So the good news first - help is coming in the form of a Balance Dataslate about a month ahead of schedule, that will include changes to Harlequins, and we applaud GW for being ready to respond in an agile fashion to the current state of the metagame. There are also some events this week where no one brought Harlequins, so we have some other armies to talk about.

The bad news is that the number of Voidweavers in the metagame is still too dang high. Also the number of events, so we're splitting this into two parts. Today we'll look at:

• The Gibraltar GT (Major)
• Fantasia Fanatic XLI (Major)
• Midtcon GT 40K
• Grimdark Open
• Heroes Retreat Mini GT

Tomorrow we'll cover:

• Fool's Errand (Major)
• Grand Onslaught 3
• Black Heart GT
• Boise Quest 40k GT
• Deck Box Masters Grand Tournament

Before we start, we thought it would be interesting to look at the overall picture from this weekend, with the Falcon once again providing some stats on the win rates (as normal, excluding mirror matches) for each faction:



If you're wondering what the hell has happened with Imperium this weekend, do notice that there was just one person playing them, and while they got pretty close they didn't make it to a final undefeated (as also with the sole Ynnari player). White Scars also look terrible, but also only one guy took them and he clearly had a bad weekend, so don't read too much into it.

More interesting are the high-performing factions we've been talking about for the last couple of weeks. Of factions with a real number of games played, Harlequins are of course the standout - still just under 80% win rate, and with a truly incredible 5:1 TiWP ratio. Your ideal ratio is basically 1:1 - a faction should make it to the top tables more or less in proportion to the number of players who are playing it (Tyranids are a good example this week, making up just under 5% of the meta and just over 4% of the players going into the final game undefeated). Harlequins at 5:1 utterly destroy that - if you're playing them, you're vastly more likely to make it to the final round undefeated than you are with any other faction.

Hot on their heels this week are the Adeptus Custodes, who have a slightly more normal looking 2:1 ratio, which is still really high, and just a hair under a 65% win rate. To restate this point, in a normal game, this would be an oppressive faction in need of immediate and fairly drastic nerfs. Now look at how far behind Harlequins they are, and despair.

T'au Empire, on the other hand, have stayed under 60% as they did last week - though they're still at 58%, which is too high. The most likely explanation here is that they have a worse match-up into Harlequins than the Custodes do - the specific defences Harlies have are a real problem for their shooting output, and they can't even begin to try and brawl with the clowns, whereas Custodes players can make a reasonable attempt at getting in amongst them and causing a ruckus (and also benefit from their own layered, coinflippy defences to help neutralise the Harlies' offence).

Compared to last week we have a little relief in the shape of Orks, Grey Knights, the aforementioned Tyranids, Forces of the Hive Mind, and Deathwatch all managing to cling on to > 50% win rates, and Hive Mind players in particular look to have done very well this week. With the bugs announced and a new Codex incoming any moment, this is a bit of a last ride for them, and we'll see how things change in a couple of weeks when they're game-legal.

Finally for the factions doing well there's the Asuryani and Aeldari - both of which are doing fine, but probably underperforming with poor TiWP compared to their meta representation, and Aeldari going perfectly even over the weekend. This may just be symptomatic of elf players sticking to the raw power of pure Harlequins, and a nerf to the clowns may well see some of the other incredible stuff in the Aeldari codex coming to the fore.

For the successful factions that's pretty much it. There's a fair number of armies floating around in the 45-50% bracket - which isn't great, but also isn't awful, especially in a meta with 3.5 very oppressive armies floating around - but then you look down to the bottom of the list and oh no. Death Guard holding everyone else up with a paltry 30.65%, and CSM only just above them on 33%. In between are the Imperial Fists, consistently the weakest Marine faction and wallowing this week in a win rate of just 32%. Even Iron Hands, which had been seeing some reasonable successes up until this year's Chapter Approved, are stuck down there below 40%. It's not a great picture, and the inverse of the powerful factions hogging all the top places - Harlequins and Adeptus Custodes alone make up nearly 60% of top tables, and with Tau as well it's almost 70% - is that there are a lot of factions which are just doing nothing at all. Most of them are making it less than 2 games before losing - which means that there's minimal prospect of them making a deep but ultimately unsuccessful run, and that part of the win rate holding up is because they're losing early and playing in the loser brackets (and still only managing to come up trumps 30-40% of the time!)

