Greetings Mortals and welcome back to Competitive Innovations. Four events to cover this week, with the jewel in the crown being Warhammer Fest. Yer boi Ellarr was there and participating and I'll be a little selfish here and get my own performance out of the way - I went 4-1 before having to drop due to prior familial obligations, with my only loss being in round 2 to one of the players you'll be seeing in the showdown shortly! The field was pretty varied with most armies being represented and the tournament itself was a blast. Outside of WF, there's also three showdowns to cover that all have one common thread - an unusual and interesting matchup that you might not have expected!

Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament - Warhammer Fest

8-round Major in England United Kingdom on April 29 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Position Over Power

Geir Vedeld - Jaws of Mork:

vs.

Ritchie Mcalley - Barak-Urbaz:

Thoughts

This is a rough matchup for Geir and the Gitz, as his list loves central point missions and this is anything but. If he sends out his Madcap Shaman with tunnel master he might get a bonus point on first turn but the lil guy is likely to get mulched in short order afterwords. This mission rewards players who are high mobility and capable of spreading out, and Ritchie's list is setup well to grab one of the two flanking objectives and blow apart Geir's frontline, conceding no ground on primary scoring during the early game and able to pivot and bum rush Geir's home point as and when he needs to.

Geir's list has some tech against shooting like the Sporesplattaz that can pre-game move and block LOS... to non flying stuff. Not to mention, Ritchie has more than enough incidental shooting to clear the mushroom swingers with the first volley and get to unload with his more important shooting to what's behind.

Geir is a fantastic player and with clever positioning he'd be able to mitigate how much of his army is susceptible to Ritchie's more effective 12" range profile shooting, but the fact remains this battleplan is real good for KO and subsequently rough for a blobbing castle like Gitz.

Result

Barak-Urbaz Victory - 28 - 15

Ritchie Mcalley - Barak-Urbaz - 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Thoughts

Team England's Tom Mawsdley created this monstrosity of a list and fellow team-mate Ritchie has helped calibrate and really lean into the list strengths. What are they? Well the army can put 15 Thunderers in your face with the Soulscream Bridge and another 15 Thunderers in your face with the Ironclad receiving Fly High & Combat Landing (because of the footnote Without Our Ships We Are Naught) to put them in position. It's capable of doing this turn one and all but the most capable of pre-game screeners can only hope to mitigate what's exposed to the guns, they can't completely protect themselves.

What makes it deadly however is this combo doesn't have to be used turn one, the army is just as capable of sitting back and committing only when it's either pressed to (opponent's army has capable shooting, it's getting ahead on primary scoring or it may get a double turn) and instead just doing chip shots from long range. KO CAN be an all in alpha strike shooting list turn one, but it's arguably even more terrifying when it holds back and holds the threat of it over your opponent's head - should I unpack my army a bit and try and do something? Is that overextending?

Meet the new face of the metagame.

Geir Vedeld - Jaws of Mork - 2nd Place

Credit: Raf Cordero

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Squigs castle

Thoughts

I had the pleasure of going up against Geir and this list over the weekend (my only loss before I had to drop from the tournament), and let me tell you it's a devilishly brilliant list that combines the strengths of the Squig Herd AND Bounderz builds by running a big unit of both. Grinkrak makes the Squig Herd nightmarishly good at trading well into your opponent's hammers and just generally taking over the center of the board. Need speed and precision? The Bounderz are one of the most mobile and effective cavalry units in the game when under the Bad Moon. The Sporesplattaz make for an interesting wrinkle in the army, giving it LOS blocking against shooting armies and a pre-game move to control space against armies that like to deep strike in like Beasts of Chaos or Stormcast.

Other than that, it's a fairly standard Squig Gitz list that makes use of every buff the army has to offer.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 4 were:

• • Position - Player Name - Faction:
  • 3rd - Stylianos Mamagkakis - Khorne: A mean Reaper's of Vengeance list that focuses on cheap Mortals for blood tithe with the three hammers being Skarbrand, an Insensate Rage Bloodthirster and 6 Varanguard.
  • 4th - Jack Krinks - Gloomspite Gitz: A Trogg list that wants to punish you with 18 Rockgut Troggoths and 6 Felwater Troggoths. It's a slow list but it's inexorable, capable of delivering some of the game's heaviest of hits.

Age of Sigmar Welsh Open

50-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Wales GB on April 29 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission -

Andrew Hughes - Fyreslayers:

vs.

