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Competitive Innovations in 10th: Violent Night

By James "One_Wing" Grover

Christmas approaches and the scene is finally starting to wind down after last week’s blowout, but there’s still a few generals who haven’t yet succumbed to a festive ceasefire, and a few events to cover. These are:

  • Winter Assault ITC Major at the Everwinter
  • Da Winter Waaagh 2023
  • The Witch Trials GT
  • Fight Before Xmas ’23

The patrons are also enjoying one of their last morsels of democracy for the year, and have selected the following showdown:

If you haven’t already, please do check out my Editorial about how I’m feeling about 10th Edition six months in, and I guess check back in next week, because I’m sure someone will run a GT the week before Christmas.

Winter Assault ITC Major at the Everwinter

74-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Waltham, MA, United States on December 09 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Sean Nayden – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe) – 1st Place

Credit: Tom Alexander

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Ultra-Pressure Orks

Thoughts

Custodes are away (or at least, not operating at their 10-model peak), so the Orks will continue to play. This list has the uncomplicated but extremely effective plan of rolling opponents over at rocket speed, using Transports and powerful, speedy Characters to do it. On the Waaagh turn it’s both incredibly deadly and surprisingly durable, especially with Warbosses everywhere. The sheer speed at which the build can pressure opponents means that it has a good shot at containing and overwhelming Aeldari, a vital attribute if you want to win tournaments right now, and it’s more than ready to take on some other big metagame beasts like Chaos Space Marines and World Eaters at their own game. Skilled players like Sean can use armies like this to take control of the situation before opponents really know what’s happening, and his reward in this case was another trophy to add to his extensive cabinet.

Samuel Pope – Tyranids (Unending Swarm) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Termagaunts. Credit: Rockfish
Termagaunts. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Gaunt Carpet

Thoughts

Speaking of controlling the board and overwhelming the enemy…

This list isn’t going to murderise opponents as hard as Sean’s Orks are, but it makes up for it with sheer numbers – some lists just flatly can’t deal with this, and even those that can are going to have their work cut out trying to score Primary. The lack of a Fixed Objective like 9th Edition No Prisoners makes this pretty challenging to handle on Secondary as well, as once it starts taking control of every objective, plenty of Tactical choices become unavailable. The ability to just lose whole units without breaking a sweat (you can just resurrect them, after all) gives the list tremendous depth and redundancy, and I’m honestly surprised how many points it has left for Exocrines and a Flyyrant after filling out the flood and key supports.

The Exocrines give you something that can lift Aggressors, one of the main units that might actually provide some hope of tabling this if they’re untouched, and the fact that Unending Swarm has a good Battle Tactic selection makes the Tyrant a very valuable utility piece that can go kill something in a pinch. Really like how this list supplements the core plan with these tools, and this is unironically probably one of the best ways to play bugs right now if you can put it on the table – well done Samuel for showing it off.

Brad Chester – Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead) – 3rd Place (Undefeated)

Cobalt Scions Aggressors, kitbashed with the Heavy Intercessors kit. Credit: Charlie Brassley

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Uriel Vanguard

Thoughts

Accumulating evidence suggests that any time Centurions can teleport, they end up ultra strong. Scientists should look further into this. Builds like this have made a splash since John Lennon popularised the archetype at the WCW, and it continues to thrive by having answers to most threats, incredible damage potential out of Deep Strike, and good protection for its threats from what Vanguard brings to the table. This is fast becoming a regular feature, so not much more to say than that, well done Brad for striking from the shadows to great effect.

Charles Burgard – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Brawler Goodstuff

Thoughts

Another build requiring little  in the way of introduction or explanation, though I guess it’s notable that as some other builds that can do nasty deep strike shooting arise, we see a third unit of Obliterators added here, providing some reliable counterpunch in that situation. Otherwise, business as usual, but well done to Charles for finding that little tweak to rise above the Chaos pack.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 5th – Cullen Burns – Leagues of Votann: Extra-shooty Votann, passing up on any Hearthguard in favour of lots of Thunderkyn, lots of Sagitaurs with Beserks and triple Land Fortress.
  • 6th – Drew Salzborn – Leagues of Votann: Another triple Land Fortress list, but this time with 3×5 Hearthguard to squeeze value out of Fire Support.
  • 7th – Joshua Minnich – Chaos Space Marines: Double Commune brawlers, also going for extra dense killing power with 10-model Chosen units and a full Obliterator squad.
  • 8th – Jared Vail – Ynnari: Spinners, Shadow Spectres and Ravagers too!
  • 9th – Ethan Wagner – Aeldari: Wraithguard, Yncarne, lots of speedy Aspects and Spinners.
  • 10th – Kyle Fallier – Black Templars (Ironstorm Spearhead): All-rounder Templars spamming small Crusader units for one lascannon/melta shot each with the re-rolls, and backing these with Inceptors, Redemptors and one Reaper to go full Mercy is Weakness.
  • 11th – Garry Morneault – Chaos Space Marines: Brawler Goodstuff with the allied Warpflamer Rubricae tech.
  • 12th – Jack Murphy – Ynnari: Extra go-wide Ynnari, maxing out on Mandrakes, Ravagers and Scourges, cutting the Yncarne to afford it (though keeping Wraithguard as a central tarpit).
  • 13th – Peter Melendez – Astra Militarum: Krieg tarpits and a full Rough Rider unit shielding artillery, a Dorn and some sundry other tanks.

