type here...
Patrons: click here to disable ads.
GamingCompetitive PlayMeta AnalysisTacticsCore Games
Updated:

Competitive Innovations in 9th: Final Quarter pt.2

By Lowest of Men

Part two of our ritual to finally banish Deathwing armies from the world commences, with Lowest of Men in the driving seat.

Today, we’re looking at:

  • Rataclysm 2023 (major)
  • Grand Clash 2023
  • War Calls 2023
  • Out Of The Furnace IV: Return To Firestorm
  • Battle For The Bay 2023 GT!
  • 2D6 Dawn of Vår III: Hot Singles in Your Area

If you’re looking for any of the following events, go join Wings in part 1 on Wednesday:

  • Mayhem GT (major)
  • Normandy GT
  • Frontier Open
  • Sunken City Massacre
  • Cross Swords War At The Westward
  • Valleycon 2023

Let’s go.

Rataclysm 2023

88-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Ballarat East, Victoria AU on April 21 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Chaos Daemons versus Genestealer Cults – Unknown Mission

Matt Morosoli – Chaos Daemons: Bloodthirsters and Board Control
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Stuart Trainer – Genestealer Cult: Mechanised Industrial Cult
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

In a world of shooting heavy, alpha-strike armies, Chaos Daemons and GSC have both proven to have longevity thanks to their ability to engage on their terms, hide a lot of the army off the board, and hit hard when the time is right into armies that often lack the means to adequately respond. When they play each other, the only guarantee is a bloodbath. Daemons boast powerful monsters and cutting edge that goes through the fragility of GSC units more or less on a whim, but in turn the high volume of GSC shooting out of reserves cares very little about Daemon saves, drowning them in boosted up low quality shooting and pushing enough failures to wipe out units in response. Both armies also boast excellent secondary game (though for GSC this has taken a hit with the nerf to Broodswarm, previously a staple 15 pick that would counter Reality Rebels. Both armies look to get the jump on the other and its a match up that can swing hard in either direction based on the leverage of resources.

On the Daemon side, Matt continues his reign of terror with a build that consolidates around the monster power of Skarbrand and the phase-capped Bloodthirster. Both can be a nightmare for GSC, many builds of which struggle to put out enough outside of shooting to trouble the latter, and have to be played extremely carefully around the former (utilising full coherency removal nonsense to avoid the trapping). Flamers and the usual efficient supporting pieces appear here, as does the current in-vogue tech piece for Desolation Marines, a squad of Horrors for holding down ground with splitting and a permanent 3++ save. This list wants to jump from hiding or reserves, punch you in the mouth, pull off a trap with Skarbrand and then carry on slashing.

On the GSC side, Stuart has leant into the vehicle heavy turn that recent builds have adopted to survive the artillery wars, with Goliath Rockgrinders and Trucks coupled with some nice traits to get the most out of demo charges (Agile Guerillas means these can cover considerable ground and still put out plenty of shooting via advance and charge). A Patriarch offers a little bit of push melee and psychic output, which mitigates the Thirster a little bit, but, I would say, not enough. Acolytes springing from trucks can help to deny primary and tick over secondary scoring, and there is still an enormous reserve punch in the Neophyte bricks to couple up with the trucks. One issue the GSC have here is that they hand the Daemons an easy fall back option if they don’t want to take No Prisoners – with their big squads of easily scared Neophytes, Nourished by Terror can very easily offer the Daemons another high scoring tool to counteract Ambush. A Lack of Atalan Jackals reflects their current vulnerability in the meta, but denies the cults a valuable tool with which to slow down the enemy monsters for a turn or two (a truck really doesnt hold up to an enormous daemonic axe, as you might expect). As it is, it looks like these lists completely cancelled each other out, with the Daemons taking top place on overall performance. I’d have loved to watch this game!

Result

Chaos Daemons Victory – 82 – 82

Matt Morosoli – Chaos Daemons – 1st Place

Credit: RichyP

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Morosolific Talons

Final Round Matchup

82 – 82 Victory against Stuart Trainer – Genestealer Cult.

Thoughts

Matt has been iterating on this build for some time, and as alluded to above it punches hard and hinges on finesse play around Skarbrand to put the opponent in an unrecoverable position. Daemons emerged a big winner from the dataslate, with an already overtuned army surviving without any adjustments or nerfs, and you can expect to see them racking up results for the remainder of 10th. Fantastic work as always Matt!

