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.

This time we have Tim Lemmon, a member of the UK’s Thunderworlds community who has been cooking up some really interesting stuff for Thundrik’s Profiteers – the Cataclysm/Hunting Grounds deck he’ll describe below is a new approach to the warband that has a lot of juice, but still plays rthe fun HG game so many dwarf fans have been drawn to.

It’s not just fun though, he also managed to podium at two consecutive grand clashes! Just a few weeks ago, he placed second at the Thunderworlds Clash, and followed that up the next weekend by grabbing third in the Birmingham Open, losing the finals to a spectacularly good Val of the Netherlands, who stomped me real good at Worlds last year. How did Tim do it, even with move 2? Let’s read on and find out.

Deck Link

I’ve been playing Warhammer Underworlds since Shadespire dropped. I played Ironskulls Boyz in my first tournament on their day of release. I’m a member of Thunderworlds and regularly attend events at and nearby Warhammer World, where we also play casually on Thursdays (hence the name).

Calling the Shots

Thundrik’s Profiteers are a warband I’ve had since Nightvault, but never got around to playing. I fancied painting them, so decided it was time. Second place at the Thunderworlds Clash and Third place at the Birmingham Open a week later is a lot more than I expected from the experiment.

I’ve found their warscroll is really easy to navigate. Each of the abilities is useful and they’re useful at all stages of the game. I notice I wasn’t the only Thundrik player who registered for the Birmingham Open, but the other player dropped before the event.

Hunting Grounds has some really great objective cards, but it needs to be paired with something that can score glory if your opponent doesn’t come into your territory. Mostly I chose it because I “won” an alt art card of Lead By Example for coming last with Blackpowder’s Buccaneers at the Agents of Sigmar clash last month. Emberstone Sentinels or Pillage and Plunder would definitely incentivise your opponent to come to you. I chose Countdown to Cataclysm as it allows a fair bit of flexibility and allows me to keep playing aggro. The power cards also help to score the Hunting Grounds cards. I discounted Nexus of Power, as it had too much focus on being in enemy territory, but it could probably be made to work with a bit of planning.

Protect the Boss

Inspiring Thundrik first makes sense, as his defence improves to two block (not to mention gaining cleave). It’s important to keep him, as you need him to inspire the others. His range can also help you to score Lead By Example, since you shouldn’t need to charge to attack. Save Hail of Aethershot and Improvised Attack until you have the objective in hand. The latter can particularly dig you out of a hole if you charged Thundrik and can’t easily charge out your warband.

Garodd is the only other fighter whose defence improves (from one dodge to one block), but his attacks are the only ones in the warband which don’t improve in some way when he inspires, so I usually inspire him last, unless I need the extra move for a melee attack with two damage and don’t want to expose Thundrik or Khazgan.

Timed Charge

Despite being a shooting warband, three of the five fighters hit in melee for two damage (all on two hammers). So they pose a significant melee threat your opponent may overlook. Your opponent won’t have overlooked the three damage melee attack on Khazgan. Between that and his two bounty, he has a big target on his back. Utter Conviction is great for keeping him alive. I tend to play quite cautiously with him, committing only at the end of the round, hoping he can survive one incoming attack if I’m not going first in the next round. He’s much more useful at nabbing treasure than killing enemy fighters, in my opinion. I think he’d approve.

With Lund and Enrik, their ranged attacks are equal to or better than their melee attacks even before inspiring. So they are more likely to open fire at point blank range, which also opens up access to two of the warscroll abilities, to get +1 range and +1 dice or to shoot again at another target within two hexes.

If you’re out of two damage attacks, Hidden Traps is an attack action upgrade with three hammers (more accurate than any melee attack in the warband) and has grievous if your target is within one hex of a feature token in friendly territory.

Duardin Resiliance

Or lack thereof, with three health fighters on one defence. Generally, they should be able to absorb two hits, which would be the same for four health fighters. My advice would be: don’t get too attached.

Decide which fighter(s) you can afford to lose and place those furthest forward. If your opponent can only make one charge, all the better. You’ll have the whole round move into position for your surges while that fighter can’t attack again. You need no more than two fighters to score the end phase objectives. Even Uneven Contest can be scored with one or two fighters if either you or your opponent is delving.

