It’s time for the March 2021 news recap!
Welcome to this month in Warhammer Underworlds for March 2021. This is your one stop shop for everything Warhammer Underworlds related, recapping everything that has happened in the past month and once again there has been a lot of news for our favourite competitive arena combat game.
If you prefer video content, here’s the YouTube version of this news recap:
Starblood Stalkers Released
The big news for March was the long awaited release of the Starblood Stalkers, our 4th warband for Warhammer Underworlds Direchasm and also marking the appearance of the Seraphon. They are also the 1st 6 fighter warband for the season and the 3rd 6 fighter warband overall. They’re difficult to use for new players but experienced players should be able to get a lot out of them. A vocal minority has derided their power but I believe the days of warbands being broken or overpowered on release are over with what we have seen from Direchasm. Anyway, they’ve only been out for 2 weeks. Players who put the time in with the warband will be able to get a lot out of the Starblood Stalkers thanks to their many tricks and powerful faction cards.
If you want a more in-depth look at the Starblood Stalkers, I have reviews on them from my YouTube review to warband article review as well as some battlereports using them on my YouTube channel.
Kainan’s Reapers Announced
During the Faith and Damnation Warhammer TV live stream, Kainan’s Reapers were revealed as the 7th warband for Warhammer Underworlds Direchasm. These warriors of the Ossiarch Bonereapers are led by Kainan, a giant Mortisan Executioner. Accompanying him are 5 Mortek warriors, bringing us our 2nd 6 fighter warband for Direchasm and 4th for Warhammer Underworlds as a whole. Personally, I love the Bonereapers aesthetic, even if Kainan looks like Optimus Prime with tiny feet.
How does the warband play? Well there are hints to that with the Bone Tithe mentioned on their fighter cards but you’ll have to wait till, hopefully, May where we will see their full rules revealed. I will say they were a lot of fun to test and I’m itching to add more Ossiarch Bonereapers to my Age of Sigmar army.
The Direchasm Roadmap was also updated again, revealing…a FISH. I wonder what aquatic race would use a fish? Obviously, the Little Mermaid. Anyway, this mystery is too DEEP for me to figure out. I guess I’ll have to consort with some of my KIN to figure it out.
Starter Set April?
The WarCom site also dropped their April White Dwarf Preview, showing off its focus on new players and the new Warhammer Underworlds Starter set. The March White Dwarf leaked a lot of the Starblood Stalker cards which I covered on the blog. Maybe the same will happen for the new warbands featured in this new core set. Either way, hopefully this is a sign that the starter set will drop in April. However, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was delayed sadly due to the crazy shipping delays the world is experiencing in general right now.
Crimson Court Rules
In another really strange twist, Warcom dropped the warband focus for the Crimson Court…while they’re not even close to being released. Why drop this article so far ahead of the warband its dedicated to? No idea. I’m guessing it’s because they forgot to delist it and put up a ton of articles in advance. Either way, we know the Crimson Court basically have 3-sided fighter cards. If each fighter has too many Hunger counters, they become Bloodthirsted which represents their animalistic and bloodthirsty nature. To inspire, they must lose all their Hunger counters as they regain their elegant and noble natures. Sounds good on paper but it’s left to be seen how this will playout in-game as it sounds very complex.
Where’s the Balance?
A special fan request which I feel has precedence and is appropriate to talk about. This focuses on the community desire for a new FAQ and FAR (Forsaken and Restricted) list. Did you know, we haven’t had an FAQ since June 2020? It’s shockingly bad. We last had a FAR update in December 2020, with the launch of Direchasm. Even if people can’t play regularly, there are still a lot of dedicated players online whether it be via webcam gaming to Vassal. Either way Direchasm is in a sorry state for balance. Old cards and older warbands are causing lots of problems, Mollog in particular is more toxic than ever, even back in his Tome days.
