It’s Friday morning on May 23rd, 2025. In Arlington, Texas, one of the largest Warhammer events in the state has just kicked off: the Warhammer Open Dallas.

Hundreds flock to the Arlington Esports Arena to test their mettle in the Grand Tournament, make new friends, and spend exuberant amounts of money on Forge World stuff at the merch store. It’s an event I’ve spent weeks getting ready for, but on that fateful dawn I didn’t find myself in Dallas, but instead frantically putting the last details on some light barricades in my own Houston home. Fortunately for me and my hobby crunch time, the Kill Team tournament doesn’t start until Saturday.

It’s my fault, really. It didn’t strike me until that morning that someone might give a shit about the painting status of my barricades. As I write this now, I honestly don’t think anyone would. But hey, we don’t get to choose the brain worms we bear, all we can do is give them space to graze.

I wrap up my panic painting on my equipment thanks to the power of contrast paints, pack up my stuff, punch the Esports Arena into Google Maps and hit the gas, bound for the Kill Team Grand Tournament at the Dallas Warhammer Open.

Event Prep

While I didn’t get much time in for games with my team of choice, Nemesis Claw, in between the local tournament I went to earlier in May (which you can read all about here), I did get one extra game in with my team against my buddy Andrew for a KT narrative league I’m running locally. It’s not really the sort of thing I would consider to be “real” event practice, since the campaign is made up of various custom scenarios I’ve put together to tell the story, and aren’t really analogous to a proper Approved Ops scenario. But any rep is a good rep, and there are lessons to be learned even in the wacky games. Lessons like “be sure to always think about positioning your operatives with heavy cover in their control range when possible, even if you’re in cover from light terrain”, “I should get better at not rolling 1’s and 2’s on my saves” and “how does Andrew keep getting away with this”.

My big prep push for the event was with hobby. I made sure that my stuff was painted for MAYhem, but I did so in a big time crunch, so many operatives like my Heavy Gunners, plasma gun Gunner, and plasma pistol/chainsword Visionary were noticeably less well painted than the rest of the team. Plus, I didn’t have a power weapon/bolt pistol Visionary painted at all, and I’d finally decided that I can’t keep relying on my 4+ to hit power fist leader to seal the deal when I needed him to. After a few weeks of panic painting, I manage to get all the models ready except for the poor Missile Launcher guy, who’s just happy to be here.

Like the last tournament I went to, I decide to keep my goal for the weekend humble. I figure that the kind of folks who will rock up to a Kill Team Grand Tournament are really dedicated to the game, so I’m not expecting any easy matches, and it’s very possible I might be one of the most green players in attendance. With this in mind, two wins out of the seven games played this weekend is a realistic goal. I’d rather be pleasantly surprised and beat that benchmark than crushed by not meeting a lofty goal.

Friday

My Friday travel is more eventful than I’d have liked. I expected pretty open roads on a random Friday noontime, but it wasn’t until I was stuck in traffic that I realized it’s Memorial Day weekend, and the roads are going to be way busier than usual. The congestion ends up adding an hour to my drive time, which is a minor headache, but catching up on some podcasts makes the time more bearable.

With the delay throwing off my schedule, I decide that I’ll check in to my hotel later that night and instead stop by the venue first to check things out. The Esports Arena is pretty slick as far as Warhammer event spaces go, it turns out all of the trappings for a video game centric space translate well for a big Warhammer tournament. The big screens in the front of the main hall really elevate the presentation for the stream games in particular, since it has spaces for the announcers to shout-cast the game and a huge, unmissable screen to see stuff on. I can’t hear what those announcers are saying if my life depended on it, but it seems like they’re all having fun.

I check in, get my shirt and swag box, and swing by the store to engage in one of my favorite pastimes: browsing Warhammer products. Nothing has a price tag here, encouraging the average guest to make poor financial decisions in the same way having no windows in a casino does. I talk myself out of a Champions of Slaanesh box and a stuffed servo skull, and settle for some Noise Marines before heading in to find my friends.

I don’t know anyone playing the KT GT, but a few familiar faces from my local scene are here playing 40k. I do my rounds and say hello to folks like Rob and Andrew, who drove up together. Unfortunately, I can’t really heckle any since they’re all in the middle of round three, so all the conversations are pretty quick.

Afterwards, I join some college friends at a spot near the venue called Tipsy Oak, and catch up over a Blue Moon and tasty food. Once we wrap up and go our separate ways, I message the Warhammer crew to figure out if there’s any plans, fully expecting to have missed out, only to find they had just now left for dinner. Andrew tells me the plan is to go to Texas Land and Cattle, which they arrive to find boarded up moments before I can ask them why Google Maps is telling me the place is permanently closed. 

