A new record has been set for the largest 9th Edition singles event so far, with around 570 players gathering at the London GT to throw down and crown a grand champion. I was there throwing down in the mix and while I am tragically forced to confirm that I did not win the event, I did have the pleasure of getting absolutely crushed by the player that did – more on that in a moment. The London GT is not the only news in town of course, with a nine-round event also taking place in Houston, and a few other GTs to pad things out, which we will be looking at as well.

Since there’s a bit more to talk about with the LGT than a regular major, this week I’m going to bring in some changes to the column which I’ve been putting off for a while but at this point need implementing. It is phenomenal to see the worldwide 40K scene continuing to flourish, but with some weekends seeing anywhere up to 10 GT+ events firing, trying to cover the full top four for every event has become unsustainable – especially as with me going to events again, I do need to reclaim a bit of painting time. That said, one of my favourite aspects of this column is that it gives me a chance to highlight some standout performances from players in smaller scenes and I don’t want to lose that. With that in mind, going forward my planned format is going to change as follows:

• Majors and Supermajors: Unchanged – full top four writeups and best of the rest sections.
• GTs: Full writeups for the undefeated lists only, best of the rest writeups for the other X-0 players. Occasional additional writeups for particularly unique lists.
• Common List Archetypes: Over the last six months some very clear list archetypes have emerged. Rather than trying to think of a new sentence to write about these every time they come up, I’m now maintaining a list of them on this fancy new page, and will just link them, especially in Best of the Rest sections.
• “Standout Features”: This worked at the start of the edition, and still does for breakout lists or armies from new books, but where a list fits one of the archetypes it’s not really doing anything. For a list getting a full writeup, I will now either link an archetype, or fill out this section.

I am hoping that this format strikes a good balance between keeping the column manageable while still giving a broad view of the metagame, highlighting plenty of people’s achievements and ensuring that it’s still your one stop shop for keeping track of what’s going on week-to-week. Apologies in advance to anyone who feels hard done by that they hit a GT top four shortly after this change.

If you have any comments or feedback on the new format, or want to suggest an archetype I’ve missed off the page, let me know at contact@goonhammer.com.

With all that out of the way, on to the London GT!

London GT Supermajor

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. All players covered were undefeated in the Swiss, so no TiWP stars.

General Thoughts

I wrote some pre-event thoughts on the London GT in my rundown of the Invitational, so I thought it would be good to check in on how the event lined up against those, and any other general takeaways before we move on to the lists.

The Top Four and Score Maximisation

With nearly 600 players and only five rounds, cutting to a four person knockout final, the theory going into the LGT was that if you were aiming to win it, you had to be going in with a list designed to score as close to 100pts in every game as possible. Reviewing top players lists before the event, it was very clear that this had been taken on board, and shaped a lot of the top metagame. As it played out, however, I’m less certain that we’ll see such an all-in metagame for the next few.

As all the best players in the room scored 100pts in their first round, the event very quickly stratified so there were essentially two undefeated brackets rather than one – the max score bracket and the “normal” undefeated bracket – and the former of these was an absolute bloodbath. I managed to score 100VP in my first game and then ran face first into Mani Cheema’s Ad Mech plane spam list and watched just under a thousand points of my models evaporate in the first turn, and I’m sure there were plenty of similar experiences out there. Come round three, the list of people still hovering near 200pts scored was a shark tank of the highest order, and they all started taking each other out and, crucially, tanking each other’s scores at least some of the time.

When the dust settled after five rounds, the top four had scores ranging from 476-469 total VP – higher than the average GT, obviously, but not quite “take ROD once and you’re out” either. I also suspect, in hindsight, that some players who got taken out of the running in the shark tank bracket are wondering if bringing a list that aims for a reliable 97VP in early missions rather than taking the 100VP highway to the danger zone might not have been a better call, especially as the last two missions in the pack (Sweep and Clear and Priority Targets) were high scoring ones. It’s a weird thing to talk about on some level, because I’m very much in the camp that submarining should be heavily discouraged and players should always maximise their scores…but the rules of the game also literally allow you to choose to have a 97pt score cap out of the gate, and it’s often the best strategic plan, so how do you address it? Maybe randomise pairings within 5VP brackets (e.g. players in the 95-100VP range are randomised against each other)?

Anyway, the upshot for the actual event was that while lists that went for a full blown gut punch were still rewarded, there was a bit more scope for armies with a more balanced plan to succeed, and two of the lists that broke through to the top four show that off.

