It's another massive week of 40K, and this time the sinister/heroic (delete as applicable) forces of the Genestealer Cults are making a big splash. While it's not quite as busy as last week, a couple of the team have offered to pitch in an event each to help out, so on Friday I'll once again have some guest thoughts from Curie, who will be taking a look at the Barrie Bash, and Tom, who as chief Genestealer Understander will be covering the Clutch City GT. I'll be looking at the rest, so let's take a look at what's on the docket.

Today we'll be covering:

• Games of Westeros XIV (major)
• Midtcon (major)
• Dicehammer Open (major)
• Iberian Ham Tournament

On Friday we'll be looking at:

• Clutch City GT (major)
• Barrie Bash (major)
• Corsair Open
• Norsehammer Open

This week's Showdowns...well. The Goonhammer Patrons think they're extremely smart, and have attempted to trick me into writing more by engineering a perfect tie between the voted options. They were alarmingly successful at this, and can take pride in successfully rigging a photo finish, and now enjoy the crushing discovery that voting wouldn't be legal if it could actually force me to do anything. Also my Discord bugged out when I went to get a final count and appeared to show a conclusive score, so we're going with that. A commission has been established to argue over whether to fund upgrades to Gregbot's voting software.

• Genestealer Cults vs Chaos Daemons at Clutch City
• Genestealer Cults vs Chaos Knights at Games of Westeros
• Adepta Sororitas vs Chaos Daemons at Midtcon
• Genestealer Cults vs Blood Angels at the Barrie Bash

I wasn't kidding about the Genestealer Cults - just like Goonhammer's fragile democratic systems, Imperial governments everywhere are in absolute shambles. Let's find out why as we zoom over to Sweden for our first event.

Games of Westeros XIV

86-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Västmanlands län SE on March 04 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

This event was using 20-0 scoring.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - The Scouring

Sebastian Larsson - Chaos Knights: Mostly Herpetrax War Dogs with some Dreadblade Executioners at the back.

vs.

Bilbo Göransson - Genestealer Cult: The first list I've seen in Arks to use all 12 Troops slots - Industrial Cult with just so many Neophytes.

Thoughts

As we know from past escapades, Bilbo liked Genestealer Cults before it was cool, so it's great to see him at the forefront of the current uprising, facing down the forces of the Chaos Knights on a top table. His list goes fully in on the horde plan - 120 Neophytes with a tonne of toys, backed by a small supporting cast of utility pieces. Extremely effective at scoring Secondaries, with Broodswarm and Ambush being pretty tough to stop, and challenging to take off the board for a lot of lists.

Unfortunately for the revolutionaries, this is a rough combination of matchup and mission for them. Iconoclast War Dogs are very good at taking on infantry hordes (especially with this may chaincannons) unless they lose Knights at speed, and on this mission I just don't think that's going to happen. Against most armies the Neophytes would unleash a spectacular amount of chip damage, but against an all-War Dog army on the Scouring? Not so much. The webbers in every unit do literally nothing here, which is certainly not ideal, and on this deployment setting up Exposed to squeeze a bit more reliability out of the Seismic Cannons is also non-trivial. The impact of the Dread table is also going to be huge here, as Gheist Storm can be very disruptive to the cults ability to surgically remove key targets, and crossing over to Paralyzing Insanity is going to be massively detrimental to late game scoring.

On corner deployments, I think it's very plausible that the Cults could use their sheer numbers and mobility to take a shot at winning this anyway - move out, grab corner objecties, make digging them out a pain, rack up points as they go, you know the drill. That is just not going to work on The Scouring - it's far easier than normal for the Knights to screen out deep strikes and much, much harder for the Cults to try and safely hold objectives. The Knights can sally forth into combat at extreme speed, and cause cataclysmic damage through a mix of weaponry and morale once they impact, and while they're bound to lose a few models, they should be able to stymie the Cults scoring early and completely shut it down late (assuming they haven't just flat tabled them), making a big win the likely outcome (which was duly delivered).

Result

Chaos Knights Victory - 17 - 3

Sebastian Larsson - Chaos Knights - 1st Place

Credit: Swiftblade

The List

Archetype

Herpetrax War Dog Spam

Thoughts

With the prevalance of Iron Hands and Guard right now, it's no surprise to see an all-War Dog build making waves for the Chaos Knights. Guard shooting in particular is unusual in that Russes/Dorns don't care that much about Blessing of the Dark Master, normally the defensive staple for big Chaos Knights, leaving you at real risk of getting blown out if you hit lists heavy on them.

