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[40K] Competitive Innovations In 10th: Gold Medal pt.3

By James "One_Wing" Grover

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.

No pithy intro today, as while you read this I’ll be playing Warhammer (it’s fun, I hear) so timelines have been tight.

Today we’ve got:

  • Celtic Cup Grand Tournament 2024
  • Obsec presents the 10th Annual Perth 40k GT
  • 1.Gt Canes Belli
  • Cross-Swords War At The Westward VI
  • Toys of Mass Destruction – Hertfordshire Winter GT

On Wednesday we covered:

  • 2024 Warhammer 40,000 World Championships of Warhammer
  • Renegade Open 2024 – 40K GT
  • GERMAN MAJOR HAMBURG 2 – 2024
  • The Guardian Gobbler GT
  • AZ Warhammer 40K League 2024 Fall Championship
  • Warhammer 40,000 – Dynasty Slayer

Then on Friday:

  • Fantasia Fanatic XLVI – 40K
  • DaBoyz GT Rochester 2024 40K 1v1
  • GT Terra’n’dins
  • ALL STARS COOL DOWN – Hellstorm’s 40K Tournament Series
  • The Whitby GT
  • Battle Shocked GT

Celtic Cup Grand Tournament 2024

98-player, 7-round Major in Scotland, GB on November 23 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Innes Wilson – Genestealer Cult (Host of Ascension) – 1st Place

Neophytes. Credit: Rockfish
Neophytes. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Horde Host

Thoughts

Mr. Genestealer himself brings back an early 10th classic here, unleashing wave after wave of shooty Neophytes to overwhelm the enemy, plus a few specific utility pieces. While the raw killing power of Neophytes isn’t quite what it was, that’s offset by them being cheaper, meaning more waves and a good chance to still revive some of them, and by the fact that the new version of Return to the Shadows lets you get multiple rounds of murder out of your units with embedded buff Characters. Innes leans into that here with two fully tooled-up leaders, providing the heavy lifting to take out priority targets, and even against foes leaning on melee you can use the sheer volume of other bodies to screen them. Very cool to see Innes making yet another detachment sing, and congratulations on the big win.

Ryan Kerr – Genestealer Cult (Biosanctic Broodsurge) – 2nd Place

Genestealers
Genestealers. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

All-in Muscle Beach

Thoughts

Another overwhelming GSC build in second place, albeit this time leaning on melee murder to get the job done. Even by the standards of Broodsurge builds this one goes hard, maxing out on Genestealers to get right into the foe’s face, and making a 3AM trip back to battleforge for more melee threats by adding a full squad of melee Acolytes with a Biophagus, helping project threat against Vehicle-heavy builds. It’s fast, it hits hard, and only other Genestealers were able to take it down, congratulations Ryan on second place.

James Lighten – Necrons (Obeisance Phalanx) – 3rd Place

Sarnekh Dynasty Overlord with Translocation Shroud by Craig “MasterSlowPoke” Sniffen

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Shooty Phalanx

Thoughts

In third place we have a showing for an all-rounder-ish Obeisance Phalanx build. Phalanx is one of those detachments that doesn’t really mind if your commitment to it is only middling because of how focused its boosts are, and you see that here. Two big Lychguard units and the Silent King give you plenty of value from the Wound boost, and not going too wide on Lychguard maximises your chance of deploying Fight on Death in the right place against melee foes.

Supporting that, the shooty vehicles can still take advantage of the damage reduction Stratagem, making them a pain for some armies to handle (plus letting you body block with the Doomsdays and try to soak a melee push in an emergency), and you get the standard strong Necron utility pieces for scoring. Adding a Doom Scythe is a pretty funny way to get value from the Critical Hits on 5+ Stratagem too – all its guns have big Sustained Hits, so it threatens to do some fairly spectacular damage on the turn it arrives. Cool to see continued experimentation with this detachment, and a big fan of finding that last combo, well done James

Samuel Norton-Alexander – Adepta Sororitas (Bringers of Flame) – 4th Place

Credit: Keewa

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Crunchy Flame Sisters

Thoughts

Lots of hulls, good, check, but with the rise of Cults it looks like putting a bit of anti-horde and Infiltration back in has been necessary, which seems logical. Otherwise, it’s the standard plan of overwhelming the enemy with fast, high-quality shooting hulls, plus the shock power of Vahl’s unit. Congratulations to Samuel.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 5th – Paul Eunson – Genestealer Cult (Biosanctic Broodsurge): Muscle beach 2024 with the Hybrid Metamorph unit added.
  • 6th – Dick van der Harst – Chaos Knights: Many dogs, a few Daemons.
  • 7th – Chris Chung – Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead): Ventris/Calgar/Sicarius Vanguard triumverate with Aggressors to go with Calgar.
  • 8th – Shaun Delaney – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group): Melee-focused Blood Angels, adding some Bladeguard with a Judiciar for melee mirrors.
  • 9th – Scott McCutcheon – Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead): Ventris/Calgar/Sicarius Vanguard triumverate with Aggressors again.
  • 10th – Richard Simms – Genestealer Cult (Host of Ascension):  Toolbox Host with a bit of everything.
  • 11th – Liam Horrobin – T’au Empire (Mont’ka): Go-wide hull Mont’ka using Skyrays and Ghostkeels, plus one unit of Fireknifes and some Breachers.

