A slightly quieter weekend for once, but I strongly suspect that's largely because many of the world's best players have been preparing or travelling for the World Team Championships, which takes place this week. We'll have plenty to look at from that next week, including the Warmaster GT singles event, and today we've got a healthy crop of GTs to whet your appetite for international miniatures combat. There's still plenty of variety on show too, which continues to be very encouraging, though there's a notable return of dynastic dominance this week after last week's slight stutter.

This week we're looking at:

• Warzone: Giga-Bites VI
• The Risky Rollers Open
• Mork's Maritime Open
• Bedburger Scheunenkloppen GT
• Seaside Fire
• Heroes Retreat Mini GT Q3
• Aegis Open (technically narrowly missed the GT cut, but they appear to be a new organiser, and that's always worth encouraging!).

Let's take a look.

Warzone: Giga-Bites VI

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Marietta, GA, US on August 06 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Tear Down Their Icons

Bradley Weir - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff with bonus Herohammer, packing in Kyria Draxus and Ephrael Stern alongside Celestine and Vahl.

vs.

Stephen Mitchell - Necrons: Eternal Expansionists with the Nightbringer, lots of Ophydians and Wraiths, and the Silent King.

Thoughts

Two high-powered armies with fantastic Secondary games slamming into one another on a mission where they both excel at the Primary as well - so who wins?

Both sides have got some pretty spicy assets going for them. C'tan can be excellent against Sisters, but this build has a whole lot of ways to punish the Nightbringer - between the mortals from Stern, Refrain of Blazing Piety and having Kyria Draxus around, they can actually smoke a C'tan without even firing a shot if they get really lucky. The flip side, however, is all those Characters don't come cheap, and the Sisters have far less ground coverage than normal, meaning that even if the Nightbringer has to hide dropping Sky of Falling Stars all game, it's still going to cause some problems, especially if enough of those multi-meltas get smoked that the Silent King can start flexing his muscles.

Another strong point in the Necrons favour here is the way their units are split - three small units of Ophydians and three fairly chunky melee units is a pretty perfect setup here. Against T3 Sisters the Ophydians very much threaten to wipe out a unit they touch, including some of the Characters, forcing constant caution. At the other end of the spectrum, the Sisters also don't have much that can reliably check into the big Wraith or Skorpekh units and land a wipe (at least not without Vahl's re-rolls), especially if the Nightbringer focuses on depleting the larger Zephyrim and Repentia units first. The Necrons also have more purely sacrificial units thanks to packing in Scarabs.

With all that in mind, it does feel like the Necrons have more angles to control the flow of battle, and with both sides having excellent Secondaries, that tips this in their favour. What the Sisters do have going for them to try and push back is access to multiple Fight Last abilities, which when two armies relying heavily on melee to do damage clash is obviously excellent. If they can catch the Necrons out with Word of the Emperor then launch a sweeping counterattack they might be able to make something happen, but ultimately I think they'd be relying on the Necrons to make a mistake to put the game out of their control, and it doesn't look like that happened.

Result

Necrons Victory - 87 - 44

Stephen Mitchell - Necrons - 1st Place

Canoptek Wraiths. Credit: Rockfish

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Eternal Expansionists

Thoughts

Having been a Necron mainstay all edition we've actually seen fewer Wraiths recently, but they're still very good (especially now that it's cheaper to pack in a Fail Safe Overcharger), and as covered in the Showdown I think the split of units here works really well for some matchups. Where it might struggle a bit more is games where the Ophydians will consistently bounce, as they're pretty brittle - but equally the matchup I'd worry about there is Knights, and Stephen handily beat those in round 3. Congratulations on winning glory for the dynasties (and yourself, I guess).

