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Competitive Innovations in 10th: Always Be Charging pt.1

By James "One_Wing" Grover

The Dataslate has had time to sink in, and as well as re-shuffling the factions it’s brought a wider meta shift. Crunch meta is (mostly) OUT and melee meta is IN. Between Space Wolves, Orks, World Eaters and Blood Angels, we’ve got hyper-aggressive pressure armies rampaging across tabletops in greater numbers than we’ve seen at any point thus far this edition, so if you’re rocking up to a tournament, make sure you’re ready to handle foes both belligerent and numerous.

Some high threat shooting armies like Thousand Sons and Ironstorm Dark Angels/Templars are managing to keep pace, and Grey Knights are finding that their crunch builds adapt well to an Orky world, but elsewhere some keepaway scoring armies like Aeldari and Hypercrypt Necrons are having a tough time.

All change out in the world, so let’s get the hot details. Today I’m looking at:

  • III GT Andorra & Open Ordino
  • Frontline Gaming BAO 2024 Warhammer 40K Champs
  • ObSec presents War Calls 40k 2024
  • CTC Warhammer 40k Championship Open
  • Xtraschicht 3.0
  • South Yorkshire GT 24

On Friday we’ll have Lowest of Men examining:

  • 40k Rocky Top Rumble 2024
  • The Alamo GT ‘24 (major)
  • Dutch Masters Grand tournament | golden ticket qualifier
  • Capital Clash – Get ’em Boyz!
  • Heroes Of The Mid Table Spring Gt, 2024
  • GRIMDARK 21: New venues to conquer!

Our Showdowns, as voted for by the Goonhammer Patrons, are:

  • Leagues of Votann vs. Death Guard at the BAO Champs.
  • Mont’ka Tau vs Stormlance Space Wolves at Capital Clash.

III GT Andorra & Open Ordino

203-player, 8-round Supermajor in Ordino, Ordino, AD on May 24 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Terroxer El Rojo – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic) – 1st Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Characters, Rubricae and a Beast

Thoughts

Thousand Sons care not for the twisting and turning of the metagame, they’ll just keep on winning. To be fair, their overall is down quite a bit this week, falling behind some of the melee threats, but they took the trophies at two of the biggest majors out there, and in the right hands they continue to be (probably) the most powerful faction in the game. I do think it’s interesting to see a Beast out and about, which Euro lists have mostly eschwed up till now – my assumption is that it’s to give you something that can bog down melee pressure for a turn if you need it, and is particularly nice against Space Wolves where it can move block the Cavalry. Congratulations Terroxer on the win!

Alejandro Mancuso Serrano – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) – 2nd Place

Grey Knights Paladins. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

All-Rounder Grey Knights

Thoughts

Hot on the heels of the Thousand Sons (and listed in BCP as a 100-100 draw, no idea what happened there and I’ve had no response to an email) we have Grey Knights, sporting a relatively all-rounder build with elements of crunch. Pivoting back towards a few Infantry units, especially Paladins with the Sigil, lets you take advantage of Grey Knight stratagems to confuse and confound melee builds, and also ensures you have the rate of fire to carve through hordes. That’s particularly true with Crowe’s Purifiers, for whom a metagame containing lots of Orks is very much a target-rich environment. Add in great counterpunch from the Dreadknights and you have an extremely solid all-rounder that’s can tangle with the best. Congratulations to Alejandro.

Alvaro Perez – Black Templars (Gladius Task Force) – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Counterattack Templars

Thoughts

Our third place build here is one I really like, as it’s already very effectively tuned for a melee-heavy metagame. Even with 10th Edition’s more generous pile-in rules after charging, foot/paw-slogging melee lists can struggle with Transports packed with counter-charge threats, as it’s very tricky for them to control the terms of engagement. This build leans into that via four transports packed with horrific stuff – three tooled-up Character and Brethren units, and one big Eradicator unit to melt anyone sticking to crunch meta, or failing that Meganobz. Thanks to running as Gladius, if the opponent doesn’t want a melee clash you can force them to have one via Assault Doctrine, and overall you get a very adaptable and potent list, and a well-deserved third place for Alvaro.

