That’s annihilation by Aeldari, not annihilation of Aeldari, to be clear.

We’re in week one of full 10th Edition, and let’s be honest that it’s a little bit of a false start, because late last week we received both the Leviathan Tournament Companion and news that an initial balance pass is coming today. This is good because currently there’s something of an elf problem. I know, I know, shocking. This has literally never happened before. Pay no attention to vast swathes of the previous three editions.

Given that, and also because there’s a new Final Fantasy out, my stance this week is that we’re only looking at Showdowns that don’t have Aeldari in them, because there’s only so many ways to write “the elves killed people, even the most nightmarish Marine list, but mostly each other” without it getting a bit boring. This cuts us down to two Showdowns out of nine, which is, in fact, about the correct number. Marvellous.

That means that this week we’ll be looking at:

The Alpine Grand Tournament (Major)
GT Tormenta De Hostias (Major)
Geelong 40k Town Open
Hometown 40K
Münsterland GT3
The 40k Brawl GT
Element Games Grand Slam 1
Luxembourg Open 40k
2023 RAGE GT

Our showdowns will be:

Astra Militarum vs. Deathwatch at the Geelong Town Open
Imperial Knights vs. Adeptus Custodes at the 40k Brawl GT

The Alpine Grand Tournament

92-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Salzburg, Salzburg Austria on July 01 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Arne Zerndt – Aeldari – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Herohammer Shooting

Final Round Matchup

14 – 6 Victory against William Fuhrimann – Ultramarines.

Thoughts

The theme of Aeldari nonsense this week is very much that you don’t need Wraithknights to compete – flooding the board with a whole bunch of cheap hulls and indirect, then filling out with the Yncarne and some utility/murder heroes gives you something ultra-strong, and which claimed both the first and second place spots here. This list packs so many shots, so many re-rolls and so much redundancy that it’s nigh impossible to stop, particularly as the Yncarne gets better the more small, expendable units you have. Let’s hope that the naughty list in the balance changes extends beyond just the Wraithknight, and congratulations to Arne for enjoying the good times while they’ve lasted.

Thomas Wobak – Asuryani – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Herohammer Shooting

Thoughts

Yeah, pretty much same again, only with slightly different utility/herohammer setups. Well done to Thomas.

Justin Jansen – Genestealer Cult – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Horde & Hammers

Thoughts

Third and fourth place also feature two very similar lists, this time from the insidious forces of the Genestealer Cults. The recipe here is to put a reasonably large horde of Acolytes and Neophytes on the table, add two key hammer units (a big bike squad that can double bomb from the Alphus, and Aberrants with a Biophagus), then fill with various utility and buff characters. That ends up super daunting, because it covers a lot of the table with units that are guaranteed to make their Cult Ambush roll, making it pretty tricky for opponents to meaningfully degrade it without setting up some power plays. The Neophyte bricks are no joke when they come in too, and doubling up on Primuses to ensure they hit hard on alpha turns is pretty unsurprising. The central Infiltrating Aberrant unit is also ultra nasty, and benefits from having fairly “universal” defences – there’s no way round a 4+ Feel No Pain currently, especially in combination with high toughness and wound roll reduction.

Consensus appears to be emerging that this is one of the strongest builds around, and two placings in the top four here certainly supports that, so keep a wary eye on the Cult if the more obvious top dogs get hit hard. Well done to Justin for showcasing what they can do.

Peter Steiner – Genestealer Cult – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Horde & Hammers

Thoughts

One more – same again, basically. Slightly more Ridgerunners to provide some big shots rather than just using one with the Mortar to tee up Crossfire, but the same core plan – fill the table with lots of bodies that are a nightmare to permanently remove, and use the big hitters to put the boot on the enemy’s throat. Looks like the revolution is here, great stuff from Peter.

The Best of the Rest

There were 2 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

5th – Colin Schmid – Genestealer Cult: Similar stuff to the last two builds, packing the big Aberrant and Bike units (though no Infiltrate on the Aberrants here) along with a horde and some shooting.
6th – William Fuhrimann – Ultramarines: First on our list of “people who made a valiant attempt to slay the elf”, William packed an ultra-shooty Ultra-Marines list with Bobby G, Redemptors, a Repex and, of course, a full Desolation brick.

