Narrative
Fecula Flyblown was sifting through the vaporous visions from her cauldron with her two guards at her side when she saw the horrors of Beastgrave. A place where nothing stayed dead. No glorious cycle of rot and decay, a true travesty to Nurgle. She quickly used her sorcerous powers to petition Nurgle for help in order to prevent the spread of this foul curse.
Suddenly a gigantic Wyrmaggot appeared from beneath the ground and swallowed the trio up. After a long journey, the beast spat them out deep in the Beastgrave. From there the Wurmspat began their mission of healing the Beastgrave with Nurgle’s gifts with his various plagues and filth.
Miniatures
The Wurmspat are an elite warband consisting of 3 Nurgle warriors: Fecula Flyblown, Sepsimus Plaguesworn and Ghulgoch the Butcher. Each miniature bristles with the gifts and themes of grandfather Nurgle. My favourite is Sepsimus, a clearly corrupted warrior with a rusted spear in one hand and a trio of rotten heads in the other. His plume also makes him standout from his fellow Nurgle warriors as well as his special “tail”.
The miniatures come in a rotten green coloured plastic, as befits followers of Nurgle. They go together fairly easily and can be easily painted separately to their bases. Each model is packed with tiny and subtle nods to Nurgle everywhere. I love the bell on Fecula’s Staff as the skull evokes a very Mark Gibbon’s era artwork. There’s so much detail that it’s easy to miss but creates perfectly Nurgle miniatures.
The Fighters
The Wurmspat are 3 fighters that all share similar themes. They’re all movement 3, 4 wounds and defend on block. Their most notable similarity is a special rule each fighter has which reduces damage inflicted by 1 (to a minimum of 1) for each block in their defence roll. This amazing rule makes these fighters truly disgustingly resilient, meaning even if your defence roll is not successful you’ll be reducing damage if you can roll a block. Note the rule says for each roll of a block meaning if you can increase your defence characteristic then you’ll be reducing even more damage!
The warband’s inspire mechanic is when 3 or more fighters are out of action and/or wounded which is also very Nurgle. Either kill enemy fighters or wound them to empower yourself. It’s thematic but also very flexible for the user.
Fecula Flyblown
Fecula Flyblown is the warband’s sorcerous leader. She has her Rotwood Staff which is range 1, 2 smash and 2 damage. Next is her Stream of Corruption which is range 3, casts on focus with 1 damage. She’s also a level 2 wizard. Despite her movement of 3 she packs a strong threat range of 6 which helps engage opponents as well as speed up inspiring.
Fecula Inspired has some minor improvements. Her Rotwood Staff goes to 3 smash. Her Stream of Corruption retains its damage of 1 but now casts on channels! This makes her super reliable at pinging away at opponents.
Sepsimus Plaguesworn
Sepsimus Plaguesworn is your first of 2 Putrid Blightkings. He’s armed with his Blighted Spear that’s range 2, 2 smash and 2 damage. Combined with his movement of 3 he has a nice threat range of 5.
Sepsimus Inspired gains a juicy 2 block, making him very likely to reduce any damage that gets through. His weapon also receives an upgrade. The Blighted Spear is now 3 damage. He gains a new attack action which is the Whirling Spear. It’s range 1, 3 fury, 2 damage and Scything! Cut down those bunched up opponents.
Gulgoch the Butcher
Gulgoch the Butcher is your last fighter and Putrid Blightking. He’s armed with Butcher’s Blades that are range 1, 3 smash, 2 damage. He sadly has a threat range of 4 but is very reliable once he reaches combat.
Gulgoch Inspired gains Cleave on his Butcher’s Blades as well as 2 block. He’s slow but minces Stormcast.
Faction Cards
We’re on to the part everyone loves; CARDS. Like always faction cards first then universals.
Faction Objectives
Blessings Three is a faction version of Chosen Champion. Alright if you plan to stack upgrades on a single fighter.
Faithful Reward is fine if you can reliably get inspired, just not likely to score early in a game.
Nurgle’s Garden Grows is an alright 3rd end phase objective. Only 2 glory but it does have quite easy requirements.
