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Competitive Innovations in 9th: Goonhammerception

By James "One_Wing" Grover

This week the answer to “were there any events?” is especially obvious for anyone paying attention to what we’ve been up to, because the inaugural Goonhammer Open US is now in the books, with the champion’s belt (literally, that’s not a bit, it apparently weights about 10 pounds) passing into the hands of our first champion. Elsewhere, the UK had a major, and GTs fired in Norway and Vegas, so we’ve got the perfect number of events as far as I’m concerned – plenty to keep things interesting, but few enough that I’ve been also able to spend time on other important activities such as “building terrain for the Goonhammer Open UK” (which is now in boxes filling a substantial proportion of my ham den) and “getting absolutely kicked in by Grey Knights” (the Interceptor/Dreadknight list – it’s no joke).

As a reminder, when I note up the lists from these events I highlight any players who were in a tournament winning position going into the last round (borrowing the metric from our friends at 40kstats) by putting a ✪ next to their placing.

On to the events!

Goonhammer Open US

You can find all the lists for this event in Best Coast Pairings. This event was using path to victory to determine standings.

Anthony Vanella – Drukhari – 1st Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Cronos Drukhari
  • Including a large Court of the Archon lets the list stick some durable bodies in a third part of the board.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The inaugural Goonhammer Open champion is going to be a familiar face to regular readers of Competitive Innovations – in fact, we most recently saw him just last week taking down a GT with this build, and he’s been on a hot streak for a while. Cronos need no introduction as a very strong unit, anchoring plenty of top builds, and the most interesting angle to look at this list from is how it differs from the other multiple-event-winning spin on Cronos that Matt Root has been playing.

While there’s a reasonable amount of overlap in the essential must-takes of the builds (two Cronos units, though Anthony has traded the spirit vortexes for slightly more bodies, Trueborn, four Raiders, Incubi), how they choose to spend what’s left over is actually reasonably different. Matt focuses on some trade pieces and small fast units, packing in more Wracks, an extra succubus, Reavers and some Mandrakes, while Anthony invests in two additional units that have some real heft, taking a large Court and a ten-model Hellion unit. Both choices have their advantages – as long as the Cronos are controlling the table, Matt’s build probably has an easier time racking up points and chipping away at the enemy, but by including crunchier units Anthony’s build can punish the opponent severely if they overcommit to taking on the Cronos and underestimate what the rest of the list can do. The Hellions in particular are a nightmare – they’re very fast, and with Adrenalight (and the option to pop Hyperstim Backlash) they can hit like a freight train, potentially crumpling a flank out of nowhere if the opponent isn’t looking out for it. The Court also gives the army something that can take a punch and still hold a position if the opponent manages to navigate around the Cronos or take them out fast, giving the list some angles to hold on when things go wrong.

The purpose of this isn’t to try and say one build is better than the other – both these builds have won multiple events in their pilot’s expert hands – just to highlight that even with a consistent core, you can change the character of a list quite substantially with what you put around it. Also, I have thoroughly run out of things to say about Cronos builds in a vacuum, and this gave me something to write. Huge congratulations to Anthony, and hopefully he’ll be back to defend his title the next time the GHO runs stateside.

Adrian Phillips – Adeptus Mechanicus – 2nd ✪ Place

Skitarii Vanguard
Skitarii Vanguard. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • A Mars Veteran Cohort list that gets pretty close to covering all possible bases.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

AdMech vs. Drukhari on the top shouldn’t be a huge surprise to anyone who’s been following the metagame, and regular readers will recognise plenty of the powerhouse units in Adrian’s build. The exact setup here is novel, however. In recent Veteran Cohort lists, we’ve generally either seen the army going super hard on the melee Skitarii and running as a Forge World that supports that (usually Metalica, as popularised by Richard Siegler) or going with Mars and including some Disintegrators and/or planes for the heavy firepower, cutting down on the Sicarians to pay for it. This build sits somewhere in between those, and in this case looks pretty strong for doing so. While three Ironstriders might not look like that much, with the Mars re-roll and potentially adding Benediction of the Omnissiah with Data-Blessed Autosermon on turn one, they’re still more than capable of punking out a key target right out of the gate. Add to that the fact that it’s got both flavours of Skitarii in large units, and plenty of vectors to deploy Wrath of Mars, and this list still has the ability to really ruin days at a distance.

