Correspondence From Limbo

Hello friends, and welcome to a very weird diary piece. I’m not entirely sure how this happened, but earlier this year I decided to attend the Goonhammer Open UK event in Leicester, and at some point in the weeks prior to the event itself I decided I would write a blog post about it – which you are now reading.

There is an element of folly to this entire endeavour. When I purchased my ticket to the GHO I did not possess a 30K army; my total painted models consisted of three tactical marines I had painted as test models for an Ultramarines scheme which I had abandoned for other projects, with an Age of Darkness box set sitting abandoned in the back room of my house for approximately a year.

I’ve also never written an event report before, and my experience of writing a travelogue is limited to a piece I wrote about a trip to Paris I took several years ago which eventually devolved into a confused mess of me quoting travel writers from 100 years ago and half-forgotten anecdotes as I struggled to remember a trip that I had taken a year before and which I had no notes on. I’m hoping I’ll be able to himbo my way through this piece by aping the style of Goonhammer writer Campbell “SRM” McLaughlin and his “Roundabout” reports, so if there is a joke or stylistic flair which doesn’t look particularly like something I would normally do, assume that I shamelessly stole it from one of his pieces.

Preperation

As I mentioned, prior to purchasing my ticket to this event in January(!), I didn’t actually have a playable army or a list. Not only would I have to make three lists for the event, as per the rules pack I also had to make sure all of the models that I brought to the GHO were painted to a battle-ready standard. My plan was to slap some lists together quickly, built around the core of the Age of Darkness box with a few additions, and spend the approximately six months between buying my ticket and the event assembling and painting everything in readiness with the hopes I could take it slow and not have a frantic rush.

This did not happen.

My plans to build my army were put on hold due to having a one-day AoS tournament to attend in Faversham in February and needing to build 2,000 points of Slaves to Darkness ahead of this. I then had a community theatre production I was involved in which took up the vast majority of my evenings through March and April, and I also had to do family stuff and work on top of that, meaning I had significantly less time to do everything.

For the Heresy event, each participant had to prepare three lists; one 2,500-point list which we would use for the majority of games, a 1,250-point list for Zone Mortalis, and a 750-point “relief force” list which we could bring on to aid other players in the event that our main 2,500-point match or Zone Mortalis mission ended early. My plan was to bring Ultramarines for the bigger games and Militia for my 750-point support force.

This also did not happen.

In the end, I had to abandon my militia to the cruel realm of my unfinished projects box as I simply did not have the time to finish painting them and my Ultramarines. In fact, I only finished my Ultramarines a few days before the tournament, adding the final details to my Sparten and three Rhinos on the Tuesday before we had to leave for the event on Friday.

I was so overjoyed that I made a meme to celebrate.

You’re probably wondering what was in my lists. I’m including the 2,500-point list and the Zone Mortalis list below; I didn’t actually get a chance to use the support force, so there isn’t much point in posting it.

Chris’s GHO Ultramarines List (2,500 Pts)

• 1. Crusade Force Organisation Chart (LA – XIII: Ultramarines) [2,492Pts]

