Warhammer Underworlds is Games Workshop’s competitive game of warband skirmishes, blending miniatures, a board of hexes and two custom card decks. Each player fields a small, fixed warband and builds a deck of objectives and gambits to support it. Warbands, cards and the exact rules rotate over time, so read the following as the durable core rather than the current tournament wording.
What dice Underworlds uses
Underworlds uses custom symbol dice split into two sets:
- Attack dice show hammer, critical, support and blank faces. Hammers and criticals are your successes; a critical typically beats an ordinary defence result.
- Defence dice show dodge, shield, critical and blank faces. Dodge and shield each resist different kinds of attack, and a defender’s critical is the top defensive result.
Each fighter’s card lists how many attack dice a given action rolls and how many defence dice the target rolls, along with which symbol the attack looks for. Because success is measured in matching more of the right symbols than your opponent, the number of dice on each side — and any bonuses to them — is what really decides a fight.
The attack sequence
An attack action resolves as a quick duel of dice:
| Step | What you roll |
|---|---|
| 1. Roll attack dice | The attacker rolls the dice listed for the action, counting hammers or criticals (whichever the weapon uses) as successes. Support from nearby friendly fighters can add to the tally. |
| 2. Roll defence dice | The defender rolls their dice, counting dodge or shield results (whichever applies) plus any critical as their successes. |
| 3. Compare | If the attacker’s successes beat the defender’s, the attack lands. A critical usually outranks a matching number of ordinary results, so a single crit can swing a close roll. |
| 4. Resolve damage | A successful attack deals its listed damage; a fighter whose wounds are exhausted is taken out of action, often handing the attacker glory. |
The support mechanic is what makes Underworlds a positioning game: fighters standing next to the combatants lend extra successes, so where your models are on the board changes the odds before any die is rolled.
Glory, objectives and the two decks
Underworlds is not scored on kills but on glory points, earned mainly by completing objective cards from your deck — scoring goals like holding ground, taking out enemies, or achieving a specific board state. Your second deck holds power cards (ploys and upgrades) that bend the rules, boost your fighters or disrupt your opponent. Building these two decks well is half the game: a warband is only as good as the objectives it can reliably score and the gambits that support its plan.
How a game plays out
A game runs over a few rounds. Each round, players alternate taking activations with their fighters — moving, attacking, charging or using an action — and at the round’s end score any objectives they have met and refresh their hand of power cards. Because activations alternate and glory is scored in bursts, tempo and timing matter enormously: scoring the right objective at the right moment often beats winning the fight.
Winning and effective strategy
- Score glory, don’t chase kills. Objectives win games. Kills only help when they feed an objective you can actually score this round.
- Build a coherent deck. Pick objectives your warband can reliably complete, and ploys that support that plan. A pile of powerful-looking cards you can’t trigger scores nothing.
- Use support. Keep fighters adjacent to swing attack and defence dice in your favour. A supported attacker beats an unsupported one on the same dice.
- Control the board. Positioning sets up support, denies enemy objectives and protects your scorers. The hex board is a resource, not just scenery.
- Play the tempo. Time your attacks and card plays to score when it counts. Holding an activation or a gambit for the right moment is often worth more than using it early.
Beginner tips and common mistakes
- Read the symbol, not just the number. An attack looks for a specific face (hammer or crit); rolling lots of the wrong symbol does nothing.
- Criticals break ties in the attacker’s favour. Remember a crit generally outranks ordinary results — it can turn a losing roll into a hit.
- Don’t neglect deck-building. New players focus on the miniatures and lose to a tighter deck. Your cards are as important as your dice.
- Mind your board position. Fighters out of support range are both weaker and easier to kill. Cluster for support, but not so tightly you feed enemy objectives.
- Sets and rules rotate. Warbands and cards change with each season, and tournament formats vary; confirm the current rules and legal cards before a competitive game.
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