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.

We've been hyping it up for the past few weeks and the World Championships of Warhammer have come and gone. One of the biggest events of the year, and arguably the last big one before year's end. Which army will walk away with the gold? This week we'll be covering:

• Age of Sigmar - 2025 World Championships of Warhammer
• Grudgefest GT 2025
• II GT Zaragoza: Puño de Sigmar

Age of Sigmar - 2025 World Championships of Warhammer

143-player, 8-round Major in Atlanta, GA, United States on November 06 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

martin feingold (France) - Gloomspite Gitz

vs.

Jean-Baptiste Aymes (France) - Hedonites of Slaanesh

Thoughts

Both of these lists are wildly unexpected and bring some interesting tech into the fold. The Gitz list is, surprisingly, faster than the Slaanesh one. It's also (probably) more reliable. While it really banks on making a lot of charges and spiking on Critical hits, it's got so much more redundancy to play around with that even if a few fail at their task, they still have more to swing with.

That said, Slaanesh has a ton of tools to slow down lists that try and take it too fast. Slaanesh would rather savor the moment, after all. Glutos can make moving and charging a lot harder, which will give Twinsouls the chance to charge in instead and try and clean up, with all the debuffs the gitz will face, they will basically be forced to rely on those crits to succeed.

The final score is shockingly close, only off by one point in a pretty low scoring game overall.

Result

Hedonites of Slaanesh Victory - 34 - 33

Jean-Baptiste Aymes (France) - Hedonites of Slaanesh - 1st Place

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

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Glutos and mortal troops

Thoughts

Well this is it, the big winner of the year and it's a real surprising list. Glutos is obviously the nexus of this list, he passes out very powerful buffs and is surprisingly easy to protect, and since he's not a Monster he actually can be hidden fairly easily in the new scourge of Ghyran Obscuring rules. He's also a wizard who's warscroll spell cripples the movement and charges of enemy units, and he also gets the Hedonites spell lore which can turn Crits into mortals and add +1 to wound against something you want particularly dead.

The Blissbarbs are pretty unassuming archers, but they can do some solid damage and since they can run and shoot, it's very hard to hide from them. Sigvald is a powerful hammer who can generate a lot of attacks if he spikes on the charge, and at Rend 2, bypass wards it can often cut through most things that would resist damage from other sources. Fiends are a fun little tech piece which while not great in combat can still punch pretty well, and they can deep strike in either players turn, forcing them to guard their objectives.

The main hammer here is of course, the twin souls. They can switch between great anvils with a 5+ Ward when they're charged, or reducing enemy attacks when they charge themselves. Add in the Invaders battle formation giving them a +1 to rend and they're a force to be reckoned with. This is even before the Lord of Hubris comes into play, he forces a Sophie's choice upon the opponent where they can either get Strike First but only hit him, or take Strike last and risk the wrath of the Twinsouls. His artefact lets him reduce attacks again once per game, and his heroic trait shuts down all but core abilities if your opponent gets too stingy with their Temptation dice.

martin feingold (France) - Gloomspite Gitz - 2nd Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

SQUIGS!

Thoughts

As you can probably guess from this list, the game plan is very simple. The Wizard only gets one spell, but can buff that with their once per game ability and the Mushroom endless spell. They then get access to a spell that grants +2 to move. The Squig boss then can give them more move or Crit mortals to their mounts. Then they just charge in and hope to kill something, if they don't, well, there's more where that came from.

The Wheelas are a nice bit of extra tech we'll probably see in every Gitz list for a bit now, since they can cruise over their opponent in both movement phases to deal mortal wounds, great for softening up chaff before the big charge.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 includes:

• 3rd - Aidan Dousson (France) - Sylvaneth: Belthanos, Drycha and Spirit of Durthu with Revenant Seekers, Dryad and Spiterider Seekers.
• 4th - Alexis Boucher (Canada) - Kharadron Overlords: Dreki Flynt (Given his list name I'd be remiss not to mention that) and Brokk with 2 Frigates and a mix of ground troops.
• 5th - Leo Rautonen (United States) - Stormcast Eternals: Tornus and Knight-Relictor with Stormdrake Guard, Questors and Vanguard-Raptors.
• 6th - Casper Torres Karlsmose (Denmark) - Disciples of Tzeentch: Kairos and Ogroid with Kairic Acolytes and Tzaangors (All kinds)
• 7th - Jean-François Normand (Canada) - Daughters of Khaine: Krethusa and foot Aelves.
• 8th - Matt Beasley (United States) - Soulblight Gravelords: Mannfred, Vengorian Lord and Cado with various Deathrattle.

Grudgefest GT 2025

50-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Lethbridge, AB, Canada on November 08 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Cole Winsor - Disciples of Tzeentch

vs.

Riley Pichlyk - Idoneth Deepkin

Thoughts

This is a tough matchup. Currently, Idoneth usually tend to run a lot of eels and/or Sharks competitively, but this is a very different list. It's a much more elite list that relies on the strength and durability of Leviadons and the support heros to outmaneuver and grind out the enemy. While the usually Idoneth list would probably be blunted against the legion of horrors, this has a lot more room to grind it out and possibly pull ahead. We do see in the final score that it's damn close, a high score for both sides only off by 3.

