Welcome back to part 2 of this week's column, where we've got four more events for your enjoyment. While a certain Marine chapter continues to look substantially overcooked, it's otherwise looking like a pretty healthy metagame out there, with some more great performances from a nice variety of builds. Let's take a look.

Today, we'll be covering:

• NurgleMania (Major)
• Team Stonehammer Presents: The 36 Chambers
• Hellstorm's All Stars Heat 1
• Savannah Showdown

Go take a look at Wednesday's column if you're looking for any of the following.

• Stud or Snotling (Major)
• Beachhead Brawl (Major)
• Il Colliseo Murciano
• Northern Wastes VIII

NurgleMania

88-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Nürnberg, BY DE on February 11 2023. All the results for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings, and the list doc is here. This event was using 20-0 scoring, and any oddities in score numbers are down to it being transcribed into BCP after the fact.

Matthias Bellmann - Aeldari - 1st Place

Windriders with Shuriken Cannons. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Hail of Doom

Final Round Matchup

18091 - 2050 Victory against Stefan Härle - Cult Mechanicus.

Thoughts

It's raining Shurikens, praise Khaine. This list is going to be pretty white knuckle to play, as everything in it dies pretty easily, but it's essentially unmatched among Craftworlds lists for sheer damage-dealing potential, which is very valuable in a high-threat metagame like the one we find ourselves in. Not many things can give armies like Dark Angels and Daemons pause about potentially getting counter-punched off the table, but this is very much one of them, and for Aeldari fans like me it's great to see some top performing Craftworld lists flexing their muscles. Great work from Matthias.

William Fuhrimann - Leagues of Votann - 2nd Place (Undefeated with a Draw)

Ûthar the Destined. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Greater Thurian League 2Fort

Thoughts

This list cleaves hard to the current successful 2Fort Votann template, with the only major exceptions being that it's got a small unit of Hearthguard in place of a second Beserk squad in one of the Fortresses, and is running Greater Thurian League for Uthar (squeezing value from the faction trait) and some reliability from the faction trait. I think both Ymyr and GTL are very defensible picks right now, and I suspect which one dominates will come down to just how many AP-5 melta shots the "best" Marine list can throw once the dust of the metagame churn settles. Well done to William on taking second.

Dominik de Cassan - Dark Angels - 3rd Place (Undefeated with a Draw)

Deathwing Terminator Praetor. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Archetype

Whoops all Deathwing

Thoughts

Like, this list occasionally popped up with a high placing before the great Marine powerup, so it's no surprise that just dumping as many Deathwing models on the table as possible is still good, albeit requiring a more fullsome commitment now you can't take a side patrol with Infiltrators. The army barely cares about the loss of Armour of Contempt, is incredibly good at dominating the Primary thanks to all the bodies gaining ObSec, and has defences sturdy enough to repel all but the most overwhelming assaults. I suspect the more flexible lists with some Ravenwing will still end up as the dominant play for the Dark Angels simply because they can create non-games by bodying the opponent with shooting, but if you've ever yearned to put fully half the First Company on the table at once, now's pretty much the best time to do it. No I don't care if there was a point where that was better in 7th or something, I am increasingly convinced that 7th is a myth made up to scare small children. Excellent stuff from Dominik

Joseph Mcgrath - Adeptus Custodes - 4th Place

Trajann Valoris by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

The List

Archetype

Speedy Emperor's Chosen Goodstuff

Thoughts

Despite their low unit count, Custodes are proving to be surprisingly big winners from the changes to Behind Enemy Lines, as between the jetbikes, Venatari and solo deep striking Allarus, they're extremely good at it. That's fantastic news for them, as with the reversion of quite a few of their nerfs, poor Secondaries was the main remaining factor holding them back. This list puts the enemy under a tonne of pressure, demanding that they answer its threats pretty quickly lest they be overwhelmed, and being able to build up some good passive scoring while playing out that game plan is extremely helpful. The golden boys look to be thriving once more, with several list archetypes appearing solid, and well done to Joseph for seizing the moment and taking 4th place.

