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[40K] Competitive Innovations in 10th: Most Wanted 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.

You all did it again – so many tournaments that we’ve got three parts to fit them all in. Everyone is clearly out there slamming events ahead of the World Championship of Warhammer, and in a little over a week we’ll see it pay off as we find out who the very best is. That’s assuming we are in fact in 2024 – there are some serious blasts from the past in today’s builds.

In the meantime, our final part this week covers:

  • The California Cup ’24
  • 4th Annual Flames of Autumn GT
  • 40K Peninsula Feast of Blades ’24
  • Hydra Events GT IIII 2024

On Wednesday I looked at:

  • Raccoon Rumble 2024: WH40K
  • Battle Brothers GT Hosted by Away Games
  • Broadsword Wargaming 40K ITC Seasonal Major VI
  • 40K Iron Man
  • 🔥Napalm Hobbies – FROST FIRE GT – 40K – ITC

On Friday Lowest of Men covered:

  • Utah Open Warhammer 40K Tournament
  • San Antonio Shootout ’24
  • Bunker Down GT 2024 RBBR
  • Cardiff Carnage #2
  • TORNEIO NACIONAL POLAR DE WARHAMMER 40K

The California Cup ’24

88-player, 8-round Major in San Diego, CA, United States on November 08 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Alex Spathopoulos – Genestealer Cult (Biosanctic Broodsurge) – 1st Place

Genestealers
Genestealers. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Muscle Beach 2k24

Thoughts

Something has gotten into the water across the Imperium, and once more the battlefields of the 41st Millenium are beset by angry muscular men with big hammers, plus skittering hordes of their clawed friends. The new Biosanctic hotness is one of the big drivers of the rise in Cult success, and works by pinning the opponent in their zone early while simultaneously smashing them hard enough that they struggle to re-establish control even if they survive. All it takes is a few Cult Ambush rolls sneaking through in order to keep this list scoring till late, and once that happens the advantage it builds up can be insurmountable. Well done to Alex for unleashing the beefy boys.

Jake Jesionowski – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 2nd Place

Doomsday Ark
Doomsday Ark. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Heavy Hypercrypt

Thoughts

The Necrontyr continue strong in Pariah (narratively appropriate, I suppose), and Hypercrypt is still one of the stronger builds out there. This variant cuts out the Silent King in order to go a little wider on stuff, but retains the ability to gump up positions by adding some Wraiths. It also techs a little for the Cult or Ork matchups by bringing along the big Immortal block, and that seems to be an increasing staple of the Necron builds doing best. You’ll get no argument from me on that one – I’ve loved it all edition, so well done to Jake for being a man of taste.

Anthony Vanella – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group) – 3rd Place

Credit: Corrode

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Liberator Goodstuff

Thoughts

A top showing for the newest codex in the hand of a melee marine master here, showing off the changing incentives the new book creates. Rather than going all-in on jump packs, you take advantage of the fact that getting a few big hammer units in is cheaper, then build out with a healthy selection of goodstuff (Vindicators and Mephiston) to give you flexibility. That creates a really good all-rounder build, and Anthony doubles down on Lone Operative power with the addition of a Culexus, providing some flexible Battle-shock disruption, or just another guy to stand on an objective and bait foes towards the big melee swings. Very cool build, and well done to Anthony on third place.

Logan Heath – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 4th Place

Astra Militarum Hydra (photo courtesy of Musterkrux)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

All-rounder Guard

Thoughts

Mostly the standard guard toys, but with the addition of Hydras, the latest unit in a storied history of stuff that’s crept down ever lower in cost till suddenly it’s an insane bargain. That’s especially true because of the rise of Cults – a big position blocker that can also cheerfully chip through their fairly mediocre defences is just a nice to have. It’s also a second option beyond the Russes for somewhere to stack up AP/Ignore Cover buffs to very good effect, and this build takes a second Hellhound to maximise that. Well done to Logan for unleashing a powerful new trick here.

