The twists and turns of the metagame continue unabated this week, as Necrons get marginally barged back into their tombs by a triumvirate of snappily-dressed factions. Whether it's glorious golden armour, a Nemesis Dreadknight or just a straight-up Gundam, going hard on heavy pressure pieces can be enough to overwhelm the damage output of some Necron builds, continuing to create a pretty rapidly shifting top metagame. That's not to say Necrons haven't had their successes as well -- as we'll see starting in the very first event, Canoptek Court and Hypercrypt Legion still mean serious business. Marines are also seeing some pretty good placings thanks to Stormravens, Thunderwolf Cavalry and more, and the Astra Militarum continue to show the haters that they really do have the chops to take big trophies.

All in all the tournament scene is thriving and we've got another pretty huge week for you, albeit just about small enough to squeeze into two parts.

Today I'll be looking at:

• The Goonhammer Open UK March 2024
• Clutch City GT
• Toronto Winter Open 2024
• Ogr Cubb Singles 2024
• CAGBASH XVII Charity 40k Tournament
• Big Beef Beat down
• Gallicus Great Golden Gauntlet

On Friday Lowest of Men will be covering:

• The South-Coast UKTC Supermajor
• MidtconGT Warhammer 40.000 Spring tournament
• Wheat City Open 2024
• Melee At Shiloh
• Warzone: Wellington GT
• Rumble in the Rockies - Warhammer 40k GT

Our Showdowns will be (two voted for by the Patrons, one automatic for a Goonhammer event):

• Canoptek Court vs Adepta Sororitas at the Goonhammer Open UK
• Dark Angels vs Adeptus Custodes at the Clutch City GT
• T'au vs Tyranids at the Wheat City Open

Goonhammer Open UK March 2024

49-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in England, GB on March 02 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Vital Ground - Chilling Rain - Sweeping Engagement

Jack Tite - Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs)

vs.

Josh Roberts - Necrons (Canoptek Court)

Thoughts

Can anyone stop Josh's Canoptek Court-powered rampage? His list continues to eschew C'tan, focusing on loads of Wraiths and (in emergency) Szeras as speed bumps, with a couple of Doomstalkers and some Immortals to gradually chip away at the foe's forces while they're handling the Wraiths and the accumulated tricks of the Court often thwart counter strategies. I definitely like the inclusion of Doomstalkers here, as I mentioned last week I think they're one of the big "gets" of playing Court in the first place, so leaving them out feels like a waste, especially with Custodes everywhere. I also think taking 2x5 Immortals with Plasmancers instead of a second big block is a good call; with Court re-rolls they're still a real damage threat, and point-and-click mortals like those from the Plasmancer are a rare and precious resource in 10th.

Against them we've got a very potent all-rounder Sisters build, dipping into a bit of everything and using concentrated firepower from triple Castigators to blast through the foe; definitely a welcome tool against all those Wraiths here. Arco-flagellants provide speed bumps for this build, and there's also some staging/utility placement from the transports. I like the choice to take the Flamers on one of the two Immolators, as it can force a helpful level of caution from some tools (it makes it much riskier for the smaller Immortal units to emerge here, for example).

Can they deal with the Wraiths though? On Vital Ground the answer is probably not. The Castigators can certainly take a big chunk out of a unit of Wraiths if they all get to fire on them, but setting up so that all of them are within range to not get no-sold by Countertemporal Shift is incredibly tricky, and will likely represent an overcommit that will get punished. There's not really any other answer here though - Vahl's squad will do nasty things if they hit melee, perhaps, but the Arcos are kind of dead weight here, as the Wraiths will take them to pieces in melee. On something like Priority Targets the Sisters might manage to free up one mid-board objective and then grind the robots down, as they definitely out-damage them over time, but on Vital I think it's a bit too easy for the Necrons to dominate the mid-board for long enough that victory will escape the Sororitas' grasp - which did happen.

Result

Necrons (Canoptek Court) Victory - 100 - 30

Josh Roberts - Necrons (Canoptek Court) - 1st Place

Immortals With Tesla Carbines. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Canoptek Court

Thoughts

No C'tan, no problem. As covered in the Showdown, this has the horrendous durability of three Wraith blocks in tandem with some actual damage output, with the clip from the Doomstalkers and Plasmancers adding up. Still very much a list to beat, as Josh showcases here by becoming our first double Goonhammer belt holder.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Kyle Grundy - T'au Empire (Kauyon): Ultra-mechanised Tau, with triple Breacherfish and triple Riptide, plus Hammerheads to fill, saturating the board with threats and targets.
• 3rd - Matthew McCurdy - Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force): Double-stacked ThunderCav, 3x5 Wulfen and lots of support.
• 4th - Jack Tite - Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs): Tank-heavy Sisters with some Immolators and triple Castigator on top of the usual hits.
• 5th - Greg Chamberlain - Aeldari: Shooty Aeldari with triple Prism and triple D-cannon.

