Warhammer Underworlds tournament report: The Mines of Alost Golden Ticket event

Yesterday, sunday the 8th of march, saw the first of 3 Golden Ticket qualifier tournaments organised here within the Flemish Underworlds community.  Mines of Alost, hosted at Hermelijn in Aalst.

 

Now this is a venue that suits me it seems, as I won the three events ran there last year, and now we had 12 participants.

 

But not after some morning chaos, as our "bus driver" Peter came down with illness at 5 in the morning, and suddenly everything had to be changed for transportation.  Aaah, nothing but some fun chaos in the early hours.

 

I went there with my Shadeborn warband and a deck of Blazing Assault and Raging Slayers (or as I had dubbed it, my BA/RS-elona deck), and which had performed rather well the previous test games (whom due to timey-wimey stuff will actually be posted later on my YouTube then this tournament, but that is how things work okay lol).

 

And so after the initial round of hello's and what are you playing chats, we where ready to get going for this 5 round tournament Best-of-One.

 

My first round put me against Wouter, whom just had spend an hour in my passenger seat, running Xandire's Truthseekers and the Emberstone Sentinels with Countdown to Cataclysm deck.  It went way to smoothly though, as a quick opening score for taking Taros down, followed by a gang rush on Dhoraz, quickly sealed the deal.  The golden boys (there where no less then 4 warbands of Stormcast today) where cut down 26 to 6.

 

In the second round, I faced Arnaud, who runs the excellent Touche Critique website, and Thorns of the Briar Queen.  The ghosts used the new Nexus of Power deck coupled with Deadly Synergies, but his 2 wound figures where no match for the pure violence, and especially my leader with her Ensnare had a day in the park, resulting in another solid win of 26-4.

 

It was time for the lunchbreak then, and after some McDonalds and the display and voting for the best painted warbands, we got back to the tables.  I'll insert a little clip with the warbands at the very end of this.

 

It was now time to play my number one Fan, Johan (the bloke that gave me the Hrothgorn t-shirt and who provided all the additional pictures for today).  He had brought Blackpowder's Buccaneers with Deadly Synergies and Reckless Fury.  I quickly took down his minions though, leaving the big pirate suffering cut after cut until he fell, and grabbed a 25-5 victory.

  

For the fourth round, it was Simon, who was also in the lead at that moment, with The Headsmen's Curse and Blazing Assault with Deadly Synergies.  I knew I had a single chance, and that was to immediatly "bum rush" his leader before that bloke started one shotting my fragile aelves.  The plan worked however, and from then on it was a clean up job, resulting in a 20-11 win.

 

At this point, I was the only one left at 4-0, but I had a huge glory differential of around +70 at that moment, my next opponent at about +25 at that time, so it seemed safe if not to freaky things happened.

  

And that final opponent was Valentin, who had brought Kamandora's Blades with Blazing Assault and Deadly Synergies.  And this was that typical one game everything stalled.  After an opening hand of 5 upgrades, I mulliganed into 4 upgrades and a single ploy... and then the bloody dog refused to die for 4 attacks straight over the game, letting cards like Strong Start sit dead in my hand while my aelves started to fall to the renewed bleeding effect.  Luckily, I had to lose something like 26 to 0 or so or I would have been in serious trouble, and the aelves scored something left and right (including that five times cursed dog) to only suffer a 12 to 20 defeat.

 

As a result, we ended with 4 people at 4-1 (and my little apprentice I learned the game a few months ago grabbing third spot in the end) with the glory differential being the decider. As a result, I grabbed the Golden Ticket, with a differential of still +63 (I had scored 109 glory over the day in total, and like in Halle the only one to break the 100 scored Glory barrier), while Valentin in second had +42.  

