. I participated in 7 total tournaments (including a Grand Clash in Tacoma where I took 4th out of 14), and ran two more tournaments I didn’t play in – one of which had 14 players participate! Competitively, this year I won my first and second local glass trophies (that only took me 5 years…). I started work on this blog in May and have averaged nearly 4,000 views per month since then – WAY more than I had anticipated at the outset. I’ve even gotten involved in the Underworlds Underground podcast, which has published 5 episodes already this year in the few months it has been up and running. Overall it was a very involved year for Underworlds in my life and I’m very glad to have made the decision to really dive in.

Across the broader Underworlds…. uh, world? There was a lot of activity to speak of as well. We had tons of product releases, including two starter sets, two core boxes (and two rules updates!), 7 universal rivals decks, and 10 warbands. In roughly chronological order, we saw:

• Beastbound Assault – This rivals deck opened up some fun playstyles and brought the little Minions and Companions back out to see the table. It didn’t make the biggest competitive splash, but did bring life back to some lesser-seen warbands.
• Gryselle’s Arenai – A personal favorite of mine, this five fighter warband dies fast but hits faster. The low wound count scared off some, but their cards are very strong and the weight of dice can tip things in your favor more than you’d expect.
• The Wyrdhollow Core Box – this new season, which came with a rules update, made a big shift in the competitive scene. Both warbands included were and remain top competitors, and brought magic back into the spotlight. New boards are always nice too!
• Domitan’s Stormcoven – Stormsire’s Cursebreakers reborn, this three wizard band brings the ping in a powerful way. Overshadowed at first by their core box counterpart, they’re risen to be one of the scariest things to face in Championship and Nemesis.
• Ephilim’s Pandaemonium – Arguably the best miniatures GW put out all year, for any game system. Just so happens they’re dominant on the game board as well, with a very interesting design space and lots of tricks to pull with their power cards.
• Toxic Terrors – this rivals deck was a good release for most warbands, allowing aggressive play with some keyword-related scoring, and supporting positioning rather than only successful attacks. A fun puzzle for me to figure out, and I was glad to see how broadly applied it could be to so many warbands.
• Seismic Shock – Magic is back! More spells than we have seen available since Nightvault, and several pushes (and movement of feature tokens) allowed for some interesting chess-match back and forth positioning. Very powerful with both the Wyrdhollow warbands, this rivals deck also breathed life into some older wizard-centric warbands (Vortemis rides again!)
• The “New” starter set – a big surprise for myself and many others, the new starter brought two Shadespire warbands back into the discussion with updated fighter cards and rivals decks. Exciting to get to trot out old stuff and see it more legitimately competitive with a full deck of cards and modernized stats, and a great entry point for new players with a good instruction booklet.
• Updated Farstriders – an old favorite of mine, no longer do they have to be in enemy territory to inspire! Still not the smoothest warband to play, but they are much more playable now and I’m glad to see these great miniatures re-released.
• Updated Sepulchral Guard – now THAT’s what we’re talking about! Hold-objective horde warbands have been seen less often recently, and having some marvelous sculpts hit the table again and be a decent competitive choice is really nice to see. The Prince of Dust hits for two damage! Petitioners can contribute!
• The “Other” New Starter Set – A Barnes & Noble exclusive that confused a few people at first, the new sepulchral Guard were paired with Ironsoul’s Condemnors instead of the Farstriders. But at the $35 price point, you really can’t beat it. I bought three as gifts this year for people I was hoping to indoctrinate, and might just get some more in the next few months.
• Updated Ironsoul’s Condemnors – very few text changes to the cards, but they are modernized now with the new card backs and design. And as a straightforward beginner-friendly warband, they remain a good choice for a starter set.
• Voidcursed Thralls – at first glance this was a very ‘weird’ Rivals deck, but once the code was cracked it became a very common competitive choice with ways to disrupt your opponent’s plans and shut down their ability to shoot at you from range, improve hold-objective gameplay, and provide several out of sequence movement options for your own fighters. Plus the flavor text is really intriguing, and the deck’s theme and art is something we haven’t seen before. Great release.
• The Headsmen’s Curse – This warband hasn’t made the impact I expected, because it absolutely has the capacity to ruin anyone’s day with huge damage output from the leader. A little tricky to figure out how to get the most out of the ghosts, but a savvy player can do some nasty things with them and again the warband’s theme of souls trapped by these cursed objects enslaved to the evil sword is super interesting.
• Skabbik’s Plaguepack – this warband’s horde-flex-aggro territory corruption strategy is a little complicated to get right, but regardless it’s nice to see the rats back in town. Some phenomenal paintjobs were put out by the community for months afterward.
• Paths of Prophecy – Stunning artwork, the first ever quote from Mir Kainan, and support for Hold Objective play, the Rivals deck didn’t make the biggest splash in Nemesis but does have some great cards and a fun mechanic for manipulating token numbers.
• The Deathgorge Core Box – a new season, new (and quality!) boards, some rules updates, two great rivals decks, and two intriguing warbands. We moved the setting into the frosty polar wastes of Ghur, and the promo materials are icy to match. Cool theme!
• Thricefold Discord – an infighting all-Daemon warband, with some very interesting False Gift upgrades and Temptation ploys to disrupt your opponent’s gameplan. Their inspiration mechanic is great too, and might be the best realization of a themed warband yet – no matter what happens, both players are agonizingly frustrated the whole match. Slaanesh approves!
• Cyreni’s Razors – Absolutely gorgeous miniatures, a fun ebb/flow inspiration surge, and, I mean, there’s a giant squid. You gotta love it.
• Breakneck Slaughter – Do you like reckless charges with no regard for where you land? Do you like throwing lots of dice and doing lots of damage? This Rivals deck is for you! I have had buckets of fun with it and am glad to see some speed boost aggro available.
• Force of Frost – The control counterpart to the core box, this provides yet another spellcasting Rivals deck for wizards to play with, as well as some blocked hex shenanigans and plenty of ping damage. It’s shaping up to be a meta-defining deck, and has the added benefit of not absolutely requiring a wizard to be useful in Nemesis or Championship the way Seismic Shock does.