Faction Objectives – Top Picks
Blessed Endurance is like Too Dumb to Die but good. Even if you reduce the damage taken by the attack, as long as the attack has a damage characteristic of 3 or more when it succeeds then you get a nice point of glory.
Chosen Warriors is a solid 2 glory objective for aggressive players. Even easier the more horde warbands remain popular.
Cycle of Decay is an easy 1 glory for those investing in the very useful Cycle ploys. Only needing 2 played helps in consistency.
Fell the Faithless is an amazing Surge objective. Simply kill an enemy leader, even if said leader is killed by their controlling player or a lethal hex.
Rotbringers is a reliable 1 glory end phase objective. Load up on spells or blast opponents with Fecula’s Stream of Corruption.
Sacred Tri-Lobe is faction Supremacy. Great it’s not faction Temporary Victory. It is an end phase objective but you do have very durable fighters. Definitely worth the risk.
Seeping Rot is a Surge all about surviving attacks while standing on an objective. Guard is your best friend.
Spread His Blessings is a simple 1 glory end phase objective. Harder with the warband’s movement of 3 but still doable.
Strength of the Devoted grants you 3 glory in the 3rd end phase as long as none of your fighters are out of action. Once again very doable due to the warband’s durability.
Faction Gambits
Blades of Putrification is a very narrative faction gambit. Great if you can roll crits like me. Does last till the end of the round after being cast however.
Rampant Disease is another Cycle ploy that offers some nice extra damage. Useful if you’re in the thick of combat, especially against horde warbands. It also speeds up inspiring.
Rancid Visitations is faction Rend the Earth. It’s alright.
Faction Gambits – Top Picks
Blessing of Rust makes block characteristic fighters cry. Permanently change them to dodges then run Ensare for the extra pain.
Fecund Vigour is Awakened Weapon for attack dice that lasts the whole round, your next friendly attack or until you play another Cycle ploy. Great for that added accuracy.
Gift of Contagion makes a chosen enemy fighter even weaker. Only lasts a round but if cast early it can really ruin an enemy’s plan.
Nauseous Revulsion is another Cycle that gives enemy fighters adjacent to your’s -1 dice to attacks. Brutal with so many range 1 attack warbands currently.
Steady Advance is amazing. Push up onto objectives or to gain ground for charges. Useful no matter the situation.
The Burgeoning makes lethal hexes HEALING hexes for your friendly fighters. Doesn’t persist like other Cycle ploys but really helps in the lethal-laden Beastgrave.
Unnatural Vitality is a Cycle that boosts movement for the entire round. Not so slow now, eh?
Faction Upgrades
Fly Swarm makes Thundrik’s Profiteers and the Farstriders cry. Otherwise very situational.
Hulking Physique is an interesting upgrade. Ghulgoch goes down to movement 2 but goes to damage 3. Become a muscling hulk but now with a threat range of 3 hexes.
Living Plague pings damage to enemy fighters that successfully damage you with a range 1 attack. Alright but just situational. Once again helps with inspiring though.
Faction Upgrades – Top Picks
Foetid Shroud is a faction Champion’s Fortitude but for Fecula only. Helps fishing for those crucial defensive blocks to reduce damage taken.
Pestilent Deliverer gives Cleave to Sepsimus when he charges. Limited in use but free cleave is great, especially when inspired with damage 3.
Putrid Vomit is a handy range 3 attack action upgrade. Helps with the low mobility. Vomit over everyone!
Retchling makes Fecula immune to backlash and changes 1 dice roll to a channel. Great for magic-focussed builds.
Stolid Bulk grants immunity from being driven back. Stand your ground and hold those objectives!
Unstoppable Tread is a free push after the fighter’s activation. Push onto objectives or go on guard before an attack to get free extra movement.
Virulent Blade is Awakened Weapon for the Blightkings. Love it.
Universal Cards
We’re now onto all the universal cards found within the Wurmspat expansion.
Universal Objectives
Awesome Resilience is a flexible 1 glory Hybrid objective but it still quite difficult to do in general. Ylthari’s Guardians love this card though.
Adaptive Strategy is 2 glory for scoring 5 or more Hybrid objectives. Pretty solid but I don’t feel there are enough Hybrid objectives out there (yet) currently to make this reliable.
