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Competitive Innovations in 10th: Chewing the Scenery pt.2

By Lowest of Men

Villainy continues to abound across the top tables as we move into part 2, but today the Imperium is doing a somewhat better job of stemming the tide.

It’s Lowest of Men in charge, and today we’ll be covering:

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

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

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

10th Barrie Bash

60-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Thornton, ON, CA on March 09 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Ryan Bell – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) – 1st Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

World Eaters Eightbound Rush

Thoughts

Business as usual for the World Eaters, who shrug off their recent nerfs in a blood-rage before smashing through your screen to headbutt you at the mere thought of doubting them. This list highlights that all the same tools still slap – Angron remains devastating, the toned down Master of Executions still ruins lives, and Eightbound and their Exalted cousins are still incredible melee damage dealers with a cheeky trap threat packaged away inside. Get too close at your peril. Very well done on the top placing!

Cody Brown – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs) – 2nd Place

Adepta Sororitas Castigator Battle Tank - Order of the Gilded Cilice - Credit: Colin Ward
Adepta Sororitas Castigator Battle Tank – Order of the Gilded Cilice – Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Castigation for the Nation

Thoughts

The Sisters of Battle have moved on from their ex, orcist. The new man is called Castigator and he’s the real deal. A phenomenal gun tank that can throw out a considerable volume of fire, on a durable cheap chassis, the Castigator locks down the backfield as Arcoflagellants and disposable Novitiates make trouble up ahead, with Repentia on hand to offer even more combat potential. Sisters can tarpit most flavours of elf, and they have enough damage dealers at range and in melee (where fight on death helps ensure no good trades) to trouble Custodes and Necrons as well. A recipe for success in the current climate! Excellent work on the top finish.

Zachery Riegling – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs) – 3rd Place

Arcoflagellants. Credit: Richyp

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Sisters Mixed Arms

Thoughts

Ok, one Exorcist in here for some insurance, and a few flex pieces (lovely to see the Daemonifuge out!), but the core of this list remains similar, albeit with a run out for the Triumph of St Katherine as well. Immolators are a lovely little frontline tank, with a credible Overwatch threat coupled with nuisance levels of transport capacity to force the enemy out and onto the other guns. Crusaders and Death Cult Assassins provide cheap trigger points for some fight phase control tricks or very cheap disposable scoring as required. A very powerful army taking two podiums at the same event here to drive the point home! Amazing work.

Nick Jagiello – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 4th Place

Lord Solar. Credit: Rockfish
Lord Solar. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Astra Militarum Mixed Arms

Thoughts

A real grab bag of options in this guard list, which packs in the mission play with a tonne of Chimaera infantry but also offers some counter-charge damage with Rough Riders. These are fragile but can hit really hard, so if you have ways to deliver them safely they will do work for you. A cheaper artillery wing on display here with the Medusa Battery getting the nod ahead of Manticores on price alone, with a decent output slightly marred by reduced accuracy. Another excellent Militarum showing, very well done indeed.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 5th – Hamza Syed – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Max Venoms, triple Archon / Incubi, and lots of Kabalites. Very tasty indeed.
  • 6th – David Paton – Grey Knights: Massed Terminators and characters in more of a pre-slate GK build.

1 GT Bilbao

50-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Bilbo, PV, Spain on March 09 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Jordi Macià Dekkers – Necrons (Canoptek Court) – 1st Place

Canoptek Doomstalker. Credit: Rockfish
Canoptek Doomstalker. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Canoptek Court Goodstuff

Thoughts

Canoptek Court continues to flex its muscles, and the muscles are C’tan, Doomstalkers and Wraiths. Potent melee, dangerous shooting in your turn and theirs, and a slab of OC toting, will-not-dying monsters. Very potent, with a toolkit to navigate a whole bunch of enemy threats, Court has endured despite dalliances with the other sub factions in recent weeks. Double Transcendant allows this to flex early pressure as the rest gets into position, something Court can lack for a little bit, and they’re mobile enough to assist in scoring too. Really well done on the win!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Javier Boveda – Chaos Daemons (Daemonic Incursion): Big boy time Daemons with a flood of Nurglings.
  • 3rd – koldo besga – Leagues of Votann (Oathband): Sagitaurs and Land Forts ferry the Bezerks and Hearthguard to war.
  • 4th – Xabier Serrano – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): Double Lord of Skulls, Angron, Eightbound. Epic.
  • 5th – Alvaro Perez – Black Templars (Gladius Task Force): Gladius Templars with Land Raider mounted infantry.
  • 6th – Ivan Andres – Orks: Massed Kill Rigs and Squighogz party like it’s 9th edition.
  • 7th – erik hermosilla – Astra Militarum: Triple Medusa, double Rogal Dorn, tasty.
  • 8th – Rafael miguel Martinez Legorburu – T’au Empire: Crisis, Breacherfish, and some Skyrays leading the way.
  • 9th – Sergio Munoz – Ultramarines (Ironstorm Spearhead): An Ironstorm Dreadnought castle in Ultramarines.
  • 10th – Aitor Bravo Perez – Death Guard: Maxed out PBCs, Bloat Drones and MSU Deathshroud bring the sickness.

