The metagame is (presumably) on borrowed time, and this week it’s the Astra Militarum’s turn to take a big swing at the Necron menace, with a reasonable degree of success. The Thousand Sons and Sororitas are getting in on the action too, and as a result the robot dominance isn’t quite as extreme as it could be, though still sufficient to make it clear that some sort of nerf bat application is required. Hopefully that’s coming sooner rather than later.

Today we’ll be covering:

The Oxford 40k Super Major
The Wardome 40K GT
ALL STARS WARM UP – Hellstorm’s 40K Tournament Series
Team Hobby Chest 40k Open – Grand Tournament
The Pantheon Invades Shirecon GT
Southwest Smoker 40k GT
Other Realms 40K Hell Dive GT

On Friday we’ll have Lowest of Men covering:

Fantasia Fanatic XLV – 40K
Grand Tournament 40K – Grand Clash 2024
ELBCOAST CUP X – GT
NGT’24 – Nidaros Grand Tournament
Nemesis 40k Spring 2024
Grand Tournament of Contempt

This week’s showdowns will be:

Astra Militarum vs Adepta Sororitas at the Oxford Super Major (with guest commentary from Nassim Fouchane, one of the finalists)
Thousand Sons vs Adepta Sororitas at the Grand Tournament of Contempt.

THE OXFORD 40K SUPER MAJOR

246-player, 7-round Supermajor in England, United Kingdom on April 20 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Priority Targets – Chilling Rain – Crucible of Battle

Nassim Fouchane – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Vik Vijay – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Two titans of the UK scene clash here, and Nassim was kind enough to give us his thoughts on this game, so without further ado, here they are!

Nassim: Salam Alaiykum all! Imperial Guard vs Sisters, two armies that have arguably been the talk of the current metagame, facing off in the finals.

So my thoughts going into this is that I have an attrition advantage thanks to the indirect into Vik’s decently weak infantry. They’re very susceptible to the Basilisk & Manticores when you factor in Fields of Fire and that means if I play defensively can aim for a small win by attritioning him down, as long as I ride out the waves of sisters that will come crashing at me.

Here are Vik’s thoughts going into this as well: “So I was in a little bit of a rush going into the game as I had to bounce straight over from the semi-finals, which led to some sloppy deployment that caused me some serious issues turn 1, putting me way behind on points. Game plan would’ve ideally been to keep things super cagey and try to win on a secondary differential. As soon as any chance of that disappeared, the only other option was violence”

Vik gave me an opportunity to give him a 0 very early on by shooting a unit off his home objective and charging 6 Bullgryn into his expansion objective on his T2, and I also built up a 6VP Secondary lead. This meant that I had neutered the scoring advantage of Sisters quite early on and was almost assured a win if Vik was to play passive or mildly aggressive and go for trading.

Vik is able to recognise this immediately and decides to move his army forward, as he now realised that his main strengths in the matchup were gone, and he needed to leverage arguably his one remaining advantage, which is the sheer amount of stuff he has.

With that in mind, he claps back turn 2 and makes a few key charges to stay in the game, aggressively pushing me back from my side objective to keep me to 5s for the rest of the game, neutering my second turn advantage by battleshocking units to prevent me from using Reinforcements on them, making the attrition battle harder for me, especially as he had cleared a majority of the Bullgryn by that turn by trading his Arco-flagellants.

By the end of the game I wasn’t able to hold enough of the midboard and had lost too many resources to hold onto a second primary objective, which also affected my ability to score cards. I also gave him a few key slingshots to get a Triumph into the midboard, which I couldn’t deal with.

Overall well played by Vik, despite having no time to really rest after his game with Kyle, and bouncing back after what for some would be a game ending turn 1, congrats!

Wings: Thanks for the insight Nassim (and Vik) – really shows that knowing when you have to completely tear up your plan and go for broke is a key skill to triumph at the top!

