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Competitive Innovations in 10th: The Usual Suspects pt.2 & Champions Cup

By Lowest of Men and James "One_Wing" Grover

Welcome back for part 2 where we’ve got a proper double header for you. Lowest of Men will be covering the rest of this week’s Singles events, and Wings is looking at the top finishers from the Champions Cup team event. That means on the docket we’ve got:

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

If you’re looking for the following, go check out part 1:

  • 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

Invasion 40k 2024

94-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Norge on September 20 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Jonathan Arkin – Blood Angels (Sons of Sanguinius) – 1st Place

Death Company Marines with Jump Packs. Credit: Rockfish
Death Company Marines with Jump Packs. Credit: Rockfish

The List

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Archetype

Jump Scare BA

Thoughts

A jump pack heavy BA build – still extremely potent! Sanguinor and Dante provide heroic and battle shocking antics, Van Vets offer some solidity, the Death Company Dreadnaught mini-game of death lurks at the core of the list, and there is a Baal Predator to cover some lanes in nasty overwatch as you stage up. Really effective, and still one of the armies to beat in the game right now. Great work on the event win!

Bjørn Olsen – Orks (Dread Mob) – 2nd Place

Goff killa kan. Credit: Charlie Brassley

The List

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Archetype

KANZ

Thoughts

Ok, someone finally made Killa Kanz work. God bless you sir! Kanz synergise nicely with a lot of the detachment buffs in Dreadmob, let down only by their innate clumsiness and the challenges deploying and moving them present on a great many boards. Catch a salvo of souped up Rokkits off these bad boys and you’ll be hurting! I like the mini Nob / Warboss squads to give you some melee push back anad trading too, this feels like a great include for Dreadmob lists. Really well done on the top placing.

Victor Bergenholtz – Tyranids (Crusher Stampede) – 3rd Place

Hive Tyrant. Credit: Rockfish
Hive Tyrant. Credit: Rockfish

The List

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Archetype

Double Norn Crusher

Thoughts

Crusher Stampede takes it to an OC rich place with two Norn Emissaries to go and set up shop on objectives. This in turn forces enemy commitment which opens up a world of hurt from the other tools in the list – Exos, a big Zoanthrope brick, and the Rupture Tfex (who is enjoying a really busy few weeks in Tyranid lists at the moment!). Strong and effective, I love it. Well done on the top placing.

Sondre Skår – Chaos Space Marines (Chaos Cult) – 4th Place

Credit: Dan “Swiftblade” Richardson

The List

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Archetype

Chaos Cult Mixed Arms

Thoughts

Take the brutal board pressure of Chaos Cult, and then slap triple Forgefiend and a Helbrute in behind it. IF that sounds utterly terrifying to you, that would be because it is. Rapid, brutal damage dealers coming at you via the Accursed, as the Fiends pick off any survivors and soften up elite infantry. Really potent, and a further reminder of the unexpected power of Chaos Cults.

The Best of the Rest

There were 7 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

  • =5th – Thomas Harkestad – Tyranids (Crusher Stampede): Medium monster Crusher Stampede with a slab of 20 Neurogaunts.
  • =5th – Lasse Tilrem – Necrons (Awakened Dynasty): Double Wraith brick Awakened Dynasty.
  • 7th – Adam Keith Solumsmo – T’au Empire (Kauyon): Riptide / Skyray Kauyon.
  • 8th – Mats Klungland – Imperial Knights: Canis, Atropos, and Armigers.
  • 9th – Sigurd Løberg – Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders): Vindicator and Forgefiend Renegade Raiders with Legio Rhinos.
  • 10th – Eirik Rokne Stensland – Aeldari: MSU Skyweavers and Voidweavers in a novel Eldar build.
  • 11th – Espen Roligheten – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): IF with bricks of Warriors and a slab of Tyrant Guard alongside the big bugs.

Roc Hard GT

42-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in West Henrietta, NY, United States on September 21 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Purge the Foe – Smoke and Mirrors – Tipping Point

Carson Jones – Leagues of Votann (Oathband)
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vs.

John Davison – Space Wolves (Champions of Russ)
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Thoughts

We were lucky enough to get some thoughts from Space Wolves hero John Davison, so I shall hand over to him!

John:

My general plan going in was the same as always: shove wolves upfield, use Logan’s Waagh to remove a bunch of material, and ride that attrition advantage and the durability of Champions wolves under Saga of the Bear to victory. Purge complicates that somewhat, as there’s no good path to denying primary early, but I find that the amount of pressure the list puts players under limits their abilities to do secondaries anyways.

