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Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire Pre-Orders Begin
October 14, 2017 by brennon
Games Workshop has started taking pre-orders for Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire. Take a look at the main game box which features Stormcast Eternals facing off against Khorne Bloodbound.
The set comes with everything you need to play. As well as the rulebook, cards, board and more you'll obviously get the two warbands which are opposed when it comes to their tactics on the tabletop.
Leading the way for the Stormcast Eternals we have Steelheart's Champions.
They are the hardy warriors who are stalwart in the face of the enemy. It takes a lot to break them down. Conversely we have the Khorne Bloodbound, the Garrek's Reavers, who are a massed force that find life cheap.
They can gang up on the enemy and bring them down on mass. It's all about flanking the enemy and making sure you throw yourself into the fray to bring them down in a tide of gore.
The models look awesome and come pre-coloured to make it easy for you to build the force and get playing immediately. I am looking forward to painting up this set.
Card Sleeves
As well as the models and the core box Games Workshop have also added in some sleeves you can pick up for your decks. They are available for both the Stormcast Eternals...
...and the Khorne Bloodbound as well. The sleeves look rather swish and I love the designs on the back. It always pays to sleeve your decks.
Those are rather nice indeed, and with some more factions around the corner I'm sure we're going to see sleeves and such for them too.
Are you going to be buying into Shadespire?
Let me know in the comments...
"The models look awesome and come pre-coloured to make it easy for you to build the force and get playing immediately..."
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Well I’ve pre-ordered it along with my friends as they are super keen for it… I am more interested in the later factions. .
(Now if one of my two mates would give me a game of Guild ball so i could get some points on the board for the Butchers I’d be happy0
the bloodbound look good.
ordered this and I’m really looking forward to it, I hope it lives up to the hype
Even the sigmarines look good …
What’s this ?
Did we enter a mirror dimension where GW makes cool looking miniatures all of a sudden ?
*blinks*
Sees pricetag and preorder …
ah ok, we’re in the real world.
Strange …
GW stopped doing a lot of things for a long time. Making cool miniatures isn’t one of them
I thought the sigmarites that have been released so far were a little too bland.
They were plain armoured dudes, which made them kind of boring..
These ones have a bit of character that (IMHO) was missing.
Maybe the bog standard rank and file ones could be accused of being bland but the characters and more elite miniatures are certainly not lacking in character
£3 (msrp) more expensive than the X-Wing starter set with more than double the miniatures, more cards, boards and a lot less folded cardboard box padding. Doesn’t seem that bad a price to me really.
No licence fee
No preassembled minis
No prepainted minis
(The comparison is a little difficult to make as there are some key differences underlying the products) 🙂
Yes the comparison between the two is difficult but IMO they are aimed at the same market. In terms of value for money from a consumer point of view its not a bad price point from GW. More stuff than X-Wing but slightly more assembly time.
Thankfully coloured plastic makes painting very much optional which is cool. Not as good for some as pre-painted minis but the higher detail on the models makes up for it IMO. This wouldn’t be half as tempting a prospect if it came with poorly pre-painted bendy PVC minis.
two 100% tournament legal warbands with room for customization vs. 3 ships for 2 forces and nowhere near a tournament legal force.
Shadespire is a good value…better than X-wing.(even if you buy 2 x-wing core sets)
Hopefully the expansions are ~$25-$30.
gameplay is solid…a good balance between luck and tactics.
If GW has an aggressive OP system this game will do very well.
@warzan while I can kind of see some of your point, I’m not sure the licensing fees should be affecting the price. Obviously they have some effect on it however as a customer I don’t look at a higher priced item and justify that higher price simply because it’s Star Wars. I think you can get away with charging a slightly higher price for a licensed product but there are some very low limits on that. I suspect licensing an IP is a way to increase sales volumes rather than a justification for higher price.
In terms of price, I think it’s actually very competitive compared to X-Wing. X-Wing has pre-assembled and pre-painted models but only three of them. Shadespire comes with 8 unassembled and unpainted miniatures. I don’t know how the games compare (and X-wing is an incredibly fun game!) but if we look at components (type and number of) Shadespire is fairly competitive, certainly in the UK. X-wing generally retails for about £32 and Shadespire has an RRP of £40 (but you can get it for £32 from 3rd party retailers)
From previews I was not excited or interested in this, but had a chance to get a couple of games in, and form my own opinions on the game.
