After last week's results bonanza we're back to a slightly more normal rate of events this time around, covering six GTs (including a bonus one left from last week). That's still plenty for us to talk about, especially as the Leagues of Votann are hitting their stride this week, featuring in both of our Showdowns with two very different builds.

This week we're going to be covering:

• Alliance Open (supermajor)
• Wa Masters 2022
• The Hogtowner
• Kent Wargames GT
• DZTV GT
• El Bunker 3er Aniversario GT
• Armageddon Baywatch GT

For Showdowns, we're going to be looking at:

• Kronus Hegemony vs. Chaos Daemons at the Wa Masters.
• Ymyr Conglomerate vs. Creations of Bile & Daemons at the DZTV GT.

Did the Votann live up to the hype? Let's take a look.

Alliance Open

All the lists for this event can be found on the Alliance Open's dedicated site.

Grischa Gerwert - Chaos Daemons - 1st Place

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

The List

Archetype

Mixed Board Control

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Chaos Daemons take down a supermajor in style here (anything less than three units of Flamers counts as "in style" for Chaos right now). This list plays a very strong board control game, as it has a bunch of units that don't die easily to shooting, and a couple (the Bloodthirster and Beasts) that create a very binary "can they or can't they" challenge for opponents to meaningfully push through. The list is set up to exploit any stumble the opponent makes in dealing with this - lots of Mortal Wounds, plenty of Infantry and Casters to dedicate to Secondaries, and of course the two units of Flamers to punish anything that overextends. Beasts haven't felt like they've quite gotten the airtime they deserve in the new book, so it's great to see Grischa putting them to work - huge congratulations for the big win.

Justin Jansen - Drukhari - 2nd Place

Credit: Wings

The List

Archetype

Wrack Spam

Why it's Interesting in 9th

It's taken some time to filter through, but it's always a bit alarming when new rules appear that support an already strong build, and here we see a diabolical plan come to fruition as Wracks don the colours of the Coteries of the Haemoculi. For my money, this represents a significant upgrade on the army's plan over the standard Prophets list, because the strength of the army is in absolutely dominating the primary against the majority of lists through weight of ObSec bodies, and having suprisingly good shooting to back it up. Coteries helps this in a few ways - the defensive part of their army trait is probably slightly less good than the Prophets option (but not by that much and not all the time), but getting army-wide Fall Back and Charge is an incredibly worthwhile trade for that. Stacking a Haemoculus with a size-boosted re-roll 1s aura on top of that via Calculating Gaze and Rule Through Fear then substantially boosts the reliability of the army's shooting on top of that, and you get to round everything out with access to Visions of Butchery to switch off the ObSec of anything that somehow manages to outnumber you. You even keep access to the (extremely good) Prophets Relic and Stratagem.

This is a classic skew list - it's extremely good at winning via a linear plan (roll over the enemy with a carpet of Wracks) and demands very specific answers for the opponent to be in with the slightest chance of victory (truly appaling rate of fire, which only the list we're looking at in a second managed to muster, and even then not by much). A real showcase of a powerhouse build from Justin here.

Liam VSL - Thousand Sons & Daemons - 3rd Place

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

Archetype

Thousand Sons & Daemons

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Ah yeah, that'll do it. Scarab Occults, Flamers and Swooping Hawks are probably the three units in contention for best volume anti-infantry in the game right now, and this army combines access to two of the three of those with a bunch more incidental volume firepower (spot the Warpflamers in some of the Rubricae units) and the option to drop multiple Infernal Gateways in the middle of a horde each turn. That's enough to ensure that almost any army joins the Thousand Sons in being ground to dust, and Liam's third place finish here really cements this archetype as one of the builds to beat. I like the inclusion of one Rhino in his particular spin on it, as being able to stage two Warpflamer units in that for a counterattack that's moderately tricky to proactively clear with is going to be hugely valuable, and it can also just provide a relatively durable way to push out a deep strike bubble when required. A cunning ploy worthy of Tzeentch there.

