Buckle up readers, this week Arks is fully hitting its stride, and some frontrunners are starting to emerge. To the surprise of no one in particular, and the delight of Greg, Dark Angels appear to be the army to beat in Arks (with some other Marine flavours also making a splash), but the rest of the top pack is pretty interesting – Genestealer Cults, Aeldari and Custodes are all making up for lost time in Nephilim, and Daemons continue to thrive as their resilience against shooting really comes into its own.

We’ve got eight events for you this week, including three majors which means we’re due a double header.

Today we’ll be looking at:

Stud or Snotling (Major)
Beachhead Brawl (Major)
Il Colliseo Murciano
Northern Wastes VIII

On Friday we’ll be covering:

NurgleMania (Major)
Team Stonehammer Presents: The 36 Chambers
Hellstorm’s All Stars Heat 1
Savannah Showdown

Events ramping up means that democracy is healing, and the Goonhammer Patrons have voted that this week’s showdowns will be:

Astra Militarum vs. GSC at Northern Wastes VIII
Orks vs. Necrons at Team Stonehammer.

And, of course **long exhausted sigh**

Dark Angels vs. Dark Angels at Beachhead Brawl

Does the electorate fear Gregbot revoking their posting privileges, or are they just that committed to making me suffer? The results end up the same either way. Let’s go.

Stud or Snotling 2023

130-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Guelph, Ontario CA on February 11 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Sam Procopio – Blood Angels – 1st Place

Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

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Archetype

Blood Angels Jump Pack Spam

Final Round Matchup

93 – 91 Victory against TJ Lanigan – Chaos.

Thoughts

While big losers from Armour of Contempt going away, Blood Angels still kick ass in Arks, and this list shows why. Because of how powerful their Chapter Tactic is, you don’t need to seed that many fancy weapons into a Blood Angel squad to turn it into a bona fide melee powerhouse, meaning that Assault Squads and Scouts with free upgrades excel here. What the Sanguinary Guard have lost in durability, they also make up for with the addition of free inferno pistols, which means that their alpha turns can be even more shockingly brutal. Finally, discount Infiltrators are particularly relevant to lists that want to pressure the opponent, as they can mess with the opponent’s screening and add weight of numbers to an early push when required. This army hits hard and fast, and doesn’t give opponents much more than a turn to seriously react, so look for more top placings from it over the season. Well done to Sam for claiming victory and a coveted golden ticket.

Thomas Ogden – T’au Sept – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

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Archetype

Heavy Tau Sept

Thoughts

Ah, the logical conclusion of all Tau lists. No filler, just guns. If it doesn’t blow the opponent off the field pretty rapidly it’s going to struggle, but its threats have the resilience/evasion to win gunfights against most other shooting armies, and will take a horrifying toll on any army that can’t deplete its firepower at range. It’s also well placed to pick up Secondary points in the lategame after focusing on obliterating the opponent early, with both Aerospace Relays and Decisive Action easy to pick up once the dust starts to settle. I once again say to you – Triptide is eternal, Triptide is inevitable.

TJ Lanigan – Chaos – 3rd Place

Credit: Liebot – https://instagram.com/liebot_pics

The List

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Archetype

Monster Mash

Thoughts

Here we see one of our first examples of a list from a faction that’s having a serious breakout right now. Daemons did well in late Nephilim, including two top eight placings at the LVO, and they seem to be going from strength-to-strength in Arks. Pleasingly, they seem to have quite a few valid options for how to build the army, and variation with the build categories. TJ’s list here is very much on the Monster Mash plan, packing Skarbrand and an Indomitable Bloodthirster as extremely dangerous pressure threats, plus the ultra-resilient Big Bird as more of a grindy tool. Resilience against shooting feels like a big part of what’s driving Daemons success right now as the metagame gets gun heavy, and the fact that the big toys here die very hard against shooting is a huge plus.

That’s also true of the other standout in the list, which is the Fiends – you get a lot of wounds with a 4+ invulenerable save against guns for your points from this unit, and they’re speedy and great at picking up Marines, exactly what you want right now. They also provide some strong tech against Aeldari and mirror matches via Melodic Delirium, very welcome on something you’d take on rate anyway.