Up close, its Sicarians are slightly less efficient than they might be if the army was going all-in on them, sure, but these models are strong enough that they don’t actually need a lot of help to be lethal. A full block of Ruststalkers with access to the Veteran Cohort buffs is still going to turn anything it touches into a fine mist, and the mid-sized units of both Sicarian flavours also can’t be ignored. Being able to turn on some of the melee-focused Canticles if the situation calls for it isn’t nothing either, and really doubles down on how flexible this build ends up being. The army is good enough at killing stuff at range, challenging opponents with horde-sized troop units and engaging in melee that it can focus on whichever is most productive in a given game, exploiting whatever pathetic fleshy weakness the opposing force exposes. It’s a strong plan, and while eventually taken down by Anthony’s Drukhari in the grand final, Adrian piloted it on an excellent run all the way to the runner up slot – great stuff!

James “Boon” Kelling – Drukhari – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Our boy Boon sneaks onto the podium with a third-place run.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

There’s not a massive amount to say here, both because we’ve looked at Boon’s list before and because I’m pretty sure he’s going to have a tournament report of his own sorted out in the near future. Cronos are great, and it was only in a Cronos throwdown against Anthony in round four that Boon picked up a loss. Great work as ever from our Drukhari mastermind.

TJ Lanigan – Nurgle – 4th Place

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

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • The forces of Nurgle pick up another impressive showing for TJ.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Another repeat top four finisher here, TJ took a strong finish with the same build just last week and it’s clear that the infusion of mobility the Plague Drones give this style of list has added real legs to the archetype. Or creepy plague-ridden wings, I guess. More good work from TJ.

The Rest of the Best

One more player finished on a 5-1 record. They were:

  • 5th – Scott Horras – Astra Militarum: Our own Scott, fresh from updating Start Competing Astra Militarum, puts words into practice by piloting pure Guard to a very respectable finish, combining Demolisher Tank Commanders and a whole lot of Taurox Primes with boosted AP from the Lambdan Lions.

Da Summer Waaagh (major)

You can find all the lists for this event in Best Coast Pairings.

Jay Wood – Drukhari – 1st Place

Kabalite Trueborn. Credit: Corrode

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Phantasms galore and double Trueborn amp Drukhari’s shooting capabilities to the max.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Demonstrating just how versatile the Drukhari codex is, this major-winning build is pretty much the polar opposite in style to the Cronos builds from the GHO, but no less potent for it. While there are still some melee trade pieces, there’s nothing that can take a punch like a full Court or Cronos. Instead, this build relies on the exceptional mobile ranged damage it can present and the fact that it’s all packed up into Raiders (giving it at least medium durability) to aim to grind the opponent off the board in a hail of re-rolling darklight and phantasm grenades. The melee tools it does have can act as counterattack units and troubleshooters to punish opponents who overcommit when trying to push back, or in the case of the Wyches push onto an objective and slip something ObSec off it. Finish things up with the excellent objective utility capabilites of the Mandrakes and you’ve got another exquisitely tuned army that’s more than ready to take down events – and that’s just what Jay did with it.

Matt Charles – Iron Hands Successors – 2nd ✪ Place

Assault Intercessor Sergeant
Assault Intercessor Sergeant. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Board control Iron Hands Successors rack up another excellent finish.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Thanks to the hard work of some dedicated pilots (notably Nassim Fouchane), Iron Hands Successors with a melee board control spin are gradually making their way into the exclusive club of lists that I don’t have that much new to say about. The combination of the excellent support that the superdoctrine gives to early shooting (particularly drop-pod Devastators), “sticky” shooting threats from buffed Redemptors and an unshootable VolCon and some real melee crunch from lots of VanVets boosted by the Whirlwind of Rage/Born Heroes Chapter Tactic creates an exceptionally flexible army that’s distinctly sitting in the upper echelons of what Marines can do.

Edit: Doh – got the chapter tactic wrong here, it’s Whirlwind/Artisans instead. That makes the Devastators and Dreadnoughts more enduringly deadly and puts a distinctly larger amount of damage pressure on the opponent at range. It also makes it a bit different to Nassim’s list – so apologies for that assumption.

