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Competitive Innovations in 9th: Last Orders pt.2
As ever, you can see the current list of common archetypes here (though fair warning, it suddenly needs quite a few updates), and any list that entered the final round of the event undefeated gets a fancy ✪.
Fields Of Damnation 2021
All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
Riley Tremblay - Grey Knights - 1st Place
Grey Knights Nemesis Dreadknights. Credit: Colin WardThe List
Archetype
Dreadknights and Interceptors
Why it's Interesting in 9th
A strong showing here from what's definitely among the favourites to join the ranks of the top tier. Dreadknights are every bit as pushed as they looked on paper, and Interceptors move like VanVets and hit like Bladeguard at a considerable discount on either. Slam them together, and you've got an extremely potent list.
The particular highlights of this build (and thanks to JONK for reaching out to Riley) are the split of defensive tools across the two Grand Masters, an increasingly popular choice that means you've got an answer if the opponent tries to punk either out of the gate, and the inclusion of a single Rhino to increase movement reach and enable various Ethereal Castigation shenanigans. I like that choice - one of the ways a lot of armies are going to try and beat Grey Knights is to take all the infantry off the board as quickly as possible, and having the option of keepning some safe in a transport makes that far harder to pull off, letting you ration out resources more steadily. The psychic murder Librarian is also seeing more and more use, something I got to experience myself at Coventry as Drazhar got brutally smoked with no questions asked.
All told, this is a very strong iteration of the Grey Knights build, it's going into the new metagame untouched, and with that in mind we'll expect to see Riley back again in the near future - congratulations.
Darren Jac - Orks - 2nd ✪ Place
Shokkjump Dragsta. Credit: RockfishThe List
Archetype
Freebooterz
Why it's Interesting in 9th
Our second undefeated list from Fields of Damnation is unfortunately at the opposite end of the balance patch spectrum - this build was incredibly good pre-patch, and it's now incredibly dead. There are almost certainly still valid Freebooterz builds out there , as the trait, stratagem and relic all still kick ass, but they're going to require a huge overhaul to get on the table, maybe trying out things like Trukk-riding Tankbustas or Lootas to get some of that high-powered shooting goodness. Darren is a bit ahead of the game here because he's sporting Shokkjumps as well as the two best buggies, and it does feel possible that something that starts with two Wazboms and four different units of two buggies could be real, but we'll have to wait and see. Right now, great work from Darren as another player seeing off the old metagame in victorious style.
The Rest of the Best
Five more players finished on 4-1 records, and the 10th-place player was paired up in the final. These players were:
- 3rd - Corey Trumbley - Dark Angels: Pure Ravenwing puts in a good performance here, though does get caught in the balance crossfire thanks to the presence of three Dark Talons. Nothing another Talonmaster and some change can't probably fix though.
- 4th ✪ - Anthony Richardson - Drukhari: Drukhari goodstuff with a whole bunch of Hellions, who made it all the way to the top table before being brutally gunned down by Dreadknights.
- 5th - Jordon Doering - Thousand Sons: Pure Cult of Time with lots of Rubricae, the big Scarab blob and a pair of Vortex Beasts to hide the various characters behind.
- 6th - Nico Catalano - Salamanders: A spin on the ever-popular recipe of "Redemptors plus whatever your Chapter is good at", here comprising two big flamestorm Aggressor blobs (great with Born Protectors) and loads of Eradicators.
- 7th - Byron Livingstone - Chaos Daemons: Keepers, Be'lakor and the less common choice of Rotigus, joining the First Prince in what's got to be one of the most top-heavy patrols ever (600+ points of named Daemons and three Nurgling bases).
- 10th - Ian Robertson - Adepta Sororitas: Pure Bloody Rose with Vahl and Celestine overseeing a mix of melee murderers and melta Retributors.
YHP Fall Brawl
All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
Anthony Vanella - Drukhari - 1st Place
Credit: CorrodeThe List
Archetype
Cronos Drukhari
Why it's Interesting in 9th
Even amongst Drukhari players Anthony has had one of the standout runs with the book, taking down event after event with his spin on Cronos Drukhari. We've written about this list many, many times before and there's nothing left to say at this point other than to applaud Anthony for taking a final bow, and I'm guessing we'll see him back in a few weeks with some nightmarish Covens build.
Austin Wingfield - Necrons - 2nd Place
C'tan Shard of the Void Dragon. Credit: RockfishThe List
Standout Features
- Undefeated Necrons...that gain almost nothing from the patch.
- Running as Nihilakh gives the army-wide ObSec for Scarabs and the Ghost Ark while reducing the chance of the Warriors getting shot straight off the board by Grey Knights.
- Two C'tan provide great To The Last targets and some game against planes.
