On July 5th I attended the Geelong town open, a chill, casual, fun event that included people who borrowed their friends’ armies that they didn’t paint to win best overall, and other interesting, fun people who were there to roll dice and have a great weekend.

I set out to force myself to paint a bunch of models that I didn’t want to so that they would be battle-ready and I could look at them with disappointment for the next few years as I never return to repaint them and move onto the next painting death march for whatever GT I’ll be attending in the future.

I’m playing AdMech, but bringing two assassins because I’m not a sweaty power gamer whose ego is tied to my win/loss ratio, I’m just a chill guy who likes playing toy soldiers.

List:

• Cawl
• Skitarii Marshal: Sanctified Ordnance
• 3x Sydonian Skatros
• Tech-Priest Manipulus: Inloaded Lethality
• Tech-Priest Manipulus
• 2×10 Rangers
• 10x Vanguard
• Skorpius Dunerider
• 2×3 Kataphron Breachers
• 5x Pteraxii Skystalkers
• 5x Sicarian Infiltrators
• 10x Sicarian Ruststalkers
• 2×1 Skorpius Disintegrators
• Eversor Assassin
• Vindicare Assassin

Haloscreed good, gotta go fast, boom boom, zap zap, bang bang, pow.

NB. I’m writing this up like 3 weeks later out of laziness, so I don’t remember a lot of things. They also take excellent photos at this event, so I’ve made sure to include some of them (just of my army otherwise this article would have over 400 photos in it). I’ll just have them added throughout the article.

Round 1 – Foti’s World Eaters

Scorched Earth, Tipping Point

Foti’s list (Berzerker Warband): Kharn the Betrayer, Daemon Prince of Khorne: Helm of Brazen Ire, Lord on Juggernaut: Battle-lust, Slaughterbound: Berzerker Glaive, 3×10 Khorne Berzerkers, 2×3 Eightbound, 3x Exalted Eightbound, 8x Goremongers, 10x Jakhals, 2×2 Chaos Spawn, 2×1 Chaos Rhino.

Foti was a cool guy playing World Eaters that tasted like real World Eaters, no Forgefiends here. In true GTO fashion the terrain was a bit piss, but I tried to make it amicable for my opponent as they didn’t have much shooting and I did.

Foti was fairly new to 40k but was a very smart egg and already had his head around most of the nuances of the game.

I was going first.

I managed to pick up a few Exalted Eightbound with a Disintegrator in my first turn, but I mostly focused on screening his melee units and securing some primary before I was run over by a wave of Khorne Berzerkers. Chaos Spawn are also unexpectedly gas in this match up.

I was able to use my trash to hold him back for most of the game, but as usual in Scorched Earth I was unable to stop him from securing 15 on primary at the end of the game. His secondaries weren’t great, and challenger cards made it closer than it probably should have been, but I was able to narrowly secure the victory.

The highlight of this game for me was my Vindicare Assassin deepstrking atop the Necron Tomb and sniping his Slaughterbound straight out of the Eightbound unit before it was able to do, anything. The Eversor died in a hit-and-run incident involving a Rhino.

Round 2 – Richard’s Necrons

Terraform, Crucible of battle

Richard’s list (Starshatter Arsenal): C’tan Shard of the Nightbringer, C’tan Shard of the Void Dragon, Imotekh the Stormlord, Skorpekh Lord, Transcendent C’tan, 3×1 Doomsday Ark, 5x Flayed Ones, 3×3 Ophydian Destroyers, 3x Skorpekh Destroyers.

Game 2! Necrons! This was looking a bit grim for me, I don’t have ‘much’ to handle C’tan and the Doomsday Arks are great at picking up entire units of Breachers without much work.

I got a bit lucky in this game, being able to kill the Void Dragon in a single shooting phase, but also unlucky in the fact that I forgot to shoot a Disintegrator at a unit of Skorpekhs – because I was excited that the Eversor took the final wound off a Void Dragon with his pistol – that the Eversor then charged into and bounced off of. This allowed him to push the Skorpekhs up the top of the board and kill my Rangers holding the objective, losing me 4 points on primary, and that flank which would have likely been held if I was able to shoot that Disintegrator.

I had a pretty good turn up until that point, and ultimately, I probably still would have lost, but that was a bit disappointing.

Always remember to shoot your tanks, kids.

Round 3 – Adrian’s World Eaters

Take and Hold, Hammer and Anvil

Adrian’s list (Bezerker Warband): Daemon Prince of Khorne: Helm of Brazen Ire, Kharn the Betrayer, Master of Executions: Favoured of Khorne, Slaughterbound: Berzerker Glaive, 2×10 Khorne Berzerkers, Chaos Rhino, 3×2 Chaos Spawn, 2×3 Eightbound, 1×3 Exalted Eightbound, 2×1 Forgefiend, 10x Jakhals.

