This past weekend, I participated in Warhammer Fest 2019 in Coventry, UK and the experience was a great one. As most of you know, I live in the United States and I figured going to play in the event would not only be a challenge of skill and general fun, but that I could probably get some traveling in as well. Spoiler - London is an awesome city and you should definitely go visit!
This trip was particularly special because despite the fact that I was traveling solo, I kind of knew a lot of people in England through the game. As many of you know, the UK is home to a plethora of solid content creators. I know I have said this before but Warhammer Underworlds has the best tabletop community in the world. Everyone is just really genuine and passionate.
I'd like to give a warm shout to John Reese from 'Can Your Roll A Crit' fame. Not only was he super hospitable and helpful when it came to navigating the sprawling English train system, he was also my practice partner. We met up Wednesday and Thursday night to get some games in and he helped me practice with both of the warbands I had brought for the event: Stormsire's Cursebreakers and Thundrik's Profiteers. In fact, despite my solid understanding and comfortability with the Cursebreakers, John persuaded me to take my Profiteers instead just two days before the event! He also gave me a crash course in the UK meta and shared his knowledge wherever he could.
Once at the event, I had the pleasure of meeting a bunch of my colleagues in both the blogging and podcasting businesses. Shout out to Michael Carlin and Tom Bond from 'Steel City Underworlds,' Jamie Giblin from 'Katophrane Relic,' Dan and the rest of the 'Ready 4 Action' guys, Lukasz Jaster, Rob Murcutt, Amit, Jose Olmedo who is my commission painter and runs Akad Painting Studio, and Dave Sanders and John Bracken from the Warhammer Underworlds Design Team.
As the title suggests, I got second overall in the Warhammer Underworlds Grand Clash event at Warhammer Fest. During every round of the event, I played some amazing players and had an interesting final round against Raffa (also known as Volomir) and his Cursebreakers.
In this article, I will be sharing my experience at the Grand Clash. You can expect my deck list, why I chose certain cards, brief game summaries, and other musings.
To learn more about Thundrik's Profiteers and some general tactics on how to play them, visit one of my previous articles here.
Deck:
As I mentioned earlier, it was a toss up between the Cursebreakers and the Profiteers, and I ended up going with the latter for a couple reasons. For one, I think they are a top tier warband. Their ability to inspire rapidly and apply pressure almost instantly is quite appealing. Furthermore, due to my hefty experience with The Farstriders, I felt pretty comfortable with piloting a ranged warband. Furthermore, I had a keen understanding of their strengths and weaknesses and felt like they'd give the best chance at succeeding in a foreign meta. Also, I had a gut feeling that they were the warband I should take to the Grand Clash. It's weird actually. As I was finalizing my Cursebreaker deck and packing it up for the trip, on a whim, I threw in the Profiteers and a couple cards I thought would work for them as well (I'm very glad I did!).
Sharp-eyed observes will notice that at first glance, this deck performs in a similar manner to my Cursebreaker deck from Adepticon. Like most of my decks, I focused on creating an objective deck that rapidly rewarded me multiple times for attacking and eliminating enemy fighters. It's basically the deck I used to win my a local event but further improved and revised.
There are a total of eight score immediately cards in the deck. This is important because if you can chain them, not only are you scoring a bunch of glory, your warband is also inspiring. Unsurprisingly, Combination Strike and Victory After Victory are also included to capitalize on the scoring that is occurring, in theory, throughout the phase rather than at the end of it.
The deck is a hybrid deck in every sense of the word. It can be quite reactive and proactive, performing well in whatever situation it found itself in. Cards like Distraction and Toxic Gases allow me to manipulate my opponent's models while cards like Ready for Action and Seek the Skyvessel allowed me extra activations which is a huge boon.
In terms of tech, I wanted the warband to perform strongly against all opponents. Whether I was facing Mollog or Zarbag's Gitz, I felt confident the deck could take them apart. The intention with the power cards was to maximize my shooting capabilities via accuracy buffs and damage dealing reactions to ensure that I scored what I needed to while eliminating my opponent's fighters.
