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.

This week we've got our last few events from the old metagame before the wide adoption of the Dataslate, but that doesn't mean there's nothing exciting to talk about. Firstly, one group of pioneers jumped straight into the new metagame, so as is customary they get bumped to the top of the article, and we've also got the Thousand Sons landing in the metagame to complete the cult Legion quartet. What a quartet it is too - Death Guard domination continues, the Thousand Sons are landing reasonably well, World Eaters have started showing up in decent numbers, and even the Emperor's Children aren't going out from their Dataslate nerfs without a fight, if our one new metagame event is anything to go by.

Let us consider the canvas upon which this happens, starting today with:

• Iron Cage: Summer Slam (new rules)
• THE BRISTOL 40K SUPER MAJOR
• 40K Lorecast Major with Brad Chester and Brian Horton
• 105. Bedburger Scheunenkloppen
• II IBERIAN OPEN VALLECAS
• western syd 40k major

On Friday Lowest of Men will cover:

• Terracon 2025
• Warhammer 40,000 Grand Tournament: Golden Ticket Qualifier
• ObSec presents War Calls 40k 2025
• Brewtown Bloodbath
• Green Dice Games Summer Ruin Warhammer 40K June Grand Tournament
• SHIELDBREAKER GT June 2025

Our Showdowns this week will be:

• Berzerker Warband vs Ultramarine Vanguard Spearhead at Iron Cage. The patrons like novelty too (as they should).
• Peerless Bladesmen Emperor's Children vs Kroot Hunting Pack at the Warhammer World Grand Tournament

Iron Cage: Summer Slam

43-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Bedford, TX, US on June 07 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Unknown Mission

Jony Velazquez - World Eaters (Berzerker Warband)

vs.

Kevin Grubbs - Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead)

Thoughts

Our first post-Dataslate throwdown brings us loyalists vs. traitors, with a Calgar-lead Vanguard build facing the new version of Berzerker Warband. The shooty Vanguard list is pretty clearly loaded for one of the other current metagame pillars, which is Knights of various sorts, but its guns are perfectly capable of flattening Marines as well. No Guilliman and cheaper Calgar means plenty of points to play with, and they can squeeze in two decent melee threats (the Bladeguard and the Company heroes) alongside lots of 2+ save guns, and Deep Striking Eradicators are certainly a worry for foes too.

If the Ultramarines are good at killing other power-armoured lists then the World Eaters truly excel at it, and that feels like a big reason why Berzerker Warband is gathering a bit of steam. In a world of Cult Marines and Loyalists galore, Forgefiends with hit re-rolls rule, and plenty of the melee output (especially with boosted strength and an option on extra AP in Warband) is good into other elite infantry forces too. Even Vindicators can be taken down with the right combination of Blood Blessings and Stratagems on the big Berzerker units, and I think having two of those here (many lists are only running one) is going to be especially helpful. With a Master of Execution in one unit and the other able to pop Berzerker's Wraith, it's going to be pretty tricky for the Ultramarines to do the kind of focused killing they want without getting rolled over, and without Fight First in the Bladeguard unit, they're going to be of fairly limited use in the matchup.

The Centurions do give them a strong power piece mind, able to pick up enough of a Berzerker unit in one activation to make a real difference, but I think there's a good chance here that the Khornate forces will just put the Ultramarines on the back foot and keep them there, especially as even the cheap units in the list like Spawn and Helbrutes are still threatening and still need killing (and can activate Blood Offering to keep hold an objective as long as they're keeping the Ultramarines contained). I don't think it's impossible here that the Ultramarines make something happen, but it feels like they don't quite have the right threat profile to work round what World Eaters are doing here, as even the Centurions or Eradicators don't guarantee enough damage into a full Berzerker blob, leaving an overrun a reasonably likely outcome. From the score, I suspect that's what happened - the World Eaters established a sufficiently strong early posture that it was never possible to stop them scoring, as if you cannot get out from the pressure, Blood Offering just shuts you out.

Result

World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) Victory - 100 - 84

Jony Velazquez - World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) - 1st Place

World Eaters Master of Executions. Credit: Corrode

The List

Archetype

Forgefiend Berzerker

Thoughts

Mostly covered in the Showdown, an impressive event win for the World Eaters here, using a list that really leans into their strengths at killing other Marine builds. Question for me will be where we land once Chaos Knights are fully operational, as that feels like it might prove a tough matchup for these guys, but this list looks legit, and it's encouraging to see that there's more to this book than just Daemonkin if the metagame lands right. Great work from Jony.

