9th Edition status: still here. Quieter than last week, but still live and kicking, and alarmingly infested with Daemonic forces this week. It’s the season for it, apparently. Today we’re looking at:

Storm Of Silence Warhammer 40k Grand Tournament (major)
Clan Wars Scottish Open 3 (major)
Saffron Slam (which Lowest of Men will be covering since he was there!)
CT GT
Canadian Tabletop Championship Open

Showdown wise, there aren’t enough for there to be a vote this week, so I’m just going to hit the majors and Lowest of Men will cover the Slam. Let’s go.

The 12th Annual Storm Of Silence Warhammer 40k Grand Tournament

94-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Spokane, WA United States on May 13 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

There were several undefeated matches in the final round, i’ve picked the one that produced the eventual winner and the highest ranked 4-1 player. The top table was also streamed by The Gamer’s Haven and you can see it here.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Death and Zeal

Kasra Houshidar – Ultramarines: All-rounder Ultramarines with some strong Infantry shooting (including a full squad of Intercessors for maximum double-shooting goodness) and Bobby G at the head.
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Marshall Reeves – Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff with the Triumph as an extra buff engine, some Warsuits and more transports than normal.
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Two nicely balanced all-rounder lists here, both sporting a mixture of shooting and melee threats, plus some spicy alpha units. From the Sororitas side, there’s definitely going to be a sigh of relief breathed that they bothered to bring a second Rhino, as that gives them plenty of ways to protect their squishy toys from early onslaughts from Desolation Marines. The Warsuits also seem pretty good here, as Grav won’t do much to clear them, and Miracle dice can help protect them against the few biggers shots that the Ultramarines have. That’s not to say this is all one way, mind – Kasra’s Ultramarines (last seen in the Streamhouse RTT) are much better equipped to win any sort of direct, prolonged clash, especially with the sheer amount of damage that the big Intercessor unit can throw out into Sororitas Infantry. Their Secondaries are potent here too, able to convincingly line up against the Sisters’ ones – Shock Assault is pretty live in Death and Zeal, the army is built well for Codex Warfare even after the nerf, and playing Oaths is definitely an option.

Both sides have plenty of ways to play for the table, both have good Secondaries, so it feels like a lot is going to come down to who can make fights happen on their terms. Sisters want to use their powerful trade tools to run the Ultramarines out of units first, while the Marines want to force the Sisters to engage them in a direct, more grindy battle that they can emerge victorious from. Taking Oaths certainly helps with the latter, particularly because the Sisters answers to Guilliman aren’t fantastic, so ramming him to the centre and demanding a fight feels like a real strategy. However, the go-wide nature of Death and Zeal and the fact that the Sisters have multiple of Transports for staging really helps them, as it gives them plenty of ways to line up Miraculous charges that wipe out key Ultramarine units.

Realistically, I think that makes this anyone’s game, but if pinned down I’d narrowly call it for the Ultramarines – I think they forget taking Shock Assault and go for Banners instead, then play a turtling game plan in the mid board that leverages Defensive Focus to blunt the Sisters key charges. That’s now how things went down however – the Sisters were able work around these challenges and take a narrow victory.

Result

Adepta Sororitas Victory – 93 – 87

Marshall Reeves – Adepta Sororitas – 1st Place

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Bloody Rose Goodstuff

Thoughts

Bloody Rose for the Desolation era, going for a mix of additional transports, units that are reasonably resilient to the chip damage (Sacresants, Warsuits), and units that are good for firing and forgetting out of Strategic Reserves or Deep Strike to play for victory. It worked, so well done to Marshall, particularly because we haven’t seen many Sisters builds on top recently.

Alex Macdougall – Genestealer Cult – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Industrial Neophyte/Bike Spam

Thoughts

In second place we have long-time Hive Mind master Alex, taking the second undefeated slot with one of the variants of the horde builds that have been performing strongly in Arks. Mostly it’s business as usual here – loads of respawning bodies, great Secondary play, huge burst damage on go turns and some nice utility characters. A choice that stands out from Alex’s list on the second front is the combo of a Reductus Saboteur and the Oppressors Bane – this gives all her weapons Crossfire, making her an alarmingly deadly spike damage tool and good utility piece, adding some extra killing power on top of the Kelermorph, especially into Monster/Vehicle targets that might otherwise wade through the hordes. Always cool to see some extra spice added to the recipe, and well done Alex on the big finish.

Donald Plummer – T’au Empire – 3rd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Bor’kan hulls

Thoughts

Our third and final undefeated player from the vent also makes an unconventional choice – sticking with Sun Sharks. That allows the list to present a pretty durable initial target profile (especially with the Bork’an buff) then hit very hard with a beta strike, and brutally punishing opponents who can’t immediately clear the planes the turn they come down, swinging the momentum of the game in the Tau’s direction, and letting them dominate later scoring. A masterful demonstration of the patient hunter from Donald.