Last up, Skull Cannons are priced to move in Arks, and in general the various Daemonic vehicles are extremely aggressively costed for how durable they are on the table. Getting some actual bargains on your backfield filler units is good news, and is a definite strength of the army. This won’t be the last Daemons build we look at today, but it’s no surprise to see Chaos Master TJ leading the charge to top placings with them, coming within a few points of taking down the whole event.

Diogo Pita – Leagues of Votann – 4th Place

The List

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Archetype

Ymyr Goodstuff

Thoughts

Mostly this feels like the default template for how to play Votann right now – you can run Greater Thurian League too, but you basically can’t go wrong if you start with two Ymyr Fortresses with a unit of Beserks in each and at least two units of Bikes. That doesn’t leave you that much for anything else, to be fair, but there’s some flexibility. This list spends its flex points on a Grimnyr, opening up some Psychic Secondaries if you really need them, and two units of Thunderkyn, who provide a very efficiently costed threat to bring on from Strategic Reserves. Reserves becoming free and a mild point cut has really brought this unit into their own in Arks, and having some responsive threats that can pop up where needed really helps mitigate some of the Votann’s weaknesses. Votann also appear to be having a strong start in Arks despite some nerfs and weak Secondaries, and well done to Diogo for claiming victory for the Kin (smashing through multiple Dark Angels to do so).

The Best of the Rest

There were 10 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

5th – Vincent Koopman – Dark Angels: A powerful mixture of Ravenwing Speeders and two big Deathwing blocks, plus some Infiltrators to put Stubborn Defiance on the table in some games and screen people out.
6th – Jeremy “Curie” Atkinson – Dark Angels: Stat Check’s very own Curie was packing a much more Ravenwing-skewed flavour of Dark Angels, with one big Deathwing unit acting as an anchor for nine attack bikes and a trio of Storm Speeders Hammerstrike.
7th – John Winter Russell – Astra Militarum: Kasrkin, Plasma Russes and Lord Solar, a full armoured Sentinel blob for Fire and Fade shenanigans, and a Scion patrol to help with objectives. Also features some new tech that’s suddenly got a bit of chatter, which is that Death Korps Marshalls are effectively just Cadian Castellans for 15 fewer points. Forge World was a mistake.
8th – Brenton Weiss – Tau: Tau Sept Triptide, why not.
9th – Eric Marcoux – Imperial Knights: A fairly balanced Raven list sporting a Crusader in command of some Helverins and an Errant leading Warglaives to battle.
10th – Kevin Bonanno – Grey Knights: Dreadknights and Interceptors, with the new tech of a single Purgation squad as a bargain way to lock in a turn (or more if they survive) of Teleport Assault.
11th – François Lalonde – Iron Hands: Pretty much what you’d expect from Iron Hands right now – drop Devs (many), absurdly tooled scouts in speeders, the super Contemptor, more speeders and a Gladiator Reaper, all that jazz. Does also pack a scary squad of VanVets to threaten counter-charges, so trying to tag stuff in melee stays risky too.
12th – Devin Swann – Astra Militarum: Dorns for days – three of the steel monstrosities, with some Russes and other shooting backing them up.
13th – Ken May – Chaos Daemons: Monster Mash (Indomitable thirster, Skarbrand, Be’lakor) and Flamers.
14th – Thomas Polutnik – Chaos Daemons: Monster Mash (two thirsters and Big Bird), Flamers and a unit of Bloodcrushers for some variety.

Beachhead Brawl 2023 – SCS

129-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in England GB on February 10 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Tide of Conviction

Jay Seebarun – Dark Angels: Speedy-shooty skewed Dark Angels, packing lots of Attack Bikes and Black Knights anchored by one unit of Deathwing, and also featuring Infiltrators to screen out the opposition and (in some games, probably not this one) threaten Stubborn Defiance).

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vs.

