We return to form with this week’s Competitive Innovations, with only a single post thanks to you all playing a normal amount of 40k instead of cramming double-digit events into the same weekend. We’ve got 1 major and 5 GTs to talk about this week – still plenty of Warhammer, but importantly, not Too Much.

Our events this week, in order, are:

• Bonus Showdown – Streamhouse RTT Final
• Clutch City GT 2022 (113 players, Major)
• Battle Ready 40k Major Mayhem (56 players, GT)
• Norsehammer Open 2022 40k (40 players, GT)
• Dicehammer 40k Open GT V (52 players, GT)
• War of the Roses (44 players, GT)
• OPG GT 2022 (48 players, GT)

Just because there’s only one Competitive Innovations this week doesn’t mean you’ll be missing out, though, because you’ve all been asking and yes there will be a Competitive Innovations Editorial tomorrow, on the subject of “please GW, we can’t take two more months of this nonsense.”

Bonus – Streamhouse RTT

As we covered last week, the Art of War put on a special streamed RTT last week, with some of the game’s top players throwing down with the best armies available. After playing the quarter- and semi-finals, the two armies left were metagame titans Tau in the hands of Richard Siegler and newcomers the Asuryani with Brad Chester at the helm. Let’s take a look at the matchup.

The Showdown

Mission and Matchup – Conversion

Note: Brad made a few changes to the list after this image was made, most notably splitting out the Banshees into two smaller units, one with Precision Strikes.

vs.

Thoughts

This is a great acid test to throw new Eldar into – there’s some great stuff in the book, but the biggest challenge for them is whether they can overcome the brute strength of the metagame’s best. Brad’s list leans into one of the things that Craftworlds does best – harrassing the opponent with layered threats that won’t stand up to much individually, but can use mobility to protect themselves and threaten huge counterattacks against any opponent that overcommits into them. Hawks, Spiders and Windriders can all deal some damage and get out of dodge, and chip down almost anything with Doom up, while the new and improved Scorpions and Banshees provide a potent forward bastion alongside a Wave Serpent. Supporting all of this, Night Spinners provide a great combo of reliable grinding damage (particularly good into Tau) and (here) To The Last targets, and the Phoenix Lords are a nasty potential roadblock if the Tau try and hit the gas too much (though the nefarious Advanced Burst Cannon is here to ruin that plan if they’re not careful). Having the Night Spinners also means that with the first turn Brad can very likely turn off the Homing Beacon.

All cool stuff, but it’s up against one of the game’s nastiest builds in Outer Enclaves. Crisis Suits are the defining unit of the new Tau book, and this list essentially just goes all in on them, with only objective Kroot units and powerful Characters backing them up. Outer Enclaves gives them Drop Zone Clear with the CP to reliably spam it, and ensures that if the game goes wide they can operate highly effectively with minimal support. Two units with airbursts is also a big challenge to some of the Aeldari’s plans, as it means that playing keep away with Warp Spiders in particular is suddenly far less safe. The list also plays To The Last incredibly well, as the two big Crisis units and the tooled up Commander are incredibly hard to take down, especially as any unit that shows its face is cruising for a blasting. It certainly has the numbers to take the Aeldari list clean off the table, so what’s the plan from their point of view?

The upside the Aeldari have is that the biggest swings that the Tau have here are pretty gradual – they want to be pulling maximum value from Drop Zone Clear to push past things like Lightning Fast and the threat of auto-saves from Strands, but that means the army isn’t hitting all at once. On this mission, the Craftworlds have the speed to cover a lot of the table very quickly, and if they can take the first turn, they might be able to use that to put the Tau on the back foot. Take strong positions behind terrain, clear out the stealth suits, and heavily restrict where the Tau suits can drop in, and you potentially delay the start of big scoring from their side till turn three at the earliest, and if you can weather the storm of the first DZC unit and take it out on a counterpunch (which having plenty of Banshees and Jain Zar helps with). At the same time, this builds up primary points, scores the mission Primary and picks up ticks on Stranglehold, denying the Tau any of the same, and careful skirmishing with Phoenix Lords might be worth another turn (though the ObSec gift the Enforcer Commander hands out might ruin that).

Brad got the first turn and got to take a swing at putting Siegler on the back foot, so how did that go? You can watch the results on Art of War’s YouTube Channel here if you’d like to just watch, otherwise keep reading.

