Apologies for the late column - hit some blockers early in the week, and we'll be back to the regular Wednesday slot next time around!

It's been another busy weekend in the 40K world, with six events (including three majors) firing, providing us with a look at how the metagame is shaping up in the aftermath of two huge supermajors. Unfortunately, the answer appears to be that both Drukhari and the Adeptus Mechanicus are showing a renewed period of dominance, taking three event titles each and a considerable number of the rest of the top four slots, with Ad Mech once again particularly dominant in the UK, substantially driven by exactly the kind of brutal plane-heavy lists we talked about last week (though as predicted they're getting more prevalent stateside).

The topline results make pretty grim reading but it's not all doom and gloom - several other factions are quietly racking up respectable win rates, providing us with some interesting builds to look at, and at least on the Drukhari side at the top there's been considerable shakeups to list construction to adapt to the presence of Grey Knights and Thousand Sons in the metagame. My opinion is that if the Stratoraptor got substantially nerfed and Drukhari received a mild knock at the same time just to slightly cut down their amount of stuff things would look pretty interesting, and the armies nipping at the heels of the winners reflect that. Let's dig in!

As a regular reminder of the current column format:

• We're maintaining a list of competitive archetypes here, which we'll refer to when lists similar to one's we've seen before turn up.
• Top four lists at majors get a full review, and all remaining X-1 lists feature in the Best of the Rest section.
• Undefeated lists at GTs get a full review, and all remaining X-1 lists feature in the Best of the Rest section, except where a build is particularly novel and needs a full look.
• A ✪ next to a non-1st place placing indicates that the player was undefeated going into the final round, or was an undefeated runner up. For some scoring formats, this may not be applicable.

Michigan GT (major)

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. This event was placed based on pure battle points rather than wins. For that reason, I'm not going to apply the star, as it doesn't make sense.

Brad Chester - Drukhari - 1st Place

Credit: Wings

The List

Archetype

Drukhari Goodstuff/Cronos Hybrid

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Having landed the runner up slot at the NOLA roadshow it's perhaps unsurprising that Brad hasn't messed with his list too much a week later - especially as a lot of the things that made it good there also help out with the Battle Point scoring that was in effect at Michigan. Compared to the average Drukhari list, Brad's taken out a few power units (notably Trueborn) in favour of having lots of stuff that's loaded for board control and pretty sticky on the table. At NOLA, this meant there were always a few more units hiding behind the perspex Obscuring blocks to roll out and grab an objective, while at Michigan it looks like they allowed Brad to aim for a near guaranteed 97pts every game through always having plenty of ObSec units to fight for the Primary and tonnes of small stuff for ROD. That appears to have been just what happened on the day, with 4x 97VP scores and one cheeky 100 to keep him ahead of his closest competitor. All together, Brad really showcases the versitility of Drukhari here - sure they're happiest when trading into stuff to run the opponent out of units, but if they need to focus on maxing out their scores for a specific format they can and will. Congratulations once again to Brad.

Thomas Ogden - Adeptus Mechanicus - 2nd Place

Ironstrider Ballistarius. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Mars Veteran Cohort

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Anyone who looked at the results from the LGT won't be surprised to know that Mars Veteran Cohort is extremely good in a format that requires you to aim for high scores because of the scope it gives you to just body opponents off the board. Lots of Ironstriders and a trio of planes provide some great reach, while a large unit each of the two Skitarii flavours unlocks various deadly stratagems for use. Having two big ObSec units with boosted defences also helps to reliably contest the primary, as an opponent who's been subjected to the combined-arms onslaught this list presents are likely to struggle to shift these durable units. Add in a couple of Skorpii to prise opponents out of safe spots and a few elite Skitarii units to take advantage of the mobility tools the Veteran Cohort provides and you've got a super-strong list that would be good anywhere but is ideal for the format - notably, Thomas starting 100-100-97 is presumably what prompted Brad to swing for a 100 in game four, and it was only this list dropping a few points in that same round that kept it from the crown. Good stuff from Thomas.

