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Competitive Innovations in 10th: 2x Gorky 3x Krump pt.2

By James "One_Wing" Grover

We’re on to part two, and while we’ve got plenty more Thousand Sons and Orks for you, some other factions are also making their move, with the Space Wolves and World Eaters at the forefront. Can they stem the Green Tide? Let’s find out!

Today we have:

  • The Storm Of Silence: 13th Annual Warhammer 40,000 US Open Qualifier Grand Tournament
  • Alberta Classic 2024
  • Brighton 40k GT VII
  • Ammonite Gaming, Turbulent Tides – The Whitby GT
  • Capital Clash

Yesterday I covered:

  • Warhammer 40,000 GT US Open Dallas
  • Maryland Open 2024
  • Giga-Bites May Warhammer 40k GT
  • Bugle Bat Reps : Bugles Big Bash 2
  • MNM Kevät GT

Finally, tomorrow Lowest of Men will take charge for:

  • Mayhem 3 in 3D
  • Ice Breaker Warhammer 40K GT – Renegade Wargaming
  • The Great Game – Gongaii GT Spring 2024
  • Barn Found GT ’24 at Gamers Shop
  • Out of the Furnace V

The Storm Of Silence: 13th Annual Warhammer 40,000 US Open Qualifier Grand Tournament

111-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Spokane, WA, US on May 18 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Vital Ground – Chilling Rain – Sweeping Engagement

Linton Rowan – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Noah Beddome – Orks (Green Tide)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

A new challenger approaches – the Green Tide is here. Loads of Boyz, a Battlewagon for one of the nastiest units to stage from, and the ultra-nasty Meganobz squad to finish. Mean and green, and I particularly like the use of the Bloodthirsty Beligerence Weirdboy here, it lets one big unit hang back then reliably hit combat in the mid-game thanks to Tide of Muscle.

On the other side, it’s Stormlance, now with Vindicators, and going all-in on Character investments for the wolf block. Two squads of Infiltrators also give it plenty of options for screening out parts of the table, which is helpful for countering Da Jump.

What happens when they clash? The good news for the wolves is that their big units can lift a whole Boyz squad, potentially even one of the Painboy ones on the charge, which definitely puts them in contention, and Vital Ground probably helps them overall, as they have fewer big units to play with, so being able to concentrate on one flank is good. Their big challenge is that the Orks just have wildly more redundancy in the list, and also a much easier time forcing Secondaries – they can go Assassinate/Homers and complete it with minimal effort, and although the Wolves can try Assassinate in response, the Orks have units to commit with that don’t have Characters in them, while the Wolves don’t. Worse, one of the Warboss units slamming into a ThunderCav squad with the Waaagh up and popping Competitive Streak will seriously threaten to just lift a whole unit, and that’s far more of a disaster for the Wolves because of the redundancy.

It also doesn’t help that the Vindicators just don’t do much here – sure they’ll pick up the odd handful of Boyz, but they’ll need to be super careful not to set up a disastrous Go Get ‘Em. You would definitely be happier with one of the Vindicators swapped out for a Wulfen brick here – just having something that can go out and slam into a Boyz unit without having to worry about the consequences would be extremely helpful.

I think if you’re the wolves here you have to play with your entire army slamming through one flank – just assume the Orks have the other. This will slow down how quickly you lose models to Assassinate, and let you control the pace of things at least somewhat. I’d also bring one of the units of Infiltrators up far enough to reduce the risk of the Weirdboy unit getting involved here, as it’ll slow things down. I suspect there’s still a high chance you just get rolled over, but I feel like it’s the best shot for a win. It would appear that even if this plan was used, it was not enough – the Orks won handily.

Result

Orks (Green Tide) Victory – 88 – 49

Noah Beddome – Orks (Green Tide) – 1st Place

Shoota Boyz. Credit: Rockfish
Shoota Boyz. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Boyz Horde

Thoughts

The tide arrives, and I think there’s a very good chance that this ends up being the top performing Ork build once Bully Boyz hype dies down a bit. The balance of tools Noah has here is great – everything pulls in the same direction, you’ve got the staging flexibility from the Battlewagon and Trukk full of Meganobz, and the sheer difficulty of clearing it out is a thing to behold. Be prepared! Congratulations Noah on the win.

