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Competitive Innovations in 9th: Supermajor Surprise

By James "One_Wing" Grover

You would think that I would remember that there was an upcoming supermajor given that I was, at one point, booked for it (prior to potential COVID disruption to travel leading me to cancel) but apparently not. Well, there was totally a supermajor, with 150+ players battling it out over seven rounds in one of the larger showcases of 40K in Europe. Add that to a couple of US GTs and we’ve got ourselves a Competitive Innovations!

Before we jump in, I got some feedback last week that people weren’t super sure on my current stance on which armies may or may not need additional nerfs. Very briefly:

  • Drukhari definitely need an additional hit. 40K stats has them sustaining the highest win rates in the game, and they make up a truly appaling proportion of the top metagame. In terms of what to nerf, I’d point at the same list i put in the most recent meta update, with the exception that I might put 10pts on Raiders instead of 5pts at this point given a recent swing towards spamming them.
  • The best builds of Adeptus Mechanicus and Orks (which for my money are Mars/Lucius and Freebooterz, respectively) will need nerfs, but I’d want to wait to see the full Ork Codex play out (now the kits are finally arriving) before doing lots there, and AdMech’s performance still fluctuates a bit as people try various lists. That said, I think you could pretty safely stick 10pts each on Squigbuggies and Dakkajets and some points on Sicarians (and maybe Serberys Raiders) at the same time as a bigger round of Drukhari nerfs without worrying about ruining either faction, then monitor how they do in the wake of that to assess if further changes are needed. If you pinned me down and made me choose, I would say Mars/Lucius is the best list in the game right now, and it continues to mildly surprise me that we’re not seeing more consolidation to it.
  • There’s not much else I’d want to see nerfed, and plenty I’d like buffed – Sisters feel strong but not over the top, the recent books are showing promise without being obviously oppressive, and there are a surprising number of viable Marine lists performing at the moment. The only elephant in the room is the VolCon, which is definitely too good but in an alarmingly load-bearing fashion, as it’s helping a lot of factions punch up against the big three. It should definitely change at some point, but probably as part of a full Munitorum Field Manual update where the armies that need it can be appropriately rebalanced to account for its absence.

Those are my current meta musings, and we seem to be hitting a period of relative stability where we can see if the relevant trends hold.

Finally, as a reminder, for any list that was undefeated going into the last round or got paired up onto the top table, I put a ✪ next to the placing so you can see which lists made it most of the way through the gauntlet before being pipped at the post.

Alliance Open Super Major

All the lists for this event can be found on the Alliance’s dedicated web site.

Justin Jansen – Adeptus Mechanicus – 1st Place

Ironstrider Ballistarius. Credit: Rockfish
Ironstrider Ballistarius. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Mars/Lucius crushes the big leagues.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Speak of the devil – I think Mars/Lucius is the strongest way you can build AdMech right now, and as a consequence one of the best lists in the game, and here it is notching up an exceptional performance to prove that. The reason I’m so specifically hot on this build compared to other options (such as Veteran Cohort or Sicarian spam) is that it does the best post-nerf job of putting two different steep obstacles in the way of any opponent trying to defeat it. First up, thanks to Mars re-rolls on the Ironstriders and access to a Solar Flare redeploy on the Skitarii blobs the ranged threat this list presents is still brutal – opponents need to either hide or put up absurd defences to weather a turn of shooting, and stacking Canticles and Doctrinas has a very good chance of blunting the response from the foe’s shooting. There are very few lists that will win a ranged slugfest against this army.

Unlike some shooting lists, however, pivoting to trying to outdo the army on objectives isn’t trivial either. Lucius infantry provide very numerous ObSec chaff that are far more durable than 8pt models really ought to be and that sport some extremely potent anti-horde firepower of their own. Clearing these blocks out isn’t going to be easy at the best of times, and many of the tools that would be good at doing so are prime targets for the Ironstriders as soon as they emerge from cover. Rounding things out, Serberys Raiders and Infiltrators shut down some of the options for trying to pressure the army early and provide an extremely cost-effective head-start on playing for that crucial Primary.

Most top tier 40K lists work, at least in part, by posing a difficult question for your opponent’s army, where failure to answer results in a loss. What makes Mars/Lucius so uniquely strong is that it asks two questions at once – to beat it you need to be able to both clear out 80+ highly durable ObSec bodies and do so while soaking up brutal anti-tank and anti-infantry firepower, which is just too much for a lot of armies to deal with. In credit to Justin’s opponents, quite a few of them came reasonably close to managing it, but in the end none could stop the inexorable march of the machine – congratulations on the supermajor win!