Factions

There were 19 undefeated players at the event (16 on 5-0-0, 3 on 4-1-0) and their lists broke down as follows:

• 5x Adeptus Mechanicus
  • 1x Lucius/Mars
  • 1x Lucius/Data-Hoard (which works similarly to Mars)
  • 2x Mars Veteran Cohort
  • 1x Lucius Veteran Cohort
• 4x Drukhari
  • 1x Talos Realspace Raid
  • 1x Cronos Realspace Raid
  • 1x Talos & Cronos Realspace Raid
  • 1x Drukhari goodstuff
• 3x Death Guard
  • 1x Terminus Est
  • 2x Mortarion’s Anvil (one 4-1-0)
• 2x Space Marines
  • 1x White Scars
  • 1x Deathwatch
• 2x Grey Knights:
  • 1x Swordbearers Dreadknights
  • 1x Rapiers Dreadknights (both 4-1-0)
• 1x Adepta Sororitas
  • 1x Bloody Rose
• 1x Aeldari
  • 1x Harlequins/Craftworlds
• 1x Chaos Space Marines
  • 1x Daemon Engines

My takeaways from this are as follows:

• AdMech rule the roost: They won the event, put the largest number of undefeated players through, and their existence shaped list design across the top metagame. A large number of players consolidating onto builds using multiple planes (particularly Stratoraptors) creates a metagame where you either need to have absurd durability or a near 100% reliable plan to exploit the first turn to down all the planes or it’s game over.
• Drukhari may still have room to adapt: Despite AdMech driving the metagame, Drukhari still put four players through undefeated, but what’s striking about their lists is that three out of four of them are very different to what we’ve seen. That’s largely for the simple reason that the standard goodstuff builds have almost no chance of victory going second against AdMech plane lists, and with lots of AdMech in the undefeated pool you were unlikely to dodge that situation forever. On the terrain at the LGT, however, Talos appear to have been the clutch answer to give the army a fighting chance – they could hide easily on the boards, provide extra high damage melta shots to crack open planes, and could set up a situation where if a plane wanted to shoot them they’d have to risk getting punched in melee in response. Fusilaves being able to bomb them is a problem, but in matchups without Stratoraptors Drukhari in general can do a bit more about those.
• Death Guard keep on trucking: Every time I wonder whether the metagame has gotten too degenerate for Death Guard’s very well balanced book to succeed, some players put up excellent performances and prove me wrong. Death Guard and Sisters are probably the best designed 9th Edition books, and I’m desperately hoping some combination of balance fixes can pull Ad Mech and Drukhari down to that level.
• Space Marines have to build for the first turn: As well as a couple undefeated runs there were a lot of Marines that ended up 4-1, mostly spins on Dreadnoughts and Drop Pods. These lists have the killing power to take a victory against the nastiest Ad Mech build if they can get the first turn, and being able to do that, plus stacking the durability of dreadnoughts, means they can just about take a shot.
• Grey Knights are a serious contender: One Grey Knight player I spoke to at the weekend (Andrew Bourbon, who was in with a shot at a top four finish right till the final round) described the Dreadknight list as “like playing with five Knight Crusaders” and that’s a heck of a recommendation, and generally does seem to be supported by how they did.
• Orks Missed Big: I’ll throw up my hands here and say that Orks wildly underperformed my expectations. A couple of copies of the Blood Axe Buggy build made it into the 4-1 bracket, but no Freebooterz made it past 3-1-1. I’ve had a look through the lists and none of them were on the full Dan Sammons/Colin McDade builds, but given recent performances stateside the absence from the top bracket is still a big surprise. It seems plausible that, good though Orks clearly are, in the Ad Mech/Ork matchup the Orks have to go first whereas the Mechanicus can win either way, and with so much Ad Mech in the top bracket none of the Ork builds could run the gauntlet. We’re about to enter “phase 2” of the Ork codex going live, as some of the harder-to-convert new kits are going on sale, so we’ll see what players cook up with those. On that note, if you’re an Ork player who enjoys krumpin stuff in melee rather than all this buggy nonsense, make sure to take a look at Alex Woodcraft’s 4-1 Goff list – given our own Shane is also hyped for Goffs, that might be what the future holds.
• There is just about still room to innovate: even amidst all the horrors, one player made it all the way through the event with Chaos Space Marines, the best performing Death Guard list ran Terminus Est, and as mentioned the Drukhari builds that succeeded were a real divergence from what’s gone before. I am not thrilled with the metagame right now, but if you think you have a solid idea or a new angle for your army, it is still worth giving it a go.

