Howdy gang! Today I wanted to look at a lesser-discussed topic: Domain cards. Domains in Underworlds are unique ploy cards that put an effect on the table, and that effect lasts for the rest of the round, or until a different domain card is played. Only one domain can be in effect at a time. Some of these effects can be quite powerful, and allow you to effectively get several ploys for the price of one, or a warband wide upgrade for a round with zero glory cost, etc. The risk you take is that your opponent could play their own domain which would override and discard yours.

The other thing that’s cool about Domain cards is that they ‘set the scene’ so to speak, from a narrative perspective. In theory, we’re pushing our toys around on a carboard play space meant to represent Embergard, Spitewood, or wherever else the game may take us. We have lore segments on the back of warband warscrolls, little tidbits of the setting in the rulebook, flavor text quotes on the cards, and the decks themselves come with a title card specifying some story detail about the situation our fighters live in.

Domain cards take that to the next level – it’s like playing one puts some aspect of Embergard or Spitewood into the game and changes how it’s played for a time. Imagine explosions hurtling your fighters forward with extra momentum as mining charges and fighter charges combine – gives you a visual of what’s going on during the game. I love that kind of stuff, which helps ground this game in a setting and narrative that makes it more fun than, say, chess would be.

With that said, let’s get down to ranking each Domain card. I’ll give a score out of 5 for the following:

• Competitive Strength: is this card worth playing for people who want to win?
• Thematic Vibes: Do you feel immersed in the setting based on the narrative it paints?
• Logistical Legitimacy: would the narrative effect actually match the in-game effect (i.e. is the story illusion broken by the mechanics)?

Each card will get a possible score of 15, and then we’ll have ourselves a Domain ranked list! Why? Because it’s fun, and games are supposed to be fun. I’ll run through each deck one at a time

Blazing Assault – No Domains in the deck

Emberstone Sentinels – No Domains in the deck

Pillage and Plunder

Explosive Charges

This Domain gives your friendly fighters (and not enemies) +1 move when making a charge action. Depending on the warband you are taking, going from 3 move to 4 move can be a big help getting to the target you need, or getting onto the token you had just out of reach – though you’d still have to be able to charge onto it. It doesn’t apply to regular moves, so it has a less powerful effect and doesn’t help warscroll moves and pushes, but it is a mobility boost for your whole team for the whole round which is nice, sometimes at least, and only benefits your team.

“Blasting charges litter the depths of Embergard and serve as a ferocious prelude to any assault”. So now we can imagine explosions going off all around the mine shafts and caverns as your guys hurtle towards the enemy, flashes of light, echoing booms, searing heat, then your axe in their chest. Cool imagery and fits the ‘we’re here to break stuff and take what’s left’ theme of PP, but I have serious logistics questions. Are your fighters throwing frag grenades ahead of themselves? Why does it make you move farther? Are they being launched forward by bombs going off behind them? Why does none of this deal damage to anybody? I honestly don’t know exactly what the card is theoretically describing, and it sounds more like a Strike card than the Flex card you’d theoretically expect from this deck.

Competitive Strength: 3/5
Thematic Vibes: 3/5
Logistical Legitimacy: 1/5
Total Score: 7/15

Countdown to Cataclysm

The End is Nigh

This domain forces both you and your opponent to discard cards after an action step if some dice results happen based on cataclysm value. Best when you’re playing CtC with a high cata value and your opponent is not running the deck, there’s the potential for you to bleed them dry of power cards quite early in the round. IT also put huge psychological pressure on your opponent to either play all their cards as early as possible, or risk the gamble that you won’t get the dice you need to force them to discard your critical ploy you’re saving for right at the end of the round.

Thematically, Countdown to Cataclysm looks at the end of the world, or at least the end of your little pocket of the Embergard mine as it collapses around you. This card pushes the ‘oh snap it’s all gonna slip away’ tension, as well as potentially bleeds your opponent of options as the walls close in. It also can hurt the player who placed it, so the ‘we’re going down together’ aspect carries through as well. I just wish there was room on the card for some flavor text to really drive the theme. Whether loss of power cards is exactly the way this ‘would go’ IRL is a tad questionable for logistical legitimacy, but overall I like it.

Also, if you want to know more about this card, Staggerers went WAY in depth about it recently

Competitive Strength: 3/5
Thematic Vibes: 4/5
Logistical Legitimacy: 3.5/5
Total Score: 8.5/15

Reckless Fury – No Domains in the deck

Wrack and Ruin – No Domains in the deck

Edge of the Knife – No Domains in the deck

Realmstone Raiders

Raider’s Rapture

When you Raid, you reveal one additional card. In a deck that really cares about how many cards you raid and how many of them are the special Emberstone cards, literally doubling the number of cards you get across a round can be the difference maker for your scoring, especially in Rivals. It also potentially allows you to play more of those revealed cards out of sequence and get more power card action than your opponent – even more so than the Plot card normally does. The power of this depends in part on how many Riad-scoring objectives you took, and how badly you want those revealed cards to come up, of course. I’ve seen it do nothing special, and I’ve seen it be crazy good. Your mileage may vary.

