The Universal Cards

Setting the Scene

With Corona chaos gripping the land we have all been starved for Warhammer Underworlds content. Thankfully Games Workshop have managed to deliver the next two expansions which feel like a breath of fresh air to a community drowning in a sea of apathy. Steel City are here to offer our take on all the new content, split into the usual three articles. Honestly getting these articles out recently has almost killed me and Tom. It’s pretty damn hot in the UK and we have managed one a day since GW started dropping bombs on Facebook. If you want to peruse my Krusha’s hot take article then you can here or if you’d prefer a look at the more finesse Morgwaeth’s Covern over here.

Below are our takes on all the new Universal cards, alongside our infallible rating for each one. Rating system? You must either be new or such an old school Steel City veteran that your mind has started forgetting why you are here, I’ll dust off the sacred tome to refresh you all:

Rating System

• 5 – Best in class effects that should go in basically every deck that can take them (Calculated Risk, Temporary Victory, Distraction)
• 4 – Powerful or versatile effects that are extremely strong in a particular archetype or pretty good in any deck (Tome of Offerings, Gathered Momentum, Spectral Wings)
• 3 – Solid effects that will find a place in many decks (Great Fortitude, Supremacy, Sidestep)
• 2 – Limited effects that might be useful in some specialised decks (Imbue with Life, Regal Vision)
• 1 – Just plain bad cards (Headlong Charge, Our Powers Combined)

All right, that’s all the boring stuff out of the way, let’s dive into the cards themselves.

Objectives

Absolute Stillness

Simply 2 glory for holding a non specific objective would be an absolutely busted card. The restrictions that come with Absolute Stillness certainly bring it down to a more reasonable power level, you are going to need at least 3 upgrades in your power deck that make you a quarry for this to be worthwhile and unless you have a way to cheat your fighter onto an objective token then this is dead in round 1. I can see this most likely being played by Thorn’s of the Briar Queen players as the Varclav push doesn’t give your fighter’s a token, for everyone else you are going to want Mischevious Spirits/Relentless Prize/Sidestep effects if you want a chance of scoring it early.

Rating 3

Abundance of Caution

Stand Firm gets a shiny new version and it’s still unlikely to see play. There are a lot more effects in this game that give the guard condition but skip out on the token, making it hard to find trigger’s for this objective. If you are playing a control style and only have three fighters, then I guess you can do this by using three activation’s over a whole round. It is certainly better to build around now that we have two of the same objective legal at once but I don’t think anyone is going to want to jump through the hoops this card needs you to in order to make it work.

Rating 2

Ahead of the Hunt

An amusingly free objective when playing into Hrthogorn, this is probably worth taking in any deck that has 3/4 + quarry upgrades. I’m so happy that we are starting to get some reliable end phase glory at the end of Beastgrave. Making decks has been painful for so long, now we can start building what we want instead of all trying to work with the same 16 or so objectives.

Rating 3

Change of Fortunes

Hrthogorn decks that double up on Arm of the Everwinter and Scorched Earth are doing incredibly well. Change of Fortunes can either be added to these decks for a buttery smooth set of surges or be a welcome addition to other decks wanting objective destruction. If you are planning on running this surge then I would recommend using either all of Invert Terrain/Lethal Snares/Unexpected Peril or to use two and have some decent card draw effects in your deck. In those cases it can be run alongside Scorched Earth but it lacks the overlap advantage that Arm of the Everwinter has, so it’s more an optional choice for those going all in on objective destruction then an obvious optimisation that should be done.

I think that this is another blow to the powerful Grymwatch and Thorns style decks that dominated the early half of the season, even if it only see’s play in 5% of decks, those decks are a hard counter to objective focused ones.