This is of course just one weekend's worth of data, though it's a surprisingly busy weekend once again, and there's going to be fluctuations here from individual performances - to pick out one example, Blood Angels are looking better than they have in ages, and we'll see a very strong performance from them in this week's Showdowns. Whether they're able to repeat the success over the long run is a different question, of course, but it's nice to see someone getting something out of the much-maligned Sons of Sanguinius.

With the commentary over, let's get into the events. As ever, a little ✪ marks players who entered the final round undefeated but either lost in the final round or were an undefeated runner up on tie breaks.

Gibraltar Grand Tournament

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Tide of Conviction

Ruud Steenbakkers - Harlequins - Light Saedath Voidweaver Spam



vs.

Aaron Mosquera - Tau - Broadside and Hammerhead Spam in Tau Sept

Thoughts

Now obviously you look at the first list here and it's pretty much the top meta Harlequin's build (just dropping one Voidweaver to free up some points), so there's a clear favourite going in, but a glance over at Aaron's list on the other side of this table suggests this isn't just a free win for the clowns. This Tau list is elegant in its brutality, and has the numbers to actually make the Harlequins sweat event through all of their defensive. Three full Broadside units with Velocity Trackers represent a whole lot of Smart Missile shots, and some serious high roll potential from the main gun against any enemy that ends up in their line of sight. Mirror Architect pushes their range down pretty low, but on a Dawn of War deployment that will only do so much, and anything that pushes out into no-man's land is fair game. The units are also very durable, especially with access to Strength of Stone, and this means that, unusually, the Tau might actually have the edge on the Harlequins here for To The Last purposes - only the Voidweavers in the Harlequin list have the damage to threaten the Broadsides, but going after them with more than one unit (the first can Fire and Fade) is going to mean committing to the mid board, whereas the Broadsides can threaten that part of the table without having to leave safety.

That's good for the Tau, but the mission here in general is very, very bad for them (though exactly how bad depends on the terrain). Tide of Conviction wants you to be pushing up the table to secure the mission Primary, and the Harlequin's are much better equipped with units to do that. Even with the volume of SMS fire that's in play here, a Skyweaver with Lightning Fast will take a substantial chunk of the army's shooting to open up thanks to preventing re-rolls, and Luck of the Laughing God can potentially stretch it out beyond that. The Tau, meanwhile, appear to be planning to use Hammerheads as their mid-board push, which is a neat idea - they create a reasonable amount of defensive skew, and the Hammerhead is generally something that wants to try and use its one big shot to trade up, so why not take an objective for a turn at the same time? Well, because against Harlequins that big shot is only doing anything one third of the time, and prismatic cannons and shurikens will comfortably annihilate a Hammerhead in turn.

If the Tau can move some Broadsides onto the closer no-man's land objectives and still have them behind terrain then they maybe have a bit more play, as that projects the SMS threat to most of the table and gives them some Primary, but even that opens up the risk of devastating flanking charges, and the problem with skulking just behind terrain is that it makes you easier to charge and tag in combat (though overwatch from SMS isn't a complete non-factor into some of the characters here). Staying passive isn't really going to work either though - they probably do end up ahead on To The Last then, but the Harlequins will pick up more Primary points through the game, then use their vastly superior mobility to mop up the end-game scoring component. There aren't that many easy Secondaries for the Tau beyond To The Last here either - they can probably score middling points on either Assassinate or Bring It Down, but the Harlequins have far better options from things like Stranglehold, Deadly Performance and maybe a Psychic option.

I think if you're playing this matchup in a hold 1/2 mission as the Tau you have a better shot - especially on a corner deployment, you might be able to do enough damage broadly to the Harlequins as they spread out to neuter their capabilities then try and push up in the mid game. Here, where scoring points requires heavy commitment, and the Harlequins can keep pretty much everything that isn't whatever they're sacrificing for Stranglehold turn-to-turn in a bubble round a Mirror Architect Shadowseer, things look much more grim, and though the Tau put in a credible score, the Harlequins took it.

