This month’s Featured Photo is of The Skinnerkin painted by Vanja of my local Seattle Team: Rain City Thunderworlds. We recently held a painting contest (entries can be viewed here, all of which are something to write home about), and Vanja came away the deserved first place winner with his Headkrakka’s Madmob. Remarkably, he painted these beautiful Skinnerkin based on The Butcher from Diablo in his ‘downtime’ between Headkrakka models as a casual palate cleanser. I’m not jealous of his skill at all, no sirree. I mean, everybody can paint well-delineated fascia and subcutaneous adipose layers on their cloven haunches, right? Easy peasy.

Check out Web Highlights from previous months here, or dive in by category below!

Content Creators

Mike/Mike Prime/Sleek’s Bowl, a friend of the page and my cohost on the Underworlds Underground Podcast, faced off against Phil from What the Hex to test out his new Blackpowder’s Buccaneers/Hungering Parasite combo he’s brilliantly named “The Black Spot”. You can read about the deck and Mike’s philosophy with those pirates here, and listen to the match where he takes on Daring Delvers Zondara’s Gravebreakers here.

Battlemallet put up the WHW clash top 8 decks and also has a writeup from the undefeated second place BBA Exiled Dead, which is an interesting pairing to be sure!

Critical Focus Channel ran the new Brethren of the Bolt with Voidcursed Thralls against the Headsmen’s Curse with Hungering Parasite – interesting matchup and good to see more video battle reports with decklist links in the comments. They also had a ‘Rats in the kKitchen’ (great name) battle between the Skinnerkin and Spiteclaw’s Swarm. Not to mention, their recap of 11 easy to miss rules– tons of content being pumped out by this crew every month!

Why stop at battle reports? Critical Focus Channel has put out a “Decklist Review” series, in which they cover viewer-submitted decks and discuss the finer points/things they might change. This month included a Drepur’s Wraitcreepers deck composed by Jonas Faering that I personally saw take down some heavy hitters at LVO this January.

Path to Glory Podcast has continued to churn out quality content. This month they had a review of the meta now that it’s been quite well shaken by a flood of releases, as well as an interview with Steel City Bond, an old-timer of the content creator scene who has returned to Underworlds.

The Agents of Sigmar have put out a video review of ‘everything you need to know about Thricefold Discord‘ – seeing how well they’re likely to do with Rimewyrm’s Bite (and possibly Hungering Parasite as well), give this a watch and take them back out for a second try! They also put out a “Rivals Deck Tierlist” video, which as anyone could expect leads to lots of controversy and disagreement. Underworlds Underground put out a ‘vibes and theme’ tierlist if you like that kind of thing

The Random Wargamer channel on Youtube has uploaded a WHU battle report between Gorechosen and Sepulchral Guard – nice to see another video team join in the fun

It’s definitely tooting my won horn a little bit, but this page is now one year old! Thank you all again for coming on this ride with me.

A new channel has popped up on Youtube! “NFI Warhammer 40K” is a beginner to the hobby and has a video explaining why Warhammer Underworlds may be a better starting point for other new people compared to 40K (something I certainly agree with). Give it a watch and share with your potential new player friends!

Bacon’s Bits continue on Path to Glory, this month featuring two great articles. The first is about the importance of matchup knowledge, and the second is a guide to analyzing your play after the fact to improve for next time. If you’re a competitive player or looking to improve your game, these are must-reads.

Finally, Skyler from What the Hex posted a “Love Letter” homage to my Love Letters Series and a review of his Headkrakka’s Fortkrakka’s deck which he has taken to multiple Grand Clash events and done quite well with. He picked this pairing to use in the Pink Slip match at the Alberta Classic when he faced off against Thomas/Saxthom from Underworlds Underground. The results and video are pending, but this can be a warm-up for anybody who’s planning to give that match a watch later down the road.

Events/Organized Play

The Alberta Classic went down this month, and featured a “Wolverine Pit” of incredibly strong players and some tight competitive play for everyone in attendance. G came out on top as a back to back champ using Zondara’s Gravebreakers with Fearsome Fortress, and he gave a very thorough and insightful interview over at the Path to Glory Podcast – side note, George is really coming into his own as an interview host and I’m so glad to see him as a bigger part of the content creator scene. Sweetening the deal, personal friend and host of Underworlds Underground Thomas/Saxthom earned himself a ticket to Worlds! He used Breakneck Domitan and I couldn’t be prouder that he’ll help represent the West Coast in Atlanta this year (as well as stealing a Canadian ticket, bravo)

Results from the Rivals Clash at Warhammer World had Brethren of the Bolt take first place! Looks like Daniel Davies Mendoza has already started to crack to code on these new kids on the block

The Agents of Sigmar held a 17 player clash in which the winner was Gryselle’s Arenai with Breakneck Slaughter – a lovely pairing I’ve had a lot of fun with in the past. Congrats to Harry Miller for showing the world they are nothing to sneeze at! Jon Grant wrote up his experience at the Agents of Sigmar Wintermaw Clash where he took Lady Harrow’s Mournflight with Tooth and Claw in what he titles “Savage Scream”

The Spanish scene, while pretty large, often goes unnoticed by us English speaking folks. Here’s a vassal tournament that went down this month, and wouldn’t you know it, Breakneck Arenai also took this one! Told you all they’re good. I told you!

