A new edition of Warhammer Underworlds has been announced. This means the skirmish-based spin-off of Warhammer Age of Sigmar will experience major changes to its core gameplay. Changes that Games Workshop has been upfront in sharing.
The Warhammer Underworlds Edition Changes
In an official Warhammer-Community post, Games Workshop illustrates the changes coming in the newest edition of Warhammer Underworlds.
The first major change regards your Warband and their Fighter Cards. A new stat has been added called Bounty. This determines how much Glory you gain by killing a certain unit. In addition, decks are universal; any unique abilities a Warband has is defined by their Warband Warscroll.
Among these updated Warscrolls is a new mechanic called Warband Abilities. Some can be activated every round. For example, the Emberwatch has Alone I Stand!, which allows you to push a friendly fighter one hex. Others are potent, once-per-battle abilities with various trigger conditions.
This includes the Emberwatch’s Deadly Sentries ability. After your unit picks a weapon as part of an attack you can choose to give it +1 Range for that attack.
Movement in Warhammer Underworlds will remain unchanged in this new edition. But alongside the Move, Attack, Charge, and Guard action, there is now the Focus action.
Focus is designed to give you an out if you don’t have a card to play, referred to as “bricked hands” by the community. If you Focus, you discard your entire hand and draw a replacement for each card discarded, and an additional Power card.
It’s a strong move with a cost. If you use it too often, you won’t have enough Glory to score or Power Cards to play.
For fans of the latest edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, the Underdog mechanic will be coming to Warhammer Underworlds. The Underdog is whoever has fewer Glory. Underdogs win ties during first turn roll-offs in battle rounds two and three, and gains access to new abilities like more healing rolls are being able to redeploy fighters without using the Move action.
Lastly, a game of Warhammer Underworlds are fought only one board. According to Games Workshop, this was done to make combat faster and streamline game set-up. The new game boards will be made more compact with streamlined game language.