GT Tormenta De Hostias

58-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Lliçà d’Amunt, Catalunya ES on July 01 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Tkila RR – Aeldari – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Wraithknight Eldar

Final Round Matchup

100 – 82 Victory against Alejandro García – Aeldari.

Thoughts

…to be clear though, Wraithknights are also very good.

Well done Tkila.

Sir Charles – Asuryani – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Go-wide shooty Eldar

Thoughts

…but also you could go even wider. I did get excited seeing that this list had a draw, but it was against another Eldar player. Congratulations Sir Charles.

Xavo Melenero L’Escamarlà – Tyranids – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Ultimate Monster Mash

Thoughts

Damn those are some big bugs, OK. This is, I’m afraid, another uncomplicated build, but at least it isn’t elves, and it does show us some interesting things. First up, Barbed Hierodules are the real deal, creating a pleasing all-round package, and saturating the table with them and other durable (but cheaper) bugs is an effective way to overwhelm the enemy. It also shows the utility of anything that lets you take a very cheap single-model unit like the Pyrovore – stick it in reserves and it’s very likely to be able to score you some VP at some point. Finally, on that point, if you’re playing Tyranids and you’re not including at least one Biovore (and two as here feels much more correct) you’re missing out – the utility of getting to drop a Spore Mine somewhere on the table is higher than ever.

Good job Xavo for breaking up the Aeldari monotony.

Ferran Villegas – Asuryani – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Shooty Aeldari

Thoughts

…to which we now return, but at least the Avatar is here, always love to see that guy. Also a big, big fan of Wraithguard with a Fate’s Messenger Spiritseer, an exceptionally strong threat to bring in from Strategic Reserves. Otherwise, loads of cheap hulls, a Wayleaper for free CP, a Wraithknight etc. etc.

You all know the drill, but at least Ferran showcased a few additional units!

The Best of the Rest

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

5th – Alejandro García – Aeldari: Yncarne, Prisms, Spinners, a Wraithknight, that sort of thing.
6th – Pomork RR – Imperial Knights: Quad bigs, packing two Crusaders, an Errant, and the coolest of all Knights in the Valiant (it’s science, trust me). Went 4-0, then met Eldar and had a bad time.
7th – Manel Tulla – Thousand Sons: Magnus and some hefty hitters, three Mutaliths and a big Scarab block. Pulled off an impressive 100-80 win against one of the nasty Aeldari builds in the final round.
8th – Raul Cubatalan – Imperial Knights: Canis/Crusader/Warden triple big.
9th – Julio Fernandez – Harlequins: Does sneak in the Ynnari characters as well as clowns, but I’ll allow it – one big troupe and three small ones, then tonnes of small bike and Voidweaver units and a metric tonne of herohammer.
10th – Rubén Novell – Imperial Knights: Double Crusader and a Warden.
11th – Pablo Vazquez Salgado – Imperial Knights: Lancer/Warden/Castellan triple bigs, and another holder of the coveted “actually beat Aeldari” crown.

Geelong 40k Town Open

49-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in North Shore, VIC AU on June 30 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Purge The Foe/Chilling Rain/Search and Destroy

Rhys Cunningham – Astra Militarum: Max Basilisks and Manticores, lots of Sentinels and buffed-up Infantry units.
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Terence Drew – Deathwatch: Terminators for days across a couple of Proteus Teams and a Terminator squad, indirect from Whirlwinds and Desolation Marines, and a couple of big Eradicator units lead by Big Apothecaries.
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Yeah I’m going to level with you – I made the rule about writing about the non-Aeldari showdowns and sort of assumed the matchups would be slightly more exciting, but ehhhh looks like maybe I should have included Indirect Fire on that list, because it’s a fairly major feature of both builds here, though the Deathwatch is a bit more varied. The Guard build’s plan is simple – use Scout Sentinels and a few other pieces to keep the opponent at bay long enough that the Basilisks and Manticores can remove the opponent’s forces from existence.

