Well, I enjoyed my quiet week, but the community’s hunger for 40K was never going to abate for long, and we’ve snapped straight to another three part column to cover this week’s events. These will be coming out today, tomorrow and Friday.
Anything interesting happening out there? Certainly a few trends to observe, yeah, most notably:
Necrons are clearly overpushed and need to be dialed back a bit, mostly increasing the cost on C’tan. They’re dominating on win rate, play rate and TiWP representation, have a good number of event wins and undefeated runs, and are all over the place in the X-1 bracket. That said…
The meta seems to have adjusted to robot dominance by pushing the most brutal shooting Marine builds back up. One of the things Necrons are less good at is clearing lots of hulls quickly, and we’ve got lots of Ironstorm Dark Angels and Templars out there taking advantage of this.
There seems to be a bit of an arms race towards hulls and crunch in general, something that I don’t love to see, as this was painful in late 8th. Hopefully the Balance Dataslate that’s coming up has some internal re-balancing planned to address this.
Grey Knights are continuing to perform well with Dreadknight-heavy builds, particularly the ultracrunch version with Canis Rex on top. This is another army that can potentially just overwhelm Necrons.
Aeldari players are trying some new things, and they seem to be working for them, as their performance is notably up week-on-week. Aeldari absolutely can clear out a lot of hulls quickly with some builds and dance around others scoring relentlessly, so it’s possible that they’re preying on the Necrons’ predators.
There’s still a good amount of diversity on show overall – it isn’t just these factions doing well, and we’ve got event wins and solid finishes for plenty of other armies, and a couple of unusual Detachments doing well.
We’re due for big shakeup in the near future between two more books going on pre-order this weekend, Tau going online at some point and an upcoming Balance Dataslate, so it’ll be fascinating to see if these trends endure or something completely different happens. Will new builds arise? Will current tyrants fall? Will Shining Spears finally get a point cut now that the rest of their book is in a healthier place (please GW, I really want to use mine). We’ll know soon enough.
For now, let’s dive into part 1 – today I’ll be looking at:
Leoben 40K Singles – Alpine Cup
Scorched Earth Open 2024 – 40K Major
Perils Of The Geekery
Peterborough Slam GT 6!
Midgards April 40k ITC Grand Tournament
On Thursday myself and Lowest of Men will team up to tackle:
I GT Iberian Barcelona
Dark Sphere April 40k GT
Black Tower Brawl
Imperialis Capilla GT 3er Aniversario
Courage And Honour IX
On Friday Lowest of Men will wrap up with:
Rataclysm 2024
Iron Cage GT: Bedford Beatdown
Wild Hunt GT: Spring
Fools Errand 2024
WH40K Glory GT
This week’s Showdowns, as voted for by our patrons, will be:
Today: Astra Militarum vs Aeldari at the Scorched Earth Open.
Thursday: Genestealer Cults vs Adepta Sororitas at Courage and Honour.
Friday: Ironstorm Dark Angels vs Astra Militarum at the Iron Cage GT.
Leoben 40K Singles – Alpine Cup
166-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Proleb, Steiermark, Austria on April 04 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
Only the top two players played the final round.
