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.

Once again we had truly astounding amounts of Warhammer going on at the weekend, including the World Championships of Warhammer over in Atlanta, so once again we have a massive amount to talk about, and we’re doing it over three parts.

Results-wise, with everyone unleashing their A game things suddenly look extremely polarised – Genestealer Cults and Astra Militarum are ahead of everyone else by miles, both utterly dominating on win rates and leading on top placings. That’s not to say there aren’t challengers out there, with plenty of top finishes for others and a surprise challenger taking the biggest trophy, but after a sustained period of churn, those two armies seem to be fully locked in as the metagame leaders. I will put a small asterisk on that which is that Genestealers seem to do quite a bit less well on GW maps and at US events in general, so if you’re playing in that context, maybe worry a bit more about Guard and a bit less about Cults.

We do, of course, have an exciting advent calendar of new rules coming up, so who knows how things will look in a few weeks, but right now those are the armies you must have a plan to beat if you want to win an event, and presumably the ones that are in the sights of the rules team as they rack the slide on their balance rifle. Do you rack the slide before shooting? I have no idea, I’m far too British for that.

Anyway, today I’ll be covering:

2024 Warhammer 40,000 World Championships of Warhammer
Renegade Open 2024 – 40K GT
GERMAN MAJOR HAMBURG 2 – 2024
The Guardian Gobbler GT
AZ Warhammer 40K League 2024 Fall Championship
Warhammer 40,000 – Dynasty Slayer

On Friday Lowest of Men will look at:

Fantasia Fanatic XLVI – 40K
DaBoyz GT Rochester 2024 40K 1v1
GT Terra’n’dins
ALL STARS COOL DOWN – Hellstorm’s 40K Tournament Series
The Whitby GT
Battle Shocked GT

Finally, on Saturday we’ll cover:

Celtic Cup Grand Tournament 2024
Obsec presents the 10th Annual Perth 40k GT
1.Gt Canes Belli
Cross-Swords War At The Westward VI
Toys of Mass Destruction – Hertfordshire Winter GT

Showdown wise, we will of course be looking at the WCW finals, and then reviewing:

Crusher Stampede vs Imperial Knights at the ALL STARS COOL DOWN
Crusher Stampede vs Retaliation Cadre at Gt Canes Belli

What can I say, the patrons like big bugs, and they cannot lie.

2024 Warhammer 40,000 World Championships of Warhammer

268-player, 8-round Supermajor in Atlanta, GA, United States on November 21 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Linchpin – Raise Banners – Search and Destroy – Map 1

John Lennon – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment)
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vs.

Folger Pyles – Adeptus Custodes (Talons of the Emperor)
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Thoughts

The guard menace (in the hands of repeat WCW finalist John Lennon) face a surprising challenger in the finals here from the allegedly Mid AF Adeptus Custodes, which Folger has been tearing up GTs with in the last few weeks.

On the Guard side, John’s build showcases a lot of what is making the army tick right now. The combination of stacking AP buffs and re-rolls on Russes and Hydras provides exceptional damage output into anything you can see, Aquilons are one of the best utility and harrassment units ever created, and the number of cheap hulls you can pack onto the board (particularly now everyone has clued into using Hydras for this) gives you fantastic space control that’s really hard to smash through.

They’re up against a stern challenge here, mind. Custodes are, in fact, Mid AF in the aggregate, but they get something of a boost from the staging options on GW maps, and Folger’s setup is especially strong in a metagame that’s skewing fairly melee-heavy in non-Guard games. Being able to lurk mid-board with a bunch of Wardens threatening to either soak a charge with their Feel No Pain then smash back or lance out with Advance/Charge from the Champions makes life very hard for opponents.

It also gives the army a way to go all out aggro against high threat single phase armies like this one – hit hard and drop three hulls, then lean on having a 4+ Invulnerable save and 4+ Feel No pain across all the key units to try and keep the momentum. Having Kyria and some Custodians helps with that too, especially on this map – assuming she doesn’t flub her power, it creates a way to demand some of the Guard units be drawn forward if they want to try and pressure early Primary, and there aren’t super reliable ways for Guard to shoot for a Secret Mission here. The reactive move Talons gives you is also super good both on GW terrain in general and this matchup in particular – it lets one of the units plausibly operate in melee ahead of a big swing helping cut through the early chaff the Guard can throw out.

