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[40K] Competitive Innovations in 10th: Dataslate Deluge pt.2

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.

Welcome to part 2 of CI, where we’ve got a little bit of a schedule shakeup due to availability – Lowest of Men will now be covering tomorrow’s part, and I (Wings) am with you again for a Friday special. We’ve stuck to the same allocation of events, so that means today is:

  • Kippers’ Melee 2024
  • New York Open 3 (40k)
  • Goose Hunting Donuts
  • Gaelcon 2024
  • Safety’s Off Orktober GT
  • Battle Against Breast Cancer AZ

Tomorrow will be:

  • THE UKTC COVENTRY 40K GT : 2-Day
  • 2nd VTC Warhammer 40K
  • The Route 66 Warhammer 40,000 GT – FALL *GOLDEN TICKET QUALIFIER*
  • The GR: Meme Team GT – In co-operation with Cryptic Cabin
  • Palladium Games Presents: “the dumpster fire gt” Fall Edition
  • Queen City Orktoberfest 2024

And if you’re looking for the following, check out part 1 from Wednesday:

  • THE UKTC COVENTRY 40K GT : 3-Day
  • Rumble on the Rivers 40k GT
  • 5. Corsair Open GT
  • Battle Against Breast Cancer 40K Event Hosted by Away Games
  • Dice Like Ice Grand Tournament – Q4 2024
  • Chimera Gaming Fall GT
  • The Portal Fall GT

Kippers’ Melee 2024

84-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Nanaimo, BC, Canada on October 26 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Burden of Trust – Prepared Positions – Search and Destroy

Alex Conn – Tyranids (Synaptic Nexus)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Jesse Baker – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

A shooting skewed Drukhari build up against bugzilla here, and this feels like it’s going to ba a rough one for the elves. Norn Emissaries feel like they were practically built for Burden of Trust, whereas the Drukhari toys on show here are uh, not. Norns have really got everything going for them here – OC15 trumps many of the ways Drukhari might try and take objectives here, they blank some of the incoming threat (those haywire Scourges are very sad), and up against Drukhari they don’t even suffer too badly from their normal issue with lower S than you’d like. If you’re the Tyranids here, your plan is to walk these onto two mid-board objectives and demand the Drukhari do something about them, using Gargoyles to try and bully the final mid-field one to keep the Drukhari score super low.

That’s a very strong plan, and might be insurmountable, especially in concert with Swarmy tanking Drukhari stratagems. Realistically, your choices from the elf side are either to go all-in on killing one of the two Norns, or focus hard on protecting one mid-board objective, aim to pick up 20VP from that and guarding home, and then use a Secret mission to get the rest of the way. The Tyranids are a bit lower on drops than some lists, and don’t really have the reach to punk the Ravagers if they’re careful, so if you can land 40 on the Primary and sweep up everything else, you might get there on Secondary lead. The problem with that is that if the bugs spot that you’re committed to it then a team of Swarmy, Old One-Eye and some Maleceptors can rock in to try and punch you off your point and there’s the failure case of Shadow disrupting your scoring enough for you to just lose. Maybe that means you do just have to swing at one of the Norns and hope? This is an exceptionally rough matchup from the Drukhari side, and I’m not hugely surprised to see them go down

Result

Tyranids (Synaptic Nexus) Victory – 92 – 61

Alex Conn – Tyranids (Synaptic Nexus) – 1st Place

Norn Emissary
Norn Emissary. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Double Norn

Thoughts

As covered in the Showdown, this build is an absolute champion at walking onto two objectives and staying there, which is broadly how you win games of 10th Edition. Very cool to see the Norn get some proper exercise, well done Alex.

Stu Angel – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Rubricae Tsons

Thoughts

Nearly 18 months into the edition we once more we find ourselves asking “have Thousand Sons been nerfed enough to drop below a 55% win rate” and the answer remains no. So that’s nice for them. It’s also nice for me because I don’t have to explain this list, anyone who has been anywhere near a tournament this Edition knows what’s going on. Well done to Stu for going undefeated despite being down a whole unit from a few weeks ago.

Kyle Smith – Imperial Knights (Noble Lance) – 3rd Place (Undefeated)

Loyalist Knight Atrapos
Loyalist Knight Atrapos. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Anti-Heavy Knights

Thoughts

Rounding out the undefeated players here we’ve got a Knight build tuned for murdering lists full of big tanks and monsters, which turned out to be an extremely good pick for this first week of the new metagame. Crunchy lists are everywhere, this trio will do violently unpleasant things to them, and other top builds have a slightly harder time killing big Knights. Access to Sustained Hits sweeps on all the models means this build has an answer to more numerous foes as well, meaning it’s going to have a shot against weirder experiments too. Big fan of big Knights, good stuff Kyle.

