Rumours abound of powerful relics to be found in the ever-shifting labyrinth known as the Nethermaze, located in the deepest layers of Harrowdeep. At Morathi-Khaine’s command, the penumbral Shadeborn venture into the darkness to find remnants of the shadow magic used to construct it – but little do they know the devious Clans Eshin have their own schemes afoot. For new folks, however, the maze is a little more shadowy. A little more nether. Jumping intothis long-running, competitive game isno simpletask,with successive seasons adding new dice, new tokens, new rules, new phases, hundreds of new cards, and (naturally) lots of new warbandsinto an ever-larger morass of options. Regular readers will know that Lizzie absolutely hammered me when we had a go with the Harrowdeep set (and I’m still not over that useless bird the Stormcasts have on their side), so I’ve got a score to settle this time around. Set Up Many more classic Warhammer Underworlds warbands are being rereleased for Warhammer Age of Sigmar. These are only available from the Games Workshop webstore, so you won’t see them in shops, and they won’t come with any of their cards for Warhammer Underworlds. Elathain’s Soulraid The leader of this 4 model warband is Shroud Queen Slythael. She wears a faceless mask and seems to float on her cloak while it is turning to smoke, an impressive feat of miniatures design. Be careful with her staff though, this is one of the thinnest pieces of plastic I’ve ever seen. The other Shroudblades are armed with a mixture of blades and a crossbow pistol, which should make for plenty of gameplay options.

Hedkrakka’s Madmob is a gang of four Bonesplitterz Orruks. Led by Hedkrakka, the self-proclaimed Gob of Gork, a potent wizard who is convinced that Gorkamorka speaks to him through his pet squig-snake. Toofdagga, Wollop da Skul, and Dakko Sharp-Stikka join Hedkrakka on the quest to hunt the mightiest prey. Kainan’s Reapers I used my part of the Power phase to upgrade one of my surviving fighters with Eshin Throwing Stars, which allowed me to work towards completing my Objective of damaging Lizzie’s fighters with Krowch’t and/or Skulk. Great online store for board games. They always arrive perfectly and undamaged which is important to me. Below even Harrowdeep’s ocean-floor dungeon, the titular Nethermaze is a vast labyrinth, wrought by shadow demons from the moon, intended to lure in mortal souls for them to eat. Atits core (supposedly) is a realmgate portal that’ll take us to freedom – but where, who knows?

Nethermaze also introduces the new Map keyword – though as you might expect from an eldritch labyrinth, even the guidebooks are a gamble. Detailed Map Fragment, for example, allows you to find a shortcut to victory by gaining spent glory points – but beware! Your opponents are watching your every move, and can dip into their armoury in return.

The Khainite Shadowstalkers are Morathi’s secret operatives and thus fit very well with the assassin vs assassin theme of Nethermaze. This faction was first introduced in Warcry, and I am very curious to see if they will also be included in the next Daughters of Khaine Battletome. Smoke-wreathed, ethereal, dark, and deadly, aelven warband The Shadebornis clearly meant to exemplify the gloomy, threatening aura of Nethermaze’s undersea setting. Next, we have to place the various gloom and objective hexes onto the map. We did this in the layout below. Soulrender Elathain Ill-fated and his gaggle of companions – including the champion crustacean Duinclaw – head to the battlefields of the Mortal Realms. Elathain’s Soulraid is led by Elathain himself and joined by his sworn Ishlaen escort Fuirann, his Namarti thrall Tammael, and the bond-beasts Duinclaw and Spinefin. Hedkrakka’s Madmob Still, at the end of the round I was still 1-0 up.We drew and discarded as appropriate, and the groan that came from Lizzie as she flipped her Objective and Gambit/Upgrade cards over told me that I was, perhaps, in a good position going into the last round. Round 3We’ll have a closer look at everything in just a moment. Warhammer Underworlds: Nethermaze Review – Literature We have a 30-day return policy, which means you have 30 days after receiving your item to request a return. It transpired that when Lizzie had discarded her entire Upgrade/Gambit hand at the end of round 2, she had drawn five Upgrade cards that she couldn’t use as she hadn’t scored a single Glory Point. She had also discarded her Objective had again and had drawn another selection of unfavourable Objectives – one of which required her to have all her surviving fighters – of which she had 3 at the start of Round 3 – sitting in Cover hexes – of which there was 1, which my Krowch’t was quite comfortable in. A few notes, though. First, we realised in our final Round that neither of us had actually Delved on a single Objective hex. This left us feeling a bit bewildered, and concerned that we’d done something wrong. All that set-up with the various hexes and by the end of the game neither of us had used any of them for anything. It felt very weird. There’s also absolutely no real information on this in the Rulebook. The Rulebook explains the placement of Objective Hexes and how to “Delve” into a hex to reveal it, but doesn’t actually say what happens next. If you like what we’re doing here you could really help encourage more content with a share on any social media platform.