Fredy Blanco – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Crunch-ish Grey Knights

Thoughts

More Grey Knights here, swapping out one Terminator squad for the GMDK, but keeping some Purifiers and Paladins. I do think the Sigil should still be with the Paladins in the current meta, but there are clearly varying preferences across the Grey Knights community. I do, however, feel it important to question whether anyone who tries to name their Dreadknight “Papinurgle” has a long-term future in the Knights of Titan. Well done Fredy.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top eight was:

  • 5th – Borja FM – Blood Angels (Gladius Task Force): An intriugngly crunchy Blood Angels list leveraging Baal Predators and Death Company Dreadnoughts to put down big threats, plus a Librarian Dreadnought ready to zoom some Eradicators across the table.
  • 6th – César MP – Orks (Bully Boyz): The hordier end of Bully Boyz, supplementing the mandatory Meganobz with two big Boyz units.
  • 7th – Koldo Besga – Genestealer Cult: Infantry horde with 3×5 Genestealers to screen.
  • 8th – Eric Ramentol – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Triple C’tan and triple Wraiths, with a single Doomstalker adding shooting.

Frontline Gaming BAO 2024 Warhammer 40K Champs

154-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Burlingame, CA, United States on May 25 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Take and Hold – Chilling Rain – Search and Destroy

Junior Aflleje – Leagues of Votann (Oathband)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Scott Toebe – Death Guard (Plague Company)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

As is going to become a bit of a theme this week, one of the ways players can adapt to a melee-heavy metagame is with their own counterpunch threats in Transports, and Votann are pretty well placed for that. Sagitaurs are tiny, easy to hide and can disgorge a vicious squad of Beserks to go ham on something, while a Fire Support Land Fortress with Hearthguard can do some very nasty stuff across two phases. You can also build in quite a bit of insurance against residual crunch meta on the cheap with Thunderkyn, who are priced to move at the moment and showing up a lot.

They’re going to be vital here, as there are lots of hulls on the Death Guard side of the table, and a very real failure case for the Votann here is if they just can’t quite chew through them. Votann play on their very efficient numbers game to win, and having one of their biggest pieces (the Hearthguard brick) lack any great targets is a big problem for that plan. The Thunderkyn can definitely make up for that a bit, and it’s helpful to have an Iron Master’s spare bodies to shield the big squad from Mortars, but even they are going to struggle into Mortarion, and I do think getting pushed in and overwhelmed is a potential risk.

With that in mind, I think a cautious and methodical strategy is called for, which is very on brand for the Votann. While the Hearthguard brick might not be fantastic as burst out of Deep Strike, they are still a threat in melee, and pretty challenging for a lot of the Death Guard stuff to shift, so ideally you either park them on an objective at speed, or use them as a terrifying Rapid Ingress threat to flip a Bloat-drone off a point then sit there. The Votann also have better tech for flipping objectives thanks to more mobile Infantry and two Sagitaurs full of Hearthkyn, which means they can plausibly try and inflict some 5VP turns on the Death Guard, while they’ll really struggle to keep the Votann off 10VP a turn.

From the Death Guard’s side, I think your focus needs to be moving in force onto a second objective, and then picking up as many of the Votann’s mobile tools as possible to try and secure Primary parity. Your advantage is that you probably do have a slightly better suite of Deep Strike Tactical Objective tools, and if you can keep level on Primary, you might be able to turn that into a narrow win. The WS/BS reduction Contagion will also do a lot of work here thanks to the Votann’s lack of re-rolls, especially as the Death Guard list goes wide enough that the pre-game counters aren’t quite enough.

All taken together, I honestly think this one is too close to easily call – either player could grab it, and I even think both sides can play a reasonable game going first or second. A classic final then – which the Votann narrowly secured.

Result

Leagues of Votann (Oathband) Victory – 84 – 74

Junior Aflleje – Leagues of Votann (Oathband) – 1st Place

Brôkhyr Thunderkyn. Credit: Rockfish
Brôkhyr Thunderkyn. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

All-rounder Votann

Thoughts

The Votann’s reliable all-rounder tools secure another trophy in Junior’s hands here, deploying a list that’s versatile enough to take down anything except maybe full-on Tyranid or Daemon monster mash. Those certainly exist in the meta, but they’re far from common, and this build has great game into many of the top players. Good work from Junior.

Adam Dye – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Abaddon Gunline

Thoughts

Weird looking Rhinos. Anyway, we’re in the twilight of the Chaos Space Marine Index, so there’s not a massive amount to say here other than that comboing Abaddon with a bunch of Vindicators still seems real good in various detachments in the Codex, so I’m sure we’ll see more experimentation in this area. Well done to Adam on the undefeated second place.

Ruben Zhao – Blood Angels (Gladius Task Force) – 3rd Place

Blood Angels Hellblasters
Blood Angels Hellblasters. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Incredible Flying Hellblasters

Thoughts

This is a hell of a flex in third place (at 5.5-0.5 no less), as it’s doing something quite different from the norm and pulling off a great finish. You’ve got a spicy mix of counterpunch threats and some classic Marine utility tools, but the centrepiece is obviously the Hellblaster/Wings of Sanguinius combo to unleash plasma death. It’s honestly doing a decent job of convincing me that it might finally be time for Hellblasters to truly shine – they’re good into all of Space Wolves, Thousand Sons, Orks, other Blood Angels and Grey Knights, and that’s a sizeable chunk of the metagame. Wings also isn’t the only thing you can set them up with, I’m sure there’s scope to play around with them in some other Detachments. Always enjoy a surprise breakout unit, congratulations to Ruben on bringing one to my desk!