Idavoll Heimdall – Necrons (Obeisance Phalanx) – 4th Place

Credit: Wings

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Obeisance Lychguard Spam

Thoughts

While Awakened Dynasty and Hypercrypt took the event wins for Necrons this week, Obeisance Phalanx was hot on their heels thanks to how the points and rules tweaks have fallen out. One unit of Lychguard tends to die easy, but three is a very different prospect, and access to +1 to Wound and Fight on Death makes them a real pain to deal with. At 100pts, MSU Triarch Praetorians are also finally “real”, and fill a neat versatile role that Necrons have sometimes struggled with. Combining with that, Doomsday Arks need no help to be great on the offence, and this detachment gives them a potent defensive tool in -1D, which can either help them win a shooting race, or be used to make one of those Annihilation Barges extra durable on a point. Really great to see some lesser-used Necron toys tried out, plus for this detachment to be thriving without Szarekh, nice work Idavoll.

The Best of the Rest

There were 12 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 5th – Brandon St Pierre – Death Guard: Rhino Plague Marines, Destructors, and Plaguebursts.
  • 6th – Kevin Hamilton – Blood Angels (The Lost Brethren):  Loads of foot Death Company MSUs, one big flying squad and supporting shooting.
  • 7th – Ian Harris – Death Guard: Big Deathshroud units and lots of Daemon engines, including a scuttling horde of Defilers.
  • 8th – Jesse Baker – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Skysplinter pivoting to Wracks in Raiders as an all-rounder threat.
  • 9th – David Ball – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host): Four Infantry blocks with triple Venatari support.
  • 10th – Alexey Sidorenko – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): All-rounder Skysplinter with Talos and Ravagers as heavier hitters.
  • 11th – Nicholas James – Ultramarines (Gladius Task Force): The glorious triumverate of Ventris, Bobby G and Calgar with various elite Marine units backing them up.
  • 12th – Liam Bath – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Double C’tan, triple Doomsday and double Triarch Stalker.
  • 13th – Aaron Guest – Necrons (Awakened Dynasty): two big Warrior bricks with Szeras support, a couple of Doomsdays, and a unit each of Wraiths and Skorpekh.
  • 14th – Mike Garcia – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host): Pure Infantry spam centred around lots of Custodian Guard squads.
  • 15th – Jake Reuser – Genestealer Cult (Outlander Claw): Heavy-duty Outlander with big Jackal squads, max Ridgerunners and 30 Purestrains, plus loads of Clamavus (Clamavi?) to hold the fort.
  • 16th – Tim Thomsen – World Eaters: Eightbound-heavy World Eaters with some War Dogs and a Forgefiend for fire support.

New York Open 3 (40k)

45-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in New York, NY, United States on October 26 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

David Gross – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 1st Place

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

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Double Dorn

Thoughts

Big murderous tanks, great board control, great Deep Strikers – as is already becoming clear, Guard are one of the factions to beat in the new metagame. Worth highlighting that one big unit of Rough Riders makes an appearence in this build and several other top ones, suggesting they’ve gone up in value. Perhaps without access to as many Bullgryn to hold the fort, a counter-punch melee unit is what the faction needs to cut off a potential way of fighting back against them (plus in builds like this with only one Aquilon unit, you might use Reinforcements on the cavalry). Worth considering if you’re a guard player, as they’ve clearly served David well here!

Evan Tomchin – T’au Empire (Retaliation Cadre) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

XV8 Crisis Battlesuit Team. Credit: Rockfish
XV8 Crisis Battlesuit Team. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Crisis Toolbox

Thoughts

Fans of blasting Ace of Spades out of shoulder-mounted speakers rejoice, because Retaliation Cadre is leading the charge for Tau this week. The combination of very versatile damage output and depth of resources is a good one for a new metagame, as you never quite know what you’re going to get, and that’s clearly paid off here. Starscythes with flamers also go up in value (and they were already fantastic) with Guard as a top contender, as they’re a huge deterrent to any sort of Aquilon or Scion shenanigans. I’m sure tuned Kauyon and Mont’ka builds will be popping up soon as well, but right now it’s all about the Cadre, congratulations Evan for taking the most fun Tau detachment to an undefeated finish.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 3rd – Anthony Triano – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Double C’tan and Triple Doomsday with the Silent King.
  • 4th – Vinny D’Arco – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Single C’tan and Triple Doomsday with the Silent King, adding an extra Triarch Stalker and some chaff instead of the second star god.
  • 5th – Jasper Biski – Orks (War Horde): Massive Beast Snagga units in Battle Wagons with various supporting MSU threats.
  • 6th – Geraint De Jesus – Tyranids (Vanguard Onslaught): Genestealer and Mawloc surprises, with all sorts of Lictor backing them up.
  • 7th – Dominic Galeano – Adepta Sororitas (Bringers of Flame): Most of the same pre-dataslate hits, just in smaller numbers.

