Welcome back, Kill Team fans, to the (long-overdue) second part of my Kill Team tournament recap for the Las Vegas Open! If you missed the last article, you can catch up with it here. Otherwise, we can hop right into the action.

Saturday

Credit: Frontline Gaming

In the first article in this series, I wrote about arriving in Vegas, seeing the sights and the venue on Thursday, and my first day of games at the event on Friday. I went undefeated that day, which is awesome, but as I walk into the venue on Saturday I can already feel the heat rising on my waxy, metaphorical wings. It doesn’t help much that since day one was Volkus day, day two is now Gallowdark day. Out of the two types of maps common in tournament play, Gallowdark has been the one that I’ve struggled with. Fortunately, I’ve tried to get in some extra games before LVO to try and shore up my skills on these close quarters maps, but I’ve got tough games coming up on tough maps.

I caught up with John Rees a bit on how his games went, and what he’s worried about today, as well as saying hello to the Squad Games crew, and two of my opponents from yesterday that I hit it off particularly well with, Aiden, and Robert. I also tried to find Alice in Sigmar land to say hi, since it’s literally right next to the Kill Team area, but they start announcing pairings before I can find her. Pretty soon after that, the KT players gather for morning announcements, rolling right into round 4.

As Dakotah announces that pairings are live, I shoot up a little prayer to whatever deity is in charge of BCP to be kind to me and take a look at who I’m playing to kick off the day.

Round 4- Vs. Chuck’s Canoptek

We are playing Loot.

I knew we were going in feet first into some difficult games, but Canoptek already? Jeez.

The good news is that Chuck immediately identifies himself as a swell dude with a cheerful hello and offering a lozenge. My voice is still fine at this point, but hey, I won’t say no to a lozenge. Its basically medicine candy.

Going into Canoptek is a tough as hell matchup for Nemesis claw, particularly because most of my best Tac Op options require me to kill operatives, and Chuck can keep me off killing anything important for most of the game. I have to play a cagier game than I would like, taking Plant Devices and doing everything I can to keep Chuck off the primary as much as possible. Any primary he does score, if I play it right, will go right into feeding my Tac Op.

What follows is a knock down, drag out fight of a game if there ever was one. I’m largely successful in guarding my home objective, and we duke it out over control of the midfield objective in a cramped room. Eventually, I get pushed out of there, but manage to get a foothold on his home objective after my Visionary manages to kill a Crawler. My plan to play the crit op works here mostly, but I have to sacrifice more than I’d like to hold objectives. When the dust settles and we start scoring the game, we realize its a tie game- we both score 4 on tac op, and while I score 5 to his 3 on crit op, he scores a 5 to my 3 on kill op. It all comes down to our primary op selection, and we both hold our breath. I picked Crit Op, he picked Tac op, putting me ahead in a photo finish win.

Result: Victory, 13-12

Chuck and I eagerly shake hands after this game. Even though he lost, Chuck says he isn’t very upset about it, considering it was such an intensely close game. Really, it's the ideal Warhammer experience, where both players walk away from a table generally happy with how a game went. It's very rare, since there has to be a winner and a loser, and losing sucks, but it's nice when it happens.

I wolf down some French Toast from the cafe for lunch, which slaps, and check on who else is undefeated. There's three undefeated in my pod, and two are Canoptek. I’m either pairing down, or playing Canoptek again, and one of those Canoptek players is fellow Goonhammer writer John Rees, aka CanYouRollaCrit. We chat about the possibility of playing for a bit, while I quietly hope my luck holds out and I can dodge this matchup, and the pairings for round five go live.

Round 5- Vs. John’s Canoptek

Shit.

For round five, we are playing Stake Claim.

Not to spoil too much here, but since John was the sole undefeated at this event, it's not ruining too much when I say I did not win this game. John’s covered this game a few times already, both on his own recap (far more timely) of LVO as well as with the folks over at Just Another Kill Team Podcast. In both of those recaps, he describes this as a tough game, which is praise from Caesar considering John just reached number one status in the world for Kill Team in the ITC.

