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Competitive Innovations in 9th: Peak Warhammer pt.2

By James "One_Wing" Grover, Peter "The Falcon" Colosimo, Jeremy "Curie" Atkinson and Lowest of Men

Our panel is back for part two of one of the biggest Competitive Innovations weeks ever. I’m once more joined by Tom Lowman, Jeremy “Curie” Atkinson and Peter “The Falcon” Colosimo to cover another seven events – plus one very special, extremely self-indulgent bonus at the end.

Today we’ll be reviewing the lists from:

  • Milwaukee GT (Major)
  • Dice Arcade (Major)
  • Broadsword Wargaming
  • HWP Salty Classic
  • Capital Clash
  • Brewhammer 3
  • Winter Ruin Grand tournament
  • Bonus – FactoruM February GT

If you’re looking for any of the following events, go check out Wednesday‘s part 1:

  • The Cherokee Open (Supermajor)
  • Scheunenkloppen Open – War Zone Erkelenz (Major)
  • Scorched Earth Open (Major)
  • Dice Crusher
  • The Lightly Salted Winter GT
  • MTC Winter GT

Huge thanks to the squad for assembling to make this week possible – and thanks to the huge number of players out there rolling dice for making the scene so vibrant right now!

Milwaukee GT

70-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in New Berlin, Wisconsin US on February 25 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The baleful eye of the Falcon is falling upon the midwest in this instance.

Charlie Andre – Dark Angels – 1st Place

Deathwing Terminator Praetor
Deathwing Terminator Praetor. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

My Infinite Sadness Made Manifest

Final Round Matchup

100 – 55 Victory against Matthew Monsour – Dark Angels.

Thoughts

Like their primarch, this Dark Angels list stands around, does nothing, and people still think it is cool. It only took the nerfing of just about every other faction in the game and an additional 500+ points to work with for this codex to finally come into its own and have its players fully enjoy a single-player experience. The first legion is the worst legion.

To be fair to Charlie, he has been playing this list on and off for years now, and has put up repeated results when a poor soul could only fit 30 deathwing inside its shell. He has proven to be an exceedingly canny player with lists like this so it only makes sense that the additional 45 transhuman wounds would put it over the top for him. The Interrogator-Chaplain with Wise Orator is a big piece of the puzzle here, allowing for a guaranteed turn 2 Canticle of Hate and 20-30 Deathwing to then pin an opponent into their deployment zone with the additional movement it provides. Once it has entrenched itself that deep I am sure Charlie sits down and does his taxes or updates his dream journal while his opponent puzzles out how to get out of the situation. 5+ Watchers in the Dark help shore up one of the list’s major malfunctions by providing the additional mortal wound protection it needs.

What makes it interesting? This is the anti-thesis of interesting. It is 45ish architects of violence standing around waiting for the bus for 2 and a half hours. It just about maxes oaths of moment and stubborn defiance just by exporting it out of battlescribe. Sure does win games though.

Ben Cherwien – Black Templars – 2nd Place

Black Templars High Marshal Helbrecht. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Templars in Cars Getting Coffee

Thoughts

And now for something completely different, mechanized Black Templars is a list that absolutely should bring joy into someone’s heart. Uphold the Honour of the Emperor giving out a 5++ to all of the impulsors and gladiators combined with the faction exclusive addition of free multi-meltas on all of them puts these vehicles over the top. The impulsor tech also opens up Carry Out Their Vows as a legitimate secondary option as it is not terribly difficult to keep a squad of intercessors in an impulsor until late game and pick up the additional 5 VP from it when the time comes. The terminator squad with crux obsidian backed by an apothecary is a mainstay unit, able to post up mid-field and stand around soaking damage with all of the skill we have established that that takes. A very interesting combined arms list backed by a swath of support characters and Helbrecht to make the assault intercessors and terminators hit hard when it counts.

JP Marquart – Grey Knights – 3rd Place

Grey Knights Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Daddy Day-Care

Thoughts

A return of an old favorite with a little extra flair, 4 dreadknights put up serious wall of meat and bullets for opponents to deal with, while 20 interceptors flit around scoring purifying ritual turn after turn. The addition of 2 Helverins with Hunter of Beasts gives the list a ranged threat to soften up enemy vehicles, something it would have solely relied on close combat or purgation squads to deal with in the past. The list asks its opponents to come up with an answer to the dreadknights immediately or try to ignore them outright and focus on the highly mobile scoring threats within it. It is no surprise that JP’s sole loss came to a more ravenwing heavy DA list, something with enough speed and firepower to pick up 2+ dreadknights a turn while constantly pressuring its backfield.

