WTC 2025: Game Reviews from the Austrian Teams

Hello!

Today myself and Ben, from Team Austrias One and Three respectively on the WTC Tournament, are going to be giving you our run down of the event from a game perspective! We will give a quick overview of how we got paired into the matchups we got, as well as an overview of the highlights of each game.

Here is Ben’s deck, and here is my deck for event, and of course all of our opponent decks can be found on the Nemesis deck repository.

Without further ado, let’s get started!

TEAM 3 GAME REVIEWS: BEN (KHAGRA ES/WnR)

Ben: I went into the tournament having played 1 game in the last two weeks, so I was not remotely enough prepared, especially when playing a non-meta deck like I did. My game results show this. Also, I sadly can’t remember many of the details of the games, as I am writing this more than a week after the tournament.

Game 1: vs Michal Z (BA/RF Ironsouls) and Poland 3

For the pairing into Ironsouls I believed I had a good match up, as I didn’t look at the fighter cards/warscroll. Poland 3 sets Michal and we believe that I have a good match up into them, so I get put up with someone else (I forgot who). I get picked, so the match begins.

In game 1, I got absolutely annihilated. Michal won by 8 glory, as he killed Razek in his first activation with a Brodus charge, Wings of War and +1 dice from the warscroll. This then lead me to have little survivability, and only Cragan survived the bloodbath. The dice were pretty fair in this one, Ironsouls are just extremely accurate.

Game 2 was way closer. Razek still died first activation, but this time I managed to defend a couple of critical attacks in Round 1 and the start of Round 2. Michael did a good job denying Alone in the Dark and killed the rest of my fighters in round three, which caused a three glory difference win to him. Well played Michal, thank you for the fun games. They were some of the most difficult games this tournament.

The rest of my team was also swiftly defeated. Scott was the only one that managed to pull out with a win, pinging Borgits down with his Ephilim, meaning Poland 3 got the win this round.

Ben’s Four Ravagers of the Chaos Gods

Game 2: vs Marcel H (BA/PnP Blackpowder) and Austria 2

After being destroyed by Poland 3, we were paired against our own countrymen. I went into this match up, thinking that this was a preferable matchup for me, as Blackpowder is theoretically not very accurate. Well, apparently he went through some training on how to use his weapons.

In game 1 I “won” the roll off, meaning I had to play a bit more aggressively. I got to an early lead in round 1, scoring all of my objectives. However in round 2 Gorlok got a couple of accuracy upgrades and started attacking my fighters relentlessly. I set up a charge by the end of round 2 onto Gorlok, but Marcel had the clutch Illusory Fighter to save his leader. I only drew into Supremacy round 3 and got tabled which caused me to loose.

Game 2 I was a bit more confident. I noticed my misplays and hoped that my dice would be a bit better game 2. At the start of round 2, Gorlok made an aggressive charge into my territory and I tried to take advantage of that by surrounding him with my three melee fighters and trying to kill him. However, I missed 5 attacks in a row while having flanked on 2 and surrounded on 3 of them. This major tempo loss caused Gorloks aggressive charge by the start of round 2 to go unpunished and allowed Blackpowder to also take game 2. The score for my game ended in an abysmal 21 glory difference (you might be able to notice a pattern with my glory difference). The dice were highly in Marcels favor, especially during Game 2, but he played very well. Thanks for the games!

The rest of the games were pretty close. We ended up losing to Austria 2, winning the Zarbag mirror and Ylthari into aggro Emberwatch.

Game 3: vs. Patrick Heczko (Ba/PnP Blackpowder) and Czechia 1

During pairing, I was still feeling confident in this matchup, as Blackpowder was still not very accurate and with a bit of dice luck I felt I could win this matchup. Neither one of us were set, but once the first 2 pairings were decided I was set as defender and we picked that I get a rematch into the pirates.

Game 1 I was pretty confident, even though I was still a bit tilted from the last game. This game went very well, as I was able to stand on tokens in his territory for one and an half rounds and killed multiple fighters. He managed to score basically all of his deck during R2 and R3, but the early lead caused me to win game 1.

Game 2 I got absolutely destroyed. I made a major mistake when placing my fighters, leaving Cragan alone on one side with Gorlok. This early death and some other bad decisions caused me to only score 7 glory, while he scored 17.

Game 3 went very well. Gorlok played way more aggressively than the other games, however he was cursed by the dice, missing 6 attacks this game. At the end of round 2 he made a crucial attack into Razek, but rolled 0 successes. Due to that miss I scored 6 glory from Hold 3/4, Supremacy and Alone in the Dark. Even with all that the game still ended with only a 2 glory difference, causing me to win with -5 glory difference in total. Thanks for the games Patrick, you played very well, even with your cursed dice this game.