Clutch City GT 2024

154-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Houston, TX, US on March 02 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Take and Hold - Chilling Rain - Search and Destroy

Kit Smith Hanna - Dark Angels (Ironstorm Spearhead):

vs.

Steven Salazar - Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host)

Thoughts

Okay, so the one asterisk attached to me thinking the metagame looks great right now is that it does slightly feel like we're back in an arms race towards just throwing down the most nightmarish possible shooting setup and gunning the foe off the table, as this Dark Angels build showcases. Two Stormravens, loads of Redemptors, and extra durability in a gunfight for the lot with Darkshrouds, and extra CP from Azrael. It's legitimately horrifying how lethal this army is, and it's certainly well adapted to blast a lot of popular stuff off the table.

That feels like it includes the Custodes army here, because I'm genuinely not sure what they can particularly do about it. The terrain maps for this event look pretty favourable for Custodes into a lot of games, but on this one I don't think it will particularly matter - with a bit of planning, the Dark Angels definitely can emplace themselves on their near no-man's land objective with great sight-lines to the mid board, after which they can just feed a Redemptor a turn onto the centre to demand the Custodes come fight it (and because of -1D it does need a unit to actually commit to killing them), then rinse and repeat, probably taking Assassination and something alongside it for fixed. With that plan, I basically think the Custodes just run out of stuff in the mid-game, and if you're worried about them hiding there's even the option of putting one of the Stormravens in plane mode so it can zip around with near complete impunity.

Sometimes for a game like this I think going all-out aggro on a broad front in response is the answer, but because of all the Redemptors I'm not even sure that super helps - there's a very real prospect of missed kills on Dreads even if the angels walk right into it, which on a top table they probably won't! A nasty mismatch, all things considered, and it looks like the Dark Angels played that to full effect - their score was only modest, but the Custodes scored super low, suggesting that a relatively cautious, methodical shooting gallery was unleashed to bring the golden host low.

Result

Dark Angels (Ironstorm Spearhead) Victory - 79 - 32

Kit Smith Hanna - Dark Angels (Ironstorm Spearhead) - 1st Place

Redemptor Dreadnought. Credit: Kevin Stillman

The List

Archetype

Lionstorm

Thoughts

That's so much dakka. Good grief. This list terrifies me, and I'm genuinely interested to find out if there's anything that can actually stand up against it as the metagame continues to evolve. While Space Marines in general have had a fairly poor win rate, Dark Angels Ironstorm taken on its own has been thriving, and evidence here suggests it isn't going anywhere. Stormraven meta is a throwback right to the start of 8th Edition, so once again everything old is new. Congratulations to Kit on the big victory.

David Hall - Chaos Daemons (Daemonic Incursion) - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

Archetype

Monster Mash

Thoughts

...Yeah okay there's my answer - if the shooting arms race continues, this build is ready to clean up. Be'lakor is a non-negotiable trump card if the opponent is planning to hide at a distance and blast you, while an Everstave Lord of Change with two Tzeentch Soul Grinders as backup represents some non-trivial firepower in response. That's going to force the opponent closer, where they're either going to get bogged down (perhaps literally) by the Great Unclean One or viciously counter-charged by the Keeper or Be'lakor himself. Horrors and the Changeling provide some nice, hard to shift objective pieces to finish up, and the overall built here looks great, and really well positioned as a smart counter-pick to where the meta is heading. Great stuff from David.

Diego Vilcahuaman - Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic) - 3rd Place

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

Archetype

Mutalith Mash

Thoughts

Thousand Sons get in on the arms race action, with a recent pivot back towards the ultra-durable Mutaliths continuing here. The trick with Thousand Sons (as the Best Chaos winner at this weekend's GHO put it) is that if Magnus is alive in the late game you're going to win, because the combination of durability, speed and damage he has going for him lets him trump most armies once they're degraded. With lots of builds packing the kind of firepower that could kill him early on, it's important that you have other big things that demand attention from it early on, and Mutaliths are perfect for that, while also providing a great ablative shield for all the nasty Characters to unleash vicious sorcery. This feels like a strong direction for Tsons at the moment (though the more standard lists are still good too), and well rewarded for Diego with third place here.

