December saw Asuryani with a 60%-win rate, a historical high-water mark for pure Craftworld. Psychic Awakening gave Asuryani specifically a boost (even if it gave next to nothing to Drukhari/Ynarri). He considers that this list, for now, is a well oiled machine, and that each point and upgrade has a purpose. I think I’m a bigger fan of the Crawler variant, where having those sit on objectives gives you more board control than Nurglings, and more resistance to Thunderfire Cannons. Credit: Jack Hunter. It was a massive influx of new rules, immediately followed by… everyone taking time off to spend with their families and loved ones instead of playing at large events to give us data. The data set is from 31 qualifying events (7 Majors, 24 GTs) totaling nearly 6000 games played by 1220 competitors in the US, UK, and Australia. If the trend from other Psychic Awakening books continues don’t be surprised if they become even more competitive. Posted on January 25, 2020
They still come in four basic flavors: Where the Chapters used will vary a little bit depending on play style and preference. Psychic Awakening has already given us three supplements (with a fourth on the way), plus Chapter Approved 2019 and the new Sisters of Battle Codex released the week of Thanksgiving. The below is mostly his response, with light editing on my part for clarity: “The list was mainly designed to be able to hide against a turn one alpha with minimal terrain.
Wings: We’ve looked at one of Tomas’ lists before in our Alliance write-up, and while I’m sad to see him abandoning the Craftworlds I’m very happy to see him proving the naysayers wrong about multiple things from Faith and Fury. I think he was on Chapter Tactics a while back (a year or maybe two) talking about his list with…Yncarne and Avatar of Khaine? 7: Chaos Space Marines (new) The contorted epitome is an interesting choice, if the bomb is able to walk from unit to unit via pile in/consolidate, the epitome will help prevent enemies from falling back (assuming they weren’t already wrapped). I do have a plan in my head for how I try and take this army down if I run up against it, but I’m definitely expecting it to be one of the toughest games out there. 9: Deathwatch (new) The list combines all the top Warhammer 40k lists for 9th edition ITC events only, taking only the top three from each Major or GT event. GW’s release schedule is dictated by the rate at which they produce, print, and publish their physical books which means the content we’re seeing now is still likely from around the time the original Adeptus Astartes book was published. HQ: Tech-Priest Dominus, Warlord: Prime Hermeticon HQ: Tech-Priest Manipulus, Troops: Kataphron Breacher x12 w/Heavy Arc Rifle Troops: Kataphron Breacher x12 w/Heavy Arc Rifle Troops: Kataphron Breacher x6 w/Heavy Arc Rifle, INQ: Inquisitor Coteaz, Malleus: Power Through Knowledge, HS: Skorpius Disintegrator w/Belleros Energy Cannon HS: Skorpius Disintegrator w/Belleros Energy Cannon HS: Skorpius Disintegrator w/Belleros Energy Cannon. I will note that as of January, the meta currently sits at it’s most unbalanced position in some time, possibly all of 8th.
Curiously, Asuryani have also performed very well (though two wins are by the same Colin Sherman).