Eric Forsman – Orks – 4th Place

Kommandos. Credit: Rockfish
Kommandos. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Goff Pressure

Thoughts

Much like the list that won the MTC event discussed in part 1, Eric has gone with another take on the Goff pressure lists we’ve seen of late, dropping a kill rig and squig hogz in favor of a battlewagon filled with nobz. Kill Rigs, Storm Boyz and Kommandos allow for turn 1/2 waaghs that can dig deep into enemy lines and limit primary scoring by weight of bodies for multiple turns and break the back of any list that is too aggressive in its deployment. A strong list but one that has very little answers to 45 deathwing terminators as seemed to be shown in the 4th round here when Forsman came into contact with Charlie’s wall of bone white ceramite.

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 5th – Matthew Monsour – Dark Angels: RW/DW Combined Arms
  • 6th – Matt Root – Orks: Goff Nobs and Killa Kans
  • 7th – Devin Orchard – Necrons: Novokh Destroyers
  • 8th – James “Boon” Kelling – Asurani: Hail of Doom Goodstuff
  • 9th – Devin McMillan – Tyranids: Leviathan Gaunts
  • 10th – Dakota Kramer – Aeldari: Hail of Doom with Harlie Support
  • 11th – Zach Day – Space Wolves: Dreadnought Stuff

Dice ARCADE gt

80-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Gymea, New South Wales AU on February 24 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Falcon has got this one.

Alexander Englezos – Cult Mechanicus – 1st Place

Adeptus Mechanicus - Ironstrider Ballistarii
Adeptus Mechanicus – Ironstrider Ballistarii
Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Mars PotPourri

Final Round Matchup

100 – 87 Victory against Brodie Middleton – Astra Militarum.

Thoughts

And lo, did the followers of the Omnissaiah put up their first big result in the last month with a solid mix of highly mobile firepower and pointy sticks. 6 Sydonian Dragoons and 20 Rust Stalkers huddled inside 2 Duneriders spearhead a list designed to put out some extreme early firepower from downtown from the 8 Ironstriders and single Neutron-equipped Dunecrawler. 5 Sicaran Infiltrators and two squads of Serberys Raiders provide early game leverage should the list need it to screen out the mid-field and keep one hand on the ever-frustrating Tactica Obliqua should it be required.

Word is that some of the tables at the event had some powerful firing lanes which seems to lend credence to why a number of the top lists had some more ‘interesting’ unit selections. We’re told Alexander was able to get Brodie to concede after a single shooting phase in the final, which isn’t shocking given it seems perfectly designed to pick up multiple Leman Russes a turn.

Damian Ridgwell – Dark Angels – 2nd Place

Credit; Greg Chiasson

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

A Mixed Basket of Wings

Thoughts

You all know my thoughts on Dark Angels. They’re bad and you should feel bad for playing them. Unlike some of the other lists we’ve seen succeed this week, Damian went with a heavier contingent of Ravenwing, throwing 9 attack bikes and a Land Speeder Vengeance backed by Sammael and a Talon Master in his list. While it opens up more counter play from opponents than the Oops All Deathwing lists, the extra speed and long range firepower comes in handy when playing into some of the highly mechanized lists seen at this event. 20 Terminators are still a pain to move out of the mid-field and the addition of 10 Infiltrators is great tech for mitigating the damage of enemy Karskin drops or whatever other shenanigans await. The cutest tech piece here is Lazarus, no doubt acting as a bodyguard for the Terminator squads, handing them the extra bit of mortal wound protection they need via his Spiritshield Helm while still providing rerolls in a pinch.

