Warhammer Open Maastricht 2026

Veni, Vidi, No Vinci!

 

Or, my trip to the Warhammer Open Maastricht 2026, the first ever organised on the mainland of Europe. 

  

But what did I get myself into?  A two day of gaming against some of the best Warhammer Underworlds players in Europe...

 

 But, it gives a good impression of about how hard I will be whoopied at the Worlds in Barcelona...

 

I took my Shadeborn with Blazing Assault / Raging Slayers to the event, in what would be their final outing before desleeving the deck and putting the warband in the cabinet.  They did me proud, but to Worlds I will take Elathain, no matter what the status of the game is by then, first loves and all you know...  

 

Day 0: Let's see where we are!

 

I left on the friday around noon, in what due to traffic would become a 2hr drive.  But Maastricht is only about 100km from my front door.  I reckoned, if you really love the game, you just have to be there, as it is a unique opportunity to have it this close-by after all.  I had booked a studio about 10 minutes walk from the MECC venue, and it had free parking to boot to leave my trusty workhorse behind. 

 

It was located in a calm part of the city, in the suburb Heer, Sher's and Ser's BnB, and after a quick lunch I was off to the venue.

But not without crashing into an aula first where lessons where given, as I had walked into the WRONG building on the university site...

 

 

When I finally arrived, the hall was buzzing as the other events, being Warhammer 40k, Age of Sigmar and Kill team, ran for three days.  

 

And little brother Underworlds was at the side of the hall, as the Heralds watched over the table where the battles would take place tomorrow.

 

 

I picked up my Swag Box, and of course did a little unboxing afterwards as well, and spend my voucher to get the limited t-shirt from the event as a souvenir.  The Swag Box though, not really anything usefull for me in there.

  

 

The first disappointment was at the bar, they didn't get stock in for the Boltgun Pale Ale, so I took the next best thing I found instead.

  

And then my buddy Nico arrived, who would be playing Elathain's Soulraid with Blazing Assault and Pillage and Plunder, so we sat down for a warm-up game.  Which I duly lost 20 to 15, not a great start for the weekend, and the wiffed attack rolls would come to haunt me. 

  

 

In the evening, we went to a greek restaurant in Heer, Elias, for a good meal, and then it was time to wrap up day 0 and tuck under the sheets.

 

Day 1: The Maastricht Open Grand Clash!

  

And then the big day arrived, the first of the two day event with a Golden Ticket and Aircharges on the line.  After grabbing the obligatory club cap from the bag, it was time to walk the halways of the MECC to the venue.

 

And my first game was against Jaroslaw Kwasniewski, who also happens to be the reigning World Champion of Underworlds.  Talk about an entry to your first ever Warhammer Open game... He played Rippa's Snarfangs with Deadly Synergies and Blazing Assault.

 

I actually won the first round, going 25-16, but then in the second my attacks failed and a 6-16 loss was my part.  We went into round 3, and just like in round 1 I managed to table him.  But a few bad card draws had stuck me early with Annihilation (which I scored in the end), but denied me my surges for some more glory along the way and I still lost 19 to 21.  Still, glad I wasn't totally trashed and the game ended after 3 rounds on 48 to 53 (as we miscounted, it was actually 50 to 53)!

 

 For round 2 I was paired against Luba K, who was there with her son, from Austria.  She played Ylthari's Guardians with Cataclysm and Pillage and Plunder, and here I learned for the first time of how impactfull Utter Conviction is now against my Raging Slayers.

 

Those 4 dice on shields are very hard, if not to say as good as impossible, for my warband to overcome, and this results in after cannoning them one last fighter, before being munched through piecemeal.  I managed to win round one with 27-20, before going down 16-19 in the second.  So another third game, and now I luckily went through the Conviction early on, grabbing a 23-10 win in the final round and at least I wouldn't end the tournament with 0 wins.  The final result as such came down to 49-66.

 

Round three paired me against Jacek Jasinski, who brought Borgit's Beastgrabbaz with Deadly Synergies and Countdown to Cataclysm.

 

And this game, I really started to hate Utter Conviction.  Twice it saved him from being wiped, the first time Ugluk on a measly wound fleeing away (because the move booster), the second time the same, but now it was a goblin who could bunker up.  As a result, I lost both games, respectively with 17-18 and 18-19, so a lot of cursing was done.  Four dice defence shields and counting flanks as being united for being the last man standing, it was just to much for my poor ladies.  A close 35-37 loss was my part after two games.

