As promised, this week is a big one for Competitive Innovations – four events to cover and the first big set of results for the powerful new Adeptus Mechanicus and Adepta Sororitas books. There’s so much to write about, in fact, that this week I’ve called in reinforcements – Rob, Jon and Scott have all pitched in to help bring you one of our biggest editions of Competitive Innovations yet. The schedule for today is as follows:

• I (Wings) will be taking a look at the lists from the Hammerhead Games major and the RAGE GT.
• Jon (returning from his successful week covering when I was away) will be going through the armies from the Boise cup.
• Rob and Scott (who attended the event) will be commenting on the Waaagh Fest GT.

One final bit of housekeeping before we get into the armies – something that’s felt a bit more important in recent months has been which armies are making it to the final round of an event undefeated (or getting a point of “tournaments in winning position” (TiWP) to use the terminology of our friends at 40k Stats). The metagame is extremely cut-throat right now, and pretty much every week I find myself wanting to highlight which lists made it most of the way through the gauntlet before falling. With that in mind, I’ll now be putting a little star ✪ symbol in the ranking of any list that ended up X-1 having gone into the final round undefeated.

On to the lists!

Hammerhead Major

Wings is covering this event.

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

Adrian Phillips – Adeptus Mechanicus – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Lucius Skitarii augur in a glorious new age beyond the weakness of the flesh.
• Ironstriders provide some of the nastiest backing firepower in the game.
• Buffs galore from a dizzying array of traits and relics.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

It looks like we’ve hit the point where AdMech players have managed to get their models together, because this weekend they’ve made a huge splash, taking the trophy at three of the four events we’re covering, including the major.  That’s clearly very impressive going, and while their win rate hasn’t reached Drukhari numbers yet (and a lot of the chatter online suggests it’s very much a “yet” situation), it’s obvious that they’re a real force to be reckoned with, and that one Forge World in particular can definitely stake a claim to be one of the strongest subfactions in the game.

That Forge World is Lucius, with the exceptional strength of their defensive Dogma pushing large blocks of Skitarii fully over the top, and the Solar Flare relic plus the ability to bring in units from a Legio Teleportarium significantly opponent’s abilities to hide from their wrath. Basic Skitarii were some of the biggest winners in the new AdMech book, picking up the ability to crank the unit size all the way to twenty and picking up a whole host of compatible buffs you can deploy on them. Standout among these are the two offensive stratagems, one for each type of gun, which turn them into real nightmares on the offence. Enriched Rounds, for a paltry 1CP, lets a unit of Vanguard auto-wound on a 4+ to hit against anything that isn’t a VEHICLE, letting them flay almost anything else to death in a hail of bullets, especially when enhanced via a Tech Priest Manipulus’ Galvanic Field for some extra range and AP. Rangers have a much spicier weapon just at baseline, and Galvanic Volley Fire doubling the shots in a lot of situations (especially as Lucius, where you end up with a rapid fire range of 20″ once you’ve applied a Manipulus as well) gives you yet more ways to apply death by a thousand radioactive cuts.

The extra range from Lucius helps here, but making Skitarii deadly is possible in any Forge World. Where Lucius literally shines is in how tough it makes them. The defensive part of the Solar Blessing, which boosts armour saves by +1 against D1 attacks is one of the best faction traits we’ve seen this edition, having far, far fewer conditions or riders than we’ve come to expect from defensive buffs. Almost every list out there packs a reasonable number of D1 attacks, especially on tools designed for clearing out hordes, and unlike with something like the Stygies trait there’s no way to play around this without actively investing resources – you need to find some way to get extra AP or pay a point premium for multi-damage weaponry, and not all armies can trivially do that. To make matters worse for opponents, AdMech have several ways to push this further. All Skitarii can benefit from the Bulwark Imperative Doctrina, giving you a turn of army-wide +1 to saves, and this list (like most of the successful builds) has brought Firepoint Telemetry Cache along for the ride, allowing it to put a squad in Light Cover in the open (at arbitrary range thanks to all the relevant targets bringing an Enhanced Data Tether) and the Logi holy order to allow one unit to shrug off anything up to AP-2. Mathematically, armour saves are also one of the things that gets the most benefit from stacked modifiers – the better your save gets, the bigger the proportionate impact on the incoming damage is, which means that being able to go from a 4+ to a 2+ on a near army-wide basis on one turn in the game is extraordinarily powerful.

Chewing through 80 models with that kind of defence is going to be a rough ride, especially when they’re inflicting massive damage, are often effectively immune to morale thanks to Acquisition at Any Cost, and you can’t really bully charge them (this list has fully three ways to pull something out of combat and still shoot between Artisans, Programmed Retreat and the Solar Flare). Bad news – there’s other stuff here. First and foremost – Ironstriders. These were another massive winner in the Codex, going up precisely zero points but picking up better weapons, a better save (which in combination with Lucius essentially completely removes their former mild weakness to being chipped to death) and getting the CORE keyword, which allows them to benefit from all the delicious buffs they can handle. Beyond the many, many we’ve already covered, this includes the auras of a Skitarii Marshall, who at the bargain basement price of 45pts and a relic slot (for the Exemplar’s Eternity) gives them an aura of RR1s for both hits and wounds, exceptional in combination with their S9 weaponry. That applies to all those other Skitarii too, just so we’re clear. With the majority of the best units in the book being SKITARII CORE, your first Marshall is one of the biggest no-brainers in the entire game right now, so if you play AdMech and haven’t got one already, remedy that ASAP.

Getting there. Not done though. Sicarian Infiltrators are next, another huge winner from the book that provides an extremely solid mixture of objective utility, durability (at least as Lucius) and surprising melee punch in a pinch thanks to the buffs that tazer goads got. That’s pretty much all you can ask for from this kind of squad, and units of five are just great on rate now. Pteraxii have a much more focused (and hopefully much more time-limited) draw – as it stands, Booster Thrust makes them pretty much the best Action unit in the game, as they can come in, complete one then escape the table with complete impunity. Obviously you have to watch out for Infoslave Skull in the mirror, but anywhere else enjoy your opponent fully losing their mind with frustration. Last of all, a unit of Fulgurites adds some heftier melee punch, including the Mortal Wound output that’s probably your best answer to the mirror. Not too many changes to them in the book, but they got a discount, so that’s nice!

