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.

It's one week before Adepticon, one of the biggest events of the year for Age of Sigmar. This means many players are prepping at their local stores rather than playing, but we do have a surprising number of international events to cover before the big event. This week we have:

• VIC GT - Australia
• I GT Girona War Fest Age Of Sigmar - Spain
• GT des Ducs d'angers - France
• Hawg Pit GT '26 - United States

VIC GT

39-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Strathdale, VIC, Australia on March 20 2026. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Joel Graham - Lumineth Realm-Lords

vs.

Emily Cassar - Lumineth Realm-Lords

Thoughts

I'm seeing double, four Lights of Eltharion!

Mirror matches are often hard to assess, especially ones with huge points discrepancies. Since both armies are ostensibly working from the same toolkit, it's hard to find that silver bullet that made one do so much better than the other.

Joel's list is the one that wins here, and we can try and take a few guesses based on what he had that Emily did not. Ellania and Ellathor are one of the best control pieces in the game, able to switch hit as both an effective melee fighter and a strong wizard. If they kill a model, they can teleport onto objectives, locking down the board. Lyrior makes armies more mobile and also amplifies other sigils. Finallly, Calis and Toll are effective anti-magic pieces for any order army, which is useful going into a mirror match here.

Result

Lumineth Realm-Lords Victory - 60 - 10

Joel Graham - Lumineth Realm-Lords - 1st Place

The Light of Eltharion. Credit: Rich Nutter

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Hurakan and Vanari

Thoughts

Some of the highlights were talked about in the showdown but Ellania and Ellathor are one of your best Warrior-Wizards, able to serve both roles well and then if they kill something, teleport on to a point.

Lyrior is a unique piece, as she adds a (functional) extra Strength rune onto the scroll. This does a few things but here it allows the player to either pop the Rune of the Mountain and get -1 Rend or Rune of the Wind and get 4" Move (Better than the +1 to run and charge the Strength rune gives normally). The Enlightener is a solid wizard who can dual cast spells to buff 2 targets.

The rest of the army is mostly beat sticks. The Light of Eltharion is the beat stick of the army, and is backed up by the Hurakan Spirit of the Wind which does great ranged damage and inflicts strike last.

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Emily Cassar - Lumineth Realm-Lords: See Showdown.
• 3rd - Nathan Thompson - Blades of Khorne: Baleful Lords
• 4th - Jamie Sherlock - Disciples of Tzeentch: Mortals and Tzaangors.
• 5th - Harley Jacobe - Sons of Behemat: King Brodd, Gatebreaker, Kragnos and 3 Mancrushers.
• 6th - Håkan Sjölin - Blades of Khorne: Baleful Lords
• 7th - Daniel Bonaci - Maggotkin of Nurgle: Rotigus, Belga, Glottkin with some Rotswords and Sloven Knights.

I GT Girona War Fest Age Of Sigmar

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Cassà de la Selva, CT, Spain on March 21 2026. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Aleix Cintero Saez - Lumineth Realm-Lords

vs.

Andrés Lozano - Stormcast Eternals

Thoughts

Well it's Lumineth again, with a huge blowout. While the Stormcast has some strong hammers, the Lumineth list is tanky as hell and then can hit back just as hard. They also have a lot of maneuverability and while this list doesn't dip into the Hurakan stuff for maximum mobility, it still gets to move pretty quick thanks to their symbols.

About the only concern might be the Vanguard Raptor sniping out the essential heroes, but deal with those and it's smooth sailing the rest of the way.

Result

Lumineth Realm-Lords Victory - 80 - 20

Aleix Cintero Saez - Lumineth Realm-Lords - 1st Place

Avalenor, the Stoneheart King. Credit: Rich Nutter

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Vanari with Avalenor

Thoughts

This list is tanky as hell. The Alarith gets +1 attack from each Mountain rune you write up, so by giving your Wardens 5+ Wards to help hold their ground and secure objectives. Then once he's warmed up the Alarith can slam in alongside the Light of Eltharion, Riverblades and Ellania and Elathor to do some massive damage.