Result

Harlequin Victory - 80-58

Ruud Steenbakkers - Harlequins - 1st Place

Credit: Quinn Radich

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Light Saedath Voidweaver Spam

Why it's Interesting in 9th

It looks like it might be about to set the record for the fastest a list has gotten properly slammed with the nerf bat, so that's something! Similar to the list with which Mani Cheema won Battlefield Birmingham this version goes particularly hard on attrition tools, making sure that all the boats have plenty of pistols so that just being near them is a painful experience. Ruud has also swapped in Thirsting Darkness on his Solitaire in place of Prince of Sins, which many lists have used, giving extra reach to pick off key enemy buff characters and a big consolidation move to bounce between targets and lock them down. Powerful stuff, and a solid win from Ruud.

Mani Cheema - Harlequins - 2nd ✪ Place

Credit: Docsucram

The List

Archetype

Light Saedath Voidweaver Spam

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Speaking of Mani - he returns in second place, undefeated but pipped to the post by a margin of four victory points. Compared to Ruud, his build drops the Solitaire for the final Voidweaver, removing the assassination tool they represent but cutting out Assassinate as a realistic option against the list in turn, and demanding the opponent deal with the Voidweavers. No one could. A great performance from Mani as ever.

Dusty Justy - Tau - 3rd Place

XV8 Crisis Battlesuit Team. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Farsight Enclaves

Why it's Interesting in 9th

This is the other way to build a Tau list to hunt Clowns - build Crisis Teams that can soak up at least some punishment and are loaded with flat three damage guns, pack in enough indirect that straggling boats can be picked off and any de-meched infantry barely hit the floor before being airbursted into tiny bits, and then lean on the power of the Farsight Enclaves Sept Tenet to give you enough juice to get over the line. It's high risk but it's certainly a plan, and has the upside that the truly monstrous damage potential it has makes it pretty strong against almost anything else too. Dusty didn't face any Harlequins in the end, but did put up multiple 100pt wins against Custodes, which is frankly terrifying as like with Harlequins their ability to switch off re-rolls can often be a challenge for some Tau lists. Not this one though, and with some extra tech picks like Exemplar of Kauyon to set up the perfect alpha strike and the Talisman of Arthas Moloch to pressure secondaries or key Aeldari psychic powers, this list is ready to take on a broad range of opponents. Good stuff here!

Antonio Rivera Jiménez - Adeptus Custodes - 4th Place

Sisters of Silence: Prosecutors - Credit: Pendulin

The List

Archetype

Emperor's Chosen Goodstuff

Why it's Interesting in 9th

What else could we close out our first major top four with, really? Custodes are reliable, deadly, and dependable, and lists like this sit in that category where it's almost impossible to turn up to the table and not have a path to a win, even against the other top factions. Still, that doesn't make the wins free in such a harsh metagame, so congratulations to Antonio for putting in the strongest Custodes performance at the event with this list

The Rest of the Best

Three more players finished on 5-1 records. They were:

• 5th ✪ - Aaron Mosquera - Tau: See Showdown.
• 6th - Ángel Bizarre - Harlequins: Light Saedath going heavier on Skyweavers than Voidweavers, with two big squads of bikes providing lots of mobile melee punch (alongside 2/1/1 Voidweavers so that the two-model unit can be a To The Last pick when it matters).
• 7th - Terroxer El Rojo - Thousand Sons: A pretty balanced looking Thousand Sons list with lots of Rubrics and a big Scarab blob as Cult of Duplicity, taking advantage of the fact that Aeldari nonsense tends not to love the pressure from lots of Mortal Wounds and Egleighen's Orreryed VolCons.

Fantasia Fanatic XLI

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. This event used 20-0 scoring.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Conversion

Filip Zingmark - Tau - Tau Sept with lots of individual Broadsides and a Stormsurge.



vs.

Axel Rydén - Harlequins - Light Saedath Voidweaver Spam

Thoughts

It's happening again.

There are a couple of intersting choices in the Tau list here - solo Tau Sept Broadsides can potentially make a fair bit of sense into this metagame, as they have reduced vulnerability to getting dunked by concentrated Aeldari firepower, there are plenty of things that switch off re-rolls so Shadowsun's buff matters less, and it avoids getting a full unit tagged in melee at the wrong moment. Given the Tau Sept re-roll is good on Broadsides anyway, you also don't lose that much if you don't have Shadowsun and they aren't your To The Last plan. I also think the Piranha is a cute idea and plausibly pretty good - two Seekers and a Tau Sept re-roll on a fusion blaster give you a pretty good chance of doing a respectable amount of damage on a turn you throw them away to claim an objective, which is valuable and something Tau armies can sometimes be short of.