Essentially, Brad did a very good job turn one of pushing his units into the right places to keep Siegler boxed in, and build up lots of points early on. Unfortunately, the first big Outer Enclaves counterpunch on turn two was shockingly brutal, evaporating a considerable portion of what Brad had pushed into the centre and onto one flank, and leaving the Tau very up in material. Part two of Brad’s plan did then kick in, with the various melee survivors able to run disruption against the Tau toys that were down, but the ability of the Eldar to do serious damage with what they still had left them unable to hold the line long enough for their early scoring advantage to pay off, and a wall of red battlesuits gradually rolled up the table eliminating all elf resistance bar for a lone Night Spinner. The game definitely wasn’t a total wash, and I think the same plan executed against one of the less mobile builds of Tau might well have paid off harder, but with all the Crisis suits being such mobile threats on top of their damage dealing capacity they’re very, very hard to pin down for long enough to stop the Tau winning big in the back half of the game.

Result

Tau Victory: 78-58

Clutch City GT 2022 (Major)

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. This event was using Path to Victory scoring.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Secure Missing Artefacts

Nathaniel Bjorge – Adeptus Custodes – Emissaries Imperatus with a lot of Sagittarum and a single bike squad to go on an early rampage with Into the Darkness.

Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Kit Smith Hanna – Tyranids – Crusher Stampede with some monstrous shooting units instead of Hive Guard.

Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Two well known metagame titans square off here, but both with some tweaks from the norm. On the Tyranid side of things, the normal Hive Guard are out, with an Exocrine and Tyrannofex back-filling some shooting capability. These (plus the Biomorphic flyrant) combine well with the Maleceptor in the current metagame – switching on Encephalic Diffusion means that most opponents are alpha striking on 5s to wound at best (even with salvo launchers), and all of Tau’s indirect is only wounding on 6s, giving this list much more of a fighting chance to get to play a real game in the most hostile matchups. All the auto-hitting shooting and the cute addition of the Murderous Size Haruspex also make it pretty speedy at clearing out Drones, again helping with Crusher’s worst current matchup by maybe, just about giving it the momentum needed to do big damage.

That’s not what it’s up against here, of course, and this Custodes list is even more of a break from the norm. Eschewing a heavy bike contingent, it instead focuses on creating a very, very reliable (and pretty durable) shooting core. The Fulminaris Aggressor and Emissaries fighting style ensure that there’s not much that can be done to mitigate the Sagittarum volleys, and they can even blast away with both modes at once with no penalty. The Vexila Magnifica ensures they’re harder to shoot out than normal, one unit of Bikes able to us Into the Darkness can play an exceptional disruption game, and two Achillus Dreads provide a scary countercharge threat. It’s different from the norm but clearly potent, and going forward looks like it could be pretty interesting into Harlequins – while Light’s “hit transhuman” does still affect it, the very reliable shooting combined with Fight First on all the Sagittarum if the clowns try to charge could be very strong.

Sadly, in this matchup it’s about the worst possible Custodes list to be throwing down with, as Crusher doesn’t care about it in the slightest. The Maleceptor’s strength reduction is not a modifier to the wound roll, so as long as it tags around with the T8 beasties then all of the Custodes shooting is wounding on 6s, and barely doing any damage when it gets through anyway thanks to the reduction. Emissaries also do not have the mortal protection that Emperor’s Chosen get, so Breaking Through and the heavier than normal psychic firepower the Crusher list is packing both matter a lot here too. Not going to beat around the bush any longer here – the Custodes got absolutely destroyed in this game, with Kit clearly correctly assessing that he could just roll them over with impunity. I’m told the first turn of Custodes shooting was also even more lacklustre than the matchup would normally suggest, and that was clearly enough to seal the deal.

Result

Tyranid Victory – 98-14

Kit Smith Hanna – Tyranids – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Crusher Stampede

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

As we’ll see hammered home in a second result this week, the Maleceptor seems to be one of the best tools Crusher have access to to try and punch up into the metagame’s best, and here that paid off in spades. Having two shooting that are very good at clearing out Shield Drones is also highly valuable, as it can help buy a window for one of the melee monsters to actually make a proper dent in key units. All indications are that with proper adaptation Crusher Stampede has a fighting chance right now, so congratulations to Kit for leading the charge on that front.

