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Competitive Innovations in 10th: Rearguard Action pt.2

By Lowest of Men

We’re back for part 2, watching the final death throes (?) of some of the builds that have dominated the last few months. If you want to know what’s coming next for the metagame, make sure to check out of our review of the Dataslate, and if you want to salute some of the greats as they sail into the west, read on.

It’s Lowest of Men in charge today, looking at:

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

If you’re looking for any of the following, go check out part 1 with Wings from Wednesday:

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

Da Bolton Waaagh 2024

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

Mike Porter – Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

John Lennon Vanguard

Thoughts

Mike Porter takes the Lennon style Ultramarines Vanguard for a spin here. Centurion Devastators are incredibly potent with the ability to jump up and down with the Deep Strike bestowed on them from Uriel Ventris, and combo very well with the additional ap at range that Vanguard can give them. Picking your engagements with these until the enemy is fully whittled down is key to success, lose them or get them tagged and things can start to unravel. If you can avoid this then between their shooting and targeted Inceptor strikes you can do enormous damage whilst holding the opponent at arm’s length. This build takes a few points hits in the balance changes (for good reason, I’d say), but it will remain a very dangerous prospect for an awful lot of armies. Well done on first place Mike!

Simeon Pollard – Black Templars (Ironstorm Spearhead) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Black Templar Bladeguard Veterans standing in front of an Impulsor armed with a multi-melta
Black Templar Bladeguard Veterans and Impulsor. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Black Templars Car Park

Thoughts

Templars are very good at shooting AND fighting, and these Ironstorm takes on the faction, cashing in both on the slightly more efficient tanks with their Multi-melta access, and the precision combat units and characters the army boats, are proving highly versatile and effective. Rhino staging is no longer just the preserve of Chaos Chosen and Plague Marines, as a number of the combat centric marine sub-factions can really sing with a few disposable trade pieces to stash up the board as the guns do work from range. Templars ducked and weaved through any serious changes in the Dataslate, so you can expect to see plenty more of this down the line! Congratulations on the top placing.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 3rd – Markus Hinson – T’au Empire (Kauyon): A Diverse Tau build with Crisis Suits, Hammerheads and Riptides to solve a range of problems.
  • 4th – Bethany Taylor – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force): MSU Infantry in Rhinos, Dreadknights, lots of Librarians. Nice!
  • 5th – Adam Driver – T’au Empire: Lots of Breacher Fish with some Crisis Suits and Broadsiders.
  • 6th – Peter Duff – World Eaters: Angron stays home in favour of massed Eightbound and Berzerkers. Peter truly is the most talented Duff brother.
  • 7th – Michael Duff – Grey Knights: 25 Terminator bodies and a mass of supporting characters carry Mike to the coveted ‘second best Duff brother’ spot. Proud of you.
  • 8th – Ed Bennett – Space Wolves: Lovingly named Space Wolves in Ironstorm, this is largely IS gunline tanks with some Fenrisian Wolves for keepin’ it real.
  • 9th – Luke Jackson – T’au Empire: A grab-bag of Tau with Breachers, Broadsiders, a Skyray, a Hammerhead, and some Crisis.

Winchester 40K GT – January 2024

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

Ross Hilliard – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 1st Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Abaddon Gunline

Thoughts

CSM will be doing some thinking over the next few weeks in the wake of some big adjustments. One direction open to them is to castle up incredibly effective shooting with Abaddon’s various nifty defensive and offensive auras. Pact-inspired shooting is still just better than most you’ll find elsewhere, and with the Nurgle strat now more effective at long range builds like this, where a lot of the output is in Forgefiends that can stand off at a distance, can continue to exploit it. Warp Talons are consumate trade pieces and action monkeys, and Accursed get a run out here too as a tarpit. There will be retooling to do, but the bones of this remain extremely potent. Well done on the top placing Ross!

Jamie Chapman – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Abaddon Gunline

Thoughts

Well well well! It’s the same list again taking second place! Maybe CSM deserve everything they get eh. Jamie smashes a great run with the exact same list, highlighting the incredible flexibility of Chaos Space Marines as both a shooting and combat force.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 3rd – Joshua Cowlard – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe): Lots of Trukks, Flash Gitz, Nobz, Squighogz. Ork Goodstuff, if you will.
  • 4th – Adam Parmenter – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): Titled ‘It’s Blood Angels if I shut my eyes’ (lol Adam), this is very much World Eaters with Angron and Eightbound. I guess we all bleed the same in the dark.
  • 5th – Nikita Siniakov- Necrons: Awakened Dynasty Necrons with triple Doomsday Arks and the Deceiver – I really like this, very novel and suited to shootier boards.
  • 6th – Lloyd Ollerhead – Chaos Space Marines: Stagey Chosen / Rhinos and a Land Raider with some Obliterators kicking about. Lovely stuff.
  • 7th – Colm Murphy – Ynnari: Wraithguard Yncarne with some Ynnari shenanigans in support.
  • 8th – Adam Whitrow – Grey Knights: Big slabs of Terminator and Character support.

