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.

Part 2 on Friday:

The London Grand Tournament – 40k Main Event (LGT 40k GT)
SA Nationals 2025 – Warhammer 40k
Wettcon höst 2025
War in the Wastelands: Warhammer 40k Grand Tournament

Part 1 on Wednesday:

Münsterland Major 3
Saimaa 40K 2025
2. Traunsteincup
Safety’s Off’s “The Pumpkin Spice Must Flow” GT

The London Grand Tournament – 40k Main Event (LGT 40k GT)

1058-player, 10-round Supermajor in GB on September 27 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Wings: Before diving into the normal stuff here, I wanted to quickly cover a couple of key macro takeaways from the LGT, particularly looking at the players who went through the Swiss undefeated.

Losers

First up are two factions that notably underperformed – Aeldari and World Eaters. These were both very popular factions going into the event, and had a solid tailwind of win rates and performances (and World Eaters were the single most popular Faction in the field). Both did very poorly given this, with Aeldari converting only a single 5-0 from Vanguard Tactics’ Ben Jones, and World Eaters capping out at 4-1. The dip isn’t just at the very top either – because of LGT, both factions are down near to 50% win rate on the week, compared to being ahead of the pack after the Dataslate otherwise (and doing well elsewhere).

What’s up with that? For Aeldari, I think it was the terrain. I was on the elves, and had my now traditional “worst performance of the year at LGT”, and I felt like the list I’d mostly refined on WTC and GW layouts was wrong for the boards (not helped in my case by some disastrous screw ups into Drukhari). If you had two Serpents, you couldn’t usefully hide both from the firing lanes, if you had one, you ended up with more assets in spots that were a bit too vulnerable to being picked off by armies with cheaper trade pieces. Looking at Ben’s list gives me some confidence in this diagnosis. Falcon/Wave Serpent/one big Hawk unit feels like the only setup that gives you the right balance for these tables, as the more svelte Falcon can either squeeze into smaller hiding spots than a second Serpent, or just start in the sky if the foe has the wrong type of reach. Bluntly, I’m just going to copy that (or something close to it) for my next UKTC event, and I’d encourage other Aeldari players to at minimum default to the Serpent/Falcon core for these maps.

For World Eaters, the diagnosis feels a bit tougher as in theory they have some of the attributes that otherwise defined successful armies. In practice, I think it’s probably that the 10-model units of Berzerkers aren’t ideal in these maps (you want cheaper trade pieces), while the 20 is enough of a footprint that if you hit the wrong army and go second, you get alpha struck. Most of the 4-1s had a single 20-model unit, and that’s probably correct on these tables still, but going through the round 5 losses for the players who started 4-0 is grim reading; they all seemed to manage to hit armies with high shooting reach (Mont’ka T’au, Deathwatch, Emperor’s Children with lots of Noise Marines, things of this nature) on the Search and Destroy map, where the firing lanes into the deployment zone get pretty nasty once a list crosses a threshold of speed. Having done this delve into the 4-0 starts, I’m reasonably happy there was a significant chance element to this – there were quite a lot of World Eaters players undefeated after round four, and plenty of winnable games in the pool, they just all hit the worst stuff possible for this map and/or Liam Vsl. That said, I do think there’s a takeaway that if you’re running World Eaters for UKTC specifically, practice deploying on the Take and Hold map, as for the players who finished 4-1 who didn’t start 4-0, a disproportionate number of them picked up their loss in round 3, which was also on Take and Hold.

Overperformers

Pressure power armour and builds that could exploit the firing lanes spiked up significantly at LGT. Raven Guard, Dark Angels and Emperor’s Children both put multiple lists into the knockout rounds, and were accompanied by other flavours like Deathwatch and Stormlance Ultramarines. All of these combine high pressure melee tricks with ways of getting very nasty shooting working down the flanks, and having both seems to have been what separated the wheat from the chaff on these tables, perhaps helping to explain why World Eaters dipped in comparison (Forgefiends don’t have the speed to properly exploit the maps). Even the one Blood Angels build that made it through was very much at the combined arms end of Liberator, bringing two Vindicators and two Baals. As the UKTC maps stand, it feels like if you’re not able to leverage the Take and Hold setup in your favour, you’re basically flipping two coins to see whether you manage to make it through the event 5-0, notwithstanding anything else that happens.

