It’s been another massive week in the 40k world, with the World Team Championships giving us one of the largest annual showcases that the game gets. We’re going to start and end with that this week – today and Friday we’ll cover singles events as normal, then on Saturday I’ll take a look at the top teams from the WTC, and see what the various national laboratories have cooked up. The WTC is often a source of breakout lists and strategies that go on to shape the singles metagame, so even if teams isn’t your thing, you might still want to take a look when Saturday comes around.

In terms of the singles metagame – still all over the place, with various factions zipping up or down, though I think it’s fair to say that non-standard Marines overall have maybe ended up a little pushed – Blood Angels and Space Wolves have consistently been at the top of the win rates, and while Dark Angels don’t perform as consistently on percentages, they’re making a huge impact on the top tables. They’re not without challengers though, and this week the Aeldari are joining the Dark Angels in the bracket of putting in some great top finishes despite a low overall win rate.

Prior to hitting teams on Saturday, we’re going to be breaking things down as follows. Today I’ll be covering:

WTC Warmaster GT 2024
Iowaaagh! Open 2024
Arch City GT III
Tables and Towers Summer GT
Club Seal Cup Part II

On Friday Lowest of Men, fresh from doing coverage at the WTC, will be looking at:

The Salt City GT 2024 Warhammer 40K
Grand Onslaught 8
Cross-Swords War At The Westward V
Atomic GT: These Lethal Hits Got Me Dying for the Emperor
Trønderdome

This week’s Patron-voted Showdowns will be:

A solemn farewell for the Deathwatch’s Black Spear Task Force, up against World Eaters at the Tables and Towers Summer GT.
The ultimate wizard battle as Grey Knights face Thousand Sons at Grand Onslaught 8.

We will also have a bonus deep dive from our own James “Boon” Kelling, who has been out doing his bit for the Aeldari win rate once again, and will be talking about his list and final game.

WTC Warmaster GT 2024

466-player, 8-round Supermajor in Mechelen, Vlaams Gewest, BE on August 06 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Weiss Olivier – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders) – 1st Place

Black Templar Primaris Initiate with a power fist. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Primaris Crusader Spam

Thoughts

While some players bring two lists to the WTC, one for Warmaster and one for teams, many can’t do that so we often see some of the highly-skewed builds that team events encourage breaking out in the Warmaster GT. This build is very much one of them – it’s not particularly subtle, but asks an incredible amount from opponents, demanding that they somehow clear 100 2W bodies, many with varying degrees of Feel No Pain, which even alpha units from other melee Marines will struggle to do. You’ve also got enough OC and volume of attacks to drown almost anything on scoring and tear down even large targets, especially once you start switching on Lethal Hits. Even better, some high threat shooting armies which might be able to clear this have to worry about one of the units trapping their stuff in combat, which can quickly become game ending.

My honest opinion is that the only reason we don’t see this strategy a lot is how nightmarish it is to get on the table, but Weiss was able to do that, then navigate it through one of the most vicious shark tanks you’ll see anywhere in the world to victory – big congratulations!

Arnaud Allot – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Destroyer Hypercrypt

Thoughts

A fascinating spin on Hypercrypt in the runner up slot, dialing back on the heavy-duty tools that have been popular recently for a much more cerebral and toolboxy take on the army, which I am of course a sucker for. You’ve still got a Monolith and plenty of toys to do fun tricks with, whether it be Immortals appearing to blast stuff to oblivion, or Lychguard/Skorpekh to burst through the breach and chop something up. As I have repeatedly said, if you haven’t tried Skorpekh at their new price you should, and I particularly like what the Lord does here – if you need one unit to hit appallingly hard he can go with the 6, but if you’d rather split your threats more he can go with the 3.

Also on the Destroyer front we have the enmitic Heavy Lokhusts with a lord, and the cool tech of bringing a Triarch Stalker alongside them. Units relying on massed AP-1 firepower love access to Ignore Cover, and the Stalker is ideal for setting that up, plus is another durable hull that can be zapped somewhere around the table if needed. A very cool addition that helps this build get over the line of hitting hard enough, particularly in a metagame with lots of power armour, great choice from Arnaud to earn second!

