Welcome to the Annual Underworlds review! Let’s take a look at what went down in our favorite tabletop game this year. As some might say: Plenty Happening Here. For historians, you can roll back and check my previous annual reviews here:
Product Releases:
We got a ton of stuff to flesh out second edition this year. It was a doozy keeping up with content releases from the publishing side, let me tell you. I didn’t realize just how much stuff would drop this year.
Borgit’s Beastgrabbaz (also voted most fun to play) are a beautiful warband with cool mechanics
Edge of the Knife gave hordes a couple more tools
Knives of the Crone have a really interesting prophecy theme going on (and I’m somehow undefeated with across 5 games…)
Realmstone Raiders pushed the envelope on what a Mastery deck could look like
Kamandora’s Blades which introduced some awesome control tools and pushes
Raging Slayers for those of us who just want to brawl
The Spitewood Expansion, which included:
Hunting Grounds for some cool defensive options
Deadly Synergy which has really let some previously overlooked warbands shine
Kurnoth’s Heralds which might be the best models of the game so far
Blood of the Bull with a cool puzzle for inspiration and some ballin’ stats
And another round of 16 warbands re-released in grand alliance packs!
The Sons of Velmorn – even more defensive now
Thorns of the Briar Queen – which are phenomenally reimagined
The Exiled Dead for all your horde aggro needs
The Skinnerkin who finally got their deserved glow-up
Mollog’s Mob, the classic big boy bonk team
Zarbag’s Gitz re-envisioned again (again again)
Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers and it’s always good to see a hungry boi back in the game
Rippa’s Snarlfangs which are just the most fun model set
Skittershank’s Clawpack, striking fear into leaders everywhere
The Gnarlspirit Pack, an old favorite of many and a 4×4 staple
The Wurmspat in all their unkillable grandeur
The Thricefold Discord, which attempted to bring the concept of ‘bad choices for your oppoonent’ into a warband itself
Xandire’s Truthseekers in a funky flex package
The Starblood Stalkers which is maybe our first REAL hold warband of the edition
The Shadeborn who slap in every way
Elathain’s Soulraid in case you missed using them to frustrate your opponents from last edition
During some errata/FaQ/Rules updates, we also got brand new war scrolls for Crimson Court and Sepulchral Guard, both of who badly needed something to bring them up to speed. Good to see the designers aren’t just letting undercooked stuff languish in the background! They also blessedly addressed the too-strong Zarbag rerelease quickly and gave us this new warscroll that makes life fun again
Spent Glory as a Page:
Overall, I published 128 articles in 2025. This year the site drew 64,408 unique visitors, who thus far have recorded 151,702 views. Holy smokes, y’all. More than 400 times per day people click on stuff here. And to think where it all started out two and a half years ago. At that time I wasn’t sure I’d reach more than 400 people at best, total. Thank you all for helping grow this dream into what it’s become. I love this game, and I love you all.
Let’s look at the stuff I cranked through this year with your help.
Ever the fan-favorite, the first article published each month was a recap of what the community was up to the month prior. This series isn’t going away anytime soon. I love seeing what you’ve all done each month!
Custom rules were introduced for second edition this year, and we as a community have cooked up 9 formats for people to play with outside the standard rulesets (with more on the way!)
I started a Contender Series for competitive play tips in second edition that already has 10 entries (with a few more lined up for next year!)
We also published a handful of Counterplay articles to further improve competitive outcomes for newer players
With love and support from the community, we have published Love Letters detailing decks and experiences that 15 different players have had, broadening the pool of people sharing their affection for the game
Spent Glory officially joined the Creator Programme and got access to preview content for review, publishing 27 reviews (and something like 70,000 words!) check out the Product Releases section just above if you want to read any of those.
I also made a few reference pieces that have been very popular and hopefully helpful for people. The Warbands Master List (which has already been viewed 8100 times in just three months) and Rivals Deck Master List. I also put together a list of which warbands were best for new players which was really well received.
You all as readers helped out a bunch too. I was happy to get so many people commenting, reading along, and voting in my various silly polls throughout the year. We were able to figure out what warbands were most fun to play, what decks were most fun to smash together, which of the old Assassins were ‘best‘, determined winners for the Bachelorette and the Bachelor, Ran an Underworlds Pet Show, and even hosted a WHU Poetry Slam.
