The Adeptus Custodes are back in business this week, bringing joy to the hearts of anyone who loves gold and despair to anyone who hates playing against army-wide 4+ Invulnerable Saves. Please do not think too hard about whether this complaint is congruent with my love for C’tan. Don’t worry about it.
Sisters also go from strength-to-strength, Aeldari put up some strong finishes, there’s plenty of powerful Marine builds out there, and Necrons are landing in a surprisingly reasonable place despite some great toys, perhaps kept in their place by Custodes having strong game into many of their tools. It’s all happening, so let’s dig in.
Today I’ll be covering:
Kassel GT – Alpine Cup
The NORTHAMPTON 40k SUPER-MAJOR
The guild 2nd Gt
The 36 Chambers #3
Hydra GT 2024 I (February)
Kingston Nexus 40k Club Champs 2024
On Friday Lowest of Men will take on:
Battle To End Alzheimers 2024
Warhammer World 40,000 Grand Tournament
Renegades Open: Echoes Of War 6
Wizards Asylum GT
2nd Annual Blue Ridge Championship GT Hosted By Battle Company 540 & Sector Cville
Saffron Slam VIII
We have three Showdowns for you this week, two voted for by the Patrons, and one selected by my illustrious co-conspirator for reasons that will become obvious. These are:
Chaos Space Marines vs Orks at the Alpine Cup
Vanguard Spearhead Dark Angels vs Tau at the Vale Renegades
Skysplinter Drukhari vs Grey Knights at the Saffron Slam
Kassel GT – Alpine Cup
156-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Vellmar, HE, Germany on February 17 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
The Showdown
Crucible of Battle – Purge the Foe – Chilling Rain
Jakub Jansa – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness): A new spin on the brawler plan, using Haarken with a full Raptor blob as an extra pressure piece and Nurgle tanks for extra fiewpower. Army List - Click to Expand
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Player Name: Jakub “Rektex” Jansa
Team Name: Lions Prague
Factions Used: Chaos Daemons, Chaos space marines
Army Points: 2000
Army Enhancements (list on which model): Warpsmith- eye of tzeentch
Bring it Down: 15
Assassination: 20
Detachment Rule: Slaves to darkness-mark of chaos ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CHARACTERS
Chaos Lord (95 Points)
• Warlord
• Mark of Chaos: Chaos Undivided
• 1x Daemon hammer
1x Plasma pistol
Chaos Lord (95 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Chaos Undivided
• 1x Daemon hammer
1x Plasma pistol
Haarken Worldclaimer (90 Points)
• 1x Helspear
1x Herald’s Talon
Sorcerer in Terminator Armour (90 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
• 1x Chaos Familiar
1x Combi-bolter
1x Force weapon
1x Infernal Gaze
Warpsmith (110 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
• 1x Flamer tendril
1x Melta tendril
1x Plasma pistol
1x Warp hammer
• Enhancements: Eye of Tzeentch
BATTLELINE
Cultist Mob (55 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
• 1x Cultist Champion
• 1x Autopistol
1x Brutal assault weapon
• 9x Chaos Cultist
• 6x Autopistol
6x Brutal assault weapon
1x Close combat weapon
1x Close combat weapon
1x Close combat weapon
1x Cultist grenade launcher
1x Flamer
1x Heavy stubber
Michael Geringer – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe): Ork Goodstuff with Ghaz and Meganobz at the forefront. Well, lagging behind probably, but you know what I mean. Army List - Click to Expand
Exported with App Version: v1.10.1 (38), Data Version: v336
Thoughts
Well this promises to be violent. Both sides here are packed to the gills with deadly melee killers, with the Orks in particular having basically one each of all their nastiest tooled-up squads. The Chaos forces aren’t quite as deadly up close, but they make up with it via significantly better firepower, sporting lots of excellent Nurgle tanks that look especially strong in this matchup, compared to just some Flash Gitz on the greenskin side.
