It's the final Competitive Innovations result roundup of the year, with a last two majors to report on. These are:

• Rise of The Empire GT
• France Tournament Circuit GT

With just two events, I'm including both Showdowns, and I'm not going to do much in the way of pre-amble, as I'm on holiday at this point. Merry Christmas to all my beloved readers, thanks for checking in on the column each week (and also to everyone who's answered my frantic questions about which mission was played, or sent me matchup thoughts) and see you in the new year!

Rise Of The Empire GT

75-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Houston, TX, US on December 17 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Tear Down Their Icons

Brad Townsend - Thousand Sons & Daemons: The hotness with one major tweak - cutting out the Scarab Occults in favour of more characters and the full 3x5 Chaos Spawn.

vs.

Colin McDade - Adepta Sororitas: The classic Infantry-heavy version of Bloody Rose Goodstuff.

Thoughts

So the good news for the Thousand Sons here, in what can historically be a bit of a pesty matchup thanks to the Aegis of the Emperor Sacred Rite, is that Flamers are very strong into a lot of Sororitas tools, and Colin's list here doesn't really have any of the things they're bad into. The bad news is that not having the big Scarab brick really hurts in this particular game, as it basically means there's nothing in the Chaos list that the Sororitas melee threats can't body check. Flamer Overwatch is a concern, sure, but Rubricae are sufficiently non-threatening in combat that the Sisters don't mind charging a lot of things at once, and only really have to be cautious about the Spawn.

That certainly doesn't mean this is going to be all one way - the Sons list is very good at murdering any Sisters units that are out in the open, and also does a decent job of no-selling the value of the Retributors - they're going to die if they pop out to shoot, and they're pretty unlikely to make back their value before they do. Sisters have their six scary melee units, but the Chaos side has more units than that which need to be made dead, and the Sisters have to be very careful that they're not losing any serious assets without taking something with them - an unusual way round for that dynamic to function in a matchup involving Thousand Sons. Having cheap Crusaders and Death Cult Assassins to either sacrifice on an objective or soak up overwatch definitely helps mitigate this, as does the fact that Sisters can score pretty highly on their Secondaries by playing very aggressively - a bunch of Spawn kicking around opens up No Prisoners as a viable option in addition to the normal suite, whereas the Thousand Sons are slightly at the mercy of the timing of kills and successful denies for scoring Sorcerous Prowess, though can at least use Cabbalistic Focus to force through whatever Warpcraft Secondary they pick, which gives them a bit of passive scoring.

The mission here does end up being a bit of a relief for the Sororitas though - Tear Down Their Icons is good for the Sororitas to pick up some Primary points on, but more importantly is very good for Defend the Shrine - pick the "top left" objective for it, and suddenly the Sisters have good passive scoring going for them, especially if they take Banners as well. That combines with other factions to, I think, marginally favour them, though it's close enough that knowing the result is probably skewing my thinking - the Bloody Rose did take the win here.

Result

Adepta Sororitas Victory - 75 - 69

Colin McDade - Adepta Sororitas - 1st Place

Credit: Keewa

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Bloody Rose Goodstuff

Thoughts

A great end-of-year showcase from one of the top builds of Nephilim, in the hands of someone who's definitely put in the reps to really master them. Lots of scary melee threats, reliable shooting from the Retributors, and Morvenn Vahl plus access to Word of the Emperor to give a final lift when required.

Georg Bobkov - Creations of Bile & Daemons - 2nd Place

Credit: Swiftblade

The List

Archetype

Creations of Bile & Flamers

Thoughts

Another strong showing for Creations of Bile and their Daemonic Assistants, here swapping out the default secondary CSM threats of Possessed for two big units of Chosen, providing a bit more adaptability and skirmish capability, as these can both rack up a few kills with bolters if the enemy stays at a distance, or slam forward at speed because they're CORE and can thus use Auto-Stimulants to Advance/Charge. That ensures that even if the Terminators get bogged down, the list still maintains a high threat range, creating a very flexible overall package (at a cost of slightly less hammer blow potential). Clearly worked out well for Georg!

Brad Townsend - Thousand Sons & Daemons - 3rd Place

Chaos Spawn Credit: Swiftblade

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Thousand Sons & Daemons

Thoughts

As per the Showdown, the big swap here is taking lots of Spawn instead of a Scarab squad. That helps ensure the list has a lot of stuff, and is much more ready to lose a few units to achieve short-term goals than normal, but does mean that if it can be pushed onto the back foot, it hasn't got that rock-solid anchor of Scarabs to stem the tide. Definitely makes the list a bit more dynamic and capable of aggression than the normally ponderous Thousand Sons, and potentially better able to play into high-damage shooting lists like Votann or Tau, but at a cost that you're going to get some games (like the final) where the opponent sees no Scarabs and breathes a big sigh of relief. Certainly cool to see a bit of a change to the formula from Brad here though, and could be an effective way of updating in response to new Guard to boot (and did, after all, make it all the way to the final here!).