Rating 3

Feed the Beastgrave

I adore this card. It’s practically an alternate win condition and it lets people build very weird and wonderful decks if they so want. Right now it’s obviously best on Hrthogorn (you might notice that as a theme with these Universals) as he has a couple of faction specific ways to destroy/flip tokens. Spellslingers like the Cursebreakers might also be able to make use of this with access to cards like Abasoth’s Unmaking and Invert Terrain. Lets go through the universal triggers for this: Absoth’s Unmaking/Invert Terrain/Leave Nothing to Chance/Mass Upheaval/Unexpected Peril/Lethal Snares. Unless you have Wizard’s or in faction ways to do this then I don’t think it’s reliable enough currently. Eyes of the Nine actually might have a good shot with this as they have magic and the Blue Horror is a perfect fighter for using Lethal Snares on.

The two big issue’s I see with Feed the Beastgrave is that you are spending so many resources scoring this one objective that you lose the ability to fight vs aggro decks and if your opponent has the ability to flip tokens they can simply flip them back to the objective side, totally scuppering your plans. Still, this is a 5 glory objective and if you are playing towards this then you are inherently countering objective based decks, making at least some of your match-ups very easy. I’m giving it a low score for now but keep an eye on this one for the future, a few more cards that trigger it or objectives like Change of Fortunes that synergise with it and we may see a totally new archetype ‘Objective Destruction’ enter the game.

Rating 2

Hidden Purpose

The best card in the whole season.

The reason why Grymwatch and Thorns have been powerful for so long in Beastgrave is because they can score so many objectives in their deck simply by grabbing some tokens, both surge and end phase alike, while everyone else has to put effort each round into completing the different tasks they are given. This is not just another surge that you can add to the pile of stuff you score for jumping on some tokens, it’s actually the strongest one that currently exists. Temporary Victory does give you double the glory but requiring 3 objective tokens is a much bigger ask then 2, holding two tokens is your bread and butter minimum requirement for playing in the objective style and you always have a minimum of two to place when setting the game up.

What is even more crazy is that we might start seeing two token control start to become a thing, warbands/decks like the Harrow’s who only care about holding two tokens instead of the usual stretch for 3, they already have some in faction objectives that synergise with that style and Path to Victory + Uncontested are decent end phase scorers that you can slot in.

This is the new Calculated Risk and I expect it to be restricted faster then you can say Katophrane Relic, warbands and playstyles that can use this objective all just got a massive boost in power with everyone else left weeping in the corner.

Rating 5

Master of Battle

Be careful when reading this card, take a step back and fully think through what it means. Superactions like a charge or a scything attack are made up of multiple individual actions that will all count towards the total for this. That’s right, if you make a single scything charge that targets 2 or more fighters then you have fulfilled this objective. If you are running a ranged warband then you can simple take a potshot in one activation and then charge in the next.

Also Mollog.

Or Rippas.

For warbands that can consistently trigger this it will be a solid objective that they can slot in. Cards like this might not look shiny or exciting but reliable glory is absolutely how games are won.

Rating 3

Master of Hazards

Change of Fortune is a decent build around objective that rewards you for countering a specific playstyle. Master of Hazards feels like a step too far with the doubling of the requirements, we simply don’t have enough trigger’s to reliably pull this off. If we do see more ways to flip tokens in season 4 then this might suddenly become part of a very powerful Feed the Beastgrave deck, until then this is a miss from me.

Rating 2

Master Poisoner

When we first saw cards with the poison keyword I was really excited for whatever mechanic would tie them all together. A one glory end phase card? That’s it? It feels like such a waste. Most of the poison cards are pretty bad, the fact that this requires two triggers during a round means that you would need at least 4 poison cards in your deck to reliably score this objective….. Yeh this is a pass from me.

Rating 1

Meticulous Strategy

A Superior Tactician style objective that rewards you for scoring other objectives. The fact that it is only two glory means that you really want around 4-5 Dual objectives in your deck, so that this doesn’t brick your hand too often. Right now it’s a bit of a push to get there, with the Dual keyword being introduced in this season. I think we will see more Dual cards during whatever season 4 of Warhammer Underworlds is, at which point this becomes a good objective. Right now it’s not quite there.

