Warhammer Underworlds: The Three Formats Breakdown
Warhammer Underworlds now has three ways to deck build and play with the arrival of Warhammer Underworlds: Gnarlwood.
Deck building is a core part of the game for Warhammer Underworlds as each Warband comes with their own set of cards. To play a game you’ll need 12 objective cards and 20 power cards to form the two decks you’ll draw from during the course of the game. It’s not a ton of cards but when you consider that each warband has gotten a set plus all the universal cards…the overall card pool has gotten quite large.
The deck building can feel like a bit of a deterrent to newer players that might not have access to the same card pool as players who started from day one. Games Workshop addressed that issue with the addition of the Rivals format when Harrowdeep arrived. With Gnarlwood they are adding another format called Nemesis. And, of course, there’s also the Relic Format, too.
Three Formats – How Do You Choose?
The breakdown of the formats is pretty simple. Let’s start with the most basic of them which is the Rivals format.
This is as straightforward as it gets with the deck building aspect. All you have to do is get your warband, pop the box, shuffle the respective decks, and play. That’s it. There’s no additional cards or card pool to use. Ideally, all the warbands are balanced against each other using the Rivals decks within their boxes. It’s the perfect place to start for brand new players and it’s an interesting challenge format for veterans as well.
The Rivals format is a fantastic way to try out new warbands or ones you might not have played a ton. Personally, I think this format is the perfect way to learn to play and learn a warband. Get in there with the baseline and play some games before you tweak your deck!
The next step up is the Nemesis format. This one adds in a bit more deck building but still limits the card pool significantly. You can only build decks from your core warband decks and one other universal Rivals deck. This means you don’t have a crazy card pool to choose from but it allows you to customize your warband deck more to a particular playstyle. It’s a great midpoint for players looking to challenge themselves with deck building but still keep the card pool in check.
And because the Universal Rivals decks are still relatively new there’s still not a crazy amount of cards. Now is a great time to get in to this format.
The final format is the Relic format. This is the one for players who want to use ALL their cards when they deck build. This format is the most complex as it allows players to use their entire collection — minus any Forsaken, aka banned, cards.
Obviously this might not be the best place to start for a new player. But for veterans who want to play Championship games this is where they want to be.
” [The Championship games] subset of Relic uses cards from current and certain previous seasons, giving you a curated card pool to work with when you build your decks. There is also a list of Forsaken cards (which you’re not allowed to use) and Restricted cards (of which you can include a maximum of three in your deck.)* This is the format used at Grand Clash events – the pinnacle for the ultimate competitive miniatures game.”
Hopefully this was a helpful breakdown of the three different formats for Warhammer Underworlds. It’s all comes down to how you deck build/how many cards are in the card pool when you deck build.
Give me more Rivals games — it’s the perfect pick-up and play style game.
