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[40k] Competitive Innovations in 10th: Keeping it Real pt.1

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.

We’re back to the goldilocks zone for event count this week, with a perfect ten to split between us. In terms of what’s happening out there – not a massive change from the last few weeks. Necrons have dropped back a little now the worst excesses of Starshatter have been curbed (though people are also finding hot new Awakened Dynasty builds), leaving Slaanesh Daemons out in front, with Guilliman lists and Deathwatch in hot pursuit. It’s far from a sweep for this trio though, and plenty of other armies are making an impact, with Grey Knights in particular starting to creep up the rankings as people lock in to the best Warpbane builds. That’s how the land lies as we sit in Aeldari and Astra Militarum waiting room, and I don’t expect massive changes for the next few weeks till those come live – but we’ll be here as always in case a surprise occurs.

This week we’re covering the following events today:

  • UTC Invitational Finals
  • OPEN TALAVERA 2025
  • Winter Ruin II
  • Dicehammer Open 40k GT VIII
  • Waaghmaster III

And these on Friday:

  • Geekfest – Winter War Zone – Warhammer 40K GT
  • Dearg Doom II: The Redder, The Deader
  • CaptainCon 40K Event Hosted by Away Game
  • Battle for the Bend II 40k GT
  • Cross-Swords PAW 2025

Our voting public have been consulted on their Showdown preferences, and this week they’ve selected:

  • Taktikal Brigade vs. Crusher Stampede at the Dicehammer Open
  • Solar Spearhead Custodes vs. War Horde Orks at Cross-Swords.

UTC Invitational Finals

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Coraopolis, PA, US on February 01 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Conan Jennings – Ultramarines (Ironstorm Spearhead) – 1st Place

Cobalt Scions Ballistus Dreadnought. Credit: Charlie Brassley

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Bobby G Gun Club

Thoughts

Our first winner this week cleaned up with this particularly streamlined iteration of the Bobby G gun club – six lethal shooting platforms with extra CP and the Guilliman buffs to push them to their limit, and just enough units for board control outside that. The fact that Calgar and Guilliman double up as a powerful countercharge thrust lets you get away with trimming so light on units, and this is definitely a build you must have a plan for in our current metagame. Congratulations to Conan on victory!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Joshua Campbell – Necrons (Awakened Dynasty): Doomsday Arks and MSU Immortals/Skorpekh with Characters scattered around.
  • 3rd – TJ Lanigan – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): Double Mutalith Tsons. Thank you TJ, we all look forward to seeing it again next week.
  • 4th – Jonas Beardsley – Imperial Knights (Noble Lance): Canis and a teleporting Crusader with Armigers galore.
  • 5th – Malaki Fowler – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): Joke we will see it again right now – double Mutalith Tsons.
  • 6th – Sam Dayton – Space Wolves (Champions of Russ): A hilarious aggro Infantry spam build with large bricks of Jump Intercessors and two big units of Hounds of Morkai with Librarians, which makes them pleasingly difficult to focus fire.

OPEN TALAVERA 2025

93-player, 7-round Major in Talavera de la Reina, CM, España on February 01 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Gonzalo “Raven” de La Moneda – Chaos Daemons (Legion of Excess) – 1st Place

Credit: Svbfloorvg

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Thieves of Excess Pain

Thoughts

Fittingly given their current metagame position, the Daemons of Slaanesh took the trophy at this week’s biggest event. Gonzalo’s build leans extra hard into the incredible power of Thieves of Pain, taking two Epitome batteries rather than one, and two Soul Grinders to use them. This feels like it adds significant value in a mirror, as a Soul Grinder with a battery nearby creates a wall that enemy monsters are unlikely to be able to safely charge and wreck. It also provides extra staying power against high threat ranged builds like Bobby G lists, and it being able to sometimes sabotage double Oaths by keeping the first target in the game overlong helps disrupt the plans there. This list is just really, really good, and if doubling up on Epitome units turns out to be the key to getting a leg up in important matchups, expect to see plenty of others follow Gonzalo’s example.