First Turn is Definitely a Problem

Go first lists dominated this event, and a large number of games in the top brackets (often Ad Mech mirrors and Ad Mech/Iron Hands showdowns), including the grand final (which was called after turn one) came down to a pure roll off. You can argue that it’s driven by the lists that the format encouraged, and there was room to improve some of the terrain maps, but nothing is stopping players running these kind of all-in alpha builds at any event, and builds using planes are far harder to shut down with terrain anyway.

I am not in the camp that believes every game is one where you want to go first, and that the incentives will vary substantially matchup to matchup and mission to mission. However, the evidence from this event strongly suggests that when you ask the best players to build the most vicious lists they can you create an environment that increases the number of games where going first is critical, and that the games where going first is a major advantage are far more likely to be uninteresting non-games than those where there’s an advantage to going second.

I would like to see something done about this, hopefully soon, as a few more events like this badly hurt people’s appetite to play the game competitively. I think we need to see some changes to the Ad Mech planes, who are the very worst culprits for driving this, and ideally some mission pack changes too. The change to player 2 scoring in the final turn has done a lot to make things feel better in games where one player isn’t getting bullied off the table, but the release of Drukhari and Ad Mech since then has dramatically reduced the number of games where player 2 is on the table to use it, so it’s not doing enough.

For my money, I would like to see player 2 being able to bring Strategic Reserves (and only Strategic Reserves, not other kinds of reinforcements) onto the table from their own board edge turn 1, as that creates a genuine sub game in deciding how much of your army to reserve, and lets you set up a counter punch against tools like planes that push into deployment zones turn one. I realise that this was the rule with reinforcements in 8th for a bit and created some of its own problems, but I don’t think we’d see as much of those issues with Strategic Reserves in 9th.

The problems in 8th stemmed from armies having wildly uneven access to deep strike, the cost of doing so not usually scaling with unit power, and killing being heavily rewarded in scoring. In 9th, Strategic Reserves is universally accessible, has scaling costs, and a unit you set up like this is not going to be able to contribute to contesting the mid-board for the primary early on, which is a genuine drawback. I’d add an extra rider to exclude any units pulled into Strategic Reserves after step 10 of the pre-game because yes, being able to use Insidious Misdirection or Foretelling of Locus to just “blink” three units during your opponent’s turn if you go second would be broken as hell but beyond that? You could push this out as a beta rule tomorrow, no one’s codex needs to be re-written, and it would give us something to try. There’s obviously plenty of other things you could look at too, and I’ll likely put some fuller thoughts together once I’ve had more time to recover from this event.

Anyway, that’s enough complaining – I did have fun at the LGT and there’s still plenty of cool things you can do in the game, I just want to see it be better. With that said, time for some lists.

Malik Amin Rubio – Adeptus Mechanicus – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Lucius & Mars Plane Spam

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Malik had what you could fairly call a very successful weekend at the LGT, winning both the Invitational and the main event, bringing the might of the Adeptus Mechanicus to bear in both. He used different lists in each, deploying the all-rounder Mars/Lucius list we looked at in the Invitational preview for that (where as predicted he thoroughly destroyed me) and switching to this more skewed, plane-heavy build for the main event in search of big wins to break through to the top four. As discussed when we looked at Mani’s invitational list (which was similar), presenting the opponent with a wall of planes and Skitarii gives them a very challenging target profile to crack through, and ensures that the army has the reach to do absurd damage out the gates when called upon while having a plan B of swaming the opponent in a hoard of efficient troops if the planes swing and miss. Malik has included a slightly broader mix of tools than some of the plane spam lists, with X-101 providing a very cheap objective holder/Action tool (since he’s not actually a CHARACTER) and a couple of Ironstriders packing even more cognis lascannon shots in while providing something that can be pushed forward onto an objective at speed when bait is required.