Unfortunately, adding those two units doesn't stop this Tau army having a rough time into the Tau list. It's fairly balanced and I can believe it has pretty strong game into Custodes in particular, being less vulnerable to either getting no-selled by Emperor's Auspice or rolled over because it lost a key unit. Against Harlequins however, the balance becomes a weakness - it can't do either the plan of going guns out bravery mode and trying to muscle a win like Farsight or Outer Enclaves can, nor a very defensive plan like whoops all Broadsides - the Stormsurge can't hide and is one of the To The Last choices, and the shorter-ranged Crisis unit form part of the indirect fire setup and are easier to shut down with Mirror Architect. The mission is also not super helpful there - Death and Zeal is a much friendlier corner deployment mission for the Tau, though at least this list has some stuff to go pick up points expendably from no man's land objectives.

There's not too much point drawing this out further - this did not go well for the Tau, and the takeaway lesson (pending whatever happens in the balance dataslate) is that the number one thing Tau players need to be doing is building a plan for this game specifically. The sheer damage potential or indirect supremacy that Tau have gives them reliable game into anything else, but in an increasingly jokerfied metagame, one target is your priority.

Result

Harlequins Victory - 20-0

Axel Rydén - Harlequins - 1st Place

Credit: Quinn Radich

The List

See Showdown.

Archetype

Corrode: You're gonna keep seeing this until it stops being true

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Imagine we put the stair dance gif in here or something, I don't know.

Congratulations to Axel on the major win.

Jesper Unander-Scharin - Adeptus Custodes - 2nd Place

Allarus, Trajann, and Vexilus Praetor. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Archetype

Emperor's Chosen Goodstuff

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Not too much to say about this list, but worth highlighting that Jesper was able to pull off a win against Harlequins in the final round, and at least made Axel work for a 13-7 win when they played in round 3 as well. Sagitarrum being able to slam both modes with essentially no penalty against Harlequins is certainly nice, and slapping the Praetorian Plate and Impregnable Mind on a Vexillus Praetor is an interesting way of helping defend them - he's not scary in combat, especially, but he'll stop a Harlequin character or Troupe (usually, he only needs to kill two) from stealing an objective even if they wipe the Sags. Interesting tech move, and a well-earned second place.

Jussi Salonen - Harlequins - 3rd Place

Harlequins Troupe. Credit: Corrode

The List

Archetype

Light Saedath Voidweaver spam

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Another list with one standout tech choice in a single foot troupe, presumably aiming to make a nuisance of themselves with Cegorach's Jest and the like. Going with just one seems like the play if you want it - it means you don't have to dilute the rest of the plan too much, and against very inclement matchups you can put them in deep strike and it won't be too tragic if they don't do a lot. Well played to Jussi

Mikael Klangeby - Deathwatch - 4th Place

Credit: Alfredo Ramirez

The List

Archetype

Kill Team Strike Force

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Kill Team Strike Force was picking up some real momentum late last year and in January, and has rather been lost in the churn of top tier books that have landed, so it's good to see it make an appearence. This build has plenty of the typical choices for the army with a few tweaks for the current metagame. The fundamental plan of the list is to throw two tooled-up melee Kill Teams forward with the army in White Scars mode, using the reach of the biker base (chained forward from a pair of Vanguard Veterans to maintain coherency) to tag the opponent in charges they really don't see coming and bowl them over, put Premorphic Resonance on one of the two so the opponent can't really counter them in melee, and use shooty kill teams buffed with the Dominus Aegis and Fortified with Contempt to grind out what's left.

The shooty teams run as Aquila so that Specialism Extremis can be used against any target, and one of the main things that's changed here since last we saw this style of list is that a second Indomitor kill team has replaced a fortis one with a plasma half plasma - right now what you want is just shots, lots of shots, and Indomitor offers that in spades along with more durability and access to Unyielding in the Face of the Foe against Tau indirect. The Flamestorm Aggressors in one squad are also a nifty choice, as while that unit exists then any Harlequin high-value units have to stay tethered to their Mirror Architect - otherwise the Beacon Angelis will yank the flamers across the table for an Extremis barbeque. The other notable thing to highlight is that now that Redeploy effects have been clarified in such a way that scout deployment is generally being allowed, Lord of Deceit on the Spectrus Team allows for extra immediate pressure to be applied if the opponent needs to be tied down on multiple fronts, which can be great against Tau.

