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Competitive Innovations in 10th: Contempt of Court pt.1

By James "One_Wing" Grover

As you may have seen last week, Games Workshop decided that the output of Immortals in the new Canoptek Court detachment was maybe a little too Devastating, and dropped a hammer on the combo. That, of course, was too late to be adopted by events on the weekend, meaning that Phaerons across the globe (including me) got to unleash its full power for one tournament.

The results from the weekend strongly suggest GW were right to banish this particular interaction back to the crypts, but Canoptek Court wasn’t the only Necron build excelling on the tabletops, with C’tan heavy Hypercrypt builds putting in numerous fantastic performances as well. Necrons have come in super hot, and even in my capacity as OVERLORD WINGS, I’m hoping GW have kept the option of some small final tweaks to the Dataslate open, as although the metagame might manage to adapt to this latest threat, C’tan are looking like they’re probably a bit too cheap after all the buffs they picked up in the book. Equally, maybe some buffs for underperforming factions will provide new challengers – we’ll have to wait and see. The changes to the Court did make the rules cutoff for LVO, so at this weekend we’ll get a full showcase of where they sit relative to other top factions.

That’s for the future though – this week we’ve got eight events to look at, and today I (Wings) will be covering:

  • Unified Tournament Circuit 40K Finals
  • New Years Knockout 2024
  • Critical Hit Grand Clash
  • German Finals 2023

On Friday we’ll have Lowest of Men looking at:

  • The Nottingham 40k Super-Major
  • Münsterland GT5
  • Torino Open Qualifier
  • Mekabrew Mania

Unified Tournament Circuit 40K Finals

41-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Westminster, MD, US on January 13 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Take and Hold – Search and Destroy – Chilling Rain

Derek Apsche – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness): Abaddon leading waves after waves of Accursed Cultists to war, plus some Forgefiends and utility Daemons.
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Matt Lorah – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Teleporting Immortals galore, complete with Monolith and Szeras, plus two C’tan to murder stuff.
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

A classic Showdown here, pitting a well-established metagame tyrant against a particularly unusual build from the new Codex on the block. Accursed Cultists with Abaddon providing a 4++ are even more of a nightmare to clear off the table than they normally are, providing the Chaos side of things with overwhelming pressure that threatens to bowl lots of armies clean off the table on Search and Destroy. Adding some speedy utility units like the Seekers and Bikes is great on this map too, helping reach out and cause problems whenever needed, and I think more lists should be running solo Syll’Esske in general. All good stuff – so do the Necrons have the tools to answer it?

They certainly look ready to have a crack at it, and just in general here I think Matt’s list rules. Between the Monolith, Chronomancers and the Hypercrypt stratagems those Immortals are going to be bouncing around like nobodies business, and for general purposes I think the choice to go with Gauss on two of the units is pretty sharp. With Szeras, that gives you a juicy AP-2, which means they’ll reliably clip some wounds off sturdier targets than normal. Here that’s obviously a bit less good – you really want all Tesla all the time into the cultists, but at least you have the one Arisen Tyrant Plasmancer unit to go full re-roll sicko mode and obliterate the hordes. They can’t do everything by themselves, but at least there are some fairly considerable speed bumps kicking around in the form of the C’tan. A full Undivided Cultist unit might threaten one of these on their go turn, but nothing else has an efficient story into them, and killing-wise the Necrons clearly have this.

Where they might have issues is just on suffering full-bore Primary denial. The Chaos side can play a pretty efficient Homers/Engage Fixed Secondary plan, easily reaching 30-35VP, so if they do that, lock in some early 10s and stick the Necrons on 5s for most of the game, they might be able to build an insurmountable lead. Heavy pressure will also reduce the Necrons room for maneuvre with their deep striking – Cosmic Precision and the Monolith both give them a bit more ability to work around a board flood than normal, but if they get boxed in it’s still very bad for them. Assassinating Abaddon is their key route to making their lives far easier – after that, the Deathmarks or Epic Challenge can plausibly snipe out Dark Commune leaders, after which the Cultist blocks will melt instantly. I think you quite genuinely go for trying to Cosmic Precision the Nightbringer right next to Abaddon here, and hope he can’t run away fast enough to avoid the following turn’s charge, as if he goes down the entire tenor of the game changes.