Liam Richiardi – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 1st Place
Photo Credit: Musterkrux
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Name: Liam”rose’s fighter” Richiardi
Team/# in Team: No Name #33
Factions used: craftworlds
Detachments used: Battle host
Enhancements: autarch wayleaper phoenix gem
Char1: 1x Autarch Wayleaper (140 pts): Warlord, Howling Banshee Mask, Star Glaive, Dragon Fusion Gun
Enhancement: The Phoenix Gem (25 pts)
Char2: 1x Fuegan (115 pts): Searsong, The Fire Axe
Char3: 1x Yvraine (100 pts): Kha-vir, the Sword of Sorrows, Storm of Whispers
11x Storm Guardians (115pts): • 10x Storm Guardian, • 4 with Guardian Combat Weapon, Shuriken Pistol, • 2 with Aeldari Flamer, • 2 with Guardian Fusion Gun, • 2 with Shuriken Pistol, Aeldari power sword, • 1x Serpent’s Scale Platform
5x Dark Reapers (80 pts): • 4x Dark Reaper: Close combat weapon, Reaper Launcher, • 1x Dark Reaper Exarch: Close combat weapon, Tempest Launcher
5x Dark Reapers (80 pts): • 4x Dark Reaper: Close combat weapon, Reaper Launcher, • 1x Dark Reaper Exarch: Close combat weapon, Tempest Launcher
5x Dark Reapers (80 pts): • 4x Dark Reaper: Close combat weapon, Reaper Launcher, • 1x Dark Reaper Exarch: Close combat weapon, Tempest Launcher
5x Rangers (55 pts): Close Combat Weapon, Ranger long rifle, Shuriken Pistol
5x Shadow Spectres (95 pts): Close combat weapon, Prism Rifle
5x Shadow Spectres (95 pts): Close combat weapon, Prism Rifle
5x Swooping Hawks (75pts): • 4x Swooping Hawk, • 4 with Lasblaster, Close combat weapon, • 1x Swooping Hawk Exarch, • 1 with Aeldari Power Sword, Close combat weapon, Hawk’s Talon
5x Swooping Hawks (75pts): • 4x Swooping Hawk, • 4 with Lasblaster, Close combat weapon, • 1x Swooping Hawk Exarch, • 1 with Aeldari Power Sword, Close combat weapon, Hawk’s Talon
5x Swooping Hawks (75pts): • 4x Swooping Hawk, • 4 with Lasblaster, Close combat weapon, • 1x Swooping Hawk Exarch, • 1 with Aeldari Power Sword, Close combat weapon, Hawk’s Talon
11x Troupe (165pts): • 1x Lead Player, • 1 with Aeldari power sword, Fusion Pistol, • 10x Player, • 3 with Shuriken Pistol, Harlequin’s Blade, • 3 with Fusion Pistol, Harlequin’s Special Weapon, • 4 with Neuro Disruptor, Harlequin’s Special Weapon
5x Warp Spiders (115pts): • 4x Warp Spider, • 4 with Deathspinner, Close combat weapon, • 1x Warp Spider Exarch, • 1 with 2xDeathspinner, Powerblades, Close combat weapon
5x Warp Spiders (115pts): • 4x Warp Spider, • 4 with Deathspinner, Close combat weapon, • 1x Warp Spider Exarch, • 1 with 2xDeathspinner, Powerblades, Close combat weapon
5x Warp Spiders (115pts): • 4x Warp Spider, • 4 with Deathspinner, Close combat weapon, • 1x Warp Spider Exarch, • 1 with 2xDeathspinner, Powerblades, Close combat weapon
You definitely can’t keep a good elf down, and this build really leans in to one of the things that Aeldari excel at, which is scoring. It is so hard to stop this list pushing through points on Secondaries, whether Fixed or Tactical, and it has so many units to play with that it can easily tank opposing Primary scores to lock in victory. The Harlequins look to be particularly well equipped for that, being numerous enough that they’ll be able to comfortably flip most objectives even if they don’t quite kill everything on it.
It should be said that the list clearly adjusted for the very heavy tables that European events often have, and both plays well on such tables and counters enemies planning the same – lots of Reapers can pick apart unprotected Infantry pretty swiftly. I’m also a big fan of the Yvraine/Storm Guardian unit to provide a bit of protection against enemy Artillery – it’s surprisingly difficult to put down with the stacked defences, and if the opponent wants to prevent it sticky-ing a home objective, then they’ll have to pour lots of killing power in (and get completely owned if that fails as Yvraine picks people back up). My Storm Guardians are on my painting table right now for just this reason, as presumably I’ll get bored of Necrons at some point. Maybe.
An impressive Aeldari showing all-in-all, great to see something more unique making a big impact, well done Liam.