This list bypasses that entirely - all War Dogs, as tough as you can get them thanks to Herpetrax, and numerous enough that they can soak up a few losses without losing the ability to pressure the enemy. The list is also extremely well equipped to face down the horde Ork and GSC lists that are doing well, as it showed off in the final. Great to see Knights getting there, well done to Sebastian.

Christian Olofsson - Chaos Daemons - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: RichyP

The List

Archetype

Be'lakor/Skarbrand tag team.

Thoughts

In second place, we have a Daemons list in a style that's going from strength-to-strength right now - Be'lakor, Skarbrand and lots of support. Be'lakor is so durable that he's safe to put on the board against almost anything, and being able to bring Skarbrand in using Warp Locus for a reliable charge is a terrifying threat for opponents. Be'lakor also brings Flamers up to (nearly) full toasty power, letting the rest of this highly mobile list strike big blows wherever needed, and we've seen more and more Fiends in lists recently as people realise that they're just good for putting pressure where it's needed. Arks definitely looks like villain season, and we haven't heard the last of Daemons for the week, but for now huge congratulations to Sebastian on piloting this particularly finesse-heavy spin on them to an undefeated second.

Tim Nordin - Dark Angels - 3rd Place

The List

Archetype

Whoops all Ravenwing

Thoughts

Deathwing and mixed Dark Angels lists are everywhere (it's villain season after all), but this time it's the Ravenwing's turn. As with all Ravenwing lists, it puts incredible amounts of pain into the opponent's face extremely quickly, taking full advantage of Speed of the Raven, and it's pretty resilient on the counterpunch thanks to being universally T5+ and having invulns against shooting. Going full Ravenwing (just about fitting into the Arks detachment thanks to lots of Black Knights) also turns the newly cheap Outriders into incredibly cost-efficient objective bullies, able to zip into position and either slice through cheap Troops or ObSec a position away from more elite options (perhaps using Full Throttle to clear half the board). It's a nice way to get serious play out of a less common tool, and well done to Tim for using them to get some Ravenwing representation in.

Joel Larsson - Adeptus Custodes - 4th Place

Custodian Guard. Credit: Edwin "Lupe" Moriarty

The List

Archetype

Go-wide Emperor's Chosen

Thoughts

OK fine it's not quite all villains. The glorious golden boys of the 10,000 make a powerful stand here, going unusually wide with a lot of Infantry in order to maximise their ability to control the board and avoiding putting too many eggs in any one basket in case they run into something like Wulfen. It also plays well with Behind Enemy Lines, which has turned out to be a huge gift for Custodes - they can score it with Allarus early/mid game, and push small units forward to lock it in later on. This isn't the only list on a similar plan to do well this week, but it's the best single showing for the faction, so congratulations to Joel.

The Best of the Rest

There were 10 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 5th - Matthias Levin - Astra Militarum: Standard Born Soldiers Goodstuff.
• 6th - Pedro Chavez - Ynnari: A mix of melee Aspects in Falcons and then lots of Shroud Runners, with the Yncarne bouncing between them.
• 7th - Bilbo Göransson - Genestealer Cults: See Showdown.
• 8th - Martin Hultgren - Chaos Daemons: Legendary Monster Mash with Kairos, Skarbrand and the Indomitable Bloodthirster, with a rainbow of infantry supporting them.
• 9th - Mikael Klangeby - Deathwatch: Lots of Proteus Kill teams, two ultra-tooled Spectrus ones, and plenty of Characters to hide amongst them.
• 10th - Andreas Holm - Orks: Infantry Goff pressure with loads of Stormboyz and Kommandos.
• 11th - Johan Norrman - Dark Angels: Mixed Dark Angels with two Deathwing blocks and some small units of Black Knights.
• 12th - Alexander Sjöberg - Dark Angels: Mixed Dark Angels with two Deathwing blocks a big unit of Black Knights.
• 13th - Johan Nicolaisen - Iron Hands Successors: Heroes/Artisans with VanVets and an Assault Terminator squad to protect the guns.
• 14th - Ola Persson - Drukhari: Black Heart shooting and lots of Cursed Blade Reavers and Hellions for big pressure.

