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.

This is a big one, one of the biggest we’ve done so far. We have 7 events this week, so we’re going to break it up into 2 articles. We’ll start with 4 of the smaller events and tomorrow you’ll get the other 3.

KREFELD MAJOR 2025 AoS

39-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Krefeld, Germany on August 09 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission – Bountiful Equinox

Matthias Brinkert – Cities of Sigmar
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vs.

Colin Klären – Nighthaunt
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Thoughts

This is an interesting matchup. Most Nighthaunt lists are melee focused, which is going to be a real problem for them against this specific Cities archetype. Since this Cities list is built around area denial it’s often hard to maneuver into position for maximum melee damage, worse still when you’re getting pelted by Fusiliers and Great Cannons.

Instead though this brings its own shooting, Pyregheists. Their short range damage is pretty solid and if they can get onto an objective they can buff their own control score to make up for their smaller numbers. Backing them up is Kurdross who can swing his mace quite hard to anyone he gets into combat with and shut down their command abilities.

That said, its not as if the Cities player will just stand there and let you do this. They have a lot better long ranged shooting and more movement tricks to keep you off the objectives and keep the Pyregheists from locking down a point.

Result

Cities of Sigmar Victory – 12 – 8

Matthias Brinkert – Cities of Sigmar – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Freeguilders

Thoughts

We’ve been seeing a lot of Freeguilder-focused armies in the meta lately, largely because of Pontifex Zenestra in Scourge of Ghyran. Her new warscroll prayer gives some fantastic movement tricks for an all human army which deny opponents the ability to get close to human targets and to teleport units back to her side.

After that you have the Fusil-major to mark a target for the Great Cannons to gun down, the Command corps to disrupt movement (and tax CP usage) of the enemy, and the cavaliers to mow down anyone who needs a touch of melee combat to finish off what the Great Cannons did not.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd – Dario Grohmann – Fyreslayers: Magmadroths with a Runemaster on foot and Callis and Toll guest starring.
• 3rd – Colin Klären – Nighthaunt: See Showdown.
• 4th – Lukas Wagner – Daughters of Khaine: Krethusa with foot aelfs.
• 5th – Joshua Glenn – Flesh Eater-courts: Ushoran with Knights.
• 6th – Daniel Brinkert – Flesh Eater-courts: Ushoran and a Ghoul King of Terrorgheist with Morbhegs and Horrors.
• 7th – Dominik Ceyhun – Maggotkin of Nurgle: Rotigus, Slimux, Bilepiper, a Harbinger and a Demon Prince with a legion of Beasts of Nurgle.

Lone Star Open 2025 – Age of Sigmar Champs

33-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Allen, TX, United States on August 09 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission – Roiling Roots

James West – Gloomspite Gitz
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vs.

Alex Nelson – Lumineth Realm-Lords
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Thoughts

Shooting from the hip I was going to give this to the Lumineth, since this Gitz list is a bit of a dark horse.

The Lumineth list is one of the more popular options right now. A more herohammer centric list with Bladelords set up to guard them. Lumineth have a lot of control-y options to keep players from going where they don’t want you to go, so you can avoid combat on your own terms by forcing them to stay away from your stuff.

In this case, the Gitz manage to take it and I am very surprised. I’d reckon a lot of it comes from the Doom Diver catapults, allowing them to pick off key pieces from a distance like Sevireth rather than let them get too close. The rest of the list has enough disposable chaff that you can send them in waves at the enemy and hopefully take out the Bladelords. Once you do that the characters get a lot more delicate.

Result

Gloomspite Gitz Victory – 65 – 55

James West – Gloomspite Gitz – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Dogs

Thoughts

Well this is very unique. Most Gitz lists do either Squigs, troggs or a combination thereof. This leverages the new Sunstealas and Wolfpack, two units we haven’t seen a whole lot of.

Naturally the Snarlboss and Droggz are sort of the locus of the list. Both have powers to grant -1 to be hit (and Droggz shuts off All out attack) to the nearby Snarlfang Riders, Cavalry, and Sunatela Wheels. The Wolves may not seem very impressive on their own but the new subfactiongranted by Scourge of Ghyran gives their wolves -1 rend, which actually starts to put them into decent range for their price, since they do do 2 damage a hit.

The Doom Diver Catapult is actually a pretty impressive piece of hardware, not a ton of shots but 4 shots at 3 rend and 3 Damage is not bad (and you can afford to drop the rend on the rerolls should you need to when it starts at 3).