For my upgrades, the cards were fairly standard. I wanted cards that would increase my warband's accuracy, keep them alive a bit longer, and hit harder when they did hit. And yes, I went with 11 upgrades. Some people might say that's risky but I was confident that I could get them on quick due to how fast I was able to score glory and promote my fighters.
Objectives:
Change of Tactics is not only a score immediate, which this warband loves, it also is a form of passive glory. Whether you hit off the charge or not, that's a glory token in your pocket. Escalation rewards you for following your natural game plan, plus your opponent can make this easier to score. The Bigger They Are is taken because three out of your five fighters have a ranged attack action that deals one damage. Ironhail makes this one a breeze.
Victory After Victory is a card that really helps snowball your glory. Since more than half of my objective deck consisted of score immediately cards, it acted as a fantastic force multiplier and could really pull me ahead on glory, especially early in the game. Headshot is really easy to score as people do tend to roll crits from time to time when making attack actions. Remember the attack has to go through. Seeking Advancement was added because I had a feeling Cursebreakers, Mollog, and Magore's were going to be particularly prevalent. Even against Guardians, you just cleave through Gallanghann and score it that way too.
Calculated Risk is a very strong card. As long as you use a board with lethal hexes, it's a guaranteed score. It's passive scoring too. Combination Strike performs in the same vein as Victory After Victory. Because you are cycling through your deck so rapidly, you can score this fairly consistently. Death From Afar is a no-brainer. You primarily eliminate fighters from range, might as well get an extra glory for it.
Get Thee Hence can only be scored by Ironhail. While that does seem limiting, I scored it in almost all my games. Just keep him safe and promote him early if needed. Keep Them Guessing is pretty good with the Profiteers because Thundrik's reaction, per the most . recent FAQ, counts towards the scoring of this card. What Armour? is solid. Lund and Thundrik both have cleave, the former before inspiration.
Ploys/Gambits:
Distraction is quite good with this warband as you can move an enemy closer, push them out of charge range, or dump them into a lethal hex. Fuelled by Fury shores up the warband's reliance on actually hitting your opponent. If you combo this right, you can score multiple glory off an attack you really want to go off. Hidden Paths is all but mandatory nowadays. Whether you are attempting to flee or launch an assassination attack, the positioning this card provides is absurdly useful.
Ready for Action gives me an extra activation in the game and it's mandatory at this point because 99% of your opponents will be running it as well. This cards makes the game go from twelve activations to thirteen. Rebound is a card that protects your fighters from aggressive/powerful actions. It has a 33% to succeed but when it does, it pretty much wins you games. Trap takes up a restricted slot but it's well worth the cost. Being able to hit an enemy fighter for two to three damage and following up with this reaction feels great and, can take opponent's by surprise.
Seek the Skyvessel bumps your activation count to fourteen which is very powerful. This can also help your fighters get further away or closer to enemies which can help offensively and defensively. Keep in mind that you can use this on fighters even if they already have move or charge tokens on them. Toxic Gases is a gem of a card. It functions like a buffed version of Distraction or will just slap a damage on an enemy fighter. You'll be surprised how often they take the damage - punish them for it. Pit Trap functions just like its cousin, Trap. If you combo both of them with a cleaving two damage attack, Stormsire and Magore just go poof. Stand and Shoot is great because you get yet another activation in the game. At the worst case, you deal some damage to your opponent before they take your fighter out of action. Best case, you eliminate their charging fighter and waste your opponent's activation.
Upgrades:
Ancestral Fortitude provides some extra durability to your fighters. Ironhail, an important fighter, can go to four wounds while Thundrik can jump to six! Rapid Reload allows even more out-of-action activations. While I tend to shy away from fighter restricted upgrades, this is just too good on Ironhail. If you combo this with Gloryseeker or Fighter's Ferocity, your machine gun toting duardin can reliably deal four damage each turn. Archer's Focus provides an accuracy bonus to your fighters which is important since you are hitting from range.