Brad Milner – Deathskulls – 3rd Place

Megatrakk Scrapjet. Credit: Rockfish
Megatrakk Scrapjet. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Full Lotto

Thoughts

Sometimes Ork players go into an event with a plan to pressure opponents with hordes of bodies and transports, other times they choose a faster route, using buggies to try to outflank and outshoot their opponents, and sometimes they do the thing that Orks love to do and just embrace insanity. A Wazbom and a Killtank in the same list, along with 2 Kill Rigs and Ghaz is a surefire recipe for disaster whether the dice gods are on your side or not and will forever place you in someone’s book of legends. Why push a bunch of models around when you can just field all this chungus? With 3d6 Str 10 ap 3 dmg 3 shots, often at BS 3, the Killtank is an extremely pricey unit that can just as easily cripple an opponent’s key midfield bully unit in a single turn as it can casually pick up a single marine depending on where things lie, and its flying counterpart, the Wazbom can do the same. I am sure every single one of Brad’s opponents had to tighten their sphincters with each shooting phase as all of these big guns came to bear, and his marine opponents could only wonder what mistakes they made in their lives to have to face this absolute mess. If only because Brad managed to take out the 45 deathwing list he went up against in his final round do I dub this entry ‘The Greatest Warhammer List Ever Written’. Sorry everyone else, your ideas are worthless, this is our future.

Egor Kalinin – Necrons – 4th Place

Monolith with Death Rays. Credit: Rockfish
Monolith with Death Rays. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Monolithic Nihilakh

Thoughts

An interesting take on the standard Nihilakh lists that have come out of Ark of Omens with the loss of the Expanionistic/Obsec combo, Egor has elected to back up the primary sources of his scoring in the Skorpekhs, Scarabs, and Wraiths with 2 Doomsday Arks and a whole fethin’ Monolith. Given a field full of mechanized multi-wound threats, and the potential of terrain giving some more forgiving angles than might be seen elsewhere, these choices make excellent sense. Not only does the Monolith provide some withering anti-vehicle firepower from a large threat point, if allowed to post up in the center of the field then its Eternity Gate can come to bear, shunting Skorpekhs into position for some highly reliable charges.

The Best of the Rest

There were 9 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 5th – Brodie Middleton – Astra Militarum: Born Soldiers Goodstuff
  • 6th – Josh Brodie – Chaos Daemons: Be’lakor and More
  • 7th – William Wykoff – Grey Knights: Prescient Dreadknights
  • 8th – Joshua Hynes – Dark Angels: That’s So Ravenwing
  • 9th – Chris Oneill – Adeptus Custodes: Emperor’s Chosen Potpourri
  • 10th – Kyle Pearson – Orks: Goff Pressure
  • 11th – Sean Challenger-Scotman – Dark Angels: Mixed RW and DW
  • 12th – Ben Browne – Harlequins: The Light Stuff.
  • 13th – Benjamin Hayter – Salamanders: Vulkan and Friends

Broadsword Wargaming 40K ITC Winter Major II

56-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Castlebar, County Mayo IE on February 25 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Tom takes charge here.

Ian Wilson – Adeptus Custodes – 1st Place

Custodes Wardens by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Solar Watch Golden Slabs

Final Round Matchup

92 – 83 Victory against Joseph Musgrave – Genestealer Cult.

Thoughts

Custodes players have rallied around the infantry domination build first pioneered in the Antipodes. It goes hard on foot infantry, maximising all of the horrific de-buffing power of Arcane Genetic Alchemy and The Emperor’s Auspice to create slabs of golden nonsense that require serious heavy lifting to remove. Solar Watch offers advance and charge and fall back and charge tech to help the sturdy shiny lads get around the board, and the ever present threat of being trapped in with one of the slabs via the Kaptaris Ka’tah will live rent-free in the minds of wary opponents, and very much ruin the lives of the unwary ones. Bowling a very resilient brick of dudes at the enemy seems to be one of the ways in which the non-gun meta is surviving at the moment, and this is no exception.

Ian has snuck a Jokaero Weaponsmith in here for purposes unknown. Screening perhaps? Action play? Maybe it’s just something for the opponent to smile at whilst a wave of un-killable chads rolls through their army with all the inevitability of a drunken 3 am trip to McDonalds. Either way, the Solar Watch GOLDEN SLABS are here to take names and stick around for the foreseeable. Heaven help us. Congratulations Ian!!

