The Tenth Edition train is now fully barrelling down the track, as last week’s Tacoma/Show me double header is followed up by another week with two massive events, this time the Lone Star Open and Palm Springs Open – both featuring some fairly exciting new builds making serious waves at the top, even amongst continued Aeldari and GSC dominance. Let’s find out what players have been getting up to, as we take a look at:
- Frontline Gaming Lone Star Open (supermajor)
- Palm Springs Open by Dicebreaker (major)
- Kraken GT 2023
- The Battle for Middle Wisko
- Le Griffon n’a qu’une tête
This week’s showdowns, voted for by the Goonhammer Patrons, are:
- Tyranids vs AdMech (!) at the Palm Springs Open
Genestealer Cults vs Chaos Space Marines at The Battle for Middle WiskoIt was going to be this, but the Genestealer Cult list is redacted. Really following through 8th Edition’s book to the logical conclusion there. That means we’ll be looking at…- Aeldari vs Chaos Space Marines at the Lone Star Open
Yes folks you read that right – AdMech in the showdown. Fundamentally, that means someone already has this week’s moral victory, but let’s see who got the actual trophies as well.
Frontline Gaming Lone Star Open 40K Champs
214-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Allen, TX US on July 22 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
Edit: The results for this event were updated in BCP after this article was compiled. The player previously in second place was moved to last place. The player’s list included an enhancement included that would not do anything under the rules, and there are numerous complaints bouncing around the internet about rules errors they made at the event. As far as I’m aware, there’s been no TO statement.
The Showdown
Mission L – Scorched Earth – Chilling Rain – Dawn of War
Russell Tassin – Black Legion: Abaddon, Terminators and guns – including some attached to a mighty Land Raider, which is carrying the smaller Terminator squad to battle. Also, Nurglings to screen.
Army List - Click to Expand
vs.
Ben Jurek – Aeldari: Go-wide with a Wraithknight
Army List - Click to Expand
Thoughts
Chaos Space Marines had a pretty great weekend, all things considered, and Russell is right at the spearhead of that, sticking to his Black Legion guns and bringing Abaddon and a bunch of friends out to play. Also the guns, which are stuck to Obliterators, a Forgefiend and a Land Raider. Hell Yeah. The killing power of this list is wild – Nurgle Obliterators in Abaddon’s aura will scythe through most anything, and the Chaos Undivided Forgefiend (unlocking full re-rolls from Profane Zeal) might be the single best counter to the current metagame villain of 10-model Wraithguard units that’s available, because you have a legitimate shot of just flattening six or seven of them, massively reducing the sting when they shoot back. The list also has a tonne of neat tricks it can pull off – obviously going for Assault Ramp with the Landraider lets you hurl Terminators at the opponent however you do it, but bringing the Mark of Nurgle on the bus lets you protect it with Dark Obscuration, something that Abaddon’s big Terminator block can also do. It’s certainly condensed to a smaller number of units than some of the Aeldari builds, but the killing power genuinely rivals what the elves can put out, and the tricks it has access to are plausibly going to be more of a surprise coming from marine-shaped bodies than they would be from elves.
Speaking of elves – Ben’s got the Wraithknight/Go-wide version here, another of the game’s most murderous lists, and I assume breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn’t packing Wraithguard because of how legitimately great some of the Chaos stuff is at bodying them. The Wraithknight probably does have to start in Strategic Reserves, as with the LSO ruin rules (infinitely vertically blocking LOS unless you toe in) it’s unlikely to get an early shot on the Forgefiend, and the Land Raider can use Obscuration to protect itself, but the Eldar do still have plenty of units to start with – but honestly, they’re up against something so mean that despite their strengths, this feels seriously close on this mission.
Scorched Earth/Dawn of War is a pretty ideal setup for Chaos to try and challenge for a breakout win here, because they can focus hard on one flank initially, aim to use Obscuration to lock in torching a side objective, then pushing through to either the centre or the Aeldari home position. Scorched Earth is one of the harder missions to max Primary on (you have to burn your opponent’s home to do it at all, and can only get above 40 if you burn something in no-man’s land), and Chaos legitimately feel better equipped to pull that off here, which gives them an angle to score higher. The flipside is, of course, that the Aeldari are probably better at consistently scoring Secondaries, as the Chaos units are slower around the table, and also generally less expendable (at least once the Nurglings are gone). My feeling is that Chaos probably has to try and power play for 45 on Primary, while Eldar need to play keep-away and aim very strictly for 40 Primary, 40 Secondary, and throw all their resources at ensuring that Chaos never manage to burn the Aeldari home objective, and ideally tank their score by 5VP the turn after they burn a flank one (which is probably inevitable).
