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Competitive Innovations in 10th: Pariah Parade pt.2

By James "One_Wing" Grover

There’s a whole lot more to talk about today so I’m going to keep this intro short. As you can imagine, my mind is already whirling away trying to draw some early conclusions as to what’s good in Pariah, but we should probably let those cook for a few more weeks, so look forward to a bit more of a wide view some time in late July.

Focusing back in on the events from this weekend, today, I’ll be looking at:

  • Salzburg Major 40K – Alpine Cup
  • Dumfries Gamers 40K Charity GT
  • Toys of Mass Destruction – Hertfordshire Summer GT
  • Field of Flames GT by Tavern of Souls
  • The Portal Summer GT
  • Pergőtűz LCOTSV IV Combined Arms PRO

If you’re looking for the following, check out part 1 from yesterday:

  • The Glasshammer GT – Birmingham
  • Battle for the Capital GT 2024
  • 30.Sachsengeballer GT Edition
  • Tolaris Cup
  • Built Forge Tough GT
  • 2nd Annual Dragon Egg WAAAAAGH!!!!!

Finally, on Friday Lowest of Men will take over and cover:

  • WarGamesCon 14 Warhammer 40K Championship
  • Battle Ready Wargaming’s Southern Showdown
  • Rage Grand Tournament
  • Bouvr’On Games by Les Dés’Luminatis
  • Silicon Valley Grand Tournament
  • PKH x BAC Warhammer 40k GT 2024
  • Fläsket är Svagt III – GT

Salzburg Major 40K – Alpine Cup

62-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria on June 29 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

William Fuhrimann – Imperial Knights (Noble Lance) – 1st Place

Loyalist Knight Atrapos
Loyalist Knight Atrapos. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Triple Bigs

Thoughts

If you’re an Imperial Knights player get ready to shout “oh yeah” a lot as your big Knights burst through walls. Between Canis Rex and Bondsman abilities, Imperial Knights have far more motivation to take large robot sons than their Chaos counterparts, and now that they can smash their way through any obstacle they’re a lot easier to use on heavy terrain setups like those favoured in Europe. That lets builds like this really pile on multi-front pressure, and I’d expect to see plenty more multi-big builds appearing in this season. Also worth noting is the Eversor Assassin, who is now the Action-doer extraordinaire of the Imperium thanks to his hefty Scout reach and high base movement on-board. Well done to William for unleashing the true might of the Households.

Fabian Huber – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic) – 2nd Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Rubricae Tsons

Thoughts

As the title suggests, this is very much business as usual for Tsons, because it turns out that if one of the game’s best factions receives only minor nerfs to their toolbox, they still stay extremely strong! They were also much less reliant on Advances for doing proto-Actions than many factions in Leviathan, and have easy access to tools to get that sort of thing done, all combining to make them a faction to beat in Pariah. Great work from Fabian piloting them to second.

Patrik Peer – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 3rd Place

Szarekh, The Silent King. Credit: Rockfish
Szarekh, The Silent King. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Heavy Hypercrypt

Thoughts

As discussed yesterday, hits to Canoptek Court (plus lesser impacts on Awakened) have left Hypercrypt as the detachment to beat, and most players doing well seem to be going heavy with it. Here, that takes the form of multiple C’tan, the Silent King and two Doomsday Arks, providing a wealth of big beaters to ruin the day of any foe. It also retains access to the Immortal murderbrick, which helps insure it against any sort of surprise horde build rising up. Seems to be very effective, well done to Patrik!

Dominik Tavernaro – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic) – 4th Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Rubricae Tsons

Thoughts

The one true euro-Tsons list makes it a top four double here, great work from Dominik.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 5th – Denis Osterman – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Silent King, Monolith and Doomsdays.
  • 6th – Andreas Geretschläger – Chaos Daemons: Big monsters (Be’lakor, Skarbrand, a GuO and a Bloodthirster) plus lots of Bloodcrushers.
  • 7th – Luis Stiemerling – Astra Militarum: Two big Bullgryn units protecting double Dorn and some Russes.
  • 8th – Manuel Wayand – Tyranids (Vanguard Onslaught): Mostly monster mash, but leveraging Vanguards tricks with a melee Warrior unit and some Zoanthropes.

Dumfries Gamers 40K Charity GT

50-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Scotland, United Kingdom on June 29 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Burden of Trust – Fog of War – Crucible of Battle

Allan Davidson – Ynnari (Battle Host)
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vs.

