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Competitive Innovations in 10th: Wraithknights at the Warmaster pt.1

By James "One_Wing" Grover

It’s been another busy week in the 40K world, with hundreds of the world’s best players gathering in Europe for the Warmaster GT, and a trio of healthily-sized majors alongside it. A certain gigantic robot has, admittedly, been somewhat overshadowing things, but as ever we’ve got some interesting new builds to look at alongside our regular diet of Aeldari and GSC nonsense.

Today we’ll be looking at:

  • The WTC Warmaster GT (Supermajor)
  • Warhammer World Golden Ticket Event (major)
  • Killing Field of Istvaan

On Friday we’ll cover:

  • Texas Open (Major)
  • Iowaaagh! Open (Major)
  • Hammer of Wrath GT

The fine folks in the Goonhammer Patreon Discord have once again voted for which showdowns they want to see, and have selected:

  • Deathwatch vs. Adeptus Custodes at the Warhammer World Event.
  • Aeldari vs. Chaos Space Marines at the Hammer of Wrath GT.

If I have time later in the week we might also sneak in a look at the results of the WTC itself, but my schedule is unusually packed thanks to the ongoing Faction Focus series, which you can check out here.

WTC Warmaster GT 2023

282-player, 9-round Supermajor in Mechelen, Vlaams Gewest BE on August 08 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Thomas Wobak – Aeldari – 1st Place

Credit: TheChirurgeon

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Wraithknight and friends

Final Round Matchup

11 – 9 Victory against Fred Otto – Aeldari.

Thoughts

Look, right up till the Shadow Round, it looked like the Aeldari had some serious challengers in the pool at the Warmaster GT, and then suddenly they didn’t. The Wraithknight continues to be a spectacularly over the top monstrosity, and when the wraithcannons fell silent, Thomas’s build came out on top. I like, for tables using fairly dense WTC layouts, making sure to include some indirect from a Spinner and some lone operatives in Illic and the Solitaire, who have become a bit more of a sometimes choice over the last few weeks. That gives you ways to force the opponent’s hand in the mirror if they’re missing similar, and that looks like it could have been clutch in the grand finale. Congratulations Thomas.

Fred Otto – Aeldari – 2nd Place

Wraithknight. Credit: Rockfish
Wraithknight. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Wraithknight + Go-wide shooting

Thoughts

This is a bit more of a conventional murderous Aeldari list, complementing the Wraithknight with tonnes of shooty hulls that can simply overwhelm the opponent’s capacity to handle them. That served Fred extremely well most of the way through, coming out of the Swiss at the top of the rankings (and thus getting to skip the Shadow Round), taking a 20-0 victory in the semi-finals, and only finally falling to a slightly sneakier Wraithknight list. Congratulations to him as well!

Quinton Johnson – Aeldari – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Another one

Thoughts

Another Wraithknight build backing the big boy with lots of small, speedy, shooty units. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Well done to Quinton on taking third.

Alexandre Sacco – Chaos Space Marines – 4th Place

Credit: Dan “Swiftblade” Richardson

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Abaddon Gunline

Thoughts

Rounding out the top four with the heroic accolade of “highest placing non-Aeldari player”, we have Alexandre’s Chaos Space Marines. For anyone still sleeping on them – CSM Forgefiends are wildly good as a mixture of Nurgle (for the 5+ Sustained Hits) and one as Undivided (for the full hit/wound re-rolls from Profane Zeal), combining with Abaddon to unleash a flurry of destruction that can give even the Aeldari some amount of pause. Obliterators further lean into this (and also provide the ability to launch a big hit out of Deep Strike), and the list has an absolutely hilarious clown car of a Rhino to threaten counter-charges (again with the Zeal re-rolls) into anyone that tries to pin the shooty toys down.

Rounding out with Cypher and The Changeling as Lone Operative objective grabbers (and in Cypher’s case a key disruption tool against Phantasm spam) adds some scoring staying power on top of everything else, and as we’ll see in some of the other builds we cover this week, experienced Chaos Lords like Alexandre are really starting to unleash the potential of their Index.