The Best of the Rest

There was 5 more player on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd – Randal Brasher – Fyreslayers: 3 Magmadroths and a foot Runemaster with Hearthguard Berserkers and Flameseekers.
• 3rd – Matt Taylor – Blades of Khorne: Dual Bloodthirsters leading legions of chaff including Flesh Hounds, Bloodletters and Blood Reavers.
• 4th – Alex Nelson – Lumineth Realm-lords: See Showdown.
• 5th – Benjamin Richardson – Lumineth Realm-lords: All Vanari with Sentinels, Bladelords and Wardens.
• 6th – Jonathan Schlieszus – Ossiarch Bonereapers: Vok’Mortion and 2 Soulreapers lead Deathriders, Stalkers and Crawlers.

Aqshy Summerfest ’25 ITC GT

31-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Manchester, Connecticut, US on August 09 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission – Lifecycle

Dylan Therriault – Cities of Sigmar
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vs.

Ian Joslyn – Skaventide
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Thoughts

This seems pretty handedly in the Cities of Sigmar’s corner. Skaven have been struggling after their initial surge at the beginning of the edition. They aren’t toothless, but against this army they really need to maximize their movement tricks to their fullest.

There’s some decent shooting in the Skaven list to be sure, Rat Ogors and Brood Terror hve some pretty gnarly flamethrowers against infantry, but they need to get close while the Cities Fusiliers don’t. They’ll be able to keep the skaven at bay long enough to rack up points and keep the Skaven from scoring enough points to pull ahead.

Result

Cities of Sigmar Victory – 66 – 34

Dylan Therriault – Cities of Sigmar – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Freeguilders

Thoughts

Last CoS list for the week and it’s pretty much the same deal. The only spin is the addition of a Steamtank commander which doesn’t do a ton for this list but is a pretty fun quirk that can add to the shooting and can even charge and fight pretty well, too.

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more player on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd – Sean Cushing – Hedonites of Slaanesh: Shalaxi Hellbane with 2 reinforced units of Seekers.
• 3rd – Adam Weinstein – Fyreslayers: Magmadroths with a foot Runemaster and Berzerkers to cheer them on.
• 4th – Dan Lynch – Ogor Mawtribes: Stonehorns, with some chaff for objective holding and screening.
• 5th – Ethan Gruneisen – Ironjawz: Mostly foot ogors, with Brutes, Ardboyz and a big unit of SoG Wrekkas.
• 6th – Ian Joslyn – Skaventide: See Showdown.

Mile High Open 2025

29-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Parker, CO, United States on August 09 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission – Bountiful Equinox

Shannon O’Connell – Flesh-eater Courts
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vs.

Wyatt Moran – Flesh-eater Courts
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Thoughts

Practically a mirror match! Wyatt has slightly more bodies with his Royal Beastflayers and heavier reliance on Morbheg knights while Shannon has an Arch Regent to return models for recursion and some Crypt Horrors, which hit quite a bit above their point cost.

To state the obvious a lot of this is going to come down to who can get off a really good charge first, since both players are relying on cavalry for a lot of their damage output. Winning priority and keeping the momentum is going to be key.

Shannon O’Connell ended up winning because while it was a tie, he got 5 Battle Tactics to Wyatt’s 4, which resulted in a tie breaker.

Result

Flesh-eater Courts Victory – 50 – 50

Wyatt Moran – Flesh-eater Courts – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Ushoran and his court

Thoughts

Naturally, Ushoran and his Morbheg Knights are the start of the show here. Ushoran is both a great Wizard and very strong in combat. He also has some strong army wide buffs, most importantly is that with 6 Noble Deeds he extends Feeding Frenzy to 24″, basically making it board wide. Between the core battle trait Address Loyal Subjects, casting 2 spells and the Cardinals “Rousing Oration” its very plausible to get Ushoran to 6 Noble Deeds on turn 1 (or shortly after) and then get to work.

After that it’s mostly about being able to get your Knights and horrors in. Knights hit hard on the charge and even their mounts are brutal. If they get caught they can at least fall back and charge again. While not super defensive they can take a few hits and hopefully regenerate their numbers back later. Horrors meanwhile are a lot of wounds and hit hard if they can get where they need to.

The Best of the Rest

There was 5 more player on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd – Chris Mabbutt – Stormcast Eternals: SoG Iridan leading the Ruination Chamber
• 3rd – Jos Chang – Sylvaneth: Alarielle and Belthanos with Spirit of Durthu and Kurnoth Hunters.
• 4th – Chad Graham – Lumineth Realm-lords: Sevirith with Spirits of the Wind and Vanari with Cavalry.
• 5th – Shannon O’Connell – Flesh-eater Courts: See Showdown.
• 6th – Aspen Sorenson – Soulblight Gravelords: Vengorian Lord with Terrorgheist, Vampire Lord on Steed with Blood Knights and Vampire Lord with Barrow Guard and various chaff.

Wrap Up

That’s not all! Come back tomorrow for 3 huge events including Old Town Summer Strike, the Welsh Open and the Scourge of Ghyran event at Warhammer World.

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