The appalling killing power of this list was on full show in the grand final where the game was called after a single turn, and while plenty of other lists out there are extremely nasty out the gate too, there are very few that can hurt this army as badly in a single turn as it can hurt its opponents, making it a well deserved winner in a metagame built for absurd damage. I do think Malik’s inclusion of a couple of single Ironstriders was a very good call in that regard – two could be reliably hidden on most of the LGT maps, and while enemy planes could come after them they’d likely waste firepower overcommitting while taking them out. It ensures that even if the list takes a huge punch it’s got something to spike out a key target on the swingback, helping turn back the tide. They’ve also still got the reach to contribue to the alpha strike as well – on most of the LGT maps Advancing these was enough to get them into a great firing position, and the Protector Doctrina and Mars + Canticle re-rolls keep them extremely reliable even when taking -1 to hit. All in all, it’s a nice bit of extra contingency built in for a metagame focused on the first turn, and makes the win all the more deserved.

Huge congratulations to Malik on taking the double.

Alex Harrison – Deathwatch – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Deathwatch Dreadnoughts

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Deathwatch Dreadnoughts has been rapidly on the rise as a successful strategy, and Alex was able to pilot them all the way to the LGT grand final (and to the highest undefeated VP total in the swiss) before the dream was crushed in a volley of cognis lascannon fire. Given the eventual metagame I think Deathwatch and Iron Hands Dreadnought lists performing strongly makes sense, as among Marine lists they combine the most reliable turn one damage dealing (via the Iron Hands Superdoctrine and Deathwatch buff auras, the latter particularly good for killing planes) with boosted defences that are active straight away (here the Dominus Aegis), letting them both exploit the first turn if they get it and to have the best chance of spiking saves/ignore wound rolls to weather the storm if they’re under the gun.

Further contributing to that plan is the use of frag cannon Veterans here, who take a slot you might normally see Devastators in for this list. With two units in a drop pod and one potentially in a Teleportarium none of these have to start the game exposed on the board, and when they rock in they provide a combination of fire modes that is extremely effective into both hordes and Ironstriders, letting them go after whatever needs to die most (or has survived the Dreadnought firepower) in an Ad Mech list. The solid shell profile of the frag cannon also happens to be perfectly tuned for shooting at Grey Knight Dreadknights and Raiders, and can be backed up by the Arcus putting the final tap into one of these with similar shots, further helping the army take on a broad range of top tier targets. Add in the fact that they’re Troops (and thus ObSec) and I can definitely see the appeal, and I’m sure we’re going to see plenty of imitators now the tech is out there.

That’s kind of it in terms of things to say – this isn’t a particularly complicated army but it’s a viciously, nightmarishly effective one, as the smoking wrecks of six other armies will attest to. Congratulations to Alex for the second place finish, and commiserations on having the Ad Mech Experience ™ streamed live for the world to see.

David Horn – Death Guard – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Death Guard go board control with the Terminus Est Assault Force
• A seething mass of Poxwalkers seizes control of the table with Unleash the Horde while Mortal Wounds fly left and right.
• Heavy duty Terminator second wave grinds down anything left in the army’s path.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Easily the most unique of the London top four lists, this army is an ingenious answer to the question of how Death Guard, an army that tends towards ponderous, grindy victories, aims for the trophy in a high-scoring format. The curveball answer is, it turns out, to put down the normal toys and unleash the Terminus Est Assault Force.

With just shy of 100 Poxwalkers starting on the table, the ability to rocket them up the board out of the gate using Unleash the Horde (even more so if they get a charge off as it boosts Pile Ins as well as movement), and the option of bringing in more with Rotting Tide, this army has an exceptional ability to flood the board with ObSec models, and with Typhus in the list and access to Mutant Strain they’re a long way from harmless too. David is someone I’ve had the pleasure of playing against in 8th, and he spent much of that running Plaguebearers so he 100% knows how to use a horde of plague-encrusted bodies to dominate objectives, and given how overwhelming some armies will find them to deal with the fact that they’re under a quarter of the army’s points really looks like a bargain.

Those other 1500pts aren’t going to be idle while the horde is dealt with either. Amidst all the zombies there are three casters who are going to be volleying out Mortal Wounds and debuffs as fast as possible, increasing the attrition the opponent’s army faces and further bogging them down, and just when they think they’re out from under the Poxwalker mess they’re going to slam face-first into the standard wall of Terminators with Blightspawn backup, who can use the time purchased by the waves of cheap bodies to seize control of their desired positions then dare the opponent to come take them on. The list also has great secondary plans, as it can take a reasonable swing at several of the Death Guard options, is going to have Stranglehold on lock in most games, and all its units are heavy enough duty that things like Grind them Down look realistic.

