Hello,

I have returned, now with 60% more depression.

On the 13th of December, I travelled down to Melbourne to attend a one-day charity RTT hosted by the Risky Rollers at the Gaming Arena.

They were hosting a myriad of events all in support of the Smith foundation. There were incredibly fun events, including Blood Bowl and Pauper Magic. There was also a 40k event, which I was playing in.

The 40k event featured a cool mission draft, where you would randomly pull 3 cards from the primary, deployment and twist decks. Then you and your opponent would take turns vetoing a card each until you were left with a single of each.

Some people chose to opt out of the twist, because they hate fun. Seriously, how competitively pilled are you in a beer and peanuts dice game to forgo a fun, interactive, and interesting mechanic at a charity event. How have you gotten to the point with your enjoyment of Warhammer that you are so scared of having a random rule added to the game that only has a chance of lowering the odds you have of winning, at an event WHERE WINNING ISN’T WORTH ANYTHING. No Warhammer event is worth winning, and when you do win, it means less than you think. Anyway, I used the twists in all my games, and they didn’t impact anything lol.

I chose to play Genestealer Cult at this event using the Xenocreed detachment. It’s what I plan on playing at a GT in January and wanted to start getting Reps in. This won’t be the final list for Jan and there are some changes that I’d like to make but I’ll write an article about that later, maybe. There were 44 people in attendance at this RTT, so it felt more like day 1 of a GT which was fun.

My list:

• Abominant
• Acolyte Iconward: Incendiary Inspiration
• Biophagus
• Locus
• Nexos
• Primus
• Primus: Deeds that Speak to the Masses
• 2x Reductus Saboteur
• 1×10 Tool Acolytes
• 1×5 Tool Acolytes
• 2×10 Bomb Acolytes
• 1×10 Neophytes
• Goliath Truck
• 3×1 RR – two spotter, one survey augur
• 1×5 Jackals
• Rockgrinder
• 1×10 Hybrid Metamorphs
• 1×5 Hybrid Metamorphs
• 1×5 Purestrain Genestealers

I want more truck, more Biophagus, more Metamorph, more mining tool Acolytes.

Round 1 – Aiden’s Chaos Knights

Burden of Trust, Crucible of Battle, Martial Pride

Aiden’s List (Infernal Lance): 3x Gat Despoiler: Bestial Aspect, 3x Karnivore, 1x Beast of Nurgle, 2×3 Nurglings, Rotigus.

A cult classic, Triple Gat Despoiler, Rotigus.

Aiden is a beautiful young man, and I absolutely scammed best Chaos from him at the Risky Rollers Open in November this year. I of course, thanked my boy Liam for holding him down in round 8 of the event.

We had a nice chat before the game started where he absolutely glazed me, and my blog, prior to bodying me with his Chaos Knights. Based on my writing he assumed I worked as a researcher or something, and although I have a Masters in Epidemiology and have completed scientific research, I am not. Not by choice, but by circumstance. Instead of reflecting on this comment, I chose to repress it, it’s easier that way.

Aiden was going first.

I kind of wanted to go first as it would allow me to stage closer to Aiden and attempt to control where he was moving his models. This was the first time I had run this list in a while, and I did make some deployment mistakes. I think I could have made the scoreline closer than it was, but I had no horsies in this race, just a couple of alien boys on foot.

It was nice to finally get a game in with Aiden. He has signed up to the Vic team as a coach but could definitely be a player. Always believe in yourself x.

Round 2 – Ben’s World Eaters

Linchpin, Tipping Point, Martial Pride

Ben’s List (Goretrack Onslaught): Kharn the Betrayer, DP wings: Infernal Infusion, MoE: Aggressive Deployment, MoE, 3×10 Berzerkers, 1×3 Exalted 8, 1×10 Jakhal, 1×2 Spawn, 1×2 Forgefiends, Helbrute, 3x Rhino

A World Eaters list, that isn’t Berzerker Warband? Sign me up!

Ben was playing a very cool, beautifully painted Goretrack list that had a lot of cool stratagems and rule based around transports. I do love some metal boxes.

I was going first, I love going first.

In my first turn I uh, ran some bikes and stuff down the bottom of the board with the Rock Grinder, staged my truck up the top side – it’s deployed behind the big ruin – and killed all 10 Jakhals on Ben’s home point with indirect shooting, lol.

It wasn’t a great game for Ben, if he had more Spawn in his list, it would have been more amenable. He was forced to trade big expensive units to destroy trucks and scoring pieces while I was almost always trading up while going back into him. I was able to effectively play around his blood surges and without the Jakhals protecting his deployment zone I used rapid ingress on some Tool Acolytes into his backline to destroy the Forgefiend on his home objective. I put some bikers back there too for Establish Locus turn 3, and on turn 4 after his other Forgefiend turned around to take back his home objective, the bikers combined movement mortals, a grenade and a single Las cannon shot took down the second Forgefiend, lucky boy.

Goretrack is a cool detachment, and always being able to get value out of the Khorne Berzerkers thanks to the combination of Transports and Stratagems is excellent, but the detachment suffers from wanting to spend a lot of CP without having anyway of generating more, and WE don’t really want to be in transports anyway. They want to be fighting.

Thanks for the game Ben, I hope we play again in the future.

Round 3 – James’ Astra Militarum

Terraform, Hammer and Anvil, Rapid Escalation

James’s List (Combined Arms): Cadian Command Squad, 2x Dorn Commander: Grand Strategist, Ursula Creed, 1×20 & 1×10 Cadian Shock Troops, 1×10 Death Korps, 2x Taurox, 2×10 Kasrkin, LR Executioner, LR Vanquisher, Dorn BT, 1×10 Tempestus Aquilons.

James was a super chill dude running a tank heavy Combined Arms AM list, we had a quick chat about the new AM detachment – as this RTT was before the latest dataslate – and he will definitely be playing that after this game. It looks stonks.

I was going first, which was incredibly lucky for me.

The game was more or less defined by the picture above. Those Dorns were deployed in those positions and did not move until James’ turn 4 when he chose to desperate escape them.

Initially I move blocked them with a unit of Jackals, then staged the rest of my army up. I was able to deal with all of James’ other units thanks to my masses and masses of hand flamers and Str5 melee, but Dorns and LR’s would be a problem. Thankfully I was able to continually move block them into submission and by regenerating 30 Acolytes over the course of the game and sending them in wave after wave I held them back. The Sabo’s helped me secure primary through Lone Op and not being able to get shot, they truly were the MVPs in this match up.

I had enough other trash to keep him from deep striking in my half of the board. James did an excellent job of scoring secondaries but simply couldn’t contest any primary after turn 3 when his Taurox’s and other infantry units were gone.

James was great to play against. We had a fun time and I’m glad I got to play him before he had access to the new AM detachment. It looks very strong.

I had a great Saturday catching up with friends I have met through the hobby and getting to play against new ones I had only previously watched from afar.

Looking, watching, waiting in the shadows for my time to strike. There is a chance that if you are reading this, I have watched you before, and one day we will play. I am always watching.

Thanks for hosting Carl, Laurence and Dalton. I appreciate everything you do.

Until next time, cya nerds x