FactoruM Warhammer 40,000 GT January 2024

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

George Crabtree – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe) – 1st Place

Sirrus Bizniz, Goff ork warlord in mega armour. Credit: Charlie Brassley.

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Ork Nobz

Thoughts

A GT win for the punchier, more armoured take on Trukk rush we have seen becoming more popular in the past few months inspired by Warbosses like Brian Seipp. Meganobz are deadly and deceptively durable, which can help that Waaagh wave stick around and do more work as the enemy attempts to remove them. A big ten brick of Nobz follows up for hard target removal, and a lot of supporting units and utility tick away scoring as the foe tries desperately to repel the tide. I love the inclusion of Zodgrod and 20 Gretchin- this unit is extremely obnoxious to deal with and when you’re under pressure (which against Orks you, well, always are) it’s very hard to spare the resources to put them away.

Wings: Yeah I’ll echo that – I played against that unit once and it was wild how much of a pain it was to clear even with (theoretically) good tools for it.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Robby Sweeney – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): Loads of Eightbound, and the usual suspects except for the Lord Invocatus who stays home.
  • 3rd – Kyle Zahariev – Goffs (Waaagh! Tribe): A diverse Ork build with Burna Boyz, Ghaz, and a brick of Squighogz alongside the typical Trukk rush tools.
  • 4th – Owen Newcombe – Necrons (Awakened Dynasty): Titled ‘One last Hurrah before C’tan get nerfed’ (yeah, about that..) this is a mixed Awakened Dynasty build with a little bit of everything. Has AD emerged as frontrunner in the UK?
  • 5th – Russ Blackman- Black Templars: Double Land Raider / Impulsor Black Templars, neat.
  • 6th – Nick Lomax- Chaos Knights: A Despoiler and a Rampager and a boatload of War Dogs.

The Glasvegas Open GT2

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

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Votann versus Adeptas Sororitas

Chris Irvine – Ymyr Conglomerate (Oathband):
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

James Wallace – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs):
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

An intriguing match up in this showdown, which pits the hardy Votann against the Sisters of Battle. I’ve played this match up a couple of times and it’s one in which both sides have ALL the tools to really put the hurt on the other. Votann shooting absolutely carves through Sisters vehicles and infantry bodies, but the Melta and Fight Phase control of the Nuns with Guns can cause the dwarves significant issues. Vahl and the Paragons open up Sagitaurs for fun and using them well can be pivotal, as is ensuring the Triumph can juice up Melta shooting for long enough to do serious damage without getting blown away by the dwarven retaliation. On the Sisters side, the Castigators also do great work into Votann profiles (though their Heavy Bolters end up being a bit redundant due to Void Armour reducing AP), but the single Exorcist really isn’t enough to put the Votann on a timer and create pressure, as it struggles to open Sagitaurs on it’s own without a bit of good fortune. If you lose some of these assets too quickly, actually hurting Hearthguard when they arrive can be hard work, as Arcoflagellants will simply bounce off them.

Tempo is big in the match up, and with first turn the Votann can advance up and start causing havoc before their Hearthguard drop in. Chris’s list is especially good at creating early pressure thanks to the two big slabs of Hernkyn Pioneers. These are simply lethal when double Judgement tokens get involved, and, though they are fragile, if the opponent doesn’t have the means to stop them scooting up the board they can cause enormous disruption and are a very difficult threat to deal with. It looks like the Votann were able to defang the key hard-target removal the Sisters have early enough in the game that their toughness and armour was simply too much to deal with, inflicting a heavy defeat.

Result

Ymyr Conglomerate (Oathband) Victory – 91 – 58

Chris Irvine – Ymyr Conglomerate (Oathband) – 1st Place

Leagues of Votann Hernkyn Pioneer
Leagues of Votann Hernkyn Pioneers. Credit: Caelyn Ellis

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Votann Pioneer Rush

Thoughts

I really like this Votann list, which swaps out Thunderkyn or additional Hearthguard to pack a much more respectable alpha strike via 12 scout moving Biker Dwarves. The Leagues don’t have a tonne of datasheets, and builds like this will be losing some points after the slate, but they remain a sturdy and punchy army that requires respect and careful treatment to defeat. They’ve got great shooting for dealing with the Necron menace, but will it be enough now they’ve had balance adjustments and the latest meta threat hasn’t? Very well done on the top finish Chris!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – David Macleod – Leagues of Votann (Oathband): Another more board presence based build, with two Forts with Hearthguard in alongside the Sagitaurs.
  • 3rd – Ryan Jervis – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Hypercrypt Necrons with lots of C’tan, Wraiths, and sneaky utility infantry.

Wrap Up

That’s it for this week – next week, we’ll presumably have a fun mix of bold pioneers trying out the new Dataslate, and some final final showings from the pre-dataslate greats. After that, we’ve got the first big post-Dataslate supermajor in the UK at Beachhead on the 10th, were we’ll definitely start seeing things shake out.

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