type here...
Patrons: click here to disable ads.
Columns40K Competitive InnovationsGamingCompetitive PlayMeta Analysis
Updated:

Competitive Innovations in 10th: Chewing the Scenery pt.1

By James "One_Wing" Grover

It’s a particularly nefarious week out there. The Necrons, an entire culture built around emulating Starscream, re-assert their dominance after a mild wobble, and the World Eaters blast to some top finishes, shaking off whatever shackles the (fairly substantial) nerfs they received had placed upon them. Other chaotic forces are also in contention, plus a few Imperial stalwarts trying to hold back the tide, and it’s another exciting week of twists and turns, all-told.

It’s also slightly quieter, which to be clear only means nine events rather than the mid-teens avalanche we’ve had the last few weeks, granting a small amount of respite to your belagured writing team. The slate is as follows, starting Today with:

  • Cascade Clash – 40k Major
  • Planet arKCanite 2024
  • G.O.T. Gruyère Open Tournament
  • Quebec City Open – QCO
  • Palladium Games Presents: “the dumpster fire gt”

On Friday Lowest of Men will be stepping up to the plate and taking on:

  • 10th Barrie Bash
  • 1 GT Bilbao
  • Meta 40k – Március – WCQ
  • Fantasianorth Store Championship – 40K

Pure uncut patron democracy for this week’s Showdowns, and we’ll be covering:

  • Tau vs Tyranids at the Dumpster Fire GT
  • World Eaters vs Adeptus Mechanicus at the Fantasianorth Store Championship

Cascade Clash – 40k Major

108-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Mount Vernon, WA, United States on March 08 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Nicolas Ohlsen-Johnson – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 1st Place

Necron Warriors w/ Gauss Reapers. Credit: Rockfish
Necron Warriors w/ Gauss Reapers. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Monolith, C’tan and Warriors

Thoughts

As mentioned up top the Dynasties have been busy this week, with Hypercrypt and Canoptek Court both seriously excelling. This build is a variant on the Immortal/C’tan/Monolith builds that have been popular, sacrificing the explosive anti-infantry potential of Immortals for significantly enhanced durability, and enough board presence to steal objectives from even the most tenacious of opponents. That means you’re leaning more on the C’tan to do the heavy lifting damage-wise (which they can very much do), but you get the trade-off of not folding quite as rapidly if the opponent can burst a star god down early on. 20 Warriors with Szeras and the Chronomancer’s buff on them is no mean feat to put down and very mobile, while the Plasmancer squad can focus on using the detachment’s tricks and Stratagems to unleash a clip of damage and avoid reprisals. This build asks pretty challenging questions of opponent’s ability to damage both hordes and heavy hitters, and especially with more 2+ saves in the metagame, this definitely feels interesting. Great work and congratulations to Nicolas.

Mikael Croy – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

World Eaters Crunch

Thoughts

It’s starting to feel like Vashtorr might be behind various Chaos developments that we’ve been seeing recently, as this build tosses a lot of the classic World Eaters choices aside in favour of some big crunchy Daemon Engines. Forgefiends and Maulerfiends execute a nice one-two punch in World Eaters, as if the former clips a model out of a unit then all the latter’s buffs turn on, giving them a fairly scary 7″ Charge out of Strategic Reserves (or even 6″ with Angron), great reach on the board, and big damage potential.

Teaming up with Angron and a Daemon Prince also gives some nasty threat saturation, potentially bowling opponents over before they can clear enough of the models to make a difference (especially as they still have to plan around an initial lunge from Eightbound). It’s also got nice fringe upsides against Astra Militarum – the Daemon Prince gives you a shot at Battle-shocking a key unit at the start of the Fight Phase, suddenly preventing them from re-spawning and mitigating the risk of the opponent outlasting you. Finally, I like the synergy between the overwhelming up-front pressure and a shooting unit like the Forgefiends parked on an objective, as it means you get strong value from Blood Offering – it takes enough shooting to take one down that your opponent has to really commit, so if you can just choose to hold on to the objective anyway, they’ve spent lots of output on something that doesn’t move the scoring dial, helping you romp to victory. Always fun to see something completely left field do so well, congratulations to Mikael on an undefeated second place!