Robert Moreland - Adeptus Custodes - 4th Place

Adeptus Custodes Sagittarum Guard by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

The List

Archetype

Emissaries Imperatus Sagittarum Spam.

Thoughts

A strong performance for Custodes to round out the top four here, using one of the less common but pretty strong tactics of spamming Sagittarum as Emissaries Imperatus, and ensuring access to some bikes to kick the game off with Into The Darkness if needed. A wall of Fight-first Sagittarum with Trajann and the flag is hard to charge and will reliably grind almost anything without Damage Reduction into the dust, and having an early push with the bikes can create a sufficient speedbump to really capitalise on that. Does need to dodge Freeblade Lance, which is a total nightmare for it, but otherwise one of the more powerful ways to play Custodes, and I really like Robert's exact configuration here (including bringing Coteaz for passive scoring during the grind process).

The Best of the Rest

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

• 5th - Dirk Hryekewicz - Astra Militarum: Old Astra Militarum won't go quiet into the long night here, with all the classics (Tank Commanders, Infantry, Manticores) in a Gunnery/Spotter Brigade, and some accompanying Scions in a patrol.
• 6th - Kit Smith Hanna - Tyranids: Mortal-wound heavy Kraken, using a squad of Raveners and Tervigon/Termagant brick to tie up enemies, and tonnes of Zoanthropes and Spore Mine generators behind to whittle the enemy away.
• 7th - TJ Bruce - Chaos Daemons: Very much the distilled core of the current successful Monster Mash builds - Be'lakor, Big Bird and the Indomitable Bloodthirster, a very minimal spend on the Troops required for a Battalion, and then 3x6 Flamers with an Exalted.
• 8th - Robert Rettew - Leagues of Votann: A strong all-rounder Ymyr list, one Land Fortress with Forge-Master support, tooled up bikes and Hearthkyn, and a couple squads of Beserks (one with a mole-mortar for emergency Overwatch suppression).

France Tournament Circuit Major

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. This was the first event in a new series by France Tabletop Events, and was using the tried and tested UKTC maps, so I'm looking forward to seeing some more big results from France in the future. A couple of photos sent to me by Thomas Krebs from the event team are below, looks like a blast!

Credit: France Tabletop Events

Credit: France Tabletop Events

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission  - The Scouring

Guillaume Dusaussois - Thousand Sons & Daemons: A character-light version of Duplicity & Flamers, squeezing in extra sacrificial stuff in trade.



vs.

Franck Fetis - Leagues of Votann: Greater Thurian League with three rail Fortresses.

Thoughts

So my first thought on reading this is that the Votann are just going to run out of stuff. Is three Land Fortresses terrifying? Yes, but the Thousand Sons have a lot of units to work with, including a few things that are particularly good for adapting to this like sacrificial Enlightened and a Rhino to create stickier objective control. A run of bad saves could certainly flip this game quickly, but because the Terminators still get a 5+ save against the rail cannons even without their invulns, there's a good chance that even using Uthar's auto-six for a spillover wound doesn't get things done. The Greater Thurian League re-rolls trait is still a huge help here mind, as it makes the Votann very reliable at chewing through their targets, and the double-counting on objectives is also specifically excellent for how I think the Votann want to play this.

On a mission requiring going wide, I think the Votann would just run out of stuff here, but on The Scouring they have an angle to play. Were I them, I'd probably take Lay Claim, No Prisoners and Banners/Prospects of Wealth, and then focus the majority of my gameplay on wiping out the Thousand Sons, relying on locked-in or endgame scoring to get the job finished. Bike squads counting as six models makes it very easy for them to flip an objective off a squad of Rubricae if the Thousand Sons aren't careful, and can also score Prospects off the centre objective if the Votann go first. Even if they don't, they can easily score it (or Banners) on their two nearby objectives, and the Forge-master can pretty trivially handle the mission objective, ensuring a decent flow of points through to the mid game. If the Thousand Sons are wiped out, that provides an opportunity to score one more set of Actions on the final turn and grab all the Lay Claim markers, and even if they aren't, the fact that the Sons have fewer characters than normal means that the Land Fortresses can potentially be used aggressively come the mid game without getting immediately owned by Mortal Wounds, especially if the Doom Bolt units have been removed (or if the Fateskimmer has somehow been deleted).

That should be enough to force the Thousand Sons onto the offensive and into the kind of game the Votann want. Their passive scoring options here are significantly less good than normal, as they don't have good numbers of targets for Sorcerous Prowess, are a bit short of spare Characters for Actions, and playing Banners is going to require either committing lots of models onto objectives to stop a bike unit de-bannering it, which is still the right play, but will help the Votann with their goal of killing stuff. Having lots of Flamers certainly helps for getting aggressive, and there's certainly a version of this game where Chaos can sweep up all the Votann's ObSec quickly enough that they can't pull off the late game shenanigans they need, and I think thanks to the Scouring this is very much anyone's game rather than favouring the Sons as most missions would. It looks like the upside of the mission was enough for the Votann to lay claim to victory.

