The Balance Dataslate is on its way, but we’ve got one more week of results before that (plus the arrival of the Tyranid Codex) starts shaking things up and we here at Goonhammer have to think of titles for these that aren’t just clown puns or Joker references. Please think of your hard working columnists at this difficult time. Some of the writeups this week may also be a little truncated because we’re both pretty busy this week, and several of the games are just rehashes of things we’ve seen before at this point. Hopefully lots of events will adopt the new Dataslate immediately, and we’ll have some renewed energy coming up soon.

This week we’re covering:

Battle To End Alzheimers (Major)
Clash Of The Titans XV
Hellstorm Wargaming’s A Dance Of Nightmares
Bedlam In The ‘Burgh
The Warhound at Game Grid
Tau Tipping 2022
Badger Brawl!
Properly Cocked – Warzone: Wellington

As always, a ✪ next to a player’s name indicates they were either an undefeated runner up or entered the final round of the event undefeated.

Please also note that the well of possible things to say about Harlequins lists has completely run dry, and Corrode caught Covid during the writing of this post and is mad about it. Consequently we have travelled through the Webway to the Shitpost Dimension. Sorry to anyone who genuinely wanted to know why Light Saedath with 9 Voidweavers was interesting.

Battle To End Alzheimers

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

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – The Scouring

Anthony Vanella – Harlequins – Light Saedath with six Voidweavers, with points left over from not buying 9 going on tooling up the Troupes in boats, a second Troupe Master and an “extra” minimum Troupe.

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vs.

Anthony Birdsong – Harlequins – Light Saedath with nine Voidweavers

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Thoughts

It’s Harlequins-on-Harlequins and Anthony-on-Anthony to start the week off. Unlike last week where one side of the mirror was on Dark, this time around it’s much closer to a “pure” Light Saedath mirror match – though there are still some differences. Both sides are heavily invested in Voidweavers, but Goonhammer Open champion Anthony Vanella stops at six, while Birdsong goes for the full nine. That ends up giving Birdsong more raw power and a more obvious To The Last plan in many matchups (though realistically Vanella’s Shadowseer should never be getting killed), while Vanella has more board control capability and a bit more flexibility around objectives.

On The Scouring, the latter choice definitely feels like it comes out ahead. Harlequins vs. Harlequins is always going to have a luck element to it (it’s right there in their mechanics), but on the Scouring the extra position play ability should provide an advantage. No home objective means that units of Voidweavers that are obliged to hang back at any point are accomplishing less, the condensed scoring area means that Vanella’s extra murder character is extra useful (especially with the Storied Sword and Veiled King making them a dangerous assassin against their counterparts), and having more “spare” stuff to push into the meat grinder if put on the first turn shores up the matchup a bit – and all this gets more true on good terrain, which Tables and Towers has (they use the same kits we do for the GHO). There’s still play from both directions, and one potential curveball use of the extra unit of Voidweavers is just to provide an incredibly resilient way to score the mission Primary here, but the matchup ends up favouring Vanella and he took the game down on the day.

Result

Harlequin (Anthony V) Victory – 86-59

Anthony Vanella – Harlequins – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Light Saedath Voidweaver Spam

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

We’re entering that phase of the cycle of skew lists where the skew is a known enough quantity that pulling back from the extreme version can sometimes give you the edge either against prepared opponents, or in mirrors where you can squeeze extra versatility without compromising on the basic plan.

Harlequins will sometimes need to play cautiously with their Voidweavers initially, using Fire and Fade to keep one unit operating safely, and if you find yourself in that situation then having two units rather than three doesn’t actually impact on your early game. By packing a list full of things that can go very fast and potentially murder stuff, this build forces caution in the mirror – opposing Voidweavers ideally need to stay in their Mirror Architect bubble all the time to stop the extra weight of attacks from fusion drivebys pushing past Luck of the Laughing God. The opponent playing cautiously in turn lets the extra mobility of this list provide more value, and it’s all gravy from there. It won’t work all the time, as if the opponent just decides to go all in when they have nine Voids they might be able to overwhelm the list, but it’s a strong enough plan that it took Anthony to the top here.

Mate Csaszar – Harlequins – 2nd ✪ Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Light Saedath Voidweaver Spam

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Because you can look at it today and see what the Balance Dataslate is hopefully going to stake through the heart tomorrow.