Very nice to see the Deathwatch making it back onto the table, good work from Mikael.

The Rest of the Best

The rest of the top eight finishers were as follows:

• 5th - Magnus Forslund - Tau: Tau Sept Goodstuff with two big Crisis Teams, Longstrike, and three individual Broadsides, plus the amusing choice of a pair of Krootox riders as (presumably) inexpensive single-model objective holders that die slightly less rapidly to opposing SMS and airburst fire compared to the hounds.
• 6th - Benjamin Hyvönen - Adeptus Custodes: Shadowkeepers Custodes making the incredibly rare choice to not take Trajann, valuing the Lockwarden Bike Captain and Praetorian Plate Allarus Captain higher thanks to their ability to make good, mobile use of the Shadowkeepers' tricks.
• 7th - Mathias Eliasson - Adeptus Custodes: Emperor's Chosen going unusually hard on an infantry castle, with lots of shieldguard and both a Vexila Defensor and Vexila Magnifica, one upgraded to the Fulminaris for extra reliability on offence.
• 8th - Björn Eriksson - Orks: Evil Sunz Speed Mob with a big unit each of Squigbuggies, Scrapjets and Deffkoptas, two planes and then a bunch of Warbikers to fill.

Midtcon GT 40K

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Tide of Conviction

Michael Geneser - Tyranids - Crusher Stampede (anti-Tau flavour with a Maleceptor)



vs.

Andreas Drachmann - Orks - Freebooterz Speed Mob going relatively wide with small units of lots of kinds of buggy, two planes (a Dakkajet and a Wazbom) and lots of Deffkoptas.

Thoughts

We finally get a break from Harlequin hell, and hit something where both sides of the table genuinely have something going for them. From the Ork point of view, the fact that the build goes wide while still maintaining plenty of dakka is a godsend here - against Crusher you want to be minimising the amount you lose each time one of their big units goes on a rampage, and units of two buggies rather than three help with that a lot. The Deffkoptas are an exception, but they can either backline or start off the table as seems appropriate, and can potentially do a lot of damage when they arrive. The Shokkjumps and the planes are welcome here too - the former threaten some big shots to cut through Crusher's damage reduction, and the latter force the Hive Guard to prioritise them lest they take over the game.

From the Tyranid side things don't look too bad either mind - Hive Guard are perfect for killing Ork Vehicles, the Maleceptor's Encephalic Diffusion makes a meaningful impact on a whole bunch of the guns the Orks have brought, and while the Orks going wide means they're never going to lose too much at once, it ensures that Crusher are going to dominate Grind them Down in a game where both armies would normally consider it, making the Ork secondary choices a bit harder. They're not without options (Engage/BID/Abhor seems plausble) but those they do have are going to force some fairly aggressive plays on them that Tyranids can probably exploit, whereas in the other direction Stranglehold/Grind/BID feels like a very comfortable set of picks. Spectacular though the Ork Dakka is, I'd normally give this one to the Stampede - but here the Orks managed to flip the script.

I have a couple theories as to why. First up, the low model count of Crusher is a bit more of a disadvantage than normal on Tide of Conviction - it means that if the Orks prioritise focus-firing down a few units then it becomes challenging for the bugs to contest the objectives fairly quickly. The wide deployment also helps the planes line up some meaningful shooting while dodging getting pulled out of the sky by Flyrants, also nice, and if they can alpha some of the Hive Guard down this way that helps a lot. Finally, the Badskull Banner is especially strong in this matchup, as it means that the Biker Warboss (who is ObSec thanks to Speed Mob) completely no-sells one of Crusher's scoring tricks in Hive-Mind Imperative, as they can't get the objective off him unless they kill him, and he can nick theirs with impunity. It also makes that otherwise safe Stranglehold pick just a little more dicey for Crusher, especially if they start losing stuff.

Andreas clearly put these advantages to work and managed to pull out a strong winning score (considering the somewhat challenging secondary options), so congratulations.

