Games Workshop is taking some big steps to help drive a fair playing field for Organized Play in Warhammer Underworlds.
The new edition of Warhammer Underworlds is coming soon and GW is really trying to make the launch an even playing field for everyone jumping in. Specific to Organized Play, they are adding some restrictions to warbands and decks available to use. This is being done in the name of balance for competitive events. But does it work? Let’s take a look at the plan for their rotation and the restrictions involved.
“At launch, there will be 33 warbands in rotation for Organised Play. Twenty of these will be those warbands with physical rules available for purchase: the two in the Embergard boxed set, two yet to be revealed, and 16 existing warbands split across four new Grand Alliance boxes.”
Warhammer: Underworlds Organized Play Rotation & Restrictions
Kicking things off, GW is launching the new edition with 33 warbands in Rotation. That means, these warbands are going to be legal to use in Organized Play Tournaments and competitive events. 20 of these warbands will have physical rules and be up for purchase alongside the new edition.
As for the other 13 warbands that are legal, these are warbands that were recently released for purchase. GW does want you to be able to play with the things you purchased recently. If your warband is even older, don’t fret — your warbands will be getting free rules to download and use with the new edition. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to use them in Organized Play…yet.
Games Workshop is also doing the same thing for Rivals Decks. This new edition is basically a reset for the card pool, too. And because of that GW is limited the cards available for Organized Play to just the decks that are currently available for purchase. When things kick off, that’s going to limited the pool to the four decks from Embergard and the two other decks that are on the way.
What Does This Mean For My Old Warbands
Now, I’m sure you’re thinking about those old warbands you have that might be “too old” to use in Organized Play. Well don’t go tossing your models just yet. GW has plans for all those minis — it just might take a bit to get to them.
“All new warbands and decks released in future will be added to the Organised Play rotation. Eventually, other older warbands will be rereleased with new rules, and the Warhammer Design Studio is looking to bring back as many old warbands as possible. “
So eventually, the hope is that the old warbands will be added back into the rotation with updated decks/stats/rules. I can kind of understand the thought process here from GW. They don’t have infinite resources to generate all the previous warbands. So they are focusing on getting the new stuff out first for the new edition. And then they plan on revisiting the older ones that will be reintroduced into production.
GW is also saying this is so that no one has an unfair advantage in competitive play. They don’t want people showing up to events running warbands that new players can’t get ahold of and run themselves. I can understand that logic. The fix is to just produce those old kits…but see the previous paragraph. And, again, eventually those old warbands will come back.
Do Rotations & Restrictions Work?
For competitive events and games I think these types of things are necessary and do help the overall health of the game. There’s a reason a “meta” develops and having the developers of the game active in that meta with updates is healthy. No rules are perfect and sometimes the “problem” elements need to be removed and tinkered with before they can be used again — that could be a specific card or combo or it could be an entire warband.
Time to bust out the old stuff…
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The obvious comparison for this is Magic: The Gathering. I don’t think anyone familiar with that competitive scene would argue with having restrictions or rotations in the game. There’s a reason that the “Standard” format has set pool and you can’t bring a “Legacy” Deck to one of those tournaments. And even in Magic, there are some cards that will likely never be reprinted. At least in Underworlds those old warbands are going to comeback for this edition.
So, just to sum things up:
- Keep your old warbands, even if they aren’t “legal” for competitive play
- You’re still getting rules to use in non-competitive play/events
- Your old warbands will get competitive rules…eventually
Until then, if you want to play Competitive Warhammer: Underworlds, you’re limited to using the 33 warbands in rotation. I know it’s going to be tough to find that one warband that fits your play style out of the 33 available. But that’s the deal.
At least there’s a roadmap for what’s coming…sorta.
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Writer, Editor, Texas Native, and now Tex-Pat, Adam covers all things Tabletop Gaming. Which includes Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, D&D, Board Games and everything else that involves dice, boards, cards and a table.
A hobbyist, player, and collector of miniatures and games, Adam’s current obsession are his Death and Chaos Armies for Age of Sigmar, his Blood Angels and Tyranids for 40k, an expanding collection of Marvel: Crisis Protocol minis, and his ever growing Arkham Horror: The Card Game Collection.
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