Warhammer will continue until morale improves, apparently - we've got another gigantic week for your delectation, and more interesting builds at the top (plus the regular crop of Aeldari for you to boo and throw turnips at).

Today I'll be covering:

• Warhammer 40,000 Grand Tournament - US Open Tampa (supermajor)
• Fantasia Fanatic XLIV 40K (major)
• Gem City GT 2023 (major)
• Denver 40K Fight Club October Open (major)
• Dark Sphere October GT
• 1° GT Mallorca

On Friday we'll have Lowest of Men looking at:

• Kippers' Melee 2023 - 40k (major)
• Medhammer GT 2023 - Golden Dawn (major)
• The Pecking Order: Turkey Wars GT 2023 (major)
• Geekfest - Warhammer 40K GT
• Last Of The Summer Winehammer 5
• Austrian GT

This week we've got two voted showdowns selected by the Goonhammer Patrons, and one write-in where my elite intelligence operatives (well, Gunum) have extracted some thoughts from one of the participants. That means we'll be looking at:

• Adepta Sororitas vs World Eaters at the US Open.
• Death Guard vs Aeldari at the Austrain GT
• Astra Militarum vs Aeldari at Gemhammer

You may also notice, starting this week, that we're including the detachment type for players in top fours and showdowns, in preparation for the presumed Marine onslaught that'll be coming in the near future. Hoping to get that sorted out for the Best of the Rest too, stay tuned for that one.

Warhammer 40,000 Grand Tournament - US Open Tampa

291-player, 8-round Supermajor in Tampa, FL, United States on October 13 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Take and Hold - Chosen Battlefield - Sweeping Engagement

Jeffrey Kolodner - Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs): A shooting-focused combined arms Sisters build, packing in Castigators, Immolators and some well-supported Sisters units, with the Morvenn/Warsuit unit as a big hammer.

vs.

Jack Harpster - World Eaters (Berzerker Warband): Extra aggressive World Eaters focused on getting Angron and some Exalted Eightbound amongst the enemy as quickly as possible, then keeping them on the back foot all the way to victory.

Thoughts

A very unique showdown to cap off the US Open here, pitting the aggressive might of World Eaters against a unique and potent Adepta Sororitas list. On the World Eaters side, the discounts they received mean they now get enough stuff that they can play to their strength of trying to body the enemy out of the game. You stick Scouts from Invocatus on the big Eightbound squad and put the Juggerlord with them and they then have massive first turn reach, and once they impact the enemy it can be tricky for them to extract themselves, allowing Angron and the rest of the boys to get stuck in too and lock things up. I like the MoE with a big Berserker unit for the current metagame too, as it gives you something that's a powerful trump to some of the tools other Chaos armies are relying on.

Over on the Sisters side, the big thing to highlight here is the use of regular Battle Sister squads, who now appear to do enough to justify their price tag, and the heavy skew towards shooting to get things done rather than melee. Even Celestine is rocking around with a Seraphim squad rather than Zephyrim, giving her some extra mobility and the option of reaching for an objective that would normally be out of her grasp from reserves, and fortifying the squad with a bit of counter-punch for opponents that charge them. I also like Junith a lot - more CP is basically always good, and keeps the fun flowing here. Once you add all the toys together, what stands out about this force is that it has quite a lot of redundancy - there's enough shooting to do real damage, but outside the Paragons (who are clearly going to be saved for a special occasion) there aren't many things that it would be an unsalvageable disaster to lose, and enough threat projection to force the opponent to interact.

I think the redundancy is key to giving the Sisters a good shot here, despite the brutality of the World Eaters, whose threats are limited in number even after points changes. The Sisters can afford to lose a good few units before they're down and out here, and are well tooled to eliminate whatever killed them in return in this matchup - lots of multi-meltas is pretty great into a bunch of Eightbound, who are going to need to run hot on their saves to survive. Being able to use an Act of Faith to guarantee a critical Fall Back within range of the Eightbound's influence is also a huge boon to the Sisters. Finally, the mission also helps them - were I the Sisters player, I'd aim to maximise the number of objectives that are poorly concealed, because the World Eaters are just going to run out of stuff before the day is out if they have to keep losing units to score, even with the Jakhals/Rhino as extra chaff. That forces them towards going for a shutout, which definitely can still work, but is much less likely to against these Sisters than most. Sure enough, while the scoring was low on both sides, the Sororitas took the day.