Rating 2

No-one is Safe

In order to score this objective you not only have to kill two enemy fighter’s in the same phase but you also have to secure those kills with gambits. If you can consistently kill two enemy fighter’s with gambits in a single phase then I want to know what your deck is because its broken. This is such a win more objective, you really want objectives to be getting you glory when the game isn’t going your way not when you have practically already won.

Rating 1

Over my Dead Body

A copy of Steadfast Defender, which is a decent enough surge that see’s play in some Nurgle decks. I’ve banged on about how doubling up on effects can increase your deck consistency and is generally a good thing up above, this does exactly that. I think we probably still want another ploy or two that puts a friendly fighter on guard as a reaction before this see’s mainstream play but right now its a nice option for people who want it.

Rating 2

Set the Tempo

Now this really is an updated Superior Tactician. One nice factor about objectives like these is that you can still score them when your entire warband is dead, grasping victory from the jaws of defeat. I think if you pack a couple of Dual objectives and a couple of Hybrid ones then this is a very decent choice.

Rating 3

Show of Force

Ooooh an actually nice surge for aggro play. The first condition for this card appears simple but might be harder then you think, if you are running a 3 fighter warband then it can be hard to get them all across the finish line early, especially against opponents who fully offset or pick long boards. The second condition is incredibly reliable in rounds 2 and 3 but bricks your hand hard in round 1. My general deck building philosophy these days is to not take any surges that are likely to brick in round 1, you already have the chance of drawing 3 end phase cards, you don’t need the added risk of having your only surge be a dead card early.

Still this is as free as it get’s later in the game and if you pack enough mobility cards into your power deck then the first condition might be a decent back up plan if you draw it early.

…

..

.

Have they gone?

*speaking very quietly* Don’t tell anyone but I think this is busted on Gitz.

Rating 3

Test of Courage

Picture this, a Thorns player in activation 1 of the game uses the Varclav action to place 3 chainrasps onto objective tokens, scoring Temporary Victory/Hidden Purpose/Scrum, they then draw into Supremacy/Uncontested and the new horror that is Test of Courage. Two of those same Chainrasps are also sitting on lethal hexes. What on earth do you do in this situation? Thorn’s and Harrows players don’t even need to have this objective in hand to dictate the flow of a game, just sit on those lethal hexes and your opponent has to decide if they are as much of a threat as the objective tokens you are parked on, or risk you scoring this.

I don’t think anyone not playing bed-sheets need apply, the damage you take from lethal hexes just makes it to risky for your opponent to kill you in the power step with gambits. But for the spooky bois this is amazing.

Rating 3

The Avatar Risen

Three glory for 3 upgrades. Not a bad deal, if you compare this to Acolyte of the Katophranes with all the restricted cards that you have to take then this seems like a no brainer. The component upgrades are kind of bad, with Sting being the only one I would generally take, so if you are going this route it means taking 2 sub optimal upgrades just to score glory at the end of the game. The other downside is that this only works if you assemble all 3 of the Ur-Grub upgrades, so you have to consistently get through your power deck and be able to keep opening hands with these upgrades in, no matter how bad they look. Don’t forget that your fateful Avatar has to survive to the end of the game with a massive target painted on their back.

With the lack of decent end phase objectives in Beastgrave to act as competition I can see this becoming the go to option for control that doesn’t want to pay the Tome Tax and lacks a Wizard for pages.

Rating 3

The Hunter Hunted

A really thematic card that feels like it will happen about 1/50 games that you actually take it.

Rating 1

Trading Blows

Something tells me that Aggressive Defence was supposed to still be in the game when this card was released. As is only some warbands can score this and even then they only have a single trigger card in their entire decks.

Rating 1

Gambits

Blind Hunger

This is pretty much just a Cursebreaker special. For most warbands it is an easy to cast spell whose effect equalises the cost of putting it in your deck. You are literally trading one card for one card, which isn’t a net gain for anyone. In the Cursebreakers an easy cast spell also gives you an easy inspire and can score you objectives like Harness the Storm or Magical Mastery, when you get advantages like that trading the card investment for another card means you are coming out on top. Still even for the magical Stormcast there are better options and this will probably only make it’s way into the hardest of control decks.