Teniente Lechuga – Grey Knights (Warpbane Task Force) – 2nd Place

Grey Knights Nemesis Dreadknights. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

No-Scope Warpbane

Thoughts

As mentioned up-top, Warpbane is on the rise this week as people lock in on optimised builds, and plenty of those builds are leaning hard on Purgation Squads as we see here. As long as you can reliably set up no-scope mode (which solo Stern is great for, hence his presence here), three Purgation squads is probably the most cost efficient Indirect you can get in the whole game right now, and historically that’s always been a good place to be. It comes alongside the great all-round power of Dreadknights and the big Purifier unit to take on all comers, plus a small Draigo squad to force caution.. Very flexible, very lethal, and decently capable of taking a punch thanks to army-wide 2+ saves, Teniente’s build is a great example of how to get the most out of Grey Knights right now.

Shadowblade 40K – Chaos Daemons (Legion of Excess) – 3rd Place

Credit: Charlie A

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Thieves of Excess Pain

Thoughts

See above re: the double Epitome hype. Shadowblade sticks to a single Soul Grinder in favour of more utility, but the core plan is the same here – it’s the vicious killing power of Legion of Excess, but with the option to just say no to opponents pushing past a position in melee. Strong stuff from Shadowblade.

Borja FM – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group) – 4th Place

Mephiston, the Lord of Death. Credit: Corrode

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

All-rounder Liberator

Thoughts

Not a huge amount to talk about here that hasn’t been covered to death on Liberator – it’s a really, really good all-rounder Detachment, and there are valid uses for going for both “real” blood angels or blood angels lite. Borja takes fourth place with the former option, adding Mephiston’s power, the extreme disruption threat of the Sanguinor, and some extra nasty melee killers to go with the Captains. This list just plays really, really good all-rounder 40K, with plenty of redundancy and a good variety of damage output. Well done to Borja on piloting it to the top four.

The Best of the Rest

All the above went undefeated (incl. one 4.5-0.5) in the Swiss.

There were then 13 players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 5th – Jorge Tobar – Imperial Knights (Noble Lance): The classic Canis/Atrapos tag-team with Armigers.
  • 6th – Roger Boira – Astra Militarum (Bridgehead Strike): A fairly all-rounder spin on Bridgehead with some tanks and utility units supporting a modest scion contingent, and also the debut of the new Krieg Combat Engineers for emergency Mortals.
  • 7th – Joshua Flavio Vespasiano – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group): All-rounder Liberator with big Dante and Lemartes bricks.
  • 8th – Míwel – Orks (War Horde): A mechanised elite MSU list making full use of all the exciting new datasheets.
  • 9th – Nacho Elessarr – Necrons (Starshatter Arsenal): Nightbringer, Silent King and Doomsdays, plus a Wraith brick to soak damage.
  • 10th – Nacho Manso – Imperial Knights (Noble Lance): Canis, Armigers and an Immolator.
  • 11th – Negro Negro – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): Metal World Eaters with a Lord of Skulls and Forgefiends.
  • 12th – Terroxer El Rojo – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): Rubric-heavy single Mutalith Tsons.
  • 13th – Francisco pellon lopez – Deathwatch (Black Spear Task Force): Extreme big boy season with triple Indomitor Kill Team.
  • 14th – Samuel Martínez – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs): Fairly crunchy all-rounder Martyrs with various hulls, Vahl, and one Sacresant unit.
  • 15th – Alberto Vacas 🐮 – T’au Empire (Mont’ka): Go-wide shooty Mont’ka
  • 16th – Gispano MdE ☣️☢️ – Death Guard: All-rounder Death Guard with Mortarion in charge.
  • 17th – Fede Martín – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Monster Mash with the Swarmlord and a Tyrant as central pivot points.

