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Competitive Innovations in 10th: Cold Steel pt.1

By James "One_Wing" Grover

Welcome to Competitive Innovations, our weekly feature for a number of game lines across the tabletop wargame space. Each week our army list and tactics experts canvass the top tournaments for their game of specialty, looking at the week’s top match-ups and how they played out on the tabletop to let you know what’s hot, what’s not, and what might be coming next as the competitive meta evolves year-round.

What’s up in the world of Warhammer this week? Largely the same thing that’s been happening for the last few – Orks and Ynnari are still on top (the former despite some events starting to outright ban More Dakka), and a rotating cast of factions are vying to try and knock them off the top. This week it’s Necrons, Astra Militarum and Blood Angels nipping at their heels, with the robots unleashing lots of Skorpekh in Awakened Dynasty, Astra Militarum doing their usual Tanks and Infantry thing, and Blood Angels remembering that Liberator Assault Group is extremely strong (and solid into the top stuff). Maybe a little more static than we’d like, all things considered, but still a bit of churn, and we’ve got the full release of Emperor’s Children to shake things up soon as well.

Oh, also, it’s a three-parter because many Warhammer, a healthy sign that everyone is still out there having a good time despite a couple of lists being over-tuned.

Today we’ll start with:

  • THE SHEFFIELD 40K SUPER MAJOR
  • SALT III (St. Louis Annual Last Minute Tournament)
  • Gem Wargaming GT By the Bay
  • USA Charity Cup
  • ITA 40K SINGLES FOOLCON GT 2025

Part 2 will be with me on Thursday this week, looking at:

  • Fools Errand 2025
  • WarZone: Tucker Brewing
  • Dragon’s Hoard 40K GT Event Hosted by Away Game
  • Bash at the Beach April Grand Tournament
  • Pachuca Punch Out Round 3

Finally, Lowest of Men will take the helm as usual on Friday for:

  • OPEN IBERIAN BARCELONA 2025
  • THE PHUKET OPEN
  • Vanquish 2025
  • Courage & Honour X
  • East Anglian Grand Tournament 2025 April

THE SHEFFIELD 40K SUPER MAJOR

208-player, 8-round Supermajor in England, United Kingdom on April 05 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Gustavo José Branco Varandas de Sousa – Astra Militarum (Combined Arms) – 1st Place

Rogal Dorn. Credit: Rockfish
Rogal Dorn. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Combined Arms Guard

Thoughts

A return to the norm for the Astra Militarum here, using a powerful all-rounder build that thrives on UKTC terrain to take down a supermajor. The combination of the staging value of Transports and excellent side-channel firing lines have made Guard consistently great on these maps, and this build plays with those extremely well. Big Krieg units have also been running hot in general, and having two of them provides some strong redundancy, and gives your opponent two chances to mess up and give a block back at a key time. Finally, Grand Strategist on a Dorn Commander is a great way to power the tanks you want without having to invest in Solar Leontus, and this build legitimately ends up with one more proactive unit to roam around the board as a result. That’s a nice optimisation, and rounds out a list that can play whatever game it needs to to punch through the foe. Well done to Gustavo.

Vik Vijay – Aeldari (Devoted of Ynnead) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Dark Reapers. Credit: Rockfish
Dark Reapers. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Shooty Ynnari

Thoughts

An Aeldari build is good, so it’s no surprise to see Vik taking the second undefeated slot using them. His variant on the Aeldari menace is another one that uses plenty of standard tools, but with a few micro-optimisations. Most notable is the choice of three units of Rangers instead of the more standard Scorpions, which saves 90pts to buy (once again) another whole unit. I like that choice, as in Ynnari really all you’re looking for from your wide pieces like that is to either move block early or die profitably (either by triggering Lethal or stickying a point), and Rangers do that just as well here. That allows the build to pack a lot of killing power, especially via the full Dark Reaper unit in a Serpent, which can pull off some really gnarly early sightlines with Star Engines that can dunk on some lists (and that’s before Lethal Intent gets involved). If the list finds itself facing melee foes it can also set up a very nasty multi-pronged Fight First screen by sticking the Autarchs with the Banshees on top of Yvraine’s unit. Finally, you’ve also got a Windrider unit here to diversify the shooting power, and being able to go full re-rolls with Soulsight lets them cleave through almost any target that isn’t on a 2+ Save.