Matt Lorah – Craftworlds – 3rd ✪ Place

Eldrad Ulthran in an Imperial ruin — Eldrad Ulthran by Corrode

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Ulthwe Goodstuff

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Saving us from a full Harlequin top four here, LVO runner up Matt has brought a different flavour of Aeldari in the form of Ulthwe, which seems to be the favourite Craftworld stateside (the UK meta having gone all-in on custom builds). This list leans very effectively into one of the plans Craftworlds can do – put out enough bait (Rangers) and mount enough harrassment at range (here from the Swooping Hawks, Baharroth and lance Serpents) to force the opponent to try and do something about you, then utterly murder them when they commit. Warp Spiders, Banshees and Dire Avengers both provide heinously nasty high-volume shooting if the opponent comes within striking range, and this list adds some Shining Spears and Fire Dragons to the mix as well. The Spears are particularly notable for mounting the Heartstrike setup, which has fast become a favourite as adding lots of reliable small attacks/mortals helps diversify the unit’s output.

With Strands of Fate up (especially boosted by Ulthwe) the Wave Serpents take a lot of killing at range, and the Hawks are extremely hard to pin down (and have a 5++/5+++ against indirect), so prodding the opponent into action often isn’t too hard, but if they’re being really recalcitrant then dropping a powered-up Eldritch Storm on them is also available, especially with Eldrad harvesting extra CP via Fateful Divergence. Like most Craftworld lists, this build doesn’t have massive staying power once close battle is joined, but the damage it can do when it commits is so massive that it often won’t matter, and Matt was able to navigate through a brutal gauntlet of matchups to finish undefeated in third place.

Anthony Birdsong – Harlequins – 4th ✪ Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Light Saedath Voidweaver Spam

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

This space left intentionally blank.

The Rest of the Best

11 more players finished on 4-1. They were:

5th – Patrick Parker – Harlequins: Light Saedath Voidweaver Spam
6th – Jonas Beardsley – Adeptus Custodes: Emperor’s Chosen Goodstuff with an Inquisitor.
7th – Christopher Gosselin – Tyranids: Hierodule and Harpy Crusher Stampede with a Hive Guard unit.
8th – TJ Lanigan – Tyranids: Triple Scythed Hierodule Crusher Stampede (also with Hive Guard).
9th ✪ – Zach Point – Harlequins: Light Saedath Voidweaver Spam.
10th – Jonathan Kolson – Adeptus Custodes: Shadowkeepers with a couple of Dreadnoughts and some Venatari alongside the usual stuff.
11th – Patrick McAneeny – Adeptus Custodes: List missing.
12th – Jeremy Knox – Craftworlds & Harlequins: Six Voidweavers on the clown side, then the Avatar and Eldrad alongside some light vehicles from Craftworlds.
13th – Seth Oster – Tau: Suit-heavy Tau Sept going for two big Crisis units, some Broadsides and tooled up Commanders.
14th – Andrew Gonyo – Tau: Hull-heavy Bork’an, running a Stormsurge and then three each of Hammerheads and Skyrays.
15th – Justin Adams – Chaos: Iron Warriors Obliterators (one unit out of a Dreadclaw, presumably the other in deep strike) anchored by some Plagueburst Crawlers.

Clash of Titans XV

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

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Secure Missing Artefacts

Alexander Englezos – Adeptus Mechanicus – Metalica Veteran Cohort

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vs.

Josh McMillan – Harlequins – Light Saedath Voidweaver Spam with one big foot Troupe

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Thoughts

A returning classic faces the new hotness here. Metalica and the Veteran Cohort combine to provide an AdMech list that can exert some serious pressure – the threat range on the Ruststalker units out of the Transports is absolutely enormous, and they can brutally slice and dice almost anything they touch in a hail of Mortal Wounds and D1 attacks. A big Ranger unit and some Skorpii help pick away at the opponent’s stuff if they stay at a distance, Raiders and some Infiltrators provide a cheap early objective push and a way to deploy Blaring Glory, and the Sterylizors are great counterpunch units coming from reserve. Finally, the Metalican Lung provides a way of going brutally all-in when something must die, being one of the very few things in the game that just hands out full wound re-rolls to everything, tanks included.