If it needs to go hard out of the gate it can. If it needs to play more cautiously, it can buff the defences of key units with Psysteel Armour and Reject Flesh, Embrace the Machine while moving up to force a response, then exploit terrain with the VanVets to land a brutal punch – all while a bunch of Dreadnoughts racks up kills. It’s a very nasty build, and it’s a particularly good sign for an archetype when players beyond the original creator can pick it up, put some of their own spin on it, and take it to an undefeated finish. Congratulations Matt!

Mani Cheema – Orks – 3rd Place

Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy. Credit: Rockfish
Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • The Blood Axe Ramshackle Nightmare returns.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Zooming back into battle after a week off, Mani’s major-winning Speedwaaagh list from the Wargaming Guild’s Summer Slaughter returns and takes a third-place finish, denied another trophy by getting blown clean off the board by AdMech in round 4. The build is just as brutal as it was then (see the full writeup here) and to hammer home just how overwhelming it is, all four of Mani’s victories at the event were 100pt victories, which is quite the statistic. Sheer logistics of model access might keep this list out of the hands of most players, but for those who can field it it’s truly terrifying (as long as you don’t run into an extra-shooty Mars build and go second). More good work from Mani in pushing a book as hard as it will go.

Matthew Duggan – Grey Knights – 4th ✪ Place

Grey Knight Kill Team
Grey Knight Kill Team
Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Grey Knights pick up an impressive TiWP finish with an Interceptor fiesta.
  • Dreadknights prove that they absolutely do not need to be Swordbearers to be excellent.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Proving once again that in the metagame, time is a flat circle, Grey Knight builds packing in as many Interceptors as possible, multiple Dreadknights, and Draigo are hot stuff once more, so anyone who built towards that in mid-8th when it was the only semi-valid build rejoice!

Happily for exploring what this list can do, I got in a game against an Interceptor-heavy build earlier this week, and having been resoundingly flattened for the crime of underestimating it, I feel I’ve got a reasonable handle on what they can do – which is apply massive pressure. Running in blocks of ten like this lets you Combat Squad the units, which gives you up to six (though with this build keeping one as a ten might sometimes be the play) hyper-fast units that are more than capable of taking on pretty much any target in melee, are pretty durable for their price, can put good shooting damage into hordes and have extra movement reach from either Ethereal Castigation or Teleportation Shunt. As Rapiers, the melee aspect is especially pronounced, as a unit that needs to tangle with something especially nasty can buff up with Symphonic Strike and Deadly Efficiency to squeeze some extra damage. You don’t need to be Rapiers for them to be good by any means, but it makes them even more adaptable. Having lots of units of Interceptors to sweep out with is great whether you go first or second – if you’re going first, sticking multiple units with Tides of Shadow up into the mid-board and getting a strong start on the exceptional Purifying Ritual secondary puts your opponent under a tonne of pressure and isn’t trivial to push back. If you’re going second, it’s very easy to set these units up hidden while still easily having the reach to counter-charge into whatever your opponent strikes forward with, letting the Grey Knights launch an immediate and brutal counterattack.

Being so fast also makes them a great vector for combos, and this list packs one of the nastiest that Grey Knights have – Words of Power stacking with Tide of Convergence on a high-attack unit to bury the opponent in Mortal Wounds. This list can tune how big a hit it’s planning with this depending on the matchup. You can see that half of one Interceptor unit has nemesis falchions for extra attacks to max the combo, and in matchups where this (with the Mortal buff) is sufficient that unit can still combat squad, but if there’s something ultra hardcore on the other side of the table it can stay together to unleash maximum overkill. That unit probably sits in the Rhino till it’s go time (with Empyric Declamation handily letting the Chaplain apply the buff after disembark), but even then (especially if they’re a 10-model unit) can pack in some damage by using Castigation to get out, shoot, then get back into the bus. I suspect in most games the plan is to put the five falchions and the Purifiers in the Rhino, providing a brutal mid-game thrust of Mortal Wounds and extra durability (via Untainted and Unbowed on the Purifiers) to extinguish the hopes of an opponent who’s on the ropes.

