Christmas is nearly upon us, after which we launch into an exciting new year where it sounds like we're due three codexes in pretty rapid succession, a new set of missions, and (presumably) some further points updates too. There's still time for one last big week of events to look into though - so let's get into it.

As ever, lists outside of 1st place that are marked with a ✪ went into the final round undefeated.

Lists of the Week

This section highlights two lists from Best of the Rest sections that are particularly unusual or innovative.

David Lover - Chaos - Fight Before Christmas - 5th Place

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

The List

The Standout Features

• An initial Keeper hammer backed up by Scarab Occults and Fiends to lock in gains.
• Being able to drop the Terminators into a pre-prepped Orrery aura mitigates their lack of mobility support.

Why it's Interesting in 9th

One of the cool aspects of the new Thousand Sons book is that it works very well in soup (which I always feel is kind of appropriate for Chaos). Because Cabal Points are a mechanic that scales with your number of units (both in the number you have and usefulness), giving them up entirely when you're only bringing part of your army from the book hurts less than some other army-wide mechanics. In addition to this, as this list showcases, the Dilettante upgrade provides something that's very rare in 9th books, which is the ability to bring a faction relic when you don't include a warlord from that army.

That's lead to people experimenting with Thousand Sons units in various other shells, and what David has here is a particularly cool one. Slamming Keepers of Secrets into the opponent and using the time that buys to grind them out with powerful spellcasting was a pretty successful tactic early in the edition, and this modernises that concept by using a massive brick of Cult of Time Scarab Occults over something like Beasts of Nurgle. The Scarabs have a bunch of advantages in the slot, most notably being ObSec and having exceptionally good damage output at range, only amplified because the army can bring the Orrery with them.

Their shooting mostly being reliable, high rate-of-fire single damage shots also helps deal with damage reduction units like Talos that can sometimes stonewall the monster mash tools of the list. The synergies also work the other way - the weakness of Scarabs is getting charged by something with flat damage three attacks, which can sweep them off the table, but with Keepers and Fiends about this army can badly punish or tie up an opponent that overextends. Not having access to a teleport for them does hurt a bit, but the option of deep striking them is always there if needed, and the precise way that the Orrery works means you aren't even giving up the use of that to do so.

All-in-all, this list caught my eye as a cool new combination that provides an angle on using Daemons that isn't just "use Be'lakor lol".

Mark Wang - Space Wolves Successors - Game Knight GT - 5th Place

Credit: Kevin Stillman

The List

The Standout Features

• High mobility ObSec board control thanks to a mixture of Successor and Warlord Traits.
• Thunder hammer Terminators with double exploding 6s ready to smash anything in the metagame.
• Wolf Guard and Cyberwolves round out the troubleshooting and objective angles.

Why it's Interesting in 9th

This rather unusual list featuring a brick wall of Intercessors and Wolf Guard Terminators with Whirlwind of Rage and Tactical Withdrawal, with the idea presumably being to just dash in and out of combat causing havoc. Space Wolves have always excelled at somewhat more troop heavy board control plans compared to other Marines, but this really goes all-in on that angle to an extent that most other armies can't. With Hunter from a Bike Chaplain as well, and three units of jump Wolf Guard filling things out behind the troops, this list becomes incredibly flexible on the tabletop, and very strong at outplaying opponents on objectives, but at the cost of how broad its killing power is - really only the Terminators here are going to be able to take on something properly crunchy.

Why might you choose to do that? Well, right now the metagame contains multiple armies that can put extremely nasty stuff into the mid-board like Talos and Dreadknights, and that's bad news for armies that invest points in "middling" melee damage dealers - if you have a unit in your army that's meant to kill stuff in combat, then in matchups where it isn't safe to try and do that it becomes dead weight. This list concentrates it's killing power for heavy hitters into one terrifying Terminator block which can sweep aside the nastiest stuff out there (chuck them in Assault Doctrine for double exploding 6s, add Chapter Master and +1 to wound, watch the Talos evaporate into a fine mist), then spends the rest of its points on stuff that can sweep out and overwhelm/out ObSec the weaker parts of opposing lists, and use Tactical Withdrawal to leave fights it can't win at minimal cost.