Kramer Doyle - Drukhari - 3rd Place

Kabalite Trueborn. Credit: Corrode

The List

Archetype

Drukhari Goodstuff

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Another Drukhari list that's heavily tilted towards board control, bringing in the same extra Wyches and the Court that Brad has, but leaving the Cronos on the bench in favour of Trueborn. That gives the army an extra bit of darklight punch to cut through the defences of AdMech planes, which feels like a strong choice in a scoring format likely to attract them (like terrible mechanical vultures), and running as Poisoned Tongue also allows this army to guarantee that they get to take their shot in even the most inclement situations. That factor may have helped this list achieve its path to victory - it took third place on 4-1 ahead of some players on 5-0 on the strength of a pretty high scoring loss, demonstrating an ability to eke out points even when things aren't going great. Once again - Drukhari are still excellent, and you can build your army to achieve lots of different goals using the tools available to you, and this is some great stuff from Kramer.

Michael Sarapata - Adeptus Mechanicus - 4th Place

Sicarian Ruststalker Princep. Credit: Pendulin

The List

The Standout Features/Archetype

Mars Veteran Cohort

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Another Mars Veteran cohort build that's a bit closer to the Siegler-style list, with Stratoraptors providing the bulk of the long-ranged threats and a substantial number of points dumped into some lethal melee Skitarii to contest the table. It's another well-known winning formula, and very much squeezes the most out of the powerful Army of Renown. A very well constructed build from Michael to close out our first tournament.

The Rest of the Best

Pure Battle Points is even more ~chaos mode~ for working out where to cut this than 20-0, so I'm going to arbitrarily cut at the top 10.

• 5th - Jason Sniegowski - Orks: Quite different to the other early Ork builds we've been seeing (and I suspect heavily tuned to the pure Battle Point format), Jason's army aims squarely at board control through a mixture of ObSec speedy Deathskulls units, Goffs and Trukk Boyz Meganobz in Trukks, and some Snakebite herohammer (including a trio of Smasha Nobz) and Squighog Boyz to round things out. The list looks like it can apply massive reactive pressure and very reliably rack up points while the opponent is dealing with its nonsense, and it only missed out on a top four slot by a single VP!
• 6th - Joshua Minnich - Nurgle: The reasonably popular combo of Be'lakor, Epidemius and Death Guard Daemon engines gets another strong showing here, with a trio of Bloat Drones again a likely concession to the need to get out and score high every game.
• 7th - Mike Henderson - Adepta Sororitas: Penitent Engine spam, maxing out on the full 12 with a few solo Anchorites as well, and backed up by the usual named character suspects, Retributors for reach and a few utility/objective units (including Sacresants for bodyguard nonsense on Celestine).
• 8th - Caleb Nelson - Thousand Sons: Cult of Duplicity Rubric/Scarab spam, with two big units of spawn for some extra early pressure.
• 9th - Geoff Hill - Grey Knights: Swordbearers Dreadknights/Interceptors.
• 10th - Michael Jeffries - Tyranids: A hilarious monster mash list, going for double Dimachaerons with a custom hive fleet for extra resilience on deployment with Biosphere Consumption and extra brutality on the charge with Prey Sight.

Battle for Salvation (major)

All the lists for this event are in Best Coast Pairings. This event did a top cut after three rounds similar to what GW ran in NOLA, and the rankings here are placings within the top bracket.

Sean Nayden - Drukhari - 1st Place

Venom. Credit: Corrode

The List

The Standout Features

• Venom spam breaks out and wins a major in the hands of an Aeldari master.
• Lots of blast pistols to take advantage of the extra mobility and reach from Venoms.
• As many combat characters as possible squeezed in, including Lelith as a third super Succubus.

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Since the Drukhari codex dropped Raiders have been the big news transport-wise, but one of the dirty secrets of the book is that Venoms are pretty good too! They're fast, much easier to hide, and the D2 AP-1 splinter cannons are increasingly relevant as Thousand Sons and Grey Knights proliferate in the metagame (especially with Poisoned Tongue's boosted poison weaponry).