Rating 2

Bloodscent

Ever since Fuelled by Fury rotated out I have been desperate for another accuracy ploy with which to help my aggro decks. Currently the only accuracy ploy that is worth taking is Haymaker and honestly Bloodscent is not good enough to replace it. The downside to Haymaker is very slight whereas Bloodscent requires substantial deck investment to make sure you are always able to apply ping damage in order to play it. The warbands that I see most likely taking this are Nurgle/Farstriders/Wild Hunt, all warbands where losing your defence roll from Haymaker is a nasty downside and all warbands with either generous access to ping damage or a heavy incentive to already take it. This could potentially work in a Rippa’s deck alongside Smell Weakness, then if you go the route of investing in all the ping damage cards you get rewarded with two solid accuracy ploys that can be taken alongside Haymaker for precision attacks that are very likely to land.

For those decks/warbands that can take it this is a very solid option but I think they are niche enough that this card won’t be a staple.

I just had a cool thought, in relic we have Shardgale, this is probably pretty good for that format.

Rating 2

Closing Jaws

A far far weaker version of Collapse/Encroaching Shadow, your opponent either has to have two fighter’s on edge hexes for this to work or to be unwilling to use an activation moving their single fighter out of an edge hex. Maybe if you combine it with effects like Transfixing Stare it becomes a bit more reliable but even then, the upside just isn’t worth building around.

Rating 2

Dulling Dart

Now that we know there is no payoff for playing with poison cards we have to completely evaluate the cards on their own and like most of the poison cards Dulling Dart just quite make the cut. It’s a fantastic tech card into Mollog but even against Hrthogorn, the next most likely target, it’s only worth a slot if he is uninspired. The prerequisite of placing your fighter next to the opponent in order to apply a poison is such a downside, yes you reduce their attack dice by 1 for a round but to get the full effect out of that you have to do it in the first activation, meaning that same fighter now has 4 attacks it can make back to get a kill without having to charge. It doesn’t matter how inaccurate that fighter is, if you make 4 attacks the odds are that one will land.

Rating 2

Euphoric Dust

All the downsides about Dulling Dart are the same but the upside often doesn’t exist as most fighter’s only have one defence dice.

Rating 1

Glorious Triumph

Oh this is interesting. A completely new effect that we have no precedent for in Warhammer Underworlds. The ability to turn a kill into counting as holding an extra objective for an entire round. Let’s go through the situations where this card is useful:

• You need to ‘hold’ one more objective then you can easily access by moving fighters e.g. you have two on your board and need a 3rd for Supremacy
• You are holding the right amount of tokens to score the objectives you want and using this makes you more resistant to power step disruption like Restless Prize/Distraction
• To mess with specific meta objectives that your opponent might be trying to score, e.g. Uncontested

The first use stands out to me as the strongest, being able to fully offset boards vs an opponent and still have the ability to score Supremacy is a very scary prospect. I really find it hard to judge just how reliable this will be in games, the way rounds usually work it can be hard to rely on getting a kill, especially for non aggro decks. So I will be cautious with my rating here but there is a very real chance that I am sleeping on a bomb and that this could be busted.

Rating 3

Go to Ground

Illusory Fighter but with the nasty downside of giving a charge token. With the prevalence of the Quarry keyword you have good odds of ‘teleporting’ your fighter onto an objective token which is a nice benefit. The real power in this card comes from yanking a friendly fighter out of danger, it’s especially strong on the big troll as once inspired he gets to ignore a charge token, leaving him free to still be as threatening as ever. Let’s not forget the final benefit this card can provide, it scores Shortcut. Time and again we have seen that scoring objectives from the power step is incredibly strong, if you can synergise that with enough triggers to be reliable and said triggers also grant a powerful bonus effect then you are laughing.

Rating 3

Headlong Flight

The Quarry version of Tracking. Generally you need to have a specific upgrade on before you can trigger the +2 move part of this card, making it a bit unreliable early in the game and forcing some deck building constraints. If you need extra movement, this is overshadowed by better options, unless you are playing hyper aggro and want to be scoring cards like Show of Force then I’d take them and give this one a miss.

