Hello GAMERS, it’s time for another Rataclysm tournament report W R I T E U P. This time I’m not going to try to score 69VPs every game, this time I’m going to play Warhammer in the standard format as described in the Warhammer 40k 10th edition rulebook, specifically:

“The purpose of the game is for all players to have an enjoyable shared experience, putting their tactical skills to the test while admiring the spectacle of amazing miniatures clashing on fantastic battlefields. In this spirit, good sportsmanship and politeness are at the heart of the game.”

Wait… that doesn’t seem right. Enjoyable shared experience? Is Warhammer meant to be some kind of collaborative game where players actually want to have meaningful experiences playing a boardgame with a friend, a stranger, a partner, creating memories, sharing your love of the hobby, being a reasonable human being and not an absolute pile of filth WAAC degenerate turbo-chud, instead of… winning? Nah, they’ve got it wrong.

I mean winning is the point right? If I’m not winning why am I even playing this stupid game. I could be at home doing something I actually enjoy, like thinking about playing Warhammer.

ANYWAY, I’m playing GSC again. Don’t @ me.

List – GSC: Host of Ascension

• Abominant: Our time is Nigh
• Biophagus
• Primus: A Chink In Their Armour
• Primus: Assassination Edict
• Reductus Saboteur x3 (Fuck off Eldar)
• Acolyte Hybrids with Autopistols (6x Heavy mining tools) x10
• Acolyte Hybrids with Autopistols (3x Heavy mining tool) x5
• Acolyte Hybrids with Hand Flamers 2×5
• Acolyte Hybrids with Hand Flamers (4x Demo charges) 2×10
• Goliath Truck
• Aberrants x5
• Achilles Ridgerunners (Heavy Mortar, Survey Augur) x2
• Achilles Ridgerunners (Heavy Mortar, Spotter)
• Goliath Rockgrinder
• Hybrid Metamorphs x5
• Purestrain Genestealers 2×5

The list is yeah, I liked it more after the event than before the event. I found it had a lot more play than I gave it credit for, I actually had to utilize my units to their full effectiveness instead of just yeeting things into oblivion (remastered) for no reason.

Rataclysm was about an hour and a half drive away, so I collected the boys I was travelling with (Aaron – Death Guard, Ryan – Eats my dudes, Tyson – Todes), had our customary pitstop at KFC before we left, and headed to Ballarat.

We went to this pub for dinner that looked like someone’s house on the inside and had chairs for a ceiling. This would be one of four photos that I took the entire weekend, so I hope you like using your imagination when I describe my games.

The pub proudly boasted the best parma in rural Victoria, and my friends were left disappointed. I had an eye-fillet which was awh-yea-pretty-good. We talked a lot of shit about how good the new Death Guard Codex is going to be while congratulating Jordy on his new shooting World Eaters army. I got salty about my 3-3 par score, but then I remembered I was just a chill guy.

Round 1 – Scott’s Necrons

(W, 84-82) – Scorched Earth, Swift Action, Tipping Point

Scott’s list (Awakened Dynasty): 2x Hexmark Destroyer (one with Veil of Darkness), Lokhust Lord, 3x Skorpekh Lord (one with Enaegic Dermal Bond), Technomancer: Nether-realm Casket, 5x Immortals, Canoptek Reanimator, 3x Canoptek Scarab Swarms, 6x Canoptek Wraiths, 2x Doomsday Ark, 2×5 Flayed Ones, 3x Lokhust Heavy Destroyers, 2×1 Lokhust Heavy Destroyers, 2×3 Skorpekh Destroyers

Scott was a new player, and this was his first tournament. He was a lovely guy who played a straightforward game. He made a few mistakes which cost him some points but so did I, which made it a very close game.

A big mistake I made, which I always make against Necrons, is not putting just enough damage into a unit to destroy it and instead leave a unit of Flayed Ones for example with 1-2 models left, allowing it to essentially be a full unit of Flayed Ones in Scott’s turn, pretty fuckin’ smart aye.

Ultimately going second on Scorched Earth allowed me to hold two and burn at the end to keep up on primary with Scott. He managed to hold me to one objective in turn 4, but with my turn 5 draws I scored enough points to win and ended the game there as we were just about hitting time in the round. I could have scored 2 more on cleanse and 5 more on Scorched (as I believe the objective doesn’t get removed until the END of the game, as in after all other scoring takes place). This would have ended the game with a 91-82, still a close game but realistically Scott could have pushed for a few more points in this game, I’m not sure it would have been enough to win.