Challenge Seeker is another card that helps with accuracy. It's particularly good on Ironhail but can work with anyone of your fighters, usually prior to inspiring unless you put it on Garodd. Duelist's Speed is neat because you can attack and then continue to advance or jump back out of charge range. If you combo it with Stand and Shoot, you can deny your opponent's charge! Faneway Crystal is very important. You can either teleport a fighter away to safety or deep-strike right onto the opponent's weakest fighters and have a field day. Fighter's Ferocity is a great because you are giving the warband a bit of a damage boost. Again, this works particularly well with Ironhail but can be a boon for anyone of your fighters.
Gloryseeker is a must have in today's meta. Lund and Bjorgen can start hitting for three damage with cleave. Yikes! Potion of Constitution helps with keeping your fighters alive while still protecting your fighters who are below four wounds from opposing Gloryseeker buffed attacks. Potion of Rage provides a nice accuracy boost that exponentially increases the likelihood of a key attack going through. Lastly, Tome of Offerings is a very strong card that allows me to capitalize on taking down fighters, especially against warbands with a high model count. Because my deck caps out at 16 glory, this card was integral to giving me the edge in certain matches.
TL;DR: The deck is designed to reward me multiple times over for eliminating enemy fighters while also providing me with plenty of cards to take down high health fighters via damage and accuracy buffing effects.
Grand Clash:
The Grand Clash event itself was managed fairly decently. The tournament was located in the largest convention hall and was right next to the Kill Team and Blood Bowl tournaments. This was also the same space where all of the cool new booths were, including the Ban-Dai Space Marine action figure and Contrast paints.
The tables specific to our event were set up quite neatly and were numbered so it was relatively easy to locate where you'd be playing your games.
The format was fairly standard. There were four rounds of games with a cut to top two afterwards. There have a been a lot of players vocalizing their thoughts on the format so I will avoid commenting on the controversial topic for now.
Speaking of pairings, this was perhaps my biggest gripe of the event. All pairings were done by hand and Excel sheets. Not only did this format seem a bit archaic, it also added an extra 30 minutes between rounds that were designated as "breaks." The organizers were also running three tournaments at the same time (Underworlds, Kill Team, Blood Bowl), which really hurt towards end of the day as we had to watch the Blood Bowl awards ceremony before ours. Usually I wouldn't mind but after 8+ hours of Underworlds, I was ready to get on with the final.
This isn't to say that the Events Team didn't do a good job, I think they did the best they could've given their circumstances. I would just hope that they transition to a more stream lined method of recording the data. Perhaps sometime like Best Coast Pairings or something.
In total, there were over 94 players there, although I also had heard we had over 100 in attendance. We don't know the exact number due to the way the data was recorded and presented.
Games:
I will do my best to summarize the games I played each round. Due to the event being highly competitive, I was not allowed to record my usual play by plays for obvious reasons. Again, I apologize in advance for the lack of detail - I am working off pure memory here.
Also, I didn't take pictures of all the games played however, I did manage to snag a couple.
Round 1: Max - Stormsire's Cursebreakers
First match and I drew up against Cursebreakers....awesome. I figured I'd play them eventually but I suppose that's just how the cookie crumbles.
The first game kicked things off with Max winning the boards. I went with the Arcane Nexus while he went for the Shattered Tower. I wasn't sure exactly what kind of deck he was playing but I was concerned he might be playing the turtle deck where you just sit in the back and spam Empower. As a result, I deployed a bit aggressively just in case I had to bring the fight to him.
