Welcome back to Metawatch Warhammer 40,000. Last time around, gaming and events guru Mike Brandt was joined by two special guests from Goonhammer to discuss how the recent updates to the FAQs and points values impacted the meta – and especially how the changes affected the advantage of winning the first turn.
This time around, Mike’s bringing you right up to date with the meta by taking a look at fresh data from a recent Grand Tournament.
Mike: Hi everyone! In pursuit of this month’s topic, we’re (digitally) heading all the way to Australia, where much-improved health and safety conditions have made the organisation of a safe, fun, and large Grand Tournament (GT) possible. Let’s see what happened in January at the Uprising GT.
Joining me in this instalment is Adam Napier, the organiser of this event. Adam is a longtime Warhammer hobbyist with a passion for running great events down under. He and a close group of compatriots have been working on plans to bring large-scale GTs to Australia that are every bit as exciting and polished as anywhere in the world. Their efforts are clearly beginning to pay off, as nearly 100 folks were able to participate in this year’s event!
Adam, tell us a little about your story as a Warhammer hobbyist. When did you get started? What are your favourite factions? What else would you like to share?
Adam: My first involvement with Warhammer 40,000 was a Catachan Battleforce I bought nearly 20 years ago, and I’ve been a fairly staunch Imperium player ever since. I’m a competitive player, but discovered running events can be as rewarding as playing in them. Black Library has also been an amazing source of Warhammer joy for me. I've recently started The First Wall, by Gav Thorpe, and I’m well and truly deep into The Horus Heresy series.
Mike: You just ran one of the largest events of the new edition so far. Tell us what made that possible, how you approached it from a safety perspective, and what were some of the things you found most challenging while preparing for it?
Adam: The event itself was run by a three-person tournament team consisting of Josh Engelke, Simon Vickers, and myself. We were extremely fortunate to have Simon on board, as he’s an events manager for his day job, and was able to help us ensure we met and exceeded government guidelines pertaining to Covid-19. We were able to allow for 43 square feet of space for each person in the venue, even at full capacity.
Mike: Australia's Covid-19 situation has enabled people to start running larger events over there much sooner than many other places. What advice would you give tournament organisers on running a GT once things become safer in other places around the world?
Adam: Covid-19 made life difficult, even in Australia, where we had an extremely low risk, so it was quite a roller coaster preparing for it! In the weeks leading up to the event, two states of Australia recorded community transmission cases, meaning their borders would shut. One state was, unfortunately, locked down, which meant 26 attendees couldn’t come at the last minute. Luckily, we planned for this and provided full refunds to those attendees affected. Since player health and safety comes first, it’s critical to be prepared for such eventualities (even once things reach a state of very low risk) – wherever you are.
As for tournaments themselves, it’s all about terrain, terrain, terrain. It’s absolutely critical that terrain is updated and brought into the new edition. We worked hard to produce 650+ individual pieces to ensure the tables were covered and provided a nice variety of aesthetics and battlefield types. Most tables included things like walls, barricades and craters, as well as the usual staples of ruins, crates, and forests.
Mike: Great note about terrain, Adam. Due to new rules like Obscuring Terrain, it’s definitely important to assess your collection and make changes where necessary. Perhaps we’ll talk with some players and organisers from around the world and take a deep dive into terrain and its impact on the meta in a future edition. So tell us about the meta at the Uprising GT, including your thoughts about how the new edition rules, missions, and recent updates played into the field.
Adam: The tournament itself was an interesting glimpse of the first true convergence of local metas in Australia. Up until this point, events had little to no interstate attendees, while we had players hailing from six different states. Chaos, as always in Australia, proved popular with both the invitational and the main event being won by Chaos lists. One was a Word Bearers army featuring Possessed, and the other was a full mix of Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons.
The most impactful change from the recent FAQs was the loss of the first-turn advantage. In fact, many competitors wanted to still go second, despite winning the roll-off for the first turn. This was a massive change from most players wanting to go first prior to the FAQs, and was a common discussion point at the event. Many players were, ironically, quite disappointed when they won the roll-off and had to go first.
Mike: Our guests from Goonhammer made a prediction that would be the case in a previous instalment of Metawatch. Once we’ve had a few months to assess, we’ll have to take a look at what data is out there and what it says about the statistics behind these predictions and observations.
But before we go into the specifics of the meta from the Uprising GT, we’re joined briefly by Matt Morosoli – the event winner himself. Here’s the army list he used.
Mike: How did you go about playing this army, Matt?
Matt: The list is focused on applying pressure to my opponents while using durable units to hold the board. The first wave consists of two Exalted Keepers of Secrets. They’re backed up by the second wave – two units of Emperor’s Children Terminators who, with access to the Honour the Prince Stratagem from Faith & Fury, make it difficult for my opponent to overextend and challenge my board control.
The durable Lord of Change and Beast of Nurgle units hold objectives, and with access to Heroic Intervention, are able to fight off most Objective Secured units.
The Terminators are incredibly flexible, with the Endless Cacophony Stratagem allowing them to shoot twice and Veterans of the Long War ensuring damage.
They’re also extremely efficient in combat with lightning claws moving to 0 points – especially when combined with Veterans of the Long War buffed with Icon of Excess.
Mike: Thanks, Matt, and congratulations on the win! Adam, any thoughts of your own on the winning army list and the meta at the event? What strengths and weaknesses do you think played into that outcome? Tell us your opinion about the Australian meta as a whole, and your perspective on it.
Adam: Units with the Chaos keyword – and especially those with the Daemon keyword too – continue to be a strong force in the meta. The combo-driven nature of it means otherwise ordinary units such as Possesed can be buffed to truly terrifying status. While Grey Knights may not be considered a powerhouse, in Australia, where a lot of the top meta is dominated by Chaos, they actually perform quite well. One Grey Knights player in particular finished with seven wins and only a single loss, finishing 3rd overall at the event.
Mike: That’s interesting, and a really good example of a true meta at work – in an area of the world where Chaos is dominant, a natural counter with plenty of tools to deal with Chaos (especially Daemons, of course) rises to the surface, while in less Chaos-centric areas they might not see as much success.
We look forward to taking another deep dive in the next instalment of Metawatch, and hope you’ll all continue to have an awesome and safe time with Warhammer 40,000 wherever you are in the world. Congratulations again to Adam Napier on an event well run, and Matt on his well-earned win.
Thanks for your analysis, folks. Do the forces of Chaos reign supreme in your local area? Let us know which armies you’re planning to field and the sort of opposition you’re expecting to face (as and when it’s safe to return to regular gaming) on our Warhammer 40,000 Facebook page.