Ironwing Crushing at Cherokee Open
Here's the short version of the list:
Ironstorm Spearhead
Azrael
Librarian in Phobos Armor: Master of the Machine War
Techmarine: Target Augury Web
Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Inceptor Squad: 3 plasma boys
Infiltrators: 5 sneaky boys
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Redemptor Dreadnought
Repulsor Executioner: macro plasma incinerator
Repulsor Executioner: heavy laser destroyer
Repulsor Executioner: heavy laser destroyer
Stormraven Gunship
Callidus Assassin
There are definitely some familiar elements to this list: Azrael, the Darkshroud, the Stormraven, a Redemptor for the Stormraven to drop off, the Techmarines. Inceptors, Infiltrators, and the Callidus are not unusual to see in a high-performing Space Marine list either. What is unusual to see are the 3 Repulsor Executioners! That said, the firepower they put out is no joke. The heavy laser destroyers can each potentially 1-shot a Rhino each shot, they get 2 shots a turn, and at Strength 16 they're going to be wounding even the toughest targets on 3's. The macro plasma incinerator on the other Executioner needs no introduction. In addition to the main guns, each of the Executioners picks up a bucket of dice to throw at their opponents.
Ben went 5-1 for a total of 444 battle points, and he had some pretty wild variations in his score. The first game was his highest-scoring game, 100-48 against Jon Ham's mono-Nurgle Chaos Daemons. Jon's list featured Be'lakor and a trio of Great Unclean Ones. Jon placed 214th, but he did not get swept. Anyone who gets at least 1 win at a super-major can probably go 3-0 at a local RTT.
Second game, Ben went 80-68 against Kyle Trayah's Death Guard. Kyle scored 11th place, with his only loss coming from his game with Ben. Kyle's list is not what I expected. Mortarian and his parking lot of Plagueburst Crawlers was apparently in someone else's list. Instead, Kyle's list featured 3 units of 10 Plague Marines, each accompanied by a Biologus Putrifier and Foul Blightspawn, supported by some Deathshrouds, the expected Nurglings, and a couple War Dog Brigands. His list is actually pretty wild, you should check it out, and from the high placing, Kyle clearly was able to make it perform. Good job Kyle!
Third game, Ben went 35-31 against Chris Chance's Blood Angels. Chris actually took 3rd place, with his only losses being to Ben and in his 8th game on Sunday. Chris's list is very thematic, with Jump Intercessors, jump Death Guard, and jump Vanguard, with characters and supporting units as appropriate. It's always cool to see a thematic list score well. Good job, Chris!
Fourth game, Ben went 73-37 against Andrew Lowman's Imperial Knights. Andrew came in at 85th place, winning his first 3 games, but losing his last 2. His list consisted of a Cerastus Knight Lancer, a Castellan, 4 Helverins, and 3 Warglaives. I'd be intimidated facing that across the tabletop, and I'm playing a Firestorm full of melta units.
Fifth game, Ben went 96-87 against Joshua Campbell's Necrons. Josh took 2nd place overall! Josh's list is pretty much the meta Necron list - 3 C'tan, 2 bricks of Wraiths, characters and support as appropriate. No shade, competitors gonna compete.
The sixth game was Ben's only loss, 86-60 against Daniel Hesters' Necrons. Dan took 6th place, going undefeated for 6 games, finally taking a loss in the finals round on Sunday. His list was NOT the meta list, as it only had one C'tan and zero Wraiths. What it DID have is the Silent King. Looks like there's more than one way to play Necrons!
In the case of Ben's list, I don't have to make educated guesses about how it was used. Ben is a friend of mine - we're both part of the Northeast's 40K community and we're in the same Stars Without Number campaign. I sent him a list of questions, and he was kind enough to answer them for me.
Question 1: How did you get the idea for this list?
The list started off as a joke between myself and a friend about running 6 Gladiator Reapers in Black Templars. This evolved to 5 Repulsor Executioners and then we put it on the table and realized that there was something here.
In the end, 3 Repexs is plenty to kill just about any army and the CP from Azrael and defensive traits from the Darkshroud really make the list sing.