Ruud Steenbakkers – Drukhari – 2nd Place

Drukhari Archon. Credit: Corrode

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Drukhari max out on board control with double Court and Cronos.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Ruud was, in fact, one of the players who ran Justin close, and it’s pretty easy to see why – Drukhari are the game’s best faction, and this particular build is very ready to take a swing at out-controlling the table against AdMech. It’s packing three different heavy board control units in the Cronos and two Courts, and the latter can be safely staged to at least the mid-board in transports, ready to hop out and do some melee mischief when required. Two units of Shredder Scourges also add some very cost-effective anti-horde ranged firepower, helping to chip through larger enemy units and perfectly cheap enough to switch to objective duty in matchups where required. Finally, an array of Incubi and nightmare murder-characters provide the trade-up threats that make Drukhari so difficult to beat for anyone not packing the game’s best factions, as losing any elite unit that wanders within Advance/Charge range of a Raider is a big old headache. Drukhari rock, this build is a particular challenge to shift, and it’s a well deserved second place finish all round for Ruud.

Thomas Brutscher – Orks – 3rd Place

Dakkajet. Credit: Rockfish
Dakkajet. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Dakka Freebooterz complete the triumvirate of top factions in the top three.
  • Kannonwagons provide a place for Kommandos to bunker up and a cheap way to tee up Competitive Streak

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Freebooter Orks are terrifying because of just how much early firepower they can throw down and how much reach it has – you might be able to hide from Ironstriders, but Squigbuggies and Dakkajets are going to get you pretty much wherever you hide, forcing you to commit to battle, at which point the rest of the piratical Speedwaaagh can get you. Most of what’s in here is pretty familiar to the other recent Freebooter lists we’ve seen with one exception, which is the Kannonwagons. While these don’t have Ramshackle (Wings Note: or at least didn’t, as of the FAQ they do now so get even better!), so are an obvious place for early shooting from the opponent to focus, they have the upside of being very deadly, and less dependent on the Competitive Streak than the rest of the list, as their big gun gets +1 to hit natively. That (alongside being extremely nasty with additional AP from the aforementioned Speedwaaagh) makes them ideal for scoring the first kill and switching on the Freebooter bonus for the rest of the army, and while not super durable they’ve got enough wounds that killing them requires at least some commitment. Their transport capacity also lets the army get a bit of extra mileage out of its Kommandos – if they look like they’re about to get blasted they can retreat to the safety of the transport to hopefully maximise their chance of lasting out a round. It’s a marginal upside, but sometimes squeezing one extra turn out of your objective holders is all you need.

That’s the lists’s main concession to subtlety – otherwise, it’s a wall of durable, dangerous vehicles coming at you at high speed and mowing your army down, with enough objective-holding infantry following up to ensure that the Primary is secured, particularly with Get Da Loot for emergency ObSec. Now that the Ork Codex is properly out there are a few other builds that can plausibly vie with this one for title of best in the book, but my bet remains that this turns out to be the Waaagh to beat, and I think Thomas has put up an extremely effective demonstration of why.

Rickard Nilsson – Adeptus Mechanicus – 4th Place

Skitarii Vanguard
Skitarii Vanguard. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Lucius Horde.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

As covered above I think Mars/Lucius is the best Ad Mech build, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of other strong ones, and Lucius horde remains a real factor. Without the shooting backup of Mars it doesn’t threaten to blow the opponent’s favourite toys to pieces nearly as reliably, but the difficult question it does pose, which is whether the opponent can deal with 120 Skitarii with the Solar Blessing Dogma, can be particularly tough to deal with, and can be particularly challenging for top dog Drukhari as it lacks elite trading targets for them to maximise the value of some of their stuff against. This list floods the board with robot bodies, scythes down anything that doesn’t have a hull in record time, and takes an incredible amount of (quite specific) firepower to shift, and the only player who was able to take Rickard down was the eventual winner Justin, making this a very impressive performance all-round from a long-term Ad Mech master.

