While we have been fighting our way through the roots of the Gnarlwood and the steamy wilds of Ghur, not all of the Realm of Beasts is quite so warm… In the frozen continent of Bjarl we find the Deathgorge – a series of frozen tunnels created by giant Rimewyrms, creatures that burrow through the realm to find food and who are crazed with pain from the freeze of the Everwinter. And in this frozen catacomb the Slaaneshi Daemons of The Thricefold Discord face off against the Idoneth Deepkin warband of Cyreni’s Razors

In this full review and unboxing we’ll be checking out the latest Warhammer Underworlds set, Deathgorge, up for pre order today.

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us a free early review copy of Deathgorge to check out on the site. If you would like to help support the site then why not order your copy of Deathgorge through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We also have a full unboxing of Deathgorge which you can see below or over on YouTube

So grab your coat, It’s going to be chilly in the Deathgorge…

Warhammer Underworlds Deathgorge Unboxing and Review

If it seems it hasn’t been that long since the previous Warhammer Underworlds set, then it hasnt really been! Over the last few years we have been getting two Underworlds big boxes each year along with starter sets (Another of which is also up for pre order today). While I have talked about an element of Warcry fatigue in the past due to the speed in which these big boxes are being released, I have to admit I was very excited about the contents of this one pitting Slaanesh against Deepkin.

So what’s in the box?

This is a set containing everything that you need to play games of Warhammer Underworlds, including two double sided boards that are new to this set. As with the other Underworlds boxed sets you also get two sheets of tokens and all the dice that you need in order to play, along with the full rulebook.

The main appeal for people picking up this box however are the brand new miniatures contained within. As is usual with Underworlds they are push fit, so you don’t actually have to use any glue to assemble them. You can use glue, but if you do I would make sure to cut down the pegs a little in order for the parts to fit properly.

The kits are absolutely gorgeous, which is often the case with Warhammer Underworlds – but these two warbands are among my favourites – for Idoneth fans Cephanyr the Squid is going to be a nice addition to the collection of sealife that the Idoneth range contains. and the other fighters in the warband are decent additions to the range.

The real stars of the show however are the Slaanesh Warband. All three of the Daemons are very different to the existing Hedonites of Slaanesh range and make me really hope we see units similar to these released for Age of Sigmar, as there’s something delightfully weird about them! From Vexmor with his thigh high boots and spiked tail, to snake like Vashtiss the Coiled we get a nice variety in different types of Daemon to paint up. I really enjoyed painting these and already have a craving to paint some more Slaanesh Daemons in order to expand my Hedonites army further. I’m also looking forward to seeing what rules these get in AOS – unfortunately at the time of writing this review I don’t know what their rules will be, but I hope they are a worthy pick to include in my Age of Sigmar army, as I just want to make use of the models!

A full rulebook is also included in the box – and while the rules have not changed much since the previous box, there are still a couple of things that I clocked that are a little different. Firstly, if you are ever holding any upgrade cards that cannot be used as the hero they attach to is dead, or if you have spells in your hand and no caster available then you can opt to Salvage.

Salvaging is used in place of playing a power card and can be used to discard a card that you are not able to use and replace it with a new one. This is a really good way of cycling these cards out of your hand and making sure that all the cards in your hand are usable.

The other change that we get in the rulebook is more clarity on reactions and in particular Reaction Chains – sometimes things get a little compex with reactions to reactions, or reactions to those reactions to reactions! In the new rulebook things are broken down step by step with some helpful diagrams and a couple of paragraphs that clarify just how and when each of those cards and abilities are resolved – this should stop any of the head scratching moments when a chain of multiple reactions start to happen.

We also get clarity on the different ways of playing – Rivals has become really popular this edition with the simplicity of just picking up a warband and their associated deck for quick pick up and play action. This can be taken to the next level with Nemesis format. In this format you take your warband deck, plus one of the other seperately available Rivals decks (2 of such are included in the box) – you then build a deck using your favourite ones of both decks in order to tune something suited to your play style.

The final way of playing is Relic, and this is more like your traditional CCG deck building – you use all legal cards from Warhammer Underworlds and create your own deck. This is a little more complex but can lead to some really top tier play and clever combos.

One of the best things about Warhammer Underworlds is that all three of these play styles are perfectly valid and are great fun. Personally I love the quick and easy style of Relic as all you need to do is pick up your favourite warband and their cards are already included in the box – this is also great for new players to teach them how the game works and get them comfortable with the mechanics before the complexity of deck building is added.

The Thricefold Discord

The Slaanesh Warband The Thricefold Discord are a trio of Daemons that all hate each other, and this is shown in their mechanics – their inspire condition is based on each Daemon hating another Daemon from the warband, if that daemon makes an attack, defense or spell roll and gets no successes then the daemon that hates them inspires. This is quite fun as you will want your fighters to make and fail some actions in order to inspire other ones

Another big mechanic that the Discord have are Temptations – this gives your opponent the choice of one of two bad things to happen, the player gets to pick which one will trigger. This is similar to the Temptation mechanic in Age of Sigmar where the enemy often gets to pick between taking damage or generating depravity dice.

The warband has some fairly low scoring objective cards, but most are pretty easy to get, with play revolving on around trying to get a quick succession of glory for upgrades before forcing your opponent to try and make the best decision out of your temptations.

Cyreni’s Razors

The Idoneth Warband is Cyreni’s Razors, and these have a mechanic that is much like the Idoneth in Age of Sigmar

Every single member of the Warband will inspire at a certain point of each round – In round 1 at the third power step, in round 2 in the second power step and in round 3 in the first power step. The fighters then all un-inspire at the end of the round. This captures the feeling of the tides for the deep kin where you have multiple waves that play out through the game. It also gives you a little control in that you know exactly when the warband is going to inspire so you can time your actions to be as effective as possible.

The warband is fairly fragile, but they have some nice tricks such as being able to grant friendly fighters flying, push models around the board or increase their damage output.

Rivals Decks

We also get two rivals decks in the box – Breakneck slaughter which is an aggressive deck built around building up momentum and using that momentum in order to hit your opponents hard. As you can imagine, these have objectives revolving around making attack actions or charging, which will really suit some bashy warbands

Force of Frost however is a magic based deck that offers some powerful spells, however these all have a downside in that they tend to cause damage or other negative effects to the caster once they are resolved leading to an element of risk/reward which will be fun for players who like to push their luck.

Summary

So what do I think of Deathgorge? While I still think that two boxes a year for Underworlds is a little too much, and I’d like to see a return to a single boxed set but maybe 5-6 separate warband releases, the actual contents of Deathgorge are great – from some fun Rivals decks to some gorgeous new miniatures there’s lots to love here. In particular if you are a fan of either of these factions in Age of Sigmar then you will want to pick these up to add to your collection. The Slaanesh models alone made this a must pick up for me, and the fact they have a really interesting and fun playstyle gives players something fresh and different in a game that has had a number of seasons so far. One of the great things about Underworlds is that the designers have been able to put out some really unique and fun warbands that feel very different to other warbands that have come before them. I cant wait to see what the future holds for the warbands that follow this one.

Warhammer Underworlds Deathgorge is up for pre order today for a 2 week pre order period and is released Saturday 19th October

Games Workshop provided Sprues and Brews a free copy for review purposes

Published by Matt Crowther

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