Austria 3 managed to win Round 3, which is our first, and spoiler, only, win. Now we no longer need to worry about losing all of our games.

The Underworlds WTC gang gathered for some socializing the Friday before the event

Game 4: vs Kacper Perzyński (BA/RF Ironsouls) and Poland 2

I did not really want to face Ironsouls this game, after getting demolished game 1 vs Poland 3, however I was still paired into them. It did not go well.

Game 1 he also charged down Razek in the first activation with Brodus. I scored Alone in the Dark and Stay Close R1, but did not draw into supremacy. R2 started with both Razek and Zarshia dead and no inspiration, so the rest of my fighters died this round. He ended up winning by like 12 glory, as he scored little during R3 (it’s difficult to give 3 fighters charge tokens with no targets to charge).

Game 2 went slightly better. Razek was charged once again Round 1 but survived, as he had Flanked and my opponent only rolled 1 hammer into his Flanked. I managed to inspire my fighters, but my opponent threatened both Arena Mortis and Unrelenting Massacre, forcing my fighters to not be able to attack. By R2 I managed to keep all fighters alive and hide Zarshia, but Ironsouls killed Razek and Cragan this round. Kacper’s fighters went back to cleanup duty and removed Khagra from the board R3, giving him a well deserved win. Well done, I enjoyed the game and you played really well.

Austria 3 managed to lose game 4 as well, with only Jerry winning his game. We could have done pairing slightly better, but well done Poland 2.

Game 5: vs Stefan Zatecky (ES/PnP Gardeners) and Austria 1

We are once again fighting against our country men, this time Michael’s team. I was happy with my pairing as I have played this exact matchup against Stefan before and won, however I was not very motivated to try to win and played pretty fast with multiple mistakes.

Game 1 I managed to take control of three tokens, as the gardeners are not very accurate and threatening. Round 1 I got onto all tokens in my territory and managed to deny most scoring by my opponent. I also followed my strategy of not hitting the followers of Nurgle, which severely limited their damage capability (accuracy is more important than damage against Khagra). This allowed me to win game 1.

I don’t really remember much from the other two games, but I know that he ended up winning both of them by taking control of the tokens and delving them to deny my warscroll push a lot of its power (it only pushes onto treasures, not features). I lost game 3 to a tiebreaker (my only one the tournament) as he stood on token 4 and I stood on 3. Sadly I can’t tell you much more, but Stefan ended up winning by 4 glory, my closest match. Well played Stefan, it was fun playing this close game against you.

Austria 1 beat us with only Dan winning his game. Well played.

Concluding my section, please don’t play ES this format and where is my second hold deck GW. Why hit Emberstone the hardest of all decks in the FAQ, it wasn’t even good:(.

TEAM 1 GAME REVIEWS: MICHAEL (GRYMWATCH PnP/CtC)

Michael: Unfortunately my game reviews will be significantly more boring than Ben’s mainly due to the reason that I got paired into Gitz not one but FIVE TIMES. Massive shoutout to Jan from Czechia 2 for not playing PnP/CtC and preserving whatever shreds of sanity I have left!

Game 1: vs. Pawel M (PnP/CtC Gitz) and Poland Omega

Austria vs. Poland, colorized.

I was going into this tournament feeling super confident, and then for my first game Pawel gets set and we offer our Ylthari’s and Grymwatch (me) as defenders. Pawel picked Grymwatch, as Ylthari’s are a stereotypical Git counter, so it makes perfect sense.

In game 1, I got destroyed (relatively). Pawel managed to win the first game by a whopping two glory points. I don’t really remember the details of this game, it being the very first one in the tournament messed me up a little. Still, I remember the dice slightly favoring Pawel in this match and my ghouls attacks failing to connect several key times messing me up.

Luckily by game 2 I was warmed up and I made sure Pawel knew that. I ‘lost’ boards this time, meaning I got to place three tokens. In Round 1, I had a really slow start, I believe I had The Perfect Cut, Wreckers, and Collateral Damage and managed to not score a single one. Luckily, neither did Pawel. I chose to keep all three, which may have been a blunder but it worked out well in the end. Going into round 2, I instantly scored Perfect Cut as well as set up Wreckers so now my goal was to die. I was doing a decent denial of Torn Landscape here as well as Set Explosives so I made sure to keep that up. I actually did score Collateral and Wreckers this round, while Pawel also scored a bit, going into one of the lowest round three’s I had this tourney. I don’t recall Round 3 perfectly but I do remember not drawing into either Broken Prospects or Spread Havoc which I thought was the end of me, but luckily I managed to win on Tiebreakers with a super low score (for the matchup) of 14-14.

