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[40K] Competitive Innovations in 10th: Warm-Up Warfare 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.

The World Championships are nearly upon us, and at events all over the place competitors are getting in some final reps prior to the main event. So how are things looking out there? Pretty chaotic – both a lot of different factions represented, but a surprisingly big skew towards Chaos factions, with Death Guard in particular continuing to outperform early expectations, and racking up the week’s best win rate. It’s not just them, of course – the Genestealer menace continues to perform very strongly, as do the brave soldiers of the Astra Militarum, and skilled generals elsewhere are making waves with their factions of choice.

In short – it’s looking wide open, with plenty of possible champions amongst the game’s factions, so this weekend should be a blast to watch.

To whet your appetite for the big show, today we’re covering:

  • Alliance Open WH40K Grand Tournament 2024
  • BOLTERCON 2024 Warhammer 40k GT
  • The Hobart GT 2024
  • The 2nd Siege of Windsor GT
  • Dicehammer “Highlander” Charity 40k GT
  • Nemesis 40k 2024
  • El Legado de Dardo

On Friday Lowest of Men will look at:

  • GUTI Majestic Beasties IV (2024)
  • Tournois Blackshield Tournament – Compétitif/ Competitive
  • The Standoff 2024
  • The Gravel Pit #3
  • Manatorsk Open GT
  • The Hogtowner 2024
  • TLM x Layton November GT

This week’s Showdowns have been selected by our beloved patrons, and they are:

  • Death Guard vs Army of Faith Sororitas at The 2nd Siege of Windsor GT
  • Death Guard vs Fellhammer Chaos Space Marines at The Gravel Pit

Alliance Open WH40K Grand Tournament 2024

137-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Rijsenhout, Noord-Holland, NL on November 16 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Dino Kho – Genestealer Cult (Biosanctic Broodsurge) – 1st Place

Credit: keewa

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Broodsurge Pressure

Thoughts

Already one of the defining builds of the metagame, this vicious Broodsurge army excels at putting the foe on the backfoot, boxing them in with extreme speed and taking heavy chunks out of them with Purestrains and Aberrants, after which the depth of scoring from respawning cheap stuff ensures they get over the line whether or not the opponent recovers. The big question mark for me is whether these builds are as good on GW terrain maps as they are on UKTC and heavy Euro boards, as we’ve seen the biggest wins for them on this side of the Atlantic, but the sheer pressure they can exert may well do the business stateside as well – keep an eye on them next week. Congratulations to Dino for taking down this week’s biggest tournament!

Dick van der Harst – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Chaos Knight Wardog Brigands – Credit: Bair

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

War Dogs

Thoughts

The dog days are never over, and this week Dick has unleashed them to do their vicious work. Broad, quality pressure is never bad, and the upside of being able to counterpunch like a freight train into other aggressive builds is very handy right now. Great stuff to the undefeated runner up here!

Ron Eliyahoo – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet) – 3rd Place

Hive Tyrant. Credit: Rockfish
Hive Tyrant. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Monster Mash

Thoughts

Speaking of broad, quality pressure – Invasion Fleet monster mash very much brings that to the table, with strong grindy shooting, a nice balance of melee (slightly more here than normal, including a Haruspex, which I think is sensible in a GSC world), and the upside of getting to use the strong utility and scoring suite that Tyranids have access to. Big fan of the single Carnifex tag team option for heavier boards too, keeps the unit flexible while retaining the gut punch threat of a nastily timed surge move. Effective use of the monstrous toolbox here, well done Ron.

Laurens Tjallingii – Adepta Sororitas (Bringers of Flame) – 4th Place

Adepta Sororitas Castigator Battle Tank - Order of the Gilded Cilice - Credit: Colin Ward
Adepta Sororitas Castigator Battle Tank – Order of the Gilded Cilice – Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Speedy Flame Sisters

Thoughts

Still going strong in fourth place we’ve got the speedier version of Bringers, holding on to some Dominions and Seraphim rather than just going full hulls. This provides a bit of scoring versatility, and the nice thing about Exorcists is that two of then next to the Triumph isn’t much less scary than three if you’re willing to throw Miracle dice at them. Keeping some Novitiates also helps ensure the build isn’t at as much risk of getting fully pinned down by Cults, important for surviving right now. Finally, reduced points to spend is definitely encouraging more use of small Arco-flagellant units, as they do a nice double duty as ultra-cheap scoring and enough heft to clear a throwaway Acolyte unit. Good all-rounder stuff, though unless someone pulls off a surprise I’d say I’m probably not expecting to see Sisters make the podium at the WCW – while middle of the road on win rate, they’re under-represented in top finishes. Well done to Laurens for bucking that trend!