Georg Bobkov – Chaos – 2nd ✪ Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Plaguebursts continue to be the go-to shooting anchor for mixed Chaos.
• A whole bunch of speedy glass cannon melee units forces the opponent to be constantly on the defensive while the mortars chip away.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Something very different here. This list is elegantly crafted to make sure that the opponent’s life is as difficult as possible, and that it gets value out of its units straight away. Whether it be near auto-charging Warp Talons out of deep strike (with the Seeker Chariot being able to quickly come and give +1S if needed), double shooting chaincannons going ham into whatever lies before them, or the Chosen providing a bit of sturdier punch to clear out a key unit, this army has lots of threats that are challenging to interact with until they appear, and can quickly make their mark if the opponent has overcommitted. To help lure them into doing that, the costs are carefully managed so that the three Plaguebursts become the To The Last choices, which alongside spare casters for Psychic Actions and a tonne of small things to throw at Stranglehold or RND gives the army a very reliable Secondary game plan.

It’s incredibly brittle, and can melt away if the opponent lands a strong blow on it, but looks like a gigantic headache to face down, and is going to be sufficiently disruptive to opponents until at least the mid game that they may find themselves staring down an unassailable score lead even if they do manage to take it off the table. While it did eventually drop a game in round six to a Custodes build, Georg took out Custodes and Tau to get there, impressive stuff for such an unusual list. A great performance all round.

Nathaniel Bjorge – Adeptus Custodes – 3rd ✪ Place

The List

See Showdown.

Archetype

Emissaries Imperiatus Sagitarrum Spam

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

As discussed in the Showdown, what this list brings to the table over and above normal Custodes is a real grinding inevitability. With the solid core of debuff-resilient Sagittarum blasting away, the opponent is going to have to come to the Custodes rather than having the option to try and counterpunch the bikes, and at that point the army-wide Fight First and Achillus countercharges kick in to really make them pay for that. As seen on the top table, it has a pretty big issue with some of the current Crusher builds, so if that continues to perform as it has been this may struggle to replace the Emperor’s Chosen default, but it plausibly has a very strong game into various Aeldari builds, so depending on how much of an impact they make, watch this space. In the meantime, congratulations to Nathaniel on third place.

Greg Harris – Adeptus Custodes – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Emperor’s Chosen Goodstuff

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Pretty standard stuff here – this is one of the game’s top builds, so seeing it in a major top four isn’t too surprising. It is notable to see a third Dreadnought and a Vexila Magnifica as some of the specific tools chosen though, cutting a third bike squad to make room, as it speaks to a desire to shore up the durabiity of the army core, giving it more of a fighting chance if early damage spikes remove its forward units. Good stuff from Greg.

The Rest of the Best

Seven more players finished 5-1 at this event. They were:

• 5th – Kevin McCormick – Chaos Knights: An updated spin on the formula of one big Khornate Target Knight and lots of War Dogs. The list uses Abominable Constitution and Pride-Fuelled Fury to stay lethal throughout, and has a Lancer leading the charge to really definitely make sure whatever gets the Target treatment dies.
• 6th – Robert Moreland – Adeptus Custodes: More Emissaries, but this time with a more conventional shell around it of 3×3 Bikes and an Achillus.
• 7th – Nathan Fennel – Tau: Bork’an and heavy on the suits, with a big airburst Crisis unit backed up by a smaller team, a full missile Broadside unit and a Stormsurge. Plenty of Pathfinders too, making sure the enemy is constantly lit up.
• 8th – Jony Velazquez – Chaos Daemons: The old school (early 9th is old school now) favourite of four Keepers is joined by Be’lakor, Furies and some Broadside-trapping Fiends for a lightning-fast melee build.
• 9th – Mat Tweedel – Tyranids: The looming threat of the Crusher Harridan braves Tau meta to stretch its wings, bringing some Hive Guard and a Dimachaeron along for the ride.
• 10th – Apollo Chang – Tau: Tau Sept goodstuff with two full Broadside units and plenty of Crisis.
• 11th – Steven Fox – Tyranids: Extra-shooty Crusher, with two Exocrines and Hive Guard backing up multiple Dimachaerons.

Battle Ready 40k Major Mayhem

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. This event was using Path to Victory scoring.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Tide of Conviction

Seth Piper – Adeptus Custodes – Emperor’s Chosen Goodstuff with a Telemon.

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vs.

Joseph Alcorn – T’au Empire: Bork’an, with more Crisis Teams and fewer Stormsurges than normal

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Thoughts

Another matchup we’re going to be seeing a lot of here, with the metagame’s two top armies coming at each other. In the Tau corner we have the forces of Bor’kan, bringing along a Stormsurge ready to go sicko mode with Experimental Weaponry and three big suit units, but having to cut back significantly on everything else to fit that in. The firepower is ferocious, of course, but the list is definitely relying on it to clear enemies off objectives so the Crisis and Troops can move in to claim them, and is also a bit lighter on shield drones on two of the power units than normal.