Why it's Interesting in 9th
It's now a doubly big week for Necrons, because not only did they get some big buffs in the Balance Slate, Austin managed to take them through an event undefeated before that like it ain't no thing.
One of the biggest strengths Necrons have is the ability to pick up army-wide ObSec, either by taking the Nihilakh dynasty or a custom Eternal Conquerors one (usually paired with Relentlessly Expansionist for a pre-game move). The latter choice is more common, but here the other half of Nihilakh (ignoring AP-1 in the controller's deployment zone) is valued above the mobility. My assumption is that this is tech against Grey Knights and VolCons, both of which can burst out of the gate with very high rate-of-fire shooting that's perfect for just erasing some Warriors. Since Eternal Expansionists also lose the benefit of Protocol of the Eternal Guardian if they use their move they're far more vulnerable to just having their Warrior blobs shot off the table if they go second, whereas this list can line up that Protocol, switch on the Reanimator with Reanimation Prioritisation and hopefully ride the storm through to activating the Resurrection Orb and the model respawns of the Ghost Ark.
From there, it's the standard ObSec Necron/C'tan plan of being sticky on objectives for long enough that you pull overwhelmingly ahead on primary, and of keeping the C'tan out of harm's way for long enough that the opponent runs out of time to deal with them and they represent 10 free TTL points. The Void Dragon should also be called out as having been extremely good in the meta as was, as they'll cheerfully trash any flavour of plane that comes too close, and can also do horrible stuff to a Dreadknight with Entropic Strike active. They're very probably still going to be great in the meta to come, as Dreadknights are going to be everywhere and they'll happily trash Redemptor Dreadnoughts too, and I'd honestly probably give them the nod over the Nightbringer as your first C'tan pick at the moment.
I love Necrons and I love C'tan, so I'm thrilled to see this build take an undefeated finish and (hopefully) act as an appetiser for more skeleton success stories. Great work from Austin.
The Rest of the Best
Five more players finished on 4-1 records. They were:
- 3rd - Stephen Henry - Adeptus Custodes: mixed Custodes here, running out an Emmissaries Imperatus patrol to hold the Venatari to ensure their alpha strike lands thanks to The Emperor's Hand. The rest is mostly pretty standard Shadowkeepers stuff except for the presence of Inquisitor Karamazov and honestly...yeah? Custodes don't have much native melta at efficient prices, he's easily screened, and gets full hit and wound re-rolls against Dreadknights, so why not?
- 4th - Johnj DeMaris - Dark Angels: It's apparently Ravenwing season this week, with this list going hard on every flavour of bike and just sneaking a few Eliminators into one detachment to hold backfield objectives.
- 5th - TJ Lanigan - Chaos: TJ's Thousand Sons/Death Guard mix continues to put up good results, and maybe we'll see a breakthrough now the board has been upended a bit.
- 6th ✪ - Zach Point - Drukhari: Covens/Cult of Strife mix with plenty of Talos, so pretty well positioned as far as Drukhari builds in the new environment go. Keep an eye on this one.
- 7th - Mike Taylor - White Scars: All the White Scars hits (VanVets, Bladeguard, a VolCon) and a few more esoteric choices such as the ultimate blender Chapter Champion (the closest Marines get to a Succubus of their very own) and some Suppressors to spam Hunter's Fusilade with.
Onslaught Grand Tournament 2
All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
Cannon Biggs - Grey Knights - 1st Place
Grey Knights Kill Team. Credit: PendulinThe List
Archetype
Dreadknights and Interceptors (and Purifiers too)
Why it's Interesting in 9th
Most of this is pretty standard Grey Knight stuff, but it's differentiated from the pack by the presence of three units of Purifiers. From their loadouts, it looks like the purpose here is to give the list some infantry that can deal a bit of damage without necessarily having to smash right into the opponent's face, helping if the opponent has access to lots of fight lasts or similar. They also help against Drukhari specifically because they're great at preventing Incubi from just taking whatever objective they feel like - Overwatching with the incinerators will take out a few, and activating Untained and Unbowed hopefully lets some of the squad tank the rest and eradicate the pesty elves on the strikeback. They're also good at holding a distant objective in the mirror because they're better than most units at soaking up heavy psycannon fire. Finally, just having the option of a brutal mid-game spike of Mortal Wounds is never bad, and it's something that Grey Knights have far less of by default than Thousand Sons.
We'll have to see how the meta plays out to see if that becomes a common choice, but it's cool to see a unit outside of the default Grey Knight datasheets getting some play, so good stuff from Cannon.