Jokull Johannsson - Tyranids - 4th Place

Zoanthropes. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Kraken Pressure

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Board control was clearly the order of the day at this event, as this is another army very much on the plan of slamming some stuff into the enemy's face and grinding them to dust while they try and deal with them. In this case the weapons of choice are a healthy number of extremely speedy Raveners to hold the board backedup by with Zoanthropes, Harpies and a Flyrant to rack up damage - all tried, tested and very effective Tyranid tools. Jokull was another player whose only loss was by a miniscule margin too, running into the rather nasty counter of Iron Hand Successor Centurions, who very much have the damage to punch all the Raveners into the sun in a single round of combat backed by the shooting to clear the Harpies. Holding even that to a one-point margin is impressive stuff, and this is a well deserved fourth place.

The Rest of the Best

Three more players finished on 6-1 records, and another 5-1 table drew in the finals. They were:

• 5th - Mani Cheema - Thousand Sons & Daemons: Pretty similar to Liam's build above, but with fewer Rubricae in favour of more generously-sized Flamer units.
• 6th - Mark Krijntjes - Chaos Daemons: A Lord of Change and Be'lakor as big hitters, the unusual sight of a large squad of Plague Drones to hold the board, plenty of Flamers, and a bunch of utility options in support.
• 7th - Benjamin Moeller - Tyranids: Behemoth Lurk Monster Mash with a couple of Tyrannocytes to really push the pressure.
• 8th - Aaron Mosquera - Emperor's Children: All the toys you'd expect here - lots of Noise Marines, a big Terminator brick, nasty Characters and Abaddon (who is technically just a nasty character, but still feels like he needs his own callout).
• 9th - Dino Kho - Tau: Tau Sept Goodstuff with a Riptide alongside the normal hits.

Wa Masters 2022

49-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Kelmscott, WA, AU on November 26 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Tide of Conviction

Jordan Berresford - Kronus Hegemony: A melee spectacular for our first Votann list of the day, pushing Beserks into the opponent with Sagitaurs, and sporting a fully decked-out Hearthguard unit with Warpestryke and concussion gauntlets as a big sucker punch.

vs.

Craig Sumpton - Chaos Daemons: A Khornate tag-team - Skarbrand and an Indomitable Bloodthirster to trap the enemy in a hellish brawl, and loads of Infantry and Flamers to score objectives and sweep up the rest of the enemy.

Thoughts

Not a Land Fortress in sight, but the Votann here still very much mean business. Kronus Beserks are spectacularly nasty and they're not alone here - the full Hearthguard squad is a very reliable killing machine across multiple phases, and the Exactor champ can punt stuff directly into the sun with a few good rolls. What's perhaps even more worrying for the Daemons here is that even the basic Hearthkyn can make a horrible mess of their infantry - three S5 attacks each on the charge is very scary in a context where the lack of AP is irrelevant. The Daemons do have a few powerful tools of their own, most notably Flamers (which are particularly good against armies that don't have many models to spare) and the tooled-up Bloodthirster, who the Leagues might struggle to one-round, but still needs serious attention paid wherever it goes to avoid it healing up with the Talisman.

The problem for the Daemons here is that the way the threats match up makes it very difficult for them to take the initiative in the game. The Votann have a range advantage, and can take a very passive suite of Secondaries (Psychic Interrogation, No Prisoners and either Lay Claim or Prospects of Wealth) and focus their early turns entirely on efficiently grinding the Daemons into the dust, which they very much have the tools for. Basic chip firepower can deal with anything of the smaller Daemon units, and volkanite Hearthguard with High Kahl re-rolls can pick up multiple targets in a flash, can re-deploy to do so from anywhere, and can brutally punish the Daemons if they keep too much stuff in the warp. The Flamers don't even counterattack that well if Fortify is up, and they'll die in their turn to pretty much anything that touches them in melee. Worse, having Sagitaurs to stage the Beserks in makes it pretty easy for the Votann to ward off a lot of the mid-board for pretty much everything except the buffed Bloodthirster - even Skarbrand, as his aura giving them +1A means a single squad has a real shot of one-rounding him, especially if he has any Judgement Tokens.

I feel like a different mission might give the Daemons a bit more of a shot here - a corner deployment with a less endgame-skewed Primary, where they can make a bit more use of their greater numbers to play the mission and have an easier ride on Reality Rebels would help a lot. As it is, it feels like the Votann have too much agency to manage how their (considerable) killing power gets utilised here, and with the Daemons being particularly vulnerable to a lot of it that's going to be pretty messy. I guess in this game the play might well be just to go all-out aggressive, aim the Bloodthirster at the Hearthguard, and see if you can make some magic happen by overwhelming the dwarven guns, but it doesn't look like any dark miracles occurred here.