With three event wins under their belt from just this weekend, this is clearly one of the lists you now need to be gunning for when planning your army out. Unfortunately, and in a manner that makes me suspect I’ll be writing another pointed editorial in a few weeks time, your options for doing so aren’t fantastic. By their nature most anti-horde weapons are damage 1 with mediocre AP, but here you’re going to find those shots plinking off crucial targets when it really matters. Things that will do a bit better include:

• High AP and/or multi-damage anti-horde stuff. It’s rare but the odd thing does it, such as lightning locks in Knights.
• Mortal wounds. If your faction excels at stacking up smites it’s time to start thinking about that again, and all the non-smite options for adding Mortals to a round of shooting or combat go up in value as well.
• Things that trap the enemy in combat. They can still Solar Flare out, but at least only once I guess.
• Anything that manages to do multiple of these things at once is gold dust. The days of the Volkite Contemptor propping up Marines are certainly coming to a middle.

Redeploys that let you hide as best as possible from the opening salvo are nice too, but we’re very much entering another period where we see if any consistent counters to this army arise and I’m betting on “no”. It should be said, however, that it’s in many ways not as easy an army to play effectively as Drukhari are, so being very aware of what the list is capable of so you can exploit any mis-steps will go a reasonable way. With that in mind, congratulations to Adrian for not giving his opponents any windows to claw back victories and on taking the trophy.

Jesse Sell – Emperor’s Spears – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Infantry and Punchbots take advantage of the extra Stratagem goodness from the Emperor’s Spears.
• Swarm of small Infantry squads to take maximum advantage of Fight as Brothers.
• Psychic Fortress keeps everyone alive and kicking.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Hell yeah! The Emperor’s Spears supplement was easily the most interesting of the Marine ones released via White Dwarf, essentially giving you access to the best possible spin on melee Ultramarines. The Chapter Tactic is well suited for a melee list, especially as it includes the Whirlwind of Rage successor trait (generally the best melee damage booster), and both the additional stratagems are really good, letting you either boost your wound chances with Skovakarah Uhl Zaurn or set up a brutal gank with your infantry and characters via Fight As Brothers. A bunch of this is particularly nasty when layered on top of Bladeguard, and sure enough there’s a unit of those at the centre of the list, teamed up with several units of Assault Intercessors as hype men.

One of the reasons look so attractive, of course, it that they layer their melee boosts on top of the generally pretty good Ultramarines stratagem sheet and access to the Seal of Oath (the superdoctrine is pretty whatever for this build). In particular, having access to Ultramarine strats means that you have access to Rapid Redeployment, allowing the army to deploy its Invictors and Incursors extremely aggressively then pull them to safety if the rolloff is lost. Whirlwind of Rage is one of the only real options for boosting Invictors too, meaning that they really shine here. In giant robot land, they’re backed up by a pair of the always dependable plasma Redemptors, ready to use Seal of Oath re-rolls to absolutely ruin somethings day. For matchups where you need a lot of anti-armour, they’re backed up by a couple of Eradicator units, ready to pop out and point and click at Raiders, Ironstriders or whatever else needs to have a super bad day. The list is already planning on having Psychic Fortress up to protect the dreadnoughts, and once you throw these into that they’re at least a minor annoyance to kill.

Honestly, this list is just a nice, balanced Marine list all round, tilted to make use of the specific set of tools that the Spears provide, and it’s great to see that even amidst the carnage that is the top end of the metagame currently. Great work from Jesse.

William Saunders – Salamanders – 3rd ✪ Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Salamander goodstuff puts in its regular strong showing to remind us how good the suite of tools the chapter gets is.
• Classic Bladeguard/Judiciar Impulsor gets extra good when the latter can counter-charge with Born Protectors.
• Heavy Gravis contingent lets the list get lots of value from Unyielding in the Face of the Foe in the current metagame.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Speaking of relatively normal looking Marine lists, in third place we have this Gravis-heavy Salamanders build. Once again, there’s some good synergy on show, but also nothing that looks completely outrageous, and in fact we’ve got several hits from the early edition returning. Most notable among those is the classic Bladeguard/Judiciar Impulsor, extra durable in Salamanders thanks to their ability to ignore AP-1. That part of the Chapter Trait feels like it could be playing a big part in why they’ve suddenly shown up here, as it makes their Gravis units extremely resilient against Enriched Rounds. Even when boosted up by a Manipulus, these shots are only coming in at AP-1, so the Salamander trait shrugs that off and you can use Unyielding in the Face of the Foe to push to a 2+ (giving the AdMech a taste of their own medicine). The sheer number of incoming wounds means you’ll still lose some models, but you expect the Aggressor or Heavy Intercessor squads here to walk away with some models remaining, forcing more firepower to be pointed their way. Drakeskin (with the Salamanders showing off their ability to still mix powers thanks to a special relic) also lets you crank a key unit to T6, further reducing their vulnerability to chip damage and giving them a sporting chance at facing down Incubi. AP-1 is back in fashion in a big way right now, positioning the Chapter extremely well.

Flame Aggressors, especially with the Superdoctrine up, also feel very good right now. Hordes are very “in” right now, and with AP-1 in Tactical you’ll make at least some dent on whichever units of Skitarii don’t have the Logi boost up. Being able to deploy buddy Overwatch with Born Protectors also makes a unit of these a strong anchor against some Drukhari units and Repentia, as they threaten to just clean wipe something out. They’re ideal for this list, and taking two units feels like a neat choice, especially as this build also brings Psychic Fortress along to avoid them instantly vanishing when shot with cognis las or dark lances.

The rest of what’s here is mostly pretty standard Salamander hits – lots of Eradicators to exploit the superdoctrine, a smash Bike Captain to leverage all their powerful defensive tools, and a unit of Bladeguard to provide some additional melee crunch. The only other unusual choice is the slightly bulked up unit of Assault Intercessors. My assumption is that this is another concession to the horde metagame – pop Crucible of Battle and fight twice with Honour the Chapter and they’ll mulch a lot of T3 models.

