The full squad is here, rising to the task of tackling one of the last big weeks of 9th Edition. We've got a lot of events to look at today due to some scheduling challenges that prevented us implementing the normal, roughly even Wednesday/Friday split, so with brave heroes Falcon and Lowest of Men alongside me, let's get right to it.

Today we're looking at:

• The Bay Area Open (major)
• BayernMajor40K (major)
• Midwest Conquest GT 2023 (major)
• Gothic Games Canterbury May GT
• Heroes Of The Mid Table GT 2
• Torneo Aniversario CJM
• South Yorkshire GT

On Wednesday we covered:

• GT Andorra & Open Ordino (major)
• Motor City Mayhem (major)
• Rocky Top Rumble 40k Major 2023 (major)
• Spring Assault at Ironweld

Bay Area Open

151-player 6-round event in California. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Forrest Phanton - Space Wolves Successors - 1st Place

Credit: Starvolt

The List

Archetype

Space Wolves Upgrade/Wulfen spam

Final Round Matchup

91-66 Victory vs. Linton Rowan - Space Wolves

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Clearly someone has let the dogs out this week, as the top tables are stacked with Space Wolves. This build eschews any Desolation Marines in favour of a maximum number of small, lethal units, and as a result is overwhelmingly tricky for opponents to chew through fast enough to save themselves from the Wrath of Russ. Setting up the Long Fangs so that two units can be Drop-podded in rather than taking the crunchier Wolf Guard option further enhances this build's ability to just go for the throat, very in character, and we're sure that there will be many toasts to Forest on Fenris tonight.

James Carmona - World Eaters - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

Archetype

World Eaters Hull Skew

Why it's Interesting in 9th

This is a fascinating build to see emerge so late in the game - hull-focused World Eaters. Not only does bringing three War Dogs and a Land Raider allow the list to actually shoot stuff early on, starting the vital flow of gore that Khorne so craves, it also makes it far more resilient than the average build to massed anti-infantry firepower. The only "serious" shootable unit that has to start on the board is one squad of Eightbound for Invocatus to hurl forwards, everything else can either go in the Land Raider/Drill or in deep strike. That can completely confound some armies plans for dealing with Eaters, which generally involve massing so much D2/D3 attacks that they just body the list off the table, and from the fact that James emerged undefeated, it looks like no one was ready to adapt to his smart innovation.

William Abilez - Tau - 3rd Place (Undefeated)

XV95 Ghostkeel. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

All-rounder Tau Sept

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Another great finish for William's weird all-rounder Tau build, which like the World Eaters list above is going to wrongfoot people used to the standard playstyle for its faction. Lots of small, mobile units to play for Secondaries, early pressure from a Ghostkeel, Pathfinders blasting away from within a Tidewall - a whole bunch of stuff that gives reliable routes to adapt and score in ways opponents won't see coming, and it earned William an undefeated finish.

Trent Wheeler - Word Bearers - 4th Place

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

Archetype

Brawler Word Bearers

Why it's Interesting in 9th

A rare sighting of non Black Legion Chaos Space Marines to round out the top four, with Trent bringing an spicy brawling build to the table. Pretty much all the units here are ready to get stuck into a melee (or at least provide close support firepower), and plenty of them are pretty tough to shift as well. That buys space for the Master of Possession to get to work on the Word Bearers strong Secondary objective, and also has a good line in denying the opponent's primary simply by bulldozing them off objectives. Enemy Characters also need to watch out for the Daemon Prince as well, and taking Master of the Union on him means that he's handing out a valuable buff even when no suitable prey wanders into range. Great to see new, unique builds still managing to emerge week-on-week, great stuff from Trent.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 5th - Lukas Troller - Orks: Goff pressure with Kill Rigs.
• 6th - Linton Rowan - Space Wolves Successors: Linton's signature Bobby G/Hungry For Battle build with lots of Wulfen and Skyclaws.
• 7th - G. Greene - Iron Hands Successors:  All-rounder hands with VanVets, Scouts, Devs, Desolation Marine sand Reapers. Weep horde lists, weep.
• 8th - Eulis Sanders - Necrons: Nihilakh skewed towards Flayed Ones (the maximum 60) alongside a pair of C'tan.
• 9th - Junior Aflleje - Votann: Another good run for Junior's no-Fort Ymyr build that we've seen a couple of times now.
• 10th - Adam Dye - Chaos Daemons: Big monsters (Be'lakor, Bird, 'brand) and the three Fs.
• 11th - Jason Rider - Black Legion: Abaddon with two big biker bricks and a full-on Brass Scorpion.
• 12th - Jason McKenzie - Tau: Bork'an with a big team each of Crisis and Broadsides.
• 13th - Adrian Phillips - Space Wolves Successors: Wulfen/upgrade spam.
• 14th - Mathew Tweedel - World Eaters: Invocatus Eightbound spam.

BayernMajor40K

111-player, 7-round Major in WÜ, BY DE on May 27 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

This event was using the modified combination 20-0/Win Path placing metric that's increasingly popular in Germany.

Grischa Gerwert - Space Wolves - 1st Place

Rainbow Warriors Judiciar by Craig "MasterSlowPoke" Sniffen

The List

Archetype

Space Wolves Upgrade/Wulfen

Final Round Matchup

12 - 8 Victory against Thomas Brutscher - Goffs.

Thoughts

Truly an astounding week for Space Wolves overall, with Grischa giving them their fourth major triumph. The formula here is similar to the other lists we've seen - Wolves can just put spectacular amounts of quality stuff on the table, and are one of the most powerful all-rounder armies out there. I like the Judiciar here for the mirror and World Eaters matchups, but otherwise this is all pretty normal stuff - but taking it all the way to the top in a tough field is still very impressive, well done to Grischa.

Kevin Zöllinger - Black Templars - 2nd Place

Black Templars Assault Intercessors. Credit: SRM

The List

Archetype

Black Templars Hull Spam

Thoughts

Hey speaking of free melta weapons, we've got this nightmare to deal with, an army I strongly suspect is held back from Space Wolves levels of dominance only by how tough it is to get on the table. Unless you have a massive amount of anti-tank it's very tough to take this list off the table, and the sheer firepower it can unleash turn after turn can clear out even the most durable armies. Kevin's version of this goes even harder on the plan than th average, going for the cheapest possible units to fill out all the Impulsors, and bringing along some Orbital Arrays is a hilarious extra flex. If you're going to skew, skew hard - and that paid off in spades here.

Thomas Brutscher - Goffs - 3rd Place

Ork Beastboss on Squigosaur. Credit: Magos Sockbert

The List

Archetype

Extra Shooty Goff Pressure

Thoughts

This is mostly the Goff Pressure standard, but with a little bit of insurance added against being seriously outclassed on shooting. Kannonwagons are a very attractive unit all-round, and alongside the Kill Rig provide just enough shooting that opponents can't be too bold with where they position their own shooting toys. That aims to buy the time for the Goff Horde to reliably get amongst the enemy, and helps ensure a bad beat doesn't tank the list's score in a 20-0-based format. That wasn't a problem in the event, as Thomas made it all the way to the final where he was only very narrowly taken down by the Space Wolves, a fantastic run.

Martin Nguyen - Dark Angels - 4th Place

Credit: PierreTheMime

The List

Archetype

Dark Angels Land Speeder Spam

Thoughts

To lol, perchance to lmao. We will never be free of this Dark Angels hell. Here, the cheap and effective Land Speeder gets augmented with the Ravenwing invulnerable save, and supplemented with Infiltrators to play for Objectives and a couple of small Deathwing units (one each of Terminators and Bladeguard) with the Pennant to act as brawlers. I think that's an interesting alternative angle on how the Pennant is normally used - damage reduction on these units is so good that even a small squad needs major commitment to deal with, enough to bait out some victims for the speeders. It means you'll never be able to rely on a big brick of Terminators as a plan A, but this list has a plan A, which is killing people with melta weapons and assault cannons. I didn't say it was a nice plan A. Good to see a bit of iteration on the Dark Angels plan this late in the day, well done to Martin.

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 6-1 records. They were:

• 5th - Arne Zendt - Tzeentch Daemons: The list is called "beauty and the bird" so you can probably guess roughly where this is going - Be'lakor and a Big Bird with all the regular Tzeentch goodness (especially Flamers) backing them up.
• 6th - Immanuel Wolf - Tyranids: Peak Lurk Monster Mash with triple Maleceptors and a host of other beasties.
• 7th - Joscha Schmitz - Craftworlds: Hail of Doom with two Phoenix Lords, two Avenger bricks and a big unit of Windriders. Adds an extra dose of melee Aspects on top to shore up Wrath.

Midwest Conquest GT 2023

68-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Independence, Missouri US on May 27 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Lowest of Men is covering this one.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Secure Missing Artefacts

Jason Merten - Leagues of Votann: No-fort Ymyr

vs.