It's certainly not the only option to adapt to the current metagame, but Mark has put together an innovative combination of tools that's puts a new spin on the archetype, and I think that's neat.

New Orleans Open (major)

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

John Lennon - Hive Mind - 1st Place

Termagaunts. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Leviathan Goodstuff

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Another US major and another victory for the Art of War team, this time at the hands (claws?) of John Lennon packing Hive Fleet Leviathan and friends. We've seen lists like this across quite a few events in recent weeks, and fundamentally they work just because they have access to a tonne of strong plays - double shooting fully hit re-rolled Hive Guard thanks to Swarm Leader and Single-minded Annihilation is obviously the headliner, but you've also got blips (augmented by Sensor Decoys) to ward away early opposing charges, units of Genestealers or Hormagaunts that can get fired out by the Swarmlord to do diverse mischief, and Termagants to unleash the horror that is Relentless Flurry from a big unit.

One of the standout features of John's build here is that he's got two units ready to pull off that last trick, which definitely makes sense as Covens grow in power - Artists of Flesh Grotesques are particularly good targets for this, and particularly bad targets for Hive Guard. It also adds broader value for the Maleceptor, because adding a point of AP to many of your wounds when going all-in on this is incredibly useful when shooting at something with 2+ or 3+ saves. Holistically, the fact that this list has a tonne of ObSec models also lets it adapt to a situation where the opponent manages to take the Hive Guard out of action early - simply having this many Troops on the board is actually pretty unusual for a 9th Edition list (especially now Skitarii are pricier), and it provides another angle to overwhelm the ability.

It's an extremely cool and powerful build overall, but my growing impression is that it isn't busted good, merely operating at the higher end of a healthy power level. That makes the victory here all the more impressive, so huge congratulations to John.

Mark Perry - Orks - 2nd Place

Ork Squighog Boyz. Credit: Magos Sockbert

The List

Archetype

Goff Pressure

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Not just an Art of War win, but an Art of War final with Mark rocking into second with an Ork list deploying the new hotness - high pressure Goff brutality. Freebooterz and Speed Mobs are still going strong too, but a mixture of Kill Rigs and people really getting a handle on just how nasty Goffs are means that this archetype is now a growing metagame force.

The basics of how it works should be pretty clear from the name - it gets in your face and krumps you. Using a combination of Trukk Boyz, units that start up the board and stuff that's just fast, this list can get some lethal killers into the opponent's face fast, especially if it calls a Waaagh. The fact that Kill Rigs are CHARACTERS is hugely important here, as it means that the Advance/Charge from Waaagh switches on for them, letting them start operating in multiple phases as early as possible, and as Goffs the Beast Snagga Boyz they disgorge when they finally go down will cheerfully mess up plenty of targets.

This is all extremely Orky, and one of the reasons this archetype rules beyond just that is that there's lots of scope to try different units in it and put your own spin on things. Mark's done some of that here with the choice of characters, forgoing either Squigbosses or Ghazghkull in favour of a trio of infantry bosses, who are harder to pick out and assassinate and a bit more flexible to different terrain setups. Having the Trukk Boyz warboss also brings big value to the units of Meganobz, switching off the hit penalty from their klaws and letting them hit properly hard. Speaking of those, one of the really big evolutions in recent Ork lists has been people cottoning on to just how nasty skorchas are - Meganobz with these are a proper multi-phase unit once they get out of their transport, but can also pull Drukhari-style drive-bys until dealt with if that's more appropriate to the situation.

I have had the dubious pleasure of being on the wrong end of a Goff Waaagh recently, and with that memory still fresh this list looks terrifying. It cannot be stressed enough how much even the most basic Ork units become blending machines as Goffs, and as Mark has demonstrated with the excellent finish here, lists like this are the real deal.