Honestly, one of my favourite things about writing this column is seeing a relatively normal looking list like this then working through to the lightbulb moment of “oh right, AP-1 matters way more suddenly”. With that in mind, Salamanders feel like they’ve got some potential going forward, though that has to be qualified with the fact that this list did lose to the first place AdMech army in the finals. We’ll see whether more Salamander armies start returning to the tables in the next few weeks, and in the meantime congratulations to William on the third place.

Daniel Olivas – Asuryani – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Wraiths, Reapers and Ynnari Characters pull Asuryani over the line into a top four.
• Reliable buff outputs from the Children of Prophecy detachment make sure that the Reapers and Wraithblades are always performing at maximum.
• Yncarne punishes the opponent for picking off smaller units and provides powerful objective play.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

A nice surprise for our final top four list here – Asuryani expert Daniel Olivas adds a top four to the faction’s fairly meagre tally. As has been the style of most Craftworld Eldar lists that have pulled this off, this army leans as hard as possible into some of the few highpoints the book has in its own right, and injects some backup from another faction, but thanks to that other faction being Ynnari the list still gets to claim Craftworld status.

Let’s start with the Craftworlds stuff first, and among that two units clearly stand out. You’ve got a full 10-model block of Dark Reapers, maximising the gains from their recent discount, and then a unit of five axe/shield Wraithblades, which are pretty much the only good tarpit Craftworlds get. Both of these work best when heavily buffed, and that’s taken care of by the Psykers in the Children of Prophecy detachment. I’m assuming the missing powers from the second Farseer are Guide and Fortune, and when that Farseer teams up with the Protect/Jinx/Seer of the Shifting Vector Warlock for a Seer Council, the faction trait (which counts all 1s as 2s in psychic tests) makes it astronomically unlikely that you’ll fail any of the buffs. That ensures that you’ve got Guided up Reapers to blow your most hated target into tiny pieces (before they Fire and Fade back into their Wave Serpent), and that the Wraithblades have Protect and Fortune on for the juicy 2+/3++/5+++ that will keep them alive and kicking against the vast majority of threats. With a mostly spare Wave Serpent and a Wraithseer that can join them in the mid-board, you end up with a reasonable set of speedbumps to push into the mid-board, and the Wraithseer can also help the Wraithblades charge out of Deep Strike with Ghostwalk. With Wrath of the Dead and Expert Crafters on this detachment, they’ll hit reasonably hard when they do (though the unit still desperately needs a boost of killing power in the new book, whenever it comes).

One of the best ways to exploit that is with psychic firepower, and that’s one of the places where the Ynnari come in. Yvraine as a Mortal Wound battery is a choice I’ve always been pretty fond of, and alongside Executioner from the other Farseer lets you take considerable chunks out of most targets. The Yncarne also wants a durable core to operate around, and is going to constantly threaten to punish an opponent that commits into the wrong unit. He also makes the Rangers this list packs even more of an annoyance, as they can drop in, ROD, then threaten to unleash a death god if the opponent kills them at the wrong moment. Good stuff.

That is…mostly it – the list hasn’t found a magical way around the other big Craftworlds problem, which is how few things you actually get on the table – only some big changes to the faction will do that. That’s part of what makes every top four finish for the army so impressive, so congratulations to Daniel for keeping the Asuryani dream alive.

The Rest of the Best

• 5th – Jake Nelson – Adeptus Mechanicus: As is going to be a theme for this article, another strong performance from the Lucius Skitarii horde. Same core as Adrian’s list, with four big infantry blocks and six Ironstriders, but switches out the boat-riding Electro priests for bulking out one of the Infiltrator units and adding a couple of Fusilaves.
• 6th – John Bianco – Chaos Space Marines: A first showing for CSM after the big recent buff to Dreadclaw drop pods sees the Emperor’s Children eschewing any allies from other legions and going it alone in style – three full bricks of claw/bolter Terminators (supported by some Warp Talons for overwatch suppression), a unit of Noise Marines in a Dreadclaw and VolCons, Cultists and Characters to fill things out.

 

Boise Cup

Jon is covering this event (except for the Nurgle list, which is a Wings writeup).

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

Ryan Lynn – Adeptus Mechanicus – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

Pteraxii Sterylizors: By now we know just how strong this unit is for undeniable secondary scoring among other things such as dealing very good damage.  Until it is nerfed its got to be one of the strongest units the game has seen so far (in 9th edition)

The Horde:  They are so so much more than just an obsec unit these days.  The Vanguard and the Rangers are extremely deadly, can show up right on top of you and are way harder to kill than they should be.  Very CP intensive and require tons of auras and character support but any good player will make this work with very low failure rates.

Flyers:  The flyers give you a lot of different options as to how you approach the first couple of turns while also providing their own extremely high damage output. I really like the addition of 3 of these here.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Well, I guess I can’t just say It’s not this time around so I will say its interesting because we are all now hoping GW see’s the dumpster fire’s they have released and do something about it.  This codex is fucking ridiculous and not even remotely in a good way for anyone at all that shows up to events hoping to have a fun time.  Not sure in what world they thought this was okay but here we are and it’s likely to get worse before it gets any better.  The only saving grace here is that I do not have to copy paste another boring dark eldar list and try to act like I care at all.  I am sorry Ryan, You came out on top of every other AdMech threat at the event and deserve a lot of credit for that, this is nothing against you.  If you are looking for a strong AdMech list, you should look no further.  This has all the toys and takes advantage of the ruling Boise put out.  It is a dynamic list with threats basically everywhere that can also reach anywhere at any time.  This is an absolute nightmare to play against especially if you go second into it and the player is as good as Ryan is.

Rob: It’s worth noting that the Chaff Launchers, taken in triplicate here, does not interact with the Lucius Forge World Dogma – you do not get the +1 to your armour saving throws against weapons with a damage characteristic of 2 or more even if the damage characteristic is being reduced by the Chaff Launcher (this is covered both by an entry under Rare Rules and also the fact that if it weren’t, the opponent would choose the order to apply effects at allocation due to it being their turn). There was apparently some confusion at the event over how this worked.

