The new post-Dataslate world will shortly be upon us (and you can check out all our coverage starting here), but we’ve still got last weekend’s events and (presumably) a few more coming up this week featuring the old metagame.

The good news is that nothing from the results suggests the Dataslate was wildly off base, with the Vanguard Ultramarine build taking down two of the biggest tournaments, showing that they definitely needed a hit, and Guard outperforming expectations, softening the blow of their lack of buffs. Necrons also had a much weaker weekend than the last few, giving some hope they won’t immediately take over the metagame after the Dataslate lands (though they could also just be biding their time). We’ll see how things evolve over the next few weeks, but for now let’s dig into the events (a bit more briefly than normal in some cases where a list is going to fall off in relevance imminently).

If you’re in the UK (particularly the midlands or north) and want to experience the exciting new post-Dataslate metagame (and win a Golden Ticket to the World Championships of Warhammer) consider signing up for the Goonhammer Open UK on the 2nd-3rd of March. You can find details on the Facebook event here or via the event page below.

Now, back to events that other dedicated TOs around the world have put together.

Today I (Wings) will be looking at:

Uprising Adelaide 2024, ANZ ITC Champs
Dark Sphere January GT
SchwarzwaldGT
Battle For the Bend 40k GT
Oxford Onslaught 3

Tomorrow, Lowest of Men will drag himself away from scheming how best to use the Skysplinter Assault and cover:

Da Bolton Waaagh 2024
Winchester 40K GT – January 2024
FactoruM Warhammer 40,000 GT January 2024
The Glasvegas Open GT2

This week’s showdowns, voted for by the Goonhammer Patrons, are:

Ultramarines vs Tyranids at Uprising Adelaide
Votann vs Adepta Sororitas at the Glasvegas Open

Uprising Adelaide 2024, ANZ ITC Champs

201-player, 8-round Supermajor in Highbury, South Australia, AU on January 25 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Take and Hold – Chilling Rain – Search and Destroy

Brodie Middleton – Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead): The Ultravanguard build with a bit of tweaking, swapping in cost-efficient Ballistus Dread for Lancers or Eradicators, and taking out Ventris to add a Librarian/Infiltrator unit.
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vs.

Rowan Kennett – Tyranids (Vanguard Onslaught): Sneaky faces sneaky, as two big Warrior bricks with Vanguardifying Primes team up with Mawlocs for serious turn 1 pressure threats.
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Thoughts

One half of this equation looks pretty familiar – the Ultramarine Vanguard list bears pretty clear responsibility for some of the nerfs Marines picked up, and some of the key elements (the big Calgar/Aggressor brick, loads of Inceptors and Centurions diving in and out of Strategic Reserves are here). There’s a few tweaks from the norm though – no Ventris, instead taking a more board-controlly piece in the Librarian/Infiltrator unit (perfect anti-artillery backfield screening), and using Ballistus Dreadnoughts as extra shooty platforms. I’m guessing these are a concession to the use of GW maps, as you’ll often want to Strategic Reserve shooting platforms, and these are easier to slot into small spaces to get some angles. The other notable change from the norm is running grav cannons on the Centurions, which has upsides and downsides here – on the one hand, they’re less good at killing the big bugs, but on the other they provide yet another way that the Leapers or Warriors die horrifically if they pop out of cover.

Up against them is the very potent Vanguard Onslaught build, and if you’re a Tyranid player who has been sleeping on this I’d definitely suggest giving it a try. Melee Warriors are vastly more lethal than anyone expects, and you get quite a few ways of unleashing vicious early pressure. This build goes with Mawlocs, which it can threaten to bring one of in turn 1, and some variants have also used Genestealers to great effect (and that brick with a Broodlord is 30pts cheaper now). You can also project significant threat with Deathleaper and (here) the Von Ryan’s Leapers, even more so now it’s been clarified that you can definitely redeploy into Infiltrate.

Can the sneaky bugs beat the sneaky Marines? I think it’ll be reasonably tough for them, sadly. The volume of Inceptors that the Marines are bringing to bear means that it’s potentially quite hard for the Tyranids to guarantee getting a big payoff from their two heavy lifting units, as the big plasma Inceptor unit will just lift a full Warrior brick with very high reliability. If the Tyranids could ensure that they got big momentum going early on that might help, but the map and mission don’t favour them either. On Search and Destroy, it’s pretty easy to use one Scout squad to carve out a fairly big safe zone on one of the two open quarters, and that’s going to give the Ultramarines space to play around with that the Tyranids can’t really afford them to have. If they fan out and try and screen the whole board they’re likely to get picked off piecemeal, while if they don’t then the Ultramarines are going to find some sort of angle for an alpha strike. This really highlights how incredibly difficult it is to force the Vanguard Ultramarine build to engage on your terms, even as another “sneaky” detachment, and they’ve also got a bit more breathing room for a swing and a miss than the bug do – if the Centurions or Aggressors emerge and have a bad turn, there’s a pretty good chance they stick around as a meaningful threat, whereas whatever the bugs put out is near certain to die horribly.