Sean has taken that and built a list that's all about giving your opponent a gigantic headache as they try to deal with it. With a total of nine Venoms, the list can be all over the place, all the time, and easily afford to lose a few without really breaking a sweat, threatening to win some games just by being impossible to outmaneuvre. If the opponent does come out to play then what they're going to discover is that the contents of these Venoms are hateful. Not content with the usual ration of Incubi and nasty Characters, Sean has really gone the extra mile here. Most units that can carry one have a blast pistol as well as whatever other special weapons they can carry, ensuring that there's almost always a darklight shot ready to fly forth, and as well as the standard two Succubi, Drazhar and one Archon we're got two more nasty killers - a second master archon and Lelith. The latter hasn't really got much play thus far because of how strong you can make the first two Succubi in your army with traits/relics, but if you want a third high-speed murderer then she's better than what you can build yourself (plus leaves relic slots for other units). Having almost every Venom carrying potential trade-up threats looks key to how this list functions, and Lelith is a smart choice to fill this role given that.

Sean is a well known Aeldari mastermind, so it's not hugely surprising that where hidden depths still exist in a well explored codex he's the one finding them, and I love this list - it's refreshingly different from what other people have been doing, and is almost certainly worth sticking a pin in for whenever Raiders catch another point hike. Congratulations Sean.

Anthony Vanella - Drukhari - 2nd Place

Credit: Corrode

The List

Archetype

Cronos Drukhari

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Reigning Goonhammer Open US Champion Anthony (I hope he wore his belt) is another player who doesn't have much reason to mess with his list - it's a tried-and-tested event winning concoction that sailed him to a second place finish here, putting up a very respectable fight against Sean in the finals despite it looking like a pretty rough head-to-head on paper. Congratulations to Anthony for another fantastic finish.

Daniel Wohlmuth - Adepta Sororitas - 3rd Place

Credit: Evan "Felime" Siefring

The List

Archetype

Bloody Rose/Argent Shroud

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Edit: We missed the order change on first publication here, now fixed!

Daniel builds on his win at the Portal Fall GT a few weeks back with a third place finish, this time swapping out the Mortal Wound firepower of the Ebon Chalice for the speed and melta punch of the Argent Shroud. His signature unit remains however - the full unit of Bloody Rose mace Sacresants to ruin the day of enemy tarpits - jumping to AP-2 makes a world of difference to what you can reasonably take out with these.

Sascha Edelkraut - Black Templars - 4th ✪ Place

Black Templars Crusaders. Credit: SRM

The List

Why it's Interesting in 9th

It's always nice to see an old ruleset get one last hurrah before a big update hits, and for this Black Templars list it's particularly cool to see Sascha lock in a top four finish before the switchover, as they've had a few near misses at previous events. In terms of a list, this is pretty much a showcase of what made Templars strong in their Index builds - double super-chaplains to throw out buffs, cheap troops from Crusaders and a trio of lethal melee units to roll round the table with classic Devout Push kicking the stuffing out of opponents, with Redemptors as a central anchor and a Whirlwind to drop Suppression Fire. It feels like there's a good chance that plenty of the tools here stick around in the new world (Redemptors in particular) but there's bound to be changes as well, so this army shall stand as a final glorious testament to what dedicated fans like Sascha were able to achieve despite having the thinnest set of rules out there.

The Rest of the Best

Once again, just going to hit the top ten here, since that was the top bracket.

• 5th - Josh Schutz - Hive Mind: a three way mash-up here, with a Kraken Tyrant and Genestealers for an early rush, two full Kronos Hive Guard bricks to rain death on the enemy, and some Twisted Helix Acolytes (in Trucks) and Metamorphs to provide trade pieces and sticky objective play, with a nasty tooled up Patriarch to round things out.
• 6th - Mark Hertel - Adeptus Mechanicus:  Mars Veteran Cohort with loads of small Infiltrator and Ruststalkers squads (backing up one full unit of the latter) and some Skorpius Disintegrators for the home field.
• 7th - Alexander Fennel - Adeptus Mechanicus: Mars Veteran Cohort, extremely similar to Mark's list (perhaps unsurprising as they share a team).
• 8th - Jared Vail - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose/Argent Shroud goodness.
• 9th - James Watkins - Orks: Freebooterz with lots of buggies and planes, plus a murder squigboss.
• 10th - TJ Lanigan - Chaos: A spin on the Thousand Sons/Plagueburst Crawler list we've been seeing around, here featuring a full Scarab Occult unit to provide a devastating wrecking ball.