Combining the exceptional pressure it puts on the Primary with strong Secondary capabilities really lands the goal of a Death Guard list that scores big – I took a look at the semi-final scoreline (where it went up against Malik) and the army still put up 89 pts in a loss, which is pretty spectacular, and the only other game all weekend where David dropped below 94pts was against Necrons with Eternal Conquerors and Rad Wreathed, the ideal combo for pushing back against what this army is trying to do. It’s fantastic to see an unusual part of a faction’s toolkit being deployed to attack a format in a smart way, and great to see Death Guard still trucking along, so massive props to David.

Thomas Douch – Adepta Sororitas – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Bloody Rose

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

To round out our top four, Tom’s ultra-aggressive Sisters build punched through the pack to finish with the second highest swiss score on 475pts, eventually getting defeated in a very tight game to Alex Harrison in the semis. Sisters were another faction where I was mildly concerned that they might underperform at this event as they tend to play a slightly more trade-driven game than something like Ad Mech. Here we see the solution to that problem – all-out aggression backed by some tools to maximise the primary. For the former, you’ve got the full suite of melta Retributors and some Rhinos to start them out in, ideal for the terrain as they could easily hide behind the small ruins, making it a real pain to kill them with anything other than planes. Two squads of Dominions provide Blessed Bolt Mortal Wound cover as well, and the watchful gaze of Morvenn Vahl ensures that whichever unit is taking a swing is doing so at maximum intensity. Stacking one unit of Dominions and one of Retributors in a Rhino also ensures they’ve got the reach to hit enemy planes out the gate if the list goes first. Once battle is joined, the mighty Repentia are still more than capable of flattening most targets in a single turn, and the Sacresants with Vahl’s buff are a powerful all-purpose killer.

In terms of objective play, the two big assets the army has are Dogmata-powered Zephyrim (apply ObSec, fire a unit at the enemy, rinse, repeat) and Celestine, the latter able to daisy chain her unit onto exposed objectives while the unit of Sacresants provide Bodyguard protection. There were several maps where that was quite a big deal, and given she’s also a great roving brawler and general killer on top of things that makes her a lock for most lists right now. The melee tools this list has makes moving into the mid-board against it a very frightening prospect, but because it can play around with the primary in these ways some armies are going to be forced to try, at which point it can throw the kind of counter-punch Sisters excel at.

The Sisters book feels like a great benchmark for what a strong army should look like – it’s got power, it’s got lots of options, but unlike Drukhari and Ad Mech it feels like it stays on the right side of reasonable. Given that, it’s enormously encouraging to see that in the hands of a top player it can still succeed at this level. Great work from Tom rounding out the top four.

The Rest of the Best

That leaves 15 more players undefeated, 12 on 5-0 and 3 on 4-1-0. They were:

• 5th – Ash Loftus – Adeptus Mechanicus: Mars Veteran Cohort with 2 & 2 of the planes.
• 6th – George McCoulough – Drukhari: Talos spam breaks into 9th Edition, here as Artists of the Flesh in a Realspace Raid with the Poisoned Tongue and Cult of the Cursed Blade for board control and flexibility. Heavily tuned for the terrain, only featuring a single Raider for the Trueborn, otherwise using the much easier to hide Venoms.
• 7th – Simon Miller – Drukhari: Another Realspace Raid build, this time sporting Dark Technomancers to power one unit of Cronos alongside a suite of goodstuff tools (including a side detachment of Cult of Strife to unlock stratagems).
• 8th – Joey Deng – Adeptus Mechanicus: Lucius & store-brand Mars (Data Hoard) provide the normal mix of Skitarii, Ironstriders and planes.
• 9th – Brodie Middleton – Aeldari: Harlequins & Craftworld Artillery, with some Shining Spears and Warp Spiders mixed in alongside a Domino Shroud Shadowseer for max trickery.
• 10th – Simon Finney – Death Guard: Shooty Death Guard with VolCons and PBCs, running as Mortarion’s Anvil for extra deterrence from its Terminators and to power up a killer Daemon prince with the Warp Insect Hive.
• 11th – Ben Gummer – Drukhari: A Talos/Cronos Realspace Raid, setting up the Pain Syphon tag team. Also sports a Blood Glaive Red Grief Succubus for taking out crunchy targets in melee.
• 12th – Euan Bedford Cooper – Chaos: Euan’s Death Guard/Daemon Engine list puts up another great performance. He’s also written about it on his own blog here.
• 13th – Lee Hall – Drukhari: A Drukhari goodstuff-ish build that maxes out on guns by taking three Ravagers, really leaning into the go-first environment.
• 14th – James Mards – Adeptus Mechanicus: A spin on the melee-heavy Lucius Veteran Cohort build that James ran to success a few months back.
• 15th – Chris Gent – Adeptus Mechanicus: Mars Veteran Cohort with various tanks backing up melee threats, plus a drill for expedited Ruststalker delivery.
• 16th – Chris Paterson – White Scars: A surprisingly normal White Scars list manages to dart into the undefeated bracket – lots of VanVets, lots of VolCons.
• 17th – Michael Boyle – Grey Knights: Swordbearers Dreadknights backed up by a bunch of Razorbacks of all things, ensuring the list has extra alpha punch and that it doesn’t have to expose many infantry targets out of the gate.
• 18th – Greg Chamberlain – Death Guard: Shooty Death Guard as Mortarion’s Anvil.
• 19th – Tom Coppin – Grey Knights: Rapiers Dreadknights with an extra-large falchion Strike unit to blender stuff (though do be aware the FAQ capping Tide of Convergence wounds at 6 was not in effect at this event, so the value of that unit probably goes down in future).