Short answer is it is not for me.
Longer answer is it feels that there is a very swingy RNG involved with the game, and a lot of RNG – dice, action deck and plot deck. The dice mechanic at it’s crux is can you roll more crits than your opponent (1 in 6) if so you can more of less negate or ignore any build up and set up done. The plots and upgrades are impactful and deck building will definitely be a thing, it is however another level of rng and while tailoring a deck will help (I did not dig into deck building rules) a couple of less than ideal draws can leave a massive disadvantage. The objectives have a similar issue and luck granting a few easy early objectives can really swing the game, as they not only score your ‘victory points’ but also unlock upgrades, which is a win more mechanic. The number of activations being limited to 12 per game also means that a few rng swings can be highly impactful.
It definitely has tactical elements, with on board position, deck construction and even board set up having the potential to swing the game. So there are elements to explore, but the above rng factor – which is opposed so you not only need a bit of luck but more luck than your opponent, mean for me the potential reward for the time investment is way too low. There are put simply too many other great games that offer more without the investment.
Add in the fact pieces can be trivially removed, and the format is very match play focus there is not a narrative aspect to the games.
Finally the nails in the coffin, fixed warbands I feel misses the greatest boon of a limited mini system which is a one piece swap offering a refresh of a team or force. Then a format that is definitely set up that if you want to compete they will be heavily incentivising buying everything, and being that is a full warband at a higher price point than an x-wing ship you are getting into a really off putting scenario, particularly if things like the armour pieces can have multiple copies in a deck – something I truly hope not, cause you can’t use a second warband.
Other info, rulebook is fairly well laid out, and production quality on components is good. Minis are of decent quality (I am not aesthetically a massive fan of either) the snap fit particularly on the stormcast is not great without glue you are going to have unsightly gaps. My mate who built them said the female stormcast in particular was a poor fit. The bases however are lovely, really well detailed and do help the image that each piece is a character.
In conclusion some people will enjoy this, and some people will probably get into the competitive side. I personally don’t think it is a good competitive game, or even a particularly enjoyable throw a few dice style of game. I don’t feel it is badly written but I don’t like the design choices and feel it is trying to be too many things.
In the recent ork unboxing they already showed that there are certain equipment card sets that are not relased as a set, which is exactly the thing I don’t like …
I know I’d want to buy more than a single warband if I were to commit, but it still feels wrong to be pushed into that direction with tactics like that.
I guess GW didn’t want to be accused of ripping of Frostgrave and/or cannibalizing Necromunda sales.
It’s kind of funny.
To date any boxed game has been a discounted miniature bundle with a game and no chance of post launch support.
With this we’re getting a game with minis and the potential for long term support, but they still manage to make one aspect feel less appealing.
It’s no less appealing in that sense than X-Wing. Constantly evolving meta is a key feature of the game and it is designed specifically to keep people involved and spending money
With fixed warbands you actually diminish meta evolution and rely on cards alone driving that. Give cards in new packs will be split so only neutral cards can be cross faction you also create limited variance.
Not really. If a new warband comes out with cards you want for your warband you buy that warband for the cards. It’s exactly the same as X-Wing with the upgrade cards. If a ship has an upgrade card you want, you buy the ship to get the card even if you don’t really want the ship itself. I’m not really seeing much of a difference there
Try reading the comment again, the fixed nature of the warband means only cards provide variance as models cannot swap out so there are less design knobs to twiddle to shift the meta.
Not disputing the buy a pack for cards model differs from x-wing. Although if multiple copies of cards are possible that means multiple copies of warbands maybe needed that would be a far more obnoxious business model. I would hope that is not the case.
But it still represents an evolving meta, which is essentially what I was saying. It’s a deck building game not a miniatures collecting game. You are going to end up buying miniatures you don’t want in order to get cards (and in future possibly boards) that you do. I’m not saying that the game is the same as X-Wing, only the philosophy and that to a miniatures collector that philosophy might seem unappealing, but the game isn’t aimed specifically at miniatures collectors really.