Result

Ork Victory - 85-66

Andreas Drachmann - Orks - 1st Place

Warbiker Mob. Credit: Rockfish

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Speed Mob

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Mostly discussed above - going wide helps prevent Crusher incidents, but also isn't bad into Tau and Harlies as it forces them to split their resources in a way where they probably lose some value due to friction. I'd guess it probably ends up being a bit more of a drawback against Custodes as they aim to roll through lots of units, though if they haven't brought a Vexilla Magnifica the number of rokkits the list has can be pretty good (and the Boom Boyz Deffkoptas can even take out Shieldguard). I am, also, frankly startled to be reminded that the ObSec Bike Warboss/Badskull combo still exists - it's very, very good, and the fact that we haven't really had to care about it for months says a lot about society. Or the metagame. One of those anyway. Congratulations to Andreas for flying the banner for the boyz.

Alexander Jessen - Adeptus Custodes - 2nd Place

Shield-Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Archetype

Emperor's Chosen Goodstuff

Why it's Interesting in 9th

This looks to be an attempt to build Custodes in a way that's particularly conducive to putting To The Last on the table if it needs to play a defensive game - the four model Bike Squad has a better shot at tanking through a big hit so the last biker can gloriously retreat, a Telemon is a Telemon, and the four-model Allarus unit can wait in reserves till things are starting to look safe, or go for a rampage earlier if TTL isn't needed. I'm also a big fan of Custodian squads with one praesidium shield if you're going down that route, as this provides strong ablative protection against indirect, so allows the army to just hang out early on if that's what's required.

Beyond that - it's Custodes. You know it, you probably hate it, but it's very glorious and there's at least something novel going on here. Well done to Alexander on the undefeated second.

The Rest of the Best

Six players finished on 4-1 records. They were:

• 3rd - Michael Geneser - Tyranids: See Showdown.
• 4th - Killi Paaske - Craftworlds:  An Ulthwe list with lots of small units to skirmish in the mid board to pin down the enemy till the Avatar of Khaine can chop them in half, or D-cannons and a Crimson Hunter can melt them.
• 5th - Grå Rider - Tyranids: Crusher Stampede with a Harridan.
• 6th - Søren Lohmann - Craftworlds: Ulthwe with a range of high value units - Wraithseers, Wraithblades, a couple of big Shining Spear squads and a pair of Fire Prisms to top it all off.
• 7th - Morten Hørby - Necrons: Novokh melee mash, with loads of Wraiths and Skorpekh Destroyers lead up by the Silent King, with a big block of Lychguard providing a secondary anchor.
• 8th - Jan Reinholdt - Craftworlds and Harlequins: Six Light Voidweavers alongside Baharroth and two big Dire Avenger units with Hail of Doom and Mobile Fighters out of Wave Serpents.

Grimdark Open

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Death and Zeal

Karl Abrahamsson - Grey Knights - Prescient Brethren Dreadknights and Interceptors with the super psychic Librarian.



vs.

Jacob Holmström - Tyranids - A wildly out there swarm version of Crusher Stampede with pretty much the cheapest possible monster suite then a massive number of Warriors.

Thoughts

It's Crusher Stampede, but not as we know it. Rather than going the big monster smash route as normally seen, Jacob's list here aims to create something that's incredibly good at objective play by investing in the cheap monsters that play that part of the game well and then a whole load of upgraded Tyranid Warriors. Slap a 5+ invulnerable save, a Malanthrope and access to both Unbreakable and Unyielding Chitin on them and they're very tough to shift ObSec bricks, which can be backed up by a Mawloc to provide essentially unchallengeable numbers of models on a point. Full units with guns and Rapid Adaptation are also pretty good places to drop the Relentless Flurry/Single-Minded Annihilation combo, making effective use of one of the strongest tools Tyranids have in their arsenal without tying up a bunch of points in relatively immobile Hive Guard. They can create a very strong phalanx to secure some home positions, then the Mawlocs and Harpies can use Hive-Mind Imperative and Breaking Through to give the opponent huge headaches in trying to control their positions, allowing the bugs to grind out a win. Adding some Raveners too also means this list can actually play Retrieve Nachmund Data very effectively, and it's one of the only Tyranid lists I've ever seen that has no Psykers at all, so has Abhor the Witch available (obviously great here). I'm definitely looking at this and thinking it's some sort of field test for a team event, as this is the exact kind of curve ball you sometimes see used to great effect at those, but given it's made it to the top tables here it's clearly got a reliable enough plan to pick up games against all-comers.

