Welcome back to part two of this week's column. Today we'll be looking at the results from:

• Malmö Wargaming Weekend V
• Stud or Snotling
• Lots of GTs

If you're looking for any of the following, check out yesterday's part one:

• Goonhammer Open UK
• Frontline Gaming SoCal Open
• Hanseatic Alliance Open

As always, you can check out the list of current Archetypes here, and lists that entered the final round in contention for the win are marked with a ✪ where relevant to the tournament format.

Malmö Wargaming Weekend V

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. This event was using WTC-style 20-0 scoring.

Jonathan Sleigh-Johnson - Grey Knights - 1st Place

Grey Knights Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Archetype

Dreadknights and Interceptors

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Nothing too complicated to start things out - Grey Knights had a fantastic weekend in Europe, taking down both the majors on the continent and putting in plenty more strong placings to boot. This list is a pretty down-the-line Dreadknight and Interceptor build, here using the Prescient Brethren to provide extra value on a Techmarine with Divination for CP which can be fed into the extremely potent Foresight stratagem to turbo-charge the GMDK. Beyond that, having one Rhino enables some Ethereal Castigation shenanigans with the Interceptors if the matchup calls for it, and that's pretty much a wrap. Lists built to this template are strong enough to succeed in the current hellish metagame, and we're going to keep seeing good finishes. Congratulations to Jonathan on the win.

Johan Norrman - Iron Hands Successors - 2nd Place

The List

Archetype

Iron Hands Successors

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Another build that plays a popular archetype straight, looking very similar to the builds Nassim Fouchane has been cleaning up with. Iron Hand Successors give you the combination of strong board control, extra durability army wide and the ability to reliably protect some key shooting assets (drop pod and the Character dreadnought) till they've had a chance to strike, and that makes them one of the best Marine options right now. This list is also designed to be very reliable at scoring its secondaries and staying on the table, which makes it particularly good in a 20-0 format, as it's almost always going to walk away from games with some points. This is absolutely one of the best things you can be doing with Marines right now, but even with builds this potent many players are struggling to crack top fours with them at a major level, so congratulations to Johan

Oscar Lemming - Freebooterz - 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Freebooterz

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Down-the-line Freebooterz, with the only unusual choice being to upgrade one of the Dakkajets to a second Wazbom, providing more high-powered shots to carve through enemy damage reduction, ideal for the mirror and presumably intended to provide an all-in fighting chance against Stratoraptors. Beyond that, it floods the board with vehicles and takes the opponent off the table in double time. You know this stuff. I am starting the feel the angry spirit of JONK overtaking me, so let's congratulate Oscar on the podium finish and move on.

Dusty Justy - Adeptus Mechanicus - 4th Place

Adeptus Mechanicus - Ironstrider Ballistarii
Credit: Pendulin

The List

Archetype

Mars/Lucius

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Welp.

...

I guess...

...

...Congratulations to Dusty, and apologies that you got dealt into the order after Malik for writeups this week.

The Rest of the Best

Three more players finished on 70+ battle points. They were:

• 5th - Olaf Svensson - Drukhari: Cronos Drukhari with the greatest hits backing it up.
• 6th - Joakim Engström - Adepta Sororitas: Unusually all three of the Argent Shroud, Ebon Chalice and Bloody Rose make it into this build, providing access to pretty much ever damage-dealing trick in the book.
• 7th - Christian Olofsson - Thousand Sons: Cult of Duplicity with some extra pressure from a five-model Spawn unit and the increasingly popular (and nasty) choice of a Warpflamer Rubric block.

Stud or Snotling (major)

All the lists for this event are in Best Coast Pairings.

Brad Chester - Drukhari - 1st Place

Credit: Wings

The List

Archetype

Drukhari Goodstuff

Why it's Interesting in 9th

It would appear that Brad is just going to keep winning stuff with this list till something or someone stops him, and with the number of trophies he's now acquired with it, who can blame him? It's mobile, punchy and has good options for building a game plan with depth thanks to the Cronos, and generally just showcases what Drukhari can do in the right hands. More great stuff from brad.