Joseph Hansen – Adeptus Custodes – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

Sagittarum spam: Very cool choice here, they pump out a lot of fire with multi-damage while also being assault weapons.  It addresses some of the issues with the slow moving foot custodes.  They bring durability with the all important obsec keyword while also being moderately dangerous in combat.

Vexilus Praetor:  The star player of the list, almost certainly running around hiding behind telemons keeping the aura up to add a little bit of durability to the units around it.  Unsure why someone would want to take the gatekeeper as it mostly seems like a pretty useless relic spear *upgrade*

Telemons: The classic While we stand we fight target that is frustratingly difficult to destroy, that you now have to destroy to limit his secondary points.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

It is an interesting pick into the current meta as it can stand its ground vs the horseshit meta monsters that GW keeps releasing.  The Telemons can hold up to most fire being thrown their way by turning off rerolls via Emperor’s Auspice and relying on their very strong base stats while also having the vexilus magnifica near by for the extra -1 to hit.  The weapons every single unit is equipped with are ideal for killing Druhkari vehicles and infanrtry and the characters are both durable enough and good enough in combat to stand up to quite a bit, even admec struggle to pull down these telemon’s.  This list was able to take down Mitch Pelham’s horde AdMech list, a sisters, Blood Angels and Tyranid list while only having a fairly close loss to the eventual winner.

Jason Byrd – Nurgle – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Death Guard classics with some Daemon backup.
• Increased psychic firepower thanks to the presence of Typhus.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Nothing massively out of the ordinary in the Death Guard contingent of this list – the same high quality units that show up elsewhere make an appearence, here backed up by the Gloaming Bloat from Mortarian’s anvil to keep them in the game longer. The two big differences from what the other top builds this week are doing are:

• Including Typhus, who seems very strong in the new AdMech meta, as he’s good at clearing hordes in melee and adds additional psychic firepower.
• Bringing a small Nurgle Daemon detachment.

The key thing the latter does is, as Jon points out in the AdMech list below, give you access to a small number of sacrificial models to push back where Lucius lists can redeploy to with the Solar Flare turn one, making it tougher to line up a backbreaking volley. Forcing AdMech to play a bit fairer is certainly no bad thing, and layering that on top of their utility for early scoring makes these cheerful little Daemons pretty appealing. Losing Nurgle’s Rot isn’t nothing, so we’ll see if it catches on, but it’s a neat twist on the other builds around, so great work Jason.

Mitch Pelham – Adeptus Mechanicus – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

Infiltrators: The most threatening part of this list and the part Mitch just would not stop talking about.  they require just enough shooting to take down to be annoying, while being impossible to ignore due to the extreme threat they carry with them.  This unit puts out good chip damage on bigger things and shreds basic infantry. The one unit being Mars can really make it a serious threat in close and since they all have pistols you can not just tie it up with some garbage hoping that it will survive.  These are your forward deploying first wave that buys the rest of your army time if you require it, if you go first you are in a situation where you might kill 1400+ points before they ever use it.

Mars Rangers:  They never fail to be useful.  They are the most consistent way to get your mortals maxed out and due to the massive amount of other threats on the board they tend to just get to do their thing all game.

Triple Manipulus: Multiple buffs they give out (that mitch was not playing as if they stack on a single unit) while also having flat 3 damage guns that get to shoot all game which turns out is much more useful than you would imagine.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Mitch loves to skew and this is just another example of him taking things too damn far again.  Fucking stop it man.  I do not want to play vs this nightmare fuel.  He refused to use the Sterylizors until they get nerfed, and instead made use of the extremely over powered Mars and Lucius Rangers/Vanguards.  It’s definitely an interesting way to play admec, most people are currently leaning heavy into las-chickens meanwhile mitch has decided to lean into obsec troops to almost certainly slant the other admec matchups in his favor.

By looking at this I would say this is a strong counter to the other admec lists out there as the Infiltrators keep pesky Vanguards away from you turn 1 while the sheer weight of troops will surely win out vs the 6-8 las chicken lists.  3 units of Ruststalkers is a weird idea as well, from what he said he deploys them on the table all the time, which is probably only possible since he has so many infiltrators and troops present as well.  The list relies on threat saturation and really having no lynchpin units.  Losing any one unit will not change how this list functions, there is more where that came from.  I’ll say Its the most interesting AdMech list I have seen so far.  My eyes did not glaze over seconds after seeing it, so something must be different here.  Great job on the return to competitive 40k Mitch, very happy to see you healthy and back at it, just wish it was not with this shit show of a codex.

The Rest of the Best

• 5th ✪ – Aaron Becker – Harlequins: A (very successful) return of the bikes and boats Soaring Spite list with a few tweaks for the modern metagame – an extra Troupe Master with the Starmist Raiment for shutting down dangerous AdMech overwatch and a Harvester of Torment Death Jester with Cegorach’s Lament to punish the nasty blocks of 1W Infantry that are proliferating.
• 6th – Tanner Herbert – Adeptus Mechanicus: An early sighting of an AdMech list tuned to face the other AdMech armies – it’s still got the Skitarii horde plan at its core, but here several units of Rangers, a plane and all the Ironstriders are in a Stygies detachment. This gives the list access to the Veiled Hunter warlord trait, which allows some units to be pulled into strategic reserves if the army loses the roll-off, ensuring that the precious Ironstriders don’t get immediately blatted in the mirror.

RAGE GT

Wings is covering this event.

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

Timothy Bouta – Adepta Sororitas – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Argent Shroud MSU melta pairs up with the classic Bloody Rose melee detachment to show off what the new Sisters book can do.
• Mortifiers provide a heavy injection of D2 firepower plus some sturdier bodies.
• Murder-Celestine and Blessings of the Emperor show off a bunch of powerful new options from the book.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Amidst all the AdMech excitement it’s easy to forget that it isn’t the only new book on show. While there don’t appear to be any builds quite as nightmarish as what Lucius is throwing out, there’s a bunch to like in the new Sisters book and this list showcases quite a bit of it. It’s also great to see someone who was recently successful with Sisters using the old book pull off an immediate GT win with the new version, suggesting that there’s plenty for dedicated Sisters players to sink their teeth into.