From the start of the game, I was surprised at how useful Smoke and Mirrors was for the matchup. By deploying one unit of wolves exposed on the line near the 2 large rectangles, I was able to force my opponent to counter deploy his Land Fortresses on his short deployment, then whisk the exposed unit into reserves, leaving them with limited ability to get angles on my other two wolf units. Then I won the first turn roll off anyways, but it still helped limit his shooting on the all important bottom of one. Past that, it largely went according to plan: he had to expose pieces to screen and prevent the wolves from running him over, and AoC on whichever unit was taking more fire alongside the 6+++ from Saga of the Bear (my default pick for starting saga) did a great deal to cut down on my losses, and meant it often took his entire armies firepower to bring down the 6 normal wolves from one brick, leaving the characters alive to harass and do further damage.

One major point that really slammed the door in my favor was when my opponent used rapid ingress to drop his Hearthguard unit into my deployment zone and kill Logan Grimnar, who was holding my home objective. Afterwards, we agreed that was probably a mistake, as it allowed me to simply move away from my home objective and strand the expensive brick in my backfield with nothing left to kill while my wolves finished off the land fortresses.

This is actually the exact same 2k I ran at Salt City a couple months ago, so it’s already unchanged from that event. If I had any confidence that Thunderwolf Prices would stay the same, I’ve consider dropping a unit to take 20 Wulfen, as I feel like it might improve my matchup into other melee armies. As is, my list building is in stasis until the next points update, so I can see how much I need to cut to keep my wolves in the list.

Thanks very much John! Sounds like a cunningly executed victory, well done.

Result

Space Wolves (Champions of Russ) Victory – 94 – 47

John Davison – Space Wolves (Champions of Russ) – 1st Place

Photo cred: Riley Trembley

The List

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Archetype

Wolf Jail

Thoughts

Still wolfy, still jailing. A glorious triumph here for one of the long standing heavy hitters of our meta game. Ragnar gives you an incision melee blender to compliment the big slabs of Cavalry, and Logan helps to boost your forces as they ride to victory. Being able to take this archetype and slam in LETHAL and SUSTAINED HITS 1 via Champions of Russ instead of the Advance and Charge, and access a few of the other powerful tools in this detachment opens up new doors, and I am really pleased to see Wolves players with some choices available to them. Really well done on the event win.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Carson Jones – Leagues of Votann (Oathband): The Pioneer heavy Votann from the Showdown.
  • 3rd – Kevin Foser – Chaos Daemons (Daemonic Incursion): Belly, Skarbs, and a truckload of mischief makers.
  • 4th – Matthew Worth – Adepta Sororitas (Bringers of Flame): BoF triple Exorcist. YOU MONSTER MATTHEW.
  • 5th – Chris martens – Aeldari: Avatar / Wraithguard / Troupe brick Aeldari.
  • 6th – Nate Bailey – Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host): Infantry / double Caladius Custodes.
  • 7th – James Piacelli – Grey Knights: Mixed arms triple Librarian GK.

The Fall PNW Warlords Clash

36-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Ellensburg, WA, United States on September 21 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Joel Rodgers – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force) – 1st Place

Credit: “Contemptor” Kevin Stillman

The List

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Archetype

Wolf Jail Vindicators

Thoughts

Look! More Wolves! Vindicator Storm Lance Space Wolves is my favourite Space Wolves, because advancing and charging AND shooting things with a massive battle cannon is the correct way to live your life. That’s it. That’s the take. Awesome work on the event win!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Jaden Iwaasa – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force): Wolf Jail.
  • 3rd – Cannon Van Daele – Space Marines (Astartes) (Ironstorm Spearhead): Ultramarines Ironstorm with Repulsors and Vindicators.
  • 4th – Justin Whitton – World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): Balanced WE with a big brick of Terminators to jam.
  • 5th – Tanner Hebert – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force): Cool balanced DA with two Vindicators alongside the usual suspects.
  • 6th – Solomon Sia – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): A Carpet of Termagants in front of the usual IF Stalwarts.

Singles Wrap Up

AWOOO! Wolf Jail had a hell of a week. Marines may be slightly too good, but hey, they’re the poster boys and they’ve had a big year with computer game fame and all that. The London Grand Tournament looms this weekend, so expect a tonne of coverage of that next week!

Lowest of Men, out.

Champions Cup

Wings: The Champions Cup was a massive event with 55 eight-player teams throwing down. You can see the full results on Best Coast Pairings. I’m going to look at the rosters of the top two teams, which helpfully covers the winning team, then the only other team to finish on 5-1 (draws are much more common in this format).

As always, I’ll be using some teams-event specific terminology when talking about the loadouts each team brought, so if you’ve never read one of these before, check out our guide here.