Over on the Custodes side of the table, two Forge World favourites return to remind people that they’re very much still real units in the new book. Telemons may not be CORE, but they’re so accurate and deadly that Emperor’s Chosen gets them a lot of the way there, and Venatari remain a pretty potent mobile threat, giving a bit of mobile counter-punch that has ObSec to flip whatever point they land on.

For this matchup, one of these works well, and the other doesn’t. The Venetari are great here, as they can lurk out of sight till they’re needed (where they’ll be reasonably resistant to airbursts as long as they’re not in Mont’ka range) then pop out, strip the drones off one of the suit units and charge into some Fire Warriors and probably be happy. The Telemon is obviously rather more dicey, because the Tau want nothing more than to unleash an Experimental Weaponry-powered Stormsurge volley at it, but even that can whiff once Emperor’s Auspice goes up, and just using it as a big distraction on a turn that the bikes are going to run wild might not be the worst thing. It can also exploit the serious problem the Tau have here by moving up into a position to countercharge – that problem being the mission.

This is not the game that Tau really want to play with this list pairing, as getting a primary foothold through most of the game is going to be a real challenge. 3×3 Shield Custodians are the perfect Troops core for the Custodes here, as they’ll shrug off the indirect from outside Mont’ka range, and can cheerfully saunter up the field to take objectives and threaten to heroic into any Tau interlopers. If the Tau try a big commit to force the issue then they risk getting counterattacked hard between the Venatari and Bikes, and the Dreadnoughts provide tools that are great to leave lurking on home positions. Dawn of War deployment and the wide front objectives are on is also going to be challenging, especially as the Custodes have two mobile characters as well. Just emerging onto the near objectives is going to let the Custodes sweep forward into a brutal counterattack, never mind making a play for the Custodes home positions. The final strike against the Tau here is that the Broadsides only having two drones makes them hideously vulnerable here – if they move out to shoot, they risk vanishing in a hail of salvo fire in response once the Venatari strip the Drones off.

That isn’t to say the Tau have no options mind, because while the Custodes list plays pretty well into them and the mission is rough, they do have an edge in pure attrition firepower, which could be especially telling if the Custodes are forced onto the first turn. Accept that turn one is going to be a bit of a writeoff, vaporise whatever the Custodes send out early, then aim to maximise scoring in the mid-late game, especially with the backloaded alternate primary. Using To the Last on the biggest stuff might help force the Custodes to engage (and the Stormsurge ought to be able to weather a round of bike fire if they go for it), though other Secondaries look a bit rough. There’s a real tension here between wanting to pick Mont’ka for the extra AP but really wanting to be able to pick the Kau’yon version of Decisive Action, as sweeping onto the objectives mid-late game feels like a stronger plan. Custodes giving up very little also makes the third choice very challenging here. The choices from the other side feel a little easier, as nailing Stranglehold should very much be doable for the Custodes for most of the game, and Raise the Banners High is a huge gimme for them – put three up turn one, and Tau are going to have to do some fairly suicidal stuff to disrupt it. Third pick is again a bit rougher, but there’s a surprising number of No Prisoners wounds to roll up on the Tau side, which is probably fine.

All taken together, the Tau just have a pretty tough job in front of them here – not one they can’t succeed at, but not one that will forgive any sort of swing and a miss. That’s something that the Custodes big pile of defensive tools is great at generating, and it paid off here with a victory.

Result

Adeptus Custodes Victory – 88-52

Seth Piper – Adeptus Custodes – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Emperor’s Chosen Goodstuff

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

A timely reminder from Seth here that the Forge World classics are still extremely good, and perfectly playable in Emperor’s Chosen in particular. This is also another list that really cranks up the durability by running with all Shieldguard as troops, and that was clearly a choice that paid off extremely well on the day – congratulations to Seth on the big win.

Will Taylor – Tau – 2nd ✪ Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Outer Enclaves

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Quickly establishing itself as one of the very best ways to play Tau, Outer Enclaves is the perfect storm of speed, durability and threat. The sheer power of Drop Zone Clear with extra CP to fuel it means you can go a bit cheaper on the guns of one of the big Crisis units and still expect them to do colossal damage (with Exemplar of the Mont’ka switching on once they’re down), and two Breachers full of Devilfish backing the suits ensure that the list can launch some incredibly brutal turns when it needs to. With fewer Shield Drones on the Crisis teams that some builds the army is somewhat relying on its first big punches hitting properly, but the damage potential is so high that they usually will, and with Will finishing on an undefeated 5-0, it looks like none of his opponents could weather the storm (though his round four opponent did come agonisingly close).

