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Competitive Innovations in 10th: Dressed for Success pt.2

By Lowest of Men

More Warhammer, all of the time. That’s the slogan we’re going with at the moment.

It’s Lowest of Men in charge today, covering:

  • The South-Coast UKTC Supermajor
  • MidtconGT Warhammer 40.000 Spring tournament
  • Wheat City Open 2024
  • Melee At Shiloh
  • Warzone: Wellington GT
  • Rumble in the Rockies – Warhammer 40k GT

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

  • The Goonhammer Open UK March 2024
  • Clutch City GT
  • Toronto Winter Open 2024
  • Ogr Cubb Singles 2024
  • CAGBASH XVII Charity 40k Tournament
  • Big Beef Beat down
  • Gallicus Great Golden Gauntlet

THE SOUTH-COAST 40K SUPER-MAJOR

134-player, 7-round Major in England, United Kingdom on March 02 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

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

Leman Russ Demolisher. Credit: Rockfish
Leman Russ Demolisher. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Guard Indirect List (hehe)

Thoughts

Here we go! Guard return to the heights after a stellar run from David, a wonderful player and known believer in putting his money where his mouth is. A solid core of artillery take up the backfield, with two Manticores for target removal and Basilisks for crucial slowing effects (very handy for Custodes). A wave of Kasrkin get in the way and make trouble further up the field, ready to revive via Reinforcements! when they meet their untimely end, and there is a solitary slab of Bullgryn for buying even more time as required. Tank Commanders can exploit the excellent firing lanes available on UKTC terrain and threaten bad trades with their shoot on death. A great mix of tools, masterfully piloted to another Militarum event win here. Really well done Dave; the debate goes on…

Ed Watts – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) – 2nd Place

Grey Knights Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Grey Knight Mixed Arms

Thoughts

An excellent showing from Ed, who packs in some Dreadknight shooting to support the established uppy-downy antics of Grey Knight Terminators, supported by Interceptors and Strikes for scoring. GK are in a place where there is genuine debate raging about how hard to lean in to the Dreadknights versus other assets, and this list takes a healthy mix of all of it and builds for flexibility. Note the cheeky Techmarine for souping up and fixing up Dreadknights, or turning into another action monkey as required. Really well-played, Ed.

Nicholas Willingale – Ynnari (Battle Host) – 3rd Place

Yvraine, the Herald of Ynnead
Yvraine, the Herald of Ynnead by Corrode

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Ynnari MSU

Thoughts

As Nick’s list title suggests, this build takes inspiration from Dan Bates’s run with MSU / Wraithblade block Ynnari the other week and pushes it to similar Super Major heights. The Blades are an excellent regenerating tar pit whilst a truckload of fire and fading elves get to work behind it, and without artillery it can be extremely hard to engage with the majority of the output in the list before it crushes you. Excellent work on the top placing.

James Hobbs – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – 4th Place

Tau Broadside Battlesuit with Railgun
Tau Broadside Battlesuit with Railgun. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Tau Broadsides

Thoughts

An intriguing Tau list that packs in a bunch of Broadsides for hard-target removal, and maximum Vespid for scoring. This has the ability to really concentrate damage in a couple of places via the Broadsides and Crisis, and enough flexibility of scoring to stand off and wait for its moment. Triple Tetras ensures that the rerolls and SUSTAINED 2 keep on flying out for as long as possible. Congratulations on the top placing!

The Best of the Rest

There was one player on 4.5-0.5 before we hit the ocean of 4-1 players. They were:

  • 5th – Tom Simpson – Adeptus Custodes: Massed Custodes Infantry.

MidtconGT Warhammer 40K Spring Tournament

78-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Viborg, DK on March 02 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Alexander Jessen – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic) – 1st Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Tsons Sorceror / Rubrics

Thoughts

Thousand Sons appear to be finding their feet in an upper meta that has a bunch of armies they rather enjoy: They have plenty of ways to hurt Necrons and Elves and, with careful play and a Sorcerer on Disc, the Custodes match-up is very winnable too! A Vortex Beast can stand on points and offer longer range Doombolt sniping, and a small squad of Terminators with a souped up Terminator Sorcerer can do surprisingly horrible things to Monsters and Vehicles. A really cool build that requires careful piloting; very well done on the top finish, Alexander!

Peter Herbild – Chaos Daemons (Daemonic Incursion) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Khorne Heavy Chaos Daemons

Thoughts

The Rendmaster damage combo gets toned down to something a little more nuanced with more mission play here, as a solitary Bloodcrusher pack and several Bloodthirsters make the most of the buff (also great on the hounds!) whilst supporting utility tick off the secondaries. Daemons can no-sell shooting armies and play around melee ones until the moment is right, and are finally starting to show the potential we anticipated when their points cuts came in. A really excellent showing; well done.

