Look. It's been a long old road, and we're nearly at the end of it. We're in the home stretch. Pithy metaphors abound.

We don't know exactly how many weekends of 9th we've got left, but we're definitely in the endgame, and the standout books of the Arks season are vying for dominance. Are Iron Hands going to close out by defining another edition before that accursed tome is finally staked through the heart and buried at a crossroads at midnight? Are Daemons going to keep making up for lost time by sweeping all before them? Will some dream build from one of the other codexes that can still challenge all comers emerge? Let's see how things are looking.

Today we'll be looking at:

• Elbcoast Major/Baltic Cup XI (major)
• Richmond Open 40K Major (major)
• Grimdark 13: The Grand Tournament 3
• There Is Only War Part 2 40k GT
• Dice Goblin’s First Warhammer 40K 2000pt GT
• Capital Clash Spring '23 Grand Tournament

On Friday we'll be covering:

• The Alamo GT ‘23 (major)
• Death or Glory Invitational
• Slagmark Fyn 2023
• Ragnarok Spring 2023 : 40k ITC
• Bembel Clash #7

Is that an absurd amount of Warhammer? Yes. Are we going to write about it anyway? Also yes.

This week's Showdowns will be:

• Orks vs. Daemons at Capital Clash
• Votann vs. Adeptus Mechanicus at the Alamo GT
• Space Wolves vs. World Eaters at the Death or Glory Invitational

That would be a 2-1 majority for "brutal melee violence" from the voting public. Democracy has spoken.

Elbcoast Major // Baltic Cup XI

159-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Hamburg, HH DE on May 06 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

This event was using 20-0 scoring, and all of the top four were undefeated.

Fred Otto - Chaos Knights - 1st Place

War Dog - Karnivore. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

War Dog Spam

Final Round Matchup

16 - 4 Victory against Arne Zerndt - Chaos Daemons.

Thoughts

Chaos Knights are first up on the "books that can still hack it" front, in this case pretty literally. Should I have saved this comparison for World Eaters? Probably. Anyway, Chaos Knights have an incredible ability to pressure the board with extra-durable Herpetrax Iconoclast melee, and a great suite of upgrades and Dreadblade choices to tinker with, allowing you to either adapt to the metagame or throw some curveballs. Here, Fred's special sauce is an ultra tough brawling Karnivore, rolling around on a perma T8 and no re-rolls, and regaining the odd wound against any infantry-heavy army to make the rampage even harder to stop. It's a neat bit of tech that some armies will really struggle to put down, and with the option to layer Unyielding Rage on top against melee threats, is going to be great in most matchups. Great to see new tools still getting the runaround so late in the game, and a well deserved win for Fred as a result.

Immanuel Wolf - T'au Sept - 2nd Place

Tau Broadside Battlesuit with Railgun. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Archetype

Tau Sept Coresides

Thoughts

There has really not been any point since the Tau Codex launched that they haven't been able to inflict a terminal case of "gun" on the opposition, and this build continues that fine tradition. Anything relying on non-Daemonic big threats is going to be weeping at the number of railguns, while medium stuff is going to melt to massed missile fire and rail rifles from the Broadsides. This list is also designed to be pretty resilient to chip damage - all the targets it cares about have a hull or the prodigious durability of a Broadside, and even some of the chaff Kroot Hound units have been bulked out so that an opponent actually has to fire quite a few Desolation Marines at them to get a kill rather than just evaporating every puppy on turn one. Marines are mean like that. That leaves this list extremely well placed to get the better of early exchanges, and as the power ramps up with Kauyon in the endgame it can finish the job pretty reliably. Well done to Immanuel.

René Rosenberg - Asuryani - 3rd Place

Avatar of Khaine. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Archetype

Ulthwe War Walker Spam

Thoughts

A curveball here, combining some known great tools (the Avatar, Psykers, Shroud Runners) with a big wall of War Walkers, each unit tooled to be effective into most targets. The resulting army is far more durable than the average Aeldari prospect, has great passive secondary game from Behind Enemy Lines, Warp Ritual and Scout, and is particularly great at facing down opposing deep strike lists, as with three units of War Walkers that present a scary Forewarned to nearly any target, a lot of lines can be covered. The Avatar works great alongside that too, as he's an exceptionally scary counter-charge threat if the opponent overcommits to try and take the Walkers out. A nice, unique spin on an Aeldari classic, something I have all the time in the world for, well done René.

