This past weekend I had the good fortune and privilege to compete in the US Open Series in the Warhammer Underworlds Grand Clash in Tacoma. I took it upon myself to bring a “low powered” third-tier warband and see if I couldn’t make them work against expectations. The two-day nemesis event drew players from Vancouver BC, Seattle, Bremerton, Olympia, Portland, and Los Angeles; ultimately I was able to scrape out a fourth place finish, which considering the circumstances and the skill of my opponents was about the best I could have hoped for. Thank you to my opponents Damian, Kevin, Ross, Steven, and Louis, and especially to Jon Barmore for running the event and officiating in as unbiased a manner as possible. I’m glad to have had such an enjoyable experience and help represent the Rain City Thunderworlds team at a national level tournament. We will be back next year!

Below is a rundown of my deck and my matches in the Grand Clash for those interested. An interesting note about the experience was that I faced four different warbands across five matches, and all five opponents used different nemesis deck pairings which means I faced a very wide variety of cards throughout the weekend. I know not everybody is all aboard the Nemesis train, but it was both engaging and a challenge to adapt to such a broad range of threats. Rather than face great strength, contest of equals, and cursed boarding pike every match, I had a new problem to solve every few hours. Even facing Ephilim twice, the games felt quite different as they leaned into different warband cards to achieve their nemesis pairing goals, and I definitely felt like I was playing real Underworlds throughout. I already enjoyed Nemesis going into the event, but this has really solidified the format’s place in my mind.

The Deck: Sons of Velmorn with Fearsome Fortress
You can view the deck on wunderworlds.

My general theory was to lean into the Hold Objective/stand on feature token cards without putting King Velmorn in personal danger too early (so no Proud Castellan for me). I knew taking Siegebreakers was a risk, but I scored it in nearly every game so it definitely paid off. Where possible, I would choose to orient the boards to ensure a fully aligned wide side setup and during placement of objectives, made sure to put one in no man’s land where possible (in order to hold an objective ‘not in my territory’ without overextending) and one in the backfield – far enough to be safe in round 1, but close enough to enable a charge for Bold Sortie. Failing this, the fortress plot card token would be a cover hex placed within 1 of no-man’s on my side to allow for scoring multiple cards while remaining defensive. If I wasn’t able draw into Imperious Will early, I would move Velmorn onto the backfield objective or place him on guard as one of my earlier activations (within reason, of course), allowing me to gain the much needed support on both offense and defense, as well as increase his inspire chances which give him 2 shield, a huge boon especially when on guard. Occasionally I would open round 2 or 3 with a charge from my Sibling Rivalry inspired son off of the backfield objective to hit Bold Sortie and/or Clinical Efficiency, especially if I did have Imperious Will in hand.

Gambit wise, I made sure to include pushes in the form of Take Your Positions and Determined Push to help get onto tokens early, Imperious Will to get the support game rolling, Healing Ward, Rise Again, and Shyshian Infusion to keep the fighters up and holding, and otherwise took some cards to augment damage output for my kill surges. Objectives led me to look into things that kept me from being pushed, put me on guard, manipulated tokens, and increased my durability/survivability. Praetorian was game winning for me in three separate instances, and while not all of my opponents decided to take the risk/effort to chase Velmorn down it really stymied those who did.

Looking back, I think my deck was pretty well optimized for what I was trying to do, and I averaged 13.5 glory per game across the 12 I played, which is decent for nemesis and going 8-4 (15.5 average in wins). My biggest struggles I anticipated and encountered involved being up against a defensive build who could stay out of the center or mess with tokens – Any Ephilim, Seismic Shock, or both. I lacked the range or mobility to punish that without sacrificing my own scoring abilities. Possibly I could have taken a few more cards like Redeploy, Surprising Swiftness, or Deadly Maneuvre, but using those to invade enemy territory would have hampered many of my objectives that I chose. Additionally, Spike of Terror rarely caused huge issues for my opponents and actually helped Ephilim score callous manipulator, so I might trade it out for one of those three in the future.

Match 1: Damian Pytlik playing Dread Pageant with Toxic Terrors

Against all odds, this was actually a pairing I played a practice game against, and I also benefited from a couple of minor misplays from my opponent in the first game – most importantly his pinging Sir Jedran after using Freezing Venom (ending the effect) rather than before. In the first game Damian went hard into invading my side of the board and brought a lot of fighters over the midline quickly. I was able to pile on him and fortunately a stagger allowed me to reroll into 2 crits, inspiring 3 of my fighters and putting Glysette out of action, also opening up the feature token she had claimed for my scoring. It was a tight game with him being able to inspire early, but I was able to take it after I saved Velmorn with Praetorian and got some grievous scything out of Thain Inspired, eventually coming out on top 16-9

The second game was much better for me, my opening hand had Imperious Will and Take Your Positions, and I drew multiple surges into multiple surges allowing me to snowball pretty quickly. He was tabled before the end of the game and I ran through my deck without issue. His desperate last play of using Hadzu’s arrows to ‘push’ rather than ‘drive back’ my fighters on features in the center fell short when I played Walking Wall and Stalwart Sentinel, allowing me to stay comfortably on tokens and snag my end phase glory and win 17-7

Result: Velmorn wins 2-0, 33-16

Match 2: Kevin Zelaya playing Ephilim’s Pandaemonium with Daring Delvers

To my surprise, I placed on the top table at this point, having scored the second most glory of the 2-0 winners. This meant I got to play against Kevin, who not only built a gnarly ping deck but was one of the fastest and best spirited players I have faced in a long while, and this was easily my favorite match of the past year.