Peyton Preece - Genestealer Cult: Mech Rusted Claw

Thoughts

Ok, we have ourselves a battle of the cute little transports! In the GSC corner the Rusted Claw continue to establish themselves as the weapon of choice for cult players after they were, as usual, shown the way by an Australian genius. This list has five transports full of demo charge toting ob sec with advance and shoot, ready to push up the board and make havoc on the primary, which in turns draws out the enemy for a Neophyte drop turn. Rusted claw vehicles are deceptively durable, with the reduction of ap 1 and 2 by one going a long way on those 3+ saves, and -1 damage a particular issue for the damage 2 rich Votann in the other corner. This list has no issue ticking off a healthy secondary score whilst harassing the opponent all over the board. Nice to see the Nomad's Mantle on the Patriarch - a very nifty Rusted Claw relic that allows additional movement shenanigans and rarely sees use.

The opposing Ymyr list has brought some vehicles of its own, neglecting the Land Fortresses in favour of multiple Sagitaurs, with Bezerks and several broken up squads of Hearthkyn ferried inside them. It has more mission play and flexibility than a lot of Votann lists typically do, having channelled into utility and ob sec rather than raw cutting edge. In this match up that does hurt it a little bit- the list lacks the obvious mega-killer weapons to bring down GSC vehicles quickly (though Thunderkyn are pretty good at culling any of the profiles on display here), and will need to soak a fair bit into the transports to open them up on approach. If the GSC go first, there's a very real risk that pre-gaming bikes can put a hole in at least one Sagitaur and tag and tie up others, and if the dwarves get staged upon in their own territory their secondary game simply isn't going to be able to recover. It looks like this may have been how things went down. Heavy cult win.

Result

Genestealer Cult Victory - 97 - 16

Peyton Preece - Genestealer Cult - 1st Place

GSC Rockgrinders. Credit - Soggy

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Rusted Claw Vehicles

Thoughts

Rusted Claw vehicles have become the new template for GSC success. Stuff can get up the board without dying to artillery, advancing and shooting with demo charges is ideal for dealing with tanks, marines, and other common meta threats, and the list can absorb a melee attack on the vehicles before countering with a reserves strike and disembarking acolytes. The fact this is one of the sub factions that can make a genuinely scary Patriarch via Entropic Touch only adds to the appeal, and that to me is the big plus of the sudden rise of the Rusted Claw after many years of the Patriarch being a bit of a joke. Great work Peyton!

Brett Perkins - Chaos Daemons - 2nd Place

Be'lakor, The Dark Master. Credit: Skails

The List

Archetype

Monster Mash Daemons

Thoughts

An extremely fun Daemons build here with some of the classic heavy hitting favourites (Skarbs, Bloodthirster, Belly), accompanied by a rare pick in the form of a big slab of Bloodcrushers. Threat saturation appears to be the name of the game here, and whilst this list is a little more vulnerable on the secondary scoring than the more msu builds that have proliferated in recent times, it hits like a freight train and will simply body the unwary off the board. Tasty stuff, well done on the high placing Brett!

Howard Watts - Ultramarines - 3rd Place

Chief Librarian Tigurius. Credit: SRM

The List

Archetype

Ultramarines Gulliman Castle

Thoughts

A really interesting Ultramarines offering here from Howard, who packs in several slabs of Aggressors (extremely cost-efficient at the moment but seemingly ignored by many of the top builds) alongside the more in-vogue picks like Land Speeders and Desolation Marines. Gulliman oversees things and hands out rerolls, and there are some las-fusil Eliminators for early pressure and for drawing the enemy onto the guns. There is a sneaky bit of Ultras-specific combat tech on display here too - the Judiciar with Warden of Macragge gains a 6 inch heroic intervention, which is extremely nice on a fight last toting melee character! This list looks lovingly designed and has a real variety of tools for shooting and punching its way to victory. Awesome work!

Kyle McCord - Astra Militarum - 4th Place

Lord Solar. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Born Soldiers Rogal Dornstuff

Thoughts

Guard continue to take names as the edition winds down, and this offering from Kyle packs in two Rogal Dorns, a big slab of Bullgryn for some objective tussling, and the other usual suspects. It is the Sentinels that are largely absent here, and I wonder a little bit about the risk of exposure and tagging that their being awol might create. That said, this list can shoot pretty much anything in front of it straight off the board, and has just enough counter punch to repel whoever does make it through the lines. Good work.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 5th - Tedd Williamson - Necrons: Nihilak Destroyers and Scarabs overseen by the Silent King.
• 6th - Alex Vian - Dark Angels: Bladeguard, Desolation Marines, an Impulsor.... and the freaking Lion!! Alex wins best list of the weekend. Great stuff.
• 7th - Wyatt Harris - Death Guard: Well this is awkward... Wyatt brings an amazing, innovative 'the Wretched' Death Guard list maximising mortal wound nastiness from Plaguecasters! I don't think i've ever seen this in the wild, how exciting! You can have best Chaos list Wyatt, apologies.
• 8th - Aarron Hermstedt - Chaos Knights: Descecrator, loads of War Dog, House Herpetrax. Spooky stuff!
• 9th - Don Plumlee - Tyranids: Sneaky Jormangundr with Carnifexes, lots of Lictors, and a Malaceptor. This event seems to have attracted a whole bunch of heroes, nice stuff.
• 10th - Sean Diley - Tau Empire: Borkan with Crisis, Riptides, and Broadsides. Extremely punchy and scary.
• 11th - Jason Mertan - Leagues of Votann: The Sagitaur-heavy Votann list from the showdown.