The biggest mistake I made in this game was going after the Wraith brick with my demo-charges instead of just using them to one-hit a Skorpekh unit, and perpetually tie up the wraiths in combat with Aberrants who would have taken literally zero damage from them, and forced him to fall-back from the rock grinder and take a Desperate Escape test. This is definitely an ability that I sleep on and has way more play than I realize.

Round 2 – Gus’s Deathwatch

(L, 86-88) – The Ritual, Swift Action, Crucible of Battle

Gus’s list (Black Spear Task Force): Captain in Gravis Armour: The Tome of Ectoclades, 2x Lieutenant with combi-weapon, Watch Master: Thief of Secrets, Watch Master: Beacon Angelis, 2×10 Deathwatch Veterans, 5x Intercessor Squad, 5x Deathwatch Terminator Squad, 2×10 Indomitor Kill Team, 5x Infiltrator Squad, 5x Reiver Squad, 5x Sternguard Veteran Squad

Gus is someone who I have actually played before at Terracon in 2023, I did lose that game too 82-78, so we’ve had a couple of close games. I vaguely recall losing that one almost entirely because I just didn’t move Morvenn Vahl during one of my turns and if I had it would have secured me the game. I was still very green back then, but apparently, I’m still bad enough to make basic mistakes that would otherwise cost me the game.

Gus is a great player so I can’t be upset. He was a player in our state team in the past and he’s really tall.

The Ritual was pretty good for me on Crucible of Battle, I created 4 objectives over the course of the game and managed to max primary, somehow. Gus let me heroic into a unit of Intercessors in turn 2 and then consolidate onto the middle objective afterwards, netting me an extra 5 for primary that turn. This put me 5 up on Gus perpetually meaning all I had to do was win on secondaries and the game was mine. I was playing Genestealer Cult? Easy right.

The answer to this game came to me last night as I was reflecting on my Rataclysm games because I couldn’t sleep. One of the struggles with playing this list is the desire to get ‘V A L U E’ out of my Acolyte Hybrid demolition units. It’s essentially a 140-point investment for the unit, 80-points for the character, 15-20 points for the enhancement and 2CP for 6″ DS, and crazy 5’s. That’s 260 points and 2CP, so in my mind I always need to be using the unit to at least deny/secure primary by 6″ onto the edge of a point or removing a unit on a point, move blocking, killing something big and important, AND scoring secondaries.

If I can’t achieve a lot, I reconsider where I place them and their potential targets. I am more or less forced to do this twice per game in BR 2 and 3 so if my opponent can avoid them, they are generally in a good spot, but they usually do so at the cost of scoring points.

Pictured above, me moving my Rockgrinder out from behind the terrain because, I wasn’t sure that my Demolyte unit would be able to completely clear the entire Deathwatch Veteran unit + Watchmaster, so I wanted to be able to charge if needed. I then handed Gus 35 saves at -3 ignores cover (he armour of contempted lol) to which he started rolling them. After he rolled about 20 saves the unit was dead, very funny meme. He then drew Bring it Down and the Rockgrinder that I could have left behind the obscuring terrain and used as an important asset during this game died for 2 points, sigh.

I felt great after my Heroic play in round 2, being up on primary. I then drew Assassinate and No prisoners and thought great, 10 points, I just win now. I went on to score 0 for both secondaries.

I had my Acolyte unit in the middle that I re-grew onto the objective, but I did not want to move them as there was a unit of 10 Gravis marines, all with big bolters ready to overwatch and kill the entire unit. So, I just didn’t move them… When he did Overwatch he only killed 4 models (this could have been WAY worse), and then I rolled a 5 on my charge which only got me 3 models in combat, and I was unable to finish off the Deathwatch veteran unit in the building. To compound this, I Deepstrike’d my Demolytes near some Sternguard (unit of like 4), and Terminators. I math’d it out last night and would have had to put 20 wounds on the Terminators to kill them, mathematically, but during the game I split the bombs into the Terminators and Sternguard, killing neither.

What the FUCK, everything I did in that turn was just rubbish.