The Rest of the Best

Five more players achieved 6-1 records. They were:

  • 5th ✪ – Liam Vsl – Aeldari: Harlequins and Craftworlds artillery, plus a couple of Shining Spear MSUs for extra reactive threats.
  • 6th – Sebastian Gehart – Drukhari: Drukhari goodstuff.
  • 7th – Jens Stark – Orks: Triple clan, triple Squigosaur Orks (including Mozrog Skragbad in a Snakebites detachment), with a buggies and Squighog Boyz backing them up..
  • 8th – Malte Hoefs – Chaos: Iron Warrior Decimators, Death Guard Daemon Engines and a small Nurgle Daemon detachment of Be’lakor and Epidemius. Maximum Nurgle Daemon synergy, a fairly flat target profile and lots of good shooting makes this pretty fearsome.
  • 9th – David Szymanski – Adepta Sororitas: Ebon Chalice/Bloody Rose team up, very similar to the one we looked at last week.

Harbor Heresy

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

Colin Sherman – Drukhari – 1st Place

Credit: Wings

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Extremely violent Drukhari goodstuff

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Not a massive amount to say here, other than to note that like a lot of current Drukhari lists there’s a little more concession to board control than in some builds, here the more violent option of adding in extra Wyches at the expense of a squad of Incubi. Mostly though it’s business as usual, and congratulations to Colin for piloting it to the top spot.

Forrest Phanton – Space Wolf Successors – 2nd Place

Photo cred: Jaime Paris

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • A Dreadnought and board control heavy wolves list that really shows off what the supplement can do.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

It’s a good time to be a son (or distant cousin, in this case) of Russ, with the Space Wolf supplement consistently proving to be one of the strongest out there. That’s thanks to the triple threat of having particularly strong support for a Redemptor-dreadnought based shooty anvil (with Storm Caller and Counter-Charge really helping them operate at their best), excellent durable melee threats to apply pressure (Wolf Guard that are essentially discount VanVets and the heftier presence of ThunderCav for some builds) and uniquely cheap Secondary Objective chaff in the form of Cyberwolves. That equips keen Wolf players with the tools they need to build very flexible armies that can operate at all ranges and take a swing at almost anything, super valuable when there are clear top armies out there which all pose very different challenges.

This particular list is especially heavy on melee pressure, going for an ultra-killy chapter tactic and lots of ThunderCav, plus Hunter on the Bike Chaplain to switch the army up a mobility gear once the fight is joined. The weapon splits on the ThunderCav make them particularly ready to take on Ork lists, as the hammers can slam straight past Ramshackle to trash entire units of buggies, while the “spare” chainsword bodies are perfectly tuned for taking volleys of D3 rockets. It also makes them pretty spooky for Drukhari who are leaning on Talos, as they can afford to lose some bodies on the way in and still wreak terrible havoc. There are certainly matchups where they’re less appealing too, and losing one per unsaved cognis lascannon shot is going to be a bummer, but if Orks continue to rise in popularity I can definitely see these getting a wider renaissance, as they really are a huge asset against buggy builds. We love to see the iconic units of a faction putting in real work here, so great job to Forrest for putting the fear of Wolf back into the foes of Fenris.

Steve Trimble – Orks – 3rd Place

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

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Blood Axe buggy spam takes another podium finish.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The Blood Axe Speedwaaagh has crossed the Atlantic, every bit as brutal and over the top as it was in the UK when Mani Cheema was running it. Similar to comparing Mars/Lucius to pure Lucius horde, this army pressures the opposition on slightly fewer angles than the Freebooterz lists do, but the core threat of 16 ultra-powerful buggies with boosted saves and the option to put down a very minimal deployment when called for is extremely tough for many opponents to overcome. Similar to the last time it went out in the UK, the army picked up extremely high scores in all the games it won, highlighting just how overwhelming it can be, but did go down to a Lord of Skulls list with the tools to counter it. We’ll see whether that ends up as anough of a pattern that people drift away from the build or not, but here and now congratulations to Steve for continuing the international Waaagh.