If it was tough for John, one can only imagine how difficult it was for me. Winning the Canoptek matchup requires my opponent to make mistakes that I can capitalize on, because otherwise I just won’t ever get to the meaty part of his team to actually get on the Kill Op and meaningfully dampen his offensive potential. Chuck barely gave me anything at all, which was enough for me to pull out a narrow win after giving it almost all my brainpower. John didn’t give me anything, and even though I was able to maximize Plant Devices by sacrificing my melta on his objective, I just couldn’t hold points long enough to score. It forces my hand to make risky plays and hoping dice bail me out, like charging a Warrior with my Visionary and hoping he rolls bad, and any seasoned player can tell you that's not a good position to be in, because dice will let you down. Like they let me down when he rolled a crit, and then blew up to kill my Visionary on death.

In retrospect, I don’t know how much I would change about my gameplan here, which is a small consolation. I played the best game I thought I could, and made John sweat a bit. Considering my opponent, I’m flattered that he at least had to try. It helps that he’s a great dude, and played an extraordinarily clean game. Looking back, this is my first loss since I started writing my “Road to LVO” series, and I can’t think of anyone more deserving to finally bring the winning streak to an end.

Result: Defeat, 10-18

Following this game, I get a nice check in with my wife on baby and grandparent adventures. They’ve made their way to the Luxor to check out the Shark Reef aquarium. Baby Elliot was, apparently, the star of the show, as everyone they passed stopped to comment on how cute he was. The little guy loves to cheese for the crowd and the camera, he’s got the makings of a star already.

Credit: Las Vegas Magazine

Afterwards, John and I have a nice chat after the game, and my brain is feeling a little fried after two games into Canoptek. I’m hopeful I can get a little reprise here, because boy I need one.

Game Six: Vs. Loomis’s Goremongers

Ah, cool, no reprise. I hate that for me.

We are playing Orb for round six.

I wish I was more alert and engaged when I played Loomis, who’s an excellent Goremongers player and energized, because in retrospect I played a really sloppy game and I’m still kicking myself about it a little bit. My big mistake is that I let myself get rattled by the idea of playing Orb against a team that has an activation advantage over me, and I spread myself too thin. I should have focused on the two objectives on each flank of the board, and forced Loomis to commit to pushing me off of them, but instead I divide my team into thirds and basically give him free reign to pick me apart bit by bit.

It turns out that my dice were also just as tired as my brain, because boy howdy I had two truly awful dice moments in this game. The first is when my Ventrilokar charges a Goremonger to finish him off, and misses all but one attack and just gets shredded in return. The second is when a double shoot with my Visionary fails to kill a Goremonger, or even meaningfully hurt him, forcing my Visionary to bravely run away to not give up more than I need to on Kill Op and Rout for Loomis.

My final bonehead move is breaching the wall near the center objective at the end of TP 3. I figured I could maybe get him off the center orb objective with some shooting, but by doing so I opened myself up to the threat of a charge from downtown by a very motivated Pickripper. Had I kept this breach point closed, it could’ve been a pretty big swing for the result of the game, but instead I get blood murdered for the dummy play and our game ends in a close loss for me.

Result: Defeat, 10-13

It's a close game one way or another, but I’m annoyed with myself because I know I can play better than this. Cold dice happen, and it especially stings when it happens right when you don’t your dice to fail you, but I lost this game because I made bad decisions that Loomis could capitalize on, plain and simple, and to his credit he punished me dearly for my mistakes. He let no chance to shed blood slip him by, and Khorne would be proud.

Credit: igovegas.com

At least I have solid plans for Saturday dinner to balm the agony of defeat, and a chance to show off my models in the hobby showcase. After setting up my team on the table for display, I joined John and his friend Derek over at a restaurant inside the Golden Nugget called Claim Jumpers for a nice meal. Derek is one of John’s buddies from the Underworlds scene, and the two of them discuss the intricacies of British and Canadian politics, I nod sagely, make quips, and enjoy a tasty Chicken Fried Steak. The company was lovely all the same, and after a quick pitstop back at the venue to retrieve my Nemesis goofballs after judging was finished, I returned to my Grandparents house to wind down with a beer and get some rest for Sunday.

Sunday

For the final day of the event, both pods A and B are mixed together and it's up in the air each round whether or not you’ll play on Volkus or Gallowdark. In theory, this means I’ll get some Volkus games in on Sunday, return to the brick house of pain I built with these strong hands, but in reality I was in Gallowdark jail, and I would not leave Gallowdark jail for the rest of the event.

