We’ve been down this road before, and I’m relaunching the Love Letters Series for Embergard. I would love to hear from you as we all explore this new and fun landscape together. For those uninitiated, the Love Letters Series is where readers share the warbands they love and the fun ways they’ve found enjoyment out of them. Many of these older warbands have free online rules now, which can be accessed here, which is super cool and should kickstart the community’s exploration of old favorites as we delve into the ruins of Embergard. I am re-inviting readers to contribute their passion to this website – if you have something to say, by all means let me know wherever you found this posted or by emailing me at SpentGlory@Gmail.com.

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Today’s article is another love letter, and also an invitation. I’ve written before about how much I love the game and how much I love the community (even when they’re grumpy about ping cards), but boy howdy I’m going to do it again. Warhammer Underworlds has miles away the best and most positive gaming community I have been a part of (and I’m not the only person who thinks so), and part of what makes the game special is the sheer variety of playstyles available. Now that we’re in Embergard, there are 61 warbands and counting, 31 of which have unique warscrolls and rules. With 4 Rivals decks, that’s 124 Rivals combos, 186 Nemesis combos, and as more decks are released, we can expect those to exponentially increase. With such a huge array of possibilities to play with, there’s almost certainly something you can find that “speaks to you”.

For better or for worse, Underworlds is most of the time a head-to-head competitive game (though there are other ways to play! Take a peek at my multiplayer game night article, written for First Edition). I personally very much enjoy the one-on-one challenge nature of the game design and get a lot of enjoyment out of tournaments and so on, but this general game focus, and therefore our general community focus, leads to many people feeling pressured to play a certain way, with certain warbands or decks i.e. “The Good Ones”.

If you only own, or mostly enjoy playing old or less powerful stuff, you’ll possibly run into the sense of pressure to stop playing something ‘bad’. I’m not suggesting people are saying it outright to your face that you have to give up on that warband you love and play whatever is ‘the best’ right now – but if you lose often enough and just feel outclassed by the ‘better’ stuff you might start saying it to yourself. I disagree! Don’t say that to yourself! Pick that old favorite back up and see if they can’t work with the next Rivals deck. Have a gentleman’s agreement with an opponent to play some softer warbands or combos, or more casually in general so you can both take out those mid or bottom-tier toys out to play. Hold a dumpster-off event where everybody brings ‘bad’ warbands. Play the thing you love, because you love it. If you’re comfortable with losing, you might really grow into the warband and ‘figure it out’.

My general advice for any player and any warband is ‘do you think they’re cool?’ We’ve seen before how things rise and fall in competitive power – even if you don’t think they’re strong now, you don’t know what new rivals decks are around the corner. As a case in point, back in first edition I couldn’t get the Sons of Velmorn off my brain, and kept playing them even though they were definitively ‘bad’ upon release. When Gnarlwood came out they got dumped on, and a lot of people moved on or never even played them to begin with. I stuck it out, and then they matched quite well with Fearsome Fortress, which was released a few months later. I continued to play them, even in a Grand Clash (see, there I go again talking about big tournaments) and did pretty well, which wouldn’t have happened if I just tried to “keep up with the Joneses” and played something ‘better’. Down the line they had some errata/FaQ help and became a legitimately good warband with a few more good Nemesis pairings available. I did a similar thing with the ‘bad’ Gryselle’s Arenai, taking them to again some decent results at the Las Vegas Open. This time I am bringing up a Grand Clash not because of my own success, but instead because of the way I was eliminated; getting blown out 2-0 by Grinkrak’s Looncourt (“Bad”) with Paths of Prophecy (also “Bad”). My opponent Cabanas had stuck to that warband since release and played dozens of times with them to the point that he ‘got them’ inside and out. He managed to knock me out of the running and advance to the top 8 of a major event, because he pursued something he loved. I believe you can too.

Other people might truly enjoy playing a given warband that’s considered ‘good’. We have a tremendously positive group of people in the Warhammer Underworlds community, but even we sometimes get grumblers who might cast some shade on you for playing whatever the ‘best’ thing is. It’s even kind of a hot take when somebody brings the ‘most efficient’ or ‘top competitive choice’ to a major tournament. Here, I generally also don’t agree. If you’re playing the ‘best’ thing because you want to win, well, if you’re playing in a competitive event, there’s nothing wrong with that and it’s actually the ‘right’ thing to do. Maybe don’t destroy new players at your local game night over and over, but in the same vein perhaps you really do just love the look, the lore, the playstyle, etc of a ‘top’ warband. People might also feel pressure to avoid playing whatever is seen as too good, or that they’re a lesser player for embracing it. I want to discourage that attitude in others, and especially if you’re saying that kind of thing to yourself. There is nothing wrong with running what you love, especially when so often it feels like the warband has picked you, and not the other way around.

The most prominent Underworlds content is often new-product focused or high-level competition focused, and while I have tried to be different and foster newer and returning players, I too fall into the trap of talking about the tournaments I have attended and what such-and-such top player is up to. Many podcasts and websites either cover our experiences with Grand Clashes and other tournaments, or create review articles/podcasts about new product releases, often evaluating the expected ‘power’ of what you’ll be able to purchase soon. But what of the stuff that’s fallen to the wayside, either out of being ‘old’, or by being ‘bad’? What about the regular Joes and Janes playing in their living rooms and at friendly local game stores?

Others in the community share this approach, where they love and promote under-represented, ‘bad’, or forgotten warbands. Some blogs do support off-meta considerations, and I’m very glad they exist. Sleeks Bowl started as a discussion about the Storm of Celestus, then Ironsoul’s Condemnors, and has recently expanded to a deep dive on Gryselle’s Arenai. Underdogs: Certainty of Death specifically focuses on ‘underdog’ warbands, and has explored The Shadeborn, Grymwatch, Khagra’s Ravagers, and others. Staggerers appreciates the Stagger mechanic, and tries to leverage whatever warbands and decks they can to maximize that playstyle, even if it’s considered a ‘bad’ strategy by the community at large. Wathlab refuses to give up on The Chosen Axes. These websites and authors are great, and I read them all pretty regularly – but something is missing. Your voice, dear reader.

Somewhere rattling around your heart is a love for a warband people aren’t talking about anymore, a deck combination nobody’s tried, or even a popular or powerful warband used in an interesting way. I understand that launching your own webpage, youtube channel, or podcast can be intimidating or out of the question for many people, so here’s that invitation I mentioned at the start of this message: would you, if you please, send me writeups you’d like to share about YOUR favorite warband? In the coming months (and probably forever) I’d like to celebrate people who otherwise haven’t had a voice in the community at large, and celebrate playstyles and decks that aren’t catching notice or even making an appearance on the Grand Clash circuit.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about an older or lesser or weird warband/pairing, what drove you to fall in love with it, and how you’ve piloted it to success – and especially piloting it to fun. I’d also love to hear things you’re afraid to see across the table and strategies/opponents that have been able to counter your playstyle if you have that insight. And of course, we always want to see pictures.

Send me email at SpentGlory@gmail.com or messages on Discord where I go by Fishmode, on Facebook where I post as Michael Fisher (very smart of me), or by leaving a comment here with a WordPress account so that we can talk about what your guest article/content might look like, and let’s spend some glory together!