Outside of the power armour collective, T’au, Drukhari, AdMech and Infernal Chaos Knights all did well, putting multiple players through to knockouts. T’au and Infernals both have the speed to really exploit firing lanes, and are doing it with durable enough threats that opponents are forced to come out and play. Reaper’s Wager Drukhari combine strong reach from ruin to ruin, relatively low footprints, and really nasty reach shooting by putting Assault on Scourges. AdMech are arguably the outlier, as they don’t have quite the same speed to set up, but they benefit from Ruststalkers being a fantastic counter to what a lot of other armies are trying to do, and extreme redundancy because of how cheap everything is for them right now (and their overall win rate is starting to suggest they might just be a bit overtuned, but we’ll frankly let them have that for a few weeks before we complain too much).

The important thing amidst all this, of course, is that it wasn’t just these armies that did well, and stepping back it does feel like we’re in a pretty exciting and healthy place overall (unless you’re Thousand Sons, in which case sorry that happened). I’m going to be fascinated to see how LVO plays out next week, and I’ll find time to do this same analysis again, as there definitely does seem to have been a terrain effect on how LGT played out.

Lowest of Men: Thanks for the amazing insights Wings! I got to be in the observing seat for LGT as lead commentator for UKTCTV, and I was watching more or less everything you encapsulated play out in real time- it was an event for the marriage of both speedy pressure AND good lane shooting, and armies able to exploit both thrived. Let’s have a look at how the final played out!

The Showdown – Liam VSL (CSM – Veterans of the Long War) versus Alexandre Sacco (Drukhari – Reaper’s Wager))

Take and Hold – Search and Destroy

liam Vsl – Chaos Space Marines (Veterans of the Long War)
Army List - Click to Expand

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ PLAYER NAME: liam vsl
+ TEAM NAME: Ignite
+ FACTION KEYWORD: Chaos – Chaos Space Marines
+ DETACHMENT: Veterans of the Long War
+ TOTAL ARMY POINTS: 2000pts
+
+ WARLORD: Char2: Fabius Bile
+ ENHANCEMENT:
+ NUMBER OF UNITS: 16
+ SECONDARY: – Bring It Down: (4×2) – Assassination: 3 Characters – Cull The Horde: 1×5
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

CHARACTER

1x Cypher (90 pts)
• 1x Cypher’s bolt pistol
• 1x Cypher’s plasma pistol

2x Fabius Bile (85 pts)
• 1x Fabius Bile
• 1x Rod of Torment
• 1x The Chirurgeon
• 1x Xyclos needler
• Fabius Bile
• 1x Surgeon Acolyte
• 1x Surgeon Acolyte’s tools
• Surgeon Acolyte, Warlord

1x Chaos Lord (90 pts)
• 1x Daemon hammer
• 1x Plasma pistol

BATTLELINE

10x Cultist Mob (50 pts)
• 1x Cultist Champion
• 1x Brutal assault weapon
• 1x Bolt pistol
• 9x Cultist
• 9x Autopistol
• 9x Brutal assault weapon

5x Legionaries (90 pts)
• 1x Aspiring Champion
• 1x Close combat weapon
• 1x Plasma pistol
• 1x Heavy melee weapon
• Aspiring Champion
• 4x Legionary
• 2x Astartes chainsword
• 4x Bolt pistol
• 4x Close combat weapon
• 1x Heavy melee weapon
• 1x Lascannon
• 4x Legionaries, Chaos icon

OTHER DATASHEETS

10x Chosen (250 pts)
• 1x Chosen Champion
• 1x Plasma pistol
• 1x Power fist
• 1x Boltgun
• Chaos icon, Chosen Champion
• 9x Chosen
• 6x Accursed weapon
• 6x Bolt pistol
• 3x Boltgun
• 4x Combi-weapon
• 2x Paired accursed weapons
• 3x Plasma pistol
• 1x Power fist
• 9x Chosen