I arrive, a little more tired than on Saturday morning when I had the undefeated jitters, and go through my routine of perusing the vendors and thinking “Oh, neat!” before catching up with folks. Aiden’s somehow managed to tie three games in a row and is excited at the idea of the perfectly balanced record (3 wins, 3 ties, 3 losses), Robert’s happy about being selected as a hobby finalist for his excellent Deathwatch team, and poor Chuck is going through the kind of hangover no amount of lozenges can heal. John is suited up and excited for his last three games, which considering his record as the sole undefeated player looks like it will be a string of very good games.

The hall is quieter on Sunday, since many of the big events at LVO only do the top tables on day 3, but Kill Team is still bustling, eager to see how everyone fares now that the pods are combined. Once Dakotah and company get everything squared away with the roster, pairings go up and it’s once more into the fray.

Game 7: Vs. Ryal’s Wrecka Krew

For this game, we are playing Data.

I think one Wrecka’s might be one of the more underestimated Kill Teams in the game at the moment. It’s easy for folks to dismiss their Wrecka point ability since it requires sixes to work, and write the whole team’s offensive capability as simply too inconsistent to cut the mustard since they’re operatives are on the slower side and they hit on 5’s for shooting. Underestimating the team's consistency is a fatal mistake; they may be all over the place on paper, but thanks to Wrecka points they are extremely reliable when it counts, able to push through devastating damage when they need to.

Going into this game, I decided very early that I need to do everything I can to get shot as little as possible, because no amount of In Midnight Clad can save me from sheer weight of dice. Fortunately for me, Ryal lines up his shooting operatives on the flank near his territory objective, so I deploy to focus on the middle and my home. Data requires at least one of those operatives to stay in place, so he may be stuck in that room for a good chunk of the game if I play carefully.

On turning point one, Ryal moves his shooting operatives and his Squigs towards his home, but he decides to make a very aggressive play and stage three of his melee operatives by the door to the middle room, shoulder to shoulder. He does consider it a bit, knowing that if he loses the initiative I can potentially toss a poison grenade or stun grenade at the massed blob of Greenskins (which would be devastating, since this is prior to the current WCW change about Tanked Up), but decides that backing down here is the path of the coward. There is some counterplay I have here should he go first, like using a Vox Scream or Return to Darkness to keep my operatives safe, but even then he would be in a very solid position to initiate a favorable set of trades by moving into the room.

It’s one of the most impactful initiative rolls in any game I’ve played, and my luck wins out. I take the initiative and Toss a poison grenade, dealing a healthy chunk of damage to all nearby operatives, before using Vox Scream on the only uninjured operative, killing the charging Ork in the ensuing fight, and following up with my Ventrilokar for a Stun Grenade to shut down the surviving two.

From there, I’m able to dominate the central room as well as my home point while killing enough of his team to score high on my tac op, Steal Intelligence. Ryal does his best to claw back into the game from his devastating turn 2, and had I gotten too aggressive I would’ve been in big trouble, but once the three melee orks were down I played as defensively as I could and kept a solid lead into a win.

Result: Victory, 16-10

Seven games of Kill Team start to catch up with me here, and though I’m pumped about this win locking me in to a positive record for LVO, I mostly just space out as I eat my little personal pan cheese pizza. I catch up a bit with John once he’s done, but my social battery is running low as all power goes to Warhammer brain.

Game 8: Vs Alex’s Aquilons

We are playing Orb again for this match, which I’m very worried about going into Aquilons.

After this game it’s clear to me that I need to shore up on my gameplan for Orb, because I once again split my team into even thirds in a way where they cant be as effective rather than a more focused and effective deployment. The fatigue is starting to set in for me, but it’s also setting in for Alex, and what followed was an absolutely bizarre game that may as well have been set to yakety sax.

If there was any game, any opponent, I would like to run it back for a rematch with, its Alex. Neither of us were on our A-game, as I bumbled and failed to make a meaningful impact on the kill op by playing both too passively and too aggressively in the wrong moments, while poor Alex forgets his tac op and misses several chances to score off of Scout Enemy Movement. While I am able to give him a point for it on the last turning point for an action he obviously would’ve used it on, by the time he remembers to use it we’re too far into the game to roll things back and it ends up costing him. Plus, I make up for my poor dice luck in my game with Loomis with some super lucky saves in this game with my Skinthief, who manages to hold the objective in his territory solo for two turning points, barely surviving TP3 with 1 HP left.

