Goonhammer at the 40k World Championships: Horras vs. Kelling

The 2024 World Championships of Warhammer are this week and while there are a ton of Goonhammer authors who will be there on site, only two members of Team Goonhammer are attending the 40k World Championships proper – the rest of us are hanging out and having a good time in the Grand Narrative. And while that’s where the real fun action is going to be this year, we felt it was worth having a proper chat with our players, their lists, and the expectations they’ll be facing at the event.

Scott's List - Click to Expand

Scott, this is your first World Championship. How do you feel about the event? 

In an uncharacteristically sober answer, I’m actually a bit anxious. I’m excited to be able to unplug from work to fully engage in Hamm Slammin’, but I am completely ready to be a human punching bag for players who are Really Good at Warhammer™.

As a long time guard player, it feels like now is your time from a meta perspective. What are your thoughts on the army, and what’s special about your build? 

It’s my time from a faction perspective, but it’s not my time from a list composition perspective. 🚨🚨🚨HOT TAKE INCOMING 🚨🚨🚨: I have a fixed personal opinion that Tempestus Aquilons look like garbage and I refuse to play them; no, I’m not going to convert them from their objectively better cousins, Kasrkin. I’m just going to wait for them to get nerfed into irrelevance, like they deserve to be. These guys should have been the foot in the door for an Elysian Drop Troop revamp. I’ll never forgive them for the design space they stole from my sweet, sweet drop boys.

In any case, what’s special about my build? Nothing. I’m playing the objectively correct Guard list. Anyone playing anything other than three Rogals Dorn is playing the wrong Guard list and you should go ask them about their unique build.

Are there any matchups you’re dreading at this year’s event? What armies do you think your triple Dorn list will struggle into?

Yes; anything that can kill three Rogals Dorn, played by a better player than me. Unfortunately, I think that most of the field is composed of armies that are capable of killing three Rogals Dorn and I think almost everyone at this event is going to be better than me.

How do you feel about the format of the WCW, and the group stage dynamic? How important is it that you represent the US at the event?

I honestly wish WCW was a straight-up open format with a cut to top 8 after 5 rounds. I haven’t felt much, if any, personal traction about representing the US overall. I haven’t been able to gauge how excited the general attendee population is about this mechanic, but I suspect it might be more popular with players from less represented countries. As a US player, I feel like I’m on the NPC team.

How do you feel about your chances of outperforming Kelling at this year’s event?

I have it on good authority, and a completely objective poll from our competitive channel, that Boon is more washed than I am. We know polls can be wrong, but I think we were outside of the margin of error on this one.

In our Hammer of Math Simulations, you had less than a one percent chance of winning the whole thing. Thoughts?

No further thoughts; the data speaks for itself.

There are a lot of people who feel your best Warhammer days are behind you, despite this being your first championship berth. How do you feel about those wildly valid claims?

I definitely feel like a 58 year old man getting ready to jump into the ring with a 27 year old influencer, but I’m not here to win. I’m here to die a glorious death to the roar of the crowd. It’s all a true warrior can ask for.

Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?

Honestly gang, I’m not too worried about placing, doing well, or winning prizes. I’m just gonna show up and have fun: the real prize is the friends we make along the way.

James' List - Click to Expand

While this is your first World Championship in the current format, it’s not your first rodeo – how does the feeling around this event compare to the invitational events you attended in 2021 and 2022?

This is such a far cry from that first event in 2021 back in the Warhammer Cafe and it is frankly remarkable to see how far this event has come in such a short time – a credit to GW for what they’ve built here. While that first event kind of had the feel of a basement RTT where you and a few friends got together to have a day of ham slamming, the next year felt more like a marquee GT at a resort which it basically was. The format of that event, split between Best General and Best Overall with two double-elimination brackets was both grueling and also a fascinating and fun way to play a 40k tournament and it was easily my favorite 40k event I’d attended to that point. This WCW though is an entirely different beast – whereas the 2022 event had a GT feel, it wasn’t a GT. This year (and last) it is a de facto supermajor and gives the impression of The Most Important singles-related event of the year. That was my impression last year from the outside, and I feel even more strongly about it now. The caliber of play every year was high, but the scope of that caliber of play last year and this year is just unmatched by any other event. I’m very excited to spend some time rolling dice with the world’s best.

How is your approach to this year’s event different? How are your expectations different?

I think the biggest thing is that I just haven’t played any games in over two months. None.

I knew this year was going to be tough with my son being just 18 months old, but then everything else about life and work conspired to suck up so much of my time that there really isn’t much mindshare left for a lot of 40k. We’re going to find out how well that works out for me here real shortly but I’m not really holding out hope that I’ll be the last person standing when this is all said and done. I’m more so I’m just looking to not embarrass myself and see how well I can adapt to the game on the fly.

You’re an Eldar guy coming into an event where they are decidedly not the hot meta pick. What’s your list look like, and what’s your plan for showing people Eldar are still relevant?