Fantasia Fanatic XL (major)

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. 20-0 scoring was used at this event, with larger bands than the WTC standard (anything less than 6VP difference was a draw, and each band above that was 6VP). I have assigned a top table ✪ here because the table 1 game in the last round was definitely the decider - both players were far enough up on points that even an 11-9 victory locked in the crown.

Rickard Nilsson - Adeptus Mechanicus - 1st Place

Skitarii Vanguard. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Archetype

Lucius Horde

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Rickard's previous run with this list is already the exemplar for this archetype and this time, to demonstrate how much of a force it remains even post-nerf, he's taken it all the way to a first place finish. This army is just a nightmarish slog to push off objectives - it's got a massive number of durable bodies, anything that emerges to fight them head on is getting sandblasted with Galvanic Volley Fire and Enriched Rounds, and opponents that try to outmaneuvre it are going to find their key objective holders picked off by the belleros cannons of the three Skorpii. Like a lot of the lists we've looked at this week, not only is it strong in general it's also ideal for its format, as it both scores effectively itself and will frequently keep the number of VP the opponent racks up to a minimum - taking No Prisoners against it is pretty optimistic for lists without some astonishing firepower, it doesn't give much else up, and it can bully opponents off the Primary with ease. All strong stuff, and Rickard is well known for being a master of the Mechanicus, so it's no surprise that he picked up the win here (and by a pretty hefty margin).

Magnus Forslund - Adepta Sororitas - 2nd Place

Credit: Evan "Felime" Siefring

The List

The Standout Features

• Valorous Heart take the place of Ebon Chalice/Argent Shroud in a team-up with the Bloody Rose, bringing extra durability to the table.

Why it's Interesting in 9th

A key thing for succeeding in 20-0 formats is that you want to minimise the chances of ever getting rapidly taken off the table, as a single 0VP loss will likely sink your chances of a top four finish. With that in mind, running Valorous Heart Sisters makes a tonne of sense - they're hardly a bad pairing with the Bloody Rose anyway, but in this particular format the extra durability (especially good on the Sacresant units) is maybe a bit more valuable than either the extra mortals from Ebon Chalice or the aggression of Argent Shroud. Having the small Sacresant unit around is also particularly good with Celestine, as in cover they're going to be extraordinarily difficult to prise out with most artillery, letting her and the Geminae snake out to control objectives with ease.

In terms of the actual units in the detachments other than the extra Sacresants things look pretty standard - lots of vicious melee trade pieces in the BR detachment, Blessed Bolt Dominions and Retributors in the Valorous Heart contingent, then named characters to taste, the only unusual one being Ephrael Stern (who's honestly just kind of mean for her price, so why not in a build that can contest the table!). All the Sisters hits with an extra concession to the format, earning a well-deserved second place for Magnus.

Tim Nordin - Dark Angels - 3rd ✪ Place

Dark Angels. Credit: Greg Chiasson

The List

Archetype

Ravenwing

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Ravenwing love going fast and killing things, with the Attack Bikes, Storm Speeder and Dark Talon here all being great for racking up Death on the Wind points and it's not that rare to see a big unit of Black Knights in a list that's going hard on them, as they provide a brawling capability that's otherwise missing from the second company. They're also another great way to rack up secondary points and a good place to dump buff or mobility stratagems, as they represent a lot more concentrated threat than the rest of the list.

Like the other top builds here, this list does have a concession to the format in the form of a deeply heretical non-Ravenwing detachment, bringing some Company Veterans and Infiltrators to provide reliable home objective holders, a small angle for ROD in extremis, and of course bodyguard shenanigans for the ever-present Talonmasters. Being able to take the fight to the enemy with some objective play in the back pocket makes this a great way to run Dark Angels in this format, and only running face first into Rickard's list (which this army just flatly doesn't have the numbers to kill) kept TIm's Unforgiven locked up in third place.