Manuel Wayand - World Eaters - 4th Place

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

Archetype

Invocatus Eightbound

Thoughts

See I told you I shouldn't have blown the "hack it" joke. Uhhh...hmm...OK got it.

This list showcases why the World Eaters codex, despite the relatively narrow set of options, has got the chops to compete at the top of the game. Its plan isn't complicated, but it hurls large numbers of extremely angry red men at the opponent at breakneck speed, and every turn it takes you to clear them out is one where skulls are being piled up for Khorne and scoring of the game is getting away from you. That kind of plan is especially good in straight 20-0 scoring, as it means even if you lose it's generally not by much, putting you high up the table, but Manuel is a true hero of Khorne and didn't even need that boost to make it to the top four, finishing as the final undefeated player from the event.

Get it? The chops?

The Best of the Rest

There was one more person on 4.5-0.5, then a lot on 4-1. That means you're getting some very abbreviated writeups here.

• 5th - Grischa Gerwert - Space Wolves Successors: Infantry upgrades spam with one big Desolation squad.
• 6th - Simon Schnetzelmeister - Genestealer Cult: Pauper Princes Acolyte/Neophyte spam.
• 7th - Michael Gemmeke - Tyranids: Lurk ObSec Maleceptor spam, with other big bugs backing them up. Deliciously different and pretty terrifying.
• 8th - Dominik de Cassan - Space Wolves Successors: MSU upgrade spam with a Desolation brick.
• 9th - Thomas Brutscher - Orks: Goff pressure with Kill Rigs.
• 10th - David Szymanski - Genestealer Cult: Pauper Princes Neophyte/Bike spam.
• 11th - Malte Höfs - Slaanesh Daemons: Absolutely masses of Daemonettes and Fiends.
• 12th - Frank Grollmuß - Asuryani:  Hail with lots of Dire Avengers and catapult Windriders.
• 13th - Leif Westermann - Asuryani:  Hail with lots of Dire Avengers and the more traditional big shuriken cannon Windrider brick.
• 14th - Arne Zerndt - Tzeentch Daemons: Some of all the spicy Tzeentch toys with Big Bird watching over proceedings.
• 15th - Jan Heidrich - Necrons: All-rounder Nihilakh with a bit of everything and a Monolith.
• 16th - Nader Chamma - Adeptus Mechanicus: Lucius Infantry spam with (and my eyes do not deceive me) some Archaeopter Transvectors to ferry them to battle.
• 17th - Michael Beret - World Eaters:  Invocatus Eightbound with some War Dogs.
• 18th - Alexander Gröschl - Genestealer Cult: Industrial Neophyte/Bike spam.
• 19th - Marvin Petersen - Necrons: Destroyer-heavy Nihilakh.
• 20th - Robin Schreiber - Slaanesh Daemons: Another gigantic pile of Daemonettes and Fiends.
• 21st - Pierre Debey - Adepta Sororitas: Argent Shroud with two big Sacresant squads and some Immolators.
• 22nd - Kevin Kiesel - World Eaters: Invocatus Eightbound with Dogs.
• 23rd - Sebastian Müller - Iron Hands: Actual Iron Hands with a bunch of small units and an Ironstoned RepEx. All that is old is new again.
• 24th - Carsten Steiner - Harlequins: Dark Saedath with masses of melee/Fusion Troupes in boats.
• 25th - Sebastian Dargel - Leagues of Votann: GTL 2Fort.
• 26th - Florian Sauter - Leagues of Votann: All-rounder Ymyr with one Fort and some Sagitaurs.
• 27th - Christian-Sören Meier - Necrons: A headache-inducing Nihilakh list with three Hexmark Destroyers.
• 28th - Pieter Meijer - Necrons: Skorpekh/Wraith-spamming Nihilakh.

Richmond Open 40K Major Hosted By Away Games

109-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Richmond, VA US on May 06 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

TJ Lanigan - Tzeentch Daemons - 1st Place

Be'lakor, the Dark Master. Credit: SRM

The List

Archetype

Tzeentch Board Control

Final Round Matchup

100 - 73 Victory against Matt Schuchman - Ulthwe.

