Welcome to Competitive Innovations, our weekly feature for a number of game lines across the tabletop wargame space. Each week our army list and tactics experts canvass the top tournaments for their game of specialty, looking at the week’s top match-ups and how they played out on the tabletop to let you know what’s hot, what’s not, and what might be coming next as the competitive meta evolves year-round.

The Kill Team scene is busy digesting the new rules and has been busy donning the power armored factions of the chaos gods. While there have been many tournaments this is our first Kill Team competitive innovations so we’ll take out time and catch back up with October looking in at these events.

• Meseta Wargames: Lanzamiento de KT3 (Oct 19-20)
• SoCal Open 2024 (Oct 19-20)
• Dropzone 2024: Nationals Team Championship (Oct 26-27)
• New York Open 3 (Oct 26-27)

Meseta Wargames: Lanzamiento de KT3

34-player, 4-round RTT in Madrid, MD, Spain on October 19 2024. All the players and factions for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Power Surge– Map 2 – In the Dark

Fernando Marcos “Ace” – Warp Coven

vs.

Tamer El gemelo malvado de Chapu – Legionary

Thoughts

A matchup that reflects the status of the Kill Team release meta quite nicely. Brutally efficient teams, with powerful defensive strategic options, backed up by core rules changes that have buoyed Astartes level threats. Legionary are fully unchained with the ability to have all 4 chaos gods in cooperation in the kill zone, with ploys that boost specific gods to absurd levels. Whether its Nurgle’s ability to shrug bits of damage, while remaining uninjured while Slaanesh’s strategic ploy grants you free wins in melee combat. Tzeentch’s mark grants you absolute shooting efficiency letting you proc critical hit rules. The chaos gods chosen warriors have put an absolute chilling effect on the meta.

Luckily for Tzeentch his influence on the great game of Kill Team has an extra supporter in Ace. The team can pivot to a 3-1-4 or 3-2-2 layout to grab the last activations against Legionary players while giving you the pierce 1 to tax CP use. While the maze of sorcerous abilities can let warp coven truly just out maneuver their more fair legionary counterparts. An example of this would be a relentless doombolt with ignores obscurity from across the map presenting a strong deletion threat against 14 wound elites. Unsurprisingly both of these teams are considered top of the meta now, and with Spain’s history of Kill Team excellence its not surprising to see this as the final pairing.

Result

Warp Coven Victory – 15-12

Bolas Flagelador – Hellfizz Madrid – Hand of the Archon – 1st Place

Thoughts

Hand of the Archon were certainly not on my list of obviously powerful teams, however many of their core weaknesses have been addressed by the new edition. Last edition Archon players often struggled to manage 6 objectives, and the need to play points team for the first 2 turns of the game. With scoring pressure removed on turn 1, Archon players can focus their energy on an explosively violent turn 2 backed up with some crazy crit roles. Meanwhile against the ceramite foes, being able to snag pain tokens simply for injuring an opponent means many more situations that lead to 3APL or a safety dash. Bolas was able to avoid Ace so the jury is still out on his chances there, but its still an encouraging result for hopeful drukhari enjoyers.

Fernando Marcos “Ace” – MRQ3 – Warp Coven – 2nd Place

Thoughts

Plenty has and will be said about the strength of Warp Coven, and when piloted by one of the worlds best players those strength are not going away. Unfortunately for Ace his first game of bheta decima went to a draw against nemesis claw which ultimately left him in 2nd place. Losing in tie breakers to Bolas!

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 3-1 records. They were:

• 3rd – Yeray López – Mandrakes: Round 1 loss to Hierotek
• 4th – Giuseppe Ramón Il Carino – Legionary: Round 2 loss to Blades of Khaine
• 5th – Yeray “M0us1n” Negrín – Novitiates: Round 1 loss to Inquisitorial Agents
• 6th – Iván López – Elucidian Starstriders: Round 1 loss to Void Dancer Troupe
• 7th – Tamer El gemelo malvado de Chapu – Legionary: Round 4 loss to Mandrakes
• 8th – Rodrigo Akore – Warp Coven: Round 2 loss to Legionary

SoCal Open 2024

42-player, 7-round Grand Tournament, with a Top 8 cut in Del Mar, CA, USA on October 19 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Secure– Map 1 – Volkus

Auston Lewis – Nemesis Claw

vs.

Jeshua Kelly – Legionary

Thoughts

Another tournament, another Astartes pair. A trend we’re seeing reflected in the overall stats for the last couple weeks of competitive Kill Team play. The followers of the Chaos Gods are eating well with the shadowy boys squaring up against the more faithful followers. Nemesis Claw on Volkus terrain can specifically stay in obscurity quite easily as the terrain set only has 3 pieces of light terrain across the entire board. That means as long as the Claw stays outside of 6” away from their targets they’ll be just incredibly hard to shoot. With the ability to Vox Scream, and delay pivotal forward pushing operatives and skip activations with the Nightmonger’s prescience. The Nemesis Claw generally have more information, but less lethality than the gods chosen. With Night lords focus on melee victories, the match up can be quite hard with Legionary offering a flat -1 to melee combat that can’t be ignored. Night Lords players need to lean on the activation tricks, obscurity, and their melta gunner to cut apart the opposing approach of the Legionary.

