Welcome back to part 2 of this week's column, looking at what I think is a Friday record of 6 events (after shuffling to make space for the US Open Showdowns on Wednesday). We're going to be straight into the spicy, off-piste builds as soon as we kick off, so let's not delay - today we're looking at:

• Renegade Open (major)
• The Riverside Classic Grand Tournament
• No Retreat
• Nemesis Fall 2022
• Torneo Nacional Mexico 40k
• Boltercon 2022 Invitational GT

If you're looking for any of the following, go take a look at Wednesday's column:

• GW Grand Final
• Da Boyz GT (major)
• Into the Hellstorm X
• Capital Clash Fall GT
• Twisted GT

Renegade Wargaming - Renegade Open - 40k Major

65-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Minneapolis, MN, US on November 19 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Devin Orchard - Necrons - 1st Place

Credit: Wings

The List

Archetype

Novokh

Final Round Matchup

91 - 66 Victory against Loren Burns - Chaos Knights.

Thoughts

Do not adjust your set - that is a Novokh list taking down a major, Necrons winning with but a single ObSec unit in the form of Immortals. This is, very much, a list after my own heart - I love Novokh, and very much appreciate the style of army that uses one unit of everything rather than maxing out on whatever is most effective, and Devin's list is that write large. You've got one big unit of each of the hits, and by combining access to Blood Rites, Anrakyr and a Fail-Safe Overcharger, you ensure that when your army connects, it connects.

That's at the heart of why you might choose this over the ObSec build in some metagames, and the final round matchup exemplifies that. ObSec armies are extremely reliable at scoring well most of the time, but against armies that can shut down their gimmick they can suddenly fold pretty hard. Both flavours of Knights are a major foil for some versions of ObSec lists because Armigers/War Dogs with ObSec and counting as 5-models brutally interfere with early Necron scoring, and they have the damage potential to wipe a list with low damage potential off the board. Good access to Damage Reduction can also be a big problem - but Novokh gives you some answers.

Specifically, with Novokh buffs layered up, you can push enough of the D3 attacks from Skorpekh or Ophydians through to negate Damage Reduction as a factor, and Lychguard can scythe through anything through sheer volume. The advent of Armour of Contempt also makes Novokh's AP boost quite a bit more relevant than it used to be - adding a point to AP-2 or AP-3 is now a huge upside against a lot of lists, where previously it could feel a bit win-more.

Everything in this list kills stuff, and kills it pretty hard, and while Ancient Machineries isn't as good here as it is for ObSec, Treasures is still a free 15 a lot of the time, and the terror this army can inspire helps score Purge. I do also think that this is another army that the departure of Leviathan Warrior spam is a huge boost to - bouncing off Warrior bricks was generally terminal, but plenty of the other big death stars out there are reasonably vulnerable to being hit by Skorpekh who can be swinging with anywhere up to 12 reap-blade attacks. It's probably not better than the ObSec build, but I can say from experience that it's far more fun, so big props to Devin for smashing a Major with it!

Tyler Broderius - Harlequins - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: Arranon

The List

Archetype

Twilight Big Troupes

Thoughts

Straight from Novokh into another unusual spin on a top faction. Do not adjust your set - that is zero (0) Starweavers - just lots of foot Troupes, a big scary Bike unit, and some Voidweavers to finish. This army is another one where the damage potential is off the chart - fully buffed Twilight Troupes is about as vicious as Harlequins can get, and while a full bike squad is a bit less scary, being able to strike pretty much anywhere on the board at any moment makes up with that. I honestly quite like the choice of scrapping Starweavers for the smaller Troupes here, and spending those points on Voidweavers instead. Without a critical mass of Starweavers, your opponent is probably going to be able to bring appropriate tools to bear on them, even more so outside of Light where you can't use Capricious Reflections to hit the bricks when a melee wrap comes calling. Keep the sacrificial stuff either cheap (the foot Troupes here) or shooty (the Voidweavers and MSU Bikes), and focus the game plan on baiting your opponent so that one of the big units can punt their best toys straight into the shadow realm.

There probably is a failure case here if you run into stuff that can bounce one of the big units, even at their buff ceiling, and if I was running this I'd probably want one squad of all Harlequin weapons to force something like Emperor's Children Terminators to be more cautious (as if you stack Malicious Frenzy and Dramatic Entrance, you start to threaten them), but given Tyler was able to blast through a theoretically pretty challenging Death Guard match to close the event out undefeated, the list as is was clearly singing!