On Purge the Foe, that combination of factors hands a fairly significant advantage to Chaos. Both sides here are lethal enough on the counter-charge that the opponent is generally going to lose whatever they push forward, but Chaos can pick off units at a distance far more reliably, giving a steady clip of Kill More points unless the Orks do something about it (I’m assuming Chaos just stashes both Nurgling units in Deep Strike to avoid easy kills). When the Orks try, I think the chances of them getting either unluckily bounced by Infernal Rites, murdered by an interrupt or butchered by Chosen sweeping out of a Transport to do some mischief is pretty high, so the odds are stacked against them. I feel like their best shot is trying to line up a go turn where Ghaz’s unit and the Squighogs slam into the nastiest Chaos threats, as both these units can probably soak an interrupt and still deck something, which might just about provide enough momentum to take the game. It’s going to be really hard to get to that point without losing some key units first though, and they really have to deck Chaos from there to take the win. From the scoreline, it looks like the matchup advantage was pretty insurmountable.
Result
Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) Victory – 20 – 0
Jakub Jansa – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 1st Place
Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Player Name: Jakub “Rektex” Jansa
Team Name: Lions Prague
Factions Used: Chaos Daemons, Chaos space marines
Army Points: 2000
Army Enhancements (list on which model): Warpsmith- eye of tzeentch
Bring it Down: 15
Assassination: 20
Detachment Rule: Slaves to darkness-mark of chaos ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CHARACTERS
Chaos Lord (95 Points)
• Warlord
• Mark of Chaos: Chaos Undivided
• 1x Daemon hammer
1x Plasma pistol
Chaos Lord (95 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Chaos Undivided
• 1x Daemon hammer
1x Plasma pistol
Haarken Worldclaimer (90 Points)
• 1x Helspear
1x Herald’s Talon
Sorcerer in Terminator Armour (90 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
• 1x Chaos Familiar
1x Combi-bolter
1x Force weapon
1x Infernal Gaze
Warpsmith (110 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
• 1x Flamer tendril
1x Melta tendril
1x Plasma pistol
1x Warp hammer
• Enhancements: Eye of Tzeentch
BATTLELINE
Cultist Mob (55 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
• 1x Cultist Champion
• 1x Autopistol
1x Brutal assault weapon
• 9x Chaos Cultist
• 6x Autopistol
6x Brutal assault weapon
1x Close combat weapon
1x Close combat weapon
1x Close combat weapon
1x Cultist grenade launcher
1x Flamer
1x Heavy stubber
Genuinely great to see Jakub putting together a Chaos Space Marine list that can still excel here, as their dropoff since the dataslate has been pretty steep. Some great choices have clearly fed into that – I love the Terminator Sorceror to set up a big dunk with the Predators or Raptors via Death Hex, going for the CP farming option on the Warpsmith is a nice way to power the army without having to spring for Abaddon, and Haarken’s squad seems like a pretty appealing include when you can’t pack as many Chosen in. It also continues to be hilarious to me that after two full editions of being worthless, the humble Predator Destructor is now one of the most efficient little tanks out there. Can’t beat a classic, and also you apparently can’t beat Jakub, congratulations!
Niklas Frerichs – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host) – 2nd Place
Allarus, Trajann, and Vexilus Praetor. Credit: Pendulin
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Die Güldene Pyramidenverkäuferbande der Lust
Detachments: Shield Host
Trajann WasLosIs [160pts] Warlord
Blade Champion [145pts]: Veiled Lust Blade
Shield-Captain [150pts]: Guardian Speer der Lust, Inspirational Exemplar
In second place (on five wins and a draw) we have the first harbinger of the Custodes renaissance, providing a good example of what seems to be the broad post-dataslate template of four units out of a mix of Custodian Guard and Wardens with leaders (Trajann, a Blade Champion, Kyria and a flex pick) then however much support they can afford depending on the Custodian/Warden balance and 4/5 model choices made. Niklas has gone for some lighter Custodian units to make points available for a good number of Terminators in support, giving this list plenty of flexibility and fallback options, and also shoring up horde matchups a bit (as if all of those come in and Blast something at once, it’ll hurt). It means you’re relying on punting enemy heavy stuff in melee, but Custodes can very much do that, and it also avoids creating any great targets for things like Gladiator Lancers. Kyria also provides plenty of additional flexibility for the army – her mix of protection and alarmingly good shooting when you have Wound re-rolls on adds a tonne of value in a small Custodian unit. Custodes are back in a big way, so make sure you’re updating your plans and have a way to handle armies like this one, and congratulations to Niklas.
