Lists of the Week: Top Performers Roundup 6/10/2024
The last list I had to dig for. It didn't appear in the Meta Monday listings, but I found it while I was scrolling through players at the German Super Major in Madamenweg Germany. No Dark Angels lists were in the top 20, or even the top 50, and I got to wondering if any DA armies were played at all. I finally found the first one in 77th place, which doesn't sound too impressive, but there were 403 players at the event, so 77th is actually a pretty fair showing, earned through a 3-1-1 record for the event. What's more, that list was a Firestorm Assault Force, so it makes me happy to see it.
The first of our four Ironstorms belongs to Kyle Lamperez, who we've discussed before. He took 8th place with a 4-1 performance. Here's his list on BCP, with the short version below.
New Iron
Azrael
Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah
Techmarine: Master of Machine War
Assault Intercessor Squad: 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
Land Raider Redeemer
Vindicator
Vindicator
Yeah I know it's an Ironstorm, but it doesn't have any of the staples I've come to expect to see in them, save for Azrael. No Stormravens, no Executioners, no Redemptors, not even a Darkshroud! Which is not to say Kyle's list is bad for the lack. He went 4-1 at a GT, so clearly his list works. Not that it's exactly a big surprise to see the Ballistuses, Lancers, or Vindicators, and maybe Kyle felt he could do without the Darkshroud because the vast majority of his vehicle hulls have 2+ saves. I might have dropped the Inceptors and gone with 2 squads of Scouts and a Darkshroud, but I'm not the one going 4-1 at GTs.
Kyle won his first four games, finally losing in the 5th round. 1rst round he went 100-52 against Leagues of Votann, which I'm gratified to see because so far I've only put up Ls against Votann. Take that squats! 2nd round looks like it was a by, with Kyle being awarded 61 points. Hopefully the TOs had someone who could play spoiler games so Kyle at least got to play. 3rd round was a mirror match, with Kyle going 90-33 against Bryce Watson, who brought the list that wound up in 11th place. 4th round Kyle went 91-61 against an Ultramarines Vanguard list with Marneus, Uriel Ventris, and the uppy-downy CentDev squad. Kyle's loss in the 5th round came against a T'au Empire list, 66-90 versus the filthy xenos.
Next up we have Jason Brown in 9th place, also having won his first four games and lost his fifth. Here's Jason's list on BCP, with the short version below.
Then By God I'll Take It Back
Azrael
Chaplain in Terminator Armor
Lieutenant with Combi-Weapon: Master of Machine War
Techmarine: Target Augury Web
Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah
Assault Intercessors with Jump Pack: 5 flying choppy boys
Ballistus Dreadnought
Brutalis Dreadnought
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Repulsor Executioner
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Vindicator
What's wild about this list to me is that, for an Ironstorm, it seems kind of light on the iron. Jason took the Deathwing Knights instead of a Repulsor Executioner - seriously there's only a 5 point difference, and that's not including the Terminator Chaplain. Can't argue with results though.
1rst round, Jason went 97-80 against T'au Empire. In the 2nd round, he went 67-40 against Astra Militarum. 3rd round the score was 73-64, also against Astra Militarum. 4th round Jason went 81-80 against yet another Astra Militarum list. His loss in the 5th round came against Aeldari, 66-100. Dang dirty space elves!
Our next list belongs to Lee Prost, who wound up in 10th place. Here is Lee's list on BCP, with the short version below.
Dark Angels Ironstorm
Azrael
Techmarine: Target Augury Web
Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah
Techmarine: Master of Machine War
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Ballistus Dreadnought
Ballistus Dreadnought
Eliminator Squad: 3 sneaky shooty boys
Gladiator Lancer
Gladiator Lancer
Gladiator Reaper
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Repulsor Executioner
Repulsor Executioner
At this point I'm going to point out we're three Ironstorms in and we haven't seen one Stormraven, showing they are not necessary to build a good Ironstorm list. Between the Ballistuses, Lancers, and Executioners, it must have been laughably easy for Lee to kill vehicles and monsters. There isn't a lot of combat strength in this list though, and not a lot of units for scoring secondaries. Still, 4-1.