Kevin Leonard - Chaos Daemons - 3rd Place (Undefeated with a Draw)

Great Unclean One - Credit: RichyP

The List

Archetype

Large Nurgle Lads

Thoughts

Gross. This is an extremely uncomplicated army, simply challenging the opponent to chew through north of a hundred wounds with T9 and a 4+ Daemon save at range, and brutally murdering them if they can't. That's a steep feat, and I suspect this is an army that Tyler's Harlequins were pretty happy not to face. Any army that's planning on making trades to pull ahead is going to find their game plan called into question here, as there is almost no way to guarantee a kill on one of the monstrosities here, only to try your best. In that context, I like the use of Rotigus and an Effluvior GUO to ramp up the army's damage output, as it allows it to punish opponents for the crime of swinging and missing, and quickly chew through armies that try and out-ObSec it. Use of Mamon Transfigured is also cunning in that regard - I strongly suspect he'll shortly change to be CORE only on his re-rolls, but for now he hugely increases the threat of this list, ensuring that anyone who underestimates it suffers some serious maladies. Only Harlequins were able to hold Kevin's army to a tie, allowing him to take third place with an awesome army.

Cyle Thompson - Harlequins - 4th Place

Credit: Arranon

The List

Archetype

Light Saedath

Thoughts

Rounding out the top 4, we have a somewhat more conventional Harlequins list, but still one that's a bit off the beaten track. I like Cyle's inclusion of the Foot Troupe and Bikes, as they provide some more flexible damage output, and I also think that cutting a murder Troupe Master for (essentially) a Voidweaver is reasonably plausible at the moment - there are plenty of games where a deadly Troupe Master is still potent, but enough where they have no good targets (or are gambling on a bounce off AoC) that Voidweavers can potentially be more consistent. The rest is Harlequin business as usual - Troupes and boats, ready to hunt down anyone who's cowering from the big Troupe and bikes. Congratulations to Cyle on taking fourth place.

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on X-1 records. They were:

• 5th - Loren Burns - Daemonic Dogwalker:  Vextrix Dogwalker with a fairly minimal Daemon contingent alongside to provide Psychic Actions and some cheap position play units.
• 6th - Tyler Devries - Tyranids: Leviathan with lots of Monsters and Mortals, with a big brick of Termagants around a Tervigon anchoring the army.
• 7th - Craig Parker - Tyranids: Kraken with a Tervigon/Termagant blob and two units of Raveners.
• 8th - Marvin Sims - Adeptus Custodes: Emissaries Imperatus with two five-model Bike units and a Telemon. Not many units, put potentially better able to play some of the Custodes Secondaries than most.
• 9th - Connor Haugen - Ynnari: Lots of Aspect Warriors, one big Troupe, a Hemlock and Baharroth in an Auxiliary detachment.
• 10th - Andrew Moe - Death Guard: Ferrymen spanning a bunch of Plague Marines alongside a trio of War Dog Brigands for close-ranged fire support, and Plaguebursts for bombardment. Looks pretty daunting to try and push through, and went into the final round undefeated.
• 11th - Sean Lengenfelder - Creations of Bile: All the fancy melee tools here, with a big Terminator unit, 3x5 Possessed and a squad of Khorne Bikers with the Black Mace to ensure they're a serious threat.
• 12th - Alex Vian - Drukhari: A heavy Coven of Twelve detachment is the centrepiece here, providing a bit of extra AP to push through Armour of Contempt and holding the board to set up the Incubi, Characters and Bloodbrides that make up most of the rest of the army.

The Riverside Classic Grand Tournament

34-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Jurupa Valley, California, US on November 19 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Data-Scry Salvage

Mark Meng - Imperial Knights: Slightly grindier than normal Freeblade Lance with a Herald Paladin.

vs.

Ryan Averill - Ultramarines: Big. Tank.