Instead, I joined Rob, Andrew, and MasterSlowPoke at El Toro Sinolense. It’s a real deal Mexican restaurant. Like, not Americanized Tex Mex stuff, this is “oh the menu is in Spanish” level of authentic Mexican cuisine. I’m full from dinner, but I’m never too full for a margarita. A few other Houston locals join us later for a great time with good company.

As the night winds down, one of the crew, Steven Salazar, offers everyone a round of Tequila shots. He is met by the fastest unanimous “absolutely not” I’d ever heard, but Andrew and I dare to be different and take him up on the offer. It takes nearly fifteen minutes to get the shots, Steven even has to point to his check and insist he’d paid for them, but against all odds we get our Tequila, toast to Warhammer, and head our separate ways for the night. 

Saturday

There’s no shortage of things that you can criticize about Texas, I know that about my home state. But I’ll go to bat for Texas shaped waffles from a continental hotel breakfast any day of the week. It’s the perfect shape for a waffle, bar none, and I’ll hear no arguments contrary.

After my breakfast of champions, I make the ten minute drive to the venue from my hotel and head inside. I double check that I’m all checked in on BCP, and shoot the breeze with Andrew until pairings go live. Showtime, baby. 

Game One vs. Cameron’s Wrecka Krew

Round one sees me on Volkus against Wreckas, and we’re playing Transmission.

Seeing the matchup, I have to admit that a wave of relief washed over me. Round one is the pairings wild west, since there’s no win record to balance things out at all as far as player skill levels generally go. I don;t know about Cameron’s proficiency at Kill Team, he could be a real shark, but I do know that at least I have a very strong matchup into Wreckas with my Nemmy Claw. Between the obscuring, shutting down rerolls and APL buffs, Vox Scream, and nasty melee operatives, it’s going to be an uphill battle for Cameron.

I’m taking Champion as my Tac op in this match. Wreckers have plenty of wounds to chew through, but not the best saves, and this makes them ideal for Champion since I’ll score 2 points per fairly reliable kill. My plan here is to stage aggressively and be the beatdown, since I can shrug off most of the shooting if I hang out of range and I can win fights when they happen.  

Turning point one, I push up the board to try and get a few options available for champion scoring while threatening objectives for big crit op points. Cameron moves up one of his Tankbustas to the ruin vantage in his territory, but makes a mistake by leaving him open to my Heavy Bolter Gunner next turning point. I win initiative, and pick up the Tankbusta in a hail of bolter fire.

I get a little too aggressive here as I push to the objectives, and Cameron and I start trading operatives. I deal some good damage to his Nob and pick him up to score Champion again the following turn, but not before my Visionary gets punked by the blast from the Nob’s rokkit pistols. Cameron pushes forward with his melee operatives to pressure objectives and make sure he keeps me out of his territory to score contain, but I pick up both the demolisha and krusha with shooting from my heavy bolter and meltagun with some cleanup fighting from the Skinthief to boot. 

Hilariously, Cameron’s Bomb Squiqs are a real problem at the end of turning point three, with one Squiq almost biting the Gunner to death and the other Squiq turning the Skinthief into a looney toons pile of ash with eyeballs. Even with these breaks, I’m very comfortably ahead at this point, and push into his territory to pick up a Breaka Boy for one last Champion proc and to deny him some points on contain. He gets his rokkit-shaped revenge on my heavy gunner on the last turning point, but in the end I start the event with a decisive win.

Result- Victory, 20-9

Before we go on, not only do I want to say that Cameron was a great guy, but I also want to give a special shoutout to his Wrecka Krew, which are immaculately painted. During our game, a judge lets us know we both make the showcase, and says that our table is the prettiest he’s seen so far. I’m flattered, of course, and thrilled to make showcase for the first time at a GW open event. But game respects game here: I may have bested Cameron in our game, but he’s got me beat fair and square in any painting competition. I tell quite a few folks to go look at his models when they can, and they all agree that them Orks are real pretty.

I grab lunch at the venue, an “artisinal” flatbread cheese pizza and a red bull. I run into Goatboy, Andrew, and my Houston friend Joel while I’m waiting on food, and we catch up on their games while I wait for my next round to start. As the 40k round ends and the crew leaves to grab sandwiches stashed in Rob’s hotel room, I check BCP to see what I’m up against for round 2. 

Game Two vs. Jake’s Plague Marines

Oh, I don’t love this matchup. Plague Marines are very tough, which means that my teams favorite thing to do, kill things quickly before they take too much punishment back, suddenly isn’t viable anymore. I have to play cagey. Ugh.

We are put on another Volkus table, this time with a central stronghold, and our mission is Coordinates. Unlike last game, where I felt really confident in my strength to reliably score Champion, it’s very possible I just don’t pick up a Plague Marine with my Champion with all their durability tricks. So, I go for Implant instead, since I want to play cagey and bolt pistols make for a good delivery system for Implant.

