No preamble today – we know what you’re here for!

Today we’ll be covering:

Warhammer 40,000 World Championships of Warhammer (supermajor)
The Alliance Open Grand Tournament (major)
Bajio Open 40K, El Bunker (major)
The Standoff
West Coast GT (Nov)
Nemesis 40k 2023

Renegade Open 2023 – Warhammer 40K Major (major)
DaBoyz GT Rochester 2023 40K (major)
Maui Fundraiser 40k GT by Dicehammer
Heroes Of The Mid Table 3
Peterborough Slam GT 4!
Warpstorm Over Cyprus

Warhammer 40,000 World Championships of Warhammer

173-player, 12-round Supermajor in Atlanta, GA, United States on November 16 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Just Before We Dive In…

If you’ve been paying attention online this week, you may have noticed some controversy and accusations swirling about one of the three games played between the WCW finalists Mani and John. As always with such things, the stories and accusations have grown increasingly wild with the telling, and in some cases have threatened to overshadow an incredibly cool showcase for the game.

Normally, we avoid engaging too deeply with event drama in this column – the focus is meant to be on great armies and great players. However, past experience has shown that when something gets this much attention, if we ignore it then the comments section will just become another round of people relitigating it, continuing to overshadow the good stuff.

In addition, in this particular case I’d had enough eyewitness accounts from people on the ground who I trust to be very confident that many of the accusations flying were not accurate.

With that in mind, and in order to try and put this to bed, we reached out to each of John Lennon and Mani Cheema and asked them if they wanted to send us a short statement about the events to include in this column. Both have provided one, and I’ve included them below within the cut. If you’ve been blissfully unaware of the controversy, feel free to continue being so, but if you were planning on gettng big mad in the comments, please read them first!

Statements From the Players

I’d like to thank both players for taking the time to provide a statement, and I hope that helps put the focus back on the Warhammer – that’s what we’re here for!

The Showdown

Take and Hold – Hidden Supplies – Hammer and Anvil

Mani Cheema – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness): Ultra melee pressure CSM.
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vs.

John Lennon – Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead): Deep strike skew shooty Ultramarines.
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Thoughts

Two skew lists run into each other in the grand finals…and it happens to be on a very skewing mission to boot. Extra objectives and the Hammer and Anvil deployment (played on GW layout four) heavily rewards being able to flood the mid-board, which is obviously exactly what Mani is aiming to do here. John has the shooting volume to make a good attempt at actually clearing Mani’s army out, if he can draw a bead on it – but the terrain map and the relative safety of the objectives means that’s potentially tricky to set up, especially if Mani gets the first turn and can control his drop zones.

John can deploy Calgar and the boys in the mid board to mitigate that, but he really needs the first turn to get the game under control. Mani’s lists inclusion of extra nasty Rhino party buses also really helps him here, as it gives him lots of tools to lash out and eliminate Deep Strike threats as they come in, and adds a level of risk to going for shooting alpha strikes with Inceptors using the 3″ drop, as it means multiple units will need to commit and they have a catastrophic failure case of not popping a Rhino on the first volley.

This is, of course, a game you can see on video and where I’ve spoken to the people involved, and after many, many games of Warhammer (this being John’s 12th for the weekend) this one ended on turn three – Mani went first, and had established a sufficient level of Primary dominance by that point that the players decided to call it, and make Mani the first World Champion.

Result

Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) Victory

Mani Cheema – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Horde Pressure CSM

Thoughts

Wings: Most of the tools are familiar, but adding the Slaanesh Legionaries to double stack all of the Rhinos is a really cunning addition that Mani has come up with here. It provides absolutely enormous reach to a list that’s already putting the opponent under a lot of pressure, and the GW maps tend to favour small, moderately durable melee threats. I’ve faced off against Mani’s previous iteration of this list and until you’ve seen it in action it’s really hard to get across just how much stuff it’s hurling at you, and in the end the endless waves of Accursed Cultists (so many Cultists) were enough to seal victory.

