Warhammer Underworlds tournament report: Benelux Clash IV

 The second of three Golden Ticket tournaments here in Belgium (the previous been Mines of Alost IV, and Into the Under-Ekeren IV being the next one currently), it was time for some Underworlds tournament play!

 

Now, as I won Mines of Alost, there was no pressure at all today, and as such I opted to take a lesser played (but still aelven) warband and a deck I only started to try out recently.

 

So Myari's Purifiers took to the Spitewood, using a deck of Emberstone Sentinels together with Hunting Grounds.  The goal?  Some relaxed playing, ending somewhere in the midfield, and preferably playing some other people then the usual "high table" opponents.  There where XX players at the event this day, so that's once more a nice turn-out, now to hope that one of our community can get the ticket so I don't have to go to Barcelona all alone lol.  If I end around place 7 with a 3-2, I'll be a happy camper.

 

 

  

My only mentionable contributions for today?  Giving pointers to my clubmates, sponsor a warband price for the organiser, and that little thing of providing a venue to play at, as the tournament takes place in our TSA clubhouse where I ran the bar for the first half of the day during the event.

 

 

 

Peter, the organiser, had also brought a whole videorecording setup to the event for table 1, and to that end you will see those games up on the YouTube channel in the near future.

 

My first game was against Quint and Zarbag's Gitz, running Pillage and Plunder combined with Nexus of Power.  It was supposed to be ran before the camera, but I declined the honour as I might be called to the bar during the round.  A closefought game, it came down to the penultimate activation where one of his few remaining grots, an archer, rolled a single crit against my 3 hits without crit.  This made the little guy survive the game, but also blocked my Iron Grasp and Supremacy for a final moment turn around.  It ended as a result at a 12-18 defeat, happens as it was a good fun game.

 

 For the second game, I faced a new attendant to the events, a young guy called Lars and he played well considering the big difference in experience.  It's a pity I botched up the picture as it where nicely painted tablecloths with an attitude facing me, aka the Headsmen's Curse with Blazing Assault and Wrack and Ruin.  But I managed to play around his big hitter, and took away a 19-9 win from the game.

 

Lunch break arrived, so Wouter became the camera man ad interim while the TO went to collect the pizza's, or some who went for sandwiches.

  

That also meant it was time for the voting of the painting competition, with the warbands all on display during the break.

 

 Foodies downed, it was back to the tables and now I faced Patrick, another person I never played before, and Ephilim's Pandemonium with Countdown to Cataclysm and Wrack and Ruin.  I managed to survive the multiple pings and was forced to leave my half to hunt for his leader.  Finally getting him in the second round, it remained a close affair and I dragged a 17-15 over the line in the end.

 

And that put us near the candidates for the Golden Ticket for some reason, facing Tom and his Ironsoul's Condemnors.  They beat me up good in the training games to the event,  so I had low expectations for this one.  But he kept missing his attacks and I kept rolling saves, and it became a very, vcry tense and close affair.  In the end, a missed attack decided the game, as Gwynneth survived and could flee away from Bahannar, resulting in a 13-14 defeat for the aelves.  This could have gone far far worse...

 

For the final game, it was time for the mirror match at last!  As it turned out, Wim had also brought Myari along, with the same deck combo of "not coming over the middle line" Hunting Grounds and Emberstone Sentinels!  One of the most fun games I played in recent times, I actually won this by having a single aelf fall, Ailenn, which meant I could score and ploy in enemy territory being the underdog (really, bring back the old rule for that, this is silly).   Sadly I forgot to take a picture, but at the end of the day I took a 14-9 win.

 

And so, as predicted, I ended 3-2 and between spot 5 to 8, 7th to be precise as the lowest of the group of people scoring 3-2's due to a low glroy differential.  But more importantly, 3 out of my 5 games was against people I never played before (Quint, Lars and Patrick)!  Didn't get to play my traditional opponent Joep though this day, seems if we both enter we usually end up facing off.