Mani Cheema – Dark Angels: Crunchier Dark Angels, taking two big Deathwing units and Speeders to sit in the shooting role.
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Thoughts

Sometimes mirror matches are a complete nightmare to write about, but there’s enough differences between these two lists that a clear deciding factor emerges – the Mission. Both these armies can take a punch, and can push lots of guns at the opponent very quickly, but Mani’s build leans heavier into the durability, without no bikes as a partial weak point against enemy shooting, and a second unit of Deathwing if the first gets owned, while Jay’s is more focused on the high speed shooting, able to run rings around opponents and blast them away that much faster.

On a corner deploy hold 1/2 mission, that would very likely give Jay the upper hand – he could use the greater mobility and easier primary scoring to carve out a bit of time to blow the enemy up, and let Codex Warfare build. On Tide of Conviction, which is what’s being played here, the opposite is true – it’s a strong mission for Banners, and one where if you can’t stop the opponent pushing into you you’re going to lose out on Primary. The second unit of Terminators is king here, especially as it makes it far more plausible for Mani to take Oaths of Moment, and his list also isn’t super vulnerable to Codex Warfare. There certainly are versions of this game where Jay manages to strip out enough of Mani’s shooting then pivot to blasting the Terminators and use the end-game component of Tide to pull back a bit of Primary, but the strong balance of probability is for Mani to take it, and he did.

Result

Dark Angels Victory – 99 – 67

Mani Cheema – Dark Angels – 1st Place

The List

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Archetype

The future Greg Wanted.

Thoughts

Much the same as last week. Dark Angels – they’re very, very good, and here Mani has deployed them to earn a Golden Ticketn.

Liam Callebout – Chaos Daemons – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Be’lakor, The Dark Master. Credit: Skails

The List

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Archetype

Be’lakor Daemons

Thoughts

Not to be outdone by TJ, one of the UK’s leading Lords of Chaos piloted Daemons to an undefeated finish at Beachhead, pipped to victory only by Mani. Liam has also gone in on the power of Fiends, but elsewhere his army is more built around some of the cool stuff you can do with Be’lakor. Most notably, making him your Shadow Lord lets you amp up Flamers to the point where they’re almost as good as they used to be, while being able to Warp Portal Be’lakor then Warp Locus in Skarbrand gives you an absurd power play that either obliterates opponents who don’t know it’s coming, or forces debilitating levels of caution onto those that do. This list exerts extreme pressure and has some very strong tricks to play with, and also takes full advantage of the improved Secondary game Daemons have in Arks. It’s also very resilient to shooting, being easy to hide early on, very speedy and packed with good Daemon Saves. This list rules, and in the hands of a player of Liam’s calibre, it’s going to keep rising to glory.

Danny Evison – Iron Hands Successors – 3rd Place

Rainbow Warriors Relic Contemptor with Volkite Culverins by Craig “MasterSlowPoke” Sniffen

The List

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Archetype

Iron Hands Shooting

Thoughts

Ah yes, the other extremely horrifying thing you can do with the Marine point drops, held back from dominance only by Dark Angels being more flexible and decent in the mirror. That gives Iron Hands a somewhat higher chance of getting spiked out by an army that can play around their plan (Danny lost a narrow game to Genestealer Cult), but in terms of sheer, horrendous shooting brutality you can’t really do much better than this right now. Of particular note – at least one Gladiator Reaper feels like a must have, they’re extremely aggressively costed at this point, and give you some decent flexibility against Orks or the aforementioned Cult, and aren’t half bad at grinding down targets with Damage Reduction either. Well done to Danny on a podium finish.

Stephen Box – Asuryani – 4th Place

The List

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Archetype

Turbo Aspect Warrior Melee

Thoughts

Vanguard Tactics’ Steven Box rounds out the Beachhead top four with this very unique build. The combination of Vengeful, Children of Khaine and Ambush of Blades pushes the Aspect Warriors in this army over the top to a place where they’ll very reliably take down a lot of targets, and makes the big Scorpion unit a proper, full-blown melee nightmare. The Avatar, still my most beloved unit, adds a sturdier presence that can counter-charge into the few threats that are beyond the abilities of the Aspect Warriors, and D-Cannons help punish any enemy who tries to hover at mid range. I also really like the solution Steven has found for one of the problems lists like this can encounter. Glass-cannon melee infantry can hit real issues if the opponent pushes with melee threats on multiple fronts, as if they save the CP to use Counter-Offensive then you’re going to sacrifice valuable tools if you engage on multiple fronts. Here, packing multiple units of Banshees, Jain Zar and a speedy Banshee Mask Autarch means that if the army needs a full blown go turn, it can apply enough Fight Last to make it land. I think that’s the real x-factor here – without it you’d run too high a risk of stumbling, add that in and this is a serious army. Great stuff from Steven as ever, and he also came by far the closest to ending Mani’s rampage.

