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Competitive Innovations in 10th: After the Storm pt.2

By James "One_Wing" Grover and Lowest of Men

The fun continues today – we’ve got more events, multiple Showdowns and plenty of exciting lists to look at, so let’s get to it.

Today Wings will be covering:

  • Bembel Clash #9
  • 2d6 Grand Tournament
  • FA Cup 2023 – Warhammer 40,00 GT
  • ITA 40K SINGLES GRAND TOURNAMENT 2023
  • (Bonus) Toys of Mass Destruction Hertfordshire Winter GT

If you’re looking for the following, go check out part 1 with Lowest of Men from Wednesday:

  • Majestic Beasties 2023
  • East Anglian Grand Tournament 2
  • Cross-Swords War At The Westward 3
  • MAD Warhammer 40k GT 11/25-11/26

We’ll also be kicking off with an additional showdown that should have been in part 1, because the devious Goonhammer patrons coordinated a late voting surge after I’d thought that the top two were far enough ahead to be safe, set up the articles and went to bed. Scoundrels all, but I’m a man of my word, so let’s go for it.

Majestic Beasties 2023

The rest of this event is in part 1.

The Showdown

Purge the Foe – Sweep and Clear – Crucible of Battle

Garret Olson – Howling Griffons (Ironstorm Spearhead): Dreads and Inceptors all day long.
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Jason Wells – Raven Guard (Firestorm Assault Force): Toasty aggro Raven Guard, with Shrike leading a scary brick of Jump Intercessors on a rampage, and various transport cycling tricks adding some hard-to-stop shooting.
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Marine-on-Marine violence like it’s 9th Edition all over again. This matchup ends up looking pretty interesting, because unlike a lot of the time when you hit Purge the Foe, neither side feels like it’s definitively more likely to bleed units. The Ironstorm side has lots of hulls, sure, but the Flamestorm side has plenty of Transports to protect its toys in coupled with plenty of larger units. It doesn’t look like either side is going to be able to fully hide either, so the fact that the Lancers are probably the most reliable killing machines on the table early on, so a few dreads getting punked fast seems pretty plausible.

In the mid game things potentially swing back towards the Ironstorm side a bit. The big go squads from the Firestorm side aren’t going to have fantastic targets once the Infiltrators and Incursors get rolled up, whereas the full plasmaceptor units are extremely good at sweeping whole Marine units once they emerge. In addition, the Redemptors aren’t loaded for anti-tank, so they can focus on finding a safe path to the mid-board, representing an overpowering level of crunch that the Firestorm side might stumble against.

Realistically, I think the heavily favoured side here is the one that goes second, which is pretty often the case on Purge, but of the two I’d say the Firestorm gets the marginal nod – all they have to do is kill the Ballistus dreads and then the Repulsor and Land Raider are serious problems, and I think that gives them the advantage. With that in mind, congratulations to Garrett, who bucked my prediction here and took a very narrow victory!

Result

Howling Griffons (Ironstorm Spearhead) Victory – 82 – 79

Bembel Clash #9

42-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Hirzenhain, HE, DE on November 25 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Kevin „planB_God“ Zöllinger – Black Templars (Ironstorm Spearhead) – 1st Place

Black Templars Hellblasters. Credit: SRM

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Drive By Ironstorm

Thoughts

Black Templars getting to strap an extra multi-melta to everything really makes them shine in the Ironstorm Spearhead, as you can do stuff like this. Rather than having to proactively buy stuff with anti-tank guns, you kind of get that incidentally (especially once re-rolls are factored in), allowing you to focus on nightmarish horde-clearing from the Reapers (deadly with Mercy is Weakness) and packing in the extra flexibility from transport-riding Hellblasters and Scouts. Ironstorm is already the pretty clear winner of the Marine book, and the extra spice the Templars add really pushes it over the top here, great stuff from Kevin.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Jan Reisenauer – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force): Maximum Thunderwolf aggro plus Grimnar in his sled.
  • 3rd – Thomas Büttelmann – Aeldari (Battle Host): Yncarne, Wraithguard, hulls.
  • 4th – Niklas Frerichs – Tyranids (Synaptic Nexus): Synaptic Monster Mash with an extra tough Hive Tyrant at the middle.
  • 5th – Malte Höfs – Chaos Space Marines: Brawler Goodstuff with Abaddon.
  • 6th – Immanuel Wolf – Leagues of Votann: Sagitaur Spam with a trio of Grimnyrs as utility pieces.