The Rest of the Best

Eight players finished 4-1 at this event. They were:

• 3rd ✪ – Gabriel Rocheleau – Adeptus Custodes: Emperor’s Chosen Goodstuff with Sagittarum.
• 4th ✪ – Joseph Alcorn – Tau: See showdown.
• 5th – Jordan Sorchevich – Adeptus Custodes: Extra bike-heavy Emperor’s Chosen Goodstuff. Had a good go at taking out Will’s Tau list losing by the margin of a single point.
• 6th – Chris Powell – Chaos Daemons: Disciples of Be’lakor horde, leaning on Locus of Shadows to preserve the massive carpet of Daemonic infantry.
• 7th – Collin Watts – Tau: A showing for Sa’cea Sept, leaning on long-ranged Crisis suits benefitting from the -1 to hit that their Tenet provides, presumably attempting to crack open the mirror. Low on Shield Drones, which probably cost it against the Custodes bikes in Gabriel’s list, which is what it lost to.
• 8th – Travis Hill – Adeptus Custodes: Emperor’s Chosen Goodstuff with a Caladius.
• 9th – Daniel Smith – Adeptus Custodes: Extra bike-heavy Emperor’s Chosen Goodstuff.
• 10th – Daniel Hesters – Adeptus Custodes: Emperor’s Chosen Goodstuff with a Telemon.

Norsehammer Open 2022 40k

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

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission: Secure Missing Artefacts

Mariusz Vawrzyn – Drukhari: Drukhari with 15 Artists of Flesh Grotesques backed up by a Black Heart Patrol with Trueborn, two chunky Courts, and a pair of Ravagers.

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vs.

Rasmus Valand Frederiksen – T’au Empire: Triple Hammerhead Farsight Enclaves.

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Thoughts

What percentage of an army is it possible to gun down with a single use of Drop Zone Clear? The answer may surprise you!

This game, unfortunately, is just a catastrophic mis-match from the word go, because this Tau list is anathema to the very existence of the Drukhari army here, and should sweep it from the board with absurd ease. The fully loaded airburst team can do a prepostorous amount of damage to the Drukhari, doing so as early as turn one if the Homing Beacon goes off, and with over a hundred (on average) indirect shots each round, could sweep up a lot of the Drukhari list without ever leaving cover. Given that the Tau lock in To the Last while making it pretty much impossible for the Drukhari to score in turn, and are very likely to do decently out of No Prisoners as well, the elves pretty much have to come out and engage, but when they do things are only going to get worse. Breachers shotgunning Grotesques to death, the Hammerheads instantly vaporising any Ravager foolish enough to show its face (then operating with impunity from there) and the constant, unstoppable clip of the airbursts are going to end this game hard, probably using Strike and Fade out of an excess of caution to avoid accidentally allowing a counter-charge.

The Drukhari desperately need some faster stuff here, something to go for wide-ranging bully charges, and without it they’re extremely unlikely to find a route past the absolute wall of indirect horror they’re up against. They did not.

Result

T’au Empire Victory: 100-26

Rasmus Valand Frederiksen – 1st Place – T’au Empire

The List

See Showdown.

Archetype

Farsight Enclaves

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

You run and hide? The airbursts and SMS shots get you. You come out to try and actually pin down the gigantic Crisis Team that’s zipping around the board with Strike and Fade? You get blown into tiny pieces by Hammerheads. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, and only lists with the reach to neutralise one of the two damage sources very quickly are going to have much of a chance here. Given that the smallest margin of victory Rasmus achieved over five games was 42pts, it does not look like attempts to challenge the airburst deathstar went that well.

The Rest of the Best

6 players finished 4-1 at this event. They were:

• 2nd – Paweł Czyszczoń – Adeptus Custodes: Emperor’s Chosen Goodstuff, with the slight novelty of a squad of 5 Venatari instead of the third unit of Praetors.
• 3rd – David Komorowski – T’au Empire: A custom sept with Calm Under Pressure/Fire Saturation, and two big Crisis units – one with double burst cannons and single plasma rifles, the other with single burst cannons and double T’au flamers.
• 4th – Kjetil Andre Liknes – Necrons: Novokh Necrons with a whole pile of Wraiths, Skorpekh Destroyers, and even some Ophydian Destroyers.
• 5th – Patrick Woods – Adeptus Custodes: Emperor’s Chosen Goodstuff, with a Caladius splashed in instead of a second Contemptor-Achillus.
• 6th – Steffen Omundsen – Black Templars: Double-Chaplain Black Templars with a big block of Sword Brethren going to work.
• 7th – Mariusz Vawrzyn ✪ – Drukhari: See Showdown.