At the start of the game, things are looking really good for me. I put my Visionary out in the open near heavy terrain in my drop zone, hoping to bait out his plaguecaster with early aggression, and it works, He takes shots turning point one with the Plaguecaster, but the shots bounce off thanks to obscuring, and I bring the Plaguecaster down to one wound with my Heavy Bolter. He aggressively pushes with his fighter, and I see a shot with my meltagun Gunner to pick him up turning point two and secure that flank. If I dont get initiative, I can pull back with the gunner and Vox Scream the Plaguecaster. If I do win initiative, I blast the fighter, Vox the Caster, and then blast the Plaguecaster. Easy.

I win initiative, and I do send the Fighter straight to kingdom come with the meltagun, but Jake was clever and used Cloud of Flies to obscure his Plaguecaster. Still, I have five dice and just need to push something through, so my odds are good here. I shoot, and then miss three of five shots with a reroll. The last shot is saved without issue. In return, my Meltagunner gets brought down to one wound in two fights with a Icon Bearer and my Fearmonger gets murked by bolter fire, of all things. Poor dweeb could not make a save.

This starts a frustrating trend for me where I try to make something happen to get back some board control, but can’t seal the deal and in return get torn apart. It doesn’t help at all that the central ruin means Jake has a very easy time scoring his tac op, Take Ground. It turns out, you put two plague marines in a Volkus stronghold, and they just own that place now. It’s theirs, they have squatters rights.

Even trying to get implants where I can, by the end of the third turning point I just cannot hold any ground against the Plague Marines as they trudge up the table and do terrible things to my poor Nemmy claw, and by the end of the fourth turning point I’m wiped off the table without much to show for it.

Result: Loss, 8-19

Jake’s a great dude, and I had a lovely time playing him. I’m not too worried about this loss, though it doesn’t make me feel more confident about my game plan into Plague Marines. Especially if theres a good spot for Plague Marines to post up for Take Ground, I suspect that these stinky dorks are going to keep giving me trouble. 

Game Three vs. Ben’s Brood Brothers

I’m back on central ruin Volkus again, and this time we are playing Power Surge. 

I feel much better about this matchup than the last one, especially since I’d already played Brood Brothers before against my friend and fellow Goonhammer writer, Twohorse. It’s only one rep, and I was playing a different team at the time, but it’s much easier to do well when you’re not trying to spend half the game figuring out what your opponent’s stuff does. At least now, I have a general idea. 

Ben decides to go with the Patriarch, he thinks that the melee output of that model is scary enough to threaten my Space Marines and he also admits to having a soft spot for the model. Ben’s 100% right here, I do not want to fuck with that thing at all, but tools like Vox Scream an Return to Darkness will help make sure I can stay away from it as long as possible.

I stick with Champion as my tac op, and move up in what I think is a fairly conservative turning point one. The Fearmonger moves up the farthest, poisoning my home objective and staying behind heavy cover in conceal. I underestimate the movement tricks that Ben has available to him, and he’s able to push his sapper up to toss a cheeky Krak grenade at my face. Fortunately, he rolls bad on his aggressive roll, and I think for a moment that I’m in the clear. Then he plays Ruthless Coordination to get visibility with his plasma gun, and my Fearmonger is toast.

Ben’s playing aggressively with his team, while his Patriarch lurks in the central stronghold to score Take Ground and scores power surge off the central objective turning point two. Again, I want to give that giant killer alien none of my time, so it’s going to be an easy six points for Ben on his Tac op and a strong lead to start. Because he’s playing far up with the rest of his team though, I’ve got plenty of chances for scoring Champion and racking up the Kill op, and I can push the flanks to score well on the crit op now that I don’t really need to care about the central objective anymore.

My Ventrilokar holds down my home objective pretty easily, especially since it was poisoned before the Fearmonger died, so I make a push to the objective in Ben’s territory. His sniper almost takes out my Skinthief leading the charge, which would’ve been very bad for me, but he survives on five wounds and bravely hides behind cover. When the final turning point comes around, my Visonary takes the sniper out with his bolt pistol, which secures my control over that flank.

In the end, while I do have to sacrifice my Screecher in the process, the threat of being able to walk a 3 APL operative into the center ruins to deny Take Ground keeps the Patriarch stuck in the ruin, and I’m able to clean up almost all of Ben’s other operatives and get a strong lead on Crit op. He does score the full six on Tac op, plus another three for having it as his Primary op, but I keep his scoring low enough on the other two categories to pull out the win.

Result: Victory, 15-13

And with that, I’ve secured my two wins for the weekend! On day one, no less. It’s a humble goal, sure, but it means that anything extra I win now is just gravy. It helps that my game here against Ben felt very close, and that I won not just because my team is an absolute nightmare match for his team (like it was for poor Cameron), but because I made smart choices and played the mission.    

And that’s where we will leave things for part one. Join me again for part two, where I talk about my nailbiter fourth game on Saturday, and my last three games on Sunday. See you there!

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