Stuart Trainer – Genestealer Cult – 2nd Place

Patriarch. Credit: Rockfish
Patriarch. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

GSC Vehicle / Industrial Spam

Thoughts

GSC are reconfiguring to survive artillery and a hit to their banker secondary in Broodswarm. Stuart’s list is set up nicely to do this – the flood of single five man Acolyte squads looks geared towards both RBD and Behind Enemy Lines, and the trucks keep things alive until they can reach their destinations. One interesting choice is eschewing the traditional pre-game moving Genestealers in favour of putting this on a Neophyte brick instead. This lets them either push up to get angles and shoot turn one, or head back into reserves as required. I’m not as optimistic about GSC’s ability to exploit BEL as some other commentators, as many  of the very top builds and lists have had a plan for keeping them in front of them for many months now already and they don’t have the same speed on foot to reach into enemy deployment zones as elves and Landspeeders do. Nonetheless, Stuart has shown that the cults still have teeth in the end game meta with this performance. Great work!

Jason Horne – Hive Fleet Leviathan – 3rd Place

Tervigon. Credit: Rockfish
Tervigon. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Leviathan Monster Mash

Thoughts

Jason puts up an excellent showing for the Tyranids with this shooty monsters build. Harpies are back from the dead to drop down, cut angles, and demand a response, as Carnifexes and Walkrants get into position. The double relic gun Tyrants are a popular choice these days and can bust open elite targets at will. A fully buffed up stack of Termagants provides objective holding and primary denial potential, and utilising this at the right moment in tandem with threat overload from the monsters feels like the key to making this sing (under commit into this at your peril – a bunch of them coming back via Endless Swarm has turned many a 4 or 8 on Primary into an 8 or 12!). Tyranids are much lower on resources than they used to be, so achieving the absolute most with what remains is crucial, and Jason looks to have done exactly that. Congratulations on the high placing!

Matt Jackson – Imperial Knights – 4th Place

Credit: SRM

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Very much not Adeptas Sororitas

Thoughts

A run out for the Freeblade Lance builds that dominated for a short time after the release of the Knights book, this list can hand out insufferable defensive buffs to Armigers at will, whilst ticking up points on the very reliable IK secondaries. Some armies can simply body this sort of build off the table, but if it gets going and starts putting Armigers in places you don’t want them it can build up too much momentum to stop. I really like the inclusion of the Knight Moirax here- that Lightning Lock is very nice for culling down marines and Landspeeders which, as you may be aware, are pretty popular right now! Great work on the placing Matt.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 5th – Edward Askey – Tau Empire: Shadowsun, Broadsides, Longstrike, Crisis, utility. Get used to seeing this!
  • 6th – Alex Franz – Astra Militarum: Born Soldiers Goodstuff with a Rogal Dorn and Field Ordinance for the artillery wars.
  • 7th – Patrick Burns – Chaos Knights: A Desecrator babysitting a horde of War Dogs. You’d best get used to seeing this too!
  • 8th – Boyd Morrall – Cogs of Vashtoor: A Vashtorr list, sweet!! Triple Decimators, double Discolords, Venomcrawlers and Forgefiends. Epic. That will surely force a Morrall check… (I’m sorry).
  • 9th – Dylan Cowan – Iron Hands: Desolation based Iron Hands Goodstuff.

Grand Clash 2023: Warhammer 40k Grand Tournament

47-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Trois-Rivières, Québec CA on April 22 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

This event was not using the Balance Dataslate.

François Lalonde – Iron Hands Successors – 1st Place (Undefeated with a Draw)

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 Stuff

Final Round Matchup

20 – 0 Victory against Éric Marcoux – Imperial Knights.

Thoughts

You know exactly what this does. Loads of guns, some dependable push melee to counter, a nasty dreadnought you can’t shoot, excellent scoring game, Desolation artillery to cover the only noticeable weakness it previously had, etc etc. Imperial Knights in the final round must have had Francois rubbing his hands in glee! Congratulations on the top placing.

Jeremy Atkinson – Dark Angels – 2nd Place (Undefeated with a Draw)

Credit: PierreTheMime

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Dark Angels Desolation

Thoughts

No dataslate for the event, one more hurrah for the Transhuman Terminators. A solid mixed build that shoots hard, punches hard, and rolls 4s when you don’t want them to and challenges you to do the same! I’m intrigued to see if Dark Angels can still hang post-slate, and I look forward to seeing where Jeremy takes them next. Well done!

