Dark Angels Defeat All Comers at Clutch City GT!

 

Hello, battle brothers! It's been an exciting weekend for Dark Angels players. Our battle brother Kit Smith Hanna took 1rst place at the Clutch City GT in Houston TX over the weekend! He took the Dark Angels Ironstorm to the top at a 6-round event with 154 players. 

It's unsurprising to see Kit rise to the top with the DA Ironstorm, because he pretty much pioneered the list. When I started keeping track of what DA lists were doing well, Kit was running pretty much the only Ironstorm with the particular set of units that make it perform so well. Success breeds imitation, so it's the list I've come to expect to see when a Dark Angels player makes the top 10, but unless someone presents me with evidence otherwise, as far as I'm concerned Kit invented it, so it comes as no shock to see him dominate with it.

Anyway, here's the list, which he dubbed The Unkindness Of Ravens.

Azrael
Ravenwing Talonmaster: Master of the Machine War
Techmarine: Target Augury Web
Techmarine: Blessing of the Omnissiah
Company Heroes: 4 very good boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Redemptor Dreadnought
Redemptor Dreadnought
Redemptor Dreadnought
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Stormraven
Stormraven
Inquisitorial Henchmen: 4 jerks who hope they can stay out of line of sight

It's nice to see the Talonmaster get one last hurrah before riding off into the mists of Legends. Other than that, the tech is pretty much what you'd expect from the Dark Angels Ironstorm. The bulk of the heavy lifting is getting done by the two Stormravens and the Redemptors. The Darkshroud helps keep the key units alive longer. The Thunderstrike buffs the Stormravens' shooting, so all those hurricane bolter shots are wounding tough things on 4's and 5's instead of 5's and 6's. Azrael probably just chills on the table being awesome and probably skirmishing for a lightly held objective with his Company Heroes pals. And, I expect the Inquisitorial Henchmen just sit on Kit's backfield objective and hope not to draw the attention of a Nightspinner or some other bit of indirect shooting.

Kit earned 546 battle points at the event, scoring 90+ in 4 of his games, with his lowest score being a 76 he got in the 4th round. 

First round, he beat David Villareal's Adeptus Mechanicus list 99-71. 

Second round, he went 99-65 against Dakota Boyer's Astra Militarum that was more heavily infantry based than I'd expect to see in a Militarum list being played competitively, which probably made it pretty easy fodder for Kit's list. 

Third round, Kit went 93-87 against Carmine Battista's Blood Angels list with 30 Death Company that also had 2 Stormravens. Perhaps it's no coincidence Kit only won this game by 6 points! 

Fourth round, Kit went 76-60 against Matthew Tweedel's Grey Knights. Matt's list had Draigo, a Grandmaster, 2 big bricks of Terminators (one being Paladins), a Dreadknight Grandmaster, and 3 Dreadknights. Matt's list was light on utility units, with just 1 Strike Squad to perform secondaries for him.

Fifth Round, Kit went an eye-popping 100-24 against Diego Vilcahuaman's Thousand Sons. I don't really know enough about the Thousand Sons to comment intelligently on them. The only thing I can think of is that Diego's list may have been over-reliant on Magnus the Red and Kit was able to send that sucker back to the warp 1rst turn.

Kit's sixth round into Steven Salazar's Adeptus Custodes wasn't much kinder either, the score being 79-32. Given that the Custodes list is almost all 3-wound infantry and Kit's list is full of 3-damage weapons, it's not hard to see how that would have gone badly for Steven.

One of the aspects of Kit's list that makes it perform so well is that the Stormraven is an efficient dataslate at the moment. For 240 points, you're getting a T10, 14 wound hull with a 3+ save and a -1 Damage modifier. For offensive output, Kit is going with the stock twin hurricane bolters and twin stormstrike missile launchers, plus a twin heavy plasma cannon and twin multi-melta. Everything but the stormstrike missiles is twin-linked. And it can carry 12 Infantry models and a Dreadnought. Dropping off a Redemptor up in your opponent's grill is probably a really great way from distracting him from putting fire into your more important units or moving units onto objectives.