Obsec presents the 10th Annual Perth 40k GT

64-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Kelmscott, WA, AU on November 22 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Callum German – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force) – 1st Place

Credit: Keewa

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Deathwing GTF

Thoughts

Yeah so apparently the people who tried adapting to the points hikes by cutting a squad of Deathwing Knights? Fools. Cowards. Sticking with the full three units pays off big here, arguably not too surprising given there’s plenty of powerful D2 melee threats around (who do not care for trying to kill DWKs), and clever tinkering with the rest of the army allows it to retain operational levels of shooting and utility pieces. It does hurt to see the Judiciar for the ICCs get cut, but triple DWKs is such a headache for other melee armies that it appears to be reasonable to just use these (with Azrael) as a counterpunch threat. As always, our editorial policy is that Dark Angels winning events is Good, Actually, so great stuff from Callum.

Robert Hortin – T’au Empire (Retaliation Cadre) – 2nd Place

Commander Farsight. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Anti-Skew Cadre

Thoughts

Retaliation Cadre takes second place here, with a variant that feels like its pitched at making sure it can handle both horde/infantry skew builds and tank spam builds all at once. That arguably is what you want to be able to do in the current metagame with Cults and Guard on top, and I think this list does a surprisingly good job of it. Cutting out the more all-rounder Fireknifes means you can max out on Sunforges to pop Russes or murder monsters and get in three units of Starscythe to roast hordes and project impressive Overwatch. You still keep some of the toolbox feel as you can be a little flexible in where Farsight goes, and you’ve got great early screening and board presence from the Ghostkeels and Stealths. This list is honestly a masterpiece – I’m a sucker for all-rounder units so I have an emotional attachment to Fireknifes, but looking at what’s been squeezed in here and then out at the metagame really convinces me that this is the way – I expect people to copy this with a lot of success. Really smart build from Robert.

Harrison Darge – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders) – 3rd Place

Black Templars Marshal in Terminator Armor. Credit: SRM

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Melee Terminator Templars

Thoughts

Black Templars just can’t quit big units of Terminators, with access to a strong Feel No Pain on multi-wound models once again being a premium draw. That gives you a nice chunky anchor to tie up foes with, plus some extra anti-horde threat projection from being regular guys instead of Assault ones. Supplementing that is the classic combo of some melee scalpels (Sword Brethren) and then a mix of the Marine stuff that needs no help for some shooting and utility play. That gives you a nice all-rounder feel overall, and it’s good to see Templars recovering from the severe dip they took immediately after the latest balance changes. Also fun to see the awesome Terminator Captain out and about. Good work from Harrison.

Alex Fritzsch – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance) – 4th Place

Cerastus Knight Lancer. Credit: Rockfish
Cerastus Knight Lancer. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Nurgle Knights

Thoughts

Lancers are definitely one of the Knights that’s just generically fun to add as a single big, as they’re so specifically good at what they do that it’s easy to get your money’s worth, and extra durability is a real attraction. Adding a Great Unclean One is a bit less common, and my guess is that it’s there because Nurgle’s Rot sits at a fairly interesting sweet spot against a lot of top targets – dropping Dorns down to T11 gives you a far easier time lifting them if that’s what Guard have brought, while T6 ->T5 or T4 -> T3 on various GSC units makes it far more efficient for Brigands to punch through. It does, of course, also add another big chunky threat to soak up fire, which is never bad. Definitely notable just how good -1T is into Cults, hope that paid off for Alex here!

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 5th – Jared Fischer-Rasmussen – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Hefty monster mash with a Norn, also one of the Tyrannofex trio running with the acid spray to join in on pressure.
  • 6th – Adam Johnson – Death Guard: Nurgle Soup Death Guard adding in both Rotigus and some Brigands to go with Mortarion and Deathshrouds (plus a Typhus/Poxwalker unit).
  • 7th – Jayden McGarry – Death Guard: Brawler Death guard using lots of Deathshrouds alongside cheap Daemon Engines.

1.Gt Canes Belli

42-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Sinsheim, BW, Deutschland on November 23 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Unknown Mission

Herein is the Wings tier list of “making it easy for me to look up missions for these”

  • S tier: missions in the BCP description
  • A tier: direct link to pack from BCP description/a dedicated event website.
  • B tier: public Facebook event linked from BCP with missions in the event description.
  • C tier: public Facebook event with missions in a post or comment.
  • D tier: private Facebook event (I’m on to you Australia).
  • F tier: expired invite link to a private discord, give me strength.

Patrick Philipp – T’au Empire (Retaliation Cadre)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Pascal Haberstroh – Tyranids (Crusher Stampede)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

We are going Pacific Rim mode once more, giant robots vs. giant bugs, who wins?