Result

Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs) Victory - 58 - 43

Jeffrey Kolodner - Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs) - 1st Place

Celestine. Credit: Corrode

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Go-wide Shooty Sisters

Thoughts

All covered in the Showdown - this is quite different from some of the other Sisters builds people have been trying, and has immediately outperformed expectations for the faction, so is clearly on to something good! I think the combination of high redundancy while still being able to focus fire with a lot of melta when needed is quite unusual in the metagame, and clearly pretty well positioned, so well done Jeffrey for putting this plan together and taking the trophy.

Jack Harpster - World Eaters (Berzerker Warband) - 2nd Place

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Aggro World Eaters

Thoughts

No thoughts, only chainglaive. They'd have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling Sisters. I do like the fact that this army manages to pack enough scoring stuff to be getting on with while still cramming in maximum aggro, it's a nice balance (and I think going low on Berserkers is the right choice).

Congratulations to Jack on making it two unusual armies in the final, and on another great US Open performance.

Quinton Johnson - Aeldari (Battle Host) - 3rd Place

Avatar of Khaine. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Spinners and Wraithguard

Thoughts

We can exclusively confirm that this build is just as nasty on GW terrain as on UKTC. The Avatar is also particularly good at dominating central objectives on GW map 1, which might be what's helped give them the nod over the Yncarne here. Well done to Quinton for taking third.

Nick Herting - Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) - 4th Place

Chaos Space Marines Obliterators. Credits: That Gobbo

The List

Archetype

Brawler CSM

Thoughts

Gonna have to come up with a better name for this, as this seems to be another build that's here to stay. The combination of speedy Warp Talons and Advance/Charge reach from the Chosen Rhino brigade allows Chaos Space Marines to swiftly deploy decent melee threats wherever they're needed, and the strength of taking one each of Nurgle and Undivided Oblitarators and Forgefiends gives you one of the best value shooting setups available right now, real lift for minimal commitment. A great list, and a great run from Nick, who was eventually knocked out in the semi-finals by Jack's World Eaters, who are only too happy to get into a brawl.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 was as follows:

• 5th - Ben Jurek - Aeldari (Battle Host): Wraithguard, Yncarne, triple Spinners. Adds some Shroud Runners to mix up the speedy component a bit.
• 6th - Sascha Alexander Edelkraut - Imperial Fists (Gladius Task Force): Gravis and artillery for days, with Tor Garadon leading some Aggressors as a centrepiece.
• 7th - Hogan Franklin - Tyranids (Synaptic Nexus): Brainy monster mash, taking a bunch of Maleceptors and Neurolictors overseen by a Flyrant and a trio of Norns (two Emissaries and an Assimilator).
• 8th - Brian Jones - Imperial Knights (Noble Lance): Lancer/Canis/Crusader triple bigs, going for maximum aggro.

Fantasia Fanatic XLIV 40K

96-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Västerbottens län, SE on October 14 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Axel Rydén - Aeldari (Battle Host) - 1st Place

War Walker. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Double Avatar

Final Round Matchup

20 - 0 Victory against Arvid Kaykhosravi - Necrons (Awakened Dynasty).

Thoughts

I'm going to level with you - I was hoping that Umeå (from the list name) was some sort of expletive or snide remark about Aeldari, but it turns out to just be the town the event happened in. Very boring. Try harder Axel.

Pedro Chavez - Aeldari (Battle Host) - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: Wings

The List

Archetype

Wraithguard and Spinners

Thoughts

A genuine divergence from the norm to highlight in this one - no Avatars of any flavour. In their place, Pedro has even more reliable scoring than the Aeldari norm, which I can see making a lot of sense in a 20-0 scoring event, as it theoretically helps ensure high scores in lots of games, though in practice it was marginally pipped by the sheer brutality of Axel's build. Still, a very strong (and undefeated) second place from Pedro.

Magnus Forslund - T'au Empire (Kauyon) - 3rd Place (4.5-0.5)

XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Go-wide shooty Tau

Thoughts

Battlesuit-based murder is very much back thanks to Tau being able to cram a bumper crop of mobile murder mechs into their lists post dataslate. This build opts for a slightly more go-wide version of the plan, taking one big and two small Crisis Teams and loading out with some Ghostkeels and Tanks in support. It has one unusual choice in taking the Pathfinder team instead of a second unit of Tetras, which I'm guessing is either some tech against aggressive CSM/World Eater builds (hoping that Scouts with Charge distance reduction can help screen valuable units) or is just because the pilot didn't own enough Tetras. Who can say. Nice to see an unusual unit out and about though, so well done Magnus.