2d6 Grand Tournament

38-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Oslo, NO on November 25 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

The Ritual – Chilling Rain – Hammer and Anvil

Kasper Walle – Orks: Ork Goodstuff with a slight skew to the speedy.
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Victor Bergenholtz – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force): Terminator-tastic Grey Knights.
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

The Ritual eh? This is a weird as hell mission that normally favours the side that can flood the board with bodies, but here I’m not so sure, because these Grey Knights very much look like a force that can walk forward and threaten to bounce the Orks. They’re not quite as good at that as pre-nerf Custodes, but they’re not a million miles off, and also have a massive amount of dakka from the Paladins. Orks seething, fuming.

The Paladins really are the capital-P problem here if you’re an Ork, because they’re just so good at gunning down the foe. The Grand Master letting them ignore wound modifiers means that the crunchiest Ork unit, the Squighogs, can’t rely on ‘Ard as Nails to coast through their onslaught, and with the Sigil of Exigence the Flash Gitz can’t just try to alpha them either.

I think that leaves the Orks needing to try and punk out as many small units as possible and try to ride their greater numbers to victory, but The Ritual is a prohibitively difficult mission to pull that off on because of how close together objective tend to end up. If the Grey Knights go first and press forward, I think they’ll be able to seriously limit the Orks Primary scoring, whereas the sheer nastiness of the Terminator squads makes that far harder to reliably pull from the far side. It looks like the Orks made a credible attempt, but the silver host was able to sut them down in the end. They do love Rituals, so makes sense.

Result

Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) Victory – 79 – 66

Victor Bergenholtz – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) – 1st Place

Grey Knights Paladins. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Double Terminator Block

Thoughts

Lots of Mortals, lots of ultra-crunchy guys. Big Grey Knight units are super hard to handle for some armies, and can very much trump any build planning on brawling that hasn’t brough the guns to threaten a block. The small Terminator squads are nifty too, being great Librarian delivery mechanisms and intensely annoying to anyone that fails to wipe them, since the gradual respawn from the Apothecary adds up. Grey Knights have slightly struggled to settle on a single build, but this is definitely a frontrunner, and good stuff from Victor showcasing what it can do.

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 4-1+ records. They were:

  • 2nd (4.5-0.5) – Jonathan Arkin – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe): Ork Goodstuff, adding some Deffkoptas for a bit of extra mobile shooting.
  • 3rd (4.5-0.5) – Alexander Bæra – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): The standard Character-heavy build.
  • 4th – Kasper Walle – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe): See showdown.
  • 5th – Sondre Skår – Chaos Space Marines: Brawler Goodstuff with an Accursed Commune and Syll’Esske.
  • 6th – Gorm Hol – Blood Angels (Ironstorm Spearhead): High speed shooting – Baal Predators, Stormhawks and Inceptors for guns, plus Death Company and the Sanguinor for melee utility.
  • 7th – Geir Dutta – Ynnari: Go-wide Infantry plus a full Wraithguard brick and the Yncarne.

FA Cup 2023 – Warhammer 40,00 GT

36-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Kowloon, HK on November 25 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Terence Tsui – Leagues of Votann (Oathband) – 1st Place

Einhyr Champion. Credit: Rockfish
Einhyr Champion. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

All-rounder Votann

Thoughts

There’s not a massive amount to say here, as this is very much on point for Votann right now. Lots of Sagitaurs, loads of Hearthguard and enough Beserks to ensure counter-charge capability before the Hearthguard land. The one standout here is a Land Fort that’s presumably carrying the Thunderkyn – Fire Support on these is really nasty into Vehicles, which is valuable with Ironstorm out and about. It can also just mount up an extra suite of infantry in a game where the Thunderkyn need to go in Strategic Reserves. Votann are a serious force to be reckoned with right now, so make sure you understand how this list functions if you’re planning to push for the big wins, and well done to Terence for the triumph.

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Agnon Wong – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe): Ork Goodstuff with some extra Warbikers.
  • 3rd – Jireh Mok – Aeldari (Battle Host): Double Avatar Wraithguard.
  • 4th – Aaron Cheung – Imperial Fists (Ironstorm Spearhead): Vindicators and Whirlwinds, plus Lysander as a solo beater.
  • 5th – Hoi Yang – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders): Full Sword Brethren stack in a Land Raider, backed by all the spiciest Marine units.
  • 6th – Johnnie Lau – Chaos Daemons: A Daemon player actually went and did it – six Monster Mash, featuring triple bird (one being Kairos), Rotigus and a GUO with Be’lakor at the helm.
  • 7th – King Wong Yu – Death Guard: Loads of Plague Marines and Terminators backed by Plaguebursts and Brigands.

