This week in the Goonhammer offices we’ve been busily trying to work on our various writing tics and bad habits, and in that spirit I’m going to have to think of a way to open these other than “another busy week in the 40K world”, both because I must have written that a good 5-10 times at this point and because it’s clear that, with the UK scene open for business, three or more GT+ events is going to be the new normal. This week we’ve got two from the UK and one from Canada, the latter of particular interest because it saw the tournament debut of the new Ork Codex, with the new rules fully permitted and even the new datasheets open to anyone determined enough to convert them. I also went to another RTT, getting some more reps in with a minor iteration of my list, which I’ll talk about quickly at the end.

Let’s hit it!

Warhamarchy – Summer Slam

Matt Robertson – Adepta Sororitas – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Matt Robertson joins the back-to-back winners club with a second outing for his Sisters list.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

We’re back in the north of England for our first event, and that gives me a very easy task for this first writeup, because this is the same list Matt won the NaughtyK weekender with last time. There’s only the teeniest of changes to the build, with one Sacresant cut to upgrade a heavy flamer to a multi-melta and free up the points for a second Zephyrim pennant. My read on the build last time is that the Sacresants are mostly on cleanup duty for whatever the opponent has in the mid-late game, so presumably adding a bit more reliability to some of the early game tools provides higher value than one of those squads having an extra model. Ultimately, however, the combination of so few changes being deemed necessary and Matt immediatley taking down another event with a reasonably crunchy field cements this as one of the Sisters builds to watch. Great stuff.

Eddie Chater – Drukhari – 2nd Place

The List

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The Standout Features

• Raider spam to overload opposing gunlines and hold on to objectives for dear life.
• Beastmaster provides a handy Animus Vitae caddy, plus another way to layer objective control against shooting.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Drukhari continue extremely strong (I know, some of you were very worried), and this build looks particularly well adapted to the assumption of AdMech gunlines as a major predator. With Ironstriders somewhat diminished in effectiveness, AdMech are going to be that much slower at chewing through eight entire Raider hulls, and the choice of contents here aims to maximise the ability to retain objectives even if your stuff is getting blasted apart. By making sure there are cheap, cheerful blaster Kabalite squads riding around either doubled up or shotgun with Incubi, the list ensures that when units fall out of boats, the opponent is presented with multiple additional targets they need to remove to stop this build scoring. In some situations, you’ll also be able to do stuff like deploy one squad on each side of a Breachable wall that the boat is near to, thwarting the enemy’s shooting plans.

In situations like that, the list can also leverage the one unique element it includes, which is a Beastmaster. In the above situation, if you had an objective that was near an opaque wall but not near enough to it to hold the objective through, you could:

• Move the Beastmaster and Raider up to hold the objective.
• If the Raider dies, bail out some infantry to the far side of the wall still within 3″ of the Beastmaster.

At that point, as long as one of your other boats is closer, Look Out Sir protection ensures the Beastmaster can’t be shot at, allowing you to lock in objective control. Obviously you could do that with any character, but using something incredibly fast and mobile like the Beastmaster allows you to set it up wherever you need to. That’s not the only thing the model brings to the table – they’re also a speedy delivery mechanism for the increasingly popular Animus Vitae (because who doesn’t want to drop a bunch of Mortals on Skitarii), and thanks to their slightly eyebrow-raising possession of the INFANTRY keyword, they’re eligible for Raise the Banners High. Since the list has Mandrakes and expendable Kabalites as well, that opens up an improved angle on that secondary compared to the average Drukhari army, helping this list really dominate any game where it can outpace the opponent (which will be plenty).

At this point, all I can ask from Drukhari players is that they include at least one singular interesting and unusual thing in their lists that I can talk about, a test that Eddie has passed with flying colours, so congratulations on that and the second place finish.

Mike Porter – Aeldari – 3rd ✪ Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Shining Spears and Harlequins team up for hyper-mobile pressure in the hands of another returning top four finisher.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Last week’s legendary AdMech slaying folk hero rips off his mask to reveal that he was a familiar face on the UK scene all along – and he’s also back for a second week running with an iteration on his previous Craftworlds/Harlequins combination. Compared to Matt’s Sisters list, however, there are a few more changes.

