A relatively quiet one this week, presumably because everyone was too busy hunting for eggs and feasting on chocolate, or whatever you get up to over Easter in the country of your preference. I assume it's nice.

Four events this week, as follows:

• Wet Coast GT 2024
• Gothcon 40k Open
• Battle Ready Wargaming's March Mayhem 40k GT
• Kelpie Crusade GT 2024

This week's showdown, as voted for by our Patrons, will be:

• Grey Knights vs Genestealer Cults at Battle Ready Wargaming.

Wet Coast GT 2024 - 40k Champs

164-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Richmond, BC, Canada on March 29 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Brendan McKenzie - Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs) - 1st Place

Morvenn Vahl. Credit: Corrode

The List

Archetype

Board Control Sisters

Thoughts

Lots of Sororitas favourites on top in our biggest event of the week, skewing a bit more heavily towards flooding the table with bodies than the norm. You've got the full thirty Arco-flagellants as the initial speed bump, utility Battle Sisters units in Immolators for a second wave, Vahl's ladies as a big hammer, and just an absolute avalance of scoring chaff. This army maxes its secondaries with extreme reliability, and has so many squads to play with that it's usually going to rack up enough Primary points to seal the deal. The possible exception to that is if it runs into something that just aims to body it clean off the table - I can imagine suffering into the Chaos Knights matchup due to the relatively low number of killing tools it has to play with. That particular matchup didn't come up, but Brenden did take out a similarly brutal Tau Triptide build in the final, so it's clear that effective resource management can overcome even that kind of game. Congratulations on the win!

Trevor Loewen - Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Grey Knights Nemesis Dreadknights. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Archetype

Dreadknights, Terminators and Interceptors

Thoughts

Speaking of hammer blows, this build unleashes them both literally and figuratively, leaning on the uncomplicated but undeniably effective plan of bodying opponents with Nemesis Dreadknights and a big squad of Terminators, the latter taking full advantage of Draigo's post-Dataslate ability to use his buff out of Teleport Assault. You really do not want to go first against this army, as when you do some truly horrible things are going to happen to you at significant speed, and the worst thing is that the combination of the Sigil of Exigence and access to Mists of Deimos means that the Grey Knights can go for a fairly vicious initial thrust, but then dance back into the Warp before they suffer the worst of the foe's reprisals. Interceptors and Strikes do a great job of scoring Secondaries while that's going on, and this build looks like a total nightmare for most foes to handle. No Daemon is safe, great stuff from Trevor.

Mike Garcia - Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host) - 3rd Place (Undefeated)

Allarus Custodians. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Archetype

Caladius & Infantry

Thoughts

Mostly the current four block setup here, with the twist that the final unit is unaccompanied Allarus to free up points for bigger Warden units and a pair of Caladius Tanks, ensuring that the army has a good amount of ranged threat to fall back on if the opponent has good Custodian-killing shooting. All good clean Custodes fun, but also not something that needs particular explanation at this point! Congratulations to Mike on rounding out the undefeateds here.

Linton Rowan - Space Wolves (Stormlance Task Force) - 4th Place

Credit: "Contemptor" Kevin Stillman

The List

Archetype

Max ThunderCav and Wulfen

Thoughts

Literal and figurative hammerblows intensify here. You should all mostly know how this one works too (bury the opponent in an avalance of fangs, claws and hammers), but there are a couple of interesting tech choices in Linton's build. First up - foot Logan, rather than riding his Santa sleigh. I'm assuming this is intended to minimise the risk of losing him to Shooting prior to being able to use his High King of Fenris ability, which this army does somewhat rely on to ensure that it's go turn gets the job done, and having him sit in Terminator armour behind a wall is going to do that. So inspirational and brave. It also means you can get both a Wolf Lord and Battle Leader into each pack, maximising their mobility and thus the speed at which they can slam the foe.

The other tech pick is going up to two Phobos Librarian/Infiltrator units, showing an absolute determination to not allow the backfield to get messed with while the wolves are out to play. Hypercrypt Legion players screaming, crying, throwing up.

All this seems to have worked very well for Linton, who only dropped a game to Mike's Custodes (which yeah, are an army that can sometimes just bounce this and murder it, so fair cop). Great work!