My list is very similar to what I’d been running at the handful of events I attended most of the year: an Avatar backed by a Farseer and some Guardian Defenders, a bevy of supporting characters including an Autarch Wayleaper, Feugan, Kharandras, and a Fate’s Messenger Death Jester as well as a recent addition for this event in Illic and some Rangers. I’d been running dual Falcon going back to last November, and post my golden ticket event win I started using dual War Walker and dual Skyweavers – some Hawks and Scorpions round it out. For someone that hasn’t played a lot of games there is an advantage in familiarity with a list that I’ve been comfortable playing all year. 

In terms of the relative strength of the list… I think Eldar are better than people credit them, particularly in a singles enviroment where opponents aren’t optimizing their list for specific games like they are in teams. An off meta army like Eldar can really create problems for opponents.

They remain an incredibly fast and flexible army that can adapt to most situations and opponents. There’s some tough matchups, but none that I think are outright unwinnable at the moment. I tey to maximize this flexibility and utility in my list choices, where units can fill multiple roles or pinch-hit and there’s no set standard approach to the game. They won’t surprise opponents at this point, but they can absolutely capitalize on mistakes.

Are there any matchups you’re dreading at this year’s event? What armies do you think your list will struggle into?

Guard and Tau can be tough for me – they have a high volume of the exact right type of shooting, flexibility to get into the right places to take those shots, and can be durable enough to win a war of attrition on scoring. It is very fortunate for me then, that there are only 7 Guard or Tau in my pod. That’s not even 50%! 

I live a blessed life and thank my lucky stars each and every day.

How do you feel about the format of the WCW, and the group stage dynamic? How important is it that you represent the US at the event?

I’m a fan. To be honest, I don’t know how you’d do an event of this size and diversity any other way that doesn’t introduce a bunch of additional rounds and complexity. To my knowledge there’s not another singles event that runs this way which makes it a bit of a unique event. I loved the double-elimination format of 2022, but just one eight-man grouping in that format could run an entire weekend. Under a different structure with different objectives, regional double-elimination qualifiers that feed the WCW would be cool, but that kind of funneling takes away from the grandeur that this event has come to embody. 

Representing the US is… sure. I don’t really care and I’m pretty sure America doesn’t really care either. I’d rather represent Goonhammer officially but that’s not really the structure of the event. Some on team USA may care though, so I’ll do my best and try to get as many points as I can so that the eagles can be free or something.

How do you feel about your chances of outperforming Scott Horras at this year’s event? Our recent Hammer of Math gave you better odds to win the event based on Elo. Do you feel like he’s being disrespected?

Scott has unlocked that secret Rogal Dorn/Canis Rex tech and Norman has been very clear that it’s unstoppable – I like math that favors me, but if Norman is this adamant about how good Scott and his Dorn/Canis tech is, and how bad and evil my elves my are? I don’t know man, that makes me nervous. I trust Norman on this, he is very honest and I don’t think he can tell a lie. 

Regardless of how the event shakes out, Scott and I should play a game for all the marbles. Loser gets called out by Gregbot every Monday for a year.

You’ve notably been sitting around collecting rust since your golden ticket win. How do you think your lack of practice will affect your ability to do better than Scott, who is also notably more handsome and likable?

If I can’t practice, I can’t practice. If I’m hurt, I’m hurt. Simple as that. It’s not about that at all. But it’s easy to talk about and sum it up when you just talk about practice; we’re sitting here, and I’m supposed to be the franchise player, and we’re in here talking about practice. I mean, listen, we’re talking about practice. 

Not a game! 

Not a game! 

Not a game! 

We’re talking about practice. 

Not a game; not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it’s my last, not the game, we’re talking about practice, man. I mean, how silly is that? We’re talking about practice. I know I’m supposed to be there, I know I’m supposed to lead by example, I know that. And I’m not shoving it aside like it don’t mean anything. I know it’s important. I do. I honestly do. But we’re talking about practice, man. What are we talking about? Practice? We’re talking about practice, man!

We’re talking about practice! 

We’re talking about practice… 

We ain’t talking about the game! We’re talking about practice, man! When you come to the arena, and you see me play… You see me play, don’t you?

Please say other nice things about Scott here.

I have heard from a reliable source that he is very handsome and likable. Is he single? Put in a good word for me.

Final Thoughts

Well, that’s about enough out of those two yabbos. Now it’s time for them to put up or shut up at the World Championships. We’re obviously pulling for both of them – particularly Scott – but as we’ve seen already in Hammer of Math last week, this year’s World Championship represents an even tougher field than last year’s. It’s going to take everything these guys have and some luck on top of that to see them out of the group stage but we can’t wait to watch it all unfold this week.

Have a favorite among these two? Who do you think will get more wins or go further at the event? Let us know by dropping us a note in the comments below.

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