Our gigantic week continues today, with Lowest of Men taking the helm on the next five events.

Just before I (Wings) let him loose, some hype up top – this weekend we’re taking an active hand in pumping up the number of events by running the Goonhammer Open UK. Thanks to the support of our UK terrain partners at Bandua Wargames, we’re rolling out a new set of terrain maps using a hybrid of GW style areas and WTC terrain pieces, and we’re very excited to see them in action. You can watch said action on Hellstorm Wargaming‘s channel all weekend, starting at 09:00 GMT on Saturday. Tune in if you want to see some top players clashing with their latest builds!

Right, back to events that have already happened. Today we’ve got:

Scheunenkloppen Open – War Zone Erkelenz 2: GT 2024
Octopoutre Solo – W40k – Hérault Quest
Dice Arcade GT
Alliance Open 40K Masters
Geekfest – Warhammer 40K GT

Tomorrow we will have Wings back in charge with:

Games of Westeros XVII
Broadsword Wargaming 40K ITC Winter Major III
Norcal Open GT 2024
Game Knight Warhammer 40,000 Grand Tournament
HWP Salty Classic GT February 2024

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

Frontline Gaming Cherokee Open 2024 Warhammer 40K Champs
The Art of Warp 8ème Ed.- OPEN
Milwaukee Warhammer 40k GT
BrewHammer GT5
Heroes Of The Mid Tables Winter GT 2024
TOK-spelen

Scheunenkloppen Open – War Zone Erkelenz 2: GT 2024

140-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Erkelenz, Nordrhein-Westfalen, DE on February 24 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Malte Höfs – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Chaos Space Marine Mixed Arms

Thoughts

Reports of CSM’s death may have been somewhat exaggerated! I love this list from Malte which highlights a few directions the faction can take going forward. Abaddon with Predators and Vindicators gives you a castle that shoots phenomenally hard and boasts considerable durability too. Chosen squads still offer fantastic precision trading pieces, and Warp Talons lock down scoring. The new hotness is the Bikers – at 85 points these are EXTREMELY cheap, with their ability to jump into reserves and back out keeping opponents honest and offering you new ways to make inroads and score in the late game now that Daemons aren’t an auto-include to that effect. Raw damage is still very much part of the CSM game but you have to use every asset perfectly now to win big, which makes this run all the more impressive. Very well done.

Manuel Wayand – Death Guard (Plague Company) – =2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Death Guard Plague Marine Spam

Thoughts

Death Guard continue to shine (in a sickly sort of way) post slate, which has left them in a great spot. Plague Marine in Rhino go brrr. Mortarion obviously has a fantastic aura now post FAQ, but this list highlights why I generally think they are stronger without him. Simply put, look at all that stuff. Go wide trading, scoring and grinding is the way that Death Guard snuck back into the metagame, and they still benefit the most from exploiting that. Brigands and Daemon allies still just as useful here as they’ve ever been, giving them high quality shots and scoring respectively. A very potent build that remains a real force, very well done.

Artur Güttler – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – =2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Tau Combined Forces

Thoughts

Tau are another army that is slowly sneaking their way back into relevance after the slate, as the meta suddenly fills with stuff that really doesn’t like being absolutely blasted at range. This list has a real balance of options, with some supporting anti-tank in the Hammerheads, good utility and screening via the Kroot Farstalkers, and the obligatory Crisis problem solving brick. Having one of these and protecting it via fire and fading seems the way these days, and it doesn’t bleed bring it down quite as willingly, but this still requires very careful piloting. Really well done on the top showing!

Sebastian Gehart – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 4th Place (Undefeated)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Very Much Not Mono-liths

Thoughts

What happens when three Monoliths castle up around an ignore modifiers aura courtesy of the recently reinstated Silent King? Custodes die! Hypercrypt continues to make waves as possibly the favoured choice in Necrons right now, and this hard Monolith skew brings heavy shooting that can’t be mitigated by defensive buffs. A cheeky Canoptek Spider provides a feel no pain bubble to help them stick around as they clear the opponent off the board. It definitely needs space to work with and deep strike into, but if it gets going the opponent can end up in a position where they simply don’t have the output left to scratch any of the centrepiece vehicles as they go to town. Very cool, very well done.