Quite a few of the Metalican tricks stack up pretty well in this matchup. Until they commit, the Ruststalkers are an extremely potent dissuasion to Harlequin shenanigans, as they’ll happily dunk almost anything here, especially as they can utilise Purity of the Machine to ignore hit and wound penalties (just a great stratagem in this game in general). They also have the number of bodies in the unit that they can fan out a bit and reduce how impactful Capricious Reflections is on their charge, forcing Voidweavers to really stay back if they don’t want to get buried in mortals. Order in Anarchy is also a good tool to have up the sleeve, though harder to use as the target needs to be on the table at the start of the turn. Not everything stacks up great, with the Sterylizors notably being hard to use to max effect here thanks to Mirror Architect (though they do force that foot troupe to stay carefully in the bubble), but the AdMech list does have some ways of putting the hurt on the Harlequins.

The big issue is that the clowns in turn have some excellent damage dealing abilities here, and the elephant in the room for this matchup is just how badly Ruststalkers get destroyed by shuriken cannons, both from the boats and from the super Death Jester. This is almost the perfect gun for hunting them down, and although Bionic Endurance can soften the blow a bit, you can’t really rely on the Ruststalkers getting to stick around once they’re out – meaning they really need to make bank the turn they commit.

On some missions that’s potentially going to be doable, but not really here – the diagonal deployment gives the Harlequins both plenty of room to backline and lots of space to make use of their mobility. It’s also going to make it pretty difficult for the AdMech to contest objectives without opening themselves up to some brutal shooting from some direction, though they do at least have plenty of small Vanguard units to use for that. The AdMech do have enough of an edge in expendable stuff that it feels like it helps on the mission Primary, as with only four Starweavers in that role, the Harlequins could legitimately run out. Realistically, were it not for the fact that the AdMech can barely touch the clowns at range that might provide a route to victory – but on this map and with the units involved, it feels a bit like the Harlequins can maybe spend one turn softening stuff up and/or baiting out a Ruststalker unit, then hit the gas and just sweep their opponents from the table. They’ll need to keep the potential counters in mind, but should have enough tricks up their sleeves to avoid them, and the given that the AdMech list has plenty of scoring power while it’s on the table, the final result definitely suggests they didn’t remain that way for very long.

Result

Harlequin Victory – 95-42

Josh McMillan – Harlequins – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Light Saedath Voidweaver Spam

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Robnote: It’s only interesting in the context of being nerfed this week, and Liam’s original comment violating the extremely loose content/editorial standards of this site for competitive analysis. It was pretty funny, though.

The Rest of the Best

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

2nd – Matt Lane – Drukhari: A fairly board-control heavy Realspace Raid (plus Drazhar patrol), using Prophets of Flesh Wracks and Cursed Blade Wyches/Hellions alongside a Court of the Archon to anchor the table, and Ravagers for shooting.
3rd ✪ – Alexander Englezos – Adeptus Mechanicus: See Showdown.
4th – Richard Hill – Death Guard: Poxmongers Daemon engine spam with six Myphitic Blight Haulers spread across three units as To The Last targets, and honestly fair play here – three Voidweavers has got to be in the 95 percentile plus of “things it’s good to use Belching Fumes against”.
5th – Mitchell Corrigan – Craftworlds: Another Ulthwe goodstuff list, this time heavier on the mech angle with two Fire Prisms for serious blasting. Also includes three Farseers (including Eldrad), so can throw out a hugely nasty Eldritch Storm if required.

Hellstorm Wargaming’s A Dance Of Nightmares

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

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Conversion

Ben Davis – Adeptus Custodes – Shadowkeepers

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vs.

Henry Bearne – Harlequins – Light Saedath Voidweaver Spam

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Thoughts

This Custodes list is ready to give Harlequins a serious fight, and looks to have been heavily tailored for the matchup. Emperor’s Chosen doesn’t do nearly as much in the Harlequin game as normal, as the re-rolls come up less and Harlequins don’t rely that much on Mortals. Shadowkeepers, on the other hand, provide a great additional defensive stratagem (perfect on Bikes against Voidweavers as it’s effectively -1 to wound on both the guns), the ability to tool one Bike Captain up to hunt their characters for sport (they do not like Lockwarden) and a faction trait that stacks melee massively in the Custodes favour. I think if I were running a double Bike Captain list like this I’d probably take Wardens (and either a solo Allarus or maybe a null Maiden Rhino) instead of the Allarus to give myself a few more angles for positioning shenanigans and safe sniping, but fundamentally this is exactly the Custodes stuff you want on your side if you’re going clown hunting – it can both pressure on multiple flanks and throw up defences on multiple units when the opponent tries to counterattack, and the Lockwarden in particular is a huge cramp on the style of some of the Harlequin units.