Quinton Johnson - Drukhari - 3rd Place

Credit: Corrode

The List

Archetype

Covens Drukhari

Why it's Interesting in 9th

At the other end of what Drukhari are now doing we've got this build, which fills the table with endless slabs of meat. Talos and Grotesques with damage reduction being extremely good does not need any explanation at this point, as they're just incredibly cost efficient, but the trend this army really shows off is the extent to which Artists turns out to matter for Wracks as well. 9th is highly objective focused, and a key part of winning games consistently is knowing when you're in a spot where you need to take your high quality guns and point them at the opponent's ObSec Troops rather than the juicy targets, because reliably liquidating whatever is holding an objective is your route to victory.

Turns out that when the Troops are Wracks with damage reduction, that "reliably" goes away, and that's a big old problem in a matchup where you may also not have tools that can safely slam into a melee with the hefty mid-board monsters. Adding lots of Wracks helps shut down many opponent's anti-Talos backup plan of largely ignoring them and playing for objectives, and it's not even like they aren't dangerous in their own right - access to full re-rolls via the Torturer's Craft can easily allow larger units to make their impact known, especially once Power from Pain is on turn three or later. With a lethal Hellion unit also waiting in the wings for a deadly counterpunch, actually working around this army is incredibly tricky, helping it funnel the opposition into the kind of mid-table melee it wants to play and lock in a grindy victory.

That seems to have worked out very well for Quinton, taking him all the way to the semi-finals before falling in a relatively close game to John's Tyranids - and to be clear, this is essentially the exact list that having two Relentless Flurry squads is perfect for beating, as they'll rip through Wracks and Grotesques apart while the Hive Guard quickly remove the Hellions, allowing the greater numbers of the bugs to win out. Getting all the way to the semis then falling to a list loaded with counters is obviously an extremely respectable performance - congratulations Quinton.

Sean Nayden - Drukhari - 4th Place

Credit: Corrode

The List

Archetype

Drukhari Goodstuff

Why it's Interesting in 9th

We've seen a lot of Sean's builds in top spots this year, usually favouring highly mobile lists, so it's not that surprising that he's in the camp that's trying to evolve Drukhari Goodstuff for a post-Balance Dataslate world rather than switching over to Talos. Quite a few of the general trends for such lists are on show here, but the exact way they're set up are different. With the point cut to the Ravager they've been showing up way more, and Sean has one, but it's joined by some extra spice in the form of a Dark Technomancers Reaper. It's a bit swingy, certainly, but roll high on the shots for this and it's one of the nastiest guns out there, and with Technomancers souping it up it can definitely help cut through opposing Talos.

Another general trend is doing clever stuff with Wracks, and in this case some Prophets of Flesh Haemoxcytes with a Twisted Animator behind them provide an extremely durable way to sit on an objective that an opponent cannot afford to throw overwhelming force at. For controlling the table, these are backed up by a couple of big Hellion units, who are as good as ever (and arguably the best "known" unit to dodge a nerf), plus a few trade pieces as standard. The other unusual bit of tech here is the use of two solo Cronos, which are pretty flexible in what they can do. If you think the opponent is going to expose something to the Hellions early then having one on the board to set up Pain Syphon is great, but at a total of 8PL they're also ideal for throwing into Strategic reserves, as they represent a pretty substantial punch into something like Grey Knights the turn they arrive. It wouldn't surprise me to see this option popping up in more lists in the new year, as being MONSTERS means they count for the new version of Engage, and they're still broadly useful on rate.

Definitely a powerful list overall, but you do feel the point cuts when you read through it - there just isn't quite as much stuff here as there used to be, and I wonder if the army just ended up getting bowled off the table by Mark's Orks in the semi-finals. I probably shouldn't overstate that concern though - Sean took this through the Swiss undefeated, and was in the top spot going into the top eight, and it's clearly a powerful build that suits his playstyle very well.