Dicehammer 40k Open GT V

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

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Recover the Relics

Jeff Jew – Tyranids: Crusher Stampede

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vs.

Joel Wilson – T’au Empire: Farsight Enclaves

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Thoughts

Crusher Stampede into Tau is normally a fairly horrendous matchup, as we’ve seen over the last few weeks, but this particular pairing shows that a few tweaks to the army format on both sides can move the dial a bit. On the Tyranid side we’ve got another Crusher build that’s leaning heavy, consolidating on three extra tough nasties (the Biomorphic Flyrant and the Hierodules) with Maleceptor backup to minimise the impact of incoming fire. That looks like a great choice here, because the Tau army is relying on its S8 weaponry across Riptides and Crisis Teams to get the job done, so tanking it to S7 makes a very, very big difference for the monsters. In addition, the Farsight Enclaves naturally want to close with the enemy to maximise their damage, but doing so against a Crusher build that might just bounce their output if they roll badly is quite risky. Finally, the presence of the Riptides is a definite drawback into the Hive Guard, as they provide the nids with a target that can be meaningfully reduced in impact quite quickly, as double shooting with all the buffs up should actually drop one.

That’s not to say that this game becomes easy for the Tyranids, merely “less horrific than it could be”. While the Riptides are a bit more vulnerable to Hive Guard than normal, the way the Crisis Suits are setup here is much worse for them, as the squads have roughly the normal number of Shield Drones but fewer actual Crisis models to kill once those have been knocked out, and all three units have the guns for killing big targets rather than them being concentrated. The Tyranids have very few big models, so if one goes down it’s going to be quite difficult to contend with that diffused firepower, though there is some degree to which having lots of units can be a liability here, as it provides easy points for Crusher on the alternative primary.

That does end up creating a game which could go either way, and Jeff actually got in touch with us to provide some extra info here. Tau ended up going first, and both players correctly assessed that it was too risky to play very aggressively, so the first turn was mostly sniped plasma and Ion shots at 30″ range, which didn’t do masses of damage past the Maleceptor’s buff. The Tyranids pushed up a little to secure Stranglehold, but the key turning point came on turn two, where Encephalic Diffusion once again came in clutch to keep both Hierodules just about alive through the Tau counterpunch. That gave Tyranids enough momentum to take the game by the narrowest of margins. Jeff’s big takeaway was that while the Maleceptor is underwhelming and overcosted for a lot of matchups, it’s valuable enough in the Tau and bike-heavy Custodes games to be worth a list slot – something that seems to be borne out by some of the other results. Congratulations to Jeff on beating the spread and taking down the Tau menace.

Result

Tyranid Victory – 77-76

Jeff Jew – Tyranids – 1st Place

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Crusher Stampede

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Pretty much all covered in the showdown – the Maleceptor/Biomorphic/Hierodule build looks like it’s one of the best options to give Crusher a fighting chance into Tau, one of its toughest matchup, and has plenty of value into Custodes as well. Great work from Jeff.

The Rest of the Best

Four other players finished 5-1 at this event. They were:

• 2nd ✪ – Joel Wilson – Tau: See Showdown.
• 3rd – Logan Heath – Tau: Ultra-shooty Tau Sept with maximum Broadsides and Hammerheads. Amidst a week of truly nighmarish armies, this takes the dubious crown of being the most horrific list we’ve looked at this week.
• 4th – Nico Urrea – Thousand Sons: Triple Scarab Occult bomb Duplicity – that’s certainly one way to overwhelm a shooty list.
• 5th – Junior Aflleje – Drukhari: Mixed Drukhari goodstuff with lots of Hellions and one unit of AoF Talos along for the ride.

Also a shout out to Jason Kavetsky in 11th, with a list featuring the very unusual choice of two units of Agmatus Custodians. While missing out on some of the buffs that their Vertus Praetor cousins have gotten isn’t ideal, mounting a high rate-of-fire gun on a fast platform is moderately interesting at the moment because of the capability it gives to strip away Shield Drones, something that the normal bikes really struggle with at range. Definitely a unit to keep half an eye on, especially if the Praetors catch a nerf at some point.

