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New In The Underworlds: Nightvault’s Universal Cards

By Travis Perkins | November 2nd, 2018 | Categories: Age of Sigmar, Tactics, Warhammer Underworlds

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Warhammer Underworlds is moving on from Shadespire and heading towards the Nightvault and introducing all sorts of new goodies to the game.

Let’s dive into this new set with today’s focus on the core universal cards, the new stuff in the box, and the new magic system.

They made some minor FAQ changes but added in a new magic mechanic that will add some flair to the new warbands coming out.

New In The Underworlds: Nightvault’s Universal Cards

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The new magic mechanic has cards which replace ploys in your deck. You will need 12 objectives (just like before), any number of upgrade cards with a minimum of 10, and finally, the gambits are now a mix of ploys and magic that needs to equal your upgrade cards. The magic dice are used for magic abilities and to cast spells in the new warbands with your wizards being a certain level determining the number of dice you can roll.

The dice have 1 side with a critical, 2 with a swirl symbol, and 3 with lightning bolts and each spell or ability takes a certain number of a symbol to be cast successfully. If you roll two criticals the spell goes off, but the model casting the spell takes a wound as well. Along with that is some spells (chain lightning) use a scatter table to see where they do damage and they have a neat little scatter card included in the box.

Warhammer Nightvaults also comes with two different double-sided boards that feature a lot of the lethal terrain. If moved through or on, it wounds the model. Board A has three lethal terrain pieces. Two are right next to each other and the opposite side has no lethal terrain, but, does have 3 blocked off squares in a kind of triangle pattern. Board B has one side with no obstacles at all, while the other side has 2 lethal terrain squares and 2 blocked off squares. Each one basically gives you a different way to play the game and adds something a little bit different to your battle.

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Currently, we’ve seen four new warbands released. They are Stormsire’s Cursebreakers (Stormcast Eternals), Thorns of the Briar Queen (Nighthaunts), Eyes of the Nine (Tzeentch), and Zarbag’s Gitz (Moonclan Grots). Though with the Nightvault teaser video you can view here,

I think the other four will be the new Darkoath (Slaves to Darkness), some sort of Troll warband (new destruction?), Tree Revenants (Sylvaneth), and Kharadron Overlords (the dwarf pirates). That would provide a nice variety of models to use that’s a little more spread out than season one and can make for more varied options.

Let’s look at the universal cars included in the core set.

Objectives:

  • Annihilation (5 Glory): Score this in an end phase if all enemy fighters have been taken out of action.
  • Conquest (2 Glory): Score this in the third end phase if all surviving friendly fighters are in your opponent’s territory.
  • Denial (3 Glory): Score this in the third end phase if there are no enemy fighters in your territory.
  • Hold Objective 1 (1 Glory): Score this in an end phase if you are holding objective 1.
  • Hold Objective 2 (1 Glory): Score this in an end phase if you are holding objective 2.
  • Hold Objective 3 (1 Glory): Score this in an end phase if you are holding objective 3.
  • Hold Objective 4 (1 Glory): Score this in an end phase if you are holding objective 4.
  • Hold Objective 5 (1 Glory): Score this in an end phase if you are holding objective 5.
  • Supremacy (3 Glory): Score this in an end phase if you hold three or more objectives.

The objectives are standard and the objective based cards are great for the larger objective based warbands, while the rest are prefect for those trying to wipe out your opponent’s warband.

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Gambits (Magic and Ploys):

  • Confusion (Ploy): Chose two fighters that are adjacent to each other and switch them.
  • Determined Effort (Ploy): +1 Dice for the first Attack action in the next activation.
  • Grinding Earth (Spell): (Requires 1 lightning bolt) If this spell is cast choose an empty hex adjacent to the caster and place the chasm token on it. A hex with a chasm token is a lethal hex. Remove the token at the end of the action phase.
  • Sidestep (Ploy): Choose a friendly fighter and push them one hex.
  • Vital Surge (Spell): (Requires 2 lightning bolts) If this spell is cast, choose a friendly fighter and remove up to two wound tokens from their fighter card.

These are interesting because board control is always important with Confusion and Sidestep and can be used in almost any warband. Determined effort is also great for any warband with the extra attack dice. The spells, vital earth requires 2 magic dice so can be hard to cast but it heals 2 wounds so is a solid add, while grinding earth could be useful on boards with a lot of blocked and lethal hexes to force your opponent into it.

Upgrades:

  • Escape Artist: (Reaction) After an enemy fighter’s Attack action that targets this fighter and fails, push this fighter up to one hex.
  • Great Fortitude: +1 Wounds.
  • Great Speed: +1 Move.
  • Great Strength: +1 Damage to all Attack actions with a Range of 1 or 2.
  • Lucky Trinket: Reaction: During an enemy fighter’s spell or spell Attack action, if the spell is cast and the caster is within three hexes of this fighter, roll three magic dice. If you roll at least one (Critical) that spell is not cast and is no resolved. In either case, discard this card.

As with the objectives these are all useful in any warband, though with Escape Artist that could be dropped for better faction specific upgrades the Great Fortitude, Great Speed, and Great Strength can be useful in any deck.

Stormsire's Cursebreakers Collection

There you have it! Those are all the universal cards in the core set. We’ll begin digging into the individual warbands and the cards they offer. If you’re curious about the Warhammer Underworlds season 1 cards, click the links below to see what they offer.

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About the Author: Travis Perkins

An avid homebrewer and Detroit sports fan (yes even the Lions). I am new to the world of wargamming and very much enjoying the journey. If you have any suggestions or comments feel free to comment on the article or email me at perki116@msu.edu