My Warzone Atlanta Recap: Day 1

Warzone Atlanta was by far the best experience I have ever had at a competitive Warhammer 40k event. It is unlike any other in the country I think. It's difficult to put my finger on why it was the way it was. There was just something spectacularly chill about the entire tournament.

Unlike most large events, Warzone Atlanta's format is wide open. There is no limit to detachments, they play using the GW FAQ, there is no nerf to ranged D weapons, no nerf to Invisibility, and you can bring anything you want as long as it has a 40k datasheet. It was a brutal environment, but despite that, it was also extremely relaxed and amazing. Maybe it was the ladies walking around bringing drinks to your table, the comfortable amount of space in which to play your matches, or something else. Maybe just the zeitgeist at work, but for whatever reason there was this atmosphere of absolute fun and positive energy. So, now on to a brief breakdown of how my matches went.

Round 1 vs Joe Johnson and his Tau

Joe was a great guy. His army looked incredible. He had an amazing display board lit with LEDs and even LEDs all over his models. It was truly remarkable. To boot, he had a brutal Tau list with two of the Optimized Stealth Cadre formations and a CAD. There were 6 Ghostkeels in this list! Each time you tried to shoot them they can make you snap fire an amount equal to the number of Ghostkeels in each formation. Then they had cover saves out in the wide open. The army was very fast and maneuverable.

The mission basically had a bunch of objectives in the center line of the table. You earn points for controlling the objectives and for pushing them into your opponent's side of the board, even if you aren't controlling them in the end. Joe got the infiltrate warlord trait and first turn, which ended up being huge as he alpha struck me hard. With all his heavy guns hitting my rear armor due to the formation benefits, he took out a large chunk of my force on turn 1. I recovered and still made a game out of it. In the end both of us were nearly depleted with our forces, but he ended up winning the match. It was a great game.

Round 2 - Andrew Whittaker and his 6-0 ATC Blood Angels

Andrew Whittaker is best known for being on the Forge the Narrative Podcast as a co-host. He also went 6-0 at ATC with his Blood Angels list and I was glad to get the opportunity to play against it. He had 11 Drop Pods, of which I believe 6 were Lucious Pods. A bunch of Contemptor Dreads and 2 Librarian Dreads, Cassor the Damned, and some obsec Tac Marines with Heavy Flamers.

From the onset this was great. We had an amazing game. He was a hilarious guy and we had a very chill relaxed game. We enjoyed several beers together and most of the game was spent laughing and just enjoying the game. He was also nice enough to buy me a Warzone Atlanta measuring template. There was a moment where his Contemptor needed to make a 12" charge on one of my squads of Jetbikes and he rolled boxcars to which we both cheered and high fived. My match with him was the most enjoyable match of the event. He won the game, but we had such an amazing time playing that it didn't really bother me in the least.

Round 3 - Eric Swing playing pure KDK

Round 3 would see me matched up against a guy named Eric Swing. He was a genuine cool dude. He had a pure KDK list with 2 D-thirsters and a crap ton of hounds as well as some cultists, bloodletters, and terminators. The mission and deployment wasn't in his favor as it was Hammer and Anvil. I managed to shoot him nearly entirely off the board and killed the 2 D-thirsters on Turn 2 with my ranged D weapons. He was a good sport and we had an enjoyable time bullshitting and drinking. By this time in the event, I had nearly lost my voice entirely so I couldn't converse with him as much as I would have liked, but still an amazing opponent and a class act dude. I ended up pulling away with a big win in this final round.