type here...
Patrons: click here to disable ads.
Columns40K Competitive InnovationsGamingCompetitive PlayMeta Analysis
Updated:

Competitive Innovations in 10th: The Usual Suspects pt.1

By James "One_Wing" Grover

This week the teams bug hit America in a big way with the Champions cup, drawing in a massive number of top players from across the States (and indeed from further afield). That’s slightly reduced the overall number of events (and the UK was pretty quiet as it prepped for the LGT), but we’ve still got a fair few singles events to look at, and will take a look at the top two Champions cup finishers on Friday as a bonus.

Today, I’ll be looking at:

  • 2024 Michigan GT Warhammer 40K Championships
  • Waisted Potential Presents: Orchard of OH-NO 40k GT
  • Battle in the Bush 10 – 40k
  • Aemona Grand Tournament Vol. 3

Then on Friday we’ll have:

  • Invasion 40k 2024
  • Roc Hard GT
  • The Fall PNW Warlords Clash
  • The Champions Cup

The Patrons are on a Votann kick this week, and our Showdowns will be:

  • Leagues Of Votann vs World Eaters at Orchard of OH-NO 40k GT
  • Champions Of Russ vs Leagues Of Votann at the Roc Hard GT

2024 Michigan GT Warhammer 40K Championships

129-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Lansing, Michigan, US on September 21 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Conan Jennings – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force) – 1st Place

Credit: Keewa

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Deathwing GTF

Thoughts

Yeah we know about this one. Maybe I should see if we can get Hammer of Math to estimate the total retail value of the number of Deathwing Knights at the LGT.

Congratulations to Conan for piloting the Unforgiven to the trophy at the biggest singles event of the week.

Lyle Dixon – T’au Empire (Retaliation Cadre) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Commander Farsight. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Crisis Toolbox

Thoughts

The white knuckle power of Retaliation Cadre on full show here, bringing an intimidating suite of Crisis teams to bear with a trio of Commanders to slot amongst them as needed (presumably the Ignition System with the Fireknifes then the other two added to close-range units as the target environment dictates). This list can deal an appalling amount of damage up close to almost anything, and has punishing extra Mortal Wounds up close, making it much better able to adapt to high pressure melee than some other Tau variants. It’s also just cool, and great to see Lyle take it to an undefeated second place.

Folger Pyles – Aeldari (Battle Host) – 3rd Place (Undefeated)

Wraithguard. Credit: Corrode

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Triple Threat Aeldari

Thoughts

Rounding out the undefeateds here we have a very top-heavy Aeldari build, bringing back the classic Wraithguard brick (still scary, and currently in a fairly target rich environment) and adding the Avatar and a full Harlequin squad to boot. The Harlequins work very well alongside the other two, as they’re extremely lethal on the counter-charge, and can provide an almost unchargeable screen for the Wraithguard against melee-heavy matchups thanks to the Fights First from the Visarch. Elsewhere, loads of excellent scoring stuff and the ever-potent Autarch Wayleaper round things out, ensuring that there’s plenty of Secondary play and some great harrassment options. Classic Aeldari stuff, but with far more heft than the pure keep-away builds – and I think more fun for it. Well done Folger!

Steven Pampreen – Genestealer Cult (Outlander Claw) – 4th Place (4.5-0.5)

Achilles Ridgerunner. Credit: Fowler

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Mech Claw

Thoughts

Taking four wins and a draw, the final entry in our top four is one of the Genestealer Cults build’s that quietly gathering momentum. Outlander Claw puts a tonne of stuff on the table, has great early disruption from Jackals and the scouting Metamorph unit, and incredibly good Primary disruption thanks to an almost unparalleled ability to dump 10 OC worth of models onto an objective. It even has some decent (if not phenomenal) damage dealing capabilities on a few units, and the number of Flamers it sports is also quite intimidating for many factions. Great fun to finally see some players making this army work, and impressive work from Steve taking it to fourth place!

