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.

As seems to happen semi-regularly, several people have broken through the metagame with Genestealer Cults at once, this time with Biosanctic Broodsurge having a moment in the spotlight. It's not the only big news this week - Bastion Black Templars go from strength to strength, with multiple top-table showings, while Aeldari have racked up a somewhat solid week of results for the first time in a while. All this, plus your regular diet of Ultramarines and Necrons, to follow.

Event News - Goonhammer UK Teams March 2026

Final call for the one team ticket remaining for the first Goonhammer Open UK of 2026 - which this time is going to be our first Teams tournament.

If you were on the fence, we are also excited to announce that at this event, we have Golden Tickets for the full winning team of five! GW have just announced that the WCW is moving to Barcelona this year, so if you want to set your whole squad up for a European Warhammer getaway, sign up now!

The event is a 5-player Team Tournament with WTC Terrain on 14th-15th March in Leicester, check out the details below:

• Event Page
• Tournament Pack
• Facebook
• Eventbrite

This Week's Events

Part 1 on Wednesday:

• Scheunenkloppen Open 2026: Warzone Erkelenz 4
• That 6++ Grand Tournament: North 2026
• CAGBASH XIX Warhammer 40k at Cincycon 2026
• "Casi Casi GT 2.0"

Part 2 on Friday:

• Clutch City GT 2026
• II GT WARHAMMER 40K KANARIAN OPEN
• Bolters and Broken Hearts GT
• Tabletop Grotz Open

Part 3 on Saturday:

• Scorched Earth Open 2026 - 40K Fundraiser GT
• Dark Sphere February GT
• South East Siege 2: Attack of the Kin
• March Madness, Indonesia's 3rd GT and Warhammer World Qualifier

Scheunenkloppen Open 2026: Warzone Erkelenz 4

135-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Erkelenz, NRW, Deutschland on February 28 2026. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Grischa Gerwert - Ultramarines (Gladius Task Force) - 1st Place

Victrix Guard Chapter Ancient Credit: Keewa

The List

Archetype

Victrix Blade

Thoughts

Taking our biggest trophy of the week, it's the Ultramarines, with Grischa going a bit lighter on the hulls and pivoting back to double Victrix. That gives a bit more board control and stops you catching as many strats from anti-C'tan horde builds, as the Guard will brutally scythe through those and have the OC to dominate whatever space they're in. While a little less good at outright punking C'tan at a distance, good objective play helps there as well, and C'tan in configurations without re-rolls don't kill Victrix super quickly either (though you do have to watch out for Ammentar). It also probably helped a lot in the final Grischa played against WCW runner-up Liam Vsl, as the perfidious Aeldari don't love the level of table domination that two squads can help, whereas biggers hulls would probably just provide higher value targets. Congratulations to Grischa!

Christian Breuer - Genestealer Cult (Biosanctic Broodsurge) - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: BuffaloChicken

The List

Archetype

Ridgerunner Broodsurge

Thoughts

This week's big news is the semi-regular rise of the Genestealer Cults, with strong showings for Broodsurge across multiple events and the highest win rate of the week (with just about enough players that it's at least worth noting rather than pure statistical outlier). This list is a pretty classic example - you've got a very solid suite of melee hammers that gets all up in the foe's business at pace (with a bit of diversity betwee, Ridgerunners provide solid anti-heavy shooting to spike out some key targets, and you can keep the pressure up with respawns on the good stuff plus the reviving Abominants. As the metagame has consolidated on pretty heavy builds, there are numerous lists that will struggle with the waves of multi-front pressure this can exert, and it also doesn't expose too many single model high-value targets at close range, which can mitigate the impact of enemy big threats. Great to see a very classic Cult strategy doing well, congratulations to Christian on undefeated second place.

liam Vsl - Aeldari (Serpent's Brood) - 3rd Place

A Solitaire. Photo: Corrode

The List

Archetype

Go-wide Brood

Thoughts

Also on a brood theme and also having an (in their case surprisingly) good week are the Aeldari, here with Liam piloting the perfidious clowns to a (very) close loss in the final. This list combines the go-wide elements of the Aspect Host builds Liam was using last year (Reapers to fully zone out the backfield while chipping with indirect, Hawks for scoring and blocking) with Harlequins as the new hammer pieces. Lots of Troupes out of a mix of Skyweavers and a Falcon provide tailored levels of murder (notably, the Falcon unit will mostly kill a C'tan if allowed to), and one big Skyweaver unit is one of the best remaining alpha threats that Aeldari can fully protect via Stratagems, and great into all the Ultramarine hulls that are out there at the moment. Obviously, this list is very brittle and I think would struggle with the third big new players from this week (horde Templar Bastion, more on that in a second), but it's legitimately great at both scoring and lightning-speed violence, which makes it stand out as one of the best current Aeldari options (and presumably soon to be reinforced with some extra juice from Corsairs). Well done to Liam!