That doesn’t make this easy, it just means it’s a game, and something the Custodes do have to worry about is the threat of the drop Scion unit appearing and wiping out a whole squad ahead of it being go time – it feels like if that happens then they won’t be able to build up the momentum they need. Equally, Guard have to worry about the fact that they’re going to be starting this game really bundled up – the downside of filling out on overly cheap hulls is that you can end up as a bit of a car park, and if the Custodes manage to get the drop on it, they could just tie the army down forever.

All things considered, there’s a game here, but I would still probably hand it to the guard on the sheer redundancy and damage potential they have, as it feels like there are more ways for this to go wrong for the Custodes. Folger was able to fight through the challenge, however, taking home the trophy – congratulations!

Result

Adeptus Custodes (Talons of the Emperor) Victory – 71 – 57

Folger Pyles – Adeptus Custodes (Talons of the Emperor) – 1st Place

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 16 finishers were:

5th – Marco Santopadre – Grey Knights: Two big terminator bricks with three regular Dreadknights, another build that does very well on GW terrain, as the Terminators can stage effectively while the Dreadknights aren’t as held up by ruins as on some maps.
6th – Björn Eriksson – Astra Militarum: One of most of the hottest guard toys and a second Tank Commander.
7th – Richard Siegler – Adeptus Mechanicus (Skitarii Hunter Cohort): Big shooty hulls and two large Pteraxii units (one of each) for utility and anti-horde.
8th – Derek apsche – Chaos Space Marines (Chaos Cult): The Cultist horde board control special that we’ve covered in depth before.
9th – Wesley St – Astra Militarum: Infantry horde guard with a couple of big Death Corps squads as anchors, then loads of murderous Scions, Aquilons and Kasrkin.
10th – Samuel Pope – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): An unusual mix of horde and monster mash elements, supporting shooty bugs with a carpet of 80 Termagants and a Tervigon.
11th – Borja FM – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group): A mixture of melee jump threats and close-in shooting hulls (Vindicators and Baal Predators, specifically).
12th – Fritz Peters – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Double C’tan, Silent King and triple Doomsday.
13th – Brian Daugherty – World Eaters: The industry-standard World Eaters list.
14th – TJ Lanigan – Thousand Sons: Double Mutalith, a few units of Rubricae, and extra cheap board control from Cultists and Enlightened to free up space to keep loads of Characters.
15th – Ranchen Li – Death Guard: Crunchy Death Guard with Destructors and Brigands, Mortarion, one big Plague Marine unit and some small Deathshroud squads as utility threats.
16th – Edoardo Rinaldi – Astra Militarum: Russes galore and one big Armoured Sentinel squad.

Renegade Open 2024 – 40K GT

80-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Minneapolis, MN, US on November 23 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Tyler Devries – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 1st Place

Archetype

Brick Wall Bugs

Thoughts

A hilarious curveball for our third undefeated list here, with Craig unleashing the full potential of the Assimilation Swarm. This list rules and is very smartly put together – the intent is clearly to be able to move to the mid-board in force with a wall of Hive Guard, and then just absolutely refuse to move from there under any circumstances. Lots of cheap Psychophages amped up by the Neurotyrant spread healing far and wide, while the Swarmlord tanks enemy Stratagems, but what really makes the build shine in the current environment is the threat of free Heroic Intervention off a Fight First Hive Tyrant and a full squad Tyrant guard. I’ve mentioned in the last few weeks that the metagame is melee-heavy, bringing up the value of Fight First, and I’m fully not sure what the average melee army is supposed to do about this, creating a genuine draw to the detachment.

You still get some good value shooty bugs and utility pieces to plink and score with while the opponent works out how the hell they’re doing to claim space too, giving you plenty of routes to victory even if they don’t slam face first into a fight they can’t win. This build shows off serious innovation with a book that’s been out for over a year, and it’s definitely my favourite of the week, great job Craig.

Eric Olson – Chaos Daemons (Daemonic Incursion) – 4th Place

Credit: Liebot – https://instagram.com/liebot_pics

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Herohammer Monster Mash

Thoughts

Big Monsters, with some nifty supporting Characters and Bloodcrusher shock troops for anything where a sudden dose of Mortal Wounds would help. The main unusual tool here is the Exalted flamer, which is a neat little tech piece in the current environment. You certainly wish it was more reliable, but in terms of being a scoring piece it isn’t much different to regular flamers, and being able to sometimes slow down a key Infantry unit can be clutch. Nice to see Daemons still having a great time out there, well done Eric.

