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.

Things are quieting down a bit as Adepticon creeps ever closer, but we’re back this week with 3 smaller events from around the world, one in Finland, one in Canada and one in the US.

Age of Sigmar: Winter War

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland on March 15 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Anttu – – Daughters of Khaine
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vs.

Eemeli Vainio-Pekka – Ossiarch Bonereapers
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Thoughts

The number of bodies here immediately stack things pretty heavily in the Daughter’s favor. Ossiarchs mostly are good at being able to pick up a single unit each turn and then be resiliant enough to tank the ensuing counter-attack, and this has a lot of units. Many of which come in from Deep Strike.

The Catapult does give them a bit of an edge because with the paper-thin saves the Crawlers’s (especially in this detachment) will shred through them, not to mention they have their own deep strike to respond with. The end result is a shockingly low scoring game with the Daughter’s coming out ahead.

Result

Daughters of Khaine Victory – 26 – 20

Anttu – – Daughters of Khaine – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Krethusa and Witch Aelves

Thoughts

This is a fascinating list unlike anything else I’ve seen recently.

Witch Aelf/Sister of Slaughter spam is a viable way to play the army and arguably the better one right now if you’re willing to put in the effort in to paint them all. They’re very unassuming on their own, but the army has multiple synergies to bring them together. Sisters of Slaughter are already -1 to hit but Krethusa and shut off cimmands making that even harder. Even if the enemy can get around that Martyr’s Sacrifice makes them a potentially lethal tarpit with mortals on death.

The really interesting inclusion is the number of Lifetakers, the melee variant of Khinerai. They too don’t do a ton of damage on their own but are frustrating to lock down as they can leave combat immediately after fighting so much of this list involves engaging in combat on their terms and dipping out to safety.

Callis and Toll round off the list with everyone’s favorite Order Witch hunters adding yet another deep strike to the arsenal who can gun down Manifestations that try and block your path.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd – Eemeli Vainio-Pekka – Ossiarch Bonereapers: See showdown.
• 3rd – Kimmo Kokkarinen – Slaves to Darkness: An utterly insane list with Archaon & Be’lakor with Chosen and a Chaos Lord.
• 4th – Jonah Alibi – Kharadron Overlords: Thunderers and Gunhaulers.
• 5th – Paavo Rahman – Soulblight Gravelords: Triple Blood Knights and Wolves.
• 6th – Ted Ekegren – Gloomspite Gitz: Troggs and Squigs.
• 7th – Tuomas Ivakko – Flesh-Eater Courts: Ushy and a lot of Knights.
• 8th – Janne Tiihonen – Ogor Mawtribes: STONEHORNS!!!

La classique d’hiver (AOS)

34-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Sherbrooke, Québec, CA on March 15 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Frederic Bigras-Burrogano – Flesh-eater Courts
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vs.

Justin Lapointe – Slaves to Darkness
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Thoughts

Both armies are relying on powerful charges here as both are rocking reinforced Cavalry as their hammer, though the Slaves to Darkness do have chosen who can stand still and tank some hits while dishing them out, too.

While there are some real numbers on the side of FEC, it can’t be denied that the Slaves to Darkness are just in a really solid place right now. Their brute force tactics are effective against a lot of different armies when played correctly and unless one can get lucky enough to engage with the right timing it becomes very difficult to beat them at their own game.

The end result is that Slaves to Darkness absolutely demolish here with a perfect score.

Result

Slaves to Darkness Victory – 50 – 32

Justin Lapointe – Slaves to Darkness – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Be’lakor with Chosen and Varanguard (plus chaff)

Thoughts

So the first half of this is pretty standard stuff. Be’lakor leads Chosen and Varanguard who are both extremely hardy and can pick up almost anything they want to if they get into combat with it. Starting the Chosen with the Mark of Slaanesh gives them a strong starting sprint with a 3D6 charge and extra attack, as well. Furies also give some nice objective grabbers and help fulfill early tactics like Take the Flanks.

The Darkoath inclusion is an interesting variation. Darkoath Marauders are not great, but they are insanely cheap and create a nice speedbump where they can do mortals upon death. The Chieftain isnt a bad combatant and is an equally cheap enhancement holder, rounding the list off with a S2D list with an actually respectable number of bodies.

The Best of the Rest

There were N more players on X-1 records. They were:

• 2nd – Hugo Canneddu – Ogor Mawtribes: STONEHORNS!!!
• 3rd – Romain Gosselin-Delort – Seraphon: Kroak with a Starseer and the usual Seraphon Good Stuff.
• 4th – Frederic Bigras-Burrogano – Flesh-eater Courts: See Showdown.
• 5th – Loic Gosselin Delort – Kharadron Overlords: A mid range KO list with a bit of everything.
• 6th – Benoit Drouin – Sylvaneth: Alarielle and Belthanos with two Spirits of Durthu.

Small Town Throwdown: The Ides of March

33-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Cypress, CA, US on March 15 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission – Close to the Chest

Thomas Guan – Skaventide
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vs.

Greg Brewer – Flesh-eater Courts
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Thoughts

This is an interesting matchup. The FEC list basically concentrates the best stuff in the army down and lets Ushoran and Nagash do a lot of the leg work to make them stronger and hardier than before. Running both character is a wild choice but it got them this far.

On the other side of the table, Tom Guan has a lot of rats. Like an illegal number of rats. It’s unlikely that the FEC can pick up enough rats while remaining in control, which leads to a pretty overwhelming victory for the Skaven.

Result

Skaventide Victory – 38-26

Thomas Guan – Skaventide – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Oodles of rats

Thoughts

That’s a lot of rats! Control is the name of the game with this list, with multiple redundant clan rats units it’s real easy to bog the opponent down where they don’t want to be with Three Clawsteps Ahead and Skitterleap. Vizek can then force opponents to take a -1 to attacks and to wound with his warscroll prayer and the Skaven prayer Rabid-tough, respectively.

Finally, these rats do have some bite, with the prayer Filth-crust it’s possible to give them Crit mortals, when throwing that many dice, more than a few are gonna get through. Most lists simply cannot do the damage to get through this many clanrats.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd – Kyle Calip – Flesh-eater Courts: Ushy and a collection of various FEC good stuff.
• 3rd – Kharadron Overlords: Brokk leading Dual frigates with Skywardens and Edrinriggers.
• 4th – Christopher Hernandez – Skaven: Vizzik leading clan rats and a Deathmaster with Krittok and Stormvermin.
• 5th – Greg Brewer – Flesh-eater Courts: See showdown.
• 6th – Evan Markham – Blades of Khorne: A mortals focused list with tons of Wrathmongers.

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