In hindsight, I should have moved my Mining tool Acolytes forward, even if the overwatch merc’d them. I could have 6″ deepstriked my Demolytes on the OTHER SIDE of the table within demo range of a single lone op combi-Lieutenant, having the unit net me 7 points on secondaries, and if he saves overwatch for that instead, the Mining tool Acyoltes 100% finish off the Veterants with -3ap crazy 5’s 3 damage rock CUTTERS.

Therein lies the problem, I would have never thought of that at the time when I was trying to maximise the ‘value’ of my big damage unit in the moment, instead of realizing I could use my 260point and 2cp investment to net me 7VPs through destroying a single 70-point character.

That may have even crossed my mind at the time, but I wanted more value, which I think is where a lot of players fail with decision making.

Often after the game discussions are made about, I should have, I could have etc. and then I would have won!, but these commonly still rely on dice rolls. The alternative decision I just described was entirely skill diff, which is awesome, because it means I have a lot of room to improve and play better if I put in the thought to. Not only that, but HOA has an incredible amount of play using an allcomers list outside of Neophyte Hybrid spam (this isn’t a nuanced way of playing the game, it’s OC spam with good shooting and built in redundancies), which I think would really let me express myself as a player and create unique lists which could cause a lot of problems for my opponents, and myself to solve.

I had a great game with Gus and can’t wait to play him again.

Round 3 – Kotase’s Chaos Daemons

(L, 100-63) – Take and Hold, Hidden Supplies, Search and Destroy

Kotase’s list (Scintillating Legion): Be’lakor, Daemon Prince of Chaos with Wings: Neverblade, Kairos Fateweaver, Lord of Change: Infernal Puppeteer, The Changeling, 2×10 Pink Horrors, 6x Flamers, 3x Flamers, 6x Screamers, 2×3 Screamers

Kotase had a beautiful Daemon army and was playing the COOLEST Daemons detachment, Scintillating Legion.

I played way too aggressively this game, like an absolute knob goblin. I secured 60 points by the bottom of turn 3, then was tabled. I probably could have made a closer game, but I know how Daemons work and how impossible it would be for me to get even close to killing all of the big ones, even the little ones were trouble. My Demolyte unit with crazy 5’s, sustained lethals did like 6 damage to Be’lakor on my go turn, very epic gamer moment.

They were just so fast, and with uppy downey, indirect shooting greater Daemons that could all one hit any unit in my army, literally any of them in one activation, I was a bit cooked.

Kotase was a great opponent, and we had a fun time.

We went to the Queens head hotel for dinner; I ran it back with a steak. Nice. I don’t have any pictures because I just don’t take any, you have to sign up to my Patreon for that or something, I don’t know.

Round 4 – Jackson’s Leagues of Votann

(W, 86-76) – Purge the Foe, Smoke and Mirrors, Tipping Point

Jackson’s list (Oathband): Brokhyr Iron-master, Einhyr Champion, Hearthkyn Warriors, 3x Sagitaur, 3x Brokhyr Thunderkyn, 5x Cthonian Beserks, 2×5 Einhyr Hearthguard, 2x Hekaton Land Fortress, 2×6 Hernkyn Pioneers, Hernkyn Yaegirs

Jackson was not a morning person, and I’m an asshole. So, it only took about 5 minutes of talking shit for Jackson to tell me to fuck off which was actually very funny.

This game was cursed as fuck. I was going second on Purge which was nice, and I was able to match Jackson on kills every round except for BR 3. Meaning that if I just managed to hold more at the end of the game and scored more on secondaries I was probably set for a win, which is generally easy enough as GSC are gas on secondaries.

I, however, am a fucking moron.

At the bottom of 4, I was set to be up 66-62, keeping Jackson to a max of 12 on primary in turn 5 + a potential 10 on secondaries giving him a max score of 82. If I could hold more, which was easily achievable, and kill just a single unit I would be at 78 and only need 5 on secondaries to win. However, I had other plans.

I disembarked my Abominant on a single wound from the safety of his Goliath Truck and ran him straight into a Sagitaur. He CLEAVED the transport in two, and it exploded, FUCK, the Abominant died, as did the single wound Genestealer who was cleansing and holding the middle objective.