Result

Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs) Victory – 84 – 65

Vik Vijay – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs) – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Go-wide Sisters

Thoughts

Board control for days is the plan here, with huge numbers of units to create constant scoring pressure, and Castigators for some heavy damage lifting when required. Notably absent to pay for this is Morvenn Vahl, and Vik covered the thinking behind this on his (very good) 40K Fireside Podcast last week – Warsuits just don’t work very well on UKTC tables. It’s hard to get them into staging positions when deployed on the table, and you can’t generally hide them in a good spot out of rapid ingress. Instead, you’ve got more units and more stuff (in the form of the Castigators) that shoots down side lanes, plus the Zephyrim to attack another angle of the current UKTC pack. With both the day two missions currently having six objectives, one of the most important ways to start building a point differential is to have options for tanking the opponent to a 5pt turn by flippnig a “safe” objective and the Zephyrim do that very effectively thanks to their speed. I ended up on Canoptek Court rather than Hypercrypt for similar reasons and didn’t regret it at all, and I’d definitely encourage anyone planning on hitting UKTC events this year to follow Vik’s example and look for similar units in your faction. Congratulations to Vik on yet another big trophy!

Nassim Fouchane – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 2nd Place

Genestealer Cults Bullgryn. Credits: That Gobbo

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Tarpit Guard

Thoughts

A Bullgryn-tastic build from Nassim here, joining Vik’s list in being well tuned for UKTC. The current maps mean that if you have more than two artillery tanks you start being at a risk of getting sniped down side lanes, and Tank Commanders work well with those lanes, providing extra pressure, and often trading up if the opponent tries to counter them. Add in the durability of the Bullgryn and the ability of Kasrkin to play a wide variety of utility roles (stacking Move! Move! Move! and extra OC is another great way to flip objectives) and you have a versatile and highly deadly list. Well done to Nassim on the second place finish!

Sam Nash – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Slightly Less Tarpitty Guard

Thoughts

I have unusually direct experience with this one, as Sam and I faced off in round 5 for a chance at the top four, and my “poor”, “defenceless” robots got blown up. Rude. Anyway, this is similar to Nassim’s build, but dials back on Bullgryn a little for a Basilisk and an extra Scout Sentinel. Sam used these to extremely good effect in our game, with the second Sentinel meaning that he could pretty much always have one Spotting a key target, cycling them in via Reinforcements as fast as I could kill them, and then using free Overlapping Fields of Fire to methodically eliminate all opposition. It’s very effective! Well done Sam, and I’ll get you next time.

Kyle Grundy – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Go-wide Shooty Tau

Thoughts

The Gundam menace rounds out the top four here, packing in three Riptides and three Ghostkeels, a heady mixture of mobility and shooting, again very effective along the side channels you can use on UKTC. Breachers and Pathfinders pulling off mobility stunts/objective flips with Devilfish plus some extra troubleshooters in a lone Commander and Longstrike complete the picture here, and you end up with a build that’s happy trading shots with almost anything, as early on the ablative protections on the Ghostkeels give it the edge, and later the power of Kauyon kicks in. Goodness only knows what Kyle is going to unleash once Mont’ka is available!

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players on either 5-0 or 4.5-0.5 records. Normally for UKTC events I only hit 5-0s here, but in this case two of the 4.5-0.5s drew in round 5 on the top table, so it’s worth getting them in here for the full picture.

5th – Greg Chamberlain – Leagues of Votann: A Hearthguard-heavy build, going for two full blocks in Deep Strike and a squad in a Land Fortress, threatening high-volume hurt at pretty much any stage in the game.
6th – Ashley Brown – Adeptus Custodes: Infantry spam with the full six blocks.
7th (4.5) – Jonathan Partridge – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Monster mash with a mix of the tough ones (Maleceptors), the cheap ones (Exocrines) and the fast ones (Trygons) with some utility pieces to fill. Notable among them is a 5-model Genestealer unit, as throwaway Infiltrators are especially strong on the current UKTC terrain, a sharp choice!
8th (4.5) – Ben Piddington – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): An unusually pressure-intensive Hypercrypt build that adds a full block of Lychguard to send through the Monolith portal with Imotekh.
9th (4.5) – Samuel Smith – Chaos Space Marines: The surprise return of two big blocks of Accursed Cultists, supported by more skirmishing units, cheap shooting, and Rotigus to help gum up the mid-board while the Cultists get on with their work.

