Lists of the Week: Top Performers Roundup 6/17/2024

Hello battle brothers! There were a lot of GTs over the weekend, which means we have a lot of lists to talk about! Ironstorms cropped up literally all over the world to carry the honor of The Lion against all comers, so we'll talk about those. And then there was one list that totally came out of left field, which I'll save for last because I find it the most interesting.

We're going to start our journey in Atlantic City NJ, where they just held the Frontline Gaming ACO 2024 Warhammer 40K Champs supermajor. This was an 8-round event with 216 players, where Erik Rose went 5-3 and placed 53rd. That may not sound like much, but he was the top scoring Dark Angels player at the event, and his list won more games than any of the others I'm going to talk about, so I figured it earned a mention.

As we've all come to expect, Erik played an Ironstorm Spearhead. You can see his list here. The short version is below:

GW is run by the fallen
Azrael
Lieutenant with combi-weapon: Master of Machine War
Techmarine: Target Augury Web
Techmarine
Ballistus Dreadnought
Ballistus Dreadnought
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Redemptor Dreadnought
Redemptor Dreadnought
Repulsor Executioner
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Whirlwind
Whirlwind

Apparently Erik likes him his Dreadnoughts. It's interesting to see a couple Whirlwinds creep into a list, as they're kind of expensive for what they do, but an Ironstorm has the tools to make them perform better. Another thing that stands out to me is a relative dearth of secondary-scoring units besides the combi-weapon Lieutenant. I suppose Azrael and the Sternies could be tasked to them as well, especially if Azrael is just run solo. I can't help but think that maybe a unit could be taken out in favor of a couple squads of Scouts. If it were me, I'd also have included a squad of jump pack Intercessors instead of the Sternies, to try picking up my opponent's backfield holding unit with the Whirlwinds and then dropping the Intercessors onto it.

Erik had a disappointing start, with a 1rst round loss to Chaos Space Marines 30-63. He bounced back in the 2nd round though, picking up an 81-37 win against Chaos Daemons. Then in the 3rd round Chaos Space Marines came back to crap in his cornflakes, handing him a 58-95 loss. In the 4th round he picked up his second win, going 59-35 against Tyranids. 5th round, Erik took his third loss, 60-96 against Chaos Daemons. He ended strong with three straight wins. 6th round, Erik won 64-60 against Tyranids. 7th round he went 98-75 against Chaos Daemons, and in the 8th and final round he went 83-78 agaisnt Aeldari.

Next we're going to visit Niles IL, where Michael Schietinger went 4-0-1 at Forgefire Open 2. Michael placed 2nd out of 42 with an Ironstorm Spearhead which you can see on BCP here. As always, to save you the trouble, the short version is below:

stonkz
Azrael
Techmarine: Target Augury Web
Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah
Techmarine: Master of Machine War
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Redemptor Dreadnought
Repulsor Executioner: heavy laser destroyer
Repulsor Executioner: macro plasma incinerator
Repulsor Executioner: macro plasma incinerator
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Stormraven Gunship

This seems like a pretty brutal, unsubtle list. Michael has the one Stormraven to drop off the one Redemptor in his opponent's backfield, and then the three Executioners to vaporize anything that comes into the midfield, with Azrael and the Assault Intercessors lurking on the backfield objective and the Scouts to scurry around scoring secondaries as needed. I think we'd have to say it worked for him, seeing as he went undefeated at a GT.

Michael started strong, earning a 100-45 win against Adepta Sororitas. 2nd round, he went 87-53 against Chaos Marines. 3rd round was his draw, 57-57 against Death Guard. Just as an aside, I always think it's wild when I see a game end in a draw, because it's so unlikely. Anyway, 4th round Michael went back to winning, going 87-64 against Necrons. Then, in the 5th and final round, Michael went 78-58 against Death Guard.

Something I noticed checking out the pairings - Michael was one of three Schietingers who participated in the event. Luke and Drew Schietinger participated at the event as well, though Michael placed the most highly of the three. 

For our next event, we're traveling to Mexico, where the Torneo Clasificatorio Arthobbies was held in Merida Yuc. Carlos Moreno went 4-1 to place 6th out of 32 with his Ironstorm Spearhead. You can see his list on BCP here. The short version is below:

aviones
Azrael
Techmarine: Target Augury Web
Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah
Techmarine: Master of Machine War
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Redemptor Dreadnought
Redemptor Dreadnought
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Stormraven Gunship
Stormraven Gunship
Vindicator

This looks a lot more like the classic double Stormraven list pioneered by Kit Smith Hanna late last year. Looking at this list, I'm assuming the Stormravens carrying a Redemptor and a Techmarine each barrel into the enemy's deployment zone, drop off the Redemptors, and wreak havoc while Azrael and the Assault Intercessors sit on the homefield objective, and the jump pack Intercessors and Vindicator move up to hold the midfield objectives. Ideally, a pair of Stormravens and a pair of Redemptors cause enough disruption to the opponent's army to keep them from moving into the midfield with much more than the jump pack Intercessors and Vindicator can handle. Simple, brutal, and apparently effective.