Adrian James – Imperial Knights (Noble Lance) – 3rd Place

Imperial Knight Lancer. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Aggro Big Knights

Thoughts

Speaking both of things I love to see and overwhelming crunchy pressure, we’ve got big Knights in third place! This build leans in to the Imperial incentives for taking the big boys, and aims to make the most of how difficult it is to clear a thundering tide of robots advancing on your position. A Lancer and Errant give you the big Advance/Charge reach that opponents need to watch out for and the ability to set up well-timed melta shots into C’tan, while Canis Rex is Canis Rex, one of the deadliest warriors in space. This build isn’t super complicated but it is very scary – it can slam into opponents on the double and unleash some havoc, then make the opponent pay for fighting back with Valiant Last Stand or Shoulder the Burden.

Plenty of other factions are going hard on big toys at the moment, and this build feels like it’s effectively set up to trump them. Even C’tan have to be far more cautious than normal thanks to the option of doing a double Tank Shock into them via the Lancer’s ability – with S20 on all the big Knight melee, you’re looking at a fairly reliable 8W after the Feel No Pain, very much setting them up to die. It was Nicholas’ Necrons that put paid to the Knights in the final, but I strongly suspect the Warriors was what made the difference there – without the depth of durability, even three C’tan might not have stood up to this onslaught. Very happy to see some giant robots on the rampage, very cool from Adrian.

Jake Dardzinski – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance) – 4th Place

Lenoon’s Lancer

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Lancer and Dogs

Thoughts

Even Chaos is getting in on the big Knight action, using a Lancer for both the free Tank Shock value (even easier to set up effectively here thanks to the numerous Karnivores) and to add some blistering mobility to the shooting of the Brigands. Knights of Shade is more normally used to set up surprise charges from Karnivores, but the option to suddenly jam some melta and a chaincannon behind a ruin is not to be sniffed at, and is an unusual enough capability that it’s plausibly going to surprise even experienced foes. Sticking to just one big Knight also gives you the highest chance of being able to hide it early – most tournament boards can hide at least one, and again having Knights of Shade gives options for how and when you bring it out.

Past that, mostly business as usual, with the only other notable innovation being the addition of a single Beast of Nurgle as an objective sitter. This is turning up as an ally in a few places, and I’m assuming it’s there as anti-guard tech – 7W is a good spot to make clearing one with Manticores or Basilisks inefficient, and the healing at end of phase means that chipping it down isn’t doable, forcing significant attention onto it if they don’t want to waste shots (which they probably need to point at Knights). It’s a good, inexpensive way to de-risk the matchup, so something to try if Guard are getting you down, and overall I like what I’m seeing here a lot – well done Jake.

The Best of the Rest

There were 7 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

  • 5th – Steve Trimble – Death Guard: Loads of Plague Marines & Characters in Rhinos backed by Mortarion and Plaguebursts.
  • 6th – Linton Rowan – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force): Full send Stormlance with maximum ThunderCav and 30 Wulfen. I warned you, I warned you all.
  • 7th – James Lee – Adeptus Custodes: Ultra Infantry-heavy Custodes with 3×5 Wardens and 3×4 Custodians.
  • 8th – Liam Bath – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Triple C’tan with Wraiths as tarpits and two Doomsdays for ranged threat.
  • 9th – Matt Bombard – Adepta Sororitas: Extra shooty/crunchy Sororitas with five of their own tanks and two Helverins on top, plus Penitent Engines as cheap positional pieces.
  • 10th – Brendan McKenzie – Adepta Sororitas: Melee pressure Sororitas with lots of Repentia, Zephyrim and Arco-Flagellants.
  • 11th – Alex Pina – Thousand Sons: Lots of Characters and double Mutalith.

Planet arKCanite 2024

51-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in KCMO, MO, US on March 09 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Aaron Hermstedt – Death Guard (Plague Company) – 1st Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Crunchy Death Guard

Thoughts

It isn’t just the World Eaters doing well for themselves on behalf of the Dark Gods, and the Death Guard’s generally excellent run continues here. We’ve got most of the popular tools on show in Mortarion, Plaguebursts, Deathshrouds (a big squad here, which can flex between hosting Typhus or the Lord) and a loaded Rhino, then adding some additional withering shooting from two Predators. Like a lot of this week’s builds, that presents a fairly daunting challenge to the foe if it goes aggressive, but it also has enough diversified ranged shooting that it can play a bit more cagey if needed, drawing the foe in for a big Plague Marine push. You also see the solo Beast of Nurgle in this build, plausibly even better here because the Plaguebursts can strip away the opponent’s objective sitters reasonably efficiently. An excellent Nurgle showing here, well done Aaron.