Midtcon Grand Tournament 40K

74-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Viborg, DK on March 04 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - The Scouring

Morten Hørby - Chaos Daemons: Monster Mash with Be'lakor, Big Bird and the Bloodthirster.

vs.

Sebastian Ilfeldt - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose goodstuff with the Triumph of St. Katherine thrown into the mix.

Thoughts

Apparently it's Scouring season as well as villain season, and honestly if you're going to march Daemonic forces towards the Sororitas, you'd better believe that's a Scouring. The mission is honestly a mixed blessing for both sides. On the one hand, for Daemons, it makes the fact that they're wildly outnumbered in terms of volume of units a bit more manageable, but on the other it feels like it skews passive scoring towards the Sisters - Miracle Dice are a bit less useful here than normal, so can be fed into Leap of Faith, and on Scouring Defend the Shrine plus Banners feels like a decent defensive combo, while the Daemon options are just less good (especially as they'd be running Warp Ritual into 5+ denies).

In order to mitigate that, the Daemons are going to have to do some damage and take full advantage of the fact that at least they can mostly keep the Sisters where they can see them. To leverage that, this feels like a game where Be'lakor and the Bloodthirster are going to need to go for a big swinging push - both are threats that can take something down and then have a real shot at bouncing whatever tries to take them down next, opening up an opportunity for the Flamers to push fowards and absolutely tank the Sisters numbers. The Lord of Change is also strong - he needs to watch out for the Repentia, sure, but isn't really vulnerable to much else, and acts as a great mid-board grinder as long as the Sisters don't get too lucky on denies. The Daemons do have to try and punch through the lines, which often puts armies on the backfoot, but I think here they genuinely have a real shot at pulling it off - if the Sisters ever have to scramble lots of units to pull themselves out of a hole, they risk losing so much when the Flamers sweep up that it's game over.

I think it would be easy to look at this game as the Sisters player and get a bit overconfident, but once again The Scouring's habit of forcing a fairly direct confrontation shakes the game up a lot, and if the Daemonic durability does its thing, they could easily run out of tools to contest things. That's reflected in the scoring - the Sisters just managed to hang on and take the win here, but only by the very smallest of margins - clearly a fantastic game!

Result

Adepta Sororitas Victory - 71 - 70

Sebastian Ilfeldt - Adepta Sororitas - 1st Place

Credit: Keewa

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Bloody Rose Goodstuff

Thoughts

The Triumph is another thing I always love to see on the table, and making it more practical to churn through Leap of Faith definitely gives it a renewed purpose in Arks. Sisters want to make trades on their terms, and having a strong passive scoring plan to force the enemy's hand makes that much easier to do. There is a price - investing lots of points in something that doesn't do that much outright killing can be challenging if you're forced into a straight fight like in the final, but as the win there shows this list can still find ways to adapt, and I like it a lot overall. I also think the inclusion of one Flamer Retributor squad is an interesting and (in a GSC heavy world) neat touch to diversify threats. Well done to Sebastian on the win.

Henrik Davison - Dark Angels - 2nd Place (undefeated)

Credit; Greg Chiasson

The List

Archetype

Mixed Dark Angels

Thoughts

One Deathwing blob, more alpha strike shooting - slightly less durability, more potential to just sweep people off the board, which since Henrik went undefeated, I'm going to guess went pretty well.

Morten Hørby - Chaos Daemons - 3rd Place

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

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Monster Mash

Thoughts

The three toughest big beasties that Daemons can put down, and as many Flamers as can be squeezed alongside that. Not a complicated plan, but a consistently strong one that's seeing a whole bunch of success. As covered in the Showdown this list's potential to just roll with counterattacks from even high threat builds gives it tremendous ability to snowball through unprepared opponents, and that took Morten to within a single point of winnign the whole event here!

Andreas "Drachmann" Holm Hegaard - Orks - 4th Place

Ork Stompa. Credit: CassidyB

The List

Archetype

Goff Robot Rampage

Thoughts

Hell. Yeah. Sure, running people over with hordes of Orks is fun, but what if instead you ran them over with hordes of stompy robots. Would that be even more fun? As long as you don't run into a Guard list (best not to think about that too much), seems like the answer is probably yes! I don't think there's too many subtleties to dig into here, though being able to Tellyporta the Big Krumpas and having lots of small units to push for Behind Enemy Lines while the opponent handles the big threats certainly gives the army strong scoring momentum while it's doing its thing. Even in the one game where Andreas ran into an army fully tooled to just deck the Stompa (Salamanders) he still ran things pretty close - add Good Bitz and Stomp 'Em Good to the Secondary mix and the points just roll in here!

