Warhammer Underworlds Deathgorge Review - Who Knows The Horrors Of The Deathgorge?

With the Wyrdhollow explored it's now time for a new location for the skirmishes of Warhammer Underworlds to take place. Stepping far away from the Gnarlwood the next expansion is Warhammer Underworlds Deathgorge.

Unlike traditional Warhammer, the gameplay of Warhammer Underworlds is that of Skirmish combat. Each side of the battleground will command their own smaller-scale group of fighters, known here as Warbands.

Previous settings have not only included the Wyrdhollow, but also the Gnarlwood, and Nethermaze.

What is in the Warhammer Underworlds Deathgorge box?

Included in the Warhammer Underworlds Deathgorge box you'll find the following items:

• Warhammer Underworlds rulebook
• Two full warbands (Cyreni's Razor and The Thricefold Discord)
• Two starter decks for both warbands, plus two extra sets of Rivals Decks (Force of Frost and Breakneck Slaughter)
• Two double-sided game boards that match with one another
• Custom dice
• Feature Tokens
• Glory, activation, wound/counter, raise, status, and hex tokens

This box is designed to let two players start playing immediately, each taking up the fight for one of the Warbands. 

If you're a beginner to Warhammer Underworlds then I'd recommend starting with the Starter Set (2023) as that not only comes with similar contents to this box, but also a book detailing a full game step by step so you can understand what you're doing.

Building the Warhammer Underworlds Deathgorge Miniatures

Each of the warbands comes disassembled on sprues that you'll need to clip out and piece together. Each piece is clearly numbered and the instructions clearly show you via images how to put them all together.

The full process of putting the Warbands together, in this case, there were seven fighters, took around an hour.

As always the end result is incredible. The amount of detail on fighters' armor, or tentacles in the case of this box, was incredible.

Some frustration was experienced when piecing together these fighters due to the way some of their pieces were separated out. You might have a single piece with a leg and a head that you need to hold in place.

Separating the pieces out in this way makes sense to make painting them easier, but when you're trying to assemble something and an unsecured head keeps falling out of what you're holding before you can get it in place it's a very frustrating feeling.

Of the two warbands, the "Atlantean warrior" feeling that I got from Cyreni's Razors was my favorite, especially the giant octopus that you'll get to command.

Warhammer Underworlds Deathgorge Cyreni's Razors Warband Analysis

Cyreni's Razors Warband consists of Cyreni of the Abyss, Alathyrr, Renglaith, and Cephanyr. It's the purpose of Cyreni to embark into the dangerous Deathgorge to attempt to collect soul-troves.

Each member of the Warband has high movement and HP, though their defense is relatively low. Their attacks are all relatively straightforward but they have an interesting inspiration mechanic.

"It is your third power step in round 1, your second power step in round 2, or your first power step in round 3"

These inspirations will end at the end of the round, not at the end of the power step. This means not only will this Warband be guaranteed to be inspired once per round but they will be inspired for more time as the round goes on.

You can leave this Warband alone and they'll completely power scale as the game goes on. This will also create a somewhat predictable scenario for your opponents, they can know when to expect your big plays.

Cyreni's Razors Deck Analysis

There are three major trends that you'll see when looking at the effects of Cyreni's Razors deck. You'll see spells and spell reactions that can be played in response to your opponents, cards to stun your opponents, and effects that will apply to your fighters if they're uninspired.

The inclusion of effects that can be activated when your Warband is uninspired is an interesting one as it allows you to still make big pushes when you aren't inspired, this adds some spontaneity to the way you can play this Warband.

Stunning your opponents is very important for this deck as a number of Objective cards are tied into having a certain number of stunned fighters. Objective Cards are also tied to holding objectives on the board.

Warhammer Underworlds Deathgorge The Thricefold Discord Warband Analysis

The Thricefold Discord is a group of three fighters; Vexmor, Vashtiss The Coiled, and Lascivyr, The Bladed Bledding.

This small warband has balanced stats across the board, most noticeably those with the highest movement have the lowest HP. Interestingly while the verbiage on their inspired state is mostly the same it's a waterfall effect from one fighter to another.

When you make an attack or defense roll that contains no successes it will cause another fighter to gain inspiration. Vaxmor is inspired by Vashtiss, Vashtiss is inspired by Lascivyr, and Lascivyr is inspired by Vexmor.

In a turn, this can immediately change the way you plan you movements. Knowing that making a move, and failing, with one character can lead to an empowered second turn is a fun way to fail forward.

The Thricefold Discord Deck Analysis

The big objectives of this deck are around the idea of casting lost of spells, having wounded fighters, and having enemy fighters out of action. This immediately gives players the knowledge that this is a deck that rewards high-risk and high-reward play.

As you could expect, what that leaves of the rest of the Warband's deck is a large number of gambits and upgrades that allow your characters to deal damage or inflict status effects. If you're someone who likes to hit the battleground running then this is a deck with a lot of options, but a straightforward strategy.

Warhammer Underworlds Deathgorge Force of Frost Rivals Deck Analysis

The Force of Frost Rivals Deck is the embodiment of the ice that lurks in the Deathgorge filled with souls. The objectives of this deck are also quite simplistic.

Players will earn objectives for taking out enemies, holding objectives, being the first to deal damage, and other standard objectives. There are also some objectives related to being hurt so you don't always need to be succeeding to gain glory here.

The Rival Deck contains a number of themed ice cards. These could be freezing your opponents in place, shattering their upgrades, blocking Hexs from being passed through and more. Just like the Objective deck there's a lot of versatility here, but there isn't anything overly complex.

Warhammer Underworlds Deathgorge Breakneck Slaughter Rivals Deck Analysis

The Breakneck Slaughter Rivals Deck is the only one in this box to include a plot card. This card lets you know the special rules that fall into play when you have a fighter with a momentum token.

When empowered by a momentum fighters will have an additional move, but they'll also be able to affect enemy fighters around them including pushing them and adding a scatter token to them.

This movement and the idea of Breakneck momentum is one that remains consistent through the objectives of this deck. You'll be wanting to be attacking repeatedly, buffing fighters with different momentum and charge tokens to obtain these objectives.

This deck is all about playing fast and the gambit and upgrade cards also facilitate this. There's really not too much more to say about this deck other than it being built around that increased speed. There's a lot you can do to pair this Rivals Deck with another fast-paced Warband.

What are our final thoughts on Warhammer Underworlds Deathgorge?

Compared to some previous entries the Warbands introduces in Warhammer Underworlds Deathgorge are actually a lot more simplistic in mechanics than ones I've seen in previous releases. It it weren't for the Starter Set being released so recently with more detailed instructions for play I'd almost say this would be a better jumping in point. The Warbands here will be ones that you'll understand on your first play, as opposed to some of the other releases that have taken a play or two to really figure out where they live.

The Rival Decks included also can take any existing Warband and give them a more 'all out' focus. It doesn't mean you don't understand the greater strategy, sometimes you just want to be able to move quickly and hit things really hard.

Should you buy Warhammer Underworlds Deathgorge?

If you're someone who already owns Warhammer Underworlds and is looking to expand your colection of Warbands what you have here is an excellent set of Warbands and Rivals Decks without a lot of the extra mechanics to them. There still are, but the focus of them is consistent powering up and a desire to take out your enemies.

For a new player this would be your second best choice after the Starter Set. The mechanics here are a bit more interesting than the Starter Set but not too far from basic that you'll get too lost.

The copy of Warhammer Underworlds Deathgorge used to produce this review was provided by the Publisher. All photos were taken by the reviewer over the course of the review.