Mitchell Hunter – Imperium – 4th Place

Custodes Telemon Dreadnought
Custodes Telemon Dreadnought. Credit: CrabStuffedMushrooms

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Custodes crunch pulls in a bit of extra consistency from Tempestus Scions

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Nothing massively surprising to round out our second top four of the week – Shadowkeeper Custodes are one of the armies that absolutely can stand up to the brutal onslaughts that Drukhari and AdMech bring to bear thanks to stratagems like The Emperor’s Auspice and Grim Responsibility, and thanks to the presence of Telemons, Sagitarrum and Venatari are no slouches at throwing out pain themselfes. The one place Custodes can fall down is not having expendable units to either sit on home objectives or go out to act as bait, and bringing in a small Scion detachment is a fairly obvious way to shore this up a bit. 2CP is a real cost to an army that loves its defenive stratagems, but the extra consistency from having a few naturally deep striking units to deploy on demand is a very worth-while trade off when you’re looking to perform all the way through the event. That paid off for Mitchell here, taking him to a fourth place finish with a single loss picked up against the terrifying might of Freebooterz.

The Rest of the Best

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

  • 5th – Charles Arnett – Thousand Sons: In line with some of the other early builds, here we see Ahriman and some character buddies backed up by Rubricae and Scarab Occults in a Cult of Duplicity detachment, with VolCons and Chaos Spawn to provide some extra punch at range and up close respectively.
  • 6th ✪ – Nicolas Ohlsen-Johnson – Orks:  Freebooterz spamming Dakkajets and Buggies.
  • 7th – JT Steiger – Ultramarine Successors: The tried and true combo of lots of Invictors and Dreadnoughts with the Ultramarine supplement, but with the unusual choice of Warded as one of the Chapter Tactics, taking aim at Thousand Sons and Grey Knights.
  • 8th ✪ – Zachary Nelson – Thousand Sons: Speaking of which – a Cult of Mutation and Cult of Time teamup, with lots of characters, Rubricae and newly improved Forgefiends in the former and a big block of Scarabs in the latter.
  • 9th – Nicholas Krakauer – Thousand Sons: Very similar to the above, but splitting the Scarabs into two smaller units.

No Tak X

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

Alex Macdougall – Hive Mind – 1st Place

Credit: PierreTheMime

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Kraken/Kronos Tyranids are joined by the disruptive influence of Genestealer Cults.
  • No Dimachaerons or Hierodule, just a trio of nasty Tyrants and a decently sized Genestealer block to riff off the Swarmlord
  • Hand flamer Acolytes and A Plan Generations in the Making bring a lot of value to the table from a small 4AE detachment.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The Hive Mind’s most loyal outrider does it again, taking down an event with this spicy brew. The core of the list here is similar to what Tyranid players (including Alex) have been using fairly successfully for a while – Kronos Hive Guard double shooting with Single Minded Annihilation are a formidible headache for many armies to try and tank, and Exocrines are exceptionally well tuned for punking Raiders and Ironstriders alike. Add Symbiostorm to either and jobs a good one. Running out in front of this you’ve got some pretty hefty pressure from the monsters and infantry that Tyranids can throw down, usually lead up by a Kraken Swarmlord to set up extremely difficult to avoid charges.

This list is on that plan, but compared to some earlier iterations it’s pared things back a bit – there aren’t any Forge World nasties to speak of, instead just a couple of winged Hive Tyrants (one Kraken and specced for getting right into the thick of things, and one Kronos as more of a mid-board player) and a mid-sized unit of Genestealers. My impression here is that the intent is to spend the minimum number of points required to make overwhelming  some opponents still be a viable plan without going all-in on it, saving resources to pay for the GSC detachment. I think it does a good job of achieving that – Kraken Genestealers can still cover absurd distances with the Swarmlord overlooking them,mince something, then barrel into cover with Overrun or just consolidate into a million different things to overwhelm any Fall Back/Shoot options the opponent has. If the Genestealers aren’t the right tool for the job, then hurling either swarmy himself or the Hive Tyrant with talons (ready to use Voracious Appetite to set up a massive amount of damage) into the fight can easily do the trick too. If hordes are on the menu, then as well as dodging the Genestealers (who will eat them for breakfast) they also need to be very wary of a sudden strike from the devourer gaunts, who will sweep them off the table post-haste.