Björn Eriksson - Imperial Knights (Noble Lance) - 4th Place (4.5-0.5)

Imperial Knight Castellan. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Archetype

Hefty Bois

Thoughts

Yeah so I'm going to go ahead and suggest the fact that a lot of the best-performing current Knight builds seem to be discarding Bondsman abilities means that the nerf to those needs a second look. This build goes for maximum non-Bondsman brutality both at a distance and up close, with the nightmare tag team of a Castellan and Canis Rex. That gives it the lift to carve through almost anything, and good alpha strike protection for the Armigers, which is always nice. I also like the cunning trick of sticking Coteaz in as the Inquisitor - Knights don't have access to ongoing CP gain of their own, but the big boys hunger for it, so play off the fact that a lot of armies are now squeezing in a CP battery of some kind. Sneaky, just as we'd expect from the Inquisition, and Coteaz also provides a little bit more killing power than the Inquisitorial average if anything sneaks past his pet mystic. Some nice choices in this build, well done Björn.

The Best of the Rest

There were 10 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

Gem City GT 2023

69-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Dayton, OH, United States on October 14 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Vital Ground - Chilling Rain - Crucible of Battle

Folger Pyles - Aeldari (Battle Host): Yncarne, Wraithguard and a Spinner.

vs.

Jared Bruce - Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment): Go-wide Kriegtastic guard with lots of unusual picks like Rapiers and an Aegis Defence Line to help make stuff extra sticky.

Thoughts

Looks like at least one Aeldari player has finally cottoned on that they're unlikely to get into Showdowns via the democratic route right now, and in service of elf oligarchy, Folger sent in this report of how the final went down. Take it away!

Had to do some learning pre game with some of the awesome choices in my opponents list. The combination of Aegis Defense Line and the Rapier Laser Destroyer Batteries was not something I've played against before. Shout out to Jared on the awesome list and for piloting to a strong finish.

My game plan going in was neutralizing the threat of the 2x Manticores and Callidus assassin. With those off the board my key pieces like the Wraithguard, Spiritseer, and War Walkers would be free to get maximum value. During deployment I was actively looking for angles to line up my War Walkers with their scout move + 10" move to be able to snipe something in his backfield, aiming to teleport the Yncarne across and deal with the Manticores/Assassin. We both deployed our key units bunkered up behind obscuring terrain. However my opponent didn't spot a few angles that I could line up on one of his Manticores. I won the roll to go first and positioned all of my warwalkers to take out the 1 manticore. I got behind enemy lines and no prisoners as secondaries on turn which lined up perfectly with my gameplan, though unfortunately I failed the roll to give fortune to the Yncarne.

I decided to go for max aggression on my turn 1 anyway, aiming to strike a crippling blow and keep the momentum going from there. With the 6 bright lances I dropped 1 of his Manticores in the backfield and teleported the Yncarne in. I was able to use the yncarnes flamer to take out the assassin and melee to drop the other. With my remaining shooting I slowed his 20 man brick down with the night spinner and killed his Death Riders with my remaining shooting. On Jared's turn he went after the Yncarne and set up the rest of his army to start scoring to get back on level footing.

Unfortunately, I rolled hot and he did not when attacking the Yncarne and it lived through his shooting phase despite the lack of Fortune. With the Yncarne and all 3 War Walkers still alive on my turn 2 I was able to pick up his 2 remaing tanks and set myself up to start raking in points despite this being a low scoring mission. Turns 3 through 5 were us trading resources and try to maximize our scoring. I severely underestimated how hard it is to deal with guard units that keep coming back and Jared made the most of a bad situation. Final score was 72 to 53 for an Aeldari victory.

Thanks Folger - interesting to see a game where the Aeldari are forced to go full aggro to avoid being chipped away over time.

Result

Aeldari (Battle Host) Victory - 72 - 53

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

Wraithguard. Credit: Corrode

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Wraithguard and Yncarne

Thoughts

Fairly standard Aeldari stuff, though as highlighted in the Showdown the skew towards War Walkers gives it the option to try and unleash the Yncarne early on when it's right for the matchup. Well done to Folger on the win!