Thoughts

Goonhammer has never pretended to be neutral as regards Big Tank, so we are obviously looking for any angle here where the list with the Astreaus can win out. Honestly? If you manage to pilot an Astraeus list to the finals of a GT, this is about as positive a matchup as you can hope for. That's not because the Knight list here is bad (far from it), but it certainly gives the Ultramarines angles of attack. The big Knight can't easily hide from the terrifying firepower of the boys in blue, and if it dies then suddenly the forward Armigers aren't sporting Damage Reduction any longer, and all the D3 toys that the Ultramarines are packing are going to scythe through them at speed. Guilliman is also very good into Armigers, able to cleave one in twain and relatively resilient to what they can do in turn, and that helps the Ultramarines to a pretty strong Secondary plan here - BiD is a freebie, and Grind is surprisingly strong for them.

That's not to say that the Knights have nothing going for them though - until the Ultramarines do some real damage, the Primary heavily favours them. Armigers laugh in the face of Rites of War Dreadnoughts, and while the Ultramarines small footprint helps them with Grind, it's a major drawback on Data-scry where you need to try and contest a wide front. All of this creates a very unusal dynamic - the Knights are trying to...play the mission? Yes really - the Ultramarines need to win this game by bodying the Knights off the board at speed, while the Knights need to use their strong Secondaries to put up points early, and deny the Ultramarines Primary scoring for as long as possible before they (probably) get hosed off the board. Being a build with one big Knight rather than two certainly helps with that (though you'd vastly prefer an Errant to a Paladin here to help apply pressure), and if the Knight player recognises what's needed from them, this is a pretty close-run thing. Given the scoreline, I think Mark probably rose to the occasion - but in the end, reality joined Goonhammer in having a Big Tank bias, and the Ultramarines took down the event by the narrowest of margins.

Result

Ultramarines Victory - 73 - 72

Ryan Averill - Ultramarines - 1st Place

Ultramarines Infiltrators. Credit: SRM

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Big Tank

Thoughts

Look, what do you want from me - this list wants to blow the opposition into tiny pieces, leaning on the fact that Guilliman is far more generous in handing out buffs than most characters. It plays Grind very effectively, and having three Redemptors and the big man himself means that trying to rush it down is a lot riskier than it could otherwise be. I also like the troubleshooting assassin captain with the melta and boosted melee - this list definitely wants things that force the opponent to think twice about overcommitting, and this model plays that to a tee. We love the Big Tank, we love seeing underdog Ultramarines winning a tournament, and we can only offer our biggest and most sincere congratulations to Ryan for living the dream.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Jason Kavetsky - Imperial Knights: More Freeblade Lance, with the standard Warglaive/Helverin setup and a Herald Errant in command.
• 3rd - Mark Meng - Imperial Knights: See showdown.
• 4th - Nicolas Urrea - Thousand Sons & Daemons: Duplicity with a big Scarab block, Spawn for some cheap bodies and loads of Flamers in support.
• 5th - Mark Ferek - Tau: All-rounder Farsight with Crisis Teams (one big), Commanders, Sun Sharks and a Breacherfish.
• 6th - Beau Bryan - Space Wolves Successors: Dreadnought-heavy Red Scorpion Born Heroes/Whirlwind action, with Carab Culn being the eye-catching centrepiece and some VolCons and a Redemptor in support. Lots of small melee units (Skyclaws, Wolf Guard Terminators and Assault Intercessors) to fill, and the result is something quite unusual that feels pretty well tuned to try and push into the various Daemon lists, where lots of reliable attacks where you don't care about AP is kind of what you're after. Did however, get taken down pretty hard by Freeblade Lance, where I suspect the army may have just bounced.

No Retreat

33-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Mitchell, Australian Capital Territory, AU on November 18 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

William Meibusch - Death Guard - 1st Place

Plague Marine. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Archetype

Inexorable

Final Round Matchup

83 - 71 Victory against Tim Evers - Chaos Knights.

Thoughts

Mortarion is sort of like an inverse fairy where you have to clap your hands and disbelieve very strongly in the concept of Tau (or at the very least Tau lists with Hammerheads). As long as that pays off - this build puts a tonne of pressure on opponents, as a full squad of Plague Marines with Mortarion (probably sporting Gloaming Bloat) close behind is very daunting to try and clear out, and bringing along a couple of Poxwalker units means that the list can send out some less valuable models to kick things off rather than having to lead with high-value units. I also like the presence of a single Bloat-drone to help lock-in gains via the threat of a 6" Heroic.