The Wardome 40K GT

77-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in New Caney, TX, US on April 20 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Alberto Nicolás “The Carthaginian” – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – 1st Place

XV8 Crisis Battlesuit Team. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Crisis Tau

Thoughts

Every week I assume I’ve seen my last cyclic ion block, and every week they’re back again. This Tau build uses that nightmare shooting brick as a full on centrepiece, filling out with a whole bunch of units that can skirmish, bully charge and move block for as long as is necessary for hot plasma death to tidy up the table. It’s been enduringly effective, and it’s no surprise to see them get yet another riotous sendoff in Alberto’s hands.

Russell Tassin – Black Legion (Slaves to Darkness) – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Brawler CSM 2024

Thoughts

A cool re-vamp of the Chaos Space Marine brawler builds from last year, used to great effect by one of the faction’s most dedicated and successful players. The gunline of Abaddon with a Helbrute and Destructors is extremely legit at grinding stuff out at range, and the Rhinos full of Slaanesh Legionaries provide some quality threat projection to keep those tools safe. Abaddon’s unit is also great as a counter-charge piece, and a unit of Plaguebearers is an interesting way of filling a mid-durability position holder slot, which CSM don’t really have at this price. Great to see some effective tinkering here, well done Russell!

David Villareal – Adeptus Mechanicus (Explorator Maniple) – 3rd Place

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

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Explorator Pressure

Thoughts

A first showing for this AdMech detachment in a top four here, making use of the pressure tools of the Explorator maniple. As my haters on Reddit will be delighted to tell you, I think there are more interesting things in the AdMech book than most give it credit for (even though it is, to be clear, way too weak), and I’m happy to see some of those tried out. Explorator Maniple gives you lots of tools to heavily pressure one or two objectives and substantially boost the capabilities one one Infantry unit in your army. Unsurprisingly, that’s used here with three of the book’s better datasheets – a big unit of Infiltrators and lots of Sydonian Dragoons to keep opposing positions under pressure, and a full unit of buffed Breachers to annihilate anything foolish enough to stand on an objective, using Incense Exhausts to tank reprisals. Skystalkers and Infantry fill out the utility/objective play side of things, while some Ironstriders help blast large targets, and you end up with a pleasingly aggressive force that has sone good staying power when the foe hits back. I do wish their big transport synergy Stratagem cost 1CP instead of 2, but it’s nice to see that you can make something happen with these tools. Well done David.

Kit Smith – Dark Angels (Ironstorm Spearhead) – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Darkstormravens

Thoughts

Crunch meta has been a bit quieter this week, partially because the UKTC terrain sets don’t favour it quite as much, but it’s very much on show here in the form of the nastiest shooting Marines can muster. If you can keep Stormravens supplied with CP they’re appallingly deadly, so combining that and extra protection from a Darkshroud makes Dark Angels the best place to run two. Great work from Kit.

The Best of the Rest

There were 2 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

5th – Justin Moore – T’au Empire: Triptide and a big Crisis block, which so far so expected, but the Crisis Team is fully loaded on plasma rifles instead of cyclics. Presumably Justin was either very worried about Custodes, or didn’t want the last outing of a full Crisis squad to be marred by them self-immolating.
6th – Colin McDade – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): The double C’tan, triple Immortal and Monolith special.

