Warhammer Underworlds Spitewood, the latest expansion to Embergard is up for pre order today! In this full review and unboxing we’ll be checking out the contents of the box, seeing what the two new warbands and card decks are like and finding out just what new bits Spitewood brings to Warhammer Underworlds.

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us over the new Warhammer Underworlds Spitewood box to check out on the site. If you would like to support the site then why not order your copy through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We’ve also filmed a full video unboxing of the box, which you can see just below or over on YouTube

So without further ado, let’s jump into the latest Warhammer Underworlds set and see what is inside!

Warhammer Underworlds Spitewood Unboxing and Review

So first things first, just what is Spitewood? Back when Embergard released, Games Workshop shared that starter boxes for the system would be coming out less regularly. These had been coming out every six months or so, and we were starting to feel a little bit of fatigue at the release schedule. Fast forward almost a year after he release of Embergard and we have a new take on this – not a new starter box as such (As it doesnt contain the full rules) but instead a themed expansion set that contains two warbands, two decks, a new board and a couple of new additions to the game.

This feels a lot better than the pace of releases that we saw last time around, though I wouldnt have minded a reprinted rulebook in this one just as a jump-on point for people new to the game.

The main thing to keep in mind here is that you need to have a copy of Embergard (Or at least the core rules) in order to use this – let’s take a look at what’s inside!

First and most excitingly are the two new warbands – The Blood of the Bull, a Helsmiths of Hashut warband, and Kurnoth’s Heralds, a warband of Kurnothi. Both of these are very exciting for a number of reasons, and it really does seem like a glimpse into the future of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

We’ve recently had the Helsmiths of Hashut launch for Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and it’s ace to see them in Warhammer Underworlds so soon after. What’s nice about this warband is that it’s almost a taster for the entire Helsmiths range. You get a female War Despot in a different post to the one in the army set, a really nice Infernal Cohort with spear banner bearer, an Infernal Razer with Flamer, a Duardin with two maces (Which I’ve been using as an Ashen Elder until the official model comes out) and a Hobgrot. This gives you a really nice taste of what to expect when painting the range, and al the sculpts are great too – I really enjoyed painting them up (and already craving painting more Helsmiths!)

The other half of the box are Kurnoth’s Heralds, a really nice looking Kurnothi warband. Now we’ve seen Kurnothi before (even in Warhammer Underworlds) but it really feels like we will be seeing more of them soon. These are technically not Sylvanth (they have no seed pods) but are instead mortal creatures who worship Kurnoth and have been brought back to Kurnotheal due to the power of Alarielle’s spell.

Where the current Sylvaneth range covers forest spirits and the Sylvaneth themselves, I reckon the next big release we get for them will bring back Kurnoth himself along with his mortal followers. Centaurs, Satyrs and Fawns filling the role of the old Wood Elf archetypes of cavalry and archers without stepping on the toes of the existing Sylvaneth and becoming a distinct subfaction.

The models in the box are amazing and a nice change of pace from the existing Sylvaneth range – being push fit models it’s also really easy to take them apart to make it a little easier to get to the detail when painting them too!

A new token sheet is included in the box which has the usual glory and health tokens and feature tokens, but also contains two new Aqua Ghyranis Feature Tokens. These are one of the two new rules included in the pack. Each player places one in an empty hex in friendly territory once all the regular treasure tokens are placed – these are really good in that if you are on the token in enemy territory you heal your fighter and gain one glory – so well worth fighting over, especially in a close game.

A new double sided board is also included in the box, representing the Spitewood itself. This is more than just two new options for you to pick from for your games however, as this also includes the second new rule added to the game – Waystone Hexes

These are marked on the board with a green border and some suitably eye-catching swirls – One side has 2 of these, the other 4 and they allows fighters to reroll an attack or save dice when standing on one, again making them another important location on the board to fight over.

Cards are included to remind players of these two new rules – but that’s the extent of new bits added to the game, nothing has been changed from the core rules, so the existing Embergard book is still valid (and this will be why the rules are not reproduced here, nothing has changed from those core rules.)

We do get a 16 page booklet in the box though, with the main focus being on the lore of Warhammer Underworlds Spitewood. Essentially, while not working exactly the way she intended it, Alarielle’s spell did work. A great tree has risen in the place that Kurnoth fell, and the Spitewood has grown around it, a dense forest filled with the Kurnothi – creatures who worship Kurnoth and who have returned to herald his rebirth. There are many treasures here, including precious Aqua Ghyranis (which is used as a currency across the realms) and so adventurers and bandits dare travel into this land in order to find riches, while also becoming pray for those who hunt there.