There’s a real mix of the old and the new on show here too, and in a way that suggests the internal balance of the new codex is far healthier than the old. You’ve still got a unit each of Repentia and Retributors here, but rather than just maxing out on both the list supports them with a range of new and improved units. A squad of Sacresants with maces (a very tasty choice in Bloody Rose where AP-2 makes them super nasty) provide a secondary source of melee crunch, while over in the Argent Shroud detachment the Retributors are joined by a trio of Sisters MSUs with a multi-melta each plus some Dominions with the Storm Bolter. This detachment really leverages some of the book’s highlights – the Argent Shroud conviction is extremely good with all of this stuff, providing re-rolls for the meltas and letting the units toting them ignore the move/shoot penalty, and even keep firing when they advance. The Dominions are also essentially a new unit – they’re set up to unleash the incredibly powerful new version of the Blessed Bolts stratagem (which will very reliably thunk six mortals into something), and can also use their pre-game move on a Rhino holding them and the Retributors, giving the latter exceptional reach out of the gate. That can help them to line up a devastating volley against key targets like Ironstriders, and does a great job of backfilling for the old range boost stratagem for alpha striking. It’s way harder to support three squads of these now, but the first is clearly excellent if you’re either going Argent Shroud or bringing Morvenn Vahl.

With access to Argent Shroud re-rolls for the shooting and the sheer brutality of Repentia and Sacresant melee, this list forgoes Vahl in favour of a huge handful of characters, all filling different roles. Starting with the cheapest, the list sees a Dogmata makes her top four debut, bringing War Hymns for either the Sacresants or the Mortifiers, plus emergency ObSec for the Retributors or Dominions. Next up, we’ve got not one but two Blessings of the Emperor on show, with the defensive Emperor’s Grace in the Argent Shroud detachment and the vicious Word of the Emperor on the Bloody Rose Canoness. The former is dirt cheap for how much of a durability swing it can provide when needed, while the latter provides both a good static effect to pair up with the Sacresants (a Fight Last) and a one-shot anti-invuln effect that will let the Repentia turn essentially anything into a fine red mist. These effects are super cool and it’s very nice to see them landing strong.

Last up in the character department is new Celestine. She was a bit of a wildcard going into the new book as Shield of Faith stacking was weakened, but she got quite a bit nastier and tougher to compensate and it looks like that’s kept her very worthwhile. It’s also worth saying that although she now gets her +1 to Shield of Faith via a Warlord Trait (so you can’t stack it with that trait elsewhere), taking this trait on her (or a non-Order model like a Dialogus) is still the only real way to apply +1 to Shield across multiple different orders at once, so she is still providing a real value add defensively. That plus here substantially cranked up killing power and stickiness make her a force to be reckoned with in a list that can support her and since this build very much can, it’s game on.

Filling things out, we’ve got a unit each of Seraphim and Zephyrim (both generically pretty good on rate, and useful to have around for Actions) then a hefty investment in Mortifiers. These got a whole host of minor tweaks and sidegrades, but still feel like they’re in a good place overall and this list reinforces that. Both their ranged and melee output is great for dealing with hordes, and in both cases is decently tuned for the Lucius Skitarii menace (as the heavy bolters are D2 and the melee has good AP). Add in the fact that they’re a little tougher (now sharing a 5+++ with the Penitent Engines) and they still seem like an excellent unit (even if Penitents now seem much more real as well!).

Hopefully this list provides some healthy re-assurance for all those Sisters players out there – there’s new toys on show, but lots of the old units still have a part to play (especially since if you go this route, most of a second MM Retributor squad can be re-purposed to provide the heavy weapon models for the Battle Sister MSUs). It also looks like a lot of fun to play both with and against, so let’s hope more players try out this option amongst the AdMech and Drukhari hell that is the rest of the metagame. Fantastic work from Timothy showing the way for the Emperor’s faithful.

Junior Aflleje – Blood Angels – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Sanguinary Guard, Inceptors and VolCons provide peak melee and shooting performance.
• Null Zone on a jump pack lets you land a crucial alpha strike.
• Bladeguard MSUs provide serious extra punch thanks to Blood Angels boosts.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Junior has become a semi-regular fixture in these columns, and plenty of the same toys he’s piloted to success in the past are on show here. His lists lean heavily on the power of the Blood Angels chapter tactic and superdoctrine, which between them mean that melee units of pretty much any size can become devastating threats on demand. Taking a big old swig from the Blood Chalice of the Sanguinary Priest lets even mid-sized squads of Sanguinary Guard hit as hard as the nastiest melee blenders from other factions, and having one unit with each weapon lets you pick the squad most suited to the opponent’s best targets to boost up. Once turn three rolls around, MSUs of Bladeguard also become a terminal threat to the vast majority of targets, meaning that the opponent is pressured to try and prise them out of wherever they’re hiding early on, which might make them overextend.

All told, this army gets to tick off “lethal in melee” for a far lower expenditure of points than most lists can. That frees up plenty of points to spend on shooting support, making this list extremely flexible. The classic unit of Inceptors (excellent in Blood Angels thanks to various jump pack support strats) and an Eradicator MSU are joined by the biggest new addition since last time we looked at one of Junior’s build – two Volkite Contemptors. These were already one of the best units in the Marine roster, and providing buckets of S6 D2 firepower with bonus mortals positions them ideally for blasting Lucius Skitarii to pieces. Normally my frenzied hatred of all things resin would be pinging something fierce about now, but even I’m willing to accept that the existence of this model is a necessary evil right now, as it’s helping keep the meta far more interesting than it could be – if you’re a Marine or Death Guard player, make sure these are on your shopping list.

Here, they really solidify the army’s status as a jack of all trades, and ensure it’s got some sort of plan against almost any opposition. That’s definitely Junior’s trademark, and it’s great to see him continue to perform with this army.

Logan Heath – Death Guard – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• The increasingly classic Poxwalker/Deathshroud/Contemptor flavour of Death Guard picks up another podium placing.
• Extreme buff stacking lets the hardcore units throw out horrific damage.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Now obviously first up it’s important to highlight that naming your units then placing in the top four is an incredibly powerful flex more normally reserved for the wilds of the Australian metagame, so good work on that right out of the gate.