Result

Kronus Hegemony Victory - 96 - 49

Jordan Berresford - Kronus Hegemony - 1st Place

Sagitaur. Credit: Rockfish

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Angry Dwarves

Thoughts

It may be board control city at the Alliance Open, but over in Australia killing got the job done. This list has some reliable grindy chip damage from the bikes and Hearthguard then some absolutely monstrous big swings it can throw. There's not much that Kronus Beserks can't annihilate utterly, and in this build the Hearthguard are extremely nasty two-phase killers as well. Finally, the lurking threat of the Exactor is going to force some armies to be very careful exactly how much they commit to a counterattack, as no one wants to lose their best toys to a terrifying pile of Mortals. There's plenty of stuff out there which can push back against this - it's powerful but compact, so if opponents find ways of picking units off, it can run short of tools fast - but it's incredibly deadly and reasonably flexible thanks to having lots of Secondary setup, so underestimate it at your peril. Well done to Jordan for piloting the Leagues to an impressive victory.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Lachlan Rigg - Emperor's Children & Daemons: Emperor's Children with a bunch of Noise Marines and a Terminator brick, Abaddon, and lots of Flamers in a Tzeentch Daemons detachment - all the nastiest Chaos toys in one package.
• 3rd - Craig Sumpton - Chaos Daemons: See Showdown.
• 4th - Joshua Steffens - Tyranids: Mortal & Monster-heavy Leviathan with lots of Biovores and Zoanthropes, plus a pair of Tyrants and a Maleceptor.
• 5th - Marc Boye - Tyranids: Leviathan with Harpies & Zoanthropes, a trio of Screamer Killers, and lots of small Warrior units to hold the opponent up.

Kent Wargames November GT

46-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Hothfield, England, GB on November 26 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Euan Bedford-Cooper - Chaos - 1st Place

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

Archetype

Emperor's Children and Flamers

Final Round Matchup

91 - 62 Victory against Steve Scott - Necrons.

Thoughts

What do you get if you combine the best Chaos Space Marine legion with an incredibly nasty Daemon detachment? An extremely scary army, I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear. The only reason we're not seeing it more is that not all events are allowing it (ruling that the Emperor's Children can only bring Slaanesh Daemons), but yeah where this is valid, it's very effective. Noise Marines give you a powerful tool whittling the enemy down at range before you have to commit the Flamers, potentially inciting the enemy to make rash moves that you can punish without as much reliance on bait or tarpits as some Flamer lists (though the army also has a gigantic deathball of Possessed, so can play that game as well). Extremely potent, especially in the hands of a long-term Lord of Chaos like Euan, but very much comes with a "check with your doctor TO if this build is right for you" warning (which the pilot is very clear about in his own blog post about the event).

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Dominic Mathews - Leagues of Votann: An extra-crunchy Land Fortress plus big squads of T6 Pioneers as the Urani-Surtr Regulates, with a small Warpestryke unit and an Exactor Einhyr as troubleshooters.
• 3rd - Stewart Bull - Chaos Daemons: Be'lakor and an Indomitable Bloodthirster with lots of troops and Flamers in tow.
• 4th - Jack Beaman - World Eaters: Abaddon would like to introduce you to his extremely large friends - a Lord of Skulls and two Chaos Land Raiders, with I guess a few Khorne Beserkers inside. Not sure how exactly Land Raiders can pick up the skulls for the skull throne, but shine on.

The Hogtowner 2022

41-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Toronto, ON, CA on November 26 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Note: This event was running with some sort of mystery custom missions - the event pack doesn't really go into much detail beyond the fact that they exist. I am assuming this is the source of the very strange scorelines in a lot of games!

Kevin Imrie - Adeptus Custodes - 1st Place

Adeptus Custodes Contemptor-Achillus by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

The List

Archetype

Emperor's Chosen Goodstuff

Final Round Matchup

28 - 28 Draw against Shane Phillips - Necrons.

