Previously on Losing in Warhammer Underworlds:

I attended the first Warhammer Underworlds Masters Germany in December.

Bringing along a hold objectives ghost gang I won the first two rounds im a rush of glory. And that was when the sh** hit the fan. I had to play the top-table in round three and faced aggressive SCEs who did not fancy my movement shenanigans at all and crushed me with brute force. Round four I was out of the race for the trophy and got stomped by Magore’s. Even though there was clearly no blood involved in this match-up his fiends clearly enjoyed turning WHU into a Hack’n’Slay adventure.

Well – what did I learn? Going full hold objectives can go well (and if it does the amount of glory obtained is hilarious), but against aggressive decks with a few good rolls, the sun does shine no more.

What next?

A quick summary of what I did recently: I moved to Dubai with my wife and kids. At Battle Zone Dubai I found (or was found by) a group of great people who run monthly tournaments and play every now and then.

Last week I visited them and played a match against Nic who later that day won the trophy (picture above). Thanks a bunch for letting me play your cards and miniatures, guys! It was a pleasure meeting all of you, even though Nic steamrolled me with his fiends (Full circle.).

I will get back with battle and meta reports from the UAE in my next articles and believe that might be interesting, especially comparing that to the European meta which I am still used to.

On top of that I will again prepare for a series of tournaments in July and August 2019 (staying in Europe for the summer – too freaking hot here o.O). Read you soon!

It has been a while since my last match in competitive play, but I have been busy playing WHU whenever time allowed.

The best experience in Organised Play without a doubt was the event hosted by TG Play! Herford which are now running the WHU Masters which is currently the biggest WHU event in contintental Europe so far (42 registered players to date).

On the registration page we can see which warbands will make an appearance: https://www.tabletopturniere.de/t3_tournament_list.php?tid=22128

We can see that the season 1 warbands take a step back, but skaven went up. I decided to switch from my initial choice (Spiteclaw’s Swarm) to Thorns of the Briar Queen as my old skaven deck was utterly devastated by the BAR-list; while my thorns deck was just fine. Hell, I did not even reach five restricted cards and am now thinking I must have done something wrong! However during training sessions I made the highest score I was able to pull off so far (with any warband).

The event will take place in Herford which is located in the west of Germany close to Düsseldorf and the western borders. Unfortunately it seems the way is still too far for international players even though this thing is bigger than the official Grand Clash at Warhammer Fest.

Back then when the number of players was still below 20 I decided to sponsor a glass trophy for the event. I hope we will still reach the number of 50 players (perhaps with some internationals attending?). If you are free on December 1st join us! You can win lots of fantastic stuff, including the full organised play kit, but also other fancy stuff.

I am not the TO, but I wish them the best success possible! You can download the event reader here. Stay tuned for the decklist after the event.

So I did a crazy thing: I read a book. Should you read it as well? Yes, it’s a good read! However if you do not have the time to read through (or hate reading?) take five minutes for this article. I will sum up the information relevant for WHU players (spoilers below!).

The Novel “Shadespire – The Mirrored City” by Josh Reynolds gives insights into the afterlife of the Katophranes, as well as the former citizens of Shadespire and those who came to the Mirrored city by coincidence or to seek glory and treasures. Apart of that we get to understand how the time and room mechanics of this city work.

I will ignore the book’s story and get straight to the points which are somehow relevant to WHU:

1. Time goes by slower or faster depending on where a person is located. E.g. one minute in one place could be 10 years in the next street.
2. The streets of Shadespire are ever shifting and this way it is hard or almost impossible to navigate towards it. These shifts often result in shards falling from above.
3. Time in Shadespire progresses in loops and at some specific point/event the loop starts all over again from the creation of the mirrored city. Some individuals seem to remember what happened during prior loops, most do not.
4. People who “die” in Shadespire will be resurrected. You just do not know when and where! Might be the same spot one minute later; might as well be another district 10 years later. However every time they die, people lose a bit of their character and memories.
5. Through looping and resurrection there might be multiple versions of one person hanging around in Shadespire.
6. There are keys hidden in Shadespire which each open the way to one of several vaults. Treasures seem to be hidden there, but of which value are they if escape from Shadespire is not possible?
7. The Katophranes are bored to death (but can’t die) so they fight each other through crazy mind games. They are caught inside the shadeglasses, but can talk with the citizens of Shadespire (to manipulate them).
8. Rumor has it that if the broken Faneway Crystal is reconstructed the curse of Shadespire will be broken. Pieces are spread all over Shadespire.
9. The Warden was the leader of Shadespire’s guardsmen. Now he is strictly following Nagash’s will.
10. Nagash is always watching the Mirrored City, but seems to no longer have direct control/access to Shadespire.
11. Chaos gods do not have access to Shadespire. The blood god does not see the blood.

It is interesting how these points explain why e.g. Magore’s Fiends could fight another version of themselves, why they could die and fight again another day, as well as many of the cards such as “Frozen in Time”, “Hidden Paths”, etc.

Hope this knowledge will enhance your gameplay! Stay tuned.

No, I did not play Sepulchral Guard. Remember when I wrote I’d be flying to Dubai soon? I caught some rough virus while traveling and was struck down for three weeks.

Anyhow back there in Dubai I was invited to Battlezone Dubai. I had a great time there thanks to the kind people working there and those hanging out there (picture taken at Battlezone).

One of them was Steve who was kind enough to play five rounds of Shadespire with a stranger.

He played Bloodreavers and brought a glory-massacre upon my tiny rats. However after having seen his deck in action I was well prepared for the following rounds. I learned that it is alright to lose the first round, as long as you draw the right conclusions.

To cut it short: I was able to win the following four rounds by denying him the options to score glory. It was only after the matches that I got to know Steve only used cards from the core game… How dumb I felt. Next time in Dubai I hope I will get the chance to play him again with a fair setup!

If you ever get to Dubai make sure to get in touch with Battlezone. I am sure they will invite you to their Shadespire-WhatsApp group.

Tomorrow I will be back with two short battle-reports (one against Reavers, one against Guard) which feature cards from the new Leader’s pack. Stay tuned!

I am currently including “Supremacy” and “Our Only Way Out” in my deck (gain glory at the end of turn for holding three objectives).

The map-picture shows how I usually open with my first three skaven, when I had to choose a map-tile first and the enemy placed the other map-tile opposing to them.

I am playing this along with “Earthquake” and “Great Concussion” next time which both allow me to move all three skaven towards the three objectives (The corner token shows where I would let the great concussion hit the board).

Until now I never had the right card on my hand on turn one (not even with a mulligan), but I still had the feeling my board set-up did ok.

Do you have certain favorite map set-ups for your war-bands?