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players on 4-1+ records. They were:

• 2nd - Apollo Chang - Chaos Daemons (Daemonic Incursion): Mega monster mash with Be'lakor and five Greater Daemons, with just a few Flesh Hounds to support scoring.
• 3rd - NATHANIEL BJORGE - Tyranids (Vanguard Onslaught): Given that Nathaniel has been throwing Vanguard bugs at people for a long time now, it should be no surprise that he's straight on the new Ravener train, running two units each of regular and Hyperadapted (able to combine into super units if needed) as the big damage dealers for Vanguard in place of melee Warriors. Much easier to set up since they don't need a leader, and way higher damage. Otherwise, the same old plan as always of pressuring the foe with 30 Genestealers then locking them out with the second wave.
• 4th - Kevin Grubbs - Ultramarines (Vanguard Spearhead): Shooty Ultravanguard using Calgar and Ventris, setting up the former with some Bladeguard, bringing Eradicators to Deep Strike and adding Centurions and Vindicators for lots of durable dakka.
• 5th - Alex Ehrich - Chaos Daemons (Plague Legion): A wall of Plaguebearers with tricky Characters, Rotigus and a GuO as heavyweaght threats, and a few mid-weight things like a Daemon Prince and a double Beast unit to tangle up foes while the morale shuts them out of scoring.
• 6th - Brian Ellis - Emperor's Children (Peerless Bladesmen): An (almost) pure melee Emperor's Children build that benches Noise Marines in favour of two large Flawless Blade units to slice up the foe, and retaining triple Prince despite the price hike.

THE BRISTOL 40K SUPER MAJOR

410-player, 7-round Supermajor in England, United Kingdom on June 07 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Josh Roberts - Ultramarines (Stormlance Task Force) - 1st Place

Rainbow Warriors Stormraven Gunship by Craig "MasterSlowPoke" Sniffen

The List

Archetype

Shooty Stormlance

Thoughts

Another supermajor win for Josh here, experimenting with how shooty you can make Stormlance and get away with it. The answer is apparently very, with the expected Stormraven joined by cheap Storm Speeders and Ballistus Dreads, and melee largely covered by Calgar and Bobby G. The result has some brutal firepower, and while obviously you have to consider swapping up the Character setup to take this forward, I think there's a good possibility that a list like this (or perhaps more likely, an Iron-Priest Space Wolf version) continues to thrive in the new metagame, especially as the Stormraven matches up very well into the mostly flat damage stuff the cult legions are throwing about. Congratulations Josh.

Andy Quas-Cohen - Necrons (Starshatter Arsenal) - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Doomsday Ark. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Triple Doomsday Single Wraith Starshatter

Thoughts

Moving onto lists that are definitely going to be a big part of the upcoming metagame, we've got Starshatter Necrons, another build that loves seeing elite Infantry (even 4W Deathshrouds) across the table, and which has the option to build in some all-purpose durability by adding some extra Wraiths, here presumably under consideration instead of the Skorpekh Lords after their points increase. Prepare to get shot with doomsday cannons a lot, well done to Andy on taking undefeated second place.

Nathan Roberts - Death Guard (Mortarion’s Hammer) - 3rd Place (Undefeated)

Plagueburst Crawler - Credit Beanith

The List

Archetype

Extra Shooty Mortarion's Hammer

Thoughts

Completing the undefeated podium we have an extremely hull-heavy spin on Mortarion's Hammer, bringing a whole host of Daemon Engines and tanks to crush the foe. It's not an especially complex build, as it's essentially just way too many cheap hulls crammed into a list, but it's a solid counterpick to some of the Marine builds, as it just has too many threats for them to carve through. Expect to see plenty of this as well, good job Nathan.

Christopher Radford - Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group) - 4th Place

 

The List

Archetype

All Melee Angels

Thoughts

Rounding out our top four we've got another very direct build, this one planning to punch people super hard and fast with Death Company and Bladeguard. Very on brand for Blood Angels, very effective, and also about to get a bunch of extra points to play with, so that's nice. My assumption with World Eaters suddenly looking real is that you'd want to get a Judiciar in here so you could double up on Fights First coverage on a key turn, but otherwise just doing this with one unit upgraded into something extra spicy seems lit, and is also potentially a good counter to big-heavy Chaos Knight lists, as this army has a deep well of stuff that can punch one to death. Great job Chris, and I guess we'll see you on Wolves soon once everyone else pivots to this.