At the Dallas open this month, part of the GW US Open series, Sepulchral Guard with Rimelocked relics took first place, Zondara’s Gravebreakers with Fearsome Fortress took second, and Headkrakka’s Madmob with Breakneck Slaughter took third. I unfortunately don’t know who piloted what or their specific decks, but it’s still good to see Sepulchral Guard back in the mix especially since it’s available to newer players.

The World Team Championships in Europe were won by Poland this year with Italy in a close second. Good to see Poland doing well with such a huge playerbase! Here’s a recap by Urszula Bogdańska

Finally, (and I know it ended in July but it is what it is), Anders won the Copenhagen Clash this year with the Wurmspat! Decklist here, paired with Rimewyrm’s Bite. Never thought I’d see the day. He took it in 5 rounds best of 2 out of 26 players, so it’s no fluke. He earned himself a ticket to the World tournament as well with this incredible feat. Here’s a recap of the event from Critical Focus Channel.

Wathlab, a community hero, recently ran a Beardgrave Small Clash with 22 players 3 rounds best of 3, using revamped and custom dwarf warbands from their custom season. In the end Kyros won it with the new Spiteclaw’s Swarm and has won the honor of choosing the next Beardgrave warband to be revamped.

UPCOMING

There’s a big ole list on Warcom of all the qualifiers events per country for all games, and you can find a pretty comprehensive breakdown of how to get a ticket to Worlds in Underworlds (and other systems) there. I’ll call out some I’ve had recommended to me below, however!

June 8th there will be a tournament in Las Vegas run by Pwnedcast – “The Battle for Wintermaw” is a $15 for entry and prize support for 1,2, and 3rd place, plus a trophy to first.

June 9th, there will be a Nemesis clash in the BeNeLux region of the Netherlands – check this post for details

Came Con Canada will have a Warhammer Underworlds Grand Clash as a WCW qualifier on June 15th this year in Edmonton Alberta. For inquiries email edmontonunderworlds@gmail.com

Also on June 15th, a Worlds Qualifier event in Poznan, Poland (15.06). This time it’s a one-day Nemesis event, with 4 Bo3 rounds. If you still haven’t secured your Worlds ticket, it’s high time! You can pay the entry fee here (This website is Polish only, but a decent translator should suffice. You can always pay on the day of the tournament)

Thanks to the success of the Austrian Masters in January, there will now be a 2 day nemesis best of 3 event in Salzburg Austria on June 29-30. Rules cut-off and decklist submission deadline is on the 22nd of June 2024. Registration mandatory, please send an E-Mail to:store@sirengames.at , use WHU Salzburg as a reference.

The Goonhammer Open will be held July 6th and 7th at the Sheraton Baltimore Washington Airport in Linthicum and for the first time ever, they will be holding an Underworlds event! The plan is for a 12 person one-day Nemesis event that will have a ticket to Worlds on the line. More details and a comp packet to come. If you’re able to attend please do – Goonhammer is a huge online presence in the warhammer hobby with effectively no Underworlds involvement up to this point, and it would be great to show them support in turn for supporting our game – who knows what growth we could see as a community with their reach?

And to close out, I’ll keep hammering it because I want to see YOU at the Tacoma Open on July 20-21st for a Nemesis Grand Clash. Find me and get a little take-home gift. It won’t even be a disease! Please help me defeat the Canadians because I can’t figure out how to do it.

Painting/Hobby

Big 3 Underworlds continues to crank along with some phenomenal stuff out of pretty much every contestant

It’s a 30K conversion, but hot diggity check out what they’ve done with the Wielder of the Blade. Stunning Myrmidax Archmagos Prime by MP Miniatures.

Pater Filius by limwy1978 – remarkably crisp highlighting, and some cool wire filament lightning make this a standout. One of the better Brethren paintjobs I’ve seen, and I’m eagerly awaiting the rest of the warband.

Niccolò Panzeri was featured in White Dwarf #500 with the Chosen Axes – well deserved and helps to cement Underworlds in a landmark edition of the magazine.

Gryselle’s Arenai by I_am_not_Alpharius – one of my favorite warbands by one of my favorite painters. Give them a look! The metals are great and offset the red very nicely

Bight blue Ferlain by pbkxephon, reminds me of Beast from X Men

Brethren of the Bolt by Brushstrokebrat with nice grimy fabric

Blue Mollog by martinspoon

Teal and copper Thundrik’s Profiteers by Reterdtion – poppy and eye catching for sure

Bright blue cloth on Tavian by Kieran Mcastocker, who also painted up a shadowy Brodus with a glowing magma hammer

Khagra the Usurper with a Scottish highlander effect, great work on the tartan by AshWastesNomad

The Agents of Sigmar have finished their ‘Batmarrow” for the Grymwatch DC comics conversion. Really cool concept

Flaviuz of the Monkey’s Hex has painted up Zarbag’s Gitz, and the blue highlighting on black cloth creates a cool almost velvet effect