The Best of the Rest

There were 14 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

Gothcon 40k Open

63-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Västra Götalands län, SE on March 29 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Andreas Holm - Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault) - 1st Place

The completed Drazhar. Credit: Dan "Swiftblade" Richardson

The List

Archetype

Skysplinter with Talos

Thoughts

The devious Drukhari dominate here, with Andreas deploying what is mostly the "standard" list for Skysplinter (2 Raiders/4 Venoms with a whole host of nasties inside) and one interesting tech piece in the Talos unit. This gives the army one slightly heftier squad that it can ram into a key position, from which it then creates a nasty Overwatch threat. Talos with Gauntlets also aren't half bad into Custodes - giving the army something it can put into a partially unit in melee without risking it getting instantly murdered. I think it's a smart and relatively cheap way to add an extra dimension to the army, so it's great to see it rewarded with a big major win, congratulations Andreas!

Olof Svensson - Black Templars (Ironstorm Spearhead) - 2nd Place (5.5-0.5)

Black Templars Techmarine. Credit: SRM

The List

Archetype

Templar Dakka

Thoughts

Melta for tanks, Destructors for Custodes and Reapers for everything else - between them they get the job done into almost anything, and if they don't you can still fall back on lots of durable hulls and cost-efficient Battleline to see you through. The Thousand Sons were able to hold this to a draw, but everything else melted to the sheer volume of nasty shooting on show here. Well done to Olof on second.

Jonathan Arkin - Blood Angels (Sons of Sanguinius) - 3rd Place

Blood Angels Jump Pack Captain. Credit: Corrode

The List

Archetype

Ultra aggro Blood Angels

Thoughts

Jump pack goes brrr. I suspect you do not need much help from me to figure this one out, since 40 flying melee Infantry is a fairly clear statement of intent, but it is worth highlighting that the supporting vehicle choice is smart - they're the ones that need the minimum supporting pieces or Stratagems to get their jobs done (and are great out of Strategic Reserves), which is good because this army's rules are all invested in slamming foes in melee. Loving the continued success of the Sons of Sanguinius right now, great stuff from Jonathan.

Kjetil Andre Liknes - Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment) - 4th Place

Lord Solar. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Bullgryn, Kasrkin and Artillery

Thoughts

A showing for the one true Guard build here, on the standard plan of Bullgryn tying up the foe, Kasrkin threatening lethal counterattacks into the opponent's first wave, and artillery unleashing a terrifying bombardment while the enemy scratches their head trying to figure out how to push through. Access to the Reinforcements! stratagem also makes decisions about how hard to push really knife-edge for the foe - too fast and the counterattack could well be fatal, too slow and you'll lose units to the same Kasrkin squad three turns running. Guard have definitely proven to have the juice in the current metagame, and this is a prime example of why, good work from Kjetil.

The Best of the Rest

That neatly covers all the 5-1s, but since the two 4.5-1.5s managed to take each other out with a draw in the final round, I decided to cover them too!

• 5th - Dag Samuelsson - Adepta Sororitas: The Triumph and Castigators variant of Sororitas, with lots of Arco-Flagellants to tarpit and one unit of Repentia for a counter-charge into the first foe that gets unwisely close.
• 6th - Axel Rydén - Drukhari (Skysplinter Assault): Mostly the normal stuff, but using a third Raider and a Court of the Archon to provide a bit of setup variety.

Battle Ready Wargaming's March Mayhem 40k GT

34-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Valdosta, GA, United States on March 30 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Vital Ground - Chilling Rain - Crucible of Battle

Robin Roberts - Genestealer Cult (Ascension Day)

vs.

Collin Watts - Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force)

Thoughts

This is actually kind of fascinating, these armies skew in wildly different directions, and the mission has a very unusual impact on it. The Grey Knights probably do, ultimately, have the numbers here to take the Genestealers off the table, which is usually fatal on Vital Ground, but here I'm not so sure. The Grey Knights have a relatively small number of units, and while they'll probably be able to retain some through to the late game and sweep the board, they will pretty much non-negotiably lose some early on as the Genestealers make big plays, and while the Cult might struggle to score late-game Primary, they can very much deny early Primary for the Knights as well, as they only need to clear targets off two objectives. The Knight ground coverage is also fairly low, so clever use of Lying in Wait could even threaten the home objective. Both sides here need to be planning for a potentially low-scoring Secondary game, so how do they adapt?