All cool stuff, but noticeably one ~250pt monster short of the default, with that going on Genestealer Cult units instead. What does that buy the army? Quite a bit! First up, the now unique ability to fully cancel a stratagem with A Plan Generations in the Making is always great to have around, and particularly good in this kind of list where there are some clear priority targets. Switching off an offensive trick that’s being used to try and punk a flyrant, or shutting down a dangerous Advance/Charge in the direction of the Hive Guard can trivially make the difference between victory and defeat, and just the strats existence is a heavy psychological burden on opponents. Next up, Mass Hypnosis to shut down Overwatch can be a huge deal for Genestealers, as they are not the most sturdy of creatures and in some games against AdMech you’re going to need to slam them into stuff that’s a serious Overwatch threat. Finally, extra ObSec deep striking objective utility units is never a bad thing to have around, and being able to slap dirt cheap hand flamers onto two of the units to give them some extra flexibility makes the Acolytes especially attractive in this role – 55pts is a fine price if you just need cheap objective grabbers, but sometimes they’ll put a meaningful tap into something that matters and that’s cool.

With those on top of a Lictor from the main force and some chaff gaunts this list is extremely well set up for consistently scoring Secondaries, and projects substantial force in all three of the psychic, shooting and fight phases. After the giddy highs they hit shortly after the Compendium landed Tyranids have certainly fallen back a bit, but Alex has put together a real reminder of what they can do in the right claws, so massive props!

Brandon St Pierre – Drukhari – 2nd Place

Drukhari Raider. Credit: Corrode

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Drukhari goodstuff

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Drukhari do what they do best, with a pretty standard suite of stuff blasting Brandon to a second-place finish.

Gary Sacco – Dark Angels – 3rd ✪ Place

Dark Angels. Credit: Greg Chiasson

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • A gigantic Deathwing murder-ball and a shooting toolbox blast Dark Angels to a podium finish.
  • Strong synergies between Azrael and the shooting tools and Deathwing Command Squads and Talonmasters.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Never keen to be outdone by the Space Wolves, Dark Angels are here too, showing off their very different but equally potent unique capabilities. Here those are, variously, a gigantic block (or two smaller, if Combat Squadding seems correct) of ObSec terminators with perma-transhuman, two lethal shooting platforms that can’t be easily answer in the form of the Talonmasters with Command Squad Bodyguards, and a suite of potent shooting threats that get to be extra durable and easily shoved into the correct Doctrine thanks to Azrael and access to Tactical Appraisal. This list can thrust an incredibly difficult to shift blob right up the middle of the board, then wither the opponent’s forces away with attrition damage from the talonmasters if they try and play cagily, or deal gigantic sucker punches with either the Eradicators or Weapons from the Dark Age powered Hellblasters if they commit hard. Aiding and abetting that plan, the very cheap and very effective Ravenwing Champion threatens to sally out and tank the opponent’s invulnerable saves at a key moment, which can be a fantastic help against opponents trying to trump the Deathwing with a tarpit of their own, and can make specific targets like Drukhari Archons weep in frustration as their pathetic protections are stripped away. He’s a super valuable little utility piece who I think belongs in more lists, and here really brings the plan together – the threat he represents near guarantees that the Deathwing get priority in dominating the mid-board, while Tremor Shells from the Thunderfire can slow down units that try and work around them. That buys the powerful shooting here time to deal spectacular damage to the enemy, ensuring that in the end almost all foes will break before the forces of Caliban, with only Alex’s bugs pulling off a pretty narrow victory keeping Gary from a clean sweep. In line with our consistent pro-Dark Angels position on this website, Gary is awarded the policy-mandated “hell yeah”.

Mike Garcia – Adeptus Custodes – 4th Place

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

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

  • Down the line, extra durable Shadowkeepers.
  • Cuts back on Characters to get more threats on the board.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Just because you can take Scions in your Custodes list doesn’t mean you have to, and our final top four finisher of the day takes a different tack for keeping enough units on the table. This list goes far lighter on spending on Characters than normal, with just a pair of footslogging shield captains (one to stay with the main block, one to go hunting out of Deep Strike with Lockwarden and the Stasis Oubliette) in the HQ slot. That frees up a bunch of points, and as a result this list just gets more stuff than the Custodes default. Two crunchy shield Custodian Squads, two Venatari blocks, two Galatus dreads and, topping it all off, two Telemons is a truly ferocious golden wall, and gives enough board coverage that some of the normal tricks for beating Custodes (crush one flank, out-Primary them) aren’t going to be nearly as easy for opponents. Building to adapt to common counterplay patterns is a good way to do well at events and it’s certainly been rewarded here – great stuff from Mike.

The Rest of the Best

One more player finished on 4-1. They were:

  • 5th – Keiryn Brown – White Scars: Standard White Scars stuff here – VenVets and VolCons with some strong character support and a unit of Bladeguard for a bit of extra mid-table punch.

Bonus – West Australia Team Challenge

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

On top of the singles events that took place over the weekend, Objective Secured over in Australia hosted a massive five-round team event, featuring 20 teams of six players duking it out for the title. Having had a surprise Supermajor sneak up on me I don’t have quite as much time to look at it as I expected, but I thought it would be worth having a very quick glance at what factions players are choosing to use in the format, as that can sometimes provide some interesting insights into singles play too!

As a reminder for what we’re generally interested in when looking at team events, the controlled pairing formats and variable terrain across tables within around generally encourages teams to try:

  • The very best all-rounder lists, and if they’re ones that have some particularly good matchups all the better.
  • Lists with a very linear plan that needs specific tools to disrupt.
  • Lists that are particularly good at countering some other types of build.
  • Lists that are good at holding on to some points in a game they lose, no matter what they’re up against.
  • Lists that are particularly strong on very heavy or very light terrain.

You can find the full run-down of lists in Down Under Pairings, and I’ve outlined the composition of the top four teams below. DUP doesn’t currently make it 100%  clear who, uh, actually won, but I’m basing the placings off the event pack, which says Match Points first then Battle Points.

1st Place – Juggernauts: The Flying Hellfish

  • Andrew Hortin – Adeptus Mechanicus: A very all-rounder Mars Veteran Cohort list. Would look entirely at home in 1st place at a singles vent.
  • Benjamin Slusarczyk – Drukhari: A Cronos build pretty similar to Matt Root’s, including the MSU Reavers for extra objective play. Clearly another top singles build, potentially chosen over other Drukhari lists because it’s less vulnerable to getting blown off the board fast, so will retain more points if the opponents have a counter.
  • Craig Sumpton- Grey Knights: The Rapiers/Swordbearers Interceptor/Dreadknight hotness. This makes sense in a team situation – it’s a strong singles build that will faceplant hard in some matches, but is extremely good in others, especially with access to the Words of Power bomb to no-sell the defences of many tanky units.
  • Peter Platell – Adeptus Custodes: Triple Telemon Shadowkeepers, great for throwing in the way of any damage dealing army that relies on re-rolls, and still able to take a punch on a light board.
  • Lachlan Rigg – Adepta Sororitas: Super aggro Bloody Rose, certainly valid as a singles build but likely particularly nightmarish to face on heavy terrain tables.
  • Mitch Byrne – Thousand Sons: Cult of Duplicity with a hardcore Scarab Occult component, great for grinding out elite forces that will bounce off a full unit of those.

A nice mix of familiar builds and new stuff here. I’m sure seeing Drukhari and AdMech in the all-rounder slots isn’t a massive surprise, but it’s nice to see Thousand Sons and Grey Knights doing work. On consideration that makes sense – they’re both books with powerful tools that have some terrible matchups, but in the team format you’re much more likely to be able to dodge those than over the course of a six round singles event. Attacking with massed mortal wounds also circumvents some flavours of defences, another asset in a team format. Finally, we’ve got Custodes and Sisters, both sporting builds that lean in hard to one of their strengths. I wouldn’t be shocked to see either of these in a normal top four, but they’re definitely builds that really come into their own here.

Congratulations to the winners!

2nd Place – Dice In Combat Squad

  • Aaron Thompson – Adepta Sororitas: An all-rounder Sisters build here, featuring the Bloody Rose/Ebon Chalice setup that’s been shining recently. Another good example of the kind of singles list that makes the jump to teams effectively – the army can adapt to most kinds of terrain thanks to the BR melee, and having lots of mortal output makes it a strong counter pick some times.
  • Connor Ockwell – Chaos: Greater Daemons, Be’lakor and Death Guard Daemon Engines with Epidemius backup. We’ve seen these lists doing pretty well in singles and again they fit into a team setup very effectively – with pretty much all the key targets being very tough, you need specific tools to take it down.
  • Shane Horvath – Dark Angels: Lots of Deathwing Bladeguard and Talonmasters, which looks pretty great for dealing with fairly heavy tables, but is always going to be able to put up a fight.
  • Dave Horne – Drukhari: Another build that you wouldn’t bat an eye at in singles, here leaning much more shooty with extra blaster Kabalites and a tooled up Reaver squad. Great for punishing opponents who can’t deal with the Raiders.
  • Earl Clarke – Adeptus Mechanicus: Mars/Lucius, which is one of the (if not the) game’s best all-rounder builds.
  • Ben Leeper – Orks: Mixed Deathskull/Blood Axe vehicle spam. Very strong, and a nightmare for any opponent that’s relying on mid-quality D2 weaponry to get things done. Guessing that the Deathskulls over pure Blood Axes is to improve objective play and ensure that points are scored even on a loss.