This year we also saw an update to the FAQ/FaR, which helped balance some things in Championship play and showed support for the game from the design team, which we love to see. EDIT: We got a second one hours after I posted this! It’s full of some nice changes that have been well received so far

In the same vein of support shown by the big wigs, a Metawatch video was published for the first time covering Warhammer Underworlds, with design commentary, thoughts on competitive strength of different warbands, and plans for the future balancing of the competition scene. Super insightful stuff to hear and gave the community a huge confidence boost. We covered our thoughts about it on the Underworlds Underground Podcast, but suffice to say it was some of the best news of the year, projecting a confident future for the health of our community and game as a whole.

Some major tournaments were held this year in North America; LVO, Adepticon, NOVA, Tacoma Open, Tampa Open, Minis and Mayhem, and the Alberta Classic to name a few. It sounds like we will see Underworlds at the Grand Cherokee Open next year, will likely expand into the SoCal open, and possibly BAO next year as well!, Several major events were also held in Poland and the UK, and Warhammer Underworlds was represented as one of the Four Pillars of Major Games at the first ever World Championships of Warhammer in Atlanta. With more Grand Clashes and higher attendance this year than last, things are looking up! The Path to Glory podcast is now following future Golden Ticket developments in their Path to Worlds segment, so give them a listen to see what might be cropping up in your region this coming year and come compete with us.

In terms of online content, we have seen an increase this year. The usual heroes at Path to Glory, What the Hex, and Battlemallet kept churning out content in blog and podcast form. Sleeksbowl, Underdogs, The Monkey’s Hex, Raumzeit, and Handful of Dice all kept producing blog articles. This Spent Glory blog, the Staggerers blog, and Centre of Attention all started writing articles this year, and the Underworlds Underground podcast spooled up as well. Shout out WtH for reaching 100k downloads on their podcast – huge milestone!

That’s all I have for a quick summary of the year – lots went on, and lots more is to come. Let’s make 2024 the best one yet – if you’re looking for some New Year’s resolutions you can do a lot worse than deciding to lean in to the hobby and get the fulfillment that I have. Until next time, and next year, I hope you’re able to spend some glory!