Warzone Houston (Major)

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. Note that this event cut to a top eight, so the standings are based on that, not players’ points in the swiss rounds. All the players in the top four and Best of the Rest were in the the top 8, so there’s no TiWP stars.

Russell Tassin – Chaos Space Marines – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Pure Chaos Space Marines win a major! This is not a drill! (OK there is a Drill).
• Abaddon’s full re-rolls combine with the most efficient vehicles that Chaos has to offer to grind opponents out of the game.
• A truly outrageous amount of anti-tank shooting strips away the opponent’s rides and big guns, then the Lord of Skulls goes in for the kill.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

He only went and actually did it. We’ve featured Russell’s lists several times before, and he’s been notable for sticking to his guns trying to make pure Chaos Space Marines work in 9th Edition, and here he’s pulled that off in style by deploying some of Chaos’s best leftover 8th Edition tricks to go gunning for a hull heavy metagame.

The dynamo powering this list is, of course, the full re-roll aura that Abaddon provides to Black Legion units, allowing the suite of powerful Forge World Dreadnoughts to operate at a level of efficiency that is no longer widely available over in Imperium land, while also jacking up the power level of the various Daemon Engines. The Lord of Skulls datasheet is genuinely good, and as also seen in one of the undefeated LGT lists if you boost it up just a little (Abaddon or Iron Warriors being the premier options) it’s a great pick now that you can tag one in for only a single CP rather than three. It will absolutely have a target on its head, but it’s at least got a lot of wounds, a built in invulnerable save and a non-degrading offensive profile, so it takes some real killing and if they swing and miss it’s a disaster. It’s also a pretty funny tag team with a unit of Cultists for holding an objective, as if you pop World Killers then the opposing ObSec is getting trumped – and it can also bodily hide a unit of Cultists behind it because of its size.

The rest of the of the toys here are a bit more familiar – all the dreadnoughts are known good units, but it’s interesting to see them taking lascannons instead of Volkite. That looks like it leans in to an expected vehicle-heavy metagame (which it absolutely got, so good call there) and is a recognition that the absolute priority for the army is popping anything that can seriously threaten the Lord or the Leviathan, as they’re the more flexible killing machines that the list needs operational to function. Volkite without AP just won’t cut it against a lot of targets, whereas a volley of re-rolling lascannon shots might. The Terrax is also a cute choice and surprisingly deadly – pop it up in Abaddon’s aura and those five melta shots have a really good chance of just popping something. It also provides a way of getting some cultists to an objective in safety, and again potentially physically hiding them when they’re there, helping the list get the most value out of them (or keep a few alive so they auto-pass morale in Abaddon’s other aura and can be re-spawned with Tide of Traitors). This list can strip away its opponents valuable tools very fast, but the Lord of Skulls can only be in once place at once, so having just a smattering of objective units is good.

That’s mostly it – the cute double shooting anti-Imperium captain excepted – and the result is super cool. It is a travesty that Chaos have had to wait so long for 2W infantry, but as this list shows they do still have a few tricks in their pocket as a result of not being revised, and utilising those to kill so, so many enemy vehicles was a smart move. Russell did drop a game in the swiss to a hyper mobile board control Drukhari build that left the Raiders at home, but made it into the top eight and won out from there. Massive congratulations to Russell, and enjoy your well deserved spot at the top of the ITC CSM rankings.