Also some cards in X-Wing expansions are unique to that ship (i.e. the pilots)
Dags, I appreciate your constructive thoughts on the game, but I’ve been following the game very closely since NOVA and GW has never ruled out allowing some flexibility in the warband construction, but they are not launching with it and I wouldn’t expect to see it in the first ‘season’, certainly.
Secondly, every card in the boons/upgrades deck must be unique. This is 100% confirmed. Also the objective deck is 12 cards, and you must have 3 at any given time, even with a bad draw (which you can mulligan btw if I recall correctly) its not that random.
As for pieces being removed “trivially”, thus far, only the two weaker Bloodbound characters could be removed with anything approaching trivially, and to be honest, that’s not the worst thing that ever happened as a bloodbound player.
it is a dice game, but positioning effects your probabilities for success (having allies adjacent to you and engaged in the same combat).
Lastly, yes, it is, as they said, a competitive game, not a narrative game. From a narrative perspective these characters are trapped in the Shadespire, doomed to fight forever, unless the rumors about a means of escape are true… So, the stories told will be of clutch dice rolls and cards played.
@zephyr, I was going on a report from Nova that said fixed warbands if that was inaccurate it may be hopeful but to be honest the game has way too many issues for me.
2/3 stormcast do 3 damage on hit and 4/5 khorne chaps has 3 hits or less so trivially is fair.
I never said board position didn’t matter, I said rolling more crits could negate all boosts and positioning.
As to one of each card that is a positive from a buying view point, but also means stacking the deck, a core of deck building is removed which is a massive negative for me. Yes you can mulligan there is still rng.
Personally I took no stories from my games, it provided me with no investment in order to care about the game/characters.
Just a few corrections, I appreciate we clearly have different views, but brushing over/misquoting my points isn’t constructive. If you have played your thoughts on why it is good for you would probably be a better way to provide a different view. Thank you for the info on deck building.
By way of comparison, what games do you play that don’t have any random number generation elements or, in your opinion, have less rng and why? Just curious. Something that bugs me about a few GW games is an obsession with the random but that’s not really during game play.
I play a vast number of games, for different reasons, if we are taking Shadespire as a competitive game then guildball and warmachine would be the two I’d consider for that. Warmachine is one where good play and understanding odds and having contingency can mitigate the ever present random factor of dice.
Guildball due to the playbook mechanics means most results give me an option to achieve success. Can I still miss a 5 dice shot on 3’s yes, but I can mitigate that by planning for failure and even getting a second shot.
In both games you can still be left feeling the dice should have brought you dinner first or at least used lubricants. But if you lose it’s normally something you can have done that is actually the reason you lost.
In Shadespire you can find yourself behind due to unlucky objective draws. A lot of your interplay comes from your deck, which is more random draws. Finally you can position to flank to boost chances, gain extra dice from cards, roll successes and if your opponent rolls more crits it’s all negated. So the triple random factor is what I find unappealing. Add in your have 12 activations, and a few random spikes your are massively disadvantaged.
It is not a bad game, it does have tactics but for me it’s not a game I feel will reward any time investment. Hope that frames my perspective a little.
Well, Guild Ball and War Machines are both collectible miniatures games in the same veins as Blood Bowl and Age of Sigmar. Shadespire isn’t and I doesn’t feel like it’s aimed at the same people who play Guild Ball or War Machines. To me it seems it’s almost a new genre that’s developing, a kind of cross over. There are many similarities between this and X-Wing and to me the games don’t quite fit into any of the existing genres but instead draw elements from all of them – Board Games, Card Games and Miniatures Games. One thing that I do know is that many X-wing players
(and in my experience most of the players I have met) don’t actually play miniatures games but do play board games. Obviously there are people who do both (as evidenced by BoW) but I haven’t found them to be the majority. It’s these players that I think Shadespire is aiming at.