In the end, I stumbled my way to a win here, but it’s hard to celebrate this one too much. Alex is clearly a great player that I did not play at his best, and it left me feeling more lucky than good. Normally, I maintain it’s far better to be lucky than good, but this is the rare exception. I hope that I meet Alex again out there on the tables in the future, and we can have a proper rematch.

Result: Victory, 8-7

As I get my daily update on baby adventures (a far more mundane, but still adorable, adventure at a park), it starts to dawn on me that I could potentially place in the top eight if I win this next game. I came into LVO with low expectations, aiming to try and break into a positive winrate that would put me in the middle of the pack, but here I am at the top. I’m not used to being one to watch at an event like this, and I take a walk to try and clear my head. It’s difficult to not get totally enchanted with the idea of placing in the very top cut here, and I wish I could say that I managed to keep a steely focus on the next game and not get caught up in my own ego, but it did get to me a little. It’s just too exciting not to.

Game 9: Vs Zeke’s Wreckas

For the final game, we are playing Transmission

The saying goes that pride comes before the fall, and it turns out whoever said that knew their stuff.

In my defense, this was not a great setup for me, especially since Zeke could lock down my access to his center objective with well placed razorwire. I should’ve recognized this and pushed way harder to the central objective in the small room, but once again I split my forces up without a rock solid game plan, giving Zeke easy opportunities to pick off my team. Even more damningly, when Zeke stages his Wrecka’s up at the end of TP 1 to push into the central objective room, I get flashbacks to my game with Ryal and kill-brain takes over. I become totally fixated on killing dudes, and not scoring points, which I pay for dearly when Zeke goes first and sets up an operative on guard. In retrospect, I probably should’ve vox screamed that. When he moves his second operative into the room, I spring my big trap, shrugging off a Krak grenade to toss my poison grenade and dissapointingly do very little. At this point, a wise man would’ve cut their losses and closed the door. However, I’m lost in the sauce, and I shoot my bolt pistol to very little effect.

Then Zeke moves his Rokkiteer to blast both my Fearmonger and Ventrilokar with a relentless Rokit Rack. I definitely should’ve Vox Screamed that. The ensuing volley kills my Fearmonger and nearly kills the Ventrilokar.

From there, I’m just floundering, without a solid game plan or board position to make a meaningful impact on the game while Zeke just dominates. It’s not my favorite way to end an event, I wish that I would’ve had a stronger finish to close LVO out, but Zeke was a very gracious opponent and I frankly have no one to blame but myself.

Result: Defeat, 8-18

Wrapping Up and Final Thoughts

Once all the games wrap up, Dakotah and crew bring the players together for the awards and raffle ceremony. John ends up winning the whole thing by going undefeated, the only player at the event to do so, and I place 15th with 6 wins and 3 losses. It also secures me best in faction for Nemesis Claw, which is a neat little trophy.

I end up having to duck out of the raffle early, giving all my tickets to Zeke on the way out, but I wish I could’ve stayed for the whole thing. Normally, I wouldn’t mind sticking around, especially since the raffle prizes were super cool and Squad Games did an excellent job with trophy and prize support for competitive, hobby, and narrative, but I had extended family who we’re expecting me for dinner and I was already feeling ashamed about running late as-is.

Overall, I loved my LVO experience. The Squad Games crew put on a top tier event in all areas, with no effort spared. It takes a very talented organizer to pull off an event of this size without leaving anything on the cutting room floor, and the Squad Games team did so. As a local organizer, I speak from experience when I say it is the goal of everyone who puts on an event like this to leave a strong enough positive impression to make folks want to come back, and I think Dakotah, Giacomo, and the rest of their crew succeeded with flying colors.

It was not only nice to go and play a bunch of Warhammer and do well, but it was also wonderful to bring my family along too. While the experience of going to an event with a crew of friends was definitely something I sorely missed at LVO, being able to come home to family made up for it. If I can manage to get both of those things to line up for next year, we will be really cooking with gas.

Now, back in the heart of Texas (and nearly a month later, I’m so sorry for the wait), I’m still thinking about my Las Vegas Open experience. The games, the people, and the memories, all bringing with them excitement for the future. I’m very pleased to say that even though I’ve crossed LVO off my gaming bucket list, I’m going to try as hard as I can to go back next year. Perhaps I may even see you there, dear reader!

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Tags: Kill Team | LVO | Swiftblade | Nemesis Claw