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players in the top cut. They were:

40K Lorecast Major with Brad Chester and Brian Horton

104-player, 7-round Major in Southfield, MI, United States on June 06 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Joshua Minnich - Death Guard (Virulent Vectorium) - 1st Place

Credit: PierreTheMime

The List

Archetype

Stock Mortarion Vectorium

Thoughts

You know about this list. I know about this list. We're going to hear a lot more about this list, and at this point I'm 50:50 on whether GW are going to have to break their balance cadence and do something about it early. Guess it will depend on whether any of the other new things is able to properly rein it in. For this particular version, I do like the use of the melee Bloat Drones to get some cheap threat projection in while still having the big fnacy toys like Mortarion. Well done Joshua on the win.

Brian Daugherty - World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) - 2nd Place

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

Archetype

Forgefiend Berzerker Warband

Thoughts

Another Berzerker Warband list in second place here, again using the double Berzerker and multi-Forgefiend setup, but making a few different picks elsewhere in the army. A Daemon Prince with lots of Chaos Spawn gives you a very reliable clip of activations of Blood Offering, and the list also uses Exalted Eightbound (optionally with a Slaughterbound) as a powerful discouragement to any enemy Vehicles that get overconfident. Being able to roll through one hull and bounce to another with a 6" Consolidate, then force it to take a Desperate Escape test is a decent bit of value from the squad, and it's nice they have some purpose even if they're underwhelming on raw killing now. Cool to see that, and to get a good variety of units down, great stuff Brian (who had a credible go at taking down Joshua in the final).

Kyle Trayah - Death Guard (Mortarion’s Hammer) - 3rd Place

Myphitic Blight-Haulers - Credit Beanith

The List

Archetype

Hull Spam

Thoughts

Blight Haulers are spammable levels of good too? Great, love that for us. Very nice. This is another very crunchy and grindy Death Guard build, albeit the only flavour that does take a nerf thanks to Defilers being forced onto large bases in the new Tournament Companion. I'd assume that leaves them as a one-of at most (since one can still just wallhack in this Detachment), but who knows. Other elements of this sticking around probably depends on where Knights go - if there's still a good all War Dog build then Haulers are laughing, because Contagions put them down to T8 and the +1 to Wound thus means hitting and wounding on 2s. If it's bigs (and I do think that's more likely) then this may be more of a flash-in-the-pan, because multi-model vehicle units can be a liability against the kinds of guns they bring, and you're not getting getting your wound rolls above 4s. What an adventure it shall be to find out. Congratulations Kyle on crushing the foe.

Brenton Weiss - Aeldari (Devoted of Ynnead) - 4th Place

Yvraine & The Visarch. Credit: James "Boon" Kelling

The List

Archetype

Deceased Elves

Thoughts

Here Lies an Attempt To Fix 8th Edition Ynnari

2025-2025

"Never fucking mind."

There is a small ray of light for the Aeldari here which is that this list shows off something I think is underutilised, which is just jamming a Troupe into other builds and seeing what happens. They're pretty great! Good at killing power armour, and can use their big Consolidate to touch a whole bunch of tanks in games like Mortarion's Hammer. Maybe this will prompt me to give them a go, and seeing them alongside Windriders (another unit you can just jam in lots of builds for value) is especially encouraging. Good job Brenton for bringing a bit of hope amidst the despair.

The Best of the Rest

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

105. Bedburger Scheunenkloppen

58-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Bedburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen, DE on June 07 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Mathieu Clerc - Leagues of Votann (Oathband) - 1st Place

Brôkhyr Thunderkyn. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

All-rounder Votann

Thoughts

Another week, another big event win for the (unironically) perfectly balanced Leagues of Votann. This build dips into the well of bringing a few grav Thunderkyn, and I suspect we'll see some iterations on builds like this that take advantage of the new ability to put a unit with a Brokhyr in a fortress. Otherwise, the dwarves are just going to keep on trucking, well done Mathieu.

Tobias Moellmann - Chaos Daemons (Shadow Legion) - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Be'lakor - Credit: RichyP

The List

Archetype

Board Control Shadow Legion

Thoughts

Speaking of keeping on trucking - at this point, this is looking pretty close to the "solved" version of Shadow Legion, and it took only modest hits in the Dataslate. Control the board early with Screamers, hit and run with the Bloodthirster, project threat with the Accursed blob, score with Raptors. All good.