In Game 3, I ‘lost’ the board roll off again, which was off to a great start! Unfortunately the game once again was super close – making it pretty fun to play honestly. I don’t recall it well but I remember it did end with ANOTHER tiebreaker win for me who was holding a token value of NINE in order to win the 18-18 game.

Despite winning, I skilfully ended with a -2 glory difference. Unfortunately, the rest of my team didn’t do as well, with only Tristan (Gitz) securing a win against Rafal’s Gardeners, yielding Poland Omega the win this round. Still, many thanks to Pawel for the game, it was definitely the closest one of my games this tournament!

Game 2: vs. Jan K (BA/Edge Gitz) and Czechia 2

When pairing, I was initially confident about taking Jan’s Gitz due to them not being the scary PnP CtC pairing. I was actually set this time and ended up taking the Gitz by choice (with a bit of team motivation) over another warband that my team had a better matchup into. Immediately after making the choice, I remembered that my main issue with Grymwatch now is losing my leader in Round 1, and BA is the only deck that can arrange that. But it was too late.

Having very little experience into this flavor of Gitz, I elected to take a gamble and play game 1 super conservatively and with with no mental energy being spent on it to learn the matchup. Just as expected, my Duke went down in Round 1. I analyzed how this happened and it was a factor of a) boards putting the Duke super close to Jan’s land and b) Wings of War. It wasn’t even dice – I managed to defend the initial Twist the Knife charge from Jan. It was accuracy by volume. The game still ended SUPER close, after denying Trial of the Tempered with a good holding of Great Fortitude, I believe I only lost by two points or so.

Game 2, I won the board roll and therefore the Duke was somewhere in Narnia making him unreachable in R1. After careful analysis of Jan’s deck last game, I concluded that even without Strip the Realm I have more points than he does, so all I have to do is to score my own stuff while trading bodies in order for him to never have more than three kills advantage on me. This strategy worked very well. I did lose my Duke this game, but it was in Round 3 which wasn’t a problem. In Round 2, Jan threatened to massacre my Duke who was defended by his two squires in front of him. A squig charged the Duke’s flank, wounding him and leaving him on two health (Tempered) as well as surrounded on all sides. After my activation, the Duke’s Harriers came back to life, in order to complete the Ghoul Fortress and let the Duke live another day. However, Drizgit had Lure of Battle and lured the Night’s Herald towards himself, exposing the Duke once again. What Drizgit failed to account for is the Herald’s sheer dedication to his Duke and with a Sidestep the fort was once again safe. This was a really fun sequence of moves and made my day! While this was happening, Gristlwel spent not one but three activations trying to murder Prog with Ensnare but just couldn’t land a hit. Start of Round 3, Gristlewel gets the kill and Overrun, securing me Broken Prospects and The Perfect Cut. Despite the Duke’s Fort being breached, it was enough for me to win the game with another Great Fortitude denying Trial of the Tempered.

The ‘Duke’s Fortress’ Incident

In Game 3, I won the boards which was a great sign! I didn’t have tokens but that proved to be overcomable in last game, so I was confident. I did literally the exact same strategy as last game, and my opening had had Wreckers and Perfect Cut which definitely allowed me to get away with these shenanigans. I don’t remember the midgame too well but the Duke did fall sometime in Round 2 (thankfully after To the Walls! was leveraged). The game ended with a -3 move Growing Concerns forcing Jan to just stand still for an activation, and me only moving my Master Talon allowed me to deny Go All Out while also scoring Torn Landscope and once again denying Trial with Great Fortitude for a nice win.

Once again, Team Austria lost the round. This time Sebastian managed to secure a win against Kyril’s Gardeners, meaning we don’t lose as much points. Thanks to Jan for the game, and congrats on placing so high (22nd!) with such a unique deck!

Game 3: vs. Frederick H (PnP CtC Gitz) and Denmark

Once again I got picked over Ylthari’s by the Denmark Gitz. Frederick was known to be an experienced player by Tristan, who faced him in the Copenhagen Grand Clash final, and he warned me to pay extra attention to this game.

