In my last article I gave insights into my Hold Objectives/ Controll deck for my Thorns of the Briar Queen. At the Dubai Spring Tournament (Battlezone Dubai) it successfully brought in my next Shadeglass Trophy.

Beef #1: Thorns of the Briar Queen VS Ironskull’s Boyz

I played against Terry’s well painted Orruks – a match-up which I have quite a lot of experience with. We played two rounds in which both I was able to do the board placement. My best chance for this (but the most frustrating for an Orruk player) was playing long corridor.

As it was the first round of the tournament Terry was not aware what kind of evil witchcraft my Queen was going to pull out of the hat and he placed the objectives as far behind as possible (one on the edge hex). I withdrew my whole gang to my edge of the board first using Varclav’s super power. He and his queen were placed on my edge in the beginning. End of turn one I made the hyper jump with my Queen by using Hidden Paths and pushed one of my minios onto the objective token in reach of Terry’s Boyz.

I do not clearly remember which objectives I scored, but it led me to 6 glory end of turn one. Terry had to decide splitting up his gang and attacking both flanks or focusing on my territory while ignoring the Queen holding an objective. To make her harder to ignore she was given the Tome of Glories. Terry decided to kill the Queen who resisted quite a long time before going down. She played her role well and allowed me to score objectives inside my territory leading to a victory in round 1.

I felt bad for Terry when I decided to use the same board placement as if things went not horribly wrong round 2 would go towards the same direction.

Indeed the second round went to my favour. After scoring four glory in turn one I decided to play it save and hide in my corner farming upgrades to score big in turn 3. Eventually the plan worked out and I won the best of three 2:0 with a glory difference of +22.

Terry showed good sportsmanship and I promise not to come back next time with a similar deck.

Beef #2: Thorns of the Briar Queen VS The Eyes of the Nine

Playing top-table against Tzeentch’s advocates was going to be tough for me. They have high range, they can summon an unkillable horror right next to me and they are unpredictable. On top of that Saeed was able to overcome Magore’s Fiends in his first match – spooky!

I got a good start being allowed to decide the board placement and once more I went with corridor. I had to delay jumping to Saeed’s territory as he would have wiped the ground with me easily. Drawing a Mulligan left me with some easy to score objectives: Well-Guarded, Keep them Guessing and Tactical Supremacy 3-4 which were placed on my board. I was able to score all of them as Saeed summoned the blue horror in range of my minions. Oh boy this small guy is a pain! I know it is better ignoring him, but once Saeed equipped him with Tome of Diseases and threw Shardgale into the ring I was too scared to leave him alone. I attacked him and wasted an unreasonable amount of ploys to silence him (he still killed one or two of my ghosts). However thanks to the strong start I was able to win round 1 by +5 glory. I was saved by the upgrades Inescapable Vengeance and Faneway Crystal which brought me some extra glory in round 3 along with the suitable keys.
The second match I got to place three objective tokens, but had to say good-bye to the corridor. Until round 3 I was only able to score 4 glory and lost the Ever-Hanged plus three other Chainrasps. These 4 glory though I kept for the last round to equip the Faneway Crystal and provide a key or two (spoiler: I did not draw the right keys). Apart from Faneway Crystal I had Transfixing Gaze, Baffling Illusion and Sudden Appearance in hand.

The objectives I held could net me 7 glory: Supremacy, Making a Statement and Take the City. Saeed hat two objectives tokens on his board and I had the right cards to jump there within two turns.

My plan was clear, but chances pulling off the following were low to say the least:

1. Varclav was wounded and could be killed with a single blow, so I put him on guard.
2. I had to use Transfixing Gaze on K’charik who was in range of both a) the place where my Queen would disappear to as well as b) my chainrasp who would be holding an objective on my territory.
3. Baffling Illusion would deny one turn of successful charging
4. I hoped he would go for my Chainrasp who was the easiest kill. Even if he killed him I still had 4 more glory from Making a Statement and Take the City which might be enough to still win.
5. My Queen will escape and make a Sudden Appearance out of reach and move onto an objective in Saeed’s territory.
6. Varclav will use the allmighty Faneway Crystal to jump straight onto the second objective in Saeed’s territory.

Unfortunately Saeed switched to attacking Varclav once he held the objective in this territory, but I was able to win all rolls thanks to his guard token. I was struck by surprise when I finally scored all 7 glory while denying Saeed’s objectives.

End of round 3 victory was mine with 2:0 and +11 glory difference. Both Saeed and I could not believe what just happened. Sorry for stealing that win!

Beef #3: Thorns of the Briar Queen VS Stormcast Eternals

At that point only Byron’s Stormcast Eternals and my Nighthaunt stood undefeated. Due to personal reasons Byron had to concede this match (I think and hope it was not because I am horrible person!). I am leaving this event with a feeling of unfinished business, but I think somehow my ghosties deserved their Shadeglass.

It was a lovely day at the Battlezone and even though our community here in Dubai is still small it is a big pleasure meeting them and discussing WHU in our WhatsApp-group.

As my Nighthaunt will be sent into retirement with immediate effect The Eyes of the Nine are ready for the next tournament. Stay tuned for my next decklist!