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.

Welcome back! This week we'll be jumping around to a few places around the globe: two in the US, one in the UK and one in Denmark.

• Vault Wars 2025
• Battle Rage Ballerup 2025
• ROSE CITY RAMPAGE 3: REX MARKS THE SPOT
• PubHammer Open 4

Vault Wars 2025

48-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Springfield, MO, US on October 25 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown 

Alex Cotter - Gloomspite Gitz

vs.

LaRon Roberts - Stormcast Eternals

Thoughts

This is a really tough match up. Stormcast can drop down, charge and deal some gnarly wounds to any army not prepared for the assault.  The Trogg-heavy list here is one of the few armies that can tank those hits and the swing back pretty hard.  The Sunsteala Wheelas are a huge help too, able to hit the high save Stormcast for mortal wounds while locked in combat with the troggs.

The flipside is that the Troggs...don't have as much mobility. Grabbing objectives is a lot harder, and it's going to be harder to play catch up as they start dropping. It's a pretty close game but the Stormcast take this one.

Result

Stormcast Eternals Victory - 57 - 42

LaRon Roberts - Stormcast Eternals - 1st Place

Questor Soulsworn. Credit: SRM

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Stormcast Mixed Arms

Thoughts

The interesting thing about Stormcast is you'll find they change quite radically from list to list, due to the wide variety of options.

Ionus is the top of the list; an incredibly strong beat stick, a Power 2 priest to teleport, buff or heal units, or zap enemies with his warscroll prayer. He also hits with an damage over time ability that cannot be removed, which is great for peeling away high save models. The Judicator is a solid sniper who can sic his Gryph Hounds on enemy units if they try and get too close. The Questors are just a beat stick, they can lock down an objective and fight to the death for it.

Tornus supports Ruination units (which is most of the big stuff in this list) with better rallies, and inflicts a -1 to hit on enemy units he's in combat with. The Lord-Terminos and Reclusians are both strong hammer units, which are Ruination units, therefore receiving Tornus's support.

The last detachment is our cavalry division. The Lord-Celestant on Dracoth has fight one after the other, so he can down the Quicksilver Draught to get Strikes first, and then hand it off to the Concussors which shut down commands and do crits on mortals. The Knight-Vexilor caps things off by buffing control score of the admittedly limited number of units here, and healing injured models.

Derek Hildebrandt - Skaventide - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Brood Terror. Credit: Matthew Ward

The List

Archetype

Skaven Good Stufff

Thoughts

The primary locus of this list remains the SoG screaming bell, which in addition to being a 2 cast wizard, also supports the army by adding additional movement or -1 to be hit depending on the turn. The Rat Ogors and Brood Terror become the primary hammers, as their flamethrowers do very solid damage to infantry (or anything, really) and then swing extra hard in combat when the Brood Terror can buff their number of attacks.

The Jezzails can pelt the enemy from afar before they get close, and the Nightrunners are a cute bit of tech who can pre-game move and then Three Clawsteps ahead to snag an early game objective.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 includes:

• 3rd - Joel Follmeyer - Flesh-eater Courts: Ushoran, Cardinal and Ghoul King on Terrorgheist with Cryptguard and Horrors.
• 4th - Alex Cotter - Gloomspite Gitz: Trugg with Troggs, and Skragrott with Sunstealas.
• 5th - Daniel Patterson - Slaves to Darkness:  Be'lakor and a Chaos Lord with Chosen, Knights and Varanguard.
• 6th - Jered Nolie - Ogor Mawtribes: Frostlord on Stonehorn leading foot ogor good stuff.
• 7th - Jeff Naumann - Maggotkin of Nurgle: SoG Rotigus with twin Harbingers, Blightkings and Blight Lords, plus a Daemon Prince.
• 8th - Tyler Emerson - Slaves to Darkness: Abraxia leading Chosen, Knights and Warriors.

Battle Rage Ballerup 2025

42-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Ballerup, Danmark on October 25 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission - Roiling Roots

Christoffer Karlsmose - Ossiarch Bonereapers

vs.

Morten Schwaner Bendtsen - Gloomspite Gitz

Thoughts

This one could go either way. The Gitz list is unique in choosing to solely focus on bodies, rather than the more powerful hammers of Troggs and Squiggs. Stabbas are a lot of guys and even if their defensive stats suck, they grant a -1 to be hit so that makes cleaving through 40 wounds surprisingly hard. And then inevitably the Loonsmashas will pop out and do the actual damage. It's pretty variable damage, but it can be a lot.

OBR are pretty poor at dealing with hordes, usually. They can do a lot of damage into a unit but they usually are limited to picking up one or two units a turn at best. Luckily they care less about the -1 to hit as everything in the army is a 3+ base, they also can tank the Loonsmashas pretty well so it's just a case of riding them out. The battle is pretty close but OBR wins by a hair.

Result

Ossiarch Bonereapers Victory - 57 - 55

Christoffer Karlsmose - Ossiarch Bonereapers - 1st Place

Credit: Silks

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Katakros and Mortek Guard

Thoughts

This is an unusual list for OBR, which tends to go hyper elite. Mortek Guard haven't gotten as much love in 4th as their Ethereal 4+ Save makes them feel rather lacking. That said, they got a recent point drop which may justify bringing them, as they're the only things resembling bodies that OBR have to screen out charging units and hold objectives.