Beyond that, this is reasonably standard for the kind of things we’ve seen do well out of Death Guard recently, but adds a new spin in just how hard it goes on stacking buffs. Three Relic Contemptors sitting around a Lord of Virulence and a Tollkeeper Tallyman represents a truly ferocious amount of ranged damage, something that’s only amplified by the fact that a big brick of Poxwalkers can and probably will be bringing the Ferric Blight forward via Flash Outbreak for the early turns. Even if you get past the Poxwalkers charging into the main firebase of the army is a pretty daunting prospect, as Deathshrouds backed by the Revolting Stench Vats of the Foul Blightspawn provide an extremely durable anvil.

The major difference here from other spins on this army is how those Deathshrouds are set up. Rather than going with the standard 3×3, Logan’s list invests in two units of five and backs them up with a Biologus Putrifier. Applying Foul Infusion to their Manreapers within the Arch-Contaminator aura is going to result in them dropping catastrophic numbers of Mortals on whatever they swing against, detonating damn near anything they want. That lets them fill one of the most desireable damage dealing roles in the game – a horde sweeping unit that can trivially change focus and eradicate something with high quality defences when required. It’s a neat trick, and the army even maximises the value it gets from the Putrifier by bringing a unit of Death Guard to lob grenades. This isn’t just being cute either – up against a Skitarii horde, combining Blight Racks and The Blightening lets you lob 24 AP-1 D2 plague weapon shots into a unit (as you essentially get to throw four grenades, three that get set to pistol 6 and one using the squad’s normal grenade allocation). That’s going to tear a big hole in a unit, and it’s something that opponents may well not see coming (unless they read this column, so, sorry I guess).

Army lists that take a high performing strategy and add a unique clever trick are our bread and butter here at Competitive Innovations, and this is a fine entry into that cannon. Congratulations to Logan.

Joel Wilson – Deathwatch – 4th ✪ Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• The minor Deathwatch renaissance continues with a Kill Team fiesta.
• 3×3 Eliminators make a triumphant return to a top table list.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

After quite a while languishing in the doldrums a few people have been giving Deathwatch a go recently, and this list provides a spectacular showcase for one of their signature tricks – Kill Teams. Using fancy mix-and-match technology, this list puts together a suite of units that has something for every occasion. Broadly, they look like they break down as follows:

• The Fortis team and the frag cannon unit are on the plan of putting expendable bodies between the opponent and high quality weapons, providing severe attrition against the opponent until they can muster the resources to crack through the outer layers.
• The Cyclone team is an even more extreme version of the same thing, ripe for picking up the huge suite of buffs that this list can throw out while squatting on an objective and performing Actions thanks to Optimised Priority.
• The melee team provides a nightmare wrecking ball that has some exceptionally tough models to soak up the first hits.
• The final Proteus team probably Combat Squads so it can split out the Bikers to roam around the board as a fast, ObSec bundle of wounds.

All these units are a challenge to shift, can do massive damage when suitably unleashed, and with the exception of the Fortis team (which plausibly uses a Teleportarium on light boards) have fairly robust defences. The only historical problem with running Kill Team heavy lists like this is not having enough models to occupy the table with, and on that front Chapter Approved has ridden to the rescue. Eliminators are priced to move at 75pts for a squad, and are pretty much exactly what Deathwatch are looking for in this slot – cheap, able to finish off targets you don’t want to assign the full wrath of a Kill Team to, and providing some deployment and Action flexibility in games where that matters – don’t forget that they’re PHOBOS, so can use Guerilla Tactics to bug out Turn 4 then pop in on 5 to finish off the last tick of ROD. Combining with the fact that they’re pretty good just on rate now, we expect to see these sneaking back into various Marine flavours, but they’re clearly at their best in builds that are leaning on some big death star units and need cheap protection for the home field. As a final sting in the tail here, one unit has the Banebolts of Eryxia on the Sergeant, significantly boosting the chances of them collaborating to punk a key buff character.

Especially as there are some neat tricks you can do with them in Kill Teams as well, the discount on Eliminators really does feel like an extra shot in the army for a book that people were already finding some cool new angles on, and given that Deathwatch are one of the coolest chapters out there we’re thrilled to see it. Great work from Joel (especially playing all the way to table 1 in the final).

The Rest of the Best

• 5th – Christopher Powell – Chaos: Iron Warrior Daemon Engines (buffed by Daemonsmith) and Emperor’s Children Noise Marines line up to blow opposing armies clean off the board, while a small Daemon detachment with Nurglings and Furies provides some efficient objective utility units.
• 6th – Forest Johnson – Drukhari: While AdMech are this week’s big news in terms of taking trophies, Drukhari haven’t gone anywhere and are still sporitng an eye-watering win rate (higher than AdMech’s overall). This list wins the accolade of going hardest on Raiders of any successful build I’ve seen, packing a massive eight of them and filling them with a mix of Trueborn, full Kabalite squads with the same gun loadout as the standard Trueborn unit, and bulked up Wych squads. This creates a seriously skewed target profile that’s going to punish anyone that’s eased back on the anti-Raider tech extremely hard.
• 7th – Howie Chong – Drukhari: A less skewed Drukhari list that sports all the Black Heart and Strife hits from the pre-FAQ armies, and spends points that are no longer going on Technomancers stuff on taking a unit each of Reavers and Hellions plus plenty of Blades for Hire.

Waaagh Fest GT

Rob and Scott are covering this event.