Lowest of Men: A real love letter to how easy it is for CSM to load up the board with cost effective units that you can tailor to make sing however you need. Marks have never been as impactful as they are right now, and there is no army in the game as able to consistently body their opponents. That the index still has further to evolve and travel is both exciting and terrifying, as Mani has aptly demonstrated here.

John Lennon – Adeptus Astartes (Vanguard Spearhead) – 2nd Place

The List

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Archetype

Deep Strike Murder Ultras

Thoughts

Wings: From a list that overwelms people with pressure to one that obliterates them straight out of the sky, this build goes about as hard as it’s possible to go on Deep Strike shooting threats, thanks to fifteen Inceptors and the ability to add Deep Strike to the Centurions with Ventris, can then pull the Centurions back into reserves for a second strike with Guerrilla Tactics, and as if that wasn’t enough of a headache for opponents to try and play around, ther’s also the nightmare Calgar Deathbrick infiltrating to the midboard to deal with. That’s another trick that’s especially good on GW terrain, as it’s going to be pretty easy to hide them from shooting threats, and they have Calculated Feint to dodge melee then hit back hard if the Marines lose the rolloff. The list also avoids some of the normal risks that a Deep Strike heavy build brings, because Inceptors being able to naturally drop at 3″ if they need to mean that it’s extremely tough to fully screen out, and will often be able to brutally punish an opponent who tries.

The Heretic Astartes were just about able to bring this down in the end, but over the course of John’s eye-watering 12 games of Warhammer at the event (double elimination is a hell of a drug) this list really put in the work.

Lowest of Men: Vanguard has serious play and combines super well with all the ‘special’ flavours of marines. I want to personally thank John for sticking up for the more interesting Marines detachments in a world of Whirlwind car parks and pushing it all the way to the top with one of the harder detachments to play well. The Company Heroes squad is, when you dig into it, a remarkably cheap, obnoxious little slab of wounds and I hope we see more of them as the new models are beautiful!

Lachlan Rigg – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 3rd Place

The List

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Archetype

Brawler Goodstuff

Thoughts

Wings: This is a more conventional spin on the CSM hotness than Mani brought to bear, and I do really like Syll’Esske on the GW maps, as although they’re a Monster, they’re small enough to navigate between sections of ruin without too much issue, and highly independent melee killers are exactly what you want on that terrain.

Boris Michev – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 4th Place

The List

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Archetype

Brawler Goodstuff

Thoughts

Wings: …and then we round out the top four with a CSM build that falls in-between the other two from Best Overall Boris. More of the shooty toys that CSM tend to pack, but adding in the Slaanesh Legionary missiles that helped Mani take the crown, creating an extremely effective chaotic crossbreed.

Valentin Schefter – Necrons – 5th Place

Catacomb Command Barge. Credit: Rockfish

The List

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Archetype

Warriors and…Triarch Praetorians?

Thoughts

Wings: Yeah so this build targets the GW maps with absolute laser focus, taking a full Praetorian brick on them is a genius move. As mentioned above, the FW terrains tend to reward melee units that can operate speedily and independently, and between that and their density the normally underwhelming Praetorians suddenly become really good. I think people have been slightly sleeping on the caster/voidblade build anyway, as it provides a high volume of mid-quality attacks in two phases, and this list puts them to work, further enhancing them with a Command Barge to float around Reanimating them.

Using a bunch of Szeras-buffed Warriors alongside them works really well, because it creates strong board presence that forces the opponent commit, opening them up to the Praetorians Rapid Ingressing behind a wall, flattening one unit with Protocol of the Conquering Tyrant and thirty particle shots, then stabbing something else to death in melee. Absolutely phenomenal to see a unit come completely out of left field in a top eight build, huge congratulations to Valentin.

Arne Zerndt – Aeldari – 6th Place

The List

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Archetype

Wraithguard and Spinners

Thoughts

Wings: Look, the WCW top eight has room for brand new units and extremely well-proven ones too. It contains multitudes.

Lowest of Men: It is hilarious that a utility piece as cheap and useful as Shroudrunners barely makes it into lists, but Arne highlights the potential here. They can run out and block or tag things early, screen out oncoming enemy scout moves, and annihilate some enemy chaff in the first exchanges.