Tim Schneider - Leagues of Votann (Hearthband) - 4th Place

Cthonian Beserks. Credit: Rich Nutter

The List

Archetype

Heavy melee Hearthband

Thoughts

Hearthband takes the final undefeated slot here, building a bit taller than normal with all of a full Hearthguard squad, double Fort and a full Beserk unit to potentially launch out of the second transport. That latter pieces forces significantly higher caution from prime enemy targets, as at 200pts it has a solid chance of trading up than most. There's also a nod to additional anti-horde here too, a full Bike squad threatening to chip them down, and just generally this list seems to recognise and act on Votann's need to be able to kill any target in a pinch, as they don't really have the scoring angle to fall back on in the way some armies do. Well done to Tim for deploying for all-spectrum warfare, only picking up one narrow loss to Liam's Harlequins above.

The Best of the Rest

There were 10 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

• 5th - Guillaume Dusaussois - Ultramarines (Gladius Task Force): Hulltramarines as Gladius.
• 6th - Pierre Debey - Chaos Knights (Infernal Lance): Double Abominant and double Despoiler, looking for extra attrition and battle shocks to hold the line against C'tan.
• 7th - Mathieu Clerc - Leagues of Votann (Hearthband): Double Fort Hearthband with extra melee heft from one full Beserk unit.
• 8th - Jannik Wyrwich - Adeptus Custodes (Talons of the Emperor): Many Custodians and two Land Raiders, plus a Caladius tank for extra firepower.
• 9th - Mario Titz - Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force): Pure melee aggro wolves with lots of ThunderCav, Headtakers and Wulfen.
• 10th - moritz Klima - Ultramarines (Blade of Ultramar): Hulltramarines with less herohammer than normal to squeeze a second Victrix unit in.
• 11th - Tim Schlizio - Drukhari (Spectacle of Spite): Pure melee Spectacle with extra Wyches and two big squads each of Hellions and Reavers.
• 12th - Nils Gottschalk - Leagues of Votann (Dêlve Assault Shift): Beserks for days and two Forts.
• 13th - Alessandro Liessem - Ultramarines (Blade of Ultramar): Blade Hulltramarines with Redemptors.
• 14th - Marc Wörz - Necrons (Awakened Dynasty): C'tanless herohammer Awakened with the King and some Doomsdays.

That 6++ Grand Tournament: North 2026

58-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, United Kingdom on February 28 2026. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Take and Hold - Search and Destroy

Nassim Fouchane - Genestealer Cult (Biosanctic Broodsurge)

vs.

Ed Watts - Black Templars (Bastion Task Force)

Thoughts

An intense melee showdown is on the cards today, with 60 Black Templars Crusaders keen to surge across the table and put the boot into the Genestealer Cults. The Cults are ready to give as good as they get, mind, eschewing the shooting threats that sometimes accompany the Broodsurge in favour of melee threat and scoring chaff. That's a big help here, especially having the full unit of Aberrants, as that helps the cult concentrate the kind of violence they need to apply fast, and will also tax the Space Marine second wave as they try to clear them out via the Fight on Death from Abominants. There are plenty of Marines here, but every one of them that dies stays dead, while the Cult have plenty of respawns and stickiness that means they're very likely to win the war of attrition.

That's not the only factor in overall victory, however - what the Marines do have in their favour is the ability to sweep onto all the objectives and stay there with high OC for a pretty good amout of time, even if the Cult eventually win out. They have enough bodies to control most of the table, the speed to get there thanks to Bastion, and can squeeze out a bit of extra durability from various Stratagems, especially Angels Defiant and Shock Bombardment, the latter especially good into a foe that's quite short on re-rolls. This mission does help them squeeze maximum value from that, especially if they get the first Infiltrate drop, and their goal is definitely to deny points and hold the line long enough to secure a win. The Cult, conversely, probably want to concentrate their pressure onto one flank objective to try and "unlock" it for scoring purposes, then lean on their eventual material advantage to try and win. Up front, my impression was that the Templars would be able to comfortably slow the cult down enough to land a win, but having spoken to Nas it was much close than that - the Templars actually ended the game tabled, but had just managed to lock in sufficient Primary before that to take the trophy.