It’s pretty interesting, honestly. The Tau build is very murderous, but it doesn’t have quite the killing power to go through this fast, so the Greater Good is going to be fighting a fairly defensive battle to hold the bugs at bay while it neutralises them, and trying to hold onto scoring while that happens.

That does not make having the mission here fairly tricky, because I think it changes how this plays out a lot. If, for example, it’s Purge the Foe and you can focus on holding home, scoring Secondaries, and reliably getting Kill More, then great this is good times for the Tau. If it’s Burden of Trust? Yeah that’s going to be a bad time. There are plenty of missions in between those in impact, but I do genuinely think this goes either way on a “normal” mission, and I’d be looking to those for a tie break.

Anyway, going to level with you – I’ve had an exhausting week at work, this is the very last thing I’m writing for CI this week, I have a tournament in the morning, and after all that fuss they only went and got a draw anyway – so who knows? Well done to both players.

Result

Draw! – 10 – 10

Patrick Philipp – T’au Empire (Retaliation Cadre) – 1st Place

Tau Coldstar Commander. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Crisis Toolbox

Thoughts

A slightly more all-rounder take on Cadre than the other we’ve seen today, but still going relatively hard on Starscythes and Sunforges, and adding some extra utility units to ensure consistent scoring. I will admit that my heart now belongs to the max Starscythe/Sunforge build, but this is clearly also an extremely potent setup, allowing Patrick to come out on top of the scoring even after drawing the final.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd (4.5-0.5) – Pascal Haberstroh – Tyranids (Crusher Stampede): Big Bug toolbox with a utility Trygon and a Psychophage for protection on the shooty stuff.
  • 3rd (4.5-0.5) – Sascha Wagner – Genestealer Cult (Host of Ascension): All-rounder Host horde with some shooty threats but also lots of hand flamers across Metamorphs and Acolytes, plus cheap Genestealers to screen for the mirror or melee games.
  • 4th – Michael Geringer – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host): Three foot blocks, three Venatari units, and some Caladius tanks.
  • 5th – Sascha Stecker – Aeldari: Heavy Aeldari with Fire Prisms, the Avatar and Wraithlords.
  • 6th – Thomas Grimmeisen – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Monster mash with one melee warrior brick.
  • 7th – Kai Bühler – Leagues of Votann: Sagitaur spam with two big bike units on backup.

Cross-Swords War At The Westward VI

38-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Lee Mill Bridge, England, United Kingdom on November 23 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Ricky Callan – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 1st Place

Leman Russ Demolisher. Credit: Rockfish
Leman Russ Demolisher. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Hull Spam

Thoughts

That’s so many tanks. And so many Tank Commanders. What a world. Anyway, this build pulls of the classic ploy of essentially only exposing hulls as targets out the gate, generally oversaturating the amount of anti-tank a reasonable person brings to a game of Warhammer, and having both lots of 2+ save hulls to push alongside Basilisks to punish opponents who try to play cagey helps steamroll any opposition. Bring lots of anti-tank right now, what can I say. Well, I can say congratulations to Ricky. Let’s do that.

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Matt Vince – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment): Double Tank Commander and the Bullgryn unit, plus all the standard support.
  • 3rd – George McCoulough – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Ultimate transport spam with loads of Raiders and Venoms. Makes the unusual choice to run small Grotesque units in the Raiders, which seems like a nice way to add some backbone on the cheap.
  • 4th – Kieron Hayman – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment): Eschews most tanks in favour of Scion spam with lots of cheap support.
  • 5th – Jack West – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group): Melee-focused Liberator backed by a couple of Lancers, using a Chaplain with Speed of the Primarch to amp up some Bladeguard, which seems like a sharp way to get acces to the best of the Stratagems while still having the Fight First when you really need it.
  • 6th – Stuart Lee – Thousand Sons: Double Mutalith.

Toys of Mass Destruction – Hertfordshire Winter GT

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, United Kingdom on November 23 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Clement Tournade – Space Wolves (Champions of Russ) – 1st Place

Credit: Kevin Stillman

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Herohammer Brawler Wolves

Thoughts

Rounding out this week we’ve got fixture of the south UK and some-time Wings nemesis Clement (there was an incident involving a Wraithknight and my “poor”, “defenceless” block of Lychguard), taking down a tournament with his unique herohammer Wolves build.

Ragnar and Ulrik provide Wolves with some especially good add-ins to melee units, letting fairly cheap stuff punch up spectacularly, and when you accompany that with the aggro threat of 20 Wulfen you can create a very overwhelming situation for enemies. We’ve seen a few other builds that tinker with the options Wolves give you, but it’s fun to see a build goes in such a very different direction from most thriving, well done Clement.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Mathew Putney – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Character-heavy Hypercrypt with a Monolith, Silent King and big Immortal unit as centrepieces, and solo Skorpekh Lords as utility threats.
  • 3rd – Louis Rice – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Go-wide Fleet with a mix of shooty bugs and cheap utility stuff.
  • 4th – John Watson – Tyranids (Crusher Stampede): Monster mash-tastic Crusher.
  • 5th – Chris Paterson – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group): Pure melee Librerator with two big Death Company units.

Wrap Up

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