Hello gamers, it’s yaboi back at you with another GT write up. Last weekend on the 26/27th of October I attended the Bendigo Open, a 40 person GT and the only 40k event on the calendar that is run in my hometown, meaning I get to sleep in my own bed, unreal.

The Bendigo Open is a fantastic event run by Half-an-inch-out gaming, a local club, and has people travel from the surrounding Victoria region to play some toy soldiers. It was held at a different venue this year, a hockey centre, which turned out to be fantastic. It was well-lit, had aircon, and a ripping sausage sizzle. There was even a really nice place to go and sit outside in between rounds and during lunch and chairs to sit on while you were gaming (I’m looking at you Ballarat events).

I decided to run AdMech at this event as I have sold all my other armies due to impulse and poor decision making. This is the list that I ran:

Adeptus Mechanicus – Rad-Zone Corps

• Belisarius Cawl
• Sydonian Skatros – Enhancement: Radial Suffusion
• Tech-Priest Manipulus – Enhancement: Peerless Eradicator
• Tech-Priest Manipulus – Enhancement: Malphonic Susurrus
• 2x Skitarii Rangers
• 2x Skorpius Duneriders
• Archaeopter Stratoraptor
• 10x Corpuscarii Electro-Priests
• 5x Fulgurite Electro-Priests
• 3x Ironstrider Ballistarii – Lascannons
• 6x Kataphron Breachers
• Sicarian Ruststalkers
• Eversor Assassin
• Vindicare Assassin

Is it 9th edition? Aircraft are back baby!

I have no idea how I feel about this Ad Mech list. I don’t feel confident playing them, every time I look at my list and compare it to other armies, I feel like I have no answers, threats, tools. Every other list in my eyes looks better, and mine looks like poopoo.

I feel as if this is in part due to not having the units I want painted yet. When I first got my Ad Mech I painted all of the worst units first for some reason, and now I’m too burnt out to want to paint anymore! I’m slowly getting there though.

Overall, the list is mostly Ad Mech good stuff. I have a solid, thicc, unit of Kataphron Breachers with the sustained hit enhancement, 3 Ironstriders with lascannons, Cawl, and some Corpuscarii as my main damage dealers which worked out pretty well. I am still missing a lot of the decent Ad Mech control tools in the form of Infiltrators, Technoarcheologists, Raiders, and Pteraxii. But! The Ruststalkers and Fulgurites helped control some space and I have those other units on the painting table for eventually…

I had a few general goals with this list (spoilers):

• Take a Vindicare assassin (achieved)
• Take an Archaeopter (achieved)
• Have a great weekend (achieved)

Do I rate my list? No. Do I rate my ability to play Ad Mech at all? No. Do I miss playing Sisters and how easy it was to win games? No. (Yes).

Round 1 – Tyson’s Votann

(L, 45-96) – Tipping point, Raise Banners, Take And Hold

Tyson’s List: Einhyr Champion: Appraising Glare, Kahl, 10x Hearthkyn Warriors, 3x Sagitaur, 5x Cthonian Beserks, 5x Einhyr Hearthguard, 10x Einhyr Hearthguard, 2x Hekaton Land Fortress, 3×3 Hernkyn Pioneers, 10x Hernkyn Yaegirs

Tyson is someone who I have played locally many times, he is an excellent player and we’ve been trading wins for a couple of years now. With my current Ad Mech lists I’ve been unable to crack Tyson’s Votann except when I ran Canis a few weeks ago and Tyson was unable to roll 3/9 4+ wounds with his Beserks to take Canis down, who in return secured me the game (thankfully). This time I would not be so lucky.

Pictured above: Bottom of turn 1, it was alright, I guess. (The 3 Breachers are all that is left, there are none behind the wall).

I didn’t have high hopes for this one, I was more than happy to take my L and move on, even going second, I was in trouble.

Tyson got the first turn scouted away to avoid my Rad Bombardment and drew Area Denial and Secure which he easily achieved with scouting Sagitaurs (very cool and interactive). He also disembarked the Beserks from the Sagitaur in the middle to charge my Eversor Assassin who was behind the wall in the big ruin near my deployment zone. He made the charge, and I intervened with the Breachers, hoping to get enough movement to kill the Beserks and consolidate onto the objective, denying both area denial and secure no mans land, positioning me to potentially kill the Landfortress and Sagitaur in the following turn which would have been a monumental swing. However, I only rolled a 5 on my charge, not getting enough distance. Tyson decided to swing into the Breachers instead of the assassin, killing three of them and not getting his extra CP (as the assassin was judged at the start of the game), and losing all the Beserks in return.