The Best of the Rest

There were 11 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 5th - Ares Lüthi - Creations of Bile & Daemons: Possessed-heavy Creations of Bile bringing along their good buddy Skarbrand to trap foes in combat.
• 6th - Fred Otto - Craftworlds: All-rounder Ulthwe wiith plenty of evasive shooting and trade melee.
• 7th - Stefan Härle - Adeptus Mechanicus: Lucius infantry horde with a bit of shooting backing from Ironstriders.
• 8th - Alexander Rath - Death Guard: Extra-durable Inexorable that's pretty much all Daemon Engines and Terminators.
• 9th - Mario Barkeeper - Craftworlds: Fully evasive shooting-skewed Craftworlds, sticking to two big squads of Swooping Hawks.
• 10th - Jens Gottfried - Genestealer Cult: Cannot find list.
• 11th - Niklas Lackner - Dark Angels: Double Deathwing blob with Ravenwing speeders backing it up.
• 12th - Christian Breuer - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff with extra herohammer and some Paragons.
• 13th - Manuel Wayand - Dark Angels: Single Deathwing blob with lots of Ravenwing shooting.
• 14th - Ingo Berthelsen - Imperial Knights: Freeblade Lance with a Herald Errant and lots of Armigers, including a higher-than-usual density of Moiraxes.
• 15th - Adrian Willruth - Adeptus Custodes Freeblades: Lots of Emperor's Chosen Infantry backed-up by Helverins.

Team Stonehammer Presents: The 36 Chambers #2

55-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in England GB on February 11 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Tear Down Their Icons

Chris Kinnair - Necrons: Destroyer-heavy Nihilakh with a Night Scythe to do Drop Pod-style tricks on turn 2 with Prismatic Dimensional Breach.

vs.

Lewis Archer - Orks: Goff Pressure with Kill Rigs

Thoughts

Necrons are very much in a "regrouping" phase in Arks, having lost their best Faction trait and experienced a mild (though it is genuinely mild) toning down of their best Secondaries. However, Chris here has not let that deter him, hitting the tables with Nihilakh (providing juicy ObSec and a pretty good Stratagem) and a bunch of Destroyers and Tomb Blades, some of the army's best units. There's a cunning trick built into the list too - Night Scythes being forced into Strategic Reserves isn't the end of the world if you're plan is to use them as a pseudo Drop Pod on turn 2, bringing them in and popping Prismatic Dimensional Breach to pull in some Skorpekh for a 6" charge. it's a nice way to land a very reliable second-strike threat, something that Necrons can struggle a bit with, and the amount of cheap ObSec the army has access to means that it can bait the opponent into a position where this ends badly for them.

Goffs, of course, react to being baited into position by putting on a big grin and starting krumpin' the fool that doesn't understand just who is trapped in here with who. This list is at the crunchier end of the Goff spectrum, cutting back on Kommandos in favour of Kill Rigs, giving it quite a bit of backbone, and working extremely well against the regular Destroyers here, though the pair of Lokhust Heavies is more concerning.

That's certainly helpful for the Orks, but doesn't quite cut through their key problem here - on this mission and with these lists squaring off, the Necrons linear Secondary plan still just outstrips that of the Greenskins, forcing the Goffs to take the initiative and try and set the pace. They're not exactly sad to have to do that, but if they stumble at any point they're at serious risk of falling insurmountably behind. It doesn't help that I also think there's a lot riding on whether both Lokhust Heavy shots punch through on a Kill Rig turn 1 - the Orks are pretty reliant on the durability from those to push the Necrons back, and if one gets high-rolled off immediately, they're kind of up against it. This certainly isn't a blowout matchup by any means, and I think if the Orks are careful about pushing hard to one flank and the centre, systematically overwhelming the Necrons, they've got a decent shot at dealing damage fast enough with the slightly slowed pace of Necron scoring in Arks. However, like a lot of games in 9th, the balance of factors means that the Necrons can probably afford a few things to go wrong and the Orks can't, leaving the balance of probability in the hands of the Necrons, and in this case they were able to capitalise.