This list has an extreme depth of tricks and tools, and with Vik at the helm it’s no surprise to see it in this position – congratulations.

Danny Evison – Necrons (Awakened Dynasty) – 3rd Place

Necron Warriors
Necron Warriors. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Awakened Warriors and Skorpekh

Thoughts

God I’m going to have to try this one aren’t I? We get another showing here for the “one big Warrior unit” variant of Awakened Dynasty, which seems to be going from strength to strength in a metagame that just doesn’t seem to be quite ready to pull off the one-shot you really need (at least not with Orikan and Szeras around). Definitely a fan of using the Royal Warden in the squad, Fall Back/Shoot/Charge is practically mandatory on that kind of squad if you want to put the Veil elsewhere.

The Warriors provide an anvil around which triple Skorpekh/Lord units can operate, and the rise of these in Awakened makes a lot of sense. They’re pretty much perfectly statted to guarantee a wipe on many popular units (Tankbustas in particular hate their guns), and being able to revive the Lord in Awakened gives you some excellent double-dip potential (especially with how great his headbutt Mortals are into Aeldari). Solo Imotekh provides the CP juice to keep that going, and an Enmitic Lokhust unit lurks in the wings to flatten swathes of Infantry if you run into Aeldari or Guard (though it was the Guard that took Danny down). This list looks like a techy Necron delight, and I suspect I’ll find myself lured into its embrace before too long, well done Danny on third place.

Markus Hinson – Grey Knights (Warpbane Task Force) – 4th Place

Grey Knight Nemesis Dreadknights. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

All-rounder Warpbane

Thoughts

A strong Grey Knights performance to round our first event out, with Markus augmenting the common tools of Dreadknights and Crowe’s Purifiers with two Strike/Brotherhood Champion units. I love these and think they’re wildly underutilised, as the price tag feels great for something that’s really hard to push out of a ruin in the current MSU-heavy environment. Markus ran Vik pretty close in the final round, and I feel like these must have been a major contributor to that, as you couldn’t craft a better unit for pushing back a Banshee charge if you tried. Being hard to fish out also makes them great for setting up Fires of Covenant, which is especially strong in UKTC due to the positions of the central ruins. You can also go on the offence with them, as the Champion pushes them over the line to being something that can do some heavy lifting if you push them into the foe with Hallowed Beacon. All in all, they give this list a huge x-factor that I think makes this performance especially well-deserved – great stuff Markus!

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top cut was:

  • 5th – Ross Tully – T’au Empire (Kroot Hunting Pack): Lots of Kroot, as you’d expect, but very much a full dedication to the cause of bird men, going for maximum Rampagers and lots of Riders with repeater cannons alongside an Infantry horde.
  • 6th – Josh Roberts – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group): Lots of Bladeguard, three Ballistus Dreads, and Mephiston.
  • 7th – Greg Chamberlain – Leagues of Votann (Oathband): A heavy hitting Votann build from Greg, using two full Heathguard units out of reserve and a ten-model hammer of Beserks from a Land Fortress.
  • 8th – Nate Waite – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host): Blade Champion/Warden units, one Custodian squad with Draxus and some Venatari.