Ludovic Stammler – Aeldari – 7th Place

The List

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Archetype

Serpent Wraithguard

Thoughts

Wings: Almost everything in this build looks familiar, but the very clear exception is that instead of 10 Wraithguard, Ludovic has packed five in a Serpent instead. I suspect that’s a meta/terrain call – it helps ensure they don’t get bogged down by Night Spinners in the mirror, and makes them far harder for Chaotic melee to take down without reprisal. I still feel lightly insane every time I remember that Wave Serpents are only 120pts and most Aeldari builds still don’t take them, and I’m a big fan of the clever usage here.

Kyle McCord – Black Templars – 8th Place

The List

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Archetype

Templar Brawler Goodstuff

Thoughts

Wings: Yeah so similar to some of the Death Guard builds we’ve seen, this is essentially doing the Chaos Brawler Goodstuff trick only as another faction. Sword Brethren are an extremely brutal melee toy to unleash from Impulsors or Land Raiders, and Eradicators and the guns on the Redeemer bring the energy of not really needing any help to do their job. This build does also prise enemy units out of ruins like no-one’s business, and the Brethren are definitely able to trump some of the other units that might be doing that.

Lowest of Men: Helbrecht deserves a shout out here too as he just slaps SO hard, and it’s extremely cool to have a faction specific character with a gorgeous model and damage output that requires so much respect from the opponent out there taking names.

Warhammer 40K – The Alliance Open Grand Tournament

110-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Rijsenhout, Noord-Holland, NL on November 18 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Wings is covering this.

Ron Eliyahoo – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet) – 1st Place

The List

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Archetype

Monster Mash

Thoughts

Hell yeah for Tyranids winning a major. Most of the toys here are business as usual, it’s just all the most efficient beasties crammed into a build then crammed into the opponent’s face. The standout tool is Old One Eye partnered up with a single other Carnifex, something that’s suddenly popped up in quite a few lists. This dynamic duo provides a lot of flexibility and threat at a relatively reasonable price, and they’re also a little easier to maneuvre than some of the monsters in the build, helping avoid congestion. It’s a nice little addition that looks to have helped get the big bugs into the big leagues, and huge congratulations to Ron.

Vincent Koopmans – Dark Angels (Ironstorm Spearhead) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

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Archetype

Dark Ironstorm with Knights

Thoughts

Mostly the standard Ironstorm toys, but again adding a spicy piece of tech in an MSU of Deathwing Knights. These provide a great little unit to either soak up the opponent’s charge or reach out and punch something to death, mitigating the risk of the opponent trying to roll over the Lancers with charges. We’ve also got some effective use of the Lieutenant with Combi Weapon to provide some extra oomph when it really matters, and combining all that with lots of Infiltrators creates a build that’s really hard to counter in the way you might normally try and attack the Spearhead. Given that the result was an undefeated run, it clearly worked pretty well, good choices from Vincent!

Aron Prinsen – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 3rd Place

The List

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Archetype

Double Avatar Wraithguard

Thoughts

This list continues to exist.

Well done to Aron.

Coen van der Lee – Blood Angels (Firestorm Assault Force) – 4th Place

Flesh Tearer’s Death Company. Credit: Drybrush Threepwood

The List

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Archetype

Flaming Hot Blood Angels

Thoughts

Corrode has been trying to seel me on this since we first got the Marine Codex, so I’m sure he’s hooting and hollering right now. Death Company getting to pack a bunch of inferno pistols or hand flamers makes them real good in this Detachment, adding an extra level of pressure (particularly the big Lemartes unit) that can swiftly put the opponent on the back foot. This list also shows off the nasty cycling combo you can do with Aggressors in a Redeemer – if they shoot the Redeemer, the Aggressors get out and shoot, then come the Marines turn they no longer disembarked in the current turn, so can get back into the bus at the end of it with Rapid Embarkation, ready to do it all again. That’s particularly challenging for opponents who want to do a lot of their damage in the Fight Phase to handle, with is spicy in the current metagame, and beyond all of that the Aggressors are also just good at punching stuff. Well done to Coen, but given that I’ve immediately sent this to Corrode, and will thus likely get rolled by it next time I play him, curse you slightly as well.