Jonas Hallbom - Grey Knights - 4th Place

Grey Knight - Justicar
Credit: Pendulin

The List

Archetype

Dreadknights and Interceptors

Why it's Interesting in 9th

A strong Grey Knights showing to round out our third Major, and this is honestly a great representation of one of the ways the faction seems to build right now. It turns out that Dreadknights are just so good on rate that you don't need to get too clever on mixing up detachments with them, and if you just want to stick to four you're perfectly fine taking them out as Rapiers in a single Battalion. You lose the extra ranged punch of Swordbearers, sure, but it turns out that the Knights just don't need the help to kill stuff when they focus it, whereas having a deeper pool of CP to lock in your casts and amplify your other units is extremely valuable. That isn't to say that taking additional detachments is wrong (and indeed you need to if you want to get 5+ Dreadknights in a list), but you don't need to if you want something more cohesive. This list uses points saved on more Dreadknights to buy Draigo as an extra combat nightmare, and has a bumper crop of Interceptors and Strikes to control the table, making it excellent at completing Purifying Ritual and a huge headache for opponents with armies that rely on Stranglehold as a safe pick. Cool stuff from Jonas.

The Rest of the Best

From a glance at the scores, going to the end of the top 8 players here neatly covers everyone with 70+ BP total, so that's what we're doing.

• 5th - Max Persson - Adepta Sororitas: Argent Shroud/Bloody Rose, but with a tiny Ebon Chalice detachment snuck in just for the Warlord trait (and some battle conclave) units like in the old days.
• 6th - Marcus Persson - Thousand Sons: The Cult of Duplicity (with some Mutalith Beasts in tow) team up with the Cult of Prophecy, the latter looking like they're mostly here to reliably buff Chaos Spawn and to create an Exalted Sorceror that's super hard to pin down thanks to the Guided by Whispers trait.
• 7th - Kristoffer Wikner - Orks: Freebooterz with absolutely everything packing some kind of engine - buggies, warbikers and Deffkilla trikes, with a couple units of Deffkoptas covering the skies.
• 8th - Ludvig Advin - Drukhari: Drukhari Goodstuff-ish, but trading out Cult of Strife for a meatier set of Cursed Blade units, including some inexpensive Clawed Fiends for objective utility.

Into the Hellstorm 6 - Rip n Tear!

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Mani Cheema - Adeptus Mechanicus - 1st Place

Tech-Priest Manipulus. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Lucius/Mars

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Mani does it again, putting a few planes back on the shelf in favour of more big guns and a few utility units, and proceeding to sweep to a comfortable 6-0 victory. The list has a lethal alpha strike from the planes and Ironstriders, real board stickiness from the Lucius Skitarii (who also provide While We Stand targets thanks to taking the extra plasma) and has tricks for every occasion baked in via relics and warlord traits (plus Wrath of Mars on the appropriate Skitarii unit). In short, it's everything that makes AdMech a top-tier faction in one incredible package, and with the number of reps Mani now has under his belt with Lucius/Mars, it's no surprise to see him taking another crown.

List Highlight - 5th - Henry Bearne - Thousand Sons

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The Standout Features

• Ultra high pressure via double full Terminator block.
• Forgefiends provide additional cost-efficient damage dealers.