The Deathwatch army has some strong indirect of its own from a full Desolation brick and some Whirlwinds, but also gets in on the Proteus Kill Team action, ensuring it has two ultra-potent all-purpose killing machines to rampage around the board with, ready to be Teleportariumed into position when required. It’s also got some very effective anti-tank from two big Eradicator squads with Thicc Apothecaries, one of which packs the Beacon Angelis for a tasty Deep Strike/Rapid Ingress. Finally, big fan of the use of Terminators here, as the Captain with Thief of Secrets really ups the ante on their melee capabilities, and also adds great utility with the free Stratagem per round.

So how does this stack up? Unfortunately for the Deathwatch, the Astra Militarum are reasonably well equipped to thwart their plans, as although they’re very much capable of going through all those Sentinels, it’s going to take them at least a couple turns and the Scout moves mean that early teleport shenanigans are going to be tough to pull off. Manticores and Basilisks are pretty great at sweeping up Space Marines while they chew through Sentinels, and the movement reduction from the Basilisks is a geniune factor in this game to boot. I don’t think this game is a dead cert or anything, as with the first turn I think it’s plausible Deathwatch punch forward hard and fast enough that they can get through to the clanky innards of the Guard army and ruin their day, but it’s one of those games where I think one side needs the rolloff to go their way, and the other merely wants it to, so the odds favour the latter. Sure enough, the mighty guns of the Astra Militarum took the day here.

Result

Astra Militarum Victory – 98 – 58

Rhys Cunningham – Astra Militarum – 1st Place

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Sentinels and Guns

Thoughts

Can anyone cut through the Sentinels fast enough to get to the guns? Maybe, but no one managed it here, including a nasty Aeldari build on top of the Astra Militarum above. The Knight matchup is the one I’d be interested to see (which didn’t come up here), but even there it feels like there’s a chance that the mixture of fairly distributed threats and Born Soldiers gives the Guard a throughline. Very much another build that will need another look once we know exactly what changes are afoot, but for now congratulations Rhys for taking a trophy for the non-elf portion of the game.

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

2nd – Dylan Cowan – Tyranids: Shooty-ish monster mash, with a pair of Haruspex acting as a forward hammer ahead of Exocrines, Biovores and Zoanthropes, with Old One Eye, and a pair of Carnifexes providing a final all-round nightmare.
3rd – Leigh Tresidder – Imperial Knights: Four bigs – Canis, Crusader, Errant, Paladin, with the Warden getting much less good once you only have two Armigers, plus an Eversor as a cheap backfield/utility piece.
4th – Richard Bracey – Necrons: A mixed-arms Necron list after my own heart, big, buff Warrior and Lychguard bricks with some Doomstalkers and a C’tan Shard backing them up.
5th – Laurence Gutierrez – Imperial Knights: Crusader/Warden with tonnes of Armigers, plus a Callidus.
6th – Terence Drew – Deathwatch: See showdown.
7th – Ben Crowther – Tyranids: Plenty of monsters still, but a hordier support structure, bringing in big bricks of Hormagaunts, Termagaunts and Genestealers while Tyrannofexes blast from the back.
8th – Gavin Coles – Necrons: More fun Necron stuff, this time with my boy Szeras backing a bunch of Warriors, and triple Annihilation Barges and some Doomsdays backing them up.
9th – Lachlan Morrison – Genestealer Cult: Horde and Hammer, this time flexing to some Purestrains as well.

Hometown 40K

42-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Edmonton, Alberta CA on July 01 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Riley Tremblay – Asuryani – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Shooty Aeldari

Thoughts

Thank you, next. Full Ranger/Illic brick here I guess, that’s extremely nasty as well. Well done Riley.

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on X-1 records. They were:

2nd – Scotty Bee – Adeptus Custodes: Two big Custodian bricks with Wardens and some Allarus as auxiliary threats, while a Vindicare snipes and some Arbites investigate objectives.
3rd – Kieren Trimbee – Genestealer Cult: Loads of Acolytes, a big Aberrant unit and max laser Ridgerunners.
4th – Arthur Zubrack Oliver – Aeldari: Double Wraithknight Aeldari.
5th – Michael Blanchet – Iron Hands: Double Astraeus with Feirros backing them up. King.
6th – Taylor Parrish – Chaos Space Marines: A pleasingly varied CSM list with a bit of everything – even a Heldrake!
7th – Ryan Mcleod – Chaos Knights: Ultra-shooty Chaos Knights, going for a shooty Tyrant, a Desecrator and a Crusader-build Despoiler.
8th – Sebastian Hebert – Space Marines: Loads of guns strapped to Dreadnoughts, a big Desolation unit with Bolter Discipline and a Bladeguard unit with a Judiciar as a brawling threat.
9th – Shawn Ford – T’au Empire: Whoops all Broadsides. Well, other suits to fill out the points, but mostly Broadsides.

