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 are very much settled into a summer of Knights, Death Guard, and stuff tuned beat them, but players are at least having a good go at finding options for that third thing, including at this year’s US Goonhammer Open, where none of the big meta menaces feature in the Showdown.

That is, as always, going to be front and centre today, giving us a total roster of:

2025 Goonhammer US Open Warhammer 40k GT
THE LEEDS 40K SUPER MAJOR
Dearg Doom III: You Wouldn’t Steal A Chainsword
Layton Gaming 40K Event Hosted by Away Games
Twin dragon games Dragons Hoard July GT

On Friday Lowest of Men will look at:

III GT Tormenta de Hostias
Geelong 40k Town Open
CQ Exterminatus 2025 – Warhammer 40k Tournament
Copenhagen Chainsword GT I

Our Showdowns for this week, after a (genuinely) not rigged voting procedure, are:

Hallowed Martyr Sisters vs. Experimental Prototype T’au at the Goonhammer Open
Aeldari Guardian Battlehost vs Lions of the Emperor at the Copenhagen Chainsword GT

2025 Goonhammer US Open Warhammer 40k GT

36-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Linthicum Heights, MD, United States on July 05 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Supply Drop – Hammer and Anvil

Noah Keeth – T’au Empire (Experimental Prototype Cadre)
Army List - Click to Expand

eeppy cadre (2000 points)

T’au Empire
Strike Force (2000 points)
Experimental Prototype Cadre

CHARACTERS

Cadre Fireblade (50 points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Fireblade pulse rifle
2x Gun Drone

Commander in Coldstar Battlesuit (95 points)
• Warlord
• 1x Battlesuit fists
4x Missile pod
2x Shield Drone

BATTLELINE

Breacher Team (100 points)
• 1x Support turret
• 1x Breacher Fire Warrior Shas’ui
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Guardian Drone
1x Gun Drone
1x Pulse blaster
1x Pulse pistol
• 9x Breacher Fire Warrior
• 9x Close combat weapon
9x Pulse blaster
9x Pulse pistol

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS

Devilfish (85 points)
• 1x Accelerator burst cannon
1x Armoured hull
2x Seeker missile
2x Smart missile system

OTHER DATASHEETS

Broadside Battlesuits (90 points)
• 1x Crushing bulk
1x Heavy rail rifle
2x Missile Drone
1x Seeker missile
1x Twin plasma rifle

Crisis Fireknife Battlesuits (130 points)
• 1x Crisis Fireknife Shas’vre
• 1x Battlesuit fists
1x Gun Drone
1x Marker Drone
2x Missile pod
• 2x Crisis Fireknife Shas’ui
• 2x Battlesuit fists
2x Gun Drone
4x Missile pod
2x Shield Drone

Ghostkeel Battlesuit (160 points)
• 1x Battlesuit Support System
1x Cyclic ion raker
1x Ghostkeel fists
1x Twin fusion blaster

Hammerhead Gunship (145 points)
• 1x Armoured hull
1x Railgun
2x Seeker missile
2x Smart missile system

Pathfinder Team (90 points)
• 1x Pathfinder Shas’ui
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Pulse carbine
1x Pulse pistol
• 9x Pathfinder
• 9x Close combat weapon
3x Ion rifle
6x Pulse carbine
9x Pulse pistol
1x Semi-automatic grenade launcher

Piranhas (120 points)
• 2x Piranha
• 2x Armoured hull
2x Piranha fusion blaster
4x Seeker missile
4x Twin pulse carbine

Piranhas (60 points)
• 1x Armoured hull
1x Piranha fusion blaster
2x Seeker missile
2x Twin pulse carbine

Sky Ray Gunship (140 points)
• 1x Armoured hull
1x Seeker missile rack
2x Twin pulse carbine

Stealth Battlesuits (80 points)
• 1x Stealth Shas’vre
• 1x Battlesuit fists
1x Fusion blaster
1x Homing Beacon
1x Marker Drone
1x Shield Drone
• 2x Stealth Shas’ui
• 2x Battlesuit fists
2x Burst cannon

Exported with App Version: v1.36.1 (87), Data Version: v640

vs.