Another showing for Drukhari and AdMech, and another of the game’s strong all-rounders on show from Sororitas. The rest are all strong singles lists that skew in certain directions, and the Orks show a particular concession to the team format by adding more objective tools than normal.

3rd Place – Juggernauts: The Stonecutters

  • Jordan Berresford – Adeptus Mechanicus: Another Mars Veteran Cohort.
  • Aiden McFaull – Salamanders: Melta spam, very clearly designed to brutally punish any hull or monster-heavy lists (e.g. the Chaos build from the second place team).
  • Michael Hortin – Drukhari: A more uniquely tuned Drukhari build, going for extreme vehicle spam including a bunch of Venoms and Ravagers on top of the expected Raiders, and using Poisoned Tongue to maximise flexibility. Also includes an unusual custom Wych Cult that appears to be designed to let the unit of Bloodbrides absolutely detonate something one time.
  • Matthew Kelly – Grey Knights: Swordbearers/Blades of Victory with five Dreadknights – absurd pressure out the gate, and great for bowling some armies off the table.
  • Timothy Barnard – Thousand Sons: More Cult of Duplicity, again with a big block of Scarabs.
  • Robert Hortin – Chaos Daemons: A completely different Be’lakor build, running as Disciples and going for a horde with Bloodletters, Plague Drones and Horrors. Looks tailored to be a “defender” build, as it’s going to be nigh impossible to quickly take this off the Primary with Locus of Shadows kicking about.

The theme of Drukhari and AdMech everywhere continues, and another showing for some fairly extreme Grey Knight and Thousand Sons lists. The Daemons build also stands out as maybe the most “team event” list so far – it asks a very specific question that some armies aren’t going to be able to answer. Finally, the Salamanders are also a particularly focused counterpick list – you would definitely want some more melee threats in it for singles.

4th Place – Toy Soldier Cartel

  • Alan Oliver – Drukhari: By-the-book Drukhari goodstuff.
  • Courtney Hill – Orks: Grumpy melee Orks on show here, with lots of Goff Squighogs under Ghaz being the key anchor, then some Freebooter Dakkajets and Killa Kanz backing them up, all rounded out by two Squigbosses. Quite unusual but clearly powerful, and can get an extreme amount of melee pressure up the table very reliably.
  • Jayden McGarry – Death Guard: Honestly surprised that this is the only pure Death Guard list in the top four teams, as this shows off what they’re good at in a team context – putting a tonne of Terminators in the middle of the board and demanding answers (plus brutally shutting down melee tools with a Blightspawn).
  • Ryan Buck – Adepta Sororitas: A fairly balanced Bloody Rose toolbox list.
  • Jayden Capps – Deathwatch: A fairly standard mix of spammed Dreadnoughts and pressure Kill Teams, definitely a viable singles list byut especially strong into opponents that are short on tools for cracking hulls.
  • Travis Kirke – Adeptus Mechanicus: Another Lucius/Mars list to finish things off.

The Ork list is a clear standout here, being unusual in construction but extremely good at its goal, which is ensuring the opponent is getting at least some nasty melee surprises to the face come hell or high Waaaaghter. Beyond that, lots of fairly balanced lists.

Takeaways

The big ones:

  • Drukhari and AdMech are the clear must-haves for team building, with Sororitas and Orks both strong contenders too. That’s uh, not actually that surprising huh?
  • Thousand Sons, Grey Knight and Be’lakor have some extra promise in team formats as they’re good for building quite focused lists around.
  • Space Marines still have a pretty decent toolbox – we’ve seen a notable uptick from some Chapters recently, and the high performing Deathwatch and Salamanders builds here are a good reminder that when a given supplement’s schtick is valuable in the metagame, Marines can still get it done – and in teams you can shape that a bit.

Wrap Up

That’s it for this week. Expect some risk of slightly scattered service over the next few weeks, as I’ve got two events in a row, one of which is the LGT. More on that later this week/early next, so see you then! Comments, questions and suggestions to contact@goonhammer.com.

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