Stephan Pfenni – Blood Angels (Gladius Task Force) – 3rd Place
The Sanguinor. Credit: Corrode
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Gladius Angels (2000 Points)
Space Marines
Blood Angels
Gladius Task Force
Strike Force (2000 Points)
CHARACTERS
Apothecary Biologis (85 Points)
• 1x Absolvor bolt pistol
1x Close combat weapon
• Enhancements: Fire Discipline
Captain (95 Points)
• 1x Plasma pistol
1x Power fist
• Enhancements: The Honour Vehement
Exported with App Version: v1.10.1 (30), Data Version: v336
Archetype
Marine Bloodstuff
Thoughts
Also on five wins and a draw we’ve got a build that takes some of the core quality Marine units (Aggressors with the Biologis, Company Heroes, a Redeemer), saves some points to pay for hikes on the Aggressors by using Predators as anti-tank, and adds in some Blood Angels goodness. The Lemartes/Death Company brick is a known (extremely good) quantity at this point, but the Sanguinor hasn’t seen much play and I think the timing on bringing him in is smart. He’s very good into Necron Wraiths, as they often try to keep their squishy Technomancer hidden behind a wall while the front line charges in. Bringing the Sanguinor in will both provide an easy way of turning off the Feel No Painand punish the kind of charge moving that’s been used to avoid having to force the Technomancer into contact. He can also be back-breaking against new Drukhari, as Devastating Wounds provides a real shot of picking out an Archon before they can swing with wound re-rolls. That’s very much not an exhaustive list of where he can be good either, and given the failure case is being an unusually tough Lone Operative, he ends up looking extremely neat. Love that as a tech choice, great stuff from Stephan.
Pascal Haberstroh – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host) – 4th Place
Adeptus Custodes Blade Champion by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Golden Boys (2000 points)
Adeptus Custodes
Strike Force (2000 points)
Shield Host
Lord Inquisitor Kyria Draxus (75 points)
• 1x Dirgesinger
1x Power fist
1x Psychic Tempest
Exported with App Version: v1.10.1 (38), Data Version: v336
Archetype
Infantry Custodes
Thoughts
Our final 5.5-0.5 player gives us another showing for the core Custodes template here, with the flex points going on making all the infantry units five-model ones and adding a fifth. That trades a bit of objective flexibility for a greater ability to roll with the loss of one squad, and as people start teching harder for the Custodes matchup I think there’s a good chance that the latter capability ends up looking more important. I guess we’ll see how that plays out in the next few months, for now well done Pascal.
The Best of the Rest
There were 7 more players on 5-1 records. They were:
5th – Michael Geringer – Orks: Ork goodstuff with the increasingly popular post-Spinner option of Ghazghkull leading a big blob of Meganobz. Also features Deffkoptas as some cheap and cheerful board control/shooting.
7th – Florian Schmidt – Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead): The Calgar/Ventris/Centurion/Gladiator club, still super strong.
8th – Manuel Wayand – Adeptus Custodes: Go-wide infantry with triple Wardens and two Custodian squads, including one with Draxus for the shooting protection/chip damage.
9th – Grischa Gerwert – Death Guard: Loads of Plague Marines in Rhinos with some Brigands – also still very good, apparently (and now augmented by a couple Deathshroud units to protect Termy Sorcerors).
10th – Antonín Man – Salamanders (Firestorm Assault Force): All-rounder Firestorm, with the big hammers being a big Eradicator, Vulkan with Infernus Marines, a full VanVet unit with a Captain, and a Champion of Humanity Techmarine with a Devastator pod.
11th – Alessandro Liessem – T’au Empire: Board control-ish Tau, supplementing lots of Breachers (presumably strat reserving some of them) and an actual Kroot Farstalker squad with some Hammerheads alongside 6/3 Crisis and some Breachers.
The NORTHAMPTON 40k SUPER-MAJOR
104-player, 7-round Major in England, United Kingdom on February 17 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
Mani Cheema – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host) – 1st Place
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Valoris Veterans!! (1995 Points)
Adeptus Custodes
Shield Host
Strike Force (2000 Points)
We continue along the golden gallery here with Mani’s take on Custodes, which is an extra-aggressive one tuned for the UKTC format. This provides good Infantry staging and often demands high-scoring wins to make it into the top four (although actually in this case all four undefeated players got through), so doubling down on any army capabilities that let you execute blowout wins is often a good plan. Three Advance/Charge blocks with three more units as followup very much fits that model, providing a sufficient weight of pressure that unless it runs into some staggering melee counterpunch capability, it’s going to be hard for opponents to recover against it. A few opponents had a pretty credible go at it, with Tau in particular only losing by a handful of points, but in the end no one could conquer the might of the 10,000 in Mani’s hands.