ALL STARS WARM UP – Hellstorm’s 40K Tournament Series

51-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, United Kingdom on April 20 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Josh Roberts – Necrons (Canoptek Court) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Canoptek Court

Thoughts

Josh’s robot rampage continues, as does the trend of gradually shaving out Immortals from the units. In the current meta, five with a Plasmancer gives a lot of the same output, and here frees up the points to go triple on both Wraiths and Doomstalkers, leaving a build that’s a nightmare to take off the board and that presents a very real grindy damage threat. Congratulations to Josh.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Jonny Simmons – Adeptus Mechanicus (Skitarii Hunter Cohort): Board control and objective power from the Hunter Cohort here, mixing lots of Pteraxii and Infiltrators with Battleline galore and two big Breacher blocks for damage.
3rd – Nathan Roberts – Death Guard (Plague Company): Maximum go-wide hull skew here, using Predators, Daemon Engines (including an allied Soul Grinder) and a trio of allied Knights, while cutting down everything else to Nurglings, Cultists and Typhus as a finesse piece.
4th – Dom Maidlow – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment): All the standard Guard hits with an extra dose of artillery via a second Basilisk.
5th – Mark Pilkington – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): A Monolith, lots of Heavy Lokhusts, a Warrior brick to tarpit and a surprise inclusion of a full Skorpekh squad to blast through the portal.
6th – Paul Croghan – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Triple Wraiths and Doomstalkers with lots of Lokhusts in support.
7th – Connor Nicholls – Blood Angels (Sons of Sanguinius): Mega jump pack aggro plus a big foot Death Company squad to stage and counter-charge.
8th – Michael Duff – Black Templars (Ironstorm Spearhead): It’s a day of triples, three Reapers, three Valiants and three Destructors, with Transport-riding stuff to fill.
9th – Brant Wilson – Adeptus Custodes: Infantry spam with triple Guard and Wardens.

Team Hobby Chest 40k Open – Grand Tournament

36-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Jacksonville, NC, United States on April 20 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Michael Mann – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Trukk-Heavy Goodstuff

Thoughts

The Orks have a lot to look forward to in their new book, but this build gives one old friend a fitting sendoff. Badrukk’s Flash Gitz provide a nasty shooting threat out of Strat Reserves or from behind a wall, while a pressure wave of nasty stuff in Trukks runs the foe down. Does have one unusual tech choice in adding some biker Nobz to the Supa-Cybork Deffkilla – that makes the unit actually hit decently well in addition to being a pain to kill, so is certainly interesting. The codex is going to shake up Orks in a big way soon, but I do still think there will be a place for all-rounder builds like this, and well done to Michael for giving Da Kaptin a proper last run.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Robin Roberts – Genestealer Cult (Ascension Day): Shooty Infantry and a big Aberrant unit, going back to playing the hits here.
3rd – Nate Maxfield – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): Tsons with a bit of extra heft from a Mutalith and Daemon Prince, alongside the usual suspects Character and Rubric-wise.
4th – Mike Robertson – T’au Empire (Kauyon): Gunline Tau heavy on Broadsides and Crisis suits.
5th – Reynolds Wagemaker – Thousand Sons: Double Mutalith, using lots of chaff Cultists and Enlightened to free up points.
6th – Alex Ramsey – Adepta Sororitas: Standard all-rounder Sisters stuff with the Vahl/Paragon brick.

The Pantheon Invades Shirecon GT

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Sylvania, NSW, Australia on April 19 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Jordan McGregor – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs) – 1st Place

Sisters of Battle Canoness. Credit: Corrode

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

All-rounder Sisters

Thoughts

Another spin on the Sisters formula, going for a mix of good shooting output from tanks and high-threat melee from the Repentia, plus the normal surfeit of scoring stuff to fill. Yet another sign of how flexible the faction can be, well done to Jordan for putting together this version and taking a trophy!

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Joshua Brodie – Raven Guard (Ironstorm Spearhead): A pleasingly thematic spin on Ironstorm, combining lots of Gladiators and a Repex with Eliminators and Assault Intercessors, naturally including a big unit of the latter with Shrike. Eliminators are good in Ironstorm anyway, and the Shrike squad has definite merit – Lone Op on them lets you get in a big mobile threat without opening up a vulnerability in the defensive profile you present to enemy guns.
3rd – Arian Fanaeian – Ultramarines (Ironstorm Spearhead): A Stormraven supping on CP from Calgar instead of Azrael.
4th – Michael House – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): Extra Character-heavy Tsons with a winged Daemon Prince alongside some of the usuals.
5th – Adam Woznowski – Adeptus Custodes: Three Infantry blocks, and two each of Caladius Tanks and 3-model Allarus squads.
6th – Craig Dewes – Space Marines: Unknown army list of mystery.