Jeshua has been on a year this year battling it out across a long list of teams already holding a Golden Ticket with a Gellerpox win. Auston is a new Astartes enjoyer as well, with other teams throughout the year being wider shooter teams. The match up definitely leans in Jeshua’s favor as the raw tonkiness of Nurgles mark is particularly devastating when Nemesis Claw attempt to get into the thick of it.

Result

Legionary Victory – 18-17

Jeshua Kelly – Kell Team – Legionary – 1st Place

Thoughts

WCW24 attender Jeshua Kelly is the eldest of the Kell Team dynasty out of southern california. He’s played a fair number of teams this year, but with the chaos ascension of third edition in full effect it seems he’s taken his scouts and upgraded to fully chaotic marines. With a full suite of 7 wins and only 13 points dropped the whole weekend it seems he was able to dominate the opposition.

Auston Lewis – Kell Team – Nemesis Claw – 2nd Place

Thoughts

A strong west coast player on a strong team, Auston wasn’t quite able to make it over the finish line this time. There isn’t much to say that wasn’t said already in the showdown notes, however Auston’s history on Pathfinders, Kasrkin and otherwise probably play into nemesis claw strengths. Being able to abuse both ends of obscurity is probably quite an upgrade as are his access to more melee tools.

James Robinson – Southern Discomfort – Legionary – 3rd Place

Thoughts

James ended up with a pair of losses to the mirror match against Janis G in round 3, and 2nd place’s Auston in round 6. Generally doing quite well for himself with his number of Gellerpox tournaments this year, we suspect the mark of nurgle did some heavy lifting during his run.

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players in the top 8. They were:

• 4th – Janis Gilham – Legionary: Losses to Legionary and Hierotek Circle
• 5th – Kellen Foster – Hierotek Circle: Loss to Legionary
• 6th – Charlotte Frazier – Void Dancer Troupe: Losses to Legionary, Hierotek Circle, and Nemesis Claw
• 7th – Sam Rosen – Elucidian Starstriders: Losses to Legionary, Hierotek Circle, and Nemesis Claw
• 8th – Edgar Quintero – Nemesis Claw: Losses to Fellgor Ravagers, Starstriders, Legionary, and Void Dancer Troupe

Dropzone 2024: Nationals Team Championship

• Dropzone 2024: Nationals Team Championship

48-player, 16-team, 6-round, invitational Grand Tournament in Warszawa, Mazowieckie, Poland on October 26 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Coordinates –  Open

Mateusz Mikołajczyk – Inquisition Agents

vs.

Bogdan Jancz – Legionary

Thoughts

Mateusz is ostensibly one of the biggest players in the Polish scene, helping to run the Dropzone organization, and being a WCW23 attendee. Famously pro-7 wound operatives, he had some strong opinions on the strength of the inquisition agents. A faction that many larger players think are even larger problems than the host of strong Astartes teams. Kasrkin as an ancillary option have the raw firepower to threaten almost anything even through the -1 piercing of nurgle legionary. However that ability to threaten legionary is balanced on a monomolecular edge, as a pile of 7-wound operatives make a good approximation of chaff on wheat. With almost any Legionary and their malefic blade equipment able to separate the imperiums faithful from their wounds quite easily. As long as inquisition agents can hit legionary hard in the turn where nurgles defensive strategy ploy is turned off, the match up should be in their favor.

On the flip side, legionary can pose many lethal questions to the imperial faithful with casual ease. Any 14 wound Astarte can blend a pair of dorks, and with 12 targets out and about that threat remains very real to the inquisitors amongst the player base. Legionary warriors also present some fun challeneges, effectively ignoring strategic ploys when threatening opponents. Start off as Nurgle for the damage mitigation, before switching to a 9” charge as Slaanesh on a chain sword warrior. Double shoot as tzeentch with severe, before pivoting to a scary melee piece as Khorne. On an open setting the charge lanes tend to be more flexible than Volkus especially if door fights are enabled.

Result

Legionary Victory – 13-10

Orzeł 1 – Inquisition Agents/Legionary/Warp Coven– 1st Place

Captain: Mateusz Mikołajczyk, Amadeusz Janiak, Michał Żywczyk

Thoughts

Surprise surprise 3 of the most obviously strong teams, smashing through the opposition like a wrecking ball. Each player dropped at least 1 game, but the team never faced 2 losses simultaneously. Which meant they absolutely crushed it. Congrats to them!

