Big events all over the shop this week, with blockbusters in each of the US, UK and Europe. The metagame continues to shift week-to-week – Necrons are definitely stalwarts right now, but this week the T’au are on the rise, putting their index through its paces a few more times becore the Codex kicks in. Plenty of other armies are making pitches for top spots and we’ve still got hilarious left field builds making it into showdowns and top placings.

It continues to be a good time to play 40K, and today I’ll be covering:

Adepticon Champs 2024
Firebug Open 2024
Rosehammer 2
CoCo’s March Madness GT
OTT 2024

On Friday we’ll have Lowest of Men and Curie (who is guesting once more to cover the event he was at) looking at:

UKTC Manchester Supermajor
All is Dust
OP March Madness GT
Void War GT

This week’s showdowns will be:

T’au vs Thousand Sons at the Adepticon Champs
Adepta Sororitas vs Astra Militarum at the Void War GT
Dark Angels (Ironstorm) vs Adeptus Custodes at All is Dust

Adepticon Champs 2024

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Take and Hold – Chilling Rain – Search and Destroy

Brandon Vallee – T’au Empire

Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

TJ Lanigan – Thousand Sons

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Thoughts

Cyclic ion blasters still have a few weeks of life left in them, and they’re here in their full splendour alongside a bunch of other T’au classics. Facing off against them is a fairly top-heavy Thousand Sons build from master of all things Chaos TJ Lanigan, using a Mutalith and a Winged Prince alongside Magnus to exert extra pressure, and various light units to fill out objective capabilities. The mission doesn’t really add much complexity so it’s all about how the armies face off – so what’s the verdict?

This feels like it’s pretty uphill for the Thousand Sons, as the T’au’s utility/cheap board control units being significantly tougher than the Chaos ones gives them a much easier time controlling the flow of the battle. Both sides have tools that will annihilate a key target when unleashes, but killing off a squad of Tetras, a Devilfish or a Piranha takes enough doing that the Thousand Sons will have to gradually expose a few “real” units (unless Doombolt does a lot of work), while Enlightened or Cultists are just going to melt to pretty much whatever. The big Crisis block is also a much more reliable trump card than anything the the Thousand Sons list, which all carries some risk of falling flat. T’au also feel like they have better assets for a mid-strength go turn – if they commit with the Breacherfish, Sky Rays and Riptides all at once, the Thousand Sons are going to have to go hard to push back, but the Crisis Team and utility Commander will still be waiting in the wings.

It feels like the Tsons need to play conservatively early on, take advantage of Bring It Down/Homers being a strong pick here, and aim to either narrowly edge the T’au out on points, or set up a trap to generate a big swing turn. I think that’s easier said than done though – the T’au have so much mobility that they might well be able to force the issue, and they’ve got plenty of toys to score Tactical objectives with. The scoreline here was pretty low, suggesting that the Sons did go for the (correct) cautious plan, but I’m guessing the T’au were able to box them in enough that they could never break out on points.

Result

T’au Victory 59-39

Brandon Vallee – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – 1st Place

Tau Commander — T’au Commander. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

See showdown

Archetype

RIP CIBs

Thoughts

RIP to a real one. Everything in this list except the CIBs still seems super good post-codex, but it won’t be backed by quite as horrific a shooting threat. I’m expecting T’au to walk that off just fine, but we’ll see soon enough. For now, congratulations to Brandon on winning one of the OG supermajors!

TJ Lanigan – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic) – 2nd Place

Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince. Credit: SRM

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Speedy Tsons

Thoughts

Trust TJ to mix up the formula a bit – this list’s big advantage over the Tsons standard is that it’s mobility around the table is far less tied up in Magnus, as you’ve got a teleporting/flying prince and lots of individual disk Characters to go with. That gives you fantastic scoring potential, and the ability to drop Rituals essentially wherever you want, while still retaining a big hammer piece from the full flamer squad. I do think the T’au matchup here is probably one of the worst the list could have run into in the finals (Bike/Sagitaur Votann is probably the other big problem), and seven undefeated rounds prior to that is a fantastic showing!

Shaun Reynolds – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 3rd Place

The List

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Archetype

Warrior Hypercrypt

Thoughts

Warriors with Szeras provide Hypercrypt with a strong alternative anchor to Wraiths – a lot of armies (with a few notable exceptions, watch out for Hearthguard and Allarus) really struggle to lift a squad, and that’s particularly true if you take advantage of Take Cover to further enhance their save at a key moment. That provides a seriously durable core, and one squad can cause endless mischief thanks to Osteoclave Fulcrum and a Royal Warden to permit Fall Back/Shoot. All good stuff, and I must admit I’m feeling the lure of this build myself – always a vote of confidence!

