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[40k] Competitive Innovations in 10th: Elves off the Shelf pt.2

By Jeremy "Curie" Atkinson and Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

Welcome to Competitive Innovations, our weekly feature for a number of game lines across the tabletop wargame space. Each week our army list and tactics experts canvass the top tournaments for their game of specialty, looking at the week’s top match-ups and how they played out on the tabletop to let you know what’s hot, what’s not, and what might be coming next as the competitive meta evolves year-round.

Welcome back to the second instalment of this week’s Competitive Innovations. Tom’s out this week, so you get hard-hitting analysis from me (Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones) instead. Wings already covered the first half of this week’s events, which included a look at the new Aeldari lists making a splash with the new book. We’ll see more of that in the coming weeks as more events allow the new Eldar book, but for now there’s a lot of everything else still to look at and while there’s certainly some very nasty bullshit in the new Elf book on the whole I think a lot of these lists are going to be OK. In part because they need toning down themselves.

Warhammer World Grand Tournament

62-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, GB on February 15 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Stephen Box – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host) – 1st Place

Custodes Vertus Praetors
Custodes Vertus Praetors. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Shield Host (no vehicle) Custodes

Thoughts

The Custodes continue to fly under the radar as one of the game’s strongest armies – they’re sitting at a 58% win rate for big events and a 1.24 TiWP ratio. And while they certainly got a boost from Solar Spearhead – four out of the five players to score a TiWP with the faction this week were running Spearhead – they’re still more than capable of doling out event wins with an infantry-heavy build, as Stephen Box shows. Stephen’s been chipping away at the GT problem with Shield Host for a few weeks now (though he isn’t alone), and put up a 5-1 result last week at Beachhead Brawl and a 5-0 result at a teams event two weeks ago.

The big difference between this list and that fifth-place list that lost to Legion of Excess last week? Stephen swapped in a single Battline unit (Four Custodian Guard) and more Jetbikes, going lighter on Wardens. The result is a list that’s much faster (and better at scoring and screening), and the bikes more than make up for the loss of durability you get from dropping the Wardens. Grey Knights might have been a tougher matchup for Stephen, but his round 5 opponent was Anthony Ambrose’s Retaliation Cadre T’au.

Kian Tan – Grey Knights (Warpbane Task Force) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Grey Knights Nemesis Dreadknights. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

5 Dreadknight Warpbane Grey Knights

Thoughts

Boy it sure is cool that you can take five or six Dreadknights in a Grey Knights list. I hate seeing all those infantry on the table, too. The play here is to basically throw out as many heavy psycannon shots as you can, while being buffed by a circle of Infantry – being wholly within 6″ of a Purifier Squad gives you full re-rolls to hit. It’s a nasty list that can fall back and shoot and charge with its vehicles and provides a rough stat check while also being able to casually fire through walls.

Jack Painter – Death Guard (Plague Company) – 3rd Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Terminator-Heavy (Blightlords!) Death Guard

Thoughts

In an interesting twist, the third place list at the event is Jack’s Death Guard list, running a 10-man brick of Blightlord Terminators, plus another five and six Deathshroud. Blightlords have a bit of a bad rep in 40k right now, owing in large part to the fact that they don’t have much in the way of 2-damage attacks; you just get the two Flails in a 10-model unit, and those are AP-1. They attempt to make up for this by being more of a shooting unit – Blistering Fusillade gives them the ability to re-roll wound rolls of 1 against the closest eligible target when shooting, letting them put in some work with Plague Spewers (which are Anti-Infantry 2+). They get a lot of help here from having a Lord of Contagion attached to them to give them re-rolls to hit in melee and the ten-model brick is just a super durable unit. And you can swap in Typhus to lead them as needed if you think they’ll be up against a melee threat, since his -1 to hit in melee stacks with the Skullsquirm Blight contagion (-1 WS/BS) to make the unit impossible to take down.

Stefan Donovan – Ultramarines (Anvil Siege Force) – 4th Place

Rainbow Warriors Invader ATV by Craig “MasterSlowPoke” Sniffen

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Double Vindicator, Double Oaths

Thoughts

The buff to Guilliman was a mistake, as it immediately made it unlikely you’d ever see anything but Ultramarines running in the “basic marines” slot, no matter how cute they got with the buffs to other chapters’ characters. The net result has been Space Marines absolutely dominating with ranged armies, using a healthy mix of Ballistus Dreadnoughts, Vindicators, and, in recent twists, Desolators, whose indirect fire will be helpful against Aeldari and Astra Militarum armies.