I think that’s achievable, but the Aeldari have to be incredibly careful not to throw away too many resources at once, because whatever they expose probably does get toasted. Having the Death Jester does help them a lot mind, both as a Lone Op who can sit on a flank with relative impunity, and also as a genuine threat to just gradually chew through Obliterators, which they match up nicely into. The Yncarne will, of course, help a bunch too, though there’s certainly a bunch of stuff here they could bounce off, which is plausibly problematic. In the end, this was extremely close, but it looks like the Aeldari were able to hit their win condition – I’m going to guess the scoreline for Ben’s 88 was 40 Primary, 38 Secondary, and he was able to keep Russell in the low 80s, taking the win.
Result
Aeldari Victory – 88 – 81
Ben Jurek – Aeldari – 1st Place
The List
See showdown
Archetype
Wraithknight & Prisms
Thoughts
OK look, I said other factions are making waves, but Aeldari and Genestealer Cults are still making the running. Ben’s version of Aeldari eschews the increasingly popular Waithguard brick to keep one Wraithknight, providing the sheer crushing power that almost nothing else can imitate (though Lone Star did dial them in a bit with some additional rules on how ruins work, reducing the power of Towering), and spend the rest of his points on a mix of go-wide firepower, the Yncarne, and mobile Aspect Warriors ready to lock in Secondaries when they arise. That creates a build that can comfortably erase pretty much anything from the table, scores Secondaries reliably, and can brutally punish a mis-timed kill on one of its more fragile units. There are armies that can challenge it (see the Black Legion’s wall of Obliterators nearly pulling off an upset), but as long as the player knows what they’re doing (as Ben emphatically does), the odds are pretty much always going to be in its favour. Well done to Ben on taking a big trophy.
Eric Tadt – Genestealer Cult – 2nd Place (Undefeated)
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Archetype
Horde and Aberrants
Thoughts
Your mostly extremely standard GSC horde build, with the only major thing to highlight being the increasing number of toolkit Characters, giving the list a bit more flexibility, particularly for the mirror and against fast Aeldari threats. That clearly paid off for Eric, as he defeated two of his fellow Cult players, including a very close game in the final round to secure his undefeated record!
Robert Moreland – Astra Militarum – 3rd Place
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Archetype
Big tank and friends.
Thoughts
Rack up another one for a single gigantic threat with a whole bunch of small, efficient guns around it. The Banesword rules, having one of the more appealing big guns, and in the current metagame the ability to force enemy explosions on a 3+ is very real. 2+ saves on a thing that’s very frequently going to be in cover is also a seriously tough nut to crack (especially with Ursula able to drop Armoured Might on it for free), and that means that you can start it on the board against Knights (really only Wraithknights force you to pull it with Lord Solar, and Robert’s one loss was, in fact, against Ben). Outside that core monstrosity, Rapiers are ultra-efficient backfield shooting (and also good out of Strategic Reserves to punk enemy stuff), while Hellhounds provide a nice way to get out on the board and push out some Overwatch. Being able to pressure the opponent might also help bait out a key offensive Stratagem, which can then be tagged by the Callidus, reducing the opponent’s ability to handle the Banesword in mid-late game, and the Callidus and Gaunt’s Ghosts provide a very powerful set of movement utility tools to handle objectives. Really big fan of this – bypassing stacked Indirect in favour of a much more aggressive, big-tank focused list looks like a whole bunch of fun, congratulations to Robert.
4th – Robert Hawkins – Genestealer Cult
This is short because I’ve promotes it from the best of the rest
Horde, Aberrants…and a Shadowsword. Neat. That’ll teach any Imperial Knights who think they’re funny, I guess. Extremely awesome move.
The Best of the Rest
There were 17 more players on 5-1 records. They were:
Bump all these placings up by one.
- 5th – Robert Hawkins – Genestealer Cult: Horde, Aberrants…and a Shadowsword. Neat. That’ll teach any Imperial Knights who think they’re funny, I guess.