The Best of the Rest

There were 10 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

5th – Connor Haugen – Orks (War Horde): Trukk/Battlewagon-riding Boyz, Nobz and Snaggas.
6th – Joseph Bommarito – Orks (War Horde): Triple Kill Rig with Ghaz lumbering behind.
7th – Alex Vian – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force): Deathwing GTF goodstuff.
8th – Tyler Broderius – T’au Empire (Retaliation Cadre): Crisis Toolbox plus some Breacher/Fireblade units as counterpunch threats.
9th – Bill Stineman – Space Wolves (Champions of Russ): Elite melee Herohammer wolves, which is real commitment to the brand.
10th – Draven Hammel – T’au Empire (Kroot Hunting Pack): Many Kroot of all shapes and sizes, one lone Ethereal and some Hammerheads.
11th – Logan Payne – Genestealer Cult (Biosanctic Broodsurge): Muscle beach 2024.
12th – Miles Engrav – Grey Knights: Terminator MSUs and Dreadknights.
13th – Nathan Hoekstra – Tyranids (Vanguard Onslaught): All-in sneaky bugs with all sorts of Lictors, 30 Genestealers with Broodlords and a squad of Zoanthropes to slip around shooting stuff.
14th – Jasper Axelson – Leagues of Votann: Triple Land Fortress and lots of bikes.

GERMAN MAJOR HAMBURG 2 – 2024

53-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Hamburg, HH, Deutschland on November 23 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Manuel “BEL” Wieczorek – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Double Dorn Guard

Thoughts

Another event win for tank-heavy guard, this time foregoing some of the AP and re-roll stacking for the all-rounder power of Dorns and the mirror-match threat of Vanquishers. You know other Guard builds hate to see those coming. Manuel did, in fact, smash his way through two other high-powered Guard builds to take the trophy, so yes we do appear to be heading towards “build the version of the top army that beats other players of that army” territory. Congratulations to Manuel for being ahead of the curve on that!

Simon Rosen – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Primaris Chapter Master Dante. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

All-rounder Blood Angels

Thoughts

If you’re wondering what level of “Fight First is king” we’re at, that sure is a unit of Jump Death Company prioritising it over -1D, which would be a truly wild thing to contemplate in pretty much any metagame we’ve seen for quite a while. Maybe ever in the 8th-onwards era of the game? Outside that unit, this is showing what the new Blood Angels book does best as players get into the groove with it – a unit each of Death Company, Sanguinary Guard and Mephiston provide a really strong reactive melee presence to supplement shooty stuff, without costing so much that it’s your only plan. That creates very well-rounded armies, of which this is an exemplar, brought up to undefeated status by the smart counterpick for getting one over the other melee armies – great work Simon!

The Best of the Rest

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

3rd – Marvin Petersen – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment): Double Tank Commander, one Bullgryn block, lots of Aquilons.
4th – Kayu Orellana – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Big bugs, 60 Hormagaunts (20/20/10/10) and some Warrior MSUs that are presumably aimed at being efficient at clearing GSC chaff.
5th – Thomas Büttelmann – Black Templars (Gladius Task Force): Grimaldus with one huge Primaris Crusader brick backed up by a whole lot of hulls.
6th – Felix Haak – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Go-wide Invasion Fleet, dialing down the number of monsters for some Warrior MSUs, Raveners and cheap Genestealer squads.
7th – Luis Stiemerling – Astra Militarum: Tanks galore and double Aquilons.
8th – Mathieu Clerc – Leagues of Votann: Heathguard-focused Votann, deploying two units from Forts and one full block from Deep Strike.
9th – Konstantin Dietze – Astra Militarum: Double Tank Commander and a Bullgryn block.
10th – Frank Voss – Leagues of Votann: All-rounder Votann with a bit of everything.

The Guardian Gobbler GT

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Portland, OR, United States on November 23 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Ryan Cherewich – Death Guard (Plague Company) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Brawler Death Guard

Thoughts

Despicably moisturised, in their lane, thriving – another top finish for a brawling Death Guard build here, choosing to go all-in on midfield dominance with the addition of Rotigus. You get a good amount of cheap, moderately resilient bait for the Daemon Engines as well, helping draw the foe into Da Deathshroud Zone, and it turns out that if you enter Rotigus’s aura you can no longer simply walk out. Powerful as this is, I’m legitimately impressed that armies so dependent on 3W Terminators are doing so well in Astra Militarum hell, so big props to Ryan for taking the trophy here.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd (4.5-0.5) – Daniel Mindlin – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force): Six Dreadknights and a full Paladin brick.
3rd – Enrique Gavina – Genestealer Cult (Outlander Claw): Go-wide mechanised claw, still very strong even after Biosanctic and Host builds have stolen the limelight.
4th – Rich Dudley – Drukhari (Realspace Raiders): Talos Spam
5th – Daniel McNicholas – Chaos Space Marines: Accursed Cultists forever, Vindicators to shoot, and one big roving Warp Talon unit.
6th – Brad Chaussee – World Eaters: Industry-standard World Eaters.
7th – Justin Whitton – World Eaters: Double full Terminator squad World Eaters.