Thoughts

TJ continues his personal campaign to put the fear of the Dark Gods into Tau and Votann players everywhere, racking up another top finish with Tzeentch Daemons. This time around, Be'lakor joins the fray to provide a bit more of a melee backbone against armies which are that way inclined, but otherwise the overall plan remains pretty consistent - soak up pretty much any amount of punishment at range, and use mobility to buy time to grind the opponent into dust. The results speak for themselves, well done TJ.

Andrew Gonyo - Astra Militarum - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Leman Russ Executioner. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Born Soldiers Goodstuff

Thoughts

Damn that's a lot of guns. I uh, I don't think I have much else to say on that one - this list should be pretty familiar to anyone who's been paying attention since the Guard book landed, using all the most poweful tools of murder it provides. I like the mix of heavy flamer and heavy bolter Russes to give some flexibility in where they engage, but otherwise there aren't many surprises here. Well done to Andrew on taking second.

Jeremy Knox - Astra Militarum - 3rd Place

Credit: BuffaloChicken

The List

Archetype

Born Soldiers Goodstuff

Thoughts

OK but what if even more guns though? Jeremy's spin on guard cuts back on on-table board control in favour of going for maximum gun, even cutting out Lord Solar and tools that run off his re-rolls like Kasrkin in favour of screaming "More. MORE" like Adam Driver in The Last Jedi. The list then uses tricksy tools like Sly Marbo and Scions to backfill its ability to control the table and rack up Secondaries, plus gets an extra bit of counter-charge backbone from Straken, and the result is pretty terrifying to behold, only stopped from going undefeated by a very high scoring draw vs Orks.

Shaun Reynolds - Iron Hands Successors - 4th Place

Rainbow Warriors Relic Contemptor with Volkite Culverins by Craig "MasterSlowPoke" Sniffen

The List

Archetype

All-rounder Iron Hands

Thoughts

Oh hey guns. Beginning to see why Tzeentch Daemons was a solid pick in this metagame. To be fair to Shaun, while brutal shooting abounds in this army, as Iron Hands lists go it's pretty tilted towards the board control/melee end of things, packing extra contingents of Scouts and Vanguard Veterans. That gives it a bit more flexibility to adapt to matchups where it can actually be outshot (again a good call for this metagame), and combines with multiple units of Infiltrators to keep the guns safe while they do their work against more melee-skewed builds. After years of study, metagame scientists are approaching the conclusion that Iron Hands are "pretty good", well done to Shaun for contributing valuable data to this cause.

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

• 5th - Mark Hertel - Iron Hands Successors: An extra punchy spin on Hands, going for three squads of Scouts in Storms and two Assault Terminators squads alongside the usual suspects.
• 6th - Matt Schuchman - Craftworlds: Avatar Ulthwe.
• 7th - Matthew Taggert - Chaos Daemons: A Slaanesh/Tzeentch teamup with Shalaxi and Big Bird, plus lots of Fiends and Flamers.
• 8th - Walker Julliard - Tzeentch Daemons: All the Tzeentch goodness, including three Burning Chariots.
• 9th - Roland Hubert - Orks: A slightly out-there Goff Boyz spam build.
• 10th - Scott Horras - Astra Militarum: Born Soldiers triple Dorn. Scott loves a medium tank.

Grimdark 13: The Grand Tournament 3

50-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Stockholms län SE on May 06 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

This event was using 20-0 scoring.

Kalle Abrahamsson - Drukhari - 1st Place

Drukhari Grotesques. Credit: Corrode

The List

Archetype

Drukhari Goodstuff

Final Round Matchup

11 - 9 Victory against Johannes Wadin - Chaos Knights.

Thoughts

An impressive event win from Kalle here, because while Drukhari do have some powerful tools up their spiky sleeves, in general they struggle to hang with the top dogs. This build pushes back against that narrative in style, using a classic combination of durable tarpit units (the Cronos and Grotesques) to hold the board and Transport-riding troops and counter-charge threats to flay the enemy alive. Being surprisingly durable against early indirect chip damage is definitely an asset right now, but the gauntlet that Kalle overcame to win here was a pretty daunting one, so huge congratulations.