That’s easier said than done of course, and this feels like a game where the Necrons are the side that has to make something happen – if they try and play safely, they’ll get ground out. It looks like the Chaos forces did a good job of suppressing the scoring at least partially, but in the end the Necrons were just able to eke out enough of a score to take the title.

Result

Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) Victory – 79 – 76

Matt Lorah – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 1st Place

Monolith with Death Rays. Credit: Rockfish
Monolith with Death Rays. Credit: Rockfish

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Hypermobile Hypercrypt

Thoughts

Covered in the Showdown, but I really do need to stress again how much I love this build – it can do some absurd tricks on the table, it has all my favourite toys in it, and it has me seriously wondering if I need to paint 20 more Immortals. Major props to Matt on the big win!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd (4.5-0.5) – Joshua Campbell – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Triple C’tan, double Wraiths and the Immortal bomb.
  • 3rd – Derek Apsche – Chaos Space Marines: See Showdown.
  • 4th – Mark Hertel – Ultramarines (Gladius Task Force): Land Raider spam continues, and given Mark only dropped a game to the Immortal bomb (incredible into Raiders) expect even more of this to come.
  • 5th – Scott Horras – Astra Militarum: A medium tank masterclass – three Dorns, some Bullgryn to protect them, and a mixture of cheap transports, Cyclops and Gaunt’s Ghosts for objective play.
  • 6th – Andrew Gonyo – T’au Empire: Heavily mechanised Tau with three Breacherfish plus an extra Devilfish with Pathfinders, supported by a full Crisis bomb, Longstrike and a Hammerhead.
  • 7th – Zach Comeau – T’au Empire: Even more Breachers here, some forced to footslog, and a bunch more infantry to boot, backed by some small troubleshooting Crisis units.

New Years Knockout 2024

49-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Raytown, MO, United States on January 13 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Dan Sammons – Leagues of Votann (Oathband) – 1st Place

Sagitaur. Credit: Rockfish
Sagitaur. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Sagitaur Spam

Thoughts

Dan has appeared in this esteemed column many times, and it’s usually when he’s devised some new and improved method to blast all his opponent’s models off the table at speed. Votann are extremely good at this, because they have ranged outputs to cater for most targets, with Sagitaurs providing a nice mix of anti-tank and volume fire, Hearthguard being one of the very best anti-horde choices in the entire game, and Thunderkyn adding some very cost-efficient additional shots into vehicles or elite infantry. Only 2+ save tanks give the guns real pause, and there you have the excellent fallback plan of double-stacking them with Judgement tokens and unleashing Beserks with Warrior Pride, ready to hammer them into next week.

The only challenge with assembling this army is finding enough stuff to put in the Sagitaurs, and I like the choice of adding a couple of Grimnyrs – they’re cheap, their shooting is surprisingly efficient, and because of their pet CORVs they can’t just get punked by a single big shot like some Characters. Wayfarers Grace on one of them also makes them extra sticky, providing a pseudo Lone-Op experience for a key turn if they’re far from the foe. I have developed a healthy respect for Votann after some recent encounters with them, and this looks like a particularly well optimised version, well done to Dan on the win.

Joe Guzowski – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Battlewagon - Deathrolla and Kannon. Credit: Rockfish
Battlewagon – Deathrolla and Kannon. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Ork Pressure