Paul Neuburger – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic) – 2nd Place
Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Name: Paul “Redsloth” Neuburger
Team: Baston / 5
Factions used: Thousand Sons
Detachments used: Cult of Magic
Warlord: Char8: Magnus the Red
Enhancement: Umbralefic Crystal (on Char3: Infernal Master)
& Arcane Vortex (on Char4: Infernal Master)
& Lord of Forbidden Lore (on Char6: Thousand Sons Sorcerer)
CHARACTERS
Ahriman on Disc of Tzeentch (140 Points)
• 1x Black Staff of Ahriman
1x Inferno bolt pistol
1x Psychic Stalk
Exalted Sorcerer on Disc of Tzeentch (115 Points)
• 1x Arcane Fire
1x Force weapon
1x Prosperine khopesh
1x Warpflame pistol
Exalted Sorcerer on Disc of Tzeentch (115 Points)
• 1x Arcane Fire
1x Force weapon
1x Prosperine khopesh
1x Warpflame pistol
As we’ll see when we get down to the Best of the Rest section, there’s a big swing towards this style of Thousand Sons at this event, focusing almost entirely on Rubricae and Characters with a few objective grabbers to fill space. This works super well on heavy tables, as it lets the army set up to unleash big damage spikes prior to enemy reprisals, and more generally it also gives you a massive pool of Cabal Points to play with, giving you great flexibility or damage output as required. A giant pool of arcane power is especially good in a Necron-heavy metagame, as they have great targets for both DoomboltandTwist of Fate, which makes Warrior blocks, Destroyers, Immortals, and Monoliths that forgot to save a CP for the invuln weep (and is also great into Astra Militarum). The only real issue for it is that it’s exactly the kind of list the winning Aeldari army is designed to prey upon, which cost it in the final, but a great run from Paul up to there, smashing through the swiss undefeated.
Jakub Jansa – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 3rd Place
Necron Lokhust Heavy Destroyers. Credit: Colin Ward
Lokhust Heavy Destroyers (150 Points)
• 3x Lokhust Heavy Destroyer
• 3x Close combat weapon
3x Enmitic exterminator
Lokhust Heavy Destroyers (50 Points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Gauss destructor ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Archetype
Dakka Hypercrypt
Thoughts
…and those Necrons are here with us tonight! This Hypercrypt build cuts out some of the mid-weight or combo pieces like Immortals and the Monolith in favour of packing in big guns and extra mobile durable units to screen them. Two Transcendants can be wherever they need at pace, tangling all but the deadliest foes for some time, the Wraiths and Nightbringer are a solid second wave of oomph, and you’ve got great anti-tank and anti-horde shooting that can zap around for the best firing lines. It’s a rare foe that can push through that and then flip the scoring, and while this list is shorter on chaff than some, it can still get a tonne of mileage from the cheap stuff it does have to lock in Secondaries. Another Thousand Sons player did manage to hold Jakub to a draw, but no one was actually able to overcome this brutal teleporting onslaught – congratulations!
Paul Hilsdorf – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 4th Place
1x Monolith (350 pts)
• 1x Particle whip
• 1x Portal of exile
• 4x Death ray
Archetype
Dakka Monolith Hypercrypt
Thoughts
You can still just run the Monolith and Immortals alongside Doomsdays too! That’s also great! The fact that the two most successful Necron builds at this massive event have gone hard on big guns is a nod to how crunchy the metagame is getting, and this build combines that with premium scoring capabilities, at a cost of having less of a speed bump for more aggressive foes. A monster mash Tyranid build held Paul to a draw, presumably overwhelming the number of guns available (and largely no-selling the Immortals), but he was another Phaeron who remained unconquered all the way through.
The Best of the Rest
There were 16 more players on 4-1+ records. 5th-8th were all on 4.5-0.5. They were:
5th – Arne Zerndt – Thousand Sons: Character/Rubric/Rhino-heavy Tsons, with some Cultists as extra space fillers.
6th – Florian Schmidt – Grey Knights: The ultracrunch: Dreadknights, Librarians and Canis Rex.
7th – William Fuhrimann – Leagues of Votann: Double Land Fortress plus a big Hearthguard unit waiting in the wings.
8th – Matt Bonnet- Adepta Sororitas: Triple Castigator/triple Arco-flagellant Sisters.
9th – Sam Nowrouzi – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Triple Wraiths/triple C’tan, with a couple Doomstalkers on top for dakka.
10th – Clemens Koroschetz – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Much the same.
11th – Fabian Huber- Thousand Sons: Characters, Rubricae and a Rhino, plus Tzaangors and Cultists as extra cheap chaff.
12th – Matthias Murr- Blood Angels (Sons of Sanguinius): Lots of small, scary jump pack units, Gladiator Lancers to handle enemy armour, and a centrepiece of a Land Raider Redeemer packed with Assault Intercessors.