Bruno Bouthillier Choquette - Aeldari - 2nd Place

Autarch. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Harlequins and Artillery

Why it's Interesting in 9th

While this list does fall within an archetype, it's notably different to the other iteration of it we've seen this week and there are some real choices to talk about. Rather than taking Dark Reapers, this build goes absolutely ham on vehicle artillery, maxing out on both Shadow Weaver platforms and Night Spinners. It also makes a choice not to bring a Farseer (something I've started doing in my own lists), packing in an Autarch instead (who provides pretty hefty force multiplication with this many shots). Over in the Harlequin half, the list is much lighter on melee weaponry than most, with the overall effect being that this is an army that wants to use its considerable firepower to sweep the opponent off the table and the Harlequins to seize key positions.

Putting all of this together gives the list some advantages in some notable matchups. Taking out the Farseer (along with having a bunch of Night Spinners that are great into 2W models) massively improves the Grey Knight/Thousand Sons matchup, as it switches on Abhor and turns off the lethal Wrath of Magnus secondary from the latter. Against Orks and AdMech, Reapers just die immediately if you go second, whereas each separate Support Weapon/Night Spinner needs to be targeted and removed separately, and when fire is being split in a lot of direction you tend to get some dropoff in overall output as individual volleys spike up or down at inopportune moments. The list also has no non-Vehicle targets that start on the table, reducing the impact of opposing indirect fire.

I don't necessarily think all these things make this version better than the more traditional version, and they also have their downsides (substantially increased vulnerability to Grind, poor ability to kick proper tarpits out of the midboard) but they're definitely defensible considering the metagame, and clearly worked out well here. Interestingly different from Bruno, and great stuff overall.

Sergii Pryshchepa - Grey Knights - 3rd Place

Grey Knights Strike Squads. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Archetype

Dreadknights and Interceptors

Why it's Interesting in 9th

...and we're back to this now. Some interesting minor tweaks here, with different weapons on the Interceptor units lets them adapt to targets, and Presaged Paralysis and Augury of Aggression as nasty trick to spring on an opponent who doesn't read the army list, but fundamentally this is still running off the sheer power of Dreadknights and Interceptors. I'm always a fan of building in a few little extras where possible though, and it's nice to see the full breadth of the Augurium's tools getting a runaround, so well done to Sergii.

Ridvan Martinez - Drukhari - 4th Place

Drukhari Alliance of Agony | Credit: Garrett "John Condit" Severson

The List

The Standout Features

• A unique concotion from a Master Archon, combining a lightning fast initial strike with a very durable second wave.
• Never Stationary/Animus Vitae combo provides an option for an overwhelming early charge.
• Artisans of the Flesh Talos/Cronos roll over whatever is left.

Why it's Interesting in 9th

When someone has their own podcast dedicated to a faction you can generally expect some innovative stuff from them and this doesn't disappoint. None of the units here are new but the overall combination is, which is going to catch out opponents ready for more conventional strategies. Within its single Realspace Raid, this army has access to extremes of what Drukhari can do in two directions. In terms of speed, it uses Red Grief Cult units alongside the Animus Vitae (which you can move a Venom-mounted Archon 23" then throw thanks to Never Stationary) to maximise its angles on early charges, potentially allowing it to either shut down a lot of shooting or put the opponent heavily on the back foot. Floating ominously up behind that, you have six pain engines with damage reduction, Master Regenerist to heal them and the option to switch on early 5+ invulnerables if they're fed any early victims thanks to Pain Syphon. They're certainly not indestructible, but they're far, far tougher to take off the table than almost anything else in Drukhari.

The overall effect here is a list that is still perfectly happy to do some fairly standard Drukhari stuff if the opponent doesn't have an answer, but if instead what it needs to to is go all-out aggro or seize control of a position with some heft then it's got alternatives. The speed in particular is likely to wrongfoot a lot of players, as in general backlining away from 1st turn charges isn't nearly as much of a thing in 9th Edition, but here you need to be very careful with how you deploy. Great stuff overall, and definitely the most interesting Drukhari build of the week!