Result

Necrons Victory - 93 - 80

Chris Kinnair - Necrons - 1st Place

Night Scythe. Credit: Rockfish

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Nihilakh Destroyers

Thoughts

While Nihilakh feels like the obvious play in Arks, Chris has definitely got some cool choices in here. I very much like the Night Scythe play, as it helps give the army some depth, while Trazyn has felt perpetually underused given what he brings to the table, and is a nice fit in an army that needs plenty of CP available for its cunning plans. Impressive performance from Chris.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Bethany Taylor - Chaos Daemons: Pure Tzeentch Daemons, adding lots of Screamers, Pink Horrors and Burning Chariots alongside the standard Flamers. Great if you're worried about getting shot off the table, certainly!
• 3rd - Dan Bates - Craftworlds: Go-wide Aspect Warriors as Masterful Shots/Vengeful, with the former making the Hawks and big Shroud Runner squad look especially spicy.
• 4th - Lewis Archer - Orks: Goff Pressure with triple Kill Rig and a pair of Squigbosses.
• 5th - Michael Armer - Adeptus Custodes: Speedy Shadowkeepers with three squads Venatari and two units of bikes.

ALL STARS HEAT 1 - Hellstorm's 40K Tournament Series

51-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in England United Kingdom on February 11 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Josh Roberts - Adeptus Custodes - 1st Place

Adeptus Custodes Wardens by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

The List

Archetype

Solar Watch Warden Spam

Final Round Matchup

97 - 50 Victory against Michael Duff - Astra Militarum.

Thoughts

See earlier re: "multiple valid Archetypes" - the traditional Emperor's Chosen and Shadowkeepers builds are good again, but the metagame and available rules have finally aligned to make infantry-heavy Solar Watch properly scary. Using Sally Forth to turn on Advance/Charge for the big Warden units gives them a substantial threat range (especially in combination with Callistus), which allows this list to very quickly switch off the opponent's ability to score Primary, while using Emperor's Auspice to shrug off most incoming threats. In theory there are lists that are scary into it because they just shoot it off the table, but then in practice you look awkwardly at what it beat in the final and remember that almost nothing can guarantee taking this list off the table. The 6+ ignore wounds on the Wardens is a big part of that, as against D3 firepower it gives you nearly a 50% chance of shrugging a second unsaved wound on each model, giving this plan the incremental edge it needs to take over the game. As ever when a holder of a coveted Goonhammer Championship Belt wins an event, double hell yeah for Josh.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Nathan Roberts - Chaos Daemons: Another all-Tzeentch anti-shooting special, this time cutting Troops in favour of Big Bird.
• 3rd - Mark Pilkington - Genestealer Cult: Industrial Cult Neophyte/Bike spam, but dialing that back a bit to bring three units of Purestrains rather than the usual one.
• 4th - Peter Duff - Chaos Knights: All War Dog Vextrix.
• 5th - Michael Duff - Astra Militarum: Born Soldiers with lots of buffed Infantry (including 3x3 Mortars and 3x10 Kasrkin) and a trio of Plasma Russes.

Savannah Showdown GT

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Savannah, GA United States on February 11 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Robin Roberts - Genestealer Cult - 1st Place

Hybrid Metamorphs. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Twisted Helix Pressure

Final Round Matchup

93 - 83 Victory against Eric Yu - Death Guard.

Thoughts

It's a good week for the Twisted Helix all-round. On some level this is pretty close to the "stock" build that the Helix was occasionally doing OK with in the past, but Arks really brings it into its own. Not only are the Cult the most powerful they've been since their book arrived, there are now lots of juicy prey with too many guns and not enough counter-charge out there, just begging for a mutant uprising to roll them over. I like that Robin is so confident in the strength of the cult that he's packing flamer Metamorphs, who remain phenomenal in mirror matchs and are a huge headache for melee armies in general - you get flamed out of deep strike then on overwatch then they fight on death and clear whatever charged them. That's a lot of power into some opponents from a single unit, and one that is still pretty good just on rate, and I really like that extra addition on top of the norm. Well done to Robin, up the star gods, death to the oppressors etc.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd (undefeated with a draw) - Noah Neundorfer - Death Guard: Ferrymen packing big Plague Marine units, a full Deathshroud brick and Typhus.
• 3rd - Brandon Lovato - Ynnari: Mostly melee Ynnari backed by a unit of D-cannons and some Shroud Runners.
• 4th - Chris Lanier - Hive Fleet Leviathan: Leviathan Monster Mash sporting a bunch of Carnifexes.
• 5th - Steven Tosky - Chaos Daemons: Another pure Khorne build, here eschewing Skull Cannons in favour of lots of Bloodletters.

Wrap Up

Who will challenge the Unforgiven for dominance? Will the Cult consolidate their gains, or will the revolution sputter to a halt? Find out in next week's column.

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