From here nothing very eventful happened, the secondaries I drew were pitiful for the first two battle rounds and I was still coming to grips with how to play my army. By battle round 4 I was tabled except from a few units. Could things have gone differently? Maybe. Could things have gone the same way? Probably.

The biggest let down of the game was the Vindicare assassin who attempted to snipe the Kahl out of the big Heathguard unit, severely hampering their effectiveness. I rolled the 2 to hit, and then a 2 to wound, needing a 3 due to their ability of being -1 to wound if your strength is greater than their toughness, I spent a CP and re-rolled it into a 2 again. Big sad. Luckily the Vindicare would redeem himself in my future games but that was rough.

Overall, it was an enjoyable game and I’m always happy to play Tyson, unless he starts playing Eldar again.

Round 2 – Aaron’s Dark Angels (Gladius Taskforce)

(W, 86-53) – Search and Destroy, Hidden Supplies, Take and Hold

Aaron’s List: Apothecary, Azrael, Chaplain in Terminator Armour: The Honour Vehement, Librarian in Terminator Armour: Fire Discipline, Lion El’Jonson, 5x Intercessors, Ballistus Dreadnought, 5x Deathwing Knights, 10x Deathwing Terminator Squad, Gladiator Lancer, 5x Hellblaster Squad, Land Raider

Aaron is someone who I haven’t played against before, even though they were local to Bendigo. They had a beautifully painted Dark Angels army and was a super chill gamer.

Aaron was a fairly silent gamer, so we didn’t really shoot the shit much about life or Warhammer in general. I kept it low key and had a very relaxing game 2. Deployment is pictured below, I deployed very conservatively keeping all of my units hidden and scouting a Dunerider with Skitarii Rangers and the Eversor forwards to get some extra movement. Not seen is Aaron’s Landraider which is behind the Big L in his deployment zone, his hellblaster unit with Azrael and an Apothecary, and the Lion. The 10man Terminator brick was in Deepstrike and 5 Deathwing Knights were in the landraider.

After both deploying conservatively, we made the roll off for first turn and I was going first. Now I made a mistake this game I didn’t realize until the second battle round. Aaron had never played against Ad Mech before, and I explained Rad Bombardment to him, and we continued with resolving the ability. First, he said his Landraider wouldn’t be battle shocked, I rolled a 3+ and it took 3 mortal wounds, he was not pleased. Everything else in his list he chose to be battle shocked and even though I had to roll a 5+ I still got lucky a few times.

The mistake was not going for assassinate in the first battle round. My Eversor was staged for a charge directly into his Hellblaster/Lieutenant/Azrael unit, but I was afraid of the Lion heroic intervention (as he fights first), but he was BATTLE SHOCKED because of Rad Bombardment and I FORGOT. This is why you need tokens to track these things, Nick was right. Nick is always right.

Then in the second battle round after Aaron had moved his Azrael unit out from behind the wall, I moved my Eversor up to attempt a charge later on in the turn. I did some shooting to try to clear out some Hellblasters first and luckily only killed one, “oh yeah, I’m going to shoot on death at your Eversor”, lol oops. Luckily, I only took a single wound but that would have ended a LOT worse. I managed to chew through Aaron’s bigger units with the Ironstriders and Kataphrons. As usual the Archaeopter did nothing and so did the Vindicare, as Aaron had mortal wound protection on all of his Dark Angels units.

The Lion did eventually get into combat with my Breachers, I popped their once per game 4+ invuln for the phase and was in protector doctrine so he would be -1 to hit. The lion got 4 wounds through, so only 2 Breachers should die right? 4 Breachers died with a CP re-roll for one of their saves, nice. I did kill the Lion in return so that was good news (not in combat, in the next turns shooting phase).

The image above is probably around battle round 4? Aaron had cleared my Corpuscarii unit off the bottom point with Deathwing Knights, but his Terminators were pretty stuck on one flank, and I controlled all the objectives on the other (I had Ruststalkers on the objective beyond the far crate). At the end of the game Aaron was left with his Terminator brick, 2 Deathwing Knights and a couple of Infiltrators still left alive.

Generally, it was an enjoyable game. Aaron was a lovely guy, and Dark Angels do not seem as oppressive as they did in 9th edition.