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Bradley Weir - Adepta Sororitas: See Showdown.
• 3rd - Justin Jones - Asuryani: Hail of Doom with lots of Aspects and Phoenix Lords in tow to lock in Wrath of Khaine.
• 4th - Mark Perry - Chaos: A completely wild mixed Chaos monster mash build, combining Abaddon, Be'lakor and Mortarion, some Death Guard utility characters, and a small Emperor's Children detachment with Lucius and some Noise Marines in a Dreadclaw. Completely mind-bending to play against because of how many special rules it racks up everywhere.
• 5th - Thomas Byrd - Ultramarines: Macragge's most loyal servant puts in a strong showing with the Ultramarines, combining a set of very powerful heroes (naturally including Guilliman) with large shooting units desgined to take maximum advantage of the buffs that can be handed out.
• 6th - Jack Harpster - Tau: Heavy-duty Tau Sept Goodstuff with Longstrike , a hammerhead, a pair of Sun Sharks then Commanders and Crisis Suits to finish.

The Risky Rollers Open

36-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Moorabbin, Victoria, AU on August 05 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Conversion

Dean Sinnbeck - Chaos Space Marines: Creations of Bile with big Terminator and Bike units, two units of Possessed, and Abaddon leading things up

vs.

Michael Hamilton - Iron Hands: Iron Hands with lots of Redemptors, a Gladiator Reaper and two drop pods with Devastators.

Thoughts

Creations of Bile have been getting a fair bit of hype recently, and here we see them put in a top table performance. Given how melee-heavy the metagame is right now, it's not hard to see why - the Creations brawl like champions, and brutally punish any opponent whose plan is to do the heavy lifting in melee. Add in a particularly good Legion Secondary and access to Advance and Charge on demand, and you've got a strong choice, especially as all this works well with high-performing units like Terminators. The Biker unit here projects massive reach and infantry-clearing threat, and putting the opponent on the back foot as they try and avoid them gives everything else a chance to stage into position, after which it's a nightmare to prise the army out.

Unfortunately for the Creations, rather than any of the armies they're supremely tuned to face (either of the lists from the previous game would feel like a strong matchup for them), they instead face an Iron Hands build whose plan is to shoot them with guns until they're dead. Controversial, yet brave. The guns they've got are pretty dang suitable for the matchup too, lots of flat damage 3, plenty of AP, and stuff in the drop pods that should utterly sweep the bikers, reducing their value in the game significantly. The Dreadnoughts are also very crunchy as a front line, potentially bouncing the Possessed in particular.

A damage race definitely seems to favour the loyalists - but the Creations have a much better angle on controlling the flow of the game thanks to their speed and melee threats (which are incredibly lethal to everything except the Dreadnoughts). They also feel like they have marginally better Secondary plans, though maybe not by miles - Specimens probably is the choice but threatens to go bad if the Iron Hands have some strong turns early. However, despite the Iron Hands having no Psykers, their possession of a 4+ deny stratagem probably takes Psychic Secondaries off the table - you have to figure that as the Chaos side here, you want Secondaries you can rely on pushing points for even if you get gradually taken out. That means the choice is probably The Long War, Specimens (or maybe Rise to Glory if you're going to lean on Abaddon and the Daemon Prince) and then some sort of Shadow Operations choice. From the Marine side, Shock Tactics probably aligns with how they're planning to play, and after that they've probably got to pick their poison on either  Cold Fury or Oaths, and maybe again fill out with Shadow Operations.

It feels like this comes down to whether the Creations list can roll with the blows of the Iron Hands long enough to max out their score, and ideally stop Dreadnoughts punching through to their home objectives. They do have some help here - the Iron Hands list is naff at dealing with Abaddon, providing a sticky threat, and the old standby of tagging a drop pod with only a single model in range in your turn, then piling in properly to wipe it out on the opponents is extremely available. I think, though, I'd still narrowly favour the Hands to take it, because it feels like they're going to do enough damage when they really let rip to tip it. As it was, well, I honestly laughed out loud when I saw this scoreline - either this game was incredibly cautious with both players racking up 8pts a turn while see-sawing the centre back and forth, or it was a preposterous bloodbath with both sides slamming into the other. However it happened, the Creations of Bile took this 97-94. Good grief.