The Rest of the Best
Five more players finished up on 4-1. They were:
- 2nd ✪ - Ricky Brunner - Orks: Not Freebooterz here, and absolutely the kind of Ork build we both want to and should see more of in the next few months. Ricky's army is an Evil Sunz pressure build, with mechanised Beast Snagga Boyz (one unit riding in a Redder Paint Kill Rig), loads of Squighogs and loads of Warbikers. Looks Orky and looks potent.
- 3rd - Robert Hawkins - Tyranids: Another army to watch here, with Hive Fleet Leviathan very quickly establishing themselves as the best way to play bugs. The list features a big Hive Guard unit using Swarm Leader and Focal Essence for massive damage, multiple shooty Tyranid Warrior units that can self-buff with Bioweapon Bond and the iconic duo of the Swarmlord and Genestealers heading up the front. Looks brutal, and we'll see more from Leviathan shortly.
- 4th - Brian Malpass - Chaos: Another spicy new way to use Thousand Sons on show here - a massive pile of their characters sitting behind a solid wall of Beasts of Nurgle. Real early 9th Edition hours here.
- 5th - Quinton Johnson - Drukhari: Another reliable Drukhari performer gets a great finish in, but this is another build that stays pretty point neutral thanks to the huge number of Talos in it, so keep an eye on it. Also features the cute tech of using a Beastmaster to carry the Animus Vitae around.
- 6th - Daniel Smith - Orks: Pour another one out for Freebooterz, though this list at least has a cool Snakebite Outrider that rams people with lots of Smasha Squigs, so it's much easier to turn into something legal than most of the builds we've seen.
Ogre's Den Grand Tournament
All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. This event was run using pure victory points as the placings metric, so consistently scoring big was the way to win.
Cory Burns - Adeptus Mechanicus - 1st Place
Sicarian Infiltrators and Ruststalkers. Credit: PendulinThe List
Archetype
Mars Veteran Cohort
Why it's Interesting in 9th
Mars Veteran Cohort taking down a pure Battle Points event is, in the nicest possible way, the least surprising thing ever, as the list can dish out absolute stompings while still scoring decently if it loses. That's just what happened here, as Cory took down the event on a 4-1 record thanks to an 84pt loss and some massive victories. In terms of what it does...I mean it's just AdMech things, though I guess watch out for Serberys Sulfurhounds getting more airtime, as now they're on price parity with Raiders they're far, far more attractive. Their presence means that this list walks away from the update slightly less bruised than some of the other AdMech builds, but it still needs to find plenty of savings. We'll see what Cory comes up with on that front in future weeks, and in the mean time congratulations on scoring the big, big points.
The Rest of the Best
As ever with non standard scoring, working out where to cut this is a complete crap shoot, but I'm going with five more players as that's about the number other events have had.
- 2nd - Thomas Walker - Adeptus Custodes: Also showcasing the value of a high score floor in this format, Thomas's triple Telemon Shadowkeepers take second. Slap To The Last on them, fight for the mid board for a few turns and yeah, it's not like you're ever dipping that far on points.
- 3rd - Dave Jollimore - Drukhari: Drukhari goodstuff. The only undefeated player in the event, kept away from a higher placing from a brutal round five mutual kill with the fourth placed player who was...
- 4th - Ozzie Meloche - Orks: Now, at the top of this list it says "this isn't Scrapjet spam", yet I see eight Scrapjets on the page in front of me. I think I might be being bamboozled by some sort of Orky ruse. They're running as Freebooterz, but despite the many Scrapjets this list actually does have an easier path to legality than most, because it's not currently on planes and doesn't have any Squigbuggies yet.
- 5th - David Coren - Grey Knights: Some mild interest over the norm here, as the Dreadknights and Interceptors are joined by Terminators with an Apothecary to babysit them. Not bad for pushing for a ight primary score in the format, and the two Terminator units take a couple of To The Last slots if they want to just hide.
- 6th - Jeremy Poon - Imperial Knights: Standard Krast stuff, three Magaeras, four Warglaives, done.
Ocotillo Onslaught 40K Event
All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
Tyler Heppler - Hive Mind - 1st Place
Tyranid Hive Guard. Credit: That GobboThe List
The Standout Features
- Leviathan makes an immediate splash, with Synaptic Links galore.
- (Presumably) 4AE GSC shore up secondaries and bring A Plan Generations in the Making to the table.
Why it's Interesting in 9th
We were pretty hot on the Leviathan supplement in Ocatrius, so it's good to see it starting to make a splash already. This list shows off pretty much all the best toys the new book gives access to. Shooting-wise, you've got double shooting Hive Guard with full re-rolls from Swarm Leader and your choice of +1 to hit or re-roll damage, you've got the full devourer Gaunt blob to do frankly eye-watering things with Relentless Flurry, and the ability to mix-and-match those buffs between the two units as the situation dictates. Swarmy and a bunch of Genestealers can range out in front in the meantime, and if you need access to Kraken mode on the Genestealers for a turn then Hyper Adaptation has you covered. You also don't need to worry about deploying super aggressively to pull that off, as you can use Strategic Adaptation to re-deploy on the line once you know who's going first. Finally, to power all this stuff you've got the Adaptive Neural Lobe, which given just how hard Leviathan wants to be smashing all the stratagem buttons all the time has got to be a near auto-take.
That's the obvious stuff, but I like that this list has delved a little deeper in what you can do, mostly around the use of Hive Mind Imperative. Adding ObSec to either the Sky Slashers (and just sending them off as a spoiler unit) or the Maleceptor (to act as a massive tank when stacked with Encephalic Diffusion) gives you multiple ways to manipulate Primary scoring. Elsewhere, since the list wants a cheapo Tyranid Prime around as a relic caddy anyway adding Unchecked Ferocity seems like a perfectly decent way to spend 15pts, as charging up some Genestealers before they go out hunting can help them carve through high toughness targets and it helps make the Warriors (who you want for Bioweapon Bond) a better counter charge unit.
All in all, it's very clear from this build that the Octarius Tyranid rules are the real deal, and they're only going to get better with the Balance Slate arriving. This specific build may also get shaken up depending on what the GSC codex does, but the add-on detachment is very clearly a nice to have rather than fundamental to the list, so it should be fine. Great to see the new stuff getting a runaround, awesome work from Tyler.
The Rest of the Best
Four more players finished on 4-1:
- 2nd - Daniel Olivas - Drukhari: Drukhari Goodstuff tools, but in a Realspace Raid to allow a couple of the Venoms to be Dark Creed for leadership shenanigans, plus a Haemi with their (extremelyh good) Warlord Trait.
- 3rd - Timothy Borowiec - Adeptus Mechanicus: Lucius/Mars with lots of planes, and dead as a doorknob post-patch.
- 4th - Robert Herr - Orks: Freebooterz with the honour of I think needing the least changes of any of their lists this week to stay legal, as there's quite a lot of infantry support and two units of Deffkoptas.
- 5th - Donovan Sailo - Dark Angels: Ravenwing/Deathwing mix, with the spicy giant block of Bolter/Claw relic terminators in the latter section.
Hammerhead Games November GT
All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
Jesse McGowan - Orks - 1st Place
Mek Gun with Kustom Mega-kannonThe List
Archetype
Freebooterz
Why it's Interesting in 9th
Because a list like it won a game on stream so hard that now we're getting quarterly balance patches. Sorry, out of things to say and it's been a very busy week in the content mines - well done to Jesse.
The Rest of the Best
Two more players finished on 4-1 (this event had quite a few drops):
- 2nd - Scott LaFountain - Daemons: Be'lakor, Big Bird and Keepers.
- 3rd - Charles Jones - Death Guard: A rare sighting of the Poxmongers, going in on their main standout plan of sticking the Ironclot Furnace buff on a full unit of Blight Haulers.
Dragon Major
(Not actually a major)
All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.
Francois Lalonde - Drukhari - 1st Place
Credit: WingsThe List
Archetype
Cronos Drukhari
Why it's Interesting in 9th
Really, if we're honest, it had to be this way - Drukhari have put up the largest number of top results over the course of their rampage, so what better way to see off the last weekend of the old metagame than with a classic - Cronos Drukhari. Congratulations to Francois, then let's get some Fs in the chat.
The Rest of the Best
Three more players finished on 4-1, and one 3-2 player got paired up in the final. They were:
- 2nd - Nicholas Blackburn - Thousand Sons: Double Scarab, double Spawn Cult of Time. Extra thicc.
- 3rd - Mathieu Bastien - Space Wolves: Lots of infantry board control (Blade and Wolf Guard) and some Cyberwolves for cheapo objective play. Also, even amongst the many, many team names I scroll past every week, "Adeptus Notorious" is an all-timer. Good work there.
- 4th - Patrick Chamblay - Adeptus Mechanicus: Mars goodstuff with two Stratoraptors.
- 5th - Dominique Carette - Space Marines: The weird Ultramarine/Raven Guard alpha strike mix that's been getting quite a lot of chatter in the team event scene.
Wrap Up
That's it for this week. Next week is going to be a little weird and I'm going to somewhat play it by ear. At least some events are fully adopting the new balance slate, while some quite large ones aren't, so I'll likely focus on the results from the events that do, regardless of size. We'll see what happens, but I'm excited to see what the community (or at least "thirty-odd of the scariest players in the UK", which is the Northern Warlords roster) comes up with. See you then! Comments, questions and suggestions to contact@goonhammer.com.
