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 took last week off but we’re back with 3 events this week. One in Spain and two in the US, all of pretty decent size.

AoS World Pass

50-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Fuengirola, Spain on February 01 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Pedromancer Lechado – Flesh-eater Courts
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vs.

Josiito 98 – Sylvaneth
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Thoughts

This is an interesting match up to be sure. Both armies want a really good opportunistic charge phase, and if that happens at the wrong time, the game is pretty much over.

Belthanos helps Alarielle and the Kurnoth Hunters run and charge anywhere on the field. Alarielle can bring them back at half strength if they eat it (or Belthanos or even herself) which can help keep tempo despite the lower number of models. The Kurnoth Hunters also have anti-charge, so if they get charged first they can still have a fighting shot.

On the FEC side, the Morbheg knights are incredibly versatile flying cav who can make sure they only charge when it’s just right. The Royal Terrorgheist is practically tailor made to go after this list, as it has two very large heroes to fight to proc its 5+ Crits to do 6 mortal wounds.

Result

Flesh-eater Courts Victory – 16 – 4

Pedromancer Lechado – Flesh-eater Courts – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Ushoran and Knights

Thoughts

This is a solid workman list of FEC, it’s focused and everything has a strong role to play.

At the center is of course, Ushoran who has a whole laundry list of things he can do, but primarily serves as a guaranteed source for Feeding Frenzy, granting +1 attack within 24″ with 6 Noble Deed points. He also hands out some very good buffs to the entire army with Epicenter of Delusion, depending on the situation, and can also scrap quite well on his own.

Morbheg Knights do a lot of the legwork of actually fighting here, they’re a very mobile Cavalry unit, able to fly, and even if they get stuck in they can retreat and charge again. Crypt Horrors accompany them as a solid, if cheap, bruiser unit. The Marrowscroll Herald can accompany just about anyone and grant them First Strike. He’s pretty hard to kill before he gets into combat, too.

Rounding things off, the Ghoulking of Terrorgheist is a beat stick that is particularly good at taking down Heroes, able to do 6 mortals on a 5+ to hit with its mount attacks.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd – Jorge Castillo – Stormcast Eternals: Karazai with Stormcast good stuff.
• 3rd – Josiito 98 – Sylvaneth: See Showdown.
• 4th – Marc “CZero” Pi – Seraphon: Kroak and 3 Bastiladons.
• 5th – Alfonso Periago – Stormcast Eternals: Ionus and Dragons with a smattering of infantry.
• 6th – Adrian Pérez Canoura – Flesh-Eater Courts: Ushoran with Morbheg Knights.
• 7th – Daniel Amador – Flesh-Eater Courts: Again, Ushoran with Knights.
• 8th – Miguel Ángel Osuna Antúnez – Idoneth Deepkin: Aspect of the Sea with two Leviadons and 2 squads of Morsarrs.

Midwest Bash 2025 GT

48-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in St. Louis, MO, US on February 01 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission – Feral Foray

Jake Bentrup – Idoneth Deepkin
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vs.

Eli Sweatt – Beasts of Chaos
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Thoughts

Both of these are very strange lists.

The Idoneth list here has one goal, and that’s to charge. For Round 2 and 3, they want to charge their Morsarr’s in for maximum effect. Meanwhile the Eidolon of the Sea supports them by casting a -1 to Save debuff on 3 enemy units, while the Eidolon of the Storm helps by charging alongside them, and granting +1 to wound.

The problem is this Beasts list is very fine tuned to be charged. The Dragon Ogors can inflict Strike Last, which can potentially be crippling anything that isn’t Round 3. If the Bestigors or Centigors get in first, they’ll likely make mince meat of the poorly armored Idoneth, so it’s very hard to win out either way.

In the end, the Beasts walk away with a stunning victory.

Result

Beasts of Chaos Victory – 44 – 28

Eli Sweatt – Beasts of Chaos – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Beasts Mid-range.

Thoughts

It wasn’t enough for Beasts of Chaos to prove they still got fight in them, they want to prove they can do it with multiple list types too.

The standard for Beasts of Chaos so far has been two Great Bray Shaman then as many Bestigors as you can conceivably fit before you hit 2k. And it worked. This asks, what if we went for diversity?

Cockatrice can inflict Strike Last from range before your Centigors and Bestigors charge in, letting you do multiple combats at once safely.