The Best of the Rest

There were 9 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 5th - Frederik Larsen - Dark Angels: Just in case your average Dark Angels army wasn't murderous enough, this build adds three units of Devastators to the standard Deathwing blocks and Ravenwing support.
• 6th - Alexander Lerbrandt - Black Templars:  Black Templars Goodstuff with Redemptors, various small, upgraded melee units and a couple of Gladiators.
• 7th - Peter Herbild - Ynnari: Lots of Aspect Warrior MSUs and a pair of Fire Prisms.
• 8th - Anders Hjarlvig - Astra Militarum: Dorn Soldiers.
• 9th - Marcus Jensen - Tau: Bor'kan hulls, taking a trio of Riptides, a couple of Devilfish and retaining a pair of Sun Sharks.
• 10th - Søren Lohmann - Craftworlds: Heavy-duty Ulthwe with Fire Prisms, Wraithseers and Wraithblades, plus speedy Aspect Warriors.
• 11th - Killi Paaske - Craftworlds: All-rounder Ulthwe with Aspect Warriors, Wraithseers and Phoenix Lords (including Irillyth to save some points).
• 12th - Michael Nielsen - Necrons: A left-field build here - Mephrit spamming Warriors, Ghost Arks and a Monolith.
•  13th - Robin Tahhan - Salamanders: Aggressor/Sternguard/Eradicator spam, with just so many melta/flamer shots.

Dicehammer Open 40k GT VI

75-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Irvine, CA US on March 04 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Kevin Roach - Black Templars - 1st Place

Chaplain Grimaldus. Credit: SRM

The List

Archetype

Primaris Crusader Spam

Final Round Matchup

100 - 55 Victory against Daniel Reddehase - Grey Knights.

Thoughts

What if a horde list, but it's Space Marines? That's the question this army asks, and the answer would appear to be "it wins". Neat. Black Templars aren't massively behind Iron Hands and Dark Angels in the leagues of being able to just make normal Marine units better, but as this build showcases they also have a unique strategy open to them. No other Marine unit can put Primaris wounds on the table as efficiently as Crusaders, and being able to add the Aurelian Shroud for durability on top of the sheer numbers makes them tough to deal with even for Marine-killer armies like Aeldari. Add in some extra-powerful buffs from their unique litanies and some extremely good Characters (including the Tannhauser Bike Chaplain, love that guy) and you have a Marine list that plays quite distinctly from the others out there, and very much throws the gauntlet down at anyone who thinks their army is good at killing power armour. The Templars book is probably my favourite of the Marine supplements, so I'm always pleased to see them performing, huge props to Kevin on the win.

Jason McKenzie - T'au Empire - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Tau Broadside Battlesuit with Railgun. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Archetype

Bork'an Suits and Hulls

Thoughts

After some initial experimentation when the Tau book landed, Bork'an largely faded away in favour of the sheer power of Farsight and Tau Sept, but in Arks it's seeing a mild resurgence, presumably because there's quite a lot of S5/6 weaponry around between mortars, grav, Gladiators and Talonmasters. That helps the two big suit units here stay operational much longer than they otherwise might, allowing the Broadsides to chip away at the opponent's best toys, and the Crisis Team to squeeze value from buffs for as long as possible. For more spiky damage application, both the Hammerhead and Sky Ray (the latter a great target for Experimental Weaponry) threaten to punk a key target when it really matters, and using Exemplar of the Kauyon on a Firesight to maximise the chance of landing an early markerlight is a cute trick to help them out. Outside the heavy hitters, the army takes maximum advantage of the cheap, efficient chaff Tau have access to in order to contest the early game, and if the toys are still around once Kauyon starts hitting, opponents are in real trouble. Pleasingly different from Jason here, and also an addition to the esteemed ranks of players who have gone undefeated at majors with named units in their army list.