Ryan Smith – Space Wolves (Champions of Russ) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: “Contemptor” Kevin Stillman

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

ThunderCav and Wulfen Champions

Thoughts

Yeah, I’m as surprised as you all are. I’ve gone 10 months without learning what this detachment actually does, and was hoping to make it all the way to the Codex. The question we need to answer is whether this build is just a flex, showing off how the ultra aggressive Wolf datasheets can be put to work in a different shell, or if there’s actually something here.

Hmm. Kind of? There’s certainly a few things that you unlock here, particularly if your opponent tees you up to achieve Saga of the Warrior Born or Saga of the Beastslayer early, which the Wolf Lord and Battle Leader with enhancements are set up to have a really good go at. Go for the Throat to boost up AP is already a genuine draw for ThunderCav, as it mitigates one of their weaknesses, and it becomes ultra-deadly if you get the Beastslayer bonus. Meanwhile, if you can switch on Warrior Born then Relentless Assault gives you the mobility you want, and it also helps grind out games against Green Tide or similar. The other thing is that if you can pull off Saga of Majesty in the mid-game (certainly not impossible with the ThunderCav) it blows things wide open – giving all those Wulfen OC on top of everything else is going to make the remainder of the game a nightmare for the foe. Finally, in a world where Thousand Sons are a top faction, there is genuine appeal to access to Runic Wards, as it substantially mitigates the threat from Magnus in particular.

Not totally sure I’d rate it over Stormlance even with all that, but I think I can be persuaded that in the current metagame there is an actual argument for Champions – giving you tools for both Ork and Thousand Sons games is a genuine attraction. Well done to Ryan for trying something different and doing it in style.

Kasra Houshidar – Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead) – 3rd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: Kasra Houshidar

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

UltraVanguard Shooting

Thoughts

Unsurprisingly, Art of War’s signature Ultramarines player is sporting Art of War’s signature Ultramarines list. It’s a nightmare to pin down for a fight, and a huge trump card into any tank or elite-heavy list. I do wonder if it should be back on Aggressors instead of Eradicators if Green Tide rises further, but that didn’t hold Kasra back from an undefeated finish!

Joel Rodgers – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force) – 4th Place

Lieutenant with Combi-weapon (Credit: Musterkrux)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Stormlance ThunderCav

Thoughts

To round out our top four, we’ve got this more classic Space Wolves incarnation, bringing the noise (howling) with lots of Wulfen and ThunderCav, and filling out with board control tools. I do find the Hounds/Librarian unit very amusing – it’s another concession to a Thousand Sons heavy metagame, and honestly a potentially effective one at that! Just watch out for flamer bricks (though even there careful positioning followed by Morkai’s Howl can do some work. Well done to Joel on fourth place.

The Best of the Rest

There were 16 more players on 4-1+ records. They were:

  • 5th (4.5-0.5) – Alex Pina – Thousand Sons: Character-heavy Tsons with a full Tzaangor unit with a Shaman to backfill on board control.
  • 6th – Alexander White – World Eaters: Angron, Characters, Berzerkers and Eightbound, with two Jackhal units to help go a bit wider.
  • 7th – Jason Byrd – Chaos Knights: Lots of War Dogs backed by cheap screening and scoring from Nurglings and Blue Horrors.
  • 8th – Campbell “SRM” McLaughlin – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders): Our champion continues his power-up montage, putting in another great performance with a tank-heavy Templars build.
  • 9th – Keaton Marschman – Orks (Green Tide): 110 Boyz with buff Characters, with Ghaz and some Meganobz overseeing.
  • 10th – Michael Buckler – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force): An effective deployment of one of the sleeper options from the Dark Angels Codex – two Command Squad/Black Knight units providing enormous roving threats.
  • 11th – Steve Trimble – Adeptus Custodes (Talons of the Emperor): Two big Allarus units in Land Raiders with some Witchseekers in a Rhino to hand out buffs.
  • 12th – Linton Rowan – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force): Max ThunderCav supported by a trio of Vindicators.
  • 13th – Nicholas Fromme – Thousand Sons: Lots of Characters and a full Scarab brick.
  • 14th – Matt Evans – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Not content with breaking out in Vanguard, melee Tyranid Warriors get a showing in Invasion Fleet here too, benefitting from the broad threat they present with the Detachment Rule and access to a Feel No Pain (always great on 3W models).
  • 15th – Michael Kriegler – Chaos Space Marines (Index): Lots of shooty hulls and Obliterators protected by Chosen in Rhinos, putting Masters of Execution in those units instead of Lords.
  • 16th – Jaden Iwaasa – Chaos Knights: A Rampager supported by Karnivores, Brigands and Nurglings.
  • 17th – Cayden Stankavich – Grey Knights: All-rounder Grey Knights with various Terminator MSUs, some Strikes and a pair of Dreadknights.
  • 18th – Tarzan – Orks (Dread Mob): 18 Kanz and a Stompa, absolute king.
  • 19th – Don Maddock – Orks (Bully Boyz): Bully Boyz going for two full Leadered-up Squighog units alongside the Meganobz.
  • 20th – James Marriott – Adepta Sororitas: All-rounder Sisters adding the Junith/Sacresant unit to the usual mix.