While people may say Warhammer Underworlds doesn’t need a new FAQ and FAR update, my response is then why do Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar get regular balance updates while being in exactly the same position? I know if nothing happens, more and more tournament organisers are considering doing their own balance updates for their events. If Games Workshop won’t balance the game, it looks like the community will have to start doing it instead.
WUO News
Warhammer Underworlds Online had a fairly quite March outside of the regular bug fixes updates. The Animus Forge was added, which is great! Although I would have loved to see the Arcane Nexus too as it is basically my favourite game board released for Warhammer Underworlds. There was also a universal card release, totalling in about 9 cards. Unfortunately, these were mostly turtle control Shadespire cards sans the awesome Superior Tactician. Hopefully we see more universal cards soon in order to add more flexibility to the available warbands and to give more player choice.
Podcast Corner
Podcast corner for March kicks off with Path to Glory. They first cover their results in the Straight Outta Shadespire webcam tournament and then dedicate 3 more episodes to the Starblood Stalkers warband expansion. From warband cards to reviews and tactics, they’re even joined by Tommy Conboy who makes an especially quick take on the warband and talks about his own deck guide.
What the Hex drops 3 episodes for March. First they drop an episode about the universal cards effecting the meta most before the Starblood Stalker release and then have 2 more episodes dedicated to the new warband release.
Finally there’s me with Crit ! Cast Episode 9: Returning to Warhammer Underworlds. Instead of talking about the new releases, I’m joined by Rob to talk about returning to Warhammer Underworlds as a veteran player. New players will also find it useful, but we mainly aim it at people who took a break from Warhammer Underworlds and are now looking at a way to get back into the game. We cover all the tips and resources you need as well as reflecting on our own difficulties on the subject matter into getting back into regular games with Warhammer Underworlds.
Tournaments and Events
For tournaments and events for March, we only had the Straight Outta Shadespire webcam tournament. This event was running my newly-christened Highland format because there can be only one! What is Highlander format you ask? It’s basically a tournament where every player uses a unique warband with no double allowed, where each player fights for warband supremacy!
After 4 rounds of best of 1 action, Aman with his Magore’s Fiends proved triumphant! He managed to beat Garrek’s Reavers in the final and won the event thanks to Mollog somehow drawing. Aman played amazingly well and you can see the game he played against the Thorns of the Briar Queen in the tournament on my YouTube channel.
If you want to play in the next one, it’ll be happening tomorrow! You can find all the information here. I’ll be live streaming the event again on Twitch with my co-host Rob!
Summary of my March Content
For the summary of my March content I: had the February news recap, showcased my first Digimon card game article by introducing the game and talking about my experience in a webcam tournament, I talked about the leaked White Dwarf Starblood Stalker cards and then had my Starblood Stalker review content, then I had Crit ! Cast Episode 9 as well as multiple YouTube battle reports and Twitch livestreams dedicated to Warhammer Underworlds.
On top of that I also celebrate Can You Roll a Crit turning 3! It’s been crazy and I’m happy I’m still going, especially as the oldest and longest-running Warhammer Underworlds content creator somehow! Thank you to everyone who reads, watches and messages me. Your feedback and support is what keeps me going. My main drive is helping people and here’s to many more years of helping people with Warhammer Underworlds and whatever games I choose to cover.
Closing Crit
For March we’ve had the Starblood Stalkers, the reveal of Kainan’s Reavers and a deeper look at the Crimson Court. April looks like we’ll be having the vampires join us along with the new Warhammer Underworlds Starter Set as well.
Before I go please feel free to click my affiliate link to Element Games. Any purchases you make after clicking through the link help support myself and the channel to help bring high quality content along with being at no additional cost to you while also granting you a 15 to 25% discount on all things Warhammer Underworlds and hobby related (like the new warbands)!
The Starblood Stalkers have come to blow up the Direchasm and save us all, probably. Yet in their shadows lurks the hungering Crimson Court. As we wait for old scores to be settled and rivalries to continue in the eternal mountain of death, there is only one constant. The ability to roll a crit!
Can You Roll A Crit? 