 

So that brings us to the full results of the Benelux Clash IV, the first one ran in Belgium:

 

1. Valentin Hornik - Kamandora's Blades: 5-0 diff +33

 

2. Quint van Druten - Zarbag's Gitz: 4-1 diff +20

 

3. Johan De Ryck - Headsmen's Curse: 3-2 diff +23

 

4. Tom Steylaerts - Ironsoul's Condemnors: 3-2 diff +14

5. Patrick Neven - Ephilim's Pandemonium: 3-2 diff +12

6. Joep Nijssen - Jaws of Itzl: 3-2 diff +10

 

7. Tomsche Murrath - Myari's Purifiers: 3-2 diff +10

 

8. Wim Bellemans - Myari's Purifiers: 2-3 diff +1

9.  Nico Van den Winckel - Zarbag's Gitz: 2-3 diff -1

 

 

10. Peter Vanden Bossche - Kamandora's Blades: 2-3 diff -12

11. Wouter Beckers - Xandire's Truthseekers: 2-3 diff -16

 

 

12. Gert D'Hollander - The Thricefold Discord: 2-3 diff -20

13. Lars D'Hollander - Headsmen's Curse: 1-4 diff -21

  

14. Dennis Wilms - Zikkit's Tunnelpack: 0-5 diff - 53

 

And of course there is that final price, the coveted Best Painted.  This was won by Nico for his excellent Zarbag's Gitz, before Gert with the Thricefold Discord.

 

And there we have it, another tournament in the bag and one I could sit back.  Next ones I'll be trying to play competitive again (the Maastricht Open and the Halle event), before Into the Under-Ekeren als a TO will put me back in the relaxed play seat as I have a gazillion things to do then that day.

 

Until the next one! 

The first quarter goals of 2026: an overview

 Well, here we are again, the first quarter of the year has already passed by so let's see where we are at the goals level.

 

But first things first, I managed my big target of getting a Golden Ticket for the World Championships!

 

At the first chance, the Mines of Alost event on the 8th of march, I grabbed it with some good turbo aggro on my Shadeborn, so Barcelona, here I come! 

 

 

And this came with a serious case of "painter's block" which definitly influenced the painting turnout, but also a bit of "soul searching" in the hobby. 

 

You see, shortly into the year, after a rushing deadline to complete my Blood Bowl team, my Shadeborn for Underworlds and work on the Idoneth for Age of Sigmar, it smacked me in the face.  As I realised I didn't even have time to sit down and read a book, something that started last year.  I seemed to spend every moment of free time either to try and sleep, or paint up "towards just another painting deadline", the joy left me a bit.

 

So some serious talks with Noshi and looking at video's of my other hobbies and interests (like themeparks, vintage toys, that sort of stuff) I decided to scale down a bit on the collection, and started eliminating things that wouldn't come round, or which I wouldn't play anyways.   Things like 8th edition (not that I sold my army, but for example the rules), or Underworlds warbands that won't see the light of day as I always end up playing Aelves anyways.  Not that this affected the goals THAT much, only the "painting the remaining warbands" has dropped from 7 remaining to 6 (and as seen below, has been worked on), as I kept Hrothgorn around for the challenge this year.  Though with the new Lumineth band announced last week at Adepticon, it will soon be 7 again...

 

And so that ties us into the painting part of the goals as a result, let's see what we managed to do none the less! 

 

We completed one painting goal already in this first quarter: paint 5 points of Raid level for Babylon 5 ACTA.  So that is one thingy to be scratched off the target list!

 

That of course means there are still several others to be completed, and we are gradually working towards them.  For the paint the remaining (for now) 6 Underworlds warbands, the first one (and who got me my ticket) where completed.

 

On that note, no work has yet to be done on the 500 anniversary White Dwarf or on the Lord of the Rings targets, as other ones are taking precedence right now.  The paint 50 spaceships has been ticking upwards as well, with now 7 out of 50 finished. 

 

Because there is that other big painting goal as well for this year, get my Idoneth Deepkin to 2000 points minimum painted.  They currently still stand at 1270 / 2000 points, but we are progressing on that front steadily as the first units will soon start rolling (like a wave!) of the paint desk.

 

For the "play" goals of this year, as I said, the Golden Ticket target has been made.  For playing Underworlds, I'm now at 20 games out of the targeted 50, having joined 2 events out of the mentioned 10.  Though with the GT being grabbed, I won't be needing to travel around so I doubt that second goal will be met this year.  I won as such 1 out of 3 tournaments, though I have no clue how to ever do that with Hrothgorn...

 

And that brings us to the non-figure related goals.  On the movie front, I'm currently at 6 movies watched, so that is a regular speed, but on the series level we are already at 17 out of 20, due to Noshi preferring to watch them a lot lately.  This target will be met before the end of the half year overview for certain.  Anime is running steadily, yet not the fastest as I'm going through a lot of "seasonals" at the moment, and stands at 3 finished out of 50, but this will be broken this year for sure.

 

The reading front has been calmer, with 1 out of 10 books / rulebooks and 1 out of 10 manga so far finished.  