Alexandre Sacco – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic) – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

All-rounder Tsons

Thoughts

In third place we’ve got one of the game’s powerhouse factions, going for a single Mutalith Vortex Beast alongside a mostly standard loadout of Characters and Rubricae, though Ahriman has been left at home to free (up the points for) the Beast. That gives the list a second powerful counter-charge threat, which can be helpful against some of the harrassment plans players might try and deploy against this in a teams environment, and the Mutalith is also just never bad thanks to its combination of durability and power. Great work from Alexandre as Tzeentch’s preeminent disciple at the event!

Georgios Floros – Blood Angels (Sons of Sanguinius) – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

High Threat Blood Angels

Thoughts

Closing out the top four we’ve got Blood Angels, with a build that once again diverges a bit from the norm. You’ve still got three big jump pack threats, but where the recent trend has been to go for the “durable” option of Lemartes’ Death Company and 2×10 VanVets with Priests, Georgios goes for the extra violent version with 20 Sanguinary Guard. That seems like a decent choice in Teams (and I checked, this was his list for the team event too), as you generally get less mileage from building to be an “all-rounder” than you do by going hard on what you do best, especially when your faction is a known quantity. This build is either going to get a favourable matchup, in which case you want to flatten the foe in double time for a 20-0, or it’s going to pair into something build to kill VanVets, in which case this is still going to be a better bet – it might hit the foe hard enough to degrade their army so they can’t walk away with a big score, and using 2+ Save models with access to Armour of Contempt as its core throws a defensive curveball the enemy might not have plans for – you kill VanVets with lots of AP-1 Ignore Cover or AP-2 firepower, Sanguinary Guard can potentially walk that off.

Interesting showcase of how to adapt a top meta build to face its predators, and a fourth-place finish at the Warmaster to boot – great work from Georgios!

The Best of the Rest

This event was using 20-0 scoring and was spectacularly huge, so I’m just going to hit the rest of the top 16.

=5th – Jonty Larsen – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Silent King and Double Monolith with plenty of Immortals to fire through the breach.
=5th – Stroh Benjamin – Leagues of Votann: Surprising Hearthguard-free Votann with two full bike units, double Land Fortress, and lots of Beserk MSUs in Sagitaurs.
7th – Jul Champion – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Monster mash, including the dakkafex/One-Eye unit, and plenty of Raveners for board control.
8th – Matt Bonnet – Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders): Extreme aggro-Raiders with three Accursed Communes, a second wave of Legionaries in Rhinos, and some Destructors for a bit of dakka.
9th – Innes Wilson – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force): Triple Deathwing Knights, one big unit of Inner Circle Companions with a Judiciar, and a Repulsor full of buffed-up Eradicators to finish.
10th – Liam Van Sichelen Logé – Ynnari: MSU Aspects galore, backed by Scourges and Lelith’s Wyches.
11th – Kyle Grundy – T’au Empire (Kauyon): Breacherfish, plasma Fireknife units and Riptides.
12th – Alexander Ulsøe Jessen – Thousand Sons: Tsons on the big Scarab brick, maintaining board presence with an extra ration of cultists and Enlightened.
13th – Borja FM – Blood Angels (Gladius Task Force): A wildly out there shooting and hulls build, spamming Death Company Dreadnoughts and Baal Predators, then backing them up with Eradicators and Centurions with a Librarian Dread to hurl them around the battlefield.
14th – Ben Clarke – Thousand Sons: Most of the standard Rubricae/Character Tsons stuff, but squeezing in one Mutalith.
15th – Alexander Kondakov – Adepta Sororitas (Bringers of Flame): Heavy Flame Sisters with Retributors and a double Penitent squad instead of Dominions (but keeping the Fire and Fury Seraphim unit).
16th – Clement Cordeau – Death Guard: Rhino Plague Marines and lots of shooty Plagueburst and Brigand hulls.