SALT III (St. Louis Annual Last Minute Tournament)

60-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in St. Louis, MO, United States on April 05 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Ryan Verbeck – Tyranids (Synaptic Nexus) – 1st Place

Norn Emissary
Norn Emissary. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Nidzilla Max

Thoughts

Hell yeah big bugs! There’s not a massive amount I can say about the plan of pushing three gigantic mega bugs up the board and crushing the foe with them (accompanied by very hefty Hive Tyrant to boot), but I do think it’s notable that Synaptic Nexus is a very good fit for this build right now, as Reinforced Hive Node with a 2+ Save is especially strong into a lot of popular AP-1/AP-2 threats, even though it’s no longer phase-long. Stacking that with a baseline Feel No Pain from the Psychophages really helps reduce the risk of getting punked out by enemies with early reach.

Access to Fall Back/Shoot/Charge is valuable for the big bugs as well, and tooled up Zoanthropes give you the anti-heavy threats you need to compensate for the output of the Norns only being middling. I think this build achieves what a lot of monster Tyranid lists struggle with, which is presenting a compelling reason not to just go Invasion Fleet for the Feel No Pain, and it’s cool to see big bugs thriving here. Well done Ryan!

Benjamin Frederiksen – Ultramarines (Gladius Task Force) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Cobalt Scions Ballistus Dreadnought. Credit: Charlie Brassley

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Bobby G Gun Club

Thoughts

I mean yeah, the list name is dead on here. Bobby G, Calgar, guns. It ain’t broke, don’t fix it (other than a little bit of threat diversification with a Reaper). Well done Benjamin.

Connor Johnson – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic) – 3rd Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Double Mutalith Tsons

Thoughts

At this point, Tsons are the most continuously nerfed faction in the game, and yet somehow their few, devoted adherants still managed a perfect 50% win rate on the weekend, and before my eyes I do once more see a double Mutalith build. Incredible. Connor ran this through some very tough opposition (4/5 of his opponents finished 4-1+), and only came undone when up against Ryan’s Nidzilla, which can basically just trump the capacity of this build to handle stuff. That ceiling on what they can deal with means Tsons definitely are in the space of needing a little boost, but hugely well played to Connor for taking them to the final despite that.

Skyler Williamson – Adeptus Custodes (Solar Spearhead) – 4th Place

Telemon Heavy Dreadnought
Telemon Heavy Dreadnought. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Solar Spearhead Dread Spam

Thoughts

I’m rating this list name as only mostly accurate, because I absolutely see non-Dreadnought unit there, but the general vibe of the army planning to roll people over with golden mechs is on point. The Augury Uplink Telemon gets to play a pretty similar game to the big bugs, and two blaze cannon Caladius are great support for the Dreads, as any enemy tank that comes out to engage is likely to pay a steep price. Lions has been all the rage the last few weeks, but Spearhead is still really, really strong, and it’s good to get a reminder of that – good stuff from Skyler.

The Best of the Rest

There were 7 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 5th – Brent Simon – Aeldari (Devoted of Ynnead): Aspect MSUs, Incubi Brick, Yncarne, you know the deal.
  • 6th – Sam Anderson – Death Guard (Plague Company): Mortarion, two very tooled-up Plague Marine units in Rhinos, and a Land Raider packed with Deathshrouds.
  • 7th – Chris Green – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group): A highlander build here that features a bit of everything, most notably some vicious full-sized foot melee units and a Land Raider Redeemer.
  • 8th – Quinn Morris – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group): Two full Sanguinary Guard blocks backed by two Vindicators.
  • 9th – Nicholas Rupel – Chaos Daemons (Scintillating Legion): Shooty Scintillating with triple Bird (two regular, one Kairos), double Soul Grinder, and two Pink Horror units to hold space.
  • 10th – Jared Boulnois – Grey Knights (Warpbane Task Force): A very unusual Terminator-heavy Grey Knights build with various Paladin and Brotherhood MSUs lead by spicy Characters, including Voldus, whose rules I legitimately had to look up (and who I guess isn’t horrible for the price when the elves are often bringing a Daemon along).
  • 11th – Rek Gregory – Necrons (Starshatter Arsenal): A crunchy core of the Silent King, Void Dragon, and full Wraith squad backed up by various utility pieces and some Triarch Stalkers.