Result

Black Templars (Bastion Task Force) Victory - 11 - 9

Ed Watts - Black Templars (Bastion Task Force) - 1st Place

Black Templars Crusader. Credit: SRM

The List

Archetype

60 Angry Men

Thoughts

Clearly bored of horde Grey Knights, Ed pivots to a new Space Marine horde setup here, and as the Showdown demonstrates he was able to pilot it to victory. The same tools that slow down Cults a bit will hamper something like C'tan a lot - they hate Hit and Wound modifiers, and have no real way of outscoring this kind of army, and I'm very comfortable saying this would be one of the scariest things to see across the table with a multi-C'tan build. Congratulations Ed!

Christopher Langton - Death Guard (Virulent Vectorium) - 2nd Place (4.5-0.5)

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

Archetype

Mortarion Blightlord Vectorium

Thoughts

Mortarion and the current hotness of a full Blightlord unit take second here. The big squad gives you a desireable combination of attributes - there's almost nothing it instantly folds to, particularly with access to -1D via Stratagem, they make exceptional use of MOrtarion's Primarch toolbox, and they give you a secondary place to pop off with full shooting re-rolls from Creeping Blight if it's not yet safe to get your Plague Marines out. Those are obviously your staged big damage threats, able to unleash great multi-phase offence with the Character buffs, and very easy to hide in their Rhino. Finally, triple Drone is the perfect complement to all of that, as your opponent won't break through your lines in force fast, and with Fall Back and Shoot they're hard to shut down without killing them outright. There's more solid all-rounder power in the Vectorium setup than the current win rate would have you believe, and this is a good example of it, well done Christopher.

Nassim Fouchane - Genestealer Cult (Biosanctic Broodsurge) - 3rd Place

Patriarch. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Full Send Broodsurge

Thoughts

All pressure all the time here, and it was nearly enough to add a trophy to Nas's collection. The big Aberrant unit seems very clutch right now, especially as you can stage them in a truck to stop most of their potential predators getting an easy shot at them, and I imagine just the threat of reviving the whole unit gives some foes conniptions. Well done Nas!

Michael Duff - Ultramarines (Blade of Ultramar) - 4th Place

THE Cato Sicarius - Credit: Keewa

The List

Archetype

Heavy Victrix Hulltramarines

Thoughts

In fourth, we've got a somehow extra elite spin on Blade Hulltramarines, cutting down the mid-weight hulls (but keeping the RepExes, so I'm keeping the name) and somehow finding the points for 15 Victrix alongside them. The result is obviously low-ish on activations, but very long on raw power, so anyone who can't degrade its capabilities at pace (or outscore it - Ed's Templars were able to do that in round 4) is going to have a rough time. Well done Michael on 4th place.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 5th - Luke Townsend - T'au Empire (Mont'ka): Heavy suit Mont'ka with triptide and a full Broadside unit.
• 6th - Jack Tite - Orks (More Dakka): A surprise return for More Dakka, using double Boyz horde and super Grots to screen, and lots of Tankbustas and Gitz for blasting. Boyz with Waaagh up is something C'tan are notably not great at killing, so this is a really cool angle of attack (since you can have that going a lot of the time).
• 7th - Adam Gourlay - Drukhari (Reaper's Wager): Reaper's Wager goodstuff with double Talos.
• 8th - Matt Bell - Necrons (Awakened Dynasty): Double C'tan awakwned herohammer with a big Warrior brick.
• 9th - Alex Fowler - Astra Militarum (Grizzled Company): Elite Infantry Grizzled with lots of Scions (including a full 10 with Command) and a big Cadian squad.
• 10th - Greg Chamberlain - Leagues of Votann (Hearthband): No-Fort Hearthband with two full Hearthguard squads and lots of smaller units and Arkanysts in support.