Scourges (110 Points)
• 1x Solarite
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Shardcarbine
• 4x Scourge
• 4x Close combat weapon
4x Dark lance
Scourges (110 Points)
• 1x Solarite
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Shardcarbine
• 4x Scourge
• 4x Close combat weapon
4x Dark lance
Scourges (110 Points)
• 1x Solarite
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Shardcarbine
• 4x Scourge
• 4x Close combat weapon
4x Dark lance
Archetype
Wraithblades and Go-Wide Shooting
Thoughts
It continues to look like Wraithblades might be the secret sauce for Aeldari aiming to survive a post-Dataslate world. They’re monstrously tough, and as Dan’s build here shows they combo extremely well with all the Aeldari shooting toys that deal damage without easy reprisal. Shadow Spectres and Scourges between them are going to scythe through pretty much any kind of target, and the D-cannons provide an excellent trump card against anyone who tries to bring tanks into the mid-board, while certainly not being bad into Custodes. That wasn’t quite enough to get this over the line against Mani’s list (I’m assuming the fact that he can just multi-charge and dunk the Wraithblades was a bit much), but it looks super strong and is a great way of adapting to a new, harsher environment where there are fewer Fate Dice to go round, as Blades simply don’t need them. Well done to Dan on second!
Skyweavers (95 Points)
• 2x Skyweaver
• 2x Close combat weapon
2x Skyweaver haywire cannon
2x Star bolas
Support Weapons (125 Points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x D-cannon
1x Shuriken catapult
Support Weapons (125 Points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x D-cannon
1x Shuriken catapult
Support Weapons (125 Points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x D-cannon
1x Shuriken catapult
Swooping Hawks (75 Points)
• 1x Swooping Hawk Exarch
• 1x Aeldari power sword
1x Close combat weapon
1x Hawk’s talon
• 4x Swooping Hawk
• 4x Close combat weapon
4x Lasblaster
Swooping Hawks (75 Points)
• 1x Swooping Hawk Exarch
• 1x Aeldari power sword
1x Close combat weapon
1x Hawk’s talon
• 4x Swooping Hawk
• 4x Close combat weapon
4x Lasblaster
Warp Spiders (115 Points)
• 1x Warp Spider Exarch
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Death spinner
1x Death spinner
1x Powerblades
• 4x Warp Spider
• 4x Close combat weapon
4x Death spinner
Warp Spiders (115 Points)
• 1x Warp Spider Exarch
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Death spinner
1x Death spinner
1x Powerblades
• 4x Warp Spider
• 4x Close combat weapon
4x Death spinner
Warp Spiders (115 Points)
• 1x Warp Spider Exarch
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Death spinner
1x Death spinner
1x Powerblades
• 4x Warp Spider
• 4x Close combat weapon
4x Death spinner
Archetype
Go-wide shooting
Thoughts
More Aeldari in third, with Vik sticking to a plan of going wide with small shooting units, and launching devastating lightning assaults. The key innovation here to make that work without an anchor like the Avatar is the Serpent full of Fire Dragons – staging one serpent safely is pretty doable on UKTC boards, and once that model is in position it forces extreme caution from the foe. That gives the rest of the army time to leverage the Aeldari’s still unparallelled chip damage and scoring potential, while D-cannons again provide insurance against things like Monoliths. The only thing that could stop Vik’s rampage was the solid wall of Wraithbone that Dan’s army presented, presumably just a bit too tricky for this to spike down in time, but that really only emphasises the extent to which there’s still an army here for Aeldari experts like Vik!
James Marsden – Leagues of Votann (Oathband) – 4th Place
Leagues of Votann Einhyr Champion. Credit: Jack Hunter
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Votann (1970 Points)
Leagues of Votann
Oathband
Strike Force (2000 Points)
There’s real use cases for almost every Votann unit, so the choice for listbuilders is mostly what they’re going to focus on. Here, James has gone for a Hearthguard-heavy build, using a full unit in Deep Strike and two units launching from Land Fortresses for the Fire Support goodness. As mentioned, staging transports are very strong on UKTC terrain (and you’ve also got a Sagitaur full of Beserks to go with them), augmenting this strategy, and access to lots of wound re-rolls on a go turn is particularly good when you’re potentially needing to kill C’tan, which can otherwise be quite tough for Votann. Excellent tech for the metagame, sadly somewhat thwarted by Mani’s Custodes in the semi-finals, who can largely just bounce Hearthguard. A fantastic run from James to there though, well done!