Gem Wargaming GT By the Bay

51-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Virginia Beach, VA, United States on April 05 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Take and Hold – Raise Banners – Tipping Point

Alex Brudnicki – Orks (More Dakka)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Joshua Campbell – Orks (More Dakka)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

The comedians in our Discord have decided to hand me a mirror match again, but mercifully the players have come to my rescue by actually making some slightly different choices in their list construction. Joshua’s build cleaves pretty close to the standard, packing all the shooty threats and a couple of Beast Snagga units for melee heavy lifting. Alex takes a slightly different tack, dialling back the shooting a bit in order to pack two full Boyz units with Painboyz. As we saw from the Necrons above, a surprising number of lists struggle to cleave through 20-model Infantry bricks, and access to on-demand Waaagh in More Dakka makes them a great second board control wave after the Super Grots are super dead. 5+ Invulnerable Save into a 5+ Feel No Pain brings back horrible memories of 8th Edition Plaguebearer lists, and this is definitely on my list of things that seem super obviously strong as soon as you see them written down.

The matchup isn’t great for them though, because enemy Lootas are pretty perfect for taking them out due to being D2, and by my maths you’re only going to need to commit maximum two squads to get the job done, nowhere near the payoff you want for sacrificing a big Infantry unit. Tipping point is, at least, one of the maps where it’s generally a bit easier to hide, so that pushes this towards being a somewhat cagier game, because fundamentally anything that emerges into the open from either side is getting vapourised at speed.

I think that does end up favouring Alex a bit, for two reasons. Firstly, he’s got Stormboyz, so is better able to gradually push ahead on Secondaries if both sides are being Taktikal. Secondly, two units of Boyz gives him an option that Joshua doesn’t have, which is a big Waaagh pressure turn. You can theoretically do that with guns, of course, but while one unit of Boyz probably dies too quick, putting both out at once with standard-issue Waaagh up may either overwhelm the other Orks, or at least force them to expose enough of their toys that the counter-counter-punch is fatal. Alex pulled off a reasonably big win, so I’m guessing some sort of decisive play was achieved – congratulations!

Result

Orks (More Dakka wiv’ Boyz) Victory – 88 – 63

Alex Brudnicki – Orks (More Dakka) – 1st Place

Ork Bad Moons Choppa Boyz. Credit: Greggles

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Dakka Boyz

Thoughts

You might think I don’t have much left to say after the Showdown here, and you’d be correct. Luckily, Alex sent in his thoughts about the list, so I’ll let him take it from here:

Alex: In each game this weekend, I found that the strength of Dakka was not in the Sustained 2 itself but in the flexibility and longevity it provides Orks. Instead of relying on overwhelming my opponent with 1 big turn then being exposed, this detachment will grind an opponent down over the course of the game and try to keep you at arms length.

2 units of Boyz with Painboy provide just enough durability and weight of models to lock down 2/3 No Mans Land Objectives, actually threaten 2+ saves in melee, or move block a fair amount of the opponent’s army. They are here to hold you away from the shooting threats.

I haven’t been seeing many players use Tankbustas in reserves and I really have to recommend it. Walking on board you nearly always have a must-kill target moving up the side or in the center, especially if a screen gap lets you get at a Repulsor or some 3 wound infantry.

This detachment doesn’t feel unbeatable as a pilot. Sure, it hits like a truck, but there are 0 defensive measures outside Waaagh and only 5-6 major shooting threats. If you can bait them out or can counter punch them, the army will absolutely crumple. Additionally Dakka struggles with anything more than 2-3 T10+ vehicles, particularly Guard tanks or War Dog spam, especially if they’re protected from Tankbustas. When you face Dakka, focus on 1 unit of Boyz and then start picking apart Lootas. Be patient and reduce their ability to trade up.

Thanks for the insight Alex, and well done again on the win. Big fan of the Boyz, and interesting to hear how they played on the table.