Stephen Corrales - Dark Angels - 3rd Place

Credit: PierreTheMime

The List

Archetype

Mixed Dark Angels

Thoughts

With Marines and Genestealer Cults tearing up the top tables, you'd already be forgiven for thinking we were being dragged through a time vortex and reliving various parts of 8th Edition, and to really complete that impression there's an honest to god Thunderfire Cannon on the table. Yes, even though we thought it had been nerfed so hard it would never come back. We are never safe. Why is it back? Presumably to help with the Guard matchup - every Kasrkin that dies before they can do their thing is a huge relief to a Marine player, and it'll generally win a shooting match against Mortars from out of sight, especially with the Dark Angels chapter tactic giving it +1 to hit and the Techmarine healing it. It's much easier to hide while doing this than a Whirlwind, and access to Tremor Shells can also be very valuable against new toys like World Eaters and old ones like Wulfen. Beyond that, this is business as usual for Dark Angels - big Deathwing blocks, lots of Ravenwing shooting, simple as. Well done to Stephen for finding a unique unit to add into the recipe.

Jason Kavetsky - Astra Militarum - 4th Place

Cadian Castellan. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Archetype

Born Soldiers Goodstuff

Thoughts

Lots of guard, lots of guns. Extra nasty guns here, because those Russes are toting meltas. A few other little tech pieces stand out, notably including the Command Squad being eligible for Warp Ritual thanks to the Astropath (a nice double tap alongside bringing the banner to the board centre) and a Commissar to hand out Remain Vigilant and ward off enemy charges, but beyond that it's just the standard ration of efficient, numerous infantry, strong tanks and the extreme sucker punch of Kasrkin. Congratulations to Jason on landing fourth place.

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 5th - Mike McTyre - Blood Angels: Go-wide jump packs backed up by a couple of Gladiator Reaper.
• 6th - Daniel Reddehase - Grey Knights: Blades of Victory Dreadknights and Interceptors, bringing back Vanguard Aggression for early pressure.
• 7th - Joel Wilson - Necrons: Nihilakh with plenty of small objective grabbers, a big Lokhust Destroyer blob, the Silent King and two Tesseract Vaults. Hilarious.
• 8th - Alex Spathopoulos - Votann: All-rounder Ymyr with one Fortress and a larger than normal contingent of Troops.
• 9th - Alan Dehasa - World Eaters: A selection of Khorne's finest - Invocatus, Eightbound, Angron and a Daemon patrol with Uraka, Flesh Hounds and a Skull Cannon. A nice balanced setup.
• 10th - Wyatt Swift-Ramirez - Genestealer Cults: Pauper Princes with a lot of Acolytes and Bikes, using the Reliquary of Saint Tenndarc for durability.
• 11th - Tim Hunt - Craftworlds:  MSU Aspect Warrior Craftworlds with Vengeful and Swift Strikes, plus a melee Twilight patrol.
• 12th - Matthew Green - Grey Knights: Prescient Brethren Dreadknights and Interceptors.

Iberian Ham Tournament

36-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Sant Joan Despí, Catalunya ES on March 04 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Jordi Macià Dekkers - Deathskulls - 1st Place

Ork Kill Rig. Credit: Magos Sockbert

The List

Archetype

Deathskulls Horde

Final Round Matchup

92 - 33 Victory against Barthes . - Blood Angels.

Thoughts

Horde Orks are looking super strong right now, and while you mostly see them as Goffs, the occasional appearence of the lucky blue Gitz of the Deathskulls helps keep everyone on their toes. Slightly less brutal in an out-and-out fight, but making up for it by being even more of a pain to fight back against on Primary, and getting some nice re-roll synergies on the Kill Rigs to boot. Jordi rounded off his run here with a very strong win against Blood Angels, particularly impressive as the Sanguinary Guard and Death Company are serious threats to the Kill Rigs. I suspect the sheer number of ObSec models, plus things that can trade up into Marine units on the counter-charge even without Goff buffs, was crucial in securing victory.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Barthes - Blood Angels: Jump packs galore, with some Aggressors and a Whirlwind for a bit of variety.
• 3rd - Roger Boira - Astra Militarum: Kasrkin, Rough Riders and a Dorn, plus a Scion patrol with the true hero of the Militarum, the drop-Ogryn.
• 4th - Paco Chamorro - Genestealer Cult: Industrial Bike/Neophyte spam.
• 5th - Pablo Vazquez Salgado - Iron Hands: Loads of hulls, including a couple of Repulsors.
• 6th - Oriol Sensonics - Adeptus Custodes: Speedy Shadowkeepers with Venetari and Bikes.

Wrap Up

We'll be back on Friday to cover more of the week's big events, so make sure to tune back in to see whether the Cults can claim a trophy in their second Showdown.

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