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 6-2 records. They were:

  • 5th – Andrew Gonyo – Astra Militarum: Even more Hellhounds and Hydras.
  • 6th – Arthur Tu – Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders): Double Accursed Commune backed by Bikers to disrupt, Vindicators to blast and a big Warp Talon unit to brawl.
  • 7th – Floof Cox – Genestealer Cult (Host of Ascension): Infantry horde shooty Cult, bringing back some classic Index energy.
  • 8th – Ben Jurek – Astra Militarum: Double Tank Commander double Dorn armoured supremacy.
  • 9th – Wyatt Swift – Genestealer Cult (Host of Ascension): Go-wide MSU all-rounder Cult.
  • 10th – Eddy Goshorn – World Eaters: World Eaters skewed towards Khorne Berzerkers.

4th Annual Flames of Autumn GT

58-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Westminster, Maryland, US on November 09 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Sean Olson – Ultramarines (Ironstorm Spearhead) – 1st Place

Repulsor Executioner by Craig “MasterSlowPoke” Sniffen

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Dr. Roboutnik’s Mean Beam Machines

Thoughts

You have no idea how long I’ve had that list name stuck in my head as an intrusive thought. Big thanks to Sean for letting me finally get it down on paper.

Anyway – Bobby G powers up and protects the RepExes, the Tactical Squad splitting via the Razorback provides good board coverage on the cheap, and the sheer violence of a list like this with Armour of Contempt access is a real headache to deal with. Ultramarines are on the march once more, congratulations to Sean for standing up for Macragge.

Derek Apsche – Chaos Space Marines (Chaos Cult) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: Dan “Swiftblade” Richardson

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Chaos Cult

Thoughts

The Cult master himself does not appear to be slowed down in the slightest by the fairly substantial nerfs to the army, and Derek’s plan of completely dominating the board while also smashing key targets with Accursed bricks continues strong here. Always impressive to see a more techy build roll with the blow of major nerfs, so great work Derek.

Tyler Brennan – Adeptus Mechanicus (Rad-Zone Corps) – 3rd Place

Adeptus Mechanicus - Belisarius Cawl
Adeptus Mechanicus – Belisarius Cawl
Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

All-rounder AdMech

Thoughts

AdMech playing to their strengths here in this all-rounder setup. Skorpy Ds with Cawl form a firebase that stacks the odds of a shootout in their favour, cheap Skitarii with boats are pretty good objective pieces these days, MSU specialist Skitarii score well, and the big Breacher squad is one of the nastier shooting threats you can construct in the game. Nothing too fancy, but very versatile and adaptable, as any well-annointed machine should be. Good stuff from Tyler.

Nolan Haley – Drukhari (Realspace Raiders) – 4th Place

Drukhari Grotesques. Credit: Corrode

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Realspace Covens

Thoughts

The post-Dataslate heavy spin on Drukhari takes fourth here, leaning on the versatility of Talos to get stuff done. The mix of Torrent, re-rolling Haywire and D3 melee gives you a very solid all-rounder core, and they’re only a quarter of the army, allowing you to cram plenty of scoring and utility stuff in alongside them. Of most interest in the rest of what’s here is the Hellions – these have seen very little use in 10th due to not interacting well with terrain, but I’m guessing they’ve been selected as they work very well into Cults, combining the speed to spread out with melee that’s pretty good at picking up a few Purestrains. Never count out Aeldari units – they always come swooping back, and well done Nolan for finding the right time to unleash them.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 5th – Max Berlove – Necrons (Canoptek Court):  Double C’tan, triple Doomstalker, double Wraiths, which apparently still fits into a list, which is instilling unvirtuous thoughts of disloyalty to my Aeldari into my head.
  • 6th – Liam Martin – Adepta Sororitas (Bringers of Flame): Hull Spam Bringers with a Warsuit unit.
  • 7th – Scott Horras “Heresy” – Astra Militarum: Our boy Scott out there on an ultracrunch guard build with triple Dorn and Canis Rex.
  • 8th – David Anderson – Black Templars (Gladius Task Force): Dreadnought spamming Templars with a suite of Redemptors, Ballistus and Brutalis.
  • 9th – Pierre Daze – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group): three big melee bricks (Astorath DC, Dante Sanguinary Guard, Bladeguard) and various small supporting threats.