Colin Power – Aeldari – 2nd Place

Credit: Arranon

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Hail of Doom / Twilight

Thoughts

The elf community has decided to fight sheer murderousness with, you guessed it, sheer murderousness. Hail of Doom is back in style, and this list packs a lot of the usual suspects (truck load of Dire Avengers, big stack of Shuriken Cannon Windriders ready to Fire and Fade, Baharroth, etc). The double act of a tooled up Troupe Master and Death Jester (in Twilight for the added shenanigans) bring even more precision threat to the list and tools for punking irritating enemy characters.

Vypers and Shroudrunners offer the list some cheap disposable Behind Enemy Lines candidates for the opening exchanges, and the means with which to tease enemy armies onto the enormous volleys of shuriken this list will be looking to unleash in rounds 2-3. This list has the raw shooting to absolutely hose down any hard targets it is presented with, and the speed to get stuck in and tie things up if the need arises. That flexibility will be clutch in a meta that is beginning to polarise around agressive durable melee bricks and cagey gunlines. Being able to absolutely demolish any ambitious teleporting Kasrkin or Deamons via Forewarned does the Asuryani no harm here either.

As alluded to earlier this week, now that a Harlequins patrol is just a free plugin it is extremely hard to ignore, and you can expect elf lists of all flavours to be bringing some charismatic performers along for the ride as the meta develops. Colin’s list is fairly light on ob sec, but as a wiser, more agressive player than me once said, ob sec doesn’t do much if you’re dead. Great work Colin!

The Best of the Rest

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

  • 3rd – Mike Tangney – Ynnari: A delightfully weird Ynnari list with a huge Court of the Archon in a fricking TANTALUS
  • 4th – Mark Morrow – Orks: Goff Pressure Goodstuff
  • 5th – Matheusz Osweicinski – Tyranids: Behemoth nids with lots of Screamer Killers and a Maleceptor
  • 6th – Dan Ahern – Iron Hands: Lots and lots of Land Speeders and Gladiators with a Stormraven Gunship in tow.
  • 7th – Oisin McCormack – Chaos Daemons: MSU Daemons with Belakor and a Bloodthirster.
  • 8th – Vivion Grisewood – Grey Knights: Swordbearers Interceptors and Dreadknights and ANOTHER Stormraven!
  • 9th – Rares Platon – Iron Warriors: An absolute baller IW list with a Dreadclaw, Greater Blight Drone, Levi Dread and supporting War Dogs.
  • 10th – Tristram Hills – Imperial Knights: Freeblade Lance with a mighty Valiant to harpoon foes. Editors Note: Tristram went undefeated here, as a real-life emergency kept him from playing round 3 – an especially glorious showing for the Valiant!

HWP Salty Classic GT February 2023

43-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Plantation, Florida US on February 25 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Wings and Curie are tag-teaming this one.

Marc Parker – Hive Fleet Leviathan – 1st Place

Hive Tyrant. Credit: Rockfish
Hive Tyrant. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Leviathan Monsters

Final Round Matchup

82 – 46 Victory against Andrew Zoitas – Iron Hands.

Thoughts

Despite everything, despite an avalanche of nerfs, point rises and everything else, there’s still some determined Tyranid players hanging on, and Marc stands tall among them by managing to win a GT. The list he’s used to pull that off makes a lot of sense – condense down to the small number of datasheets that are still pretty efficient on rate (surprisingly including Harpies, who I guess make a decent second strike here), and daring the opponent to face them, while also backfilling shooting capability via spending CP on relic guns for the two Tyrands. Apparently even the mighty Iron Hands couldn’t blast these bugs efficiently enough to stop their rampage, and if you’re still determined to serve the great devourer, this is certainly food for thought. Which Tyranids love.

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Curtis Hotaling – Astra Militarum: 7 Leman Russes backed up by 20 Kasrkin and 3 mortar HWTs. Notably no Leontus.
  • 3rd – Dylan Williamson – Orks: Goff Pressure with a big brick of Trukk Boyz Nobz.
  • 4th – William Lozada – Craftworlds: Masterful Shots / Swift Strikes with 9 Shroud Runners and 19 Windriders.
  • 5th – Tim Pinney – World Eaters: Showcasing the WE codex, featuring both Lord Invocatus as well as a Lord on Juggernaut, Stat Check’s own Tim Pinney also brought out a combined 22 Eightbound of both flavours and 20 Berzerkers.
  • 6th – Garry Morneault – Emperor’s Children: 5 Noise Marine units and a big brick of Chaos Terminators with the Black Rune of Damnation.
  • 7th – Andrew Zoitas – Iron Hands: All-rounder Iron Hands with lots of guns attached to various Marines and hulls, but also Terminators and Aggressors for a punchier core.