Iowaaagh! Open 2024

69-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Cedar Rapids, IA, United States on August 10 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

James “Boon” Kelling – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 1st Place

Avatar of Khaine. Credit: James “Boon” Kelling

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Herohammer Aeldari

Thoughts

Take it away Boon.

Top Table Match

When the superior James came knocking and asking for his pound of Competitive Innovations flesh, I was less interested in discussing the top-table game (no disrespect to my repeated top-table sparring partner, Alex Vian, who played an excellent match) but I thought it may be a nice change of pace to deep-dive my off-meta list and thoughts on construction rather than the game itself. Quick shout out to Josh Thomas who continues to run an excellent event that you should mark on your calendar and all my opponents for their excellent games.

To summarize this match, Alex was running a rather terrifying and durable Dark Angel list that seems to be all the rage these days. My round four opponent, Tundra Tactics’ own Dakota Kramer, ran a similar list in what was at once the dumbest and best game of 40k I have played in many years – a game where not a single model died until turn five and could be a case study in understanding mission play. You can see Alex’s list below, it’s strong but it’s also limited in its ability to engage at range and predictable in creating charges. So my game plan focused on minimizing his ability to easily get shots from the Repulsor/Erads or getting good value charges, and then using my speed to isolate and overwhelm the more exposed flank. It worked, but I should note that there was a lot of ‘game’ that happened in this game – I had a rough dice turn, then he had a disastrous dice turn, and then the Avatar ended the game.

So let’s talk inside baseball.

List Breakdown

Unlike in years past, the demands of life have conspired to ensure that I have far less time to think about, tinker, and play Warhammer. As a result, I wanted to minimize the number of new variables in my list to limit the risk of a misplay in the rules or error in my game. So, when thinking about my list, I turned to the most recent list I ran at the Bugeater Open which had won me a golden ticket. Problem is, since that event back in June there had been an update to the game, and while the indirect change had a significant impact on D-cannons, I didn’t think the fundamentals of the army really changed all that much, and on the contrary, the meta became more favorable to my style of play as Marines and vehicles seemed to take on a greater role. So, when I sat down to rewrite the list with a mind on the fundamentals, my approach can be best summarized by this scene in Moneyball. There is no replacing Giam… D-Cannons. I could no longer afford the points and resource investment I’d pay to make them work. I cannot replace them. What I can do is cobble together a set of units that achieved a similar impact, in the aggregate, and allow my list to continue functioning like previous.

What I lost in the change was the ability to deliver heavy, anti-tank firepower, create space, and dig out units behind walls. Additionally, to make the changes necessary, I needed to sacrifice the Shroud Runners which meant a loss in Scouting capability. To compensate, I added a couple of War Walkers which more than offset the Scouting and traded lower-quality anti-tank for greater mobility and durability. The remainder of the list saw some point increases since June (Skyweavers and Hawks) which was partially offset by a decrease to Karandras. After adding in the War Walkers I had 115 points remaining and boy wouldn’t you know it Papa Smurf Asurmen himself just so happened to find himself sitting at a newly discounted 115. What self-respecting Eldar player is going to pass on the opportunity to take three Phoenix Lords and an Avatar out for a spin?

Let’s talk about Avatars. I don’t think it’s any surprise he brings a strong capability that the army otherwise lacks and as a result many people have found space for one in their lists. His output is obvious, his durability, obvious. What I warn every player about is his overwatch. Even now, over a year later, people still get caught out by it – but it’s not the Overwatch itself that makes him matter, it’s actually the Farseer behind the throne and the battery of Fate generating citizen-soldiers. This list is Fate-dice hungry, it wants to take that 1 and make it a 6, and it wants to do it at every opportunity it can. Moreover, it wants to make sure key units survive at the key moments – it all takes Fate and a lot of it. People have preferred Storm Guardians for the objective-holding ability, but this list cannot function without the extra dice generated by the Defenders. That means that the position of that unit, and where that Farseer is, needs to be planned a full turn in advance so that it can continue to support the Avatar as it wades its way forward towards destiny. Do not forget that they generate a dice for each objective they are on (lol The Ritual).