13th – Antonio Mejias – Black Templars (Gladius Task Force): Lots of Brethren in Impulsors and a Redeemer filled with Eradicators.
14th – Thomas Anger – Death Guard: Clank pressure Death Guard, mixing Predators and Plaguebursts for shooting with Karnivores and Bloat-drones to run the foe down.
15th – Dominik Tavernaro – Thousand Sons: Rubricae/Characters, plus some Cultists and Enlightened. Looks like the Euro scene has a very clear idea what a Thousand Sons list should look like!
16th – Mathieu Clerc – Leagues of Votann: 10/5/5 Hearthguard and double Land Fortress.
17th – Christian Breuer – Thousand Sons: I invite you to use your brain’s highly-evolved pattern-recognition capability and guess what’s in this one.
18th – Jakub Leitner- Astra Militarum: Lots of the standard Astra Militarum tools (Kasrkin, Tank Commanders, Bullgryn, artillery), but cutting down to just one Bullgryn brick to squeeze a second Tank Commander in.
19th – Christopher Schade – Adeptus Custodes: Four blocks with leaders, then 3×2 Allarus as flex pieces.
20th – Yoash Barak – Thousand Sons: One defiant soul using double Mutaliths to round out our 4-1s!
Scorched Earth Open 2024 – 40K Major
76-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Phoenix, AZ, United States on April 06 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
The Showdown
Take and Hold – Chilling Rain – Search and Destroy
Derek Patt – Aeldari (Battle Host) Army List - Click to Expand
Tank on tank action here as a hull-heavy Aeldari build takes on the Astra Militarum. Both sides have got some definite assets here. In the Aeldari’s favour is the fact that this game definitely is going to involve some tank shootouts, and while their units are fewer in number, they’re more reliable and (in the case of the Falcons/Fire Dragons) can work with the element of surprise. They also have the single toughest unit on the board in the form of the Avatar, who distinguishes himself by being the only thing on either side that has the slightest chance of surviving a shooting phase in the open on an objective.
Helping the Guard is the fact that they just have way more stuff, far more expendable tools, and better Indirect in particular. That’s going to help them chip away at the Aeldari’s scoring pieces, and if the Manticores manage to pick up one of the Fire Prisms it’s a huge swing, as it significantly reduces the value of the second. It’s also brutally good against the two solo Farseers – people largely stopped taking these when Night Spinners were everywhere, and this game is a definite throwback to that kind of situation. The fact it smooths out the risk of drawing Assassinate early if you go Tactical is also a big deal, as it makes that feel substantially safer.
From the Aeldari side, I think the way to play this to lean on their advantages is to be fairly cautious early – keep the Wayleaper on the home objective, and move a Fortune-buffed Avatar onto the top No Man’s Land one (assuming the Farseer hasn’t died, like, instantly). That should reliably lock in some 10pt turns, and the focus can then turn to doing the utmost to stop the Guard doing the same, murdering anything that comes out and using the Prisms to try and snipe any tanks that appear. Having the Falcons in reserve provides a decent amount of flexibility on this too.
Funnily enough, I think the way the Guard counter that is by just double-stacking Kasrkin units on objectives to secure them. The Aeldari are much less good at reliably taking these down than other units, the Guard can recycle them, and the few things in the Aeldari army that are great at hurting them are also scoring pieces, so high priority targets in this sort of game. If you’re the guard here I think you want to be leaning on the ability your Indirect gives you to strip out the scoring from the Aeldari build, smooth out Tactical objectives by providing reach for a Bring it Down or Assassinate, and rely on attrition to get you to the finish line from there. You need to be careful the Aeldari don’t get a big alpha turn on you, and if you decide you’re killing the Avatar on a given turn you need to make sure you’re committing enough firepower, but I think it’s pretty doable – and I also think the indirect means that the “spike” potential in this game is in the Guard’s favour. I don’t think it’s a done deal, as I do like the Aeldari’s game plan options, but it looks like the Guard were able to secure victory in Dan’s hands.
All the current Guard hotness, with a second Tank Commander as a nod to the crunch meta – the combination of big guns and shooting on death is incredibly good when everyone’s on tanks. I also like the choice, with that in mind, not to go for big Bullgryn squads here – I think in the current arms race, there are too many things that can just clear them out. Well done to Dan on proving that Guard aren’t just some UK/euro meta hallucination!
