Alexander Berkan’s 5-0 Space Marines took the Halloween Havoc army lists crown by stuffing Marneus Calgar into a 10-man Terminator brick.
To be fair, the Ultramarines didn’t exactly cruise through an easy field, as Berkan’s last two opponents finished fifth and second, but he did beat both by double digits.
Halloween Havoc brought 18 players to the Royal Canadian Legion in Estevan, Saskatchewan, for five rounds of 11th Edition over Halloween weekend. Yeah, it’s a small event, but going 5-0 while beating two of the other top finishers in your last two games is still worth checking out, especially this early in the new edition.
The final round was pretty wild, too. Nathan Sgrazzutti’s Chaos Space Marines brought 30 Terminators as well, putting 60 Terminators on the same table with the whole event riding on the result.
Halloween Havoc: Top 3 Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- Both top lists brought thirty Terminators in three ten-model bricks, and they met in round five: Berkan’s Marines took that one 90-73, which is what locked in the 5-0.
- Berkan’s only game under 90 battle points was his opener against Imperial Knights: He won it 69-51, and every round after that came in at 90 or higher.
- Sean Reynolds’ Chaos Knights scored more total battle points than both players above him: That’s 483 to their 451 each, and he still landed third on a 4-1.
Thanks to Best Coast Pairings, we’ve got the real pairings and battle point data to see how the whole thing played out.
Alexander Berkan’s Terminator Storm Force Space Marines Beat Second and Fifth Place on the Way to 5-0
Berkan called his list “More Terminators”, which is about as accurate a name as you’re going to get. He’s got three 10-man bricks doing almost all the work, with a character or two tucked into each one to make sure they hit hard.
Terminator Storm Force Roster Breakdown
For his detachments, he spent his whole budget on three 1 DP picks from the 11th Edition Space Marines detachments: Assault Brethren, Ironstorm Spearhead and Terminator Storm Force.
Marneus Calgar is the Warlord, hanging out in a Terminator Squad with two Assault Cannons and an Ancient in Terminator Armor. Then you’ve got a Captain in Terminator Armor with a Relic Fist leading the Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield Assault Terminators. The third brick goes with two Cyclone Missile Launchers instead of Assault Cannons, plus another Captain and Ancient, giving it something to shoot at range while the hammer boys move up.
All three bricks have Furious Assault, so there isn’t much room left for anything fancy. The rest of the army is Company Heroes, three Outriders and five Scouts, which are your objective and action units, while the Terminators focus on controlling the middle of the table.
How Terminator Storm Force Wins the Attrition Game
His first game was his closest as Berkan beat Adolph Zimmerman’s Imperial Knights 69-51, with neither player putting up a huge score. From there, things opened up considerably. He beat Riley Faber’s World Eaters 100-64, with Faber eventually finishing fourth, then handled Daniel Unger’s Custodes 98-65.
The last two rounds weren’t exactly pushovers, either. Round four had him facing Cort Barker in a Space Marine mirror. Barker was the only guy who managed to beat the eventual third-place finisher, but Berkan still took the game 94-76. Then came the big Terminator showdown in round five, where he finished the event with a 90-73 win.
Nathan Sgrazzutti’s Warpstrike Champions Chaos Space Marines Only Lost the Terminator Mirror
Sgrazzutti apparently had the same idea, just from the other side of the Heresy. He’s also running three 10-man Terminator bricks, only his version uses an Iron Warriors-flavored warp portal detachment to get the job done.
Warpstrike Champions Roster Breakdown
He combined Warpstrike Champions with Cabal of Chaos, two of the 11th Edition Chaos Space Marines detachments, spending 3 DP altogether. Kravek Morne takes the Warlord spot and leads ten Chaos Terminators carrying two Heavy Flamers.
Cabal of Chaos comes into play with the other two squads, since both have a Sorcerer in Terminator Armor leading them. One Sorcerer gets Akshur’s Binding Runes, the other gets Tzagulla, and each squad brings two Reaper Autocannons.
There’s also a Chaos Lord in Terminator Armor, and then you’ve got the cheaper units filling out the list: two Cultist Mobs, two three-man Biker squads and three Mutilators. Look at the overall setup, and it’s remarkably close to what Berkan brought, so no wonder their final-round matchup was so interesting.
How Warpstrike Champions Wins the Blowout Rounds
Nobody really gave Sgrazzutti much trouble for his first four games. He started with a 94-48 win against Justin Hardy’s Custodes, followed that with a 96-40 beating of Jonathan Foreman’s Thousand Sons, then took down James Mitchell’s World Eaters 91-43. Round four brought another Custodes opponent in Daniel Unger, and Sgrazzutti won that one 97-62.
That’s an average winning margin of 46 battle points over four rounds, which is pretty ridiculous. Then he ran into Berkan in the final and lost 73-90.
Sean Reynolds’ Infernal Lance Chaos Knights Hid Four Big Knights Behind a Nurgling Carpet
Reynolds wasn’t interested in joining the Terminator party; he brought four big Knights and a whole bunch of Nurglings instead. He even named the list Nurglings and Friends, so you can probably guess which models are getting top billing there…
Infernal Lance Roster Breakdown
He’s running Infernal Lance, an older codex detachment rather than one of the new 11th Edition Chaos Knights detachments. It costs the full 3 DP on its own. His Warlord is a Knight Tyrant with Fleshmetal Fusion, backed up by a Despoiler carrying two Gatling Cannons, a Rampager with Knight Diabolus, and a Desecrator.
Those four Knights are there to do the killing. The rest of the list has a very different job. He’s got a Beast of Nurgle and five units of Nurglings, totaling 24 bases, to fill the spaces between the big walkers. They’re not supposed to run around murdering things; their job is to grab objectives, clog up the board, and generally be a pain to get past. Try doing all that with just four Knights, lol.
How Infernal Lance Wins the Battle Point Race
Reynolds had some seriously close games mixed in with a couple of absolute blowouts. He barely got past Shawn Symes’ Imperial Agents 98-95 in round one, then smashed James Mitchell’s World Eaters 100-33. Round three was where things went wrong, with Cort Barker’s Space Marines handing him a 100-88 loss.
He recovered with a 97-57 win against Derek Valente’s Custodes, then finished with another close one, beating Chris Hunter’s Orks 100-97. Add those scores together, and he finished on 483 battle points, more than either player above him.
Even so, BCP placed him third behind another 4-1 player with fewer battle points, so whatever tiebreaker the event used, it clearly wasn’t just total battle points.
Final Thoughts on the Halloween Havoc Army Lists & the 11th Edition Meta
GW went into the new edition saying it wanted tough units to actually feel tough, and apparently the top two players at Halloween Havoc took that pretty seriously. Now, we’re still talking about an 18-player tournament, so calling this a new meta trend would be getting ahead of ourselves.
But it’s worth comparing these results with past Terminator-heavy events like Napalm Hobbies Summer GT army lists and the Gulf Tournament Circuit Dubai army lists to see other builds where these big blocks keep popping up.
We’ll also be watching the next balance dataslate and points update. If Terminators make it through without any changes, don’t be surprised if a lot more players show up to their next GT packing three bricks like this too.
đź”— Related Reads:
- How to Play Space Marines
- How to Play Chaos Space Marines
- How to Play Chaos Knights
- Top Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- More Top Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- 40k Tournament Guide
- Warhammer 40k Factions Guide
What do you think of the Halloween Havoc army lists, and are Terminator bricks here to stay in 11th Edition?