Münsterland GT3

34-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Horstmar, NRW DE on July 01 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Thomas Büttelmann – Aeldari – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Shooty Go-Wide Aeldari.

Thoughts

No thoughts, head empty.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Alessandro Liessem – Aeldari: Low-to-the-ground shooty Eldar, mixing War Walkers and D-cannons with a big Baharroth/Hawk brick, lots of Spiders and a full Reaper squad, plus Karandras as an early pressure piece.
3rd – Chris Buchen – Imperial Knights: Triple bigs, going for the already classic Canis/Warden/Crusader loadout.
4th – Andre Lutter – Thousand Sons: Magnus and a whole bunch of his most powerful sorcerors laced amongst a few Rubric units and a big Scarab brick.
5th – Alkaios Bournias Varotsis – Chaos Daemons: A mix of monster mash and mid-tier stuff, going for Be’lakor, Shalaxi and a buffed Daemon Prince among the former, and lots of Flesh Hounds, Bloodcrushers and Flamers in the latter.

The 40k Brawl GT

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Poole, England GB on July 01 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Vital Ground/Secret Intel/Search and Destroy

Chris Anderson – Imperial Knights: Warden/Crusader/Canis triple bigs (the best current Imperialis build for my money).
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Simon SJ – Adeptus Custodes: All-rounder Custodes with small Custodian Squads, Wardens and a Land Raider
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

As we already explored last week, Knights can be a tough game for Custodes as things stand, because as long as they’ve built with a Warden it can be very difficult for them to avoid getting cleared off the table with little pushback, especially with Canis Rex’s damage-dealing capabilities backing that up. The configurations here do make things a little better for the Custodes, however. The Knight list is very good at shooting most things, but a Venerable Land Raider is legitimately not one of them, giving the Custodes an anchor that needs melee attention to deal with – but that the Knights can’t start melee-ing till they’ve chewed through a “screen” of Custodes. It also means they actually have some guns, and a legit chance of popping a couple of Armigers at range as the game proceeds.

That’s good for them, as is the mission – Vital Ground suits them just fine, and they’re probably slightly better able to make use of Secret Intel than the Knights are, as it’s more feasible for them to score whatever they draw at pretty much any time, especially as the Knights don’t have much to screen with to stop some of the positional ones.

All factors giving the Custodes a fighting chance, so did it outweigh the structural disadvantage they have where they’re likely to get taken off the table? Very nearly!…but not quite.

Result

Imperial Knights Victory – 57 – 53

Chris Anderson – Imperial Knights – 1st Place

Knight Crusader (Duchess Silas Magellan, Piloting the Auric Might) Credit: SRM

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Triple Bigs

Thoughts

As far as I’m concerned, this is already pretty much locked in as the best three Knight recipe, giving you the best balance of killing power and durability. A strong show from Chris.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Dan Cooke – Imperial Knights: Crusader/Paladin/Warden triple bigs.
3rd – Jordan Checkley – Blood Angels: Jump pack-heavy Gladius Task Force, seeding two big Assault Squads and some Death Company with nasty Characters, and backing with a Desolation brick.
4th – Jay Seebarun – Imperial Knights: Extra-shooty Imperial Knights with Canis, a Crusader and Castellan.

Element Games Grand Slam 1

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England GB on July 01 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

James Wilson – Asuryani – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Big Shooty

Final Round Matchup

85 – 74 Victory against Tom Higginbottom – Orks.

Thoughts

Thank you for letting us know you do not feel guilty. Definitely going to have some fun with the fact that Battleforge lets people title their lists easily.