Goose Hunting Donuts

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Тюмень, Тюменская обл., Россия on October 26 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Андрей Островский – Space Wolves (Champions of Russ) – 1st Place

Lieutenant with Combi-weapon (Credit: Musterkrux)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

All-Rounder Space Wolves

Thoughts

A bit of everything here, mostly serving to highlight that with even more improvements from the latest FAQ, Champions of Russ is now a premium all-rounder detachment, especially when you pair it with Space Wolves access to unique things like a slightly bigger foot melee blender unit and Bjorn. Well done Андрей.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Alex Voronkov – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment): Triple Dorn and some Demolisher backup.
  • 3rd – Vasiliy Golik – Necrons (Obeisance Phalanx): 20 Lychguard, lots of Triarch Stalkers, Szarekh, and a big unit of Praetorians.
  • 4th – Илья Колесников – Chaos Space Marines (Fellhammer Siege-Host): Abaddon and big Infantry bricks of Chosen and Rubricae to maximise the grindiness the detachment (sort of) offers.
  • 5th – Ildar Khasanov – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Defiantly Character-heavy Skysplinter.

Gaelcon 2024

34-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Dublin, D, Ireland on October 26 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Mark Morrow – Necrons (Awakened Dynasty) – 1st Place

Immortals With Tesla Carbines. Credit: Rockfish
Immortals With Tesla Carbines. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

All-Rounder Awakened

Thoughts

Speaking of all-rounder detachments, Awakened Dynasty is very much one of those, and although not much changed for them they’ve seen a bit of a surge this week with a variety of builds, some going for a bit of everything like this, some focused on Warriors. I suspect that’s because of the age-old Necron factor of them falling somewhat flat against overtuned builds – because some amount of utility from Reanimation is baked into their points, if you’re running into armies that can consistently just vanish a unit (Thousand Sons, mostly) then things get very tough for you. toning down the most vicious stuff does a disproportionate amount to help this kind of build, and they even get cheaper firepower to boot, so it would appear Necron goodstuff is back on. I do also think that the full Immortal unit is one of the most underutilised tools in the arsenal, so big fan of seeing them out and about – they’re another thing on the “Aquilons actually have to think twice” list thanks to Sustained Hits 2 as well. Good work Phaeron Mark.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Ryan Lynch – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): Double Mutalith.
  • 3rd – Peter Scott – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance): An actual Abominant with loads of War Dogs to support.
  • 4th – Dara Meehan – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): Standard-issue World Eaters with plenty of Eightbound and a Rhino Berzerker brick.
  • 5th – Chris Mullan – Astra Militarum: Double Dorn, double Aquilon and lots of Ogryns to hold positions.

Safety’s Off Orktober GT

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Taylors, SC, United States on October 26 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Robin Roberts – Genestealer Cult (Host of Ascension) – 1st Place

Genestealer Cult Jackal Alphus
Credit: Keewa

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Bricks and Bikes

Thoughts

A surprising return for the plan of just punching people out with big Neophyte units, supplemented by the addition of loads of bikes to occupy space, and improved by the rapid return of Neophytes if you make your Ambush roll. Having both a Benefictus and the Chink in the Armour Primus means that you’ve got two blocks coming in with Lethal Hits, ensuring you can take out pretty much whatever you decide to shoot at, and likely getting to double dip on one of those units by pulling them with Return to the Shadows. The Prowling knife Sanctus is cute too – the numbers on them aren’t too bad, you can do some cute jank with the reactive move, and they give you a way to tee up Coordinated Trap in a pinch. Well done Robin.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Duncan Buchanan – Leagues of Votann (Oathband): Lots of MSUs of all stripes and double Land Fortress.
  • 3rd – Timothy Huebscher – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance): A Despoiler and lots of War Dogs.
  • 4th – Nick Kirkendall – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Monster Mash with the Dakkafex unit.

Battle Against Breast Cancer AZ

28-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Glendale, Arizona, US on October 26 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Jason Flanzer – Necrons (Awakened Dynasty) – 1st Place

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

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Skorpekh and Warriors

Thoughts

More Awakened Dynasty, this time leaning on the fact that the meta is mostly not currently built for mid-durability hordes, and using that to overwhelm the foe with Warriors while firing squads of Skorpekh at them in a leisurely fashion. Great plan, honestly, and I also like the choice of Leaders/Enhancements to ensure one Warrior unit can be skewed towards offence and one for defence. No Doomsdays even! Good stuff Jason.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Gareth Hunt – Necrons (Awakened Dynasty): Pure melee pressure spamming Skorpekh and Wraiths.
  • 3rd – Terek Haehl – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group): A brawler list iwth a big Death Company unit, full Sanguinary entourage for Dante, and a full squad of Terminators with access to Fights First from Speed of the Primarch.
  • 4th – Don Hooson – Death Guard (Plague Company): Defilers, Deathshrouds and Destructors, with an additional cameo from a Despoiler.
  • 5th – Collin Watson – Adepta Sororitas – (Hallowed Martyrs): Lots of hulls, a Warsuit hammer and some big squads of Arco-flagellants.
  • 6th – Alex Sabin – Thousand Sons: Double Mutalith Tsons.

Wrap Up

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