• Expanded Army Lists
  • Expanded Army List Profiles:Selections: Exemplary Units On, Legacy Units On
• Allegiance:
  • AllegianceSelections: Loyalist
  • XIII: Ultramarines
• Rite of War:
  • Rite of WarSelections: The Logos Lectora (UM)
• HQ: [607Pts]
  • Centurion [105Pts]
    • Master of Signals [70Pts]Selections: Artificer Armour, Nemesis Bolter [10Pts]
      • Bolt Pistol
      • ChainswordSelections: Chainsword
    • Master of Signals [35Pts]
  • Praetor [502Pts]Selections: The Burden of Kings (Loyalist only), Warlord
    • Invictarus Suzerain Squad [340Pts]
      • 9x Suzerain w/Bolt Pistol & Legatine Axe [270Pts]Selections: 9x Bolt Pistol, 9x Legatine Axe
      • Suzerain w/Legion Standard & Legatine Axe [45Pts]
    • Legion Praetor [162Pts]Selections: Artificer Armour, Master-craft one weapon [10Pts], Paragon Blade [30Pts], Volkite Serpenta [2Pts]
• Elites: [665Pts]
  • Apothecarion Detachment [55Pts]
    • Apothecary [55Pts]Selections: Bolt Pistol, Power Armour
      • Power Weapon [10Pts]Selections: Power Sword
  • Contemptor Dreadnought Talon [180Pts]
    • Contemptor Dreadnought [180Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Gravis Melta Cannon [5Pts], Gravis Power Fist with in-built ranged weapon
  • Terminator Cataphractii Squad [430Pts]
    • Cataphractii [40Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist [10Pts]
    • Cataphractii [40Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist [10Pts]
    • Cataphractii [40Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist [10Pts]
    • Cataphractii [40Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist [10Pts]
    • Cataphractii [40Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist [10Pts]
    • Cataphractii [40Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist [10Pts]
    • Cataphractii [40Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist [10Pts]
    • Cataphractii [40Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist [10Pts]
    • Cataphractii [40Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist [10Pts]
    • Cataphractii Sergeant [15Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Grenade Harness [5Pts], Power Fist [10Pts]
• Troops: [435Pts]
  • Tactical Squad [145Pts]
    • Legion Tactical SergeantSelections: Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Power Armour
    • 8x Legionary [80Pts]Selections: 8x Bolt Pistol, 8x Bolter
    • Legionary w/ Options: [20Pts]Selections: Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Nuncio-Vox [10Pts]
    • Rhino Transport [35Pts]
  • Tactical Squad [145Pts]
    • Legion Tactical SergeantSelections: Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Power Armour
    • 8x Legionary [80Pts]Selections: 8x Bolt Pistol, 8x Bolter
    • Legionary w/ Options: [20Pts]Selections: Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Nuncio-Vox [10Pts]
    • Rhino Transport [35Pts]
  • Tactical Squad [145Pts]
    • Legion Tactical SergeantSelections: Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Power Armour
    • 8x Legionary [80Pts]Selections: 8x Bolt Pistol, 8x Bolter
    • Legionary w/ Options: [20Pts]Selections: Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Nuncio-Vox [10Pts]
    • Rhino Transport [35Pts]
• Fast Attack: [200Pts]
  • Locutarus Storm Squad [200Pts]
    • 4x Locutarus [100Pts]Selections: 4x Argean Power Sword, 4x Bolt Pistol
    • Locutarus Strike Leader [35Pts]Selections: Bolt Pistol, Legatine Axe [5Pts], Meltabombs [5Pts]
• Heavy Support: [585Pts]
  • Heavy Support Squad [150Pts]Selections: Lascannon [50Pts]
    • Legion Support SergeantSelections: Bolt Pistol, Power Armour
    • 4x Legionaries (collective) [60Pts]Selections: 4x Bolt Pistol
  • Land Raider Spartan [435Pts]
    • Land Raider Spartan [435Pts]Selections: 2x Lascannon Array, Flare Shield [50Pts], Heavy Bolter [10Pts], Hull (Front) Mounted Twin-linked Lascannon [25Pts]

Created with BattleScribe

Built around the Logos rite of war, the core of this list is the three tactical squads in rhinos – I would drive them up the board and park them on objectives, disembarking the squads who would then hold them. The rhinos would then shoot at whatever needed shooting at, triggering The Strength of Wisdom for the tactical squads. The terminators would footslog up the board to wherever they were needed, providing support and contesting objectives where they could. Meanwhile, the master of signals would act as a spotter for the lascannon heavy support squad, while the locatus storm squad would charge forwards and get wiped off the table instantly attack scary enemy infantry. Dreadnaughts at the GHO had been nerfed, with less brutal attacks and one less wound each, so my dreadnought would go tank hunting where he could but would mostly act as a distraction while I then got my other units into position. The real stars of the list was the praetor and the Invictarius Suzerians, who (along with the apothecary) rode around in style in a lascannon-equipped spartan. The plan with them was to blowup whichever tank, heavy vehicle, etc looked the scariest and then charge the spartan in, letting the praetor and his entourage out to chop up any infantry that looked at them funny.

At least that was the plan.

Chris’s GHO Ultramarines List (1,250 Pts) [1,247Pts]

• ZM 1. Mortalis Assault Force Organisation Chart (LA – XIII: Ultramarines) [1,247Pts]