Result

Chaos Space Marines Victory - 97 - 94

Dean Sinnbeck - Chaos Space Marines - 1st Place

Credit: Charlie A

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Creations of Bile

Thoughts

All covered in the showdown - great pressure units, great into some of the melee focused armies that excel right now, and still capable of pulling off wins against powerful shooting lists as the showdown proved. The only thing I'd worry about is running into double venom cannon Harpies - the list has no real answer to them, and they're still a major metagame force. Continuing the day's theme of "what do I know, idiot" however, Dean took out a powerful Leviathan build in round three (only one Venom harpy, but still loaded with the stuff I'd be scared of), so it's clear that there's real, broad power here and the general knows how to use it!

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Michael Hamilton - Iron Hands: See Showdown.
• 3rd - Jason Horne - Tyranids: Leviathan Goodstuff with a couple of Harpies and a Tervigon.
• 4th - Ben Kunstler - Blood Angels: Jump pack spam, going as far as bringing multiple units of Assault Marines alongside the usual.
• 5th - Dylan Cowan - Tyranids: Leviathan Goodstuff with a Sporocyst.

Mork’s Maritime Open 2022

35-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Riverview, New Brunswick, CA on August 06 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Conversion

Keenan Elliot - Adeptus Custodes: Emperor's Chosen Goodstuff with a couple of Helverin Freeblades adding firepower.

vs.

Colton McInnis - Necrons: Double C'tan/Double Doom Scythe Eternal Expansionists.

Thoughts

Custodes continue to be easily the best place on the Imperium side to slot in some Armigers, as Helverins with Hunters of Beasts provide some shooting of a kind they really don't get from anything else, and Trajann's bonus CP plus Custodes naturally building good Battalions mean you can actually fit the stuff you want in. They're a nifty addition to this list, as they're great for holding home objectives while plinking away, and this matchup immediately shows their value. Their guns are excellent into...well frankly almost everything in this Necron list, and crucially they force the Doom Scythes to make awkward decisions, reducing their value. Sure the Deceiver can pull them off the table if needed, but even if the Necrons go first the choice is going to be whether to fly over and risk low-rolling and getting punked, or to hang back - Armigers are easy to hide, Doom Scythes aren't (at least not when their predators have 60" range).

The Necrons normal plan of playing cagey and maxing Secondaries using small units like the Scarabs is going to be tough here as well, because as soon as the Custodes are in position, they flat can't. They do not have that many units, and the Custodes have a bumper crop of Troops that count as two models each, so the Scarabs just get bounced. The Skorpekh are a much more real prospect, but as I know from painful experience they can bounce off Custodes, and there's plenty of stuff in the Custodes list to reliable roll them up. Also, the two Dreadnoughts are a big problem for them,  as without a second D3 weapon in the Skorpekh squads they'll absolutely bounce them without Szarekh's aura. Challenging stuff.

The Necrons do have a few assets mind. The Helverins are alarmingly scary to Szarekh at range, but if the Doom Scythes can drop in on turn two and take them out then suddenly the Silent King can roam free, and his Fight Last makes him a challenge to shift. The Custodes list also lacks fantastic answers to the C'tan, but as Emperor's Chosen there's some extent to which they don't care that much - they're not ObSec, their damage output through T5, a 4+ invuln and 4+ to ignore Mortals is mediocre, and thus unless the Void Dragon gets to draw a bead on the Armigers or Dreadnoughts, they're not going to get much done.

With all that in mind, the best plan for the Necrons feels like it's going to be discarding the central objective (just leaving enough stuff behind to counter-charge if the Custodes try and push through to their home) and fighting hard for the two flank objectives - it'll take the Custodes longer to get set up here, and forcing them to split their forces gives the Xenos a better chance of taking out one side. Also, if they go first then they're near guaranteed 5pts on Treasures out of the gate, and can quite plausibly keep the Custodes out of two quarters and their deployment zone for an extended period, so it's definitely not like they have no plan - but they're very reliant on never hitting a patch of bad low rolls and failing to clear an objective at a key moment. The grind feels like it favours the Custodes, so the Necrons need to pick up lots of points fast, and the result suggests they did have an OK kickoff, but the Custodes got things together and pushed them back in good enough time that it didn't matter.