Question 2: How much did you play it before Cherokee Open?
I had about 15 reps on some version of Repulsor spam Ironstorm before Cherokee with 5 of those reps being this exact list.
Question 3: How did you employ the units in the list?
The Dreadnought always starts embarked on the plane and the everything but the Inceptors generally starts on the tables. Against Knights I did start the plane off the table as it did not want to get shredded by anti fly 2+ Helverins and it is too large to hide without completely dictating how I place my terrain.
The Callidus assassin tries to stay alive into the late game for secondaries when doing tactical or holds a midfield to pull enemies out towards it when taking fixed.
The 3 aura characters and the tanks usually play pretty tight to each other while the plane and Dread fight for side objectives. The main thing here is that there is basically no unit in the game that survives 2 lethal hit Repexes going into it so even though I don't have a lot of stuff playing the mission my opponents have to be very cagey or just get blown off the table. The tanks all being able to advance and shoot means that even from turn 1 they can go really far in any direction because the Librarian usually starts embarked in the plane or forward deployed so they can always land in the advance and shoot aura.
Question 4: You won Game 3 scoring only 35 points. How did that happen?
Game 3 my opponent pinned me in a corner with Blood Angels jump units so I could not get to objectives, but I also shot him off of primary every turn. He ran out of resources pretty quickly, but I struggled to get into position so we both scored terribly. I made 2 big errors in that game that both cost me about 15 points.
Fun fact: this was my closest game against someone who did not make top 8 but, when I had to drop due to travel restrictions he got in which he totally deserved.
Question 5: Did any of your unit stand out as either performing above or below your expectations?
The units all felt very strong though to be honest the lowest performing unit was the Dreadnought. It just found a way to die to underwhelming fire power in multiple games. The plasma cannon it has is fine and its melee is fine but it just didn't feel overwhelming like the rest of the list.
Question 6: Tactical or Fixed Secondaries? How well were you able to score secondaries?
The list is very much on the "table you on 3-4" plan. This means we take fixed when a kill secondary is an option and tactical when not. The assassin+some marines in the plane make scoring secondaries easy enough thst when combined with how fast we kill the enemy we usually do well. Youll notice the list tends towards generating low scores on both sides.
Question 7: Was there anything remarkable about any of your games you'd like to mention?
The event was fun and I had a lot of really good technical games.
Game 5 was probably the best. Josh is a hell of a necron player, and we've run into each other in the past though never played before.
I got to live the dream of split firing a repulsor executionor into 18 wounds worth of ctan and overkilling all of it.
One of the main draws of the list is its ability to just blow Necron data sheets (especially C'Tan) off the table.
My one loss was to a very shooty Necron list. I killed his Nightbringer turn one but all the flat 6 guns ignoring modifiers kill my tanks very fast. He super high rolled the Monolith the 1 turn it got to shoot (10 hits on 4 shots sustain d3) but even if that doesn't happen the matchup is pretty hard for my list.
Question 8: Is there anything you'd change about the list before playing it again?
I might mess around with the Assassin, the Dread and the Inceptors, the most likely thing to get cut being the Dread, but it all felt very strong so I don't know if any of it needs to change.
Question 9: What advice would you give to someone facing off against this list?
So honestly the list is very very good and many lists just don't have reasonable gameplans they can execute into it.
Move blocking is huge but remember you cant tie up the tanks because they can fall back and shoot.
If you can kill the lethal hits character or the fallback and shoot character go for it.
Both of them are unique and pretty central to how the army plays. Just keep in mind your opponent probably won't let you do this. I never lost the librarian and only lost the lethal hit guy in my last game on turn 5 2 turns after the Repulsors were all dead.
The list does not score super high so playing for a low scoring defensive game is a real strategy.
Don't fool yourself into thinking your deathstar unit can take a hit. Trust me it can't and you'll die.
Repexs are killable, the problem is if your alpha takes 1 out and leaves you exposed to the other 2 you're in a lot of trouble.
You need to either trade back and forth with them or all in and kill 2.