Phase 1 was started in typical fashion with attempts to cast Empower. An early Calculated Risk from Garodd allowed me to promote Bjorgen. This also allowed me to bait my opponent with Garodd to confirm on whether or not he was playing the turtle or aggro variant. Thankfully, my opponent went for him with Rastus, thus confirming it wasn't the dreaded turtle build. Garodd did go down but Bjorgen stepped up and fired away scoring me What Armour? and Headshot. With both Dead-Eye and Khazgan promoted, I knew I had the advantage.
In the second phase, Ammis went to town on Khazgan and tore him apart after the sky captain missed a key charge. Still, Ironhail was able to score me Get Thee Hence. Due to a cheeky Faneway Crystal teleport, Lund came in and eliminated Ammis scoring me Death From Afar which led me into Combination Strike, Victory After Victory, and Escalation in the end of the second round.
By the start of the third phase, my opponent only had Stormsire remaining while I had Lund, Bjorgen, and Ironhail. I spent the third phase peppering Stormsire with shots but wound increasing upgrades and a couple critical defenses saved him. Still, I scored my fair share of glory and ended up winning the game with a +7 glory differential.
In the second game, I won boards and went with an offset set up. Since I knew my opponent needed to eliminate my fighters to score objectives, I felt confident I could blast him off the board before he really started taking off.
Unfortunately for me, Max got a great hand and started off the first activation empowering Rastus and scoring Harness the Storm. Again, I baited with Garodd and waited for my opponent to come to me. Rastus ended up charging Garodd but I blocked it critically! From there, Lund scored me What Armour? and I used Seek the Skyvessel to bring Ironhail and Bjorgen in for the gang up. Sadly, I kept whiffing my attacks and Rastus managed to survive with two wounds going into the second phase.
Max won priority and struck down Garodd with Rastus scoring him Strong Start and Measured Strike. Thankfully, I was able to finish him off with Bjorgen which scored me Death From Afar. After that, the glory train started picking up a bit for both of us. Ammis ended up taking down Lund but I did punish her with Ironhail which scored me Get Thee Hence and Head Shot. In the end phase I scored Combination Strike, Victory After Victory, and Keep Them Guessing.
The last phase of the game was spent trying to score as much glory as I could. I ended up taking down Ammis with Ironhail which scored me The Bigger They Are and Seeking Advancement. After that, I just focused on Stormsire and managed to eventually take him down via a charge with Bjorgen through a lethal hex. That netted me four glory due to Calculated Risk, Chang of Tactics, and an extra glory due to Tome of Offering. I ended up winning the game by just a single point of glory!
After two great games with Max, I ended up going 2-0 with a +8 glory differential.
Round 2: Chris - Mollog's Mob
In the second I round I paired off with Mollog's Mob... man these Englishmen were not making it easy for me! My opponent was a very nice player named Chris. He was actually good friends with Max, my opponent from my previous game. Chris was a superb player and very fun to chat with. Whether rolls went his way or not, he was always in a good mood. I really enjoyed ours series.
I won boards for game one and figured I'd try to stay as far away as possible while still allowing a majority of my fighters to counter attack once Mollog went for Garodd who as usual, was acting as bait. Sure enough, after a couple activations consisting of drawing cards, Mollog went in for Garodd and turned him to paste. Ironhail blasted at Mollog knocking him back and scored me Get Thee Hence which allowed me to promote Lund. Mollog moved up to Ironhail and swung but missed. I then used Hidden Paths to get Lund to the other side of the board and equipped him with Tome of Offerings. Lund made short work of the Stalagsquig and netted me four glory due to What Armour?, Headshot, and the two from the elimination and tome. I scored Combination Strike in the end phase. '
The second phase I focused on Lund firing at the squigs while Mollog went swinging away. Thankfully, three of Mollog's swings failed due to misses and critical blocks. Ironhail did end up going down though. At the end of the second turn, all the squigs were gone while I had Khazgan, Lund, and Bjorgen still up and running.
