On the 2-5th of November I would go to my last GT of the year (so far), the Risky Rollers Open. The Risky Rollers Open is Victoria’s only 3-day Warhammer 40k tournament and is way better than Adelaide Uprising. It features some of the biggest losers in 40k, and some really cool people that have travelled from Bendigo to enjoy 8 games of Warhammer 40k.

The event was hosted by the Risky Rollers gang at the Manningham Hotel in Melbourne, which is definitely the best venue I’ve attended a Warhammer event at so far. The tickets included a catered lunch for all three days which honestly made a world of difference to how I felt throughout the day and allowed me to play Warhammer until 8pm each night.

I travelled with two mates to this event, Knights Nick, who I’ve travelled with before, and Deathron (Aaron), who was fairly new to the 40k scene in Bendigo and was steadily bodying all the locals with Chaos Knights and Death Guard. Nick was back on the Knights train, which was awesome, I’m not looking forwards to playing against 12 Armigers again though, and although Aaron took Death Guard to the event, he will be joining team AdMech soon, provided he finishes building 18 Serberys raiders so he can play the army properly.

I took the Adeptus Mechanicus to this event, running the Rad-Zone Corps detachment. I learnt a lot about this detachment over the course of the event and think it could actually be quite competitive. I don’t think it would ever win a tournament against players with a brain in the current dataslate, but with enough changes it could be a contender. I’m still making compromises with my AdMech lists, but hopefully this will be the last event with which I need to do so. I’ll get a lot of painting and building done over the school holidays and should be ready to run whatever AdMech list calls to me over the tournament season next year, unless I start buying CSM again (Spoiler, I bought Genestealer Cult instead).

My list:

• Sydonian Skatros, Enhancement: Radial Suffusion
• Tech-Priest Manipulus
• Tech-Priest Manipulus, Enhancement: Peerless Eradicator
• Technoarcheologist
• 2×10 Skitarii Rangers
• 2x Skorpius Dunerider
• 10x Corpuscarii Electro-Priests
• 3x Ironstrider Ballistarii
• 6x Kataphron Breachers
• 5x Sicarian Infiltrators
• 5x Sicarian Ruststalkers
• Canis Rex
• Eversor Assassin

The tournament was setup in a way where for the first three rounds we were split into pods based on ITC rankings (pointless, the rankings not the pod system), so that we played people closer to our skill level (it wasn’t the case), and that people didn’t lose all their games in the first day, and maybe even the second day, and get really discouraged. While good in theory, and somewhat good in practice, I don’t like any ranking system for Warhammer, they’re all bad, you know who the sweaty losers are, just pair them against each other for the first 3 rounds and let us get on with it. Anyway, onto the games.

Round 1 – Luke’s Adeptus Mechanicus

(W, 77-76) – Search and Destroy, Raise Banners, Linchpin

Luke’s List: Skitarii Marshal: Battle-sphere Uplink, Skitarii Marshal: Cantic Thrallnet, Technoarchaeologist, 10x Skitarii Rangers, 4×10 Skitarii Vanguard, 2x Skorpius Dunerider, 3x Ironstrider Ballistarii, 10x Pteraxii Sterylizors, 2×3 Serberys Raiders, 2×5 Sicarian Infiltrators, 2x Skorpius Disintegrators, Callidus Assassin, Inquisitor Draxus.

The fabled AdMech mirror, only spoken of in dark alleyways where if you walk closely enough, you can hear the quiet buzzing of the machine spirit as they slowly beat the shit out of whoever wrote the initial AdMech rules.

Seriously, there is usually only one AdMech player at these stupid events and even though there’s only two at this one, we’re playing each other in the first round, lame. It does mean that I am undefeated in the AdMech mirror in tournaments now though (spoilers).

Luke was playing SHC, lame, and was running a pretty typical SHC list, lame. We both deployed fairly conservatively and were off to the races. Luckily for me, I got the second turn which would help with end of game scoring.

As Luke had no Dragoons, Canis Rex was a huge boon for me in this matchup. Luke couldn’t reliably kill Canis in a single turn and the OC 8 big body really helped me out. Canis mostly served as a deterrent, stopping Luke from pushing too far forward. I held the bottom right objective, and Luke held the top left for most of the game.

I staged the Electro-Priests in a Dunerider up near the top left just to keep Luke honest and kept the Ironstriders, Canis close to the bottom to ensure I was keeping that point. The Breachers staged in the middle just in case Luke stepped forward onto it.

My secondary draws were pretty good this game, managing to score 21 on secondaries across Battlerounds 2-3. But Luke was also keeping up on scoring, and with the amount of Skitarii he had on the board it was pretty easy to get those raise banners points.

As I moved my Dunerider into the middle to score Area Denial Luke used Rapid Ingress to drop 10 birds behind the obscuring ruin in the middle, ensuring to hide them all so I couldn’t get any angles. I had my Breachers out by this point to shoot at a Disintegartor in the previous turn, so in turn 3 when Luke moved his birds to the middle, I overwatched with the Breachers and killed 7 of them woof! The Breachers mostly got whittled down after this and I almost flipped the game then and there as Luke had to take Battleshock in the next turn due to being within 6″ of his deployment zone (thanks Search and Destroy deployment), but ultimately passed the 7+, else I would have scored points for my Electropriests that were on the middle.

You may notice in the picture above me attempting to use a Dunerider to screen the top of the board, but Luke blew it up and made an excellent play where he used his move-shoot-move Skitarii to deny me scoring that objective on my turn 4. I would need to hold at least two objectives + my home to win the game in the bottom of 5.

Luckily for me I had my father to save the day. Although Luke attempted to bring Canis down in turn 5 (I had exposed him by then), Canis lived with around 7 wounds remaining? Interestingly enough Luke was shooting two Disintegrators into Canis during his turn 4, even though he only had two in his list, and I had already destroyed one earlier in the game. Luke didn’t have a trolley or anything to store his models once they were killed so he was doing so in his deployment area to keep the game going quickly and he accidentally brought his other Disintegrator back into the game, lol.

Despite this, Canis shrugged off the overwhelming firepower (and an overwatch), passed his battleshock and charged forward, slapping the heck out of Lukes last Disintegrator, scoring me 2 points for BiD and securing the centre objective. There was a bit of contention about the amount of Skitarii Luke had on the middle objective and whether Canis would be able to hold it after destroying the tank and consolidating onto the middle objective. However, my last Ironstrider walked around the corner, rolled box cars for his attacks and destroyed 4 skitarii by itself, gottem.

A close game with a great opponent, who promised me he never had 3 Disintegrators again every time I saw him for the rest of the tournament.

Round 2 – Luke’s T’au

(L, 98-66) – Tipping point, Smoke and Mirrors, Purge the Foe

Luke’s List: Darkstrider, Cadre Fireblade, Commander in Coldstar Battlesuit, Commander in Enforcer Battlesuit: Exemplar of the Kauyon, 10x Breacher Team, 10x Kroot Carnivores, 2×10 Pathfinder Team, 2×3 Stealth Battlesuits, 3x Crisis Fireknife Battlesuits, 3x Crisis Starsythe Battlesuits, 1x Ghostkeel Battlesuit, 1x Riptide Battlesuit, 1x Riptide Battlesuit, 1x Sky Ray Gunship, 2x Devilfish.

My second, and last run in with a Luke at this event? Would I be undefeated against Lukes?

No.

This match came down to a few things:

1. Luke scored max on every single secondary pull with the exception of Recover Assets, coming to a total of 47/40. Yikes.
2. Some bad dice happened, and I spat the dummy.

Don’t go to a Warhammer tournament feeling bad about your list, feel good about your list, and chill. If Ding Liren has taught us anything during the 2024 World Chess Champion, stay chilling, stay locked in. I was not locked in.

I had a pretty good turn 1, unsticking an objective that Luke scouted onto with Kroot, stickied, then ran away, pretty classic T’au move. We hate T’au.

I also brought my Corpuscarii out and killed a unit of Breachers, cleansing with the boat and an Assassin in the middle. In Luke’s next turn, he didn’t prepare nearly enough shooting on the Corpuscarii, not wanting to expose any of his units, yet still killed the entire squad and the character due to bad dice rolls. After this I had no path to victory, so I marched my army up the board and slowly died to T’au angle shooting, F.

Luke insisted on using a clock and wasn’t really up for a chat, something I noticed was a commonality of those I played who were a part of the Melbourne scene. My buddy Aaron would run into this T’au player later who again insisted on using a clock, timed out, but continued to play and beat Aaron.

Very sportsmanlike of Aaron, right? Letting his opponent continue to play even after they’ve clocked out.

No.

It is not sportsmanlike to put your opponent in a position where the only option is to be a bad sport, or let you get away with a take back, bypass a pre-agreed upon rule, get an advantage over your opponent. If you want to use a clock in a game, it’s on you to respect the rule. If you clock out, be a good sport, and stop playing. If then your opponent offers up some of their time, say no.

By putting your opponent in that position, “Hey I just want to do this, I know it’s against the rules. but can I do it anyway?”, you are being a bad sport, and somehow if your opponent declines, then they’re also bad sport? What a crazy world we live in. Learn to accept your mistakes, it’s just a boardgame man.

Round 3 – Ben’s Tyranids

(L, 88-58) – Tipping Point, Raise Banners, Take and Hold

Ben’s List: Tervigon: Adaptive Biology, Winged Hive Tyrant, 1×10 Hormagaunts, 1×10 Termagants, 3×20 Termagants, Biovore, 3x Exocrine, 2x Lictor, Neurolictor, 2x Tyrannofex, 3x Venomthropes

Ben was a gamer, he had a cool list. Between the reactive moves, never ending swarm of dudes coming back and board presence this was unwinnable, even with his terrible secondary draws.

I got list skewed, but it’s cool. Without the Pod system the only chance I would have had facing this list is in round 1, it was nice see some hypertuned nerd shit at a tournament every now and then.

Despite this we had a fantastic game, and Ben said it was his favourite game of the day. After that we held hands and kissed while we watched the sunset.

Round 4 – Chris’s Adepta Sororitas

(W, 82-72) – Hammer and Anvil, Prepared Positions, Take and Hold

Chris’s List: Ministorum Priest: Refrain of Enduring Faith, Morvenn Vahl, Palatine: Catechism of Divine Penitence, 10x Battle Sisters Squad, 2×10 & 3x Arco-flagellants, Castigator, Exorcist, Paragon Warsuits, 2×2 Penitent Engines, 2×10 Repentia Squad.

This game was bloody as hell, with both of us more or less tabled by the end of the game. All I had left was a few Breachers, and Chris had the Paragon Warsuit unit.

This deployment wasn’t fabulous for Chris, as his entire gameplan is more or less ‘run forwards’, for me it was ok.

Chris was afraid of the Rad bombardment and so left his deployment zone as quickly as possible, if only I included some deepstriking units to take advantage of this…

Highlights of the game were:

• Eversor Assassin sniping out the enhancement Palatine, lmao gottem.
• Canis Rex killing 10 Repentia with 10 melee attacks, and Chris not being successful in a single invulnerable save or FNP.

Playing Chris was fun, although it took a while for him to open up. He did have the coolest Sisters list at the event though.

Round 5 – Ben’s Astra Militarum

(L, 59-74) – Crucible of Battle, Inspired Leadership, Scorched Earth

Ben’s List: Militarum Tempestus Command Squad, Tank Commander: Grand Strategist, Tank Commander, Tank Commander, 10x Cadian Shock Troops, 3×10 Catachan Jungle Fighters, 10x Tempestus Scions, 2×3 Ogryn Squad, 10x Tempestus Aquilons, Hellhound, Rogal Dorn Battle Tank, 5x Chimera.

Ben, lot tanks, yes. Big tank, many tank. Shoot, yes.

Tank Commander shoot on death, oopie.

Round 6 – Leigh’s Death Guard

(W, 95-46) – Crucible of Battle, Swift Action, The Ritual

Leigh’s List: Biologus Putrifier, Foul Blightspawn, Lord of Contagion, 2x Malignant Plaguecaster, Typhus, 10x & 5x Plague Marines, 2x Death Guard Rhino, 10x Death Guard Cultists, 3x Deathshroud Terminators, 3x Foetid Bloat-Drone, Great Unclean One, Nurglings, 2x War Dog Brigand, War Dog Karnivore

Leigh was down on his luck, a bit negative, but enjoyable to play against regardless. He also had hands down the best painted army at the event, please follow him on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/bloodiedbrush

Round 7 – Edward’s T’au

(W, 78-68) – Hammer and Anvil, Stalwarts, Terraform

Edward’s List: Commander Farsight, Commander in Coldstar Battlesuit: Internal Grenade Racks, Commander in Coldstar Battlesuit: Starflare Ignition System, Commander in Enforcer Battlesuit: Prototype Weapon System, Crisis Fireknife Battlesuits, 3×3 Crisis Starscythe Battlesuits, 2×3 Crisis Sunforge Battlesuits, Ghostkeel Battlesuit, 2x Hammerhead Gunship, 10x Kroot Carnivores, Piranha, 3×3 Stealth Battlesuits, Vespid Stingwings.

This was my second foray with Ed, and it was time to enact my vengeance.

Ed deepstriked like 1k of Battlesuits, so I took my microwaved dice that only rolls 6’s, got the first turn and ran forward as fast as I could. Put the pressure on, and outscored him while I got tabled.

Highlight of the game: His Vespid took 3 mortals from Rad Bombardment before the game started, lol.

Round 8 – Duncan’s Adepta Sororitas

(W, 67-75) – Tipping Point, Fog of War, Linchpin

Duncan’s List: Canoness with Jump Pack: Iron Surplice of Saint Istalela, Morvenn Vahl, Saint Celestine, Triumph of Saint Katherine, 2x Immolator, 3x Arco-flagellants, 3x Castigator, 2x Dominion Squad, Paragon Warsuits, Seraphim Squad.

Duncan was a gamer, as are all Sister’s players. It’s kind of the reason I quit playing Sisters. You kind of have to play like a massive chode to win.

Anyway, Duncan took a long time planning his turns out, so I spent most of his movement phases checking out Nick and Aaron’s games, returning to the table every now and then to clarify movement with Duncan.

There were a lot of dubious movements from Duncan during this game and a few LOS errs I had to clarify.

Looking back on sportsmanship from my earlier game with Luke, Duncan pulled an epic gamer move during this one. After I had shot his Castigator, he rolled his saves, it died, he re-rolled a save, still failed, and then generated a miracle dice. He measured the distance between his Castigator and Triumph and said, ‘oh I’m in range, I’ll just double active miracle dice and use this to save it’, you what mate? He hadn’t even declared that these were his auras this Battle round.

I didn’t really care at this point, as I didn’t come here to win and had already far exceeded my expectations with this list, but like, come on.

I’m fairly experienced and know Sister’s well, so I was like whatever dude. But through the eyes of a newer player, this appears no different than blatant cheating. Please converse with your opponent and relax. The world won’t end if you lose a unit, or lose the game, or misplay.

Could I have won this game? In retrospect, yeah probably. Duncan played incredibly cagey due to being overly scared of Canis. Did it matter? No.

This write up was very late and uninspired. In the future I’d like to write these kinds of posts within a few days of the event, but I have a tendency to procrastinate.

Despite the sour, shitty write up. I had a fantastic time at this event and can’t wait to go back next year. I will be better next time x.

Cya nerds.