The Best of the Rest

There were 22 more players on 4-1+ records. They were:

5th – Alexander Tepe – Astra Militarum: Double Tank Commanders, 18 Bullgryn, and a whole bunch of artillery.
6th – Sebastian Dargel – Adeptus Custodes: A Single Caladius and lots of bricks of infantry.
7th – Mathieu Clerc – Leagues of Votann: Double Fort, double Sagitaur, lots of Hearthguard.
8th – Gregor Werner – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Massed Venoms, plenty of Incubi, and Kabalite and Ravager support.
9th – Adrian Willruth – Black Templars (Ironstorm Spearhead): Ironstorm Templars with lots of Predators and msu infantry.
10th – Jannik Röttgen – Aeldari: Avatar of Khaine inspired msu Aspects with Fire Dragons in transports.
11th – Albert Lechler – Blood Angels (Gladius Task Force): Reapers, a Redeemer, and plenty of Death Company.
12th – Alex Frohn – Grey Knights: A solid contingent of Dreadknights backing up Terminator squads.
13th – Maik Loga – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Plenty of Carnifexes (Screamer Killers!) in this chunky Invasion Fleet list.
14th – Christian Matschke – Adeptus Custodes: Golden slabs Custodes with cheeky Venatari squads.
15th – Roland Brüx – Aeldari: Triple D Cannons, Avatar of Khaine, and lots of msu.
16th – Pierre Debey – Chaos Knights: War Dogs, Daemons, and a single Cerastus Knight to lead the charge.
17th – Constantin Schmucker – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): All-in pressure Drukhari with Talos for the anti-tank alongside stabby infantry in boats.
18th – Julian Neikes – Adeptus Custodes: Massed infantry Custodes.
19th – Christian Kreutz – Grey Knights: Five Dreadknights and Terminator support.
20th – Matthias Bellmann – Adeptus Custodes: Massed infantry Custodes.
21th – Ben Hackländer – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Wraiths, double C’tan and Doomstalker Canoptek Court.
22th – Jasper Lange – Leagues of Votann: Triple Sagitaur and single Fort with plenty of Bikes and Terminators.
23th – Grischa Gerwert – Chaos Daemons: Multiple big monsters including a Great Unclean One with some Bloodcrusher / Rendmaster incision.
24th – Hannes Fernstrom – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force): Stormlance Thunderwolves with some Wulfen and Inceptors.
25th – Moritz Joop – Astra Militarum: More forward infantry pressure here, with a couple of Basilisks for slowing.
26th – Tim Schlizio – Orks: Trukk rush Orks with two big blocks of Squighogz.

Octopoutre Solo – W40k – Hérault Quest

96-player Major. All the lists for this event can be found in MiniHeadQuarters.

I-gor – Death Guard (Plague Company) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Death Guard Go-Wide

Final Round Matchup

16-4 Victory vs Cédric – Chaos Space Marines

Thoughts

Another triumph for the Death Guard, who continue to exploit the width of assets they can throw down and then couple with tremendous debuffing potential. Predators absolutely sing once additional save reduction is applied, taking every gun they have to very dangerous levels. Two big bricks of Plagemarines with Fights First via the Foul Blightspawn offer considerable board control as the rest gets to work. Get too close and you’ll get the Putrifier treatment. Another excellent performance for Nurgle’s finest, very well done on first place!

AltF4 – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Grey Knights Combined Arms

Thoughts

Grey Knights got some subtle but significant buffs in the dataslate, with Dreadknight shooting going up a notch via boosts to their main guns. These now give GK a distance threat that also offers a different kind of solidity – 2+ and Truesilver Armour makes them very hard to shift without serious commitment. This is still an army that can score very readily with it’s excellent movement shenanigans, and can be very hard for a lot of armies to engage. Really well done on the top placing!

Benji – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host) – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Custodes Golden Slabs

Thoughts

Custodes infantry en masse is still real, real good. This list packs the usual tools in – Blade Champs for advance and charge, Trajann for binning off anything that relies on modifiers for their defences. Draxus appears to have become a staple in lists and the Callidus helps to shore up any cards that require getting into hard to get places. A very strong performance, really well done!

Hu-Goh – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

World Eaters Eightbound Rush

Thoughts

World Eaters put up a strong showing using many of the known qualities. Eightbound still slap phenomenally hard, and Angron boasts reach and threat that is hard to leave at home even if he is tougher to resurrect these days. They certainly took some hits in the dataslate (Though you’ll notice the souped up Master of Executions is still involved!), but World Eaters are still devastating in the right hands. Very well done on the performance.

The Best of the Rest

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

5th – Belin – Orks: Forward pressure Orks with Trukk boyz, Flashgitz, and 20 Kommandos. Don’t go second!
6th – arc_ange – Grey Knights: A big Paladin slab, smaller squads and a Grandmaster in Dreadknight.
7th – Neokhaine – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders): Stagey melee Templars with Impulsors and two big Crusader squads.
8th – flob – Adeptus Custodes: Massed infantry Custodes.
9th – Manolo – Blood Angels (Sons of Sanguinius): Lots of the usual tools but small Inceptor squads and big Assault Intercessor squads add flavour!
10th – Cédric – Chaos Space Marines: Abaddon gunline, Chosen trading, and plenty of Cultists.
11th – loukas – T’au: Breacherfish, Crisis, Broadsides, and a Riptide for the backfield.