Result

Adeptus Custodes Victory - 89 - 63

Keenan Elliot - Adeptus Custodes - 1st Place

Custodes Guardian. Credit: Kevin Genson

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Emperor's Chosen Goodstuff with Helverins

Thoughts

Nice to see Custodes putting in a strong result for the first time in a while - and yes I know that's a weird thing to say, but we've got a good metagame now, so Custodes can have a little victory, as a treat.

I do like Keenan's build a fair bit here, as I think it's well suited to the metagame - it projects enough shooting threats that stuff like Harpies and Doom Scythes can't just operate with impunity, but also has enough ObSec stuff to push for key objectives when needed, and also retains good counter-charge threat from the Dreads, Trajann and Bike Captain. A really strong all-rounder build overall, so a well deserved triumph.

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Nick Steeves - Astra Militarum: Dakka-heavy Astra Militarum, bringing five Demolisher Russes (two of which are Commanders) and a trio of artillery tanks in support, with a whole bunch of Infantry and Officers to finish. Very dangerous in the shooting phase, pretty crunchy to put down, and can score the Guard Secondaries very effectively. Dropped a game to Colton's Necrons, which makes sense as it has a much tougher time than the Custodes stopping the ObSec and dealing with the C'tan (and even then ran it pretty close).
• 3rd - Colton McInnis - Necrons: See Showdown.
• 4th - Marc-Antoine Leclerc - Chaos Knights: A tanked-up Desecrator and a whole bunch of Herpetrax War Dogs with various fancy upgrades.

Bedburger Scheunenkloppen GT

34-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Bergheim, NRW, Deutschland on August 06 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Data Scry-Salvage

Grischa Gerwert - Thousand Sons: Cult of Time splitting 10/5/5 on Scarabs.

vs.

Gregor Werner - Harlequins: Light Saedath with lots of boats and 3x3 shooty Skyweavers.

Thoughts

The 8761st Annual Webway Classic here as Thousand Sons take on Harlequins. The Harlequin list is mostly business as usual with one exception, which is the 3x3 pure shooty Skyweavers. These give some good anti-vehicle reach, and they're flexible enough for other matchups that you're never going to hate having them - they're good at bully charging pure shooting units, Capricious Reflections means that they can hold objectives relatively safely against melee stuff, and they're not bad at rolling up Marines now that Sky Bolas are actually scary.

Over on the Thousand Sons side we've got the Cult of Time rather than Duplicity, and to better cover the board without access to Sorcerous Facade it goes a bit wider than normal. As Time, five-model Terminator units are pretty sticky in lots of matchups, as they can add (at least) one model back in when needed. There's also some extra coverage from bringing more Rubricae than normal and some Spawn, and mortal wounds are obviously great against an elite army like Harlequins, but on this mission the Thousand Sons are up against it.

Data Scry Salvage demands an ability to persistently engage across a wide front, and the Harlequins are just so much better at that here. They've got the mobility to swing their forces round to wherever they need to do, and unfortunately in this game the smaller units of Terminators feel more like a liability than an upside. If you had two big crunchy Terminator units you could make a serious play for locking down both sides of the board with stuff the clowns would bounce from, and grind them out, but everything other than the big squad risks getting picked apart piecemeal. To add insult to injury, the Harlequins have made the diabolical move of leaving all their Shadowseers at home, meaning that Abhor is on for them and Wrath of Magnus is off for the Sons. Add in the fact that all the Characters they have can skulk in Transports for a bit to dodge Psychic Interrogation, and their good Secondaries are still just fine, and things look very uphill for the Sons here, which played out in the scoreline.

Result

Harlequins Victory - 83 - 25

Gregor Werner - Harlequins - 1st Place

A Solitaire. Photo: Corrode

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Light Saedath

Thoughts

Shadowseers - who needs them? Apparently not this list - and given it has plenty of reach via the shooting of the Skyweavers, that seems fair enough. Losing access to Psychic Interrogation yourself is rough, but this list can ace the two mobility-based Harlequin secondaries, is good at Engage thanks to the bikes if Places is too risky and has a perfectly fine RND game if it can't find a third anywhere else. Looks like a fun list to play too, and well done to Gregor on the win.