Felix Zunino - Aeldari (Devoted of Ynnead) - 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Deceased Elves

Thoughts

I got to use that Yncarne in eight whole games this edition, so there's that.

Well done Felix for seeing them off in style.

Bastian Kry - Ultramarines (Gladius Task Force) - 4th Place

Chief Librarian Tigurius. Credit: SRM

The List

Archetype

Gladius Goodstuff

Thoughts

Ultramarines galore to close this top four out, and while you could just keep running this as-is, there are probably better ways to spend the points than Calgar after the updates for this kind of build. Tigurius, on the other hand, feels like he's ready to hit the big time now there's less competition for slots - people have already been trying him with Bladeguard to great effect, as here, and he's also good with Sternguard, so look out for him, maybe with Sicarius subbing in for Calgar to provide a mobile melee threat. So many Ultramarines man. Anyway, good work Bastian.

The Best of the Rest

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

II IBERIAN OPEN VALLECAS

37-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Madrid, MD, España on June 07 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Marco Esteban - Tyranids (Invasion Fleet) - 1st Place

Exocrine. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Monster Mash

Thoughts

I mean it's not like Exocrines are going to stop being great with all those Marine lists around, is it? Between that and access to the very good new Raveners Datasheets, expect to see plenty more Invasion Fleet in the new world - here, you can just use spare points from the Hive Tyrant to upgrade the melee Warriors to Hyperadapted Raveners and the list just feels flatly better (not that the current choice was bad, just the Raveners whip). Congratulations Marco for living the bug life.

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Guillermo López - Aeldari (Ghosts of the Webway): The other way to dodge the nerf, which is to go Harlequins and run Starweaver Troupes backed by MSU Dark Reapers and Warp Spiders, with a jump Autarch for one of the latter (presumably the melee one).
• 3rd - Terroxer El Rojo - Thousand Sons (Rubricae Phalanx): Unsurprisingly, it's a wall of Rubricae and Scarabs - two full blocks of 10 of the former, one big unit of the latter, with Characters galore and supporting Tzaangors and a single Mutalith to amp up rituals.
• 4th - Keko :) - Emperor's Children (Coterie of the Conceited): Double Prince Coterie.
• 5th - Dani Semi Nerf - Imperial Knights (Noble Lance): Canis and Armigers.
• 6th - Pedro Bollain de la Sota 🐢 - Necrons (Starshatter Arsenal): Unusual Starshatter with double Doom Scythe and one big block of Warriors.

western syd 40k major

32-player, 8-round Major in Penrith, NSW, Australia on June 06 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Jordan McGregor - Thousand Sons (Warpmeld Pact) - 1st Place

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

Archetype

Warpmeld Pressure

Thoughts

Ah, the fresh horrors, I was wondering where those had got to. There's quite a variety of Thousand Sons builds being tried out this weekend, but this is the only new Codex one that took an event win. Jordan has gone for Warpmeld Pact, which leans into the...let's say aggressive pricing on Enlightened and Mutalith Beasts to create something very nasty. Mutalith Beasts with -1 to Wound are a nightmare to shift, as is the one Tzaangor mega stack with access to all the defensive buffs (I went through this in our hater's guide to the new book, alongside the potential for a solo Shaman for objective grabbing as a Spawn), and that stops your opponent breaking through to your nasty firebase of Enlightened and Predators. That's especially nasty on the Enlightened since several of the squads are Lone Op 18" from the Sorcerers, but the Predators are vital for ensuring you can punch up into enemy tanks.

The last big thing the list has going for it is strong early disruption from one squad of Tzaangors in a Rhino - these can either move block or charge a good distance turn 1 because of Scouts, so watch out for that. Increasinly nervous about the fact that I know that a good number of UK players have 18 Enlightened on deck, not going to lie, but cool seeing one of the more theme-heavy detachments making waves, good stuff Jordan.

The Best of the Rest

Due to loads of rounds and 32-players, the scores are all over the place here, so here are the rest of the top four:

• 2nd - Daniel Xerri - Emperor's Children (Coterie of the Conceited): Triple Prince Coterie.
• 3rd - Nathan Bugmann - World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): ALl-rounder Warband, mixing Forgefiends and Helbrutes with one big Leader-packing squad each of Eightbound and Berzerkers.
• 4th - Pui Hin HO - Imperial Knights (Noble Lance): Canis, Armigers, and a presumably slightly lose Deathwatch Kill Team.

Wrap Up

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