War of the Roses

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. This event was played with WTC terrain and scoring, i.e. 20-0.

The Showdown – Tide of Conviction

Matchup & Mission –

Mani Cheema – Adeptus Mechanicus: A classic 9th edition Ad Mech army, with triple Ballistarii, two Stratoraptors, and a whole pile of Sicarians and Skitarii.

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vs.

Liam Young – Necrons: An’rakyr and Szarekh head up a varied Necron force incorporating a little bit of everything. Note that the list is missing its dynasty, but we think it’s Eternal Expansionists.

Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

The Adeptus Mechanicus return to the field once more, with a fairly mighty pilot at the helm, but how will it fare into newly empowered Necrons? Six months ago if you played Necrons into AdMech you were nigh on guaranteed to run out of stuff, but the Necrons here are playing with a solid ~120pts extra compared to pre-Nachmund, while AdMech are still 200+ points down on their peak. Even better for the Necrons, this event was being played on the extremely heavy WTC terrain setups, giving them a much better shot of hiding from volleys of galvanic rifle fire than on some tables, and as a melee-focused build the Tides of Conviction mission has a lot of appeal for them. The heavy tables also mean that hiding Szarekh and the Lokhust Heavy Destroyers so that the Stratoraptors have to make risky moves to engage them is quite viable.

From the AdMech point of view, the big advantage they have is that time is on their side. The Necrons have no real way of doing damage at a distance (outside of trying to shoot down the planes with various beams of death), and while the output of their melee threats is pretty high they’re still at some risk of not clearing enough out of a big Skitarii unit to take control of an objective from them without pushing in multiple units – and the AdMech counterattack will be brutal. The Temporcopia on the Infiltrators is a big problem too, as that unit is a serious threat to anything that engages it, and means that if too many Necron power pieces cluster up a multi-charge from those and the Ruststalkers could be game ending. Finally, the scoring looks to favour the AdMech significantly – Mani’s favourite trick of putting enough calivers into his Ranger Squads to make them the TTL targets is on show, and an Inquisitor for Psychic Actions also helps provide low risk scoring if either of the non-LOW Necron characters stray out of Szarekh’s deny bubble. Both sides can also play a good Banners game, but with the scoring in a static game generally looking like it favours the AdMech it looks like the Necrons have to try and make something happen, and having the Ruststalkers waiting in a transport is going to make any commit they try and pull off feel very fraught.

I don’t think it’s impossible for them to pull it off, mind – they have a lot of power pieces to work with, and can charge in enough places at once that they’ll threaten to overwhelm the AdMech’s ability to effectively counterattack. The planes also have to be very careful about how they move around the table – they can’t reliably alpha strike Szarekh down through his invuln, swinging and missing would be a disaster, and some of the mid-sized WTC ruins are Obscuring but have open sightlines modelled, so will allow the Necrons to snipe out at planes with impunity. If the Necrons can make the planes dead, it suddenly feels like they might be in the driver’s seat, as Szarkeh is exceptionally good at ruining the day of Sicarians, but the joys of AdMech are such that trying to do so is going to be at the mercy of some untimely 5+ saves runing the plan. In the end, the AdMech did emerge victorious, but with a scoreline that suggests the Necrons at least made them do some work.

Result

Adeptus Mechanicus Victory: 15-5

Mani Cheema – 1st Place – Adeptus Mechanicus

The List

See Showdown.

Archetype

Mars Goodstuff

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Another reminder that in the right hands AdMech still have a lot going for them, still able to pull off a lot of their classic tricks and with Stratoraptors and Ironstriders feeling pretty good into Custodes Bukes. The only burning question with this list is whether it would be better just going for the Veteran Cohort option rather than bringing an Inquisitor – it loses the access to Psychic secondaries, but adding massive extra threat range to the Ruststalkers and boosting the ability of the Ranger blocks to absorb a charge very much feels like it could be worth it (and you can drop the calivers to pay for half the extra points. We’ll see whether Mani pops up with AdMech again in the near future, or the siren call of some godawful Craftworld artillery spam build is too tempting to resist.