 The Rest of the Best

Four more players made the top eight cut, and two more missed out on tie breakers after going 5-1. They were:

• 5th - Jony Velazquez - Thousand Sons: Jony uses the Cult of Duplicity here, but goes off-piste from the standard double 10x Scarab builds to take a bunch of VolCons instead. I suspect that's angling to attack a metagame where loads of Artists of the Flesh were expected and where player-optimised terrain is in play, as thanks to Egleighen's Orrery, Thousand Sons VolCons can make a horrendous mess of both Talos and Grotesques. The list also sports a massive blob of Cultists.
• 6th - Jaime Paris - Space Wolves Successors: Another successful outing for Jamie's board control list, combining lots of Wolf Guard with double-melta Scout squads in Land Speeder storms, using Master Artisans to maximise the effectiveness of the guns.
• 7th - William Lewis - Adeptus Custodes: The usual Shadowkeepers dreadnought suspects plus a side detachment of Emissaries Imperiatus to maximise the effectiveness of Venatari.
• 8th - Andrew Vawter - Imperial Knights: A properly brutal double-Dominus Krast list, backing a Valiant and Castellan up with a Magaera and two Armigers. Again, probably not a bad call into a damage-reduction heavy metagame, as the Castellan can push right through that, while the Valiant is horrifying into Grey Knights thanks to the Headsman's Mark to turbo-boost the conflagration cannon.
• 9th - Kyle Lamperez - Dark Angels: Another outing for "whoops all Terminators" (or almost all here, as a Talonmaster sneaks in), with this variant favouring the souped up squads with cyclone missile launchers.
• 10th - Zaak Kerstatter: A Custodes/Astra Militarum combo, using the latter to bring Full Payload Manticores (with Harker buffing them) to help out against Hive Guard.

Objective Secured Perth GT (major)

All the lists for this event can be found in Down Under Pairings. Similar to many Australian events this year, a rule was in place that if there were only two undefeated players going into the last round, then the loser of that game was guaranteed second (effectively creating win path standings for the top table only)

Aaron Thompson - Drukhari - 1st Place

Credit: Corrode

The List

Archetype

Talos Drukhari

Why it's Interesting in 9th

An even more uncomplicated (but still brutal) Covens list here, just throwing endless damage reduction bodies at the opponent and demanding that they do something about it. Seeing lots of Cronos in Artists is pretty new, but paradoxically makes a reasonable amount of sense in an Artists heavy metagame, as the Technomancers buff barely does anything in the mirror, and makes them obvious targets in a lot of matchups. Just going all-in on the thiccness here minimses any weaknesses in the threat presented, and forces the opponent to put up or shut up. The list is unusually short on surrounding elements, but it's core is so tough that it barely matters (unless it runs into something like flurrygants, that's right, I'm making up a name again), and Aaron was able to pilot it to a commanding victory.

Andrew Hortin - Imperium - 2nd ✪ Place

Credit: Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms

The List

The Standout Features

• Lambdan Lions provide excellent high rate-of-fire shooting.
• Elimination Protocol Sanctioned! and Old Grudges lets the list chip vehicles/monsters to death.
• Six warglaives provide powerful push threats, and work well in concert with ObSec infantry.

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Credit where it's due - while flurrygants are definitely the most explosive source of massive numbers of shots right now, this list puts up some credible work in that field thanks to its wall of hot shot volley guns. The Lambdan Lions are one of the better things guard have available to them, as their combination of doctrine (extra AP), warlord trait (re-roll 1s) and relic (invuln aura) provide exceptional value in combination with both infantry and Taurox Primes, both on show here. Elimination Protocol Sanctioned and Old Grudges combine very effectively with lots of shots, letting key targets like the ever-present Talos to be brutally chipped down, and the Tempestas Command Rods on the Tempestors means that the Order can be handed out like candy. I am a little surprised that the Taurox Primes aren't sporting the gatling/volley gun combo, as this works well with Lambdan Lions in general and feels like it leans in to what the army is trying to do, but I can see the weapons they have being very valuable if the army runs into a Drukhari list still packing Raiders.

The Lambdan Lions setup is genuinely good, so you may be wondering why you haven't seen it doing more this edition, and the answer is the same as for all guard lists - it just has nothing to contest the mid-board in the way that 9th demands of you. It looks like the addition of counting as five wounds to Warglaives might get them over the line for that role, particularly in combination with the very powerful Glorified History/Noble Combatants trait combo - these will hit like a truck in melee, and having plenty of melta shots from each model also provides spike damage for taking down enemy vehicles in a hurry. Counting as five models is also a good combo with the threat of Move! Move! Move! on the small Scion unit - as long as you can get one model from the squad into touch to counteract any ObSec the opponent has brought, the extra count from the Armigers are pretty likely to clain the point.