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players on 4-1-1 records (Teams style scoring was in effect). They were:

  • 3rd – John Winter Russell – Astra Militarum: Born Soldiers Goodstuff with Scions support.
  • 4th – Éric Marcoux – Imperial Knights: House Raven Armigers with a Crusader and Errant.
  • 5th – Dominique Carette – Space Wolves: Melta rat Space Wolves with Desolation Marines and Long Fangs.
  • 6th – Jack Morris – Genestealer Cults: Industrial Affinity Neophyte / Jackal Spam.
  • 7th – Christian Nadeau – Necons: An extremely cool Szarekhan build with Doom Scythes and the Silent King.

Out Of The Furnace IV: Return To Firestorm

44-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Cardiff, Wales GB on April 22 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Ed Watts – Space Wolves Successors – 1st Place

Credit: Patrick “theKingslayer” Richard

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Space Wolves Melta Ratz

Final Round Matchup

95 – 79 Victory against Andrew Lewis – Astra Militarum.

Thoughts

I’ve had the pleasure of playing Ed recently and can attest that go-wide Space Wolves is a phenomenally strong build at this moment in time. Desolators slot in so naturally here, utilising Keen Senses to ignore all those silly efforts GW made to balance artillery. Long Fangs help punch hard at range, but the real magic is in the enormous saturation of forward pressure the builds can achieve via cheap, tough combat units with a great reach and some high powered shooting smuggled in to boot. It feels a little like Drukhari once did at times, with one more trading piece to play than most opposing armies and the ever present threat of a complete shut down turn if you stray too close.

Ed has added Wulfen since I played him last, and these help to shore up Codex Warfare scoring with their count-as doctrine support, as well as ensuring that those who come looking for a trading game get a lot more than they bargained for. It’s a fantastic list, piloted by a very capable gent of a player. Keep up the amazing work Ed!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Jay Seebarun – Dark Angels: Jay went undefeated to take second with a solid mixed Dark Angels list with Terminators, Black Knights and Desolators.
  • 3rd – Andrew Lewis – Astra Militarum: Born Soldiers Goodstuff with a LOT of Sentinels.
  • 4th – Luke Quadling – Astra Militarum: Born Soldiers Goodstuff with some Scions, and some Rough Righers because Luke is a baller.
  • 5th – Liam Callebout – Custodes: Luke has switched out his Daemons for this very scary Solar Watch MSU build.
  • 6th – Nicholas Willingale – Genestealer Cults: Industrial Affinity Neophytes and Jackals.
  • 7th – Chris Lewis – Emperor’s Children: EIGHT units of Noise Marines, a Possessed slab with the rune, and some supporting utility.
  • 8th – Richard Webb – Death Guard: The Inexorable return to the field with Plague Marines, two Volkite Contemptors and some Death Guard Daemon Engines.

War Calls 2023

43-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Kelmscott, WA AU on April 22 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Jördÿŋ Berresford – Genestealer Cult – 1st Place

Cult of Sirens Acolytes. Credit: Lupe

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Pauper Princes Horde

Final Round Matchup

95 – 75 Victory against Connor Ockwell – Goffs.

Thoughts

Genestealer Cults – not dead just yet. Flooding the board with durable bodies and drowning the foe has been the go-to move for the cults in recent times, and Jordyn commits to that brief wholeheartedly with a truly horrifying carpet of mayhem buffed up by the Reliquary of Saint Tendarc and ready to rumble. Less Jackals here and a bit more combat punch, with the option of slapping Last Gasp on a doomed brick to take something down with you via mortal wounds. The GSC secondary game remains extremely good, and they bring home the first place here. Amazing effort.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Craig Sumpton – Chaos Daemons: If Daemons had a Goodstuff build, this would be it. Thirster, infantry (now with ten Horrors), Fiends, Hounds.
  • 3rd – Connor Ockwell – Goffs: Goff Pressure with an absolute wave of bodies and Battlewagons to roll into town on.
  • 4th – Callum German – Imperial Knights: Freeblade Lance with an Errant and assorted Armigers and Moiraxes.
  • 5th – Lachlan Rigg – World Eaters: Lord Invocatus rush with a cheeky Termite Drill. Khorne cares not from where the dirt flies.

Battle For The Bay 2023 GT!