The Best of the Rest

There were 7 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 5th – Richard Lloyd – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group): Surprisingly vehicle-heavy to support Dante and friends. Plus a Suppressor Squad!
  • 6th – Kyle Naisbitt – Death Guard (Plague Company): Three units of Plague Marines supported by Characters, plus Typhus and a 20-model brick of Poxwalkers.
  • 7th – Stuart Manks – Chaos Daemons (Legion of Excess): This undefeated (3-0-1) list ran Legion of Excess, passing the buck from Keepers to Daemonettes.
  • 8th – Stuart Harris – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host): Another Shield Host army nearly makes the grade, this time running two Caladius tanks.
  • 9th – Anthony Ambrose – T’au Empire (Retaliation Cadre): The list that lost to Box in the final round, running oops! all Battlesuits.
  • 10th – Joseph Reed – Adeptus Custodes (Solar Spearhead): The third x-1 Custodes list, running heavier on Jetbikes than you’d expect, plus three Dreadnoughts.
  • 11th – Jon Swarbrick – Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead): Surprisingly Guilliman-free Ultramarines, using Ventris and Calgar, plus a lot of movement tricks.

40K Okeanos rising GT

49-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Vestland, Norge on February 15 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Emil Sæternes – Adeptus Custodes (Solar Spearhead) – 1st Place

Telemon Heavy Dreadnought
Telemon Heavy Dreadnought. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Dreadnought Solar Spearhead

Thoughts

The 21-model Custodes list throws a heavy stat check at opponents, asking if they can handle three Telemons (one of which will have a 5+ Feel No Pain), three Venerable Contemptors, and two Caladius tanks. And the answer will most of the time be “no.” For extra flavor there’s a Blade Champion with Wardens here and two units of Prosecutors for doing actions, holding home, and scoring secondary objectives.

Bjørn Olsen – Adeptus Custodes (Solar Spearhead) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought. Credit: Corrode

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Dreadnought Solar Spearhead

Thoughts

I just did this, right? When I was writing this I had to go back several times to make sure I wasn’t crazy. Anyways this list runs Galatus Dreadnoughts over Venerable Contemptors, dropping the Blade Champion and Wardens to free up the extra points.

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 3rd – Francisco Roque – Blood Angels (Angelic Inheritors): Very character-heavy Blood Angels with two Vindicators.
  • 4th – Thomas Harkestad – Tyranids (Crusher Stampede): Triple Exocrines, Double Tyrannofex.
  • 5th – Geir Dutta – Aeldari (Aspect Host): Triple Dark Reapers, Double Fire Dragons, with two Wave Serpents full of Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions. Oh, and three units of Warp Spiders.
  • 6th – Mikael Westbø – T’au Empire (Mont’ka): Breachers in Devilfish supported by Fireknife and Stealth Suits.
  • 7th – Mats Peter Kleven – Blood Angels (Angelic Inheritors): Character-heavy Blood Angels with lots of Jump Infantry.
  • 8th – Mykhailo Liettsev – Tyranids (Assimilation Swarm): Double Exocrine, 1 Psychophage, and a Norn Assimilator.

ForgeFire Winter Open

42-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Niles, IL, US on February 15 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Take and Hold – Raise Banners – Tipping Point

Gary Frank – Adeptus Custodes (Solar Spearhead)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Wesley St. Hines – Astra Militarum (Bridgehead Strike)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Bridgehead Strike are currently the best way to run Astra Militarum and that’s not super likely to change as more events allow the Codex to be run. The updated datasheet on Tempestus Scions makes them even more deadly, allowing them to punch way up into more targets than you’d expect. You might think, looking at these lists, that the question is “can Tempestus Scions kill a Telemon with a 5+++?” but the actual question is more likely to be “Can a Custodes list with 21 models stop a Bridgehead Strike list from scoring 85+ points?” And the answer here is definitely “no.” There just aren’t any good targets for the Custodes list to take down, causing it to run into activation problems, especially after it actually loses a Dreadnought or two. You look at this list and all you see are bad targets for expensive weapons – a Caladius can kill, in a good round of shooting, 8 guardsmen. That’s a loss the Guard player will take all day long.

Result

Astra Militarum (Bridgehead Strike) Victory – 85 – 69

Wesley St. Hines – Astra Militarum (Bridgehead Strike) – 1st Place

Tempestus Scions. Credit: SRM

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Bridgehead Strike Guard

Thoughts

See above.