Alberta Classic 2024

58-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Calgary, Alberta, CA on May 18 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Frasier Parry – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) – 1st Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Wide-ranging World Eaters

Thoughts

Other than Thousand Sons is really does feel like the most melee-intensive metagame we’ve had for a while, and of course the World Eaters are getting in on the action. This list diverges from the default by going for a lot more small units of Eightbound rather than a concentrated block of Exalted, and carves out the points by cutting some Berzerkers. That gives lots of flexibility to adapt to the plans of other melee lists, which is definitely important right now, at a cost of having few things that will fully detonate a big enemy unit. Whether Bullyz or Green Tide end up on top will probably help decide which option is best, but for now congratulations Fraiser on the win.

Kieren Trimbee – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic) – 2nd Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Mid-range Thousand Sons

Thoughts

A middle-of-the-road Tsons build here, using a mix of Rubricae and the Mutalith. The only standout beyond that is chosing to put the Umbralefic Crystal on the Tzaangors, which gives you the option of redeploy into Temporal Surge to flip an objective on a unit you don’t massively care about losing. Other than that, business as usual, but very effective business, so well done Kieren.

Brandon Powell – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 3rd Place

Credit: Dan “Swiftblade” Richardson

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

All-rounder CSM

Thoughts

The Index is on the way out, and it’s fair to say it’s something of a shadow of its original self, but still time for a top four outing here, combining a fairly “lightweight” setup of core Infantry and gunline stuff (leaning on double Pacts from a Helbrute and Nurgle for the latter) so that it’s got the points for two big hammer units in the Possessed and Terminators. Does ensure that it can give as good as it gets into melee-heavy lists, and the biggest takeaway is probably to not count out Terminators when the new book lands – Orks being a major meta factor makes all-rounders that can flatten hordes in multiple phases extra valuable. Well done to Brandon.

Ozzie Meloche – Tyranids (Unending Swarm) – 4th Place

Swarmlord. Credit: Rockfish
Swarmlord. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Toolbox Unending Swarm

Thoughts

Speaking of hordes you need to clear, we’ve got another showing for the Undending Swarm here, though it’s much less of a pure horde build than we saw at Dallas. Instead, bringing in the Swarmlord and lots of utility units provides quite a bit of flexibility on the tabletop, making the build very reliable at scoring Secondaries while the Gargoyles deny Primary. Although the number of horde units it has is fairly small, they’ll got a bit further thanks to Venomthropes and a Feel No Pain from the Psychophage, and Swarmy’s bonus CP also ensures that you should be able to use Unending Waves every turn if you need to. Funnily enough, that really hammers home what we just mentioned about the value of multi-phase bruisers, as the potential weakspot of this build is that it’s got less redundancy against opponents who can quickly clear multiple horde units. On the other hand, it retains a lot of the strengths of the dedicated horde variants, adds some alternative lines of play, and is also presumably a lot less physically hateful to pilot! I do think the Swarmlord should show up in more Unending builds, as they’re priced to move at their new cost, so well done to Ozzie for giving them a big outing!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 5th – Gordon Sundin – Tyranids (Synaptic Nexus): The biggest and braniest bugs of them all go rampaging here, with two Norn Emissaries leading the charge.
  • 6th – Thomas Walker – Thousand Sons: Characters, Rubricae and a Mutalith.
  • 7th – David Coren – Grey Knights: Four Dreadknights and two hefty Infantry blocks in the form of Draigo/Terminators and Crowe/Purifiers.