Addicted to Power is a 2 glory Surge for surviving magical backlash. Great for me, not so much for everyone else who rarely roll double crits for casting.
Frantic Exchange is a fun Surge objective. Score after the 5th or subsequent power card is played in a SINGLE power step. Hard to do on your own but your opponent can help you score it too.
Universal Objectives – Top Picks
Arcane Arrest is an amazing Surge objective. Damage a Hunter or Quarry for 1 glory. No need to kill. May want to run some make a Quarry cards to make this very reliable.
Arcane Expertise is Precise Use of Force but for any spell! Really good. You have to work for it but it’s very solid.
Master of Many Paths is basically Master of War reborn. You need to have a friendly fighter who is a Leader, Wizard and Hunter! Limited to wizard warbands basically but it’s a nice way to get 1 glory with the right cards.
Perfect Match is perfect for me. Superior Tactician you have been replaced. This is much harder as you need to have scores 10 or more objectives (meaning you can only risk discarding 1 objective). Makes low scoring reliable decks slightly better at hitting 15 glory (with 11 objectives at 1 glory) but higher scoring decks more risky by running this.
Sorcerous Volley is a Surge that is scored after your 2nd or subsequent spell attack action. Sick of rolling double channel to shoot with your Wizard? Run this and win no matter whether you hit or miss!
Universal Gambits
Flash of Foresight is basically a Magic the Gathering Scry card. Look at an opppnent’s objective card or the top card from your power or objective deck. Alright but do what I do an believe in the heart of the cards!
Lucky Escape is a reaction that negates exactly 1 damage. Works against lethal hex damage too. It’s alright but just very situational.
Universal Gambits – Top Picks
Beast Armour is a single focus spell that grants the wizard the ability to re-roll 1 defence dice until the end of the round. Perfect for Wurmspat and any other tanky wizards.
Crushing Charge grants a 33.33% chance to do 1 damage to every adjacent enemy fighter. Amazing against horde warbands. Charge in and let the damage fly. Great with fighters like Rastus/Ammis and Drakkskewer who can weaken a bunch of enemy fighters for the rest of the warband to mop-up.
Collapse is rocks drop, everyone dies. Encroaching Shadow on steroids. Pick 3 edge hexes that are all adjacent to each other in a single player’s territory, each fighter (friend or foe) takes 1 damage. Mess up people sitting back and hiding away.
Irresistible Vision is a 2 focus cast spell but allows mass pushes for all other fighters within 2 hexes of the casters. Especially strong with Hunters as you get to push them up to 2 hexes. Tough to cast but very strong if you can pull it off.
Leadbone Dust is another Poison card. Transfixing Stare that only works against adjacent targets and attack actions against the chosen fighter have Ensare. It’s aa powerful card that can cripple the opponent when played at the right time.
Leave Nothing to Chance. Why risk pushing people off of objectives? Blow them up instead! Note as it says feature token you can remove it no matter what side it has been flipped to.
Nightmare in the Shadows is Distraction reborn! Love it. It’s amazing.
Universal Upgrades
Victor’s Expertise is alright. Become a Hunter. Do it for free if you kill someone.
Universal Upgrades – Top Picks
Amberbone Dagger is a very nice Amberbone weapon. 3 fury at 2 damage and has Cleave on a crit. A 42.13% chance to Cleave then pop on kill for more glory!
Barb-Laden Net looks weak on paper and is restricted to Hunters. It does however allow you to shut down an enemy fighter early which is huge. Discard after a successful attack but totally worth shutting down an enemy fighter while damaging them too!
Hunting Companion provides extra damage on successful attacks when you roll a single full support. Sounds hard but is rather easy when you’re pumping out +3 dice attacks. Limited to range 1 and 2 attacks but still very strong.
Jared’s Spirited Sphere, apart from being hilarious with its flavour text, is a Lost Page that’s great for any wizard. Ensare with a range 3 focus attack action. Put it on wizards with no spell attack actions.
Prey’s Cunning makes you a Quarry that is immune to all damage from gambits. Hate spells? Then this is for you. It ignores stuff like Snare and Pit Trap too making it really amazing at boosting survivability.