• Expanded Army Lists
  • Expanded Army List Profiles:Selections: Exemplary Units On, Legacy Units On
• Allegiance:
  • AllegianceSelections: Loyalist
  • XIII: Ultramarines
• Rite of War:
  • Rite of War
• HQ: [442Pts]
  • Praetor [442Pts]Selections: The Burden of Kings (Loyalist only), Warlord
    • Invictarus Suzerain Squad [280Pts]
      • 7x Suzerain w/Bolt Pistol & Legatine Axe [210Pts]Selections: 7x Bolt Pistol, 7x Legatine Axe
      • Suzerain w/Legion Standard & Legatine Axe [45Pts]
    • Legion Praetor [162Pts]Selections: Artificer Armour, Master-craft one weapon [10Pts], Paragon Blade [30Pts], Volkite Serpenta [2Pts]
• Elites: [585Pts]
  • Apothecarion Detachment [55Pts]
    • Apothecary [55Pts]Selections: Bolt Pistol, Power Armour
      • Power Weapon [10Pts]Selections: Power Sword
  • Contemptor Dreadnought Talon [180Pts]
    • Contemptor Dreadnought [180Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Gravis Melta Cannon [5Pts], Gravis Power Fist with in-built ranged weapon
  • Terminator Cataphractii Squad [350Pts]
    • Cataphractii [40Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist [10Pts]
    • Cataphractii [40Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist [10Pts]
    • Cataphractii [40Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist [10Pts]
    • Cataphractii [40Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist [10Pts]
    • Cataphractii [40Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist [10Pts]
    • Cataphractii [40Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist [10Pts]
    • Cataphractii [40Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist [10Pts]
    • Cataphractii Sergeant [15Pts]Selections: Combi-Bolter, Grenade Harness [5Pts], Power Fist [10Pts]
• Troops: [220Pts]
  • Tactical Squad [110Pts]
    • Legion Tactical SergeantSelections: Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Power Armour
    • 8x Legionary [80Pts]Selections: 8x Bolt Pistol, 8x Bolter
    • Legionary w/ Options: [20Pts]Selections: Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Nuncio-Vox [10Pts]
  • Tactical Squad [110Pts]
    • Legion Tactical SergeantSelections: Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Power Armour
    • 8x Legionary [80Pts]Selections: 8x Bolt Pistol, 8x Bolter
    • Legionary w/ Options: [20Pts]Selections: Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Nuncio-Vox [10Pts]

Created with BattleScribe

I don’t really have anything to say about this list. I built it in a way to try and maximise the scoring units I would have on the board, but by the time I played Zone Mortalis my brain was mush. I didn’t really have a plan with the list, mostly just to have fun and try to trigger The Strength of Wisdom wherever possible. Something that people will notice is that my list doesn’t have any anti-tank or anti-heavy armour weapons in the list. When I put the list together I was sure that it wouldn’t be an issue.

“Foreshadowing” is a literary device wh-

Day 0 (Friday)

Before I could take part in the GHO I had to actually get there. My friend Jacob and I had decided we’d attend the event together, and that I would drive us from near Winchester to Leicester. We’d be joined on the trip by my partner, as they were heading home to Derbyshire to visit family and it is easier for them to travel there from Leicester than Southampton.

We picked Jake up just after midday, and I’m not too ashamed to say I was a bit nervous; it’s always strange when people from different contexts of your life meet for the first time. Would they get on? Will it be three hours of awkward silence in a very hot car as I slowly lose my mind with no one saying anything? Luckily, Jake and my partner were able to find a common interest (namely, bullying me), and we were soon driving along the A34 to Leicester, stopping only once for a short rest.

The unfortunate part of this drive is that it combined two things I hate with a passion: driving a route I’m not familiar with and driving in cities. Driving around the roads of Leicester is an exercise in frustration, with the lanes you have to be in to get to where you want to go making little to no sense.

We eventually dropped my partner at the station so they could get their train, before Jake and I headed to the hotel. We chilled for a bit, before ending up at the pub on the hotel’s grounds, where we ordered dinner and had one of our semi-regular Big Chats, talking about how life has been treating us lately, relationships, our expectations for the coming weekend and the future of various GW games including the LotR game. I had a mediocre hunter’s chicken and a Sex on The Beach cocktail that tasted a little too strongly of alcohol for me – I haven’t been a heavy drinker since I left university, but I couldn’t get any other flavours out of my drink besides alcohol. I finished off the meal with a strawberry cheesecake, which I think might have been the best thing I ate on the entire trip, beautifully light and delicious.

Afterwards, we relaxed in our room and I read the first dozen pages or so of What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama before falling unconscious.

Day 1 (Saturday)

We woke up at a time that, in my notes, I referred to as “far too early o’clock”. Whatever, we had a quick shower and got dressed before grabbing a horribly unhealthy breakfast at the hotel breakfast room. When we had booked the hotel we had selected to have access to the cooked breakfast buffet, which in hindsight might have been a mistake – the options available included beans, bacon, sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms, two sorts of eggs and hashbrowns, all of which gave me chest pains just looking at them. On our second day, I would go for the healthier option of cereal and yoghurt, but I was already beginning to feel like I hadn’t seen vegetables or fruit for days.