Brad Chester - Orks (Waaagh! Tribe) - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The Beast: Evil Sunz Ork Trukk. Credit: Charlie Brassley

The List

Archetype

Ork Goodstuff

Thoughts

Goddammit. OK, I swear I thought up the title for the column before I read this list. Ok? OK. Anyway, this is the Ork Goodstuff build that Brad's been smashing out a tonne of wins with lately, and it works via the extremely kunnin' method of putting all the best Ork units into an army list then steamrolling the enemy with them. What can I say - it seems to be working, well done Brad.

Zachary Morales - Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders) - 3rd Place

Black Templars High Marshal Helbrecht. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Archetype

Crusader & Tank Templars

Thoughts

OK, so you may look at the Marine list with fifty angry murder Marines and say "surely this is a horde list" and the answer is it kind of is, but also at another event this weekend a Black Templars list with 120 Marines in it took second, so I'm keeping my powder dry on that particular description. This build merely takes advantage of the fact that Primaris Crusaders are an extremely efficient way to throw down bodies, Black Templar Gladiators are even better than the regular ones now that the price difference is smaller, and Primaris Sword Brethen are plausibly the nastiest melee unit that don't take up two seats each in a Land Raider, letting you pack a truly astounding amount of ultraviolence into a Redeemer.

As we see more melee builds pop up in the metagame, this army is extremely ready to punish them, with enough shooting to put the hurt on if they linger at range, but also a brutal counterpunch and access to a very hard-to-charge unit with a massive footprint once you attach a Judiciar to one of the Crusader bricks. Obviously we've got the new Codex shakeup hititng the metagame shortly, but right now Black Templars are one of the breakout Marine options, and Zachary showcases why here.

Lyle Dixon - T'au Empire (Kauyon) - 4th Place

TX78 Sky Ray Gunship. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Crunchy Tau

Thoughts

That's so many guns and hulls, good lord. Two full Crisis bricks and three Sky Rays presents a terrifying and pretty durable shooting core, and you also get lots of Piranhas, Tetras and Stealth suits to screen, spot and score. Efficient and effective from Lyle.

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

Denver 40K Fight Club October Open

63-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Westminster, CO, US on October 14 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Colin Kay - Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) - 1st Place

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

Archetype

Pure Melee CSM

Final Round Matchup

91 - 76 Victory against Joel Davis - Orks (Waaagh! Tribe).

Thoughts

Yeah OK fine, sure - you can also just leave CSM's extremely good shooting tools entirely on the bench and still win with their speedy melee pressure. You have to be the bullet.

Given the plan of winning entirely with melee, I think the inclusion of Huron is a nice tough - it gives you plenty of flexibility to reposition your foot-slogging threats so they're lined up with ideal prey, and also allows one of the Chosen squads to be set up for some techy movement shenanigans at a key moment. When you go down this kind of route you need to be making sure you're squeezing the aboslute most out of our units, as all melee tends to be less forgiving than mixed builds, so it's a smart pick, and clearly extremely well-used by Colin!

Joel Davis - Orks (Waaagh! Tribe) - 2nd Place

Ork Beastboss on Squigosaur. Credit: Magos Sockbert

The List

Archetype

Ork Goodstuff with a Squiggoth

Thoughts

I would say I pretend I do not see it, but a Gargantuan Squiggoth is pretty hard to miss. This build continues a fine Forge World tradition, in that the Ork -1 to Wound stratagem excludes VEHICLEs and GRETCHIN, which covers all giant TITANIC things in the Index, but does not exclude MONSTERs, which is what the Squiggoth is. Did I make an audible sigh when I realised this? Yes. Anyway, this means you get absolutely eye-watering value for your 1CP, essentially leaving Fire Prisms, full wound re-rolls or stuff with Lethal Hits as the only serious answer to the gigantic monster. Are there still ride-or-die Forge World fans who will get mad at me for pointing this sort of thing out? Let's find out!

The Squiggoth also provides a fantastic platform for Flash Gitz to shoot out of, which I should in all fairness say would be a smart thing to do with it even outside the power of the Stratagem combo, as it gives you the flexibility to go for slow-and-steady killing with them rather than having to throw them out and probably most of them to the swingback. I like the mixup this represents on the Goodstuff default, and slamming a Squiggoth into melee has got to be pretty enjoyable (and it crushed many elves under its hooves), so well done to Joel.