All that means this is another matchup where I think the unfavoured side has to just go for broke – max aggro, as much stuff in the Ultramarines faces as possible to overwhelm their defences, probably blow Shadow in the Warp turn 2 to try and build up a scoring lead and hope for the best. I think the odds are very much against them even trying that, but don’t think they’ve got a shot at surviving a cagey game. Whichever path they chose, this time the Ultramarines established firm control over the shadows and took a convincing victory.

Result

Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead) Victory – 97 – 55

Brodie Middleton – Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead) – 1st Place

Chapter Master Arcus Pluvius of the Rainbow Warriors armed with the gauntlets Rainbows Duplex — Rainbow Warriors Chapter Master Arcus Pluvius by Craig “MasterSlowPoke” Sniffen

The List

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Archetype

Vanguard Ultramarines

Thoughts

Presumably making the GW balance team feel pretty smug about their decisions, Brodie takes yet another trophy with his spin on Vanguard Ultramarines. The Grav Centurions provide a bit of extra reliability into the Chaos Knights and Votann matchups, and in the pre-Dataslate metagame I definitely like the really reliable anti-Yncarne backfield that the Infiltrators/Librarian represent. It’s obviously all change for this build and others post-dataslate, but I’d be pretty shocked if some variant of this wasn’t still good. Congratulations to Brodie on taking the big win!

Rowan Kennett – Hive Fleet Kronos (Vanguard Onslaught) – 2nd Place

The List

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Archetype

Vanguard Pressure

Thoughts

While it got pipped by the Ultramarines at the end, I’m a massive fan of this army and delighted to see it make it so far into the event. Vanguard gives you a terrifying combination of speed and tricks, allowing you to massively curtail early Primary scoring while locking in your fixed Secondaries at speed. It also works pretty well into many Necron lists, as the melee Warriors are pretty great at lifting Wraiths, and easy Precision access helps a bunch. I also think Old One-Eye as a counter-charge threat is a neat choice on GW terrain – this tends to particularly favour stuff that has a small footprint relative to its killing power, and One-Eye definitely fits that bill. I’ve also been singing the praises of Vanguard Mawlocs since the book landed, and it’s great to see someone nail a top finish with that. With cheaper Genestealers as another option, I’m excited to see what Vanguard can do going forward, and hope to see Rowan back on the top tables with it!

Rhys Cunningham – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs) – 3rd Place

The List

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Archetype

All-rounder Sisters

Thoughts

Most of this is an examplar of the Sisters builds that have been doing well recently – lots of Arco-Flagellants to screen and pressure, Vahl and friends as troubleshooters, and Triumph-powered Exorcists and a tooled-up Sisters unit to take down key targets. What’s a bit more unusual is the inclusion of Repentia as a heavier-hitting melee threat, and like some of the features of previous lists I’m guessing that’s tailored to the GW terrain, where you sometimes need some infantry that can stroll into a building and just murder something. With the discounts they pick up in the Dataslate they’re pretty much guaranteed to see increased play, and their presence means that this list really doesn’t lose that much points wise – it’s net +50 if it keeps both Exorcists, so just swapping one out to a Castigator and the Death-Cult Assassins to a third Crusader unit covers it. I think that ends up looking like a real contender for the top spots post Dataslate, and as Rhys showed here you could already pilot it to a top finish.

Michael Wood – Death Guard (Plague Company) – 4th Place

The List

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Archetype

Mortarion’s Road Crew

Thoughts

Rounding out our top four, we’ve got the popular choice of Death Guard Rhinos backed by the more surprising inclusion of Mortarion, who has fallen somewhat out of favour recently. Presumably the ease of staging him on GW terrain was attractive, and he certainly gives this list a way to really go all out when required. Being able to sap the foe’s Weapon Skill en-masse certainly makes that an effective strategy (especially as people just don’t expect that level of rush from Death Guard), and post-Dataslate the clarification on Mortarion’s aura and the presumed reduction in Aeldari and Forgefiends makes him even more appealing. The list also gets hit a bit less hard on points than it may first appear – although Marines and Plaguebursts both went up, it gets back 40pts on the Deathshroud/LoV unit, which softens the blow. I suspect there’s a good chance you try and work in a second Deathshroud unit with Typhus, as he’s also a bargain now, and that makes the melee pressure here potentially even nastier. We’ll see what the Death Guard get up to post-Dataslate, but for now congratulations to Michael on a commanding performance in the metagame-that-was.