You would think by that description it was a single Genestealer that managed to survive and score me more points, but alas, it was a unit of 4, for some reason in the movement phase I put a single one on the point, the only one that had taken wounds. Because of this, I failed cleanse and was only holding one objective… in no man’s land…

Ryan, what about your home objective you silly goose? I ran off it because I wanted to avoid the charge from the Hearthguard who were outside of charge range anyway. So, Jackson scores hold more, and I don’t score cleanse. 6-point swing BAYBE.

NEXT TURN.

Jackson only pulled 6 points worth of secondaries and has to leave his Hekaton at home so I’m kind of alright. His only activation is a Hekaton Land Fortress into my lonely Abominant, woe is me. I’ll have a lot of work to do, to bring this one back.

The Fortress unleashes its SP heavy conversion beamer, and misses both shots, well fuck. Next up, the MATR autocannon, 3 hits, 2 wounds, 4 damage through, no FNPs, 1 wound left. Last up, the two TWIN BOLT CANNONS, 2 hits, 2 wounds, -1AP? Easy.

I roll my save dice, and 1 and a 6. Hmm, I’ll CP re-roll that 1. Another 6.

Jackson gets kill none round 5.

???

Last turn, I’m down 12 points, and still have a unit in Deepstrike that I picked up when the Land Fortress on Jackson’s home objective shot me in the previous turn. I have 5 Acolytes with flamers in his deployment zone, and a dream.

I draw my secondaries, Assassination, which was impossible as the Brokhyr Iron-master was behind LOS and on his full 9 wounds (wtf is that model), and behind enemy lines. By moving the Genestealers back onto the middle objective (sigh), and my acolytes back onto my home objective (sigh), I would be able to hold more. By Deepstriking the unit I picked up into his backline which was hidden from all Overwatch, I would secure the draw.

Jackson extended his hand, I’m happy with that man, he said, a draw sounds good. But I’m just a chill guy, so I re-drew Assassinate, no prisoners, fuck. It was time to throw all my trash at Jackson.

Exposed on a far flank was a single unit of 3 Brokhyr Thunderkyn, which I had previously done 2 damage to with hand flamers.

I moved all 3 of my Ridgerunners into line of sight, and my Goliath Truck. It was time. I could have potentially eaten the Overwatch with the Acolyte unit to get a better chance at killing the Brokhyr, but I was afraid. I don’t think they kill the unit without getting incredibly lucky but apparently, I’m really risk avoidant at some points, and at others when I need to take risks, I just don’t. What a way to play the game.

Anyway, I spent 2CP for the first time in the entirety of playing this detachment to give the Goliath and a Ridgerunner +1 to wound the Brokhyr and went H A M, I pinged them with a RR to get an extra AP and ignores cover and slowly whittled the unit down over 4 activations. There was one Brokhyr standing strong and the last activation I had was my Goliath Truck, it levelled its twin autocannon and I rolled to hit. Two 4’s appear before my eyes, lol what the fuck, I roll to wound and see two 6’s. Jackson failed a save and with that I scored kill more and no prisoners for 2, netting me a 10-point victory.

Pretty good meme.

Round 5 – Carl’s Blood Angels

(W, 88-76) – Terraform, Stalwarts, Crucible of Battle

Carl’s list (Angelic Inheritors): Captain with Jump Pack, Commander Dante, Judiciar, Lieutenant with Combi-weapon: Ordained Sacrifice, The Sanguinor, 5x Intercessor Squad, 2×5 Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs, 6x BGV, 6x Inceptor Squad, 5x Incursor Squad, 5x Infiltrator Squad, 2×3 Sanguinary Guard, 2x Vindicator

Carl! I got to play one of the Risky Rollers boys, fantastic!

Carl is a member of the Risky Rollers team, a group that hosts a lot of tournaments in Melbourne and live streams teams & other events. They don’t just do 40k and do unreal work for the tabletop gaming scene in Victoria & beyond.

Check them out here: Home | Risky Rollers

Carl was playing an outstandingly painted Blood Angels army, which was a whale of a time to play against.

I got the first turn on Terraform, and with a lucky advance from some infiltrating Purestrain Genestealers, I tied up the only units that could possibly contest my Saboteur completing Terraform on my side no man’s land objective turn 1. This would allow me to basically get 40 on primary very easily, despite Carl yolo’ing a 9″ charge and rolling an 11 to deny me on his turn 2.