AZ Warhammer 40K League 2024 Fall Championship

36-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Tempe, Arizona, US on November 23 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Daniel Olivas – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Hull-heavy Aeldari

Thoughts

Even in one of their weakest states for a while you can never truly count the Aeldari out in the right hands, and Daniel’s build uses some innovative tricks to maximise the value you get from their toolbox. Fire Prisms are, of course, fantastic at punishing enemy Vehicles with relative impunity, as you can Fire and Fade back the one you’re aiming from after you’re done with zapping, and bringing back a small unit of Rangers with Illic gives you a great tool for ensuring you can contest some objectives early without having to fully commit. You also see the return of a Night Spinner here to help moderate the threat of nasty melee pushes, and that’s a choice I’m fully behind from my own recent elf experiments – paying 210pts feels godawful, but one is still absolutely worth it, particularly as it also gives you something happy to sit on a home objective and body-block Aquilons.

The last piece of the puzzle here is the small Troupe with double-stacked Ynnari Characters, which creates quite the counter-charge/Fights First threat for enemies to have to deal with (and you could also pivot Yvraine to running with the Guardians in a matchup where that’s better). The Visarch with a Troupe is consistently great, and while this unit is eye-wateringly fragile for the price, it does also become very nasty and is well suited to our current environment. Great work from Daniel putting all of this together into a winning list!

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top four were:

2nd – Travis Finell – Space Wolves (Gladius Task Force): All-rounder Space Wolves with some cheap shooty hulls and a Repulsor full of Fire Discipline Hellblasters as a centrepiece.
3rd – Cory Walsh – Aeldari (Battle Host): Avatar, Yncarne and Prisms, somehow returned from early 10th.
4th – Matt Schriock – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment): Russes and Hellhounds for days.

Warhammer 40,000 – Dynasty Slayer

29-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, GB on November 23 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Jack Chapman – Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Brawler Raiders

Thoughts

Love brawling, love Vindicators, hate enemies on objectives, simple as.

This is a very classic example of what Chaos Space Marines have been doing well all edition, and which continues to be strong with Raiders from their codex. Great value shooty hulls, powerful brawling pieces able to deploy out of staged Rhinos, and Dark Pacts plus detachment bonuses to push things over the top. Small Warp Talon units are the main new spice here, pulling double duty as extra reach into shooty builds and universal counterpunch for melee armies, and that helps make this version stand out, congratulations Jack.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Luke harris – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Silent King, Doomsdays and a Vault.
3rd – Ross James – Orks (War Horde): Double Battlewagon aggro horde.
4th – Owen Newcombe – Necrons (Awakened Dynasty): Destroyer-heavy Awakened with lots of Skorpekh/Lord MSUs and heavy Lokhusts.
5th – James Marlow – Astra Militarum: Infantry guard spam with Bullgryn adding some backbone.
6th – Dan Roberts – Chaos Space Marines (Veterans of the Long War): All-rounder Veterans with Obliterators, brawling Legionaries and Destructors, plus the unusual sight of Vashtorr leading the charge.

Wrap Up

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[40K] Competitive Innovations In 10th: Gold Medal pt.1

2024 Warhammer 40,000 World Championships of Warhammer

The Showdown

Linchpin – Raise Banners – Search and Destroy – Map 1

Thoughts

Result

Folger Pyles – Adeptus Custodes (Talons of the Emperor) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

John Lennon – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

John Winter Russell – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Jesper Unander-Scharin – Ultramarines (Ironstorm Spearhead) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Renegade Open 2024 – 40K GT

Tyler Devries – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Andrew Moe – Death Guard (Plague Company) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Craig Parker – Tyranids (Assimilation Swarm) – 3rd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Eric Olson – Chaos Daemons (Daemonic Incursion) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

GERMAN MAJOR HAMBURG 2 – 2024

Manuel “BEL” Wieczorek – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Simon Rosen – Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

The Guardian Gobbler GT

Ryan Cherewich – Death Guard (Plague Company) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

AZ Warhammer 40K League 2024 Fall Championship

Daniel Olivas – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Warhammer 40,000 – Dynasty Slayer

Jack Chapman – Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Wrap Up

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