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Competitive Innovations in 10th: Leviathan’s Last Orders pt.2

By Lowest of Men and James "One_Wing" Grover

We’re back for part two, and this time it’s Lowest of Men in charge, other than a brief appearance from Wings to cover a Showdown. New(ish) Codexes are flexing their muscles in both of those, and we’ve got plenty of other fun stuff to look at alongside them, so let’s get into it.

Today that means:

  • Terracon 2024
  • Branson Brawl 2024
  • Golden Ticket Event: Warhammer 40,000 Grand Tournament
  • IBERIAN OPEN VALLECAS

If you’re looking for any of the following, check out part 1:

  • GERMAN SUPER MAJOR
  • Fal-Con 2024: The Falconing 40K
  • Rubicon GT II
  • Iberian Ham GT AEPDA 2024

Terracon 2024

107-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Naracoorte, SA, Australia on June 07 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Chaos Space Marines versus Imperial Knights

Mike Ocksénormoűs – Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders):
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Kyle Murray – Imperial Knights (Noble Lance):
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Thoughts

Ok – a new meta hotness faces off against an army that’s been a little on the down for awhile now. In the CSM corner the fierce Renegade Raiders pack in some big death bricks of Chosen and Legios, recycling Warp Talon murder balls and just enough supporting shooting to keep opponents honest. It can go really fast, and hit extremely hard and has enough units here to have a massive go turn into armoured targets without invulns…

That’s, urm, exactly what the Imperial Knights are packing, with tonnes of Helverins and Armigers. Loads of shooting, but quite honest and dependant on angles and not getting blocked off or boxed in. My concern is with the right terrain to stage the Raiders can effectively kill half of the Knight army in a turn, and then jump Warp Talons back up into the sky to go again. The extra AP in Raiders, especially in combat, is just going to be too much for the massed Armigers to deal with, and that’s very much how this one went down…

Result

Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders) Victory – 95 – 66

Mike Ocksénormoűs – Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders) – 1st Place

Fabius Bile
Fabius Bile. Credits: That Gobbo

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Renegade Raiders Murder Bricks

Thoughts

A storming event win for the Renegade Raiders here, this list is chock full of devastating combat pieces, some of which can trade whilst others stick around on points to cause mayhem. The full Mark of the Hound Lord can go on Chosen or Legios to give you a scout moving Rhino pressure piece to launch at your leisure, and Fabius Bile plugs into (presumably) the other brick of bodies to boost their toughness. 25 Warp Talons goes in hard on their no-sell anti-trading and is extremely obnoxious for a lot of armies to deal with, especially as in Raiders they can still be kept safe to escape even if they didn’t confirm a kill. A really potent build from one of the new meta menaces, very well done.

Jason Horne – Necrons (Canoptek Court) – 2nd Place

C'tan Shard of the Void Dragon. Credit: Rockfish
C’tan Shard of the Void Dragon. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Canoptek Court Goodstuff

Thoughts

Canoptek Court is still out there taking names, and it can lean on most of the established tools to do so. Wraiths great, Doomstalkers, great, C’tan real good. I like the massed Scarabs and solo Destroyers to screen and score as required, and that gives this a very good overall balance for bodying primary whilst still ticking off the secondaries. Really well done on the top placing.

Blake Johnson – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance) – 3rd Place

Credit: Swiftblade

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Chaos Knight Wardog Spam.

Thoughts

Not a tonne to say about this build, which is a very known entity at this point. Some cheeky Nurglings for scoring and screening, and then an absolute truckload of spiky two legged nightmares to throw through walls and cause mayhem. The CK builds have a lot more predators these days though, so piloting this to a podium place deserves a lot of respect. Really well done!

Michael Hamilton – Genestealer Cult (Ascension Day) – 4th Place

Primus. Credit: Rockfish
Primus. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

GSC Combined Arms

Thoughts

A very tidy half drop, half mech GSC list that packs in the demo charges for a last hurrah before the book comes. I really like the MSU Demos in Rockgrinders for board presence and counter-attack threat. The Grinder is pricy but is a mortal wound machine and the shooting isn’t terrible either. This list can create pressure and then begin devastating the foe with targeted drops, a really potent combination. Great work on the placing!