ITA 40K SINGLES GRAND TOURNAMENT 2023

28-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Ipswich, QLD, Australia on November 24 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

David Trueman – Leagues of Votann (Oathband) – 1st Place

Trans-Hyperion Alliance Kahl – Leagues of Votann. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Shooty Votann

Thoughts

See? Even more of them. This build cuts out the counter-charge Beserks in favour of a lot more Thunderkyn, who are presumably going to pop out of Strat Reserves to do horrific things. Because their guns are Blast, a full squad starts to be pretty great into anything, and they’re particularly well suited to flattening squads of elite Infantry. Otherwise, we’ve got lots of bargain-priced Sagitaurs, some extra bikes to screen and the same double Hearthguard setup that’s powering plenty of builds. congratulations to David.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd (4.5-0.5) – Jacob Warn – Genestealer Cult (Ascension Day): Infantry horde with one Truck for early board control..
  • 3rd – Oliver Johnson – Leagues of Votann (Oathband): Nightmare mechanised Votann with 25 Berserks in Land Forts and Sagitaurs, plus a full Hearthguard brick.
  • 4th – Zach De Glas – Aeldari (Battle Host): Unique extra chunky Aeldari – the Avatar plus lots of Wraithlords and Wraithseers. Going to go ahead and tick Wraithseer off my “Aeldari units in X-1 lists” bingo card.

Toys of Mass Destruction Hertfordshire Winter GT

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

We’re sneaking this event in as a bonus for three key reasons:

  • It’s consistently great fun and at an extremely pleasant venue.
  • More events should happen within easy driving distance of my house (so you should follow TOMD on Facebook and come to the next one).
  • Round four featured a Competitive Innovations clash.

That’s right – on Sunday morning it was time for some workplace drama as me and Lowest of Men got paired into one another in the 2-1 bracket. We thought this was a great opportunity to examine a game from both sides – what were we thinking going into the game, how did our plans evolve, and what do we think were some key turning points. Let’s take a look.

The Showdown

Vital Ground – Supply Lines – Crucible of Battle

Lowest of Men – Leagues of Votann:

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vs.

Wings – Necrons:

Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Wings: So, I think my advantage here is that, on the terrain we were playing on, I can afford to place the Monolith on the table – it’s got a route to the mid-board, but enough stuff to hide behind that it’s near certainly not going to get insta-killed. I can also deal pretty effectively with the bikes – I can either push them back into their deployment zone with Flayed Ones, or just murder them as they come out. My disadvantage is that the Hearthguard units are a Big Problem – they’ll do horrendous stuff to my Warriors, and are no joke into Lychguard too. With the layered defences that come from having Transports, if my esteemed co-author is smart he can probably just parcel out his resources and grind me down, then take lots of late game scoring.

Happily, he got the first turn, which is a distinct advantage for me when the Monolith is down on the board, and that gave me a route to deal with this. Because he knows I can threaten a massive late game point swing with end-of-game scoring, if I focus on holding my home objective and one of the two no-man’s land ones, he has to come to me, and I can hopefully focus on screening my Warriors from a Heathguard drop and grinding out everything he has to send at me.

This started reasonably well. I had set up my Flayed Ones reasonably cautiously, and he sent out a unit of bikes to deal with them, Grenading and shooting one, then trapping the other unit against a wall. That didn’t help though – the Monolith could zap them out of combat, allowing the bikes to be brutally murdered, pushing forward a screen so the Hearthguard had no angle to drop and shoot the Warriors, and also happening to score Homers, which I drew. So far so good. Now, admittedly my Monolith did then have a tragic accident, chain failing all its saves, but that was still kind of fine – I’d priced in losing it as a possibility for the turn, and he’d sent forward some Beserks that now had nothing to do, having not unreasonably assumed that the Monolith wouldn’t immediately fold to AP-2 shooting. These I swept up handily, and went on the offence with my Lychguard, and then made the crucial mistake that sealed my fate. They had charged into some Hearthguard, and popped Protocol of the Hungry Void for a bit of extra damage, but it turned out not to be enough extra damage, and in return the Champion popped Epic Challenge and killed my Technomancer. Who I did not then have 1CP to revive. Uh oh.