It still wasn’t quite enough – this game was very close, and Ben had managed to take down a very similar list the round before, but despite all the preparations the Harlequins were able to take the final. From Henry’s side of the table on a corner deployment I’d guess the plan is to swing pretty hard in one direction and try and blast through one of the Custodes flanks double time – they definitely need the space here to keep the various bikes at bay while they whittle them down. Having a bare bones spare Foot Troupe is pretty helpful there as it gives something that can be used as bait/a sacrifice on an objective early, and while Shadowkeepers is in general better in this game, being able to use Mirror of Minds and neuro disruptor shots to try and solidly land the important early swing does provide a reasonable advantage. In addition, while the Custodes list has more different tricks it can use early on if the Harlequins try and take out targets on multiple flanks, it has smaller CP reserves than normal thanks to being a double Patrol, so if the Harlequins can stay relatively unscathed and keep up the pressure, they can potentially expect the army to start crumbling on turns three or four. Conversion makes that an even more attractive plan – if they can devastate the Custodes forces, they can make up the mission Primary lategame (though the Custodes can mitigate that by keeping the Allarus on a home point if they see it coming, as they’ll be tough for the Harlequins to score through).

As mentioned above this game was very close, well within the margins where a few key breakpoints could have decided it, but Harlequin mobility allows them to be so adaptable in the hands of a skilled general that even in the face of an army designed to hunt them, they took the day.

Result

Harlequin Victory – 83-76

Henry Bearne – Harlequins – 1st Place

Harlequins Troupe and Starweaver. Credit: Corrode

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Light Saedath Voidweaver Spam

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph’nglui mglw’nfah Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!

The Rest of the Best

Three players finished on 5-1 records. They were:

2nd ✪ – Ben Davis – Adeptus Custodes: See Showdown.
3rd – Matthew Langton – Tyranids: Mobile/shooty Crusher Stampede with Hive Guard, an Exocrine and a couple of Hive Crones.
4th – Michael Duff – Tyranids: Extra high output Crusher with two Hive Guard units and two Scythed Hierodules. It’s a lot of eggs in not that many baskets, but the damage potential is massive.

Bedlam In The ‘Burgh

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. Unusually, this event was allowing the new Tyranid Codex.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – The Scouring

Jamie Beaton – Harlequins – Light Saedath Voidweaver Spam

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vs.

Thomas Ogden – Tau – Crisis-heavy Tau Sept, largely eschewing defensive tools for maximum anti-clown damage dealing.

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Thoughts

A second successive entry in the canon of Harlequins being so horrendous that even the other top lists are having to fully shape their build around taking them down. Thomas’ Tau army here doesn’t bother trying to build the Crisis Suits to last in a prolonged battle – no shield generators, no Ethereals to hand out Strength of Stone, and only enough Shield Drones to throw in the way of the first volley of big shots. Instead, almost everything in the Tau list is tuned to do as much damage as possible as quickly as possible, especially to anything with FLY (which helpfully, covers Aeldari, Custodes and the mirror match). Velocity Trackers everywhere offsets the hit penalty built in to most Harlequin vehicles, and all three of the big Crisis units are serious threats – plasma rifles can snipe with Strike and Fade or get up close to hammer in big damage with Mont’ka, and the big burst cannon unit with Exemplar of the Mont’ka up is a huge threat that the clowns have to play around – the Coldstar can give them an 18″ advance, and if they get close enough for the wound re-rolls to trigger then some boats are going in the bin just from the sheer volume of wounds that are coming through. The burst commander with Precision of the Hunter is also ideal for clipping some residual wounds off.