There's enough push power here to at least give pause to many opponents, and a huge amount of attrition firepower backing it up, which certainly feels like a powerful combination, and the fact that all the vehicles are on a 5+ invulnerable against shooting most of the time is also very nice. It's a pretty sweet combination, all told, and really cool to see a Guard-heavy mixed Imperium list making it to the finals at a major. Really awesome work from Andrew.

Daniel Norrish - Drukhari - 3rd Place

Drukhari Raider. Credit: Corrode

The List

Archetype

Drukhari Goodstuff

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Another evolved Drukhari Goodstuff list, this time featuring Ravagers, plenty of Raiders loaded with Shredders (good into Wracks and Grotesques) and a full unit of Hellions as a spectacular hammer blow into anything that doesn't have damage reduction. Access to full-powered Eviscerating Fly-by can also be clutch for removing nasty opposing characters lurking amidst Talos and other nastiness, and ensures that the army has something to really force caution from the opponent, something Drukhari can generally exploit. If you don't want to put down your old Drukhari toys this is straight up the build for you, and great work from Daniel to take third.

Adam Batista - Orks - 4th Place

Warbiker Mob. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Speed Mob

Why it's Interesting in 9th

There's a little bit of experimentation afoot with different Clans in the Speed Mob, but this build is definitely the one in pole position - a squad each of the best buggies and Deffkoptas as Freebooterz with the Speed King, two planes that can pick up Competitive Streak from the exploits of that detachment, and an Evil Sunz biker gang as a second detachment, using Faster than Yooz to fire Advance/Charge ObSec Warbikers with some serious melee crunch right into the opponent's face. It's not wildly complicated, but it's putting up enough results that it's clearly very potent, and it should definitely be on your radar, as Adam has conclusively demonstrated here.

The Rest of the Best

Four more players finished within 5-1 records. They were:

• 5th - Matthew Kelly - Black Templars: All the goodness you'd expect from a new Templars list - Helbrecht, juiced up Bike Chaplains, a bunch of Redemptors and a squad each of Assault Terminators and Bladeguard with Relic Bearers upgrades for survivability.
• 6th - Jake O'Grady - Adepta Sororitas: Pure Argent Shroud heavy on melta weaponry and hero-hammer.
• 7th - Ben Leeper - Tyranids: A mix of old and new in a Leviathan Battalion - turbo-charged Hive Guard with all the new buffs, but also two Dimachaerons to throw at the opponent.
• 8th - John Edward - Imperial Knights: Freeblade Lance with a Castellan, Magaera and Preceptor, plus Moiraxes to fill things out.

NSW 40K Masters

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

Christopher Wright - Drukhari - 1st Place

Drukhari Archon. Credit: Corrode

The List

Archetype

Talos Drukhari

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Talos - good. Wracks - good. Hellions - also very good. If you've read this far in the article, you definitely know this by now. There is one new trick on show here mind - adding Stimulant Innovators to the Wych Cult trait alongside Test of Skill, letting you (literally) roll the dice on one turn of full sicko mode with the bigger Hellion unit - as far as I can tell, if you roll a 1 on the d3 for a second dose of Adrenalight and then use Hyperstimm Backlash you get +4 attacks each on the charge, which is certainly a thing (and going up to S6 when you combo off like this is hardly terrible). I did not think that the Drukhari codex had more ways to upset me left in it, but I will confess that realising you can have a turn of 7A Hellions in 1/3 games (and S6 5A ones in another third) has made me want to put down the laptop and go have a little lie down. I'm reasonably sure that's how you win at Competitive Innovations, so well done Christopher.