The Best of the Rest

There were 9 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

5th – Alex Petford – Chaos Knights: Maxing out on durability appears to be the plan to compete with Knights in a shooting meta, and Alex’s build achieves that with a Dark Master Knight Desecrator and as many Herpetrax War Dogs as can be fit alongside it.
6th – Nicholas Willingale – Genestealer Cults: Industrial Cult Neophyte/Bike spam.
7th – Jay Seebarun – Dark Angels: One Deathwing brick and lots of Ravenwing backup, with seven attack bikes and two units of Black Knights, plus Vengeances to finish things off.
8th – James Sharpiro – Leagues of Votann: Ymyr double Land Fortress with a tooled-up sniper Kahl, Warpestryke Heathguard and some Thunderkyn to provide lots of angles of attack.
9th – Rafael Harbison – White Scars: Ultra-melee Scars – literally, as the Terminator Assault Squads and VanVets are backed by Bobby G making a guest appearance.
10th – Sam Nash – Space Wolves: Melee-focused wolf Successors with loads of tooled-up Skyclaw, Wulfen and Wolf Guard squads, and Eliminators/Long Fangs as shooting backup.
11th – Euan Bedford-Cooper – Chaos Daemons: A Daemon build focusing on durability, bringing six Beasts of Nurgle and three Skull Cannons to act as solid anchors for Be’lakor-buffed Flamers.
12th – David Bannister – Ynnari & Harlequins: A go-wide Aeldari build that’s about half-and-half Ynnari and Light Saedath. Rangers for screening, a big foot Troupe as an alpha play and D-cannons for shooting are the highlight of the Ynnari half, while the Harlequin contingent is lots of boats with the newly re-empowered Favour Death Jester and Mirror Architect Shadowseer in charge.
13th – Joshua Cowlard – Orks: High pressure Deathskulls, bringing loads of Nobz in wagons, Kommandos and Stormboyz, plus a large block of Killa Kans to provide a bit of crunch.

II GT Coliseum Murciano

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in MC ES on February 11 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Juan-Diego Wendigo – Grey Knights – 1st Place

Grey Knights Nemesis Dreadknights. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

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Archetype

Dreadknights and Interceptors

Final Round Matchup

11 – 9 Victory against Josue Izabal – Khorne Daemons.

Thoughts

Not complicated, but extremely nasty. Dreadknights are a fantastic unit, Interceptors have the speed to run down Marine shooting lists and tag sneaky Aeldari or Daemons in melee, and the exceptional strength of the updated Teleport Strike gives you a leg up on many of the games you play. Grey Knights aren’t putting in quite such flashy numbers as the peak of the metagame, but they’re very much a real army again, as Juan-Diego’s victory here showcases.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd (undefeated with a draw) – Samuel Martínez – Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff with a big Sacresant squad.
3rd – Nymerio Stark – Space Wolves Successors: Melee wolves with Thundercav, Wolf Guard and Wulfen.
4th – Josue Izabal – Daemons: A skull-tastic all-Khorne build combining a trio of big monsters (Skarbrand, Be’lakor, Indomitable) with lots of Bloodcrushers and Flesh Hounds.
5th – Cajolin Waif – Blood Angels: Death Company and Sanguinary Guard galore, plus a single Redemptor as a midfield piece.
6th – Daniel Ssotano – Necrons: Whoops all Destroyers as the Annihilation Legion takes to the field. OK technically there are some Flayed Ones, but very few of them.