Backing that up is enough indirect to at least gradually clip away at some transports (and certainly to annihilate any infantry out of their boats), and because some of it’s attached to Crisis Bodyguards the Tau have a slightly higher ability to control objectives if both sides are staying cautious. In combination with the rest of the factors here, that actually makes The Scouring the perfect mission for this Tau list to try and take the Harlequins down. Because we live in bizarro world, the Tau are the ones who want the option of a close engagement here, and The Scouring tips the scales in that direction. They have an easier time getting the scoring rolling on Primary, and the short edge deployment supports Aerospace Relays as a secondary choice pretty effectively (Shadowsun isn’t bad at flitting round doing it) while making the Harlequin’s good options weaker than normal. The Harlequins have to give the burst squad such a wide berth that it’s difficult for them to try and flip the script by going in guns blazing, as unlike in almost any other game if they commit hard and that unit’s still up, the trade is not going to go in their favour. Someone had to break the Harlequin’s vice-like grip on first place finishes, and Thomas was, indeed the one to do it (jumping up to 3rd in the ITC as a result to boot!).

Result

Tau Victory – 95-58

Thomas Ogden – Tau – 1st Place

XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit. Credit: Rockfish

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Tau Sept Crisis Spam

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

We’ve circled back round to a metagame where any list that can hold a candle to Tau in terms of raw power is probably heavily using FLY units, so going all-in on Velocity Tracker firepower in a list like this lets you get the best of both Tau Sept’s all-rounder strengths and the broad +1 to hit that are normally reserved for Farsight. This is very much a list of the moment, and it could easily change a lot once the Balance Dataslate shakes things up, but right now it was extremely well pitched and thoroughly deserved the win.

The Rest of the Best

Two players finished on 4.5-0.5, and five on 4-1. They were:

2nd – Manik Gudimani – Tyranids: New Tyranids storm out of the gate with a lot of the expected tools on show – two upgraded Harpies, two nasty Flyrants, a Neurothrope, Zoanthrope and Maleceptor, then a Haruspex as a wrecking ball and a single large Tyranid Warrior unit as a board control piece (enjoying the juicy auto-Transhuman from Leviathan). Notable to see Warriors breaking through, otherwise entirely in line with expectations.
3rd – Brenton Weiss – Tau: Another all-in damage dealing Tau list, this time running as Farsight for access to +2 to hit into FLY units (which matters into Aeldari) and even more Commanders (but still bringing Shadowsun along for the party).
4th – Matt Tarantine – Tyranids: More new Tyranids, going a bit broader with some infantry and cutting the Harpies, but still packing the Maleceptor/Neurothrope combo and packing an Exocrine for some big shots.
5th – Ryan Snyder – Adeptus Custodes: Heavy duty Emperor’s Chosen, packing three Caladius and three Pallas alongside lots of Vertus Praetors.
6th – Travis Hill – Adeptus Custodes: Emperor’s Chosen Goodstuff with some extra bikes.
7th – John Williams – Harlequins: Light Saedath Voidweaver Spam.
8th ✪ – Jamie Beaton – Harlequins: See showdown.

The Warhound at Game Grid

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

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Unknown

Ben Neal – Tau – Bork’an with a Stormsurge and Broadsides for long-ranged fire and flamer-heavy Crisis teams for close work.

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vs.

Cody Jiru – Drukhari & Harlequins – Black Heart with some tools to stick on the board (notably a Court and a full ten model Mandrake unit) and then a big squad each of Voidweavers and Skyweavers for high-mobility shenanigans.

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Thoughts

Drukhari take their turn at the cool clown teamup, also bringing along some Corsairs to make sure that everyone in elf club except the boring old Asuryani feel included. The setup seems pretty sound – Drukhari have some great choices for counterattacks, and good ways of layering models on an objective thanks to their efficient transports, so if you want something to provide an anchor while Harlequins speediest tools do some mischief, they seem like a pretty decent choice. Courts are one of the best big pools of wounds across all the Aeldari, and while Craftworlds and Harlequins both have ways of dealing big melee damage, Drazhar and Incubi will rack up big numbers without any help in a way that few other things will. They’re particularly good in combination with the shootier Skyweaver unit, as it’s more likely the Drukhari will be called upon to do some heavy lifting up close. The inclusion of a Voidscarred unit with a Way Seeker is also interesting to see, and Impair Senses being able to switch off Mirror Architect seems pretty interesting right now. Not wholly convinced that this list is the best at utilising it, but it feels like it could be relevant tech in the current environment for Asuryani lists with Warp Spiders. A very versatile looking build overall, and it went into this game paired down, with Cody having piloted it past Harlequins and multiple Custodes lists to reach the final undefeated.

The final is definitely another tough game though – across the table is another Tau list that looks tuned for elf hunting (it is, after all, elf season). The split between the high-powered long range units and the small flamer Crisis Teams for causing havoc up close is really nice here – while not exactly expendable at 224pts each, the Crisis units are things you’re willing to throw after a good trade, and have the advantage that with Exemplar of the Mont’ka up they’re pretty predictable into anything that isn’t T8. Because they can be fired into close engagement by the Coldstar Commander without penalty, they create a huge no-go zone for the enemy’s best stuff – which is great when there’s a Stormsurge to protect. While very versatile, the Aeldari list here is a bit shorter on ways to try and snipe out the big suit at range compared to a nine Voidweaver build, and while the Skyweavers might deal it a crippling blow if they commit and go full Haywire, that’s a high variance play and one of the flamer squads with Exemplar up will straight up smoke the unit in response. Fire and Fade might keep them far enough back, but if Ben is playing smart then the flamer teams will be staged in cover a little ahead of the Stormsurge so that engaging it just isn’t safe.

The dynamic here ends up being that while the Aeldari list is very versatile and adaptable, which gives it the advantage when it’s in a skewed mirror (Cody picked up a big win against nine Voids earlier in the event), here its balanced nature proves a disadvantage – some of its power budget is invested in melee, which is hard to use with the looming threat of the flamer units counterattacking, and it doesn’t quite have the ability to throw a hammer blow into a big target like the Stormsurge from long range. In addition, the Raiders provide a softer target for the Tau to rack up value against than more Harlequins stuff would, and just in general the Tau toys are excellent at picking up the Aeldari units here.

This game is the arms race of skewed metagames writ large – both builds here are built with beating nine Voids in mind, with the Aeldari going for balance and the Tau going scorched earth with units specced for clowns specifically. It so happens that when they meet, the Tau can just wallop the Aeldari off the table, which is what happened here. That doesn’t necessarily make it a better list – skewing harder for damage makes you more vulnerable to counters that can shrug it off – but in this game where the opponent can’t handle the heat because of how they’ve adapted, Ben’s list triumphed comfortably.

Result

Tau Victory – 98-41

Ben Neal – Tau – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Bork’an suits

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

All covered in the showdown – extremely well tuned for hunting elves, somewhat risks bouncing from a list that doesn’t care about the flamers (and did, in fact, drop a game against an Iron Hands build). Doesn’t mean I’m not a big fan of it – I really like the very clear and specific roles the units have, and how picking the small flamer units keeps some points free for some early game board control from the Kroot and Devilfish. Good stuff from Ben.

The Rest of the Best

Four more players finished on 5-1 records. They were:

2nd – Matt Evans – Tyranids: Crusher Stampede with a Hierophant, which is definitely one way to flip off a very silly metagame.
3rd – Cody Jiru – Drukhari & Harlequins: See Showdown.
4th – Damien Owen – Orks: Goff Pressure with Kill Rigs and Trukk Boyz galore.
5th – Tom Cohen – Imperial Knights: House Raven with lots of Warglaives and Moiraxes surrounding a Castellan.

Tau Tipping 2022

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

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Data Scry Salvage

Colin Sherman – Asuryani – Ulthwe with heavy firepower from Fire Prisms and Shadow Weavers

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vs.

Nicolas Ohlsen-Johnson – Harlequins – Light Saedath, 6 Voidweavers, 5 Starweavers

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Thoughts

Another entry in the canon of “can other Aeldari find a way to bully pure Harlequins?” and honestly – yeah, there’s some stuff to work with here. Fire Prisms can be high variance on paper, but this list stacks the deck in their favour – they’ve got two farseer re-rolls on Strands and get to bank an extra dice thanks to Fate Reader. While the Asuryani have two or three hit re-rolls banked in the Strands pool it becomes incredibly unsafe for the Voidweavers to make themselves visible due to the threat of Linked Fire picking up a whole squad, and having Vectored Engines means that they can take turns taking low impact pot shots at Starweavers then flitting back to safety even if the juiciest targets don’t present themselves. This feels particularly strong against a list with only six Voidweavers, as it makes the threat of one unit getting smoked far more catastrophic than it would be against nine, where just rolling with it would be possible. There’s some other good stuff for the matchup in the Ulthwe list too – Shadow Weavers provide lots of shots to take out anything de-meched, and the option on a multi-Farseer Eldritch Storm is great into clowns.

That’s offset by the Harlequins having a pretty strong ability to play the mission here. The Craftworld army doesn’t really have much that’s able to sit out on objectives durably, and one of their brawler units (Shining Spears) is substantially less strong than normal in the matchup – Capricious Reflections means no deep strike charge, even with Ghostwalk, and Mirror Architect switches off lance shooting. The Fire Prisms can utterly annihilate exactly one thing per turn, but there’s not a groundswell of broad long-ranged shooting here, which potentially lets Harlequins pull ahead early game, especially as the Mission Primary is quite a bit easier for them to do somewhat safely. The only drawback is that being forced to spread out a bit does make it more likely that the Spears and Spiders actually manage to do something in a game, whereas being able to operate in more of a bubble might allow them to be kept at bay with Architect.

That all feels like it creates a very evenly matched game – the Asuryani have the edge in being able to ruin the Harlequins if they get an opening, but the Harlequins have an easier ride starting the scoring off as long as they balance how they commit their forces. As you’d hope for from such a game, this was very close and very low scoring, with both sides presumably clearing out whatever the opponent committed early game, but in the end the Asuryani did manage to push marginally ahead and take victory.

Result

Asuryani Victory – 68-59

Colin Sherman – Asuryani – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown.

Archetype

Craftworld Ulthwe with a little bit of everything

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Mostly playing all the hits, but the Fire Prisms are a bit of a swerve from what lots of lists are running. They do feel like they put in work here – this list maximises the chance of banking the hit 6s it needs to make them terrifying, and ensures that it has tools to both pick the enemy apart if they don’t start procedings, and to counterattack into anything that makes an aggressive push into the Prisms. Beyond that, it’s a lot of the big hits from the new book all piled together, and a very cool army overall.

The Rest of the Best

6 more players went 4-1 at this event. They were:

2nd – Danny McDevitt – T’au Empire: FSE Crisis spam
3rd – Nicolas Ohlsen-Johnson – Harlequins: See Showdown.
4th – Mitchell Hunter – Adeptus Custodes: Emperor’s Chosen Goodstuff
5th – Hank Adams – Asuryani: Another Ulthwe list, similar to Colin’s though with no Eldrad
6th – Lukas Troller – Orks: Balls to the wall Goffs with the big man Ghazgkull heading up two units of Meganobz in Battlewagons, and plenty of Squighog Boyz following them around
7th – Tanner Herbert – Adeptus Custodes: Shadowkeepers Goodstuff

Badger Brawl! GT

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

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Conversion

Scott Toebe – Death Guard – Plagueburst Crawlers and Myphitic Blighthaulers, with some summoning points left for Epidemius

Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Jesse McGowan – Adeptus Custodes – Shadowkeepers Goodstuff

Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

We touched on it briefly earlier, but the current metagame definitely feels like a brain genius moment for the Myphitic Blight Hauler to rise because wow is Belching Fumes good against Voidweavers. Stack on the fact that it certainly isn’t bad into Tau and other Aeldari (heavy rail rifles and Dire Avengers in particular hate to see it) plus the army-wide damage reduction being pretty good into Custodes and you’ve got a skew build that’s got some legs right about now.

That said, of those other factions Custodes probably are the ones that can make the best fight of it. There was a lot of doom and gloom about Custodes being totally dead to damage reduction prior to the book actually landing, but it turns out a mixture of salvo launchers and Achillus dreads can go a long way to mitigating that. The Custodes list here is, to be fair, not as heavy on those as some, but what it does have going for it on this mission is the ability to just go absolutely all-out aggressive. The crack in the Death Guard’s armour is a lack of ObSec, and this is a mission where the Custodes can capitalise on that hard. The Shadowkeepers trait means that only the Bloat Drones are a serious threat to them in melee, so if they can clear them out with early application of salvos then tag the rest of the list, they should be able to win a grindy victory even if they don’t actually clear out the rest of the army here. Lots of games we’re seeing right now really encourage both sides to be cagey and can badly punish a player who overcommits, but this kind of feels like it’s the opposite – from Jesse’s side of the table every turn you stay at bay is a turn of getting whittled down by firepower, so just hit the gas, prioritise killing the stuff that punishes you for doing so (the Drones) and dominate the primary. From the result, we’re guessing something like that went down.