Well, even if I did not take the advice my dice surely did, as this game they rolled actually well (in comparison to previous games, without motivation from Stagger tokens and supports – which are usually crucial to playing Grymwatch well). In Game 1, Frederick had tokens and I was very scared. Luckily, Gristlewel wasn’t and his early execute off a Squig got me the momentum I needed to propel myself deep into his lands. I pushed him off so much tokens that he was forced to delve with his last fighter holding in order to score Torn Landscape, which scored not only Torn Landscape but Strip the Realm as well for myself! This was a huge morale and glory boost for myself, which I leveraged with upgrades in the next hand to keep stealing tokens and delving in order to win the game pretty comfortably.

Even if my Game 1 dice could be considered ‘good’, they were average at best in comparison to this game. I killed Snirk himself in activation one after a super risky charge from his end into my Butcher, Gristlewel Countercharged into Snirk and with support from the Butchet erased Snirk from the records of mortality and Overran to secure an easy Broken Prospects later. After a squig failed a counter-countercharge, Gristlewel killed it too. This game was basically a Gristlwel-hits-stuff montage. After securing some end phases I kept my momentum and kept trying to deny Frederick’s stuff, rolling swords made this pretty easy. Round 2 ended with Frederick having not enough bodies to score Broken Prospects or Torn Landscape (though he scored one already). Round 3, I was cleaning up the rest of the vile invaders of the Duke’s lands while trying to score Torn Landscape myself (which was difficult due to not a single Delved token on the board). In the last activation, Gristlwel made a daring charge rolling 3 swords with a re-roll and supports from Lady Valreek into Zarbag himself and proceeded to miss completely which was fair. But I did score Strip the Realm, securing myself my highest glory game this tourney, scoring my whole deck and killing 8 Gitz.

Unfortunately Team Austria once again lost the round, with only Sebastian winning his game against Mattias and his own Grymwatch. Despite not being able to make first anymore, we had a chance to make top half due to all of our losses being 2-3, which gave us a lot of points (in fact we were ranked fifth or so despite having 0 wins by the old system used last year). Thanks to Frederik for this game!

Day 1 ended not so good for the First Austrian Team. Our mental fortitude was at an all time low, as even the other Austrian Teams were both ahead, giving them bragging rights. We were determined to make an epic comeback though.

Game 4: vs Vojtech (PnP CtC Gitz) and Czechia 1.

After imploring my team for the entire morning to not be paired against Gitz, I got paired against Gitz, once again being picked over our Ylthari. I was known to be an experienced Gitz killer by this point so my team was even more willing to sacrifice me (which strategically speaking was 100% the correct move!).

In Game 1, I did not have a good start. Ironically I think I had the exact same start as my very first game versus Pawel where I had Wreckers, something else (probably Against the Odds), and Perfect Cut. I had about 3 opportunities to push someone into Snirk with Improvised Attack but I felt that it wasn’t necessary and I could save it for later, which ended up costing me the game. Things weren’t going well for me having hit one attack so far (including Improvised!) but a 3 swords with ensnare and a Stagger charge from the Duke’s Harriers into a 1 dodge Git would secure me Wreckers while denying Set Explosives. Unfortunately, the Harriers broke yesterday and after repairing them they clearly weren’t warmed up yet and missed completely, which was disastrous. I was forced to keep Wreckers and Perfect Cut which stalled my scoring capability. After missing into the same archer again, it was really hard for me to catch up. I did try my best and actually started scoring pretty fast but a combination of a too passive Round 1 and pretty unlucky early game rolls I lost by only two points, which made missing the Harriers attack even more painful as I would have won if it hit. However, after looking through my opponent’s deck after the game, I notice he scored 12 objectives and had one in hand, which I had good reason to believe was Torn Landscape based on his behaviour, from which I concluded he didn’t actually have Strip the Realm! This made my game two a lot easier.

In Game 2, I had tokens which helped a lot. I deployed my tokens very safely knowing how hard it is for him to invade me then. Round 1, I actually scored pretty well and managed to deny some stuff from Vojtech. The highlight of the round was the Duke himself securing a kill on an arrogant Squig who dived deep into his lands. In Round 2, I began a counterattack in order to deny his objectives. I managed to deny his Torn Landscape while scoring some more two glory stuff myself, which was nice. In Round 3, my knowledge of no Strip the Realm made Torn Landscape trivial. This led to me winning the game comfortably.