 

For the amusement parcs, we are now at 2 out of 10, but this will get a serious boost in the next two quarters as nice weather season and school holidays are going to be coming along.  And that will also be bumping up hopefully the Smidje collection as a result!  Disney, Efteling, Bobbejaanland, Toverland and the new Tovertuin parc are all on the calendar.

 

Finally, on a beer drinking level we have already sampled 11 new discoveries, but I haven't visited a single new Frituur so far, which in a way is a healthy thing I'd say...

 

So there we have it, the first quarter results of the year.  Not to shabby at all, with some unexpected targets already met and some others getting really close! 

Preparing for Benelux Clash IV

 A friday night at the club, days before the second Golden Ticket event of three here in Flanders.  

 

Now, as I am already qualified, we decided to use this evening to help Tom out with tuning his band and deck in the hopes to propel a second TSA bloke to Barcelona.

 

I brought my most recent brew, Myari's Purifiers using Nexus of Power and Hunting Grounds, which will also be the combination I will be playing coming sunday for a stressless tournament for once.  Tom played Ironsoul's Condemnors, with the Blazing Assault / Raging Slayers combo.  That meant some heavy hitting would be coming my way, something my aelves aren't to fond off.

 

Both warbands deployed, and the Condemnors came in deep to be able to charge as soon as possible.

 

Which Tavian immediatly did, wounding Bahannar with a swing of his hammer. 

 

Brodus followed suit, but he missed Myari.  Senaela had snuck behind the Condmenors to try and score some early glory though.

 

But that plan soon broke apart, as Bahannar was struck again and quickly fell in the game against the overwhelming amount of hits the Stormcast deal out.

 

Brodus soon followed the lead of Ironsoul, and Senaela was smacked to the side as well, her broken body falling to the floor after a swing of the huge hammer.

 

This resulted in an already immense lead for the Condemnors of 3 versus 10!

 

In the second round, Ailenn was forced to go in deep in enemy territory, in the hopes of salvaging some objectives.

 

But the lumbering Eternals started to quickly close in on her, Brodus saving himself along the way on a Stand Fast not helping the cause.

 

Tavian in the meantime finished Myari off, leaving the swordmistress in a very dire situation. 

 

The second round ended at 5 to 15 still with the advantage to Ironsoul, and a single wound aelf now had to make sure to salvage the situation against the three warriors.

 

She neutralised the Ironsoul threat with Poor Footing, but that still left two of them near her.

 

 But as she couldn't take any of them down, had to resort to retreating to safe places instead.

  

A final opportunity presented herself as she defended against a swing from Tavian, her reposte taking down the big bloke in return.

 

But it was to little to late, and as Ironsoul glided onto the Aqua Ghyranis token, the game ended with a 9-19 defeat for the Purifiers.  At least I did outscore them in that final round after a whole series of whiffed attacks and defences that came up on Flanked and Surrounded results!

 

We sat down for a second game to try and get some more finetuning in for the Condemnors, and try some things pointed out during the first game to get them as sharp (hmmm, sharp hammers, whut) as possible for sunday.

 

Both bands deployed again for the rematch.

 

 Ironsoul immediatly charged forward, looking for a fight after her success in the first game.

 

 Soon joined by Tavian, as they looked to gang up on my token holders, as Ailenn and Senaela missed their attacks to try and wound Brodus a bit.

 

Brodus took out his revenge on the archer, slamming her to the side for the second game in a row. 

 

Never the less, the Purifiers kept steady, and a 3-3 was on the board after the first round.

 

But yet again, Bahannar failed all his defence rolls, and as soon as round 2 was underway the noble aelf fell to the combined might of Ironsoul and Tavian.

 

 Myari tried attacking Brodus, but failed to hit and as such to inspire.

 

 Ailenn had run to the back to hold the Aqua token, or be pushed and heal thanks to her upgrade, forcing Brodus to get into the outfield again.  The gamble paid off as she defended and healed, the round ending on 8-9.

 

But it all went down big time in the third round, with Myari falling to the counter attacking Brodus on Wings of War, and Ailenn taken out the next activation after missing yet another attack.  Allowing him to score Annihilation, the game still ended on a staggering 9-18 defeat.

 

So, as expected, the deck plays okay for a chill tournament, but can't stand up to the pure aggression of BARS or BADS, partly due to the frailty of the aelves and the being outscored race Blazing Assault causes in games.  It didn't help that I rolled a real trainload of Flanked and Surrounded, had I been playing Deadly Synergies, he would have been tabled twice before activation 3 or so lol.

 

But, we're happy where we are with the band and deck, and look forward to a stressless sunday, cheering on the boys in their chase for a Golden Ticket.