The Best of the Rest
There were 15 more players on 4-1 records. They were:
5th – Will B – T’au Empire: Crunchy Tau with Broadsides and a pair of Riptides alongside a full Crisis blob.
6th – Mathew Putney – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Hell yeah someone else has heard the good word about the Night Scythe in Hypercrypt. It whips, trust me. Also has a Monolith, Wraiths and some C’tan.
7th – Luke Townsend – Chaos Daemons: Khorne-heavy pressure, with Be’lakor, a Bloodthirster and two full Bloodcrusher units to enjoy the benefits of double Blood Throne.
8th – Greg Chamberlain – Leagues of Votann: All-rounder Votann with some of pretty much everything.
9th – Josh Roberts – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Triple Wraiths and 10/5/5 Plasmancer Immortals with Szeras.
10th – Alex Fowler – Thousand Sons: Hefty Tsons, supporting Magnus with a Daemon Prince and two Mutaliths, and going lighter than normal on Rubrics as a result, filling out with Cultists and Enlightened.
11th – Calum Mehay- Orks: Pressure with a Wagon and two Trukks to ferry the Boyz to war.
12th – David Gaylard – Astra Militarum: Pressure Guard with two Basilisks and Manticores, lots of Kasrkin, Chimera-scouting Catachans and a big Bullgryn block, rounded out by two Tank Commanders.
13th – Ed Watts – Grey Knights: Go-wide Infantry Knights, using three Terminator squads with Librarians and lots of other small units.
14th – Michael Glenwright – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Monster Mash with a side order of Termagants.
15th – Sam Johnson – T’au Empire: Another double Riptide crunch-heavy Tau build.
16th – James McGlough – Black Templars (Firestorm Assault Force): Lots of MSU Infantry, lots of Gladiators and a Land Raider Redeemer with some nasty toys stashed inside. Also sports some Outriders as a (now) very cheap early objective grabbing unit.
17th – Stewart Bull – Grey Knights: Three Dreadknights (one GMDK, two regular), Crowe’s big barbecue gang and various small Strike and Terminator units.
18th – Jack Pugh – Leagues of Votann: Lots of Sagitaurs, lots of Bikes and two Forts.
19th – Graham Russell – Orks: Mech Orks with lots of Trukks and a Battlewagon.
The guild 2nd Gt
52-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in León, Gto., México on February 17 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
Xavier Barrera – Ultramarines (Unknown Detachment) – 1st Place
Marneus Calgar Credit: Alfredo Ramirez
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
in lennon i trust (2000 points)
Space Marines
Ultramarines
Strike Force (2000 points)
Vanguard Spearhead
CHARACTERS
Apothecary Biologis (80 points)
• 1x Absolvor bolt pistol
1x Close combat weapon
• Enhancement: The Blade Driven Deep
It’s there in the name – the John Lennon Ultramarine build, despite being very much in the crosshairs for nerfs, has so much power going for it that it’s still chugging along winning events just fine. Xavier’s answer to the point increases has been to put Calgar with a big unit of Eradicators instead of Aggressors, and that certainly seems decent – it’s not quite as universal in what it’s good at killing, but access to lots of Advance/Shoot Melta with Lethal Hits is extremely real in a world where C’tan are a big gatekeeper, and certainly far from bad against Custodes where every failed save is gonna be a dead model. Great updates to a classic from Xavier, and well rewarded with a trophy!
Amador Perez – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)
Adeptus Custodes Caladius Grav-Tank. Credit: Jack Hunter
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
tres colores y una piedra (2000 points)
Adeptus Custodes
Strike Force (2000 points)
Shield Host
Lord Inquisitor Kyria Draxus (75 points)
• 1x Dirgesinger
1x Power fist
1x Psychic Tempest
Archetype
Caladius Custodes
Thoughts
More undefeated Custodes on the four core block formula, with the flex picks here being a pair of Caladius Tanks. Helps against some armies if you need counter-fire capability, hurts into others, and looking at the final round matchup here it was definitely a game where they paid off – Grey Knights with triple Dreadknight is no joke into Custodes, as the upgraded heavy psycannon is fantastic for killing them, and they can trivially play keepaway. Exactly where you need the ability to project firepower of your own, so good meta choice from Amador, and well done on undefeated second here!
