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.

We come into this week right before NOVA, one of the biggest events of the year with two events in France and the US:

• Golden Ticket - Le Villers-Bocage Open III - AOS
• Utah Cup Grand Tournament '25 - Age of Sigmar

There's a suspiciously Airship shaped shadow on the meta; will it persist this week? (Yes)

Golden Ticket - Le Villers-Bocage Open III - AOS

60-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Villers-Bocage, Normandie, France on August 23 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Thomas Floquet - Kharadron Overlords

vs.

jeremy drugeot - Kruleboyz

Thoughts

Given the current status of KO in the meta it's pretty easy to hand this one to the Dwarves from the get go, even if getting this far with Kruleboyz is pretty remarkable.

Due to the high saves of the Dwarves (2+ on the Boat, 3+ on the infantry with -1 to be hit when near the boat) Kruleboyz are going to rely a lot on critical mortals to be able to pierce their armor and statistically that's not possible. The other thing Kruleboyz rely on is using chaff to block their shooters but well, everything in the KO list can fly.

Result

Kharadron Overlords Victory

Thomas Floquet - Kharadron Overlords - 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Skywardens

Thoughts

This is at least a little different, focusing on one unit for a more focused strategy. The Frigate gets to charge and bring two units of Skywardens with them, which then get First Strike. If Brokk charges in alongside them, they also get +1 to attacks. If somehow they don't just kill everything from the outset, they can plant bomb charges and leave, or the Frigate can pick them up and leave. It's really hard to lock down and generally they'll leave you in the dust before you can do anything.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 includes:

• 2nd - Nicolas Tassone - Daughters of Khaine (4-0-1): Morathi and Krethusa with foot Aelves.
• 3rd - Léo Barbey - Blades of Khorne (4-0-1): Deathbringer Gorechosen.
• 4th - jeremy drugeot - Kruleboyz: See Showdown.
• 5th - Corentin "Corthyn" Le Bourhis - Lumineth Realm-lords: Herohammer and Bladelords.
• 6th - Martin "Bergson" Lemire - Cities of Sigmar: Freeguilders
• 7th - Adrien Gambino - Cities of Sigmar: Freeguilders, again.
• 8th - Clément Miscopein - Cities of Sigmar: Oh you better believe those are Freeguilders.

Utah Cup Grand Tournament '25 - Age of Sigmar

45-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Farmington, UT, United States on August 23 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission - Creeping Corruption

Maldad Puto - Stormcast Eternals

vs.

Ian McAleese - Kharadron Overlords

Thoughts

This is actually an interesting matchup as both are very tanky armies with a lot of movement options. While KO are tearing up the field now since they can shoot, move fast and charge into combat, picking up enemy units like its nothing. Stormcast can keep a fair amount of the army in reserve to avoid getting hit, and also crash down to deal mortal wounds to crack through the KO's high saves.

A lot of the game is going to come down to who can make the early charges (though hopefully not in to the Arkanauts) and also spike hard on the dice. Though it seems the meta list remains secure as KO win again.

Result

Kharadron Overlords Victory

Ian McAleese - Kharadron Overlords - 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

KO Good Stuff

Thoughts

This is a bit more midrange than the other winning list this week. We got the Skywardens who can accompany the Frigate to do massive melee damage, the Gunhalers and Arkaunauts do excellent ranged damage to soften the enemy up first (or finish off some stragglers). The Vongrim units are mostly melee units and definitely not as impressive as the Skywardens but they do in a pinch and are very cheap.

Jarod Brown - Lumineth Realm-Lords - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Scinari Cathallar. Credit: Rich Nutter

The List

Archetype

Mixed arms

Thoughts

This has some echoes of the current Herohammer lists that are in vogue for Lumineth but has a different take on it. Ellania and Ellathor are one of the better Warrior-Wizards in the game, able to switch up between spells cast and jumping into combat alongside the Light of Eltharion. The Enlightener can cast a spell on two targets, importantly speed of Hysh to maximize their speed, while the Cathallar boosts control scores to help compensate for the low model count.

The Wardens and Stoneguard fill in the role of the Bladeguard that usually go in this list, both blocking enemy units from charging in and holding objectives. The Riverblades do quite the opposite, able to leap over enemy units to get right to the important characters behind them.

The interesting addition is the Sky-Port profiteers which I think we'll see in a lot of Order lists. For a CP, units can either heal, teleport anywhere on the field, or inflict some mortal wounds on the enemy. Useful support for those willing to make room.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 include:

• 3rd - Maldad Puto - Stormcast Eternals: See Showdown.
• 4th - Benjamin Osguthorpe - Slaves to Darkess: Darkoaths.
• 5th - Judd Player - Lumineth Realm-lords: Herohammer with Bladelords.
• 6th - Dustin Chesmer - Disciples of Tzeentch: Lord of Change with a menagerie of Daemons.
• 7th - Matt Nguyen - Kruleboyz: Melee focused infantry.
• 8th - Andy Player - Fyreslayers: Magmadroths.

Wrap Up

Next week is a major event, the NOVA open so we should see the culmination of a lot of meta shifts. Will we see KO? Blades of Khorne Gorechosen? Cities of Sigmar Freeguilders? Oh I'm sure, but we'll see a lot of other stuff too. And I'll be in attendance, so hit me up if you're there!

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