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, it's another week in our road to Adepticon and we have three events of decent size as events seem to be slowly recovering in the new year. This week we have:

• GT AoS du Wargame Club Des Pierres Dorées - France
• Ides of March Age of Sigmar GT 2026 - United States
• Midwest Bash 2026 GT - United States

GT AoS du Wargame Club Des Pierres Dorées

62-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Chazay-d'Azergues, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France on March 14 2026. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Quentin Rodrigue - Stormcast Eternals

vs.

Jean-Baptiste Aymes - Hedonites of Slaanesh

Thoughts

This is an interesting fight indeed. Slaanesh has a lot of tools to deal with the Stormcast, as the Stormcast tend to want to deep strike in and charge with their melee units, that's more or less what Slaanesh wants from an opponent, since they can cast a ton of spells and abilities to debuff enemy units, and then the Twinsouls become better when they are charged.

The big challenge is the Vanguard-Raptors, which will uniquely have ways to pepper Glutos with arrows, given they're hitting Rend 3 on Heroes and he is a big target. They're going to want to answer with their own Archers as soon as possible to protect him but if they can do that it it's a lot easier.

Result

Hedonites of Slaanesh Victory - 65 - 54

Jean-Baptiste Aymes - Hedonites of Slaanesh - 1st Place

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

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Glutos and Mortals

Thoughts

Even with the stealth nerf to Warmachines no longer being obscured that was aimed more or less specifically at Glutos, he still is an incredible command center for the army, handing out a ton of buffs and protecting his army by halving the movement and charges on enemy units.

The Blissbarb Archers serve a role to help weaken enemy units from a distance before the rest of the army closes in. Since it's quite easy to give them Crit 2 Hits with the Euphoric mechanic, and Run and shoot means it's very difficult to hide from them and they do a lot more damage than you'd think.

Once the enemy unit is properly debuffed, send in the melee units. The Lord of Hubris is a menace; if an opponent doesn't want to suffer from Strike Last, they have to put all their attacks into him instead and that's a lot harder to deal with than you think. The Twinsouls inflict a -1 to Attacks and they themselves get a 5+ Ward if charged, after which they'll clap back with some pretty gnarly attacks (again, with Crit 2 Hits, or even mortals if you're feeling spicey). Sigvald similarly gets to charge in and duel particularly difficult units.

The final unit is the Fiendbloods, which can deep strike in in any movement phase, which means the moment an opponent gives you an opening you can drop them in behind the enemy and counter charge on their turn.

The Best of the Rest

There were 7 more players on 4-1 (or better) records. They were:

• 2nd - Antoine Hourdin - Disciples of Tzeentch (4-0-1): Kairos with Tzaangors.
• 3rd - Michaël Rizzo - Nighthaunt: Lady Olynder with Pyregheists and Mymourn Banshees
• 4th - Kevin BOUR - Skaventide: Hell Pit Abominations and Stormfiends.
• 5th - Thomas Azan-Laugel - Lumineth Realm-Lords: Ellania and Ellathor with Vanari.
• 6th - Lucas Studer - Ironjawz: Kragnos with Brute Ragerz and Big Pig.
• 7th - yon pierre - Lumineth Realm-Lords:
• 8th - Quentin Rodrigue - Stormcast Eternals: See Showdown.
• 9th - Laurent Iniesta - Lumineth Realm-Lords: Severith with Windchargers and Enlightener with Wardens.
• 10th - florent aringhieri - Flesh-eater Courts: Ushoran and Infantry
• 11th - Alexandre Tonietto - Disciples of Tzeentch: Kairos and Lord of Change with a menagerie of daemons.

Ides of March Age of Sigmar GT 2026

50-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Rockport, ME, United States on March 14 2026. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission - Linked Leylines

Brian Chick - Daughters of Khaine

vs.

Oscar Savastio - Flesh-eater Courts

Thoughts

This is pretty much a slam dunk for Flesh-Eater Courts. Daughters of Khaine really need to be on the charge, as they lack the defensive abilities to stand their ground. Meanwhile, Flesh-eater courts love when you charge them. Cryptguard get Anti-Charge and can eschew their wards for First Strike, and if they get in that first swing, they probably don't need to worry about being hit back. Once the dust settles, the actual hammers of Ushoran and the Terrorgheists can swarm in and tear the army to pieces. About the only thing they have to worry about is keeping the Shadow Queen busy, and there's enough bodies to do that quite handedly.