Troy Cagle – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet) – 4th Place

Von Ryan's Leapers. Credit: Rockfish
Von Ryan’s Leapers. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Skirmishy Invasion Fleet

Thoughts

Another fairly unusual build to round out the top four, here leaning into the skirmishing tools that Tyranids have access to, but sticking in Invasion Fleet to keep them as semi-relevant threats into big crunch targets via the option of Lethal Hits, and to access the Feel No Pain in a world that’s tooled up for killing 2W and 3W models. You can then adapt your plan to the foe – less melee-focused lists can be pressured, while melee armies can either get bogged down in layered defences or fall to a well-timed countercharge from the Genestealers. The build can dominate early Primary scoring, and then lean on the very effective Secondary scoring Tyranids have access to in order to lock down victories, particularly with the mid-late game option of Shadow in the Warp to shut down an opposing comeback play. Deliciously different here, great stuff from Troy in fourth.

The Best of the Rest

There were 11 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

  • 5th – Ben Jurek – Orks (Bully Boyz): Nobz and Meganobz galore with some shooting support from some Flash Gitz.
  • 6th – Eulis Sanders – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Canoptek Court with a central Warrior tarpit, protected against the vicious depredations of the Thousand Sons with Orikan.
  • 7th – Floof Cox – Genestealer Cult: GSC had a pretty great weekend all-round,  usually sporting the classic Neophyte and Acolyte package then filling out with some early board control for the metagame, which Floof’s version gets from some Purestrains.
  • 8th – Travis Petersen – Chaos Space Marines (Index): Double Accursed Commune with a Nurgle Vindicator gunline behind it.
  • 9th – Scott Toebe – Death Guard: See Showdown.
  • 10th – Majd Kuteifan – Adepta Sororitas: The Vahl core, lots of Arco-flagellants and Castigators, plus Celestine and a large Seraphim squad for some board control and roving threat.
  • 11th – Alex D – Genestealer Cult: More Neophytes and Acolytes, this time with an Infiltrating Aberrant brick and some Scouting Catachans to play with early on.
  • 12th – MATT DOMNAUER – Grey Knights: Dreadknights galore, Draigo with a Terminator MSU, and Crowe’s Purifiers.
  • 13th – Linton Rowan – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force): Max ThunderCav and Wulfen.
  • 14th – Taylor Davis – World Eaters: Extremely Eightbound-tastic World Eaters, passing up on Berzerkers entirely.
  • 15th – Marshall Peterson – Astra Militarum: Astra Militarum getting their melee kicks via a maxed out cavalry build, packing in as many Rough Riders and Death Riders as possible.

ObSec presents War Calls 40k 2024

48-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Kelmscott, WA, AU on May 24 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Jördÿŋ Berresford – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force) – 1st Place

Ragnar vs. Ghazkull. Credit Kevin Stillman

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Stormlance with Tech

Thoughts

Awoo indeed. As always for Stormlance, the massive quantities of ThunderCav are the stars of the show, but Jördÿŋ’s got a few more unusual tricks in support. It turns out that Ragnar is the latest Marine Epic Hero who fully pops off once you buy them the 75pts re-roll wounds upgrade that’s also known as an “Assault Intercessor Squad”, and that provides you a neat roving/counterpunch threat in the Impulsor. Bjorn also seems pretty neat as a sort of mini-C’tan once he gets Advance/Charge as well, and seems particularly valuable against Orks, where his defences stack up very well against Meganobz. Neat additions to the standard formula, and always fun to see Ragnar out and about, great stuff!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Harrison Darge – Adeptus Custodes (Talons of the Emperor): Heavy-duty Talons with two Caladius tanks and a Land Raider, then adding a big unit each of the three major Infantry units, and three Witchseeker MSUs to hand out buffs. Definitely one of the best ways of setting up Custodes after their book.
  • 3rd – Hayden Walduck – T’au Empire (Kroot Hunting Pack): Two big Carnivore bricks supported by Hammerheads and Riptides.
  • 4th – Lachlan Rigg – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force): Six Dreadknights and a big Terminator brick.
  • 5th – Jarred Lohse – World Eaters: Mostly the standard setup, but swapping out Exalted Eightbound for a Maulerfiend.