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

Nick Antzoulatos – Adeptus Mechanicus – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Two units of 6 Ironstrider Balistarii sporting a total of 12 Cognis Lascannon and 24 Cognis Autocannon shots, which is enough to delete almost any monster or vehicle including something like say, a Seraptek Heavy Construct
• A unit of Pteraxii Sterylizors to drop in, perform actions, shoot, and then fly away
• Three massive units of Skitarii Vanguard to make use of Enriched Rounds

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Rob: As you may have seen elsewhere in the article, the Adeptus Mechanicus lists are exploding onto the scene this week. In the wake of the Drukhari spring we were worried about the impacts of AdMech summer and well, it looks like those fears were absolutely founded. Drukhari haven’t gone anywhere but Admech are also here dominating the scene and are pushing out a lot of other lists since they can effectively wreck anything that might otherwise work well against Drukhari, particularly the vehicle-heavy lists that had been doing well in a meta dominated by Incubi and Wyches. Nick’s list comes with two units of Ironstrider Ballistari that have, between them, all the firepower needed to take down Vehicle threats both big and medium-sized. Luminescent Blessing on the Manipulus helps protect the units along with his Analyses of the Logos Holy Order ability (incoming attacks with AP-1 or -2 become AP 0), which is crucial since they’ll often be used for scoring To the Last. The list also packs three massive squads of Skitarii Vanguard that can be teleported in with the Lucius stratagem to delete any non-vehicle targets using the Enriched Rounds Stratagem.

The other “cute” trick it’s bringing to the table is the unit of Pteraxii Sterylizors who, thanks to some terrible rules writing and the lack of an FAQ, can drop onto the table in the Reinforcements step of your Movement phase, perform an action like Retrieve Octarius Data, then at the end of the turn after the action completes you can spend 1 CP on Booster Thrust to pull that unit from the table and bring it back during the following Movement phase (this works because as the active player, you control the order these effects resolve in). This means that a unit of Pteraxii can functionally drop in on turn 2, perform the Retrieve Octarius Data, jump back up, and do the same thing again on turns 3, 4, and 5, staying on the table in a safe place on the final turn. That’s 12 nearly free victory points for Octarius Data, plus another 5 for To the Last, since at 190 points they’re the third unit you’ll be nominating for the secondary objective. You may have also noticed the three units of Serberys Raiders as well – it’s a very mobile list, and very capable of scoring Engage on All Fronts from holding multiple table quarters. The Pteraxii also let you score those points before they fly off the table again, letting you essentially guarantee you’ll hit all four quarters every turn from 2 onward. If you’re keeping track at home, that’s 20-22 free victory points from a single 190-point unit that your opponent cannot interact with at all. Just stellar stuff. If there’s anything in Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus crying out for an immediate FAQ fix, it’s these winged clowns.

Scott: Having lost to Nick in round 3 of this tournament in a 62-71 loss, I can say he used his Pteraxii to great effect to score secondaries and clear objective-holding units. I’ll be writing more on this game in my pending tournament report!

Alan Blakeborough – Astra Militarum – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Ranged support battery of two Manticores and a Basilisk
• A trio of Scout Sentinels
• Lots and lots of Catachan infantry squads
• A pair of Miltarum Tempestus Command Squads sporting plasmas and meltas, respectively

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Rob: The Astra Militarum finally make a top four showing in Competitive Innovations but sadly do not give the faction their first showing for 40kstats’ TiWP statistic owing to opening up the event with a round 1 loss to the Adepta Sororitas. I’ll admit that most of my experience with the Astra Militarum comes from dumpstering Scott Horras’ army with my Death Guard (Scott Note: 🙁 ) but this particular variation isn’t too far removed from those lists.

Scott: The first reason this is interesting in 9e is that… it’s a freaking Guard list, huzzah! Alan has brought along a regiment that has stood the test of time: Catachan. While our custom regiments might be better for tank-focused, or infantry-focused lists, Catachan gives you some great benefits to both your tanks and your infantry while also giving you access to a fantastic lineup of special characters. The pile of Catachans gives you pretty good board control in this list and the classic combination of Straken and a Ministorum Priest get those muscly bois tossing 3 dice apiece. I think the value of this classic tech has gone up in recent days as SoB, DE, and Admech are the major players in town now; notably all T3 armies. Alan sprinkles in a little of your base in 9e by including the double Full Payload Manticore for some strong indirect shooting and doesn’t leave home without his Tank Commander; two units I consider absolutely necessary for competing with Guard in 9e. Scout Sentinels seem like the natural pick to fill out this Brigade, and when equipped with multi-lasers, I presume their job was primarily to score unthreatened objectives or score secondary objectives. I’d be tempted to smack some heavy flamers onto them if the points were there, but at 35 points they’re a pretty decent pick to hold uncontested objectives, and you don’t feel too bad if you have to sacrifice them to score.

Onto his patrol detachment. Alan’s brought along my second favorite Tempestus Scions regiment: Iotan Gorgonnes. The Gorgonnes are cheeky lads with a very potent Stratagem – Daring Descent, which allows a Scion unit to deep strike at 5″ instead of 9″. Not only is this Stratagem exceptionally handy for sneaking onto loosely held objectives and scoring secondaries; for Alan, it allows him to drop that spicy melta command squad within melta range off of the deep strike, or drop one of those full-strength hotshot lasgun squads within rapid fire range. This detachment is just a fantastic utility pick that allows Alen to score secondaries, threaten targets directly off of the deepstrike, and lean harder into board control. I will admit, I’m genuinely confused by his pick of Sanctity of Spirit on his Progeny of Conflict, I think I’d reach for Old Grudges before that, but it’s clearly worked out for him.

This is a list that clearly built to lean heavily into board control and bring just enough killing power to push those 120 bodies over the edge into a reasonable list. I’ve been considering a list like this for a while, but I’m very glad to see an examplar of it in the wild. It’s a shame he took a loss in round 1; we’re still looking for that coveted first TiWP in 9e! You’ll see a very different take on 9e Guard once I get to typing up my tournament own report for Waaagh fest!

Mike Ellison – Necrons – 3rd ✪ Place

The List

Note: Based on the precedent of the FAQ recently applied to Typhus, the event ruled that Szarekh being a Dynastic Agent meant he was exempt from the rule that normally stops you from taking units from multiple dynasties in the same detachment.