The Best of the Rest

There were 9 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

  • 5th – Ruud Steenbakkers – Adeptus Mechanicus (Skitarii Hunter Cohort): Loads of cheap Skitarii plus some bigger melee hammers from Sydonians and Ruststalkers. Two Disintegrators provide a bit of heavier firepower.
  • 6th – Justin Jansen – Adepta Sororitas (Bringers of Flame): Shooty Flame Sisters with extra Exorcists.
  • 7th – Anthony Eisses – Drukhari (Realspace Raiders): Lots of Talos with some extra shooty support from Ravagers.
  • 8th – Joakim Engström – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Mostly shooty bugs, though adding Genestealers as an early threat and a big carpet of Neurogaunts.
  • 9th – Florian den Uijl – Thousand Sons: Triple Mutalith.
  • 10th – Alessio Viali – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Monster mash adding a Norn to the usual roster.
  • 11th – Daniel Konjevic – Astra Militarum: Hefty Militarum with two Tank Commanders, two Bullgryn bricks and a Dorn.
  • 12th – Philipp Wegener – Death Guard: Go-wide hulls lead by Mortarion.
  • 13th – Frank van der Vooren – Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders): Double Accursed COmmune and a big squad of Chosen for maximum brawling.

BOLTERCON 2024 Warhammer 40k GT

42-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in OH, United States on November 15 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Geoff Perry – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic) – 1st Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Triple Mutalith

Thoughts

Look, what can I say, Tzeentch’s plans for the year clearly included triple Mutalith builds, and such petty mortal concerns as “massive point hikes” and “allegations of being C tier” will not be allowed to get in the way. I do like the particular configuration of supporting tools Geoff has deployed here though – adding the big Rubricae unit on top of all that other heft is going to leave foes feeling so overwhelmed that the reduced Cabal Point crop and downgrading Rubricae to extra Tzaangors won’t bite nearly as hard. Cunning. Very cunning. Well done Geoff.

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Ryan Timms – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Double C’tan, double Immortal block and double Doomsday, with a Monolith adding Infantry shenanigans.
  • 3rd – Chris Kentrup – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance): Double Knight Abominant off the top rope, somehow.
  • 4th – Georde Murray – Imperial Knights (Noble Lance): Canis and a Lancer, importing a Navigator for homefield screening.

The Hobart GT 2024

42-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Hobart, TAS, AU on November 15 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Nathan Princi – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) – 1st Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Eightbound-Heavy World Eaters

Thoughts

World Eaters have also had a pretty spectacular week, hot on the heels of Death Guard on win rate and with a couple of event wins to their name. This particular build mixes up the normal formula a little and looks designed to be highly flexible in how it positions in the early game (via extra regular Eightbound), giving it an edge when lining up counterattacks against other very aggressive builds (and reach to go for a bit swing against an unfavourable matchup threatening to grind it out). It also ends up going quite a bit wider than the norm, giving it some scoring depth and flexibility to reserve more of the alpha units if needed I think it’s very well tuned for an environment where other melee Chaos Marines and Genestealer Cults are some of your biggest threats, so this is fine work from Nathan, and honestly probably the build I’d take for GW terrain to boot!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Pulse – Genestealer Cult (Host of Ascension): Horde resurgence, adding a Benefictus to one of the shooty squads and including two Acolyte units with Biophagus for a bit of melee punch.
  • 3rd – Shannen Butters – Drukhari (Realspace Raiders): Lots of Talos and a Grotesque block.
  • 4th – Todd Wedmaier – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): No-Berzerker World Eaters, going for a second full squad of Exalted instead.
  • 5th – Callum Lane – Imperial Knights: Triple bigs with a Crusader, Lancer and Canis, backfilling on board presence with an Immolator-split Sororitas squad.
  • 6th – Ser Gwilym – Imperial Knights: A continued exploration of the roster of big Knights and Agents, here using an Errant and a squad of Grey Knight Terminators.
  • 7th – Henry Crosswell – Chaos Space Marines (Veterans of the Long War): Abaddon with lots of brawlers, a Land Raider, and a few bits of shooting punch.
  • 8th – Adam Douglas – Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders): Brawler Raiders with Rubricae, Chosen and a full Talon squad backed by Destructors and Vindicators.