The Rest of the Best

Five players finished on 5-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Joshua Brodie - Grey Knights: Dreadknights and Interceptors as Prescient/Swordbearers, with the extra flex choice of a full squad of Purifiers to lean on Untainted and Unbowed.
• 3rd - Justin Lach - Drukhari: A Drukhari goodstuff list with a very big twist - it goes full sicko mode and packs a Dark Technomancers Tantalus loaded with hexrifle Wracks for maximum turbo-shooting. Note: technically as written this list has too many Troops in its first detachment, but it doesn't matter in the slightest because the bare-bone Wrack unit could be shifted to the Black Heart detachment without losing anything, as they have no ranged weapons for Dark Technomancers.
• 4th - Josh McMillan - Adepta Sororitas: Maximum board control here, combining Valorous Heart Sacresant spam with an all-rounder Martyred Lady detachment.
• 5th - Luke Greco - Chaos: A face-smashing monster mash of Mortarion, Be'lakor and two keepers backed up by autocannon War Dogs to cover home objectives.
• 6th - Michael House - Orks: A lightning fast Evil Sunz build, bringing Squighogs, Bikers, Trukk Boyz and a Kill Rig to the table, lead up by a couple of nasty Squigosaur bosses.

Da Winter Waaagh 2

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

Matt Robertson - Drukhari - 1st Place

Drukhari Mandrakes. Credit: Corrode

The List

Archetype

Talos Drukhari

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Regular CI star Matt joins the Drukhari wave, unleashing something pretty similar to the builds that excelled at the GW Austin open. As we covered above, there are some matchups where the Technomancers Cronos don't add that much, but they do still pay for that by being extremely strong in their good matchups, and this list has a pretty classic three layer structure - Talos out front, Cronos as mid-board flexible trouble shooters, and two decently durable infantry units (the Court and the bigger Wrack squad) to hold home objectives. If it ain't broke, don't fix it - just win events with it. Great work as ever from Matt.

The Rest of the Best

Three players finished on 5-1. They were:

• 2nd ✪ - Adam Lane - Grey Knights: Dreadknights and Interceptors, Prescient and Swordbearers. Does drop down to only four Dreadknights total in favour of fully maxing out Interceptors and packing extra Servitors, which could plausibly be a good call into a Talos meta - Dreadknights just aren't great at slamming into them, so having more board control is useful for providing alternative ways to win.
• 3rd - Harris Richards - Blood Angels: A high-speed jump pack MSU-focused Blood Angels list with an unusually strong psychic contingent - Mephiston and a Librarian Dreadnought providing a mix of denies and offensive heft.
• 4th - David Leniewski - Grey Knights: Dreadknights and Interceptors, Swordbearers and Prescient Brethren, this time the purer five Dreadknight form.

Fight Before Christmas

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

TJ Lanigan - Chaos - 1st Place

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

The Standout Features

• Cagey, deep strike heavy list is hard to pin down and can hit like a truck if it finds a weak spot.
• Huge Horror blob with the Changeling provides a durable block to start on the table.
• Abaddon acts as a nightmarishly hard-hitting troubleshooter thanks to the new version of Death to the False Emperor.

Why it's Interesting in 9th

TJ is a well-known Chaos Soup tinkerer, and this new build shows off some cool new things you can do with the upgraded Death to the False Emperor - specifically, absolutely bodying things with Abaddon and Icon of Excess Terminators. Abaddon gets 5+ DttFE on baseline from his (now really good) mandatory warlord trait, and since this is one of the few effects that triggers on modified rolls, adding Prescience on top of that lets him channel the energy of the old-school Flawless Host discolords and unleash a truly monstrous flurry of destruction into anything he touches. At the new level of destructiveness he represents he's basically just a good unit, and bringing along extra CP is welcome for a three detachment build. Over in the other CSM detachment you have the Emperor's Children hits of Noise Marines and Terminators, with the latter now being vastly nastier than they already were thanks to being able to take an Icon of Excess for exploding fives against anything. High volume, high quality D1 attacks are solid gold in this metagame, and this unit brings tonnes of them to the table.

The Terminators also a powerful threat out of deep strike, something that the Bloodletters also provide, and having two very strong units that can pretty reliably land and charge (thanks to Honour the Prince and Banner of Blood) forces extreme caution for most opponents as long as either threat is waiting, which can give the Noise Marines time to do their work.