After successfully navigating Leicester’s one-way system (a process easier said than done), we arrived at the Du Montfort Student Union, where we quickly signed in and received a Gregbot-branded Goonhammer measuring stick before being directed to our Battlegroup. The name of our group of loyalists quickly slid off and out of my tired and smooth brain, but throughout the weekend I would learn we were called “Battlegroup Victrix”, although mentally I would refer to us as “Battlegroup 1”, as that was the number assigned to our Battlegroup, or more commonly “That Battlegroup I am in With Jake and those other guys”.

Again, I was very tired.

On arriving at our Battlegroup we were greeted by another member, Richard, a rather boisterous participant who was playing White Scars and Alpha Legion. He was friendly, and would spend the majority of the weekend being quite loud, responding to the cries of “Engine Kill!” from the Titanicus side of the room with calls of “Marine Kill!”. While chatting with him, the EO’s announced that whichever side had their players sign in first would receive a bonus VP, with the traitors scoring the “bonus” objective almost as soon as this was announced.

The first battlezone our group was assigned to after the opening narration by the event organiser Zach was The Exercrine Palace, where we would complete the Rolling Advance mission. We also had a special objective we had to make sure the traitors didn’t hold the space in the centre of the board – if they did they would then score special points that would go towards summoning daemons in the last match of the event. After being introduced to our opponents, we quickly discussed which boards and enemies we would like to face, with our enemies including Night Lords, Mechanicum, Sons of Horus and Ruinstorm Daemons. As it was my first ever game of 30K, it was generally decided that it would be best if I didn’t get matched against the Daemon player.

Game 1: Vs. Mark’s Ruinstorm Daemons

Well, fuck.

Looking back at this, I’m not still entirely sure how this happened, but my first game was against Mark and his Ruinstorm Daemons. As a Heresy noob, this was probably a bad match-up; Daemons have a lot of non-standard rules and degrading stat lines, meaning there are a lot of rules which apply to them which don’t apply to the more “standard” armies I would be facing the rest of the weekend and vis versa.

For his part, Mark was a very patient and gracious opponent, explaining his army and various rules to me and letting me take as long as I needed to set up my forces and take my turns. However, there was no escaping that this was a difficult match-up for me – his army’s lack of shooting meant that I couldn’t use my advanced reaction, and my inexperience with the system meant that I made a number of rookie errors.

I deployed my army quite aggressively, trying to score the middle objectives and hold the centre of the board for as much as possible. It wasn’t long before my Ultramarines and Mark’s Daemons clashed, with me killing one of his units of chaff in the first turn, and taking out a unit of flamers before they could do much to my line at all. However, it was all for nought, as my opponent’s forces were able to cut through much of my force like butter, with the moment of biggest disgrace coming when he tore through my Praetor and his bodyguard unit in one round of assault with a pair of daemonic sovereigns, causing them to panic and flee and cutting them all down as they ran. Not helping matters was that the first two rounds were played under night fighting rules due to the Night Lords Rite of War affecting all of the tables in the battlezone, meaning my shooting was way less effective than it should have been. I was able to get a late-game orbital bombardment due to the efforts of another Battlegroup which completely destroyed Mark’s flank while leaving my forces unscathed, but it was too little too late, with the game ending with Mark scoring three victory points to my zero.

I don’t feel too bad about this loss; Mark was a great opponent who would go on to win Best Traitor at the event, while his Battlegroup would take home the Best Battlegroup award. I would gladly play him again if I get the chance.

After the game, Jake and I ran to a nearby Tesco’s to grab lunch, before returning and eating at the student union. Jake had also lost his match, and we chatted briefly about how the morning had gone before preparing for our next game.

It would turn out that we were moving into the Zone Mortalis.

Game 2: Vs. Richard’s Alpha Legion

This ended up being a rather interesting matchup, as, by rights, it probably shouldn’t have happened.

Our battlegroup had been assigned to defend the Imperial Fists battleship Spear of Vengeance from a traitor insurgence. However, one of the members of an opposing battlegroup didn’t have a Zone Mortalis list. As a loyalist player from the other Zone Mortalis table also didn’t have a ZM list, it was decided that they would play a regular game and I would be temporarily transferred to the other loyalist Battlegroup for the duration of this round. Therefore, I would be joining the assault on the Death Guard ship the Mia Donna Mori.