The Best of the Rest

There were 7 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

  • 5th – Adam Camilleri – Astra Militarum: 40k LEGEND Adam pushes it hard with a Baneblade, plenty of Russes and a cheeky ten man of Scions for drop-in threat.
  • 6th – Kyle Murray – Imperial Knights: The Armiger spam list from the showdown.
  • 7th – Ben Whan – Aeldari: Loads of characters, the Avatar of Khaine and a pack of Windriders. Lovely stuff.
  • 8th – Edward Askey – T’au Empire: Massed Riptides, Hammerhead and Ghostkeels.
  • 9th – Ben Clarke – Black Templars: Templars Ironstorm with the Impulsor / Eliminator shenanigans.
  • 10th – Aidan McCune – Chaos Space Marines: A hyper-aggressive Soulforged list that absolutely can make a daemon Land Raider if it wants. I love it.
  • 11th – Chris Appleby- White Scars: Genuine White Scars with massed Storm Lance infantry, some cheeky Outriders and some Dev Cents for firepower. Khan makes it in! This gets my vote for coolest list of the weekend.

Branson Brawl 2024

59-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Branson, MO, United States on June 08 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Priority Targets – Chosen Battlefield* – Dawn of War

The event modified the Chosen Battlefield rule, keeping the centre objective as a fixed one.

Peyton Preece – T’au Empire (Mont’ka)
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vs.

kyle lamperez – Dark Angels (Ironstorm Spearhead)
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Thoughts

Wings: As promised on Wednesday I’m poking my head in for this one, rather than face the horror of re-vamping the article templates after they were 70% done.

This is some extreme crunch-on-crunch action, and it’s taking place on a mission where blasting each other into oblivion is the order of the day. Tau love a gunfight, but find themselves in the unusual position here of being incentivised to play board control, as they’re honestly somewhat outgunned. While the Hammerheads are extremely scary, the Gladiator Lancers will give as good as they get, and I think if this just goes to a straight shoot out, the Tau probably lose.

Given that, Chosen Battlefield on the mission is helpful to them, because I think they basically want the objectives clustered as close to the centre of the board as possible. Normally the issue with Priority Targets is that it’s very hard to keep foes off 10VP turns, but this setup makes shooting for 5VP turns via superior board control very feasible, and the objective-flipping reach of the Breacherfish might even make 0VP turns a possibility. Combine that with bully charges from Riptides, just to slow stuff down, and I think there’s some play for the Tau here – they basically want to force the Lancers to emerge to deal with the pressure, and then unleash the Hammerheads to cleanse them from the table when that occurs. Dark Angels, meanwhile, want to stack units on their home objective to ensure it never gets flipped, and use their superior firepower to runway to a good score on Fixed and Primary.

Both plans plausible, and I think I’d probably hand the edge to the Dark Angels because they’ve got a bit more breathing room to lose some key assets and still win on attrition, where if the Tau mess up they don’t have much recourse. The forces of the Greater Good managed to beat that spread in style, presumably setting up to dunk the Lancers with Hammerheads intact, and cruised to victory.

Result

T’au Empire (Mont’ka) Victory – 90 – 66

Peyton Preece – T’au Empire (Mont’ka) – 1st Place

Tau Hammerhead Gunship
Tau Hammerhead Gunship. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Mont’ka Pressure

Thoughts

T’au have had a funny time lately. The general consensus is that the book has some really potent builds, this Mont’ka build among them, but it’s been far from smooth sailing for T’au players working out how to get them to sing. Being able to go extremely fast and shooting things really hard is, it transpires, an effective way to run them though, and there are plenty of throwaway Breachers and Devilfish to keep the opponent busy and deny primary whilst they’re at it. Very scary, but often playing on a knife edge to do the damage it needs whilst getting closer than Tau sometimes like to be. Excellent work on the event win!

Brent Simon – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Yncarne’s Back, Alright!

Thoughts

The Yncarne makes a surprise appearance at the top of the game after taking some time to think about what it did. This list has D Cannons, Bright Lances, and Fire Prisms galore to give it triggering points, and enough supporting MSU to tick off the cards as it surgically removes you from existance. Even with its adjustments the Yncarne is an incredibly potent tool, and things may have shifted away from thinking about it enough to give it more of a chance in the game once again. Love to see it!

David Clark – T’au Empire (Mont’ka) – 3rd Place

Shadowsun. Credit: Rockfish
Shadowsun. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Mont’ka Pressure

Thoughts

Another showing for Mont’ka pressure Tau, this list hits similar notes. Ion Hammerheads and Riptides provide slightly swingy ranged threat, as Breachers push. In a post Tetra world the Stealth Suits are on buffing duty, and this list jams Shadowsun in as a force multiplier as well. Extremely potent, well done on the top placing!