Northern Wastes VIII

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Norrbottens län SE on February 11 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – The Scouring

Benjamin Hyvönen – Astra Militarum: Catachan-themed Guard with Hellhounds, Jungle Fighters and Straken, and also some more conventional toys like Russes. Rounds out with a squad of Bullgryn.
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vs.

Jim Standin – Genestealer Cult: Melee Twisted Helix with Aberrants on top of the traditional Purestrains.
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Thoughts

Both of these builds put a fairly unusual spin on the traditional choices for their factions – the Guard have quite a few close engagement tools (and the flamers certainly won’t go amiss here), while the Cult list sports the Twisted Helix toys that have largely fallen out of favour as Industrial Cult has risen, plus Aberrants.

This is another showdown where the Mission matters a whole lot – the Scouring is not what the Guard want to play here. At all. On some missions, their modest investment in close engagement tools might pay off in this game, helping hold the Genestealer menace at bay while the bigger guns do their work. On the Scouring, not so much – there’s no way to rack up Primary while safe from sweeping Genestealer charges, and when it’s forced into a close engagement, this guard list falls a bit into the paradoxical trap you can hit when you bring in some tools to mitigate weaknesses. Adding the various flamer-toting units doesn’t make the Guard list good enough at fighting a dedicated pressure list like Genestealer Cults on a mission that demands close quarters engagement to matter, and spending points on them just ends up weakening your plan A, which is to blow the Cult off the table as quickly as possible and use the improved version of the Scouring mission Primary to pull back some points.

That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wrong to make this kind of call, just that it’s worth being wary of that risk – I’ve certainly been guilty of packing too many tech options into a list and finding that I’ve ended up with something that’s only an 8/10 at what the army is supposed to be good at. In this case, the perfect storm of matchup and mission is very much exacerbating the effect, and the fact that Boots on the Ground is much weaker here than normal makes it even worse, with the result that the Genestealer Cults look very hot going into this – something they were able to capitalise on.

Result

Genestealer Cult Victory – 90 – 38

Jim Standin – Genestealer Cult – 1st Place

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Twisted Helix Pressure

Thoughts

Nice to see Cults getting stuck in with Genestealers and horrible swole mutants rather than just eye-watering numbers of Neophytes. This list is fast and brutal, and was able to use its high-pressure tools to carve up a number of very strong shooting lists. Big fan of this, well done to Jim on the win.

The Best of the Rest

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

2nd – David Teterin – Iron Hands: Stealthy/Master Artisans Successors…with a pair of Astraeuses. Astraeii? Also lots of Devs, Eliminators and Suppressors.
3rd – Mathias Eliasson – Ulthwe: Ulthwe packing lots of guns ideal for murdering Terminators – many D-Cannons, lots of Dire Avengers, and an eye-watering full ten block of Wraithguard.
4th – Daniel Bergström – Imperial Knights: Continuing the durability kick for Knights, Taranis with a tonne of Armigers and an Errant.
5th – Benjamin Hyvönen – Astra Militarum: See showdown.
6th – Andreas Stenberg – Black Legion: A very condensed Black Legion list, using Terminators, two big units of Legionnaires and a bunch of Daemon Engines/tooled-up Herohammer stuff.

Wrap Up

We’re only halfway through this week’s events, so make sure to check back on Friday for more exciting Arks builds, with several more factions taking down events.

Competitive Innovations in 9th: Darkest Timeline pt.1

Stud or Snotling 2023

Sam Procopio – Blood Angels – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Final Round Matchup

Thoughts

Thomas Ogden – T’au Sept – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

TJ Lanigan – Chaos – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Diogo Pita – Leagues of Votann – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Beachhead Brawl 2023 – SCS

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Tide of Conviction

Thoughts

Result

Mani Cheema – Dark Angels – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Liam Callebout – Chaos Daemons – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Danny Evison – Iron Hands Successors – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

Stephen Box – Asuryani – 4th Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

II GT Coliseum Murciano

Juan-Diego Wendigo – Grey Knights – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Final Round Matchup

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Northern Wastes VIII

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – The Scouring

Thoughts

Result

Jim Standin – Genestealer Cult – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

Wrap Up

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