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7Apr/200

Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave – The Wurmspat

We have duet of warbands from the Beastgrave season this week, beginning with the Nurgle Rotbringers, the Wurmspat.

Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat

The Wurmspat and Hrothgorn's Mantrappers are the penultimate warband wave for the Beastgrave season. With the introduction of Beastgrave, the price tag for the warband supplements went up a bit from 22.50 EUR to 25 EUR. This warband covers 3 models, two of them look like Putrid Blightkings and the third is a sorceress. The models are spread across two green sprues, along with a card deck and assembly instructions. It seems that with Beastgrave the sprues aren't offered anymore as kits without the underworlds content, the warband boxes are listed among the entries of each army.

The card deck covers 62 cards, 3 cards cover the profiles, 32 are unique cards for the Rotbringer warband and 27 universal cards (split across objectives, upgrades, a spell and ploys) to be used with any Warhammer Underworlds warband.

Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat

The models come with sculpted bases as it is common for Underworlds warbands. 3x 40mm bases with a tainted forest look. Casting is well done, crisp details and the parts themself are stable, so little to no risk of damaging them while cutting them from the sprue.

All the Underworlds miniatures are push-fit, so you do not need glue to assemble them. With some of the tighter fits, it might be a good idea to use plastic glue any way.

Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat

The trio of the Wurmspat is lead by Fecula Flyblown, a sorceress of Grandfather Nurgle. Everyone of these has the same condition to be inspired. Three or more enemy models need to be taken out of the game and/or have one or more wound token. Not the easiest task for a slow moving warband, with only Fecula being able to cast a spell / ranged attack. Every Wurmspat benefits from a special rule, that reduces the damage taken for each block rolled during the defense check.

Once inspired Fecula benefits from an upgrade to her weapons / spells, as the rotwood staff has one more dice and the spell hits on another symbol.

Fecula Flyblown's design lends strongly towards Baba Yaga. She has strainy hair over here bone crown, a rotwood staff and a nurgling cat, as a familiar. The model builds quite forward, eventhough she has a few parts to cover. Only the left arm left a bit of a gap and I had trouble to properly connect it tightly to the shoulder.

Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat

Fecula is guarded by two chaos warriors. One of them, Sepsimus - Plaguesworn, is kept in the style of classic Chaos warriors. He wields a blighted spear, which counts as a long weapon with a range of 2. Sepsimus is able to strike a whirlwind attack with his spear as soon as he's inspired, being able to hit multiple enemies at once.

The model itself is slightly bloated and a design aspect, that might be not for everyone is the back. There is a slime dripping tail, that was converted by some, by using bits from the Putrid Blightkings to simply cover with chainmail and a piece of armour.

Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat

The second warrior, Ghulgoch the Butcher, a bloated fellow, is closest in design towards the Putrid Blightkings. He wields the Butcher's Blade, that benefit from cleave once inspired. I really like the pose and I can imagine, that this model could be used as a Starplayer for the Nurgle Rotters as well.

Easy build, the meat flaps overlap on the connections and as such little problems covering the gaps between the parts.

Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat

The mixture of armour and bloated flesh makes it easier to cover the gaps between the parts. I am not a big fan of these push-fit models, as you realise that they might not fit to late and at that point you often not able to retrieve the part, modify it and bring it back. So you might clip them off right away and glue the parts in the "usual" way.

Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat

The Wurmspat are quite tall. All of them around the 40mm mark. In the second picture a brief comparison with the relatives, the Blightkings from Age of Sigmar and a Bloater from the Nurgle Blood Bowl Team. The third picture shows the Butcher between Hrothgorn, an Ogre, and a follower of Khorne from Magore's Fiends.

Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat

Games Workshop not only updated the Deck Builder with the current cards, but gave the whole warband quite the insight on their tactics, along with key features to play on Warhammer Community.

The Wurmspat is hard to kill, with their 4 wounds across the board and reducing incoming damage. Yet, with a movement of 3 and the inspiration condition, it takes them a bit to fully roll out their potential. But they come with interesting gambits. Among them some introducing a cycle keyword, that let's them play apply boons and boosts in rotation, giving the warband quite the edge. Same goes for the upgrades, the Rotbringers are unbuffed already a rather unpleasant enemy, but with some of these new cards even harder to take out.

The warband could be used as a base for a Warcry warband, yet buying the Putrid Blightkings or the Start Collecting! Box would be a better fit as these would provide you with the needed numbers and models for a warband - beside the card deck.

Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave - The Wurmspat

Conclusion
Games Workshop really has a flow with the design of the Nurgle armies. Very well done and coherrent product line. So is this trio. We have Sepsimus, very close in design to the old Champions of Chaos from the late 80s and early 90s, classic and very sought for miniatures. Ghulgoch, bloated and picking up the design of the Putrid Blightkings, and with Fecula a rare female character among the ranks of Nurgle.

I would have loved a few Nurglings or so, maybe a half-mutated spawn. To be honest, after seeing the artwork on the Mazzig's Many Legs card, I hoped for something among the lines (with the multiple spiderlegs). For my personal taste, the warband is a bit to small with 3 miniatures, of course if you're looking for a Chaos warband, that is faster or more flexible, there are plenty of others like Magore's Fiends or the Godsworn Hunt. Yet, I expected something with a bit more variety, similar to the Eyes of the Nine, but for Nurgle.

As usual, these boxed sets can be used for multiple games beyond Beastgrave, for example for the Age of Sigmar skirmish or for Warcry (with the notes above). At a price of 25 EUR, you're still at a decent rate for three nurgle models of that size. Putrid Blightkings are 44 EUR for 5 miniatures, the cheapest nurgle sorcerer is 12,50 but a more realistic comparison would be around 20 EUR, thus making this a reasonable deal. I personally am thinking about converting the models for Blood Bowl, with Ghulgoch as a starplayer and Fecula as the Coach / Wizard of the team.

Warhammer Underworlds is a brand by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.

Posted by Dennis B.

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