The Rest of the Best

Five more players finished the event on 5-1. They were:

• 5th - Sam Procopio - Blood Angels: Powerful melee units supported by Inceptors and a Devastator pod, plus some actual Scouts who can ride a Land Speeder Storm for cheap board control.
• 6th - Francois Lalonde - Drukhari: Cronos Drukhari with a big Court and Bloodbrides backing them up.
• 7th - Jeremy Atkinson - Adeptus Mechanicus: Mars Veteran Cohort with lots of Stratoraptors and melee Skitarii.
• 8th - Zach Comeau - Imperium: Mostly Astra Militarum (lots of Russes, lots of Scions) with a small Grey Knight patrol providing some psychic firepower. I must admit I can't quite work out why the Blades of Victory have been chosen for the patrol, as I would have thought going Wardmakers for access to Projection of Purity would make the most sense in the setup.
• 9th - Kai Niemi - Drukhari: Drukhari goodstuff with some 10 Wrack Prophets of Flesh units to provide slightly more durable objective holders.
• 10th - Christopher Rice - Tyranids: Kronos/Kraken classic with an extra Behemoth Patrol stapled on the end for some extra tricks on a Flyrant.

Into the Firestorm 2

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

Joe Maylam - Drukhari - 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Drukhari Goodstuff

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Pretty standard Drukhari toys here, with the BSF Ur-Ghuls (certainly handy at the few events still allowing them) and use of Coven of Twelve to get some AP on the Wracks the only standouts. Joe knows his stuff with the Dark Kin, so seeming him taking an event down is no surprise - congratulations.

The Rest of the Best

• 2nd  - Sohali Madadi - Adeptus Custodes: Double Telemon Shadowkeepers, with some Sisters of Silence for cheap objective holders.
• 3rd - Cameron Giles - Iron Hands: Actual Iron Hands and extra Dreadnought heavy, sporting a Leviathan alongside the usual suspects.
• 4th ✪ - Wayne Envis - Adeptus Mechanicus: Metalica Melee Veteran Cohort returns to make a play for a top spot.
• 5th - Jay Seebarun - Grey Knights: Dreadknights and Interceptors with some Razorbacks in tow for extra punch.
• 6th - Paul Letherby - Grey Knights: Dreadknights and Interceptors with a Prescient Brethren Purgation squad for a bit of extra anti-horde.
• 7th - Matthew McVeigh - Deathwatch: Kill Teams and Dreadnoughts with an extra-hefty Indomitor Kill Team to fight for the mid-board.
• 8th - Jon Phipps - Hive Mind: Kronos, Kraken and 4AE get another outing.
• 9th ✪ - Craig Breslin - Iron Hands: Even more Dreadnoughts, here including two Leviathans.

Imps Gaming October GT

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

Paul Martin - Orks - 1st Place

Deffkilla Wartrike. Credit: Rockfish

The List

The Standout Features

• Evil Sunz make Deffkoptas super mobile, and unlocks the extremely potent Redder Paint.
• Drive-by Lootas cause catastrophic damage to anyone without an answer.

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Fundamentally this Ork build is still on the basic plan of blasting its opponents clean off the table at speed, but its using some different toys to pull it off compared to most of what we've seen. The Evil Sunz get a look-in in the first detachment here, which is well built to take advantage of their tools. Rezmekka's Redder Paint is brutally good on a Deffkilla Trike, as it can drift park into a large amount of enemies to give other units a chance to swing or pile in, while Drive By Dakka provides some incredible movement reach to the Deffkoptas. Even the Clan Kultur isn't entirely neglected here, as it's going to allow the two bare-bones Boyz units to make big advances to steal objectives in an emergency.

Over in the Freebooterz, the usual buggy suspects are here, but rather than the normal quota of planes there are two Trukks stacked with Lootas. This is a very high risk, high reward play - Loota shooting is still very strong, but boy are they vulnerable for their price if the transport gets cracked. Not running planes does mean this army is more able to hide its key assets behind Obscuring terrain, which can certainly be an upside into some lists, but I've got to imagine every turn where the Lootas aren't perfectly hidden is incredibly nerve wracking. That didn't stop Paul navigating this through to an event win, and it's cool to see a few different things tried out, so great work.

The Rest of the Best

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

• 2nd - Stephen Platten - Death Guard: Inexorable with Deathshrouds, PBCs, and some Bloat Drones to spread the gift of Ferric Blight.
• 3rd ✪ - Mark Tonks - Adeptus Mechanicus: Infantry-heavy Mars Veteran Cohort.
• 4th - Tom Hill - Orks: Freebooterz with a couple of Tankbusta MSUs for extra punch in an emergency.

CAGBASH XIV 40K

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

Justin Curtis - Thousand Sons - 1st Place

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

The Standout Features

• Pressure-heavy Thousand Sons
• Spawn, Tzaangors and Warpflamers provide lots of things to push into the opponent's face.
• Cult of Time Scarabs provide inevitability.