Dreadknights next, with both a Grand Master and regular flavour getting into the list, and these basically turn out to be exactly as good as they looked. The super-buffed Grand Master is an astonishing all-round nightmare, while the combination of a 4+ invulnerable save and getting a sweep attack means the regular one is great in multiple phases too. The presence of both the Sigil and Servant of the Throne on the Grand Master lets him operate with extreme levels of impunity, because when he thrusts forward the ask on the opponent to deal with him is to be able to land a kill in melee through a 3+ invulnerable save, which is a big yikes for most armies. He needs to watch out for mortal wound bombs (though even then the 5+ against those is better than most similarly durable tools have) but trying to take him down is often going to be a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” prospect for lots of armies. Sorry “violently blessed if you do, violently blessed if you don’t”.

Rounding stuff out, Draigo and Strike Squads are both excellent for their price tags, with Strikes providing more fodder for Ritual and more lethal bodies as a second wave, and a squad of Servitors to camp at home finishes things up. This build is extremely potent and should be a real part of the metagame, and my strong recommendation would be that if you’re planning to go to any big events in the near future you try and get at least one rep in against it on the table before them. Congratulations to Matthew for taking Grey Knights to table 1 – it’s been a while!

The Rest of the Best

Seven more players achieved 4-1 records. They were:

  • 5th ✪ – Danny Evison – Adeptus Mechanicus: An extremely shooty Mars Veteran Cohort build, with three Stratoraptors and six Ironstriders alongside some big Ranger blocks and lots of small utility melee units. Notably, was the only build that managed to push back Mani’s buggy nightmare, sweeping them off the board in short order.
  • 6th – Michael Duff – Adeptus Mechanicus: A pretty classic Lucius/Mars build, three big Skitarii blocks and a bunch of Ironstriders/Stratoraptors.
  • 7th – Keith Wilkinson – Space Wolves: VolCons, jump pack Wolf Guard and Long Fangs create a list that’s deadly at every range.
  • 8th – Rob Catton – Death Guard: Shooty Inexorable, three VolCons and three PBCs with Terminators to protect them, a lightweight Poxwalker screen and Cultists/singleton Spawn for secondaries.
  • 9th – Jon Phipps – Tyranids: A rare sighting of the full blown Gaunt carpet list, with over 200 bodies backed up by Hive Guard.
  • 10th – Dan Whitfield – Drukhari: An unusually heavy Cult of Strife contingent with four 10-model Wych units, backed up by Black Heart Trueborn and transports.
  • 11th – Ashley Parkinson – Tau: A fairly balanced looking Farsight list, packing a medium-sized Crisis bomb, a big Broadside unit and lots of Stealth Suits, Troops and Devilfish to round out.

Power 9 Games Friendly Local Grand Tournament

You can find all the lists for this event in Best Coast Pairings.

Evan Stump – Deathwatch – 1st Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Deathwatch assemble the ultimate Dreadnought deathball.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Deathwatch continue to cement their position in the upper echelons of Space Marine factions with another event win, where Evan has taken some of the themes that have been driving their success to their logical conclusion. Part of the reason Deathwatch are so strong is that they provide excellent support for two of Marines’ best units – the VolCon and the Redemptor. Slamming a 5+ invulnerable save on a trio of Redemptors from the Dominus Aegis makes them straight uo one of the best units in the game, great at killing and tough to kill, and here the extra attack from Warden of the Ancients makes them extra deadly in melee as well. The VolCons, meanwhile, absolutely love access to Nowhere to Hide and the Tome of the Ectoclades. Being able to ignore cover on demand helps mitigate the lack of AP on the Volkite (which Storm of Fire also assists with), while the Tome lets them go absolutely wild for a turn when needed. It’s particularly exceptional against AdMech and Drukhari, as choosing “Raider” or “Ruststalker” often covers multiple enemy units, potentially letting you sweep several units clean off the board, which is never a bad thing! Marine Dreadnoughts rule anyway and this list pushes them to their limit in a good way.

That’s not the only Deathwatch trick it uses mind, with two Kill Teams set up in one of the popular configurations also adding some power that’s unique to the chapter. Combat Squadding into the Biker/VanVet halves and shotgun halves gives you two hyper-mobile, very durable ObSec units and two squads that are moderately dangerous shooting out of a Teleportarium, but also cheap enough that you can just slam them on an objective when needed. The mobile squads gives the army some real reach on the Primary while the Dreadnoughts do their work, and they team up super well with the robots. Effective combinations of tools are exactly what the Deathwatch are about, and this list looks particularly elegant on the page, so congratulations to Evan.