Lee won his first three games, lost his fourth, and won his fifth. 1rst round, Lee went 94-67 against Black Templars. 2nd round Lee scored 54-53 against Drukhari. 3rd round, Lee went 88-54 against Orks. Lee got handed his 4th round loss by T'au Empire, 50-87 - again, the filthy xenos prevail! For his 5th and final game, Lee went 87-79 agaisnt Deathwatch.
Three down, one to go. For our fourth Ironstorm at Branson Brawl, we have Bryce Watson's list. Bryce won his first two games, lost his third, then went on to win his fourth and fifth, earning himself 11th place. You can see Bryce's list on BCP. The short version is below.
Look, Is Double Ravens the Objectively Correct Build? Sure. But Man Can I Just Not Be Bothered To Buy and Paint Two At This Point In The Meta (no kidding, this is the name of the list)
Azrael
Techmarine: Target Augury Web
Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah
Techmarine: Master of Machine War
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Redemptor Dreadnought
Redemptor Dreadnought
Repulsor Executioner
Repulsor Executioner
Scout Squad
Stormraven Gunship
Vindicator
It's kind of ironic that, with the name of this list, it's the only one of the four where they Stormraven finally reared its goofy-looking head. This was the most conventional DA Ironstorm of the four.
1rst round, Bryce went 87-76 against Adeptus Sororitas, which I find gratifying because I've struggled against Sororitas every time I've played them. I suppose Arco-flaggelants might struggle into Redemptors. 2nd round, Bryce went 71-63 against Adeptus Mechanicus. 3rd round, Bryce got handed his 33-90 loss (ouch!) by Kyle Lamperez' 8th-place DA Ironstorm. At least a DA list won that round! 4th round Bryce got back to winning with an 83-70 game against Tyranids. Finally, in the 5th round Bryce once again defeated an Adeptus Sororitas list, 96-69. Go Bryce!
Four Dark Angels Ironstorms at a 59 person event was a lot. They were like 7% of the meta all on their own.
The last list I'm going to discuss is the list that took 77th place at the German Super Major. You may ask why I'm bothering to discuss a list that was so low in the ranking, but it's important to note the scale of the event. Going 77th out of 403 players is pretty equivalent to going 11th out of 59 players. Plus, it's a Firestorm Assault Force. It's nice to discuss a detachment other than the Ironstorm.
The list in question belonged to Sebastian Andres, who went 3-1-1 at the event. You can see Sebastian's list on BCP, and here's the short version for your convenience.
Sebastian's List
Azrael
Captain
Captain in Gravis Armor
Lieutenant: Champion of Humanity (aw yeah!)
Aggressor Squad: 6 chonky burny punchy boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Infernus Squad: 10 burny boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Land Raider Redeemer
Repulsor
Sebastian's list has a lot of elements in common with my Firestorm list. He's got Azrael and the Lieutenant with 10 Hellblasters in a Land Raider, 2 squads of Eradicators, and an Infernus Squad with a Captain for the free Immolation Protocols. I don't have Aggressors in my list, but it's because I'm not crazy about the models, but they are definitely a value-add in a Firestorm, with the Gravis Captain to also allow them to do Immolation Protocols for free if it makes sense for them to do so instead of the Infernus Squad. The Assault Intercessors can either be used to do secondaries or to punch things, as the Scouts are definitely there to do secondaries, and the Infiltrators are an obvious home base camping squad. If I have a criticism of this list, it would be that it may have leaned a little hard into Immolation Protocols, with both the Infernus Squad and the Flamestorm Aggressors, but you can do it twice a round if you're willing to pay the CP for it, and 10 Infernus Marines and a Captain are a relatively small investment. He might have been better off with 2 Repulsors, because squads can jump back into them when charged, but the Aggressors might not want to, possibly preferring to Overwatch instead.
The German Super Major used that weird WTC scoring where both players compete for a chunk of 20 points. Sebastian went 15-5 against Adeptus Custodes in the 1rst round. 2nd round, he won 11-9 against Space Wolves. 3rd round was his 9-11 loss against Adeptus Sororitas. 4th round was a 13-7 win against Necrons. The 5th round was a 10-10 draw against Necrons.
These are the 5 lists that did the best representing the legion chapter over the weekend. Congratulations to all five of our battle brothers for their performance! I wish the future success, and I hope we can all rise to their examples!
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