Brighton 40k GT VII

35-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, United Kingdom on May 18 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Daniel Whitaker – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) – 1st Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Heavy Hitter World Eaters

Thoughts

Welp, this is almost the exact opposite of the previous World Eaters build we looked at – light on Characters, heavy on giant bricks of Exalted Eightbound, ready to smash through anything that gets in the way (though it does also retain the utility of 3×3 basic Eightbound). Definitely daunting to face down, and adding the Maulerfiend is cute too, as Tank Shock from it can help open up game into some targets that the Eightbound might stumble on. Well done Daniel!

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players on 4-1 records. Everyone is marked as joint 2nd in BCP. Don’t ask me why. They were:

  • 2nd – Josh Dare – Orks (Green Tide): A nice clean 100 Boyz with buff Characters, supported by the Warcaller Big Mek/Meganobz brick.
  • 2nd – Nicholas Willingale – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Triple Wraiths, double Doomstalker, a Szeras/Immortal setup and a Transcendent.
  • 2nd – Liam Macindoe – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): Characters, Rubricae, chaff and one supporting Karnivore.
  • 2nd – Will Whitaker – Chaos Daemons: A squelchy Rotigus/GUO anvil and a hammer of lots of Bloodcrushers supported by a pair of Rendmasters.
  • 2nd – Tom Hamshire – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): 2/3 Raiders/Venoms with the normal stuff packed into them, plus the unique and interesting touch of a lone allied Solitaire.

Ammonite Gaming, Turbulent Tides – The Whitby GT

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, GB on May 18 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Chris Taylor – Orks (Bully Boyz) – 1st Place

Zodgrod Wortsnagga – Credit: RichyP

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Transport-heavy Bully Boyz

Thoughts

More Bully Boyz, heading to the seaside for a hit-and-run holiday. Mostly stuff we’ve seen, but two new things – Zodgrod’s Supa Grotz, who I think are severely under-utilised (especially as they can potentially bog down the enemy counterpunch), and two small units of Flash Gitz, giving a list that usually has zero (0) firepower a teeny amount of it. I’m not convinced that’s necessary, though I suppose it could theoretically open up the Thousand Sons matchup just a little bit by reducing the impunity with which Rubricae stomp amount. Glad to see they’re still getting work even with Da Kaptin gone, and congratulations to Chris on the win.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd (4.5-0.5) – Adam Elliott – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs): All-rounder Sisters with a bit of everything.
  • 3rd – Ratnu Vaidya – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance):  Dogs, Nurglings and a lone Beast of Nurgle to sit on an objective.
  • 4th – Joe Senior – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force): Max ThunderCav, 3×5 Wulfen and some shooting support from a Vindicator and Lancer.
  • 5th – Stephen Platten – Death Guard: Three full Rhino Plague Marine units supported by Daemon Engines and Destructors.

Capital Clash

27-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Ottawa, ON, CA on May 18 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Ridvan Martinez – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault) – 1st Place

Credit: Corrode

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Voidraven Skysplinter

Thoughts

A proper left-field unit choice to round us out for the day, double Voidraven. That’s slightly less implausible than it sounds – as a Drukhari mastermind like Skari will have been well aware, the output on these is kind of ridiculous with a pain token, and in a metagame defined by melee pressure builds and Thousand Sons it honestly has a lot going for it. Dark Scythes with re-rolls are perfect for picking up Rubricae, while against melee hordes the damage will seriously add up over time. Running them in Skysplinter also provides access to a 4+ Invulnerable Savefrom Night Shield, so they’re less trivial to put down in response where the opponent does have shooting. I feel like you’re probably losing slightly too many of the serious draws to Skysplinter to get two in (I’d probably want one more Archon/Incubi Venom here), but seeing this has certainly sold me that getting at least one out again would be seriously strong. Congratulations Skari!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Zach Comeau – T’au Empire (Mont’ka): God dammit, I said last week that the Tiger Shark would be good in Mont’ka, and here it is. We shall never be free of the resin curse. Otherwise – Riptides and Breacherfish.
  • 3rd – Josh Crowe – Orks (Bully Boyz): Trukk Spam Bully Boyz with lots of Nobz and Meganobz in sweet rides.
  • 4th – Thomas Cowan – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness): Brawler stuff, including a full Possessed bomb, supported by Vindicators and a Predator.

Wrap Up

That’s it for part two – you’re in Lowest of Men‘s capable hands tomorrow, so make sure to check back for our final five events.

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