All of that is cool, but none of it can stand and hold the board till it's go time, and that makes the inclusion of a massive Horror blob backed by the Changeling make a lot of sense - it's a bunch of wounds behind a good invuln, with 6+ to ignore wounds, and with access to reinforcement points to bulk out the unit in an emergency. It's ideal for gumming up the table, and TJ has used this unit enough to really know the ins and outs, so I think it makes perfect sense as a way to bring the list together. Abaddon getting some proper airtime is really awesome to see in general, and I like how TJ has really showcased that even what looked like one of the more minor buffs from the Balance Dataslate can be a pretty huge deal.

The Rest of the Best

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

• 2nd ✪ - Brian Zhu - Black Templars: A Templars build that's on the high-wound infantry plan, with two Grimaldus-backed Primaris Crusader units and a decently sized Intercessor blob, a full Bladeguard squad with the Icon of Heinmann for durable melee crunch, then a trio of Redemptors and a Sicarian Arcus providing shooting backup.
• 3rd - Tyler Brennan - Adeptus Mechanicus: An revised Mars/Lucius list, sporting Skorpius Disintegrators alongside a duo of Stratoraptors and three solo Ironstriders in the Mars derachment, then a relatively small Lucius contingent centred around a big teleporting Ranger unit.
• 4th - Matt Carey - Orks: A Speed Mob with Evil Sunz Deffkoptas and a rare appearence for the Bad Moons in a second detachment, providing the ability to soup up the shooting of Warbikers with Showin' Off.
• 5th - David Lover - Chaos: An interesting new combo of monster mash Daemons (Big Bird and a couple of Keepers) with Cult of Time Thousand Sons, with the big, hard to stop Terminator unit presumably being used to lock in a grindy victory while the opponent deals with the initial shock of the Keeper charge (and also being excellent screening for Big Bird). Uses Dilettante to get the Orrery into a mixed army, which makes the Scarabs even more of a swiss army knife.
• 6th - Colin Gallen - Orks: Freebooterz with the quantity of buggies dialed back slightly in favour of more board control units like Warbikers and Trukk Boyz.

Game Knight 40k GT

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. First and second place were both 4.5-0.5 here, so I've featured them both.

Sam Procopio - Blood Angels - 1st Place

Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Archetype

Blood Angels Flying Goodness

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Blood Angels have definitely had a rougher time of it than most Marines this edition, but they have some very dedicated fans willing to put in the reps to succeed with them, so you do occasionally get lists like this breaking through. The formula is pretty standard - a unit of Death Company to fire out and trade for something valuable with Forlorn Fury, Sanguinary Guard to duel mid-board, powerful Characters and enough mobile shooting backup to spike down a few key targets. There are some cool tech choices here in some of those roles - I think las fusil Eliminators are generally under-rated, and mixing in the instigator carbine lets the list prioritise preserving them in some situations, which is handy in an army that's a bit thin on the ground. The Bike Chaplain with the Armour Indomitus seems like a good choice too, as it makes them a very effective user of Angel's Sacrifice, similar to the Tannhauser chaplain in Black Templars. Finally, I do like the use of Soulwarden to give the list some game against Thousand Sons, becuase otherwise the mortals will absolutely ruin such an elite force. All in all, cool to see a rare showing for the Sons of Sanguinius, so great job Sam.

Diogo Pita - Orks - 2nd Place

Credit: Tom Alexander

The List

Archetype

Goff Pressure

Why it's Interesting in 9th

As mentioned when talking about Mark's list earlier, one of the cool things about Goffs is that you can profitably squeeze quite a broad set of units into them. Here, bringing Ghazghkull turns on the Great Waaagh, which suddenly makes including a few vehicles more attractive, making the Squigbuggies and Killa Kans in the list extra spicy (AP-2 skorchas are no joke). The incredible cost-efficiency at which Killa Kans give you Ramshackle wounds is also very attractive in a list that's all about crushing your opponent under incredible pressure - they may simply not have the killing power spare to divert to removing them. Ultimately, while the tools differ the overall plan here is the same - go fast and break faces, and it looks like that's just what Diogo managed to do at this event.