Innes Wilson – Tyranids (Vanguard Onslaught)
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Thoughts

I got all excited that I could make multiple other people write Showdowns this week while still complying with patron democratic mandate, but Innes’ view on this one was that there wasn’t a whole lot to talk about, because this is an exceptionally up-hill matchup for the Aeldari. The Elf list is definitely cool, usually able to do massive damage while largely avoiding reprisals, with an excellent angle on late-game Unbroken Wall, but that’s not super going to work against multiple Mawlocs that can recycle back into Deep Strike if needed, and it’s even worse on this mission where you’re rewarded for getting on a point and staying there safely.

It’s almost impossible for the Aeldari to do that here, while the Tyranids have plenty of resources to work with, and it’s also tricky to see what alternative route the elves can take. Going big is very likely to end in overextending, while a mixture of Hunting Grounds and the Swarmlord make various options for big swingy plays seem quite high risk. The fact that there’s 300pts of Haywire up against Tyranids is just a further headache. I think if you want to win as the Aeldari you are basically going to have to go for broke at some point, and hope your D-cannons and Scourges combine to inflict a knockout blow, but I wouldn’t be particularly hopeful of success. Allan went cautious here instead, locking in a decent Primary score via Unbroken Wall, but not able to catch the Tyranids, who maxed out at 100.

Result

Tyranids (Vanguard Onslaught) Victory – 100 – 87

Innes Wilson – Tyranids (Vanguard Onslaught) – 1st Place

Trygon Prime. Credit: Rockfish
Trygon Prime. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Vanguard Goodstuff

Thoughts

Innes takes another Scottish trophy here, and I for one am shocked that now there’s a movement trickery-based Tyranid build that’s super good he’s back on the bugs. His version of Vanguard is a bit less all-in than the Genestealer build we looked at yesterday, instead taking a more all-rounder approach with some shooty bugs and a big unit of Zoanthropes with a Neurotyrant to provide pain at range. Up close, perhaps operating in support of Mawlocs, you’ve got the Swarmlord, who I think is absolutely incredible in Pariah, and expect to see show up more and more as people realise just how good they are. Tricks galore, big bugs, and all the Command Points they can eat – it’s a great time to be Innes, specifically.

The Best of the Rest

There were 9 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Allan Davidson – Aeldari (Battle Host): See Showdown.
  • 3rd – James Lighten – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance): Dogs with some Nurgle Daemons in support.
  • 4th – Jake Cheung – Chaos Space Marines (Veterans of the Long War): All-rounder Veterans with Destructors and some Legionaries as a core, a small Terminator bodyguard for Abaddon and a big unit of Plague Marines as a powerful all-rounder hammer.
  • 5th – Willow Kent – Death Guard: Go-wide Death Guard hulls, making use of newly cheap Blight-haulers and having Mortarion at the head.
  • 6th – Rich “The 95th” Oliver – Astra Militarum: An interesting side-effect of the Dataslate here, the return of the Punisher Russ, which can now meaningfully chip down large targets with Lethal Hits. There’s a Dorn, so it’s definitely not an escaped 8th Edition list.
  • 7th – Murray Court – Astra Militarum: A bit of everything, honestly. Lots of mid-tier vehicles, and a bit of melee heft from Bullgryn and a full Rough Rider unit.
  • 8th – Scott McCutcheon – Thousand Sons: Extra Character-heavy Tsons.
  • 9th – Laurie Edwards – Blood Angels (Sons of Sanguinius): Massed Jump pack murder, plus some Baal Predators.
  • 10th – Jim Steele – Chaos Space Marines (Veterans of the Long War): All rounder Veterans with some cheap shooting hulls, small Possessed units as troubleshooters, and full squads each of Terminators and Plague Marines as the heavy lifters.

Toys of Mass Destruction – Hertfordshire Summer GT

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, United Kingdom on June 29 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Matt Wright – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 1st Place

Credit: Jay (Steel Mentor)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Big Tank and Board Control

Thoughts

Big Tank! Guard’s largest vehicles join the Tesseract Vault in being far easier to work with in Pariah, letting their strengths (spectacularly over the top guns) come to the fore. That handles enemy big targets, and a big wall of guardsmen and Bullgryn keep it safe. Of interest in there is the fact that the combination of a Russ Exterminator and the new version of Born Soldiers make the chip damage threat of massed lasgun fire into elite infantry much more potent than it used to be. Certainly something to consider if you’re building or playing against a Guard list, but mostly I’m just delighted to see an extra big tank. Please ignore the very suspicious markings on the one in the photo I’ve used. They’re very sacred to the Emperor. Anyway, great work Matt.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Chris Paterson – Ynnari (Battle Host): Somehow, the Wraithknight returned, here backed by lots of small shooting units like Scourges and Voidweavers, plus some cheap scoring stuff.

