The largest Games Workshop Kill Team event to date, the Tacoma Open returns in a big way to the Pacific Northwest! Last year saw a surprise win from Matt W on Intercession Squad at the height of melee summer, and we’ll be curious to see if there’s another big surprise!
It seems the passage of a year has truly allowed the PNW region to grow in leaps and bounds, adjusting to the meta and picking up the Mandrakes as the most popular faction at the tournament by far! There were also a surprising number of Warp Coven, and Hernkyn Yaegirs out in force, showing off the weirder rules of the game. It’s also encouraging to see that while meta teams were everywhere the faction diversity still remains pretty present. Especially when we look at the conversion to the top 8, after 4 rounds of play.
Our top 8 remains fairly diverse with seven different factions dotting the landscape. 33% of the scouts in attendance made the conversion to the top 8. While a single Mandrake player converted to the top tables, Adrian did eventually take the W. For as much as there are top tiers in the Kill Team meta, it does seem like many teams can still be within striking distance! With that said let’s take a closer look at those in contention for the big accolades!
Last year’s Tacoma Open winner Matt W returned to Tacoma this year. However he’s hung up his ceramite pauldrons for fungoid tricks! While he was not able to regain the crown, he at least snagged a ticket to the world championships, so Gork and Mork haven’t given up on him yet.
Matt W, Third, Kommandos, Rain City Wych Pigeons
Goonhammer: Great job on the third place finish and the invitation to the World Championships of Warhammer! How are you feeling about the return to Tacoma and the WCW?
MW: The PNW had a great series of events over the last year from the C.A.T.s crew. Hype has been building for the GT with its size, visiting big name players and the golden ticket. I’m hyped to head back to the WCW! I had an amazing experience going 2-6 and it was difficult to adjust back to normal life and adult responsibilities.
GH: Last year you took Intercession to both Tacoma, which you won, and WCW. This year you brought out the former Orkoid boogeymen. Are there any big reasons why you made the switch?
MW: After 2023 WCW it was seemingly a unanimous opinion that elites struggle at high level play. The issues are more fundamental with the core rules than any team rules. Being out activated is too brutal. But Orks are kunning! They have a relatively straight forward plan of aggressively pushing primary points and keeping the fight on the opponent’s side of the board.
GH: What was your flashiest play of the tournament? With the squig nerfed, and all your shooters on fewer choppa attacks, it seems some of the flashier plays of the past are gone.
MW: Dynamite Breacha on open maps was frequently a star. After getting terrible rolls my last few events, Gork and Mork smiled on me. On ITD I pushed hard with Nob to threaten mid board objectives and he can stand tall against everything that isn’t plasma or melta.
GH: On the flipside, what was the deepest hole you climbed out of during the run? What tools did you use to staunch the bleed of points?
MW: Orks are always going to go at least 3-3 in TP-1, I think it’s more about not falling behind as the boys drop and secondaries can be tough when I’m forced into détente. I played Seek and Destroy which is usually just rewarding aggressive play. Uniquely in my game vs Chris Bachi’s brood brothers I had to play safe around the patriarch and ended up running 3 boys back through my DZ to avoid the patriarch and it denied him secondary points. I still lost that game but I kept it to being decided by a final initiative roll.
GH: Any shout outs to the reader of Goonhammer?
MW: The KT community owes the most to event organizers and folks teaching new players. You’re the real heroes!
California’s Chris B, shows up at Tacoma to compete on the GW stage after taking first with Pathfinders earlier this year. It seems that the cults are up to no good, and Chris’s exploits need revealing if the menace is to be put down.
Chris B, Second, Brood Brothers, BATS
Goonhammer: Congratulations on second place, on the meta menace the Brood Brothers! How’s it feel to come back to Tacoma?
CB: It felt amazing to see everyone in Tacoma again. Not only are there some absolutely fantastic players there, but everyone is so incredibly hospitable and generous. Shout out to Brandon Blooded Bean, who gave me morning rides to the venue, and Sean, who gave me a ride to the airport on day two. I’m incredibly grateful for all the help getting around. Every single opponent I had was a class act. Special shout out to my round one opponent who played an incredibly aggressive Phobos game and held me to a draw. I was sweating!
