Competitive Innovations in 9th: It’s not a Bug, It’s a Feature

Author’s Note: As you may have read last week, James ‘Wings’ Grover will be taking a bit of a sabbatical. It has been said that James will one day return to us, at the height of his powers and in our moment of greatest need to lay bare his wisdom of the meta once again – until that day a veritable clown car of lesser James’ and James-wannabes will be stepping up to fill the void and bring you a familiar but different take on our weekly column.

You feel it don’t you? That bone-deep exhaustion of this ever-evolving but crushing meta? That dull, relentless drumbeat of one faction after another oppressing everything before it? It’s been over a year now; Drukhari, Ad Mech, Custodes, Tau, Harlequins, and now Tyranids. Each of them oppressive in their own way, all of them exceeding the worst excesses of 8^th edition with but one exception: The release-day Iron Hands.

When Iron Hands hit in 8^th edition it was like a lightning bolt. The competitive community hadn’t seen anything like it – possibly not ever. The faction entered a generally balanced game and overnight flipped player fortunes. Even in the hell that was 7^th edition, any broken army was just one in a sea of broken armies – literally nothing was broke because everything was broke. While we don’t have data going back to 5^th or 6^th, it’s hard to imagine any one army, even 5^th edition Grey Knights, holding a candle to release 8^th edition Iron Hands in terms of their immediate and total impact to the game – the first army we’re aware of to hit a >70%-win rate across the community. How quaint, then, that we would soon see six Iron Hands-level factions in the span of just one year like some kind of late-stage Kaiju events.

The exhaustion is real but the fight for balance is never-ending and so we here at Goonhammer will continue to serve, highlight, and discuss each week the state of the tournament scene. As my buddy Strider once stated:

I see in your eyes the same fear that has taken the heart of me! A day has come when the courage of men fail, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. It is this day! An hour of bugs and overflowing reclamation pools when the age of Men has come crashing down! It is this day! This day we fight without hope!

Similarly, we fight without hope… and write without joy.

Games Workshop: US Open Seattle

205-player, 8-round Supermajor in Seattle, Washington. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Abandoned Sanctuaries

John Lennon – Tyranids – Kraken Raveners & Pyrovores + Goodstuff

John's List - click to expand

vs.

Hogan Franklin – Tyranids – Leviathan Double Malaceptor, Double Harpy

Hogan's List - click to expand

Thoughts

The game was streamed live and can be found online – I did not watch it prior to this writeup.

Well, first things first – what an awful mission, generally, but especially for a final round game. Every packet has its black sheep and while previously it was The Scouring, in Nachmund it’s Abandoned Sanctuaries. A mission that fundamentally invalidates whole unit abilities or options and alters the way you’d construct your army (Rob: The rules for Abandoned Sanctuaries prevent the use of pre-game moves or deploying outside a player’s deployment zone) – all for a single mission in a series of 7-8 games. This mission is fine for narrative games but it’s just not great for tournaments.

With that aside, John is running one of the two Tyranids list in this week’s Competitive Innovations that isn’t Leviathan and is in some ways an inverse of the Leviathan list Hogan is running. Critically, I think, Hogan is bringing two Harpys to the table which in most games are strong assets but in the mirror match, I think likely to be a liability. They’ll do some damage, sure – but John is able to bring two full units of Pyrovores for the cost of just one Harpy which allows him to be far more flexible in addition to the greater objective-sitting footprint. Furthermore, the heavier reliance on Raveners and the Kraken stratagem gives John an edge in maneuverability and reach vs Hogan’s slower Warrior blocks or smaller Ravener blocks. Hogan does have a slight edge in MW output with the second Malaceptor, but it’s unlikely to matter if John maintains his distance until he’s ready to strike – at which point Hogan doesn’t have an answer.

Given the 5-objective mission set, I’m sure it’s a slugging match, but John is better positioned to trade on the central objective and has the faster army overall, which I think gives him the edge in the mirror.

Result

Tyranids (Lennon) Victory – 74 – 53

John Lennon – Tyranids – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Kraken Raveners and Pyrovores

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The list is absurdly fast with the potential to flat advance a Ravener squad 8” and still charge with the help of the Opportunistic Advance stratagem and the Onslaught power. With a wall of cheap Pyrovores and Warriors acting as durable and dangerous screens, a body-guarded double-cannon Hive Tyrant and various supporting beasts, the list gets to pick the fight while keeping outside of your threat range. If you choose to try and score primary points in the mid-board it’ll eat whatever you send, if you play cagey it’ll content itself with giving itself time to get the Malaceptor up the board and grabbing easy Stranglehold each turn. Either way you just lose.