The Best of the Rest

There were 19 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 5th – Luke “Captain Bumpus” – Grey Knights: Four Dreadknights and a big Brotherhood Terminator squad.
  • 6th – Al Wagner – Necrons (Awakened Dynasty): Tarpit Wraiths and C’tan Awakened Dynasty with a couple of Reanimators to keep things in the fight.
  • 7th – Lucas Stouffer – Chaos Knights: A Rampager, dogs, and a decent crop of Nurgle Daemons
  • 8th – Logan Schmidt – Khorne Daemons: Three Bloodthirsters, Skarbrand and Be’lakor, with Skull Cannons to sit at the back.
  • 9th – Kyle Trayah – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Destroyer spam with lots of Heavy Lokhusts and Skorpekh, plus a Monolith to fire the latter through.
  • 10th – Benjamin Frederiksen – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force): Standard Deathwing GTF.
  • 11th – Ryan LaDuke – Thousand Sons: Double Mutalith and extra Tzaangors of both flavours for board coverage.
  • 12th – Eric Owczarzak – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Heavy Hypercrypt with Szarekh.
  • 13th – Joe Rammuni – Orks (War Horde): Mechanised Kill Rig rush plus Ghaz.
  • 14th – Stephen Olszewski – Orks (War Horde): More go-wide mechanised Orks with one Rig and some Trukks (plus Ghaz again).
  • 15th – Zachary Robertson – Aeldari: Avatar and a big Wraithguard brick for a double anvil.
  • 16th – Peter Elias – Aeldari: Avatar and speedy/mechanised threats.
  • 17th – Sean Martin – Leagues of Votann: Double fort and lots of small units for board control.
  • 18th – Andrew Stirratt – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force): Wolf Jail dialing back the Characters slightly to pay for two Gladiator Lancers.
  • 19th – Roger Boecher – Blood Angels (Sons of Sanguinius): Jump Death Company and Gladiator Lancers, with some Outriders for extra reach.
  • 20th – Kevin Leonard – Khorne Daemons: Lots of Bloodcrushers with two Bloodthirsters to fire them out of the warp.
  • 21st – Ian Smith – Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders): Accursed Cultists backed by Destructors and Rubricae.
  • 22nd – Eric Jorgensen – Death Guard: Ally-heavy Death Guard with triple Karnivores and Rotigus backing up a big unit each of Deathshrouds and Plague Marines.
  • 23rd – Ryan Sebastian – Thousand Sons: Single Mutalith with a Daemon Prince added to the character suite.

Waisted Potential Presents: Orchard of OH-NO 40k GT

48-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Calgary, Alberta, CA on September 21 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Unknown Mission

Frasier Parry – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband)
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Adam Green – Leagues of Votann (Oathband)
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Two fairly classic examples of their respective factions face off here – bike and Land Fortress-heavy Votann vs the suite of World Eaters hits. The latter does deviate from the norm a bit by splitting out the Exalted Eightbound into small units, and that definitely helps in a game where the Eaters are fairly up against it. The Votann have loads of guns that are great at killing all the targets here, a Yaegir squad to screen, and Land Fortresses to layer their defences, and on a pure stat check basis Angron’s guys are going to find themselves ground out.

Their route to victory is definitely managing to reach out and pull off some melee traps with an Exalted squad and (ideally) Angron at the same time, so having multiple units to go fishing with is a big upside, especially as this Votann list doesn’t struggle in the slightest to lift a full six if they find themselves exposed. Definitely need to be making that kind of big play as the World Eaters, as even with that small advantage I think they’re so far against it in the damage race that it’s a hard game to pull a win in. From the Votann’s side, there’s really just no pressure to go fast – they’ve got speed and redundancy, and they can prioritise a safe, grinding plan while sacrificing a few things to score each turn. Looking at the result, the methodical murder plan looks to have been insurmountable in the event – I guess the other hope for the World Eaters would have been to hit a low scoring mission and fish for a late game push, but I couldn’t find the mission list for this one so we’ll never know.

Result

Leagues of Votann (Oathband) Victory – 97 – 67

Adam Green – Leagues of Votann (Oathband) – 1st Place

Hernkyn Pioneer. Credit: Rockfish
Hernkyn Pioneer. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

2Fort Votann

Thoughts

A bit of a blast from 9th Edition in the unit choices here, going hard on Bikes and Land Fortresses to create a build that’s especially good at handling melee power armour thanks to the speedy autocannon-toting bikes and strong counter-punch potential from Beserks in the forts. That’s perfect for the current metagame, and earned a well-deserved win for the Votann here, great stuff from Adam.

