At Gen-Con, Games Workshop announced the new season of Warhammer Underworlds, Harrowdeep. During the reveal, they touched on the fact that were would be a new play format called Rivals. Now, Games Workshop is giving us the details.
A big aspect of the game in Warhammer Underworlds is deckbuilding. In my gaming group, we play many deckbuilding games, and it's an enjoyable mechanic to gaming. One of the reasons we like Warhammer Underworlds, is the ability to pick up a fun and quick card based miniatures game. Often times, we keep it more level between those more experienced and those that are newer, we simply play with the base decks and go beat up on each other.
One of the issues with any deckbuilding game like Warhammer Underworlds is the size of the card collection. While some folks like us are lucky enough to have access to the full card collection, it can be a daunting prospect to a new player. The new Warhammer Underworlds Rivals format is designed to be super simple and accessible to everyone.
The Rivals format is straightforward. Each player picks a pre-built deck, either the warband specific cards, or a deck like Silent Menace that was released during Warhammer Underworlds Direchasm. That's it! Now you have have two decks of similar power level and can go battle on the tabletop! About 50% of the games we play currently utilized this format, but now we will start seeing this format in local tournaments and officially sanctioned Games Workshop events. Games Workshop has also indicated their support for this format by stating that more standalone decks like Silent Menace are going to be released during the Harrowdeep season of Warhammer Underworlds.
Deck building and the Championship format are still going to be flagship format of Warhammer Underworlds, with new Grand Alliance specific card sets being released this season.
Warhammer Underworlds is a great way to get into miniatures based games. With this new Rivals format being introduced by Games Workshop, there really is not a better season to get on board!