Henrik Davison – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – 3rd Place

Tau Riptide
Tau Riptide. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Triptide Breacher Tau

Thoughts

Another strong placing from Tau that highlights the blockier, primary denial version, with tonnes of Breachers and Devilfish to choke the midboard early game as the guns go to work. Triple Riptides can provide ranged support from the safety of much further back on the board, and are a little less vulnerable to being trapped and picked off than Crisis Suits. One brick of the latter remains here as a serious trouble-shooting unit, making this build really flexible and effective, fantastic work.

Simon Darre – Black Templars (Gladius Task Force) – 4th Place

High Marshal Helbrecht. Credit: SRM

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Black Templars Gladius

Thoughts

Black Templars continue to sing in Gladius, with Impulsor and Land Raiders ferrying the excellent melee forwards ready for a big go turn or standoffish trading as required. Eradicators and Inceptors provide incision at range for those pesky enemy vehicles and backfield units, putting the opponent in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation… why not just get a little closer to Helbrecht? What’s the worst that could- oh, that is, okay. Ouch. Really well done on the top placing.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 5th – Killi Paaske – Drukhari (Realspace Raiders): An unusual Realspace Raiders build that locks in loads of Pain Tokens with all the right characters (Urien!!) and focuses primarily on ranged output, with a couple of small pieces for melee incision. Talos support the Dark Lances.
  • 6th – Morten hørby – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Triple C’tan / Wraiths / Doomstalker Canoptek Court.
  • 7th – Tim Verbeek – T’au Empire: Massed Breacher / Riptide Tau.
  • 8th – Frederik Larsen – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Silent King triple Monolith Hypercrypt.
  • 9th – Andreas Hegaard – Chaos Daemons: Double Bloodcrusher / MSU Daemons centred around Belly.
  • 10th – Andreas Illum – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): More Silent King triple Monolith action!
  • 11th – Simon Oberlander – Leagues of Votann: Four Sagitaur, double Fort, lots of Hearthguard.
  • 12th – Anton Søgaard – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Varied CC with double Wraiths and C’tan and more supporting utility.
  • 13th – Allan Rasmussen – T’au Sept: Crisis, Riptides, Skyrays and Breachers in this diverse Tau build.

Wheat City Open 2024: 40K

48-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Brandon, MB, Canada on March 02 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Tyranids versus Tau

Garret Olson – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Logan Antonation – Tau
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

I like big bugs and I cannot lie, so this Invasion Fleet list makes me very happy. The two main pathways available to Tyranids at the moment are both quite stat-checky in their own right, with the massed Gaunts of Unending Swarm or this Monster heavy build from Garret. It packs in all the best, punchiest bugs from the Codex, with Maleceptors, Exocrines, and Old-One Eye-inspired Carnifexes to lock down ground and counter-punch at a distance and up close. Nid mission play remains second to none, and there are plenty of sneaky reserve pieces on offer here (looking at you Pyrovores) to force the enemy to screen out space very carefully lest they find themselves surrounded.

In the Tau corner, there are certainly a lot of guns ready to take on the unenviable task of clearing out these bugs before they smash you to pieces. Double Hammerhead chassis helps a lot, and the massed Breachers give the Tau the ability to keep refreshing screens and bogging the Tyranids down as they clear them out at range. Tyranid guns are nothing like as effective as the Tau ones, and if a break-through can be avoided you’d back the Tau to win the attrition war, the only caveat being whether they fall too far behind on scoring before doing so. In the event, they seem to have been able to cull their way through just in time, producing a narrow triumph. What a game!!

Result

Tau (Kauyon) Victory – 79 – 74

Logan Antonation – Tau – 1st Place

Shadowsun. Credit: Rockfish
Shadowsun. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Tau Breacher Tide

Thoughts

Tau are continuing to shine in a meta that asks ‘can you do enough damage,’ one of their very favourite questions. Breachers and Riptides stand out as the most cost effective damage dealers and this list doubles down on that by eschewing Crisis Suits altogether and putting those points into greater width of assets. Longstrike and a Hammerhead go hunting for big targets (Tank Commanders beware!) to supplement the volume shooting present elsewhere. Really nice to see the index thriving once again; very well done!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Darren Jac – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe): Bosshammer with all the superstars (including Ghaz), aiming to control the board with Boyz in a Battlewagon and some other stuff in Trukks.
  • 3rd – Lawrence Hill – Aeldari (Battle Host): Avatar and a bunch of go-wide shooting tools.
  • 4th – Garret Olson – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Monster mash with the OOE/Dakkafex block.
  • 5th – Justin Signer-Delorme – Death Guard: Mortarion, Rhino Plague Marines (in sevens, no less) and Plaguebursts.
  • 6th – Kylee Plouffe – Adepta Sororitas: Mechanised Battle Sisters and lots of supporting tanks.
  • 7th – Brody Rushton – Adeptus Custodes: Straight Infantry spam, getting in six units.
  • 8th – Nathan Wheatland – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Double Doomstalker, Triple Wraiths and spam-levels of Scarabs to gum up the board and cause problems. Honestly a pretty interesting pick – they’re weirdly great at chipping damage off enemy C’tan when re-rolling hits!
  • 9th – Matthew van Ginkel – Imperial Fists (Vanguard Spearhead): An Imperial Fists spin on Vanguard, using Lysander with Infiltrating Terminators and Tor Garadon leading a full squad of Eradicators as the teleporting shooting option.