Capital Clash Winter ’23 Grand Tournament

38-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Gatineau, QC CA on February 25 2023. Curie was the TO and Judge of this event – so he’s got all the juicy details! All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Conversion

Chet Manly – World Eaters: The Disciples of the Red Angels make their tournament debut here – and it’s a wild list! Angron, Lord Invocatus, 14 Eightbound, Karanak, some Flesh Hounds, Bloodletters, and featuring not one but TWO Chaos Land Raiders to round it out.
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

François Lalonde – Iron Hands: Nassim Fouchane-inspired Oops-all-guns
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

This World Eaters list is really interesting – it packs a serious melee punch between Angron, the Eightbound, and Lord Invocatus while also having a fairly resilient backfield in the form of the two T9 Chaos Land Raiders. Chet lost 3 Land Raiders across the whole event, mostly because people were too busy dealing with the angriest Primarch flying towards their lines. Those Land Raiders are also rocking the upgraded Twin Soulshatter Lascannons, which allow the army to reach out and score some ranged kills, farming blood tithe points for the army to pump themselves up on. The Eightbound running out of the Land Raiders with Invocatus’ +2″ movement aura also ensures they bound down the field quite quickly – on the disembark turn they move a minimum of 14″ from the front of their Land Raider, making backlining against them really rough. Francois’ list lacks efficient screens, so if they connect it’s a serious issue for him.

Angron being a Warp Locus is interesting here – while there are only a few Daemons in the allied Patrol, they all have the benefit of being able to start in deepstrike and manifest themselves wholly within 6″ of Angron and outside of 6″ of enemy models. Angron flying up 16″ and dropping those bloodletters then charging himself is a very scary thought – and many players fell to exactly this last weekend. I stood there and watched Angron do a loop of the battlefield while half an Astra Militarum army tried it’s best to gun him down and fail. Where this gets tricky is that Francois’ list has two units of Infiltrators, which deny deepstrikes within 12″ of them. With careful positioning, that Warp Locus trick won’t work on him.

Sadly for the Disciples of the Red Angel, Francois’ list packed a few too many guns. I watched as World Eaters took their first turn, aggressively positioned some Eightbound, the Land Raiders, and some Flesh Hounds. No shooting form his Chaos Land Raiders due to Francois’ careful deployment. Francois’ response to this was to pick up a Chaos Land Raider, the 5-man of Eightbound, one 3-man of Eightbound, and one unit of Flesh Hounds while chipping Lord Invocatus down to 3 wounds. Turn 2 Chet bravely raced the rest of his army forward, unfortunately his deepstriking Bloodletters failed to kill 2 devastator squads and lost most of their number to the squad Sergeants’ (free) Thunder Hammers. Francois proceeded to bring down the other Chaos Land Raider, Angron (death #1), the remaining Eightbound, Flesh Hounds, and drop 5 scouts on Chet’s home objective, denying him any primary. Turn 3 Chet used 6 Blood Tithe Points to resurrect Angron, who made a heroic charge into the exposed character Contemptor. Who proceeded to Fire Overwatch, making use of Iron Hands’ stratagem Optimal Repulsion Doctrines to Overwatch on 5+. Angron died to the Krak Missiles before the 2 Twin Volkite Culverins had a chance to shower him with mortal wounds.

I talked to Chet briefly after the game about his list and where he’s at.

Chet: I don’t know honestly the land raiders are a fantastic anchor and can let the 8B really springboard up the table with the help of invocatus.
But mainly it was just a blast to run. Which is why we’re all here

Agreed Chet, agreed. I hear his next list may include Skarbrand…

Result

Iron Hands Victory – 20 – 0

François Lalonde – Iron Hands – 1st Place

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

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Nassim WWoR/MA Guns

Final Round Matchup

20 – 0 Victory against Chet Manly – World Eaters.