Rating 2

Malkyn Grace

Did someone say better movement card? Well here it is, a juicy + 2 move that you can always access. The downside to this card does make it worse then Spectral Wings and makes using it early in a round a bit of a risk, but the ability to take both of those cards as reliable triggers for Cover Ground and Gathered Momentum (as long as you have base movement of 4) is an absolutely incredible benefit for reliable glory scoring. Scoring objectives aside, mobility cards like this give you a lot of soft control in a game, you can deploy your fighter’s outside of the opponent’s charge range and strike late in a round when they can’t attack back, or use this card to get to a key fighter like the Duke/Varclav that your opponent is trying to hide.

Rating 3

Punch-Drunk

The ability to randomly push an enemy with Scatter 3 to replace the inbuilt ability to push back one hex is not really much of an upgrade, certainly not one that I would spend a gambit slot on.

Rating 1

Quick Search

This is a slightly weaker version of Frenzied Search. Generally card draw is a double edged sword in Warhammer Underworlds, it makes your deck much more consistent but at the cost of cards that actually do things. Running out of card’s in your power deck is a very real risk in this game and when that happens you often wish you had packed another gambit that actually affected the game, instead of racing through said deck as fast as possible. What has pushed card draw to being more powerful, specifically in Beastgrave, is the synergy with certain objectives, namely To the End/Digging Deep/Frantic Exchange. Glory is how you win a game and have I mentioned already that scoring objectives for simply playing power cards is a pretty strong effect?

Rating 3

Scavenged Defences

Upgrades that give +1 defence dice are pretty nice, gambits that give you +1 defence dice for a single activation are a lot less powerful. This is maybe decent for warbands that regularly get to two block, Hrthogorn/Farstriders, as at 3 block it is very unlikely your opponent will score a hit. The Wurmspat probably like this one the best as it not only reduces the chance of the attack hitting but also increases the chance of their damage reduction effects going up. So I can see some uses for this card, options are always nice.

Rating 2

Spiteful Dart

The trigger condition for this card is actually super reliable, providing you have tough fighter’s that often don’t go down in one hit. Utterly fantastic for the Wurmspat as it helps your inspire condition, maybe decent for Farstrider’s as well if you go down the ping damage route. Remember that most of the times your opponent attacks they are planning to kill your fighter in one go, so for other warbands it’s probably not worth it.

As an added bonus it also blocks after attack reactions like the Snarlfang’s Jaws or Pit Trap.

Rating 2

The Ground Shifts

Eh, this maybe combo’s with unchecked energy? I’m struggling to find cases where you would ever take this over a card like Distraction or even just take it alongside. The fact that this only goes into an empty hex precludes it from directly dealing a damage and that’s really the only purpose of card’s like this.

Rating 1

Victimise

Stroke my beard and call me Gandalf. This is totally crazy for Hrthogorn. It is the closest we have ever seen (ignoring a certain Angharad upgrade) to a card saying ‘Your next attack automatically hits’, which is pretty nice for a warband whose entire inspire condition revolves around fighter’s dying next to the big ogre. For everyone else this is a subpar accuracy ploy that will sometimes turn into the amazing version depending on how many Quarry upgrades, if any, your opponent is playing. That is an interesting dynamic and it is nice to see how the Hunter/Quarry stuff has played out over the course of this season, now we have legitimate downsides for relying on the Quarry mechanic too much.

Our rating system gets very confused by cards like this, the scoring system isn’t based on how ‘good’ a card is but on how ubiquitous it should be. This card is obviously incredibly, maybe even overpoweringly, good on Hrthogorn but that is only one warband, will enough people be playing Quarry cards for this to be worth taking for everyone else? With the direction that the FAR list has gone in restricting most of the powerful Quarry upgrades I doubt this will be more then a generic +1 dice ploy most of the time.