Sprinting Charm is like Larval Lance but for speed. Alright in round 1, amazing in round 2, bad in round 3. I love the versatility and risk this card imposes.
Substance Siphon makes your defence characteristic dodge with the number being dependent on the round. Can’t modify or re-roll your defence but can go on guard. Great for single defence fighters. Put it on Steelheart’s Champions if you want to play super hard mode.
The Scattered Tome is what Acolyte of the Katophranes should have been. 1 glory for each Lost Page you have. Dependent on your upgrades and wizards but still doable if done correctly.
Decks
Now to the deck section! Once again these are sample decks to get you going and build off of. They’re not super competitive but designed to be optimal and fun. First I’ll do a deck with only Beastgrave cards and then a deck for Championship Format.
Special thanks goes to Underworldsdb.com! As Games Workshop released all the cards during the week I now have an up-to-date deck builder to use for this. It’s a lifesaver.
Beastgrave Only Cards
Playstyle: Flex (Control and Hold Objectives)
Decklink
This deck builds upon the durabilty of the Wurmspat and their faction Supremacy for double Supremacy. Temporary Victory helps with the quick glory gain while the rest of your objectives support anchoring in on an objective and drawing the opponent it such as with Sorcerous Volley. Duck and Parry as well as Seeping Rot punish your opponent from failing to drive you back, boosted by the power of guard.
The power deck, apart from containing a lot of Cycle ploys, helps power the hold objective aspect with Restless Prize, Spectral Wings and your 2 push cards. Buried Instinct synergises with your objectives and overall goals. The Cycle ploys either help you get where you want or make your opponent’s life a nightmare. Upgrades all boost this too via durability upgrades, Survival Instincts for more guard and Iara’s Instant Shield makes sure there’s enough re-rolling for defence going on.
Championship Format
Playstyle: Flex (Aggro and Control)
Decklink
Whereas the last deck was about sitting still, this one is about coming to the opponent. Think Nurgle’s carnival on tour! It uses concepts from the previous deck (such as with Seeping Rot and Duck and Parry) to reward yourself for defending attacks or not being driven back. You also have more aggro orientated objectives because you will be killing.
The power deck has a slight shift as well. There are more damage gambits to speed up inspiring and spread out damage between enemy fighters. Your goal isn’t to kill but maim and setup kills for later in the game as you advance further. Sphere of Aqshy is excellent for this role. Double Distraction helps mitigate your speed, disrupt objectives and push into lethal hexes for glorious extra damage. Upgrades become even more focused on durability with access to defensive re-rolls and damage reduction. Faneway boosts mobility while Gloryseeker goes on any fighter but more so Fecula for her Stream of Corruption.
Accessories
I also got the Wurmspat faction card sleeves! As always these come with 10 clear sleeves (fighter cards), 20 objective sleeves (objective cards) and 40 power card sleeves (power cards). I’ve played with these card sleeves long enough to say I’m happy to recommend them. I’m not a fan of the red design as well as objective cards and power cards can be easily mixed up but they’re still a decent investment if you want to fully represent your chosen faction.
Warband Overview
The Wurmspat are a very balanced warband. They’re not strong or weak but excel in durability. They counter aggro really well due to their ability to reduce damage and play control in a fun but strong manner. They can also do the objective game with double Supremacy but that’s a much riskier affair compared to other hold objective warbands. The key is making the opponent come to you but even then Fecula has a range 3 attack and Sepsimus has a range 2 attack. Use their Cycle cards to turn the battle in your favour and take the enemy by surprise.
Overall I’d recommend buying the Wurmspat. The warband is some of the best miniatures done for Warhammer Underworlds and the expansion comes with great universal cards for any dedicated magic player. Outlast your opponents, wear them down and grind them beneath the cycle of Nurgle. If you want to get the Wurmspat you can pre-order/buy them from Games Workshop here or Element Games here who I’m now affiliated with and they provide a 20% discount.
Gather your poxes, spread your plagues, the followers of Nurgle are in the Beastgrave and they’re ready to share their glorious gifts with you. Fear their rotten crits.
Can You Roll A Crit? 