Most notably, the two Night Spinners that the previous list contained have been traded out in favour of a couple of Shining Spear MSUs and an extra Troupe Master with the Domino Shroud. Now, as the world’s original and greatest Night Spinner fanboy I am obliged to condemn this decision, but I can definitely see what it does here – takes out the shooting elements that might (on some maps) be too big to hide, and thus liabilities against AdMech or some flavours of Drukhari, and replaces them with even more high-speed pressure than the list was already packing. Shining Spear MSUs are great as long as you’ve got Expert Crafters up, as they hit alarmingly hard for a 110pt unit and can zip round the board with the best of them, and it is worth considering that, as long as you can get them where they need to be, they do bring more anti-horde hurt to the table each than the Night Spinners did. They’re also ideal for picking up small opposing units of scout-deploy 2W models without having to disembark any of the Harlequins any earlier than you want to, or heading off to harrass some backfield units of the enemy. Finally, they give the list something cheaper and more expendable than any of the transports are to push onto a mid table objective if all it needs in a situation is a throwaway pawn.

Also able to do all kinds of mischief is the extra Troupe Master. While it’s easy to lose track of amidst the frequent balance upheavals recently, it’s a fundamental truth in 9th that anything permitting significant movement during the opponent’s turn is worth its weight in gold, because it allows you to change who controls objectives at a point where you normally can’t. With the Domino Shroud not even having a >9″ limitation, it’s perfect on this front, and just the sheer reach that zapping 12″ at the end of the opponent’s turn, then auto-advancing 14″ with Warrior Acrobats and still being able to charge gives you can be very valuable in its own right – getting to tie up something like a Volkite Contemptor and contest their objective for even a single turn can be well worth sacrificing a model for considering how good those are at exterminating all the other units!

Bringing both these additions to the table helps the list double down on being just an utter nightmare to plan against – all its threats have substantial reach, and it can strike in force wherever it wants to. Its units do all die to heavy pressure, but like all the greatest Aeldari lists, it’s very well tuned to try and ensure they never have a chance. More great work from Mike.

Daniel Whitaker – Aeldari – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Another lightning fast Aeldari build with Dark Reaper backup.
• Yncarne provides an alternative way to manipulate the board state in the opponent’s turn.
• Foot Troupe provides rolling disruption and a place to hide the invuln.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Speaking of moving in the opponent’s turn – the Yncarne is one of the all-time champions of doing just that, and this list uses them as a real engine to outfox the enemy. On a fundamental level this build is quite similar to Mike’s in its overall plan, in that it has hyper-mobile Aeldari units to savage the mid-board while tempest launchers rack up a massive body count, but the use of the Yncarne substantially shapes how the tools for doing that are assembled. For a start, while extremely cool the Yncarne ain’t cheap, meaning this build has to operate with fewer units than the other list does, only having two Starweavers full of Troupers to play with. The Yncarne needs small units that can be in a lot of parts of the board to operate at full effectiveness, and to that end you see the use of two smaller Skyweaver squads, a Vyper and some Warp Spiders. Having these ensures that Engage on All Fronts is a comfortable lock at all times, and the Spiders mean that ROD is at least an option, though certainly a bit more nerve racking than you’d like. With all that, you’ve definitely got units that you don’t mind losing to push into positions where the opponent definitely would mind the Yncarne showing up, giving strong flexibility.

It’s not just mobility that the Yncarne wants though – the other thing that’s very valuable is having a unit that can reliably stay engaged in combat, providing a safe place to use LoSir to shelter from shooting. A foot Troupe is excellent for this, as they can use Twilit Encore to trap slower enemies in combat, and shuffle around to provide protection when the opponent might not be expecting it. They’re also an extremely reliable blender, able to mow down most targets with Troupe Master support, and that gives you a consistent option to zap the Yncarne back to the core of your army after they’re done causing trouble on the far side of the board. I’m a huge fan of squeezing a foot Troupe into lists anyway, as I really like the utility they offer, but with the Yncarne around their value really hits the stratosphere, and I think it’s a great choice.

Honestly, I just like this list in general – it manages to feel very different from other, similar options and has some very unique capabilities, but is still clearly very potent. Congratulations to Dan for rounding the top four here out.