William also makes what I think is a sensible choice to dial back on Terminators in favour of packing a larger number of units in., keeping Spread the Sickness and Despoiled Ground on the table This leaves the list as a very effective all-rounder spin on Death Guard as long as it dodges Votann, Tau and Mortal combo Imperial Knights. It does not appear to have fallen prey to these perils on the day, so well done to William for helping make this a strong week for Nurgle.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Tim Evers - Chaos Knights: Herpetrax and Dreadblade War Dogs galore, with nary an Abaddon or Daemon in sight.
• 3rd - Jack Lavercombe - Drukhari & Harlequins: All sorts of Aeldari trickery on show here, with Splinterblades/Master Torturers Grotesques, Voidscarred to farm CP with Fateful Divergence, a bunch of Incubi and Wracks in Venoms, and a whole Light Patrol on top of that, with an Agent of Pandemonium to help keep the Grotesques in a fight. Looks like a giant headache to play against.
• 4th - Rowan Kennett - Tyranids: Surprisingly monster-light for a list entitled, and I quote, "BIG BEEFY BEHE BEACH BOIS". Instead, plenty of Raveners and Warriors, a big swarm of Termagants around a Tervigon, lots of Mortals and a foot Tyrant with a squad of Guard, using Naturalised Camouflage to boost everything's durability.
• 5th - Cody Howden - Imperial Knights: Taranis with the Princeps Crusader combo for shooting and a Gallant for smashing.
• 6th - Joe Loke - Black Legion: Abaddon in command of a big unit each of Terminators and Chosen, plus Possessed to seal the deal.

Nemesis Fall 2022

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Edmonton, Alberta, CA on November 19 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

John-Ross Cook - Chaos Daemons - 1st Place

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

The List

Archetype

Greater Daemon Sentai Force

Final Round Matchup

94 - 44 Victory against Evan Henderson - Khorne Daemons.

Thoughts

Christ what a flex. I've seen lists running one of each Greater Daemon before, but this is something else - putting all five big named Characters from the codex in one incredible package, then winning a GT with it. Absolute king shit. I can honestly sort of see it too - all the named Greater Daemons are just slightly harder to deal with than the regular flavours, and when you're up against this you're going to have Be'lakor and Shal'xi slamming into your lines at speed, then find that the second wave is the trio of Skarbrand, Rotigus and Kairos and just start weeping. Skarbrand's aura in particular puts opponents on a fairly terrifying clock here - if they get stuck in combat against this list they are very likely to get punted into oblivion, and preventing that happening is far from trivial. Also, the sheer psychic strain of trying to win against an army this cool is going to weigh upon the soul of even the mightiest player.

11/10, no notes.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Aiden Vollmer - Necrons: Scarab and Destroyer Expansionists cutting one Destroyer unit for a Transcendent C'tan.
• 3rd - Evan Henderson - Khorne Daemons: Four Bloodthirsters (one being Skarbrand) and Be'lakor. Going to title this one "hardcore Khornography" and see if anyone makes me stop.
• 4th - Bryan Kettlewell - Word Bearers: Lots of Possessed and a big block of Terminators, then a healthy mix of Raptors, Havocs and Characters to adapt to whatever it's up against.
• 5th - Gord Weppler - Genestealer Cult: Truly incredible numbers of Rusted Claw Acolyte units, supported by six Goliaths of various flavours, Jackals and a massive suite of Characters. Big fan.
• 6th - Dyllyn Duong - Iron Hands: Shooty Iron Hands with Redemptors, drop Devs, the super Contemptor and a Gladiator Reaper. I do like the Bladeguard unit as a more durable counter-charge tool to support the rest of the list.

Torneo Nacional Mexico 40k

30-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Mérida, Yuc., MX on November 19 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Javier Palomo - Adepta Sororitas - 1st Place

Credit: Evan "Felime" Siefring

The List

Archetype

Argent Shroud

Final Round Matchup

77 - 62 Victory against Xavier Barrera - Adepta Sororitas.