Winter Ruin II

51-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Slatington, PA, United States on February 01 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Justin Serrano – Chaos Daemons (Legion of Excess) – 1st Place

Credit: Liebot – https://instagram.com/liebot_pics

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Excess Fiends

Thoughts

OK I promise things aren’t quite as bad as they look, it just so happens that the way events have split this week puts loads of Slaanesh Daemons right up top. This build mostly sticks to the core plan that’s been powering this army for the last few weeks, stacking up massive numbers of Fiends with the threat of Fight on Death, though does also add the increasingly popular tech of Seeker Chariots. These are incredibly cheap for what they do just on pure rate, and adding in their eligibility for Thieves of Pain makes them ultra high value here. No surprise to see people sneaking them in, as it lets you maintain critical mass on board presence while buying more expenive toys like Shalaxi. Well done to Justin!

Sascha Alexander Edelkraut – Space Marines (Librarius Conclave) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Primaris Librarian conversion. Credit: Charlie Brassley

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Stern Librarians

Thoughts

An undefeated showing for the Librarius Conclave here, using some of the standard suite of powerful Marine shooting tools, then sprinkling in Sternguard. These come in both “surprisingly horrendous MSU” and “attack and dethrone god” levels of killing power, with the full ten man Fusillade squad being one of the nastiest “all-purpose” damage-dealing tools available in the entire game. One Librarian can also swap over to Hellblasters if the matchup needs, it, which is a cute toolbox option You also get a very nifty headache-causing scoring piece at a bargain price from the Incursor/Librarian squad, as the combination of Lone Operative and a good reactive move makes them incredibly hard to pin down. Adding reliable disruption from Sensory Assault and an emergency damage spike from being able to tap Assail into Grenades rounds things out with some pocket tools that other Marines don’t have, making this a very compelling option if you want something a bit different. Well done to Sascha for unleashing psychic fury.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 3rd – Alex Miller – Death Guard (Plague Company): Poxwalker and Nurgling horde. Upsetting.
  • 4th – Evan Tomchin – T’au Empire (Retaliation Cadre): Crisis toolbox with four Broadsides sitting at the back.
  • 5th – Mark Benning – Genestealer Cult (Final Day): Lictors and Gargoyles to tee up the detachment and score, then a mix of Ridgerunners, Metamorphs and Aberrants to smash.
  • 6th – Karl Vela – Chaos Daemons (Legion of Excess): Two Keepers, Fiends, Chariots, and a bonus Soul Grinder for max wound-dodging nonsense.
  • 7th – Edgar Hernandez – Chaos Daemons (Legion of Excess): More of that sort of thing, only with slightly fewer units so one of the Keepers can become Shalaxi.
  • 8th – Gabriel Routh – Chaos Daemons (Legion of Excess): Double Keeper/Shalaxi to close out a trioe of variants here.
  • 9th – Charles Burgard – Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders): A fairly terrifying elite Infantry horde using lots of Possessed and Chosen.

Dicehammer Open 40k GT VIII

42-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Irvine, CA, US on February 01 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Take and Hold – Raise Banners – Tipping Point

Jeff Jew – Orks (Taktikal Brigade)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Kennith! Onyeabor – Tyranids (Crusher Stampede)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

The joy of 40K is that sometimes you get to watch waves of gun toting green hooligans try to blast their way through a wall of giant bugs, and it’s a serious high-level competitive matchup. Glorious.

Anyway – the good news for the Orks here is that they’re pretty reliably going to get to throw the first punch here. The bad news is that the bugs might be able to roll with it. Triple Norn is really good in this matchup, as the Ork army is surprisingly short on stuff that can bully a point off them without killing them, and killing them if they get into position is hard. The go-wide MSU setup the Orks have is also great in a lot of games, but here means that pretty much any time a unit becomes targetable, it is going to die, so it better get some value on the way out. That can be tough given the swingy defences of the Norns, and there’s also particular challenges with running the Nobz units into the threat of Savage Roar to blunt their offence.