It wouldn’t be a GT in another town that cost money in accommodation, tickets, food and an entire weekend if I didn’t play the same faction and detachment twice in the same day.

Adrian was lovely and had one of the best painted armies at the event. He was also the bravest man I’d ever met, attending GTO while his wife was heavily pregnant, on the weekend of her birthday.

Adrian was going first which was, Idk, alright I guess. What could go wrong with World Eaters staging their entire army up against Ad Mech?

He played quite conservatively and allowed me to score 15 on primary on T2, I was very paranoid and under the assumption that he was playing mind tricks on me.

However, I quickly pulled ahead on primary and secondaries as he was often trading down into him with his larger more elite units.

The highlight of the game for me was a Rhino charging a single 1 wound Infiltrator on the midpoint as Adrian had Secure no man’s land and Area Denial for his secondaries. He used Tank Shock on a Forgefiend to take out Cawl on the bottom of the map, however, with the -1 leadership the Rhino in the middle failed Battle shock, costing Adrian 7 VPs!

He was also lovely and let me shoot my Disintegrator, after I forgot – for the second time – which unluckily one hit his Daemon Prince with its Ferrumite cannon, lol.

Round 4 – Tyson’s Aeldari

Hidden Supplies, Crucible of Battle

Tyson’s list (Seer Council): 2x Autarch, Baharroth, Eldrad Ulthran, Fuegan, Lhykhis, Warlock: Lyucid Eye, 10x Storm Guardians, 10x Dark Reapers, 10x Fire Dragons, 5x Howling Banshees, 2×5 Rangers, 10x Swooping Hawks, 3×1 Warlock Skyrunners, 5x Warp Spiders, 6x Windriders.

My 4th round opponent was something I was travelling with, a Bendigo local who I had a 50%ish win rate against. I always enjoy playing my friends at these events, usually round 5 so I can have a chill last game, but the games tend to be less draining as I don’t have to mask as much.

This game was cursed for Tyson – and for me, but like, less due to dice and more to my own decisions.

I ended up winning by 2 points, but Tyson failed Area denial because he was unable to roll 4 4+ rolls on 10 dice, and I was able to overwatch a unit and get exactly 3 6’s which stopped him from denying one of my primary points.

I was able to effectively use the vanguard unit – pictured above – to deny Tyson primary entirely on turn 2, but he just scored 9 on challenger cards anyway so I guess that play netted me – checks notes – a single VP?

I feel like I gotcha’d him with my Eversor as he had his Warp Spiders unit + spider boy touching a wall, which I could use the Eversor’s boosty move to charge, but he ended up killing a single Warp Spider in combat so, the egg is on my face.

Tyson played very conservatively as his Eldar units were large, expensive, and fragile, but he also scored all the points he could very well and gave me a better understanding of how Eldar functions – sort of.

I often find that Warhammer games come down to very crucial and specific movements and placements of models. If you can dictate a single exchange that can lead to a 6–8-point lead, or to an advantageous board position, it can often mean you win on the spot.

Round 5 – Andrew’s Imperial Knights

Linchpin, Search and Destroy

Andrew’s list (Noble Lance): Canis Rex, Cerastus Knight Lancer: Banner of Macharius Triumphant, Knight crusader, Knight Errant: Mysterious Guardian, Knight Paladin, Armiger Helverin.

Last game, 5 big Knights and a lesson learned.

Always believe in yourself ❤

I was a bit pessimistic going into this one, I thought I was straight up cooked. But then I did something I had never done before. I went into Protector Doctrine. Turns out shooting is pretty reliable at BS 3, with heavy on everything. Especially when the only defence Knights have is a single unit rotating Ion shields.

I was able to chew through the Big Knights. The first Knight I was able to target was the Knight Errant which died pretty easily, after this Andrew didn’t have anything that could threaten my Disintegrators which stood still in the firing lanes and received the stealth buff from the Haloscreed detachment rule.

Hitting on 2’s, re-rolling 1’s from Cawl made my shooting incredibly effective, and thanks to a lucky save roll against Canis’s shooting they were able to shoot almost every battleround until Canis ripped one apart in melee in Andrew’s turn 4.

This game was very close, until it wasn’t. Pretty much the entire game came down to whether or not I could kill the Paladin on the middle objective on the bottom of turn 3. By this time, all of my Breachers were dead, but I had Cawl, a couple of Disintegrators and whatever was left of my army pointed directly at it.

After all of my shooting and grenades, the Knight was left alive on 1 wound. A Pteraxii luckily finished it off in melee and I was able to secure the game.

I didn’t think finishing 4-1 was really on the cards for me with this list. But apparently, I just need to believe in myself. I also learned that I still have no idea how to play this game.

Next up for me is Nightlords and apparently now, Sisters again. I think I’ll start doing hobby updates again as they are fun and I enjoy sharing what I’ve painted. I think it’s more interesting than complaining about dice rolls in battle reports.

Thanks for reading, cya nerds x.