Kasra Houshidar – Ultramarines – 4th Place

The List

See showdown

Archetype

All-rounder Ultramarines

Thoughts

As per the showdown – just a nice, normal mix of Marines, to be honest. It honesly speaks pretty well to where Arks is overall that a balanced mix of Space Marine units with a few key combo pieces can get this close to winning a major. Well done to Kasra for making Macragge proud.

The Best of the Rest

There were 12 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

5th – Jaden Iwaasa – Chaos Knights: An ultra-tooled Magaera and lots of War Dog friends as a mix of Herpetrax and Dreadblade.
6th – Linton Rowan – Space Wolves Successors: Lots of Wulfen, Skyclaws and Wolf Guard with all the meltaguns they can carry, and Bobby G in charge for the sweet 7″ Deep Strike charges with Hungry For Battle.
7th – John Holbrook – Word Bearers: A giant brick of Possessed and lots of hangers on.
8th – Ken Bush – Votann: GTL 2Fort with some Beserks and various shooty MSUs.
9th – Scott de Wynter-Wilkie – Orks: Heavy-duty Freebooterz with a bunch of buggies, two Kannonwagons and a goddam Kustom Stompa.
10th – Will Hellebrand – Necrons: Combined arms Nihilakh with some spicy shooting threats and a big brick each of Lychguard and Wraiths, alongside standard objective grabbing pieces.
11th – Riley Davis – Thousand Sons & Daemons: Duplicity with a big Scarab brick and a pet Lord of Change.
12th – Christopher Weatherford – Adeptus Custodes: Emissaries going all-in on ramming a full bike squad into the opponent’s face. Also sporting the best new team name I’ve seen in a while – Rain City Wych Pigeons, no notes on that.
13th – Michael Kriegler – Black Legion: Abaddon with a full Terminator retinue and lots of cheap Helbrutes and Decimators.
14th – Austin Tiffany – World Eaters: Angron gets involved, alongside big units of Berzerkers to maximise Blood Fury.
15th – David Burdett – Thousand Sons: Duplicity with a truly alarming number of Rubric units.
16th – Ryan Zecchel – Chaos Daemons: Monster mash with Be’lakor, a Bloodthirster and Big Bird.

Clan Wars Scottish Open 3

58-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Scotland GB on May 13 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

This event was using 20-0 scoring, and there was a top table round 6 after 5 normal rounds.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Conversion

Fraser McFetridge – Chaos Daemons: Monster Mash with Skarbrand, Bird and the Indomitable Thirster.
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Brian Seipp – Aeldari: Hail of Doom with all the Dire Avengers and a big Windrider blob.
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Another corners deployment, but this one feels a bit more one-sided compared to this week’s first showdown – this Craftworlds list is very well equipped to ruin the Daemon’s day here. They’re going to have to play cat-and-mouse a bit, but the reliable, volume firepower that Hail throws out lets them quickly clear the smaller Daemon units, and the big shuriken Windrider blob is appallingly deadly into, well, all of this. Throw guide on them and they’ll even take serious chunks out of Big Bird, and the Kuornos Bow Farseer or Shining Spears are great, high reach tools for plinking off a few remaining wounds. Once the Bird is gone, Baharroth and Kharandras can make it extremely tricky for the Daemons to flip objectives, resulting in a pretty inevitable elf triumph, albeit one with many casualties as the Bloodthirsters go on the rampage.

The Daemons really want to try an all-out, all hands gut punch to overcome that, but being in a situation where none of their big threats can start on the table and all of their smaller units will quickly die on emergence makes that super hard. They really, really need Be’lakor in this matchup specifically, as he’s the only big Daemon that the Windriders don’t scare the hell out of, and can use his Warp Locus tricks to set up the kind of swing moment that the Daemons are looking for. Without that, while it’s not completely pre-ordained how this is going to go, you’d call if for the Eldar a solid four times out of five, and that’s the way this went down.

Result

Craftworlds Victory – 15 – 5

Brian Seipp – Craftworlds – 1st Place

Windriders with Shuriken Cannons. Credit: Rockfish

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Hail of Doom

Thoughts

I mean it’s a bold move into a metagame with 30 Desolation Marine lists, but also Brian beat that handily in round two, so I say let him cook. Hail is still the absolute peak damage-dealing elf list, and being able to cause a terminal existence failure for even the toughest of opposition saw Brian through to the big win.

Fraser McFetridge – Chaos Daemons – 2nd Place

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Monster Mash

Thoughts

It’s a little bit of a shame that this list ran into a Craftworld build that’s so effectively able to counter it, as I do like what Fraser has done a lot here. Combining the ultra durable monster mash hits with lots of small units of the three Fs gives you a bit of the best of both worlds, high pressure when you need it, expendable board control when you don’t. It’s an interesting addition to the Daemonic pantheon, it just really, really doesn’t like playing against Hail of Doom specifically. So uh, try not to do that next time I guess, and well done Fraser on second.