The third phase consisted of trying to kill Mollog before he took out Khazgan and Bjorgen. Despite taking down the former, Bjorgen managed to stay alive to due his superior defensive stats and health pool. Bumping him up to six health and giving him Potion of Constitution helped as well. Mollog did get down to one health but I couldn't finish him off. After it was all said and done, I think I scored Keep Them Guessing and Escalation to end the match. I ended up winning by a glory differential of +8.
In the second game, Chris won the board roll off and went hallway set up on me. I lost the initiative rolls as well and Chris elected for me to go first. I moved Garodd two steps back and scored Calculated Risk. After that the game played similarly to the previous phase 1 - we drew cards. I don't know what Chris was fishing for but I was looking for Hidden Paths. Thankfully, I got it after the second draw. Mollog went in and went for bait master Garodd. I put Lund on guard. Mollog went for Ironhail and also scored Calculated Risk. Ironhail managed to successfully roll a block and due to Stand and Shoot, he scored me Headshot! Lund got promoted. Now that I knew Mollog was committed, Bjorgen teleported via Hidden Paths and went to town on the Stalagsquig which scored me What Armour?. Lund also charged Mollog which scored me Change of Tactics. In the end phase I scored both Combination Strike and Victory After Victory.
After that the game played out quite similarly to the first one. Bjorgen mopped up the squigs while I did my best to fend off Mollog with the rest of the group. At the end of the game, only Mollog, Khazgan, and Bjorgen were left standing. Still, I was able to farm the squigs and get plenty of my objectives off to ensure I ended up winning the game by a +5 glory differential.
I ended round two with a 2-0 win and a glory differential of +13. Again, very well played to Chris - he was very kind!
Round 3: Ylthari's Guardians - Stuart
In the third round, I met a very nice gentleman by the name of Stuart. He was very warm, friendly, and I daresay even charming. He was even playing with a broken hand! He also did recognize me as the writer behind this blog and told me my article on the Guardians helped him formulate his deck. With that knowledge in mind, I figured he'd be playing quite similarly to me - lots of score immediately's while flinging spells with Ylthari.
In Game 1, I won boards and used my trusty amber board in an off set position. The plan was pretty simple, let him come to me while trying to figure out how to take down Ylthari. Phase one began with drawing cards and movement shenanigans. The Sylvaneth came up the board but stopped just out of range. I moved my fighters up as well and was able to get some shots off with Ironhail which scored me Headshot and Get Thee Hence. Ylthari started casting some spells and managed to take down Ironhail with Sphere of Aqshy and Pangs of the Great Lack. The phase ended with Khazgan using Hidden Paths to alpha strike Ylthari. With the aid of Trap, she went down! I ended up scoring Keep Them Guessing as well which led right into Victory After Victory. With a hefty glory lead, I went on the offensive.
In phase two, Garodd went down early from a charge with Gallanghann. Using Seek the Skyvessel, I moved Lund up and just started blasting at Gallanghann. Due to cleave, he went down quickly enough. Bjorgen also used Faneway Crystal to take down Ahnslaine. In the third phase, Skhathael tried to turn the game around but he went down fairly quickly as well.
I won the game with a +9 glory differential. Unfortunately, the game took much longer than it should have and we only had 27 minutes to play game 2. If I wanted to go to the final, I had to win here and quickly.
Game 2 was similar in a couple ways but things went the complete opposite for me, at least initially. This time Stuart won boards and he deployed it a bit more heads on. Sylvaneth came in flying, reactions were going off perfectly, and I found myself without Garodd and Khazgan fairly early. I was facing a glory deficit of -8 going into the second phase due to cards like Escalation, Songs of Hatred, Calculated Risk, and Victory After Victory.
Things thankfully picked up and I was able to chain a bunch of quick scoring cards to catch up. Lund managed to take down Ylthari, who had four wounds due to Constant Growth, with a critical hit and Trap and Pit Trap. This scored me Headshot and Seeking Advancement led into Combination Strike and Victory After Victory.