Hazel Moon - Ogor Mawtribes:

Thoughts

Ogors have been a little bit overlooked, but not by Hazel! She brought a potent monster trucks list to Wales and it's clashing with one of the game's premiere armies in the game right now, piloted by one of the UK's best players in Andrew Hughes.

On paper, I thought this matchup was heavily lopsided towards Andrew, but I decided to look a little deeper and found some interesting quirks. For example, Hazel's list has 5 Blood Vultures, which are an unusual source of chip damage that doesn't classify as a ranged attack, so it bypasses the typical Galletian Champion and other character protection rules that go along with that classification. Put simply, Hazel just needs to see the target with each of the five units that have a vulture and roll a dice - on a 2+, the unit takes a mortal wound. Why is this notable? Well the humble Battlesmith only has 5 wounds, and other than a 6+ ward it has no inherent bodyguard mechanic to try and protect it. This means that if Andrew wanted to utilise the Battlesmith effectively he also had to expose it to the ca-caw brigade, making what is typically a potent tool in the Fyreslayers army into a rather timid liability. Fueled by Ghurrish rage helps, but only for so long. The Runemaster is similarly vulnerable, but it's six wounds means it's not capable of being one round pinged off.

In addition, Andrew has brought Vostarg, which makes his Berzerkers more deadly on the charge.. but he's unlikely to get the charge off against Hazel's Stonehorns which are just far more mobile. A combination of board control and being able to pick and choose engagements while threatening characters with the mass of blood vultures likely helped tip things, as well as savvy play on Hazel's part - well done!

Result

Ogor Mawtribes Victory - 20 - 0

Hazel Moon - Ogor Mawtribes - 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Monster Trucks

Thoughts

Vroom vroom vroom - some armies don't like a ton of wounds on a minimum 4+/5++ save in their face turn one, especially not ones that can fly and move another 3d6" on the turn they charge if they use their exclusive monstrous rampage. Vroom vroom vroom!

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 all were 4-1 and were:

• • • Position - Player Name - Faction:
    • 2nd - Alex Bruce - Vostarg: See showdown (it's the same list)
    • 3rd - Mathew Davies - Sylvaneth: Mathew puts up another strong finish with Alarielle in this surprisingly skewed list - 9 Kurnoth Bow Hunters and some Gossamid Archers give the army a decidedly different feel than most tree armies
    • 4th - Matthew Gouldesbrough - Lumineth Realm-lords: Helon Teclis keeps marching on, with recent points changes causing the army to adapt by including some Khinerai Lifetakers for battle tactic and skirmishing purposes
    • 5th - Simon Weakley - Gloomspite Gitz: A Grinkrak Squig Herd spam list that wants to fight you, then die and fight you again, then run away and mortal wound bomb a unit or hero that wasn't even involved in the combat directly - nasty
    • 6th - Andrew Hughes - Fyreslayers: See showdown
    • 7th - Carl Brewster - Maggotkin of Nurgle: A top-heavy list built around four units - two Maggoth lords (Bloab and Orghotts), Be'lakor and a brick of 10 Blightkings
    • 8th - Andy Simms - Ogor Mawtribes: A Kragnos charge mortals list that utilises Boulderhead to make his FLoSH and his Stonehorn Beastriders just that much tougher to lift off the board thanks to their extra wounds

Highground Brewsky GT - AOS 2K - 2 Day

41-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Milford Charter Twp, MI US on April 29 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission -

Jeff Campbell-Crawley - Oakenbrow:

vs.

Jack Cawood - Pretenders Host:

Thoughts

An unusual matchup with the unusual big tree list going up against the new kids on the block in Slaanesh. The Treelords want to teleport with one or more charge bonuses, charge in and either stick around (in situations where it's fortuitous) in order to control space and be a nuisance with their large bases, or Strike and Fade away if they're heavily injured or likely to die on the crackback.

Going up against it is a toolboxy Pretenders list that can deliver a punishing amount of shooting from the Blissbarbs and a lot of board control in the Daemonettes and Slickblades. Sylvaneth lists typically struggle when their castle is rushed early on and their escape routes in the trees are blocked off by their opponent's units. Having played this style of matchup myself I can say it leans pretty heavily towards Slaanesh, who can shrug off the early barrage well enough to get to the army's innards and deliver a lot of high quality damage from the Keeper of Secrets and lots of chip mortals from the Daemonettes once the army hits 24 Depravity.

Result

Pretenders Host Victory - 61 - 29

Jack Cawood - Pretenders Host - 1st Place

Credit: Liebot - https://instagram.com/liebot_pics

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Pretenders aggression

Thoughts

What strikes me about this list as a fellow Slaanesh player is how balanced it is - only 22 Blissbarb archers means it's not really a ranged army, but it's not gone all in on Slickblades either, with only 5 of them so that their footprint is kept small enough to get all models into combat relatively easily.