“What’s yours is ours, wretched little blood bag” – Vellas von Faine. The deck’s focus is on bashing enemies in melee and then liberating them of their Emberstone, and I guess this Domain means you’re like, extra into mugging or something. Does it somehow make you better at actually getting their loot? Do they spew rings like Sonic the Hedgehog when this Domain is up? What does it have to do with a, you know, Domain? I just don’t see a scene being set where the place we’re in makes this thuggery any more effective. Vellas’ quote does go hard though.

Competitive Strength: 3.5/5
Thematic Vibes: 2/5
Logistical Legitimacy: 1/5
Total Score: 6.5/15

Raging Slayers (this deck has THREE Domains! What a winner)

Honed Reflexes

Every time you make a save roll for an Enraged friendly fighter, you may reroll one of those dice. You might recognize this as the effect from the upgrade Agile, which costs two glory. Imagine getting a two-glory upgrade on every fighter who has happened to charge that round, for the cost of one ploy. That’s huge value on its own, and can keep fighters alive either by helping them make their save roll, or incentivizing your opponent to attack fighters that aren’t enraged yet. And if they’re not attacking your Enraged fighters, they’re not pushing them around with Poor Footing, and you’re scoring RS cards. That’s about as strong as a Domain is going to get.

“Come on, come on. Hit Me! Can’t even land a blow, Sky-beard?” – Valyssa Umbrael. Echoes of FPS Doug’s ‘I can dance all day, I can dance all day! just try and hit me, come on!’ Man what a classic. I miss that show.

Anyway, your raging slayers got big mad and are now dishing out taunts as they duck and weave – likely after accurately hitting with their own reroll on offense. Your fighters are elevated to Muhammad Ali rope-a-dope status, which is awesome to think about from a thematic perspective with the power of their rage and the energy of Aqshy coursing through them. There is, of course, the nagging issue of ‘how’? Is there something about this place that hones your reflexes? Why is it only on enraged fighters and not everybody? Aren’t the enraged guys supposed to have poor footing, and should theoretically be easier to hit?

Competitive Strength: 5/5
Thematic Vibes: 5/5
Logistical Legitimacy: 2/5
Total Score: 12/15

Slayer’s Arena

After every failed attack, give the attacker a Stagger token. While the RS player will be missing less often since they have a reroll built-in with their Enrage, it still has a big risk to hit you as well. Enemies who miss you get staggered, but you already had a reroll against them. Some opponents may not feel the need to attack you (or are already staggered from delving). You don’t probably want this happening to you, and it’s tough to take from a competitive standpoint.

“All places where life’s thread is violently cut can be a temple to the gods of war”. The vibes are pretty good here – your fighters are giving into the Aqshy’s rage, diving in with full force and frothing at the mouth like Khorne’s own favorites – it would make sense that he and others of his stripes would be watching, reveling in the spectacle of the Arena (Go watch the TV show Spartacus). Those same gods of war might be interested in helping to make those haymaker swings put you off balance should you miss. Failure to spill blood? That’s a paddlin’.

Competitive Strength: 2/5
Thematic Vibes: 4/5
Logistical Legitimacy: 3/5
Total Score: 9/15

Wrong-Footed Stance

If a fighter enters or is placed in a Stagger hex, give them a move token on top of their Stagger token. This one is a doozy from a competition standpoint – like, when does this help you? There are only two staggers on the board, so maybe if you have a fighter within one hex of one, you could drive them back before they charged and now they can’t charge. But most of the time stagger hexes either won’t come into play, or the fighter moving through or charging through doesn’t care about a move token after the fact. Outside of stunting some Pillage and Plunder teleport stuff, this is weaksauce.

“As the Embergard mines shudder and shake, one ill-judged step can spell disaster”. Now this one is a Domain that paints a picture! We’re underground in a crumbling mine, with explosions going off every so often, earthquakes and volcanic activity besides, and things are gonna get dicey. Put your foot in a pothole and you might end up with a tib-fib fracture, and no hope of charging anytime soon. Logistics also look good: Stagger+ move seems like something that might actually happen in Embergard and RS, as people are getting heated, losing their footing, and the mine rumbles all around. I’ve always thought ‘stagger’ meaning ‘slightly easier to hit’ but you still have full mobility was a little weird. This gets closer to rectifying that.

Competitive Strength: 1/5
Thematic Vibes: 4/5
Logistical Legitimacy: 4.5/5
Total Score: 9.5/15

Hunting Grounds – No Domains in the deck

Deadly Synergy – No Domains in the deck

Wrap

Well with everything tabulated, our Domains ranked from best to worst are:

1. Honed Reflexes
2. Wrong-Footed Stance
3. Slayer’s Arena
4. The End is Nigh
5. Explosive Charges
6. Raider’s Rapture

And the top decks for Domain shenanigans are:

1. Raging Slayers
2. Countdown to Cataclysm
3. Pillage and Plunder
4. Realmstone Raiders

What do you think? Do you have a different opinion on any of these Domains? What kind of Domain cards might you like to see in the future? Let me know your ideas and haterade complaints at SpentGlory@gmail.com and until next time, go spend those glory (while fighting in a cool domain!)