List of the Week: The Lion Victorious!

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Hello battle brothers! I bring news of the most successful Dark Angels list from the past weekend. It was a slow weekend for major tournaments due to a prominent religious holiday, but a few events were held, and a Dark Angels list took the top score at one of them. 

I had to make a profile on MiniHeadquarters.com to look at this list, so I don't know the player's name, only his username - Golgoths31. This is a shame, because his list is very different from the usual Ironstorm Spearheads we've been seeing take high scores at events these past few months. Golgoths31 apparently said (in French), "You know what? Winning with an Ironstorm full of Stormravens is all well and good, but what the world needs is Lion El'Jonson leading Dark Angels to victory at GTs", and he went ahead and brought us that experience! At Les stratèges d’Ambre le tournoi du printemps in Tuzaguet, France, Golgoths31 went 4-1 to be 1rst out of 24. It may not have been a huge GT, but hey, I didn't win a GT this weekend, much less with a list with The Lion in it!

Here's a quick look at the list:

Detachment: Gladius Task Force
Lion El'Jonson
Captain in Terminator Armor
Librarian in Phobos Armor
Bladeguard Ancient
Techmarine
Deathwing Knight Squad: 5 most awesome chonky boys
Deathwing Knight Squad: 5 most awesome chonky boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Redepmtor Dreadnought
Land Raider
Land Raider Crusader

Dang! The Lion, two squads of Deathwing Knights, and a pair of Land Raiders?  That's some wild stuff. I would not have predicted that a list like this could go the distance at a GT, and yet here it is. I think the list is mostly designed to let The Lion get in and go to town, with the rest of the list not so much designed to be as killy as it is to be hard to kill, so the boss constantly has a friendly unit around him granting him Lone Operative. Which isn't to say that the Deathwing Knights and the Redemptor can't do work, but Golgoths31 must have been relying on the Lion to pick up his opponents' most important units.

As for the rest of the list, the Techmarine is obviously there to keep the 2+ save vehicles alive a little longer, the Phobos Libby no doubt joins the Infiltrators to sit on the backfield objectives, and the utility of Scouts is well known. The only piece whose role I'm not confident about is the Bladeguard Ancient. My guess is that he rides in one of the Land Raiders and hops out to sit on an objective so the Land Raider and Deathwing Knights are free to do other things. With the Lion and 10 Deathwing Knights up their faces, opponents are probably hard pressed to direct any attention on a lone figure exploiting terrain to stay out of line of sight.

Here's an overview of the games this list went through.

First round, Golgoths went up against an Astra Militarum list whose killing power looks like it was mostly derived from a pair of Basilisks and a pair of Manticores. Not being able to put those into the Lion was probably a pretty significant handicap facing this list. Golgoths won 86-80

The second game was the only loss the list took, going 87-95 against an Imperial Knights list with Canis Rex and a whole pile of Armigers - 9 in all. My guess would be that the Lion just could not be in enough places at once to kill all the Armigers fast enough to give Golgoths the win.

The third game was a 70-62 win against a T'au Empire list with 3 Riptides in it. I was surprised to not see the cyclic ion blaster spamming brick of Crisis Suits. It also featured one last hurrah for Longstrike. I guess he's just going to be a slightly fancier Hammerhead from now on.

The fourth game, Golgoths completely wrecked a Drukhari list 98-0. How does a player get 0 points in a game? Was the army not even fully painted? How did they not even get some Primary points for sitting on their own objective? At first I thought the player might have dropped, but they have a score in the 5th round. 

For the fifth game, Golgoths won 96-75 against an Adeptus Sororitas list that looked to me like the Sisters good stuff you'd expect to see in a tournament list. The only thing that made me curious was the lack of Saint Celestine. 

At the end of the tourament, Golgoths31 went 4-1 and scored 437 points, only beating the 2nd place player by 1 point. That player was the Astra Militarum player our man beat in the first round. 

It's nice to see a different kind of Dark Angels list rise to the top. I'll always celebrate Dark Angels players doing well, but seeing slight variations of the same Ironstorm Spearhead list has been a little monotonous. This list is a breath of fresh air. I don't know how well it would perform at a larger event, but I'm a little tempted to find out. I wouldn't have much trouble duplicating the list. I'd just have to assemble and paint the Lion, a squad of Deathwing Knights, and a Bladeguard Ancient, plus finish painting the Redemptor I've got on my table. I probably won't anytime soon. I just got my bike-tastic Ravnewing Knights-centered list on the table, which I expect to be playing for the foreseeable future. However, maybe we'll see a few more Lion-led lists popping up in the meta. I certainly hope so. Congratulations to Golgoths31! Keep up the good work, brother!

Here's the list as it appears on MiniHeadQuarters.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Nom du joueur : Golgoths31
Nom de l'équipe : 
Factions utilisées : Space Marines
Points d'armée : 2000
Améliorations d'armée : 
Règle de détachement : Gladius
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

== Détachement principal : Space Marines [2000pts] == 

Héros épiques 1 : Lion El'Jonson [350pts] [Seigneur de guerre]
 1xArma Luminis
 1x Fidélité
Personnages 1 : Capitaine en Armure Terminator [95pts]  
1x Combi-weapon 
  1x Relic fist
Personnages 2 : Archiviste en Armure Phobos [70pts]
1x Bolt pistol 
  1x Force weapon 
  1x Smite
Personnages 3 : Doyen Bladeguard [45pts]
 1xPistolet bolter Lourd
 1xArme de corps à corps
Personnages 4 : Lieutenant avec arme combinée [70pts]
 1xArme combinée
 1xPaire de Lames de Combat
Personnages 5 : Techmarine [55pts]
1x Forge bolter 
  1x Grav-pistol 
  1x Omnissian power axe 
  1x Servo-arm

Infanterie 1 : 5 Chevaliers de la Deathwing [235pts] Guetteur des Ténèbres
1x Knight Master 
    1x Flail of the Unforgiven 
  4x Deathwing Knight 
    4x Mace of absolution 
Infanterie 2 : 5 Chevaliers de la Deathwing [235pts] Guetteur des Ténèbres
1x Knight Master 
    1x Flail of the Unforgiven 
  4x Deathwing Knight 
    4x Mace of absolution 
Infanterie 3 : 5 Escouade Infiltrator [100pts] Dispositif de Communications Infiltrator, Gantelet Helix
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 
Infanterie 4 : 5 Escouade Scout [65pts] Fusil de sniper de Scout, Lance-missiles
--- Scout Sergeant
• 1x Scout Sergeant
• 1x Bolter
1x Bolt pistol
1x Close combat weapon
• 4x Scout
• 1x Astartes shotgun
• 1x Bolter
4x Bolt pistol
4x Close combat weapon
1x Missile launcher
1x Scout sniper rifle

Véhicules 1 : Dreadnought Redemptor [210pts] Canon Gatling Onslaught, Macro Incinérateur à Plasma, Nacelle lance-roquettes Icarus
Véhicules 2 : Land Raider [240pts] Bolter Storm, Missile Traqueur, Multi-fuseur
Véhicules 3 : Land Raider Crusader [230pts] Bolter Storm, Missile Traqueur, Multi-fuseur