Skyweavers are excellent for anti-vehicle, and even in matches where they don’t have good targets (Thousand Sons, Tyranids) they can find opportunity with Devastating Wounds, glaive attacks, and screening/actioning. The Scorpions with Karandras are often misunderstood as I am commonly asked why they don’t infiltrate. I personally see no reason why I should ever start them on the board or infiltrate as it’s an excellent way to lose a unit that can create space, create uncertainty, plug a hole, and gain the ability to reroll its Devastating Wounds by charging out of a Falcon. Feugan? Well he’s Feugan and as with Giambi there is no replacing him. Everyone knows the Death Jester – my personal anecdote is that he once one-shot a full health Tank Commander. What a cool dude, he’s in. Wayleaper is boring but very useful. Hawks? I don’t need more than one squad, the army is fast enough as is, but one squad is a lock for tricksy secondary scoring.

Let’s talk about Dire Avengers. Many people have asked me about the Dire Avengers after these events and I routinely see Eldar players decry them. I agree that they aren’t going to light the world on fire, they don’t have a super useful profile into any particular meta threat, but [points at Jonah Hill] they get on base. They’re cheap (for Eldar) and provide me with a unit that can:

Give me a mass of anti-infantry firepower at good range
Provide an objective grabber
Provide a GRENADES unit
Provide chip damage on anything (Lethal Hits)
Gives Asurmen an extra six ablative wounds with a 4+/5++

That first one is critical into armies like GSC, Tyranids, Orks, Dark Eldar, Sisters, etc – armies that can bring high model counts, low toughness units, or both – things that the rest of my army just won’t have the number of shots to effectively handle. That second bullet is important, particularly when combined with the third and fourth items in being capable of delivering enough damage to any unit that they either finish it off directly or allow the remainder of the army to more easily clear it. Then there’s Asurmen. With his point decrease he became a little more viable, but he’s no less squishy than he had been. That 3+ invulnerable? It’s a scary number, it stops your opponent in their tracks. But then they roll the dice, his toughness 3 kicks in and suddenly that 3+ invulnerable and 5 wounds feels non-existent. You want some ablative wounds for your boy blue because he’s a real problem solver with his six attacks at S6, AP-3, 3D and Devastating Wounds.

Am I going to walk around with 3×5 or 3×10 units of these guys? No. But am I going to stick one squad in a Falcon, plop them out to fill a gap and throw Asurmen into the breach? Yes, and repeatedly. And it turns out they’re very good at that, can clean up some spare wounds that would otherwise require more dedicated shooting that you can’t or don’t want to spare, and can even do so effectively in your opponent’s turn. One final note – I deploy Feugan and the Death Jester in one of the Falcons and then swap them for the Avengers on turn one. You get a boost on the Death Jester from the Falcon rerolls, and Feugan can get an extra few inches in case he needs to dig out something like Snikrot or a Callidus that got a little too brave in deployment. Why can he do that? Because he’s Feugan and the guy refuses to die.

I wanted to lay this all out because I don’t think people really dissect their list building very often. I have observed that many people commonly think about tournament list construction with a game in mind rather than six-games in mind. Things which have a low rate of failure will eventually fail across six games – can your list manage it when it happens? Finally, as you consider your own list decisions keep in mind the following; all units are just a collection of tools and capabilities. There’s tradeoffs and balances, but no matter what you determine, at the end of the day you still need to engage at the table and work with what your opponent is giving you.

Kyle McCord – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force) – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Gladius Deathwing Knight Spam

Thoughts

The Deathwing Knight menace shows up in force in second place here, providing an exceptionally durable and threatening wall for Vindicators and Eradicators to operate from behind of. Kyle’s version splashes out for the Land Raider Redeemer as the transport for the Eradicators rather than a Repulsor, which also provides a tremendous Overwatch threat for anything trying to run rings around the Knights. Not much more to say here – you get both tremendous durability and extreme threat in one glorious Marine package, congratulations to Kyle for taking it to second place here.