Thoughts

It’s something like 200 shots a turn. Just an absolutely eye-watering amount of firepower. You should feel ashamed Francois. Nassim as well, for helping him write this monstrosity.

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Chet Manly – World Eaters: See the showdown.
  • 3rd – Zach Comeau – Astra Militarum: Eschewing Born Soldiers and embracing Armoured Superiority + Swift as the Wind, Zach brought 6 Leman Russes, Scions for scoring, and 2 skirmishing units of Attilan Rough Riders.
  • 4th – Bruno Choquette – Dark Angels: This list looks familiar. Oh wait, it’s mine! (see Competitive Innovations two weeks ago).

Winter Ruin Grand tournament- Warhammer 40k

42-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Coplay, PA US on February 25 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Tom is lining up his final event of the week here.

Derek Apsche – Chaos Space Marines – 1st Place

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Black Legion Terminators / Abaddon

Final Round Matchup

90 – 68 Victory against Sascha Alexander Edelkraut – Black Templars.

Thoughts

Refusing to acknowledge the supposedly vulnerable state of your faction and wrecking face anyway is CLASSIC Abaddon, right?! Chaos Space Marines haven’t had a very good time in Arks of Omen thus far due to a combination of targeted nerfs and lavish buffs handed out to their many enemies. Derek has set out here to prove the haters wrong with a tightly bounded but well constructed list. Abaddon striding around with buffed up Terminators isn’t particularly new, but I really like the combo tech of the Tzeentch Sorceror and Biker brick- you can slap a 4++ on these guys and send them forwards to make trouble, with their ability to ignore a failed save only adding to the durability.

Victory here hinges on getting Abaddon and his entourage to places the opponent doesn’t want them, so a large distraction unit roaming ahead of them with surprising levels of resilience can only help with that plan. There are other staple choices in the Possessed and Venomcrawler, but those Bikers are the all stars here, able to benefit from the Black Legion +1 to hit in both shooting and combat, clearing screens and getting stuck into whatever juicy assets lie behind. Delivery and forward pressure are the areas CSM feel most vulnerable at the moment, and Derek has found a solution that works for him. Great work!!

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Jesse Melvin – Astra Militarum: Born Soldiers Goodstuff with some Ratlings and Rough Riders for flavour.
  • 3rd – Kyle Myers – Dark Angels: Mixed arms Dark Angels with Razorback Devastators, double Talonmasters and triple Storm Speeder Thunderstrikes.
  • 4th – Sascha Alexander Edelkraut – Black Templars: Enormous slabs of Sternguard, Sword Brethren, and Crusaders, with Impulsor delivery.
  • 5th – Matthew DeFranza – Craftworlds: Phoenix Lords, an Avatar, and a truckload of Aspect Warriors for Wrath of Khaine. 
  • 6th – Mark Van Horn – Ulthwe: D Cannon Ulthwe with three Phoenix Lords along for the ride. Maugan Ra even gets a look in!
  • 7th – Nolan Haley – Chaos Daemons: Monster mash with Skarbrand, phase capped Bloodthirster, and a Lord of Change, supported by three squads of Fiends.
  • 8th – Craig Valvano – Chaos Knights: House Vextrix War Dogs led by a Knight Despoiler.
  • 9th – Mark Buckwalter – Astra Militarum: Born Soldiers Goodstuff with Ratlings.

BrewHammer GT 3

38-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Scotland United Kingdom on February 25 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Curie is on point here.

Garron Owen – Space Wolves – 1st Place

Wolfguard Photo cred: Pillowcat Alex

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Space Wolf Pressure

Final Round Matchup

99 – 69 Victory against Gavin Heritage – Imperial Knights.

Thoughts

Yet another showing for Wolves with toys for boys all day long, with 3×5 Wulfen to further complement the insane melee pressure this list puts out. Whirlwind of Rage gives Tesla (double exploding 6’s) in the Assault Doctrine, making all those Thunder Hammers even spookier. As highlighted earlier this week, the Long Fang Terminator Pack Leader being able to fire his Cyclone Missile Launcher twice in one turn is also very potent. The sheer number of jump pack power armoured bodies in this list would make Blood Angel players salivate while still packing enough firepower to make an Iron Hands player weak in the knees. Of special note is the Eliminator squad with Morkai’s Teeth Bolts, giving mobile Lieutenant-style wound rerolls of 1 to tougher targets. The Instigator Bolt Carbine allows the unit to fire and fade 6″ as well, keeping them safe from return fire or allowing them to position for the next turn.