The Rest of the Best

Four more players achieved 4-1 records at this event. They were:

• 5th – Tim Smith – Dark Angels: Some sort of time rift has clearly opened here, as this is an honest to goodness triple Dark Talon list in 2021. Presumably the lure of mortal wound guns and trapping the enemy in combat with ObSec bike units was too much to resist, and the build here looks like a real curve-ball for some armies to deal with, also featuring three Bodyguarded Talonmasters.
• 6th – Will Whitaker – Chaos: Be’lakor, Mortarion and the Emperor’s Children team up in a bold new Chaos recipe. The two gigantic Daemonic entities certainly provide some frightening push threats, and the combination of a Noise Marine Dreadclaw damage spike and Terminator cleanup squads out of the Emperor’s children continues to look very effective.
• 7th – Markus Hinson – Imperium: An outing for a Book of Rust option here – a Metalica Patrol supported by three House Raven Knights, all with Knight of the Iron Cog applied for Canticle access. With the Knights being a Castellan and two Crusaders, this looks like either a nostalgic trip down memory lane or a horrific flashback depending on which side of the Imperium/everyone else divide you were on in 2018/2019. Access to Blaring Glory (shutting down re-rolls) in a list with Knights also continues to be very strong, and there’s a conspicuous three-model Serberys Raider unit in the army that looks primed for doing exactly that.

Alberta Classic

Ozzie Meloche – Orks – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Coming over the horizon in a cloud of oily smoke, Ork vehicle spam rams into the metagame, with Freebooterz taking the first crown.
• Squigbuggies and Scrapjets dominate thanks to their flexibility.
• The Wartrike and Squigboss both prove their worth as character beatsticks.
• Dakkajets demonstrate that they’re genuinely worth it at their low low price.
• Utility units and Warbikers round things out for objective play.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Well, that sure hasn’t done anything to disabuse me of the notion that Ramshackle was a mistake. Plenty of the units that have been hotly tipped by us and others make it into this first GT winning Ork build, plus a few surprises. Clan wise, it’s the Freebooterz who are out in front early on, with their very unique Clan Kultur proving to be very potent across the wide range of units on show here, plus the extremely powerful Badskull Banner and the Get Da Loot stratagem helping to mitigate the fact that the army mostly lacks any Troops. The relic and strat looked very hot straight out of the review, and looking at this list is substantially boosting my evaluation of the Kultur – this list puts down such a high number of shots that Deathskulls re-rolls would largely get lost in the wash, whereas switching on army-wide +1 to hit is massive. True, there are some things that get it naturally, but it’s still enough of a benefit to be very worth it overall, and helps the Dakkajets in particular really shine. These looked extremely pushed for the price in the book, providing a truly alarming number of shots with decent characteristics, and once you can boost their accuracy just a little they end up providing a huge amount of value – they’re durable Engage fodder and good at chewing through hordes.

They’re not the only great vehicle in this list, of course. The buggies were one of the biggest highlights in the Codex, and perhaps unsurprisingly this build goes hard on the two best – the Scrapjet and the Squigbuggy. These two stand out because their shooting output is very well tailored to some popular targets and because they have strong melee attacks in addition to the guns. When you’re going hard on Vehicles, having the ability to flex into combat when needed is invaluable, and this list is generally sorted for anti-horde firepower elsewhere. Squigbuggies also need a mention because they’re kind of just ridiculous in general – they’re incredibly cheap for the volume of no-LOS shooting they provide, and mean that opponents will get minimal effective use out of mid-table cover if you’re moving them up aggressively to get the small squig launchers in range. I like the use of one upgraded with the Nitro Squigs here too, as in Freebooterz it’s a perfect unit to fire first to try and tee up the Kultur buff (as the main launcher has built-in +1 at baseline). Also good for that is the big unit of Burna Boyz, able to wander on from Strategic Reserves (or pop out of a Tellyporta) and smoke some stragglers for an easy boost. I’m guessing strat reserves is the likely call here, since I kind of expect the small Tankbusta and Burna units to be doing that too, and adding them all up only runs a couple CP.