Dan Sammons – Leagues of Votann (Oathband) – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Go-wide Votann

Thoughts

A highly dispersed Votann formation is up next, adapting to the very lethal metagame by packing numerous relevant threats. That both exploits the initial harvest of Grudge tokens very well and ensures a steady supply of them, while also ensuring you can pivot to Primary denial and scoring if you don’t think you’re going to win a damage race. I do also like the cute trick you can do with 2×5 Hearthguard and a Land Fortress, which is to fire one squad out with Fire Support while the other gets in, then repeat next turn – a brutal cycle of violence against foes lacking the reach to reliably drop the tank. Nice to see Votann getting stuff done, good work from Dan.

Alex Vian – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force) – 4th Place

Apothecary Biologis. Credit: Charlie Brassley

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Gladius Deathwing Knight Spam

Thoughts

Rounding out the top four here we have pretty much the “standard” Deathwing Knight Gladius build, with the one tweak being the addition of Asmodai instead of a Judiciar to give additional killing power to the Inner Circle Companions (the option to fish for Lethals broadens their target options a fair bit). Not certain you need any more killing power than you already have, but it does also give you a fallback plan if you somehow hit the one remaining Green Tide player and need to clear a horde in a hurry. Congratulations to Alex for the strong showing!

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

5th – John Teets – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders): A full Sword Brethren brick in a Redeemer backed by jump MSUs and Predator Annihilators.
6th – Jacob Ott – Astra Militarum: Triple Dorn with a full Armoured Sentinel squad to run interference and max the value of the respawn.
7th – Travis Stewart – World Eaters: Extra heavy World Eaters running Forgefiends and Maulerfiends.

Arch City GT III

60-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Columbus, OH, United States on August 10 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Peter Elias – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Herohammer Aeldari

Thoughts

As is a trend among the current best performing Aeldari lists, Peter’s build here leans hard on the extremely powerful roster of Characters the faction has access to, then fills out with a mix of powerful scoring pieces and burst damage threats like Falcons and Fire Dragons. I’ve been on a similar kick myself recently, and these builds are great fun (if terrifying) to play – you can apply spectacular damage when you need to, the tricks the Characters can do are great for locking in scoring and running rings around the foe, and if you throw away even one unit too cheaply you can be in huge trouble. With that in mind, huge props to Peter for holding steady and taking this build to the top!

Folger Pyles – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Heavy Aeldari

Thoughts

In second place we have another undefeated Aeldari build, albeit one about as far away from the previous one as possible. While there are still lots of Characters, this build goes hard, with a full squad of Wraithguard and a massive Harlequin brick to scare off various kinds of foes. Tanks and Monsters need to avoid Wraithguard like the plague, while Harlequins with Yvraine and the Visarch can be a huge problem for all melee builds to handle, especially with access to a Bikeseer to Guide them up. There really isn’t much that can safely charge them thanks to Fights First from the Visarch, and they cover a good amount of ground too thanks to model count. Yvraine’s Feel No Pain and revival even keeps them safe against chip damage from pistols and the like!

Finally, if all else fails there’s still the Avatar, and in this build he and the Wraithguard can select who is at the tip of the spear depending on the enemy’s threat profile, giving you the flexibility to play a genuine durability game as Aeldari. Will wonders never cease. Great to see a different take on the faction, well done Folger.

David DeLisle – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet) – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

All-rounder Invasion Fleet

Thoughts

Next up, bugs! Efficient Monsters, a couple of nice alpha threats between the Zoanthropes and Dakkafex unit and some good, cheap Infiltrators and scoring stuff to play with. This list can do reasonably well at everything, and combining that with the go turn from Shadow in the Warp and a reliable scoring tail into the late game from Lictors and the like makes this a versatile and effective army. Good work from David.