Katakros leads the pack with his suite of buffs and debuffs; if put up front with Immortis Guard and all his buffs he hits like a truck and packs a 2+ Save and a 5+ Ward (potentially 4+ in combat). Zandtos accompanies the Kavalos, which work as the primary hammer of the army. With the new Scourge of Ghyran Spell Lore you can grant them +1 attack, giving them 40 attacks. Zandtos can add another, giving 50 attacks if you really need something dead.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Morten Schwaner Bendtsen - Gloomspite Gitz: See Showdown.
• 3rd - Rasmus Albech Nielsen - Cities of Sigmar: Callis and Toll lead Freeguilder good stuff.
• 4th - Casper Torres Karlsmose - Disciples of Tzeentch: Kairos and Ogorid with Tzaangors and Kairic Acolytes. Guest Starring a Daemon Prince.
• 5th - Alexander Hansen - Sylvaneth: Alarielle, Belthanos, SoG Drycha, Spirit of Durthu and Lady of Vines. That's the list.
• 6th - Mikkel Thomsen - Ironjawz: Kragnos and Megaboss with pigs, big and small.
• 7th - Rasmus Olsen - Cities of Sigmar: Freeguilders with no named characters, and the KO Profiteers RoR.

ROSE CITY RAMPAGE 3: REX MARKS THE SPOT

37-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Beaverton, OR, United States on October 25 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission - Bountiful Equinox

Frederick Schmidt - Fyreslayers

vs.

ALEXANDER Gonzalez - Blades of Khorne

Thoughts

With (essentially) the death of the Gorechosen Army of Renown, it was pretty likely that the Baleful Lords would rise in its place. Who wouldn't want to run five Bloodthirsters? The models hit like trucks and the subfaction has powers to shut off spells, deny commands and banish manifestations.

Only some of those will help against Fyreslayers, unfortunately. But they still hit hard! The fact that Fyreslayers' nerf has led to them bringing more bodies is probably a point in their favor here, as it gives more chaff to filter out the Bloodthirsters. It also permits more objective grabbers, so they can outnumber the Bloodthirsters. It's a good fight but the Fyreslayers are victorious.

Result

Fyreslayers Victory - 65 - 38

Frederick Schmidt - Fyreslayers - 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Magmadroths with Foot Support

Thoughts

With the points hike to Scourge of Ghyran Runesons on Magmadroths, Fyreslayers players have started shifting towards adding more bodies to compensate and it may in fact just have made them more powerful.

The SoG Runeson gets a bump to Damage when a Runefather is injured, in combat or dead. So basically just existing, which is what makes it so powerful. The Runesmiter on Magmadroth is more controversial pick, but the +1 to wound on a friendly unit is hard to deny, especially with the proliferation of foot troops,

The advantage of having more bodies on the table means that capturing and holding objectives is easier, and Hearthguard Berzerkers are still very scary in combat, especially if properly supported.

The Best of the Rest

There were 7 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - ALEXANDER Gonzalez - Blades of Khorne: See Showdown.
• 3rd - Matt Beasley - Soulblight Gravelords: Arkhan, Vengorian Lord and Cado with Wight Guard and Knights.
• 4th - Mason Knox - Gloomspite Gitz: Droggz's Gitmob AoR with 2 units of Wheelas and a ton of Snarlfang cav.
• 5th - Jeremy Lamoy - Cities of Sigmar: Freeguilders, but with Tahlia leading them instead of the usual Pontifex Zenestra.
• 6th - Brice Koppin - Fyreslayers: Runefather and SoG Runeson on Magmadroths, with Hearthguard Berzerkers and KO Privateer RoR supporting.
• 7th - Matthew Moone - Daughters of Khaine: SoG Krethusa and Foot Aelves, with Callis and Toll.
• 8th - Alexander Geiger - Stormcast Eternals: Lord Celestant on Stardrake with Dracothians and Palladors.

PubHammer Open 4

28-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, GB on October 25 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Dan Sidders - Gloomspite Gitz

vs.

Chris Myhill - Idoneth Deepkin

Thoughts

Oh woof this is a rough one. As clever as this Gitz list is, it really doesn't have the juice to stand up to the Idoneth here. While both are armies that rely on getting that first opportune charge, the Idoneth have way more debuffs to make life difficult for the gitz. About the only thing the Gitz have going for them is sheer numbers, so while there's a possibility they bog the Idoneth down in chaff, it just doesn't hash out that way.

Result

Idoneth Deepkin Victory - 80 - 26

Chris Myhill - Idoneth Deepkin - 1st Place

Eidolon of Mathlann, Aspect of the Storm. Credit: Matthew 'chimp' Ward

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Triple Eidolons with Morrsarr Guard and Thralls

Thoughts

This is a wild list; not just two but three Eidolons is a powerful pillar for this list. The Eidolon of the Sea is more of a support caster, able to cast with a +1 and its own warscroll spell hits 3 enemy units with -1 to save. Meanwhile the Eidolons of the Storm are powerful Warriors who give strong support. They can fight well on their own, but also inflict Strike-Last on the enemy and +1 to wound for allied units nearby. So combined with the Subfaction ability giving the Morsarr Guard +1 to hit, you're looking at incredibly strong cav who shred through just about anything.

The Thralls and Reavers aren't quite as scary but they hold objectives well and can still fend off enemy forces well enough. Worst case scenario they can screen out enemy units while the Morsarr Guard and Eidolons charge in to do the work.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Shaun Voss - Skaventide: SoG Screaming Bell and Brood Terror with Rat Ogors and Doom Flayers
• 3rd - Samuel Older - Ossiarch Bonereapers: Katakros with Archai and Stalkers.

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