- 6th – Noah Beddome – Imperial Knights: Aggro Knights with a Warden and Valiant.
- 7th – Russell Tassin – Black Legion: Abaddon with two units of Terminators (one ten-man, one five in a Land Raider) plus shooty gunline tools like Forgefiends and Obliterators. Came very close to taking the whole event, huge props to Russell.
- 8th – Robin Roberts – Genestealer Cult: Horde with Aberrants, plus a unit of Purestrains as a utility piece.
- 9th – Clifton “Murica” Russell – Genestealer Cult: Horde without Aberrants, backing the masses up with some Manticores and a Wyvern instead.
- 10th – Junior Aflleje – Imperial Knights: Firepower at ranges both long and short, bringing two Crusaders and a Valiant.
- 11th – Micah McComb – Chaos Space Marines: Abaddon with a Terminator brick and gunline stuff, plus two Dark Communes, each leading a full Accursed unit, which feels like something of a sleeper hit.
- 12th – Red Powell – World Eaters: Angron, Invocatus, a Daemon friend and a whole bunch of Berserkers.
- 13th – Mathew Tweedel – Chaos Space Marines: Another Abaddon/double Dark Commune build, here adding some Possessed as well.
- 14th – Da Xie – Aeldari: Prisms, Spinners and Spiders, plus the new public enemy #1 of the full Wraithguard unit.
- 15th – Kevin McCormick – Chaos Knights: A Desecrator and a bunch of Dogs.
- 16th – Justin Moore – Thousand Sons: Magnus and the boyx with a Mutalith and Scarabs.
- 17th – Nick “Doots” Toomey – Necrons: Lots of spicy shooting behind a single big Warrior unit and the super Transcendent.
- 18th – Austin Martin – Aeldari: Aspect-heavy Aeldari, adding a full unit each of Reapers and Scorpions with their corresponding Phoenix Lord to the standard Spiders.
- 19th – Nicholas Henry – Necrons: Double Lychguard with shooting and super Transcendent backup.
- 20th – Kit Smith Hanna – Chaos Daemons: Be’lakor monster mash with lots of Greater Daemons and some Soul Grinders.
- 21st – Jason Rider – Chaos Space Marines: Triple Lord of Skulls, triple Warpsmith, no mercy.
- 22th – Michael Ramos – Aeldari: Prisms, an Avatar and a Wraithknight. Also still running a couple of D-cannons even at their silly new price point, please just re-write the datasheet GW
Palm Springs Open 40k GT II By Dicehammer
111-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Palm Springs, CA US on July 22 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
The Showdown
Mission A – Take and Hold – Chilling Rain – Search and Destroy
Joel Wilson – Tyranids:
Army List - Click to Expand
vs.
Jason McKenzie – Cult Mechanicus:
Army List - Click to Expand
Thoughts
Hell yeah, AdMech in a Showdown! It’s no secret that AdMech’s options are pretty rough right now, but there’s certainly some decent stuff in there, and Jason’s build here makes smart use of it. Kataphrons with a Tech Priest Dominus in charge are an actual good unit, especially when you factor in the ability of one of the Dominii to bring along the ultra-volkite nightmare blaster and hand out 6-8 Mortal Wounds per turn. Ironstriders may lack the sheer killing power they packed last edition, but they’re at least very cheap for how durable they are, allowing you to add some anti-tank that won’t just melt. All the little utility stuff that’s been used here is at least OK too, and I think this is a very effective way to approach the codex, and pretty well pitched for the metagame. In particular, I think the key decision is taking just a single Battleline unit and (presumably) planning to park it hidden near the Breachers and one Ironstrider unit for the Marshall to buff, treating it as a castle setup rather than trying to bring enough Battleline to cover the board, as Skitarii just aren’t worth it.
Unfortunately, having carved through both an Aeldari horror and a powerful GSC build, it finds itself up against another completely left-field build in the final – Gaunt carpet. Variants on this seem to pop up every edition, and yup, it sure does look pretty real here. Gaunts going up to a 5+ base save and Venomthropes providing an even more powerful defensive aura than previously makes the lift of trying to chew through the horde extremely nasty, especially with Maleceptors providing an even further reduction in enemy lethality up close (and just being efficiently priced durable monsters). The Skulking Horrors ability on Termagants is also a complete nightmare with this many of them on the table, and the units having such a big footprint, because the army ends up getting a massive amount of repositioning in each opponent’s turn, weaving and undulating like the hive tendrils they are.
