Lists of the Week: Top Performers Roundup 4/29/2024

Hello Battle Brothers! Meta Monday was Meta Tuesday this week, so I wasn't able to get this article to you at the beginning of the week. 

As I'm writing this article, there were some Dark Angels lists that did well over the weekend. As you may have surmised from the photo, they are Ironstorm detachments featuring Storm Ravens. I'll admit, I wouldn't mind seeing some more variety in unit selection and detachment, but so far it seems like every army that does well in 10th edition has one list that carries them across the finish line. What's good about 10th edition is that most factions do have at least that one list that can take the top spot at a GT.

As you may imagine, the events that played over the weekend used the previous Munitorum Field Manual points. The new one dropped last Thursday, which would have given players only a couple days to make adjustments. Maybe next week we'll see if the points adjustments cause some shakeups in the meta. Maybe we'll see some Ironstorms built around Vindicators next week? I'd bet a little money on it. Not a lot, mind you, but a little.

The best Dark Angels performance of the weekend goes to Kyle Lamperez and his Ironstorm Spearhead. He took first place at OzCon GT in West Plains Missouri, outscoring 47 other players. Here's a link to Kyle's list on Best Coast Pairing. If you don't feel like clicking on it, here's the quick and dirty rundown.

Iron Angels 2000pts
Azrael
Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah
Techmarine: Master of Machine War
Techmarine: The Flesh is Weak
Assault Intercessors: 10 choppy boys
Ballistus Dreadnought
Ballistus Dreadnought
Gladiator Lancer
Gladiator Lancer
Inceptor Squad: 3 chonky plasma boys
Inceptor Squad: 3 chonky plasma boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Redemptor Dreadnought
Stormraven Gunship

Okay, sure, it's another Ironstorm, but it is a little different than the ones we've been seeing for months. There's a lot more infantry in it for one. Granted, Inceptors are great for dropping into places inconvenient for our opponents, and Infiltrators are great for creating an exclusion zone to keep opposing units out. However, the 10 Assault Intercessors are a bit of a surprise. It suggests to me that Kyle has Azrael leading a unit he expects will go forth and kill things. Assault Intercessors aren't as good a unit for Azrael to lead as Hellblasters are, but I consider them the second best choice, and they're considerably cheaper. Plus, Kyle doesn't really need Hellblasters' shooting in this list.

There's also only the one Redemptor Dreadnought. Instead, Kyle has a healthy contingent of anti-armor shooting with the Ballistuses and the Lancers. Having the dedicated anti-armor shooting spares Kyle having to include a Thunderstrike to help his units punch up against tougher targets, and with Azrael leading an aggressive assault unit he doesn't need all-Redemptors all-the-time. I wonder if the one Redemptor in this list will become a Brutalis when the most recent MFM points go live.

On his way to first place, Kyle faced Adeptus Mechanicus (99-43), Chaos Knights (100-35), an Ultramarines Ironstorm Spearhead (100-41), another Dark Angels Ironstorm Spearhead (72-41), and a Thousand Sons list (92-72). What's odd about the top circles of OzCon was that the expected bogeymen of the meta, Necrons and Adeptus Custodes, were nowhere near it. The top 5 were Dark Angels, Tyranids, World Eaters, and Adeptus Sororitas. Necrons and Custodes didn't even make it into the top 20, which is wild. I'd expect to see that next week, but not this week. 

The other Dark Angels list to do well over the weekend was piloted by Chris Brown of Twin State Tactics at the Warhammer Retreat in Charlton Massachusetts. Chris went 4-1 to score 3rd place out of 24 players.  Here's a link to Chris' list on BCP, and the quick and dirty version is below.

Orange Air Force
Ironstorm Spearhead
Azrael
Captain in Gravis Armor: Master of Machine War
Techmarine: Target Augury Web
Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Gladiator Reaper
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Redemptor Dreadnought
Redemptor Dreadnought
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Stormraven Gunship
Stormraven Gunship
Callidus Assassin

There are no big surprises here, but there are a couple interesting pieces of tech. The first is the Captain in Gravis Armor. He's not a Lone Op, and he doesn't have a squad to provide ablative wounds, but I suppose it's not that hard to hide a single infantry model on the current standard tournament tables, and he's fairly tanky at T6, 6 wounds, and halving incoming damage. The other interesting tech is the Gladiator Reaper taking the place of one of the Redemptor Dreadnoughts I'd have expected to see instead. I imagine the Reaper is in there to provide a source of Devastating Wounds with its twin linked Onslaught Gatling Cannon. 

Andrew's first three games were wins against Orks (89-59), Chaos Daemons (90-42), and Aeldari (92-69). In the 4th round, he lost to Astra Militarum (36-71), then ended the weekend with a win over Thousand Sons (66-48). Like Kyle, Chris dodged the bogeymen of the meta. There wasn't even a Necron player at the event, and only one Custodes player. Still, I don't want to make light of Chris' achievement. Going 4-1 at even a small GT is a noteworthy accomplishment. 

I'd like to wrap up this article by saying congratulations to Kyle and Chris. Brothers, good job on representing the legion chapter! Going forward, it'll be interesting to see if the points changes from the Munitorum Field manual allow some new list builds to rise. Maybe after this weekend, we'll see some changes. 

Until then, stay true to the Lion, brothers!

 

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