The Best of the Rest

There were 9 more players on 4-1+ records. They were:

  • 2nd (drew in the finals with the winner!) – Cam Hawkins – Black Templars (Gladius Task Force): Heavily mechanished Templars with two Redeemers packed with nasty surprises, and even more in some Impulsors.
  • 3rd – Tedd Williamson – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Five C’tan and the Silent King. The list is called “I play C’tan, not Necrons” and yup.
  • 4th – Jacob Andes – Death Guard (Plague Company): Crunchy Death Guard with Daemon Engines (including a Defiler), Brigands and Mortarion, plus two units of Deathshroud bringing in nasty Characters as flexible tools.
  • 5th – Tony Thebeau – Aeldari: Very nearly a Harlequins army here, using Troupes in Starweavers, Voidweavers and big Skyweaver units, only breaking from the theme for the Yncarne and a Wayleaper.
  • 6th – Brent Simon – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Another five C’tan list, this time with lots of Heavy Destroyers to fill instead of Szarekh.
  • 7th – Tom Deane – Thousand Sons: Lots of Characters and double Mutalith.
  • 8th – Bret Ebaugh – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force): All-rounder Marines wth bonus CP from Azrael, using Redemptors, Gladiators and an Aggressor-packed Redeemer.
  • 9th – Broc Bowman – World Eaters: Angron, loads of Exalted Eightbound and some Brigands.
  • 10th – Joe Guzowski – Orks: Melee pressure Orks, using Meganobz, a double-packed Battlewagon of Nobz, and Kommandos.

G.O.T. Gruyère Open Tournament #2

49-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Switzerland on March 08 2024. All the lists for this event can be found on MiniHeadQuarters.

Willking – Leagues of Votann (Oathband) – 1st Place

Trans-Hyperian Alliance Hekaton Land Fortress. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Double Fortress

Thoughts

All Votann builds are going to be some variant on “blast the opponent to dust”, and this one acknowledges the crunchy metagame by doubling up on Fortresses. Quite apart from the big guns of the tanks themselves, this helps one of the two Hearthguard units punch up into big targets with Fire Support, and provides very safe staging for the two units of Beserks, letting you feed them out in consecutive turns to dunk something vital. That helps ensure the Votann never find themselves in the awkward position of being outgunned, and also provides a solid counter-charge threat into aggressive vehicle builds like some of those we’ve already looked at today. That sets this up very well for the metagame as it stands, so it’s not surprising to see it take a trophy, congratulations!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – SusuperTiti – Adeptus Custodes: Four Infantry blocks with two Caladius tanks.
  • 3rd – Britwolf – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force): Max ThunderCav with some shooting backup from Inceptors, Eradicators and a Ballistus.
  • 4th – Tony_X – Black Templars (Gladius Task Force): Mechanised Templars with a Redeemer and three Impulsors packed with Brethren.
  • 5th – Lythandyr – Adepta Sororitas: All-rounder Sisters with a bit of everything and an extra unit of Warsuits.
  • 6th – nikki – Death Guard: Lots of Plague Marines in Rhinos, Deathshroud MSUs and some Brigands.

Quebec City Open – QCO

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in L’Ancienne-Lorette, QC, CA on March 09 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Lancelot St-amour – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders) – 1st Place

Black Templar Primaris Initiate with a power fist. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Primaris Crusader Spam