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Matthew Moran – Necrons: Nihilakh goodstuff with The Silent King running support.
  • 3rd – Gavin Heritage – Imperial Knights: Freeblade Lance featuring an Errant and 3 Mysterious Guardian Helverins for Strategic Reserve shenanigans.
  • 4th – Geoff Webb – Necrons: Double C’tan (Nightbringer + Void Dragon) Nihilakh with The Silent King supporting.
  • 5th – Brodie Atkinson – Dark Angels: A new twist on Ravenwing with 3 bricks of Black Knights, 3 Bike Squads, and some speeders along with the requisite Twin Talonmasters.
  • 6th – Ryan Cook – Astra Militarum: Born Soldiers goodstuff with 5 Leman Russes and 30 Kasrkins.
  • 7th – Richard Simms – Genestealer Cults: Myriad Cults at it again – 110 Neophytes and 30 Atalan Jackals.

Bonus – FactoruM February GT

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

It’s me, your boy, Wings in charge. “But wait”, I hear you say – this was only 26 players. Don’t you normally cut off at 28? Well yes, but have you seen how much Warhammer there was to absorb this week? Do I not do enough for you people? Don’t I deserve a treat?

James “One_Wing” Grover – Craftworlds – 1st Place

Asurmen. Credit: Wings

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Hail of Doom

Final Round Matchup

86 – 50 Victory against Dave Elliott – Chaos Daemons

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Yes, that’s right, much like Flaco the Owl I am in full hooting posture because my latest Aeldari experiment was a great success. Much like some of the other lists looked at this week, I have come to the conclusion that survival in this metagame is best achieved through having the damage output to swiftly obliterate the opposition, and for Craftworlds that means Hail of Doom. Buffed up Dire Avengers and Windriders are some of the nastiest shooting tools out there in this Craftworld, and adding in the super squads of Banshees and Scorpions only amplifies the army’s killing power. The Falcons were also crucial – they allowed me to deploy with a very low footprint, hiding from opposing threats, while retaining the ability to counter-punch hard early on. In general I was stashing the Banshees and small Avenger unit in the Falcons, chucking one big unit of Avengers into Strategic Reserves and working from there, and the list performed exceptionally well. Secondary-wise I was usually taking Behind Enemy Lines and Warp Ritual and switching up third options as appropriate, sometimes going for Banners, Scout or a kill option.

My only concern with the army is that it does slightly struggle to land 100pt victories, which might hold it back in larger events using VP tiebreakers, and with that in mind I might go for swapping out the small Avenger unit (probably also splitting one of the tens into two fives for flexibility) and the Vyper for a Shining Spear squad, just to open up Wrath a bit more – but otherwise this is what I’m taking to events for the forseeable future, it rules!

The Best of the Rest

Three more players finished on 4-1 records, and the player in 6th got paired up against me in round 5, so i’ve gone to that placing.

  • 2nd – Jay Seebarun – Dark Angels: Ravenwing-heavy Dark Angels with one big Terminator unit and a Deathwing Command Squad providing objective-holding crunch, and Infiltrators to play for Stubborn Defiance.
  • 3rd – Martyn Cooper – Astra Militarum: Born Soldiers Goodstuff with some supporting Scions, and a small unit each of Rough Riders and Bullgryn for melee counter-punch.
  • 4th – Tim O’Flynn – Votann: Greater Thurian League 2Fort with one bulked up Bike unit to maximise re-rolls from Uthar.
  • 5th – James Hobbs – Dark Angels: Inner Circle Dark Angels with lots of Deathwing and powerful Characters.
  • 6th – Dave Elliott – Chaos Daemons: Dave gave me a fantastic game in the final, running the Be’lakor/Bloodthirster/Big Bird monster mash build with Fiends and Flesh Hounds for early pressure. Great fun, and also turns out to have been very good prep for writing about the Dice Crusher showdown – those big Daemons are tough to take out even with Hail!

Wrap Up

What a week, huh? Let’s hope the huge enthusiasm keeps rolling on as we delve further into the new metagame, and we’ll see you next week.

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