“Contemptor” Kevin Stillman’s write-up of his experiences at the Games Workshop US Open tournament continues this week as he recaps his Saturday games. If you missed his previous update, you can find it here.
D. Saturday
Up at 6:00 am to work out before being on my feet for several hours. My breakfast that morning was half a donut from Hertz Donut, a donuttery next to the hotel. Delicious donuts, but each one you eat probably takes a month off your life. But it was time to game!
First game – vs. Custodes (Jetbike list)
The Mission: Sweep and Clear
The first game against Custodes was an intense struggle because my army did not have an answer for a bunch of T6, objective-holding units with a 5+ invulnerable save. I was able to get ROD off without too much trouble, but even trying to play objectives I just wasn’t going to be able to do very much.
Second game – Custodes, but this time with Telemons
The Mission: Vital Intelligence
This one was a heartbreaker, since I lost this one by about three points to a very friendly opponent. I completed ROD and Engage on All Fronts. However, I realized on Turn 3 that I had forgotten to put a unit in the center to complete Oaths of Moment. This cost me two points. And on Turn 4, I destroyed one of his Dreadnoughts and two of his characters. Since I could only score one point on Oaths of Moment per turn, this was two wasted points. And ultimately, it was the margin of victory.
I also did not max my primary objectives. Early on, my opponent sent in a Culexus Assassin to attack some Infiltrators I had outside my deployment zone. It took the Infiltrator four turns, but he did eventually kill off all of those Infiltrators. This let the Assassin hold one of my objectives and let my opponent score all 15 points of his Primary. Some objective-holding Intercessors also got mulched by deep striking Venatari Custodes, which meant I was only holding two objectives for my final turn. That meant only scoring 5 points on my final turn.
After this second game, it was around 5:00 pm, and I was hungry because I had missed lunch. I was not going to have the opportunity to try and win my bracket (since I lost game 5), so I dropped before my sixth game, and went out to get some dinner. I went to a local pizza place. It was OK, but mostly picked because it was two blocks away from the hotel.
By this point, GW had quietly opened the lounge area for their after party. I hopped in there because it was largely empty at the time, and we could get a good position for the upcoming pub trivia. Folks trickled in after their games, ready for dinner and games. Unfortunately, it was taking forever to get either food or drinks. And the food was, per Rob, not fantastic.
“Pub trivia” was actually handled via an App. This involved fifteen questions regarding Warhammer (40K, Heresy, Fantasy, AND Age of Sigmar)! While I would have preferred a two-hour team trivia game, a fast-paced singles game was pretty good. I was somewhat familiar with how the trivia app worked, since I had used it at pub trivia.
I won and from the GW blind box draw, drew the Limited Edition of the Valdor novel. I had already read it, but I thoroughly enjoyed Valdor. Now I need to pick up the model of Constantin Valdor and paint him. Yellow.
After that, the majority of Goonhammer folks wanted dinner and so we went to Walk Ons. However, there was a big LSU game that night and the bar was packed. Being in such a packed environment, in New Orleans, with few people wearing masks, was very anxiety-inducing for me so I retreated back to the hotel and fell asleep.
E. Sunday
Since I had dropped on Saturday, I was free of the time pressures to wake up early on Sunday, so I slept in until 8 AM. Instead of heading upstairs to the gym for a workout, I decided to go out and get breakfast. Sure, where I wanted to go was a mile walk away, but I had a hotel towel with me and my trusty backpack, so a nice invigorating walk would be wonderful.
Upon walking outside however, I was greeted by throngs of people. You see, GW somehow managed to book the Warhammer Open: New Orleans the same weekend as the New Orleans Saints were playing at the Superdome. So it was, to put it mildly, crowded all along the French Quarter. I made my way up to Cafe Du Monde, because I needed hot, fresh beignets. It was one of the things I remembered most fondly from my trip to New Orleans 25 years ago, and I am happy to report the experience lived up to expectations.
Afterwards I worked out, back my stuff up, and left the hotel/venue for the airport as the New Orleans Saints were losing in overtime to the New York Giants. I wanted to beat the traffic. While leaving, I found out that my Tennessee Titans lost…to the New York Jets. Humiliation!
During this trip, I picked up the event exclusive miniature, and painted it. I did not get the opportunity to base it until I got home to D.C. though.
Final thoughts on my trip to New Orleans:
If you want to go to hell, you should definitely take a trip to the Sodom and Gommorah on the Mississippi! This was my first big trip to Nerd Summer Camp since 2019, and I could not have had a better time. I won a game, I won a round of trivia, and I made a whole bunch of friends along the way! What more could you ask for?
F. What’s Next?
My next major event is the Las Vegas Open. I was originally going to do the friendly, but was able to switch to the Narrative event because Ryan “Ryolnir” Collins is running it and because he too likes Sicaran tanks. So for the LVO, I believe I will be rebuilding my list to include a Sicaran Venator.
However, that is not the only change I plan to make. I’m going to drop the Infiltrators from the list – their omniscramblers were not super-helpful for me, and they’re expensive 22 point models that tended to get nuked quickly and easily. So goodbye to them, hello Incursors!
Likewise, I will likely drop a squad or two of my Intercessors and replace them with Assault Intercessors. This will free up additional points for models that play into the strengths of the Wolves more than the regular Intercessors.
Lastly, I will drop the Chief Librarian. This was mostly included in my list for NoLa because it was already painted, looked nice, and could be bulked up to fill a point hole in my list. This was 120 points! So ultimately, by dropping this guy (and combined with the points changes listed above), I have enough room in my army to add a squad of flying Lightning Clawed Wolf Guard AND a squad of Fenrisian Wolves.
This should provide my Space Wolves with a flexible core of units, with an emphasis on units that “feel” Space Wolfy. It’s a different style of melee than Blood Angels and Black Templars, but it’s one I have a lot of fun with.
Until next time!
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