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Competitive Innovations in 10th: Superslate Supermajors pt.2

By Lowest of Men

Hammering home just how big a weekend this was, in part 2 today we’re going to be kicking off with another huge tournament, the latest from the Hanseatic Alliance. It’s Lowest of Men in charge today, looking at:

  • Hanseatic Alliance Open (major)
  • MOAB 40K 2023
  • 40k SA Nationals 2023

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

  • Goonhammer Open Canada
  • London Grand Tournament (supermajor++)
  • Crucible 2023 (major)
  • Come the Apocalypse GT 2023

Hanseatic Alliance Open 2023

200-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Bremen, HB, Deutschland on September 30 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Fred Otto – Aeldari – 1st Place

Credit: Wings

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Aeldari Artillery

Final Round Matchup

20 – 0 Victory against David Szymanski – Black Templars.

Thoughts

Aeldari are still good! This list from Fred showcases tech we have seen elsewhere this week, as the triple Nightspinner emerges to haunt your dreams. A single D Cannon offers some hard target removal from safety, Wraithguard exploit Phantasm, and the surrounding utility helps shore up scoring. This is still the army to beat, as Fred has ably demonstrated here. Congratulations on first place.

Christian Schachmann – T’au Empire – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Cadre Fireblade
Cadre Fireblade. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Go-wide Tau

Thoughts

Tau can cram an awful lot of stuff on the board. I love this list for the combination of cheap mission play in Devilfish with the usual heavy lifting tools (Tetra inspired Crisis Suits). Hammerheads can pick up big hard targets, and the huge number of cheap units across the board enables you to screen space, contest the mission, and outmuscle the opponent on the Primary in tougher games. Really, really nice work.

Marvin Petersen – Astra Militarum – 3rd Place (Undefeated)

Leman Russ Battle Tank. Credit: Rockfish
Leman Russ Battle Tank. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Guard Mixed Arms

Thoughts

Marvin highlights the renaissance that Guard are enjoying, as Manticores and lots of mission play (with Ogryn for brawling) puts them firmly in the mix with some of the other top factions. This list leaves the raw output to the artillery, but packs in tonnes of small units to contest, screen and play (not unlike the Tau list above!) Going wide with assets is really valuable in a meta game where certain armies have the ability to dunk large targets in big activations but are reluctant to split the output up. Astra Militarum seem very well placed now and this was an excellent showing, well done.

Valentin Schefter – Necrons – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Necron Warrior Blobs

Thoughts

Necrons didn’t ascend quite as anticipated after the slate, in no small part because they were very agressively planned for by the rest of the field. But that doesn’t make the raw staying power of this build any less horrifying. Warriors can lock down the middle with tonnes of OC, and there is some supporting shooting from the Lokhust Heavy Destroyers with the more versatile Enmitic exterminator. At 185 Illuminor Szeras is well worth a look now- he mitigates incoming enemy AP, boosts Warrior shooting, and boasts entirely reasonable long range shooting and combat punch too. Just ask that poor blended fellow on his base. Great work on the placing Valentin!

The Best of the Rest

There were 16 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

  • 5th – Fritz Peters  – Chaos Space Marines: A much more melee focused CSM build with Possessed, Accursed, Chosen, and Obliterators for shooting support. The CSM book is very good at combat – the meta might just be shifting enough for them to realise it…
  • 6th – Matthias Bellmann  – Leagues of Votann: All the best Votann Infantry (Hearthguard, Thunderkyn, Warriors) backed up by some Sagitaurs and Bikers.
  • 7th – Kayu Orellana  – Tyranids: Invasion Fleet mixed arms with a whole bunch of monsters and gribblies. The Neurolictor looks to be a staple now.
  • 8th – Max kanter  – Orks: Squighogs, Boyz in Trucks, and a slew of Warbosses with Mozrog leading the charge.
  • 9th – Thomas Büttelmann  – Aeldari: Triple Fire Prism, Wraithguard and the Yncarne. Spicy.
  • 10th – Jan Schächtle  – Death Guard: Mortarion, Typhus, a bunch of Terminators, Triple PBC and a Land Raider.
  • 11th – Malte Höfs  – Chaos Space Marines: Abaddon, Chosen, Obliterators, Forgefiends, and a certain sneaky Slaanesh Daemon techpiece…
  • 12th – Sebastian Gehart  – Ynnari: As far as I can see this is just Aeldari Goodstuff rather than Ynnari.
  • 14th – Christopher Schade  – Thousand Sons: Sorceror and Rubric Spam with Magnus.
  • 15th – Kevin  Zöllinger  – Black Templars: An absolute tonne of cheap vehicles, with Predators, Impulsors, and Gladiators backed by Repulsors.
  • 16th – Norman Werner  – Thousand Sons: Sorceror and Rubric Spam with Magnus and a Vortex Beast.
  • 17th – Jannek Lindemann  – Farsight Enclaves: Multiple crisis bricks, Double Ghostkeel and double Hammerhead.
  • 18th – Roman Kleiber  – Orks: Squighogs with Badruk led Flash Gitz and the usual Trukks for mission play.
  • 19th – Pascal Haberstroh  – Dark Angels: Aggressors and Deathwing Knights with Ballistus Dreadnoughts bringing up the rear.
  • 20th – Christian Breuer  – Thousand Sons: Sorceror and Rubric Spam with Magnus. This seems to be the build now!

