On Sunday, October 5th 2025, we had 31 players gather for our very first Tournament for the King of the Colosseum format. For those that don’t know the format, it was popularized and created by fellow Canadian Wargamers PlayOn Tabletop (https://playontabletop.com/king-of-the-colosseum/). The format starts with a 500 point list created using the latest matched play rules for Warhammer 40,000 and adds in a few restrictions with the following:
-
No Epic Heroes
-
At least 1 Character
-
At least 2 non-character Infantry Units
-
No Unit can be higher than Toughness 9
Players play a Best-of-Three match to decide the victor, with players deciding the Primary Mission and Twist for each game. The tournament is 4 rounds, leaving 1 decidedly undefeated player for every 16 players.
The event had the following awards to hand out to those present, with the main ones decided by performance, and the remaining to promote individuality and creativity in the community:
-
2 Awards for Undefeated Player
-
Best Painted
-
Best Backstory
-
Favourite Opponent
Undefeated Players:
Our two undefeated players for this event were none other than Zach Riegling & Dan Rodgers. Below I have their lists to highlight, as they showed creativity in how they approached the format.
Zach opted to go for a few small units of fast melee infantry backed up by 2 units of Mortifiers to rain down fire with their Heavy Bolters. Penitent Host allowed his Mortifiers to throw themselves up the table and Fight on Death to absorb hits and take out any enemy that dared charge them back.
+ PLAYER: Zach Riegling
+ FACTION KEYWORD: Imperium - Adepta Sororitas
+ DETACHMENT: Penitent Host (Desperate for Redemption)
__________________________________________________________________
1x Canoness (50 pts): Blessed blade, Inferno pistol
3x Arco-Flagellants (45 pts): 3 with Arco-flails
3x Arco-Flagellants (45 pts): 3 with Arco-flails
5x Repentia Squad (75 pts)
• 1x Repentia Superior: Bolt pistol, Neural Whips
• 4x Sister Repentia: 4 with Penitent Eviscerator
2x Mortifiers (140 pts)
1 with Anchorite Sarcophagus, Mortifier w/ sarcophagus, Twin Penitent Buzz-Blades, 2x Heavy Bolter
1 with Mortifier, Twin Penitent Buzz-Blades, 2x Heavy Bolter
2x Mortifiers (140 pts)
1 with Anchorite Sarcophagus, Mortifier w/ sarcophagus, Twin Penitent Buzz-Blades, 2x Heavy Bolter
1 with Mortifier, Twin Penitent Flails, 2x Heavy Bolter
Dan opted to throw the full force of the Ravewing Company straight at his opponent every round. Company of Hunters allowed his Ravenwing Command Squad and Outriders to do everything the want every turn without fear of getting locked down by advancing & falling back while continuing to shoot & charge.
+ PLAYER: Dan Rodgers
+ FACTION KEYWORD: Imperium - Space Marines (Dark Angels)
+ DETACHMENT: Company of Hunters
__________________________________________________________________
Ravenwing Command Squad (120 Points)
• 1x Ravenwing Champion Hadrian Half-Mortal
• Warlord
◦ 1x Bolt pistol
◦ 1x Master-crafted power weapon
◦ 1x Plasma talon
• 1x Malchior "The Black Surgeon: Ravenwing Apothecary
◦ 1x Black Knight combat weapon
◦ 1x Bolt pistol
◦ 1x Plasma talon
• 1x Severian "Bearer of the Black Shroud" Ravenwing Ancient
◦ 1x Black Knight combat weapon
◦ 1x Bolt pistol
◦ 1x Plasma talon
BATTLELINE
Intercessor Squad (80 Points)
Outrider Squad (80 Points)
OTHER DATASHEETS
Invader ATV (60 Points)
Ravenwing Black Knights (90 Points)
Scout Squad (70 Points)
Best Painted:
Best Painted is always a difficult decision as we have so many talented painters in our community. For this event, our staff came to the decision to award today’s prize to Tom Sokolowski (TSevetar) with absolutely stunning Necrons. Photos do not do justice to how great these look in person. You can go check out more photos of his models on our Discord or on his Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsevetar/?hl=en . In addition, Tom is running a workshop at our store on November 8th to help people learn how he does Object-Sourced lighting https://chimeragamingonline.com/products/intro-to-object-source-lighting-with-tom-sokolowski-ticket
Best Backstory
For this event, I put a little easter egg in the player pack for a new prize that we got quite a few submissions for. A portion of our Community loves getting into the creativity of creating a story for who their army is and why they are at this outstanding Colosseum. I will post the other stories at the end of the article for everyone to enjoy, but here are the two stories that stood out to us the most. The first story is submitted by Max Honiball with his World Eaters Army. The second is submitted by Dan Rodgers and his racing Ravenwing Knights.
Max Honiball
A low, rhythmic roar pulsed through the ferrocrete stands of the Arena of Thirst, a brutalist colosseum carved into a nameless rock circling a dying star. This wasn't a world of grand strategy; it was a charnel house.