The Rest of the Best

Four players finished on 4-1. They were:

• 3rd ✪ - Daniel Platt - Aeldari: Soaring Spite bikes and boats with Dark Reaper and Warp Spider backup.
• 4th - Michael Lloy - Orks: Speed Mob with Freebooterz as the shooty core, but this time bringing Blood Axes for the biker detachment for access to extra CP via the Finkin' Cap and Extra Kunnin', the latter of which can notably make Attack out of Da Sun cheaper, making the big Deffkopta unit even more of a pain. Worth considering, too, that when we switch over to Retrieve Nachmund Data in the new year and Bikers can do the Action, there might be some play in using larger Blood Axe units with Takticul Awareness.
• 5th - Mark Wang - Space Wolves Successors: See Lists of the Week.
• 6th - Tim Deetelfs - Drukhari: Talos/Cronos nastiness, with slightly fewer Talos than normal in favour of a squad of Bloodbrides for emergency horde blending.

Badger Brawl GT

Megatrakk Scrapjet. Credit: Rockfish

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

Jesse McGowan - Orks - 1st Place

The List

Archetype

Freebooterz

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Pretty much your down-the-line post update Freebooterz (and friends) build - good buggies, two Blastajets and plenty of supporting units for strong Objective play, with the Deathskulls playing a supporting role in maximising that. No particular surprises, but still one of the three best ways to play Orks, alongside Speed Mob and Goffs. Congratulations to Jesse for helping the Greenskins rack up a strong week across the board.

The Rest of the Best

Four players finished on 4-1. They were:

• 2nd - Alex Meister - Necrons: Masses of ObSec Canoptek units surrounding the Nightbringer.
• 3rd - Tyler Bortel - Hive Mind: Leviathan goodstuff with the 4AE backup, including the sneaky Scout Sentinel tech to push back early redeploys.
• 4th - Scott LaFountain - Daemons: Hefty monster mash with a trio of Keepers, Be'lakor and Big Bird, plus Nurglings and Daemonettes for board presence.
• 5th - Paul McKelvey - Tau: Farsight Enclaves with a couple of Ghostkeels backing up Crisis Suits, a souped up Riptide and a bunch of Devilfish.

West Coast GT

All the lists for this event are in Best Coast Pairings. This event ran with 20-0 scoring.

Olof Svensson - Hive Mind - 1st Place

Hive Guard. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Hive Guard Spam

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Hive Guard have proven to be strong but counterable, but as Olof has demonstrated here you definitely can go hard on them and still win events, with a unit each sporting the Leviathan and Kronos buffs representing some pretty ferocious firepower. His list doesn't go quite as all-in on the Hive Guard as the builds sporting 17 or 18 we were seeing a few weeks back, and I think that's pretty critical both in a Covens heavy meta and in the 20-0 format, as Hive Guard aren't great into the former and playing such a skewed list risks getting blown out and picking up some zeros in the latter. 12 Hive Guard with loads of buffs is still plenty to get the blowout wins in some games you go first, and ensures there are plenty of points free for extra board control from more Genestealers.

The other specific piece of tech to highlight here is the singleton Scout Sentinel, which is very good for pushing out a Hive Guard safety bubble against turn one redeploys or Drop Pods, with the latter being particularly popular in the UK and European metagame and thus worth planning for. Add in A Plan Generations in the Making to counter a big play once per game and this list has plenty of ways to defend itself alongside the vicious punches it can through, and congratulations to Olof for taking those tools and triumphing.

The Rest of the Best

The remaining three players in the top four were:

• 2nd - Andreas Holm - Tyranids: Leviathan goodstuff with a Harridan.
• 3rd - Anders Palm - Adepta Sororitas: A classic Argent Shroud/Bloody Rose shooty/melee combo.
• 4th - Jonatan Holm - Imperial Knights: Triple Magaera Freeblade Lance for maximum melee-durable ObSec.

Wrap Up

Unless I'm missing something in BCP I believe that's us done for majors this year, but there looks to be a scattering of GTs still coming up this weekend, so there will still be a small column next week, then a week off after. I'm going to take that window next week to do a tidyup on the Archetypes page, making sure it's all sorted for the post Balance Dataslate world and ready for some updates as further changes appear. I'll see you back then, comments, questions and suggestions to contact@goonhammer.com as always.

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