Lists of the Week: Top Performers 5/20/2024
The biggest event of the weekend was the Dallas Open with 234 players. Texas is Kit Smith Hanna's stomping grounds, so it comes as no surprise that he was the highest scoring Dark Angels player there, going 6-2 to come in at 9th place. Here's a link to see Kit's list, but I'll give the TLDR version below:
Don't worry, +20 on Stormravens was enough of a nerf
Azrael
Techmarine: Target Augury Web
Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah
Techmarine: Master of Machine War
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Assault Intercessor with Jump Pack Squad: 5 jump pack choppy boys
Assault Intercessor with Jump Pack Squad: 5 jump pack choppy boys
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Redemptor Dreadnought
Redemptor Dreadnought
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Stormraven Gunship
Stormraven Gunship
Vindicator
A few things have changed from the previous version of Kit's list. He included a squad of foot Assault Intercessors (presumably to hang out with Azrael on the backfield objective), dropped one Redemptor and the Callidus Assassin, and included a Vindicator. The Vindicator doubtless replaced the 3rd Redemptor, providing a significantly cheaper tough 2+ save hull dishing out high-strength, high-damage blast firepower.
Kit's been eschewing Scouts and Inceptors for a while. It looks like he's using jump pack Assault Intercessors as his utility units. He's stated in interviews he also uses the Darkshroud to perform actions and score secondaries, which certainly makes sense, as it provides its value to the list just by existing in a space. Whether or not it shoots is largely immaterial to its contribution to the army.
Kit won his first 5 games in a row. Game 1 he went 98-34 vs Tau. Game 2, 97-48 vs Space Wolves. Game 3, 98-90 vs Custodes. Game 4, 100-74 vs Drukhari. Game 5, 100-85 against Sororitas. Kit's first loss was Round 6, 66-83 vs Grey Knights. Round 7 was also a loss for Kit, 55-97 vs Thousand Sons. However, he ended strong with a 100-48 win against Tyranids.
The next hottest Dark Angels list of the weekend appeared at the Storm of Silence GT in Spokane WA with 111 players. There, Michael Buckler took 10th place, and not with an Ironstorm! Instead, he went Ravenwing Knight- heavy with a Gladius Task Force! Here's the link to Mike's list, with the TLDR version below:
Gladius smashdius trashius
Azrael
Apothecary Biologus: Fire Discipline
Lieutenant
Ravenwing Command Squad: The Honour Vehement
Ravenwing Command Squad
Aggressor Squad: 6 chonky smashy bolter boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome shield boys
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Inceptor Squad: 3 chonky plasma boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Ravenwing Knight Squad: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Ravenwing Knight Squad: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Callidus Assassin
Michael certainly leaned hard into the uniquely Dark Angels stuff, with over a third of his points spent on units from the DA supplement. He went all-in on the plasma, with most of his punch coming from the 2 bricks of RW Knights and the Hellblasters. He went a little light on utility units, but the Callidus helps make up for that. I'm a little surprised he didn't go for Fire Discipline on a Ravenwing Champion instead of the Biologus, but our battle brother took 10th at a GT with over 100 players, so I think it safe to say he knew what he was doing.
With such a heavy emphasis on 2-damage plasma, I'd imagine the list had problems against anything with half-damage or -1 damage modifiers, but Mike's list can produce such a prodigious amount of plasma shots he can probably power through those modifiers. Plus, the Ravenwing Knights can charge in and make a credible stab at mass-wounding down monsters and vehicles, and even the Hellblasters can put in some respectable work when led by Azrael and a Lieutenant.
Michael won his first game against Black Templars, 85-60. His one loss was second round, 42-88 against Orks. The Ork list had a Stompa and a couple big units of Killa Kans, so maybe Michael couldn't get his plasma close enough to fully unload on the Stompa. Michael won all the rest of his games, beating Death Guard 93-47 in the third round, Space Wolves 90-45 in the 4th round, and World Eaters 98-71 in the 5th round.
The next best performing list of the weekend belongs to Alex Vian. He took the same list he did well with the weekend before at Midwest Conquest. You can read about it in my previous article. Spoiler alert: it's an Ironstorm with Azrael, a Darkshroud, and 2 Stormravens toting Redemptors.
Alex's one loss was in the 1rst round against Wraith spam Necrons, 46-89. From there, Alex went on to win the rest of his games. He went 64-45 against Chaos Knights in the 2nd round, 99-29 against Orks in the 3rd round, then apparently got a by in the 4th round and was awarded 95 points, and ended strong against Word Bearers in the 5th round 83-61.
The last list to pop up in the rankings comes to us from the Philippines, Barn Found GT '24 from Quezon City, to be specific, where Agus Duran placed 2nd out of 32 players.. It was a Firestorm Assault Force, so I was eager to see what Agus put together. You can see Agus' list here, and as always here's the TLDR version:
Nah, I'd win
Azrael
Lieutenant: Champion of Humanity
Lion El'Jonson
Brutalis Dreadnought
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome shield boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome shield boys
Gladiator Lancer
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Land Raider Redeemer
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
This list is really putting the assault in the Firestorm Assault Force. The Lion, a Brutalis, and 2 squads of Deathwing Knights are a lot of running up and smashing action, and I know from experience that even the Hellblasters can put in some work with Azrael and a Lieutenant leading them. The list seems a little light on the utility units, but it should be remembered that the Darkshroud can put in utility work while providing its aura of protection to nearby units. Plus it occurs to me one might just deep strike the Deathwing Knights into or near the opposing backfield just to give headaches to your opponents, and have them in position to score Behind Enemy Lines or Engage on All Fronts by default. Alternately, you might take Cleanse as a fixed Secondary and just figure to run the DWKs up onto midfield objectives to sit there and score and be difficult for opponents to shift.
As you might imagine, Agus went undefeated until the 5th round. His first round he scored an eye-popping 92-12 over Black Templars. I'm always baffled when I see a score that low. Did Agus' opponent not score any Primary points? Did he not get the 10 points for Battle Ready? Did he have a really bad first turn and just concede the game? I guess it'll just be a mystery to me.
Moving on, Agus' second game was a much more reasonable 84-53 win versus Death Guard. Third round Agus went 93-51 against Aeldari, which should make us all happy. Fourth round he went 98-77 versus Necrons. In the fifth and final round, Agus dropped a nail-biting 93-94 loss against an Ork Bully Boys list that had the makings to set up an epic duel between The Lion and Ghazgkull in the center of the table.
I'm always glad to see Dark Angels players doing well at big events, but it was also nice to be able to write about an interesting variety of lists instead of variations of the same Ironstorm. To be sure, an Ironstorm was the best performing list, and I don't think it's controversial to state that the Ironstorm is the easiest detachment to do well competitively with. However, a couple of Chads among our numbers brought different detachments with different mixes of units to the table over the weekend and managed to do the legion chapter proud! Unfortunately, even those heroes weren't able to do anything with our DA-specific detachments. The next person to do so will likely be the first.
It also made me really happy to see both more unique Dark Angels units and Hellblaster Squads led by Azrael and a Lieutenant in two of those lists. My current list is built around two RWCS+RWK bricks, and my previous list was a Firestorm built around Azrael and a Lieutenant leading a big squad of Hellblasters. It appears that the MFM points drops on Hellblasters, the Lion, and Deathwing Knights were enough to make them credible units in the competitive meta. I would have liked to see some more stuff come down in points, but it was a step in the right direction that succeeded in generating some variety, at least this weekend.
I'd like to end by congratulating Kit, Michael, and Agus. Thank you, battle brothers, for showing us the way and doing us proud! May we all rise to example you've set!
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