Orks and Genestealer Cults were spotted at the top of the Warhammer 40k Athoria First Last Chance GT over the weekend. Let’s break down the top 3 overall!
Here lately, there’s been a trend of unique home-brew lists rising to the top of the leader boards and that’s exactly what happened at the Athoria First Last Chance GT.
The tournament had a total of thirty players come out to the event. The Athoria GT ran a 2,000 point army cap under the ITC format allowing up to three detachments for five total rounds.
Thanks to Best Coast Pairings for giving the community the ability to stay up-to-date with what players are bringing across the globe. Without any more delay, let’s jump into the top three players’ lists with scoring done by Overall points.
3rd Place- Benjamin Jurek: Orks
- Three Wins- Two Loss
Looking at this Ork list, it’s extremely unique and even has a little one-two punch combo built in. You might notice that he took Freebooterz as his Clan. That’s one that we haven’t really seen come into play at the competitive level. However, adding 1 to your hit rolls for everybody else that’s a Freebooter is always good.
Two Dakka Jets and a Blastajet peppered light targets like Infantry screens just before they were slammed into an Ork Boy Blob that got Da Jumped’ earlier in the turn.
Lastly, two Gorkanauts and one Morkanaut were seen stomping up the field using the Vigilus Dread Waagh! formation. -This is the first time we’ve seen ANY kind of Gorkanaut/Morkanaut used that actually placed pretty high in a tournament. Gorkanauts are like Land Raiders. They’re slow and at an awkward point level. However, it looks like Vigilus might’ve made them a real force to be reckoned with.
2nd Place- Genestealer Cult: Jon Camacho
- Four Wins- One Loss
This list is jam-PACKED with little bodies. This is a bit of a soup list with the best things both Tyranids and GSC have to offer. Looking at the GSC first, a Battalion was taken with three squads of Neophytes for cheap ground control. The real legwork of the detachment really comes from the ten Abberants and the Abominant. If you can get these guys to connect with a juicy target, they will surely make it disappear. The trick is getting them there. Also thank goodness for a pocket Primus and the Cult Ambush table.
Looking at the Tyranids, some Ripper Swarms were brought to hold objectives and really just to annoy lighter enemy squads. Hive Tyrants are still one of the most solid Tyranid units around as well. However, the real scary part is nineteen Genestealers that were accompanied by a Swarmlord. This combo is a disgusting one. The Swarmlord lets a unit move for free in your turn.
Picking the Genestealers, they are able to get up the board turn one. They are the Hive Fleet Kraken by the way, which means they get extra charge bonuses and can even fight twice. Essentially, opponents will no longer have any screens after turn one and they’ve just been opened up to an Aberrant bomb. If he wanted to save his Genestealers for something else or he thought they needed a little backup, he also kept a thirty-man blob of Termagaunts for an unholy amount of assault 3 shooting.
1st Place- Ynnari: Daniel Olivas
- Five Wins- No Loss
Keeping the theme with most Eldar lists, they pull from all different kinds of subfactions. The stratagem support and key units are too good not to! Dark Eldar were taken as a cheap Kabal of the Black Heart Battalion using Venoms to apply some early-game pressure.
The real “meat” of the list would have to come from Yvraine and her entourage of Dark Reapers. When you combine anti-armor firepower with soul Bursting action, you’re looking at a very short game for someone who brought something like Knights. Soul Burst is still probably one of the most powerful effects on the table. It lets the Eldar player essentially ignore the basic steps of the game by moving/shooting/fighting out of sequence.
Skilled Eldar players can finesse their way to victory by killing the right things at just the right moment.
Finally, a Batallion of Craftworld Eldar served as a vanguard for the rest of the force.
Eldar are still finishing strong in most tournaments and Ynnari haven’t even gotten a codex! Great job to all the players that made it in the top three!
Like we’ve said before, these lists are all unique and have some aspects that we aren’t seeing in any other lists. It looks like 40k’s meta is the healthiest it has ever been. Time and time again, people are proving that just about any unit is a solid option if used right. What do you think about these lists? Do you play a similar army to what was used here? Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group.
About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials:@RealmbrushPainting
Bio: Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4.
If you like what he writes and want to reach out or get your models painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
