Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault – Ylthari’s Guardians

Let's head into the last week of our Warhammer Underworlds Nightvault coverage with the two latest warbands, Yltharis Guardians and Thundrik’s Profiteers. Where as we're starting today with the Sylvaneth boxed set.

This warband supplement for Warhammer Underworlds (Nightvault) costs 22.50 EUR and covers 4 Tree-Revenants. It is available without the cards as an Easy-to-Build kit for 20 EUR. The 4 models are spread across two deep green plastic sprues and come with a card deck and instructions for their assembly.

The card deck covers 64 cards, 4 cards for the warband itself, 29 are unique cards for the Sylvaneth warband and 31 universal cards (split across objectives, upgrades and ploys) to be used with any Warhammer Underworlds warband.

As Ylthari's Guardians are four very pronounced characters, they have a lot of details and have more flowing poses, compared to other models. Them being part Aelves, with flowing hear, and part tree, with roots and stems, makes for a lot of fine details. Mouldlines aren't a big issue, but due to the organic forms a bit more work during the clean up.

Tree-Revenants are noble spirits of the Sylvaneth. They form the leaders and warriors, and often fight in scions. Ylthari is the magic leader of this scion and their soulpod is prisoned within the mirrored city, after the curse of Nagash. Ylthari and her guardians were among the first to rise after the shattering of the Nightvault and are now looking for the lost soulpods of their kin.

The model consists out of four parts, and her roots are more delicate, not just a tree trunk but a netting of thorns, like a thick rose bush. The whole miniature is very flowing, with the long hair and the roots, forming a long skirt. Very great use of the plastic, something that wouldn't be possible with metal miniatures, only with a bit of work in resin.

Ylthari wields a briar staff and is capable to drain life from her enemies. Any action, upgrade or reaction, that would remove a wound token from her, inspires Ylthari. That is the general condition for the whole warband, and can cause inspiration even if the model hasn't lost a wound. What makes Ylthari special is that she each time she casts a spell successfully with at least one (!), she may remove one wound token from herself.

Skhathael is a very aggressive melee combat character. He benefits quite a lot from being inspired, as it boosts his attack to three dice. I like the horns on this model, they are not just horns like from a bull, more like a antlers from a stag. This accentuates the noble and feral nature of the Tree-Revenants. He wields an enchanted great blade, that benefits from Cleave once it is inspired.

Removing the mould lines from the tree branches and leaves was a bit time consuming, and you have to take care, not to break of some of the smaller parts, as they are finely casted. I wouldn't store these in foam, I would magnetise the bases and carry them bound to the ground of a box, without contact to something else.

The tank of the Guardians and another melee chracter is Gallanghann from the Glade. His stats cover an additional wound and shield point, compared to the others, making him a very powerful blocker. He is capable to reflect damage, with a successful defend dice role. I like the large gleve and the small trophy / banner rack between his shoulders. Once he is inspired, he is granted a second special attack by whirling his gleve, causing damage like a wind-mill to any enemy in contact.

Ahnslaine, the second fighter after Ylthari in this warband to have a ranged attack, with their revenant bow. An interesting weapon, as the only other unit from the Sylvaneth actually carrying such, are the Kurnoth Hunters. Once again, a very flowing pose, the bent knee, the extended / stretched arm and her mane flowing, gives the model a great look.

And she's a "Killerqueen", the bow itself just does one damage, but she may attack once again after she has slain an enemy. So this makes her great for picking of weak or already hurt enemies. But it is limited to one additional attack per turn.

The complete set of Ylthari's Guardians, including the small forest spirits on their bases.

These are huge. Aelves are already known for being tall grown, but these Tree-Revenants are really tall miniatures, already from head to toe, but their posture being extended with twigs and branches, makes them even taller. In the second picture you can see them next to a Dark Elf Corsair and a Farstrider, one of the tallest models from the range so far (if you except Mollog).

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.

What are Tree-Revenants and the Sylvaneth? Well, those are not just the new names for the former Wood Elves. All three kind of Elves are combined under Aelves within the Grand Alliance Order. The tree-kin part of the former Wood Elves was singled out as Sylvaneth, and are made up mostly from Spirits and Forest Folks, like Dryads and several kinds of treeman/-elves. And part of the noble spirits are the Tree-Revenants, a dark warrior caste, protecting the woods and tree folk.

As we went briefly into the potential the warband has, it benefits quite a lot from an aggressive game play. The models are quite fast with a movement of four, (Ylathari even five once she is inspired) and capable of dealing quite some damage. Their condition to be inspired, by removing a wound token / healing one, seems a bit odd at first, but after you've taken a look into their deck of cards, you do not just have the healing potion and Ylathari's reaction to trigger them, but Leech Power and Healing Amphora as well.

And this healing will be necessary, as you only have four fighters and loosing one will reflect on your warband much more prominent compared to other, larger warbands. So everything that slows your enemy down, lowers their efficiency to hurt you is a good start.

Conclusion
Where I was amazed with the composition and design of the warbands with Zarbag's Gitz and Eyes of the Nine, this one really is even adding to that raised bar. The models are tall, very interestingly sculpted, with a plastic and flowing pose. They are quite beautiful, but carry a sort of darkness with them, that I really like. Those are not your friendly forest spirits, but some very fitting grim protectors of the wild.

These are part of the new design language, introduced with Age of Sigmar. To be honest, at first, I thought Sylvaneth was just the new name for the Wood Elves, but they are a branch (yeah, tree humour *hue-hue-hue*) of their own and are a quite versatile range. Young of course, so I expect some additions in the future, but already cover a couple of interesting models. Often the Underworlds warbands are a good starting point for a small skirmish warband, but this box makes such a great addition to the Looncurse boxed set, as you would extend the Tree-Revenants with some very interesting character sculpts. Yes, the regular Tree-Revenant kit is a multipart kit, with a lot of options, but the dynamic poses of these four for just 20 EUR makes them very appealing.

I have some tree painting before me myself with the Starplayers for my Halfling Blood Bowl team, so I have quite a vision what potential this kit offers for a painter as well. The contrast of the tree bark and pale skin, with the light green hair is a great paint scheme, but with the broad colour range that nature covers and trees alone have, this bears quite a lot of interesting ground, for a small paint project that you surely could enter in a painting competition.

Warhammer Underworlds is a brand by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.