Into the Under-Ekeren IV Warhammer Underworlds tournament report

 The first weekend of august, and that means it is time for the annual Into the Under-Ekeren Warhammer Underworlds tournament!

 

And apart from a Golden Ticket being on the line, I added some twists to the concept for this edition! 

 

Like allowing Legends warbands for "one last dance" or a special price for the player ending highest with a deck that didn't include Blazing Assault, a Signum model sponsored by Winkel Works (and I wouldn't mind actually winning that one, such a cool figure, should I be required to play).  

 

In the end, we numbered 14 players (excluding myself, so I could start doing a lot of prep work for future events, keep your eyes peeled in the near future - or the end slides in my videos), with players of no less then SIX nationalities.  I doubt I would have classified as a seventh, apparently Zubvobwee isn't a recognised planet.

 

As I said, I had a heap of price support ready (the battlemat on the picture was actually sold off, and replaced by a first edition Starter set), sausage rolls and complementary event dice included in the entry fee (which I tried to keep deliberatly low.

 

And with all the announcements done, it was time to get going for five rounds of Warhammer Underworlds!

 

Now, as I don't have any "battle" stories to tell, I will just say some things about the tournament in general.  The level was rather equal on the top tables, with after three rounds quite a few players being on 2-1, and two taking a lead with 3-0.  

 

Valentin and Joep faced off, and in the end it was Joep who took the win, meaning he needed to consolidate in his final round as Glory Differential is my first tie breaker over Glory Total (to discourage pure aggro showings allround at my events).

 

Now, I must say I was actually quite amazed, as only FOUR players brought a deck with Blazing Assault as part of it.  On the same note, the Legendary edition piece worked, as there where also four warbands from the legends sections: two times Ironskull's Boyz, The Eyes of the Nine and The Chosen Axes.

 

One thing particularly noteworthy was that one of my "bar wenches" (thanks for the helping out guys) noted that for a tournament with a Golden Ticket on the line, there was an awful lot of laughter going on all day.  I guess that shows what a lovely little community has been build for the smallest of small games by Games Workshop.

 

But then onwards to the numbers of the event, and let's start with the painting, as that also gives me a good opportunity to show of some warbands (thanks to Johan for all the individual pictures).  Every judge would cast votes for their first, second and third favorite warband.

 

Out of the 14 + 1 warbands (I took the liberty of at least putting my Blood of the Bull on the table, for one as I had nothing to do as everything ran smoothly, but also that way I could make a nice balanced "3 rows of 5" to display the warbands on the table), 12 warbands received votes.  The jury was made up of the 14 players, myself and then the 4 other members present who where there to play Age of Sigmar as the clubhouse was open anyways.  Points where awarded 5 for a first place band, 3 for a second place and 1 for a third place.

 

Unfortunatly, the three players that didn't receive any votes where Joep (Jaws of Itzl), Cyril (Starblood Stalkers) and Quint (The Emberwatch).

 

In 12th place, with 3 points (1x 2nd), Simon with Rippa's Snarlfangs

In 11th place, with 4 points (1x 2nd, 1x 3rd) Neo with Ironskulls Boyz

 

In shared 9th place, with 5 points, (both 1x 2nd and 2x 3rd) where Valentin with Ironskulls Boyz and Johan with The Shadeborn

In 8th place, also with 5 points (1x 1st) was Wouter with The Chosen Axes 

In 7th place, with 10 points (2x 1st) was Luba with Thorns of the Briar Queen

 

In 6th place, with 11 points (2x 1st, 1x 3rd) was your loveable TO with Blood of the Bull.  They where all warned in front, if I would have 0 points, I would blame them all for not appreciating the effort running the event!!!!

 

In shared 4th place, both with 12 points (both 4x 2nd) where Peter with Starblood Stalkers and Wesley with The Crimson Court

 

In third place, with 16 points (1x 1st, 3x 2nd, 5x 3rd) was Michael with Ylthari's Guardians

 

In second place, with 30 points (4x 1st, 2x 2nd, 4x 3rd) was Nico with Eyes of the Nine

 

But winning best painted by a landslide of 55 points, due to the level being so high a lot of the bands "stole" points from each other, but this one kept scoring consistently - receiving 15 times a vote out of 19 casts - (9x 1st, 2x 2nd, 4x 3rd) was Wim with Thanatek's Tithe.

 

And that meant after the painting scores where announced, it was time to get to the piece de la piece.  So here is the full results of the tournament, including warband, deck and points!