The Rest of the Best

Author’s Note: The US Open series uses the pod and bracket method for placings – as a result Marshall Peterson’s Blood Axes are considered to have taken 4th place having lost in the semis and then again in the 3rd-place game – this is not reflected in the BCP or ITC standings displayed below.

Four players finished on 7-1 records in the top bracket. They were:

2nd – Tyler Bortel – Tyranids: Leviathan goodstuff with specialist support in a Parasite of Mortrex and two Biovores
3rd – Steven Trimble – Tyranids: Leviathan goodstuff with Pyrovores and Raveners
4th – Alex MacDougall – Tyranids: Leviathan goodstuff. Alex’s only loss came in round 7 against the champion
5th – Hogan Franklin – Tyranids: See Showdown

It is worth noting that Tyranids captured a win share of each of the second, third, and fifth brackets – the only bracket they did not capture a win in was the fourth bracket – there were no Tyranids players in this bracket.

Baltic Cup Kiel VIII

130-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Kiel, Germany. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Data Scry-Salvage

Fritz Peters – Tyranids – Leviathan goodstuff

Fritz's List - click to expand

vs.

Marvin Petersen – Tyranids – Leviathan MSU with goodstuff backing

Marvin's List - click to expand

Thoughts

The second Tyranid on Tyranid matchup of the weekend – certainly won’t be the last. Unlike the Seattle showdown, this match features two Leviathan builds that bring a lot of the same tools and tricks but have slightly different build philosophies. Both are powerful, but in reviewing the two lists, Fritz’s feels a little more solid or complete in how it wants to play as a holistic list. With Marvin’s list, we see the usual suspects, but then an assortment of utility choices that I think work in general, but serve as a liability into the mirror – the minimal sized squad of Genestealers, the two, singular Pyrovores, and the triple Biovores all combine to create a wide capability-set, but lose some of their unit’s potential in doing so.

Whereas I think the Harpy can be a liability into the mirror, I think that weakness is mitigated a bit by Marvin’s own Harpy, and the less focused construction of the list – Fritz’s large Warrior block in particular presents a challenge for Marvin who is otherwise matching Fritz tool for tool. As a result, I’d expect Fritz to outfight Marvin and win the attrition war.

Result

Tyranids (Peters) Victory – 18 – 2 (WTC Scoring)

Fritz Peters – Tyranids – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Leviathan goodstuff with a Deathleaper

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

It’s got a Deathleaper – that counts as interesting this week. This guy is a consummate objective sitter and disrupter – capable of being untargetable so long as he deploys within a terrain element. He’s not going to move the earth, but he provides a lot of flexibility that goes well beyond just murdering things that the rest of the list does in spades. Otherwise the list is checking all of the template boxes on what constitutes a Leviathan list.

Manuel Wieczorek – Blood Angels – 2nd Place

Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Manuel's List - click to expand

Archetype

The Sanguinor and his Jumpack Bois

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Also undefeated, a hearty congratulations to Manuel for being the all-star going 5-0 with an off-meta list, and a Blood Angels one to boot. A faction that has been up and down in 9th, down more often than not. Armor of Contempt and the natural fightiness, speed, and durability of the typical Sanguinary and Vanguard Vet units combine to create a frighteningly fast and hard-hitting list that seeks to sneak up the board and cripple the opponent’s key units before they can strike back with any real focused punch. The servitors and Intercessors give the minimal backfield objective sitting necessary to allow the rest to laser focus on their blood lust.

Kayu Orellana – Tyranids – 3rd Place

The List

Kayu's List - click to expand

Archetype

An MSU custom hive fleet build

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The third undefeated player of the event. I’m just going to say it – this is an actually interesting Tyranids list. The custom traits grant the ability to heroically intervene army-wide as well as granting an additional save bonus when receiving benefits of cover – both strong abilities in this list. The Pyrovores I’ll go into more depth later in the column, but they’re a strong choice here next to the flexibility of the Ravener and Warrior units – but what I think really makes this list sing is the grouping of Zoanthropes which serve to cover for the lack of Malaceptors to boost the lists mortal wound output.

Honestly, I love this list. It feels like a fun break from the Leviathan big bug wall we’ve seen – the only downside to it is that it’s going to give up a lot of points on No Prisoners, often max points. Maybe that doesn’t matter, as Kayu still took it 5-0.