Grey Knights is maybe not the matchup it really wants though. If we cast our eyes back to the heady days of November last year, you'll remember a time when Grey Knights were everywhere, and a big part of that is that they're extremely difficult to win any sort of grindy game against, something that's largely been eclipsed simply because Custodes are that but more. They have a very good faction Secondary that isn't blocked out by board domination in Purifying Ritual, very fast and effective board control units in Interceptors, and the exceptional all-round anvil of Nemesis Dreadknights. They also have some extra spice from things like the super Psychic Librarian (present and correct here against a list with limited answers to it) and if they're allowed to hit melee can bypass a lot of defences just by accumulating damage from Tide of Convergence. Just the sheer volume of bolter fire they have access to is a real challenge for the blocks of Warriors here too, and Grey Knights having army-wide resilience to Mortal Wounds limits how much Breaking Through is going to matter.

Strategies like the one from the Nids here are generally banking on being able to degrade the enemy's capabilities enough that their strong objective plan can win out, and this fundamentally feels like a game where that just doesn't quite work. The Nids do have the advantage that plenty of the defences they have stacked up matter - Enhanced Resilience is great against Dreadknight shooting, their sweep melee and the halberd Interceptors, as is damage reduction on the monsters - but their ability to deal damage in return is poor enough that the Grey Knight army is going to stay pretty functional for a lot of the game. Defences or no, that's likely to let them gradually carve through the Tyranids here, and the mission should help them convert that to a victory - they can focus on taking control of one no-man's land objective in the first instance, then sweep through the rest gradually, while the Tyranids are forced to split up a bit more than they'd like while facing this menace. It speaks to the reliability of the Tyranid list that they still picked up a strong score, but in the end the Grey Knights ran away with the game with 98pts, only enhancing my feeling that the Tyranids just didn't really have the tools to shut them down.

Result

Grey Knight Victory - 98-72

Karl Abrahamsson - Grey Knights - 1st Place

Grey Knight Nemesis Dreadknights. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

See Showdown.

Archetype

Dreadknights and Interceptors

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Because it's still fine in any reasonable metagame and depending on how far the Balance Dataslate goes, it's plausbly going to start featuring in these a bit more again, which at this point would be a blessed relief. It's also always good to see players like Karl, who has been thriving with Grey Knights since their book arrived, still pushing for wins with their favoured faction rather than switching to the latest hotness. Great stuff.

The Rest of the Best

Six players finished on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Daniel Tercha - Drukhari: Dark Technomancers Cronos Spam makes a return, with some big Grotesque units to run interference and board control.
• 3rd - Jonas Axelsson - Necrons: Eternal Expansionists with lots of shooty Arks, two big blocks of Flayed Ones and a Transcendant C'tan.
• 4th - Jacob Holmström - Tyranids: See Showdown.
• 5th - Alexander Wasbeg - Thousand Sons: Cult of Duplicity with two big Scarab blocks and a Leviathan Dreadnought.
• 6th - Stefan Viterstedt - Ynnari: Two units of Wraithblades with lots of small harrassment units backing them up, all with a Webway Gate to helo confound the opposition.
• 7th - Juan Manuel Sánchez Molina - Orks: Goff Pressure with Ghaz, a couple Kill Rigs and lots of small Squighog and Deffkopta units.

Heroes Retreat Mini GT

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Tide of Conviction

Brendan “Micky” Groves - Adeptus Custodes - Emperor's Chosen Goodstuff



vs.

Sweet Law - Blood Angels - a mix of flying melee threats with some powerful characters and a unit of Grav Devs backing them up.

Thoughts

Both in the fiction and rules wise Custodes are famously good at murdering marines - it turns out that lots of D2 weaponry attached to tougher bodies with the ability to shut down Marine re-rolls via the Emperor's Auspice can make these matchups painful for the Astartes. It's not over the line to being hopeless, but it's tough, especially if the Marines are leaning on melee - taking a swing and missing will usually result in a lost unit, which is tough to deal with, and stacking Trajann up against the best Marine characters is certainly an eye-opening experience.