Thoughts

The tried and true orky plan of rolling people over (both metaphorically and literally, see the Battlewagon) gets another excellent outing here. This build feels particularly good into Necrons, saturating them with targets and packing enough volume melee to plausibly cut down C’tan, and since the forces of the Dynasties are looking very strong even after the Immortal changes that’s definitely a valuable feature. I think if the meta is going to adapt to Necrons Orks are one of the factions that can potentially do it, so watch this space, and well done to Joe for upholding Orky honour with an undefeated finish.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 3rd – Chase Campbell – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Triple C’tan, Double Wraiths, Immortals.
  • 4th – Howard Watts – Ultramarines (Gladius Task Force): All-rounder Ultramarines with a Deep Striking Calgar/Apothecary/Aggressor brick as the centrepiece.
  • 5th – Tyler Devries – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Immortal-free Court, going for Double C’tan, triple Wraiths and triple Doomstalkers to maintain that ranged threat.
  • 6th – Aaron Hermstedt – Death Guard: Crunchy Death Guard, presenting a mixture of Rhino-riding Plague Marines, Plaguebursts and War Dogs to the foe.
  • 7th – Tim Royers – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders): MSU Mechanised Sword Brethren riding a mix of a Redeemer and an Impulsor, supported by a fairly all-rounder mix of tools.
  • 8th – Peyton Preece – Adeptus Mechanicus (Skitarii Hunter Cohort): 18 Ironstrider/Sydonian bodies supported by some mechanished infantry and tonnes of MSU Pterazii and Infiltrators.
  • 9th – Ben Cherwien – Black Templars (Firestorm Assault Force): MSU Crusaders and Sword Brethren ready to make use of the Detachments transport shenanigans, and a big unit of Aggressors with flamers to roast stuff.
  • 10th – Josh Lewis – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Only one Wraith unit here, backed by two Immortal squads, two C’tan and three Doomstalkers.

Critical Hit Grand Clash – 2 Day GT

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Courtice, ON, Canada on January 13 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Nicholas Redford – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 1st Place

Iron Warriors Chaos Lord and Space Marines. Credit: SRM

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

CSM Goodstuff

Thoughts

Lots of the standard Chaos Space Marine toys on show here, fielding the regular mix of Chosen, Accursed Cultists and Forgefiends to unleash terrible destruction and mayhem. I do really like the Nurgle Predator as an extra shooting unit when points are a bit tight – Nurgle Pacts give it some surprisingly nasty spike potential, and it being pretty small makes it fairly easy to either hide or sneak on from Strategic Reserves when some extra oomph is needed. A nice little tech piece added to a classic setup, and the Dark Gods rewarded Nicholas well for his choices.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Ryan Bell – World Eaters: A slightly tweaked version of the standard World Eaters formula, cutting back on Berserkers for a few extra Eightbound and some extra Jakhals and Spawn for backfield babysitting.
3rd – Adrien Mindjimba – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders): Two full Primaris Crusader bricks supported by small shooting units, Invictors and a unit of Sword Brethren in an Impulsor. With lots of Infiltrators in the metagame, Invictors can be quite a potent punish if they reach out and trap something with No Escape, or even just bait something crunchy for the Sword Brethren to murder.
4th – Dan Bruce – Space Wolves (Ironstorm Spearhead): Big crunchy vehicles and one large ThunderCav unit as a very violent counter-charge threat.

German Finals 2023

This event was the finals of a series of tournaments bringing together all the top-ranked players in Germany, so although there were only 12 players in this event, they’d been through several previous challenges to get there!

All the lists for this event can be found in Tabletop Herald. The event used 20-0 scoring.

Matthias Bellman – Necrons (Canoptek Court) – 1st Place

Imotekh the Stormlord. Credit: Wings

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Canoptek Wraith/Immortal Spam

Thoughts

Another Canoptek Court build to round us out today, here going fairly all-in on using Immortals to get stuff done. Adding Chronomancers for some units and packing a Reanimator and Szeras to castle them round means they can actually hold a position (or dance around for objective shenanigans), and bringing Imotekh along for the ride as well means that there’s a ready supply of Command Points to allow for double-dipping on Cynosure when needed. Two units of Wraiths and the Nightbringer is more than enough to hold up the opponent while all that devastation is unleashed, and although Tyranid monster mash was able to narrowly bring it down in one game, Matthias emerged from the bloodbath of top players with the only 4-1 record, and thus took the trophy!

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top four were:

  • 2nd – Kevin Zöllinger – Black Templars (Ironstorm Spearhead): The classic Black Templars combo of cheap board presence from Crusader squads plus a bunch of hulls (Reapers and Predators), some of which have extra multi-meltas strapped to them.
  • 3rd – Arne Zerndt – Chaos Space Marines: Triple Accursed Commune pressure, with some Warpflamer Rubricae as extra overwatch threats.
  • 4th – Leif Westermann – Aeldari: Spinners, Wraithguard, Yncarne, with the only unusual inclusion being some Fire Dragons to babysit Fuegan.

Wrap Up

Make sure to check back on Friday for the rest of this Canop-tastic week, and make sure, of course, to come back next week as we break down the LVO results.

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