The Rest of the Best

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

4th – Fred Oho – Harlequins: Light Harlequins with go-wide MSU leaning on nine Troupe, eight Starweavers, with minimal specialist units. Fred’s only loss came in round 4 against the runner-up
5th – Pascal Pannicke – Tyranids: No list available. Pascal’s only loss came in round 2 against the champion
6^th – Michael Gemmeke – Tyranids: Leviathan go-wide on Warriors backed by goodstuff. Michael’s only loss came in round 3 against the top-table runner-up
7^th – Marvin Petersen* – Tyranids: See Showdown

Glasshammer GT #8

41-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in St. George’s, England. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Secure Missing Artefacts

Vik Vijay – Craftworlds – Hail of Doom/Masterful Shots shuriken build with Barry, two Farseers, and double Hawks and double Vypers

Vik's List - click to expand

vs.

Janus China – Tyranids – Leviathan Double Carnifex with Heavy Venom Cannon and goodstuff support

Janus' List - click to expand

Thoughts

I think the one faction that has a real shot into Tyranids is ironically Craftworlds. I say ironically because the history of Craftworlds is getting their paper out-scissored by Tyranids across the editions – they just tend to match up very well against Craftworlds.

In this fight, what immediately stands out to me is the disparity in speed between the lists. Vik’s list is not just faster, it’s far more flexible in how it can approach any given target. By contrast, Janus’ list lacks some key units that can help it overcome Craftworlds, and in particular, a Hail of Doom list – namely Pyrovores and Raveners which can either serve to create space and force target priority decisions, or keep pace with the fast Craftworld units and counter-punch. While both have strong To The Last options, the power of the units are more distributed within Vik’s list as compared to Janus’.

As a result, I expect that as long as Vik can keep Janus fighting on Vik’s terms, choosing when and which engagements, whittling along the edges in the first couple of turns, he can afford to sacrifice a turn or two of primary to gain a strength advantage and come on strong in the final 2-3 turns – by contrast, I think Janus is faced with forcing a fight – and if he can’t get there or if he doesn’t do enough damage in his initial push, he’ll quickly lose steam as one big bad after the next falls.

Result

Craftworlds Victory – 74 – 60

Vik Vijay – Craftworlds – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Hail of Doom/Masterful Shots shuriken build with Barry, two Farseers, and double Hawks and double Vypers

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Utility, utility, utility. That’s the name of the game with this Craftworld list. Each unit is capable of delivering damage well above what the datasheet would lead you to believe with the Hail of Doom trait providing an auto-wound of 6 on shuriken weapons that roll a 6 to hit. As a result, there isn’t a target in the game that a Shuriken-toting squad can’t impact significantly. While lacking the AP of the rest of the Shuriken-toting units, the Hawks provide a very mobile, high volume threat due to their own datasheet ability for auto-wounding 6’s to hit. Similar to Konrad Bartkiewicz, Vik brings the Kurnos Bow Farseer, the king of utility, capable of dropping a staggering number of mortal wounds with the support of Bladestorm or some Strands of Fate dice. The Vypers provide an opportunity to quick grab an objective or to block critical movement lanes at very low cost for what you’re getting on a T6, 6W vehicle.

Aaron Mosquera – Tyranids – 2nd Place

The List

Aaron's List - click to expand

Archetype

Leviathan double Harpy, double Malaceptor with Pyrovores

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The Pyrovores are interesting. Broken, but interesting. For 30 points you’re looking at an Infantry model with T5, 5W and a 3+ save that has two auto-hitting assault flamer profiles, one at 12″ which is better than a Cronos flamer profile, and one at 18″ which is basically just a 2d6 bolter. Obviously the 12″ profile is the star here at S6 AP-2 2D which is going to leverage an advance most likely to get into range. The real hilarious part of this unit, however, is that it has ACID-BLOOD which means that for every wound it loses in combat, for 1CP it can ping a mortal wound back on the attacker on a d6 roll of 4-plus.

For 90 points you’re getting a unit that is pretty durable by infantry standards, can get all the Synaptic Link boosts, will always trade up in combat just by dying and 1CP, and acts as a fantastic screening unit. If you shoot them dead, well, congratulations… you invested a lot to kill 90 points.

They’re probably 10-15 points undercosted… Pretty interesting.