5x Nemesis Claw (110 pts)
• 1x Visionary
• 1x Power fist
• 1x Plasma pistol
• 4x Legionary
• 1x Accursed weapon
• 4x Bolt pistol
• 4x Close combat weapon
• 1x Nostraman chainglaive
• 1x Paired accursed weapons
• 1x Astartes chainsword
• Voice eater

6x Noise Marines (145 pts)
• 1x Disharmonist
• 1x Close combat weapon
• 1x Power sword
• 1x Screamer pistol
• Disharmonist
• 5x Noise Marine
• 2x Blastmaster
• 5x Close combat weapon
• 3x Sonic blaster
• 5x Noise Marines

2x Obliterators (160 pts)
• 2x Obliterator
• 2x Crushing fists
• 2x Fleshmetal guns

10x Warp Talons (270 pts)
• 10x Warp Talon
• 10x Warp claws

3x Chaos Bikers (70 pts)
• 1x Biker Champion
• 1x Close combat weapon
• 1x Combi-bolter
• 1x Power fist
• Chaos icon
• 2x Biker
• 2x Close combat weapon
• 2x Combi-bolter
• 2x Plasma gun
• 2x Astartes chainsword

1x Chaos Predator Destructor (140 pts)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Havoc launcher
• 1x Predator autocannon
• 1x Combi-weapon
• 2x Lascannon

1x Chaos Rhino (75 pts)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Combi-bolter
• 1x Havoc launcher
• 1x Combi-weapon

vs.

Alexandre Sacco – Drukhari (Reaper’s Wager)
Army List - Click to Expand

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ FACTION KEYWORD: Xenos – Drukhari
+ DETACHMENT: Reaper’s Wager
+ TOTAL ARMY POINTS: 1995pts
+
+ WARLORD: Char5: Archon
+ ENHANCEMENT: Webway walker (on Char1: Archon)
& Archraider (on Char2: Troupe Master)
+ NUMBER OF UNITS: 22
+ SECONDARY: – Bring It Down: (4×2) – Assassination: 6 Characters
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

CHARACTER

1x Drazhar (85 pts)
• 1x The Executioner’s demiklaives

1x Lelith Hesperax (95 pts)
• 1x Lelith’s blades

1x Solitaire (115 pts)
• 1x Solitaire Weapons

1x Urien Rakarth (80 pts)
• 1x Casket of Flensing
• 1x Haemonculus tools and scissorhands

1x Archon (100 pts)
• 1x Huskblade
• 1x Blast pistol
• Warlord
• Webway walker (+15 pts)

1x Troupe Master (90 pts)
• 1x Troupe Master’s Blade
• 1x Fusion Pistol
• Archraider (+15 pts)

BATTLELINE

10x Kabalite Warriors (100 pts)
• 1x Sybarite
• 1x Sybarite Weapon
• 1x Blast Pistol
• Phantasm Grenade Launcher
• 5x Kabalite Warrior
• 5x Close Combat Weapon
• 5x Splinter rifle
• 1x Kabalite Warrior with Blaster
• 1x Blaster
• 1x Close Combat Weapon
• 1x Kabalite Warrior with Dark Lance
• 1x Close Combat Weapon
• 1x Dark lance
• 1x Kabalite Warrior with Shredder
• 1x Close Combat Weapon
• 1x Shredder
• 1x Kabalite Warrior with Splinter Cannon
• 1x Close Combat Weapon
• 1x Splinter cannon

5x Wracks (55 pts)
• 1x Acothyst
• 1x Wrack blades
• 1x Wrack with Hexrifle
• 1x Hexrifle
• 1x Wrack blades
• 1x Wrack with Liquifier Gun
• 1x Liquifier gun
• 1x Wrack blades
• 1x Wrack with Ossefactor
• 1x Ossefactor
• 1x Wrack blades
• 1x Wrack with Stinger Pistol
• 1x Stinger pistol
• 1x Wrack blades