 

As such, the full results of Mines of Alost came in like this:

 

1. Tomsche - The Shadeborn - 4/1 + 63 

 

2. Valentin - Kamandora's Blades - 4/1 + 42

 

3. Tom - Emberwatch - 4/1 + 26

 

 

4. Simon - The Headsmen's Curse - 4/1 + 20

5. Wouter - Xandire's Truthseekers - 3/2 -13

 

6. Nicolas - The Shadeborn - 2/3 - 1

 

 

7. Niels - Hexbane's Hunters - 2/3 - 6

8. Thibaud - Mollog's Mob - 2/3 - 6

9. Johan - Blackpowder's Buccaneers - 2/3 - 36

10. Arnaud - Thorns of the Briar Queen - 2/3 - 44

 

11. Wim - Ironsoul's Condemnors - 1/4 + 5

12. Philip - Xandire's Truthseekers - 0/5 - 50

  

This gave me some fantastic loot with another Embergard glass trophy, the certificate as well as the new Liege Kavalos on War Chariot for Age of Sigma.  No aelves, but that box goes straight in my price support pile for next year's Spearhead tournament! 

 

And Thibaud took home the Best Painted with his Mollog's Mob, that's his second time best painted now in a row!

 

 

 

So, the conclusion on decks for today was that Deadly Synergies is the new go to deck, as I had told my friends back before the Halle tournament already.  It is a solid deck, and has taken the place as the go-to building block after the age of Countdown to Cataclysm and then Pillage and Plunder (which was only featured in a single deck today).

 

On a personal level, of course I'm happy I will get to experience the Worlds for once, and a Belgian will make it there at last.  But for the coming months, with the pressure totally of the boiler now, and building competitive decks and warbands is not needed (we get 2 FAQ's and a new boxed set before Worlds anyways, so everything will change big again by then), I'm going to lay back and play some other warbands I painted up for my aelves collection, and do some weird deck combo's of decks I usually don't play.  Yeah, perhaps even you, Realmstone Raiders!

 

This will also get me to play some other people I usually don't run into at tournaments, which is a hearty change of pace, as well as some other game systems at the club now that I don't need to play training friday's or go on a "euro tour" to try and qualify!

 

But in true "turbo aggro" that I so love to play... I probably got a speeding ticket on the way home... 

The Haul Report 432: it's Warhammer Underworlds price support time!

 Welcome to another episode of the Haul Report, and this time it is almost all about Warhammer Underworlds.

 

Because I have been buying up lot's of stuff from members of our local flemish community, in order to fil up my pool for future Into the Under-Ekeren tournaments.

 

The first haul came from Billie, who still had a heap of sealed dice sets and sleeve packs lying around, as well as a Champions of Dreadfane boxed set.  I love those dice and sleeves, they are great prices for the Paticipation Raffle and Least Glory Points categories I tend to include in my tournaments.

 

Then from Vincent, amongst other stuff, I got some more warbands for the price support pool.

 

 

 

 

And then the Vinted hauls started to come in, with more sets of dice, figures and sleeves alike!  I also obtained a box of Kamandora for the pool, which came with the spanish version of Reckless Fury, so that one will go back onto Vinted though... and recuperate some of the price of the bought support. 

 

Of course, I also treated myself to some thingies for Underworlds, like first of all Ylthari's Guardians, the one aelven band i still missed for some reason (well, the reason that I never bought them before) and I also bought from Vincent above.

 

As well as the new Nexus of Power deck that came from StartSpeler. 

 

So, that is a lot of goodies for the piles! 

The final training evening before Mines of Alost 2026

 And there we have it, only a few days before the first Golden Ticket qualifier here in Flanders, and I am in a bit of an arrrrgh place.

 

I've build a deck for my Shadeborn, which worked fine, but was build around the re-rolls of Raging Slayers and mobility, so basically aiming for "a death by a thousand cuts" style of aggro.

 

And then last update two weeks ago, the whole mechanic of the plot card changed.  I don't want crits to hit possibly harder, I wanted almost guaranteed hits allround...

 

So not sure if I would be playing any role the coming sunday, I went to the weekly wednesday meeting to give it a try in the current form and see if something could be salvaged out of it still...  

 

My first game was against Wim and his Xandire's Truthseekers, who with their Pillage and Plunder / Deadly Synergies combo had been running amok on the evenings I heard. 

 

The cards where drawn, both bands deployed, as I opted to set up deep and rely on my speed and teleport to get where I wanted. 

  

The initial actions where undertaken by both ranged fighters, Sylarc both shooting and pinging with Dark Lamprey on Dhoraz.  My plan was to take him and his grievous out without damaging the others,as against Stormcast bands, and especially these ones, it's better to overload one instead of slightly damaging a few.  They tend to attack pretty accurately, and being armoured with only a cape of smoke isn't cutting it then.  