The Rest of the Best

Six other players finished on 4-1 records. They were:

3rd – Sam Nash – Adeptus Custodes: Shadowkeepers leaning into the dataslate changes with multiple Custodian Guard and Sagittarum Custodians supported by Trajaan and two of each Galatus and Achillus dreadnoughts. Sam’s only loss came in round 4 against the runner-up
4th – Janus China* – Tyranids: Leviathan monster mash – double Malaceptor, Harpy, and Venom Cannon Carnifex along with supporting elements. Janus’ only loss came in round 5 against the champion
5th – Mark Harrison – Tyranids: Leviathan goodstuff – supported by three units of Gargoyles for mobile objective grabbing
6th – James Pilkington – Tau: T’au Sept Go-Wide-Crisis with dual Hammerhead
7th – Jamie Balcombe – Adeptus Custodes: Emissaries Imperatus with six units of four Sagittarum Custodians led by a Dawneagle Shield Captain and Trajaan
8th – Matt Palmer – Tyranids: Leviathan goodstuff. Matt’s only loss came in round 2 against the champion

The Brighton Warhammer 40k Tournament

31-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Secure Missing Artefacts

David Gaylard – Tyranids – Leviathan double Harpy, double Malaceptor with large Warrior blocks

David's List - click to expand

vs.

Adam JE Smith – Necrons – Custom Dynasty with triple C’Tan and MSU Immortals

Adam's List - click to expand

Thoughts

This just isn’t a good match for this Necron build. The triple C’Tan lends some backbone for the MSU component but it ends up paying a premium against a list that is able to just pick up all three of them in a single turn. Is it cool and good that the Tyranids list can put out such damage in three phases? No. It’s not. But that is Adam’s reality, and by extension, ours. I expect this one was foregone rather quickly as there isn’t a single aspect of the game that I’d put this Necron list in a superior position vs this Tyranid list – it’s outgunned, outranged, outfought, and importantly, outmaneuvered. I suspect David missed on one round of Stranglehold but otherwise maxed his score just by showing up.

All that aside, congrats to David on the win! I also want to recognize that Adam piloted this versatile and truly unique Necrons list to a top-table game and for that he’s the winner in my heart.

Result

Tyranids Victory – 97 – 38

David Gaylard – Tyranids – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Leviathan double Malaceptor, double Harpy, wide on Warriors

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The double Harpy and double Malaceptor are common in multiple lists and are notably very strong choices – the real standout feature here is two large Warrior blocks that thanks to a combination of Leviathan, strats/powers, Synaptic Links, and their datasheet’s recent Toughness boost can be remarkably durable units that have significant output in both the shooting and fight phases of the game.

The Rest of the Best

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

2nd – Vincent Chan – Tau: T’au Sept Go-Wide-Crisis with Shadowsun and utility picks. Vincent’s only loss came in round 4 against the top-table runner up
3rd – Konrad Bartkiewicz – Craftworlds: Hail of Doom/Masterful Shots led by Barry and a Kurnos Bow Farseer with a bevy of Shuriken units and Hawks. A Travelling Troupe of Dark Harlequins with triple Starweaver and Troupe led by a Troupe Master lends a strong counterpunch. Konrad’s only loss came in round 4 against the champion
4th – John Hickton – Tyranids: Leviathan goodstuff
5th – Adam JE Smith* – Necrons: See Showdown

Final Thoughts

Just a couple of thoughts to close out:

Leviathan is a clear, far-and-away standout here amongst top Tyranid lists, but that’s only because it’s the obvious one and most people just default to easy mode in their tournament approach. Don’t let that deceive you, the book is stacked through and through and as Kayu’s and Lennon’s list show – can go a lot of ways that aren’t just Leviathan goodstuff.
I’ve done this for one week and I already hate it – next week, whenever there’s something written in the “Why it’s interesting in 9th” section that refers to a Leviathan Tyranids list just assume what I actually wrote is, “It’s not interesting or exciting and we all know it.”

Have any questions or feedback? Want to make a clever joke about display boards? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.

Competitive Innovations in 9th: It’s not a Bug, It’s a Feature

Games Workshop: US Open Seattle

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Abandoned Sanctuaries

Thoughts

Result

John Lennon – Tyranids – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The Rest of the Best

Baltic Cup Kiel VIII

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Data Scry-Salvage

Thoughts

Result

Fritz Peters – Tyranids – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Manuel Wieczorek – Blood Angels – 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Kayu Orellana – Tyranids – 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The Rest of the Best

Glasshammer GT #8

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Secure Missing Artefacts

Thoughts

Result

Vik Vijay – Craftworlds – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

Aaron Mosquera – Tyranids – 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The Rest of the Best

The Brighton Warhammer 40k Tournament

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Secure Missing Artefacts

Thoughts

Result

David Gaylard – Tyranids – 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Why it’s Interesting in 9th

The Rest of the Best

Final Thoughts

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