Welcome to Competitive Innovations, our weekly feature for a number of game lines across the tabletop wargame space. Each week our army list and tactics experts canvass the top tournaments for their game of specialty, looking at the week’s top match-ups and how they played out on the tabletop to let you know what’s hot, what’s not, and what might be coming next as the competitive meta evolves year-round.

Apologies for the late article this week. Been prepping for GW Open Tacoma (which I will go into next week!) so I didn't have as much time to write. This week we have 3 tournaments across the US: one medium sized event in Massachusetts, the Ironweld Open, and 2 smaller events.

Ironweld: Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament

56-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Wakefield, MA, United States on July 12 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission - Linked Leylines

Anthony Lawrence - Daughters of Khaine

vs.

Dylan Therriault - Cities of Sigmar

Thoughts

This is an insane battle. Dylan and Anthony are two of the best Sigmar players in the US and so we're seeing a game here on full throttle.

Cities of Sigmar have lots of shooting, but the value of that is going to be very adaptable due to positioning. If successful, the Officar's Order for Suppressing Fire gives the enemy Strike Last, which can be absolutely crippling for the Daughter's of Khaine's very fragile infantry if they want to make a charge roll. Importantly, it can be used in any shooting phase, so its practically a lay up if covering fire is used. Then the Cavalry can clean up with a strong charge.

Daughters of Khaine meanwhile have a lot of mobility options. High movement on the infantry and deep strike/teleports from the Khinerai and Shadowstalkers means needing to move from obscuring terrain to obscured objectives to try and minimize how much damage is taken before attacking.

Both players score extremely high with Dylan barely clinching victory at the end.

Result

Cities of Sigmar Victory - 68 - 60

Dylan Therriault - Cities of Sigmar - 1st Place

Conner Tolbert

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Freeguild Cities

Thoughts

Cities of Sigmar is very tech heavy and there is a lot of moving parts here so I'll try and hit some of the major ones.

The Fusil Major can designate a target they shot to receive +1 to be hit by the other shooting units (namely the Fusiliers and Steam Tank Commander) which has obvious knock off on effects for the list. He can shoot 24" away so as long as a unit is in the open, the world is his oyster.

The list relies a lot on heavy ranged damage to try and set up their melee units for a successful combat. As discussed above, Covering Fire is an important order as it inflicts strike last on the enemy, meaning they can dissuade any potential charges at them or make a target easier to kill before charging themselves. Advance in Formation allows a 3" move in the movement phase, which is not only an additional 3" of movement but crucially is not a Move action. This means the Fusiliers and Fusil Major can maneuver into position without giving up their bonuses for remaining still.

The Freeguild Command Corps were slept on a bit after their huge power cut in 4th, but they inflict taxes on the opponent to spend an extra CP on commands, and also give out an additional command to human units (of which this entire list is). Both of these are only once per turn, but that's more than enough.

Zenestra and Callis and Toll function as anti-magic support. Zenestra grants an unbind to an otherwise magic-lite list, while Callis and Toll can dispatch with any wizards (or their endless spells) that get in the way. Dylan is also very talents at using his own Invocations to filter out units charging, so they're stuck in the middle of an empty field to be cleaned up by shooting attacks. This is particularly helpful in the current season which uses a lot of terrain.

Finally the Cavaliers work to pick up anything you can't just shoot at. They're just really solid cavalry that hit hard and do impact mortals to boot.

Adam Weinstein - Ironjawz - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Megaboss on Maw-Krusha. Credit: Rich Nutter

The List

Archetype

Kragnos Ironjawz

Thoughts

As expected for Ironjawz, this list is about getting off a really good early charge and leave the opponent not enough to survive the rest of the game when the dust clears. Kragnos will give pretty much the entire list a 3D6 (+1 when you include the Ironjawz Waaagh) charge which is crucial for getting there early. Including both Gordrakk and a generic Megaboss on Maw-Krusha is a very bold decision when it is on top of Kragnos both are strong hitters, and Gordrakk hands out a +1 to hit alongside with the +1 to Attacks when using the Waagh.

Pretty much everything else in the list save the Warchanter (Who is mostly there to grant +1 to Damage or +1 to charges) is just meant to charge and wreck shop. If the opponent lets it happen, it's probably going to be game over pretty quickly.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 includes:

• 3rd - Brian Chick - Daughters of Khaine: Krethusa with Aelf Infantry
• 4th - Madigan Mason - Nighthaunt: Kurdross and Reiknor with Dreadblade Harrows and Dreadscythe Harridans.
• 5th - Thomas Ling - Sylvaneth: Alarielle and Belthanos with a lot of Spite Revenants.
• 6th - Jeremy Veysseire - Fyreslayers: Infantry heavy Duardin, focusing on Vulkyn Flameseekers and Hearthguard Berzerkers.
• 7th - Anthony Lawrence - Daughters of Khaine: See Showdown.
• 8th - Jack Politis - Slaves to Darkness: Just a ton of Darkoaths and the Skaven Skyre Regiment of Renown lead by Gunnar Brand.