Going into the the third round, I knew it was going to be tough to not only regain the lead, but also maintain it. I slapped Archer's Focus, Tome of Offering, and Gloryseeker on Bjorgen and went to work. He took down both Ahnslaine and Gallanghann while also scoring me What Armour?. Skhathael did take down Ironhail and things were looking pretty tight. I moved Lund onto an objective for the last activation just in case objectives would matter. In the third end phase, I scored Escalation while Stuart scored nothing. That brought us to 16-16. But, I was on an objective! Phew!
That was probably the hardest fought game of the day and the most stressful. Shoutout to Stuart for giving me the best game of the day!
Round 4: Richard - Magore's Fiends
My final game of the swiss rounds was against a great Fiend's player by the name of Richard. Super nice guy and quite animated as well - made the games go by quickly and fun!
First game, I won boards and set up the board slightly offset. Predictably, Richard set up his fighters fairly aggressively. Winning activation, he decided to go second and I started things off by placing Garodd on guard. Zharkus ran up the board and in my turn, I took a pot shot with Garodd which scored me Change of Tactics. I ended up dealing a damage but the main point here was to bait Ghartok. Sure enough he bit, and the blood warrior came flying in. Garodd went down. However, I suppose my plan worked because I spent the rest of the turn firing away at the enemy fighter. Ironhail ended up finishing him off which scored me The Bigger They Are, Death From Afar, and Headshot. Ouff. I ended the turn scoring Keep Them Guessing and Combination Strike.
Phases two and three followed the same format. Zharkus, Riptooth, and Magore would all run in but just got ripped apart by either Ironhail, Lund, or Bjorgen. Richard did end up scoring Cover Ground with Riptooth and eliminate Ironhail. Still, the game ended pretty heavily in my favor. I think the final score was 19-11, but I could be wrong.
Game two, I won boards again and we went with an identical set up. Richard won the roll off again and elected to go second. This time, I drew a card. With the help of Spectral Wings, Riptooth charged Garodd and missed! Richard ended up making a second attack, I don't exactly remember how, but he missed that too. Not questioning my luck, I just started using the daemonic hound as a target dummy and went to blasting. I ended up scoring two score immediate objectives before he went down.
In the second phase, Zharkus and Magore came in for the some fun. Fortunately for me, they were out of range of my fighters but were in range of mine. Lund started ripping right through them with the help of Archer's Focus and Gloryseeker. Magore went down and Zharkus had half his health remaining. In the third phase, Zharkus charged Lund but Rebound finished him off. Ghartok, now equipped with the Nullstone Arrows, started taking a couple pot shots of his own but since all my duardin were inspired, it wasn't doing much. Lund charged him and dealt two. Ghartok hit back for two as well. Bjorgen used Faneway Crystal to charge in and finish off Ghartok. Due to a lack of memory, I'm not even going to attempt to guess the final score here but know that it was strongly in my favor.
My games in the fourth round ended fairly quickly and I spent the remainder of the round drinking copious amounts of water to avoid dehydration. To my knowledge, I was the only player who had gone into the fourth round without dropping a game and after winning the fourth round 2-0, I was lead to believe that I was still the only person who had not dropped a single game.
Logically, that meant that I was in the final. The question was - who would I play against? Honestly, I didn't mind which warband it was, my only concern was the turtle cast Cursebreaker deck...
After the round was called, we had our award ceremony after the Blood Bowl guys had theirs. All of the info was presented via a PowerPoint presentation and the final screen had the following:
The Final Round: Raffa (Volomir) - Stormsire's Cursebreakers
Okay, so I was playing Cursebreakers right, not too bad. As we were setting up, Raffa said he enjoyed the blog and was looking forward to reading about the final regardless of the outcome. The reason I mention this is because he immediately followed up with how he got to play two of the bloggers he follows. I asked who the first on was and he said Jamie Giblin. This is important because I spoke to Giblin earlier and he said he'd lost to a mirror matchup. Confirming that I was playing against the one matchup that just beat me naturally, I steeled myself and deployed aggressively.