The 2nd Siege of Windsor GT

38-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Windsor, England, United Kingdom on November 16 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

The Ritual – Stalwarts (probably) – Hammer and Anvil

I couldn’t find an actual pack, but there was a VOD from a stream…with no overlay. Luckily The Ritual and Hammer and Anvil are very easy to eyeball, so I’m assuming this was just mission G.

Alex Nicolic – Death Guard (Plague Company)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Thomas Douch – Adepta Sororitas (Army of Faith)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

This is a fascinating matchup, with melee-heavy Death Guard (though not pure melee, Destructors are still here) facing down an all-rounder Army of Faith build with versatile offensive tooling. The mission is The Ritual, which the Death Guard definitely like, but there’s a bunch of things going on here that help the Sisters. First up, some of Death Guard’s normal options for tilting things in their favour are substantially hampered by Army of Faith stratagems – hit mods can be counteracted by Light of the Emperor, and Blinding Radiance can situationally protect against offence as long as Mortarion isn’t too nearby. On the offence the Sisters have some power going for them too – they can stack buffs on Castigators to make them Terminator killing machines, and the two Exorcists should be able to chip through those Predators.

On most missions, I think I would end up favouring the Sisters, but on The Ritual Rotigus is a huge spoiler, and helps pull things back round. You can’t really avoid engaging near him, and his powerful aura combines with Overwatch threats from both him and the Blightlords (particularly nasty if they take the save debuff Contagion, which they probably do here) to make it tricky for the Sisters to use some of their tools, plus ensures that holding objectives is an absolute nightmare. He teams up with Mortarion and all those Terminators to represent some serious threat saturation, and this mission makes it far harder than normal for the Sisters to score while taking a methodical approach to neutralising them.

I don’t think this is a sure thing either way despite that, as however true all of that is, the Death Guard feel like they’re very vulnerable to a “one bad turn” situation – if the Sisters get a bunch of stuff pointed at Rotigus and he just dies, which can very much happen, things suddenly look very different. I think that’s particularly true if the Sisters go first, as an extra turn of Exorcist shooting before the lines close, plus a chance to line up the Paragons for a big play, seems like it helps them a lot. Hard to call either way, and it looks like it was reasonably close, but in the end the Death Guard’s grindy power closed things out.

Result

Death Guard (Plague Company) Victory – 91 – 77

Alex Nicolic – Death Guard (Plague Company) – 1st Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Grindy Death Guard

Thoughts

Spearheading Mortarion’s new reign of terror here, this build is ultra nasty up close thanks to the combo of Rotigus, Mortarion and the Terminators, but also doesn’t sacrifice some level of ranged threat thanks to the efficiency of Destructors. Rotigus has always been low key great as a Death Guard ally but I think he’s even better than normal in the aggressive meta, especially as his option to switch between D2 and D4 melee (counting the +1 from his own ability) allows him to adapt to most relevant threats. Don’t forget that he still benefits if you decide to reduce your opponent’s saves with Contagions too, making that melee even nastier. Love seeing cool combos used to such good effect, great stuff from Alex.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Morgan Cole – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment): Double Tank Commander, lots of screening Catachans, and some Russes and Basilisks to punish the foe while they try to break through.
  • 3rd – Anthony Donaldson – Death Guard (Plague Company): Melee brutality with Mortarion, a squad of Deathshrouds, Terminators and War Dog Karnivores.
  • 4th – Thomas Douch – Adepta Sororitas (Army of Faith): All-rounder Army of Faith with herohammer, hulls and small jump pack units.
  • 5th – Mike Askey – Astra Militarum: Tank Commanders, Basilisks and Dorns.
  • 6th – Jason Dickens – Chaos Space Marines (Fellhammer Siege-Host): See Showdown.
  • 7th – Harry Isaac – Death Guard: Mortarion, Plague Marines and Poxwalkers with War Dog Brigands adding dakka.