Thoughts

What a nice narrative throughline the results have given me this week – if the metagame is tooling up to face C’tan and War Dog onslaughts, simply overwhelm them with eighty Primaris Crusaders instead. Carving through this list with Uphold the Honour of the Emperor active is an absolutely gigantic lift, especially as the two units at the tip of the spear will have an improved 5+ Feel No Pain active. If the army touches your stuff then bad news – it’s going to get mauled, trapped in combat, or suffer terrible losses to Fight on Death triggers from Vicious Riposte if they try and challenge them in combat. Even the mighty Custodes have to seriously worry when going up against this build in a fight – it’s a very real prospect for them to not clear a unit then suffer serious casualties from the consequences, 20 2W models with a Feel No Pain is just so much. Lots of Scouts also ensures this build is going to have the initiative on scoring a lot of the time, putting opponents on a serious clock to get into the game. The diabolical Aeldari were able to hold the Templars to a draw in one game, presumably by dancing around and maxing secondaries, but no one else was able to match the might of the Templars, allowing Lancelot to take the trophy.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Éric Marcoux – Aeldari (Battle Host): Pure speedy shooting, combining Hornets with Aspect Warriors and D-Cannons. (Aforementioned diabolical Aeldari, but picked up another draw in the final round, leaving the Templars to win overall).
  • 3rd – John Winter Russell – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment): Guard with a Krieg tarpit and some extra counterpunch from Rough Riders and a big, fully-tooled Scion squad.
  • 4th – Louis Boisvert – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): Lots of Characters, double Mutalith.
  • 5th – Francis Thibault – Nurgle Daemons: A veritable avalanche of rotting flesh, featuring Rotigus and three of his greatest pals, then a metric tonne of Nurglings and some Plaguebearers for support.

Palladium Games Presents: “the dumpster fire gt”

31-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Phoenixville, PA, US on March 09 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Supply Drop – Chilling Rain – Search and Destroy

Brian Zhu – T’au Empire (Kauyon)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Mark Benning – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

We’re going Pacific Rim mode for today’s showdown as a bunch of Gundams take on giant monsters. Love it, so how does it shape up?

On the Tyranid side we’ve got ourslves a monster mash, with a nice mix of efficient bodies, extra aggro and Battle-shock tech from Screamer Killers and the big DakkaFex/One-Eye unit as a flexible mid-table piece. Gargoyles also supply excellent scoring and objective-theft potential, and a Biovore, Neurolictors and the Neurotyrant provide plenty of ways to score secondaries and generally harrass the opponent. The main gap is has, like a lot of Tyranid builds, is that it doesn’t have any massively reliable way to burst a target down at range, leaving it vulnerable to getting outgunned.

Ominous foreshadowing? What ominous foreshadowing?

Well, yeah that’s kind of what’s going to happen here, but I think what really puts the nail in the coffin is the heavily mechanised nature of the Tau force. Tyranids are highly adept at pivoting to outscoring foes when they can’t win a damage race, but three transports full of quality infantry that can deploy after the board Advances makes that very tricky to pull off, especially in mission game where scoring is skewed to the mid and late game. The Tau can afford to be fairly methodical about eliminating the Tyranids and denying Primary early on thanks to the sure knowledge that they’ll have the assets to reliably pull ahead on scoring later on, leaving this one extremely tough for the Tyranids even if they play it perfectly. Against a less mechanised Tau list they could just focus on rolling up scoring pieces and trying to out-Secondary, but that’s not going to play out here, and the scoreline reflects the significant tactical advantages that the Tau can draw from the list choices.

Result

T’au Empire (Kauyon) Victory – 80 – 48

Brian Zhu – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – 1st Place

Fire Warrior Breacher Team. Credit: Rockfish
Fire Warrior Breacher Team. Credit: Rockfish

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Mechanised Tau

Thoughts

It really came to the fore in the Showdown, but I think Breacherfish are an excellent choice for Tau all-round at the moment, especially in a build like this that presents plenty of other important targets. Ensuring you retain scoring power through to the later stages of the game is vital, and Devilfishes do that while also just being a very efficiently priced hull. Good stuff from Brian, congratulations!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Mark Benning – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): See showdown
  • 3rd – Cory White – Chaos Daemons (Daemonic Incursion): Another Nurgle-heavy build, this time tagging in a small Khorne contingent for the explosive potential of Bloodcrushers with a Blood Throne.
  • 4th – Craig Valvano – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance): Nurgle’s clearly having a busy week, as a Great Unclean One has snuck in here as well, alongside lots of Dogs, Nurglings and the Beast of Nurgle tech.

Wrap Up

Five down, four to go – and we’ve got plenty more scenery-chewing villainy to come on Friday.

Previous articleStat Check Episode 82 – In Crisis Suits
Next articleCompetitive Innovations in the Mortal Realms: 2024-03-11
© Goonhammer LLC