The Best of the Rest

There were 4 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Alex Cardeña - Stormcast Eternals: Bastian Carthalos with Vanguard-Palladors, Vanguard Raptors and Questors.
• 3rd - Eduard "Vradi" Puig - Helsmiths of Hashut: Dominator Engines and Rocket Batteries.
• 4th - Oscar Gimenez - Lumineth Realm-Lords: Alarith.
• 5th - Andrés Lozano - Stormcast Eternals: See Showdown.

GT des Ducs d'angers

25-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Huillé-Lézigné, Pays de la Loire, France on March 21 2026. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Lou Barbey - Skaventide

vs.

Thomas DEFAY - Soulblight Gravelords

Thoughts

This is a surprising upset, though the Soulblight list feels a little lean on Vampires for Prince Vhordrai to support, the only option being the one unit of Blood Knights. Meanwhile Hell Pit Abomination spam in Thanquol's Mutated Menagerie are a menace. They get tons of buffs and can give themselves Strike First at the mere cost of detonating on impact. While the Blood Knights might be able to deal with one or two, they're going to go down eventually and that's going to be hard to make up for.

Result

Skaventide Victory - 66 - 44

Lou Barbey - Skaventide - 1st Place

Brood Terror. Credit: Matthew Ward

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Thanquol's Menagerie

Thoughts

Hell Pit Abomination spam are surprisingly scary in this Army of Renown. They get to ignore the Companion rule to their attacks, making it easier to buff them. They get a series of free buffs to hand out to one, and then the cherry on top is the ability to gain Strike First with their brutal 13 Damage 2 attacks. They detonate after the fact, but they always have a 1 in 3 chance of coming back the first time. It's a lot of meat to chew through for most lists and hard not to take a series beating in the process.

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Thomas Delannoy - Stormcast Eternals: Bastian with Tempestors, Questors and Vanguard-Raptors.
• 3rd - Edouard Lebouvier - Stormcast Eternals: Annihilators and Questors.
• 4th - Michael Attali - Disciples of Tzeentch: Kairos with Tzaangors and a few Kairic Acolytes.

Hawg Pit GT '26

24-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Springdale, AR, United States on March 21 2026. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Alex Cotter - Lumineth Realm-Lords

vs.

Tyler Emerson - Slaves to Darkness

Thoughts

This is an impressive showing for the Slaves to Darkness against Lumineth. Teclis is a mighty opponent and all the tanky wardens around him makes it difficult to actually get through to him. Given how close the score is it's hard to say exactly what may have pushed the balance in their favor but a lucky breakthrough and tenaciously holding onto objectives likely won the day.

Result

Slaves to Darkness Victory - 62 - 61

Tyler Emerson - Slaves to Darkness - 1st Place

Abraxia, Spear of the Everchosen. Credit: SRM

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Abraxia Midrange

Thoughts

This is definitely an interesting list! Abraxia in her Scourge of Ghyran version is a bit more flexible in who she supports, handing out additional rend to units without marks of chaos. She then can charge and soar over screens to hit the core of the enemy castle.

Most of the rest of the army is solid beat sticks. Reinforced Chaos Warriors are a lot tankier than you might think, and Ogroid Theridons hit hard for their cost. Chosen of course are notorious and even not reinforced can still go toe to toe with some of the toughest units in the opponent's army.

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Alex Cotter - Lumineth Realm-Lords: See Showdown.
• 3rd - Michael Morley - Disciples of Tzeentch: Kairos with a mix of daemons and mortals.
• 4th - Jason Burau - Maggotkin of Nurgle: Belga and Rotigus with Rotswords and Pestigors

Wrap Up

As stated, this week is Adepticon, one of this biggest events of the year. If you happen to be going, yours truly will be there playing in the Sigmar GT. So if you see me, come say hi! I'll have a Goonhammer jersey on!

See you there!

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