Aiden Smalley – Death Guard – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Mortarion & Sons

Thoughts

Hell yeah, OK, this is the stuff. Mortarion is really good, the rest of Death Guard…maybe not so much, but Aidan’s angle here makes it work. The plan appears to be to ensure there’s enough stuff to gum up the board that a mixture of the Mortarion hammer blow and Plaguebursts blasting away with boosts from a Lord of Virulence does enough damage that the opponent can’t recover – and it worked! Boilblight as a backup plan for buffing up the Plaguebursts to dunk something seems really handy too, and I’m going to be honest that this is the only undegfeated list from this week that really made me say hell yeah. Great work from Aidan.

The Best of the Rest

There were 2 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

3rd – Tom Higginbottom – Orks: Another casualty of trying to save us from the Aeldari menace. Extreme Trukk horde, with loads of Boyz and some Nobz eager to slam into the enemy as quick as possible, with Kommandos and Squighogs coming in hot as well. Gave the Aeldari nightmare above a real run in the finals, so well done Tom.
4th – Cameron Gilbert – Tyranids: All-rounder nids, clearly looking to try out lots of the new toys from Leviathan, and also packing a Scythed Hierodule as a big centrepiece.

Luxembourg Open 40k

28-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Mersch, Mersch Luxembourg on July 01 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Mani Cheema – Aeldari – 1st Place

Eldar Support Weapon - D-Cannon. Credit: Rockfish — Eldar Support Weapon – D-Cannon. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Triple Wraithknight

Final Round Matchup

100 – 10 Victory against Anthony Mattassoni – Imperial Knights.

Thoughts

Is that final round score accurate, or did the Knight player just walk away? Who knows – the distressing thing is that a one-turn tabling seems borderline plausible.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Dino Kho – Aeldari: More. Moooorrrreeee!
3rd – Guillaume Buchkremer – Tyranids: A fairly exciting list with all sorts of interesting toys. Big monsters of various stripes, small infantry units to throw onto positions, Barbgaunts getting a debut, and two big Zoanthrope squads to blast anything that avoids the jaws of the beasties.
4th – Ed Watts – Genestealer Cult: Horde-tastic cult with some Ridgerunners and a Manticore backing them up.
5th – Frederic Joubert – Genestealer Cult: Massive horde and two big Aberrant bricks.
6th – Anthony Mattassoni – Imperial Knights: I warned you all about the Knight Porphyrion man. I knew this was going to happen.

2023 RAGE GT

27-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Sparks, Nevada US on July 01 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Ben Jurek – Aeldari – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Double Wraithknight.

Final Round Matchup

100 – 27 Victory against Stephen Unger – Deathwatch.

Thoughts

Those are some weird lookin’ Orks Ben. You’ve got a brand to uphold.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Tod Swenson – Imperial Knights: Extra shooty Knights, with Two Crusaders alongside Canis Rex, and some Imperial Agents providing cheap board coverage.
3rd – Danielle Jurek – Aeldari: Hull-heavy shooty Eldar with Prisms and Spinners alongside the Wraithknights.
4th – Stephen Unger – Deathwatch: A bunch of cheap and mean shooting, lots of Desolation Marines and Deathwatch Veterans.

Wrap Up

I action and encourage any TO reading this to adopt any and all balance changes that get published today for events this weekend. I don’t care that it’s three days lead time, c’mon. See you next week, where hopefully we’ll have a bit more variety.

Competitive Innovations in 10th: Aeldari Annihilation

The Alpine Grand Tournament

Arne Zerndt – Aeldari – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Final Round Matchup

Thoughts

Thomas Wobak – Asuryani – 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Justin Jansen – Genestealer Cult – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Peter Steiner – Genestealer Cult – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

GT Tormenta De Hostias

Tkila RR – Aeldari – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Final Round Matchup

Thoughts

Sir Charles – Asuryani – 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Xavo Melenero L’Escamarlà – Tyranids – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Ferran Villegas – Asuryani – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Geelong 40k Town Open

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Purge The Foe/Chilling Rain/Search and Destroy

Thoughts

Result

Rhys Cunningham – Astra Militarum – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Hometown 40K

Riley Tremblay – Asuryani – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Münsterland GT3

Thomas Büttelmann – Aeldari – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

The 40k Brawl GT

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Vital Ground/Secret Intel/Search and Destroy

Thoughts

Result

Chris Anderson – Imperial Knights – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Element Games Grand Slam 1

James Wilson – Asuryani – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Final Round Matchup

Thoughts

Aiden Smalley – Death Guard – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype