Another week in the exciting world of Warhammer 40K, and in theory an eventful one, what with a whole new Space Marines Codex being released. In recent history this has often resulted in a great upending of metagames, wailing, gnashing of teeth, things of this nature, but this time around it’s fair to say the initial impact is a bit more balanced – there are Marine lists out there, some doing very well and some pretty cool ones (shout out to the hero immediately racking up a 5-1 with a Thunderwolf Cavalry Stormlance list), but they haven’t immediately taken over, with the current top dogs of Chaos Space Marines and Aeldari continuing to dominate.

That doesn’t mean things are static mind – after last week’s Sororitas surge, this week it’s the turn of the Adeptus Mechanicus to put up some significantly improved results, alongside more powerful Ork finishes, a new spin on Grey Knights and a renewed surge from Daemons. Lots to talk about so let’s get into it.

Today I’ll be covering:

Frontline Gaming SoCal Open 2023 40K Championship (supermajor)
Battlefield Birmingham 21 (major)
Warzone: Three Taverns (major)
Gothic Games Canterbury October GT 2023
Rapid Fire GT 20

Lowest of Men will be taking the helm on Friday to look at:

Malmö Wargaming Weekend VII (major)
Dragon’s Lair Open (major)
Toronto Fall Open
Alba GT ’23
MonsterCon – Armageddon Edition
Autumn Donut Single GT 2023

This week’s Showdowns, as voted for by our beloved Patrons, are:

Dark Angels (Ironstorm Spearhead) vs. Chaos Space Marines at the Rapid Fire GT
Adeptus Mechanicus vs. Tyranids (Invasion Fleet) at the Alba GT

Let’s go!

Frontline Gaming SoCal Open 2023 40K Championship

190-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Del Mar, CA, US on October 21 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Arthur Tu – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Aggro CSM

Final Round Matchup

53 – 47 Victory against Mike McTyre – Blood Angels (Gladius Task Force).

Thoughts

With the departure of Custodes, Chaos Space Marines and Orks are left to vie over the title of “best at melee”, and currently Chaos Space Marines are narrowly winning. This list packs a massive number of Advance/Charge murder machines, allowing it to quickly roll over foes that can’t quickly thin the ranks. That’s far easier said than done, because Accursed Communes offer a massive amount of durability for the price, and act as a very binary stat check for opponents to try and overcome. If they can’t…things don’t look great, and while the Blood Angels (who had a powerful mixture of melee, shooting and horde clearance) put in a serious try, eventually the servants of the dark gods triumphed.

The other thing worth highlighting as a mainstay Chaos strength is how small a commitment they need to make to get premium-quality shooting – the incredible power of Profane Zeal means that even a single Undivided-marked Obliterator unit or Forgefiend can provide adequate support to an otherwise all-melee strategy. Well done to Arthur on the win!

James Carmona – Black Legion (Slaves to Darkness) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Abaddon Gunline

Thoughts

More Chaos Space Marines in second place, showcasing the versitility of the Index in how much the army differs from the one in first. Some hits remain (Accursed Communes and Obliterators – pretty good!) but here we see Abaddon using his aura to buff up a wider range of shooting threats, plus an unusual additional melee threat in the Raptors with Haarken. They’re pretty attractively priced, and having Abaddon around definitely makes them more interesting, as being able to counter-charge with a 4+ Invulnerable Save up in a mirror match or against other pressure builds seems good. It’s clear that the Chaos Space Marine Index needs a little bit of tuning down, but it’s certainly throwing up a nice broad range of stuff, and congratulations to James for bringing some unique toys on the way to an undefeated second place.

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

Blood Angels Librarian Dreadnought. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

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Archetype

Gladius Goodstuff

Thoughts

Our first post-Marine Codex undefeated finish…doesn’t really do much with the new toys. We’ll see a bit more of that later, but here we’ve got the tried and tested Fire Discipline Aggressors, a Land Raider with some spicy stuff in it (here a trio of Assault Centurions), some more good shooting and lots of Phobos support. There’s one exciting unique trick (sporting a Librarian Dreadnought to teleport the Aggressors with Wings of Sanguinius, which yeah that whips), but we broadly know how this goes down. That doesn’t take away from the achievement here though – it’s great to see fancy red Marines going undefeated, and I like the unique tech piece that helped enable it, congratulations Ruben.

Alex Spathopoulos – Dark Angels (Unforgiven Task Force) – 4th Place

Deathwing Terminator Praetor. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

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Archetype

Crunchy Dark Angels

Thoughts

More Marines in fourth place, here making use of some of the unique tricks that the Dark Angels bring to bear in their detachment, and skewing heavily towards durability. With more melee armies out there in the metagame, Unbreakable Lines becomes more of a real consideration, as does always having access to Intractable to pull out of combat. In addition, with wound re-rolls leaving Oaths, having access to Unforgiven Fury on Hellblasters to punch up into hefty targets gets a bit more appealing too. The wound re-roll problem is also addressed by the improved version of the Lieutenant with Combi-weapon, who can really help interdict a crucial objective.

This army takes serious output to meaningfully degrade, an ultra-durable centrepiece in the Deathwing block and has very high output in response to the enemies. All good stuff, and a fantastic Dark Angels showing, well done Alex.

The Best of the Rest

There were 16 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

5th – Mike McTyre – Blood Angels (GTF): Hull and melee Blood Angels – Vindicators, Gladiators and a Land Raider as crunch, Aggressors, Death Company and VanVets for aggro.
6th – Ben Jurek – Aeldari: Triple Spinner and Wraithguard.
7th – Cooper Waddell – Tyranids (Vanguard Onslaught): Speedy pressure Vanguard with lots of Genestealers and a pair of Flyrants.
8th – Matthew Geyer – Adeptus Mechanicus: Triple Breachers blocks and a bunch of Vanguard in Duneriders.
9th – Junior Aflleje – Leagues of Votann: General goodstuff with a bit of everything.
10th= – Adam Dye – Chaos Space Marines: Abaddon gunline with a bunch of Nurglings to screen.
10th= – Benjamin Britt – Blood Angels (Ironstorm Spearhead): Sanguine hull spam, adding Flamestorm Baal Predators and Death Company Dreads into the mix.
12th – Keith Berry – Adepta Sororitas: All-rounder Sisters with a couple of big Arco-Flagellant squads alongside the usual mix of guns, nuns and Warsuits.
13th – Jordan Gledhill – Chaos Daemons: An unusual spin on monster mash focusing on Soul Grinders and Keepers of Secrets.
14th – Grant Kauffman – Death Guard: An odd hull spam list, taking a couple of Rhinos with just a Character in, lots of Daemon engines, and some War Dog Brigands.
15th – Matthew Green – Grey Knights: Terminator-heavy Grey Knights, with a big block each of Paladins and Brotherhood, plus two more Brotherhood units.
16th – Andrew Dickinger – Astra Militarum: Tank time, with a Banesword and a bunch of Leman Russes.
17th – James Davis – Ynnari: Go-wide Ynnari with Ravagers and Night Spinners.
18th – Jeff Poole – Chaos Space Marines: Abaddon gunline with two Accursed Communes as aggro pieces.
19th – Tyler Russo – Orks: Speedy-skewed Goodstuff with a bunch of mounted heroes and extra bikers.
20th – Richard Kilton – Orks: Trukk spam.

Battlefield Birmingham 21

68-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, GB on October 21 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Ritchie Balan – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe) – 1st Place

The List

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Archetype

Mech Orks

Final Round Matchup

95 – 80 Victory against Matt Bell – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force).

Thoughts

Is it complicated? No. Does it get the job done? Absolutely! Removing this many Trukks and wagons is really hard, making it quite likely that this army will strike the enemy in force, at which point only the most vicious killers are going to be able to pull themselves out. Some armies can certainly have a go, and I imaging running this up against the aggro Chaos Space Marine lists would create an utter bloodbath, but here no one was able to stand up to the might of the Waaagh. Congratulations to Ritchie.

Lee Smith – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Blackstone Fortress Black Legion Legionnaires by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Chaos Space Marine Goodstuff

Thoughts

Hey speaking of Chaos Space Marines – this is more of a balanced build than a pure aggro one, but no less effective for it, and also sports the surprisingly nasty combo of Legionnaires with Abaddon. Turns out being able to essentially go full Oaths mode on something on an objective is pretty good, and having all marks makes the unit very flexible for use with Stratagems. I’ve seen this on the table and it’s pretty nasty, so definitely give it a go if you haven’t already – and great stuff from Lee putting it into practice and going undefeated.

Billy Sutter – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – 3rd Place

The List

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Archetype

Suit Spam

Thoughts

The gun show next, with another relatively uncomplicated but very effective build, packing tonnes of durable, speedy shooting to blow opponents away. There’s one cute and unusual choice in the Plasma-armed Crisis Team, presumably intended to help lift Marines without having to lose a bunch of models to Hazardous, but otherwise we know the drill here. Good stuff from Billy.

Matt Bell – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Go-wide Grey Knights

Thoughts

Something new in fourth here (and fifth too as it happens), go-wide Grey Knights. Lots of small units able to zap around the board and control the table, good Mortal output from the Librarians relatively durable all-round, and with the one nasty full Purifier/Crowe brick. Definitely a fan of seeding Coteaz into a Brotherhood Terminator unit as well, his shooting can be really nasty, so having him in a unit that’s mobile and tough is excellent (as is providing CP if the enemy has brought their own farm). I figure the rise of brawler/Goodstuff Ork and Chaos Space Marine builds is probably why this army is popping up now – it can play very effectively against those thanks to its mobility and every unit having a decent amount of punch. It even put up a good fight against the overwhelming armoued might of the winning Ork build in the final, which many armies will get completely rolled by. Definitely looks like this is a new strategy worth exploring, good stuff from Matt leading the way.

The Best of the Rest

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

5th – Ed Watts – Grey Knights: Go-wide Grey Knights with lots of small units and the full Crowe Purifier brick.
6th – Billy Guest – Orks: Trukk Spam with some Grot Tanks and Kommandos joining the charge.
7th – John Spence – Death Guard: Infantry and Character-heavy Death Guard with lots of Plague Marines.
8th – Dan Bates – Aeldari: Extra go-wide Aeldari with some Scorpions and Karandras in a Serpent as a unique flourish.
9th – Adam Ryland – Chaos Space Marines: Goodstuff brawler Chaos Space Marines with Chosen in Rhinos and Warp Talons for melee and the Obliterator/Forgefiend setup for dakka.
10th – Ryan Garrett – Asuryani: Double Avatar.
11th – Charles Gould – Leagues of Votann: Hearthguard spam, 25 of the diminuative killers.
12th – Luke Quadling – Ynnari: Spinners and Wraithguard with some Drukhari Scourges as backup.
13th – Mark Underhill – Grey Knights: Three big Terminator blocks and change.

Warzone: Three Taverns

58-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Decatur, GA, US on October 21 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

TJ Spaeth – Adeptus Astartes (Ironstorm Spearhead) – 1st Place

Blood Ravens Invictor Warsuit. Credit: Scott White

The List

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Archetype

Ironstorm Spearhead Templars

Final Round Matchup

69 – 53 Victory against Chris Dailey – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment).

Thoughts

Aha, here’s our first use of the new Marine Detachments, and it is naturally the Iron Hands one. Some things never change. Hull-heavy builds are hard to shift (especially with a floating damage no-sell from Adept of the Omnissiah), lots of re-rolls and Lethal Hits make them super reliable for taking the enemy down, and running as Templars makes a lot of sense. Extra multi-meltas on many of the hulls maximises the chance of getting full value from the re-rolls on each unit, and Crusaders provide the best cheap Battleline to support the tanks that Marines have access to. Big fan of the singleton Warsuit, presumably intended to switch on Ancient Fury, go on an early rampage, then die messily with Vengeful Animus. Shame they don’t still go up for d6 Mortals, but still a nice touch to help sow some early chaos to buy the tanks time to do their work. congratulations to TJ on an inaugural event win for a new book.

Ryan Shaw – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 2nd Place

Rogal Dorn Battle Tank. Credit: Scott Horras “Heresy”

The List

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Archetype

Tanks Galore

Thoughts

Another build heavy on hulls and guns, though a little more complex than its title might indicate, packing Bullgryn as a core tarpit, and the unusual choice of Catachan Jungle Fighters. Honestly? They seem pretty neat – Scouts applying to a Transport you’re in means they get some extra screening reach out the gate, vital to protect all those clunky tanks in a list like this, and Firing Deck 2 is perfect for getting some value out of the two flamers they get. Nice unique touch to spice up the build, and a strong second place.

Steven Tosky – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Crunch-skewed World Eaters

Thoughts

An unusual build here with a deeply suspicious number of guns. Not sure Khorne is into that sort of thing, but apparently he deigned to allow it. The Daemon Princes are definitely pretty nasty riding shotgun with Angron, and having two of them here also makes the Jakhals really good, because a 4+ Invulnerable Save removes their key weakness. They provide a valuable skirmish screen that can take a good chunk out of any enemy that gets too close. The Daemon Princes, Terminators and Angron can then roll over anything that gets tangled up with them, and the Predator Destructors provide a nice clip of damage while the enemy works out how to navigate all that. Pleasingly unique, and really cool to see, great stuff from Steven.

Chris Dailey – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Guard and Guns

Thoughts

More Tanks, Bullgryn and screening here, this time with a little more infantry and variety. Smae basic plan as a lot of the lists here though – great speed bumps with great guns behind them – and opponents will quake. Congratulation to Chris.

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

5th – Joe MacMillan – Chaos Space Marines: Brawler goodstuff with some Plague Marines as a unique touch.
6th – Spencer Feuerstein – Chaos Knights: Max aggro Rampager/Dogs.
7th – Noah Neundorfer – Death Guard: Infantry spam, going for three big Plague Marine units and two large Terminator squads.

Gothic Games Canterbury October GT 2023

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, United Kingdom on October 21 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Ryan Williams – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Double Avatar and Wraithguard

Final Round Matchup

82 – 58 Victory against Ciaran Furlong – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders).

Thoughts

See, the one downside of all these fancy new tank builds is that it means Eldar players can just go super top heavy on Avatars and Wraithguard and still blow everyone up. Despicable. Well done Ryan.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Ciaran Furlong – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders): Templars with a big Primaris Crusader brick as a central anchor and a Land Raider double-stacked with Sword Brethren.
3rd – Edmund Dymott – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): Angron, Invocatus and 900pts of Exalted Eightbound.
4th – Dominic Mathews – Adeptus Mechanicus (Rad-Cohort): Melee aggro AdMech. No really – punchbots and lots of Dragoons.

Rapid Fire GT 2023

29-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Scotland, GB on October 21 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Take and Hold – Hidden Supplies – Hammer and Anvil

Allan Davidson – Dark Angels (Ironstorm Spearhead): Redemptors, Whirlwinds and a Darkshroud, with Inceptors and Scouts as utility pieces.
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Innes Wilson – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness): Brawler Goodstuff.
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

A second appearance for the Ironstorm Spearhead, this time rolling as Dark Angels for access to the Ravenwing Darkshroud. This is extremely good with Redemptors, as it can hide behind a wall and provide them Cover in the open, rendering them extremely tough to shift once you factor in Armour of Contempt access as well. Adept of the Omnissiah is also great with it, as it means that if your opponent manages to get an angle on it to try and remove it, you can just no-sell it. Inceptors also work very well in this detachment, as a small number of good shots you can put wherever they’re needed is perfect with the re-rolls.

Those Inceptors feel like a particular asset in this matchup, as they mean the Chaos side has to be much more careful with how it deploys its toys than normal. Alongside the Scouts (helped by Whirlwinds to clear backfield screens), they also mean the list has a lot of tools for forcing through Secondaries, particularly Teleport Homers, which makes a nice combo with Assassinate in the matchup (I’m cheating slightly here, as Innes has shown me what was picked). That’s probably enough to give the Marines advantage on Secondaries, so it’s on the Chaos side to try and dominate the Primary. Happily for Chaos, that’s definitely their plan here – they’ve got lots of tools to stage up towards the mid-board, and the Advance/Charge reach to make it tricky for the Marines to score 10s safely.

I think the biggest risk for Chaos here is just running out of stuff – they do have the shooting to lift some of the big targets, but not quickly through the defences that the Marines have, and the withering of their forces in response is going to be extremely real. Careful measuring out of melee threats to ensure the Marines don’t land a decisive blow is going to be vital. For the Marines, pop those Rhinos ASAP so you can start chipping the Chosen, and try to open up routes to start scoring 10s as quickly as possible. Definitely feels like you want to go second as the Marines here to try and squeeze out end-game value, as I don’t think you’re the one at risk of losing on resources, though equally the Chaos side getting more staging time isn’t great.

All that is to say – there’s routes for both sides to triumph here. In the event, Innes was able to carefully manage his resources to achieve victory, but Allan put in a strong showing in opposition.

Result

Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) Victory – 85 – 74

Innes Wilson – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Brawler Goodstuff

Thoughts

You know the drill here – lots of powerful mobile brawlers, and great shooting at low low process. Rubricae with Warpflamers for Overwatch nonsense is a nice extra addition, giving opponents an extra headache to handle, but beyond that this is all a known quantity – just a very, very good one in the hands of a very, very good player. Congratulations Innes.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd (4.5-0.5) – Ryan Kerr – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): Antiherohammer World Eaters, adding Kharn and an extra Juggerlord to the mix.
3rd – Nicholas Malone – Leagues of Votann (Oathband): Lots of Sagitaurs, lots of Heathguard.
4th – Conar Leach – T’au Empire (Kauyon): Suits and Tetras for days.
5th – Bruce Duffy – Chaos Space Marines: Brawler goodstuff with some Rubricae as a flex pick.

Wrap Up

That’s it for part 1, but as seems to be increasingly common, we’ve got a bumper-sized part 2 for you on Friday, so make sure you check back in then.

Competitive Innovations in 10th: Codex Chaos pt.1

Frontline Gaming SoCal Open 2023 40K Championship

Arthur Tu – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Final Round Matchup

Thoughts

James Carmona – Black Legion (Slaves to Darkness) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

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

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Alex Spathopoulos – Dark Angels (Unforgiven Task Force) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Battlefield Birmingham 21

Ritchie Balan – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Final Round Matchup

Thoughts

Lee Smith – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Billy Sutter – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Matt Bell – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Warzone: Three Taverns

TJ Spaeth – Adeptus Astartes (Ironstorm Spearhead) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Final Round Matchup

Thoughts

Ryan Shaw – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Steven Tosky – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Chris Dailey – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Gothic Games Canterbury October GT 2023

Ryan Williams – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Final Round Matchup

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Rapid Fire GT 2023

The Showdown

Take and Hold – Hidden Supplies – Hammer and Anvil

Thoughts

Result

Innes Wilson – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Wrap Up

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