The Best of the Rest

There were 7 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Gary Frank – Adeptus Custodes (Solar Spearhead): See showdown.
  • 3rd – Jordan Nach – Necrons (Awakened Dynasty): Wraiths. Lots of Wraiths.
  • 4th – Justin Curtis – Chaos Daemons (Scintillating Legion): Lots of Lords of Change.
  • 5th – Michael Schietinger – Chaos Space Marines (Pactbound Zealots): Vehicle-heavy ranged attack (triple predators, triple vindicators), supported by Helbrutes for double pacts.
  • 6th – David T. – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): Scarab Brick Thousand Sons.
  • 7th – John Van Dusen – Orks (Taktikal Brigade): Lots of Boyz in Trukks and three Shokk Attack guns.
  • 8th – Kevin Leonard – Chaos Daemons (Legion of Excess): 18 Fiends and two Keepers.

Red Dragon 40k GT – February ’25

37-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Ottawa, ON, CA on February 15 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Terraform – Stalwarts – Crucible of Battle

Thomas Cosgrove – Adeptus Custodes (Solar Spearhead)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Jeremy Atkinson – Space Marines (Astartes) (Gladius Task Force)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

We had one our own Goonhammer writers in this matchup, so they’ve been corralled into writing about it. Take us away, Jeremy.

Curie: Jeremy (or Curie to those who know me on-line) here bringing the report from the front lines! Space Marines versus Adeptus Custodes, both armies that have been putting up solid results in the current meta.

This game was quite interesting to me as this matchup was one that Thomas and I practiced just the week before as we were testing before the GT. That practice game resulted in a very narrow victory for the Space Marines, so I was expecting an equally tough battle. What changed here was the mission – Terraform on Crucible of Battle tends to favour the player going first, which is exactly the position I found myself in. The layout also favoured me as Layout 6 gave me a considerably favourable shooting gallery going into his dreadnought-heavy list. By setting up Incursors at my natural expansion and the Combi-Weapon Lieutenant near the centre objective to start early Terraform actions, I was able to set the tempo of the game.

Thomas was forced T1 to send a Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought to the middle of the board to deny the Combi-weapon Lieutenant from Terraforming the middle objective while the Incursors had tucked in nicely into their ruin on my natural expansion, guaranteeing me an early Terraform. Unfortunately for Thomas, I got a little lucky and the Lieutenant lived through the dreadnought’s multi-melta and he was then forced to charge the Lieutenant, opening himself up to have Calgar’s Company Heroes heroic onto the objective. The Lieutenant gave his life, but Calgar in turn took the first life of the Contemptor and found themselves firmly in the middle of the board going into my second turn.

This set the tone for the rest of the game – I managed a significant primary advantage by shoving Calgar onto his home objective T2, and continuing to hold 2-3 objectives myself. From here his dreadnoughts started to be picked off by my Vindicators while Guilliman made a play for his natural expansion on T3. The game continued to slowly unravel for Thomas, despite his best efforts to score what points he could fine, as he was struggling to score secondary objectives while also wresting control of the board from me.

Result

Space Marines (Astartes) (Gladius Task Force) Victory – 96 – 64

Jeremy Atkinson – Space Marines (Astartes) (Gladius Task Force) – 1st Place

Rainbow Warriors Combi-weapon Lieutenant by Craig “MasterSlowPoke” Sniffen

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Gladius Hull Spam

Thoughts

It’s a solid tank-heavy Gladius Task Force list. Very similar to the Ironstorm list I took to LVO and point-for-point the list Josh Roberts took to the same event. I found that while Ironstorm had better damage, the flexibility of Gladius was hard to argue with. The list revolves around three vindicators as the main firebase, using Calgar with Company Heroes as an early distraction / primary denial tool, and then Guilliman as a final hammer to seal the deal. The fun piece of tech that Josh added to the standard Gladius list was the Gravis Captain with Artificer Armour – it’s an extremely tanky model (2+/4++/5+++ with half damage – like a mini-C’tan) with a good amount of punch packed into a 90-point package.

The Best of the Rest

There were 4 more players on X-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Thomas Cosgrove – Adeptus Custodes (Solar Spearhead): See Showdown
  • 3rd – Arlana Davis – Astra Militarum (Bridgehead Strike): All-rounder Bridgehead
  • 4th – Ian Peng – T’au Empire (Auxiliary Cadre): Lotta Suits with some auxiliaries
  • 5th – Jack Morris – Aeldari (Aspect Host): Aspect Host Good Stuff

Wrap Up

That does it for this week’s Competitive Innovations. We saw a little bit of Aeldari and a lot of the usual suspects but you can be things are going to start shaking up next week. There were already some lists on our radar with truly sicko shit (a Polish list with 30 Swooping Hawks that dares to ask the question: “What if I just didn’t interact with an opponent at all?”) So be sure to come back next Wednesday when we tackle those lists and start to look at early results for the Astra Militarum as well.

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