Pictured above is me being an absolute gatcha gamer by 6″ Deepstriking into a pocket in the middle of the board to contest the mid-point, stopping Carl’s Terraform and scoring with his combi-Lieutenant & Incursor’s but also throwing 4 democharges at Dante & friends, putting like 20+ wounds on them or something stupid, but Carl made enough 4+ Invulns to keep Dante alive on 4 wounds.

Just quietly, back when 3″ Deepstrike was a thing that must have been fucked easy to get away with murder as GSC, I think 6″ is a broken crutch, 3″ must have been nuts.

Alas, with Dante alive & JPI’s on the back of the objective I would need to charge my Rockgrinder onto it to stop it. Luckily, I killed 3 JPI’s with the Rockgrinder in shooting and made the charge I needed to get within engagement of the remaining two, tank shock finished them off stopping Terraform. Carl using the Sanguinor’s rule to get within engagement of the Rockgrinder after the charge, this would free up all my other charges in turn 3 which was great.

The Rockgrinder put 2 damage into Dante, leaving him alive on 2 wounds, RIP Assassinate. Then with the combined fighting of the Sanguinor and Dante the Rockgrinder went down and exploded.

After game 4, this was more fuel for the fire.

The Rockgrinder killed Dante, and did 3 damage to the Sanguinor, I scored Assassinate lol. That was some bullshit.

From here Carl was forced to charge his BGV into the middle Demolytes else I pick them up after he shoots them with a Vindicator, I rapid ingressed the other unit of Demos behind the ruin, popped out in the next turn and 1 hit the BGV brick.

This game was very tight and contentious for the first few turns, Carl played incredibly well and was thoughtful of everything GSC could do. The low point of the game came when I killed the Combi-Lieutenant in melee and Carl rolled a 1 for him to stand back up, my body physically jolted when I saw that happen.

I had a lovely time playing Carl and am thankful for everything him and the Risky Rollers team do. They honestly put on the best 40k events I have attended, and I can’t wait for the 3 dayer at the end of the year.

Round 6 – Merric’s Thousand Sons

(W, 64-52) – Linchpin, Raise Banners, Search and Destroy

Merric’s list (Cult of Magic): 2x Exalted Sorcerer on Disc of Tzeentch, Infernal Master: Lord of Forbidden Lore, Infernal Master: Umbralefic Crystal, Infernal Master: Arcane Vortex, Magnus the Red, Thousand Sons Daemon Prince, 3×5 Rubric Marines, 2×10 Tzaangors, Mutalith Vortex Beast, Thousand Sons Chaos Spawn, 3x Tzaangor Enlightened

I was a bitch this game, I’ll admit it.

This was a classic case of expectations not being met. I always feel like dropping the last round of an event, especially when I have a fantastic penultimate round, but let’s face it. I don’t think I’ve ever had a genuine bad game of Warhammer with someone at a tournament before. So, its probably just anxiety getting the best of me.

I told my friends, if I don’t get paired into someone from Bendigo in round 5, I’m NOT DOIN IT.

Anyway, I played Merric’s Thousand Sons. I was incredibly pessimistic going into this game as Merric, at any point, could kill pretty much every unit in my army through just Overwatch. When your army relies on you 6″ Deepstriking directly in front of your opponent to throw dynamite at them, this creates problems. I think I acted like a bit of a bitch during this game. I did have a walk away to have a drink of water and a muesli bar at about half an hour into the game and ran into Liam who had just finished his game after killing 1k+ points of Necrons in the first turn with his World Eaters, leading to a quick early concession. I felt better after talking to him and returned to the table committed to providing Merric with a solid game.

I was going first, but the layout of the table meant that we were both unable to contest objectives without being completely out in the open. Meaning we basically scored no primary the entire game. I did a cheeky rapid ingress onto a point with a unit of Mining tool Acolytes and after Merric shot them, I pulled out of LOS but re-grew in the command phase to score primary. There was no way of Merric denying that strategy, it still wasn’t going to be enough though.

Merric fed me too many units at the start of the game by trying to control space. By the bottom of two he was spread thin, having lost both sorcerers on disc, 15 Tzaangor’s, the Mutalith vortex beast, and some low number of Rubric marines. I almost lost my nerve many times during this game, wanting to yolo a dumb play so I could chill and accept the loss, but I kept my resources tight and played to all the outs I possibly could.