Steven Salazar - Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host) - 4th Place

Blade Champion. Credit: Pendulin

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Five Block

Thoughts

What if there were five big units though? All those Custodians with triple Blade Champ does maximise the build's ability to go hyper aggro when required, which is definitely important if you're all-in on melee, as you can't afford to get blasted for too long. As the finals showed, I think the arms race we're currently in could present a problem for pure Infantry builds like this, though if you're going for it then triple Champ definitely is what you want (and Kyria letting you poke one squad out without them getting shot at ranged is also vital). Great at mowing through any flavour of tarpit, and against shooty lists that aren't also -1D on all key pieces, the all-out rush definitely gives you a shot. Very strong stuff from Steven.

The Best of the Rest

There were 13 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

Toronto Winter Open 2024

87-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Toronto, ON, Canada on March 02 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Christopher Rice - Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs) - 1st Place

Credit: Evan "Felime" Siefring

The List

Archetype

Aggro Sisters

Thoughts

Moving on from the serious shooting from the previous events, we now get some brutal melee output. Triple Repentia is no joke on any board with reasonable staging, especially with Zephyrim/Celestine as well (bringing back the classic Miracle Charge from Deep Strike option) and triple Exorcist gives you a great clip of damage into anything that's cowering back from them. It does also mean you don't need the Triumph to help with your damage lift, there's quite enough killing power without it, and the build is a lean, mean killing machine. Also a big fan of Junith/Sacresants, always faintly felt that should see more use. Great to see quite a different Sisters build, bringing back some real 9th Edition classics, getting work done here; congratulations Christopher!

Tim Deetlefs - Aeldari (Battle Host) - 2nd Place

Eldar Support Weapon - D-Cannon. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Skathach Blues

Thoughts

Ah, I see it's once again time for me to screw my eyes shut and insist that Forge World isn't real and can't hurt me.

It's still there, isn't it?

Shit.

Okay, so this build is basically the Aeldari's way to adapt to a rising arms race, because unlike the regular-flavour Wraithknight the Skathach can be kept safe in deep strike, and in concert with all those D-Cannons and speedy Aspects, it allows the army to set up to do trememdous damage at minimal risk. The Wraithknight can come in, punk a tank or big target (potentially including C'tan, the Inferno Lance is great into them), then Fire and Fade back behind a building to avoid reprisals. If the opponent pursues, then they get D-cannoned or Avatared, if they don't it zaps back into the warp for another go the next turn. Undeniably very effective in concert with all those Aspects for scoring and the Avatar's ability to roll out and hold a point at a key moment, and pretty daunting to try and tackle. Well done Tim, even if you did make me acknowledge a Forge World unit (the ultimate Competitive Innovations crime).

Quoc Lay - Chaos Daemons (Daemonic Incursion) - 3rd Place

Credit: Liebot - https://instagram.com/liebot_pics

The List

Archetype

Monster Mash

Thoughts

Once again, in a world of escalating shooting, Be'lakor is king. This build doesn't have quite as much ability to shoot back as the previous Daemons list we looked at, but makes up with it via the extra nasty Shalaxi as a counter-charge threat, and Bloodcrushers for a high-powered engagement on a second front. Otherwise the basic plan here is the same - the opponent has to close because of Be'lakor, whatever they push forward gets stuck on the GuO, and then the other big threats take them apart. Excellent work from Quoc.

Ryan Pearce - Necrons (Canoptek Court) - 4th Place

The Nightbringer. Credit: Wings

The List

Archetype

C'tan and Wraiths

Thoughts

Much though I do think you want some sort of ranged threat with Necrons right now, you very much can still just do this and thrive; many armies flat cannot handle this much durability and you can roll them over. Somewhat to my surprise, it was the Daemons list above that dealt this a loss, which I presume must be down to both Shalaxi and the GuO being able to fight a C'tan and expect to come off okay, and to largely bounce the Wraiths. Outside of that Ryan faced a brutal gauntlet of games and came out on top of them, providing more evidence that the Court has juice left in the tank. Also, glad to see the Autodivinator get use, it definitely feels like that was underrated, and squeezing Imotekh into a Court list can be hard.

The Best of the Rest

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

CAGBASH XVII Charity 40k Tournament

46-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Hamilton, OH, US on March 02 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Folger Pyles - Aeldari (Battle Host) - 1st Place

Credit: Wings

The List

Archetype

Avatar & Go-wide

Thoughts

More Aeldari, going a bit more on the offence than some variants with War Walkers instead of more D-cannons, ready to get early angles on enemy shooting and start tipping things towards the Aeldari. Elsewhere it's business as usual: Lots of Hawks and Spiders for scoring, Fuegan and Dragons in a Falcon for a big power play, and the Avatar to go stand in a key position with Fortune up when needed. You know how this stuff works, it's been going on for like eight months now, it's just Folger's build is particularly well tuned and able to be a bit more pro-active than some others when required.