Thank you Ben for taking the time to answer my questions. Same day too! And congratulations on your performance. All your battle brothers celebrate how well you represented the First Legion. May the rest of us rise to your fine example. For the Lion!
Here's Ben's list as it appears on BCP.
"All praise the Repulsor Executioner, whose reactor roars with the sacred fires of Mars. Thanks we give for the hammering indomitability of its gravitic repulsion plates. Thanks we give for the destructive wrath of its heavy laser destroyer, and for the molten solar ferocity of its macro plasma incinerator. The Omnissiah's praise we cry from on high for the bellicose machine spirit that drives the Repulsor Executioner onwards, and the mystical energies that raise it up and propel it into war. Deus Omnissiah gloriatum maximus! Bane of heretics, destroyer of aliens, slayer of war engines, Repulsor Executioner, let thine hatred now be unleashed!" (1990 points)
Space Marines
Dark Angels
Strike Force (2000 points)
Ironstorm Spearhead
CHARACTERS
Azrael (105 points)
• Warlord
• 1x Lion’s Wrath
1x The Lion Helm
1x The Sword of Secrets
Librarian in Phobos Armour (90 points)
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Force weapon
1x Smite
• Enhancement: Master of Machine War (Aura)
Techmarine (95 points)
• 1x Forge bolter
1x Grav-pistol
1x Omnissian power axe
1x Servo-arm
• Enhancement: Target Augury Web (Aura)
Techmarine (80 points)
• 1x Forge bolter
1x Grav-pistol
1x Omnissian power axe
1x Servo-arm
• Enhancement: Adept of the Omnissiah
BATTLELINE
Assault Intercessor Squad (75 points)
• 1x Assault Intercessor Sergeant
• 1x Plasma pistol
1x Thunder hammer
• 4x Assault Intercessor
• 4x Astartes chainsword
4x Heavy bolt pistol
OTHER DATASHEETS
Inceptor Squad (130 points)
• 1x Inceptor Sergeant
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Plasma exterminators
• 2x Inceptor
• 2x Close combat weapon
2x Plasma exterminators
Infiltrator Squad (100 points)
• 1x Infiltrator Sergeant
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Close combat weapon
1x Marksman bolt carbine
• 4x Infiltrator
• 4x Bolt pistol
4x Close combat weapon
1x Helix Gauntlet
1x Infiltrator Comms Array
4x Marksman bolt carbine
Ravenwing Darkshroud (115 points)
• 1x Assault cannon
1x Close combat weapon
Redemptor Dreadnought (210 points)
• 1x Icarus rocket pod
1x Macro plasma incinerator
1x Onslaught gatling cannon
1x Redemptor fist
1x Twin storm bolter
Repulsor Executioner (220 points)
• 1x Armoured hull
1x Heavy onslaught gatling cannon
1x Icarus rocket pod
1x Ironhail heavy stubber
1x Macro plasma incinerator
1x Repulsor Executioner defensive array
1x Twin Icarus ironhail heavy stubber
1x Twin heavy bolter
Repulsor Executioner (220 points)
• 1x Armoured hull
1x Heavy laser destroyer
1x Heavy onslaught gatling cannon
1x Icarus rocket pod
1x Ironhail heavy stubber
1x Repulsor Executioner defensive array
1x Twin Icarus ironhail heavy stubber
1x Twin heavy bolter
Repulsor Executioner (220 points)
• 1x Armoured hull
1x Heavy laser destroyer
1x Heavy onslaught gatling cannon
1x Icarus rocket pod
1x Ironhail heavy stubber
1x Repulsor Executioner defensive array
1x Twin Icarus ironhail heavy stubber
1x Twin heavy bolter
Stormraven Gunship (240 points)
• 1x Armoured hull
2x Hurricane bolter
2x Stormstrike missile launcher
1x Twin heavy plasma cannon
1x Twin multi-melta
ALLIED UNITS
Callidus Assassin (90 points)
• 1x Neural shredder
1x Phase sword and poison blades
Exported with App Version: v1.10.1 (38), Data Version: v336
Comments
Post a Comment