That covers a lot of the list, but there’s still some hits to get through. A squad of Kommandos is as good as ever, while three units of Warbikers provide some cost effective things to throw after objectives, plus a non-trivial amount of additional Dakka for horde shifting. Finally, we’ve got characters, and this list sports both the big standouts among the generic HQs. The Deffkilla Wartrike was vying with the Squigbuggy for most improved existing datasheet in the new Codex, thanks to massive durability boosts that make it a real player, and it also creates huge reach and coverage for the Badskull Banner. With the majority of this list being Speed Freeks and vehicles, having a Warboss who can call down the Speedwaaagh is also exceptionally valuable – so with all those factors combined, expect a massive amount of play from this model. Over in the other detachment you’ve got a Squigosaur Boss with the Beasthide Mantle and ‘Ard as Nails, which combine to take his already considerable durability to stratospheric levels and make him an incredibly hard to shift wrecking ball. Whether you want an incredible tank or a nightmare killer (see the next list) the Squigboss has you covered. More surprisingly, the list does also sport a Big Mek, presumably here to keep the Squigbuggies in peak condition and add even more D2 firepower via Da Ded Shiny Shoota, which looks real nasty once it’s hitting on 3s.

Orks are going to have a somewhat weird ramp up because of needing lots of vehicles for the best lists, and also because right now you have to be determined enough to convert your Squigbosses, but honestly just look at this nightmare. There’s just so much stuff in this army, it’s all a pain to shift, and all incredibly deadly. Get looking at your Codexes kids, because in a few months you need a plan to beat this. Big congratulations to Ozzie for being the fastest Boss into the fray.

Darren Jac – Orks – 2nd ✪ Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Another Ramshackle spam list, this time with a ‘kunnin null deployment plan.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

So, obviously this list has a lot of the same units as the one above, but rather than going with Freebooterz for the consistent army-wide boost, this list opts for Blood Axes as its main detachment, and that enables the very ‘kunnin plan it’s got lined up, also seen at the Charityhammer event on the weekend. We’ve seen a few tools now that let players pull deployed units into Strategic Reserves after the roll-off, with the Poisoned Tongue stratagem seeing pretty significant use, but I’ve Got A Plan Lads is getting especially large amounts of hybe because of how effectively it works with buggy mobs. In a game where it’s worried about the opponents shooting capabilities, this army can blow it’s remaining three CP to put the two Mek Gun units and the Scrapjets in reserve (where a bunch of Stormboyz and the Deffkoptas will already be waiting), then if it loses the roll-off it can whoosh either all the Rukkatrukks into Reserves as well, or leave as many behind as can easily be hidden and pull the Squigboss.

Note: It’s been pointed out to me that the wording on this ability is subtly different to several others, potentially forcing it to trigger ahead of the roll-off. Hopefully we’ll see an FAQ – but if played that way it does at least force this list to choose up front to pull the units.

That leaves behind on the board a bunch of Kommandos (including a couple of ObSec units) and a bunch of Warbikers. Between them these are mobile and sticky enough to probably pick up a 10pt primary on turn 2, but aren’t what you’d describe as high-value targets, leaving the opponent’s big guns wasted. Then, on turn 2, the Vehicles can scream onto the table and unleash a terrifying volley of destruction, knocking the opponent straight onto the back foot and likely leaving them without enough resources left to clear the massive number of cheap hulls out. With a bunch of ObSec Stormboyz rocking up later in the game to shore up the objective plan, this build ends up enormously difficult to effectively defeat, and is another one that’s going to need some real thought put into how to counter it. I do actually think the various Aeldari builds that combine indirect fire and mobile mid-board units might have some game here, because they can clear out the stuff that starts on the table very rapidly and then push the possible arrival sites for Strategic Reserves a long way up the table, but they’re also going to be very vulnerable to that big turn of firepower the list arrives with, even if it’s coming from right up against the table edge.

Given that’s my list of choice, I’m certainly looking forward to giving the matchup a go in the near future, because this list seems genuinely legit. Congratulations to Darren on the finish.

David Coren – Adeptus Mechanicus – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Lucius and Mars – two great tastes that crush dreams together.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Not too much to say here – as I was banging on about last week I think Lucius/Mars is one of the main AdMech builds we’re going to see in the post-nerf world because of how uniquely strong Mars now is for supporting Ironstriders (along with enabling other vehicles to perform) and yup, here it is taking another top four slot. The Lucius hordes are still incredibly difficult to shift, and the Stratoraptors give the army reach to annihilate both high value targets and skulking units of Dark Reapers or similar, minimising the chance of the opponent coming up with an effective counterattack. Another strong example of what AdMech can do, and well played by David to get 3rd place.