Aaron Aleong - Orks (Waaagh! Tribe) - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Ork Squighog Boyz. Credit: Magos Sockbert

The List

Archetype

Forge World still isn't real, and still can't hurt me.

Thoughts

Ugh, more resin nonsense. OK. I can face this. Gargantuan Squiggoths are in that classic Forge World bucket of being kind of broken on numbers and interaction, but so physically unwieldy that you sometimes can barely use them in a game. When you can? Super nasty, and very hard to stop (thanks to the unpleasant interaction with 'Ard as Nails), and also extremely well-suited to attacking some current popular choices. 18 D3 melee attacks is going to give even Custodes pause, while the flat 12 damage Lance option is nifty into C'tan, and really any other heavy target you choose to throw them at. It's not like the rest of the list is soft either; that big Squighog stack is also very scary and Mozrog is absurdly tough, meaning that this build ends up as an incredibly hard stat check for opponents, and one that dodges some of the normal shooting builds just by dint of the T13 on the big boys - the Dark Angels list from Clutch City, for example, could easily stumble trying to kill one and get brutally gored for its trouble. You just have to cross your fingers and hope you don't hit either triple D-cannons or triple Prisms, and past that you're golden - which seems to be what happened here for Aaron.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 3rd - Benson Bledsoe - Chaos Daemons (Daemonic Incursion): Nurgle's best boys head out to play, sporting four Great Unclean Ones (incl. Rotigus) with Be'lakor.
• 4th - Austin Johnson - T'au Empire (Kauyon): More ultramech Tau, with loads of Breacherfish and double Riptide.
• 5th - Jamie Grigsby - Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Extreme Monster Mash with OOE as a pure counter-charge piece.
• 6th - Conan Jennings - Black Templars (Gladius Task Force): Double Redeemer, one loaded with Helbrecht and some Brethren, the other with Apothecary Aggressors.
• 7th - Cory Gray - Chaos Knights: Whoops all dogs.

Big Beef Beat down

31-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Omaha, NE, United States on March 02 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Matthew Doughman - Imperial Knights (Noble Lance) - 1st Place

Loyalist Knight Atrapos. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Archetype

Slice and Dice

Thoughts

See now I'm torn between "boo Forge World" and "yay big Knights." This is what this column does to me. Anyway - with heavy duty builds on the rise everywhere the Atrapos sure does look attractive, and the flat four damage it's using makes it fantastic into many Necron and Custodes toys (even into C'tan there's just so much D4 that it'll gradually get there). It's a well-timed meta pick, and I ultimately come down on being keen enough to see Imperial Knights with big boys being viable that I will contain my seething hatred of all things resin, well done Matthew.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Dan Sammons - Leagues of Votann (Oathband): Sagitaur spam with bonus Bikes.
• 3rd - Danny Gill - Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Extra Venom-heavy Skysplinter, going full board control with lots of Mandrakes too.
• 4th - Harout Baltayan - Death Guard (Plague Company): Mortarion, Plaguebursts, Brigands and 2x10 Plague Marines.
• 5th - Jason Jones - Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Triple C'tan, Szarekh and Doomsdays.
• 6th - Kyle McCord - Black Templars (Gladius Task Force): Lots of Sword Brethren in Impulsors.

Gallicus Great Golden Gauntlet

All the lists for this event can be found in MiniHeadQuarters.

Tomby - Black Templars (Gladius Task Force) - 1st Place

Primaris Sword Brethren. Credit: SRM

The List

Archetype

Stage and Smash Templars

Thoughts

A mechanised Templar list to finish for today, leaning on a bunch of transports packed with serious nasties that can stage in the mid-board then unleash an Assault Doctrine turn that smashes the opponent to dust. Enemy hiding in tanks? Eradicators blob. Being shy behind walls? Pry them out with the Inceptors. Eventually they'll have to face you, and when they do you can make sure it's on your terms. Classic Templar stuff, and unconquered here.

The Best of the Rest

• 2nd - lugo - Aeldari: Avatar and speedy Aspects galore, including the full 3x5 Shadow Spectres.

Wrap Up

Part 1 down, another bumper-sized part 2 coming on Friday, make sure to come back then. And, you know, maybe play just a little bit less 40K this weekend. Some of us have Final Fantasy 7 to play.

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.

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