The Rest of the Best

4 players finished 4-1 at this event. They were:

• 2nd – Markus Hinson ✪ – T’au Empire: T’au Sept with Shadowsun, Longstrike, and 30 Strikes backed up by three Broadsides and two Riptides.
• 3rd – Bob Wolstencroft – Grey Knights: Rapiers with a lot of Terminators (including two minimum-sized squads of Paladins), and only two regular Dreadknights in favour of a Purgation Squad with incinerators.
• 4th – Matt Robertson – Necrons: Eternal Expansionists Necrons with triple Wraiths and triple Skorpekh, plus Lychguard and Lokhust Heavy Destroyers.
• 5th – Rafael Harbinson – White Scars: A rare appearance for the Sons of the Khan, running 10 boltstorm Aggressors and 12 Bladeguard.

OPG GT 2022

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

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission: Data Scry-Salvage

Paul Metcalfe – Necrons: Double C’tan Eternal Expansionists.

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vs.

Innes Wilson – Tyranids: Crusher Stampede with double Harpies.

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Thoughts

The excellent week for Crusher and Necrons continues with another Taustodes free showdown, with Innes Wilson piloting his beloved big bugs into a Necron list with monsters of its own in the form of C’tan. With Tau a big factor, the per-phase wound cap on C’tan looks very attractive as it creates a near non-negotiable stumbling block (although they have to watch out for Precision/Advanced Cannon captains taking an extra few points away), and can also provide reliable To the Last targets in many matchups, especially alongside a big Wraith unit as the final choice (though I might have been tempted to take one out to make the Catacomb Command Barge the third pick).

Unfortunately, Crusher is about the worst possible matchup to have C’tan in, somehow outdoing even Thousand Sons or Grey Knights for pain. Breaking Through kills this matchup stone dead, as in combination with Hive Guard and a Dimachaeron near-ensures that the Tyranids can one-round the Nightbringer, and after that there aren’t any threats that can do nearly enough damage to stop Crusher rolling them off the table. Skorpekh and Wraiths really struggle into Damage Reduction (with a knock on effect on Necrons as a whole given they’re some of the best units) and while the Void Dragon is scary, they’re no Nightbringer when it comes to trying to punch out a Dimachaeron, and the ability of the beasties to Fight on death or auto-explode should further ensure that the star god’s time on the table is brief. To add insult to injury, the Synaptic Hive Blades Flyrant is the perfect Wraith killing machine (Innes informs me that they cheerfully picked up the whole squad) and Eternal Expansionists’ main gimmick barely works against Crusher, as turning on Synaptic Imperative while counting as 10+ models is usually enough to stop a stolen objective.

Necrons can cheerfully max RND here, and the alt-primary is OK for them but are up against it for all other purposes. The list is cool into plenty of things in the field, giving real pause to Custodes and Tau, but the faction in general hates seeing Crusher across the table, and this ends up as a particularly brutal demonstration of why.

Result

Tyranids Victory: 20-0 (98-43)

Innes Wilson – 1st Place – Tyranids

The List

See Showdown.

Archetype

Crusher Stampede

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Our third winning Crusher build of the week, and the only one diverging from the new Maleceptor orthodoxy, with Innes preferring the extra movement jank of a second Harpy. That does, to be fair, make a lot of sense in a 20-0 system as relying on Maleceptor-buffed durability to see you through tough games has a huge failure case that could result in a big loss that essentially ends your chances of a top finish. Harpies, on the other hand, help put the boot in when you’re ahead and play objective shenanigans to salvage points when you’re not, making them extra tasty in the format. Innes did also go through runner up Brian’s Farsight Enclaves to get to the top spot, so the build can definitely deal with raw power as well!

The Rest of the Best

3 players finished 5-1 at this event. They were:

• 2nd – Brian Seipp – T’au Empire: Allied Worlds FSE with an AFP/flamers Crisis Team, 9 CIB/plasma rifles Crisis Bodyguards across two squads, 3 Broadsides, and then stuff to get between you and them.
• 3rd – Aaron Young – T’au Empire: T’au Sept with all the Special Guys – Shadowsun, Longstrike, and Aun’va all appear, backing up three Crisis bricks, some Broadsides, and a Ghostkeel.
• 4th – Gavin Heritage – Adeptus Mechanicus: The Mechanicus Defence Cohort rears its head again, with 15 Kataphron Breachers taking the field backed by a mighty 10 Kastelan Robots.

Wrap Up

Next week the webway opens and the new Aeldari codex will be making its debut, with two UK GTs firing that both have it live. We’ve also got a major in Arizona and a few other GTs, so we should have another healthy week with a nice, medium-high amount of Warhammer 40K.

Only better, because there will be more elves. Yeah I said it.

See you next week. Comments, questions and suggestions to contact@goonhammer.com.