The Best of the Rest
There were 7 more players on 4-1 records. They were:
3rd – Alberto Lopez – Orks: Trukks and a Wagon, with some nasty speedy Characters riding shotgun.
4th – Luis German Giles – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Heavy Court, adding the Silent King to command Doomstalkers and C’tan.
5th – Luis Humberto Casillas Franco – Black Templars (Ironstorm Spearhead): Gladiators and Redemptors galore.
6th – Jose Arias – Leagues of Votann: Triple Land Fort.
7th – Diego Toribio – Black Templars (Ironstorm Spearhead): All-rounder Ironstorm with some Reapers and Ballistus Dreads supporting a mix of Infantry threats and a Land Raider.
8th – Jose Benjamín Casillas – Death Guard: Crunchy Guard, using Mortarion, Brigands and Rhinos as initial board presence, with Deathshrouds waiting in thw wings.
9th – Pavel Echeveste – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): The full-on 30 Immortal Monolith special.
The 36 Chambers #3
48-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, GB on February 17 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
Rory Andrew – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host) – 1st Place
Adeptus Custodes Venatari Custodians. Credit: Jack Hunter
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
“And in a sunless realm, the sun rose at last.”
(2000 Points)
Adeptus Custodes
Shield Host
Strike Force (2000 Points)
Lord Inquisitor Kyria Draxus (75 Points)
• 1x Dirgesinger
1x Power fist
1x Psychic Tempest
Archetype
Custodes with Venatari
Thoughts
I mean I guess at least there’s lots of variety in the Custodes builds! Rory’s breaks from the formula slightly to go extra hard on threat projection, having only three core Infantry units, but adding two Caladii and a full block of Venatari on top of that. Venatari aren’t cheap, but free Rapid Ingress and high speed on the table means they’re a great way to avoid being outmaneuvred, and Lance means they hit uniquely hard if they stay mobile. I’d worry a bit that as the metagame starts teching hard for Custodes-hunting (and after this week, they’re gonna!) the relatively high cost per model is going to count against Venatari, but even there seeding one 4W model into the unit (who you can later revive) helps mitigate the impact of foes throwing out D3 stuff. Right now, the element of surprise is with the Ventari, and it looks like no one was able to handle “Custodes, but fast”, so great stuff Rory!
The Best of the Rest
There were 8 more players on 4-1 records. They were:
2nd – Matt Charles – Blood Angels (Sons of Sanguinius): What a difference one extra Strength makes! This list goes hard on Death Company, burying the enemy in S10 attacks, and also makes great use of some Death Company Dreadnoughts, who are a powerful Strategic Reserve threat thanks to their Magna-Grapples. Getting to key breakpoints in melee is huge for real Blood Angels, and unlike many other melee armies the rise of Custodes is somewhat manageable for them (even though they were narrowly defeated in the final) – Lemartes unit is handy in a fight against any non-Trajann squad thanks to Damage Reduction, and Only in Death allows you to take a good chunk of a key unit with you, even if they Fight First after you charge them.
3rd – Markus Hinson – T’au Sept (Kauyon): Crunchy Tau with a pair of Riptides alongside 6/3 Crisis and Hammerheads.
4th – Andy Quas-Cohen – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Ultra top-heavy Hypercrypt with the Silent King and three C’tan.
5th – Bethany Taylor – Grey Knights: A unique board control spin on Grey Knights, going for lots of Strike/Purgation squads in Razorbacks, providing either pressure from Scout or Fire Support for the Purgation teams as needed. That’s backed up by a trio of Dreadknights, projecting massive Advance/Charge threat, and this looks like even more of a nightmare to plan against than the Grey Knight average.
6th – David Leniewski – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Another hilariously top-heavy Hypercrypt build, going for four C’tan and a Tesseract Vault.
7th – Michael Duff – Black Templars (Gladius Task Force): Mechanised all-rounder Templars, using lots of Sword Brethren in Impulsors and a trio of Gladiators Reaper.
8th – Matt Bell – Necrons (Canoptek Court): 2/2/2 on C’tan, Doomstalkers and Wraiths.