Game 1 was a tight back and forth – we both had shaken the jitters off in our first matches and were ready to execute our respective gameplans. I was fortunate in that Kevin’s strategy required that I be within reach, and so he often opted not to drive me back after successful attacks. This allowed me to score a few cards I otherwise might not have, but also allowed him to eat me alive (or undead, as it were) in the power step. There was a moment where I had a real shot when I blocked Sudden Demise after using with Healing Ward to offset his first ping, and then he failed to cast Flame Wisps on three dice against the odds. Ultimately, his ability to bring a changer back using Summoned Abomination slowed down scoring Protected Inheritance, eating a spot in my hand for a round, and locked me out of Dispassionate Slaughter. Ephilim won 16-12

Game 2 went well for me, and I was able to pull ahead early with a charge with Helmar the Hewer to score Clinical Efficiency and Relentless Unity while taking Apo’trax down early. This allowed me the ability to buy the upgrades I needed to keep and hold the tokens, and while he fought hard, he couldn’t claw back enough glory to level the score and we were headed to a game 3 after I won 19-15

Game 3 was unfortunately a steamrolling win for Ephilim, as the Fires of Change and Flamespooler both punished me for clustering in the midboard, and my card draw/dice luck just wasn’t there while his was. At one point he scored Sudden Demise when he Flame Wisps‘d my fighter I had just played Rise Again on before I could play Shyshian Infusion, which was a downer but that’s the way the game is played. It was still a joyous experience, and we were both laughing throughout while cards were flying every 5-15 seconds all match long. If anything, we both might have played slightly under our optimal performance just because we were so lost in the moment and moving so rapidly, but I would do it again. Velmorn drops game 3 by a score of 8-20

Result: Velmorn loses 1-2, 39-51, and I’m furious that Kevin lives in Los Angeles so playing again will be a real challenge.

Match 3: Ross Reagan playing Skittershank’s Clawpack with Deadly Depths

Having taken a loss in the last game, I fell pretty far down the standings and was in the middle tables with Ross. Interestingly, he was the third player from LA I faced that day, and that meant I had played their whole team before dinner. He’s got a great taste in pizza though, so I was glad to get invited to tag along with the gang that evening after we had been competitively acquainted.

In game 1, I knew that I would have to hide Velmorn far back, and my Bold Sortie objective probably didn’t need to be all that far forward as he would be coming to me, and quickly. Fortunately I was able to orient the boards and grabbed a back corner starting hex that wasn’t trapped, and then proceeded to put Velmorn on guard all game. At one point I was in serious trouble when he had pulled Velmorn towards him with his faction distraction 2, and then dropped some cards that had plus dice, cleave, and plus damage lined up. I countered with Praetorian, forcing him to attack Sir Jedran instead and invalidating his Deadly Depths cards that required the target be on a feature token. I legitimately believe this won me the game, as I took 3 rather than 4 damage and the mental drain it placed on him to try and find a way to position such that Jedran couldn’t intercede had him making inopportune plays. It also locked out a lot of his ‘kill the leader’ scoring, and left me more or less able to hold the middle and score without issue (though I had to drop Siegebreakers). Velmorn wins 15-8.

Game 2 went much the same, with the Clawpack diving hard into my territory and hunting Velmorn immediately. Remembering how valuable Pratorian was in the previous match, I mulliganed my opening power hand even though I was satisfied with it otherwise, as I was fishing for Praetorian again and it paid off. An exposed charge with Thain Fourth-and-Last grabbed me a glory when I killed a minion, and I immediately slapped Praetorian on Sir Jedran again to Ross’ dismay. This time he decided to just cut out the middle man and focus Falseborn down before moving on to Velmorn himself, but the Big Bastard did me a favor and actually landed a hit and grabbed me Regal Riposte to boot. The King himself put down a rat or two, and I was able to take the game 12-5

Result: Velmorn win 2-0, 27-13

Match 4: Steven Painter playing Ephilim’s Pandaemonium with Seismic Shock

By the morning of the second day, I had pulled myself back up to the second table and at this stage both Steven and I knew the winner would be moving onto the top table for the last game, so the stakes were very high. The top pairing we would be playing into was a Gnarlspirit mirror and I felt like I had a decent chance in that matchup, so if I managed to sneak past Ephilim this time I had legitimate podium hopes.

In the first game it because apparent to me that I was going to have a real problem with the whole ‘winning the tournament’ thing, since Steven was a very cagey and skilled player who made a lot of very deliberate and intelligent moves. I had the incredible fortune to successfully defend four consecutive attacks in the first round, but spent the whole time doing move actions or guard actions as I was setting up for some end phase holds I had mulliganed into alongside Earthworks. This allowed me to be up 7-0 to start the second round, but he was able to make the most of a bad situation and did happen to pull the game close by the end. Once more I was prevented from making good use of Protected Inheritance and Dispassionate Slaughter, but ended up winning the first game 16-14.