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Jeffrey Kolodner – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs): Character-heavy Martyrs with heavy lifting from Vahl, various hulls and a full Sacresant unit at their spicy new price.
  • 3rd – Mathew Burgoon – Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders): Brawling melee with backing Vindicators and Obliterators.
  • 4th – Andrew “VolsungFa” – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group): An extremely Character-light list that looks to be planning to hurl 30 Assault Intercessors and a bunch of Bladeguard/Bike MSUs at the foe and see what happens.
  • 5th – Joshua Campbell – Orks (More Dakka): Tankbustas, Lootas and Supa Grots.
  • 6th – Emory Garrett – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Speedy-shooty Skysplinter with lots of Kabalites in Transports and a Voidraven.
  • 7th – Ron Schuetz – Orks (More Dakka): Tankbustas, Lootas and Supa Grots, also Ghaz.
  • 8th – Aaron Cryderman – Death Guard (Plague Company): Hefty Death Guard with a Land Raider and Terminators, Mortarion, cheap Daemon Engines and a friendly Great Unclean One.
  • 9th – Sean Martin – Grey Knights (Warpbane Task Force): Dreadknights, a full Purifier unit and some Razorbacks.

USA Charity Cup

40-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Boulder City, NV, United States on April 04 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Evan Stump – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force) – 1st Place

Credit: Kevin Stillman

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Deathwing RepEx GTF

Thoughts

Sure, why not. Deathwing Knights – very good. Repulsors Executioner? Seem fine, and cheap enough (along with the low Character demands of the list) that you still get to to hard on scoring pieces. Good clean fun. Well done Evan.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Durante “Glynisir” Bozzini – T’au Empire (Kauyon): Classic go-wide Kauton with Riptides, Sky Rays and one Breacherfish, plus plenty of cheap early board control.
  • 3rd – Marshall Peterson – Orks (More Dakka): S T O M P A.

ITA 40K SINGLES FOOLCON GT 2025

36-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Toowoomba City, QLD, Australia on April 04 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Roger Birkett – Imperial Knights (Noble Lance) – 1st Place

Imperial Knight Castellan
Imperial Knight Castellan. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Triple Bigs

Thoughts

Hell yeah, let’s go, big Castellan is back. This build, obviously, will do spectacularly horrible things to any large targets between the Castellan and Errant, and has the classic triple big threat saturation plan available to it. Cutting Canis Rex is somewhat eyebrow-raising, but there does seem to be a good reason for it – going for triple bigs puts you on a very low drop count, and the combination of the Warden and Errant Bondsman effects helps squeeze more utility out of each and every Armiger, especially in combination with Mysterious Guardian to redeploy the Errant once per game. It’s been long enough that my natural fear of the Castellan has abated, and it’s really great to see the full breadth of the Knight roster get some experimentation. Well done to Roger!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Bob Matic – Necrons (Awakened Dynasty): Lots of Herohammer (including solo Skorpekh Lords), two big Immortal units, a C’tan and a full Lokhust unit.
  • 3rd – Dylon Hopkins – Imperial Knights (Noble Lance): Canis and Armigers with an Assassin and Coteaz.
  • 4th – James Cummings – Leagues of Votann (Oathband): Surprisingly speedy Votann with maximum bikes and lots of Sagitaurs.
  • 5th – Thomas Neville – Drukhari (Reaper’s Wager): Various cheap Drukhari threats and a Voidraven, plus a pretty deep Harlequin contingent of Skyweavers, a Solitaire and one mounted Troupe.
  • 6th – Bodee Bignell – Tyranids (Synaptic Nexus): Big monsters and pesty Neurolictors.
  • 7th – Cam Mckean – Aeldari (Aspect Host): The Avatar gets an excursion, teaming up with Phoenix Lords in Serpents, a full Reaper/Autarch unit and various MSU Aspects in support.

Wrap Up

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