In addition to those community vote-based articles, the page hosted 21 other articles submitted by readers, ranging from philosophy on the game, custom rules, counterplay discussions, and deck lists/tourney reports. Huge thanks to Glenn, Mads, Jesse, other Jesse, Adi, Andy, Rex/Andrew, Davy, Imogen, Kevin, Ruben, Ben, Samski, Dan, Konsul, Bryce, and Val for making those happen. Not only did you make my twice-a-week publishing schedule way easier, but you also provided lots of great content for people around the world to read. The more people making things, the better! Feel free to send more stuff my way, or better yet, start your own page/channel/podcast etc. It’s not that hard to do, and the more of us doing it, the faster the game will grow.
Check out this transition. I’m a professional.
Other Community Creators:
Several other people continued to churn out content and I’m so glad that the number of community contributors continues to increase. I’m sure I’ll miss something, but a few of the ones I have been keeping tabs on are the following:
Podcasts –
What the Hex, Battle Mallet, and Path to Glory all continued strong this year. Underworlds Underground only made one publication this year – but I promise we recorded and scrapped a few more. We have plans to relaunch in the coming months! I swear!
Youtube –
Agents of Sigmar is, as usual, the place to go on Youtube for WHU stuff. Critical Focus Channel does some excellent battle reports as well as lore and rules reviews. Glorkazworka remains the best Polish production. You can find other less-frequent content on pages dedicated to multiple systems – some of my favorites are Tom Murrath, Cinderfall Gaming, Hobby Hunterz, La Prima Sfera, Iba’s Underworlds, and Ojo De Cuervo.
Blogs –
Starting Hex over on Goonhammer has grown into an awesome resource, the Path to Glory blog/review page was killing it, and some of the most concise product reviews live on the What the Hex page. Staggerers has expanded and really stepped up their game this year. Jon Grant Miniatures and the Magmahold have both continued this year with cool local tournament reports and more. Critico y Culo has produced some awesome Spanish content, and Set the Tempo even came back to life!
Fish Personally:
This calendar year, I painted 14 warbands/68 models, and have started to see some improvements in my skill which is cool and motivating. One of the best things about Underworlds is it lets you explore new techniques, colors, etc in a relatively low-commitment way with small warbands. My first attempt at NMM is below.
This year I also played a ton of Underworlds, with 2 weekly game nights I was usually able to make at least 1 of in my are. I played 231 games, against 41 opponents, played with 42 warbands and against 45 different warbands. I used 39 different nemesis combinations across the year, and faced off against 33 different nemesis pairings. This game has given me tons of joy, mental engagement, and variety, which is awesome.
I competed in two grand clashes (LVO with the Dread Pageant and the Tacoma Open with Emberwatch, and while I was within a dice roll or two of winning both times, I ended up taking second place in both. But since Rex beat me both times and he didn’t need two tickets, I qualified for Worlds regardless. Lucky me!
I competed at the World Championships with this deck for The Starblood Stalkers, going 6-4 and landing 20th overall. In the WORLD?!
I fought Brian from WtH in a Pink Slip match and stole his warband. The worlds streaming crew did live commentary, and the takeaway is that Emberwatch Blazing/Wrack STAYS WINNING
I started messing around with Kamandora’s Blades, who have a few interesting options now that Deadly Synergy is in the deck pool. No guarantee I’ll be able to make them work, but I’m planning to give it a try for the next few months. If I figure it out (and I have two decks (RS/DS and BA/DS) that are potentially going to do well), look forward to more content (and maybe even a tournament report) next year. As a bit of a spoiler, I’m currently 8-2 with this warband in casual play, so don’t sleep on them. They’re MUCH better than people thought at first glance.
And most importantly of all, I had tons of fun! The game is in an awesome place right now with so many viable options and I can’t wait to see what more is forthcoming. Maybe we’ll even get some better Take and Hold and/or Control choices?
Wrap
Here’s looking forward to a bright 2026. Who knows what new warbands, crazy decks, and silly boards we will be battling over in the coming year? One thing is for certain, I’m going to have a beautiful time Spending some Glory with my friends, and I hope you do too. Happy new year!
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