The Best of the Rest

Three more players made it to a shadow round before being defeated by one of the top four. They were:

  • 5th – Innes Wilson – Dark Angels (Gladius): Innes sparks joy amongst the many Goonhammer Dark Angels fans by taking them to fifth place. A huge brick of Deathwing Knights with an Adept of the Codex captain for Fall Back/Shoot is the draw here, providing an ultra-crunchy melee deathball that can cheerfully punt pretty much anything off the board, even the mighty Custodes (thanks to the damage reduction on the Termies). Plasmaceptors, Infiltrators and, of course, a big Bolter Discipline Desolation Marine unit provide support, the latter having a ride-along Repulsor to allow them to line up direct fire then cower tactically retreat from any charges.
  • 6th – TJ Lanigan – Thousand Sons & Daemons: Magnus, lots of Sorcerors and a Daemon Prince working with a big Scarab block and some Rubricae, plus Flamers and the Changeling for cheap objective fodder.
  • 7th – Will Milton – Adeptus Custodes: Two massive Custodian Guard units plus a big Allarus block for anti-horde, supported by a Callidus Assassin.

Golden Ticket Event: Warhammer 40,000

64-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in England GB on August 12 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Take and Hold – Chilling Rain – Search and Destroy

Adam Shepherd-Jones – Adeptus Custodes: Excessively speedy Custodes, taking two Blade Champions alongside a Ceaseless Hunter Captain unit to maximise the ability to get among the enemy and mess them up.
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Mikey Herbert – Adeptus Astartes: All-rounder dakka Deathwatch with Veterans, Hellblasters, some utility shooting and, of course, a big Desolation squad.
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

The Imperium’s finest face off here – specifically, the finest at killing stuff in melee and the finest at doing so with guns. This Custodes build is particularly effective at getting into the opponent’s face and ruining their day thanks to having access to three different Characters with strong mobility buffs – two Advance/Charges from the Blade Champions and the always potent Ceaseless Hunter. Opponents are going to be on a very short clock to deal some serious damage to the Custodes before they connect, and once they’re in amongst you the game is basically done, as you aren’t escaping. Depending on the exact situation there’s quite a few different ways you can configure the squads, in particular deciding whether you want raw power (Trajann), reach (Advance/Charge) or adaptability (Ceaseless on the big unit).

Deadly as the Custodes are, they’re up against something that’s arguably just as nasty. Deathwatch’s supreme Stratagem sheet and ultra-effective go turns via Mission Tactics creates an army that legitimately can threaten to blast the Custodes off the table if they catch them in the open, especially with a full squad of Hellblasters in the roster. The Games Workshop layouts will help provide some protection from that, but they’re going to have to be super careful about where they stage, and Deathwatch thunder hammers are also pretty good at smashing Custodes in melee, so they can’t be entirely complacent about getting caught away from an objective (and thus being unable to Fight First via the strat).

Both the players here know their armies very well, and in this kind of matchup a key thing to consider is what a failure state looks like – a situation where the game can’t be salvaged. From the Deathwatch’s point of view, that would be the Custodes being amongst them in sufficient numbers that they can control the game from there, and overwhelm them on scoring. For Custodes, it’s the Deathwatch managing to line up a big enough alpha turn to clear multiple units, negating the Custodes ability to pin down enough stuff at once to stop them being whittled away. That means that the Deathwatch can afford to be more aggressive about offering trades to try and score early, while the Custodes need to prioritise keeping their stuff alive, as if they can connect at full strength the long game favours them.

From chatting to Mikey about the game, that fed into the strategy on both sides. Adam reserved the big Custodian unit with Trajann, plus a second smaller squad, ensuring that he had a big hammer in reserve that there was no way for Mikey to chip away at prior to it arriving. However, Adam ended up going first, and Mikey went ultra-aggro in response, using Teleportarium turn one to hurl a Veteran unit right into Adam’s lines, which paid off with some big early point hauls, especially as the Custodes failed some charges out of reserves. From there, however, the Custodes started taking over, scything through the Deathwatch far faster than they themselves were dying, and in the end the game came right down to the wire, with Mikey only just having enough tools left to squeak some final points to take the win despite a scoring surge from the Custodians in the final turns.

Result

Adeptus Astartes Victory – 81 – 80

Mikey Herbert – Deathwatch – 1st Place

Blood Ravens Hellblasters. Credit – Soggy

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Dakka Deathwatch with Hellblasters

Thoughts

As per the showdown – guns, lots of them, and some hammers for variety. It takes the durability of the Custodes to stand up to the firepower that Deathwatch can muster, and combining that with potent mobility tools (and a few sneaky flex choices like the Librarian Lone Op-ified Infiltrators) produces an incredibly high threat army that can rapidly pivot to find an advantage in tougher games, as Mikey’s aggressive strategy showed in the final. Congratulations to Mikey on winning the Golden Ticket.