Thoughts

So I have no actual info on what the missions comprised other than "a bit like Tempest of War", and in that context I like some of the choices here. A Telemon gives you a reliably crunchy wrecking ball that can make a big nuisance of itself in some part of the table whatever is happening, and Venatari give you access to a combination of speed and the INFANTRY keyword to respond to dynamic mission demands. The wacky tricks you can pull off with the Praetorian Plate also help in that context. What exactly you throw at this army objective-wise so that it ends up on a 28-28 draw vs. Necrons on table 1 is a mystery for the ages, but I like the balanced set of choices here when forging into the unknown.

The Best of the Rest

There were 2 more players on 4.5-0.5 records. They were:

• 2nd - Nick Gralewicz - Tau: Farsight Enclaves with lots of Commanders, some utility units of various stripes, and a pair of Riptides.
• 3rd - Shane Phillips - Necrons: Triple C'tan, a Ghost Ark, and a bunch of cheap Canoptek bodies in Eternal Expansionists.

DZTV Warhammer 40,000 GT Nov 2022

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Sutton Veny, England, GB on November 26 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Tide of Conviction

Liam Callebout - Creations of Bile & Daemons: Smash angry Marines into the enemy then barbeque the survivors. Simple. Notable for skipping Abaddon in favour of more bodies.

vs.

Jake Harding - Leagues of Votann: The duality of Votann on show here as the mean beam machines of Ymyr head to battle.

Thoughts

Votann battle Chaos on Tide of Conviction once more, but with some quite different tools this time. The forces of Ymyr have brought their Land Fortresses out to play, along with lots of bikes, a Forge-Master to keep the tanks in peak condition, and a decently-sized Hearthguard unit as a third big threat. Up against them is a very scary Bile list in the hands of another distinguished Chaos Lord, packing loads of Possessed, a big Terminator brick, and enough Flamers to ruin anyone's day.

The big difference in this came compared to the other Votann showdown is that the Chaos side can afford to be a lot more muscular in pressuring the board, as there isn't the looming threat of a squad of Beserks evaporating whatever they commit with - any melee fight that's happening in this game is at worst a stalemate for Chaos, and far more likely to be one they win, and the Votann need to be getting their damage done at range. They've certainly got some nasty shooting available to them, but the Chaos list can hide pretty easily, making it tough to rack up the damage needed before they strike. Because the Votann can't really compete in melee, there's also a serious degree to which their Characters start to lose value as their non-Tank units die, as they just won't do much without support. Not having a Grimnyr for Psychic Secondaries compounds this a bit too, as it makes their passive Secondary game less good.

The best answer to this is probably to be very aggressive with the Land Fortresses and far more cautious with the bikes than normal. Chaos's challenge here is that they're going to struggle to actually kill the Land Fortresses, so if they can slam themselves forward blasting stuff and demanding an answer, that could buy time for the bikes and Hearthguard to inflict lots of damage from the flanks - though a counterattack from the Flamers could unpick this if they ignore the fortresses. It's also awkward that there's a lot of D2 firepower in the Votann list, and not having melee to clear Flamers if you get an opening hurts - Dsv6+/3+ is really not what this army wants to play against. This isn't unwinnable for the Votann, but I think adding some Beserks as a crunchier counterattack play rather than the Hearthguard would help shore up games like this quite a bit - threatening to punish unwary opponents who get too close can open up more opportunities for shooting. This game ended up closer than the other showdown, but this time around Chaos were able to capitalise on their advantages and win the game.

