Post by Fadril Adren on Oct 22, 2017 14:44:19 GMT -5
INTRODUCTION
Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire is a game for two to four players, in which each player takes their warband of fantastically detailed Citadel Miniatures and pits them against their rivals in battles across the dark city of Shadespire. It’s a game of strategy, fast-paced combat and devious ploys, and though you’ll find this an easy game to pick up, only the most experienced players will master it.
GAME OBJECTIVE
In this game, your warband is pitted against another in a desperate struggle amidst the ruins of the Mirrored City. Your success is measured in glory points, awarded for achieving objectives and vanquishing your foes. Whoever has the most glory points at the end of the game wins!
Two-player games of Shadespire are an intense tactical challenge, and games with three or four players gain whole new layers of strategy. Battlefields turn into sprawling, complex labyrinths. Makeshift allegiances are forged – and broken. Victory becomes not just a matter of domination, but deception, playing your enemies against one another before claiming final triumph. All you need to play three and four player games is a second Core Set of Shadespire!
WARBANDS
A warband is a collection of fighters that are trapped together in the reflected city of Shadespire. They fight for the same goal, whether that is to escape the city, slay their hated rivals, or find treasure of incalculable worth. Each warband has its distinct character, and always consists of the same fighters, identified by their fighter cards and represented by their miniatures.
GARREK’S REAVERS
The Bloodbound are mortal warriors who have sworn themselves to Khorne, god of carnage and slaughter. Blinded by battle madness, lost to the exultant sensations of combat, they care for nothing but the kill. Gathering together in vast Warhordes, they maraud across the realms, butchering and despoiling in the name of their dark master. Bloodreavers, such as the band led by the brutal killer known as Garrek Gorebeard, are frenzied cannibals, mortals whose dark excesses have drawn them ever further into the thrall of the Blood God. They eschew heavy armour, preferring to feel the blood spatter across their chests, and chase their prey as tirelessly as hunting wolves.
STEELHEART’S CHAMPIONS
Clad in gleaming sigmarite and armed with heaven-forged weaponry, the Stormcast Eternals are champions and heroes all, defenders of civilisation and sworn enemies of Chaos. They were once mortal heroes hailing from across the realms – now gathered together by the God-King Sigmar and remade into the physical embodiment of the celestial storm, they are living legends who wage the eternal war against the Dark Gods.
The greatest secret of the Stormcast Eternals is the process of Reforging, by which the soul-stuff of fallen warriors is borne back to Sigmar’s realm of Azyrheim upon bolts of lightning, and there transmuted into flesh and metal. This process renders each Stormcast immortal, though such a powerful gift comes with a heavy toll – with each death, a Stormcast Eternal loses a part of their humanity, becoming cold and distant, and losing grip upon the fragmented memories of their past life.
The warriors under the command of Liberator-Prime Severin Steelheart were part of a detachment sent to Shadespire to investigate potential cures for this ailment. Now they find themselves trapped, separated from their kin and from each other, with only the whispers of the dead to guide them home.
SEPULCHRAL GUARD
The Deathrattle of Shadespire are quite unlike the typical charnel slaves raised by minor necromancers and practitioners of fell magic. Their soul animus remains trapped within their decayed forms as a result of the curse of Nagash, and thus they retain a fragmented memory of their past lives long after their flesh has rotted away. Over time, many of these unfortunates have sworn themselves to the God of Death’s service, praying that by petitioning Nagash for forgiveness they may be freed from the agony of their existence. Greatest amongst the faithful is the Sepulchral Warden, the former Lord Marshal of Shadespire. Such is his devotion to Nagash that this enigmatic creature has been gifted with the power to inspire frenzied devotion in his subjects, and he directs them against all who would challenge the Great Necromancer’s will.
IRONSKULL’S BOYZ
Orruks are savage, muscle-bound creatures who live for the crash and crunch of battle. Ironjawz are the mightiest of their number, clad in thick plates of rusted metal and wielding huge jagged weapons forged from the same. They are a constant threat across the Mortal Realms, sweeping across the earth in great hordes and smashing everything in their path. Gurzag Ironskull and his lads were trapped in the Mirrored City decades ago, after an ill-fated looting spree amidst the ruins of Shadespire. Ironskull was initially furious, but in the years since he’s grown rather fond of the place; after all, what self-respecting orruk would decline an endless cycle of violence and bloodshed?
THE GAME BOARD
Both players bring any Warhammer Underworlds game boards in their collection to each game. The boards are double-sided, with a hexagonal grid printed on both sides. Each hexagonal space on this grid is called a hex.
CARDS
As well as a warband, each player needs two decks of cards to play a game of Warhammer Underworlds: an objective deck which consists of 12 cards, and a power deck which consists of at least 20 cards. You can choose which cards go into each deck, and this is an important and strategic part of the game.
Fighter Cards
The fighters that make up each warband are not only represented by miniatures – they also each have a fighter card, like the one shown here, that tells you their characteristics (how fast, how tough and how well armoured or evasive they are), their Attack action(s), and any other actions they might have.
(1) Picture of your fighter’s miniature. (2) Your fighter’s name. A fighter with a crown symbol before their name is your warband’s leader. (3) Your fighter’s Attack action (or actions) with Range, Dice and Damage characteristics. (4) – Your fighter’s Inspire condition. When this condition is met, flip the fighter card over. There is no Inspire condition on the reverse of the fighter card. (5) Your fighter’s Move characteristic. (6) Your fighter’s Defence characteristic. (7) Your fighter’s Wounds characteristic. (8) Additional abilities or Attack action rules may be found here. Alternatively, you will find text that tells you more about the fighter or Shadespire – such text has no effect in the game. (9) Your fighter’s warband icon.
Objective Cards
The card shown here is an objective card, as indicated by the glory point icon in the top-left corner (1). Each objective card has a name (2) and a condition (3). If you meet the condition specified on the card, you score the number of glory points shown at the bottom of the card (4) – take that number of glory point tokens.
Whoever has the most glory points at the end of a game wins! The symbol in the top-right corner (5) tells you which warbands can include the card in their deck. If it is the universal symbol, then any warband can use the card. If it is a warband symbol, only that warband can use the card.
Upgrades
This is an upgrade card, as shown by the cog wheels symbol in the top-left corner (1). Each upgrade card has a name (2) and a permanent effect (3) (which can be to boost one or more of a fighter’s characteristics, or grant a fighter a new action, for example). As with objective cards, the symbol in the top-right corner (4) tells you which warbands can include the card in their deck. Some upgrade cards also have restrictions as to which fighters can be upgraded with this card – where that is the case, the card will list the fighters who can use the upgrade (5).
Ploys
This is a ploy card, as shown by the dagger symbol in the top-left corner (1). Each ploy card has a name (2) and an effect (3), which is usually short-lived (it might be to give a fighter a free activation, or make an extra move, for example). As with objective cards, the symbol in the top right corner (4) tells you which warbands can include the card in their deck.
CONTENTS
This Core Set contains everything you need to assemble your new miniatures and pit them against each other right away.
• 3 Stormcast Eternals Liberators
• 5 Khorne Bloodbound Bloodreavers
• A construction guide
• A book of all the rules you need to play
• A quick-start sheet to introduce you to the game
• 8 double-sided fighter cards
• 2 double-sided game boards
• 60 power cards
• 36 objective cards
• 5 attack dice and 3 defence dice
• 126 various tokens