Adam Shepherd-Jones – Adeptus Custodes – 2nd

Blade Champion
Blade Champion. Credit: Pendulin

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Ultra Pressure Custodes

Thoughts

Playing against Custodes can be a bit like going up against a lawnmower that walks like unto a man at the best of times, and Adam’s build here really leans into that, able to slam into opponents on multiple fronts even more effectively than the usual variants. The plan seems especially well tuned to the Games Workshop layouts, and adding in a Callidus to mess with opponent’s plans when they try and get out from under the golden boot makes it even better. A fantastic showing from Adam, especially considering how razor thin the final margin was!

Matthew McCurdy – Space Wolves (Gladius) – 3rd Place

Credit: Kevin Stillman

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

All-Rounder Wolves

Thoughts

In third place we’ve got a cool showcase of how you can use some of the Space Wolves datasheets to add some neat extra angles to a Gladius Task Force. First up, being able to take Bjorn and utilise Ancient Tactician alongside a Callidus lets you stack +2CP onto the cost of an opponent’s key trick, which can be absolutely game-changing in some prominent matchups. Bjorn also brings a decent body and counter-charge threat for the gunline alongside that, and the Iron Priest is a nice upgrade on a Techmarine to boot.

Out on the wider board, the other big thing you get is two roving deathballs, one being Bladeguard and Ragnar, the other the Thunderwolf Cavalry unit with double-stacked Characters. Bladeguard are much closer to being good than I think many people are realising, and adding Ragnar to a unit firmly gets them over the line, especially on dense boards. Advance/Charge means they can get where they need to be, and adding Ragnar’s massive output (even more massive with built-in re-roll 1s to hit from the Bladeguard) to theirs is enough to ensure they’re a truly credible threat.

The Thunderwolf Cavalry unit is a bit more techy, but I really like it and think it’s been slightly slept on. The price tag on the basic unit here isn’t too bad, but a squad of three doesn’t do enough, and six is clunky and still might bounce by itself. Adding the two hammer-wielding Characters does way more for the unit. +1D on Thunder Hammers on the charge, especially with Lethal Hits from the Lt is massive, and the ability to move after getting shot once per game can create a massive swing if the opponent isn’t able to play around it. Are they probably still a little too expensive? Yes, but the unit is super cool, and very on-brand for Space Wolves. Big props to Matthew for taking them to the podium.

Ryan McToal – Aeldari – 4th Place

Avatar of Khaine. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Wraithknight and Avatar

Thoughts

All the normal Aeldari goodies, with the exception of swapping in the Avatar for the Yncarne. I assume the thinking there is that you want something that’s a bit more reliable at prising (e.g.) Custodes out of a ruin on GW terrain. It’s still extremely good either way, and congratulations to Ryan for rounding out the top four.

The Best of the Rest

There were 2 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

  • 5th – Billy Guest – Adeptus Custodes: Double Custodian brick, with Kyria Draxus, a Callidus and some henchmen in support.
  • 6th – Robert Kimpton – Drukhari: Gunboats galore, lots of packed Raiders, some venoms, and three each of Ravagers and lance Scourges to round out.

Killing Field Of Istvaan

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

Darren Jac – Genestealer Cult – 1st Place

Credit: keewa

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Horde and Aberrants

Final Round Matchup

100-84 Victory vs Ethan Novik – Adeptus Custodes.

Thoughts

I’m going to be real, I have fully run out of things to say about both major variants on GSC, and this is a classic example of the Aberrant build. Instead, I’ll just congratulate Darren on blasting his way through a truly horrifying back three rounds in style, taking down Deathwatch, Aeldari and Custodes, three quite distinct challenges that can all give GSC a serious run for their money.

Casey Stengler – Chaos Daemons – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Be’lakor, The Dark Master. Credit: Skails

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Monster Mash

Thoughts

Yeah so I don’t always cover undefeated+draw at GTs, but I felt this list needed a quick shout out as another example in what appears to be the ongoing arms race among Daemon players to go as Monster Mash as possible. Be’lakor and five Greater Daemons is just magnificent, well done Casey.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 3rd – Cyle Thompson – Deathwatch: Shooty Deathwatch with Veterans in Rhinos, Plasmaceptors, Hellblasters and three units of Terminators.
  • 4th – Colin Rotariu – Necrons: Double Lychguard, triple Hexmarks and triple Doomsdays, with Zandrekh in one of the Lychguard squads to thwart enemy plans.
  • 5th – Dustin Salminen – Chaos Knights: A lancer and lots of puppies, plus the Changeling.

Wrap Up

Plenty more exciting builds to look at on Friday, featuring showings from more spins on Chaos Space Marines and a powerful Astra Militarum list. And more Wraithknights, admittedly, if you’re in to that sort of thing. Join us then!

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