Why it's Interesting in 9th

This list caught my eye because of how effectively it uses a double Terminator loadout. I've now got a few games against Thousand Sons under my belt and am kind of blown away by how nasty the Terminators are. Because they're mostly throwing out D1 shots with good AP, stacking buffs on them (as Thousand Sons can do with exceptional efficiency) turns them into essentially all-purpose killers, and with ObSec as well if they drop in and flatten your opponent's best counters they're going to dominate the primary. It's nasty enough when one unit warps in with either Sorcerous Facade or the Umbralefic Crystal to do this early on, so hey, why not try two? The Cults of Time and Duplicity combined mean you've got one unit that rides the crystal and threatens to heal if not fully cleared, and a second where the unit can warp back out or respond to issues elsewhere thanks to Facade being repeatable. Normally, lists that want to just go all-in out the gate can be extremely hit or miss, but Scarabs are so particularly nasty and durable that it feels like a much more reasonable strategy here, especially as using Cabalistic Rituals can lock in the powers needed to make them excel. This list also dips in to the more Daemonic part of the Thousand Sons roster to ensure it presents minimal easy targets, making it pretty tough to pick secondaries against and also providing good tools to screen the characters with while the Terminators are out doing mischief in the opponent's half of the table.

I'm always a sucker for a list that goes big on a plan and this one definitely falls into that bucket, a really cool concoction from Henry.

The Rest of the Best

Three more players finished on 5-1 records, and two more drew in the final round to end up on 4-1-1. They were:

• 2nd - Josh Roberts - Space Marines: Iron Hands Successors (Born Heroes/Whirlwind), running the Minotaurs chapter to take Hecaton Aiakos, double dipping on character dreadnoughts. Beyond that, all the usual Marine suspects - Redemptors, Devastators, VanVets you know the stuff.
• 3rd - George Twymann - Slaanesh: Mostly Slaanesh Daemons with a small Emperor's Children detachment, bringing a couple units of Marines to sit on home objectives, a Discordant to benefit from buffs and a Daemon Prince to throw out Death Hex.
• 4th - Nick McDaid - Dark Angels: Speedy Ravenwing as a hammer, but rather than pure Deathwing as an anvil a trio of Redemptor Dreadnoughts joins the party.
• 5th - Henry Bearne - Thousand Sons: See above.
• 6th - Michael Duff - Adeptus Mechanicus: Mars Veteran Cohort plane spam, going in on all six alongside a healthy contingent of melee Skitarii to contest the ground.

Glasshammer Open 2021

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Malik Amin Rubio - Adeptus Mechanicus - 1st Place

Skitarii Marshal. Credit: Pendulin

The List

The Standout Features/Archetype

Mars/Lucius

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Why mess with perfection? Malik takes a very lightly tweaked version of his LGT-winning build to another top spot, once again featuring AdMech's signature mix of a lethal alpha strike and alarming durability and depth. Not much more to say than that - congratulations to Malik on another win.

The Rest of the Best

Five more players finished on 4-1. They were:

• 2nd ✪ - Kenneth Knott - Drukhari: A rather unusual Realspace Raid list that brings lots of board control to the table - three solo Artists of the Flesh Talos, several chunkier infantry units in boats (including a full Haemoxcytes unit) and some murder characters.
• 3rd - David Gaylard - Adeptus Mechanicus: Mars/Lucius with all the usual hits.
• 4th - Danny Evison - Iron Hands Successors: All the standard issue Iron Hands Successor (Heroes/Whirlwind) toys, with some Eliminators and an Invictor providing some flexibility on setup and holding the home field.
• 5th - Tom Leighton - Drukhari: Drukhari goodstuff with the less common choice of a couple of Voidraven bombers, providing access to big swing turns in some matchups.

40K Brawl - Cadian Catastrophe

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Liam "Corrode" Royle - Drukhari - 1st Place

Credit: Corrode

The List

Archetype

Talos Drukhari

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Telling Liam that Talos are good again is a bit like telling Ron Burgundy that the evening would be livened up by some jazz flute, so it's no surprise to see him throwing down with them and winning big! For this list, he's gone for one of the standout builds for the pain engines, which is running them as Artists of the Flesh (-1D being a bit of a no-brainer) and with the gauntlet/injector/heat lance combo. This tends to make them the most consistently useful and deadly - having the gauntlet and lances means that if you run into a wall of Ork buggies you're sorted, while the injectors are good against almost everything (and make up for not having scalpels against hordes). In this configuration you're also heavily motivated to put the Talos in a Realspace Raid, as you don't really want Artists of the Flesh on anything else, and being able to squeeze them into three Heavy Support slots unlocked by other units is great. Being able to benefit from a Raid Mastermind's re-rolls also helps to mitigate their slightly poorer accuracy, and because they're extra tough you get more out of Master Regenerist than you otherwise might.