 

To give an indication, at this point I was 29th in the ranking, but had scored more glory and only 2 less differential from the guy at the lead at that moment.  Where my losses deserved? Of course, but at least I learned I can stand my own against some top echelon players as well like Jaroslaw.

 

 

But during this game, the judges approached me.  I was somehow selected for the Showcase of the Underworlds event, being amongst the 8 bands picked for the best painted price.  And then I was judged by some people who really know how to hold a brush (ofc I didn't win btw, it was Honza's Dread Pageant who deservedly took the trophy).  had I won that, I would have ran butt-naked through the venue...

 

Time for some fries afterwards, and off to bed as it was very late.  And day 2 would become very, very special...

 

Day 2: The Mutiny!

 

Okay, so this probably never happened on a Warhammer Open. After arriving at the venue having already loaded my car, and some breakfast, the polish and czech players approached us.  The organisation wasn't optimal, and they started what we laughingly called The Mutiny.  Everyone that wanted was asked to drop, and a new, 5 round best of 1 tournament would be held instead of 2 rounds best of 3.  That way, you got more opportunities to meet new players, and it wouldn't interfere with the players for the Golden Ticket anyways.

 

 

Now, I'm not going to type it all, but here is the whole Discord explanation of what excatly happened, and why they proposed this.  Please mind, it was talked over with the TO and the judges, it's not like it was a bloody revolution with shouts and snarls, but The Mutiny sounds better then "let's play some casuals in another format then the schedule states". 

 

Anyways, after considering it for a long time, in the end I decided to go for it.  It's not like I could be doing much anyways, and I rather had the shorter breaks between games then playing 2 hours, wait 2 hours thing.

 

And round 1 paired me against... Jacek again!  Could my ladies get revenge?

 

Well, no, not at all, they weren't even awake, missing attack after attack even with 4 and 5 dice.  So it was a short affair, and losing 10 to 15 as a result.

 

For round 2, I came against Michael Kisly from the Staggerers blog, and he brought Cyreni's Razors with Hunting Grounds and Countdown to Cataclysm to the table.

 

And once more Utter Conviction saved him, as he had one remaining fighter with a single wound thanks to Great Fortitude left in the end, who ran away to the other side of the board in the final activations.  In the end, I lost 15-16, another close one none the less.

 

Round 3 put me against a relative new player, Gijs Timmer, who brought The Grandfather's Gardeners with Countdown to Cataclysm and Emberstone Sentinels.

 

Now, this is a band I know how to play against, working his clock in his own disfavour to prevent the 3 damage strikes and making the heals negatable.  My leader managed to overcome Utter Conviction for once on his final model, and it became a 27-6 victory for the assassination squad.

 

For the 4th game, I was paired against Filip Karkowski who brought Kamandora's Blades with Wrack and Ruin as well as Countdown to Cataclysm.

 

And you can by now already guess what happened I think.  I cannonaded through the band in round 1, and then the Utter Conviction goes up and one survives while my ladies kept going down to counter attacks.  The result was an 11-14 loss for the game, so yet again a close defeat due to the one card shutting down my possible big scorers.

 

So that brought us to the 5th and final game for the event, and it was Timothy Lemmon from Thunderworlds, the guys who organise the monthly tournament at Warhammer World.  He had brought The Exiled dead with a pairing of Blazing Assault and Deadly Synergies.

 

Now, this is one warband I don't fear thanks to my teleport shennanigans, and he soon found himself without his leader and Marcov, even though it had costed me both Sylarc and Valyssa to get those initial hits in.  But an inspired Slythael and an inspired Drusylla with a cleave upgrade was just to much, and they mowed through the remaining minions, scoring a 24-12 victory to round out the weekend.

 

This all resulted in a 16th place on 29 registred players in the end, not the greatest of results, but seeing how many times I faced Countdown to Cataclysm, it could have been far, far worse...

 

Conclusion

 

And that was Warhammer Open Maastricht 2026, a great fun event, some strange things taking place on day 2, and even though I lost more then I won (that has been ages I must say), I could live with it.  I was afraid I would be smacked around like a ping-pong ball, but it wasn't that bad at all, and I am looking forward to Worlds to see the people again.

 

Now to build something to counter Utter Conviction and go get some revenge at the next tournament, which will be in Halle the 13th of june.  In the crypts of a church, so I am grabbing a Death warband for certain and bite some people.  Hard.  I need to bump up my statisctics again a little lol...