Raffa won the initiative roll and asked me to go first. I put Bjorgen on guard and then Rastus failed an Empower. I moved Ironhail up, Rastus empowered this time. I drew a card, Ammis empowered. For my last two activations, I had a choice. It would either win me the game or lose me the game. As someone who is a fan of risk vs reward, I spent a minute really thinking about it. I decided to go for it - I figured I would lose just off passive scoring and this was my shot to steal the game. I took a pot shot at Stormsire and knocked him into a lethal hex. I then realized I got get a re-roll off an attack with via Ready For Action. The plan was to use Hidden Paths to teleport Thundrik to get within range of Stormsire, hit him for one, and use Trap and Pit Trap. Risky I know, but this would also score me Seeking Advancement and perhaps even Headshot.
So, I played Hidden Paths to place Thundrik into position. Raffa ended up inspiring Stormsire via Abasoth's Unmaking. That made things harder but I had a re-roll so I felt good. In my activation I fired...and whiffed. Okay, that's fine. I have a re-roll. I played an upgrade, then Ready For Action, rolled the dice again...another miss. Wow. Stormsire didn't even have to roll for defense. As you can imagine, Thundrik died a horrible death the following activation thanks to Great Strength on Rastus and Abasoth's Withering.
I knew the risk. It didn't pan out, however unlikely. Undaunted, I kept playing. We went back and forth quite a bit but because my fighters never got a chance to inspire, it was like fighting two uphill battles. In the end we tied 16-16. However Ammis, his lone fighter, was on an objective so Raffa took game 1.
The second game had similar setup. I won board, and set it up the same. Raffa won initiative and made me go first. This time Raffa set up a bit more aggressively while I stuck with my gun line near mid-board. As usual the Cursebreakers attempted to Empower while the Profiteer's drew cards and shuffled about. In his third activation, Raffa charged with Stormsire at Thundrik. Ballsy, but I figured he had his own combo. He hit and dealt two as the enemy commander was already inspired via Abasoth's Unmaking. He then cast Abasoth's Withering on Thundrik which went off. 3 wounds off my leader, ouch. Still, I figured he'd still live. Raffa then cast Sphere of Aqshy on Thundrik...there goes my leader. That was an incredible opening hand.
After that, I did my best to stay in the game. I kept it close for bit but Raffa quickly took the lead. He just cast a bunch of spells, including a fair share of Empower's, and scored all sorts of cards. In the end of the third phase, I had Ironhail and Khazgan, who was on an objective, while he had Rastus. I was down by two and figured I could force a tie if he didn't have anything else to score. Ironhail, buffed with Challenge Seeker, missed Ammis twice which denied me The Bigger They Are and Headshot. Raffa scored Superior Tactician in the end which bumped him up three more. I lost 15-19.
A very well played to Raffa - he was a smart player and a kind opponent. I look forward to a rematch in the future!
Overall Warhammer Fest was a fantastic experience. It was my first time traveling overseas for a major event. Honestly, I didn't expect to do so well. My goal was top hit top 8 and I'm happy to have placed second.
In terms of my deck, I wouldn't really change much. I really like how it played. I did feel like out of all the cards, The Bigger They Are was scored the least. I don't have a suitable replacement as of now, if at all.
In regards to getting second again, yeah it's tough. But on the flip side I can at least say I am consistent. 😅Jokes aside, I do believe that I am on the right track and that I am improving as a competitive player. I was the only person to remain undefeated after all four of the swiss rounds. That's huge, considering the competition there. Furthermore, I learned the meta in two days and even switched warbands on the Thursday prior to the event.
I learned a lot over the weekend and met some fantastic people along the way. I am looking forward to playing in more large scale events and eventually winning the ever coveted Grand Clash Trophy. Till then, it's back to the drawing board and playing in local events. I will also be prepping for 6 other Grand Clash events I will be participating in this year.
Cheers,
Aman