Other things that their presence encourages is the inclusion of Bloodbrides. Ichor injectors mean that the Talos aren't horrible against hordes, but sometimes you'll just need to shove a large brick of ObSec models off an objective, and Bloodbrides have got you covered for that (especially with the Cult of Strife strats unlocked by the second detachment).

Outside of that this is pretty much Drukhari goodstuff business as usual - Trueborn, Incubi, Mandrakes, murder Characters, you know the stuff. Liam's going to talk about his list in an article of his own, but something I know he's planning to change is to swap the Poisoned Tongue to Black Heart, as with fewer Raiders to hide than the average Drukhari build (plus playing on the same Factorum/Vanguard Tactics terrain we're using for the Goonhammer Open) Insidious Misdirection just wasn't needed, and the higher damage output would have been better. That didn't ultimately hold him back though, and he was able to secure the GT win after a final round against Stephen that came right down to the wire.

List Highlight - Stephen Box - Adepta Sororitas - 2nd ✪ Place

Sisters of Battle Canoness. Credit: Corrode

The List

The Standout Features

• Martyred Lady provide a very different angle on Sisters, going wide for pure board control.
• ObSec Sacresants for days.

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Stephen's build here goes in a different direction to most Sisters armies, eschewing the raw punch of the Bloody Rose, Ebon Chalice and Argent Shroud in favour of the toolbox and board control that the Martyred Lady bring to the table. The key thing powering this list is the Death Before Disgrace stratagem, as in combination with the Dogmata it means that either two Sacresant units or Sacresants plus the Zephyrim can be gunning around with ObSec at the same time, which can make it very tricky for the opponent to score primary points (especially if the Sacresants are also enjoying Light Cover from Junith). That isn't the only Martyred Lady trick the list uses effectively either - as the opponent tries to chew through the units (especially the Retributors) they're going to find themselves losing models via either A Martyr's Duty or Rejoice the Fallen, and with a Hospitaller kicking around there's every chance the squad can be reloaded to try again the next turn!

The other trick that the order brings is the hilarious murder Palatine, who can sacrifice wounds to then throw out a vicious volley of mortals with the Blade of Sacrifice, especially if you use a miracle dice to make the hit roll a 6 with The Passion up. The Canoness is no slouch in a fight either, as the combination of the Chaplet of Sacrifice and the Rapturous Blows ability makes her a force to be reckoned with, and the latter also gives her one turn of sending Sacresants or Zephyrim to the moon damage wise.

The list finishes up with some units for objective play and the pretty much mandatory Blessed Bolts Dominions, and ends up as a showcase of both cunning list construction and the flexibility of the Sisters book - this is very different to how most armies from the codex play, but still highly effective and highly flavourful. A real masterclass on how to do something unusual from Stephen.

The Rest of the Best

Three more players finished on 4-1. They were:

• 3rd - Matthew Edginton - Adeptus Mechanicus: A Skitarii Vanguard heavy Veteran Cohort list running as a rad-saturated Forge World with Scarifying Weapons, allowing the big Vanguard units to be pushed to AP-2 when it really matters.
• 4th - Jay Seebarun - Grey Knights: Rapiers Dreadknights,  a couple of Interceptor units in lascannon razorbacks (a quietly popular choice in the UK right now, as it gives you some punch against damage reduction) then Strikes and characters to fill, including a Brother Captain to provide maximum re-rolls if the Dreadknights need to focus something, and who can punk stuff in combat with the Soul Glaive.
• 5th - Dean Murphy - Chaos: Keepers and a carpet of Bloodletters backed up by Be'lakor and a trio of Plagueburst Crawlers, giving the list a nice mix of pressure, horde ObSec and attrition to take advantage of tying the opponent up.

Wrap Up

No let up next week, as it looks like we've got a couple of majors each in the UK and US to look forward to, and a good few GTs besides. We'll see you then, and comments, questions and suggestions to contact@goonhammer.com as always.