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

5th – Cees Jan Stam – Ynnari: Extra go-wide Ynnari, cutting Characters right down to a Death Jester and Yvraine and packing in a bunch of hulls and speedy Infantry.
6th – Simon Borgers – Adepta Sororitas: Arco-flagellant and Exorcist spam.
7th – Adam Jagich – Necrons: Herohammer-tastic Necrons, packing in a Command Barge and a solo Technomancer on top of double Lychguard and the Super C’tan.
8th – Brian Lijs – Black Templars (Ironstorm Spearhead): Hull spam with Gladiator Valiants.
9th – Lenny Craft-it – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders): All-rounder Templars with some efficient hulls, Jump Intercessors to tangle stuff in combat and a big brick of Assault Intercessors in a Land Raider.
10th – Tobias Kaeser – Thousand Sons: Character/Rubric spam.

Bajio Open 40K, El Bunker

59-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Santiago de Querétaro, Qro., México on November 18 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Lowest of Men is covering this.

Luis Humberto Casillas Franco – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 1st Place

War Walker - Starcannons. Credit: Rockfish — War Walker – Starcannons. Credit: Rockfish

The List

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Archetype

Aeldari Hullstuff

Thoughts

No Wraithguard here, as Fire Prisms compliment the Spinners and go to town from further away. They’re still a sensational tank with good profiles for several situations, and very hard for a lot of armies to interact with thanks to the option of peaking out, shooting, and then utilising Fire and Fade to hide. People are starting to cook up solutions to the WG brick so I can see the value in trying something different, and it evidently worked wonders here. Congratulations on the first place finish!

Jose Isaias Valenzuela – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 2nd Place

Baharroth & Swooping Hawks. Credit: James “Boon” Kelling

The List

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Archetype

Double Avatar / WG Aeldari

Thoughts

Sometimes you just take the best things, and that’s absolutely fine. Double Avatar action remains a very cool way to do business, congratulations on the top placing.

Alberto Lopez – Black Templars (Ironstorm Spearhead) – 3rd Place

Black Templars Ballistus Dreadnought. Credit: SRM

The List

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Archetype

Black Templars Ironstorm

Thoughts

Ironstorm really gets value from Black Templars tanks, where an extra multi-melta here and there can do a lot with the reroll to hit, wound or damage. This is skew at it’s finest, and will simply body the unwary as three little boopy scoring units cover the rest. Awesome work.

️ . – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 4th Place

The List

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Archetype

Aeldari Fire Dragon Spam, lol

Thoughts

Falcons with Fire Dragons – here for a good time, not a long time. A nice big of tech for the turn towards hulls and big angry Primarchs by packing disposable threats that can drop in an annihilate hard targets around the board, compensating for the challenges Wraithguard sometimes have projecting threat even with all the tools and tricks Aeldari have to help them. No need to rely on using the Yncarne correctly here, simply drop firey death from on high and profit. Very well done indeed Emoji person.

The Best of the Rest

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

5th – Amador Perez – Chaos Space Marines: Brawler Goodstuff.
6th – Fabián Navarro Paredes – World Eaters: Character-heavy World Eaters with lots of small Eightbound units.

The Standoff

36-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Portland, ME, United States on November 18 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Lowest of Men is covering this.

Cullen Burns – Leagues of Votann (Oathband) – 1st Place

The List

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Archetype

Votann Fort Spam

Thoughts

The Land Fortress has gradually made it into more and more Votann lists after a dalliance with Sagitaur spam post dataslate. It is a cheap, durable transport with serious Land Raider energy, solid IGNORES COVER shooting, and being able to ferry units up in a vehicle that can take more than one serious hit before dying is extremely useful. Single Champions can ride in these and hop out to do actions, and this list moves away from reserves pressure to apply plenty from on the board, which helps massively in some of Votanns tougher match ups. Bezerks are also worth their weight in gold in a meta with so many more Marine vehicles and bodies than before- sometimes you just need AP 4 Damage three ok?! Excellent work Cullen!