Cody Jiru - Aeldari (Battle Host) - 3rd Place

Credit: Wings

The List

Archetype

Go-wide Ynnari

Thoughts

A somewhat unusual Ynnari build here, eschewing some of the normal big Aeldari tools in favour of lots of scoring and board control tools, leveraging the cost-efficiency of Beastmasters. Also unusual (and certainly powerful now Desolation Marines are less common) is the full Shadow Spectre unit, presumably planning to pop Guide and cause endless headaches for the opponent, particularly in concert with a full Illic Ranger unit as well. This build is very tricky to interact with profitably unless you can just roll it over (which is I'm guessing what happened in the loss it picked up against Joel, as it doesn't have great answers to the Big Squig). Will the perfidious elves ever run out of new tricks to try? Not if Cody has anything to say about it, apparently.

Zaak kerstetter - Aeldari (Battle Host) - 4th Place

Credit: Greg Narro

The List

Archetype

Hull-heavy Eldar

Thoughts

A more normal Aeldari build to round out this top four, sticking to the tried and true plan of taking the Yncarne, Warp Spiders and good hulls, though the 10-model Shadow Spectre unit does make it in here too, presumably settled upon as a way to squeeze more big damage in without breaking the bank on Wraithguard. Well done Zaak.

The Best of the Rest

There were 2 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

Dark Sphere October GT

33-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, United Kingdom on October 14 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Niklas Ek - Genestealer Cult (Ascension Day) - 1st Place

Primus. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Pure horde

Final Round Matchup

74 - 72 Victory against Antonio Aparicio Lopez - Aeldari (Battle Host).

Thoughts

Hey, a blast from the (recent) past here, Niklas going ahead and reminding people that while GSC's stickiness and unit count have both been reduced, you can still do absolutely horrifying things with them if you focus on maximising pure damage output for your go turn, which is what this build lands on. I do also like the use of a single Truck to provide something slightly crunchier for early pushes without having to go in on expensive Aberrants. If you played any of early 10th you certainly know what this army can do if you let it - but part of the power of Cults has always been that in the right hands, they can be really hard to stop. Well done Niklas.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Ethan Richards - Black Templars (Righteous Crusaders): Full horde Templars with Crusaders and Primaris Crusaders for days.
• 3rd - Jak Payne - Dark Angels (Gladius Task Force): Big Deathwing Knight brick with Aggressor and Redemptor backup.
• 4th - Antonio Aparicio Lopez - Aeldari (Battle Host): Spinners and Wraithguard with the Avatar.
• 5th - Ranchen Li - Leagues of Votann: Sagitaur spam.
• 6th - Dami Segun  - Aeldari: Prisms and Wraithguard.

1° GT Mallorca

29-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Palma, Illes Balears, ES on October 14 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Vince Montalban - Chaos Space Marines (Slaves to Darkness) - 1st Place

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

Archetype

Gunline and Communes

Final Round Matchup

10 - 10 Draw against Jaime Torrandell - Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment).

Thoughts

This is pretty much a down-the-line showcase of the best assets Chaos Space Marines have, which means I don't have massive amounts to say about it not already covered elsewhere. Accursed Communes are hyper-efficient threats with big reach on an alpha turn, Abaddon and the big shooty stuff is ultra-deadly, and there's plenty od depth in the range to throw out some unusual utility choices like the Bikers here (though I do wonder if maybe Slaanesh would be better on them to threaten harrassment charges?). All very powerful, and a great finish from Vince.

The Best of the Rest

There were 2 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Sibelius - Space Marines (Gladius Task Force): A full of regular Terminators with lots of Gravis and Redemptors backing them up.
• 3rd - Xisco Ubeda - Thousand Sons (Cult of Magic): Rubric/Character Tsons.

Wrap Up

That's so much Warhammer, good lord. Also, very much still too many elves, though it's encouraging to see other armies make it to the final at Tampa. Make sure to check back in on Friday for the back half of the week's events!

Latest

---

• Games Industry News Roundup- April 7th, 2026
  by Dan "Swiftblade" Richardson - Apr 07 2026
• Infinity N5 First Principles: Understanding the Outcomes of Face to Face Rolls
  by Genghis Cohen - Apr 07 2026
• A Brush With Greatness, Part 1: Introductions
  by keewa - Apr 07 2026

Patreon

Support us on Patreon to get access to our Discord and exclusive App features.

Thank you for being a friend.

Already a Patron? Login with Patreon.

Fashion Accessories

Visit our incredibly official store on RedBubble.