Dice Arcade GT

60-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Gymea, New South Wales, AU on February 23 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Greg Maginnity – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) – 1st Place

Grey Knights Nemesis Dreadknights. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Grey Knights Combined Arms

Thoughts

More success for the new Dreadknights and infantry combo deal, which goes a bit lighter on Terminators (though retains that one happy-slapping Sigil ten for doing real work with), and packs the scoring and ranged threats wider. It definitely isn’t as able to trade on durability, but it will score secondaries extremely well and can play for the late game after whittling down the enemy at a distance. Great work on the first place finish!

Cooper Fitzgerald – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Tau Coldstar Commander. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Triptide and Breachers

Thoughts

Ahh, Triptide. Never gone forever. Riptides can put out some serious hurt at range, and this Tau build can stand off the opponent whilst doing serious damage via these and the Crisis brick, whilst the Breachers in Devilfish create problems up front. Well placed to deny primary and force enemy engagement that the guns then clear, the lone Commanders offer a mini version of the old smaller Crisis brick threats to keep opponents honest and force cheaper trades. I really like this – And I love that Cooper has committed to giving up Assassinate on top of Bring it Down. In for a penny… Great work sir.

Egor Kalinin – Necrons (Canoptek Court) – 3rd 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 Wraith Spam

Thoughts

C’tan get trimmed down to just Void Dragon to allow the 18 Wraith anvil to have a greater range of scoring support. This balance makes Canoptek better suited to bossing secondary scoring as well as being such a dominant force on the primary, and avoids being too all-in on durability alone. Doomsday Arks bring troubleshooting for elite infantry which helps a little with Custodes and the like, and the Acanthrite remains a very potent little Forgeworld Force Multiplier. Amazing work on the placing.

Josh Hynes – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet) – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Big Bug Invasion Fleet

Thoughts

I think Tyranids are still figuring out their best builds for this new meta, but early signs are that the trickier or stat-checkier options (Vanguard, Unending Swarm) are making way for an Invasion fleet build that keeps enough of the mission play elements but brings a nice brick of big Monsters to hold ground and withstand enemy shooting. Exocrines, Maleceptors and Old-One Eye Carnifexes are all massive threats and being able to pop a 5+++ on them is simply too good to ignore. Congratulations on the top showing.

The Best of the Rest

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

5th – Adam Woznowski – Adeptus Custodes: Double Caladius / mass infantry Custodes.
6th – Matt Lane – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Mixed arms Skysplinter with Scourge and tonnes of infantry in boats.
7th – Jay Mann – T’au Empire: Breachers, Riptides and Crisis- the way forward for Tau?
8th – Robert Reimers – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders): Double Land Raider melee Templars.
9th – Kyle Pearson – Orks: Ghaz leads a Trukk / Battlewagon rush mob.
10th – Richard Hill – Death Guard: Loads of Plagueburst and Predators, a Tallyman and some Chaos Spawn! All sorts of innovation here.
11th – Joseph Kwan – Adepta Sororitas: Go-wide sisters with lots of Repentia and Rhinos.

Alliance Open 40K Masters

44-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Rijsenhout, Noord-Holland, NL on February 24 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Dick van der Harst – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance) – 1st Place

War Dog - Karnivore. Credit: Rockfish — War Dog – Karnivore. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

CK War Dog Spam

Thoughts

Chaos Knight veteran Dick takes the War Dog spam out for a spin. The template remains much the same – Brigands and Karnivores are amazing datasheets, so jam them, and squeeze a few Daemon allies in for the jobs unworthy of big metal chickens. CK are a skew that less people are geared up for right at the moment and boast considerable threat to anybody who can’t clear a a good half of the chassis quickly. They also remain somewhat terrain proof thanks to their walking through walls stratagem, congratulations to Dick for demonstrating their enduring potency!

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Sam Williams – Aeldari (Battle Host): Avatar of Khaine and a Wraithknight – spicy!
3rd – Rob Goossens – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Double C’tan, 18 Wraiths, Doomstalker Canoptek Court.
4th – Cees Jan Stam – Aeldari (Battle Host): Ynnarri with a smattering of Drukhari Dark Lances alongside MSU Aeldari units.
5th – Jort Kassies- Grey Knights: Another triumph for quadruple Dreadknight. It’s starting…
6th – Ruben Malschaert- Orks: Trukk rush Orks with Nobz, Beastsnaggas, Flashgitz and Squighogz.
7th – Kjell Lutz- Adeptus Custodes: Massed infantry but another run out for multiple slabs of Venatari.
8th – Niek de Neijs- Genestealer Cult: Massed Acolytes and Neophytes behind FOUR mounted squads of Catachans. Love it.