After introducing myself to my temporary comrades, I was matched against Richard, who had brought an Alpha Legion list with him. We would be playing the Assault Critical Systems mission, which involved me destroying infrastructure which had vehicle stat lines.

Fuck.

Do you remember that foreshadowing I put in earlier in this piece? Because I sure do!

This match was probably my least favourite of the games I played all weekend. This wasn’t the fault of Richard, who was a great opponent, who got up to some very fun movement shenanigans with his Alpha Legionnaires, but it was due to the mission itself. I simply had no way to interact with the target objective at all, and the game ended with victory going to Richard.

After our games had wrapped, Jake and I chilled at the venue and waited for the day’s games to end so we could see how the narrative was affected. Things were close, with the traitor forces ever so slightly ahead. I also picked up a commemorative t-shirt (which features Gregbot, of course).

After that we walked into Leicester for dinner, eventually deciding on a restaurant called Middleton’s Steak and Grill – which presumably has no connection to the royal family. I ended up having an almost disgustingly tall “Mexican” burger, which came with cheese sauce, nachos and jalapenos, and an incredibly sweet mocktail which will probably cause my dentist to have some sort of fit when I tell him about it.

We chatted about how the day had gone and our matches and discussed how we would change things if we were in charge. While I left the event with very few complaints, I think it was during this chat were the cracks began to show themselves a bit, and the last game had left me just a little bit bitter.

We then went back to the hotel, where Jake watched the season finale of Doctor Who, while I watched some YouTube videos discussing the new Elden Ring DLC.

Day 2 (Sunday)

We had a relatively chilled start to the day, with a whole 30-minute(!) lie-in as today’s events would be starting a bit later. After checking out of the hotel, we headed to the venue, where Zach gave us the rundown of the narrative changes for the day’s event. Apparently, a vault of archeotech had been discovered on one of the war fronts, containing Men of Iron which had now been unleashed. This was an interesting development, and the converted models used to represent the mechanical horrors were super cool, but I felt like it would have had more of an impact if I had fought on the battlefront at any point over the weekend or if my actions had any impact on this development. I understand that this is the limitation of having such a big narrative event, and I don’t mean any insult to the organisers who did an awesome job, but it did feel a bit like watching other kids play with the cooler toys while I was stuck with a second-hand bucket and spade.

On the bright side, I also received a Gregbot sticker during this break, which now adorns the front of my diary.

We were soon paired up for our third game, which was my favourite one of the entire weekend.

Game 3: Vs. Charlie’s Mechanicum and Solar Auxilia

Oh hell yes.

Our battlegroup was assigned to The Guts, the lowest part of the hive. Due to the Titan clashes above, the area had begun to fall in on itself and collapse, with all of the terrain in the battlefront counting as dangerous terrain.

I got matched up against Charlie, who had been transplanted into our battlezone due to not possessing a ZM force. He had brought along a combined arms force of Mechanicum and Solar Auxilia – almost all of the models were either 3D-printed or converted and they looked incredibly cool. We had to carry out the Hold All Quarters mission, something that I found quite difficult due to how much terrain was on the board. Charlie was a great opponent though, sympathising with me when we rolled for night fighting and the first turn was taken under the cover of darkness. He even asked me if I wanted to ignore night fighting for this bout, but I declined – everyone else on our battlefront was doing it, so we might as well remain consistent.

The game itself was incredibly close. Using my Master of Signals I was able to stop Charlie from calling in his reinforcements for the entire game, something I actually felt quite bad about. I deployed as aggressively as I could, trying my hardest to claim the objectives on the lower left and top right of the board. Unfortunately, I forgot that the objective in my deployment zone also counted as a scoring objective for me, so I only put a Line unit on it near the end of the game. Meanwhile, Charlie’s shooting was absolutely blistering, taking down my units left and right under the weight of fire. In the end, the game ended with Charlie winning, as he scored three victory points to my two, but it was a close thing. My favourite moment of the game was me using my advanced reaction to shoot 54 bolter shots into his Myrmidons and Archmagos. It didn’t do much damage, but it was rather hilarious to have to roll that many dice. My Praetor, however, did rather little in the game, capturing and holding an objective along with his retinue but failing to make up his points when it came to kills.

After the match, we all displayed our armies for the best-painted army competition. I doubted I would win anything. My army is messy and desperately needs some layering and highlighting done to it before it will be close to looking good, but it was nice to display my army “in formation” as it were. Jake and I ran to Tescos to grab a meal deal while the judging took place, where we ran into Mark and his battlegroup. We chatted on the way back to the venue, discussing Heresy, different armies and what we were thinking of collecting next.