Kevin Leonard – Khorne Daemons (Daemonic Incursion) – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Khorne Aggro

Thoughts

Hell yeah. I really don’t have much more to say – the plan here is pretty obvious but it’s very funny. Be’lakor ensures the build can set up pretty aggressively without immediately getting shot to bits, then you charge. Hopefully, the enemy is no longer present after that. This worked all the way up to a very close loss to Brandon’s T’au, so I assume that this is, in fact, mostly what happened. Great work from Kevin.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top eight were:

5th – Justin Cook – T’au Empire: Heavily mechanised T’au with three Riptides and some Hammerheads and Breacherfish in support.
6th – Ben Andraka – Tyranids (Vanguard Onslaught): Sneaky bug spectacular, using lots of utility pieces, pressure from a Genestealer blob early, a big Zoanthrope unit to work with Stratagems, and some big monsters to smash into bits of the opponent’s army that need slowing down.
7th – David T. – evo <3 – Thousand Sons: Magnus, various other wizards, two big blocks of Infantry (one Rubricae unit, one of Scarabs) and then lots of Cultists for extra presence.
8th – Steven Ross- Necrons (Canoptek Court): The build that’s largely locked in as the “best” Court variant (not the only time it will turn up this week), going for Wraiths, 10/5/5 Immortals with a Plasmancer each, Szeras and a pair of Doomstalkers, with Acanthrites and Scarabs rounding out as screens/utility.

I have also been asked to shout out Michael Anderberg, one of the players who went 4-0 in the Swiss but couldn’t play the top 16, for getting there with a World Eaters build that’s running a mighty 24 Eightbound. Clearly taking them in a multiple of eight is the recipe for success.

Firebug Open 2024

156-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Ettlingen, BW, DE on March 22 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Kevin „planB_God“ Zöllinger – Black Templars (Ironstorm Spearhead) – 1st Place

Black Templars Ballistus Dreadnought. Credit: SRM

The List

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Archetype

Pure Dakka Templars

Thoughts

Pretty much what you’d expect from Templars leaning in fully on the shooty plan. Extra multi-meltas make Templar hover hulls the best value tanks Marines get access to, Destructors are just great value anyway, and having access to the best value Marine Battleline unit as well in Crusaders seals the deal (especially as it means the Rhinos functionally have two multi-meltas). Well done to Kevin on the win!

Max „Press“ Kanter – Leagues of Votann (Oathband) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Dwarves on Wheels

Thoughts

Another list packed to the gills with shooting here, using cheap Grimnyrs as a way to pack out some extra sagitaurs, supporting all of those with a massive number of bikes, and holding a big Hearthguard unit in reserve to flatten any enemy hordes that present themselves. Like the Templars build, this is a relatively uncomplicated army but an extremely dangerous one – it can get its shooting into position very easily, it has good mitigations for hordes and enemy melee threats from the Hearthguard and counter-charging Beserks, and it’s got a bunch of redundancy. Unlike some other hull spam builds, it also isn’t especially vulnerable on Fixed secondaries, as Sagitaurs sneak in at 9W, so only give up two each. That probably pushes opponents to tactical a lot of the time, and staying on the baord to score late game is a formidible challenge here. Good clean Votann fun, and it earned Max the second undefeated slot here, congratulations!

Gregor Werner – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault) – 3rd Place (5.5-0.5)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Skysplinter

Thoughts

Lots of hulls once more, but here a mix of shooty and pressure pieces. Two Raiders and lots of Venoms feels like the winning formula for Skysplinter, as the latter are easy to hide and make great staging tools with an Incubi/Archon unit or utility pieces with Kabalites. Two Raiders is within the realms of what you can reasonably hide during deployment, and potentially mid-game with a well-timed reactive move, and that gets your two big hammers (Lelith and the full Incubi squad) where you need them. Loads of dark lances and some mandrakes completes the recipe, and this ends up as a vicious and flexible killing machine, albeit a brittle one if you make an error.