Nemesis Dreadknight [185pts]: Heavy Incinerator, Heavy Psycannon, Nemesis Daemon Greathammer
Nemesis Dreadknight [185pts]: Heavy Incinerator, Heavy Psycannon, Nemesis Daemon Greathammer
Nemesis Dreadknight [185pts]: Heavy Incinerator, Heavy Psycannon, Nemesis Daemon Greathammer
+ Allied Units +
Callidus Assassin [90pts]
++ Total: [2,000pts] ++
Created with BattleScribe ()
Archetype
Ultracrunch with a Land Raider
Thoughts
Grey Knights are having another great week, and heavy duty Dreadknight/Librarian builds like this one are leading the charge. Some of them are bringing in Canis Rex as an additional large threat, but Donovan’s version passes on that in favour of the nice combination of tech and pressure that the Redeemer and Terminator squad (with Draigo) provide. My assumption is that the squad starts not embarked, which means that if the opponent goes first they have to worry about a Draigo-powered first turn teleport charge when moving out, but if that isn’t needed out of the gate then they can either mount up and go stage mid-board or lurk and wait to teleport as the situation requires. Having at least one unit that can roll into a ruin and murder something is a big value add on a walker-heavy list, as it lets you mitigate terrain challenges when the opponent has lots of screening (and for Grey Knights, also opens up plenty of opportunitities for foes to make big mistakes when trying to play around Mists).
The Redeemer’s Overwatch threat also brings a massive amount of value to the table, reliably zoning off huge areas from Hypercrypt scoring, and just acting as a generically great damage dealer when you don’t need anything specific. I really like it as an addition, and I think the pick between this package and the Canis Rex version largely comes down to the Terrain you expect to play on – I like this a lot on GW maps, I’d lean a bit more towards Canis on UKTC tables, as they’re often a pain for Land Raiders to move around on. Congratulations to Donovan on taking second!
Terek Haehl – Leagues of Votann (Oathband) – 3rd Place
Einhyr Champion. Credit: Rockfish
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
1980th expeditionary fleet (2000 Points)
Leagues of Votann
Oathband
Strike Force (2000 Points)
Exported with App Version: v1.11.1 (34), Data Version: v352
Archetype
Heavy Votann
Thoughts
Did you think the Votann would miss out on an arms race towards big guns? You fool. You absolute fool. All Votann builds look somewhat similar, but Terek distinguishes his by doubling up on big Hearthguard units and adding a full Thunderkyn unit. Two Land Forts provide a solid anchor that foes are likely going to need to approach in order to try and clear out, and that will open up plenty of opportunities for a vicious deep strike/strategic reserves onslaught, likely on both turns two and three. Pretty much any infantry-based plan that isn’t on 2+ saves is just going to melt to this, and full Hearthguard units are a serious threat to C’tan as well when you stick two Grudge tokens on them in the pre-game. If enemy tanks are what needs to die the big Thunderkyn unit is ready to get that done instead, and this build ends up super hard to play into – you’re going to be stuck in full caution mode all the way to turn three, and it’s got a decent number of scoring units to pull ahead with during that time. Excellent use of Votann’s capabilities from Terek.
Jacob Wagner – Necrons (Canoptek Court) – 4th Place
Canoptek Wraiths. Credit: Rockfish
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
++ Army Roster (Xenos – Necrons) [2,000pts] ++
+ Configuration +
Battle Size: 2. Strike Force (2000 Point limit)
Detachment Choice: Canoptek Court
Show/Hide Options: Legends are visible, Unaligned Forces are visible, Unaligned Fortifications are visible
+ Epic Hero +
C’tan Shard of the Nightbringer [255pts]
C’tan Shard of the Void Dragon [270pts]
The Silent King [420pts]
. 2x Triarchal Menhir: 2x Annihilator beam, 2x Armoured bulk
The big arms race has reached the Canoptek Court as well, with pretty much any subtletly here discarded in favour of Szarekh. He brings a lot to the table for the court – one of its potential weaknesses is a reliance on D2 and D3 weaponry outside of the C’tan, but between Szarekh’s own D6 shots and his Ignore Modifiers aura, you can bypass that entirely. That’s particularly vicious in the mirror match, as it means your opponent’s C’tan are likely to die much quicker than yours, which almost always gets you victory. Szarekh seems well positioned in the metagame as it stands because of that and more – he’s great in mirrors, he’s not as vulnerable to being ground out by Gladiator Reapers as most Necron units, and he provides reach to blow up opposing heavy stuff. Just in general, I think people still haven’t fully adjusted to how much of a difference the ignore modifiers aura makes to Szarekh himself – all his melee being D2 means that removing the risk of it being shut down is massive. Sometimes you just need the personal touch of your immortal sovereign to get things done – well done to loyal vassal Jacob.