Leading the charge was Khorag, Scourge of the XIIth. He watched, impatiently, as his corroded, gore-caked Rhino disgorged his Berzerkers. Their chainaxes shrieked, their faces contorted in a joyous, blood-mad frenzy: Khorag's chosen few, the Executioner’s Guard.
Their ranks were flanked by a shrieking, under-equipped horde of Jakhal cultists, zealots drawn to the arena's ceaseless slaughter. They sought not glory, but the intoxicating arterial spray of any victim's blood, a raw, desperate devotion to the Blood God. Whirling to their front was the erratic form of The Twinned Grins: slavering Chaos Spawn, failed champions of the Blood God, reduced to things of pure, unpredictable violence.
But the true spectacle was the Khorag’s heavy muscle: Anvil, a tortured relic whose every step sent tremors shooting through the ground. On one arm, its flamer spat promethium and hate, clearing its path; on the other, a monstrous power scourge lashed out, its energized tentacles ripping apart anything the flames left standing.
This excursion was not merely for local entertainment. Khorag and his detachment were sent at the explicit command of the Betrayer himself. The Arena of Thirst was renowned for drawing the galaxy's most lethal gladiators, champions of Chaos and Xenos alike. Khârn required a bloody demonstration of the World Eaters' unstoppable power: a clear message to all potential rivals and followers that the Legion remained the foremost champions of the Blood God.
This slaughter was a recruiting poster written in viscera.
For Khorag, this motley assembly was perfect: a wave of indiscriminate, glorious, and absolutely inescapable carnage. The crowd screamed. The slaughter began.
Dan Rodgers
Strikeforce Tamerlane
Motto: From shadow we ride, to shadow we return. [short pause] None escape the Lion’s judgment."
Chronicle Entry: From the Libris Obscura, sealed within the Rock, entry MXLII:
Know this, O brother of the Unforgiven: when the Fallen scatter like vermin into the dark, it is not the hammer that finds them, but the spear. Strikeforce Tamerlane is that spear. They are the hunters who ride between light and shadow, their engines screaming like the heralds of doom. Where they pass, the Fallen are driven from their holes, stripped of cover, and cast into the open. Only then does the hammer fall, and the Deathwing descend to finish what was begun.
Strikeforce Tamerlane is commanded by Hadrian, Ravenwing Champion of the Inner Circle, a warrior whose burden is not only to fight, but to know. He leads with the cold certainty of one who understands the Chapter’s secret shame, and who will stop at nothing to see the Fallen brought to justice.
At his side ride two figures of grim renown: Apothecary Malchior, the Black Surgeon and Ancient Severian, Bearer of the Winged Shroud.
The role of Strikeforce Tamerlane is not annihilation, but revelation. They are tasked with seeking out the Fallen, flushing them from cover, and driving them into the open. Once the quarry is exposed, Hadrian signals the Deathwing, whose teleporting terminators descend like the Emperor’s judgment.
Thus, Tamerlane is the storm before the hammer, the shadow before the dawn. They are the hunters who ride in half-light, their existence a reminder that the Dark Angels’ greatest war is not against the xenos or the heretic, but against their own past.
Mission Log: Veyla’s Hollow
Filed by: Champion Hadrian, Strikeforce Tamerlane
Classification: Inner Circle Eyes Only
Objective: Pursuit and exposure of suspected Fallen elements within the ruins of Veyla’s manufactorum sector.
Execution: Strikeforce Tamerlane deployed at first light. Scouts confirmed enemy presence entrenched within collapsed structures. Outriders executed flanking maneuvers, driving targets into the open. Black Knights applied plasma fire to suppress resistance. Intercessors established a cordon, sealing all avenues of retreat.
Upon signal, Deathwing teleport strike commenced. Terminator squads neutralized remaining resistance with overwhelming force.
Result: Enemy routed. Several Fallen confirmed among the dead. Survivors secured for interrogation. Strikeforce casualties within acceptable limits.
Addendum: The quarry continues to scatter. Orders remain unchanged. [determined] "Mount up. The hunt does not end."
Favourite Opponent
Last but not least, we always vote for everyone’s favourite opponent. This is never an easy one either. Most players receive a vote, which goes to show how upstanding our community is. The room was full of smiles the entire day. One individual however did win over the hearts of the majority of his opponents, and I always see a smile and hear laughter coming from this area of the store. This award today went home with John H.
Thank you everyone for attending and supporting this experimental new format. We will continue to hold events for this in the future. For now, if you want a taste of some more Colosseum action you can join our league at https://chimeragamingonline.com/products/chimera-gaming-warhammer-40k-kotc-league-winter-2025-ticket-mon-oct-13-2025
The Rest of the Stories & Photos (in no particular order)
Scott Cockwell
Vorganis Prime, known to the Orks that inhabit it as Bashrok, is a deathworld on the fringe of Segmentum Ultima. The planet is covered with dense jungles, towering mountains and scarred plains. This has made it a perfect world for large beasts to evolve and thrive. The planet remained uninhabited until the late 36th millennium, when an ork rok crashed into the planet, leaving a great crater in one of the massive plains. This had long ago filled with rainwater and is called Bogz Hole.