On the next turn, the Lychguard promptly died to a bunch of D2 shooting that would have been massively mitigated by a 5+ Feel No Pain, and the Hearthguard were free to sweep the Warriors, who I couldn’t screen any longer. If the Lychguard had still been an operational force I think there would have been a game from there, but as it was I just didn’t have the stuff less to make a difference. Szeras and my Command Barge went on a hail mary quest to try and flip the Votann home objective for Capture and an end-of-game Primary swing, but careful bully charges by Sagitaurs put paid to that dream, and I was roundly beaten.

Lowest of Men: Going into this tie I was aware of several things. First off, that Votann have shooting which can bring down Warrior or Lychguard bricks, but that actively bringing that to bear isn’t easy, especially into a good player, and on good terrain. Secondly, that the Vital Ground mission and the nature of the Herts GT terrain (which boasts some choke points created by crates, which frankly makes the game a lot more interesting and means infantry don’t have everything their own way all the time) meant that this would devolve into a fraught scrap on both flanks, with whoever broke through most decisively getting the juicier primary points. There was also a Monolith – this adds some genuine threat removal at range for the Necrons, and requires dealing with on my part alongside solving the Warrior / Lychguard problem.

I got first turn – from my perspective this is a negative. Wings has good OC in the Warriors and can play for the late game (he also has the Veil of Darkness to move the Warriors into fresh positions late on) which means I have to be agressive. The smaller utility units in the Necron list (Ophidians, Tomb Blades, Flayed Ones) can also serve an important role in this match up being thrown forward at a key moment to prevent the Hearthguard being able to drop or get into range of the Necron bricks, so I had to be proactive in eliminating these. As such I sacrificed a bike squad to keep the chaff occupied,  and allow my other units to push up. The bike squad ended my turn one parked all over the objective Wings would want to lock down with his Warriors for primary – this slowed them down, prevented any early push up via the Veil, and combined with wider screening meant I could reliably keep the Necrons in front of me all game.

There are a few big moments in the early game that Wings identifies above – a Monolith shouldn’t cave to Land Fort / Sagitaur shooting alone, which meant my Bezerks died for nothing and went to waste, and the crucial moment was the Einhyr Champion slaying the Technomancer, rendering the Lychguard suddenly vulnerable to Bolt Cannon shooting. Before this I was swinging one flank with Hearthguard, and Wings the other with his Lychguard, and it’s not impossible he breaks through the next turn if my hammer champ doesn’t succeed in his task. The push by Szeras to take my homefield was glorious as he tanked a truly exorbitant amount of shooting on the way, but he didn’t quite make it. As it was, once my Hearthguard had secured the ‘Necron’ half of the midboard I ran away on primary, but that doesn’t do justice to how tight and hotly contested the first half of this game was, with the epic moment of a character duel creating the break through moment. I also never want to roll Hearthguard shooting into a Warrior brick ever again- what a time consuming, maddening exercise that is, a single Cryptothrall tanked all the Volkanite shooting on his own before they finally got the job done with the blast shots. At the Index level I’d say this is still Votann favoured – but how will the new Necron codex change things?! I for one am excited to find out, hopefully with a rematch into Wings very soon. Thanks for the game boss!

Result: 73-39 Votann Victory.

Clement Tournade – Aeldari – 1st Place

Credit: Quinn Radich

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Wraithguard and Spinners

Final Round Matchup

99-56 Victory vs Matthew Putney – Aeldari.

Thoughts

Mostly Aeldari business as usual, with the only divergence being the choice to take two loaded Starweavers instead of one. I think this was a good choice for the maps we were playing on – there was some good use of large crates with the ruin obscuring rule added to provide strong defensive positions, so extra speedy melee pressure was a definite asset. The Starweaver boats will do just that, and taking at least one is an increasingly popular choice, so if you thought you know everything the elves could throw at you, maybe learn what those do. Well done as ever to Clement on the win.

The Best of the Rest

  • 2nd – Lowest of Men – Leagues of Votann: See showdown. Long live Space Gandalf!
  • 3nd – Liam Callebout – Adeptus Custodes: All-rounder Custodes packing Venetari, Assassins and Caladius Tanks around a block each of Custodians and Wardens.
  • 4th – Mathew Putney – Aeldari: Avatar and Wraithguard.

Wrap Up

That’s it for this week, but we’ve got another big one about to hit, the final UKTC supermajor of the year takes place in Leicester. I’m falling to the dark side and bringing my Aeldari, and I’m sure I’m not the only one, so will they reclaim their crown just before we start winding down for Christmas? Find out come Wednesday!

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