At the bottom of 3 with almost nothing left Merric committed to a secret mission and surged Magnus onto my home point in his movement phase turn 4, while contesting one of my primaries on the other side of the board. I only scored 8 in my turn 5 and could hold Merric to a draw with my secondaries, if he scored no secondaries on turn 5. That wouldn’t be enough, the Primarch needed to die.

I had a few units I’d left in reserves since turn 3 in case I needed them at the bottom of 5, I could have played so much better with cult ambush tokens holy shit and just won that way by putting tokens near objectives and then coming out of cult ambush on them when it was safe to. I have so much to learn playing GSC.

Either way, going into Magnus was my last Ridgerunner, so luckily, I had the extra AP, 2×5 Acolytes with hand flamers, a 10 man Acolyte unit with Demos (demos out of range), 5 Mining tool Acolytes and 3 Aberrants + an Abominant. Magnus was on full wounds.

I pinged off a bunch of wounds in shooting, but unfortunately I failed the charge with both 5 man and 10 man Acolyte units which came in from Deepstrike, the Aberrants and other 5 man made it. Even though all the re-rolling flamers, tank shock, grenades and fighting Magnus lived on 3 wounds, damn.

Although Merric wouldn’t be able to move in his turn, as he needed to be standing on the objective I would get to fight again and have a chance to take down the Primarch, or so I thought.

I got incredibly lucky during this interaction, but it is also an example of communicating with your opponent and giving up information. I can’t speak to what Merric was thinking, or his actual plans for the game but we did discuss potential outcomes of the secret mission and I did say in his turn 4 that I could likely body block the entire objective with all the resources I had left meaning he would be unable to land Magnus on the point to score, whether or not this impacted his decision, I can’t say, but he moved Magnus there in turn 4.

I made the decision to move the Mining tool acolytes out from behind the ruin and charge Magnus in my turn 4, they would all need 6’s to wound but potentially that could have been the wound that took Magnus down. They did nothing. This did allow Merric to give Magnus +2″ move and try to fallback from combat all the way around my home ruin, and land Magnus on the other side of my home objective, securing his secret mission.

I did not consider this AT ALL.

This, I feel, is a mistake I won’t make twice now that I have seen it, but honestly not one that I have seen before, or had to think about. I did want the damage to try to take him down, but as he would have to stand still in his next turn anyway or lose, I’d get to fight with my other units, so I probably would have been better off to leave them screening home.

The movement was so tight, I wasn’t sure if he could make it, Merric said he could. We asked a TO for help, and he said no, Magnus couldn’t make the move.

Always ask a TO if you and your opponent can’t agree, never roll a 4+.

The most ridiculous part of all this is that Merric only had 3 Tzaangors on his home objective, and Magnus left. I luckily killed him down 5 in turn 3 with random indirect shooting, meaning he would have to take a battle shock test. He failed his 7+ BS test twice with a re-roll from his banner, which meant he wouldn’t be able to roll a 4+ for an extra cabal point. If he had 5 Cabal points he could have just surged Magnus around and that would have been game. I could have screened if I had of known better, but we live, laugh, learn, Lorcana, after all.

In my last activation of the game, I handed Merric 3 wounds with the Aberrants, he failed a single 4+ invuln with no resources left and I won the game, denying the secret mission and slaying Magnus.

I’m sorry if I was a bit of a bitch at any point in the game Merric. I was hangry and needed a muesli bar.

Merric played a great, thoughtful, and considered game. He utilized all of the tools that Thousand Sons had and displayed confidence in his knowledge of GSC being aware of all my abilities and tricks at all times. It always spooks me when I ask my opponent if they want me to go over my army and they go ‘give me quick look and then we can start’, like excuse me? You can’t ‘skip intro’, this isn’t Netflix.

Merric also had, by far, the best painted army at the event, it was beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos because I’m shit at that, but I grabbed this off the events Facebook page. Photos don’t do it justice.

On reflection, this event was awesome, and it felt great to play a proper army (fuck you Ad Mech), properly at a GT again.

I have 3 GTs planned for in the next 3 months and an RTT, I can’t wait to paint some more GSC models and theory craft some future lists, they have a LOT of play.

Cya then losers.