Gord Weppler – Genestealer Cult (Biosanctic Broodsurge) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: BuffaloChicken

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Muscle Beach 2024

Thoughts

Hell yeah, more Cults. This build looks more straightforward than the mechanised builds, what with consisting primarily of thick slabs of muscle, but it’s more subtle than it looks. Rationing out Kelermorphs and using solo Abominants gives the army a great way to skirmish with relatively minimal commitments, letting it focus on slamming its key threats into the foe at opportune moments via either Infiltration or the one-two punch of Stimulated Bio-Surge into Hyper-Metabolic Vigor to roll through the enemy ranks. Definitely one of those builds that has to be very careful not to lose a key unit too cheaply, but the overwhelming hole it can put foes in if they take their eyes off the ball is a sight to behold. I do also really like the solo Abominants as a choice here, forcing big targets to be really careful about positioning, and hugely annoying to deal with when they die, spurt Mortals on the foe, then get back up ready to do it again. Didn’t hear no bell. Awesome work from Gord.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 3rd – Brynn Holdstock – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): Eightbound-tastic World Eaters.
  • 4th – Anthony Dalla Lana – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Extra speedy all-Venom Skysplinter.
  • 5th – Spike Haider – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host): The standard current Custodes setup of four Infantry blocks, two Caladius tanks.
  • 6th – Jacob Lamb – Necrons (Awakened Dynasty): Awakened with Warriors, a Monolith, and Skorpekh MSUs with Lords to send through.
  • 7th – Jake Chalmers – Chaos Daemons: Speedy Monster mash with Shalaxi and a Keeper, lots of Seekers and Fiends, and Be’lakor and a GuO for a bit more of an anvil.
  • 8th – Kass Kielly-Burke – Adepta Sororitas (Bringers of Flame): Speedy flame Sisters.

Battle in the Bush 10 – 40k

41-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Orange, NSW, AU on September 20 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Jordan McGregor – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs) – 1st Place

Credit: Evan “Felime” Siefring

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Mechanised Martyrs

Thoughts

A novel spin on Sisters here, going all-in on as many hulls as possible in Hallowed Martyrs and basically eschewing Infantry outside some cheap Characters. These can go around performing Actions or whatever, and rely on Divine Intervention to make them go the extra mile while the tanks blast foes into oblivion with umpteen Miracle dice and Triumph powers. With only tanks available to shoot, the opponent is inevitably going to chip some wounds here and there, turning on the +1 to hit, and the option of self-destructing a vehicle either in the enemy lines or to scatter around the buff via Sanctified Immolation is very real and very funny. Rushing the list down does seem like one possible answer, but even then you’re dealing with a nasty counter-charge from Vahl’s unit, never a great place to be. Definitely a sign that the sheer efficiency of Sisters hulls (especially the Castigator) needs to go down a notch, but also a very cool way of leaning into a detachments tools, great stuff Jordan.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd (4.5-0.5) – Taylor Hill – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): A throwback to Rubricae/Character-heavy Tsons with nary a Mutalith in sight.
  • 3rd – Woody Wu – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force): Wolf Jail, cutting some of the Cavalry squads down in size to pay for max WUlfen and some utility.
  • 4th – Arian Fanaeian – Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): Single Mutalith and lots of Characters/Rubricae.
  • 5th – Owen Jaecker – Ynnari: A Skathach Wraithknight emerges from the warp with some speedy Drukhari units, big Troupe, and small Wraithblade utility squad backing it up.
  • 6th – Chris Yates – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host): Infantry-heavy Custodes with just a single Caladius.

Aemona Grand Tournament Vol. 3

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Ljubljana, SI on September 21 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The top two players here both went 4.5-0.5, so I’ve included both.

Lukas Wobak – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet) – 1st Place

Norn Emissary
Norn Emissary. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Mega Monster Mash

Thoughts

Cool yes, complicated no. Throw durable Norns and Maleceptors at the foe while melting them with various flavours of stomach acid. Simple but effective. Great stuff from Lukas.

Thomas Wobak – Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) – 2nd Place

Grey Knights Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Terminators and Dreadknights

Thoughts

A fairly heavy-duty Grey Knights build to round us out for the week, following the current trend of combining Terminators with Dreadknights. Brotherhood Terminator units are a huge pain to kill, and being able to hurl Draigo straight forward if the opponent is incautious is a very nasty threat. Always a big fan of seeing a Grand Master with the Sigil with Terminators of either flavour too – that unit is a huge pain for Deathwing GTF builds to deal with, as it can go toe-to-toe with Deathwing Knights and dodge any ranged reprisals. The only new thing on show here is a vanilla Inquisitor with one of the Strike Squads, presumably intended to shore up their Overwatch capabilities a little with an extra flamer and (sometimes) a refund on the CP. Cute way to use up some points. Well done on the second place Thomas!

The Best of the Rest

There were no other players on 4-1 records.

Wrap Up

Make sure to come back for Champions Cup and more singles action in part 2 on Friday!

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.

Previous articleEditorial: Commander Should Ban More Cards, Actually
Next articleGoonhammer Talks Armoured Clash with James M Hewitt
© Goonhammer LLC