In terms of bad draws from the deck, if the deck is built by you then surely it’s no more or less random than say Magic the Gathering? I am not an MTG player so if decks aren’t randomised (i.e. shuffled) in that game, my bad
Really not sure why I respond to your queries, as you don’t actually engage with the response. I think there are a lot of elements of this that would put x-wing players off rather than appeal. You can figure that out if you are actually looking to discuss rather than argue
I don’t engage with ALL of it. I have engaged with the bit about Guildball and Warmachines – I said I didn’t think they were comparable and were aimed at different audiences.
I also engaged (via a question) to your comments about the deck building being a potential means of winning or losing based on a random mechanic. I also said I didn’t know whether this was relevant to MTG because I wasn’t sure if decks were shuffled before play.
I didn’t engage with any of the other points you made purely because I don’t have anything specific to say in reply. I have replied to the parts that I feel I have something to say about. I also didn’t respond to the comments specifically about Shadespire rules because I will make my own mind up about them when I get to play it.
Those Warhammer marines look pretty good, even the Garrison from battle chasers copy.
Actually so so the chaos figures!
GW should start offering financing on their models. 🙂
The more I have been looking into this the better it seems. This will be the first miniatures game I have preordered so far. Very cheap, deckbuilding aspect there, rapid play… well done GW!
I have pre-ordered. Three friends from gaming group have expressed an interest, so I’m sure I’ll get some games.
After BB’s unexpected success, I think GW will release stuff for this regularly – at least in the early months – and beyond that if it sells well. The Design Studio should be able to produce a dozen gangs without breaking too much of a sweat. I just hope they stay balanced. That’ll be the tricky part.
I think Blood Bowl’s success was fairly predictable and I think Necromunda will be too, they both trade heavily on Nostalgia. However Shadespire represents something entirely new so it will be interesting to see if it is a success. I have ordered it and I am interested to see what other warbands they are going to release, none of the ones I have seen so far specifically interest me (although that is purely a personal preference about which factions I like, not a criticism of the game).
I haven’t pre-ordered and am in no rush to get this – although I will get it sooner or later for the miniatures. When I do get it, the game looks small, short and compact enough for me to make the effort to give it a go, and if it’s enjoyable, I can see myself playing it from time to time.
I think this is an interesting release. Fundamentally, it’s not aimed at people like me, who are more interested in the narrative side of gaming, and the spectacle of gaming. The setting to me cries out for some amazing scenery, evolving campaign games and warband expansion, but that’s clearly not what the game is about.
GW don’t really have anything to lose here. They probably did put a lot more effort into writing and balancing this game than they’re acustomed to doing, but the miniatures they can knock out fairly easily. (Which is really a backhanded compliment as most other companies can’t produce such quality on such scale so quickly.)
This attempt to move into the competitive card gaming scene is an opportunity for them to go into a market they’ve essentially not tried to compete in before. And it’s possible that some of those gamers might then move into their other games if they like the miniatures enough.
The miniatures do look fairly dispensible from a game mechanics point of view, so I wouldn’t imagine that competitive card gamers will shift across into tabletop gaming in huge numbers, but GW have lost nothing by creating a route for some of them to do so.
It may also have another benefit in appealing to existing and/or former GW fans who have been drifting away. These are people who may have been put off by the direction GW have been going in, but who, if impressed by this game, may rediscover a love of GW / the Warhammer / Age of Sigmar universe, and who might then be reinthused.
I don’t see this appealing to competitive card gamers who aren’t already into this type of game. I do think GW want this to be a crossover product into the board game market. They’ve sent out review copies to some big content provider in the board game market, and there has been an emphasis placed there on the coloured plastic meaning the miniatures do not have to be painted.
Sure, this won’t appeal to a big part of the card gaming market… but if this appeals to a significant chunk of it, that would be a useful new income stream for GW.
I quite agree re: the unpainted minis. This isn’t aimed at hobbyists like me (even those of us who don’t actually do much painting!).
I don’t see it getting any of the card game market, outside of those who already play GW games as well. Though it has a deck building element it’s a very different type of thing to what card gamers do.
I think I’d agree with you. My point is that there is already quite a crossover between people who play (or who have played) GW games and CCGs. To date, most of those people haven’t been playing CCGs by Games Workshop. I think this is GW trying to get those people currently spending time and money on card games made by other people into card games made by themselves.