Result

Disciples of Tzeentch Victory - 63 - 60

Cole Winsor - Disciples of Tzeentch - 1st Place

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

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Tzeentch Daemons

Thoughts

This list tries to incorporate a bunch of demons with spells and ranged attacks to try and pelt enemies from afar. Kairos gives +1 to casting to himself and the other lord of change, while also changing up the lowest dice to the highest and swaps battle tactics once per game which makes him invaluable. He has a great utility spell that puts a debuff of your choice on the strongest enemy hammer before they get too close. The Lord of Change has a great nuke spell and makes it -1 to hit daemons near it. Chilling out on the flanks are the Burning Chariots, which have a decent ranged attack and can inflict burning by flying over the enemy.

The Horror act as a buffer between the rest of the forces and the enemy. Pink horrors, when killed, can reinforce the blue horrors. And then when they all die, the Lord of Change gets to bring them back! Thanks to the Subfaction, Wyrdflame (most ranged attacks and many offensive spells) inflicts a -1 to wound, so with the LoC's -1 to hit, they are frustrasting to chew through.

Daniel Kapusta - Cities of Sigmar - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Cavalier Marshal

The List

Archetype

Freeguilders

Thoughts

Cities of Sigmar got hit with a number of nerfs, but overall they've managed to make do. For the most part, that meant cutting Zenestra to reinforce your army with more stuff. Ironweld Cannons do some serious damage from range, though this list takes fewer than you usually see, instead augmenting the shooting with Fusiliers. The Steelhelms hold the line for their ranged units while the Cavaliers get to pull double duty both as a strong charging hammer and a pretty tanky anvil should they need to. With the Cavalier-Marshal they get a bonus on the charge and strike first to boot.

A lot of the power for CoS comes from its heroes, buffing pretty OK units into the stratosphere, and issuing orders that make them hard to outmaneuver. The Envoy Marshall can issue orders from a distance, they're all good and offer a huge suite of offensive and defensive buffs that make the army very adaptable. The Battlemage in addition to being a wizard with a great lore, gets to give human units +1 to hit and does mortal wounds with his cannon. Callis and Toll are more of a utility piece, able to deep strike behind the enemy and snag objectives, kill wizards, or dispose of pesky endless spells.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 3rd - Michael Nonomura - Seraphon: Big Dino list with the Drekki's Privateer RoR.
• 4th - Daytond Obre - Flesh-eater Courts: Ghoul King on Terrorgheist with Horrors, Archregent with Ghouls, and Felgryn with Beastflayers.
• 5th - Riley Pichlyk - Idoneth Deepkin: See Showdown.
• 6th - Dom Elson - Slaves to Darkness: Be'lakor and Eternus lead the Legion of the First Prince Bloodletters.
• 7th - James Rennick - Ironjawz: Brutez and big pigs.
• 8th - Quin Hynes - Gloomspite Gitz: Squiggs, Catapuls and Wheelaz.

II GT Zaragoza: Puño de Sigmar

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Utebo, AR, Spain on November 08 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Carlos “Laq” García - Ironjawz

vs.

Eduart Sánchez - Daughters of Khaine

Thoughts

Honestly this looks like a crushing victory for the DoK if they time their charges right. There just isn't really enough Anvil or Hammer in the Ardboyz to tank a legion of fully buffed up Witch Aelves, or an angry Morathi.

Result

Daughters of Khaine Victory - 20 - 0

Eduart Sánchez - Daughters of Khaine - 1st Place

Credit: Dan Richardson

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Morathi and Krethusa

Thoughts

It's uncommon to run Krethusa and Morathi together, since they generally focus on buffing separate pieces of the army. Instead, this decides to focus on using Morathi as a caster and a (admittedly effective) beatstick. The Aelf units all have unimpressive statlines on their own, but pretty much every hero, spell and prayer they have access to here can boost their stats to godly numbers before sending them in to tear shit up. Then Krethusa can bring them back at half strength to do it again, and by then they have fewer models on their side of the board.

Morathi of course is terrifying for her ability to not die, unless you can sustain damage on her for 4 turns. and she can still tear stuff up. While often blocked off by chaff, she can be extremely terrifying into more elite lists, or if she gets a good charge to soar over the chaff.

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 4-1 (or better) records. They were:

• 2nd - Dani Buska - Kruleboyz (4-0-1): Monstakillaz and Gutrippaz, with the Shinestealaz RoR.
• 3rd - David Martínez - Cities of Sigmar: Freeguilders, replacing Zenestra with more Cavaliers and Great Cannons.
• 4th - Guillermo Porta Gracia - Nighthaunt: Olynder and Cruciator with Craventhrone Guard, Pyregheists and Bladegheist Revenants.
• 5th - Adrián Torrijos - Nighthaunt: Olynder and Cruciator with Bladegheist revenants, Pyregheists and a Scourge of Ghyran Black Coach.
• 6th - Alberto Amigot - Disciples of Tzeentch: Kairos with Kairic Acolytes, a mix of demons and Tzaangor Enlightened, with a Daemon Prince.
• 7th - Carlos “Laq” García - Ironjawz: See Showdown.

Wrap Up

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