Into the Under-Ekeren tournament report

 Hello everyone, today a tournament report from the other side of the fence!

Because last sunday, the 16th of june, I organised the first ever Warhammer Underworlds tournament over at my local club, the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp.

I had this planned from before Covid hit, and now that life settled down, I found time (and motivation) to do so as such, with the chosen format the Rivals set.

Using T3 to sign up, 8 players gathered to explore the depths of Under-Ekeren... and vie for glory!

I managed to source price support (for the winner, the best painted warband, and the band with the LEAST glory points), had memento's for all the players printed up, and as such we where ready to go!

 

As the TO, I didn't know beforehand if I would be needed to play in the event, and as such I went for the most recent of warbands, the Skinnerkin from Wintermaw.  Whom due to circumstances hadn't been played before in the three weeks between finishing them like a madman and the event itself.  I had no illusions anyway to hold on to my current first place on the T3 ranking, and this would be an easy to play warband allowing me to focus on running the event instead of being busy trying to reach the top spots.

 

Was I required to play: Yes, and so we where eight.

 

The event then itself, after enough of my blabbering!

 

The participants:

 

Tomsche - Skinnerkin

 

 

Nico - Storm of Celestus

 

Michael - Eyes of the Nine

 

Vincent - Starblood Stalkers

 

Philip - Sons of Velmont

 

Johan - Griselle's Arenai

 

Peter - Zondara's Gravebreakers

 

 

Wouter - Grishnak's Looncourt

 

 

So that led to the first round, and the following pairings and results

 

 

Johan loses to Wouter 2-16

 

Tomsche wins from Vincent 11-6

 

Michael wins from Nico 13-7

 

Peter wins from Philip 16-11

 

In this first round, due to circumstances of the past weeks, I had as such to face the Starblood Stalkers without any experience of my band and deck.  Yet somehow I did manage to pull off an 11-6 win, mainly thanks to some lucky hits quickly taking down his Saurus warrior.

 

For round 2, the following matches where fought out

 

 Wouter wins from Peter 13-11

 

Tomsche wins from Michael 14-12

 

Vincent loses to Nico 11-14

 

Philip wins from Johan 13-10

 

Facing Michael, who brought a Hungering Parasyte Eyes of the Nine, this was certainly a match up that I haven't faced in a very long time.  But unfortunatly for them, the Eyes aren't on par with Ephilim though, and as he scored not that simple, my band was just a bit more consistent and a 14-12 victory went in the books for the Skinnerkin.

 

After these two rounds, we had a short break for lunch with hot dogs, while the other attendees in the venue, aka the players of the The Old World battle day as well as the barcrew got to cast their votes.

 

 

The painting results as such where as follows, yielding Philip a nice box of Rippa's Snarlfangs as a prize.

1. Philip

2. Nico

3. Vincent

4. Michael

5. Johan

5. Peter

7. Wouter

8. Tomsche

And with all that taken care off, it was time to polish the blades again and spit on the dice, as we went into round 3.

Tomsche wins from Wouter 14-10

 

 Peter wins from Michael 14-13

 

Philip wins from Nico 10-9

 

Vincent wins from Johan 17-14

 

Joined in the lead with Wouter, this was one of those games where things went smoothly.  Even though my warband was reduced to only miss Tenderhook, the scoring kept going solid and I managed to put down a 14-10 win against the horde of gitz.

Which brings us to the final round, and no less then 4 players where still in the running for the victory of the tournament, while the other 4 all had the chance to enter dead last!  Everything was to play for!

Peter wins from Tomsche 19-16

 

 

Wouter wins from Philip 17-10

Vincent draws with Michael 13-13

Nico wins from Johan 12-11

 

 

So, I am battling for the win, and like in Halle, Peter was my opponent.  But now the pressure was on me, as even though I had the points lead, I needed to draw or win once again, because Peter had already scored more glory then me, even with a loss on his tally.  I managed to score my personal best of 16 points, but still it was not to be as Zondara went all the way up to 19 and wiped out my whole band.  Key was both Sedric (twice in a row) and Kretch missing the attacks that would have taken down all his zombies and would have allowed me to take on the lovers, not helped by a play mistake that I didn't pay attention to an upgrade on Kretch that reduces damage by one.  Oh well, that happens.

And so when the dust settled, 3 players came to a total of 9 points, meaning the glory points would have to bring the decision.  In this, Peter scored the most, followed by Wouter with a measly 3 points difference.  I ended up 3rd myself, trailing the winner by 5 points.

The full result:

1. Peter

2. Wouter

3. Tomsche

4. Nico

5. Philip

6. Michael

7. Vincent 

8. Johan

Johan won the price for ending last, a set of Wurmspat dice, which was a bit of a suprise for the Arenai with Breakneck Slaughter.  But if you keep failing to roll those dodges on defence, the ladies are very, very fragile unfortunatly.

But it was Peter who took the main price home in the form of a Direchasm core box, and as he told later, his very first tournament win ever after a train of 2nd and 3rd places.  Well deserved as he piloted the Zondara's Gravebreakers very solidly the past weeks, and it payed dividents.

I want to thank all that came along for the great day and making it worth my effort to organise this little event.  I've been talking with Johan, the Halle organiser, and we aim to do one tournament for each season, with spring and autumn taking place in Halle, and Summer and Winter will be in Antwerp.  Peter is already thinking of running one himself, and of course TSA is happy to have the clubhouse used as a venue as all present where impressed by our little clubhouse, the space and the parking it offers for the games.

A special thanks to everyone for the additional pictures I could use in this report, as between paperwork and playing, picture rounds weren't that easy to do.  And to Heikki and Karen for making sure all the throats where kept moist and the bellies filled.

 

So, that's it for the first Underworlds tournament ran at the TSA clubhouse, and we will be back!