All that said, if you have to take a shot with melee Marines this doesn't look like the worst game to try it out in. Blood Angels hate the D2 weaponry maybe more than everyone else since their marquee Sanguinary Guard are on 2W, but this list has clearly aimed to specifically mitigate that by bringing multiple Sanguinary Priests, enabling units to be in a 6+ ignore wounds bubble as often as possible. The Chapter Tactic is also excellent here - it allows the claw Veterans to still have an impact if they run into Auspice, and some of the other units to overwhelm the Custodes ability to activate Arcane Genetic Alchemy everywhere they want to - something the list exploits by taking high strength weapons on most of the units that can. Blood Angels Bladeguard are great too - with Transhuman up they can actually take a charge from any of the Custodes nasties and expect to swing back for meaningful damage (especially if a Priest has buffed them), so keeping them in Rites of War can make it much harder for bikes to steal objectives. On the note of the bikes, it does help the Blood Angels a lot that there are only a couple of units, and the murder bike Captain has stayed home.

That gives the Blood Angels some things to work with, but I think what really gives them a proper fighting change here, especially in this mission where they're going to be fighting Custodes early and often, is how well the army is built to use Angel's Sacrifice. This strat is incredibly good in a lot of games and here it's exceptional - one of the issues the army has is dealing with multi-pronged melee engagements, either where the Custodes charge on multiple fronts or interrupt on the defensive, but Angel's Sacrifice can allow a character to be spent to neuter that when needed, and can be combined with Only in Death to still get some output value if relevant. The Company Champion is particularly great for this - they get nice big heroic intervention, and deal a frankly alarming amount of damage when they swing, so if they do leap into combat and active Sacrifice > Only in Death the Custodes might suddenly find they need to use defensive strats they were saving for elsewhere. While the "spare" Sanguinary Priest doesn't have that killing power, the Armour Indomitus does allow them to activate Sacrifice then try and ride out the resulting pain, potentially allowing them to do it all again later on. Finally, the old standby of Suppression Fire from the Whirlwind further helps to open up the possibility of a broad attack. Using these tools effectively to try and deal big damage to the Custodes on a key turn for only acceptable losses feels like the angle for the Blood Angels here, who beyond that need to play cagily with their units and try and build up some positional advantage.

The Custodes do have some agency to push back against that by offering battle with their Dreadnoughts first. Out of the Blood Angel toys, only the Death Company are really great at killing one of these (and they can very much still fail), so leading with them (with some Custodian backup to apply ObSec) and holding the bikes for a second wave can make it hard for the Blood Angels to get the window they want for a safe power turn. The only issue with a more cautious plan is that it can make secondaries a bit harder - this doesn't feel like the safest matchup for Grind, and Stranglehold requires pushing harder than either side really wants (though having a Psyker is very good news here). Outside the Psychic option Blood Angels do feel like they have the better of Secondaries here - Oaths is good going first and great going second, the Phobos stuff can play Shadow Operations, and you could certainly look at using Behind Enemy Lines or Relentless Assault and dedicating the less useful VanVets to that here.

With all that in mind, I think this game ends up surprisingly even - structural factors probably end up marginally favouring the Blood Angels, but I think they have far less margin for error than the Custodes do, as a mistake that results in multiple good units dying is likely terminal. The scoreline suggests a pretty epic and closely fought game (and high scoring on both sides for this mission), but the Blood Angels did end up victorious when the dust settled.

Result

Blood Angels Victory - 86-75

Sweet Law - Blood Angels - 1st Place

Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard - Credit: Colin Ward

The List

See Showdown.

Archetype

Blood Angels Flying Circus

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Mostly covered above, but as mentioned I think the Company Champion is a particularly good inclusion at the moment (and you could achieve similar with a Judiciar with the Selfless Valour Warlord Trait). Blood Angels have had an extremely brutal time of it in the stats recently, so big props to Sweet for bucking the trend.

The Rest of the Best

Three players finished on 4-1. They were:

• 2nd - Myles Branaum - Tyranids: Top-heavy Crusher with three Dimachaerons and two Scythed Hierodules.
• 3rd - Eric Bucheger - Adeptus Custodes: A fairly standard Goodstuff build, but running as Emissaries Imperatus for the Halo of the Torchbearer on a Bike Captain, ready to melt people in a wide radius.
• 4th - David Villareal - Imperium: Emissaries Imperatus Custodes, here presumably leaning on Into the Darkness to generate pressure, mixed with Salamanders for some melta goodness out of a drop pod and an objective-grabbing Impulsor.

Brendan came in 5th, as he was paired up in the final round so finished 3-2.

Wrap Up

Five down, five to go. We'll see you tomorrow when Liam will be taking control for part two. Comments, questions and suggestions to contact@goonhammer.com.

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