Embergard Quick
Reference Guide
Setup
Muster Warbands - Pick a Warband and deck. Separate the deck into Power and Objective decks, place them face
down, place a generic marker on each of the Warscroll abilities.
Starting Hand - Shuffle the Power and Objective cards separately, Draw 5 Power and 3 Objective cards
This is your starting hand. Optional you may redraw one time, the same amount of cards of the same type,
discarded cards are shuffled back into the corresponding deck.
Determine Territories - Players roll-off. The winner picks a side of the game board, and which territory belongs to them
Treasure Tokens - The player who did not pick the territory, shuffles the feature tokens, and places 1 token number side
down in a empty hex in neutral territory. Players then alternate placing feature tokens, each player must have a
minimum of 1 feature token in each players territory. Once all tokens are placed, flip them,
tokens showing the numbers are Treasure Tokens.
Tokens cannot be placed on. starting hexes, blocked hexes, stagger hexes, edge hexes, or within 2 hexes of another
feature token
Deploy Fighters - Starting with the player that placed the last feature token, the players take turns placing 1 fighter into an
empty starting hex in friendly territory. Players continue until all units are deployed.
Starting Hexes - Hexes that contain the Warhammer Underworlds symbol ( ) are starting hexes.
’
Edge Hexes - The outermost hexes around the edge of the battlefield are edge hexes.
Blocked Hexes - Hexes with a thick white border are blocked hexes. Fighters cannot move into or
through blocked hexes and these hexes block visibility ’
Stagger Hexes - Hexes with a thick red border are stagger hexes. If a fighter enters
’
or is placed in a stagger hex, give them a Stagger Token © Games Workshop Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Starting hex
© Games Workshop Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Edge hex
Occupied Hexes - A hex that contains a fighter is an occupied hex
Empty Hexes - If a hex is not occupied or blocked, it is an empty hex.
Blocked hex Stagger hex
THE RIVALS DECKS
Before a game of Warhammer Underworlds, each player picks a 32-card
Rivals deck consisting of 12 Objective cards (the gold cards), which dictate Mastery
how they score Glory points, and 20 Power cards(the red cards), which give Take & Hold
them access to powerful abilities to turn the battle in their favor.
©GW 2024
The Nemesis Deck 1
Flex
- Choose 2 Rivals decks: No deck or card duplication allowed.
3/32
Strike
You can only choose 1 Plot Card between these 2 decks. Flex - Pillage & Plunder
- Objective Deck: Choose 12 Objective cards from your chosen Rivals decks. Take & Hold - Emberstone Sentinels
©GW 2024
Strike - Blazing Assault, Reckless Fury
Maximum of 6 Surge Objectives. Mastery - Countdown to Cataclysm,
- Power Deck: Choose 20 Power cards from your chosen Rivals decks. Half can be Ploy Cards. 25/32
1 Wrack & Ruin
- Each card in each deck must have a unique name; duplicate cards are not allowed.
1 2 3 4 5
Attack Dice Save Dice
1: Range characteristic
1 3 1 2: Dice symbol Critical Attack Critical Save
C L E AV E 3: Dice characteristic
Rolls of cannot count as successes in the Save roll. 4: Damage characteristic Hammer Shield
ENSNARE
5: Weapon ability runemarks
Swords Dodge
Rolls of cannot count as successes in the Save roll. CRITICAL
BRUTAL
WEAPON Flanked Flanked
Rolls of
GRIEVOUS
and cannot count as successes in the Save roll. ABILITIES
Critical Weapon
5
Surrounded Surrounded
abilities are chosen
at ghter’s weapon has +1 Damage for that Attack. in the same way as
STAGGER other Weapon
If the Attack was successful, give the target a Stagger token. abilities and have a
special effect,
GRAPPLE but that effect only triggers if the Attack roll
If a target can be driven back, they can be pushed 1 hex instead. contains 1 or more rolls of Critical Attack
combat phase COMBAT PHASE SEQUENCE
GAME SEQUENCE Player 1 Turn 1 Player 1 Turn 2 Player 1 Turn 3 Player 1 Turn 4
Combat Phase Combat Phase Combat Phase Determine
End Phase End Phase Final End Phase The Victor
Player 2 Turn 1 Player 2 Turn 2 Player 2 Turn 3 Player 2 Turn 4
ROLL-OFFS DETERMINE WHO TAKES FIRST TURN
♦ beats results of each other symbol. At the start of each battle round, the players roll-off. The winner decides who will take
♦ beats results of , and . the first turn in that combat phase. the other player draws 1 Power card and adds it to
♦ beats results of and . their hand. Additionally, in battle rounds 2 and 3, if the result of the roll-o is a tie, the
underdog wins. If one player has fewer Glory points than their opponent, they are the
♦ beats results of .