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Maik Loga - Tyranids: Leviathan with two massive Warrior bricks and Harpies overhead.
• 3rd - Grischa Gerwert - Thousand Sons: See showdown.
• 4th - Alessandro Liessem - Asuryani: An unusual Craftworlds build using lots of the tools popular in Hail, but instead running as Masterful Shots and Vengeful to amp various Aspect Warriors up across multiple phases.
• 5th - Alex Frohn - Tyranids: Jormundgandr Lurk monster mash with Exocrines and Hive Tyrants, plus a hefty number of Mortal Wounds.
• 6th - Federico Liessem - Tyranids: Psychic-heavy Leviathan Goodstuff, with three units of Zoanthropes and lots of other bodies on top.
• 7th - Jannik Roettgen - Craftworlds & Harlequins: A ferocious Biel Tan/Twilight Saeedath mix, with loads of small Aspect Warrior units and a large Troupe from the clown side.

Seaside Fire

28-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Pesaro, Marche, IT on August 06 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Tide of Conviction

Daniele De Gemini - Tyranids: Leviathan Goodstuff with loads of Warriors and a Sporocyst.

vs.

Federico Buggiani - Astra Militarum: Cadian Conscript Spam.

Thoughts

So like, Leviathan with big Warrior units and Spore Mine/Psychic backup is an absolute screaming nightmare for most opponents on Tide of Conviction, but if anything is going to give it a run for it's money, it's this Astra Militarum list because damn that's a lot of Conscripts. This is a list I've seen theorycrafted a reasonable amount, but very much the kind of army where the number of people who have the models to put it on the table and the stamina to get through a five round event with it is extremely limited. The core functionality is pretty simple - as Whiteshields the Conscripts can fully benefit from Orders, and this list can hurl around plenty, meaning that they can either swarm onto objectives at speed, or unleash titanic numbers of lasgun shots with First Rank Fire! Second Rank Fire! Sure, they're not very accurate, but in rapid fire range Hammer of Wrath is giving you 20 automatic wounds straight up, and you can slap some AP on that with Shock Troops if you're feeling spicy.

That's at least a modest concern to the Tyranid Warriors - if you run the maths it isn't actually doing spectacular damage, but there are a lot more guard bodies on the table than Tyranids, and each time they bleed a model it becomes harder to contest objectives against the weight of humanity. It's honestly more of a problem for the other stuff in the Tyranid army, as it means if they expose themselves they're extremely likely to suffer death by a thousand cuts. The Manticore is also much more of a worry for the nids, as one high-rolled turn of shooting from it could seriously main the Warriors. The fairly heavy investment in Mortal wounds also doesn't really pay off here, though with Biovores and a Sporocyst there plausibly is a chance you can seed enough Spore Mines onto an objective that moving onto it wrecks most of a unit.

Tough stuff, but despite all that, the Tyranids probably do have to go aggro here - their big advantage is that the Warriors and quite a few other things in their list can dunk stuff in combat, and every unit that gets tagged in melee is one that can't use FRFSRF (though Get Back in the Fight means they'll still do something). If they let the Guard dictate the pace of the game they'll end up boxed in and not able to push back out fast enough - whereas keeping guard at bay and carving through them earns points on No Prisoners, locks in time to score Psychic Interrogation (though the Astropaths could meddle), and potentially messes with Guard Secondaries by keeping them in their half of the table (and screening out the Scions to prevent Boots on the Ground). It feels like if they can do that and hang on to their two nearby objectives they might end up with enough of a better Secondary plan to win out, though obviously they're going to be at constant risk of getting overrun and shut out. It would appear that they did manage to pull off something like this - a close game and a very strong attempt by the guard, but in the end Leviathan Warriors remain all-time champions of Tide of Conviction.