In that regard, I like the choice to stick to only four Characters – while it sucks a bit to not have an Archon with the second small Incubi unit, giving up max points on both Bring it Down and Assassinate would make it too easy for opponents to play a grindy, cautious game, whereas here you’d be guaranteed not to give up 40, and could easily hide one of the Characters to cap things at 32. Given this build will excel at Tactical objectives, that neutralises the ability of an opponent to play very cagily, forcing them into an engagement that you can use to tear them apart. A strong decision that I’m sure helped take this to a 5.5-0.5 finish; well done Gregor.

Grischa Gerwert – Death Guard (Plague Company) – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Crunchy Death Guard (without Mortarion)

Thoughts

Roudning out the top four, this build follows a pretty common plan for Death Guard, presenting a very uniform target profile with a mixture of loaded Rhinos, Plaguebursts and Brigands. Some builds add Mortarion too, but this list opts for an even heavier Plague Marine/Rhino contingent, giving it lots of flexibility on terrain-heavy tables (which European events tend to have). Full Plague Marine units with Blightspawn can be a huge pain for most lists to prise out of ruins, and in general going this way ensures there’s no obvious angle of attack for many opponents. That enables the kind of grinding victory of which Nurgle approves; great work from Grischa on taking fourth.

The Best of the Rest

There were 13 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

5th – Matthias Ehrhardt – Adeptus Mechanicus (Skitarii Hunter Cohort): Aggro robots – max Dragoons and Canis Rex, unleashing an avalanche of melee murderbots on the opponent, and supporting them with some mobile utility shooting from Skitarii and Sterylizors. Assassins add some extra scoring potential, and this build definitely pulls off some classic high pressure plays!
6th – Christian Breuer – Thousand Sons: Character and Rubricae spam, adding a few Cultist units to support.
7th – Adrian Willruth – Adeptus Custodes: Infantry spam, triple Guard, triple Wardens.
8th – Pascal Haberstroh – Adeptus Custodes: Infantry spam, swapping out one unit of guard for some Allarus.
9th – Peter Steiner – Leagues of Votann: Sagitaur/Bike spam.
10th – Manuel Wayand – Grey Knights: Five Dreadknights, Crowe’s Purifiers and some Interceptors.
11th – Fritz Peters – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Extra shooty Hypercrypt with double Immortals backed by a Monolith and double Doomsday, all watched over by the Silent King.
12th – Mario Barkeeper – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): double bonus Venom spam, taking a mighty six alongside 2 Raiders and 2 Ravagers. Also uses Drazhar as an additional threat.
13th – Bastian Kry – Astra Militarum: Bullgryn, Tank Commanders and Kasrkin as pressure, Medusas and Basilisks for bombardment.
14th – Christopher Schade – Adeptus Custodes: Four Infantry/Character blocks and 3×2 Allarus, adding lots of board flexibility.
15th – William Fuhrimann – Leagues of Votann: Double Land Fortress, one with Hearthguard and one with either 5 or 10 Beserks, depending on how the Sagitaurs get filled.
16th – Christian Schachmann – Adeptus Custodes: Infantry spam that goes hard on Allarus instead of Wardens, sporting two five-model units.
17th – Roman Kleiber – Orks: Ork goodstuff with all the hits.

Rosehammer 2

54-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Portland, Oregon, US on March 23 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Donald Plummer – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Suits galore

Thoughts

The name says it all really – one last outing for the CIB Crisis block, may we never see a shooting unit quite so horrific ever again. Aun’va as the ultimate Lone Op and a solo utility Crisis Commander also get a fitting sendoff. Luckily there’s still plenty of stuff in support here that will remain great with the new book, and I expect to see Mont’ka powered Broadsides, Riptides and Breacherfish rampaging around in the near future. The list also showcases another big T’au asset, which is that they have phenomenal board coverage. Donald sent me the scorecard from his final game, and on The Ritual he was able to outscore Grey knights despite barely killing anything, simply by carpeting the board in so many units that they couldn’t get a foothold. Expect that go-wide plan to remain extremely strong going forward, and well done to Donald on providing a big showcase for the Index as was.