Gothic Games Canterbury May GT

39-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England United Kingdom on May 27 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Lowest of Men continues to take charge here.

Martyn Cooper - Astra Militarum - 1st Place

Credit: BuffaloChicken

The List

Archetype

Born Soldiers Goodstuff

Final Round Matchup

98 - 76 Victory against Seb Spencer - Iron Hands.

Thoughts

More Born Soldiers magic at work here, as Martyn continues his excellent recent run on the guard. Scions provide troubleshooting and utility, with the Finial applied to a Scions Command Squad for added flexibility. Five individual Sentinels of varying stripes provide plenty of screening and trading potential for minimal cost, which lets the traditional set of big hitting ranged units get to work. Truly one of the dominant forces of the late 9th meta-game. Congratulations Martyn!

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Dominic Mathews - Adepta Sororitas: Valorous Heart Sacrosancts supported by a big stack of Zephyrim, some Paragon Suits and two large squads of Penitent Engines- a deceptively deadly meta pick. Awesome list.
• 3rd - Edmund Dymott - World Eaters: When  I say Invocatus, you say rush!
• 4th - Seb Spencer - Iron Hands: Iron Hands Goodstuff utilising Long Range Marksmen and a Gladiator Reaper.
• 5th - Kevin Stone - Leagues of Votann: Rock and Stone! Urani-Surtr Regulates with a single Fortress, and some Sagitaur-riding Beserks for cutting edge.
• 6th - Baz Croucher - Iron Hands: A quite unique IH build centred around some Assault Terminators with Librarian support alongside the more usual picks.

Heroes Of The Mid Table GT 2

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Langley Twp, BC CA on May 27 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Falcon is covering this event.

Liam Bath - Nihilakh - 1st Place

Skorpekh Destroyers. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Fast and the Furious

Final Round Matchup

97 - 71 Victory against Jake Beetstra - Adeptus Custodes.

Thoughts

In 1997, DIC Animation produced what should have been the greatest cartoon show to ever air on anyone's television in the world. It featured a theme song that caused your blood to flow just that much faster and tears to well in your eyes. There was a Falcon in it and it was the most badass of all the characters. The show was called Mummies Alive! and it book-ended humanity's short-lived Mummy Craze, something that would soon be enveloped by the Vampire craze and then the Zombie craze. Scholars believe the Mummy craze was actually the best craze because Brendan Frasier was part of it and that is science. Mummies Alive only lasted 1 season because good things aren't meant to last, much like this Necron list seeing success as this edition comes to a close.

Liam brings a speedy take on the Nihilakh goodstuff lists that have seen a modicum of success in Arks, filling out extra points that would often be sunk into the Silent King or scarabs with 3 minimum units of Tomb Blades and a Night Scythe no doubt to carry some Lychguard into the bowes of enemy territory. The MSU Tomb Blades units make great tech pieces here to clear backfield objectives, but more importantly make maximizing Ancient Machineries a breeze with the help of the obsec provided by the Nihilakh Dynasty, freeing up the Wraiths, Lychguard and Destroyers to make with the murder.

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Brendan McKenzie - Adepta Sororitas: Valorous Heart Sacresant City
• 3rd - Dan Hope - Astra Militarum: Born Soldiers Goodish Stuff
• 4th - Nicholas James - Ultramarines: Tiggy and the Volkite Brigade

Torneo Aniversario CJM

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Zapopan, Jalisco MX on May 27 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

No we don't know why the names of both players in the showdown are strange strings of emojis. It's like that in BCP. Leave us alone.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Unknown

🔁🌎🔁🌏🔁🌍 🔁🌎🔁🌏🔁🌍 - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff

vs.

🧮👤🧮🍌🌄🏠🌄🏠 . - Asuryani: Aggro Saim-Hann with the Avatar.