The advantage for the Knights is that they can probably do so easier - Assassinate/Deploy feels incredibly doable here, especially as a Brotherhood Librarian can warp in, waste a cult Lone op and Deploy all in a single turn, truly a points bonanza. The Cult's options in turn feel like they could end up as more of a trap - they definitely could go for an Assassinate/Bring it Down double-tap, but if they do the Knights might be able to just play very cautiously and grind out a win, as Deploy is going to be harder to stop. I think they have to roll the dice on Tactical, and hope that they can score high initially as they're working on denying Prmary, and re-spawn enough units over the game to tie up lose ends later on (though they could also comfortably take a swing at Homers to be fair).

I honestly thing either side could take this if the Knights go first, while if they go second they probably have enough banked advantage from a high-scoring final turn that they'll be able to shape the game to their needs. Looks like this was on an absolute razor edge on the table, with the Knights taking it by only a wafer thin margin.

Result

Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) Victory - 73 - 71

Collin Watts - Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) - 1st Place

Brotherhood Librarian. Credit: Corrode

The List

Archetype

Thoughts

FIGURATIVE AND LITERAL HAMMER BLOWS CONTINUE TO INTENSIFY. Seriously, what is up with people this week? Adding Canis Rex to six Dreadknights is about as overwhelming as you can get on clank pressure, and with Brotherhood Librarians to pick off the Lone Ops that might normally provide a scoring crutch, who's going to stop them? To be fair, the Silent King and some buddies in the hands of Gavin in second did hold Collin to a draw in round 4, but no one could actually crack the truesilver armour on show here, allowing the Grey Knights to continue a bumper week of success.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd (4.5-0.5) - Gavin Conn - Necrons (Awakened Dynasty): Silent King, lots of Lokhust Heavies, lots of Wraiths and the Nightbringer, which yeah that's about what you want for taking on that Grey Knights build - Wraiths can actually soak their shooting, and the offensive tools here will put some real dents in them.
• 3rd - Robin Roberts - Genestealer Cult (Ascension Day): See showdown.
• 4th - David Purcell - Astra Militarum (Combined Regiment): Russtastic Guard, going for triple Tank Commander and two Demolishers.
• 5th - Collin Cochran - Chaos Knights: Dogs and Nurglings.
• 6th - Jason Watts - Tyranids (Invasion Fleet): Monster mash centred around a Norn Emissary.

Kelpie Crusade GT 2024

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Scotland, GB on March 30 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Ryan Kerr - Grey Knights (Teleport Strike Force) - 1st Place

Grey Knight Paladins. Credit: Colin Ward

The List

Archetype

Dreadknights and Paladins

Thoughts

It really is Grey Knights' week huh? Our final silver-clad contender mixes things up a bit, cutting down to only regular Dreadknights in favour of packing a full Paladin brick with a Grand Master. This is very helpful if you run into C'tan, as it can shoot them to bits thanks to ignore modifiers, and between the Sigil and stratagems it can be very hard for Necrons to engage with. If you're determined that only one silver tide be allowed, then this is definitely the right way to go about it - and there was some definite payoff here, because Ryan beat triple C'tan Hypercrypt in the last round to take the trophy, so good choice!

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Bruce Duffy - Death Guard (Plague Company): Lots of Rhino Plague Marines backed by Daemon Engines, including an imported Soul Grinder.
• 3rd - Ryan Jervis - Necrons (Hypercrypt Legion): Triple C'tan and Wraiths.
• 4th - Larry Martin - Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host): Infantry horde.
• 5th - Christopher Irvine - Necrons (Canoptek Court): Triple Doomstalker and Wraiths, plus a couple of C'tan.
• 6th - Ryan Gaylard - Astra Militarum: Bullgryn, Kasrkin and artillery, doubling up on Tank Commanders for a bit of extra oomph.

Wrap Up

I assume any respite from an avalanche of events will be short - it usually is these days. Check back in next week to find out whether Grey Knights can continue their reign of terror, of if we'll have a new hero/villain to cheer/boo.