The thing that stands out most of all are the Daemonettes, who haven't been a sexy pick from the book compared to their mortal cousins but have a lot going for them once the army get's it's depravity buffs going. A unit of 30 can rally on a 5+ and deliver 60 attacks that do mortal wounds on sixes (once the army hits 24 DP), and if they're at 36 DP they're also rocking a 5+ ward and are -1 to hit, making them into some kind of hybrid monstrosity between Plaguebearers and Lumineth Wardens. Native run and charge also makes them able to really hoof it across the board and get to where they need to go rather easily.

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players on 4-1, 3-0-2 or 3-1-1. They were:

• • • Position - Player Name - Faction:
    • 2nd - Michael Rausch - Ossiarch Bonereapers: New book Bonereapers want to grind you down with Crematorians Mortek mortals and just control the board
    • 3rd - Carlos Munoz - Ogor Mawtribes: Triple Stonehorn Boulderhead that goes cheap with Frost Sabres for battleline to afford the ludicrously big heroes selection
    • 4th - Rob Mulshine - Big Waaagh: A blended Ironjawz/Kruleboyz list that even brings Skragrott to the party
    • 5th - Jeff Campbell-Crawley - Sylvaneth: See showdown
    • 6th - Kyle Blasky - Khorne: A Mortals Skullfiend list that runs heavy on Blood Warriors and buff heroes to help them kick ass

Spring Rubicon 2023 GT

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in West Bend, WI United States on April 29 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission -

Isaiah Ramczyk - Skaven :

vs.

Nicholas True - Kharadron Overlords:

Thoughts

What if a bunch of deep strike rats and a corner deploying Kharadron Overlords met on the field of battle? Well dear reader - I think it's a matter of how many 6s the Gutter Runners are capable of rolling. If the answer is not "a lot", then...

Result

Kharadron Overlords Victory - 23 - 13

I'm mostly having fun with this one because it seems to me to be a rather lopsided matchup - depending on the deployment zones Nicholas can basically hide most of his army by corner deploying and putting up a few sacrifical units as forward screens and give away first turn, making it impossible for Isaiah to do anything meaningful with his first turn.

Nicholas True - Kharadron Overlords - 1st Place

Instagram: bair_paints

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Brokk and the Zilfin boys

Thoughts

The original KO build that took the metagame by storm is still very potent thanks to fitting into a 1 drop, where it's cousin the oops all Thunderers build has to settle for all of the drops. It's not got quite the same level of oppressive firepower, but depending on the field you expect to face you might not need to. Brokk is here mainly as he acts as a pseduo-Frigate who fits in a Leader slot rather than a Unit slot and thus helps the whole thing fit in a battle regiment.

The Best of the Rest

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

• • • Position - Player Name - Faction:
    • 2nd - Barton Kennelly - Blades of Khorne: The Flayed: Is 30 Blood Warriors in one unit too many? Barton doesn't think so. This unusual build runs a Skull Cannon, Dromm, a Chaos Gargant and not a single Bloodthirster
    • 3rd - Jon Oetting - Blades of Khorne: Bloodlords: On the other end of the spectrum is Jon, whose running 60 Bloodletters and 3 Bloodmasters for all of the blood themed names
    • 4th - Isaiah Ramcyzk - Skaventide: See showdown
    • 5th - Alex Shankle - Stormcast Eternals: Hammers of Sigmar: Fulminators, Longstrikes, Stormdrake Guard and even Aventis Firestrike
    • 6th - Alex Binns - Flesh-eater Courts: 18 Crypt Horrors in Galletian Veterans make up the hammers of this summoning and big monster Crusading army
    • 7th - Matt Griffin - Kharadron Overlords: Barak-Zon: A Thunderers one drop list that goes a little more melee focused than usual, with the addition of 6 Skywardens to ride in the Frigate for a significant punch thanks to Zon bonuses

Wrap Up

That'll do it for this week - I think the dust has settled enough that we can clearly see that the metagame has a new top dog in the Kharadron Overlords. The reason being is that quite simply some armies straight up don't have an effective answer to the level of firepower that the army is capable of putting out in a single shooting phase. Gitz represent different and equally challenging issues for some armies, but I'm pleased to say that beyond that it seems that most armies seem to be able to flourish in that fat middle of armies (with the Orruk Warclans and Sons of Behemat likely sitting at the bottom). See you next week.