Geoff Perry – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 4th Place

Necron Warriors w/ Gauss Reapers. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Warrior/C’tan Hypercrypt

Thoughts

Another pushback against the tyranny of Heavy Hypercrypt here, going for a combination of two powerhouse infantry units with a Monolith to zap them round, two C’tan and Szeras to cause mayhem, and some cheap scoring stuff to round out. Much like some of the Aeldari builds you’re in a world of trouble if an opponent spikes a key unit to early, but Hypercrypt’s scoring power and capacity for big plays continues to give it some legs even in the face of repeated nerfs. Great work from Geoff.

The Best of the Rest

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

5th – Brian Daugherty – World Eaters: All the usual toys then a full squad of Terminators out of nowhere.
6th – Nicolas Chesnick – Thousand Sons: A hefty spin on Tsons with a full Scarab unit and a Mutalith, plus one Rubricae unit built out to the full 10.
7th – Garrett Stacy – Death Guard: Mortarion and 32 Terminators, hell yeah.
8th – Conan Jennings – Blood Angels (Sons of Sanguinius): The durability-optimised variant of Sons, taking Lemartes unit and two full VanVet/Priest squads.
9th – Alex Brudnicki – Adeptus Custodes (Talons of the Emperor): Four Infantry bricks, two Caladius tanks, a scattering of Sisters to turn on the buffs.
10th – Patrick Schmidt – Leagues of Votann: A particularly go-wide spin on Votann with 2×5 Hearthguard (one unit in a Fortress), some extra Hearthkyn and Yaegirs, and lots of small bike squads. A full Thunderkyn unit with a Brokhyr helps with any heavy lifting requires.

Tables and Towers Summer GT

36-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Westminster, MD, United States on August 10 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Take and Hold – Hidden Supplies – Search and Destroy

Mark Hertel – Deathwatch (Black Spear Task Force)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Lucas Peacher – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

It’s that time again where we have to play the solemn, sad music as we watch a build not long for this world go out on one last hurrah. The true tragedy here is that thanks to the twists and turns of the metagame and a small but welcome amount of help in the Dataslate, Black Spear Task Force is pretty legit right now. You get a lot of powerful mobility tricks, a very nasty Fight First melee unit by combining a Thief of Secrets Judiciar with Veterans, and we’re in a target rich environment for their unique trick of combining Sternguard with their Bolter Strategems thanks to all the elite Infantry around. I also like the use of the Librarian with the second Veteran squad, letting you max out on weaponry without compromising on an invulnerable save – good stuff.

That talk of “good against elite Infantry” probably has the world eaters tugging at their collars nervously, and they’re very much right to be worried, this Deathwatch build is practically assembled in a lab to go through Eaters like a hot knife,especially a build making the unusual choice to leave Angron at home. Presumably the World Eaters and Khorne would enjoy the whole hot knives thing, but it won’t be very productive, so it’s certainly a problem. The mission doesn’t massively help either – Search and Destroy is good for them, as it helps pressure, but six objectives kills some of the advantage, as it makes it easier for Deathwatch to hold two while methodically murdering their way through the early game. The impact of the close deployment is also reduced by the presence of the big Fight First unit, because while you can First Turn charge that, you probably shouldn’t.

The one saving grace for the World Eaters is that they’re still on double Rhino, which gives them some tools for mitigating the killing power of the Deathwatch and to do some staging, but I don’t think it’s going to be enough. If you had Angron here I think you could maybe try something by sending him to rampage through the top flank solo, and play a very careful game with everything else, but without him I really struggle to see how you’re going to stay on the table past around turn 3, after which point Deathwatch will mop up on scoring. That does, broadly, look to be what happened.