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Joel Larsson - Adeptus Custodes: Emperor's Chosen going wide with lots of MSUs.
• 3rd - Bilbo Göransson - Genestealer Cult: An awesome aggro Twisted Helix list with three big Aberrant units and lots of Purestrains, ready to punch Daemons for days.
• 4th - Johannes Wadin - Chaos Knights: Herpetrax/Dreadblade Dogs 'n Desecrator.
• 5th - Martin Hultgren - Chaos Daemons: Skarbrand and the super Thirster plus the three Fs.
• 6th - Mikael Carlsson - Orks: Goff pressure with lots of Meganobz in Battlewagons, plus a big Trukk Boyz Nob unit.
• 7th - Johan Norrman - Astra Militarum: Armoured Superiority Sentinel Spam.
• 8th - Daniel Tercha - World Eaters: Invocatus Eightbound/Berserker spam.

There Is Only War Part 2 40k GT

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Tempe, AZ US on May 06 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Anthony Campanella - Tyranids - 1st Place

Maleceptor. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Maleceptor Monster Mash

Final Round Matchup

82 - 66 Victory against Michael Azer - Ulthwe.

Thoughts

Further proof that what is dead may never die, ObSec Maleceptors is suddenly the hot Tyranid tech. What does it say about the starting power level of the Tyranid Codex that the unit currently anchoring lists is the one that got a brutal snap nerf early on? Best not to think too hard about that. Or think very hard about it if you're a Maleceptor, it's pretty much their brand.

Anyway, in the wake of the later, more comprehensive set of Tyranid nerfs, the big chunky ground monsters are generally the most efficient tools left, able to put a wall of chitin in the way of opponents that's pretty hard to shift, and the return of proper Adaptive lets you have ObSec on them most of the time and flex to Synaptic Ganglia if you need to ruin some poor elf's day. In a metagame where Chaos Daemons are one of the top builds Maleceptors definitely make sense as an addition to this recipe, as their damage output scythes straight through Daemonic saves in a manner that can be pretty rough to deal with, and they're tough enough to potentially roll with a charge from some of the big melee toys to boot. Combined with the very nasty guns this army packs, and the counter-punch potential of the Carnifexes and Tyrants, and you have a build that can do a pretty convincing Chaos Knights impression with high-output ObSec while also packing some unique options of its own to grind opponents out.

Wyatt Harris - Votann - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Brôkhyr Iron-master. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

GTL Goodstuff

Thoughts

We now return to our scheduled programming of "guns". In this case, they're attached to lots of bikes with a big pre-game move, giving this army one of the nastiest alpha strikes out there. If that leaves the opponent without enough stuff to deal with the ultra-protected Land Fortress that's rolling to battle behind them? That's going to be what we refer to as a problem for them. Thunderkyn out of Strategic Reserves and teleporting Hearthguard finish up the recipe here, providing just that little hint of backup mobility if the early plan goes wrong, ensuring that it's ready to hang with the best. Good honest toil from Wyatt.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 3rd - Timothy Borowiec - Votann: Ymyr with no Forts in sight, loads of Bikes and Thunderkyn instead.
• 4th - Terek Haehl - World Eaters: Invocatus Eightbound spam with a Dreadclaw Drop Pod for extra pressure.
• 5th - Robert Lawler  - Tyranids: Kronos Lurk ObSec Monster Mash.
• 6th - Chase Fairrington - Votann: GTL 2Fort.

Dice Goblin’s First Warhammer 40K 2000pt GT

36-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Cumming, GA US on May 06 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Stephen Mitchell - Aeldari - 1st Place

Maugan Ra. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Counterpunch Aeldari

Final Round Matchup

99 - 53 Victory against Walter Langendorf - Necrons.