1st Place – Stat Check

The Lists

Anthony Vanella – World Eaters

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François Lalonde – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet)

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Innes Wilson – Genestealer Cults (Outlander Claw)

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Jeremy Atkinson – Leagues of Votann

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John Lennon – Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force)

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Liam VSL – Thousand Sons

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Maciej ‘Pumba’ Guziec – Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders)

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Piotr “Typhus” Zawila-Niedzwiecki – Adepta Sororitas (Bringers of Flame)

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Thoughts

In first place we have the intercontinental might of Stat Check, bringing to bear a suite of excellent players and brutal lists. The roster is relatively straightforward for a teams roster, combining a trio of the best all-rounder builds from the current metagame, and five other builds that have definite play in singles, and pose a particularly stern challenge on one or more fronts to try and counter whatever the opposition has brought to the table.

In terms of the all-rounders, the Dark Angels, Thousand Sons and Sisters builds here need no real introduction, though it is worth highlighting that unlike most examples at WTC, Liam’s Thousand Sons left the Mutaliths on the shelf in favour of Rubricae. My suspicion is that this is a team-level consideration – you’ve already got plenty of pressure builds here, so perhaps the ability to play on a wider variety of terrain setups is desireable from the Tsons (plus maximum Cabal Points for psychic fun).

Speaking of pressure builds, that seems to be the team-level skew going on here outside the all-rounders. The monster mash Tyranids, World Eaters, and Accursed Commune Raiders are all lists that can straight up roll the foe over (something that Dark Angels are very capable of too). I suspect most teams don’t have enough counters to handle all that pressure, particularly if they’ve over thought things and brought too many “techy” builds, and it provides the team with a good shot of racking up some 20-0s via favourable pairings.

Rounding out the roster, there are two mechanised builds with very different goals. The Votann are great at grinding foes out – they get a tonne of stuff on the table, and lots of very reliable shooting, which can help handle enemy Marine builds and enemy pressure lists. Finally, the Outrider Claw list that Innes is sporting is extremely good at Primary denial and Secondary scoring thanks to the number of small, mobile units it can throw around. This lets it pivot between playing a defender role if required, or just go for a comfortable win if the enemy can’t handle it. Both these builds being hull heavy also aligns well with the monster mash and Dark Angels lists to give a reasonably good selection of hard to kill lists.

I do think the overall setup here is surprisingly straightforward, but that’s definitely an option in metagames where there are some clear frontrunners. Well done to Stat Check on the victory!

2nd Place – Tundra Tactics

The Lists

Andrew Gonyo – T’au (Kauyon)

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Brad Townsend – Grey Knights

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Cameron Piñeiro – Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault)

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Eric Forsman – Tyranids (Invasion Fleet)

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Jake Montag – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders)

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Kit Smith – Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion)

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Matt Schuchman – Aeldari

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Oliver Smith – Astra Militarum

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Thoughts

In second place, Tundra Tactics have gone a bit more esoteric with the list selection, though with some recognisable hits and a definite skew towards heft. The overlap with the winning team is surprisingly small, comprising only the Tyranid monster build. This lines up well with the rest of what’s happening here, and also stands out as a build with a great hail mary play – even if you’re in a bad matchup, favourable dice from a well-timed Shadow in the Warp can still salvage the game.

Joining the bugs in hefty land are the Necrons, Grey Knights and Astra Militarum. Both the robots and the Knights combine the scoring and late-game points potential of redeploys with an extremely durable target profile, making them very tough to score 20s against, and easily able to capitalise on any favourable situations. Grey Knights with the big Paladin/Grand Master blob also bring some counterplay to the table, brutally owning anyone who turns up with something like C’tan spam. Also incredibly hard to put up big wins against is the Militarum build – as the list title suggests, going through eighteen Bullgryn fast enough that they can’t at least secure a draw is a daunting prospect, and the overwhelming force that the Dorns represent can again take some big wins if allowed to.

Sitting in the “bully opponents and take 20” seat, we’ve got Primaris Crusader spam, heading over from the WTC to terrorize a whole new continent. This build rolls people over better than almost anything else in the business, and the fact that it can lure your Marine player away from picking Dark Angels is a sign of just how great it is. The Aeldari nonsense also feels ripe to shoot for 20s – double Avatar has enough bad matchups in singles at its current price that we don’t see it much, but in teams there are going to be some lists, particularly the ones that want to grind with D2, which just can’t handle it.

Finally, in the techier roles, we’ve got Tau and Drukhari. The Tau work similar to Votann in the winning build, in that they put loads of units and very effective grindy damage on the table, allowing them to overwhelm enemies that are trying to be too clever, and being very effective at taking out non Dark Angels melee marines. Drukhari also struggle a bit into Dark Angels, but their transport-heavy plan gives them great play against most other melee strategies, and the inclusion of the Talos ensures that some of the normal ways of countering them, which is just rolling them over with lots of vehicles, won’t work.

This definitely looks much more like a teams roster than the first place setup, favouring more skewed strategies to confound and outplay foes. Well done to Tundra Tactics for taking it to second place.

Wrap Up

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