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• A super-heavy detachment running a Monolith, the Silent King, and a Seraptek, for a cool 1,460 points
• No seriously, a Seraptek and a Monolith
• A Transcendant C’Tan
• An actual Monolith

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

OK so before we dive into this, the Cadillac of lists, it’s important to note that it comes with a caveat – the list is not technically legal thanks to the Silent King’s rules not actually allowing you to build detachments with him and units from other dynasties, owing to the fact that he has the SZAREKHAN Dynasty keyword in addition to having DYNASTIC AGENT. This is the same problem that Death Guard players had with Typhus until the June FAQs fixed his wording (although it’s still a bit off). In this case, the TO for the event ruled that Szarekh should work like Typhus (this is the right call and I applaud the TO for doing it), opening us up to this wonderful list. The big benefit here is the Novokh Dynasty bonus on the Monolith, which can deep strike and get +1 to its charge rolls. Only having to go 8″ with a CP re-roll is a huge boost on your odds of making a successful charge the turn you arrive. Once you do get into melee, the Monolith can gleefully use its Portal of Exile to drop 6 S8 AP-3, 3-damage attacks, which get bumped up to AP-4 with the Novokh trait and can be further bumped by an extra attack in a pinch with the Novokh Stratagem Blood Rites, though it isn’t the most efficient play for an army giving up 3 CP for its main detachment (you get 3 back from Szarekh being your Warlord).

In addition to the Monolith you also have a Seraptek Heavy Construct, the oft-forgotten Forge World Necron Titan. Its Imperial Armour Compendium datasheet is a far cry from the glory of its old downloadable PDF version but it still packs a nasty punch, with 6 attacks that can be either made at S16, AP-3, 5 damage or doubled up on to get S8 Ap-1, 2 damage, the latter of which benefit significantly from the Novokh trait and Stratagem buffs. And the shooting it gets with its Synaptic Obliterators (two Heavy D3, S16 AP-4, 6 damage guns) and Transdimensional projectors (Heavy D6, S6 AP-2 1 damage, blast) aren’t too shabby either.

In addition to these two Titans is Szarekh, good as he always was. The big idea here is the same as any list running several big things: Give an opponent three large, durable units and force them to make decisions about threat priority and how to mass their firepower to deal with each one, hoping that by the time they’ve taken out one, the other two are already in their face causing problems they’ll be unable to recover from. In that same sense, the Transcendant C’Tan makes a lesser fourth option for this group, another very difficult to kill unit that can punish opponents who don’t take the little star god seriously. That means an opponent taking on this list needs the ability to kill a Seraptek from a distance on turn 1. The bad news for this particular list is that the first place Admech list is equipped to do that, packing 12 twin Cognis Lascannons which, with standard buffs from the Marshall and doctrina imperatives, will do an average of 38 wounds to a Seraptek Construct in a single round of shooting.

The good news is that Mike still tore through Space Wolves, Adepta Sororitas, and Drukhari en route to the final table, and put up a reasonable showing in the final game (91-73). There’s a lot to like about this list, even if it does depend quite a bit on TOs ruling sensibly on the Silent King. Its other biggest hurdle is deployment: It can be very difficult to deploy a Seraptek on some maps, and deep striking a Monolith isn’t going to be feasible against some lists just due to its enormous size. That said, if you’re looking to replicate this list at home you might be better off dropping the Seraptek from this list and taking a second Monolith, which is easier to deploy and play with while still offering you a heck of a punch and good durability (It also frees you up about 300 points to play with).

David Christensen – Death Guard – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• David runs empty on Plague Marines, taking three unit of Poxwalkers and one unit of Cultists as Troops
• A 10-model unit of Blightlords packing two flails
• A trio of Plagueburst Crawlers with Entropy Cannons
• A Foul Blightspawn for support

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Rob: As Drukhari and Admech have risen, Death Guard lists have shifted further toward terminator-heavy builds supported by vehicles This list does the same thing we saw a few weeks ago, going heavy on terminators with a squad of 10 Blightlords and two units of Deathshrouds, only David has opted to go more melee-heavy on the terminators, giving them two flails. They’re supported by a Tallyman and a Foul Blightspawn and because the list can’t fit four units of Poxwalkers, it’s forced to carry a unit of Cultists. The upside is that the Cultists can still perform Spread the Sickness and are a bit faster (if less durable) than the poxwalkers. Supporting this core of terminators is a Daemon Prince rocking the Supparating Plate + Rotten Constitution combo, meaning he’ll completely shrug off any AP-1 or AP-2 attacks that come his way, while the Plaguecaster can buff the Terminator units, making them tougher and stronger. One of the nastier things about this list is that almost every unit in the forward group can perform a Heroic Intervention – the Terminators can all do so with the Relaptic Assault Stratagem from Mortarion’s Anvil, while the characters can do so natively and the Fleshmower Bloat-Drone can use Dark Cravings to intervene 6″. The results is a nasty, inexorable block of death that’s nearly impossible to charge without having to engage the entire mass, or at least the most devastating parts of it. The trio of Plagueburst Crawlers can play things a little safer, using their Entropy Cannons to take out vehicle targets across the table while the mortars allow them to stay mostly out of sight until they need to take their shots. Depending on the opponent, the Poxwalkers can screen them to stop anything from tying them up.

Death Guard on the whole seem like they’ve taken a hit against the barrage of new codexes designed to win 65%+ of their games, but the army is still built very well and the things it does well are exactly the kind of things you need to do to win games in 9th. How they’ll fare after the next few books is anyone’s guess but at the moment it looks like they’re still hovering in the high 50s for win percentage and cracking top 4s.

The Rest of the Best

• 5th – Philipp Kovac – Drukhari: Lots of the standard Drukhari toys on show here, but also a new challenger in the form of the Prophets of the Flesh, putting up a big unit of liquifier Grotesques as a strong To The Last option.
• 6th – Bob Ezell – Adeptus Mechanicus: A final AdMech list to round things out – and it’s a completely wild swing from any of the others, packing in two trios of Kastelan robots (using their new, flexible fist/gun option) in a Data Hoard Forge World detachment, with a big brick of Sydonian Dragoons providing an even heftier melee punch. Nice to see that while there’s a very clear “best build” out of the gate that there’s some depth as well.

Wrap Up

That’s it for a blowout weekend, and thanks again to the rest of the team for pitching in to help out. Things are a bit quieter next week, but we’ll still have a couple of events to take a look at, with a GT and a four-round one dayer from Australia. We’ll see if the sinister tendrils of Skitariinet have seized control down under as well. Until then, if you have any comments, questions or suggestions you can reach us at contact@goonhammer.com.