A lot of lists are just going to get swamped by that, and bluntly the AdMech here are one of them, particularly on this simplest of missions. They’re not even abnormally short on anti-horde stuff (though some of it can get no-selled by Skulking), but they can’t really remove hidden Venomthropes, and aren’t going to be able to clear enough of the horde through Stealth and Cover to stop the Breachers and Destroyers getting stuck in combat, at which point it’s incredibly over. For AdMech to pull off a win here I think they have to go full on harebrained scheme mode – something like using the nine Ironstrider bases to bodily block the Gaunts from ever touching the Destroyers, and hoping that smoking a unit each on Overwatch and regular shooting is enough to tip the tide. Reader – either it wasn’t tried, or it wasn’t enough.
Result
Tyranids Victory – 100 – 30
Joel Wilson – Tyranids – 1st Place
The List
See Showdown
Archetype
Gaunt Horde
Final Round Matchup
100 – 30 Victory against Jason McKenzie – Cult Mechanicus.
Thoughts
Alex Spathopoulos – Aeldari – 2nd Place (Undefeated)
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Archetype
Pure Go-wide Aeldari
Thoughts
Look, Alex has titled his own list “Busted” so I’m not sure I feel any great need to dig deep on this. Mostly, it just serves as an illustration of the depth of the challenge that sorting out the Aeldari index represents – no Wraithknights, no Wraithguard, no Yncarne, but an undefeated second place finish nonetheless.
Jake Jesionowski – Necrons – 3rd Place
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Archetype
Double C’tan and Friends
Thoughts
This list is mean, bringing a whole bunch of power pieces. The obvious ones are the Lychguard, two C’tan (including the practically mandatory super Transcendant) and some Doomsdays, but it’s also got a first top four showing for my pet Necron unit, which is a Plasmancer with Tesla Immortals. Because this unit is often re-rolling wounds for free, Critical Hits on 5+ combines with Sustained Hits 2 to give it horrifying damage output into a wide variety of targets, and it’s a particularly nice tool into Genestealers (though Joel’s Gaunt Carpet could still tank it). Even if you don’t trust me to tell you hot Necron tips, trust in Jake managing to take it to 5-1 at a major, only losing to the eventual winner.
Grant Kauffman – Chaos Daemons – 4th Place
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Archetype
Monster Mash
Thoughts
Daemons continue to overperform our predictions off the back of Monster Mash builds like this, combining the strong Greater Daemon datasheets, the best cheap board control stuff and Be’lakor’s anti-shooting aura to craft something that can actually compete. Not having to worry about getting the big hitters gunned down out of the gate by Knights or Aeldari is genuinely game-changing to the army’s ability to get some stuff done, and I like the inclusion of a Great Unclean One with the Endless Gift to provide something that can tank massive incoming hurt after close engagement is joined as well, particularly if all those utility pieces can push out the Shadow of Chaos.
As covered last week Greater Daemons are cool (the Changeling too – so mysterious), so we’re very happy to see this style working out, well done Grant.
The Best of the Rest
There were 8 more players on 5-1 records. They were:
- 5th – Logan Heath – Aeldari: Go-wide shooting with Vypers as well as the usual stuff.
- 6th – Wyatt Swift-Ramirez – Genestealer Cult: Horde & Aberrants with some extra shooting from some mining laser Ridgerunners and a Basilisk.
- 7th – Arthur Tu – Chaos Space Marines: Double Accursed Commune with lots of Chosen on top.
- 8th – Marc Merrill – Aeldari: Prisms & Wraithguard.
- 9th – Mike McTyre – Blood Angels: Gladius Task Force with a full unit of Death Company lead by Lemartes as the Blood Angels spice.
- 10th – Luke Ehlert – Tyranids: Monster mash with plenty of Zoanthropes and Biovores in support.
- 11th – Jason McKenzie – Adeptus Mechanicus: See showdown
- 12th – Daniel Reddehase – Chaos Daemons: Monster Mash and Flamers, also featuring a Great Unclean One alongside the usual suspects.