The Best of the Rest
There were 4 more players on 5-1 records. They were:
5th – Michael De la Torre – Tyranids (Assimilation Swarm): Yeah you read that right – a completely left-field pick here, which aims to maximise the value derived from the durability the Swarm can hand out via a central bastion built from a Tervigon with a full Gaunt unit and six Tyrant Guard protecting a Neurotyrant. A mix of efficient/speedy stuff and pressure pieces goes with it, and I assume the plan is to use that core to dominate the Primary, and send out ranging tendrils and/or use the spawn of a Sporocyst to score Secondaries. Wild, completely different, great flex!
6th – Gwenn Godfrey – Adepta Sororitas: All-rounder Sisters with some Repentia and Celestine added to the mix.
7th – Steve Hughitt – Necrons (Canoptek Court): 2/2/2 C’tan/Wraiths/Doomstalkers, with Szeras and some Plasmancer Immortals to finish.
8th – Derek Patt- Aeldari: Avatar and shooty hulls, a mix of Prisms, Falcons packed with Fire Dragons and a Night Spinner.
Perils Of The Geekery
47-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Shawnee, Kansas, US on April 06 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
Treynor Wolfe – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host) – 1st Place
Adeptus Custodes Caladius Grav-Tank. Credit: Jack Hunter
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
caladiuses (1995 points)
Adeptus Custodes
Strike Force (2000 points)
Shield Host
Lord Inquisitor Kyria Draxus (75 points)
• 1x Dirgesinger
1x Power fist
1x Psychic Tempest
Exported with App Version: v1.11.0 (39), Data Version: v352
Archetype
Four Block with Caladius
Thoughts
Treynor racks up another trophy for the Custodes here, working with what is pretty much the “standard” formula right now. Caladius tanks give you reach and help discourage your opponent’s heavy stuff from being too aggressive, four units of Infantry with the strong Character setup gives you a nice mix of speed from the Blade Champ unit, pure C’tan murder from Trajann, and balanced utility from the Shield Captain and Kyria squads. It’s an ultra-effective formula, and Treynor is no stranger to this column so clearly has the chops to use it to full effect!
The Best of the Rest
There were 9 more players on 4-1 records. They were:
2nd – Dan Sammons – Leagues of Votann (Oathband): Sagitaur spam backed by 10/5 Hearthguard and a Fortress.
3rd – John Vuchetich – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Triple Immortals and Monolith, plus a pair of C’tan.
4th – Tedd Williamson – Necrons (Annihilation Legion): Another huge flex here – lots of Skorpekh and Ophydians, plus some Hexmarks and one unit of Wraiths to support. Skorpekh are, I think, quite a bit better than they generally get credit for, but currently getting frozen out of lists because of how pushed the top builds are. Look for them to appear more if Necrons catch some nerfs. Running as Annihilation Legion is still just bravery mode though, great work to go 4-1 with it!
5th – Brent Simon – Aeldari: Yncarne, sneaky/speedy stuff, three War Walkers and three Prisms.
6th – Broc Bowman – World Eaters: Angron, loads of Eightbound, one big unit of Berzerkers
7th – Kyle McCord – Black Templars (Gladius Task Force): Mechanised Templars with Brethren, an Eradicator-packed Redeemer and some Valiants.
8th – Chris Adams – Aeldari: Avatar and various sneaky/speedy shooting options.
9th – Charles Webb – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Five C’tan and three Doomsday Arks, good grief.
10th – Stephen Foster – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Lots of the standard Skysplinter toys, but cutting out a second Raider and the big Incubi squad in favour of more go-wide and some Beastmaster units.
Peterborough Slam GT 6!