Da Winter Waaagh 2023

49-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Horwich, England, GB on December 09 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Mike Porter – “Harlequins” (Battle Host) – 1st Place

Harlequins Troupe and Starweaver. Credit: Corrode

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Mostly Harlequins

Thoughts

Nice try Mike, but I see those Warp Spiders. In all seriousness, this build shows off very effectively that you can go nearly pure Harlequins and end up with a very strong list. You get a lot of mobility, a lot of mid-quality shooting from all the boats, and a good line in chaff clearing if an opponent underestimates what the Troupes can do in combat. I imagine the challenge with this list is running into stuff like World Eaters or Orks, where extreme precision is going to be required not to get decked out of the game the first time a unit bounces, but Mike’s had plenty of practice clowning on all and sundry over the last few Editions, so it’s no surprise to see him nailing the win!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Benedict Borrowdale – Aeldari (Battle Host): A truly incredible all-Character meme list, with both Avatars, all six Phoenix Lord and every Lone Operative it can find. Glorious stuff here.
  • 3rd – Markus Hinson – T’au Sept (Kauyon): Suit-heavy Tau, adding a couple of Riptides to the standard selection.
  • 4th – James Lythgoe – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs): Arco-Flagellant spam with all the good value tools and a Paragon squad surrounding it.
  • 5th – Ben Facey – Grey Knights: Five Dreadknights, three Librarians and three Warglaives. Unsurprisingly, this is what put paid to the all-Character Aeldari build’s run in round 3.
  • 6th – Danny Kelley – Adeptus Custodes: Pure Infantry Custodes, going with two Blade Champs and Trajann as leaders to maximise the pressure and killing power.
  • 7th – Alex Thomas – Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead): Uriel Ultravan, but with Eradicators in place of Centurions and a broader range of utility pieces in support.
  • 8th – Mike Riley – Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders):  Infantry brutality, using two full Primaris Crusader squads and 10 Sword Brethren.
  • 9th – Shaun Delaney – Blood Angels (Sons of Sanguinius): Actual Blood Angels! Featuring lots of jump packs even! VanVets, Jump Intercessors, Death Company, all that good stuff.

The Witch Trials GT

45-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Winston-Salem, NC, United States on December 09 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Nick Cochrane – Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force) – 1st Place

Credit: “Contemptor” Kevin Stillman

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Awooo

Thoughts

It’s theoretically possible that, at some point, I’ll stop finding it endearing that every Space Wolf player has immediately hard pivoted to Thunderwolf spam the second it’s viable, but I’m definitely not there yet, this is still super cool, able to brawl with the best of them, and use speedy pressure to stop Aeldari having the run of the table. I like the very streamlined support structure too – no messing about, just some powerful tanks that need minimal support, and a bit of board control. I think a drop pod with Eliminators is a fascinating bit of tech too – it’s very cheap to set up, and provides quite a bit of flexibility on the table. I’d honeslty wonder about trying to find points for a Phobos Librarian in here to really up the flexibility, but that might be too cute – the army clearly works just fine without it, and successfully earned a saga at the event – congratulations Nick.

The Best of the Rest

There were 7 more players on 4-1+ records. They were:

  • 2nd (4.5-0.5) – Patrick Leblanc – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness): Brawler Goodstuff, adding one Slaanesh Master of Executions to go with a Legionary unit for an extra spicy Advance/Charge missile.
  • 3rd – JD Carter – Imperial Knights (Noble Lance): A teleporting Crusader, lots of Armigers and lots of Agents.
  • 4th – Duncan Bluhm – Black Templars (Firestorm Assault Force): Templars living out all their heretic-roasting dreams here, featuring a Redeemer packed with Aggressors, lots of Crusaders lurking in Rhinos ready to jump out and multi-melta something and some Sword Brethren to chop up whatever is left.
  • 5th – John Casey – Chaos Space Marines: Brawler Goodstuff with some Rubricae.
  • 6th – Will Dalkin – Thousand Sons: Characters and Rubricae.
  • 7th – Christian Howard – Necrons: A mighty Seraptek Construct, acting as a spearhead for two units of Warriors and a Monolith.
  • 8th – Phillip Kohrmann – Imperial Knights: The Canis/Crusader tag team returns, along with lots of Armigers and Agents.

