The Las Vegas Open 2023!

My bags are packed. My army is painted, based, and battle ready. My hotel reservation is confirmed. My flight is currently on time. I’m ready for the Warhammer 40k Championships at the Las Vegas Open!

This will mark my third trip to Sin City to play in the LVO, although one trip was cancelled due to Covid, and I think this may be my best shot to finish in the top 100. My main goal was to finish the weekend, including the 40k Championship and the Sunday RTT, with a winning record – so Top 100 may be optimistic, but a boy can dream.

My Dark Angels Deathwing army is very finely tuned and I feel really comfortable with commanding it to victory. I’ve faced all of the boogey-man lists and I have a game plan for most of the them. The biggest hurdle is that my army can’t score 100 points and that’s a big problem. With Space Marine secondaries being so hard to score, I usually cap out around 85-90 points, with an occasional 90+ point game, so I need a bit of luck of the draw to avoid these three very popular lists.

 

1. Chaos Space Marine Soup – Usually it’s Emperor’s Children with Tzeentch flamer bombs. This list is not as potent after this tournament and I’m very disappointed that it’s still allowed in the tourney (the LVO is using Nephilim and not Arks of Omen.) It’s such a hard nut to crack because it scores well, is hard to kill, and is really good blocking me off primary objectives.
2. Sister of Battle – This is usually a Bloody Rose detachment with three Repentia bombs and a slew of characters. My biggest hurdle is playing catch-up with their points. The SoB have such easy secondaries to score that they jump out to a 20-point lead in the first turn, on top of having inexpensive models to throw at any problem they face. I can beat their models, but I can’t  beat the point advantage that’s written into the rules.
3. Grey Knights. I don’t know why, but GK just seem to have my number. I can handle other smite bomb armies, like Nids and TSons, but the silver boys just take my lunch money every game. Since the Armor of Contempt rules are still in play, they become harder to kill.

Other armies that also give me fits are Necrons and Nids, but I have a slightly better than 60-percent win rate against them, however, when I do lose to those armies, it’s usually by a lot of points.

With my successes at the Midwest Conquest, Showme Showdown, and the KC Open, I feel like I’m so close to pulling off a great showing at one of these bigger tournaments. If I can keep rolling 4+, I’m sure I can crack that top 100.

My keys to success, stay cagey, play for only three objectives, and keep the castle together. I also need to keep my opponent on a clock. I’ve lost a lot games in small RTTs to new players only getting to turn 3.5 or 4. UG.

Wish me luck!