Kit's list won the biggest GT this past weekend, but it was not the only DA list that did well.  Chad Lapham took 13th at the same event with a DA list, though it should be noted that Chad's list didn't include any unique DA units. He played an somewhat unconvential Ironstorm with a bunch of Brutalis Dreads, Invictor Warsuits, Gladiator Valiants, and Repulsor Executioners. Between him and Ben Rubenstein's performance last weekend, it does show that Stormraven Spam is not the only winning strategy for Dark Angels.

Also, Francois Lalonde took 6th at the Toronto Open with an Ironstorm list that is very similar to Kit's, in that it has Azrael, a Darkshroud, a Thunderstrike, Redemptor Dreads, and 2 Stormravens. He also included a Gladiator Reaper, which buffs shooting into infantry, so that does give his hurricane bolter and onslaught cannons more killing power, but with all the plasma blast in the list I'm sure it doesn't have that much trouble killing elite infantry with or without the Reaper's buff.

Another Dark Angels Ironstorm went 4-1 and took 7th place at Warzone: Wellington GT in Wellington New Zealand. The list was piloted by Ryan de Heer, and he kind of split the difference between killing things with Stormravens and killing things with Repulsor Executioners by taking one of each. 

Just in case that wasn't enough winning for us, Danny Evinson took first at Carnage - Season 2 - Round 1 - Immortalis over in jolly old England. He played (you guessed it!) an Ironstorm Spearhead which also split the difference some by going with 1 Stormraven and 2 Repulsor Executioners.

All in all, it was a crazy weekend for Dark Angels. I think it fairly safe to say that if you're not playing Black Templars, the Ironstorm is the detachment you want to play if you're trying to do well at tournaments, and Azrael and the Darkshroud seem to give the detachment that little bit extra that makes the DA Ironstorm better than everybody else's. That'll get up the Iron Hands' noses. All of these lists are built around either Stormraven Gunships or Repulsor Executioners, and a couple of them feature both. If you're looking to club seals at the local RTT, those are the kits to pick up. I just wish the Stormraven didn't look so goofy from the side. I'm also not confident the thing isn't going to get the Legends treatment in 11th edition, which adds to my reluctance to pick any up. If you don't already have Stormravens, Repulsor Executioners seem like a safer bet.

I'd like to say congratulations to Kit and all the other DA players who scored well at GTs. Keep up the good work, battle brothers, and thank you for showing us the way!

Here's Kit's full list as it appears in BCP

The Unkindness of Ravens (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

Ravenwing Talonmaster (125 points)
• 1x Power weapon
1x Twin assault cannon
1x Twin heavy bolter
• 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


OTHER DATASHEETS

Company Heroes (95 points)
• 1x Ancient
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Bolt rifle
1x Close combat weapon
• 1x Company Champion
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Master-crafted power weapon
• 2x Company Veteran
• 2x Bolt pistol
2x Close combat weapon
1x Master-crafted bolt rifle
1x Master-crafted heavy bolter

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 fragstorm grenade launcher

Redemptor Dreadnought (210 points)
• 1x Icarus rocket pod
1x Macro plasma incinerator
1x Onslaught gatling cannon
1x Redemptor fist
1x Twin fragstorm grenade launcher

Redemptor Dreadnought (210 points)
• 1x Icarus rocket pod
1x Macro plasma incinerator
1x Onslaught gatling cannon
1x Redemptor fist
1x Twin fragstorm grenade launcher

Scout Squad (65 points)
• 1x Scout Sergeant
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Boltgun
1x Close combat weapon
• 4x Scout
• 2x Astartes shotgun
4x Bolt pistol
4x Close combat weapon
1x Combat knife
1x Heavy bolter

Storm Speeder Thunderstrike (160 points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Stormfury missiles
1x Thunderstrike las-talon
1x Twin Icarus rocket pod

Stormraven Gunship (240 points)
• 1x Armoured hull
2x Hurricane bolter
2x Stormstrike missile launcher
1x Twin heavy plasma cannon
1x Twin multi-melta

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

Inquisitorial Henchmen (40 points)
• 4x Inquisitorial Acolyte
• 4x Acolyte firearm
4x Acolyte melee weapon

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