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.

As the year winds down and it gets colder out, events start winding down as well. We still got a major event in Boston this week and then 2 smaller events around the world. This week we'll be covering:

• Everwinter: Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament - United States
• Warhammex GT Open - Mexico
• Lost Legion GT - Australia

Everwinter: Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament

68-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Boston, MA, United States on December 06 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission - Bountiful Equinox

Adam Weinstein - Slaves to Darkness

vs.

Jake Remington - Sylvaneth

Thoughts

This is pretty much a slam dunk option for the Slaves to Darkness player. Belakor's The Dark Master pretty much turns off a unit for a turn (possibly two on a double) which hurts a lot harder on low drop lists like this. It's also a lot harder for Sylvaneth to pop out and take down a unit when that unit is Archaon. About the only advantage that Sylvaneth might have is tagging the  Knights before they can charge, but the Dread Banner will keep them from using all Out Attack to maximize damage.

Result

Slaves to Darkness Victory - 78 - 22

Adam Weinstein - Slaves to Darkness - 1st Place

Archaon the Everchosen. Credit: Kevin Stillman

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Archaon and Belakor

Thoughts

This list is a lot gnarlier than it looks. Although it doesn't have a ton of board coverage it has a lot of tools to isolate and remove threats early. The combo of Be'lakor and Archaon allows the player to mark the most dangerous unit with The Dark Master, effectively shutting them down possibly for two turns in a row of Archaon's Eye of Sheerian sets the next turn order up right.

The Knights can be quite killy and the dread banner shuts off commands, so when accompanied with Archaon and Be'lakor they can pick up quite a few threats early to shut down the game.

Dylan Therriault - Cities of Sigmar - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Pontifex Zenestra, Credit: Conner Tolbert

The List

Archetype

Freeguilders with a splash of Aelves

Thoughts

Since the price hikes, COS players have worked out how to accommodate changes to the army and have come up with a few answers. In this case Dylan has added even more horses to his army, since Zenestra can no longer pull them out of combat it makes sense to build in some redundancy and pack in more horses.

Cavaliers can switch hit as both a powerful hammer and a really strong shield, with proper buffs they can be -1 to be wounded, 5+ ward and +1 to save, so really hard to kill. The Sorceress and Executioners add a Wizard to the ranks along with a unit that gets 5+ crit mortals which really hits hard on high defense units the Cavalry might have a harder time breaking.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 3rd - Justin Hagelin - Ironjawz: Big Pigs
• 4th - Jake Remington - Sylvaneth: See Showdown.
• 5th - Zach Boyce Joy - Skaventide: Grey Seer on Screaming Bell and Plague Furnace with lots of Night Runners and Monks.
• 6th - Thomas Ling - Sylvaneth: Sylvaneth big boys with Spiteriders and Revenants.
• 7th - Oscar Savastio - Flesh-eater Courts: Ushoran and Ghoul King on Terrorgheist with Cryptguard and Beastflayers.
• 8th - Boris Poletaev - Ironjawz: Kragnos with pigs of various sizes
• 9th - Eddie Korando - Lumineth Realm-Lords: Herohammer and Bladelords.
• 10th - Wyatt Traina - Slaves to Darkness: Abraxia with Chosen, Knights, Theridons and Warriors.
• 11th - Omar Qusrawi - Stormcast Eternals: Iridan with Infantry good stuff and Neave Blacktalon.

Warhammex GT Open

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Ciudad de México, CDMX, México on December 06 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission - Cyclic Shifts

Eduardo Rodríguez - Stormcast Eternals

vs.

Ivan Moreno - Gloomspite Gitz

Thoughts

This is a pretty tough matchup to call, as both are strong lists. Squiggs and Troggs for Gitz is tried and true, and while this Stormcast list is a bit off label it still has some of the stronger units in the book like Questors.

Pushing things a bit in the Stormcast favor is their ability to hold back and deep strike when the time is right, and having more significant ranged fire. The Squiggs meanwhile have a lot more mobility and charging potential if they can hit their targets. The mortal wounds they get for going over the enemy can help crack open their armor.

Result

Stormcast Eternals Victory - 69 - 53

Eduardo Rodríguez - Stormcast Eternals - 1st Place

Credit: Dan "TheSaltySea" Herrera

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Tornus with good stuff infantry

Thoughts

This list is pretty easy to break down as it's very efficient in what its doing. Tornus usually has Ruination Chamber units with him, but not this time, so his primary use is to accompany the hammers in the army to give the enemy -1 to hit against them. The Relictor is the requisite priest for that all important teleport and basically everything here is a hammer. Vanguard Raptors are still one of the better shooting units in the army, while Questors and Palladors hit hard as hell.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Damian Flores Díaz - Hedonites of Slaanesh: Glutos with a mix of mortals.
• 3rd - Daniel Islas - Skaventide: Thanquol, Moulder, Stormvermin and 4 Abominations.
• 4th - Jaime Cruz - Disciples of Tzeentch: Kairos and LoC with Demons.
• 5th - Ivan Moreno - Gloomspite Gitz:  See Showdown.

Lost Legion GT

28-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in North Shore, VIC, Australia on December 05 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Joel Graham - Gloomspite Gitz

vs.

Daniel Bonaci - Big Waaagh!

Thoughts

I think this may be the first time I've seen Big WAAAGH show up in a showdown since 4th dropped, which is pretty cool. That said I'm not sure what they could really do against a dedicated Sunstealas list.

The Wheelas have become quite a problem since their errata dropped, while often not winning games it's a free movement in both players movement phases which deals a not-insignificant number of mortal wounds. While only one unit can do it per turn, having 2  lets them spread it out more and the general speed of the list makes grabbing objectives easier than the Big WAAAGH player will be able to do.

Result

Gloomspite Gitz Victory - 64 - 35

Joel Graham - Gloomspite Gitz - 1st Place

Gitmob Sunsteala Wheelas. Credit: Rich Nutter

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Gitmob

Thoughts

The Sunbiters are an interesting dark horse pick compared to the usual Troggs and Squiggs we see. Droggz is the focus of the list and makes the whole thing work, since any enemies within 6" of him are -1 to hit (and can't use All out attack to try and circumvent it) so that helps deal with the low saves on the gitmobs. The Snarlpack Cavalry aren't too impressive on their own but with the subfaction's +1 rend and built in first strike they can be a bit more of a problem than expected.

The Bounderz give something with a bit more oompf for targets with tougher saves, and the shootaz can plink away at the enemy while the fanatics pop out if the enemy gets too close. Finally the trusty Wheelas can go over enemies and hit them for mortals, softening them up for the melee units.

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Jamie Sherlock - Disciples of Tzeentch: Kairos leads a list focusing on mortals.
• 3rd - Nathan Thompson - Kharadron Overlords: Transport-less focusing on Vongrims and dual Gunhaulers
• 4th - Daniel Bonaci - Big WAAAGH!: See Showdown.

Wrap Up

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