Underdog. Certain abilities can only be used if a player is the underdog.
Action Step
A player’s turn has two steps: an Action step followed by a Power step. After a Power step, the current turn ends and the next turn begins.
Core abilities:
1. Attacks: Player Picks a Weapon Ability, If the weapon picked has 1 or more Weapon abilities, then the attacker’s player can pick 1
Weapon ability to use during the Attack (see reverse of page).
2. Make Attack Roll: the attacker’s player rolls a number of Attack dice equal to the Dice characteristic of the weapon they picked.
3. Make Save Roll: The target’s player rolls a number of Save dice equal to the target’s Save characteristic.
Core Abilities
1
Common abilities all players have access to. Must be used in the Action step. Unless granted by cards or warscrolls
- Move - A friendly unit can enter an adjacent empty hex up to the move characteristic. Must end in a hex other than starting,
give it a move token
- Charge - Pick a friendly fighter with no Move or Charge tokens. Remove that fighter’s Guard tokens, if any. After that fighter has
Moved, give that fighter a Charge token instead of a Move token. when that fighter Attacks. After that fighter has Attacked, that
fighter has Charged.
- Guard - Pick a friendly fighter to use this ability. Give that fighter a Guard token.
- Focus - Discard any # of cards from your hand. Draw a replacement card of the same type and quantity. Draw 1 additional Power card.
Additional Combat Sequence Abilities
- Drive Back: Push the target 1 hex away from the attacker
If the number of successes in an Attack Roll is equal to or greater than the number of successes in the Save roll
- Overrun: Push the attacker 1 hex. that push must end in the hex the target was in.
If an Attack roll contains more critical rolls, than the Save roll, the target is driven back or slain
- Stand Fast: The attacker’s weapon has -1 Damage for that attack and the target cannot be driven back
If the Save roll make for the target contains more critical rolls than the Attack Roll
Counting Successes:
- Attack roll: Count results that match the Dice symbol (see below) of the weapon you picked, or a Critical Attack, if the target is Flanked and/or Surrounded
- Save roll: Count results that match the Dice symbol (see below) of the targets save, a Critical Save, or if the target is Flanked and/or Surrounded
- Flanked: a unit is Flanked if 1 enemy unit is adjacent to it, other than the attacker.
- Surrounded, if 2 or more enemy’s are adjacent to a unit, it is Surrounded
- Stagger Tokens: You can re-roll 1 dice in an Attack roll if the target has any Stagger tokens.
- Guard Tokens: Shield and Dodge dice rolls are successes if the target has a Guard Token
Power Step
Players take it in turns to do one of the following, starting with the player whose Power step it is After both players pass in succession,
the Power step ends and the next turn begins
- Play a Power card from their hand
- Use an ability on their warscroll
- Delve - If a friendly unit is on a feature token, Flip that token over, give the unit a Stagger token, if the token is a treasure token,
it becomes a cover token
-Pass
END PHASE SEQUENCE
1. Score Objective cards: Check each Objective card in your hand. If you have met the conditions on an Objective card,
you can score that card. To do so, reveal it and gain a number of Glory points equal to the Glory value on that card. Then,
place those scored cards face-up next to your Objective deck. is is your scored Objective pile.