Round 3 – Ashley’s Dark Angels (Gladius Taskforce)

(W, 88-68) – Search and Destroy, Stalwarts, Scorched Earth

Ashley’s List: Apothecary Biologis: Fire Discipline, Azrael, Lieutenant: The honour Vegement, 6x Aggressor Squad, 2×5 Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs, 2×5 Deathwing Knights, 10x Hellblaster Squad, 5x Infiltrators, Land Raider Redeemer, Storm Speeder Thunderstrike

Ashley is a great friend of mine and I’ve played him many, many times, he was actually staying at my place that weekend as he had recently moved away from Bendigo to live that #farmlife. He is an amazing painter and hobbyist, and I told him that if he beat me, he wasn’t allowed to stay with me anymore (potential spoiler).

I deployed conservatively as usual, poking Cawl’s head out as he does have Lone operative while he’s within 3″ of an Ad Mech unit. This is so he can survey the battlefield and relay crucial information back to the boys at home.

Ashley ended up going first, he drew Sabotage and Recover Assets. He pushed out a bit too far with a unit of jump pack intercessors to recover assets which allowed me to kill them in my turn one and put him on the backfoot. Initially I moved my Eversor towards the JPI’s to take them down, but Ashley informed me his Landraider had flamers, not Lascannons, and I promptly executed a takesies backsies maneuver. I moved some Rangers out to take down the JPI instead and he was forced to overwatch, even though the Eversor was still coming (that’s the reverse takesies backsies). I also managed to take his Landspeeder down to 2 wounds in my first turn of shooting as he left a line open on the far edge of the board that the Ironstriders could shoot down.

I drew pretty well on secondaries and tried to trade as effectively as I could. Two big things went my way this game, in the second battle round I Rapid Ingress’d a unit of Ruststalkers on the top of the board, as all Ashley had defending the top left objective was a unit of 5 JPI, then in my turn I moved them 8 and thanks to their +2 to charge made the charge onto the point and wiped the unit, securing that objective for the remainder of the game (+15 primary). He didn’t have the movement or the units to take it back again unfortunately.

Also, my vindicare assassin managed to SNIPE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HIS CHARACTERS. BANG BANG BANG, 3 SHOTS, goodbye Lieutenant, Apothecary and Azrael.

Seen above: My Vindicare assassinating an Apothecary Biologis by shooting its pistol arm. BANG.

It was the most ridiculous and stupid thing I have ever done in a game of Warhammer, glorious. Thankfully Ashley was a good sport about it.

I love playing Ashley and I’m glad I got the opportunity to do it. It was a fun game with many laughs and bullshit rolls. Day 1 was over! What a great first day, now to find something for dinner.

Round 4 – Ben’s Adeptus Mechanicus (Skitarii Hunter Cohort)

(W, 32-29) – Hammer and Anvil, Prepared positions, Burden of Trust

Ben’s List: Skitarii Marshal: Cantic Thrallnet, Skitarii Marshal: Battle-sphere Uplink, 2x Technoarcheologist, 2×10 Skitarii Rangers, 2×10 Skitarii Vanguard, Skorpius Dunerider, 3x Ironstrider Ballistarii, Ironstrider Ballistarii, 5x Pteraxii Skystalkers, 2×3 Serberys Raiders, 2×5 Sicarian Infiltrators, 5x Sicarian Ruststalkers, 2x Skorpius Disintegrators, 3x Sydonian Dragoons with Taser Lances

My round 4 opponent was another Ad Mech player! Amazing! Playing what I would consider to be a good, solid, SHC list while I am playing a poopy, dumb Rad Zone list. I didn’t think I stood much of a chance in this match up as Ben is a good player and talks a lot of game, which is fun. I also forgot to take any photos of this game, which is fantastic, it is something I need to work on to improve the quality of this blog.

Ben had a lot of infiltrates and scouts to not be hit by Rad Bombardment and pin me in my deployment zone while securing early secondaries, very cool. However, wills must, and on the first unit I rolled a 5+ for mortals, and did 3 mortal wounds to Ben’s Skorpius Disintegrator, his reaction was hilarious and warranted. I find it quite bemusing how much Rad Bombardment triggers gamers, and the subsequent fallout throughout the rest of the game, literally. I telegraphed a few of my plays before we resolved Rad Bombardment which was me specifically saying I wanted to scout my Eversor 9″ forward, move 15″ and charge his Cantic Thrall Marshall in the first turn to turn it off for the rest of the game (lol). Ben decided to stand firm with the unit and ended up taking 3 mortal wounds, extending my charge from a 6″ to an 8-9″ charge (I failed this anyway).

I was going first.