Thoughts

This game isn't real and it can't hurt me. Bloody Rose good stuff takes center stage for the first time in a while, with a sprinkling of Paragon Warsuits and a pair of Mysterious Guardian Helverins for flavor. The Helverins are perhaps the cutest tech piece here, keeping opponents honest in the early game with the ever-present threat of 2 murderbots in reserve and replacing the retributor squads you'd normally expect in the ranged attack role. Even in Arks, Bloody Rose has shown it still has teeth as it plays the mission well whenever you can have a fair game of Warhammer. Recycled Earth train emoji? has got all the fundamentals we've seen work time and again since early 9th when the sister's codex dropped.

Their opponent, Mysterious Notes Banana Guest Sunset Homes emoji, has brought a rather eclectic close combat army to bear in the finals. MNBGSH takes advantage of Saim-Hann's innate buffs to fuel a whole swath of different aspect warrior units from Warp Spiders to Striking Scorpions, Banshees and Shining Spears. This is the exact type of list you'd come to expect from someone who walked into their sunset guest home, scooped a bunch of models into a shoe box and figured it didn't matter because the Avatar was going to carry the day anyway. While not the usual Ulthwe or Hail of Doom lists we've come to see rise to the top of pile for Aeldari players in Arks, this list does have the ability to apply pressure exceedingly fast, and the small units make excellent tie-up pieces that can hold down most threats to Khaine's best angry boi. Listen guys, I'm really struggling here because of this emoji thing and I still have mummies on the mind from earlier. What do they mean? I hope to god the players read this and tell me. There was this old game show where people had to try to guess what license plates meant for money and I feel like this is just the natural evolution of that show.

Anyway, regardless of mission, this is a match-up where the Saim-Hann list will need to be on its A game but it isn't unwinnable by any means. Bloody Rose sisters' whole schtick is punching up and forcing unfavorable trades and these Eldar don't provide too many of those. Just about every unit bar the Avatar and the larger block of Shining Spears is disposable here and there is ample opportunity to score Wrath of Khaine points just by the sheer weight of aspect warriors in the list. The problem comes with whether or not they can keep up with the Sisters secondary train and still have units left by game end.

Result

Adepta Sororitas Victory - 90 - 88

🔁🌎🔁🌏🔁🌍 🔁🌎🔁🌏🔁🌍 - Adepta Sororitas - 1st Place

Credit: Evan "Felime" Siefring

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Bloody Rose and Robots

Thoughts

Standard Bloody Rose good stuff with a dash of outflanking Helverins to keep opponents honest in the early game. Not much that hasn't been talked about for 3+ years now.

The Best of the Rest

There were N more players on X-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Amador Perez - Adeptus Custodes: Sagittarum Spam
• 3rd - Jose Isaias Valenzuela - Iron Hands: Only the Good Stuff
• 4th - Luis Humberto Casillas Franco - Imperial Knights: Freeblade Lance

South Yorkshire GT

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England GB on May 27 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Lowest of Men gets to do the end-run this week.

Gavin Perry - Iron Hands - 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Iron Hands Forward Pressure

Final Round Matchup

57 - 56 Victory against Ed Paszek - Adeptus Custodes.

Thoughts

Some old favourites return to the fray for the Iron Hands here, as Gavin packs some Invictor Warsuits in to add forward momentum and control the board. Eliminators double down on this (It's all very late 8th edition!), and the threat these can pose to sloppy enemy play with characters early doors helps to add to the already phenomenal control that the Desolation Marines provide. There is plenty of utility screening and trading potential here, and some of the more conventional heavy lifters ensure that anybody sticking a head out is going to have it removed in good, old fashioned Iron Hands tradition.... too soon? Congratulations on an excellent and hard fought win Gavin!

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Matt Goligher - Ultramarines: Ultramarines Invictor pressure! A nice run out for an old favourite, with redeploy options for flexibility.
• 3rd - Rob Edwards - Asuryani: Melee heavy Aspect Warriors amped up by Vengeful and Children of Khaine. Loads of Rangers for secondary play.
• 4th - Ed Paszek - Adeptus Custodes: Mixed arms Emperor's Chosen with Caladius, lots of Praetors and some Dreadnoughts. Old school!
• 5th - Colin Micklethwaite - Tyranids: Leviathan monsters with some supporting chaff including a big squad of Termagants. A Malaceptor and Zoans provide psychic cutting edge.
• 6th - Chris Rayner - Chaos Daemons: A pure Slaanesh build with triple Keepers and Shalaxi. So many fun and old school builds out for a  last hurrah at this event! Double Enrapturess for delivery and Daemonettes for the slicing and dicing.

Wrap Up

What a week (and no, it's not only Wednesday). Will Space Wolves be claiming the title belt for 9th, or will some surprise late challenger emerge next week? They better get on with it if they're going to!

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