9th – Aiden Smalley – Death Guard: All-rounder Death Guard, using Mortarion, a big Deathshroud unit with Typhus, Plagebursts, Rhino Marines and some Predator Destructors (is there anything they can’t do?). Has one unusual tech piece in a Lord of Virulence with Living Plague as a solo model, presumably aiming to drop in, augment the Plaguebursts for a turn, and get some value from the boosted aura size at the same time.
Hydra GT 2024 I (February)
32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Roskilde, DK on February 17 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
Martin Bræmer Nielsen – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 1st Place
Necron Lokhust Heavy Destroyers. Credit: Colin Ward
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Necrons
Strike Force (2000 points)
Hypercrypt Legion
CHARACTERS
C’tan Shard of the Nightbringer (255 points)
• 1x Gaze of death
1x Scythe of the Nightbringer
C’tan Shard of the Void Dragon (270 points)
• 1x Canoptek tail blades
1x Spear of the Void Dragon
1x Voltaic storm
Hypercrypt gets it done here, the combination of being able to manifest a Wraith or C’tan-shaped tarpit wherever needed with the extreme firepower of Lokhust Heavies tearing through opponents. Arisen Tyrant on enmitic ones is extremely no joke, throwing out backbreaking numbers of hits into almost any target, and the great range on the gauss means they can set up for long range sniping as required. The fact teleporting Szeras is good enough to run jsut on rate without any synergies is also extremely funny to me. Big fan of everything that’s going on here, well done Martin!
The Best of the Rest
There were 5 more players on 4-1 records. They were:
2nd – Nicklas Schmidt – Grey Knights: Big Terminators, Big Paladins and two Dreadknights, with a smaller flex unit of Terminators filling out.
3rd – Daniel Fragtrup – Chaos Space Marines: Abaddon and Lucius go on a big day out, the former buffing various tanks, the latter riding a Rhino with some Legionary friends.
4th – Alexander Lerbrandt – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders): A big Primaris Crusader squad backed by a stacked Land Raider full of Sword Brethren. Also uses a couple of Vindicators, and the idea of trapping people in combat with these using No Escape then blasting them in the face is exceptionally funny.
5th – Erasmus Stenskilde – Grey Knights: Big Terminators, Big Paladins and two Dreadknights, going a bit wider with Strikes and Interceptors in the rest of the list.
6th – Frederick Stappen- Tyranids (Unending Swarm): 160 horde infantry and some Exocrines.
Kingston Nexus 40k Club Champs 2024
30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Kingston, ON, Canada on February 17 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
Kevin Rutherford – Death Guard (Plague Company) – 1st Place
Poxwalkers. Credit: Rockfish
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Please come home, Disgustingly Resilient, I miss you
++ Army Roster (Chaos – Death Guard) [2,000pts] ++
+ Configuration +
Detachment Choice: Plague Company
See, if you’re going to plead for the designers to give you back your old rule, the trick is not to win a tournament without it. Top tips from me there.
Anyway, this is a very pressure-heavy Death Guard build, using a Land Raider to provide some definitive mid-board staging for one of the Plague Marine units, and accompanying it with Mortarion, ultra cheap fleshmower Drones and Typhus’ Poxwalker horde. Quite a lot of different challenges to put in front of the enemy, and thanks to the ability to tank enemy output with Contagions, very tricky to escape from if it tangles you up. Nice to see some more unusual picks getting airtime, good work Kevin.
The Best of the Rest
There were 5 more players on 4-1 records. They were:
2nd – Rick Abrams – Chaos Daemons: Monster mash, backing Be’lakor up with Big Bird, an Endless Gift GUO and Skarbrand.
3rd – Henry Ban – Adeptus Astartes (Ironstorm Spearhead): Pretty much pure dakka with Dreads, RepExes and Hammerstrikes.
4th – Jordan Racey – Orks: Pure pressure, with Trukks, Squighogs and Characters.
5th – Lukas Duchaine- Astra Militarum: Big Tank spotted! Lots of Armoured Sentinels and a Banesword.
6th – Shannon McLeod – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Monster mash, with the Screamer-Killer finally sneaking into lists alongside bigger faves.
Wrap Up
That’s it for the first half of this week’s events, but we have six more rocketing your way on Friday, with Sororitas and Drukhari unleashing their tricks on the world.
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