Welcome to another (shorter) installment of Starting Hex, a series about Warhammer Underworlds. I’m coming at this game as a relative newcomer with a focus on improving my gameplay, building communities, and a maybe even painting some models. Let’s roll off and get started.
Warhammer Underworlds Is Not Dead
I’ll be honest. This feels like a weird topic to write about. I ultimately decided it was worth it due to the frequency in which I see it brought up in discussions online so buckle in for a ride!
“Underworlds is being cancelled!” has been a topic of conversation in the online space for the game for the last few months. The best I can tell, there are three catalysts leading to this mantra being repeated time and time again. While I understand why some folks would latch onto these reasons and have doubts about the future of the game, I ultimately don’t think it’s a reasonable concern.
The first cause of worry is the relative silence in terms of releases that the game has had in the last approximately half year. The last product released for Underworlds was Wintermaw, which came out in April – it’s been about five months since then, and going off the (rough) seasonal schedule the game has followed we would have expected at least a warband and Rivals deck to have been released by now, if not two of each. Folks are eagerly watching Warhammer Community on the weekend in hopes of seeing a preorder page for some warband or deck to finally be revealed but so far there hasn’t been a peep.
I’m no expert on global shipping or production, but it doesn’t take one to realize that international shipping and production has been varying degrees of fucked up for the last few years. We’re not quite in the 2020/2021 levels of toilet paper shortages, but the effects of those times are still felt today. This is evident with other GW games, even – Kill Team players had to wait nearly six months between the announcement and release of the Mandrakes and Night Lords models in Kill Team: Nightmare. Heck, they still aren’t out as individual releases and it’s been nearly a year (Update: Preorder for these dudes went up over the weekend, but I’m standing by my statement because they’re technically not out still)!
Another bit of fuel to this fire is an unsubstantiated rumor from a corner of the Internet. The strong “my uncle works at Nintendo and told me” vibes emanating off of the pile of rumors are enough that I’m not going to go into any detail aside from saying one of the many bullets listed was something about Underworlds being canned by GW. None of these other predictions have borne any fruit, but this one particular line has really wormed itself into the mind space of a portion of this game’s community.
There’s no denying Underworlds is a niche game under the giant Games Workshop umbrella, and as such it doesn’t get nearly as much face time as the juggernauts like 40k or Age of Sigmar do. Even when operating under full steam, there’s only a handful of Underworlds related releases every year but they (usually) are at least spread out for a consistent drip feed. The dry spell of five months with no product release or announcement has people champing at the bit to get something…
… which we did. There was a FAQ & Errata/Designer Commentary released in mid-August. That wasn’t even been a month ago. This was a fairly impactful update that brought some over-performing cards in line and was well received. This targeted update was a clear indication that at least some folks over at GW are actively monitoring the game’s health and working to improve it. To me, it doesn’t feel like a company would spend the time to write/produce/distribute rules updates for something that’s halfway into the recycling bin.
The final cause of concern about the long term health of the game came about when Games Workshop teased their roadmaps that were going to be revealed at NOVA. They listed a series of games that would have coverage – Warhammer 40k, Age of Sigmar, Horus Heresy, and The Old World were all called out by name. Of note, Underworlds wasn’t listed and fans of the game responded directly to the social media posts asking for clarification. The rogue intern GW provided an answer and let us all know that there wouldn’t be any news of Underworlds at NOVA. Wailing and gnashing of teeth followed…
… only for Games Workshop to apparently change their mind, potentially due to the vocal support and interest in the game (that’s what I’m telling myself, at least). They added in a short segment during the NOVA Previews to directly address the concerns of the playerbase about the near term health and support of the game. It wasn’t much – only a few sentences in as many seconds – but it was there. In it, Games Workshop assured us that 2024 will have more warbands released, and in 2025 they “will continue to build up those factions.” Check out the stream (timestamp 00:43:26) for some dramatically lit Skinnerkin and reassurances that the game isn’t going anywhere in the near future.
What If I’m Wrong?
All that said, I’m just a dude who enjoys the game and has no insight into the business decisions of Games Workshop. I would certainly like for the game to stick around longer – I have only been playing for around a year and I want to spend a lot more time with this system. I know it has depth far beyond what I’ve discovered in my ~100 games at the time of writing, and I am thoroughly enjoying my time exploring and coming to grips with it. My optimism could be misplaced. Maybe a day after I write this, Games Workshop announces that Underworlds is going to go hang out in the same club as Mordheim and Battlefleet Gothic.
You know what? I can’t do anything about that. You can’t do anything about that. Whipping people up into a panic over a Wish.com Nostradamus prediction doesn’t help anything and can detract from the enjoyment and health of the playerbase. What we can do is continue to play the game and foster the incredible community that has grown up around it. If you enjoy the game, keep enjoying it. Talk it up, run demos for people, coordinate meet ups at your LGS, and let’s try to grow the scene. That is something we can all do to increase the odds of the ULTIMATE COMPETITIVE MINIATURES GAME to stay kicking around for a long time.
September 12th Update
While writing this article, we have recently been teased with a very interesting message hidden in an Age of Sigmar word search. While I am slightly annoyed I didn’t get to get this out beforehand and act all vindicated with this teaser for who-knows-what, I will gladly accept further proof that GW isn’t yeeting our beloved game into the aether anytime soon.
https://x.com/warhammer/status/1834171410182197519
Additionally, if this is something substantial like a new game mode, new edition, or what have you I would like to speak directly to the prominent members in various online Underworlds communities. We have a chance to have new players checking out the game! This is fantastic! You can’t have a healthy game without a constant influx of new players, and something like a new edition or revamp is the perfect onramp. If someone is curious about the game and they check out a community only to be greeted with pages of people complaining about how the game is dead, or how GW is “obviously” going to remove XYZ aspect of the game when you have nothing to base these speculations on, this is going to be quite the negative first impression. Driving new players away because you can’t stop complaining about the good ol’ days isn’t a good look for the game or for you.
Underworlds has survived various “soft editions” in the past (new formats, new release methods, new rules). There’s nothing to indicate it couldn’t keep surviving future changes and continue to be a rad game.
Whatever the future holds, I look forward to it!
As always, I’d like to extend special thanks to my lovely wife for being herself.
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