Daniel Olivas – Drukhari – 2nd Place

Drukhari Alliance of Agony | Credit: Garrett “John Condit” Severson

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • A Realspace Raid brings super Incubi and the sinister power of the Dark Creed to the table.
  • Drazhar still tags along in an extra Patrol.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Realspace Raids look awesome on paper, but in practice you need a specific plan to get the most out of them to counterbalance the fact that they make it more expensive to squeeze Drazhar and extra Succubi in the list. The Dark Creed are a great choice of Coven with that in mind, as one of the big payoffs for a Realspace Raid is Alliance of Agony – which only matters if you have a good Warlord trait to throw on a Haemoculus. Luckily the Dark Creed (Fear Incarnate) one is great – stripping Objective Secured off opposing units is always good, and shutting down Actions occasionally clutch, and with a couple of Grisly Trophy Dark Creed Raiders to tank opposing leadership, it’s going to work a lot of the time. It’s also particularly good with Alchemical Maestro, which will often let the Haemi hang on for one more turn than he’d otherwise get to drop the debuff an extra time. That lets him flip objectives with surprisingly small amounts of backup, and lugging round the Poisoner’s Ampule also lets him meddle with the opponent’s most powerful auras if that’s what the situation calls for. That’s not the only benefit the Dark Creed brings either – seeding in a few of their Venoms alongside Black Heart Raiders, all with Trophies and Chain Snares presents a surprisingly effective attrition threat even before you factor in the rest of the army – the Dark Creed Obsession is extremely dangerous against anything that isn’t immune to Combat Attrition modifiers, and with -3Ld even a few casualties is going to be enough to threaten a disastrous morale phase. It’s a different angle that Drukhari usually attack on, and definitely adds something against hordier foes.

It’s also not the only benefit the Realspace Raid brings – having it as Black Heart means that the Incubi in that detachment can Advance and Charge right out of the gate (which will badly catch out someone not expecting it) while being able to use Raid Mastermind re-rolls makes blaster Scourges a way more appealing investment than they’d normally be. This list has a reasonable number of darklight shots already, but with the anti-horde covered pretty well by the Raider/morale tricks, having this extra spike seems more valuable than shredders would be. Finally, the tooled-up Wych units probably don’t need much help to get their jobs done (and two of them are a very effective tag team for locking up a flank) but RR1s to hit isn’t going to hurt either.

Between the morale tricks of Dark Creed, the option of a massed ramming maneuvre by the Raiders and the multiple units of Wyches, this list ends up with a very strong anti-horde plan, while still having many of the trade-up threats like Drazhar, Incubi and the Succubus that make Drukhari such a headache for elite armies. It’s cool to see something that’s a little different amidst the forest of Drukhari builds, so great work Daniel.

Adam Baker – Imperial Knights – 3rd Place

Imperial Knight Castellan
Imperial Knight Castellan. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Some of the top Knight units rack up a great performance as House Raven.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

We’ve been seeing a few more Knight builds in top fours recently, and the tag team of units seen here is pretty representative of what’s making them tick. The Knight Castellan is still one of the ultimate shooting trump cards, cheerfully extinguishing elite units and enemy hulls alike, and extra deadly as House Raven thanks to access to Order of Companions and a cheeky Advance and Shoot to get the torso-mounted meltaguns in range against an unsuspecting opponent. Exactly three big Knights, one of which is a Castellan, also sets up the list for maximum value from Kolossi Eternal out of the gate, as you pay the same 3CP you’d spend on a Rotate anyway. Castellans and House Raven – still an iconic partnership.

Moving onto the Magaeras, these are just exceptionally good on rate, far outstripping every other Knight for efficiency, and don’t really need any help to be strong. As it happens, however, having a natural invulnerable save in melee does combo especially well with Raven, as it means Crimson Wall is always an auto-save, letting you squeak through a melee that would otherwise be fatal then put up Machine Spirit Resurgent and reap a terrible vengeance. The re-rolls from the Spirit of Kolossi relic are also very good on an all-rounder unit that’s planning to be active in multiple phases.