 

Dhoraz came forward as his leader moved back for safer places, attacking Valyssa with his huge hammer.  But she stuck a Knife in His Heart... 

  

...and Slythael moved in and finished him off, bringing down the first of the tin cans.

  

Xandire herself, supported by Taros, came forward and attacked Slythael though...

  

... and my valiant leader was duly finished off by Luxa as a result.

 

The first round ended, but the Shadeborn where 7-5 in the lead, though still hadn't gotten the numerical advantage.

 

The second round started furiously though, and the combined attacks of Valyssa (long live the crit inspire with new Slayers, at least she benefits greatly from it) and Sylarc (somehow my most accurate one), brought down Xandire.  As I had refrained from damaging his other models, this meant his double heal was wasted as a result.

 

 The game turned into a to and forth in the middle of the board, as everyone of my crazed Khainites where out to draw blood.

 

 Taros retreated to the back of the field to go delving, in order to allow him to score objectives instead of throwing the bird in for a mild attack.  And as a result, it stood 10-9 for the Shadeborn after round 2, but now I had the numbers and my eyes set on the archer...

 

 Charging up like a meatgrinder, Drusylla flew into Luxa, smashing a large piece out of her chest and gravely wounding her.

 

And while she was severly injured in return, Sylarc sneaked up and put a knife in the back of her neck, ending the Stormcast, though she did wound Drusylla still in her dying throws.

 

 This left only Taros on the field, who went on guard.  Valyssa charged the bird... 

 

...but it made good it's escape.

 

 However, as it failed to finish Drusylla, she brought down her coffeemill of a grinder down on the beast, ending it and allowing me to score both Unrelenting Massacre as well as Annihilation, giving the Truthseekers a crushing 21-13 defeat.  And I hadn't even used my teleport during the game...

 

For the second game, it is the kings of the current aggro elite, and also fielding Blazing Assault with Raging Slayers: Ironsoul's Condemnors piloted by Nico, who now basically auto-inspire every activation...

 

We both deployed aggressively, and initial blows where quickly exchanged, Tavian going after Valyssa while Drusylla went for my main target: Brodus, who would even inspired remained on one shield.

 

 The big guy came forward injuring Slythael, who returned the favour before Sidestepping out of range hopefully of the others, but forcing him to use a heal on the hammer guy.

 

Ironsoul herself came forward, and she smashed Sylarc to the floor with her hammer, making him the first casualty of the game.

 

And so round one ended with a hefty 4-8 lead already for the Condemnors, who where also all inspired.

 

But so where a couple of mine, and Slythael finished the big hammer off.  He didn't have a shield, so Nico couldn't put my Cleave off, which helps greatly. 

 

In a battle of leading ladies, Slythael was taken out in return by Gwynneth herself.

 

Valyssa put a lethal dagger into her though, bringing her immediatly to vunerable status.

 

Drusylla came flying in, carried on Wings of War, and with the re-roll from the Wayward Hex made her attack against the guarded Ironsoul, but failing to finish her.

 

 However, in a desperate attempt, Valyssa wanted to put her 1 damage Cleave dagger into his leader.  She put off the Cleave ability, but even guarded failed to save the one hit with two dice, and Ironsoul fell to a sneaky knife in the dark.

 

The second round came to an end, and the Shadeborn had scored massively, taking the lead now with 13-12 over the Condemnors.  Now it was one healthy Stormcast against two Grievous wielding ladies...

 

And while he was first wounded by Valyssa before finishing her off, the coffeegrinder called Drusylla came crashing in, and decapitated the Eternal with a flurry of strikes.  The game ended with a 23-14 victory as I focussed through my objectives for my big scorers.

 

So, won both games, both times against Stormcast warbands, and both times tabling them completely AND scoring both Unrelenting Massacre and Annihilation... maybe the deck still functions after all.

 

I must say, Valyssa benefits greatly from the new plot, as would her inspired three swords hit, she can use the crit to use Grievous every time, effectively giving the fragile aelven assassins two three damage attackers.  I even never used Twist the Knife in either game...

 

Now let's see if it will work out on Mines of Alost in the first hunt for a Golden Ticket...