Riley Tremblay – Aeldari – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Craftworld shooting and fast mid-table mischief – this time with actual Ynnari

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Another build that cleaves pretty strongly to a template that we’ve already seen, here we’ve once again got a list that combines the extremely effective Craftworld shootingunits with mobile mid-table units and the Yncarne, but this version goes with the unique option of making that latter contingent an actual Ynnari detachment. Honestly, looking at it? Seems kind of legit – the little finicky Kabalite and Wych units here don’t particularly care about not getting a normal Obsession, and the Incubi love the Ynnari buffs very much – adding Fight First to the threat of their Tormentors makes charging them an outrageously dicey prospect, and with the slightly bulked up unit sizes here the ability to slam Inevitable Fate for full wound re-rolls on demand is very tasty – ain’t much going to tank that. The Scourges also get the cute interaction that you can use Ancestors Grace from the Yncarne to put RR1s to hit on them, something that they can usually only get from a Realspace Raid or Prey on the Weak, and especially nice with the one crunciher Dark Lance unit. The two Shredder squads also give the Yncarne some great backup in terms of having stuff all over the table to jump to, always handy, and finally the Archon gets a very tasty relic weapon out of the whole affair.

That all looks strong, and the only other thing to note on this particular variant is that the Reaper units have just the regular missiles rather than a Tempest Launcher. Presumably given that the rest of the list is a little short on anti-tank the feeling was that an option for a big damage spike into tough targets was needed, and with Masters of Concealment plus the threat of the Yncarne jumping back, it’s not like they’re totally trivial or safe to remove even once they’ve emerged.

This overall list template seems to work super well (and hey, I can attest to that personally on some level), but this is a genuinely interesting spin on it, and a very worthy way to close our second top four of the week.

The Rest of the Best

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

• 5th – Troy Glowasky – Iron Warriors: I opened this expecting some sort of Daemon Engine concotion, but while there are some here (Heldrakes) this list honestly just goes incredibly hard with some blunt instruments – two Leviathan Dreadnoughts, a unit of Obliterators, and a full brick of Terminators backing them up. This list will hit like a god damn truck if you let it, and the record here is very impressive, with only a very narrow loss against Sororitas blemishing its record.
• 6th – Byron Livingstone – Daemons: Be’lakor and buddies continues to be the hot new strategy for Daemon fans, here teaming up with Shalxi, two Exalted Keepers and Rotigus to terrorize the inhabitants of realspace.
• 7th ✪ – Adam Green – Imperium: Another big old 8th Edition throwback here as a force of Tempestus Scions teams up with a Knight Castellan (here running as House Vulker to squeeze extra hits against hordes) to bring both board control and terrifying anti-tank firepower to the table. Scions do have some of the better guard toys going, and it’s nice to see a classic piloted to a TiWP finish.
• 8th – Steve Carr – Adepta Sororitas: Valorous Heart horde on show here, with a truly formidible mid-table presence of two full 20-model Battle Sister squads (one loaded for Blessed Bolts) backed up by two full Sacresant units and a whole bunch of Seraphim and Zephyrim too, all lead by Morvenn Vahl and with max Retributors in tow for anti-tank. It’s easily the largest number of Power Armoured bodies you can throw on the table right now, and with Valorous Heart that’s going to be a nightmare to move. Only quick note if you’re playing along with this one at home is that the Indomitable Belief trait needs to be moved over to the Dogmata, as a Missionary can only take traits 1-3, but given that she’s going to be in the middle of the pack providing her buffs I don’t think it would massively have affected how it played.

Hellstorm Wargaming – The Bolter

Alex Harrison – Iron Hands Successors – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Get up the table and absolutely wreck stuff – that’s the Iron Hands promise.
• Incredibly effective maximisation of the superdoctrine for an early punch, followed by a melee finish from the Chapter Tactic.
• Sicaran Arcus provides some extra firepower ideally specced for killing AdMech

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Recently quite a few players have been finding ways to really squeeze the maximum value out of some of the Marine supplements, and it looks like the Iron Hands are next on that list with this brutal build. This army makes absolutely absurdly good use of the Iron Hands superdoctrine, squeezing pretty much every spin on D2 heavy weaponry possible into the list and making sure that plenty of it has the reach to start swinging with it straight away, whether through massive range (the VolCons and the Arcus) or mobility (drop pod devs, Suppressors, Warsuits). On anything other than the heaviest of tables the opponent is going to be taking some big damage turn one, and the footprint of what the list itself needs to hide isn’t enormous, especially as the Warsuits can start flush with some mid-table Obscuring terrain rather than being limited to the deployment zone.