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Thousand Sons haven't quite been lighting up the meta the same way as Grey Knights, but some players are still making them work, and I really like Justin's list here. What makes it stand out from other builds is that it's extremely proactive and can be very aggressive - it's got multiple units of Chaos Spawn that represent huge reservoirs of wounds, and opponents will need to be constantly on the watch for the warpflamer Rubricae teleporting in. Don't forget that with Master Misinformator this army can throw the Rubricae forward after the roll-off with Risen Rubricae, at which point it's nearly impossible for armies without a scout deployed screen of their own to avoid getting some stuff barbecued.

Since they'll be joined in the opponent's face by Umbralefic Crystaled Scarabs and potentially more rubrics coming in via Sorcerous Facade and Spawn hot on their heels, this army is going to bowl many opponents straight out of the game if they don't plan for what's coming. I've played against a few lists with similar plans, and what I found was that while you can hit back pretty hard, you're under pressure from high wound count units in so many directions that you simply can't clear them in one turn, and after that the grind of psychic firepower and the respawning Scarabs takes you out of the game. My main takeaway is that I'm never leaving home with fewer than two Mandrake units again, because otherwise going second against armies like this is bracing.

I suspect this style of list is what's going to give us the most successful Thousand Sons builds going forwards, as that extra x-factor of being able to absolutely crush an opponent who doesn't respect it and loses the roll off gives them a far higher chance of navigating through events without hitting a stumble (and it's hardly like having extra mobility and pressure is bad generally). Great stuff from Justin here.

The Rest of the Best

Five more players finished on 4-1. They were:

• 2nd - Joshua Minnich - Nurgle: Epidemius and Daemon Engines with Be'lakor riding shotgun in the Daemons detachment for extra nastiness.
• 3rd ✪ - Ben Stipp - Blood Angels: Standard Blood Angel melee toys with some non-standard (for Blood Angels) backup - two VolCons and a Leviathan.
• 4th - Erid Pruneda - Chaos Daemons: Daemon monster mash with Be'lakor.
• 5th - Gary Kamp - Grey Knights: Dreadknights and Interceptors.
• 6th - Scott Stormquist - Grey Knights: Dreadknights and Interceptors.

Khornehusker

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

Dan Sammons - Adeptus Mechanicus  Imperium - 1st Place

Note: I thought the Assassin in an aux was just a formatting thing but turns out no - the easiest way to grind ITC points for best imperium is to pay a 2cp tax to turn an AdMech list into Imperium. Normal Codex.

Skitarii Marshal. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Archetype

General Mars goodstuff.

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Am I happy seeing Stratoraptor lists suddenly everywhere in the US too as people stop inexplicably not using the best unit in the game? No. Am I surprised? Also no. Dan does make an interesting choice here to go pure Mars but forgo the Veteran Cohort so he can have a Culexus Assassin, and that'll certainly help prevent any upsets against Grey Knights - which certainly looks like it paid off since that's what he defeated in a close final! Otherwise, lots of familiar and exceptionally powerful tools at play here in the hands of an extremely strong player, so congratulations to Dan on the win.

The Rest of the Best

Five more players finished on 4-1. They were:

• 2nd ✪ - Tyler DeVries - Grey Knights: Dreadknights and Interceptors. I guess Servitors too, nice cheap objective holders never go amiss.
• 3rd - Cyle Thomson - Grey Knights: Some extra toys amidst the normal Dreadknights and Interceptors here, with a lascannon Dreadnought and a couple of Purifier squads in a rhino helping to punch through damage reduction.
• 4th - Matthew Doughman - Imperial Knights: See lists of the week.
• 5th - Jack Esseff - Orks: Freebooterz buggies and planes, but also now Kill Rigs. Ominous.
• 6th - Scott Blegen - Adeptus Custodes: Relatively shooty Shadowkeepers, going all-Sagittarum on the troops alongside two Telemons.