Jason Rogers – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) – 4th Place

Grey Knights Nemesis Dreadknights. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

GK Mixed Arms

Thoughts

I really enjoy these finely balanced style GK lists, which do jam Dreadknights in but compliment them with MSU Terminators and scoring alongside them. It can play keep away as it slowly defangs the opponent before jamming onto the points at a crucial moment to get things done. Grey Knights still have a really good set of match ups into the wider game at the moment and remain a force to be reckoned with, awesome work.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 5th – Kenton Evans – World Eaters: Glorious Lord of Skull / Triple Maulerfiend World Eaters.
  • 6th – Blake McCutcheon – Adepta Sororitas: Tricksy Mixed Sisters with the Triumph, Paragons, Mortifiers and plenty of Battle Sisters.
  • 7th – Howard Watts – Space Marines: Lennon style Vanguard Ultras ready to slap from reserves.
  • 8th – kyle lamperez – Dark Angels: Dark Angels Ironstorm with a Redeemer and a couple of Vindicators.
  • 9th – Jason Brown – Dark Angels: More tank-heavy Dangels Ironstorm, this time packing a squad of Deathwing Knights for some durability.
  • 10th – Lee Prost – Dark Angels: Double Repulsor Executioner Dangels Ironstorm.
  • 11th – Bryce Watson – Space Marines: Storm Raven / Vindicator Dangels Ironstorm making this FOUR IN A ROW for shooty unforgiven. Love it.

Golden Ticket Event: Warhammer 40,000 Grand Tournament

54-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in England, GB on June 08 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Matthew McCurdy – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force) – 1st Place

Credit: “Contemptor” Kevin Stillman

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Wolf Jail

Thoughts

One of the original pioneers of Wolf Jail, Matt, gets the Thunderwolves out ready to slap you about. This list packs a horrendous go turn from reserves via Inceptors to slap back as you try to clear the Wulfen and Thunderwolves ahead of you, and Storm Lance gives it all sorts of ways to catch you out in the early exchanges. Super effective on the GW terrain set, and a storming event win for Matt, really well done.

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – tony barrett – T’au Empire (Mont’ka): More Mont’ka pressure, this list chucks Smart Missiles onto it’s triple Hammerheads to give it more reach.
  • 3rd – Robert Kimpton – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Gun-heavy Skysplinter with some Reavers for early bocking and trading and a death brick of Incubi for the counter.
  • 4th – Jay Seebarun – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force): MSU Terminators and Librarians alongside the Dreadknights.
  • 5th – Jonathan Knott – Aeldari: A really innovative Eldar list that slams a huge bock of Wind Riders and the Avatar in along with a smaller Wraithguard squad mounted up in a Wave Serpent.
  • 6th – Paul James – Space Wolves: All-in melee Wolf Jail with Blood Claws Wulfen and Assault Intercessors supporting the cavalry bricks. Awooo!
  • 7th – Adam Gourlay – Drukhari: A very Kabalite heavy Skysplinter build that brings two Fights First bricks to the party via Lelith and a Court.

IBERIAN OPEN VALLECAS

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid, ES on June 08 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Manue – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 1st Place

The completed Drazhar. Credit: Dan “Swiftblade” Richardson

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Ynnari Mixed Arms

Thoughts

Ok – I’m gonna have a brief cry here, because Drazhar is WAY BETTER in Ynnari than Drukhari at the moment. Get that bad boy running out of a Falcon, apply wound rerolls, and the little guy sings like it’s 9th edition all over again. Tonnes of MSU shooting to support the various incision pieces here in a phenomenally dangerous list that can provide a fatal uppercut at any moment. Well done on the event win!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Fredy Blanco – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force): Dreadknights, a Redeemer, Paladins and Terminators on display.
  • 3rd – OuX ™ – Imperial Knights (Noble Lance): Massed Armigers with cheap utility support.
  • 4th – Marco Esteban – Death Guard (Plague Company): Plague Marine Rhino rush with triple PBC backing.
  • 5th – Rubén Gutiérrez  – Orks: Ghazgull Bully Boyz with plenty of mounted Nobz for punch and reach.
  • 6th – Daniel AO – Thousand Sons: Massed Rubrics and Wizards with a cheeky Vortex Beast.
  • 7th – Alex Valin – Necrons: Canoptek Court Goodstuff.
  • 8th – Keko – T’au Empire: Another placing for mechanised Mont’ka pressure!

Wrap Up

That’s it for this week folks! There are SEISMIC changes afoot with new missions and balance updates ahead. A bunch of armies have thrived this quarter but it will be really interesting to see what the shake up, not to mention two new codices does to the comp landscape! See you next time.

Lowest of Men, out.

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