CAGBASH XIX Warhammer 40k at Cincycon 2026

45-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Hamilton, OH, US on February 28 2026. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Zachary Morales - T'au Empire (Mont'ka) - 1st Place

Tau Stormsurge. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Archetype

Extra Big Suit Mont'ka

Thoughts

T'au catch the bug for going heavy here, packing the mighty Stormsurge in a Mont'ka shell that ensures it can get into position and start blasting at pace, with three Riptides riding shotgun to assist. That's a horrendous amount of firepower attached to 2+/4++ bodies, and with Lethal Hits from Mont'ka as well, quite capable of carving through targets of any size. I cannot stress enough, having played against one fairly recently, that the Stormsurge is wild at 360pts, and it's got so many guns on it that it does a good job of punishing hordes that try to outscore big builds. Mont'ka also makes it extra punishing for low activation lists like Pantheon C'tan to handle, because an opponent will have to use them to pick off cheap stuff like Piranhas, at which point Pinpoint Counter-Offensive activates and it's time to ride the pulse blast cannon express to oblivion. I realise I've said this in the past, but I legimately no-joke mean it that T'au players are sleeping on how good the Stormsurge is at the moment, and this is a great showcase for it, congratulations Zachery.

Conan Jennings - Ultramarines (Blade of Ultramar) - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Cobalt Scions Ballistus Dreadnought. Credit: Charlie Brassley

The List

Archetype

Guilliman Hulltramarines

Thoughts

More Ultramarines in undefeated second place here, making sure Guilliman doesn't feel left out in a week where plenty of players have dropped him for more Victrix. Needs to keep active in his old age, or something. Congratulations Conan.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 3rd - Peter Elias - Ultramarines (Blade of Ultramar): Extra hull-heavy Hulltramarines with pretty much all vehicles other than some Jump Intercessors, using Whirlwinds to handle hidden foes.
• 4th - Izaak Kemp - Chaos Space Marines (Renegade Raiders): Melee brawler Raiders, centred around four Rhinos packed with Legionaries and Chosen, supported by Maulerfiends.
• 5th - Alex Brudnicki - Adeptus Custodes (Talons of the Emperor): Custodian and Land Raider spam.
• 6th - Marco Flores - Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs): Melta and herohammer-heavy Martyrs with one Sacresant unit to block.
• 7th - Dakota Schwan - Dark Angels (Wrath of the Rock): Deathwing and Land Speeder Lion Wrath with a Desolation squad supporting.
• 8th - Dustin Weaver - Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): All-rounder Invasion fleet, mostly leaning slightly towards the go-wide, but with the option to build the full Ravener doomstack.

"Casi Casi GT 2.0"

38-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Santiago, Región Metropolitana, Chile on February 28 2026. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Bruno Fajardo - Blood Angels (Angelic Inheritors) - 1st Place

Mephiston by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

The List

Archetype

Shooty Inheritors

Thoughts

Something a little different for our final winner today, sporting a shooty spin on Angelic Inheritors. The classic Inceptors to take advantage of Wings of Fire, while a Desolation squad can either sit back hidden or pop out with Instant of Grace (to enable Shadow of Great Wings) as needed. Any foes trying to press and handle those (plus the Lancer) get picked off by a mix of Sanguinary Guard, Mephiston and the Sanguinor. I'm a little surprised not to see a Character to join the Desolation squad, as it does force double CP spend if you want to protect them, but I guess if you slow your roll a bit you can plan ahead for that and make it work. The list is also very high quality all-round - all these units are among the best at what they do, and the Stratagems from this detachment provide quite a good amount of flexibility in how to use them. Congratulations to Bruno (and shout out to the scene in Chile for putting on a solidly sized event!).

The Best of the Rest

There were 7 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Claudio Münzer - Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Double Norn monster mash.
• 3rd - Martin Davila - Space Marines (Astartes) (Gladius Task Force): Mid-weight Ultra Gladius with double Victrix, Lancers and Whirlwinds.
• 4th - Herbert Libeer - Necrons (Pantheon of Woe): Quad C'tan, double Doomsday.
• 5th - Juan Esteban Laval - Adeptus Mechanicus (Haloscreed Battle Clade): Toolboxy close-ranged Haloscreed with two big Ruststalker units, and then a sampling of lots of other stuff, including one unit of each kind of Electropriest.
• 6th - Jose Tomas Vega - Adeptus Mechanicus (Haloscreed Battle Clade): Shooting-heavy Haloscreed with lots of Ironstriders and a Breacher squad. Thus we see the duality of AdMech.
• 7th - Mondaca Juan - Chaos Daemons (Scintillating Legion): Birds, Be'lakor, scoring pieces and a Neverblade Daemon Prince as an assassin.
• 8th - Sebastian Jaime - Thousand Sons (Hexwarp Thrallband): Double Scarab Occults and some herohammer in charge.

Wrap Up

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