Opponents that have gone hard on the various 2W AdMech units are likely to suffer especially badly, as the Suppressors, Ironhail, Arcus and grav cannons are going to be especially strong at just rolling them up. I particularly like the choice of putting a single grav cannon into each dev squad, as in combination with the Cherub that can be used to really punish AdMech players for throwing Bulwark Doctrina up. The Sicaran Arcus is also particularly well-stated to pick up currently popular choices like Ruststalkers, and is in the same boat as the Night Spinner where it’s rarely going to be terrible in any matchup. It’s also good to have a back-line vehicle like this when you’re going for the Character VolCon, as it can sit behind a wall and provide Look Out Sir protection for the dread on the other side, stealing a trick for making lots and lots of friends from Dark Angels Talonmasters.

Realistically quite a few armies are just going to get bodied off the board by the shooting here, but taking the melee-focused Chapter Tactic ensures this build isn’t a one-trick pony – it means that the two Invictors and the Bladeguard hit like trucks, and that most units in the army can do a little bit of damage when really needed. The fact that the army just does not need any help in the shooting department (thanks to the absurd Iron Hands doctrine) is really valuable here, as it allows the Chapter Tactic pick to be used to plug a mild weakness like this.

This build looks mean and it’s good to see another supplement out stretching its metaphorical legs. My only real worry with it is that it might be the exact kind of build that the Ramshackle Ork lists just completely blank, as outside of the dev squads its entirely relying on D2 firepower at <=S7 to get the job done. Till the Waaagh reaches England, however, this looks like an awesome choice, and congratulations to Alex.

Mark Tonks – Adeptus Mechanicus – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Mars AdMech goodstuff.
• Adding the Skull of Elder Nikola to Pteraxii provides a good way of still getting value from Booster Thrust.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

A weird one to write up here – this is all stuff we know and “love” at this point, but the overall combination does feel slightly fresh in a way that’s tricky to put a finger on. The two big Ironstrider bricks is quite an unusual choice, but does let the list get some big value from the use of Data-Blessed Autosermon to stick one in Shroudpsalm early if you don’t want to blow that for your whole army. It also makes them a formidible choice for To the Last, as opponents are going to struggle to chew through them all (and the third choice are the Skitarii who are going to be chilling in Firepoint most of the time). Also, to be fair, with two hit re-rolls available per squad on the turn you’ve got Benediction of the Omnissiah up, you’re still going to be re-rolling most of your misses on average, so being in the large unit isn’t that much of a price to pay to make the Secondary game stronger.

Elsewhere? You’ve got the usual AdMech swiss army knife, with Corpuscarii priests and Vanguard to sweep hordes clean off the table, Ruststalkers to blender anything with damage reduction into a fine paste, and a cute unit of Sterylizors with the Skull of Elder Nikola to annoy the hell out of anyone using vehicles. Worth saying that because the Skull triggers in the shooting phase this is still somewhere where you can get big value from Booster Thrust – these can move to what would normally be a suicidal position, blast a bunch of stuff with the Skull, then boost away, ready to come back next turn and cause more havoc (since the Skull has a 12″ range for some reason). It’s a neat new trick I’ve not seen out before, and definitely strong into Drukhari in particular.

That ticks off my quota of finding one interesting thing from the list to talk about – so there you go. It’s AdMech. You know about AdMech. Congratulations to Mark for unearthing one additional bonus bit of treasure from a thoroughly explored book.

John Swallow – Drukhari – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Voidravens.
• Honestly just “lots of Darklight” – adding the blaster Reavers as well makes this a brutal anti-tank build.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Drukhari are in the same boat as AdMech where I’m looking for that one standout thing in each list, and this is another build that manages to pass that test, because it’s actually unusually shooting skewed. On top of your standart complement of Raiders and Trueborn, this army sports a pair of Voidraven Bombers and a unit of Reavers loaded up with Blasters, and the result is a build that brutally punishes vehicle-heavy builds. My assumption is that this is teching for the shift towars Mars that we’re seeing in AdMech, as a bunch of Dark Lances is extremely good into Archaeopters and Skorpii (and having the Voidravens helps blast the latter out of hiding). Two Voidravens also lets you swing for the fences against armies like Sisters that tend to cluster up, because dropping both bombs in the middle of an army can lead to some absolutely crushing swings if you roll well. Add in the fact that this build’s weaponry is extremely ready for Orktoberfest and you’ve got something that might prove to be of enduring interest depending on how the metagame plays out. In addition, while the list doesn’t pack as much melee pressure as usual, it’s got four different characters that are absurdly good at trading up plus three Incubi units, so committing with valuable melee threats is still incredibly unsafe for most opponents. Just Drukhari things. Nice work John

Anthony Chew – Aeldari – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

The Standout Features

• Skyrunner Conclave makes a splash in 9th for the first time.
• 3++ jetbikes everywhere in this list, with a bunch of Shining Spears and Skyweavers also getting in on the action.

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

One of the UK’s top Eldar players has brought another 8th Edition classic into the modern era here as the Skyrunner Conclave list returns to the tabletop. Is it a huge number of eggs in one basket? Yes. Can it be abosutely hilarious in the right hands? Clearly also yes. Sticking Protect and Fortune onto a Skyrunner Conclave turns them into one of the harder units out there to shift, and while the opponent is scrambling to clear them they inflict a steady clip of damage from their shurikens and hurled singing spears, gradually grinding away at whichever part of the opponent’s board is the weakest thanks to being able to Quicken around with ease.

Now, one of the best things you can do when you’ve got something that can be tricky to deal with is to lean into it. In this case, this list goes as hard as possible on the concept of jetbikes with a 3+ invulnerable save, being able to throw one onto its unit of Skyweavers with Prismatic Blur and the two Shining Spear units starting out with one on their Exarchs. That’s a whole bunch of problems for armies leaning on high-AP shooting, and those units also help shore up the gameplan against some of the targets that the Conclave can struggle with, namely Vehicles with good saves (which haywire helps with) and units with a 2+ (which Shining Spears are strong into). It allows the army to maintain a very consistent target profile while having the offensive tools to go after almost anything, and going so hard on melee jetbikes lets the list move in overwhelming force around the table. While the opponent is dealing with all that mess, three tempest launcher Reaper Exarchs will be racking up their due, providing additional grinding pressure and also picking off small, hidden enemy units, which can help avoid having to divert one of the four big units here.

The only notable weakness this build has is to non-Psychic sources of Mortals and maybe stuff that can drop fight last then enough pain to just gank the Conclave. I’m assuming something like that is what happened in the game against John’s Drukhari above, which was the one match this list dropped despite how strong it is against Darklight. Voidravens and the mortal wound Succubus are pretty much the last thing this list wants to see out of Drukhari, as a abad spike from any of them is going to ruin this army’s day something fierce. Given the Voidravens are pretty rare as a choice right now, I think this build looks super cool at the moment, so congratulations to Tony for rounding out the roster for this week.

The Rest of the Best

One more player finished the event on a 5-1 record:

• 5th – Mani Cheema – Adeptus Mechanicus: A slightly tweaked version of the Lucius/Mars horde build Mani took to third place at the London Open last week. Lucius and Mars continues to look like the future.

In addition, Alex was the only player on 5-0 after five rounds, so his last round opponent got paired up against him, and thus was in a position to win the event with a victory:

• 7th ✪ – Mark Pilkington – Death Guard: Maximum grinding punishment from the Inexorable here. Three VolCons, three PBCs, and the more unusual choice of fully threeMalignant Plaguecasters, ready to add a whole pile of Mortals to the reliable firepower.

Wings’ Weekend – No Peace in the South East RTT

After a pretty promising debut for my mixed Aeldari list last week, I hit the tables once more with my Drukhari/Craftworlds mix at the No Peace in the South East event in London, run by the South East London Wargaming Guild. The event was very well run and had a great venue, and I got to meet some new faces and some fans, always great fun!

In terms of what I was packing it was largely the same as last week with the following minor changes:

• Succubus becomes Warlord.
• Missile launcher > starcannon on Falcon.
• That frees up 5pts and a CP, which buys the Archon the Djin Blade (and his trait swaps to Hatred Eternal).
• Splinter Racks removed from the Trueborn Raider in favour of Grisly Trophies on the two Venoms.