Southwest Smoker 40k GT

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Las Cruces, NM, US on April 20 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Jon Camacho – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic) – 1st Place

Tzaangor Enlightened. Credit: Mike Bettle-Shaffer

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Top-heavy Tsons

Thoughts

An unusually low Character build of Tsons here, going instead for extra heft from Mutaliths and a tooled-up Daemon Prince, and supporting them with actual shooty squads of Tzaangor Enlightened with Shamans. Honestly somewhat intriuging – the complete package on those squads is quite a big headache to deal with, and they’re extremely good at punishing Necron Characters in particular, which is obviously excellent in the current metagame! I’m sure Tzeentch is particularly proud of the admirable twist Jon has added to the mix here.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Colin Kay – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs): Fire and Character-heavy Sororitas, packing extra Leaders and extra Immolators.
3rd – Peyton Gage – Chaos Daemons (Daemonic Incursion): Monster Mash with five big hitters, favouring shooting and durability on most and Shalaxi as a hammer.
4th – Jack Kosidowski – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): All-rounder Tsons adding lots of Spawn for board presence on the cheap.
5th – Rob Gonzales – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Five C’tan and a Monolith.

Other Realms 40K Hell Dive GT

28-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Honolulu, HI, US on April 20 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

David Stoffey – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) – 1st Place

Grey Knight Nemesis Dreadknights. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Dreadknights and big blocks

Thoughts

Lots of the Grey Knight favourites on show here, with loads of Dreadknights to act as a vicious spearhead, Crowe’s Purifiers to evaporate enemy infantry, and a full Terminator block to present a terrifying alpha threat alongside Draigo, and one that can usually tank some reprisals to boot. More direct than some variants on Grey Knights, no dancing away with Paladins here, but very hard to handle, and perfectly tuned to exploit the tiniest mistake. Well done to David!

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Alexander Eslinger-Davis – Aeldari: The Avatar supported by lots of dakka.
3rd – Nathan Gontarz – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Immortals, Doomstalkers and Wraiths, plus two big Scarab units (which are surprisingly useful in Court).
4th – Jonathan Gormon – T’au Empire: Triptide with various mid-tier shooting threats in support.
5th – Brian Whitt – Death Guard: Plaguebursts, two Rhino Plague Marine units and the Nurgle all-star tag team of Rotigus and Mortarion as gigantic hammers.

Wrap Up

A bumper week again, it seems. Lowest of Men will be taking the helm on Friday with plenty more to look at, and if you’re battling this weekend, make sure your faction leaves the current metagame in a blaze of glory!

Competitive Innovations in 10th: Good Guard pt.1

THE OXFORD 40K SUPER MAJOR

The Showdown

Priority Targets – Chilling Rain – Crucible of Battle

Thoughts

Result

Vik Vijay – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Nassim Fouchane – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Sam Nash – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Kyle Grundy – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

The Wardome 40K GT

Alberto Nicolás “The Carthaginian” – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Russell Tassin – Black Legion (Slaves to Darkness) – 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

David Villareal – Adeptus Mechanicus (Explorator Maniple) – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Kit Smith – Dark Angels (Ironstorm Spearhead) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

ALL STARS WARM UP – Hellstorm’s 40K Tournament Series

Josh Roberts – Necrons (Canoptek Court) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Team Hobby Chest 40k Open – Grand Tournament

Michael Mann – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

The Pantheon Invades Shirecon GT

Jordan McGregor – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Southwest Smoker 40k GT

Jon Camacho – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Other Realms 40K Hell Dive GT

David Stoffey – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Wrap Up

Related

Share this:

Related