Thoughts

This week is a big one for off-meta subfactions pulling off big wins, with this highly mobile Argent Shroud build successfully overcoming the forces of the Bloody Rose in the final to take victory. Advance/shoot Paragons are certainly pretty exciting as things go - opponents are pretty likely to underestimate how well they need to hide against a potential Miracle Dice Advance followed by a fully re-rolled melta barrage. Being able to chuck Faith is Our Shield on them also mitigates a significant weakness in a metagame that's heavy on the forces of Tzeentch, and they're at least OK at soaking up shots from unbuffed Flamers (and this list has a reasonable chance of stopping the Infernal Flames). Paragons are looking very strong right now in general, and fast Paragons that can stand up to Mortals looks like a pretty interesting alternative to the Bloody Rose standard - well done to Javier for taking them to the top.

The Best of the Rest

There were 2 more players on 5-1 records and one on 4.5-1.5 who got paired up in the final. They were:

• 2nd - Arturo Guerrero - Death Guard: Mortarion's Anvil with lots of Plague Marines and Deathshrouds, with a Terrax to push one of the melee units into the opponent's face.
• 3rd - David Villareal - Salamanders: Incredible amounts of melta death, including Eradicators and drop Devs, souped up by pretty much every Salamander named Character going. Including Bray'arth.
• 4th - Xavier Barrera - Adepta Sororitas: Very classic Bloody Rose Goodstuff with Celestine, Repentia, Zephyrim and Retributors.

Boltercon 2022 Invitational GT

29-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in West Chester Township, Ohio, US on November 18 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Data-Scry Salvage

Chris Kentrup - Ynnari: Melee Ynnari with some D-cannon backup.

vs.

Christian Chadwell - Astra Militarum: A glorious last hurrah for "whoops all Scions", with a couple of Inquisitors overseeing things.

Thoughts

OK, if I have to write about a Guard list, at least it's a cool Guard list, and one that's interesting by dint of probably going away soon as the Lambdan Lions rules depart. This list just throws massive numbers of AP-2 shots at the opponent, can keep plenty of models in reserve to spring out at a key moment, and can take a punch just by dint of how many bodies it has (though not having the CP for the Refractor Field hurts).

Unfortunately, the Ynnari army here is very much not one it can take a punch from, and the mismatch of damage profiles between the two lists is near insurmountable. Large numbers of T3 infantry with just a 4+ is damn near the perfect target profile for this Ynnari force, and they can lash out at sufficient range that it's going to be really tricky for the Guard to do anything about it, especially with scout deploying Rangers to push them back. The Guard do have one advantage in the form of packing way more units and way more ObSec, which potentially does give them a route to victory on Data-Scry - play very conservatively and focus on tanking the Asuryani's Primary scoring via Move Move Moving units onto all obectives, and try and keep the main body of the force far back enough that a monstrous elf alpha strike isn't possible.

That's easier said than done though, as some of the elf toys have very high threat ranges, and each one that breaks through represents a real calamity for the Astra Militarum. Based on the score, their line faltered fairly early, and Ynnead claimed a large harvest of souls this day.

Result

Ynnari Victory - 100 - 29

Chris Kentrup - Ynnari - 1st Place

Credit: Keewa

The List

Archetype

Melee Ynnari

Thoughts

Lots of fast melee threats to lash out at opponents with, and enough ranged pressure from D-cannons that opponents can't just safely claim the mid-board. It's always going to be a bit of a knife-edge list to play, but with two GT wins under their belt this week it's clear melee-heavy Ynnari are pretty real right now, so congratulations to Chris for making it double.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - David Stein - Black Legion: Abaddon with lots of Terminators and a full unit of warpflamer Rubricae for maximum eldritch barbecuing.
• 3rd - Garrett Nadicksbernd - Adepta Sororitas: Crunchy Argent Shroud with some hefty units - Paragons, a ten-model unit each of Sacresants and Retributors, and a full twenty brick of Battle Sisters.
• 4th - Joseph Blackett - Emperor's Children and Daemons: Plenty of the standard Emperor's Children toys, but instead of Abaddon packs a tooled-up Keeper and an Infernal Enrapturess to Warp Locus the greater Daemon in.
• 5th - John Gemrich - Necrons: A showing for the Annihilation legion, sporting (as you'd expect) loads of Lokhusts, lots of Skorpekh and some Ophydians/Flayed ones for more finnessed play, finishing up with lots of scary characters.
• 6th - Christian Chadwell - Astra Militarum: See showdown.

Wrap Up

This has been Warhammer. Join us next week for more Warhammer.

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