36-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, United Kingdom on April 06 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
JP Rodgers – Necrons (Canoptek Court) – 1st Place
C’tan Shard of the Void Dragon. Credit: Rockfish
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Slam (2000 Points)
Necrons
Canoptek Court
Strike Force (2000 Points)
CHARACTERS
C’tan Shard of the Nightbringer (255 Points)
• 1x Gaze of death
1x Scythe of the Nightbringer
C’tan Shard of the Void Dragon (270 Points)
• 1x Canoptek tail blades
1x Spear of the Void Dragon
1x Voltaic storm
Tomb Blades (75 Points)
• 3x Tomb Blade
• 3x Close combat weapon
3x Shadowloom
3x Twin tesla carbine
Exported with App Version: v1.10.1 (30), Data Version: v336
Archetype
Court with Stalkers
Thoughts
You gotta have some guns right now! It’s Canoptek Court, with guns. Specifically, Doomstalkers, which provide you with nice, reliable shooting that you can make fairly resilient to counterfire if you set up the lines correctly – access to Countertemporal Shift means that unless your opponent can line up all their big threats on multiple Doomstalkers, some of them can pound sand. That’s particularly potent in a list like this where the Doomstalkers are probably the softest target, and this feels much better placed into some of the Ironstorm builds than the Necron standard as a result. Congratulations to JP for taking it to the top!
The Best of the Rest
There were 6 more players on 4-1 records. They were:
2nd – Dom Maidlow – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment): Triple Tank Commander for a truly brutal quantity of pressure that shoots on death.
3rd – Ed Symons – Imperial Fists (Ironstorm Spearhead): Tor Garadon leading some Aggressors, buddying up with a fairly unsurprising Ironstorm mix of Redemptors, Gladiators and a RepEx.
4th – Harley Scully – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force): Ultracrunch, five Dreadknights and Canis.
5th – Richard Field – Adepta Sororitas: Everyone loves ultracrunch apparently – triple Warsuits plus a whole bunch of other hulls.
6th – Connor Nicholls – Black Templars (Ironstorm Spearhead): An interesting Templar combo here, using a full Primaris Crusader Squad with Grimaldus as a central anchor to protect Redemptors and Gladiators.
7th – Toby Bennett – Dark Angels (Firestorm Assault Force): A twist on Ironstorm hull-style lists, running as Firestorm for speedier pressure from all those hulls.
Midgards April 40k ITC Grand Tournament
31-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Derry, NH, US on April 06 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
Steven Pampreen – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe) – 1st Place
Exported with App Version: v1.11.0 (39), Data Version: v352
Archetype
Mech Boyz Pressure
Thoughts
Some Orks to round us out here, and even they’re getting in on crunch meta with this spicy skew build. In deployment, your opponents target options are realistically going to be Battlewagons and Kill Rigs, as the Orks with the Weirdboy can hide. These then rush forward and disgorge their angry passengers, who proceed to engage in two turns worth of Waaagh-ing thanks to the two Transport-riding units having a Banner. The third unit can lurk at the back till it’s Da Jump time, either closing a gap or teaming up with the rest for a maximum threat turn. Taken all together, this build has a reliable shot at getting a lot of its stuff into the opponent relatively intact, and is tremendously hard to shift during its big go turn, achieiving the vice-like pressure that successful Ork builds tend to bring to the table. Love it, particularly seeing so many Boyz out and about, great stuff from Steven.
The Best of the Rest
There were 4 more players on 4-1 records. They were:
2nd – Drew Salzborn – T’au Empire (Kauyon): Whoops all hulls – Hammerheads, Sky Rays and Breacherfish, plus loads of Tetras.
3rd – Matthew Wood – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host): Four block with Kyria and double Caladius,
4th – Cullen Burns – Aeldari (Battle Host): YOLO gut-punch Aeldari, maxing out on Shroud Runners, taking lots of Fire Dragons in Falcons, and adding Karandras and a Solitaire as extra herohammer pieces. Even has Eldrad to either provide extra fate dice for a go turn or help the Shroud Runners chip something to death.
5th – Phillip D’Anjou – Tyranids (Synaptic Nexus): Headache-inducing Monster Mash, sporting triple Trygon and a pair of Mawlocs, plus a bunch of Lone Operatives and Neurotyrants.
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