Centigors are your cavalry, but theyre an odd duck. At only 2 wounds and a 5+ save they don’t look like much, but they can pop a 4+ Ward once per game and do some pretty significant damage on the charge, particularly against other cav.

Dragon Ogors are your Anvil to the Bestigor Hammer. They have some decent attacks, 4 attacks per model with crit mortals, but they get First Strike when charged on a 4+. So get them where you want them to be, and make camp on an objective, begging anyone to try and fight you. When supported by the Shaggoth, they also get a 4+ Spell Shrug, so for certain armies trying to cripple them first might not be an option.

Sean Seyer – Slaves to Darkness – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Ogroids

Thoughts

This is a very off-model Slaves to Darkiness list. Not a Be’lakor, Chosen or Varanguard to be seen.

The dual Gaunt Summoners deal with problems of mobility that Slaves to Darkness frequently have, letting you put your Ogroids in reserve so they don’t need to hoof it across the board. Their warscroll spell means a 7″ charge instead of a 9″, which is way more realistic (especially with the mark of Slaanesh’s 3D6 charge)

Obviously, the thing eating up much of the room here is the Theridons, two reinforced squads of em’. These are like your Chosen understudies, they won’t do nearly the same damage to most things (or take a hit like them), but they’re a hell of a lot cheaper.

The Sphiranx is a utility piece, its damage isn’t bad but it’s mostly there to inflict Strike Last to anyone foolish enough to charge.

The Knights and Warriors you’re likely more familiar with. Knights aren’t Varnguard but they still hurt if they charge, and a block of Warriors is so hard to dislodge without proper support. Probably far more than is worth spending on them for their cost.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 3rd – Alex Cotter – Gloomspite Gitz: Troggs.
• 4th – Mrigank Jha – Fyreslayers: Hearthguard Berzerkers.
• 5th – Daniel Pitt – Slaves to Darkness: Darkoaths.
• 6th – Jake Bentrup – Idoneth Deepkin: See Showdown.
• 7th – Barton Kennelly – Blades of Khorne: Skarbrand leads Wrathmongers and Skullreapers.

Columbus Brewhammer ’25

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

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Scorched Earth

Jonathan Williams – Gloomspite Gitz
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vs.

Brendan Melnick – Ogor Mawtribes
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Thoughts

Unstoppable force meets immovable object.

Well, maybe not that unstoppable. Beastclaw Raiders used to be a lot more formidable as the alpha strike army and they’ve suffered quite a bit there, but Thundertusks are still well primed to try and tackle the troggs. At 5+ Damage a pop the tusks can pick up quite a few troggs, but due to the low rend it’s going to be difficult to pierce their hide and pick up a whole squad.

Kragnos with a 3D6 almost guarantees the charge, though given they have more drops they probably aren’t going to get to make that decisions. The Gitz player can set up in a much more ideal position (such as casting itchy nuisance) and make sure once the enemy charges in they have their defenses up.

The result is a major victory for the Gitz.

Result

Gloomspite Gitz Victory – 44 – 26

Jonathan Williams – Gloomspite Gitz – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Troggherd

Thoughts

Simple but effective, the Troggherd is still out here doing the Lord’s work.

Rockgut Troggoths are the backbone of this army, sporting 5 wounds a piece with a 3+ Save (when under the Badmoon) and a 5+ Ward, they are extremely difficult to put down without a lot of damage. If you don’t kill a model, they’ll just heal it back. This is made worse  when Skragrott inflicts Itchy Nuisance to cause a -1 to hit them. They also hit back respectably with Rend 2 damage 3 attacks.

Truggs lays on some very useful buffs to Troogs, givine witer +1 attack, +1 rend or -1 to hit with shooting attacks against them. The first 2 options are especially welcome.

In short, while it’s not a lot of models, they are very difficult to remove and present a huge pain in the ass to anyone who can’t dish out a lot of damage at once or siphon off enemy saves or wards.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd – Corey O’Keefe – Flesh-eater Courts: Ushoran with a collection of Morbheg knights and other assorted courtiers and infantry.
• 3rd – Brad College – Ironjawz: Brutes and Wrekkas.
• 4th – Brendan Melnick – Ogor Mawtribes: See Showdown.
• 5th – Paul Hinderman – Soulblight Gravelords: Some high cost heroes here with Lauka Vai and Radukar the Beast with Grave Guard and Deadwalkers.

Wrap Up

Thanks again, see you next week!

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