Fight Before Xmas ’23

38-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Upper Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand on December 08 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Priority Targets – Vox Static

Sam Whitt – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe): Ork Goodstuff
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Sean Sullivan – Leagues of Votann (Oathband): Double Hearthguard block.
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Importing a classic old world grudge match here – Orks vs Dwarves. Now, obviously when there’s grudgin’ involved the Votann are the experts, and at first glance this game looks like it’s tilted fairly hard towards them, mostly off the back of how shockingly lethal Hearthguard are into Infantry, but on closer inspection I don’t think it’s quite as bad. The Orks are heavily mechanised and have a lot of units, which gives them quite a bit of scope to mitigate the threat of Votann drop turns, both by pressing back where the relatively short-ranged Hearthguard can arrive and by preventing them immediately opening up on key pieces like the Nobz. The Votann also need to be reasonably cautious about how they press out early too, as if they go too fast and catch a nasty Waaagh counter-attack they could find themselves bogged down for long enough that the Orks pull massively ahead on scoring.

That’s rather viciously complicated by the mission, as with the end-game scoring of Priority Targets it’s very tricky for the Orks to cap the Votann’s score hard enough for this to matter. That’s particularly true if the Votann lead with a bold body-blocking play from the Land Fortress, as there’s just not that much (except the Squigosaur with the Killchoppa) that meaningfully threatens it once you factor in Void Armour, and it can occupy a lot of space. Since quite a lot of the Ork units are fairly chunky as well, that can block off their routes to conquer the board and ensure the Hearthguard can come in somewhere valuable.

So what are the Orks to do? With Vox Static up, if the Votann pick Tactical Objectives there’s some chance they’d be able to play Secondary denial by pressuring objectives, but I think there’s a pretty good chance that the Votann go with something like Assassinate/Engage here, at which point that doesn’t matter. If they do, then I think the Orks have to switch to playing very cagey – assume the Votann are getting 50 on Primary, and focus on holding two objectives themselves while protecting their Characters from the grumpy dwarves. That’s certainly risking their own scoring a bit, but they do at least have a better supply of speedy utility units than the Votann who might be able to reach out and score stuff at key points.

In the end, the Votann did take it…but not without an incredibly strong attempt by the Orks, eventually only falling short by a handful of points after picking up a great score. Well done to both players on what was clearly an epic game!

Result

Leagues of Votann (Oathband) Victory – 91 – 87

Sean Sullivan – Leagues of Votann (Oathband) – 1st Place

Sagitaur. Credit: Rockfish
Sagitaur. Credit: Rockfish

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Double Hearthguard

Thoughts

Hearthguard and Sagitaurs continue to be exceptionally well-priced units , and that makes Votann serious players. Hearthguard have that ultra desirable trait of having no terrible targets and lots of great ones, and the amount of stuff Votann get on the table forces opponents to engage and potentially get murdered from the void. Strong stuff, well done Sean.

Alex Cameron – Orks (Waaagh! Tribe) – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Deffkilla Wartrike. Credit: Rockfish
Deffkilla Wartrike. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Ultra-pressure Orks

Thoughts

It’s a good week for yelling Waaaagh! and rolling through opponents, apparently, as this is another Ork build focused on speed and pressure above all else. I like the solo Wartrike tech – with the Super Cybork Body it’s extremely tough, and getting a guaranteed 18″ Advance into a possible Waaaagh! turn charge makes it very reliable for reaching out and shutting down a key opposing unit. I’ve had great fun doing similar stuff with a Catacomb Command Barge with the Weave, and it’s neat to see something similar out and about in another faction. Good job Alex!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 3rd – Alastair Helm – Tyranids (Vanguard Onslaught): Sneaky Leapers and Neurolictors, two squads of Vanguard-enabled melee Warriors and a Norn Emissary anchor.
  • 4th – Courtney Thomson – Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness): An unusual crunch-skewed Chaos Space Marine build with a Land Raider, lots of Characters and lots of Terminators.
  • 5th – Sam Whitt – Orks: See showdown.
  • 6th – Aaron Wilson – Chaos Space Marines: Brawler Goodstuff with Abaddon.

Wrap Up

One more column till Christmas (probably) – see you next week!

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