I wanted to try out the more murderous Archon option, adding another potent combat character to the mix, and had definitely been feeling like I wanted the Trophies debuff available to make Tormentors a bit more reliable. I also just wanted to get more reps in with the list and feel out anything else I might want to change.

I got three games to do that in, as follows.

Round 1 (Overrun) saw me facing off against a pretty nasty looking Blood Angels list, with pretty much all the cool toys you’d expect. Things started pretty well -on Dawn of War I couldn’t stop his Death Company rocking forward with Forlorn Fury and punking some stuff, but was able to roll them up in turn and also reach out and kill his bike Captain who had been buffing them, moving in force to pressure that flank. He answered me in kind however, and brought the Sanguinary Guard across to fight back – and had a vicious go at it. My turn 2 shooting flubbed, and then he got me good in the fight phase – I forgot about Angel’s Sacrifice and chose to fight with the wrong unit first, allowing him to interrupt with Sanguinary Guard and take out Drazhar and the Archon. Things looked extremely precarious from here as he did some further damage on his turn, but on my third turn my dice were a bit hotter and I was just able to line up a series of kills that pulled me back into the game with my shooting and my second Incubi unit. From there, he had little enough stuff left that I held on for a 79-55 win.

Round 2 (Sweep and Clear) was an extremely favourable matchup (pre-Codex Thousand Sons) on the perfect deployment. I got the first turn and picked up about a quarter of the army, and by the end of my second essentially all that he had remaining was some characters and a couple of straggling models, and we called it there. 98-15 win.

Round 3 (Priority Targets) saw me facing down a fairly brutal looking Iron Hands list, and this game was an absolute classic. I went first and my dice started hot, but his saves and FNPs were good enough to stave off the worst of that, meaning he was able to move into the mid-board in force, and pop several of my transports on one flank. My turn 2 shooting was good though, and as my forces swept in for melee on multiple fronts he (correctly) assessed he needed a swing to stop me overwhelming him. His lone surviving Inceptor went for Overwatch on my Archon, and managed to punch two overcharged plasma shots straight through the shadow field. That left me in a pickle because my Succubus had charged some VanVets, so I had to fight with her first, but I hadn’t factored for needing to lock the Inceptor down with Tormentors, and like an absolute hero he interupted and punched my Archon’s lights out. without the re-rolling Djin blade, his dreadnought suddenly survived the fight mid-board and took out my Incubi, and things suddenly looked less than stellar. Not iredeemable – I had stuff in quite a few places, and my Wyches had conveniently smashed his ATVs down to a single wound and trapped them in combat, but we had a serious game on our hands, both with massively depleted armies. From there we played a huge game of cut and thrust both trying to maximise scoring and points, with more hijinks still to come (notably my Succubus successfully making all her invulns against a dread, then dying as the Raider it also punched exploded). In the end the dust settled on the battlefield as his remaining Redemptor punched my final Night Spinner to death…but through a Fire and Fade hail mary to get it back onto my home objective to finish Priority Targets the previous turn (taking out his Captain for Assassinate in the process), I had edged it for an 87-86 win. God damn have I missed games like this during the pandemic.

So, a successful outing for the list overall – but not for the relic swap on the Archon. While an extra damage dealer is nice, this list has plenty of killing power at range, and access to Ancient Evil to guarantee a fight last when it really matters feels like it gives my list more. Added to that, not having Hatred Eternal on Drazhar sucked. The Grisly Trophies swap was definitely right though. Currently the ourstanding question with the list is whether the Falcon goes for some other stuff and an upgrade of a Venom to a Raider, or if we’re happy doing it live from this setup. I’ve got another RTT in a couple weeks then a week of holiday to get any remaining painting for the LGT done, so I’ll see how I feel after that.

Wrap Up

This weekend we’ve got some big stuff going down in the US. Look, I know I said I’d stop saying that, but not only is there the inaugural GW roadshow in Florida, there’s two additional Majors at the Flying Monkey con and at a charity event in Utah, plus a whole host of GTs, so look forward to a bumper edition (and probably another teamup, so start praying I don’t let Jon loose on whichever faction you hold dear). Any comments, questions and suggestions hit us up at contact@goonhammer.com, and we’ll see you next week.