Rating 3

Upgrades

Abasoth’s Auto-immolation

A Lost Page that only works if the fighter with the upgrade on dies? That seems a bit counter intuitive. If you cast this spell with a standard wizard, read Cursebreaker, then you average about 2 damage dealt, which isn’t bad. It just seems like its a silver lining effect when your main game plan falls apart, the fact that it only works on range 1 attacks makes it even more restrictive. Honestly if this is taken it’s simply because it is a Lost Page and you want to gather glory with the Scattered Tome, which is ok i guess?

Rating 2

Amberbone Mace

Finally, an Amberbone weapon that I am really excited for. The previous Amberbone weapons have lacked a combination of accuracy and damage, which I have always felt is simply too many downsides to play with despite the obviously very powerful upside of extra glory. This Amberbone weapon solves your accuracy problems leaving us with only the issue of low damage and you know what? I’ll take that. Drown me in glory baby.

Rating 4

Amberbone Sword

If I had to pick between the two I would say that the Mace is slightly better then the sword. They are both still incredible though. The fact that you can put both of these into decks is going to act as a big way to punish low wound warbands, like Grymwatch and Thorns, as there are so many targets to farm your extra glory from.

Rating 4

Bloody Axe

There is a narrow window where Bloody Axe is a good card. You don’t want this on a fighter with too many wounds, lets say 4+, as they generally have decent attacks (Hakka and Basha notwithstanding) that aren’t worth replacing. You also don’t want this on a fighter with two or less wounds as then you obviously can’t trigger the extra effect that makes this card worth it. For fighter’s with three wounds however this might just be up your street. RAW you can charge through lethal hexes to take wounds onto your fighter card and get the benefits of the extra damage, so it’s certainly an effect you have some control over. I think the best warband for this is probably the Wild Hunt as you want high move speed to both get through those lethal hexes and to end up in charge range of a fighter. Blowing the horn and then attacking with this in full damage is a scary prospect and the hunt really like some extra damage.

Actually thinking about it, one warband with higher wound fighter’s that might like this is Rippa’s, Mean Eye and Stabbit have such rubbish main attacks that replacing them whole cloth isn’t a bad shout and like the Wild Hunt they have the required movement speed. Oh and oh course, if you are a masochist this is probably pretty good for Ironskullz Boyz as well.

It’s tricky to rate this one, for the warbands it’s good in it will be a terror that one shot’s some of the best fighter’s in the game, for the majority of warbands its not even an option.

Rating 2

Claws of the Ur-Grub

It only works on range 1 attack actions and it doesn’t work against a whole bunch of warbands in the game. If this gave both cleave and ensnare it would probably be too good, as it is I don’t recommend taking it, unless you have a specific Avatar plan.

Rating 2

Cursed Blade

A really unique and nice option for horde warbands, Cursed Blade shines for the ones that can bring fighter’s back like Skaven/Sepulchral Guard/Grymwatch but honestly this is a good enough set of stats for any horde warband to take. Don’t sleep on that + 1 move stat, for warbands at 4 hex base move this is a trigger for Gathered momentum and for those at 5 it’s an extra trigger for Cover Ground. The real reason you take this upgrade though is it’s beefy 3 damage, that’s a lot to be packing and 2 smash is a reasonably enough accuracy to work with, especially if you can get more accuracy like supports.

Rating 3

Hunter’s Talisman

Hrthogorn decks are happy to run Famed Hunter because it’s a solid accuracy buff for him that works on both his attacks. Hunter’s Talisman is more then twice as good as Famed Hunter for the Ogre and means you can expect every attack of his to hit from simply one upgrade. This is even better for him then Victimise, when you combine them you have easily the most accurate fighter in the game.

For other hunter’s this is still a +1 dice accuracy upgrade, that’s pretty fantastic and the only warband that can take this which might give it a miss are the Rippas, due to their wolf bites being silly. Well here is a big incentive to be a hunter, every single fighter in the game with that keyword printed on it just got a mild buff.