Result

Creations of Bile Victory - 87 - 58

Liam Callebout - Chaos Space Marines - 1st Place

Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince. Credit: SRM

The List

Archetype

Creations of Bile & Flamers

Thoughts

No Abaddon, more stuff - which will honestly have been a big help in the final game here. This list can fill lots of ruins with terrifying threats, and even against other melee lists the power of the Bile trait can make that a daunting proposition to shift. That's got to be part of the calculus for skipping Abaddon - the trade power here is so high that you simply don't need to concentrate that many points for an unstoppable speed bump, and going wider instead provides more flexibility. Great stuff as ever from Liam.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Andy Taylor - Imperial Knights: Taranis with an extra-tough Forgemaster Crusader to sit back and shoot and an angry Knight of Mars Errant to lead the Warglaives into battle.
• 3rd - George Crabtree - Chaos Daemons: Notch up another one for the Bloodthirster/Be'lakor/Flamer triumverate, though this time it's Skarbrand in the Bloodthirster slot.
• 4th - James Hobbs - Tau: Suit-heavy Farsight with two big Crisis bombs and a large Broadside unit.
• 5th - Jake Harding - Leagues of Votann: See showdown.
• 6th - Rowan Farmer - Asuryani: Eldrad, the Avatar and a bunch of Aspect Warriors - we love to see it.
• 7th - Paddy Dunford - Thousand Sons & Daemons: Thousand Sons bring some Daemonic associates - but not Flamers, instead just a unit of Pink Horrors as resilient position holders and a Fateskimmer to set up access to double Infernal Gateway.

El Bunker 3er Aniversario 40k

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Santiago de Querétaro, Querétaro, MX on November 26 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Xavier Barrera - Adepta Sororitas - 1st Place

Credit: Keewa

The List

Archetype

Bloody Rose Goodstuff

Final Round Matchup

71 - 70 Victory against Luis Moreno - Blood Angels.

Thoughts

This is about as down-the-line as you can get on the Bloody Rose Goodstuff plan - powerful trade pieces whether the opponent is near or (moderately) far, lots of bodies to tick off Secondaries, and access to big power plays with Vahl and via Carry Forth The Faithful. Reliable and effective, and able to take down the event under Xavier's command.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Luis Humberto Casillas Franco - Grey Knights: Prescient Brethren going in on the full quad Dreadknight build, with Interceptors, nasty Characters and Strikes to fill.
• 3rd - Luis Moreno - Blood Angels: Go-wide Blood Angels with three units of Death Company and Lemartes.
• 4th - Santiago Gutiérrez - Chaos Daemons: A Daemon Sentai force, with one of each Greater Daemon (Kairos in the LoC slot) and Be'lakor, with minimal Troops to fill.
• 5th - Gilberto Sánchez Villegas - Astra Militarum: A first outing for new guard, combining Expert Bombardiers and Elite Sharpshooters with lots of Vox-toting Cadians for some very accurate artillery, and using Bullgryn, Plasma Russes and a Vanquisher Tank Commander for some crunch and directed killing power.
• 6th - Jesus Santillan - Astra Militarum: An immediate second outing for new guard, here taking plasma Russes, Karskin and lots of Troops, plus the Vanquisher Tank Commander again and a pair of Basilisks.

Armageddon Baywatch GT

The lists for this event were sent to us directly. Pairings and results are on Best Coast Pairings.

Rodrigo Larreteguy - Tyranids - 1st Place

Exocrine. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Lurk ObSec Monster Mash

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Love a Monster Mash. This build can throw huge numbers of ObSec, high Toughness wounds at the enemy and demand they deal with it promptly, or get brutally eaten. Packing The Passenger on a Trygon Prime and a pair of Mawlocs helps the army really keep up the pressure, ensuring that the opponent gets no respite, and was able to overwhelm even the might of the Thousand Son/Flamer combo in the finals. Well done to Rodrigo.

The Rest of the Best

Three more players finished 4-1, and the fifth place player had a draw and was paired up in the final. They were:

• 2nd - Martín Vedia - Adeptus Custodes: Emperor's Chosen hull spam, with three each of Venerable Contemptors, Achillus Dreads and Caladius Tanks.
• 3rd - Nicolás Tomassian - Tau: Tau Sept with lots of Commanders, one big Crisis unit, Longstrike and a pair of Riptides.
• 4th - Antonio Gardella - Harlequins: Twilgiht with one big foot Troupe and lots of tooled-up smaller ones in boats, plus a pair of minimum bike squads for objective play.
• 5th - Adrian Trejo - Thousand Sons & Friends: Scarabs, Flamers and Abaddon combine their powers to consume and confuse the enemies of Tzeentch.

Wrap Up

Another week down, but another supermajor coming up this weekend as the UKTC heads to Leicester. Votann are available in their full might for the first time in the UKTC, but plenty of top players are packing the Thousand Sons/Daemons combo, so who will come out on top? Hopefully me, playing Ulthwe, but more realistically - find out next week.

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