Thoughts

Another angle on the Aeldari Codex being shown off here, with Stephen capitalising on the book's near-unparelleled ability to launch counterattacks. Using Children of the Open Skies amplifies the reach of melee threats like the Shining Spears and Banshees, while Vengeful ensures that when they hit, they hit. I also like the single Wraithlord as insurance against something like a rampaging Knight, because if you pump a few auto-sixes into the Ghosglaive with exploding melee hits (or just sweep through a Marine squad) it'll trade up with surprising ease. Even if the opponent is wary enough to stay away, chip damage from Ra, Baharroth and the Death Jester will ruin their day while the list ticks up Secondaries (the list plays Wraith/BEL/Ritual pretty perfectly), so like all the best Aeldari plans the fate of the enemy may well be sealed before they even make a move. Love that for them. Well done Stephen.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Seth Piper - Black Templars: All-rounder Templars with some Primaris Crusaders, tooled up melee Infantry and a couple of Redemptors, plus a Culexus Assassin.
• 3rd= - Walter Langendorf - Necrons: An unusual Necron build that takes aim at Primary denial from a different angle than usual - tonnes of fast models with Butchers and Relentlessly Expansionist to just multi-charge opponents across the board early on.
• 3rd= - Collin Watts - Chaos Daemons: Be'lakor/Greater Daemon Monster Mash, backed by the three Fs.
• 5th - Thomas Byrd - Ymyr Conglomerate: All-rounder Ymyr with one fort.
• 6th - Ryan Shaw - Genestealer Cult: Industrial Neophyte/Bike spam.
• 7th - Zachary Jeppesen - World Eaters: Invocatus Eightbound/Berserker spam.

Capital Clash Spring '23 Grand Tournament

34-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Gatineau, QC CA on May 06 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Conversion

Josh Crowe - Goffs: Mechanised Goff Pressure

vs.

Jean Masson - Chaos Daemons: A durable duo of big monsters and a bunch of Troops, Flamers and Fiends.

Thoughts

Ah yes, a little bit of the old ultraviolence. This game is going to be a cataclysmic bloodbath pretty much however you slice it, with both lists capable of appalling acts of violence up close via a mixture of melee and flames. On a close examination of the two builds, however, I do think a bit of a distinction in incentives for the matchup emerges. The Daemons feel like they have something of an edge in killing power overall and a bit of an edge in Secondaries (particularly as No Prisoners is slightly more in their favour here), but the Orks have a better angle on playing the Primary thanks to being able to ferry ObSec troops around in transports that the Daemons can only really reliably open up with the Bloodthirster, and being able to clear out all the Daemon ObSec pretty comfortably.

On Conversion, that can be a big advantage thanks to the bumper reward you can acrue by pushing onto the opponent's home objective. With all that in mind, I feel like the Orks have to go on the offence here - their goal is to deny Daemon Primary scoring in the early-mid game, max theirs as quickly as possible, and rack up high scores on Get Da Good Bitz and either Green Tide or BEL before they get wiped out. For the Daemons part, they want to hurl everything at getting both Battlewagons off the board by turn two, and doing their level best to try and defend 8pt Primary turns from the earliest point possible.

Both plans, honestly, sound plausible - if you pinned me down I think I'd call it for the Daemons, on my standard basis that I think they have a better ability to adapt to going first or second (where the Orks really want to go first), but there isn't much in it. Reality appears to agree with this - we got a draw!

Result

Draw! - 10 - 10 (Orks win the event on overall results, as they went into the final on 4 wins as opposed to 3.5 for the Daemons)

Josh Crowe - Goffs - 1st Place

Meganobz. Credit: Rockfish

The List

See Showdown.

Archetype

Goff Pressure

Thoughts

Orks is never beaten - even when they draw, they win on points. You can't argue with that. The only thing that needs highlighting here is that while in the Showdown I felt the build was slightly behind on Secondaries, against most lists it'll have a very strong linear plan, it's only because Stomp 'Em Good looked high risk in the top table game that the Daemons had the edge. Anyone else better have a plan to kill a lot of Orks very quickly, or they're going to find themselves overwhelmed. Excellent work from Warboss Josh.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Jean Masson - Chaos Daemons: See showdown.
• 3rd - François Lalonde - Iron Hands Successors: Triple Desolation Squad.
• 4th - Zach Comeau - Astra Militarum: Swift/Superiority with lots of Russes and Rough Riders.
• 5th - Ridvan Martinez - Drukhari: Hilarious Red Grief action with lots of Wyches riding in a full trio of Tantali.
• 6th - Jack Morris - World Eaters: Invocatus Eightbound Spam.

Wrap Up

As you can tell by the mild-moderate increase in flippancy, I'm in something of a reverie with the end of the edition closing in at last. Will that continue on Friday? You'll have to come back and find out.