Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault – Eyes of the Nine

Along with Zarbag's Gitz the Eyes of the Nine were released late 2018. Introducing the followers of Tzeentch to the game. Therefore adding after two warbands devoted to Khorne and the undivided Godsworn Hunt, another part of the pantheon of chaos.

The warband of the Eyes of the Nine is a supplement for Warhammer Underworlds (Nightvault) and costs 22.50 EUR. It is available without the cards as an Easy-to-Build kit for 20 EUR. The 6 models come in two light-blue plastic sprues and come with a card deck and instructions for assembly.

The card deck covers 65 cards, 6 cards for the warband itself, 29 are unique cards for the Tzeentch warband and 31 universal cards (split across objectives, upgrades and ploys) to be used with any Warhammer Underworlds warband.

The sprues are pre-coloured as mentioned above, in a blue colour, that is usually associated with Tzeentch. Casting is good and the sprues are very well used. All the Underworlds miniatures are push-fit, so you do not need glue to assemble them.

Vortemis the All-seing is the heavy mutated leader of the Eyes of the Nine, and as a devoted champion of Tzeentch a potent mage as well. Why the Eyes of the Nine? It is the sacred number of the changer of ways (8 for Khorne, 7 for Nurgle and 6 for Slaanesh). Champions of Tzeentch often have bird-like mutations. Vortemis, with his stork legs and one feathered arm / wing, is a very up-to-date interpretation of the design, that has been around since the old Realm of Chaos miniatures / publications. For him to be inspired, he needs to successfully cast a spell with a range of 3 or more.

The retinue of Vortemis is diverse. The Tzaangor K'charik is his bodyguard. Beastmen are not just beastmen within the Warhammer World, as beasts of chaos they are often granted mutations like the other followers of the dark gods. Along with the separation of the different kind of beastman, into fray (the smallest of the beastman, often without or just tiny horns), gors (the regular beastmen) and bestigors (the strongest among them), they got their individual names if a specific god of chaos blessed them. So creating Khorngors of the Blood God, Pestigors of father Nurgle, the lesser known Slaangors of the Keeper of Secret and Tzaangors, like K'charik, for the Changer of Ways.

K'charik's design picks up the elements of birds and Tzeentch again, with longer legs and a muzzle that is beak like. For him to be inspired, a spell needs to cast in an adjacent hex, so stating his function as a bodyguard or close warden to Vortemis.

Similar to the chaos god specific beastman, Tzeentch does not have simple chaos marauders but Kairic Acolytes. They worship the architect of faith and usually wear masks with a moon like shape. Narvia and Turosh are male and female acolytes with curved blades and shields, and dynamic / sprinting poses. Beside their close combat attack, they are able to cast a lightning bolt with a range of 3, once they successfully attack you with that, they get inspired.

The Blue Horror and Brimstone Horrors are actually one character in two different states. The blue horror is summoned by Vortemis and once the Blue Horror is slain, he gets replaced by the Brimstone Horror, once the Brimstone Horror is defeated, can be placed by Vortemis as a Blue Horror. So quite a bit of endurance in these little guys. In the old Warhammer setting, there were only pink and blue horrors. Once you've defeated the pink one, it split into two blue horrors. So your enemy became larger, until you could actually decimate them. With Age of Sigmar an even smaller, last step with the Brimstone Horrors was introduced.

And the Eyes of the Nine, in their all-seeing glory. Including both conditions of the Horrors.

Take a look at the scale of these models, they are quite large and solid 32mm if not above. Vortemis is a huge Champion of Tzeentch, just look in comparison with the old ones from metal. The Blue Horror is much more compact than the old or "regular" Horrors from the Warhammer / AoS range.

As mentioned with the review on Mollog's Mob, the Underworld Community page received an update with Nightvault and now covers a Deck Builder, where you can take a look into all the cards from this supplement. The deck build section got updated as well, but currently only covers recommendations for the decks from both starter kits, Shadespire and Nightvault.

The Eyes of the Nine are a fast moving warband, with a couple of ranged attacks. This should give you the ability to control the board, either by holding the objectives or picking off most of the enemy units, trying to claim those. The Horror can be summoned on a starting hex of your liking (even the ones in enemy territory), so that can be used to irritate or annoy your opponent.

Deceiving your enemy and changing the fate of the game, as you would expect it from a Tzeentch warband, is actually possible. There are plots like Bound by Fate or Deceitful Step, that let you rearrange your own models on the board. As they are capable of dealing damage, but rather squishy with mostly 2 wounds, so these escape options are helpful but could be used for example to bring in K'charik as a heavy hitter, after the other already "tenderized" the enemy with spells or ranged attacks.

This gives the warband a quite powerful edge, not drop-dead easy to handle but not that difficult to master, so a recommendation for more experienced beginners or players with moderate knowledge.

Conclusion
As I was already very satisfied with the composition of Zarbag's Gitz, so am I with this warband. It has a really nice feel of the old Realm of Chaos warbands, with an aspiring Champion of Chaos including a retinue. With Tzeentch and Khorne already being covered, I am really looking forward to see the two other chaos gods introduced, maybe with the next or next two seasons of Underworlds.

The Eyes of the Nine are well designed with great looking miniatures. An interesting project to try out some crazy or unusual paint themes. Beside the blues of Tzeentch, you could give some interesting metallics or glaces a try, and as this is a small warband, it gives you an easy to handle scope, that you do not have to recreate for regiments of 10s or 20s (at first, it is up to you to mop up a whole army from this).

For my taste, they really caught the feeling of magic / Tzeentch with this warband. I am repeating myself, from my point of view, this one and Zarbag's Gitz are the best looking and most Warhammer warbands of the second season of Underworlds.

Warhammer Underworlds is a brand by Games Workshop.