GH: Brood Brothers are definitely in the conversation for S-tier teams, however they have some weaknesses. What sorts of plays do you think players missed this weekend that would have given you trouble?
CB: In many situations, the Medic is a lynchpin piece that can help me keep tempo. In most of my matches, I made it incredibly difficult to attack the medic, but in my final round, Jeshua managed to score a TP1 kill on it with a krak grenade, which was a great play and put my TP1 development on the back foot.
Also, in many of my matches, my opponents would allocate only some resources to attack the Patriarch, but it was rarely enough to bring it down. Later on, opponents seemed to figure out that you need to either fully commit to bringing it down, or try to allocate resources elsewhere to avoid it outright.
GH: What sort of combos have you found the most powerful on Brood Brothers? Operative combos, ploy combos, or positional combos? Is there one in particular you want to call out?
CB: The classic Patriarch / Veteran / Medic combo was absolutely nasty, and my go-to. Keeping a variety of readied models near the Iconward, and positioning the Iconward in a way to keep it safe while near key objectives, was really hard for my opponents to deal with.
GH: Your penultimate round against Adrian, came down to a nail biter on ITD. With the final results coming from a tiebreaker! What sorts of tools do you wish you had thought about then that might have gotten you the win?
CB: I definitely don’t find the BB toolkit lacking. I don’t have a ton of experience playing into Mandrakes, and had an early lead TP1/2. My mistake during the match was choosing to try to get more kills in exchange for allowing the chooser of the flesh to start getting kills. In hindsight, the mantra of “avoid letting the chooser ever get going” is absolutely correct, and it would have been worth it to sacrifice some primary points in TP3 to do so.
GH: The future for Kill Team seems bright! What KT events are on the horizon for you and your competitive team BATS?
CB: The big one that myself and a few others are training for is the World Team Championship (WTC) with a few upcoming prep events for it. Also looking forward to, NOVA (link), AVTT (link), Kill Scream 3 (link), and the next New York Open (link).
GH: What else would you like to say to Goonhammer’s readers?
CB: Hope to see you at an event soon!
No stranger to the West Coast with his win at LVO, at the year open. Adrian returns to the Pacific Northwest and the top of the tournament circuit with Mandrakes. With a solid result and a few games clawed back from the jaws of defeat, he’s here to reveal some of the darker secrets of Commorragh.
Adrian B, First, Mandrakes, Brooklyn Rats
Goonhammer: Congratulations on taking the win with Mandrakes in one of the largest US events to date! How’s it felt to go from Kommandos to Mandrakes over the last few months?
AB: Thank you!! It’s been a much needed and challenging transition. In a way they have some similarities in playstyle (great movement, a ploy to disrupt combat math once per turn, solid melee, the ability to charge from conceal, and a desire to always be seeking out heavy terrain). But they’re nowhere near as durable as the Kommandos, so board control and mission play tends to come more in turns 3 & 4 for the Mandrakes, rather than turns 1 & 2 in the case of the Kommandos. At the end of the day – though they can be surprisingly resilient for elves when given the correct terrain and ploys – Mandrakes are still a 9 operative team, with 8 wounds and a 4+ save. So they can just get bodied in certain scenarios (when there are lots of shooting dice, or against tough melee operatives). Orks, however, have a lot more staying power in both of those scenarios. Overall I don’t think Mandrakes are at the same level as Kommandos were last year. They just have too many bad matchups into some of the best teams in the game, and those are seriously uphill against a good opponent.
GH: Throughout the course of the tournament, you were able to climb out of some seemingly impossible primary scoring holes. Can you talk us through a birds eye view of winning these games?