Zagrajnik – Tempestus Aquilons/Warp Coven/Corsair Voidscarred – 2nd Place

Captain: Mateusz Piotrowski, Filip Tuliszka, Mikita Shver

Thoughts

A higher finesse team composition, with a spread of Astartes, and glass cannons. The layout of aquilons as an anti-elite choice for Bheta Decima, and Volkus are an interesting inclusion. With Corsairs also being consummate anti elite tango-ers. While Warp Coven are able to smash almost anything with the right layout. The team faltered in round 2 where the score differential snagged them a loss, but overall this one has some interesting choices!

The Best of the Rest

There were 2 more teams on 4-2 records. They were:

• 3rd – Polish Squig Raiders – Corsair Voidscarred/Hearthkyn Salvagers/Nemesis Claw
• 4th – Fundacja Make a Wisz – Angels of Death/Warp Coven/Legionary

New York Open 3

46-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in New York, NY, USA on October 26 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Vlog of the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSlxe3L9pF4

Loot– Map 6 – Volkus, VOD @6:03

George Armour – Warp Coven

vs.

Jason Faye – Phobos Strike Team

Thoughts

Jason had a somewhat unbelievable run in the eyes of many of the upper crust of the New York Open. Running a 3-4 Infiltrator, 2 Incursor, and 0-1 Reiver split each game backed up by Plant Beacons tac op. Many players are under the assumption that Phobos are a poor choice into the much tankier, and more obviously powerful Legionary/Warp Coven that are present throughout this week’s competitive innovations. However Jason mostly avoided the matchups until the final round, tying against Hierotek Circle, and defeating the tankier Angels of Death in round 4.

Meanwhile George brought the Toronto KT scene down in force, bringing out his old favorites the Warp Coven. While he flirted with Corsairs on edition drop, the lord of change influenced one of his oldest followers. The faction now sports the ability to go hyper tanky, or as a mixed activation team. With many separate lines of approach. Ultimately in this final game George chose to go 3 Sorceror, 1 Rubric, and 4 Tzaangor, a mix that gives him the last activation. While also keeping some melee missiles that can go 1:1 with a stray 12-wound Phobos.

Result

Warp Coven Victory – 21-11

George Armour – Maple Leaf Wargaming – Warp Coven – 1st Place

Thoughts

In a spiel that some readers may find a bit tiring, the Warp Coven remain strong. Able to pivot into more activations against the elite teams, or hyper elite when you want those 2+ saves to shrug small arms fire. The ability to ignore pierce 1 means that the team is never truly under huge risks when dealing with shooting centric teams. While the Tzaangors, and 5 attack sorcerors do a good job of threatening as melee blenders.

One notable combo of sorcerous boons, and abilities, was the Devastating 1 combined with Warpfire Sorceror’s Mindburn. Making a ranged profile of 5 attacks on 4s, 1/1, Lethal 5+ , Saturate, Seek, and the ability to “injure” opponents into something that can reliably chip anything. This combo can absolutely ruin opponents, and let’s turn 1 never feel too safe.

Dylan Gill – Railsplitter Ruffians – Hearthkyn Salvagers– 2nd Place

Thoughts

Dylan has been repping Hearthkyn since KT21, though he used to lean on the shooters quite a bit more. He’s taken to blitzkrieg tactics that abuse players notions of a peaceful turn 1. The jump pack warrior repositions for an 11+1” threat range on turn 1 backed up by a boosted up Krak grenade throw. This means you can save your last activation for a long range yeet against any staged threats and if you get a reasonably reliable first kill, your krak grenade threat is very real. You turn 2 opening is additionally pretty much guaranteed with the Writ of Claim equipment letting you hit this brutal opening twice in one game. Players who get thrown off their own game plan by this massive threat bubble have to then struggle to catch back up, which can sometimes prove impossible!

Mike Cortes – Inquisition Agents – 3rd Place

Thoughts

Inquisition agents remain quite strong, though with the depth of their selections many players who are playing them are still discovering the best combinations of checks and strength. Cortes lost a sole game to 4th place’s Novitiates, and was heard saying he poured 5 attacks worth of shots into a single model in one turn only to leave it at 5 wounds. However he did a great job against the rest of the field with only kasrkin as his ancillary options. Maybe some sword sisters could have helped him punch through the Novitaties that defeated him!

The Best of the Rest

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

• 4th – Shane Smith(Command Point) – Novitiates: Round 5 loss to Phobos
• 5th – John Rees(Can You Roll a Crit) – Legionary: Round 5 loss to Warp Coven
• 6th – Jason Faye(Just Another Killteam Podcast) – Phobos Strike Team: Round 6 loss to Warpcoven

Wrap Up

All in all reports of Astartes dominance, have not seemed overblown! If you don’t have a plan to deal with a wall of ceramite, its probably time to draw one up. However the meta may be wider than Warp Coven, Legionary, and Inquisition Agents. With a couple stand outs at the periphery including some surprises like Novitiates, Hand of the Archon, and Hierotek Circle.

HappyRaccoon, out!

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