Result

Tyranids Victory - 75 - 61

Daniele De Gemini - Tyranids - 1st Place

Tyranid Warriors. Credit: Rockfish

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Leviathan Goodstuff

Thoughts

Cuts out any real big guns in favour of lots of Mortal Wound action, and definitely looks like a nightmare to challenge with any sort of elite infantry army. Given it successfully pulled through a challenging game against an extremely non-elite infantry army in round five, we can confirm that Leviathan is still very good. Well done to Daniele on the event win.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Simone Caroselli - Chaos Space Marines: More Creations of Bile, this time with a big unit of Possessed as the Black Rune carriers, then some smaller Possessed and Terminator units for brawling.
• 3rd - Federico Buggiani - Astra Militarum: See showdown.
• 4th - Andrea Carrieri - Grey Knights: Rapiers Dreadknights and Interceptors, with a single squad of purifiers for extra mortals and some counter-charge threat into D2 stuff.
• 5th - Enrico Bertozzi - Tau: Go-fast Farsight with lots of Breachers in Devilfish up front and Shadowsun buffing up a single massive Crisis Team at the back.

Heroes Retreat Mini GT Q3

28-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in San Antonio, TX, US on August 06 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Tide of Conviction

Sweet Lew - Necrons: Eternal Expansionists with two C'tan and a big Tomb Blade unit.

vs.

Cory Russell - Chaos Space Marines: Word Bearers with various small hulls, some very tooled-up Characters and an honest to the dark gods Land Raider.

Thoughts

On some level, the crowd is obliged to go absolutely wild here - it's a Land Raider! The upgrades the Chaos Ones got finally make them fringe playable! Being able to use Hexagramatic Ward on one after you've been hit by, say, a D6 beam from some smug dick skeleton is pretty cool! Ferrying around either some Possessed or Legionnaries as needed is pretty cool too, and the shooting is fine, especially with some Obliterators adding weight of shots. Outside of the Land Raider the list goes pretty broad, which seems decent - lots of Legionaires means it has a strong ObSec presence, the Word Bearer re-rolls mean most units can punch up a bit, and resistance to being picked off with mortals. Access to Revered Hosts also makes the Possessed an incredibly nasty counter-charge unit, and the same is true of the truly monstrous hammer/chainsword Chaos Lord that's been assembled here, just diving amongst the enemy and flattening entire units at once.  Lots of Fight First being sprinkled in from Slaanesh Marks is also helpful.

The Necrons list is pretty standard for a double C'tan build, with the main change being that it downgrades one named C'tan to a Transcendant to free up points for a big Tomb Blade unit. That seems fine, as they represent a lot of pretty strong shots whether they're flitting around or staying with the King and they're in a weight bracket that Necrons often lack.

Where there's potential risk in this game is that the Necrons might, on paper, struggle to consistently push objectives - because the Word Bearers have invested in plenty of Legionnaires they're theoretically pretty good at guarding their home position, at least from probing attacks by the Scarabs, and more valuable units that get committed are going to get picked up by a counter-charge threat. Going after them like that also feeds them points on The Long War, and I honestly wouldn't hate to try and play this game from the Chaos side?

The scoreline suggests that would be a bit optimistic of me, and honestly this is a game where I'd love to see how it played out, because although the Necrons should still be favoured, the CSM list looks pretty well designed to contest this mission. I do wonder if maybe the Necrons went for a high-roller plan - the C'tan mortal output is a bit medicore here, so you could comfortably justify switching the Nightbringer to Time's Arrow as well, and focusing on trying to snipe out the Master of Possession. That's especially true if he's pivotal to any Secondary plans the Word Bearers have, as he's their only caster, and removing him also makes things way safer for the Nightbringer to go out bullying. There are honestly lots of other opportunities for Time's Arrow to cause big swings here, and I'd probably have gone for that plan in Sweet's position, so maybe that's what happened!