AB: Yeah, to be honest, it was looking pretty bleak in both of my final two games! Round 6 vs Chris Bacchi’s Brood Brothers (secure on ITD), saw me score only 2 on primary Turns 1, 2 and 3! So going into Turn 4, it was 12 – 6 on the primary in Chris’ favor if I recall correctly. However, my Chooser of the Flesh generated a massive 5 apl tokens over the course of the game, and on the final activation of the final turn I was able to do a cheeky 3 APL teleport into smoke that I had set up the activation prior, dash onto an objective, survive a meltagun guard attack, and then steal that point! All just to secure the tie with that final 2 point swing!
AB: Round 7 vs Jimmy Kelly’s Wyrmblade saw me score only 1 (yes 1!) primary point on both Turn 1 and Turn 2! Wyrmblade really play the mission so hard. So going into Turn 3, I was down 8 – 2 on the primary. But, again, generating multiple APL tokens from the Chooser, capping 5 points in the final turn of the game, denying my opponents secondaries, and maximizing my own were the keys that allowed me to somehow find the lines for my comebacks in rounds 6 and 7. Never give up even if you think it’s over! It’s games and opponents like these that really highlight how amazing, rewarding and tightly competitive Kill Team can be!
GH: Are Mandrakes as powerful as other players are worried about? What sorts of weaknesses are people not abusing properly in your games?
AB: I think they’re probably in the upper 75% when played correctly. Though like I mentioned earlier they do have some brick walls they run into when the terrain is not in their favor and when playing into teams with tough melee ops. Also it really does hurt to be out activated in most of your games. The biggest counter play is finding a way to take away shadow from them. If you can draw them out of shadow, or prevent them from teleporting to meaningful spots, they really don’t have much power all of a sudden, as almost all their ploys & abilities require shadow to be up. At the end of the day, they are just elves! So if you can get them to start trading with you one for one, then you probably end up winning those matches vs Mandrakes.
Goonhammer: Tacoma had a mix of Open and ITD, that we’ve come to know and love over the last few years. Are there any sorts of changes you would make to these big tentpole tournaments?
AB: I wouldn’t alter the mixed format of open and ITD, as I do like the variety and challenge it creates, as well as the increased number of teams that become viable to take. In the case of GW specific events I would argue that including more variety on the open side of the equation would present a bigger challenge, and more enjoyment, to players. It would also allow for a wider variety of teams and play styles to show up and shine. At future GW Opens I would love to see the majority of board layouts be varied and not repeated across tables, as well as the inclusion of GW terrain other than Octarius! There is so much GW plastic to pull from that would really create unique layouts, specifically the buildings from Battlezone: Manufactorum – Vertigus, as they’ve got windows so you’re not ever completely safe. I will say that at this event our TO Travis did a great job starting to implement this theory, with about half of the boards being created with lots of variety in terms of placement of the Octarius terrain. Though it was still required to be Octarius only, as that was the terrain provided. At large non-GW events, it’s a lot easier to implement these varied layouts, as there’s no limit on the type of terrain you can pull from – and I think TO’s should keep experimenting! The terrain really dictates the game.
GH: How did the Tacoma community compare to other communities you’ve played in around the US?
AB: It was great to get to meet so many new faces! Five out of my seven matches were against opponents I had not yet played, and getting to chat and hang with the PNW crew over the course of the weekend was great! Everyone was extremely nice and very welcoming. Kill team’s rapidly expanding community (both in the US and abroad) is such a key component of what makes this game and hobby so special for me. Specifically the fact that the overwhelming majority of that community are genuinely nice people, and are all actively working together to keep the vibes positive and welcoming!
GH: Any other large tournaments you’re planning on attending?
AB: This year has been an interesting one! While I’m not hunting for #1 ITC again in 2025, I am targeting the World Championships of Warhammer, and World Team Championship in Belgium next month (playing for Team USA), as my two big personal challenges. Despite my best intentions of taking this year off and playing primarily for fun, I’ve got roped back in! I’ll be at NOVA as well to help prep for Worlds. And I’ll be helping TO at NYO 3 this year, which will be a nice change of pace! Hope to see many of you in Manhattan later this year!
GH: What else would you like to say to Goonhammer’s readers?
AB: As always – keep being good to each other!
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