Result

Adeptus Custodes Victory – 83-54

Jesse McGowan – Adeptus Custodes – 1st Place

Shadowkeeper Allarus Custodes. Credit: Pendulin

The List

See Showdown.

The Standout Features/Archetype

Shadowkeepers Goodstuff

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Trading off a unit of bikes for a bigger block of Allarus and the Voidsmen for cheap Troops/action-doers is something, I guess, and Shadowkeepers over Emperor’s Chosen is something.

The Rest of the Best

5 more players went 4-1 at this event. They were:

2nd – Jake Nelson – T’au Empire: T’au Sept Crisis spam plus Longstrike and two ferocious units of Broadsides
3rd – Dustin Lane – T’au Empire: Dal’yth Sept makes an appearance and it’s… oh yeah that’s a shitload of Crisis Suits and AFPs and plasma rifles, oh god, help
4th – Tyler Bortel – T’au Empire: Bork’an Sept with a Stormsurge backing up MSU Crisis Suits
5th – Scott Toebe – Death Guard: See Showdown.
6th – John Bianco – Chaos Space Marines: Emperor’s Children with 30 Terminators and Noise Marines in Dreadclaws, hell yeah

Properly Cocked – Warzone: Wellington

All the lists for this event can be found in Down Under Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Data Scry Salvage

Haydn Korach – Harlequins – Holy shit some of those Voidweavers have haywire cannons on, intentionally

Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

James Wardle – Harlequins – Light Saedath Voidweaver spam

Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

With apologies to Haydn and Jamie, here at the end of all things all we can say is “release the Balance Dataslate GW, people are dying”.

Result

Harlequins Victory – 91-51 to Haydn

Haydn Korach – Harlequins – 1st Place

A group of Death Jesters — A group of Harlequins Death Jesters. Credit: Corrode

The List

See Showdown.

The Standout Features/Archetype

Light Saedath Voidweaver spam

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Haydn helpfully annotated his list and hey, check it out, that unit of Voidweavers with haywire was relevant in winning the mirror. Good forward thinking, Haydn.

The Rest of the Best

6 more players went 4-1 at this event. They were:

2nd – Finn Decker – Harlequins: Light Saedath Voidweaver spam
3rd – James Wardle – Harlequins: See Showdown
4th – Sean Sullivan – Asuryani: Ulthwe with double Spinners, triple Prisms
5th – Michael Stewart – Adeptus Custodes: Emperor’s Chosen Goodstuff
6th – Hamish Reeve – Tyranids: Crusher Stampede with a Harridan
7th – Matt van Wijk – Aeldari: Biel-tan Aspects with Light Saedath Skyweaver support

Competitive Innovations in 9th: Why So Serious?

Battle To End Alzheimers

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – The Scouring

Thoughts

Result

Anthony Vanella – Harlequins – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Mate Csaszar – Harlequins – 2nd ✪ Place

The List

Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Matt Lorah – Craftworlds – 3rd ✪ Place

The List

Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Anthony Birdsong – Harlequins – 4th ✪ Place

The List

Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The Rest of the Best

Clash of Titans XV

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Secure Missing Artefacts

Thoughts

Result

Josh McMillan – Harlequins – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Hellstorm Wargaming’s A Dance Of Nightmares

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Conversion

Thoughts

Result

Henry Bearne – Harlequins – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The Rest of the Best

Bedlam In The ‘Burgh

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – The Scouring

Thoughts

Result

Thomas Ogden – Tau – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The Rest of the Best

The Warhound at Game Grid

The Showdown

Thoughts

Result

Ben Neal – Tau – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The Rest of the Best

Tau Tipping 2022

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Data Scry Salvage

Thoughts

Result

Colin Sherman – Asuryani – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The Rest of the Best

Badger Brawl! GT

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Conversion

Thoughts

Result

Jesse McGowan – Adeptus Custodes – 1st Place

The List

The Standout Features/Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th