33-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Tampa, Florida US on April 22 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Secure Missing Artefacts

Gavin Conn – Necrons: Destroyer-heavy Nihilakh
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Dalton Peters – Orks: Goff Pressure with Kill Rigs.
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

What happens when two armies that both want to choke the board with bodies and rack up a massive score meet each other in a final? Apparently an absolute barnstormer. On the Necron side Gavin sticks to the trodden path with Nihilak and plenty of big units to exploit the army wide ob-sec and secondary mission play. The Silent King isn’t the auto-include he once was but he makes an appearance here, and his rerolls are extremely welcome on the brick of Destroyers for some early game trouble-ahem-shooting (I’m sorry). An enormous wall of Scarabs leads the line with Skorpekh ready to chop up anything that makes it through. The Necron game plan remains the same- establish a stranglehold and hold out until the opponent can’t recover a lead. Funny you should mention that, as there’s another faction that quite enjoy that approach…

Orks come to party with a Green Tide toting wall of boyz, including a massive forward thrust of Kommandos. I like the Burna Boy inclusion here for chaff removal, and Dalton has healed the recent Battlewagon / Kill Rig civil wars in the Ork community by simply bringing both – an Orky solution if ever there was one. Orks have amazing secondary game and typically like to hem the opponent in too, so I would imagine first turn was a big deal in this match up to determine who got to start building a head of steam first. Though Deff Skulls would’ve helped counteract Nihilak I’d actually have backed the raw power of Goffs to body their way through quickly enough here, but it looks like the Necrons fought a heroic rear guard and utilised their ob sec advantage to steal an incredible one point victory. Proper final material chaps, very well done!

Result

Necrons Victory – 97 – 96

Gavin Conn – Necrons – 1st Place

Skorpekh Destroyers. Credit: Rockfish
Skorpekh Destroyers. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Nihilak Tide

Final Round Matchup

97 – 96 Victory against Dalton Peters – Orks.

Thoughts

As explored above, this is a wall of bodies and mission scoring that asks you if you have the guts to kill it quickly enough. Silent King fight last and force-multiplying potential helps it sing, and if you don’t dunk a unit on the first try you can bet it will be coming back. Fantastic work Gavin!

Mike Muzeni – Adeptus Custodes – 2nd Place

Custodian Guard
Custodian Guard. Credit: Edwin “Lupe” Moriarty

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Emperor’s Chosen MSU

Thoughts

Mike takes the classic Emperor’s Chosen MSU build out for a spin. It hits hard, it’s durable, and the 4+++ keeps those pesky mortals at bay. No surprises here as such, but piloting it to second is still a great achievement, very well done sir.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 3rd – David Ozawa – Grey Knights: An interesting Preservers build that throws in a Terminator brick to support the usual favourites.
  • 4th – Dalton Peters – Orks: The pressure list from the showdown.
  • 5th – Travil Hill – Custodes: Emperor’s Chosen MSU with a sizeable Allarus brick for unleashing them sweet lions.
  • 6th – Rielle Long – Blood Angels: A punchy Blood Angels list with some Eradicators and Terminators alongside lots of Sanguinary Guard.
  • 7th – Christopher James – Tau Empire: Shadowsun and Longstrike with Crisis and Utility. T’au Sept back in vogue!

2D6 Dawn of Vår III: Hot Singles in Your Area

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Oslo NO on April 22 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Kjetil Andre Liknes – Astra Militarum – 1st Place

Cadian Castellan. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Born Soldiers Goodstuff

Final Round Matchup

97 – 33 Victory against Geir Dutta – Aeldari.

Thoughts

A powerful guard build the slaps in the anti-armour tech of the Earthshake Carriage Battery in pursuit of glory in the artillery wars. Still extremely strong, and teched up to at least try and give Desolation squads a hard time. Very good job on the first place finish!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 2nd – Geir Dutta – Aeldari: A Masterful Shots build in the style of elf-wizard Vik Vijay, with lots of indirect and Shroudrunners with a tech patrol of Harlies.
  • 3rd – Rasmus Valand Fredriksen – T’au Empire: VERY fun Tau list with Farsight Enclaves and a huge flood of Breacher Squads in Devilfish to catch the opponent out from the sides. I don’t mean a few either, this mad lad has NINE Devilfish. I Love it.
  • 4th – Lasse Eikenes – Chaos Knights: House Herpetrax with an Abominant, a Descecrator, and some cute supporting doggos.
  • 5th – Gorm Hol – Iron Hands: Iron Hands tableyoustuff.
  • 6th – Espen Roligheten – Tyranids: Leviathan monster mash with double Tervigon, double Tyrannofex, and a Haruspex. Espen does whatever the hell they want and I am here for it.

Wrap Up

Another week comes to an end – and a spectacular show coming up at Warhammer Fest. See you all next week.

Previous articleBattletech: Goonformat Updated!
Next articleEldfall Chronicles Faction Focus: Empire of Soga
© Goonhammer LLC