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 7-1 records. They were:

5th – Liam Hogwood – Chaos Space Marines: Chosen/Accursed/Shooting goodstuff, with a Master of Executions in one of the Chosen squads instead of a Lord, something I guess we’ll see more of going forwards!
6th – Mathew Crosbie – Chaos Space Marines: Chosen?Accursed/Shooting with a bit of extra melee pressure, adding some Legionaries and Fabius Bile.
7th – Jördÿŋ Berresford – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders): Melee pressure Templars with a full Terminator Assault Squad.

Dark Sphere January GT

50-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, United Kingdom on January 27 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Nassim Fouchane – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 1st Place

The List

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Archetype

Pressure Guard

Thoughts

I guess we’re extending the list of people who knew something about Guard everyone else didn’t to include the GW balance team, Martyn Cooper and Nassim, as he takes down a tough field to win a trophy for the Militarum. This build is surprisingly pressure driven for Guard, able to use the big Bullgryn units and triple Kasrkin to actually take the fight to the enemy and carve out big chunks, something they might not be expecting. Tank Commanders help with this too, as when you’re already taking some hefty damage from what the Guard are throwing at you, their Shoot-on-Death is going to further tilt any sort of attrition game away from you. All the while, Manticores rack up a vicious body count, potentially leaving the opponent without enough toys to counter-attack even if they do manage to get out from under the pressure. The build does need re-tooling to account for the big jump in price on those, but the high-octane game plan it’s built around is also potentially well-placed to make good use of orderable Scions. I’m sure we’ll see what Nassim has come up with soon enough, and congratulations for taking a trophy with a faction people thought was an underdog.

Ranchen Li – Death Guard (Plague Company) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Death Guard Plague Marine with Blight Launcher. Credit: Pendulin

The List

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Archetype

Crunchy Death Guard

Thoughts

We’ve seen plenty of good results from the Rhino/Plagueburst/Brigand triumverate in Death Guard, and this version is particularly streamlined and brutal, which Ranchen deployed to take an undefeated second place. The challenge here is that I think this build gets hit hardest of any of the builds we’ve seen so far, jumping ~150pts and seeing a nerf to how rapidly it can deploy grenades. I suspect that’s terminal for a build that trades on efficiency, which is a mild shame as I quite like the archetype, so if this is the end well done to Ranchen for giving it a fitting sendoff!

The Best of the Rest

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

3th – Clement Tournade – Space Wolves (Gladius Task Force): Aggro GTF using lots of Blood Claws in Rhinos and VanVets to rush the foe. Will probably look even scarier with some new and improved Wulfen added!
4th – Gustavo José Branco Varandas de Sousa – Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead): Calgar/Ventris Vanguard.
5th – Malik Amin Rubio – Adeptus Mechanicus (Skitarii Hunter Cohort): Heavy board control AdMech here, using lots of Skitarii backed up by a big unit each of Sterylizors and Breachers as all-rounder damage dealers, plus 2×3 lascannon Ballistarii and a couple of Skorpii for heavier hitting. Worth noting that the Skorpius not going up like every other bit of decent indirect is one of the few upsides of AdMech seeing no changes.
6th – Lewis Smith – T’au Empire: Suit-heavy Tau, supplementing a big and small Crisis unit with two Ghostkeels and a Riptide. Perhaps it will return with more Riptides.
7th – Tom Lewis – Leagues of Votann: Sags, Beserks and 2×5 Hearthguard, one squad riding a Land Fortress for the big re-roll turn.
8th – Oliver Wheeler – Chaos Space Marines: Accursed Cultists and Legionaries backed by lots of Predators and a Helbrute to buff them.

SchwarzwaldGT

34-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Titisee-Neustadt, BW, Deutschland on January 27 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

William Fuhrimann – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 1st Place

Iron Warriors Chaos Lord and Space Marines. Credit: SRM

The List

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Archetype

Chaos Brawler Goodstuff

Thoughts

Another build that’s definitely getting a sendoff here, at least in its current form. This has been one of the best builds in the game for months, combining great staged melee threats, shooting support that doesn’t need help to function, and a back-breaking array of stratagems. It’s been hit on pretty much all of those fronts, so Chaos Space Marines will need to adapt significantly to survive. I suspect that going heavier on shooting, as this build leans towards, will be what they need to do, but you may see people trying stuff like swapping in Nurgle Predator Annihilators now that the gap between them and Forgefiends is more vast. Anway, congratulations to William for giving it a last hurrah!

