Warhammer Underworlds Wintermaw is up for preorder right now! You can preorder yourself a box via Element Games. Use one of our affiliate links to help us out massively! Now on with the review!

Yes, 6 months has passed since the arrival of Deathgorge, the previous new starter box for Warhammer Underworlds, so therefore it is time for another one! WIntermaw has arrived, bringing with it some new rules, boards and warbands.

The question is, is it worth your pennies? Well let us delve in to the unboxing and review of this new product!

Our thanks to Games Workshop for sending us Warhammer Underworlds Wintermaw to review and unbox for your readers!

What is Wintermaw?

Warhammer Underworlds has a 6 month cycle, which in essence means that we have a brand new starter box every 6 months, with new warbands added in between times. The last box was Deathgorge, which switched Warhammer Underworlds to a new location away from the Gnarlwood.

Wintermaw is the new location, deep within the recesses of the Deathgorge. In the box we have two brand new warbands, the Brethren of the Bolt, which are best described as new look Flagellants from the Cities of Sigmar and The Skinnerkin, a group of ‘chefs’ and ‘butchers’ from the bizarre Flesh Eater Courts.

What is exactly in the box? Well…

• Two new warbands, the aforementioned Skinnerkin and the Brethren of the Bolt
• Two Double Sided Boards
• Tokens – Every token you’ll need from Glory Tokens, to Wound and Objective Markers.
• Dice – Attack, Defense and Magic dice
• 4 Decks. One Rival deck for each included warband, and two other Rival Decks that can be used with any warband (Hungering Parasite and Rimewyrm’s Bite.
• Full Rulebook

In short…everything you need to play Warhammer Underworlds with a friend.

Fancy seeing the contents for yourself, including the sprues and every single card? Then check out our unboxing video below!

Before we look at the warbands and decks closer, let us have a bit of a closer look at the rest of the contents.

The Gaming Components

Included in the box is the full rulebook for Warhammer Underworlds. Now, it’s been a little while since I have reviewed a full starter box, and one thing that I have been a little critical of is the rulebook, as I felt it did not break down some of the rules enough, or explain enough of the Keywords from the cards.

Well, the good news is I’m really impressed in this rulebook. It has plenty of box outs, picking out Advanced Rules. It fully breaks down everything you would need to play Underworlds. Towards the back of the book you have a full glossary which picks out the important keywords and rules, making it easy to reference. The back page runs through the full turn, going in to detail about when you can play certain cards, such as upgrades, ploys, reactions and Gambit Spells.

In short, if you are new to the game, or returning after an exodus, then you’ll have no concern getting to grips with the mechanics.

The included Double Sided Boards, are vibrant and have are unique enough to make it an interesting choice on which board to pick in order to make the most of your warband. The tokens match the aesthetic of the boards, suiting the boards perfectly. A small detail, but the colour of the dice are so nice!

Brethren of the Bolt

The first warband we are going to look at is the Cities of Sigmar’s Brethren of the Bolt. These religious fanatics have been hit by stray bolts of lightning from returning Stormcast Eternals, literally charging these guys up.

Let us take a look at the sprues first:

As we check out the fighter cards, it’s interesting to note that these guys start off Inspired due to them being ‘charged up’. Once they do an Attack action they become Un-Inspired.

The Rival’s deck they come with is a great mix of cards. As said, these guys start Inspired, then become Un-Inspired as they attack. Using a combination of cards from the deck and the Holy Vessels special warband rule you can get charged back up. Speaking of Holy Vessels, this special rule allows you to bounce attacks through your characters, which is super cool.

The objectives are low scoring Glory wise, but are fairly straight forward. They are almost all Surge and Dual cards, which makes them interesting. I really like the rest of the deck, especially how a number of them combo with the Holy Vessel mechanic. They aren’t afraid to get stuck in!

The Skinnerkin

We move on to the Flesh Eater Courts, The Skinnerkin! These guys think they are Masterchefs. I was a little disappointed in the models, they feel like they are missing a bit of personality. Let us take a look at the spures:

Taking a look at the fighter cards, I immediately like that the mechanics of the characters play off the cooking vibe, looking to score Critical Hits so that they can earn some Haunch counters.

Moving on to the cards, and I’m not going to lie, I love them! Now, it could be simply because I love that they taken the cooking theme and have gone nuts, with every card playing on the theme. Even without reading the rest of the card I’m smiling. When I did start to read the cards I liked what I was reading. The warband is fairly straightforward to play, again like the Brethren playing off the mechanics of the fighters, enabling you to use your gained Haunch counters to pull off certain abilities and tricks.

The objectives…are interesting. They are a good mix of level of Glory, but on the flipside of this the majority of them are Dual objectives, meaning you have to give them a little bit more thought in order to score. They certainly feel like an aggressive warband to play.

Rimewyrm’s Bite Rivals Deck

This deck is a general Rivals deck, of which can be used with any of your warbands, including the ones in this box if you wanted.

Let’s take a look at the cards:

So this deck has a unique twist. It plays a little bit like you have an additional fighter in the Rimewyrm. The cards play off the Domain cards, and represent the Rimewyrm causing chaos on the board. As you would imagine the objectives again play off the power cards from the deck, as well as focusing on the positioning of your fighters. Their are a number of cards that cannot be used with Large fighters, so I wouldn’t be wanting to use this deck with a warband such as Mollog’s Mob.

Out of all the Rivals decks I’ve played with and reviewed, this one excites me the most and I cannot wait to try it out. It’s so cool and unique!

Hungering Parasite Rivals Deck

This Rivals deck plays more like a traditional Rivals deck. It does have a mechanic in that you start the game by giving one of your fighter’s a Bane of Heroes upgrade. If any of your fighters is taken out of action and has one or more of these upgrades, then those upgrades are broken.

Here come the cards:

The deck is heavily focused on the Bane of Heroes upgrade cards, and it feels like every Power card requires a fair bit of reading. I don’t actually think the deck is too difficult to play with, but you do have to do a fair bit of reading. It is Keyword heavy, so knowing what each Keyword means is important.

This is the first deck I’ve personally seen which includes cards that can be given to enemy fighters, by either choice or by a friendly fighter with upgrades being taken out of action near an enemy fighter. Their are some powerful cards, but be careful not to throw your characters in to combat like they are invincible, as your opponent could use your cards against you.

The objectives are again fairly straight forward, and again feature a number of Dual and Surge cards, You cannot score more than 2 Glory on any of the objective cards, but you should be taking out enemy fighters with your powered up characters.

Summary

And that’s a wrap on Warhammer Underworlds Wintermaw, so what are my overall thoughts?

Aside from my dislike of 6 month cycles of these boxes, this is a great box. You get two great warbands that are…sort of similar…but still very different. The Brethren have some fantastic, dynamic models, with cool unique mechanics, whilst The Skinnerkin have a slightly less interesting looking warband, miniature-wise, but have one of the most fun (to read and play) decks I’ve come across in the game so far.

The two Rivals decks are very different, and I can see a number of Underworld’s players wanting to pick these up to use with their own warbands. My favourite has to be Rimewyrm’s Bite, as it almost feels like you have an extra fighter, but I can also see the utility and power of Hungering Parasite. I do feel like the latter needs a little more understanding and play to master, in my opinion.

The gaming components are as high quality as you would expect, with a fully comprehensive rulebook that ticks all the boxes and is a vast improvement on the older rulebooks I’ve used and reviewed in the past.

One thing is for certain, following this review and my review of Zondara’s Gravebreakers, I’m desperate to play some Underworlds!

Our thanks again to Games Workshop for sending us a copy of Warhammer Underworlds Wintermaw to unbox and review.