Dicehammer “Highlander” Charity 40k GT

33-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Irvine, CA, US on November 16 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

As the name suggests, this was a “Highlander” event, so only one of each Datasheet (or three for BATTLELINE and Dedicated Transports) allowed.

Jeff Jew – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force) – 1st Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Lion Goodstuff

Thoughts

Dark Angels thrive once more in a Highlander world (I’m pretty sure they won the last one we looked at too), with their triumverate of power pieces (Lion, Deathwing Knights, Inner Circle Companions) creating an extremely nasty and flexible melee setup. The ICCs with a Judiciar, in particular, have their stocks going through the roof with the amount of aggressive melee stuff out there at the moment, as there’s so few alpha units that can proactively engage with them in a fight. Slightly more stuff can tank the Lion swinging, but like, not that much, and I think even in a non-Highlander environment there’s some value in exploring that Fight First tag team as the metagame evolves. Also, every time Dark Angels win an event it resets the clock till Greg deletes the website, so thanks Jeff.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Marvin Waldmann – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment): Catachans in Chimeras to screen, then a tank and Tempestus rainbow.
  • 3rd – Paul Cox – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): Look you can go two ways with World Eaters in Highlander – 30 Berzerkers (weak, cowardly) or a Lord of Skulls (strong, sophisticated) and happily Paul chose the right option.
  • 4th – Andrew Dickinger – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment): Big Tank comes out to play (a Banesword, specifically), filling out with all the best supporting toys.
  • 5th – Michael Georges – Tyranids (Crusher Stampede): A monster mash menagerie.
  • 6th – Andrew Porras – Imperial Fists (Gladius Task Force): Garadon with Aggressors, Lysander with some Terminator friends, a whole bunch of Hellblasters with Fire Discipline and various heavy Transports to move it all about.

Nemesis 40k 2024

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Edmonton, AB, Canada on November 16 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Ben Greenlay – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) – 1st Place

Grey Knights Nemesis Dreadknights. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Crunchy Grey Knights

Thoughts

The Grey Knights finally break through to take an event in the post-Dataslate world here, sporting a particularly crunchy build that adds Helverins for some extra all-rounder firepower and high OC home objective holders that can ward off Aquilons. I’ll freely say that Grey Knights were by far my biggest miss on predicting this metagame, as I expected them to thrive – instead, a mixture of a heavy hit from the Secret Mission nerf, more aggressive builds that spread wide, and relatively low board coverage (creating an Aquilon vulnerability) have tanked their performance.

I think at least one Helverin is an interesting piece of tech for Aquilons, and I really like the choice to get the Brotherhood Champion off the shelf, as he can be flexibly embedded in the Strikes for a Fight First spoiler unit if the matchup needs it, or stay split off as another scoring piece if it doesn’t. It cannot be stressed enough how valuable Fight First is right now, so make sure to check your options for getting a hold of some of it, and I think that’s the listbuilding differentiator that’s helped Ben here, sharp stuff.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Jonah Sinclair – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment): Hull spam with Hellhounds, Hydras and lots of Russes.
  • 3rd – John-Ross Cook – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance): Many dogs with a mix of cheap Daemons in tow.
  • 4th – Jeff Sheplawy – T’au Empire (Kroot Hunting Pack): Spectacular numbers of Kroot of every flavour, and one token unit of Vespid. Not even a Hammerhead in sight!
  • 5th – Reily Dalgleish – World Eaters: Standard World Eaters.
  • 6th – Michael Blanchet – Imperial Knights: Canis and a big Knight taken to the logical conclusion of a Porphyrion.

El Legado de Dardo

28-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Godoy Cruz, Mendoza, Argentina on November 16 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Joaquín Farah – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance) – 1st Place

War Dog - Karnivore. Credit: Rockfish
War Dog – Karnivore. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Dogs

Thoughts

Dogs dogs dogs. I have run out of funny/insightful things to say about the dogs. Congratulations Joaquín.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Martin Davila – Adepta Sororitas (Bringers of Flame): Speedy Flame Sisters classic.
  • 3rd – Bruno Fajardo – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): All-rounder Hypercrypt, supplementing the standard Doomsdays with Immortals, some Skorpekh and the Nightbringer.
  • 4th – Santiago Sosa Arditi – Imperial Knights (Noble Lance): Hyper aggro triple threat with a Valiant and Gallant alongside Canis.

Wrap Up

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