 

1. Joep Nijssen - Jaws of Itzl - RR / CtC - 4/1 - 84 Glory, + 29

2. Valentin Hornik - Ironskulls Boyz - BA / DS - 4/1 - 89 Glory, +28

3. Cyril Deneux - Starblood Stalkers - ES / PP - 4/1 - 97 Glory, +27

 

4. Luba K - Thorns of the Briar Queen - DS / EoK - 3/2 - 74 Glory, +23

 

 

5. Michael Kislyi - Ylthari's Guardians - CtC / WR - 3/2 - 74 Glory, +11

 

6. Wim Bellemans - Thanatek's Tithe - CtC / PP - 3/2 - 69 Glory, +10

7. Neo Hornik - Ironskulls Boyz - BA / DS - 3/2 - 73 Glory, +4

8. Quint Van Druten - The Emberwatch - PP / RF - 2/3 - 84 Glory, + 9

9. Nico Van den Winckel - The Eyes of the Nine - WR / PP - 2/3 - 71 Glory, -2

10. Simon Conticello - Rippa's Snarlfangs - RF / DS - 2/3 - 68 Glory, -3

 

 

11. Johan De Ryck - The Shadeborn - BA / RS - 2/3 - 68 Glory, -15

12. Peter Vanden Bossche - Starblood Stalkers - ES / PP - 2/3 - 47 Glory, -25

 

11. Wouter Beckers - The Chosen Axes - DS / HG - 1/4 - 53 Glory, -23

12. Wesley De Vos - The Crimson Court - BA / CtC - 0/5 - 34 Glory, -73

 

That meant that for the special prices, Wesley took the set of Faction Death dice for scoring the least amount of glory points during the day, Valentin took the Dreadfane box for ending highest with a Legends warband and Joep grabbed the 3d printed model for highest ranking warband not playing Blazing Assault.  

 

And so it came to an end.  I think everyone had a good time, from experienced tournament winners to a guy that played like his first game ever, after he had driven 16 hours back home from holidays... guess 3 weeks with wife and kids was enough for him.

 

What will the future bring?  No matter how Underworlds progresses, wether or not it keeps existing, there will be a new edition next year, but more on that in due time! 

 

Crypts of Halle V Warhammer Underworlds tournament report

 Well, today I had to make a choice, as there where TWO Warhammer Underworlds events on the same day...

 

On the one hand, there was the Benelux Clash V in Den Haag, and then there was Crypts of Halle V in Halle.

  

Now, as the title tells, you can see what I picked to attend... but the reasons herefore where that I had my Golden Ticket anyways already and that the TO of Halle, Johan, is a rock in our flemish community and one I consider a friend.  Finally, Halle is 100km less of a drive.  Gas prices and stuff you know...

  

Now, this tournament is the first time organised at this venue, a basement of an actual church, and then it became a matter of which warband to take along.  My Shadeborn to do a throw to the crown?  Elathain for a sure bet at the price support?  Or something completely different?  No, I opted to finally start doing what I said I would do, burn down the Underworlds as I bring the Dawi'Zharr of The Blood of the Bull finally to the table.  Finished only two days before the event, and featured here a few days ago, they went out for the first time.  I took an "extreme" deck with me containing no less then 20 glory, Pillage and Plunder / Emberstone Sentinels with no ambition to go on the offensive and only do a single tippytoe into enemy territory.  The plan is to stay on my half and do my thing, hopefully outscoring others that way.  And it would be the first "get used to the warband" outing as I will take them to the Worlds, because the word of Hashut has to be spread where able after all!

 

What's even more, as a lover of narrative gaming, I donated a small price to be handed out to the highest classified faction Death warband in the final rankings.  Talking price support, there was a very lovely pool, sponsored by Top1Toys in Halle, as well as some free bases and a printed model from Signum Games, the latter to be handed out to the person unfortunatly to end in the last place, donated by Nico from WinckelWorks.

 

And so gathered in the crypt of the church, a very lovely and light venue, with a bar.  We where with 10 players in the end, and the pairings where drawn up to start the conquest of the churchgrounds, and desolate them for the Dark Father!

 

My first round paired me against Thibaud, who played the Looncourt with a deck combination of Emberstone Sentinels and Nexus of Power.  

 

The goblins immediatly took to the fore, but my armour kept me out of harm's way for the most part, and the Dawi'Zharr started to score passively.  While only a single point of difference within the first two rounds, as he had used up all his push and guard tech going into round 3, while I was saving those up, a landslide of glory came my way and the result was a 22-14 victory for the opener today.

 

This brough me to the second game against the Tournament Organiser and reserve player, Johan, with his Headsmen's Curse, running the Blazing Assault and Deadly Synergy deck combination, something that proved a strong showing in previous events this year so far.