Green Skinnerkin by gospog_1975 with some nice skin highlights and dark gore

Gnarlspirit Pack by El Gobbo Studio – check out the sinister orange glow on Sarrakar’s magic hand, the eyes on Gorl, just great beast spirit detail

Neat gold and blue Dread Pageant by Monkey Hammer

Skinnerkin by Peppe Solano – these flesh tones are horrid, and the corpse under the cleaver… such a good source of spot color. Marvelous work here. He’s also posted Pater Filius with some great shadowy tones

Zondara’s Gravebreakers in a nice forest green by Duesterfuchs – grass tufts add a lot here. They also painted the Gnarlspirit Pack – really enjoy the moss clumps on the basing. This gang is ready for Mosscairn (if that IS your real name…), as well as a bright pink Barbie movie themed Thricefold Discord

Vernon Lees has finished another stellar warband, this time showcasing the Wurmspat in a smooth bright green. Great Silver and Black Truthseekers this month as well

Zondara’s Gravebreakers with large square scenic bases by Martin Higham which include graves ripe for the breaking – cool concept and well done!

Two members of the Crimson Court: Gorath the Enforcer and Prince Duvalle in sea-green by Kolera

Drakan Celestus by Mahelmezaar with excellent detail on the face

Grinkrak’s Looncourt by Campbell Mcloughlin/Cam2D from the 40K Badcast. Fushia and blue was a great choice to pair with rusty plate mail, and he has such a cool painting style.

Farstriders by Tiev in a brilliant blue and purple. Great work for a first warband!

The Gorehulk with a diorama backdrop wall by regiister – subtle but nice effect

Exiled dead with some neat conversions and a custom dungeon terrain piece by valkinrik

I Am Not Alpharius is back with Daggok’s Stab-Ladz, and utilized some 3D printed parts for conversion. Cool and gnarly stuff here with great rust and teal underlighting

RougeRoxxa painted up some Hexbane’s Hunters in a Cursed City black white and red scheme with some gun blast effects

Sepulchral Guard with neat eye glow effects and brilliant blue cloth by pbkxephon

Gorgeous white armored Domitan’s Stormcoven painted by jmlminiatures

Great detail and line work on Crimson Court by cebercoto

Dagg3rsB returns to the hobby roundup with Zondara’s Gravebreakers which have excellent and varied skintones, as well as the Skinnerkin in a vivid green and awesome rust work

Very smooth Redkap painted by Grim1919

Gorgeous photography and excellent technical skill on display in the rendition of the Mournflight (and the Condemnors at the end) by Antti Jäppinen

Dan Knight made a cool ratmen conversion for Thundrik’s Profiteers. Not to be finished with just one great conversion, he also converted some cool Irownjawz Truthseekers, titled Zandayaz Troofseekaz

Zondara with a marvelous OSL pentagram on the tome by Marc O Kurosawa

Zondara’s Gravebreakers with a unique white Ferlain by Bakti Viktor

Vibrant Zarbag’s Gitz by Matthew Young

Dark themed Pointy Burk by Juan Miguel Pereña which is marvelously shadowed

Michał Chyczewski has completed a huge number of stormcast including the Farstriders with extreme edge highlights in the Celestial Vindicators scheme

Absolutely scary conversion on Sepsimus to make him look like, well, a rimewyrm? Great work by Jimmy Crow

Every Skaven warband from Underworlds cooked up for a Mordheim campaign by Walter Mansfield

Grakk da Hook with a World of Warcraft Blood Troll theme by C0RDE_

Beach-themed ghost from the Mournflight (I can never tell which one, screaming maiden?) by the_crafting_dodo. Check out the sunlight dappled water effect

Beautiful red-cloaked Shadeborn by Jeff Phillips

Grinkrak’s Looncout in a great purple with sketch lines by pavvixen

Hrothgork, an orky conversion on Hrothgorn by shorelessSkies

NMM stormcoven with a limited color selection but really good effect by GodGoblin

Aemos and Bryget from Hexbane’s Hunters (including a headswap) with some cool blue clothing work by Salty_Gazelle62

Zondara’s Gravebreakers by Jim Albins – check out the glow on Ferlain’s eyes!

The Headsmen’s Curse in a grimy red by Christine Orton

Atmospheric skin work on Lukas Wiggering’s Gorechosen of Dromm

Rusty grimdark Skinnerkin by Filip Vidmar

Sons of Velmorn in a sweet purple by Loonywh

Jon Grant continues to impress, this month cooking up some Clawpack and great looking Stab-Ladz

Mange from Blackpowder’s Buccaneers is taking a quick pit stop in Necromunda with some neat cybernetic implants by rodni_salmorejo

Finally, Honza Skypala won the Best Painted at the World Team Championships this year with some amazing Sepulchral Guard

Miscellaneous

Ylthari fan art by Demiurg__ (or, their girlfriend anyway), with the promises of more to come in the same style for Ephilim. The stained glass approach is really cool and I hope we get more underworlds art from the community! A pretty unexplored space for us as a game setting.

That’s a wrap! Tune in next month for June’s highlights, and don’t forget to Spend your Glory!