Colin McDade – Orks – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Freebooterz

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Colin makes it back-to-back 6-0 Swiss run with his Freebooterz list from last week (as far as I can see unchanged). The build remains exceptionally strong and took Colin all the way to the finals in the top eight, where he finally suffered a narrow loss against Russell’s list and all its vehicle-murdering toys. 14-1 over two weekends is an outstanding achievement, so hugely well played to Colin.

Mat Tweedel – Orks – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Freebooterz

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

More Freebooterz here, but with the spicy touch of a big Meganob bomb, presumably to be kept in reserve then Tellyportaed onto the table when some extra krumpin’ is needed. I can definitely see that working well in a list that punches as hard as the Freebooterz build does – take out your opponent’s sources of D3 and/or high AP weaponry then throw down a big block of pain that they can no longer meaningfully deal with. While they themselves can’t benefit from Get Da Loot (because as a Specialist Mob they lose the Freebooterz keyword), they also still run a very effective tag team with Da Badskull Banner, as it prevents enemy chaff from being able to easily steal their objective. It is, also, five heavy flamers and melee threat out of deep strike, which is never a bad thing. It’s an interesting tech choice that gives the list some extra angles, though given Matt also eventually fell to Russell in the semi-finals I wouldn’t be shocked if their run came to an end at the hands of Abaddon scattering them like skittles. Regardless, I always love seeing some fresh technology infused into an evolving archetype, so great work to Matt!

Dane Mercer – Drukhari – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• It is, apparently, Talos season.
• Talos and Cronos provide outrageous counterattack potential and multiple durable bastions.
• All the normal goodstuff toys sneak in via some cunning list building alchemy.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Talos have consistently felt under-explored since the Drukhari book landed (other than a bit of tinkering down under), but with multiple lists using them at the top of the LGT and this top four finish in the same week, it looks like their time has arrived. That seems pretty reasonable – run as Artists of the Flesh for -1D and with either the loadout here or the same but with Talos gauntlets instead of the scalpel they’re pretty well tuned for the current metagame. They’re easy to hide compared to a lot of Drukhari stuff, they can charge and punch planes clean out of the sky, and six heat lance shots is mean, even at BS4+. With lots of big armour saves out in the metagame, the reliable ability to stab mortals into the enemy with the ichor injectors looks incredibly good too, also helping them deal with hordes. I think I do prefer the gauntlets at the moment because hitting at S8 D3 is just so much better against Ramshackle or Chaff Launchers, but it does come at a price tag so the scalpels are very defendable in a list that squeezes so much in.

Most notable among the other tools here are, of course, the Cronos – this is definitely a list that wants to have its cake and eat it. They provide plenty of benefits – tag teaming with the Talos means that the army can throw heavy duty units down in multiple places at once, their ranged weaponry (as Technomancers) covers a different set of targets, and heat lance Talos love having Cronos around so they can trigger Pain Syphon early on and make the opponent weep. Finally, the ultimate dream crush available is to successfully revive a Talos using Reservoir of Pain.

The rest of what we’ve got here are pretty standard Drukhari trade pieces and utility toys – you’ve got all the nasty characters, Trueborn sneaking into the Dark Technomancers detachment because of the way Drukhari detachment building works, and then a slightly crunchier unit of Hellions who are ideal for counterattacking anything that’s decided to punk the big Covens toys in melee. The standard Drukhari builds do seem to struggle just a little when facing down the nastiest Ad Mech and Ork shooting loadouts, but it looks like the enormous depth of Drukhari’s tricks leaves them ready to adapt, and congratulations to Dane for bring at the forefront of doing that.

The Rest of the Best

Handily the rest of the players in the top 8 were also the players who went 5-1 in the Swiss. They were:

• 5th – Nathan Fennel – Drukhari: Another unusual Drukhari build, here in a different direction – a bunch of tiny Wych units for board control riding around in a lot of Merciless Razorkin/Mobile Raiders Venoms.
• 6th – Kevin McCormick – Chaos Knights: War Dog spam as Dark Forging/Harrying Packs to maximise reach.
• 7th – David Villareal – Imperium: Shooty Salamanders backed up by Data Hoard Ironstriders – a neat trick in soup, as without being able to get Canticles Data Hoard starts to seriously outperform Mars.
• 8th – Nathaniel Bjorge – Adeptus Custodes: Shadowkeepers running a bunch of Caladius Grav Tanks.