Rating 4

Hunter’s Will

This is like Hunter’s Reflexes but, bad? The best warband for this card is obviously Hrthogorn (have I talked about him enough yet?) and it acts as a way for him to play ultra aggressively, charge into a clump of enemy fighter’s and you can follow them as they try to flee. On the other hand they can just sit there and attack you now that you have a charge token, which they probably will as it’s the main win condition against the large hunter. Not sure I can see a situation where I want to use this.

Rating 2

Keila’s Chocking Coil

It’s triple Stormsire time baby. Cursebreaker’s now have access to a full ranged spell slinging build with the added benefit of more consistency in drawing one of these upgrades early. The extra damage on a crit is nice, the fact that it is a lost page is kind of nice, what’s great is that ranged damage. I’m sure Aman over at Hexes and Warbands will be dusting off his double Stormsire build right now, keep an eye on what he does with it because it could be the new meta deck to beat.

Rating 3

Predator’s Trinket

My opinion on this card is very similar to Claws of the Ur-Grub up above. Cleave is nice but it’s dead against a bunch of warbands. This upgrade loses out a bit as it doesn’t count towards Avatar tricks, on the other hand it also works on range 2 attacks.

Rating 2

Prescient Blow

Another unique and interesting card. The only way to boost the accuracy of that single fury dice is with re-rolls and supports, just like with Rippa’s jaw attacks, so it’s hard but not impossible to do. The damage the attack itself does is mostly irrelevant, you use this to set up a combo attack and to hopefully kill any enemy fighter brave enough to charge your tooled up combo machine. If you have about 5 upgrades on one fighter, to both make this accurate and to fulfil all the combo upgrades you need then this sounds pretty good on paper, the issue being how often will you get that many upgrades on one fighter and are they better then general ones like Great Strength?

Right now combo has not sold itself to me as a mechanic, it’s a lot of effort for a small payout, so I’m low balling this one.

Of course… you could always take this alongside Duellist’s Speed and be immune to range 1 attacks, that’s the type of cheese we at Steel City love.

Rating 2

Shadeglass Band

If at some point in an attack you roll a crit while this upgrade is equipped then you get the massive benefit of a decent-ish accuracy upgrade. Unless we see innate crits on attack actions, please never do this, then I don’t see this being worth it.

Edit – I realised that I am so desperate for repeatable accuracy upgrades on Mollog that I’d probably take it for him – so I’ve adjusted my rating up a bit.

Rating 1 2

Soulward Shard

Anti magic tech is dead against the vast majority of the field.

Rating 1

Stealthy Blade

In 95% of cases this is a worse Swordbreaker and in 99% of cases this is a worse Amerbone Sword/Mace. Take those weapons instead.

Rating 2

Strength of Terror

YES!

Finally an unrestricted universal accuracy upgrade for Mollog. This is a worse option then Potion of Rage for warbands that are using multiple fighter’s over their round, as the single boost that provides is just better. For single fighter’s that you activate again and again this is a fantastic upgrade that many people have been dying for. This might just be the type of card that helps aggro towards the end of Beastgrave.

Love it.

Rating 4

Warding Companion

Nice for fighter’s that have a high amount of defence dice, especially those that plan on stacking those dice even higher. So Thorns that run Spectral armour and Cursebreakers/Wurmspat that run Substance Siphon will all like this. Absolutely beastly if you pair it with Spirit Bond and Survival Instincts, even Victimise might miss against that.

Snirk alongside most of the other Gitz also absolutely loves this.

Rating 2

Vortex Stone

A single push from an upgrade slot, limited by range and the fact that it forces the enemy fighter closer to your fighter. Humm. The extra conditions on this card make me almost dismiss it but we know how strong Distraction type effects can be in this game and packing an extra one, from the upgrade part of your deck might be worth it. Probably best for disrupting fighter’s on objective tokens, which even with Thorns and Grymwatch losing their dominance is still quite a lot.

Rating 2

Closing Words

We did it. Three articles in three days.

It’s really nice to have some new Warhammer Underworlds content to dig into and I’m glad we got these out relatively fast. Who knows, maybe we will have some more articles coming out over the next couple of weeks?