10x Wyches (80 pts)
• 1x Hekatrix
• 1x Hekatarii Blade
• 1x Blast Pistol
• Phantasm Grenade Launcher
• 9x Wych
• 9x Hekatarii Blade
• 9x Splinter Pistol

OTHER DATASHEETS

4x Court of the Archon (95 pts)
• 1x Lhamaean
• 1x Shaimeshi Blade
• Lhamaean
• 1x Medusae
• 1x Close combat weapon
• 1x Eyeburst
• Medusae
• 1x Sslyth
• 1x Shardcarbine
• 1x Splinter pistol
• 1x Sslyth battle-blade
• Sslyth
• 1x Ur-ghul
• 1x Ur-ghul Talons
• Ur-ghul

5x Incubi (85 pts)
• 1x Klaivex
• 1x Demiklaives
• Klaivex
• 4x Incubi
• 4x Klaive
• 4x Incubi

5x Mandrakes (65 pts)
• 1x Nightfiend
• 1x Baleblast
• 1x Glimmersteel Blade
• 4x Mandrake
• 4x Baleblast
• 4x Glimmersteel Blade
• 4x Mandrake

5x Scourges (130 pts)
• 1x Solarite
• 1x Close combat weapon
• 1x Solarite Weapon
• 1x Shardcarbine
• 4x Scourge with Heavy Weapon
• 4x Close combat weapon
• 4x Dark Lance

5x Scourges (130 pts)
• 1x Solarite
• 1x Close combat weapon
• 1x Solarite Weapon
• 1x Shardcarbine
• 4x Scourge with Heavy Weapon
• 4x Close combat weapon
• 4x Drukhari Haywire Blaster

5x Troupe (85 pts)
• 1x Lead Player
• 1x Power sword
• 1x Fusion Pistol
• Troupe
• 1x Player with Harlequin’s Blade
• 1x Harlequin’s Blade
• 1x Shuriken Pistol
• Troupe
• 2x Player with Neuro Disruptor
• 2x Neuro Disruptor
• 2x Harlequin’s Blade
• 2x Troupe
• 1x Player with Fusion Pistol
• 1x Fusion Pistol
• 1x Harlequin’s Blade
• Troupe

10x Hellions (150 pts)
• 1x Heliarch
• 1x Splinter Pods
• 1x Hellglaive
• Phantasm Grenade Launcher
• 9x Hellion
• 9x Hellglaive
• 9x Splinter Pods

1x Cronos (50 pts)
• 1x Cronos
• 1x Spirit Syphon
• 1x Spirit Vortex
• 1x Spirit-leech Tentacles
• Cronos

1x Starweaver (80 pts)
• 1x Close Combat Weapon
• 2x Shuriken Cannon

1x Venom (65 pts)
• 1x Bladevanes
• 1x Splinter Cannon
• 1x Splinter Cannon

Thoughts

I watched this game from a hotel room after a very long day of work after an even longer weekend, and my word, it was good entertainment. Big shout out to Joe from Wargames Live for coming over to stream LGT, you were amazing and it was great to have Skari on for this final game.

My understanding is that both our players, WTC heavyweights with years of experience and LGT wins to their name, had played this game in practice for the event and found it close and difficult for both sides. They both brought lists that were very flexible for the meta and able to bully ranged armies or play into melee pressure, but that also have a lot of ways to hurt each other! So let’s unpack it.

In the challenger’s corner, Sacco’s Drukhari. I picked this list as my favourite to win the event beforehand – partly because my heart says Drukhari, and partly because I am a huge believer in Alexandre’s talent and anticipated some of the advantages Wings outlined above (a great staging ruin centrally, and shooting lanes that Scourge LOVE), as well as a very Marine-heavy meta, something the Dark Kin enjoy. Dodge Aeldari and Daemons and you’re on to a winner. Sacco has multiple sources of Fights First with the Solitaire, Lelith, and his Court, and precision anti-tank shooting in the Lance Scourge to keep opponents honest. Drukhari often have a very good game into CSM – the spiky marines are quite honest in play terms, and Drukhari profiles shred their units…

… But what if the serial winner of LGT knew how to adapt his list to cover those weak spots?