MOAB 40K 2023

55-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Sylvania, New South Wales, AU on September 29 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Joshua Brodie – Red Corsairs – 1st Place

Possessed. Credit: Rockfish
Possessed. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

CSM Accursed Horde

Final Round Matchup

85 – 77 Victory against Mihaly Rutkai – Ymyr Conglomerate.

Thoughts

The Accursed Cultist blob is a scary thing. Regenerating, fast, and punchy, it asks a lot of enemy armies that aren’t packing enough fire to put a blob of them away immediately. Joshua has found some cheaper shooting options in order to fund the outlay that two bricks of these requires, by fitting some Predators in and eschewing Obliterators, which, whilst devastating, can be quite clunky. In CSM Predators can shoot extremely hard, and with the Marks of Chaos you can tailor them for shootout control. Daemon allies make an appearance here as is standard now, and the bigger block of Nurglings can act as a speed bump where required. Congratulations on first place Joshua!

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on 4-1+ records. They were:

  • 2nd (4.5-0.5) – Brad Milner  – Orks: Zogrod and the super Gretching lead a force with Kill Rigs, Trukks, Kommandos and Squighogz.
  • 3rd (4.5-0.5) – Alexander Englezos  – Tyranids: A delightful Vanguard list with a bunch of Mawlocs and Trygons alongside staple picks. Super cool!!
  • 4th – Mihaly Rutkai  – Ymyr Conglomerate: Big bricks of Thunderkyn, Hearthguard, multiple Sagitaur and a Land Fort with supporting HQs.
  • 5th – Nathan Princi  – Chaos Knights: A Rampager, lots of Armigers, and cheeky Blue Scribes tagging along.
  • 6th – Tim Matsuda  – Aeldari: A true connoisseur’s list with Maugan Ra and some Dark Reapers and a Fire Dragon escort for Fuegan, alongside more typical Aeldari choices.
  • 7th – Ben Tinker  – Black Legion: Tonnes of shooting, with Chosen and triple Forgefiends. SO SCARY.
  • 8th – Arian Fanaeian  – Adeptus Astartes: Ultramarines shoot harder with Calgar! A Land Raider, some Hellblaster and a nice smattering of shooting options including a Repulsor support the blue version of the Aggressor bomb.
  • 9th – Sean Challenger – Iron Warriors: Fifteen Chaos Terminators and some Vindicators, an extremely cool list that really shows off the width of options that CSM boast right now.

40k SA Nationals 2023

51-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Randburg, Gauteng, ZA on September 30 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Imperial Knights versus World Eaters

Devin du Plessis – Imperial Knights
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Bernard Marchand – World Eaters
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Ok in the event it looks like this was a bit of a mismatch. The World Eaters come in flying with Angron, and a series of very hard hitting characters hidden amidst Bezerkers in Rhinos, with the less common pick of some supporting shooting. This is a canny choice in the overall game at large – When a World Eaters Forgefiends shoots an infantry unit it must take a Battle-shock test, which can help to swing a hotly contested objective. Unfortunately, there aren’t many infantry lining up on the other side for this showdown.

It isn’t always easy to hide the World Eaters force as it runs up to engage, and unfortunately the Imperial Knights are very well placed to take advantage. There are plenty of Armigers to hold the line whilst Canis Rex and the Warden get to work. Mythic Hero even allows for an escape from a tight spot should the chaos forces pin them in too much. If Angron goes down early and doesn’t get back in the game quickly, and the World Eaters fail to break the lines and take out the big guns it turns into a very bleak day for them, and that seems to be what happened here.

I don’t know what the mission was for this match up, but I think the overall pattern would be pretty consistent on most of them! My commiserations to the World Eaters, that was a tough one.

Result

Imperial Knights Victory – 91 – 27

Devin du Plessis – Imperial Knights – 1st Place

Armiger Warglaives. Credit: Kevin Genson

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Final Round Matchup

91 – 27 Victory against Bernard Marchand – World Eaters.

Thoughts

Imperial Knights haven’t had a great couple of months, but this build from Devin highlights the enduring power of having some massive flipping guns and enough supporting vehicles to buy them time to wreak havoc. I really like the Mythic Hero touch, and whilst IK will have some rough match ups they can still out shoot an awful lot of armies, as they demonstrated to devastating effect in the final game. Congratulations on your victory Devin!

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on 4-1+ records. They were:

  • 2nd (4.5-0.5) – Anthony Berinato – Dark Angels: Deathwing Knights, Aggressor Bomb, Land Raider Redeemer, and a couple of Whirlwinds for chipping away at a distance.
  • 3rd – Jean-Louis van Niekerk – Necrons: Double Lychguard brick and a LOT of Destroyers.
  • 4th – Bernard Marchand – World Eaters: Angron, Kharn, double Executioners and a bunch of Rhino mounted Bezerkers with some Forgefiends for support.
  • 5th – Pierre Cilliers  – Chaos Daemons: Glorious monster mash with some Deamonettes for the mission.
  • 6th – Peter Van Dyk  – Necrons: Warriors, Lychguard, Destroyers and Doomsday Ark support.
  • 7th – Kyle Mackintosh  – Necrons: Warriors, Lychguard, Destroyers and Doomsday Ark support again!!
  • 8th – Adam Somers Vine  – Forces of the Hive Mind: Tonnes of big bugs with Old One Eye in Invasion Fleet.
  • 9th – Stephen Cloete  – Orks: Loads of boyz on foot, Squighogz and a Hunta Rig, loads of board control!

Wrap Up

Another week down, and it’s probably going to be a bit quieter this weekend simply because it would be difficult for it to not be, but we’ll still be back next week with plenty more armies to look into.

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