My secondaries were trash. I moved up a bit, shot some infiltrators and raiders but ultimately did not achieve much. In Ben’s first turn he moved a single Ironstrider and 2 Disintegrators to attempt to pop a transport filled with Corpuscarii. The transport was surrounding by Raiders and Infiltrators, blocking the disembark and potentially destroying the entire unit from the transport, awesome. After shooting two Disintegrators, and an Ironstrider at the boat, it was alive on like 6 wounds lol. Very poo for Ben, but fantastic for the good guys.

In my turn 2 I moved my Ironstrider brick up to the Disintegrator that Ben exposed to shoot my Dunerider, got two wounds through and rolled box cars, 14 damage, and from there the dummy was spat. The game soured a bit from here but we both persevered. Ben came back around and acknowledged his behaviour which was awesome, and I’d be more than happy to play him again but as expectations go, his weren’t met, and when he started falling behind and that effected his mood. I think as wargamers our mood is tied a lot to our expectations and when they aren’t met, we can ruin the game for ourselves, and for our opponents. This is always something to be mindful of.

I brought some Ruststalkers in to charge his Infiltrators on the centre right objective but failed to get them in, they would be charged by Dragoons in the next turn. A big play for me in this game was when Ben charged a single Ruststalker Princeps in his second turn (the other four died to Corpuscarii Overwatch), into a single Fulgurite Electropriest, he rolled a 10+ or something and positioned it in a way where it would be very difficult for Cawl to heroically intervene for free into it, potentially losing me the objective in my turn. However, I managed to heroic with my Breachers instead (as he moved the Ruststalker closer to the wall) and rolled a 10. This shot them wayyy out of behind the building and allowed me to get some huge movement, even consolidating onto an objective afterwards, basically getting 16″ of free movement on my Breacher unit in Ben’s turn. Ben targeted the Breacher unit with his Princeps which caused me to lose a Breacher due to the devastating wounds, but the play was well worth it.

The Breachers splitting fire in the next turn cracked an Ironstrider, Dunerider, and finished off a single infiltrator denying Ben 6 points and causing his recover assets to fail.

Also! Ben left enough of a gap in his backfield for my Vindicare to deepstrike in and finish what the Eversor couldn’t, assassinating his Cantic Thrallnet Marshall in his backfield, EPIC!

Ben made a great play using heroic intervention for free a unit of rangers away from my unit of Corpuscarii (which would have almost solidified my victory if they made the charge), as I had to order my charges in a way so he couldn’t use heroic intervention on infiltrators and cause me to be battle shocked. I charged with the Breachers and finished the Skitarii off anyway. The Corpuscarii only rolled a 4 for their charge, so they would have failed without the heroic, no damage done.

Unfortunately, after Ben’s 3rd turn, we only had 15 minutes left in the round which was nowhere near enough to get through another battle round so we called it. It was going to be a very close game, but Ben was convinced he was going to lose, I thought he was going to bring it back at the end of the game.

The scores are low because we didn’t talk the game out, I don’t think you should, or can ever talk a game of Warhammer out, but that’s a conversation for another time.

Again, I think Ben is a fantastic human being and am looking forward to playing and seeing him at events in the future.

Round 5 – Dropping

I’d had a fantastic four games, and unfortunately the cold I came down with on the previous Thursday was starting to catch up with me. If this event wasn’t so close to home, I would have dropped to be honest (I called in sick every day in the previous week, a new record for me).

So, I ended up dropping the final round, sticking around for lunch (left over Piyawat was unreal) and leaving as round 5 started. I think this was the right decision, I had a great tournament, it was well run, and I got to head home early to relax and mentally prepare myself for going back to work on Monday.

All-in-all I went 3-2 (If you drop you’ve still lost), which was well above my expectations for this list, but really speaks to the fact that you can put together most combinations of units, models, lists, detachments whatever and still have something viable for the tabletop, but that argument is also a conversation for another time.

I think everyone had a fantastic time and I really look forward to going again next year. This tournament definitely reinvigorated my attitude towards the Adeptus Mechanicus and I am motivated to get some more models painted and experiment with some lists that I’m happy to call my own in the next year of events.

The next event I’m going to is… next weekend, a 3-day GT in Melbourne called the Risky Rollers Open. I think there are going to be a lot of big nerds there. The list I’m taking is arguably better than the one I ran in Bendigo but still not something I’d like really happy with or would call a ‘strong list’. I do need to paint some infiltrators and a Technoarcheologist so I better get cracking!

I’ll make a write up about that event in a week or so and maybe a short post about a practice game I’m having this week.

Competitive Warhammer is still a joke, happy hobbying losers.

– Signed best in faction winning player Ryan Jones