Result

Deathwatch (Black Spear Task Force) Victory – 98 – 57

Mark Hertel – Deathwatch (Black Spear Task Force) – 1st Place

Deathwatch veteran Marcus Varro. Credit: Charlie Brassley

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

#justicefordeathwatch

Thoughts

All covered in the Showdown – a very mobile and very deadly build that leverages some of the unique tricks of the Deathwatch to maximum effect. The main thing I want to say here, to make absolutely clear where I stand, is that GW should genuinely just roll back the decision to butcher Deathwatch’s rules – this build is fun, it doesn’t need to die, and the unique models it uses are current plastics. Why murder it? Add some text to the new version of the detachment in the Imperial Agents codex that lets you use it as a Marine detachment with whatever rules are needed to make it work like the Index then, boom, done.

Hopefully something like that will happen, if not big props to Mark for at least going down swinging.

Shaun Reynolds – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Gladius Deathwing Knight Spam

Thoughts

You know what this does, by now – we’ve already had almost this exact list today, albeit Shaun’s build here goes for the Judiciar rather than Asmodai. I do prefer the Judiciar in the slot – both are defensible depending on your local metagame, but being able to park a borderline unchargeable unit behind a wall adds a capability, where Asmodai just lets you murders stuff harder, which this army can already do with great enthusiasm. Great stuff from Sean doing just that on the way to undefeated second.

The Best of the Rest

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

3rd – Max Berlove – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Double C’tan, double Doomstalker, double Wraiths and 10/5 Immortals. Honestly impressed you can still contort a list to get this all in.
4th – Jeffrey Kolodner – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs): A fairly heavy all-rounder Sisters build with lots of solo Anchorites on top of the standard Castigators, Immolators and Vahl brick.
5th – Brock Bourassa – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Monster mash with the OOE/dakkafex unit plus some Zoanthropes with a Neurotyrant for heavy shooting.
6th – Tyler Principio – Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders): Brawler units in Rhinos with Destructors backed up by some Slaaneshi assistance from Fiends and Daemonettes.

Club Seal Cup Part II

28-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Gungahlin, ACT, Australia on August 09 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Harry Mayo – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Hardcore World Eaters

Thoughts

Last on the docket for today we’ve got a win for World Eaters, adapting to the prevalance of other melee threats in the metagame by going extra hard with the Exalted Eightbound, and bringing a Daemon Prince to boost them up to a 4+ Invulnerable Save, plus mess with enemy melee hammers with a free Heroic Intervention. If you can tag a strung out enemy charge so that they can’t concentrate their attacks, using Khorne Cares Not will hopefully let you ride out their blows, and then your Eightbound and Prince can flatten them on the riposte. That’s my theory anyway – and it seems to have worked here, great stuff from Harry!

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Corey Schmetzer – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force): Three Dreadknights and three Terminator MSUs with Draigo and Librarians.
3rd – Dom Proctor – Space Marines (Gladius Task Force): Lots of Terminators, lots of Redemptors and a full unit of Heavy Intercessors to try and maximise the value of Battleline buffs.
4th – Danny Jackson – Chaos Daemons (Daemonic Incursion): Big monsters, various Battleline infantry to control the board a bit, and cheap stuff to fill.
5th – Elliot Hislop – Space Wolves (Champions of Russ): Extra herohammer Champions, mixing up ThunderCav, Epic Hero Dreadnoughts and small Infantry units with some Character boosts.

Wrap Up

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.

Competitive Innovations in 10th: Mayhem in Mechelen pt.1

WTC Warmaster GT 2024

Weiss Olivier – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Arnaud Allot – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Alexandre Sacco – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic) – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Georgios Floros – Blood Angels (Sons of Sanguinius) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Iowaaagh! Open 2024

James “Boon” Kelling – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Kyle McCord – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force) – 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Dan Sammons – Leagues of Votann (Oathband) – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Alex Vian – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Arch City GT III

Peter Elias – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Folger Pyles – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

David DeLisle – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet) – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Geoff Perry – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Tables and Towers Summer GT

The Showdown

Take and Hold – Hidden Supplies – Search and Destroy

Thoughts

Result

Mark Hertel – Deathwatch (Black Spear Task Force) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Shaun Reynolds – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Club Seal Cup Part II

Harry Mayo – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Wrap Up

Related

Share this:

Related