Innes Wilson – Adeptus Astartes – 3rd Place

White Scars Command Squad. Credit – Soggy

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Melee Scars

Thoughts

Clearly winning Warhammer Fest has finally sated Innes’ hunger for missile-based violence, and he’s returned to tradition by bringing a melee Scars build that slams into the opponent’s face at breakneck speed and hammers them to death. Ride the Winds and Bobby G’s aura provide even more speed and reliability, with the latter also acting as a late game hammer and shoring up the Oaths game when going first, and the final result is uncomplicated but pretty potent, and liable to catch opponents who have forgotten just what Scars can do out. Well done to Innes on third place.

Ryan Kerr – Iron Hands – 4th Place

Desolation Squad in the scheme of the Rainbow Warriors — Desolation Squad by Craig “MasterSlowPoke” Sniffen

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Iron Hands Desolation Spam.

Thoughts

Nope.

Nope Nope Nope.

I guess there is innovation here – Superkraks out of Impulsors is cute, going for normal Hands for extra resilience in a list that wants to grind the opponent out (and doesn’t care as much as usual about Master Artisans), but I’m going to advance the opinion that this is a case where army list science has focused on too much on whether you could build this list rather than whether you should. I shall say well done to Ryan anyway, but know that I am shaking my head to show that I disapprove.

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

5th – Conar Leach – Necrons: Nihilakh with lots of Skorpekh, a big Lokhust brick and two full blocks of Scarabs for maximum board clogging.
6th – Nicholas Malone – Iron Hands Successors: All-rounder Succesosrs with VanVets and Scouts alongside the shooty stuff.
7th – Adam Risbridger – Astra Militarum: Krieg Infantry and three Baneswords. Concern.

The Saffron Walden GT

46-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England GB on May 13 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Death and Zeal

Jonny Simmons – Cult Mechanicus: Lucius with a mix of expendable objective grabbers and big hammer units for both melee and ranged combat.
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Jack Tite – Chaos Daemons: Disciples of Be’lakor with some Korvax Brigands to add shooting.
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

A lesser seen showdown on the top table at Saffron Slam, as the Adeptus Mechanicus make the final against the more typically seen Chaos Daemons. This Lucius build is out to take names at range, with massed fire from Rangers and Vanguard support with high incision Las-Chicken shots. There is a substantial melee counterpunch waiting for any that get too close, with Ruststalkers and Electro Priests lurking. Raiders can screen out ground and run harassment- the overall balance of tricks here (with the obligatory Solar Flare for optional alpha striking) is really nice. The volume alone definitely gives Chaos Daemons pause for thought, as do auto-wounding and mortal wound mechanics on offer across some of the key pieces. Unalterable saves can only take you so far in the face of such high volume shooting!

On the Daemon side, Jack Tite continues his recent run with the War Dog / Disciples of Be’Lakor combination. Go-wide MSU with hounds, fiends, flamers, and some amped up Beasts of Nurgle- but not a Daemonette in sight, bucking some trends in the Daemon world at the moment! Some of the stratagems and tricks you can unlock via the War Dogs in this list can come in clutch – a Pterrorshades mortal wound snipe goes a long way in a list packing the sheer weight of Leadership debuffs that this is! Jack has torn through shooting type armies all year and the plan here will remain the same- grind out an edge in Primary and Secondary scoring and threaten a complete shutdown into the unwary. In this instance on Death and Zeal, with its very generous primary top-up, it looks like it went right to the wire, with the two toolkits on display very nearly cancelling each other out before the Daemons edged it for the win. Very well done Jack!

Result

Chaos Daemons Victory – 97 – 92

Jack Tite – Chaos Daemons – 1st Place

Be’lakor, The Dark Master. Credit: Skails

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Disciples of Be’lakor

Thoughts

All the tricks that Be’lakor’s team bring to the table, as discussed in the Showdown.

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on one loss. They were:

2nd – Jonny Simmons – Cult Mechanicus: The Lucius combined arms build from the showdown.
3rd – Mike Cheng – Death Guard: Mixed arms Inexorable Death Guard with Plageburst Crawlers, Drones, lots of Plague Marines, a Contemptor, and the Lord of Virulence.
4th – Josh French – Chaos Knights: A Powerful Herpetrax build with the Abominant, a Desecrator, and a bunch of supporting doggos.
5th – Aarron Wilson – Orks: Goff Pressure with some Squigbuggies for the artillery wars!
6th – David MG – Orks: Goff Pressure with triple Kill Rigs.
7th – James McGlough: Born Soldiers Goodstuff with a tonne of artillery, and Sly Marbo for being a hero.
8th – Franco McDonnell: Chaos Daemons msu with Belly and the Thirster at the head.
9th – Lee Jones: Another take on the Disciples / War Dogs combo with some variety in the msu.