We've made it to the halfway point - 3 lists down, 3 to go. For our next list, we travel across the Atlantic to Spain for the GT Sevilla Individual - Hispalis Imperium held in Montequinto AN., where Salvator Prados Perez (aka Salvitas) went 4-1 and placed 7th out of 46 players. He brought an Ironstorm Spearhead, which you can see on BCP here, with the short version below:

Cria cuervos
Azrael
Lieutenant: Master of Machine War
Techmarine: Target Augury Web
Gladiator Reaper
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Inceptor Squad: 3 chonky flying plasma boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Redemptor Dreadnought
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Stormraven Gunship
Callidus Assassin
Culexus Assassin

This one is a little wacky in that the unit choices don't immediately scream "IRONSTORM!" the way the other lists we've seen do. It's a much more balanced, combined arms list. The other thing I find interesting is the inclusion of the Culexus Assassin. I'll leave it to you to look up what that sucker does. Suffice it to say that apparently Salvitas wanted to ruin the day of any Grey Knight or Thousand Sons players he went up against, and considering how may GK players I've seen in my meta, I might have to consider copying the idea. 

In the 1rst round, Salvitas won 94-72 against Necrons. 2nd round was another win against Necrons, 63-50. 3rd round, Salvitas lost by 1 point, 81-82 against Grey Knights, who must have dealt with the Culexus with bolters. 4th round Salvitas won 65-45 against Leagues of Votann. In the 5th and final round, Salvitas won against Grey Knights, 85-72.

The next stop on our globe trotting Dark Angels trek is Crema, Lombardia Italy for the Black Tower Summer Edition - Warmaster GT, an event with 38 players. There, Fabio Minopoli placed 5th, going 4-1 with his Ironstorm, which you can see on BCP here, with the short version below:

Fabio's List
Techmarine: Master of Machine War
Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Gladiator Reaper
Gladiator Reaper
Land Raider Redeemer
Land Raider Redeemer
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Repulsor Executioner
Repulsor Executioner
Vindicator
Vindicator

I don't even know what to say about this list. I mean yeah it's an Ironstorm, but holy cow that's a lot of tanks. Apparently Fabio decided instead of having extra CP from Azrael or units to score secondaries for him, he'd have more tanks. All that firepower would make the middle of the table a really hostile environment for any unit with the misfortune of being sent out there to score Primary. I'm not sure how Fabio scored Secondary with this list. Perhaps he took fixed Secondaries and had his Darkshroud do Cleanse on the center objective for 5 turns or something.

This event used WTC scoring, which I finally got curious enough to look up an explanation for. It shows the ratio of what players win or lose by without showing the actual score. 10-10 is a tie. For every 5 VP one scores more than their opponent, they add 1 to their score. For every 5 VP less than their opponent they score, they subtract 1 from their score. Thus, the total score for a game is 20 points combined. What's odd about this is that if you won 100-95, you'd get exactly the same WTC score as someone who won 15-10.  Both games would be shown as 11-9. I suppose there's a reason someone came up with this, but to me it just seems unnecessarily obtuse.

Anyway, our may Fabio won the 1rst round 12-8 against Chaos Marines. 2nd round was an 8-12 loss against a Space Wolf Ironstorm - wait, I thought Space Wolves only played Stormlances?. 3rd round Fabio won 13-7 against Orks. 4th round, Fabio went up against another Dark Angels player, in this case playing a Gladius. Fabio won 12-8. In the 5th and final round, Fabio crushed a Chaos Daemons list 19-1. 

For our last list, we travel to Paris, France for The Art of the Warp 9eme Ed.- GT. There, Khaithan went 4-1 to score 5th out of 49 player with an Ironstorm Spearhead STORMLANCE TASK FORCE! I told you the last list was something that came out of left field! It is absolutely not what you'd expect from a Stormlance either. You can see Khaithan's list on Miniheadquarters here, but to save you the trouble the short version is below:

Let the lion roar
Azrael
Judiciar
Lion El'Jonson
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Bladeguard Veteran Squad: 6 veteran choppy boys
Centurion Assault Squad: 6 chonky drilly boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky choppy boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky choppy boys
Land Raider Redeemer
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

Obviously the first thing that sticks out is the Lion being in a list that placed well, which is not what we've come to expect. The next thing that jumps out is this is a Stormlance without any mounted units. There's not even a single token Outrider Squad. There could have been. Khaithan easily could have subbed out  the jump pack Intercessors with Outriders and even saved a few points in the process, but Khaithan was apparently like "Nah, I can win without 2 of the detachment's 6 stratagems". There's also the Deathwing Knights and the Inner Circle Companions, which are nice to see...wait, a Centurion Assault Squad? 

My takeaway from this is that Khaithan got tired of seeing Space Wolf players bully the mid table with Thunderwolf Stormlance armies, decided to beat them with their own detachment, and just for funsies decided to do it on hard mode and only use 4 out of 6 stratagems. And judging from his 4-1 record, he made it work for him.

Khaithan picked up his loss in the 1rst round, giving up a painful 20-95 against Thousand Sons. After that, he got on board the win train and did not get off for the rest of the event. 2nd round he went 96-30 against Chaos Marines. 3rd round he went 91-21 against Necrons. 4th round he went 100-70  against Grey Knights. In the 5th and final round he won 86-70 against Orks. I'd like to think that game culminated in an epic duel between Lion El'Jonson and Ghazhgkull in the center of the table.

That brings us to the end of our roundup of the weekend's top performing Dark Angels lists. While I applaud all our brothers who performed well, it is nice to see something different rise to the top, and I'm glad we could end on that. Hopefully the upcoming Balance Dataslate will help us be competitive with more than just the Ironstorm. I suppose it's too much to hope for the Unforgiven Task Force to get completely reworked, but a guy can dream. As always, I'd like to congratulate the players of theses lists for their performance. Brothers, you have upheld the honor of the legion chapter, and for that I salute you! Well done!