Melee At Shiloh

46-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Fayetteville, AR, US on March 02 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Peyton Preece – Adeptus Mechanicus (Skitarii Hunter Cohort) – 1st Place

Adeptus Mechanicus - Ironstrider Ballistarii
Adeptus Mechanicus – Ironstrider Ballistarii
Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Hunter Cohort Chickens

Thoughts

Ad Mech snatch up an event win here through the power of massed Chickens! Dragoons and Ironstriders can both do serious work and are an obnoxious profile for a lot of armies to remove quickly. In Hunter Cohort the supporting Vanguard really shine, able to yeet out of Toasters and shutdown enemy Primary, forcing further engagement. MSU Sterylizors provide the scoring and backfield threat, and this build opts out of Breachers in favour of spreading the threats wider, which makes it a little harder to predict and isolate. Winning events with Ad Mech at the moment is no easy thing, so congratulations on the achievement!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – John Teets – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders): Transport centric Templars with a Redeemer and Impulsor and supporting Lancers.
  • 3rd – Howard Watts – Ultramarines (Gladius Task Force): Gladius Ultramarines with transports, Calgar Agressors and plenty of bodies for mission play.
  • 4th – Bryce Watson – Black Templars (Ironstorm Spearhead): Tank Car Park Ironstorm Templars with some cheap Crusaders for support.
  • 5th – Brad Chester- Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): An absolute flood of Raiders and Venoms with Kabalites and melee units, with some supporting Dark Lances.
  • 6th – Chace Meloche – World Eaters: Angron, Eightbound and Rhinos. Still got it!
  • 7th – Jonathan Crafton – Chaos Space Marines: A CSM Tank Car Park with triple Warpsmith and an Abby / Terminator brick.
  • 8th – Tyler Evans – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Triple Ravager and Triple Scourge supporting precision melee in boats.

Warzone: Wellington GT

44-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Upper Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand on March 01 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Tyler King – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host) – 1st Place

Trajann Valoris by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Custodes Golden Slabs

Thoughts

The Custodes infantry rush build gets another run out here, with plenty of advance and charging golden boys supported by a few tech pieces. The Venatari can drop in to hit an exposed flank, double Assassins help with scoring, and Trajaan steps up to punt any naughty C’tan that get in his way. A really strong build; excellent work on the top placing!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Cam Wilkinson – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force): Plenty of Dreadknights and a big slab of Paladins for board control.
  • 3rd – Sean Sullivan – Sautekh (Hypercrypt Legion): A flexible Hypercrypt build with two C’tan, some Wraiths and a Monolith.
  • 4th – Dan Hayden – Aeldari (Battle Host): Avatar of Khaine / Triple D Cannon / MSU Aeldari.
  • 5th – Haydn Korach – Aeldari: A Ynnari list that adds in a Beastpack alongside the usual suspects for some added pressure.
  • 6th – Steve Joll – Imperial Knights: Double Cerastus Knights, some Armigers and some Assassins.
  • 7th – Ryan de Heer – Dark Angels (Ironstorm Spearhead): Storm Raven inspired Ironstorm Dark Angels.
  • 8th – Joshua Lloyd – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Canoptek with triple C’tan (including the Deceiver!!) and Wraiths / Doomstalkers.

Rumble in the Rockies – Warhammer 40k GT

27-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Calgary, AB, Canada on March 02 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Adam Green – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 1st Place

Tempestus Scions. Credit: SRM

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Guard Manticores

Thoughts

Another event win for the Astra Militarum, who pack in the Manticores instead of Basilisks to really go for the throat damage wise. Full rerolls to hit into infantry squads is simply deadly for a whole host of meta favourites right now, and Bullgryn and Kasrkin can buy you the time you need to turn your enemies into craters from the safety of the office. No need for the apologetic list title, Adam; the army is strong, well done for taking full advantage!!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – David Coren – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force): Multiple Dreadknights, a Paladin brick, and some Purifiers.
  • 3rd – Aden Garcia-Ahmadi – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Triple C’tan, Triple Doomstalker, 12 Wraith Canoptek.
  • 4th – Jake Stanley – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host): Massed Custodes infantry with three squads of Allarus.
  • 5th – Anthony Dalla Lana – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Skysplinter boats with two big hammer squads of Incubi, love to see it.
  • 6th – Kass Kielly-Burke – Death Guard (Plague Company): Mortarion leading PBCs and Predators as Plague Marines and Deathshroud do the dirty work.

Wrap Up

That’s it for this week folks! Our meta continues to throw up all sorts of winners and outcomes, which is really great to see. Guard claps back in the war to decide if they’re good, bad, or, and here’s my pitch, maybe even both depending on how you build and play, as a number of other armies also claims those sweet top spots. We’ve got a few new books on the horizon but for now the game seems to be thriving so get out and slay your foes. See you next time!

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.

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