Hello Spent Glory Fans, this time we’re back with another of our Love Letters written by the Warhammer Underworlds community. The Love Letter Series was kicked off by this post encouraging people to play the warbands they love and tell others about the experience, inviting readers to contribute their passion to this website. Doot Doot is a pretty active Discord member and has partnered with Sleek’s Bowl Series in the past, so it was only natural to have him bring some love from beyond the grave to this Love Letters series. Today’s letter focuses on the Sepulchral Guard, an old classic brought back from the dead in more ways than one.

Who are you, and where are you from?

I go by Doot Doot! on Discord.

How did you get into Underworlds?

I had gotten back into 40k in 2017 and was enjoying playing semi regularly. However, 40k, even at lower points, is a long game. Playing a single game takes hours unless everyone is on top of the rules and plays seriously. My friends who play 40k are neither-no knock against them, since neither am I! When GW advertised a new small scale game with snappy rules and a card game mechanic my interest was thoroughly piqued. When I saw there was a skeleton warband on release I was sold!

Do you have a local group you play with, and if so, do they have an online presence to help people find you?

I mostly play with friends who are casually interested. I used to also seduce romantic liaisons into the game after a get together, but now that I have a girlfriend we play together regularly. In the past I’ve joked with friends that I only use dating apps to trick people into playing Underworlds.

What’s the warband/deck/pairing you love, and how did you two sweethearts meet? What makes the deck so fun to play in your experience?

I’ve always been fascinated by skeletons. Especially the fantastical variety-you can probably blame Jason and the Argonauts and Ray Harryhausen for that. For me the aesthetic of the skeleton has it all. It’s a grim reminder of the only certainty in life. It’s a reflection of how humans are, ultimately, not so different at our core. And, of course, walking skeletons are inherently campy.

In terms of gameplay, I enjoy the Guard’s attrition. Knowing I can strategically sacrifice a strong fighter and bring them back later feels great.

The nemesis deck pairing I enjoy the most at the moment is Breakneck Slaughter. It’s a great aggressive counterbalance to the Guard’s more passive and reactive rivals cards. As for why I enjoy this pairing, I go into it in passing detail in my article on Sleeksbowl (shout out!) so you can read that section for a basic primer. The deeper cut is that Sepulchral Guard is almost always getting invaded by their opponents and is *always* fighting over the nearest objective in enemy territory. A competent opponent will try to block your big scoring hold cards by denying you that one crucial objective. You can pack some push tech and sneaky moves with other decks, but ultimately there is going to be a scrap. In Championship, you can simply load up on so much glory with Supremacy clones and so many varied push tricks that you don’t need to throw hands. This is a Nemesis deck, though, and I don’t have access to all the cards necessary to play a purely positional game. So, rather than bank on a competent opponent forgetting my biggest scoring cards, I want to force the issue and clash.

The dual advantage to this strategy is that by gearing my skeletons toward combat I can more easily remove threatening fighters and encourage my opponent to remove mine as soon as possible. A canny foe will position to exploit your terrible 2 move. The momentum bestowing gambits are a huge help with this, bringing the count of movement enhancing gambits up to 4 in total and giving you access to crucial charges. A particularly vicious line of play is using these cards to throw a surprise charge with The Warden inspired. All he needs is a small movement boost and his charge range suddenly becomes very long. To my second point, intelligent opponents will recognize that killing your strongest fighters actually helps you score objectives and power up, so they will simply leave your valuable fighters standing while scoring non-combat glory or bee lining your petitioners/leader. Breakneck Slaughter’s move buffs and dice/damage cards means leaving The Prince, Harvester, or Champion (un)alive is riskier.

The Deck can be found here, and Doot Doot is a civilized man who prefers Wunderworlds like myself

How have you found success and/or fun with the deck?

The deck is a work in progress, but the particulars of the Breakneck Slaughter cards have been fun to pilot. The mix of passive glory and high octane powers makes the deck very flexible. I have three objectives that ask for kills, and one of them (A Challenge Unanswered) can be scored with a single kill while raising fighters. My glory ceiling isn’t extreme enough to completely disengage from combat, but I don’t need to hit the gas constantly. On the flip side, I am not bleeding objective glory by removing threats from the board. Furthermore, the natural disadvantage of momentum counters is less punishing on a team that can use the Warden’s multi move to correct pushes while res tech means feeding a good fighter to my opponent is not as much of a downside. The density of movement buffs also unlocks the potential of Deathly Charge. The restriction to The Champion is a downside not because he might die (you can always raise or salvage), but because he is often out of position to leverage the extra damage meaningfully. Speed powers remedy this by making it far more likely that he is within range for a meaningful charge. The Guard are starved for damage boosting powers, so making their bad Great Strength usable along side a +damage gambit is a significant boost in combat power.

What advice do you have for other players who might want to try your warband on for size?

Learn when to sacrifice your fighters, including the Warden. It may seem like sacrilege, but getting too attached to the Warden can lose you games. Never make him an easy target, but when your opponent throws everything they’ve got at him sometimes you just need to make one last activation to get your other fighters into position or throw a 3 damage charge. It’s better to have a final, efficient activation with the Warden than it is to move him over and over again to try to escape faster adversaries who will run him down anyway.

What threats do you find most challenging to face? Are there any warbands or strategies that others can use to beat this warband or pairing?

Fast aggro with multiple attacks or scything (Rippa, Gnarlspirit Pack) is a concern because they can feast on your petitioners or decapitate your leader. My usual counter to this is to form “the bone wall” and use my 3 wound skeletons like road blocks or leverage the underrated Knockback on The Prince to change charge math. Kill and raise objectives tend to be pretty good in this match up because they reward you for fighting back.

Highly defensive ranged warbands that can camp out near your favorite objective in enemy territory are also a challenge. Given how easy it is to land a hit on your fighters, they can just drive back your fighters off of that single, valuable objective. The Stormcoven and Pandaemonium come to mind as tough in this regard. In these match ups, you should mulligan aggressively for positioning and movement objectives like Too Slow, Lay Claim to it All, and Eternal Legions to score your seed glory. Speed boosting powers are also particularly important here to keep the pressure on and clear the way to secure the objective in question. If they play particularly defensively, then consider going on guard before you move onto an objective. It will force them to kill your fighter once they step on the objective, come forward (into charge range!) to hold the objective, or use a push enemy power. All three things are valuable plays you want your opponent to make early so you can properly respond to them.

Anything else you’d like to tell the community?

I want to give a shout out to my girlfriend and her son for being so much fun to play with. They were both open minded enough to try this game and it’s been a blast!

I’d also like to direct some more eyeballs to Turnip28, a  free wargame that has the best “army scale” rules I have ever seen. Your forces consist of 4 squads and 3 officers, so it’s got a small physical footprint and is a breeze to play. It’s easy (and free!) to get into and has a wonderful community. Plus, there is a mission that involves getting drunk and stumbling out of a giant fish. Hit me up if you have questions!

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While there are a few more Love Letters in the works, there is always room for more. 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. If you have a warband you’d love to wax poetic about and serenade the wider community, let me know! I’m always accepting new submissions at SpentGlory@gmail.com – Until next time, grab your favorite warband, a couple friends, and Spend some Glory!