Kraken GT 2023 – OCC Qualifier
41-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Auckland, Auckland NZ on July 21 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
Sean Sullivan – Ynnari – 1st Place
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Archetype
Go-wide shooty Ynnari
Final Round Matchup
97 – 76 Victory against Sterling Arnet – Aeldari.
Thoughts
Look, the Eldar players keep self-titling these things stuff like “Auckland self hatred” and who can really disagree? This is all the standard go-wide shooty Eldar stuff plus three Dark Lance Ravagers paid for by the modest price of having to take Yvraine as Warlord instead of an Autarch Wayleaper (whose CP gain only works as Warlord). That seems like a pretty reasonable trade, since the Battle Host re-rolls are extremely good on Ravagers, and the other hits are pretty much all here. Yvraine isn’t even a bad model – she keeps Guardians alive pretty reasonably via a 5+ Feel No Pain and being able to revive their platform endlessly, and her shooting attack is no joke. Realistically, Eldar don’t need to do this to do horrific things to you, but they can, so be aware of that, and also offer congratulations to Sean on both the win and his policy of radical list-naming honesty.
The Best of the Rest
There were 3 more players on 5-1 records. They were:
- 2nd – sterling Arnet – Aeldari: Wraithknight/Wraithguard tag team.
- 3rd – Louis Thomson-Gregg – Ynnari: Pretty much the same list as Sean with the same team name, so clearly a collaborative concoction.
- 4th – Ngaire Edgar-Wilson – Aeldari: Wraithknight and two big Wraithguard units, for when your opponent really needs a one-way trip to the warp.
The Battle for Middle Wisko 40K GT
40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Stevens Point, WI US on July 22 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
This event was allowing each player to nominate one piece of terrain to block Line of Sight even for Towering units.
Eric Forsman – Genestealer Cult – 1st Place
The List
It just says the following:
Redacted: Team USA
Presumably the Inquisition will be along to black bag me any moment now.
Archetype
Mystery GSC
Final Round Matchup
100 – 66 Victory against Matthew Monsour – Chaos Space Marines.
Thoughts
Do you actually need to keep your army list secret when you’re playing a faction with a 70%+ win rate? Do you really? Really? I guess I still have to say congratulations, but I’m shaking my head the whole time so that everyone knows I disapprove.
The Best of the Rest
There were 6 more players on 4-1 records. They were:
- 2nd – Matthew Monsour – Chaos Space Marines: A Dark Commune, Abaddon and a mighty eight Nurgle Obliterators. Wrong god for that number, shameful.
- 3rd – Tyler Johnson – Asuryani: Spinners, Prisms, 10 Wraithguard.
- 4th – Nasty Girl – Aeldari: Prisms, Wraithguard and a Wraithknight.
- 5th – Dakota Kramer – Asuryani: Prisms, a Spinner, Wraithknight.
- 6th – Kevin Leonard – Chaos Daemons: Tzeentch-flavoured Monster Mash, combining Be’lakor with triple Lord of Change (one being Kairos) and triple Soul Grinder.
- 7th – Jason Moskalik – Necrons: Double Lychguard with the super C’tan and lots of Lokhust Heavies.
Le Griffon n’a qu’une tête
All the lists for this event can be found on MiniHeadQuarters.
This event was using WTC scoring for the games, so there were a lot more draws than usual (hence only two players in the Best of the Rest).
Velorr – Genestealer Cults – 1st Place
The List
Army List - Click to Expand
Archetype
Horde and Aberrants
Final Round Matchup
91-78 Victory vs Paxki – Aeldari
Thoughts
A few more big guns than usual thanks to a squad of laser Ridgerunners, but mostly business as usual – hurl Aberrants at people early if the opponent can’t handle them, brutally annihilate them with Acolytes and the horde if not. Well done to Velorr on the win.
The Best of the Rest
Two more players finished on 4-1 records. They were:
- 2nd – Paxki – Aeldari: Ynnari-flavoured if not actually technically Ynnari – the full Triumverate, with the Visarch leading a Troupe as a mid-field bully unit, plus a full Wraithguard unit.
- 3rd – SergentBILKO – Genestealer Cult: A more elite GSC setup than normal, adding two full Purestrain units to the regular mix.
Wrap Up
Will any of these rising threats be able to unseat the metagame’s most powerful factions? I mean probably not, but it’s great that people are at least making a game of it, and we’ll see how things go next week.