2. Equip Upgrades: Play Upgrades (see opposite).
3. Discard cards: You can discard any number of cards from your hand.
4. Draw Objective cards: Draw Objective cards until you have 3 in your hand.
5. Draw Power cards: Draw Power cards until you have 5 in your hand.
Once both players have followed this sequence, both players clear their Move, Charge, Guard and Stagger tokens from the
battle eld and ip their turn tokens over. The end phase is now over and a new battle round begins
Tokens:
● After a move action, give a fighter a move token; they cannot charge.
1 1
● Given after a charge action; this fighter can't act again unless all Damage Turn Glory point Generic tokens Raise
friendly fighters have charge tokens. tokens tokens tokens tokens
● After a guard action, give a fighter a guard token. Both blocks and
evades count in save rolls.
2
● The attacker can re-roll one dice when attacking a fighter with a
2
2
2
stagger token.
Move / Charge Guard / Stagger Feature tokens
tokens tokens
Other Rules
Heal - Some abilities allow you to a fighter. When an ability tells you to heal a fighter, remove 1 damage
token from that fighter.
Charge Token - A fighter with any Charge tokens cannot Move, Attack or Guard unless all friendly fighters
have any Charge tokens.
Bounty - When an enemy fighter is slain, gain a number of Glory points equal to the Bounty characteristic
of the slain fighter.
Slain - If a fighter has a number of damage tokens equal to or greater than their Health characteristic, that
fighter is slain. Immediately remove the slain fighter and their tokens from the battleeld, remove all
tokens from their fighter card and each of their Upgrades, discard that fighter’s Upgrades, and then
Uninspire that fighter.
Inflicting Damage - When a weapon or ability inflicts damage on a fighter, give that fighter a number of
damage tokens equal to the Damage characteristic of the chosen weapon or the amount of damage
specified by the ability. After that damage is inflicted on a fighter, check if that fighter is slain
Flying - Fighters with the flying runemark can move through occupied hexes and are not affected by stagger
hexes while using the Move ability.
Leader - Each warband has one fighter with the leader runemark. Some cards may refer to a warband’s leader.
Sequencing Abilities - If a player has two or more abilities that would be resolved at the same time, they
choose the order in which they are resolved. If two players have abilities that would be resolved at the
same time, the player whose turn it is resolves their abilities first, then their opponent resolves their
abilities afterwards.
Inspire - A fighter may become Inspired by achieving great deeds in the heat of battle. When a fighter meets
the Inspire condition on their warscroll, turn their fighter card over to the golden Inspired side.
Inspired ghters are more formidable and boast better characteristics. Some warscrolls may have an
Uninspire condition. When an Inspired ghter meets this condition, turn their ghter card over to the
grey Uninspired side.
Abilities - Anything a player or a fighter can do is an ability – the most common are Core abilities.
Additional abilities are also found on warscrolls and Power cards.
Surge Abilities - Surge abilities, identified by the Surge symbol, can be played immediately before or
immediately after an event specified by that Surge ability.
Visibility - To check if a hex is visible to a fighter, draw an imaginary straight line from the center of the
hex they are in to the center of the hex in question. If that line passes through or touches one or more
blocked hexes, that hex is not visible to that fighter. Otherwise, that hex and anything in that hex is
visible to that fighter. Fighters do not block visibility. Fighters are visible to themselves.
Who Inflicted Damage? - Sometimes you’ll need to know where damage has been inflicted from. Where
damage is inflicted as part of an Attack, both the attacker and the weapon picked during that Attack
inflicted the damage. If that damage would result in the target being slain, the target has been slain by
the attacker and that weapon. Where damage is inflicted by an ability other than an Attack, that ability
inflicted the damage. If that damage would result in that fighter being slain, that fighter has been slain
by that ability.
Runemarks - are symbols that are associated with certain rules or abilities. Runemarks are typically found
on fighter cards, warscrolls, weapons, Objective cards and Power cards. They are used to identify which
abilities a fighter or a weapon can use – or, in the case of an Objective card, restrict which fighters can
meet its conditions.
INDEX OF RUNEMARKS AND SYMBOLS Leader
Core ability Damage Underdog Stagger Brutal Hammer Dodge
Grievous Shield Flanked Range
Surge Critical Cleave Grapple
Melee attack Swords Ensnare Inspired Fly Ranged attack Surrounded