Prepared Position

I tend to place at least one treasure token as far forward as possible and one away from the edge and do the same with the Aqua Ghyranis token. Lots of objectives require fighters to be on feature tokens in enemy territory, so the lure is real.

Place one sacrificial fighter next to each of these tokens and have the others set up to provide covering fire (I.e. have the right to angle to score Pinned). Try to make sure the only fighters within charge range at the edges of the board. This should prevent your opponent charging into the centre and denying you Pinned.

Beyond this, you only really need two treasure in your territory. It’s easier to score Shocking Assault if there’s only one in no one’s territory. It doesn’t much matter to you where the treasure in enemy territory is, so don’t worry about placing any there. If your opponent is playing Nexus of power, consider flipping any odd numbered treasure you can’t easily reach. Don’t worry about keeping them from being Covetous – just make sure their easiest option is to come to you.

Sound Finances

Nine of the glory in my deck (almost half) is pure aggro. It’s worth bearing in mind that three of these (Back Off, Hands Off and Pinned) require a fighter to be driven back, but none require the attacks to be successful. Hounds of War requires you to kill an enemy fighter in the round and have at least one other damaged or slain. Against elite warbands, that can be tricky, but a lot of five health fighters only have one defence die, so ganging up on one who has charged is an option – particularly if other enemy fighters can’t reach you. For Lead by Example and No Business Here, you just need to make the attack (and keep your Thundrik safe).

Five more glory comes from holding treasure tokens. Most opponents will be prepared to defend against Shocking Assault, but if they’re planning to come into no one’s territory and stand on a feature token, that makes other surges like Back Off and Hands Off much more likely. Set Explosives is pretty versatile for two glory and is usually achieved by holding both in friendly territory or one on friendly and one in neutral.

Over two events, I scored Uneven Contest against six of eight opponents. With move three inspired and By the Code on the warscroll to push three hexes onto a feature token, they can get into position much quicker than you would think – particularly in the last activation of a round. Great Speed and Visions of Ruin help with this, too. Your opponent has to be actively defending the odd numbered treasure to stop you, and this is probably costing them opportunities too.

The last five glory in my deck comes from passive scoring. Spread Havoc is a must, since Aqua Gyranis tokens counts at feature tokens for the purposes of the Cataclysm Tracker, the rating stacks up very quickly. In all ten games at Birmingham, my Cataclysm value was two after round one (even against hold decks). However, the flip side is that I only scored Collateral Damage in 50% of games, as I frequently drew it after advancing my tracker all the way to four.

Punishing Retort

I don’t normally play to run interference with my opponent’s scoring, preferring to play my own game. However, since your opponent will generally want your fighters dead, there’s no dishonour in slowing them down.

Poor Footing and Crippling Blow both dish out move tokens to an enemy fighter and neither requires you to be adjacent to them. Denying a powerful enemy in your territory the ability charge in the round can dramatically improve your fighters’ chances of survival.

Secrets of the Realm and Raging Tremors both stagger enemy fighters (potentially multiple enemy fighters). These are great for helping with your accuracy to get those drive backs. Don’t be afraid to use them early in the game for lesser effect, as a re-roll on a two dice attack (uninspired) can be much more impactful and help to get the ball rolling.

Mind Your Step can be really useful for moving an enemy fighter into a position that suits you better (perhaps onto or off a feature token or next to an edge hex). This is best played on a fighter who has charged, making it harder for your opponent to reposition them.

With a low movement warband, cards which help to push fighters, Counter-charge, Sidestep and Violent Blast are invaluable for reaching feature tokens, setting up attacks or just holding an enemy fighter at bay.

Live by the Code

Always give your opponent the benefit of the doubt, choose something you have fun playing so that winning doesn’t matter and name your deck, so that you become attached to it and are inclined to practice.

These are just guidelines, but some things are sacrosanct. Having finished second to Rowan McGhee’s Ironsoul’s Condemnors at the Thunderworlds clash and placed just ahead of him at the Warhammer Open, we have agreed to a face off to settle the matter. We’ll let you know how we get on.

Wrap

Thanks again to Tim, and congratulations on two consecutive strong finishes for such an underdog warband. Look out for an upcoming interview on the Path to Glory podcast as well!

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!