Geekfest – Warhammer 40K GT

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Shearwater, NS, CA on February 24 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Vital Ground – Chilling Rain – Crucible of battle

Justin White – T’au Sept (Kauyon)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Jonathon Betteridge – Aeldari (Battle Host)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Two fire and fade giants throw down in this top place battle, which pits the forces of the Tau against the resurgent Aeldari. This Tau list is built heavily for mission play, with enough Breachers to slingshot out of Devilfish for several turns and keep enemy scoring down, whilst Crisis provide the heavy lifting. Into a lot of match ups I really like this, as it avoids auto-giving Bring it Down, and forces the enemy to come and play if they want to carve out meaningful Primary. Unfortunately into the Aeldari the Crisis are going to struggle because, and I can’t believe i’m saying this, it is BIG BOI TIME once again in Eldar land…

The Skatchach Wraithknight packs a bunch of melta shots for slaying vehicles, and TWO STARCANNONS! This bad boy becomes extremely tough to hurt if it picks up the -1 to wound from a Farseer, but this list also has the option of slapping that on the Avatar and shoving him forwards- once his damage reduction is factored in it becomes extremely difficult for the Tau shooting to do much to him. D Cannons, the big boys and Fate Dice shenanigans mean reaching and popping transports is fairly trivial for this list, at which point the anti-infantry guns of the Warp Spiders and Shroudrunners can do tremendous work on the contents as they spill out. It’s quite hard to conceive of a situation where the Eldar don’t de-mech, de-fang, and deconstruct the warriors of the Greater Good fairly quickly, causing their standoffish primary plan to collapse early, and that looks to be what happened here. A solid Aeldari victory.

Result

Aeldari (Battle Host) Victory – 78 – 45

Jonathon Betteridge – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Aeldari Big Boy Time: Skatchach Edition

Thoughts

Aeldari continue their pivot back onto a range of tools that served them extremely well before their own creation (Spinner / Wraithguard) put most of them out of commission. D Cannons, the Avatar and the aforementioned Forgeworld Wraithknight put the focus back onto hard target removal from behind walls, primary bullying via enormous stat monstrosities, and cheap scoring mission play. They are a very potent force still and the price points on units like Hawks and Shroudrunners remain remarkably cost effective for what they offer. Very well done on the top finish Jonathon!

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Justin White – T’au Sept (Kauyon): The mass Breachers Tau build from the showdown.
3rd – Matthew Reeson – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Loads of Wraiths, C’tan and Doomstalkers in Canoptek Court.
4th – Darren Thomas – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): Rubrics, a Mutalith, two Forgefiends and plenty of Sorcerors.
5th – Phil Cass – Aeldari: Fire Prisms, D Cannons, a cheeky Karandras, and lots of scoring units.
6th – Blair Macdonald – Khorne Daemons: Rendmaster inspired Bloodcrushers, Flesh Hounds and Bloodletters. Epic.
7th – L Twohig – Death Guard: A ‘two of everything’ DG list that also has a blob of Poxwalkers! I’ve missed Poxwalkers.
8th – Nate Quig – Adeptus Custodes: Massed Custodes infantry with a Land Raider for cool points.

Wrap Up

That’s it for this week! Whisper it softly, but the top of the game actually looks pretty varied and interesting. A few slight standouts but these top tens are diverse as all hell, and that bodes extremely well for the next few months. I hope you’re all enjoying your hams, be well out there.

Lowest of Men, out.

Competitive Innovations in 10th: Silver Tide pt.2

Scheunenkloppen Open – War Zone Erkelenz 2: GT 2024

Malte Höfs – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Manuel Wayand – Death Guard (Plague Company) – =2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Artur Güttler – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – =2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Sebastian Gehart – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 4th Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Octopoutre Solo – W40k – Hérault Quest

I-gor – Death Guard (Plague Company) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Final Round Matchup

Thoughts

AltF4 – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) – 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Benji – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host) – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Hu-Goh – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Dice Arcade GT

Greg Maginnity – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Cooper Fitzgerald – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Egor Kalinin – Necrons (Canoptek Court) – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Josh Hynes – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Alliance Open 40K Masters

Dick van der Harst – Chaos Knights (Traitoris Lance) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Geekfest – Warhammer 40K GT

The Showdown

Vital Ground – Chilling Rain – Crucible of battle

Thoughts

Result

Jonathon Betteridge – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Wrap Up

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