I ‘lost’ boards Game 3, which led to me getting three tokens which I liked. I knew my opponent had Crumbling Mine after Game 2, meaning I had to play extra aggressive to deny Torn Landscape. Luckily I had a very good first hand and effectively denied Shocking Assault in order to get a comfortable Round 1. Scoring Torn Landscape very early made my plan just to deny his Landscape, which proved to be an effective tactic in Round 2. Another incident happened in Round 2, when a desperate Drizgit got Desperate Rage and Gloryseeker and could now one shot my Duke. Luckily, my Duke was very Canny and Sappered away to the other side of my board. After Drizgit got Visions of Ruin, my duke gracefully sidestepped out of reach, which according to Vojtech was the moment he started losing. Round 3, I kept up with my denial streak knowing I win on glory then and my assumptions proved accurate, securing me the win.

As a team, we managed to win this game! Everyone but Stefan’s Yltharis won their game, which was a major morale boost for everyone and we were pretty confident going into our next game. We had good reason to believe it was another Austrian team. Thanks to Vojtech for the game!

Game 5: vs. Jerry (PnP CtC Gitz) and Team Austria 3

This was our chance to redeem ourselves in the eyes of other Austrians. I BEGGED my team to not put me against Zarbag. After they initially set Ylthari’s, we gave them Borgit and Ylthari. They picked our Borgit, and Gardeners got paired into Khagra. This left their choice of warband to set to be either Dread Pageant, Gitz, or Ephilim. We expected them to set Dread Pageant, so we gave them our Gitz. However, they set their own Gitz now – and once again it was a choice for them to pick between Grymwatch and Ylthari. Obviously, they picked Grymwatch for the Gitz, cementing my position as ‘Anti-Gitz Expert’.

In Game 1, I lost boards, and Jerry deployed (FOR THE FIRST TIME) the board with Blocked Hexes. This entire tournament I have not seen it yet for myself. Luckily, I knew Jerry from before and I was actually the reason he got into Underworlds in the first place, meaning I knew him well from both a warband and player perspective. We practiced before the tourney, and he deployed in the way that was most annoying for me – leaving Snirk in the middle of all the blocked hexes, on a treasure token, blocking me from passing at all through the blocked hexes and middle. Luckily, after our practice games I knew the way to counter that was to play more carefully and try to bonk people into Snirk as it was a dangerous position for him to be in. In Round 1, I managed to score a lot of my big cards, which let me play aggressively with my inspired fighters. In Round 2, I transitioned to the attack and was murdering Gitz left and right with Lady Valreek and Gristlewel. I did a very good job denying stuff, managing to block both Torn Landscape and Set Explosives in one round and bricking Jerry’s hand (as he later claimed). In Round 3, I kept up with my momentum and focused on denial, securing myself a pretty comfortable lead.

Game 2 can be described as a massacre. Clearly the Grymwatch were DONE with the Gitz after 5 straight Bo3s against them and the dice showed. It wasn’t even my dice were perfect, it was more Jerry’s sucked. In Round 1, I got away with a criminal charge from Lady Valreek into a Squig who hit on everything but shields – and rolled a shield, securing me Perfect Cut and a bounty. Jerry performed some Git aerobics and managed to ping three of my guys in a single use of Violent Blast and Snirk, but the position ended in such a way that Snirk was Surounded, Staggered, and adjacent to Gristlwel, resulting in his death. After securing Broken Prospects, I made an even more aggressive push to solidify the Gitz in the grave. I killed so much goblins that at the end of the Round only Zarbag and some random archer (Dibbz?) where left standing. Credit can be given to Lady Valreek and her Tightening Grasp which blew through some Gitz, as well as a huge Sunder the Realm which took out two Goblins (the Harriers got caught in this crossfire). In Round 3, having scored everything I can and being able to score everything in my hand (Strip the Realm, Wreckers/Havoc, Torn Landscape) I went all in to the ‘table Gitz’ plan. It took two activations to drop Dibbz, who was on 2 dodge in a cover hex. Valreek killed him with Tightening Grasp and support from the Master Talon or Herald of the Night. Now, one git remained – Zarbag himself. Knowing I had to use Gristlwel to kill him (who hasn’t been performing too well this game, dying not once but twice), I spent activation three setting up a support for the ‘big charge’. Finally, Gristlwel ran in with Desperate Rage, supports, The Royal Hunt, and most importantly, a Stagger Token, to secure the kill, tabling the Gitz.

And that’s it! If you want to read our general thoughts on the event, be sure to check out our other article on the WTC. If you want to find all the decks used in WTC, check our repository out. And of course, if you want to contact either me or Ben in order to chat about Underworlds, you can find us on our Discord server. Until then, thanks for reading, and I hope to see you again soon!