On a related note, I wouldn’t know what the calculations were that were made by GW and FFG in their parting of ways, but the fact is that FFG are no longer making money selling card games based on GW IPs. I would think that GW will hope that some of the people that played those games will now play Shadespire.
Mostly though, I agree that it’s aimed at people who already have some investment in and familiarity with their products, but it’s a new type of game with which they’re hoping to grab more of those people’s time and money.
It’s aimed at, or at least it seems to be, the same kind of people who play X-Wing. I don’t know what they’re labelled as – miniature wargamers, card game players or board gamers
X-Wing certainly gets people who play card games, though it has an advantage in that FFG already have that base to begin with. It succeeds because of how accessible it is, because Star Wars, and it uses the model that Shadespire seems to be emulating.
It might also appeal to some of the Star Wars type players, particularly coming out for the Organized Play events.
I was so close to preorder it, but the I stopped myself. “No you have a birthday soon, it better they buy the stuff you want” 😛 I really want this set, and I like some of the narratives they have made on their site. There is a little story to every character, and the warband itself..
I love the look of this but cant afford to shell out for this until at least after Christmas. Not that it is overpriced, but I have other things on my ‘to get’ list for hobby.
Still, a solid looking product from what has been advertised and previewed from different sources.
Holding out for Necromunda.
GW is sending these two games back to back into the race. I d rather seen them giving us something like Battlefleet Gothic or Titanicus for varieties sake.
Titanicus is still in the works, I am expecting to see it next year. I don’t think this and Necromunda are targeted at the same audience in any way. Shadespire is an out and out board game, Necromunda is a skirmish game
Well Necromunda wll come with a board and a ruleset for using a board and one for 3D Terrain like the old Necromunda, so maybe one version is similiar to a boardgame.
No more so than say Death Watch Overkill. But even so it’s not a serious board game competitor because people who play board games don’t want all the effort required to assemble all the miniatures in the Necromunda box. Shadespire might still struggle because the models are unassembled, the saving grace being that they’re incredibly simple, push fit miniatures, Necromunda miniatures won’t be.
I never said these games are for boardgamers, though it seems Warhammer Quest attracted some non miniature gamers at least judging from boardgamegeek. I just said that there will be a more “boardgamy” variant of Necromunda besides the old miniature wargame one.
I’m saying I don’t think it will be very board-gamey.
Its not really a boardgame variant of Necromunda in the same way as playing 40k on a printed mat doesn’t make it a board game. You will still use inches for ranges and movement on the boards.
Judging by let’s plays and previews this will be fun.
Pre ordering it locally.
Will be tons of fun and that’s coming from a narrative player.
Also allows me to paint a variety of factions… and giving me the motivation to do it.
Excellent!
I hope they expand upon it frequently.
I hadn’t thought of it like that. I can get several different factions for painting, because the miniatures do look pretty cool. I think these miniatures are on a par with the Space Hulk terminators
Yep. Despite being a narrative wargamer I sometimes simply enjoy playing boardgames for the esthetic edge which says a story in itself. And as I got enough AOS stuff to paint as is… dabbling in the multitude of little subfactions they’ll be releasing, will allow me to practice plenty of painting styles and have factions for any taste.
It’ll also push me out of my safespace… trying models of sorts I’ll never otherwise risk investing in.
Whether it’ll be a huge success we’ll see.
It might not be.
But it’ll still leave me with a decent skirmish miniatures wargame / boardgame hybrid. The fun off painting it all and enough replayability to make it worth it.
So I’m not mad about it! 🙂
I am a bit surprised that so many people here are instantly so hateful to it.
GW has been a rather ‘good boy’ lately. Catering to narrative players like me (Shadow Wars, upcoming Necromunda, AOS Skirmish, Path to Glory,…), reinvigorating the seemingly evergreen 40K, a nice range of diverse boardgames which seem to be improving as time goes on. (i understand they’re not all top notch but… good enough for someone who boardgames and ADORES painting)
They’re doing well in my eyes.
Relatively speaking.
For now.
I can’t wait to get the Ironskull’s Boys!!!!!