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Jared Vail – Ynnari (Battle Host): Go-wide Ynnari with some Kabalites to babysit Yvraine (or at least the half that don’t jump in a Venom.
3rd – Jeffrey Colpitts – Dark Angels (Vanguard Spearhead): The Infiltrating Deathwing Knight special.
4th – Sherbrooke Andrews – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance): Rampager and Dogs galore.
5th – Steven Pampreen – Orks: Speedy Orks with lots of Nobz and Squighoggs.
6th – John Shippee – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders): Aggro-templars with lots of Primaris Crusaders, various small assault units in hefty transports and the triumverate of Helbrecht, Grimaldus and the Emperor’s Champion in charge.

West Coast GT

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Västra Götalands län, SE on November 18 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Wings is covering this.

Emil Söderholm – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) – 1st Place

The List

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Archetype

Character-Heavy World Eaters

Thoughts

This is basically the formula for successful World Eaters lists right now, with variations generally being pretty small. The combination of hurling a big Exalted Eightbound unit and Angron at the enemy early with a great second wave out of the Rhino (especially with both Kharn and the tooled-up MoE) tends to result in opponents getting knocked down then not getting back up again. You are absolutely going to keep them down. Good work from Emil.

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players on 3.5-1.5+ records. They were:

2nd – Jesper Unander-Scharin – Aeldari (Battle Host): Yncarne, Spinners, Wraithguard.
3rd – Max Persson – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs): Arco-flagellant and tank spam.
4th – Joakim Engström – Tyranids (Synaptic Nexus): Brainy Monster Mash
5th – Sebastian Magnusson – Leagues of Votann: Sagitaur/Hearthguard heavy Votann.
6th – Jocke Rapp – Blood Angels (Gladius Task Force): Explosive Blood Angels, skewing to early defence by presenting the opponent with a Land Raider, Repulsor and Canis Rex, then rolling the opponent with all the stuff that’s inside plus some Death Company. And Canis Rex.

Nemesis 40k 2023

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Edmonton, AB, Canada on November 18 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Wings is covering this.

Josh Stapleton – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 1st Place

The List

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Archetype

Double Avatar Wraithguard

Thoughts

Is there any better way to spend 1105pts? Has there ever been a better way to spend 1105pts? If you’ve been keeping up with this column, the answer may not surprise you!

Congratulations Josh.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Scotty Bee – Aeldari (Battle Host): Double Avatar Wraithguard.
3rd – Brian Blanteran De Rozari – Asuryani (Battle Host): Wraithguard and triple spinner, cutting out the Yncarne in favour of lots of small units and Characters.
4th – Jason Fowler – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe): Ork Goodstuff with Ghaz.
5th – Michael Blanchet – Adeptus Astartes (Ironstorm Spearhead): Laser death from three Lancers and three RepExes.
6th – Ryan Mcleod – Chaos Knights: Desecrator and Dogs.

Wrap Up

It’s a great meta, even with a few offenders still to iron out. Tune in next time and remember, nobody will ever definitively win the Warhammer!!!

Competitive Innovations in 10th: Chaos Champions – The WCW & pt.2

Warhammer 40,000 World Championships of Warhammer

Just Before We Dive In…

John Lennon

Mani Cheema

The Showdown

Take and Hold – Hidden Supplies – Hammer and Anvil

Thoughts

Result

Mani Cheema – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

John Lennon – Adeptus Astartes (Vanguard Spearhead) – 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Lachlan Rigg – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Boris Michev – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Valentin Schefter – Necrons – 5th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Arne Zerndt – Aeldari – 6th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Ludovic Stammler – Aeldari – 7th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Kyle McCord – Black Templars – 8th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Warhammer 40K – The Alliance Open Grand Tournament

Ron Eliyahoo – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Vincent Koopmans – Dark Angels (Ironstorm Spearhead) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Aron Prinsen – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Coen van der Lee – Blood Angels (Firestorm Assault Force) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Bajio Open 40K, El Bunker

Luis Humberto Casillas Franco – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Jose Isaias Valenzuela – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Alberto Lopez – Black Templars (Ironstorm Spearhead) – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

️ . – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

The Standoff

Cullen Burns – Leagues of Votann (Oathband) – 1st Place

The List