 

But he flunked some attack rolls, my armour remained largely undented, and I could quickly take down the Headsman himself.  While Grisk was running havoc in his backlines after appearing there through Hidden Paths (the little bugger scored 6 glory on his own!) the rest kept the ghosts in check, I even only played 2 ploys and 2 upgrades over the whole game, grabbing a 25-6 victory.

 

It was time for lunchbreak then as Thai food was delivered, and the voting of the Best Painted warband.  The paint level this edition was immense, and I included a little video of it right here at the end to have a look for yourself.  I also want to thank the person who gave me that one point here...

 

But then it was time for round three, and I went up against the also undefeated Wim and his Kurnoth's Heralds, and lo and behold, there was Blazing Assault with Countdown to Cataclysm!

 

Now, after Maastricht I had a serious disliking for that combo, but also worked around it in my deck.  Truth to be told, while I lost the game 12 to 24 after being tabled in round 3, it wasn't that one-sided at all.  Wim got priority on all three rounds, and this saved him in round 2 and 3 from either losing the big axe guy, or his leader, as he could strike first with his to many dice 3 damage fighters, and i don't start those subsequent rounds with daemonforge dice.  Had I gained priority, he would have lost a fighter for certain, and the game would have swung the other way, so it was a nice and tense affair with some intresting positioning.

 

That as such brought us to the fourth game, and now I faced Wouter and the Sons of Velmorn, running Deadly Synergies and Hunting Grounds.  So if I kept mostly to my half of the board, his deck would be seriously hampered...

 

Which I did for the most part, and that paid dividends.  The Sons hit hard and have excellent defence, but for the most part I tried to avoid them to score my passive glory cards.  While I lost more models then him, I took away a fairly straightforward 20-11 victory in this round.

 

So somehow, I was still vaguely in the running for the top spot, standing at 3-1 just as Nico, my next opponent, while Wim was at 4-0 at that moment (he would win his final game as well, taking home the win).  But Nico had the one warband I really feared (had I not have my Chaos Dwarfs finished, I would have brought those as well) with The Exiled Dead, running Wrack and Ruin with Countdown to Cataclysm.

 

And the zombie horde did swarm me indeed, as I lost no less then three models in the first round, and it looked like a crushing deafeat was coming.  Yet somehow Imnidrin went above the call of duty. and refused to go down as the sole survivor, still scoring a nice amount of glory in the end.  As a result, I went down 13-18, but more then against the Kurnoth I never had the feeling I stood a real chance in this game.

 

That left me at 3-2 in the end, but the amount of scored glory was the first tiebreaker, and as such I went onto the podium with a 3rd placing.  Not to bad for a warband I never played before and a deck I never tried out, learning the flow of it on the spot during the event.  

 

The tournament ended with the following ranking as a result after a day of battling it out in the churchgrounds:

 

1. Wim - Kurnoth's Heralds: 5-0, 98 scored glory

 

2. Nico - The Exiled Dead: 4-1, 80 scored glory

3. Tomsche - Blood of the Bull: 3-2, 92 scored glory

 

4. Thibaud - Grinkrank's Looncourt: 3-2, 76 scored glory

5. Gert - The Crimson Court: 3-2, 67 scored glory

6. Nicolas - Ylthari's Guardians: 2-3, 72 scored glory

7. Johan - The Headsmen's Curse: 2-3, 68 scored glory

8. Wouter - Sons of Velmorn: 2-3, 65 scored glory

9. Peter - Thanatek's Tithe: 1-4, 66 scored glory

 

10. Lars - The Headsmen's Curse: 1-4, 54 scored glory

  

Best painted was won by Nico with his The Exiled Dead, but it was a very close affair, with no less then 4 warbands ending within a breath of each other as the level, as I said, was incredibly high.

 

But, the day closed down, and I stayed behind to help Johan clean-up and get the materials to his house afterwards, but nit before we took some "healthy" food to recuperate from the day.

 

Did I like the way the Blood of the Bull played?  Certainly, though there might be some minor tweaks I want to do to the deck, perhaps switching out one or two surges, as well as perhaps a single ploy, but I'm not entirely sure I would want to do it.  The problem is, if the cards come in a good flow like in game 2, these get me about 5 to 6 easy glory, but if they come to far apart they are dead cards in hand.  It's a thing I'll need to look in over time, first I'm going to try out some other combinations with them until I find a good middle ground I guess between passive and aggressive, as I like having multiple possible angles of play to keep my opponent on his toes.

 

But now, to go and find some models to add to the trophy ranks after this tournament, and the conquests of the Dawi'Zharr!