Meta 40k – Március – WCQ

44-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Budapest, Magyarország on March 09 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Véber Ákos – Salamanders (Firestorm Assault Force) – 1st Place

Ballistus Dreadnought. Credit: Rockfish
Ballistus Dreadnought. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Go Wide Firestorm

Thoughts

An interesting go-wide Firestorm list, which boosts the flamer output via some Salamanders plug ins but eschews the usual emphasis on Land Raider Redeemers we have most typically seen. Instead the vehicles are cheaper and there are a lot more of them, making this build much harder to decisively put away. It’s a real combined arms approach, relying on the small incision units like Eradicators and Lancers to put down hard targets but using Impulsors to tap in to the transport related shenanigans on offer in Firestorm. A really novel take, and a GT win for Firestorm that warms my heart… hehe.

Adam Pusztai – Death Guard (Plague Company) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Mortarion Death Guard

Thoughts

The lethal auras of Mortarion are alluring to many, and this build from Adam clusters some suitable shooting units to the Plague Lord to blast through enemy armies hoping that their damage modifiers might save them… Brigands are still an excellent plug in for Death Guard as are Nurglings, and two big Fight First bricks of Plague Marines no-sell would be combat armies in the struggle for primary. A really nice build that showcases many of the reasons Death Guard are having a great start to 2024. Very well done.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 3rd – Botond Blasovszky – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Scourge, Incubi, a cheeky Grotesque pack, and plenty of Battleline in transports.
  • 4th – Fábián Dénes – T’au Empire (Kauyon): Breacherfish, Ghostkeels, and Triple Riptide.
  • 5th – Virág Varga – Chaos Space Marines: Abaddon Terminators, some Raptors and Warp Talons and some heavy shooting in support.
  • 6th – Mate Csaszar – Adeptus Mechanicus (Skitarii Hunter Cohort): Hunter Cohort Vanguard supported by 18 Breachers and lots of MSU.
  • 7th – Douglas Ember – Thousand Sons: Rubrics, a Mutalith, a small Terminator pack and the usual slew of wizard characters.

Fantasianorth Store Championship – 40K

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Västerbottens län, Sverige on March 09 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Ad Mech versus World Eaters

Rickard Wallin – Adeptus Mechanicus (Rad-Zone Corps)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

André Persson – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Two iconic 40k factions who are both really angry about flesh, albeit for very different reasons. In the World Eaters corner (nobody puts Angron in the corner) we have a typical Eightbound rush build, set up to cruise forward and slap the enemy about. Most of the damage is concentrated in a couple of big damage dealers, with Spawn and Jakhals to occupy space and hold ground alongside.

Facing them across the battlefield is a gunline of Breachers, tooled up and ready to annihilate anything that wanders into range. The main challenge for the World Eaters is the plethora of throwaway Vanguard units. These can happily stand in front of the advancing melee marines for long enough for the Breachers to leave gaping holes in them. The obvious ways through for the WE are Angron heroics, or a trap going off via the Exalted Eightbound. Should either of these fail to deliver they are going to have a hard time weathering the storm and the Vanguard can be thrown away for primary denial purposes happily for a turn or two if they play the waiting game, such is the width of assets Ad Mech can bring to bear. It highlights how vastly different the two armies are right now, and in this case it seems the chaff carried the day for the Mechanicus.

Result

Adeptus Mechanicus (Rad-Zone Corps) Victory – 14 – 6

Rickard Wallin – Adeptus Mechanicus (Rad-Zone Corps) – 1st Place

Kataphron Breacher with Heavy Arc Rifle and Hydraulic Claw
Kataphron Breacher with Heavy Arc Rifle and Hydraulic Claw. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Ad Mech Rad Cohort

Thoughts

A triumph for the Ad Mech Rad Cohort build from the showdown. Rad Cohort sprinkles some mortal wound pressure that can be really toxic for elite MSU armies, which puts them on a timer to come into the midboard- the ‘Breacherzone’ if you will. Tonnes of Vanguard for scoring and blocking as the guns go to work, and Assassins to shore up some utility and scoring. Lovely to see the Ad Mech book take out a win here, very well done.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Sebastian Magnusson – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Shooty Hypercrypt with loads of Destroyers, some Doomsday Arks, a Wraith Brick and a couple of C’tan.
  • 3rd – André Persson – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): The World Eaters Eightbound list from the showdown.

Wrap Up

That’s it for this week! Warhammer sure got played, dice rolled, victories won. The post slate meta looks pretty stable now and a good mix of armies are in play – will upcoming Xenos books shake things up? Are GW going to unleash a Kroot list that wins every GT from now until Christmas? Should I probably go to bed? Who can really say. Be well out there and have fun playing space toys with your friends.

Lowest of Men, out.

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