Adrenaline had us both legitimately trembling as we revealed cards to each other throughout game 2. Steven again missed his first two attacks and fortunately for both him and the spirit of the game, the bad dice streak didn’t last this time and he was able to actually score some cards before the end of the first. I might have had a shot to hold him off until he was able to swap the midboard objective with the my-side cover hex, which destroyed any chance I had to score anything that had me hold an objective ‘not in my territory’. Desperate, I leaned into invading aggro in a vain attempt to kill Ephilim, but I had already pushed him away with Spike of Terror and he was effectively out of reach. He also blocked my Stockpile scoring while snagging Nine Fates himself, which definitely didn’t help maters. Some subpar dice meant I couldn’t take out many changers either, and Steven won 21-8 in part due to my abandoning the fortress plan (though it was over at that point).

In the third game I made an error in setup that saw me attempt to prevent the backbreaking objective manipulation he was able to use with Seismic Shock, and just put two things on the midfield to start with. This locked me out of Bold Sortie which slowed my roll, and my deployment made it hard to get onto those tokens being further upfield, so Impregnable Defenses also took longer to score. It didn’t help that he wouldn’t miss this time around! Steven was a mile ahead by the time I made the final fatal mistake and after I failed to kill Ephilim at the end of round 2, I foolishly chose to drive him back out of no-man’s land. My thought was ‘this way he can’t score any ‘not in your territory’ business’, but this was game 3 and I had already seen that he had none, so I’m not sure what card I was pretending to prevent. This misplay forced me to waste activations charging in round 3 when I could have simply attacked (and kept support), and also made it impossible for Velmorn to reach the combat. I wouldn’t have won even if he could have gotten an attack in, but moral victories and whatnot. Steven wins with a well-deserved 22-11 and he was off to face his Minis & Mayhem teammate in a Vancouver BC showdown for first place.

Result: Velmorn loses 1-2, 35-57

Match 5: Louis McElrath playing Ylthari’s Guardians with Tooth and Claw

Louis is a Seattle teammate of mine and while I hadn’t faced this deck before, I did TO a local event he tested it out at, so I had a bit of an advantage knowing what he was trying to do. We managed to get confirmation prior to the event that he was able to mass inspire using Savage Season so long as there was at least 1 wound on any of his fighters, so I had to be ready for that and would need to focus individual fighters down rather than spread the hurt with his ability to heal. Upping the stakes was that we calculated some scores beforehand and knew that if the second table game ended in a draw, that the winner of our match would leapfrog them into third place. We agreed that whatever happened, one of us would need to win convincingly to make that possible. #NoCollusion

The first game was a bit frustrating for us both, as my defensive and healing ability offset his aggro and neither of us was able to make much headway into our objectives as I couldn’t hold much and he wasn’t able to finish my fighters off. He was able to take the center objective with Gallanghann, which really hampered my hold objective play, and I also wasn’t able to keep him out of my territory from the jump and had to toss Siegebreakers. In the end I was able to win with a score of 10-6 but it could have gone either way.

The second game went much better for me as I was able to quickly get onto the two center feature tokens, and then Marshall Faulk rolled a crit on defense three consecutive times to score Impregnable Defenses and Relentless Unity, allowing me to purchase Siegemaster and Favored Son very early on and simply lock down the middle of the board. He wasn’t able to get much going offensively, and I was able to kill both his Ahnslaine and Ylthari, cutting off several of his scoring cards from viability. I ended up taking the game 19-4 and we shook hands to a ‘convincing’ showing for Rain City Thunderworlds.

Result: Velmorn wins 2-0, 29-10

Unfortunately that second table’s match didn’t end in a draw, but they were tied on differential going into the third match and Kevin only squeaked out a win by one glory, so that’s how close ya boy Velmorn came to the bronze medal upset. First overall went to Damian (a different one!), and that man has now made a habit of coming down from Canada and stealing our trophies here in Washington. Three times is too many, I say! He’ll represent the ‘Wet’ Coast well in Atlanta at the National Finals Invitational, and as much as I hate to say it, I’ve been beaten into submission enough at this point to admit that #CanadaStands. I even gave him my Burger King crown.

“The Best of the Rest” – the top ten finishers who didn’t manage to grab 1st place or Best Painted

Podium Finishers

Best Painted – this diorama required 70 pencils to make!

Fourth place in a grand clash for the Sons of Velmorn left me feeling pretty pleased – overall I think the deck I built had legs and I mostly made intelligent plays and well calculated risks throughout the weekend. Hopefully I’ve inspired some of you to consider taking your own ‘lower tier’ warband back off the shelf, and to reconsider the idea that pure aggro is the only way to play Nemesis in this meta. In the end, I had a wonderful time, every one of my opponents was a stand-up guy, and rather than burning out on a marathon weekend, if anything my enthusiasm for the game has increased even further. Let me know your thoughts on the event and what I brought, and don’t forget to Spend that Glory!