Liam has been one of the few to squeeze the absolute maximum out of Veterans of the Long War, which helps you get meaningful value from Obliterator indirect, use reactive move shenanigans on Bile’s brick to get more uses from it from time to time, and also let’s you squeeze in a situational, but powerful Fights First that you can spring on your Focus of Hatred (Selected like an Oaths target). The latter is occasionally match up defining, ruining one on ones the opponent hopes to apply in key moments and springing a counter-attack. Liam also brought 10 Warp Talons – this is a unit that can frustrate as often as it shines, but if you can be patient and surgical, it puts the opponent on a late-game timer as it picks off key pieces and opens gaps, before confirming a primary win by sneaking into a weak spot. With these, the Fights First and the Obliterators in his list, Liam was (in his own words) ready to play some ‘dishonest’ Warhammer of his own to keep armies like Aeldari and Drukhari at bay.

The macro play out of this game was that on Take and Hold, the Drukhari went first, and it was their job to force the issue. Sacco doesn’t have a Beastpack in his list, so his ability to set first turn tempo is shaped more by a scouting Starweaver Troupe and aggressive staging. Liam in turn played exceptionally slowly (*chill*, as he puts it in his lovely Belgian accent). Obliterator indirect crippled Sacco’s Hellion brick, and Liam was able to strip away early Drukhari attacks without committing too much. The Fights First strat threw Sacco off on one flank (both players navigated remembering it in very sporting fashion, but the reality is Sacco had planned a whole turn and then had to adapt on the fly). This flank became a recurring problem in mid-late game, as the ordering and positioning of Drukhari reserves and waves got a bit out of sync, which allowed Liam to create space and bring in Predators on that side in a gap and break open the Drukhari expansion.

At the same time, the Warp Talons went to work. They barely killed anything – Liam used them surgically to clear gaps, break Sacco’s flank holds and eventually his home, fighting dross units as he did so – but they crippled the Drukhari solidity and board state in such a way as to render a late CSM victory inevitable. It was a classic exercise in playing for the five turns, and the Drukhari never quite mustered enough of a head of steam to prevent their dismantling. Liam takes it again!!

Result

Chaos Space Marines (Veterans of the Long War) Victory – 78 – 60

liam Vsl – Chaos Space Marines (Veterans of the Long War) – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

CHARACTER

1x Cypher (90 pts)
• 1x Cypher’s bolt pistol
• 1x Cypher’s plasma pistol

1x Chaos Lord (90 pts)
• 1x Daemon hammer
• 1x Plasma pistol

BATTLELINE

10x Cultist Mob (50 pts)
• 1x Cultist Champion
• 1x Brutal assault weapon
• 1x Bolt pistol
• 9x Cultist
• 9x Autopistol
• 9x Brutal assault weapon

OTHER DATASHEETS

2x Obliterators (160 pts)
• 2x Obliterator
• 2x Crushing fists
• 2x Fleshmetal guns

10x Warp Talons (270 pts)
• 10x Warp Talon
• 10x Warp claws

1x Chaos Predator Destructor (140 pts)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Havoc launcher
• 1x Predator autocannon
• 1x Combi-weapon
• 2x Lascannon

1x Chaos Rhino (75 pts)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Combi-bolter
• 1x Havoc launcher
• 1x Combi-weapon

Archetype

Nerf Liam VSL

Thoughts

Stop it Liam, you loveable giant. Veterans CSM marches to victory once again. I am excited to watch a legion of copycats attempt to squeeze value from the detachment, just as they did last year, and come away appreciating how well Liam plays it. Vets is comparatively slow for a CSM detachment, and you have to leverage key pieces like the Bile brick and Warp Talons perfectly in Liam’s build to come through in games. If you can do that, the toolkit, and output, is amazing, with pacts and full rerolls giving you Abaddon castle levels of output without being tied to any single location. A true masterclass from a CSM specialist, and the greatest player of our era. Very well done mate.

Alexandre Sacco – Drukhari (Reaper’s Wager) – 2nd Place