Finally, Armiger Warglaives are just very aggressively costed, and getting to squeeze in a sixth body is extremely good for this lists’s ability to contest the board. That helps add a bit of board consistency to the exceptional damage dealing, and means this list is no joke to deal with. A great performance from Adam.

Treynor Wolfe – Adepta Sororitas – 4th Place

Sisters of Battle Seraphim
Sisters of Battle Seraphim. Credit: Corrode

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Ebon Chalice and Bloody Rose team up for another strong performance.
  • Mortals and miracles make the Ebon Chalice detachment very flexible damage dealers.
  • Bloody Rose provide powerful shock troops.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The Bloody Rose tools here don’t really need any introduction – Repentia are still absurd blenders that will tear units many times their cost into tiny pieces, while Zephyrim hit a sweet spot of speedy, dangerous and cheap that makes them very effective shock troops. It’s good stuff, and a strong incentive to include a detachment from the Order in lists.

The Ebon Chalice has been much more of a breakout from the new book. It’s not the first time we’ve seen it, but it’s clear that they’re the real deal. What they bring to the table is serious flexibility and adaptability, always valuable in 9th. Starting out with a Miracle Dice on 6 from Terrible Knowledge, and being able to cook up more with the Conviction on demand means you can always threaten a huge swing from any melta shot that goes through, letting you get away with fewer than some lists would (the starting six is also great for a Repentia charge). Cutting down on meltas lets the list go wider on flame weapons to combine with Cleansing Flames, providing the list with a second strong source of Mortal Wounds beyond Blessed Bolts, helping it deal with especially crunchy targets effectively, and really boosting the value of the Seraphim.

The other place the flexibility comes in is in being able to double up on Sacred Rites, as this allows the Sacresants (who want to be in the detachment with the Dogmata) to still have the Passion up while the rest of the detachment squeeze some value from other choices like Divine Guidance. That’s just gotten even better as an option with the addition of Grey Knights and Thousand Sons to the mix, as being able to switch on Aegis of the Emperor for the bulk of the units while keeping The Passion up for the Bloody Rose and the Sacresants is going to be exceptional.

The usual Named Character suspects round this list out, and with the Grey Knight/Tsons factor I think there’s a good argument that this is an already strong build that’s only going to get better in the next few months. Great stuff from Treynor, and also nice to see someone put AdMech back on the shelf after performing well with them!

The Rest of the Best

Two more players finished on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 5th ✪ – Junior Aflleje – Drukhari: I did actually have to double check the faction here since Junior has mostly been tearing things up with Blood Angels, but this week he’s swapped to Drukhari. The taste for flying melee hasn’t left him, however, as he ran a multi-Cult list featuring Cult of Strife Succubi and then a Cursed Blade detachment with two 10-model Hellion units. That gives him some unusually hefty, mobile melee units (both units were on Painbringer for T5), with some of the normal Obsidian Rose tools like Trueborn backing them up.
  • 6th – Frankie Giampapa – Drukhari: Same again, honestly – Cult of Strife, Obsidian Rose and then Cursed Blade Hellions.

Norsehammer Open 40k

You can find all the lists for this event in Best Coast Pairings.

Rasmus Valand Fredriksen – Drukhari – 1st Place

Credit: Wings

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Dark Creed get a second showcase, this time with Haemoxcytes.
  • Ravagers instead of Trueborn saves some Raider seats for extra Incubi.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

It’s a good week for the Dark Creed apparently! Here, rather than boosting a wall of Raiders a unit of Haemoxcytes enters the fray. These make a pretty good tag team with the Fear Incarnate Haemoculus, as they’re a surprisingly durable unit to push onto an objective to steal it off something that’s just lost ObSec. They’re also cheap enough that if what you need is something to sit on a home objective and soak up any indirect fire they’re good for that too – the combination of an improved invuln and ignoring the first failed save makes grinding them down extremely hard, and the Haemoculus is perfectly capable of getting up to his mischief while backing up Wyches or Incubi instead. Those are both present here in good numbers, providing plenty of melee board control and damage dealing, and running triple patrol makes getting Drazhar in easy as well. The big surprise from the list is that it’s running a couple of Ravagers instead of Raider-mounted Trueborn, presumably to avoid providing an obvious thing to shoot at first, or perhaps because (with only five Infantry units in the Black Heart detachment) having one Raider with different Obsessions would have been too much of a headache to manage.