The Orks that crashed on the planet went through a regression, if such as thing is possible for Orks. as good scrap became less and less available over the melenia, the orks became more feral, swapping their bikes for squigs and taking a great thrill in their great hunts for bigger and faster squighogs to tame as mounts.
It was during one such hunt that an ultramarines force landed upon the world. The initial battle was quick and bloody. The orks under the command of war boss Skarjaw quickly trampled the scout squad sent out to form a perimeter. Tempted by even larger prey and a good kromping, Skarjaw quickly pushed his boyz towards the smoke from the landed droppods. It was here that he would earn the name Ironmaw.
As he charged forward on his giant squiggoth, Mr Squiggles, he saw the large blue dreadnaught and smiled, eager at the challenge. His beast boyz quickly got into combat with the beaky boys on foot, while his squigoth riders charged with him towards the war machines. His lieutenant, Rokktootf Wallsmasha, and his squigoth Skullplow, always one for a good head butting, lowered his and his mounts head and bashed right into one of the tanks as it blew the hind legs off one of the other squighogs. With a large shout of Waaaaagh! Skarjaw smashed into the dreadnaught, weapons smashing until the broke upon its armour. With a crack seen in the sarcophagus, and no weapons, Skarjaw smashed and chewed through with his head and teef until he was ripping at the space marine body inside and the machine fell dead. From then on he was referred to as Skarjaw Ironmaw.
This name took a literal meaning, as after the battle the painboy used scrap from the dreadnaught to replace the broken and shattered parts of Skarjaw’s body, including its mangled jaw. This wasn’t limited to Skarjaw, but his whole mob, pistons and wheels replaced lost limbs on squighogs, scrap plates replaced lost flesh on boyz who came out worse for wear. Now ready for battle again, Skarjaw is on the look out for more things to hunt, especially if they are blue.
Sean Frankruyter
The Fires of the Chimera Sector
When whispers of lost relics reached Vulkan He’stan, he dispatched a trusted band of Salamanders into the Chimera Sector, where Imperial records had long since faded into silence. Their path led them to a barren, storm-scoured world, unnamed on any chart, its surface scarred by ancient fire and shadow.
At the heart of the desolation they found an arena, hewn from black stone and bathed in an otherworldly glow. Within its walls the veil of reality thinned, and warriors from distant stars and forgotten ages clashed in endless struggle. None could say if this was a snare laid by Tzeentch, a slaughter-pit for Khorne, or a crucible born of the warp itself.
Librarian Pyron Veyth, burdened with visions of flame, led his brothers into the arena. To them it mattered little whose hand had shaped this place—only that their duty remained unchanged: to seek the relics of the Forgefather, to endure the trial before them, and to bring light into a place where only shadows reigned.
Scot Krawec
The Shadow Warriors are a combat patrol appointed by the new chapter master Atheon Shaan but these warriors are anything but new, formerly known as The Knights Raven lead by Captain Thalious these warriors are a seek and destroy detail designed to ride hard and hit fast comprised of the chapters most revered veterans in the Raven Guard.
Outrider sergeant Demos and his most loyal riders pledged to scout for the captain while Knights of the Raven's most deadliest Bladeguard swore their sword and barrel to protect the patrol from the xenos, the heretic and the mutant. Guided by pilot Olivier of the s16 Invictor warsuit, one of the first to pilot this deadly warmachine gifted from the adeptus mechanicus there is no task this warband can't complete.
Armando Ceron
Fighting on planet Chimearai had degenerated into close range skirmishes in the tunnels beneath. The decision was made by the Hearthspakes of the Arok Rauta Combine to call upon the few members of the Teras Cthonian Guild to lead the charge. Guided by Kahl Toryk Gunaarsen, with support of a band of Hearthkyn warriors and their trusty Sagitaur transport, aided the delve in their relentless pursuit. Intensely aware of the myriad dangers that lurk in the confined tunnels, the hardy Kin stand ready to scour and stake their claim.
Luke Ducker
The 143rd Siege Army led by the one and only Commissar General Maugh, has already seen combat since their years on Vraks, so this small force will be more than enough to wipe out any Chaos and Xeno threat alike. The men under Maughs were once more plentiful, but after endless artillery fire and trying to take land from the enemy the numbers have dwindled. All that's left under his command are a handful of Veteran Kriegsman, some engineers and heavy weapons. Despite all odds, the Commissar General will prevail or else there will be no one to hold the forces of evil at bay.
Zach Riegling
Ref/inq#15784-260WFNARO
Author: Cannoness Amalia Buenvillas
Subject: Mission Speculation
Name: Penitence
Location: Colosseum
Sector: Calaxius
Access grade: Inquisition Class
If you are reading this log, it is likely that my cohorrot and I have fallen.
We have failed to cleanse our city of the xenos vermin
I am but left with a poultry force of dregs and scum, who are unworthy of bearing the emperor's name upon their lips.
My only wish is that our enemies drown in our blood, as the emperor bears witness to our sacrifice.
Long live the Ecclesiarchy
Long live the God Emperor