Warhammer World Matched Play Event

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

Marcus Robinson – Orks – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Comedy Kill Tanks go on the rampage.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Now before you ask I did check, and as far as I can tell from the event pack the Ork Codex FAQ was in effect for this GT, so this build wasn’t trading on outdated rules – no Ramshackle here. Instead, this list is clearly leaning into what Kill Tanks still very much do provide – massive numbers of T8 wounds at a bargain price tag that will flatten things in melee and can deliver a nasty payload of Goffs straight into the enemy lines. Goff Beast Snagga Boyz are brutal, hitting at S6 on the charge and just ripping stuff to shreds in Ghaz’s aura, while a unit of Meganobz provide some extra crunch to be deployed at a crucial point. Squighog Boyz also excel at Goffs, providing some speedy mid-durability flankers that are more than capable of picking up something like a unit of Interceptors when required. Add in the pressure from the Tanks themselves (and remembering that both their melee and shooting threat now go up when Ghaz calls a Great Waaagh) and you’ve got a list that’s going to (pretty much literally) steamroller anyone who isn’t ready for it, and that I’m sure is a real blast to play. Congratulations to Marcus.

The Rest of the Best

• 2nd – Ben Allen – Harlequins: All-out Soaring Spite fusion Troupe Spam.
• 3rd – Mark Pinder – Adeptus Custodes: Shadowkeepers with a couple of Caladius Grav Tanks.
• 4th – Eddie Eccles – Orks: A whole bunch of Deathskulls infantry and vehicles head to Waaagh alongside the thunderhing hooves of a Gargantuan Squiggoth.
• 5th – Greg Friggens – Disciples of Be’lakor: A full array of chaos toys, with some CSM shooting backing up a whole bunch of Bloodletters and, of course, Be’lakor himself. Do note that it appears to have been possible to run CSM and Daemon units in a single Disciples of Be’lakor detachment at this event.
• 6th ✪ – Ian Campbell – Drukhari: Drukhari Goodstuff.
• 7th ✪ – Paul Croghan – Necrons: An unusually angry Eternal Expansionists build, sporting lots of Wraiths, lots of Doomstalkers and a trio of Hexmark Destroyers to be super annoying and ObSec.
• 8th – Jack Mills – Adeptus Custodes: Shadowkeepers with two Telemons.

The Portal – Fall GT

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

Daniel Wohlmuth – Adepta Sororitas – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Bloody Rose & Ebon Chalice

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

A GT win here for one of the breakout Sisters archetypes from their codex, which combines the melee pressure and objective play of Bloody Rose (the Dogmata/Zephyrim cannon is in full effect here) with the grindy damage output and Miracle Dice support of the Ebon Chalice. Packing modest numbers of flamers and being able to get Mortals from them gives you very flexible damage output, while the Bloody Rose units knowing that they have a starting six in the Miracle dice pool via Terrible Knowlege can often give you scope to make some big plays early on. Add in the dynamic duo of Celestine and Vahl at the head (the latter especially valuable in mixed lists as she can buff up whoever needs it) and you’ve got a fearsome build that’s a real force. Great job on the win to Daniel.

The Rest of the Best

• 2nd ✪ – TJ Lanigan – Thousand Sons: A mixture of supreme psychic firepower from a small Cult of Magic detachment and Scarab/Spawn support from the Cult of Time.
• 3rd – Adam Weinstein – Nurgle: Nurgle Daemons (including two full Beast blocks) protecting Death Guard shooting.
• 4th – Daniel Axe – Imperial Knights: Daniel’s Valiant/Castellan double threat build continues its rampage.
• 5th – Casey Glynn – Necrons: A rare non-Eternal Expansionists showing, with the Silent King leading up a Novokh force sporting a big Lychguard block and a trio of Tomb Sentinels.
• 6th – Benjamin Rubenstein – Thousand Sons: Experimentation continues for the Thousand Sons, as here the Cult of Knowledge gets a showing, bringing a bunch of Helbrutes alongside characters and Rhino-riding Rubricae.

Wrap Up

As the UK mostly takes a well-earned break, next weekend it’s the US’s turn to showcase the big leagues at the second GW roadshow open. We’ll have full top four coverage for that plus the best lists from the many GTs across the US for you next week, so make sure you tune back in then. Comments, questions and suggestions to contact@goonhammer.com.