Some might be disappointed that more isnt added from a rules point of view, but personally I like that – too much bloat can slow the game down, while this adds a couple of flavourful elements without changing the core system or needing players to have a small library of books in order to play a game.

So what do the two new warbands do? Let’s take a look!

First up we have the Blood of the Bull, who are a slow but resilient warband. Their warband mechanic echoes their Age of Sigmar mechanics with the warband gaining Daemonforge Dice over the course of the game. They start with one, and each time a fighter with no stagger tokens delves they gain an additional one. These dice are lost at the end of each Battle Round and can be spent in combat to either give a weapon +1 attack dice or to give them +1 save. This makes them quite adaptable, and quite resilient when they inspire and have 2 defense dice. Speaking of Inspire, the condition for this warband is really straight forward too – simply use a Daemonforge dice and your fighter inspires (For your Hobgrot, you just need to stand next to a Duardin that has attacked to inspire)

They have another couple of tricks too – Grok (the Hobgrot) makes both attack dice successes for adjacent Duardin and Tokkor (The flame thrower armed model) has Grievous on their weapons when standing next to a target too.

The Rivals Deck recommended for them in the box is Deadly Synergy – this introduces a couple of new rules – United is gained when friendly fighters are stood next to each other while a pair of fighters standing next to an enemy fighter gives that enemy fighter the Flanked rule. As you’d expect the objectives revolve around these conditions, so you’ll want your warband to move up in groups and bully flanked fighters – Grok already makes other Duardin a lot better, so he will be key to making your warband fight to full efficiency.

A lot of the upgrades also lean into giving advantages to united models, but there are still some vanilla buffs that just make your fighters better, with the ability for increased health, more reliable driving back and free move actions after attacking. There’s a nice one that increases the movement of your leader, and also increasing the movement of any united fighters next to him – which really helps given how slow your warband is!

The other warband is Kurnoth’s Heralds, and these are a faster warband with more health, but not quite as tough from a save point of view. They fight defensively, wanting to stay in friendly territory if they can – their inspire condition requires them to make a successful attack in friendly territory, and they gain the flying runemark and cannot be flanked while in friendly territory either

They have three one use abilities – The Endless Hunt allows a fighter to move 2 hexes after making an attack. Precision Volley allows your archer to make two shots one after the other, but these have to be at different targets and Herald’s Pride gives your leader Cleave and Ensare.

From a weapons point of view these guys hit hard, with a high number of attack dice on their weapons. They also have a lot of push back ability, leaning into their role of wanting to hold friendly territory while pushing people out of it.

This play style also leans into the Hunting Grounds deck that is included in the box. Majority of the objectives here revolve around interactions in friendly territory or pushing enemies back out of it. There’s even a card here you can score if the enemy has a failed attack in friendly territory. This leads to Kurnoth’s Heralds being the kind of warband that wants to turtle up and hold the fort as they unlock their objectives. There’s lots of upgrades here that increase your already fast movement, and even the ability to put movement tokens on targets that you hit. These feel great fun to play, and again we have two warbands with very different play styles in the box.

Summary

So what do I think of Warhammer Underworlds Spitewood? Well I’m glad that the pace of starter box releases has slowed down from one every 6 months – this seemed way too quick for my liking and made it feel like we were always playing catch up. I don’t even mind annual boxes, but I do think we’ll see more like Spitewood going forward. Keep the core rules the same, but introduce new tiles and a couple of new thematic rules that apply just to that board set. This means we can explore different places, with their own slightly different way of playing without having to start from scratch each time.

From a lore point of view Warhammer Underworlds Spitewood is exciting in that it finally feels that we might soon see the pay off of Alarielle’s spell and the heavily telegraphed return of Kurnoth himself. The Helsmiths of Hashut feel a natural fit as the antagonists here with their tendency to despoil the environments they find themselves in. It’s also a great excuse for some awesome new models that tantalisingly tease what we might see in the future for the Sylvaneth.

Also alongside this box are more rereleases of old warbands available boxed with the cards, or just as a set of cards for those who already have the old models. We’ll be checking these out across the week so stay tuned to the site for our full review of those!

Warhammer Underworlds Spitewood is up for pre order today and is released Saturday 18th Octobrer

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews with free copies for review purposes.