Result

Flesh-eater Courts Victory - 65 - 35

Oscar Savastio - Flesh-eater Courts - 1st Place

Ushoran, Mortarch of Delusion. Credit: chimp

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Ushoran and his Court

Thoughts

While Terrorgheist lists have really risen in popularity, Ushoran and his court hasn't entirely gone away. Ushoran is a beast, able to hand out buffs to all the keywords in the army, help control for delusions, hits like a truck and hands out Strike Last.

Most of the list isn't too technical.  Cryptguard and Beastflayers function as your screens and objective holders, while the Terrorgheists are, naturally, the Hammer that can tear up just about anything they want to.

Corey Begley - Soulblight Gravelords - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Sekhar, Fang of Nulahmia. Credit: Wings

The List

Archetype

Vampires with Deathrattle

Thoughts

It's unusual to see a vampire list that eschews Prince Vhordrai, but it allows some room to include a lot more interesting utility pieces. The Vampire Lord with Blood Knights is obvious, reroll charges for himself and another unit of blood knights, hand them a -1 Rend for good measure and cleave through a lot of medium toughness units.

The Blades of the Hollow King are a very versatile unit, they're a wizard that can cast 2 spells or reroll part of the casting roll. They can get 5+ ward for defense or Crit Mortals on Cado's sword for offense, and they have a warscroll spell that either does some mortal wounds or makes Deathrattle -1 to be wounded. That plays very nicely into the Barrow Guard in the unit, which cleave through the enemy quite well with their Crit Mortals.

Sekhar is a utility piece I think deserves more play. She can disrupt spellcasters and deny command abilities, which makes her an excellent control piece.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 3rd - Benjamin Mohlie - Ogor Mawtribes: A mix of infantry and Mournfangs.
• 4th - Dylan Therriault - Stormcast Eternals: Bastion Carthalos with Questors.
• 5th - Wyatt Traina - Slaves to Darkness: Abraxia leads a mix of various infantry and knights.
• 6th - Madigan Mason - Nighthaunt: Lady Olynder with a mix of various infantry.
• 7th - Brian Chick - Daughters of Khaine: See Showdown.
• 8th - Joe Palmer - Ironjawz: Big pigs

Midwest Bash 2026 GT

34-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in St. Louis, MO, US on March 14 2026. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Dylan Gill - Flesh-eater Courts

vs.

Dillon Corcoran - Soulblight Gravelords

Thoughts

This is an interesting battle because while the Terrorgheist list is a real terror that can handle almost any comers, the legions of Askurgan Trueblades in this list are basically highly tuned to deal with these. They get -1 to be hit by them while getting +1 to hit against them, and while not Monster only, can inflict Strike Last on them fairly reliably.

The problem is they often rely on several units to kill so Prince Vhordrai's power can snowball them and make them stronger and a Monster heavy list doesn't give them a lot of easy targets to amp up their power so they're going to have to play somewhat conservatively.

Result

Flesh-eater Courts Victory - 68 - 57

Dylan Gill - Flesh-eater Courts - 1st Place

Terrorgheist Credit: Serotonin

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Terrorgheists

Thoughts

The Terrorgheist list is simple but effective. The two Ghoul Kings offer buffs to the entire army, with the Ghoul King on Terrorgheist giving +1 attack to all within 12" of him with his Delusion, and the Zombie Dragon King giving +2 to charge. After that it just boils down to sending in the Terrorgheist in and tearing the enemy to shreds. They are particularly effective against Infantry but can pretty much put down anything they want to thanks to their Mortal Wound and -1 to hit Rampage, and then their Crit Mortal claw swipes.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Michael Morley - Disciples of Tzeentch: Kairos with a mix of tzaangors, flamers kairic acolytes.
• 3rd - Dillon Corcoran - Soulblight Gravelords: See Showdown.
• 4th - Jacob Schopper - Ogor Mawtribes: Monster trucks with Braggit's Bottle Snatchas.
• 5th - Alex Cotter - Lumineth Realm-Lords: Teclis with Vanari units.
• 6th - Dylan Catlett - Stormcast Eternals: Bastian Carthalos with Questors and Vanguard-Raptors.
• 7th - Tristan Dale - Sylvaneth: Kurnoth and other infantry.

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