Credit: Sky Serpent (@skyserpent40k on Instagram)

  • 3rd – Paulie Wallis – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Classic 2/4 Raider/Venom Skysplinter. Features his incredibly awesome Court of the Archon as above.
  • 4th – John Watson – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): High aggro Invasion Fleet with Von Ryan’s Leapers and loads of Genestealers to apply pressure out the gate, with reasonably-priced Monsters as a followup.
  • 5th – Byron Sidhu – Chaos Daemons: High-end Monster Mash with Shalaxi and Skarbrand alongside Be’lakor, supported with Fiends galore.
  • 6th – Sam Bodger – Space Wolves (Champions of Russ): Unleashing the new power of Champions to build a sort of Templar/Sons of Sanguinius combo with maximum Blood Claws, supported by standard quality Marine units.
  • 7th – Leigh Churchward – Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders): Three big hammers (Chosen, Warp Talons and Accursed with a Commune) and quality shooting hulls like Predators and Vindicators in support.

Field of Flames GT by Tavern of Souls

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Albuquerque, NM, United States on June 29 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Jon Camacho – Adeptus Custodes (Null Maiden Vigil) – 1st Place

Credit: Daniel “Skails” Rodenberg

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Null Maiden Meme

Thoughts

I think I may have accidentally joined the Sisters of Silence, because words fail me here. I would say that Jon has proven whatever point he was trying to make by running this build, but I suspect the point might have been “detachment bad”, in which case that’s a bit of a botch.

In terms of what it’s got going on…like there’s some pretty cool stuff. Vigilators out of a Rhino do a pretty good line in glass cannoning in this detachment, the Custodes shooting platforms and Canis Rex don’t really need any help, and if you match into Thousand Sons or Tyranids (both pretty strong right now) you’ll cause them some serious problems. All fun, but I’m still in awe at managing to win a GT with this detachment, major props to Jon!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Adrian Lopez – Adeptus Mechanicus (Skitarii Hunter Cohort): Ironstriders, loads of Pteraxii and Ruststalkers, and Sydonian Dragoons to finish. 9th Edition is back baby, awooo.
  • 3rd – Tomas Fernandez – Raven Guard (Vanguard Spearhead): Spearhead gunline with Ballistus, Redemptors and Lancers, using Shrike and some Phobos stuff for utility.
  • 4th – Taylor John-Morton – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment): Double Dorn and Russes.
  • 5th – Daniel Franco – Tyranids (Vanguard Onslaught): Pressure from Genestealers, Deathleaper and a Trygon, then massive shooting from two Neurotyrant/Zoanthrope blobs.

The Portal Summer GT

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Manchester, CT, United States on June 29 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Kevin Lieb – T’au Empire (Mont’ka) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Mont’ka Pressure

Thoughts

It’s the go-wide Tau favourites like Riptides and Breacherfish augmented with some Broadsides. In Mont’ka where you can keep them mobile these now look pretty attractive compared to Hammerheads, especially because of how tough they are now their armour works again. I’m sort of hoping we see Tau branch out beyond triptide at some point, but right now it’s clearly a super effective core, well done to Kevin for using it to great effect.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Jack Murphy – Chaos Space Marines (Chaos Cult): Three full Accursed bricks, massed MSUs of other Damned units.
  • 3rd – Kyle Fallier – Deathwatch (Black Spear Task Force): Blackspear focused on using the Tome of the Ectoclades to unleash a turn of Inceptor/Centurion hell. Came within 2VP of winning the whole thing, which is extremely impressive!
  • 4th – Casey Glynn – Blood Angels (Sons of Sanguinius): Jump pack spam plus a Rhino packed with foot Death Company.
  • 5th – Chris Martens – Aeldari: Avatar and Wraithlords, hell yeah.
  • 6th – Daniel Wohlmuth – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs): The premium Epic Heroes, lots of Dominions in Immolators and a squad of Zephyrim with a Through Suffering, Strength Canoness.

Pergőtűz LCOTSV IV Combined Arms PRO

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Jászfényszaru, HU on June 29 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

This event was not using the new Dataslate or books.

Mate Csaszar – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force) – 1st Place

Logan Grimnar Santa Mode
Logan Grimnar as Santa Claus. Credit: Kevin Stillman

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Wolf Jail

Thoughts

Issuing a correction to yesterday’s statement, maybe this will be the last runaround for Leviathan Wolf Jail before it gets sent to the pound. Congratulations to Mate.

The Best of the Rest

There were 2 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Richárd Ivány – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Raider-heavy Skysplinter.
  • 3rd – Adam Pusztai – Death Guard (Plague Company): Crunchy Death Guard with Brigands in support and Mortarion in charge.

Wrap Up

You might think that last writeup is a clever call forward, but I genuinely haven’t checked – tomorrow is Lowest of Men‘s problem, so check back in as he takes you through the remaining seven events of the week!

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