So what are da boyz to do? This is definitely a game to take maximum advantage of the Secret Mission potential of Stormboyz – killing the Norns is a tall order, but if you can just push through one 10VP turn in turns 2-4, then you can get to 40 Primary by otherwise sitting on your home objective and scoring War of Attrition at the end. On Tipping Point it’s going to be super hard for a low unit army to screen their whole deployment zone, so pulling a Stormboy unit into Reserve early is exceptionally powerful.

As the bugs, you probably have to accept that that’s happening, and just focus on scoring as much as possible – it feels very feasible for the Nids to score highly enough that a Secret Mission doesn’t matter, and being able to throw Shadow in the Warp to potentially tank one turn of Primary and Secondary play for the Orks only increases that. There’s definitely some nuance to how all this lines up, with both sides having plays to make – and the game ended up ultra close as a result, with Crusher squeaking it by a single point.

Result

Tyranids (Crusher Stampede) Victory – 73 – 72

Kennith! Onyeabor – Tyranids (Crusher Stampede) – 1st Place

Norn Emissary
Norn Emissary. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Triple Norn

Thoughts

It’s so beautiful. I love it. Keepers of Secrets getting you down? Simply put a Norn in the way. Scientists don’t want you to know this. Alternatively if you find yourself up against something that can just blast a Norn to bits (Bobby G gun club, mostly), then use the ability to burst through walls to surprise and devour them. Simple. I love when a list appears that just leans in hard on a comic level of brutality, and this is definitely one of them, well done Kennith!

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Jeff Jew – Orks (Taktikal Brigade): Mechanised all-rounder Taktikal brigade, with lots of nasty shooting but also enough melee heft from Nobz to keep foes cautious.
  • 3rd – Daniel Reddehase – Death Guard (Plague Company): Crunchy Death Guard with Mortarion, Predators, a Deathshroud brick and some War Dogs.
  • 4th – Hans Lieber – Death Guard (Plague Company): Another crunchy Death Guard build, this time adding Daemon Engines in place of some of the War Dogs and chaff.
  • 5th – Matthew Green – Grey Knights (Warpbane Task Force): Extra shooty Warpbane with five Dreadknights and some Purgation squads.
  • 6th – Ryan Averill – Dark Angels (Stormlance Task Force): The Lion, elite Infantry and a big Outrider brick with Samael.
  • 7th – Nico Urrea – Orks (Taktikal Brigade): Extra shooty Taktikal Brigade.
  • 8th – Wyatt Turk – Ultramarines (Gladius Task Force): Bobby G and a big plane (Stormraven).
  • 9th – Kassie Heitman – Grey Knights (Warpbane Task Force): Quad Dreadknights supported by a Draigo/Terminator unit and Crowe’s Purifiers.

Waaghmaster III

31-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Uppsala län, Sverige on February 01 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Magnus Bjerke – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance) – 1st Place

Chaos Knight Wardog Brigands – Credit: Bair

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Whoops All Dogs

Thoughts

Much like wearing black, all War Dogs never goes out of style. Having extremely uniform target profiles with high redundancy is maybe even a bit better than usual right now. Good news for Chaos Knights, and good news for Magnus.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Rasmus Haglund – Grey Knights (Warpbane Task Force): Ultra shooty Warpbane with five Dreadknights and max Purgation MSUs.
  • 3rd – Kalle Abrahamsson – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Monster mash with a big Genestealer unit and Deathleaper for early pressure.
  • 4th – Robban Löfhaugen – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): Extra Daemonic Warband, forgoing Berzerkers for extra Exalted and a couple of Forgefiends.
  • 5th – Mattias Cedervad – Death Guard: Deathshroud-centric Death Guard, with a bit of everything except Plague Marines, including a big Poxwalker squad with Typhus.
  • 6th – Johan Nicolaisen – Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead): The Ultravanguard teleporting Centurion classic.

Wrap Up

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