GT-CT

46-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Cartagena, Región de Murcia ES on May 13 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Alejandro Mancuso Serrano – Blood Angels – 1st Place

Primaris Chapter Master Dante. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Jump Pack Spam with Helverins

Final Round Matchup

100 – 32 Victory against Miguel Durá – Orks.

Thoughts

Big Dante – still very much Dante. This build combines the hefty melee punch Blood Angels are famed for with an honestly fairly strong shooting phase – Mysterious Guardian Helverins are a great add-on for a list like this because of how non-negotiable their early damage is, and free inferno pistols provides some up-close spike damage as well. Round out with a Whirlwind for the classic Suppression Fire into damgerous melee targets, and you’ve got a build ready for all-comers, which it duly defeated – well done Alejandro.

The Best of the Rest

There were N more players on X-1 records. They were:

2nd – Xandre Ramos – World Eaters: Angron is clearly having a very busy week, as here he is once more leading his minions to a strong second place finish in the hands of Xandre (who is clearly a big fan of monstrous Khorne creations, as I had the pleasure of playing a great game against his Lord of Skulls at Warhammer Fest).
3rd – Victor Goñi – Astra Militarum: Born Soldiers Goodstuff with some Earthshakers and a Dorn.
4th – Raven – World Eaters: …another Angron list. Was there a memo I missed. Does Angron send memos? He doesn’t seem like the type.
5th – Cuervo Marcos – Dark Angels: Black Knights, Attack Bikes and Desolation Marines, with a squad of Infiltrators to keep options open on Stubborn.
6th – Miguel Durá – Orks: Horde Deathskullz with Kill Rigs and some Burna Boyz doing drive-bys in a Trukk.
7th – Angel C4KILLER – Drukhari: Coven-heavy Drukhari with lots of Grotesques to clog up the board.
8th – Teniente Tillas – Leagues of Votann: GTL 2Fort.
9th – Husa Lord Six Adeptus Custodes: Emissaries with a big bike brick to ram into the enemy.

CTC Warhammer 40k Championship Open

38-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Ottawa, ON Canada on May 13 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

This event used 20-0 scoring.

Bruno Choquette – Chaos Daemons – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Maximum Board Control Daemons

Final Round Matchup

11 – 9 Victory against Vincent Koopmans – Dark Angels.

Thoughts

Yet another devious daemonic strategy at play here, which is overwhelming the enemy with the sheer number of relatively durable bodies they can field, coupled with reliable ObSec charges from the Daemonettes in an emergency thanks to the Warp Locus on the Enrapturess. Interesting use of the Warp Mists trait on here too – it maximises the chance of being able to pop Dark Invigoration on a turn you really need it, great in a build that’s all about outlasting the enemy on the table. That included an impressive win against the kind of melee-heavy build that can often cleave through Daemons in the final, so great work from Bruno.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd (4.5-0.5) – Maxime Rampen – World Eaters: Angron gets a second runaround for the week, this time with lots of Eightbound in tow.
3rd – Dominique Carette – Space Wolves Successors: Upgrade spam with some Helverins to add extra dakka.
4th – Éric Marcoux – Imperial Knights: Freeblade Lance with a Herald Errant and lots of Armigers.
5th – Eric McCartney – Drukhari: Board control heavy Drukhari with lots of small units in Transports and two Courts of the Archon.

Wrap Up

Dawn of the final <unknown period of time> – <unknown number> weeks remain. This joke will probably work better once we have an announcement of when 10th lands huh? Will revisit.

Competitive Innovations in 9th: Daemonic Embers

The 12th Annual Storm Of Silence Warhammer 40k Grand Tournament

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Death and Zeal

Thoughts

Result

Marshall Reeves – Adepta Sororitas – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Alex Macdougall – Genestealer Cult – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Donald Plummer – T’au Empire – 3rd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Kasra Houshidar – Ultramarines – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Clan Wars Scottish Open 3

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Conversion

Thoughts

Result

Brian Seipp – Craftworlds – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Fraser McFetridge – Chaos Daemons – 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Innes Wilson – Adeptus Astartes – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Ryan Kerr – Iron Hands – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

The Saffron Walden GT

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Death and Zeal

Thoughts

Result

Jack Tite – Chaos Daemons – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

GT-CT

Alejandro Mancuso Serrano – Blood Angels – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Final Round Matchup

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

CTC Warhammer 40k Championship Open

Bruno Choquette – Chaos Daemons – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Final Round Matchup

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Wrap Up

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