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Sebastian Gehart – Aeldari (Battle Host): Wraithguard/Spinners/Yncarne, on one of their final outings in the current form.
3rd – Benjamin Rüegger – Leagues of Votann (Oathband): A bit of everything, with Sagitaur spam plus 10/5 Heathguard and a Fort the centrepieces.
4th – Dominik Dietziker – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): Extra eightbound-tastic World Eaters, cutting the Cavalry characters to fit it in.
5th – Nik Holz – Chaos Space Marines: Elite infantry CSM, eschewing Accursed Cultists in favour of a full Possessed bomb.
6th – Tobias Kaeser – Thousand Sons: Character-heavy Tsons with a Mutalith as an extra hitter.

Battle For the Bend 40k GT

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in South Bend, Indiana, US on January 27 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Benjamin Frederiksen – Black Templars (Gladius Task Force) – 1st Place

The List

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Archetype

Aggro GTF

Thoughts

I mean I can’t say the name isn’t accurate – this build wants to bowl the enemy clean over, eschewing the Templar detachment in favour of GTF for that crucial once-per-game army-wide Advance/Charge. Applying that to Templar specials like Sword Brethren lets you absolutely body the opponent when that goes off, and in the unlikely event they’re still on the table afterwards, the adaptability of the GTF Stratagems probably gets you over the line. I suspect post-Dataslate the siren call of combining Champion of Humanity with Sword Brethren might lure Templars players over to Firestorm, but this build will still provide a compelling option too, great stuff from Benjamin upholding the honour of the Emperor.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Joe Rammuni – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe): The Gargantuan Squiggoth rides again, ferrying loads of Flash Gitz around while Boyz ride a Battlewagon.
3rd – Luke “Captain” Bumpus – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host): Lots of Custodians and Allarus, sticking Kyria in one Custodian unit. Presumably very excited about the Dataslate, because this already looks pretty mean.
4th – John Ontto – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe): Squighogs and Trukk Nobz.
5th – Keith Clarke – Leagues of Votann: Double Land Fortress with a unit of Hearthguard in each.

Oxford Onslaught 3

31-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Drayton, England, GB on January 27 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Sam Nash – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Aggro Guard

Thoughts

More aggro guard? Was this just the trick the whole time?

Anyway, we mostly already covered this earlier, Bullgryn and Kasrkin push damage into the opponent’s face, Manticores and the Tank Commander rack up attrition, and the opponent can’t handle the heat. Sam’s variant presents a more durable target profile against enemy indirect by stashing all the Kasrkin in Chimeras, and from the title I’m assuming this is practice for the UKTC International Team Tournament that’s coming up this weekend, and in team events ensuring you close off likely angles of attack helps with pairings. Clearly the practice worked well given Sam took down the event, congratulations!

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Alex Gibbons – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force): Triple Dreadknight and a full Paladin brick. And some Interceptors. I can hear them in the warp. They’re coming for me.
3rd – Thomas Douch – Aeldari (Battle Host): Yncarne/Spinners/Wraithguard.
4th – Craig Connley – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance): Dogs and Daemons.
5th – Andrew Hobbs – T’au Empire: Highly mobile Tau, going 6/3/3 on Crisis and adding Breacherfish and Piranhas.
6th – Christopher Rogers – Adeptus Mechanicus (Rad-Zone Corps): A fairly aggressive spin on Rad-Zone, pushing lots of Vanguard forward alongside 3×2 Sydonian Dragoons, and using a full Robot unit and some Breachers for heavy lifting.

Wrap Up

Part 1 complete, but you’ll have even less of a wait than usual as Lowest of Men appears tomorrow with part 2. Best of luck to everyone playing in the ITT this weekend too!

Competitive Innovations in 10th: Rearguard Action pt.1

Uprising Adelaide 2024, ANZ ITC Champs

The Showdown

Take and Hold – Chilling Rain – Search and Destroy

Thoughts

Result

Brodie Middleton – Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Rowan Kennett – Hive Fleet Kronos (Vanguard Onslaught) – 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Rhys Cunningham – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs) – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Michael Wood – Death Guard (Plague Company) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Dark Sphere January GT

Nassim Fouchane – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Ranchen Li – Death Guard (Plague Company) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

SchwarzwaldGT

William Fuhrimann – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Battle For the Bend 40k GT

Benjamin Frederiksen – Black Templars (Gladius Task Force) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Oxford Onslaught 3

Sam Nash – Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Wrap Up

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