The Best of the Rest

There were 9 more players on 4-1+ records. They were:

2nd (4.5-0.5) – Nicolas Ohlsen-Johnson – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): Character spam with double Mutalith.
3rd – Enrique Gavina – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Triple Doomstalker, triple Wraiths.
4th – Daniel Mindlin – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force): Ultra crunch, quad Dreadknights with two big Terminator blocks (one of each flavour).
5th – Kolby Hopkins – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force): Maximum ThunderCav and 20 Wulfen.
6th – Linton Rowan – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force): Maximum ThunderCav and 30 Wulfen.
7th – Tanner Hebert – Adeptus Custodes: Four Infantry blocks and double Land Raider. Continues to be hilarious to me that 10th is the Edition of the Rhino, Predator and Land Raider.
8th – Tyler Bortel – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Triple C’tan, two Warrior blocks and a Monolith.
9th – Ryan Cherewich – Death Guard: Crunchy Death Guard with mortarion and some Bloat-drones for additional pressure.
10th – Kaden Martin – Adepta Sororitas: All-rounder Sisters with some extra transports.

CoCo’s March Madness GT

31-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Talladega, AL, US on March 23 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Robert Birmingham – Necrons (Canoptek Court) – 1st Place

Transcendent C'tan Shard of Nyadra'zatha, the Burning One by Craig "MasterSlowPoke" Sniffen — Transcendent C’tan Shard of Nyadra’zatha, the Burning One by Craig “MasterSlowPoke” Sniffen

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Crunchy Court

Thoughts#

That’s some heft right there – three C’tan and two Wraith squads will challenge even the shootiest army, and supporting them with Doomstalkers means there’s some serious ranged murder coming in as well. Adding Tomb Blades to screen is a nice way to finish this – it ensure the enemy can’t easily rush you down, and lets this list play on its terms. Great stuff from Robert.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Seth Oster – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Double C’tan, one Wraith block, double Immortals and a Monolith.
3rd – Seth Piper – Adeptus Mechanicus (Skitarii Hunter Cohort): Skitarii and Sterylizors to skirmish, 2×3 Dragoons for melee pressure and two big Breacher units for all-round devastation.
4th – Kennith Webb – Chaos Daemons (Daemonic Incursion): Ultimate anti-herohammer, five big Daemons, and all the small ones that work well alone, with but a single unit of Nurglings as the non-character contingent.
5th – Charles Pickert – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force): Would you belive that this army might contain “max ThunderCav” and “20 Wulfen”? Well it does. It does also contain one of my favourite under-represented utility units in the Phobos Librarian/Infiltrator squad, ideal for screening your home when most of your army is going off on a cavalry charge.
6th – Ryan Brown – Orks: Triple Kill Rig, mechanised pressure galore!

OTT 2024

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand on March 22 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Jonty Larsen – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Double Monolith

Thoughts

Look, if I’m honest I do sometimes find myself feeling like a second Monolith would make my life easier. One sometimes isn’t enough, OK. Running a second with Szeras about is cute too – it means you can potentially unleash a lot of AP-boosted firepower by warping in Szeras and some Immortals, and using Cosmic Precision to bring in a second squad nearby. It’s a nice extra trick, and hey you also get to keep using your stratagems if your first big box gets blasted. I just think that’s neat, big fan of Jonty’s work.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – Chris Voss – T’au Sept (Kauyon): Triptide, Ghostkeels and Breacherfish.
3rd – Ivan Soo – Necrons (Canoptek Court): Double C’tan, lots of Immortals and double Wraiths.
4th – Tait Hoby – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): Characters galore, two big Rubricae squads and a Mutalith.
5th – Hamish Reeve – Grey Knights: Six Dreadknights and Canis Rex. Welp.
6th – Patricio Campos – Ynnari: A big Wraithblade unit, lots of small speedy squads of various stripes and some D-cannons.

Competitive Innovations in 10th: The Meta Adepts pt.1

Adepticon Champs 2024

The Showdown

Take and Hold – Chilling Rain – Search and Destroy

Thoughts

Result

Brandon Vallee – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

TJ Lanigan – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic) – 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Shaun Reynolds – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Kevin Leonard – Khorne Daemons (Daemonic Incursion) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Firebug Open 2024

Kevin „planB_God“ Zöllinger – Black Templars (Ironstorm Spearhead) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Max „Press“ Kanter – Leagues of Votann (Oathband) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Gregor Werner – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault) – 3rd Place (5.5-0.5)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Grischa Gerwert – Death Guard (Plague Company) – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Rosehammer 2

Donald Plummer – T’au Empire (Kauyon) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

CoCo’s March Madness GT

Robert Birmingham – Necrons (Canoptek Court) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts#

The Best of the Rest

OTT 2024

Jonty Larsen – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion) – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Wrap Up

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