Come the Apocalypse GT

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

Jon-Michael Gordon - Orks - 1st Place

Credit: Soncaz

The List

Archetype

Freebooterz

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Demonstrating that there are basically no cheap vehicles in the Ork book that aren't great, this list substitutes Deffkoptas in for some of the normal buggies in the Freebooter lineup and is clearly still very effective, soaring to victory with a series of hefty wins. Having the Koptas feels like it should be particularly good in the mirror, as a reservoir of S8 D3 shots that can be held back in deep strike can line up a powerful counterpunch into opposing buggies, being perfectly statted to take them off the table (and still good into most targets). That is my one requisite interesting thing to say about a spin on a common archetype, so it only remains to say well done to Jon-Michael for winning the event.

Mark Perry - Orks - 2nd ✪ Place

Kill Rig. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Freebooterz

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Freebooterz, but with Kill Rigs too! Perhaps unsurprisingly, adding some aggressively costed all-phase killing machines, one of which spits out a unit of ObSec troops when it dies, to an already strong list looks pretty spicy. Having them in the list also forces the opponent to make difficult choices about target priority, as both they and the Wazboms are extremely strong if ignored. More powerful high damage weaponry also helps in the mirror, and between Groundshaker Shells, Snagged and their substantial melee threat, the Rigs allow this list to control the mid board more effectively in the face of serious resistance than the standard buggy builds. It wouldn't shock me to see a next iteration of this list bring back a Dakkajet as well (maybe in place of Shokkjumps, considering the extra big shots from the rigs), but what's here looks enormously powerful and a worthy debut on the top tables for the mighty Kill Rig. Very strong stuff from Mark.

The Rest of the Best

Five more players finished on 4-1. They were:

• 3rd - Jaime Paris - Space Wolves Successors: Master Artisans/Whirlwind of Rage combines with a bunch of Wolves datasheets to create a build that's excellent at scoring and has the punch to spike down key targets.
• 4th - Robert Birmingham - Dark Angels: More "whoops all Deathwing" here, with three massive Terminator blocks, some Knights and a bunch of support.
• 5th ✪ - Collin Watts - Adeptus Mechanicus: Mars/Lucius with Fusilaves, though extra Ironstriders instead of the Stratoraptors.
• 6th - Thomas Byrd - Ultramarines: Bobby G and Tigurius get a big day out at the head of an army with various bulked up units to take advantage of buffs and re-rolls.
• 7th - Austin Breaux - Adeptus Custodes: Dread Host vehicle spam, with a whole bunch of Dreadnoughts and Caladii.

“The Big One” Barnyard Brawl GT

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

Scott Byam - Adeptus Mechanicus - 1st Place

Adeptus Mechanicus - Serberys Raiders
Credit: Pendulin

The List

Archetype

Mars/Lucius

Why it's Interesting in 9th

++Record Not Found++

++Appropriate Praise Protocol Engaged++ 

++Congratulations++

The Rest of the Best

• 2nd ✪ - Alan Blakeborough - Astra Militarum: A Catachan brigade with lots of angry, punchy guard and the Catachan Named Character contingent, backed up by Full Payload Manticores and some Scions in a second detachment.
• 3rd - David Ledbetter - Orks: A real mixture here, with Goff Beast Snagga pressure units joined by Evil Sunz buggies and Deathskulls utility units.
• 4th - Michael Walsh - Drukhari: Cronos/Goodstuff Drukhari
• 5th - Sean Kandare - Grey Knights: Dreadknights and Interceptors.
• 6th - Jack Lord - Freebooterz: Freebooterz, but with the hilarious flex of putting Ghazghkull Thraka in a Battlewagon for a laugh. Goodness knows we could use one right now.

Wrap Up

Normally I try and put something pithy in here, look forward to next week or whatever, but I can't pretend that compiling the column this week hasn't been a bit depressing. This is one of the single largest weekends of 40K we've had in 9th (north of 800 players across the events covered by my maths), only really rivaled by the LGT weekend and the ones with duelling supermajors, but the diversity and interest of the lists at the top (with a few notable exceptions) is utterly dire. That's not going to stop me going and playing 40k or anything, because it is important to remember that in the average tourney run you're going to hit one or maybe two of the real nightmare builds, and there's loads of fun to be had in other games, but it really is disheartening just how skewed things have gotten, and going through all the results like this has really hammered that home.

Next week looks pretty quiet on the singles front, but there's a stupendously massive team event in Spain happening, so I'll probably focus next week's column on that to freshen things up, then hold out hope that someone devises some super secret tech as we head into another run of supermajors in Coventry and Houston. See you next week, and comments, questions or suggestions to contact@goonhammer.com.

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