Just like Daniel’s list, the Dark Creed component here adds some extra angles of attack, maybe to a lesser degree but still ready to catch out opponents who don’t play around it. When everyone’s gunning for your faction, bringing in some alternative tools is a way to viciously thwart their preparations, and that seems to have been a fine choice by Rasmus, earning him an event win.

Mariusz Wawrzyn – Drukhari – 2nd Place

Drukhari Raider. Credit: Corrode

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Board control tools team up with double Trueborn for a vicious list.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

We’ve seen board control lists with Hellions and Courts and we’ve seen double Trueborn lists – and this combines them to great effect. Trueborn provide some extremely deadly shooting at mid ranges, and anyone trying to engage them is going to get brutally counterpunched. With such nasty melee threats lined up, dealing with two Courts is also a real headache, because taking them out requires commitment, and commitment is going to be punished. With all the transports as Poisoned Tongue the list also has maximum flexibility to adapt after the first turn toll-off, ensuring that many games will play out on its terms and helping it shrink down to a fully hideable profile against powerful shooting builds. It is, in fact, yet another powerful spin on Drukhari that Mariusz has brought us.

Tore Grødeland – Deathwatch – 3rd Place

Credit: TheChirurgeon

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • More Deathwatch Kill Team and Dreadnought goodness.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Pretty much the same again here from Deathwatch – Dreadnoughts and board control focused Kill Teams. Slightly fewer of the former and more of the latter, and with extra tricks on both fronts – Premorphic Resonance + Fortified with Contempt turns the VanVet half of one of the kill teams into a super durable missile to shoot at the enemy, while bringing the Vhorkan-Pattern Auspicator makes the Dreadnoughts extra deadly against the space elf menace. Poor space elves. What did they ever do t-oh right. Anyway, another great Deathwatch showing in Tore’s hands.

Nicholas Lohrmann – Adeptus Custodes – 4th ✪ Place

Adeptus Custodes Venatari Custodians
Adeptus Custodes Venatari Custodians. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Ultra-durable Shadowkeeper Dreadnoughts team up with inescapable Venatari.
  • Massively boosted Vexila range makes the Telemons even tougher.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Custodes sneak in to our final top four of the week with an impressive TiWP performance. As seems to be the theme for the week, the tools are familiar but the exact setup has a twist – rather than running as a single detachment, the Venatari are split off into the Emissaries Imperatus Shield host. That brings two things to the table – the Voice of the Emperor warlord trait to boost the range of the Vexila Magnifica, making the familiar Shadowkeepers Telemons even more of a nightmare to kill, and supplying the Venatari with The Emperor’s Hand. For a mere 1CP this lets them ignore essentially any special defensive shenanigans that the opponent has brought to the table, and combos with Superior Fire Patterns to lay down a truly nightmarish volley with their kinetic destroyers. That’s great into a huge range of popular targets, and the opponent a terrifying threat they have to play around until the punch is thrown. In that time the Custodians and Telemons will be busily claiming objectives, and while the overall plan here is broadly the same as usual for Custodes, the choice of splitting Shield Hosts lets it operate at particularly high efficiency. With that in mind, it’s no surprise to see it operating on table 1, so great list building and play from Nicholas.

The Rest of the Best

Two more players finished on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 5th – Christopher Jacobsen – Salamanders: A mix and match of all sorts of spicy infantry, with two big VanVet units backed by Suppressors, Eradicators, Aggressors and Bladeguard, with a Whirlwind ready to drop Suppression Fire on whatever needs to get ganked.
  • 6th – Sverre Reikvam – Necrons: A rather unique mixed build here, with Mephrit Warriors and Deathmarks for volume shooting pressure backed up by Eternal Expansionist Skorpekh and Scarabs for objective play.

Wrap Up

Whisper it but it looks like we might have a couple of relatively quiet weekends in a row, as this week looks to be one event that’s on the big GT/major borderline and a couple of GTs. There is also, however, a massive team event in Australia, and since by the magic of time zones I can start writing those up on Sunday I’m probably going to declare that it’s team week once more. After that things hot up again, and I’ll be hitting the tables myself at first the FactoruM September GT and then the LGT, so we’ve got plenty to look forward. Comments, questions and suggestions to contact@goonhammer.com, and we’ll see you then.

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