Jeffrey Kolodner – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs)
Army List - Click to Expand

You Only Die Twice

Order of the Eternal Crucible
-Hallowed Martyrs

Canoness Yda – Canoness – (50)
-Blessed Blade, Condemnor Boltgun

Statuary Tender Honest — Imagifier (65)

Orator Superior Amalia — Junith Eruita (80)

Prioress Sabine – Morvenn Vahl (170)
— Warlord

Purifier Charity – Palatine (75)
– Plasma Pistol, Through Suffering, Strength

Purifier Patience – Palatine (50)
– Plasma Pistol

Battle Sister Squad (105)
– Multi-Melta
– Simulacrum
– Power Weapon+Condemnor
– Ministorum Flamer

Battle Sister Squad (105)
– Multi-Melta
– Simulacrum
– Power Weapon+Condemnor
– Meltagun

Crucible’s Reach — Immolator (115)
– Twin Multi-Melta
– Hunter-Killer Missile

Purifying Incandescence — Immolator (115)
– Twin Multi-Melta
– Hunter-Killer Missile

Refutation of Dross — Castigator (160)
-Castigator Battle Cannon
-Hunter-Killer Missile
-Storm Bolter

Ringing Purity — Castigator (160)
-Castigator Battle Cannon
-Hunter-Killer Missile
-Storm Bolter

The Feral — Mortifier (70)
-2x Heavy Bolter+Twin Buzz Blade
-Anchorite Sarcophagus

The Fool — Mortifier (70)
-2x Heavy Bolter+Twin Buzz Blade
-Anchorite Sarcophagus

The Forsaking — Mortifier (70)
-2x Heavy Bolter+Twin Buzz Blade
-Anchorite Sarcophagus

The Refulgant Bulwark – Paragon Warsuits (210)
-3x Multi-Melta+Paragon Grenades
-3x Paragon War Mace

Celestian Sacresancts (130)
-9 Anointed Halberd
-1 Spear of the Faithful+Inferno Pistol

Sisters Novitiates (100)
-Power Weapon+Plasma Pistol
-Sacred Banner
-Simulacra
-2xFlamer
-Autopistols and Novitiate Blades

Madeline – Callidus Assassin (100)

Thoughts

As promised, no Knights at the top, with a high threat T’au build facing off against a very sticky Sororitas list. The T’au army is mostly self explanatory given it’s running as the “gun” detachment in the “gun” faction, but there are a couple of things to flag, notably that running exactly one Crisis block is a great way to maximise the value of Neuroweb System Jammer (and the type of Crisis chosen is good with all the buffs), and the one double Piranha unit is kind of cute as a trade-up threat. Pop Threat Assessment Analyser in full mode and they could do anything from whiff or blow a whole Knight to pieces, and that demands a fair amount of respect for what’s still only a 120pts unit.

Against them we have Sisters, who as the army name suggests can use Divine Intervention to keep their cheap Characters in position for scoring or annoyance, can use those sacrificial pieces (or Mortifiers) especially effectively against Knights thanks to Suffering and Sacrifice. That allows the melee threats here to engage big targets with quite a bit of confidence, and ensures the army has a very scary counterattack against pressure builds.

Obviously the last thing the T’au want to try and do is pressure the Sisters in melee, and will instead try and keep them at arm’s length while the many guns do their work. While the melee tricks from the Sisters don’t therefore do very much, reviving Characters is exceptional against one-phase armies, and likely to ensure early scoring is healthy for the Sisters. On Supply Drop that’s not the be all and end all, as if the T’au can grind the Sisters off the table they can potentially still win via late game points, but the problem is that if the Sisters can score with just cheap pieces, they can keep a lot in reserve to whack the T’au when they’re forced to push up later on. I wonder if there’s maybe an angle as the T’au for going Fixed with Assassinate/Cleanse or something, forcing the Sisters to either play with real units or give up early scoring. However, the issue there is that if you then roll the second turn you’re probably stuffed, as the Sisters can then pretty much just hide all game and emerge for a win at the end. I think the T’au probably just have to be a bit more aggressive than they instinctively would be and try and build up a damage advantage, which is pretty high risk, but I think the only option that doesn’t lead to a pretty locked in lost. From the score, I’m going to guess that that risk ended up biting pretty hard, as the Sisters won comfortably.

Result

Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs) Victory – 83 – 47

Jeffrey Kolodner – Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand