Warhammer Underworlds Nightvault Preview – Thundrik's Profiteers / Ylthari’s Guardians

Published: May 4, 2019 12:00 PM /

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The next two warband expansions for Warhammer Underworlds Nightvault have been released. Thundrik's Profiteers and Ylthari’s Guardians give players access to Dwarven firepower and the first Sylvaneth warband. Both expansions include the miniatures for the warband, their unit cards, cards specific for the warbands, and some universal cards that can be used by any warbands. In this article we're going to look at both new warbands and some of our favorite cards from both expansions.

Both expansions require a copy of either Warhammer Underworlds Shadespire or Warhammer Underworlds Nightvault to play, but if you want to play Warhammer Underworlds competitively then you will also want to look at picking up all the previous Warhammer Underworlds warbands. For full details of how Warhammer Underworlds works, check out the reviews linked above.

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Ylthari’s Guardians.

Ylthari’s Guardians Preview

Ylthari’s Guardians are the first Sylvaneth warband for Warhammer Underworlds. This nature focused unit excel at ranged and healing and this is represented in their playstyle. The pack contains 4 push-fit miniatures that only require removing from the sprues and cleaning up. Despite having a lot of incredible looking, but fiddly detail on the miniatures, they go together very easily. Both of these warbands are the best push-fit miniatures to date. They are perfect for beginners with little or no hobby experience.

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The Guardians play style is a little more advanced than some of the more straight-forward warbands, but if you want a warband with some interesting mechanics and range, then they might be for you.

Ylthari's Guardians come with 4 warriors, each with their own role. They're all high on movement, average on wounds. They're not all high on defence either, so positioning is essential to their use. Ylthari has a ranged magic attack and 2 other fighters have ranged attacks. All of the Guardians inspire when they have a wound removed and they all have reaction abilities which cause extra wounds or allow extra attacks.

Ylthari's reaction lets her heal 1 wound if she successfully casts a spell with at least 1 Crit, which will also then inspire her. Once inspired, Ylthari has a movement of 5 and her range 3 attack magic attack does 2 damage, letting her threaten a huge distance.

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Our favorite Ylthari’s Guardians faction cards.

Our top picks for the Guardians faction cards are:

  • Lithe Spirits – A 1 glory score immediately objective for making a second reaction in a round is an auto include for the Guardians. You’re going to be aiming to make the most of their reactions each round anyway.
  • Curse of the Dwindling – This spell requires some luck or set up to cast, but reducing a fighter’s attacks by a dice for the rest of the game is extremely powerful, especially on warbands gear around a single powerful fighter, or late game after the Guardians have done some hunting.
  • Springseed Step – A free 3 hex move after another character’s move action can be great to line up ranged attacks for the rest of the round, or just to back up friendly fighters with some support.
  • Leech Power – We really like the feel of this card in keeping with the Guardians theme. Removing an objective to heal the Ylthari (whilst also inspiring her) is useful and thematic.
  • Constant Growth – It’s a +1 wound upgrade, but the name and theme feel right.
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Our favorite neutral cards from the Ylthari’s Guardians expansion.

Our top picks for the universal cards from the Guardians expansion are:

  • Magical Storm – It’s a big ask for some warbands, and failing one spell in the round can put a stop to it, but it’s a great entry for the magic themed Nightvault.
  • Magical Damping – A great and interesting anti-magic spell for Nightvault. We love the clear timing of the card.
  • Strategic Sorcery – Being able to cycle one discarded objective card back to your hand can be very powerful for a couple of warbands, especially for some easy score immediately objectives. It will be really interesting to see if some combo decks try to make use of this.
  • Duellist’s Speed – Being able to push one hex after every attack is extremely useful. Either getting you out of the way of a return attack, or repositioning for another. In ranged warbands it can really add some threat.
  • Nullstone Arrow – This ranged attack can be used against anyone, but it's great against magic users. With range 4, it's great for threatening the board and finding those magic users hiding at the back.
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Thundrik's Profiteers.

Thundrik's Profiteers Preview

Thundrik's Profiteers are a Dwarven ranged warband. They're the easiest and cleanest of the push-fit miniatures since Warhammer Underworlds began. Once off the sprues and cleaned up, these are great for hobbyists of any age or ability to push together. Thundrik's stand looks fragile, but it went into the base clean with no bending. Their detail also really stands out, even before painting.

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Thundrik's Profiteers are an interesting warband. All 5 fighters have a Range 3 attack, with three of them also having a shorter range attack as well. The only way to inspire the fighters is through Thundrik's Promotion ability. Which means that whenever you score an objective, you can inspire a fighter. This makes filling their deck with score immediately objectives and easy to score end of round objectives a great way tp not only scores you glory, but also inspire your fighters.

A couple of the Profiteers are low on wounds, and they all only have 1 defence dice, so staying at range is extremely important, especially against aggressive warbands. Overwhelming firepower though, that's what they have and Thundrik's ability to create lethal hexes adjacent to him gives him some great protection when enemies get too close.

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Our favorite Thundrik's Profiteers faction cards.

Our top picks for the Profiteers faction cards are:

  • Headshot – Rolling a crit at range 3 or more is a challenge for only 1 score immediately glory. But with the amount of shots you should be reigning down with the Profiteers it should happen eventually.
  • Focus Fire – We love the feel of this card. The whole warband working together to bring down a target. It will only work against a high wound enemy or if you miss a couple of times against a low wound character. Drawing it late game against a melee warband can make it a dead card but we still love the theme.
  • Seek the Skyvessel – 2 free move actions is incredible. It can put 2 fighters in perfect positions to light up the enemy warband as they advance, or move 2 fighters to safety, or 2 grab to late game objectives. Auto-include.
  • Toxic Gases – A very interesting card. Giving the choice to your opponent within the theme of the card is great design.
  • Rapid Reload – An upgrade for Ironhail. Being able to make a second ranged attack straight after the first in a round is very powerful. It does require setting up to ensure 2 shots can be fired from the first shot, but it allows Ironhail to lay down some serious firepower.
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Our favorite neutral cards from the Thundrik's Profiteers expansion.

Our top picks for the universal cards from the Profiteers expansion are:

  • Calculated Risk – Might not find use in every game, but we like the play into the Lethal Hex boards. Could be combo’d in some decks/warbands for use. It’s an interesting card.
  • Versatile Fighter – A great objective for some warbands. Requires some set up for only 1 end of the round glory, but it encourages play.
  • Amnesiac Backlash – We love this card. Especially in the magic themed set. You have to roll a crit, but locking a magic user out is a perfect reward. Can be game winning if cast.
  • Earthing Stone – A really good control card. Works against you as well, which can be rough as it’s an upgrade, but can be a powerful meta card in mobile warbands.
  • Reinforced Armour – Being able to ignore all damage 1 attacks means that your opponent may only have certain options to damage a fighter with this upgrade, giving you some great board control opportunities.
 

All of the Nighvault warbands so far have added some great elements into Warhammer Underworlds. We can't wait to see what comes next.

 

Are you excited for the new warbands? Have you got them already? What are your favorite cards from the set? Have you built decks for the Guardians or Profiteers? Let us know in the comments below.

These copies of the Ylthari’s Guardians and Thundrik's Profiteers were provided by Goblin Gaming.

You can buy your copies of the warbands and all other Warhammer Underworlds accessories and sets from them at 20% off RRP.

Goblin Gaming

 

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A Potts TechRaptor
| Senior Tabletop Writer

Adam is a Tabletop Specialist for TechRaptor. He started writing for TechRaptor in 2017 and took over as Tabletop Editor in 2019 and has since stood down… More about Adam