Result

Leagues of Votann Victory - 79-65

Franck Fetis - Leagues of Votann - 1st Place

Trans-Hyperian Alliance Hekaton Land Fortress. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Greater Thurian League Goodstuff

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Ah, there are the magna-rail cannons. The changes to Eye of the Ancestors (and Ymyr being strong) has meant that they've taken a bit of a back seat to beams, but Uthar (and the GTL in general) still provides a lot of good support for them. You've still got an auto-six to wound if you want it, and can combine that with an auto-hit for reliable elimination, and because you're usually going to be wounding on twos, if you're firing the big gun at infantry where killing only a single model would be largely irrelevant, you can also use the GTL wound re-roll to fish for a six to wound. Counting as five models for objective control and not needing to stay at distance to maximise the guns also lets you be very pushy with them, ensuring you're getting good sightlines for the bolt cannons. A good alternative to the Ymyr standard overall, and I'm going to swallow my faint dread at seeing triple Fortress in a Showdown two weeks in a row and say a big congratulations to Franck on the impressive win!

Guillaume Dusaussois - Thousand Sons & Daemons - 2nd Place

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Duplicity & Daemons

Why it's Interesting in 9th

You know how this works, at this point. I like Guillaume's inclusion of a bit of extra board control and sacrificial units, but do think you probably want one more caster of some flavour to dedicate to Psychic Actions where required. That's nit-picking though - this made it all the way to the finals, and put up a strong showing there, so huge congratulations to Guillaume.

Alban de Polignac - Thousand Sons & Daemons - 3rd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

Archetype

Duplicity & Daemons

Why it's Interesting in 9th

The other end of the Duplicity & Daemons spectrum, cutting back on Rubricae and sacrificial stuff in order to pack in a second Scarab brick. That means you sometimes get to overwhelm the enemy with their sheer durability, in line with how purer Thousand Sons lists tend to play, but are also a bit more vulnerable against opponents with a lot of faster melee threats and a Fight Last. That does not seem to have held Alban back even slightly, and he picked up an undefeated third place through one of the nastiest gauntlets of matchups I've seen for a while.

Arnaud Allot - Necrons - 4th Place

Necron Warriors. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Archetype

Shooty Necrons

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Something unusual to round us out here - a non-ObSec Necron build, one that's instead focused on the noble art of starting blasting. Doom Scythes and regular Lokhusts are pretty spicy on rate these days (and even better in Mephrit), Tomb Blades are good for proccing Talent For Annihilation, and you get a couple of unique Mephrit tricks. These are the use of Exterminator Heavy Destroyers, where the extra point of AP is transformational in terms of what they can aim to kill, and a super-powered Catacomb Command Barge via Merciless Tyrant, making Code of Combat even more reliable than usual. Add in the fact that Treasures is still a top-tier Secondary without an ObSec dynasty, and good flexibility in positioning from the Ghost Ark, and you have a pleasingly potent option that's genuinely unique - so well done to Arnaud for making it to 4th place!

The Rest of the Best

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

• 5th - Alexandre Sacco - Harlequins: The breakout star of the LGT puts in a very strong finish here, sporting Light Saedath with loads of Boats and Troupes, plus a couple of utility Death Jesters.
• 6th - Romain Serre - Chaos Daemons: Another Flamer-heavy Monster Mash build, swapping out a Lord of Change for Skarbrand.
• 7th - Ludovic Stammler - Harlequins: Light Saedath, this time with two tooled-up melee Skyweaver units and a Solitaire as flex choices.
• 8th - Aimée Jacquin - Tyranids: Naturalised Camouflage Behemoth with lots of Warriors and Raveners to fight for the mid-board while Zoanthropes and a Harpy blast stuff.
• 9th - Etienne Desmartin - Creations of Bile & Flamers: The full Agents of Chaos trifecta, bringing Abaddon and Flamers alongside a Bile Battalion, which uses a big Terminator block and two units of Possessed.
• 10th - Amine Meunier - Necrons: Triple Transcendent C'tan Eternal Expansionists, sacrificing access to the Silent King for more Mortals. Plenty of Skorpekh and Lokhusts to support them, and the (I think underrepresented) choice of using Trazyn in one of the HQ slots to get a free relic, helping reduce the blow of taking lots of detachments wthout Szarekh.
• 11th - Hugo Richiardi - Craftworlds: Swift Strikes Craftworlds with lots of Hawks, Baharroth and Karandras, and more Apect Warriors to fill, including a squad of Shadow Spectres.
• 12th - Thibault Duhamel - Ynnari: Harlequin and Psyker-heavy Ynnari, using three big Troupes (and a fourth mid-sized one) with loads of bikers and characters supporting them.

Wrap Up

This has been - Warhammer. Next year - more Warhammer.

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.