CTC Warhammer 40k Championship Open

44-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Ottawa, ON, Canada on May 25 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Brian Daugherty – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) – 1st Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Classic World Eaters with added Maulerfiend

Thoughts

Obviously the World Eaters were hardly going to be idle during melee meta. They practically invented it. Don’t listen to anyone trying to tell you about that Sigismund guy, he sounds fake. You’ve got all the classic toys here, with the transport-riding big Berzerker squad being a particularly nice counter for other melee builds, and Brian has added in a Maulerfiend to provide a neat Strategic Reserves and/or move blocking piece. All good stuff, and carved through the rest of the field nicely, congratulations!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Benjamin Pau – Orks (Bully Boyz): Lots of Meganobz, 10/5 Nobz, and a full Boyz unit.
  • 3rd – Chris Hanes – Orks (Bully Boyz): Horde version Bully Boyz with two big Boyz units.
  • 4th – Éric Marcoux – Imperial Knights (Noble Lance): Canis Rex and many Armigers.
  • 5th – Nick Jagiello – Astra Militarum: Rough Rider spam. Even Guard want to play melee meta!
  • 6th – Hamza Syed – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): All-Venom go-wide Skysplinter.

Xtraschicht 3.0

42-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in DO, NRW, DE on May 25 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Grischa Gerwert – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 1st Place

Credit: Swiftblade

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Brawler CSM

Thoughts

Another CSM Index classic getting a last showing here – a bunch of brawler units in Rhinos to stage and pressure, supported by a cheap and potent gunline amped up by the Mark of Nurgle. I’m expecting the new book to start kicking in from this weekend, but this is a very fitting way to see the Index off back into the Eye of Terror, well done Grischa.

Artur Güttler – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Grey Knights Nemesis Dreadknights. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Librarian-free Grey Knights

Thoughts

It’s a bold claim there in the list title, but going undefeated is the best way to follow up one of those, so props from me. Other than having no Librarian, most of the tools here are familiar, with Draigo and a big Terminator brick adding a sticky, persistent melee unit to the mix alongside Dreadknights and Purifiers. The only other standout is solo Stern, who’s a nice little scoring/tech piece thanks to Strands of Fate, and certainly a nice way to spend the points you’ve saved on Librarians. Great stuff from Artur.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 3rd – Ben Hackländer – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Triple Doomstalker and Triple Wraiths (so far so normal) but also triple Reanimator, presumably aiming to squeeze max value out of the Wraith blocks.
  • 4th – Pascal Haberstroh – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs): Full Arco-spam, apparently not going anywhere.
  • 5th – Florian Schmidt – Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead): The teleporting Centurion special, also apparently not going anywhere.
  • 6th – Manuel Wayand – Death Guard: Rhino Plague Marines, Destructors, and Brigands.
  • 7th – Rob “RaZZputin” Fritz – Chaos Knights: A Knight Lancer (again, love to get into the spirit of melee meta, even if Chaos Knights always do that pretty well) and a bunch of Dogs.
  • 8th – Alessandro Liessem – Aeldari: Go-wide MSUs, adding Skyweavers to the usual speedy threats.

South Yorkshire GT 24

34-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, GB on May 25 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Mikey Herbert – Blood Angels (Sons of Sanguinius) – 1st Place

Blood Angels. Credit: Mike Bettle-Shaffer

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Aggro Sons

Thoughts

Mr. Hellstorm Wargaming himself gets in on the melee meta action, unleashing a powerful Sons of Sanguinius list that combines high pressure jump pack units with great tech against other melee builds. Overwatch from Baal Predators, cheap and lethal counterpunch units out of Impulsors and the looming threat of the Sanguinor all make things a bit of a headache for foes with a similarly aggressive plan, while if the opponent has tried to tech for a bunch of D2 attacks from Orks, they’re likely to find themselves shredded by the VanVets, one of the very nastiest volume D1 threats in the game. Great stuff from Mikey as always!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Christopher Langton – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Warriors and Immortals with a Monolith.
  • 3rd – Mark Pilkington – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs): Hull-heavy Sisters with Castigators and Immolators.
  • 4th – Ryan Elliott – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): Tsons with extra heft from a Daemon Prince and Mutalith.
  • 5th – Callam Taylor – Orks (Bully Boyz): Bully Boyz with the unusual choice of two regular Nobz units with Painboyz.
  • 6th – Jim Tasker – Chaos Daemons: Monster Mash with double GuO (one being Rotigus), Shalaxi and Skarbrand. Melee meta is so intense that you can apparently just cut Be’lakor now.

Wrap Up

Part 1 complete, but plenty more melee fun coming your way on Friday, so tune back in then.

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