40K Peninsula Feast of Blades ’24

38-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Bremerton, WA, United States on November 09 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Burden of Trust – Hidden Supplies – Hammer and Anvil

Adrian James – Imperial Knights (Noble Lance)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Paul Winters – Slaanesh (Unknown Detachment)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

They’re calling it the least subtle game of Warhammer in history here. Or possibly the most boring. This mission is an extremely unexciting one for this game, because it heavily incentivises passive play. Whichever side makes a big swing first runs a very high chance of stumbling and getting murdered for their troubles, so why not just sit guarding two mid-field objectives till the fool opponent makes a mistake? There’s honestly not even much separating the armies in terms of Secondary tools, with Daemons sticking to larger bodies rather than packing extra Infantry.

I guess once all that is factored in, this comes down to whether the Slaanesh side’s greater ability to launch a lightning strike or the Knight’s better shot at inflicting ranged chip damage matters more. I’d lean towards the latter, but perhaps the Slaanesh list gets an option on something like Cleanse/Bring It Down Fixed, with a plan to push out turns 3 onwards to rack up score? There’s definitely stuff that could happen here, but I think a lot of it will either be who blinks first or luck of the card draw if both players go Tactical – in the event, Knights took it.

Result

Imperial Knights (Noble Lance) Victory – 71 – 59

Adrian James – Imperial Knights (Noble Lance) – 1st Place

Imperial Knight Atrapos. Credit: Magos Sockbert
Imperial Knight Atrapos. Credit: Magos Sockbert

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Monster Hunter Knights

Thoughts

I said up top we’re on a blast from the past, and one Forge World Knight ending up way more all-round efficient than any other choices is a tale as old as time. At least it’s not the Magaera again, and the Atrapos is way cooler. Everyone loves a lascutter. Good job Adrian.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Ken Bush – Adepta Sororitas (Bringers of Flame): Lots of Castigators and Immolators, Warsuits, a few Battle Sister units and some Dominions.
  • 3rd – Matthew Cargille – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Go-wide Hypercrypt with many solo Destroyers and a bunch of Skorpekh to fire through a Monolith portal.
  • 4th – Timothy Grant – Genestealer Cult (Outlander Claw): The go-wide mechanised Claw build that was doing well before the update and is, unsurprisingly, still very strong!
  • 5th – Paul Winters – Slaanesh Daemons: See Showdown.
  • 6th – Jonathon Kang – Astra Militarum: Single Bullgryn brick with double Dorn backing.

Hydra Events GT IIII 2024

33-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Roskilde, Danmark on November 09 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Peter Herbild – Orks (War Horde) – 1st Place

Ork Beast Snagga Boys. Credit: Magos Sockbert
Ork Beast Snagga Boys. Credit: Magos Sockbert

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Mechanised Horde

Thoughts

Another timeless classic here – you can’t really go wrong with hurling a tide of angry green bodies at your foe. in this case they’re purveyed in a mixture of Battlewagons and Trukks, but who cares about the detail, get stuck in! OK one detail – note the presence of a big Mek in one of the large Boyz units, which is vital for bunnyhopping past trapping screens from Cult or Guard. Also here to think the complicated thoughts on behalf of the rest of the army. Well done to Peter for getting stuck in.

The Best of the Rest

There was 1 more players on a 4-1 records. Draws galore below that. They were:

  • 2nd – Hjalte Nexmann Nielsen – Death Guard (Plague Company): All-rounder Death Guard with Mortarion, a Deathshroud unit and some Plague Marines as close-engagement threats, Destructors and a Brigand for dakka, and cheap Bloat-Drones to take up space.

Wrap Up

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