Game 4: Vs. Alastair’s Night Lords

I’ll be honest; I was real tired here. Four games of Warhammer over two days felt like a little too much to me and I went into this game incredibly sloppily. I don’t think I even introduced myself to Alastair until the start of his second turn.

For this match, we were back in The Exercine Palace, once again playing the Rolling Advance mission. We decided to ignore the secondary objectives concerning summoning points, as it was the last game of the day and the traitors had already summoned their daemonic allies. Alastair and I fought on a different map from the one that I had played Mark on yesterday, and this was the game where I began to realise how much I dislike playing Night Lords (no offence to Alastair or the other Night Lord players at the event). As with previous games, my shooting was curtailed, with -1 to hit and an effective range of only 24 inches, while the opposing Night Lords had no such issues.

Because of this, I started mixing things up a bit with the Logos, starting with Full March and then transitioning into Retribution Strike instead of Hold Fast, charging my Praetor and his bodyguards into a despoiler squad to wipe them out completely. I ended up deep striking my storm squad (something which I forgot I couldn’t do) to wipe out a rear line centurion and accompanying rapier battery, with my terminators and a tactical squad holding one of the middle objectives. A Night Lord inductii squad was able to pin my Praetor for a turn, and do a surprising amount of damage, but support for my forces came from a Warhound Titan piloted by Josh (who would go on to win best loyalist for his amazing Ultramarines force), who threw out a sickening amount of shooting each round. Between us, we were able to destroy the Inductii and prevent a deep-striking assault squad from taking a back objective, and I won a very close game with 3 VP to 2.

After packing up my army, we were then treated to the award ceremony as well as the final narrative wrap-up of the campaign. We found out that a force of Talons of The Emperor had come to the planet, with their leader slaying a Daemon lord in combat, a cool development that I wish I could have seen or interacted with in any way. Oh well. We also learnt that the overall victory points scored were a draw, meaning that the conflict was a tie and the planet was completely destroyed. Initially I found this “Rocks fall, everyone dies” ending to be quite funny – Warhammer 40K is practically made on doomed last stands – but the more I thought about it, the more I had an issue with it. The loyalist forces had been lagging behind points-wise for almost the entire event, only to start to push back over the games on Sunday – in fact we would have won outright if it was not for the bonus victory point that the traitors scored for having all of their players register first, something that the organisers recognised. This left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth – giving points for something like this doesn’t seem fair, especially since there are a large number of reasons why someone might be late to the event or unable to come on the day.

We watched the final prizes be given out and then hopped back in the car to drive back to Hampshire. Jake and I spent most of the ride chatting about the event, how we felt about it and other important topics including which cities around the world have a recognised red light district. You know, normal stuff. Jake had lost all of his matches over the weekend, and we discussed how we felt about Heresy as a game overall. I think I came out of the event a lot hotter on it than he did, but we still had fun hanging out and playing games.

Aftermath

Welp, there we go. More than 4,000 words on an event that happened a few weeks ago. Who would have thought?

As I said above, I came away from the GHO having really enjoyed my time there. The people I met were nice, the games I played were fun, and I felt welcomed in a way that I was not really expecting. One of the biggest compliments that I can give the event is that I felt safe and comfortable enough to wear my Not a Phase “Support Trans Lives” t-shirt on Saturday without fear of people accusing me of being some sort of criminal or making “Hurhur Slannesh, haha Emperor’s Children” jokes at me, which was honestly really nice. I had people come up to me and compliment my painting, something I wasn’t expecting with the slap-dash, rushed way I had put everything together.

This leads me to two questions. Would I attend another Goonhammer event? Definitely, I want to collect more Gregbot merch. Would I attend another Heresy event? I think I would, but maybe not for a while. With the stress of painting and putting together my army, I’ve become quite burnt out on painting power armour, and I think I will be for a while. But, as I told Jake on the car ride home, one of the things that the event has inspired in me is a desire to keep doing hobby stuff – to paint and collect and play games, and to do it all more often.

That is the main takeaway from this event. Now, where did I put those paints…?

Thank you for taking the time to read this piece, I really appreciate it. I’m not planning on doing a big pivot to hobby stuff (I’m too in love with writing pretentious blog posts about videogames for that) but you might see the odd photo or blog piece on Warhammer popping up here and there. For now, if you want to see more hobby stuff from me you can go to Instagram and follow my hobby account @PaintsInLimbo.

Thanks for reading.