CROSSROADS CARNAGE 2025

29-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Indianapolis, IN, United States on July 12 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission - Grasp of Thorns

Victor Szafranski - Sons of Behemat

vs.

Michael Rausch - Blades of Khorne

Thoughts

This is a very interesting matchup. This particular mission is a bad time for Sons of Behemat if they take the lead, as Grasping Thorns makes a unit contesting an objective unable to move which severely limits their already limited mobility if it goes off. The Blades of Khorne player also managed to make an excellent pick here by adding a Daemon Prince with a Trophy Wrack and the King of Blades, allowing it to very easily cut through the (almost) all heroes list of Sons of Behemat.

The saving grace here for the Sons player is likely the Regiment of Renown for the additional chaff to help slow them down a bit, as if the Khorne player can make a tactical charge with enough units they could rather realistically pick one of them up on the spot so clever use of that is going to be crucial.

It's a pretty close game overall, with only a 10 point difference separating them.

Result

Sons of Behemat Victory - 49 - 39

Victor Szafranski - Sons of Behemat - 1st Place

Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant. Credit: Fowler

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Gatebreaker Party

Thoughts

All Gatebreakers all the time. Gatebreakers don't have the most impressive abilities, since their focus is breaking faction terrain. Occasionally useful but probably not something youre going crazy to have (unless you're fighting Sylvaneth). The Pulversizing Strike is also a pretty good hail mary, but too risky to use most of the time.

Despite that, they're the most generically strong of the regular options. While Warstompers can really do damage against big blobs of infantry, and Beast-smashers can wallop other monsters, Warstompers have the best all around profile, which makes them the most adaptable to multiple lists. 6 Rend -2 Damage 4 attacks will pick up a lot. Their thrown boulder isn't bad if you get an opening to use it, either.

The Bottle-snatcha detachment, meanwhile, is just tailor made for Sons of Behemat. Deep strike it on the other side of the field and now all your guys can run and charge toward the closest thing and mess it up. The other little guys are also helpful for battle tactics and objective grabbing.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Corey O'Keefe - Cities of Sigmar: Freeguild only, with Cavaliers, Steelhelms and Cannons. Plus Callis and Toll.
• 3rd - Mike Nees - Lumineth Realm-lords: A herohammer list including the Light of Eltharion, Ellania and Elathor, support casters and 20 Bladeguard to protect them.
• 4th - Xavier Green - Daughters of Khaine: Scourge of Ghyran Krethusa with a ton of Witch Aelves and Sisters of Slaughter.
• 5th - Tori Giffin - Skaven: Thanquol leads a Moulder themed list of Rat Ogors and a Brood Terror.

HAWGHAMMER AoS GT

28-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Rogers, AR, United States on July 12 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission - Passing Seasons

Alex Cotter - Kharadron Overlords

vs.

Carson Serzyski - Ogor Mawtribes

Thoughts

KO have been able to adapt to the new meta surprisingly well. For an army that's well known as "the shooting army" they have a surprising number of melee options they can adapt to that can cut above their paygrade once they get into melee.

However, they still will get tripped up by some of the hardier enemies like Ogors. Ogors simply have too many wounds for those units too be able to chop through on their own so they have to fall back on their guns, and in an infantry focused list like this Mawtribes list, it becomes more difficult to pick up good targets amongst all the obscuring terrain. The Places of Power are strategically placed here so any of the 4 objectives can be obscured, forcing the fight to come to them. Ogors hit hard and have a ton of wounds, so it's a real bear to try and take them on and likely largely due to this it is a huge blowout in their favor.

Result

Ogor Mawtribes Victory - 65 - 30

Carson Serzyski - Ogor Mawtribes - 1st Place

photo credit: Keewa

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Foot Ogors

Thoughts

We're seeing a surge in foot ogors with the new season, since the increase in Obscuring terrain makes their short movement range a lot less of a limitation and their free upgrade in the form of Big Names is a nice perk.

The Gluttons exist to hold objectives and soak up damage. Even if their saves aren't great, they're a lot of wounds, and with the Greasy Deluge spell granting -1 to be hit, it's very hard to pick up the whole unit without serious effort.

On the flipside, Ironguts and Mawpack do the serious heavy lifting on offense, launching a brutal number of attacks with high damage they can usually pick up anything they get the first swing at.

Rounding off the list is the newly juiced up Scourge of Ghyran Ironblaster. While shooting took a big hit this season, things can't stay in obscuring all the time and sometimes you have to shoot down some of the big Monsters and Flyers who can't hide. Put some Gnoblars in front to screen it out and it is a nightmare to take it down without your own guns.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Tristan Dale - Stormcast Eternals: Ionus Cryptborn leads packs of melee infantry including Reclusions and Prosecutors.
• 3rd - Joe Vucic - Cities of Sigmar: Humans only with a ton of cannons and Steelhelms.
• 4th - Alex Cotter - Kharadron Overlords: See Showdown.
• 5th - Landon McDaniel - Skaven: Lord Screech Verminking runs a lot of Nightrunners.

Wrap Up

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