Competitive Innovations 40K Bonus: Interview with NOVA Champion Derek Apsche

Since the Chaos Space Marines Codex was released, Derek Apsche has been busy proving that the Chaos Cult detachment is the real deal, far more powerful than most people initially assumed. Most recently, he took the trophy and a Golden Ticket at the NOVA Open, so I sat down with him to talk through what makes his list so strong in the current metagame.

You can find more from Derek via the links below:

• 40K Dirtbags YouTube
• 40K Dirtbags Facebook
• Coaching Patreon
• Merch Store

Walk us through how the list works, and what makes it so powerful in the current metagame?

It’s a horde list that has what other lists don’t. Easy access to Lethal/Sustained Hits on everything gives you offensive flexibility, and you have 3 units that are insanely hard to chew through, backed by the speed to pin your opponent in their deployment zone.. Three huge units of Accursed Cultists do most of the killing and tieing up units, while the other 110 Damned models hold down Secondary points and sit on objectives.

You can also screen out a huge amount of space by bringing a sizable chunk of them on from Reserves on turn two, keeping the opponent locked down, and often inflicting a blowout with Rapid Ingressed Accursed Cultists. The Meta just isn’t teching for this type of horde list.

You’ve been on a roll with the army recently – what lead to the changes in the latest version?

The spawn were fun and quick, but in Pariah I found that not being able to do secondary actions was a real burden.. We replaced them with a Beast of Nurgle who is hard to kill in one phase unless you have big guns (Ed: and then recovers wounds if they fail), and can do actions. Lastly he has Deep Strike, which gives some flexibility on scoring secondary actions that the cultists can’t reach when arriving as Strategic Reserves.

Any armies you think you struggle with? Anything you were worried about going into the event?

I have only lost to Blood Angels with this list in the competitive scene, via a mixture of low brain power in game seven first thing in the morning and a very skilled opponent. Hard matchups are Nids, which can disrupt Pacts and scoring with their leadership debuffs, Thousand Sons with the ability to reliably murder a unit of Accursed Cultists a turn, and Death Guard where stacking -1 to WS and -1 to hit blunts my offense. Sisters also gave me a very close game, that was the first time I faced the bringers of flame build. WOW!

Let’s talk about your final against Bringers of Flame. How did it play out?

Last time I played Sisters I was told to rush them so they can’t build up Miracle dice, and I rolled straight over them by turn 2. This game was very different. Tony is such a great player and understands threat ranges, which is key to playing against my list. He kept everything he wanted alive back safely behind his screens of Sister bodies.

He had first turn which allowed me to position my units in cover, and going second I usually Rapid Ingress a unit of Accursed Cultists on turn two, which locks up most games. Tony did great rushing his tanks along the edge to push my Ingress further back, but once they got on it t was still a lot of extra pressure.. The one unit I was very unaware of was the flamer 10-model Seraphim unit with Fire and Fury.. They can delete a squad if they roll like Tony did. By turn 3, 3 models rolled 38 hits…..I said how many shots do these girls get??? (Ed: This is, I am given to understand, the normal reaction to being hit by this for the first time).

This game came down to Primary scoring. I happen to have 10 extra points in primary because I maxed, and Tony used a Secret Mission to cap at 40. Tony got more Secondary points than me, but not quite enough to flip the Primary advantage, giving me a win by 3 points! Closest game all weekend.

Any other games or interesting plays you want to highlight?

The Stormlance Dark Angels match up was very fun and enjoyable, as it’s very unusual and not something I’ve played against before. Rapid ingress bikes turn one is very very scary into me.

(Ed: This list whips, see below)

”Army

I also had some tough games against Tyranids and Thousand Sons, both challenging matchups I faced twice. On the flipside, I had my first game against Tau that was essentially over on turn one after I swarmed onto objectives and double Terraformed. We had a beer right after the game.

Finally, we had the slugfest of the century this year with my Chaos Cult vs Triple Accursed Commune Renegade raiders build. That match up ended with clock, as the sheer number of models, dice and re-rolls meant we only got to turn three, but I think I could have won it anyway if we started on the clock in the beginning (Ed: NOVA only allowed clocks when added by a judge in games falling behind the expected progress).

Anything you’d change for your next event?

Right now, we are all waiting to see if the list/Accursed Communes gets points increase. That will determine if we change anything about this list. I have around 40+ games with this style of CSM list, and I’m expecting to take it to Worlds and LVO.

Thanks for speaking to us Derek, and congratulations again on winning NOVA. Make sure to check out Derek’s videos on YouTube if you want to know (even) more about what makes this list work.

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