Result

Necrons Victory - 100 - 34

Sweet Lew - Necrons - 1st Place

Illuminor Szeras. Credit: Rockfish

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Double C'tan Eternal Expansionists

Thoughts

Pressures objectives good, you know the drill. The small Warrior unit is interesting - my assumption is that they're there when you need a lot of body count on an objective against something like Knights, and they're not terrible in that role given you want to pay the troop tax. I do also think Time's Arrow is well postioned in the metagame right now, so being able to have two C'tan plugging away at it from turn one if needed is nice.

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on X-1 records (Cory ended up on 3.5-1.5). They were:

• 2nd - Nick "Doots" Toomey - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff with big Retributor units.
• 3rd - Aaron Kelman - Imperial Knights: House Taranis with a Forge Master Castellan to stand at the back, and Canis Rex in a side detachment to lead Armigers into battle. Slightly unclear exactly what traits and upgrades have been taken, the list has ended up a bit muddled.
• 4th - Kyle Messer - Hive Fleet Leviathan: Leviathan Goodstuff with some extra shooting oomph from an Exocrine.

Aegis Open

26-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Bellingham Washington, US on August 06 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Data Scry Salvage

Nicolas Ohlsen-Johnson - Necrons: Eternal Expansionists with two C'tan and a whole lot of Skorpekh. Also storytime, apparently the way to get us to publish your army's cool backstory is to write it into BCP then win an event with it.

vs.

Noah Beddome - Imperial Knights: The more aggro version of the Taranis buff setup, using an Errant as the Calculated Targeting delivery method so that you also have access to Advance/Charge for Warglaives.

Thoughts

This is definitely a game where the Necrons are happy with a six objective Hold 2/3 mission, as on a different map I think the Knights could cause them problems. Warglaives with -1D are pretty challenging for Skorpekh to clear out, two of the C'tan powers are useless in the matchup, taxing CP early and meaning they take time to come online, and the Silent King pretty much has to hide till one part of the mortal wound nightmare combo is spent, as he might just get instakilled otherwise. All good upsides, but on this mission the Necrons can just pull the Knights in too many directions at once. Having lots of Tomb Blades and individual Heavy Destroyers (plus Plasmacytes to poke out onto objectives, forcing an answer) means the Necrons can put bait on a lot of objectives with relatively minimal commitment, and when the Knights respond the Skorpekh and Void Dragon are going to take out some of them. The Void Dragon is a particular challenge because it presents a high-roll risk for massive damage with powers, and a pretty strong chance of an Armiger kill in melee, not what you want to see - and not something the Knights have great answers to.

Honestly, I think as the Knights here your plan might just be to go fully aggro mode, and lead with the big Knights instead of the Armigers. You won't take objectives initially, but if you spread the Armigers out early they'll get picked off piecemeal, whereas the big Knights can hope to tank many of the units that might come after them, and hit like trucks in response. Demand that at least some of the big Necron threats come out to play and deplete them, then play Armigers onto objectives in the mid-late game. It's still going to be tough, but maybe that gives you a shot (though you're still going to be violently up against it if the Necrons go first). As it is, the Necrons took a fairly comfortable win here.

Result

Necrons Victory - 100 - 56

Nicolas Ohlsen-Johnson - Necrons - 1st Place

Tomb Blades w/ Gauss Blasters. Credit: Rockfish

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Eternal Expansionists

Thoughts

C'tan everywhere. Largely all covered in the showdown, another very strong win for the Dynasties.

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 4-1 records (Noah ended up on 3.5-1.5). They were:

• 2nd - Hank Adams - Imperial Knights: Ultra-shooty Taranis, with the Paladin Princeps/Crusader combo and three each of Helverins and shooty Moiraxes.
• 3rd - Colin Sherman - Ynnari: Lots of skirmishing melee and mid-board shooting threats backed up by two full stacks of D-Cannons.
• 4th - Steve Trimble - Death Guard: Ferrymen Plague Marine spam, packing six units of ten, with Abaddon at the head.

Wrap Up

That's this week down, make sure to check back in next week for WTC fun! Questions, comments and suggestions to contact@goonhammer.com.

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