Lists of the Week: Top Performers 7/8/2024
It wasn't a great weekend for our army unfortunately, as there were no event wins or 4-1 results. Therefore I went a little deeper to find the best performing lists at the most attended events. They may not have done spectacularly, but they do give us an idea of what people are playing, and we can still learn from them.
The biggest event of the weekend was II GT Tormenta de Hostias in Lica d'Amunt, Spain, where Soto Cripta took an Ironstorm Spearhead and went 2-2-1 to score 32nd out of 64 players. It's in the upper 50% of rankings and a 50% win rate, so it's a bad performance. Here is Soto's list on BCP, with the short version below.
Ironstorm
Librarian in Phobos Armor
Techmarine: Master of Machine War
Techmarine
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Ballistus Dreadnought
Ballistus Dreadnought
Gladiator Reaper
Gladiator Reaper
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Predator Destructor
Predator Destructor
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Vindicator
Vindicator
This looks like a pretty serviceable Ironstorm. Not having Azrael in it is a pretty notable omission that I'm at a loss to explain. My only thought on that is that maybe Soto felt the need to include a Battleline unit to have one for the Pariah Nexus missions where Battleline can score extra VP, and dropped Azrael to include the Intercessors. The Phobos Librarian hasn't cropped up much. Personally, I've considered him to attach to Infiltrators to prevent any Deep Strikers from shooting at them, but haven't quite considered it worth the opportunity cost. Also notable is an absence of anything that can throw down in assault. I think Soto was counting on Big Guns Never Tire to carry the day against assault armies, with the one upgrade he paid for being Master of Machine War, which would allow him to nominate a unit to fall back and shoot. That might also explain the middling performance.
Soto started strong, with a 97-68 1rst round win against Space Marines. 2nd round, Soto had his first loss, 63-90 versus Necrons. 3rd round was also a loss, 58-72 versus Chaos Daemons. 4th round was a 67-67 draw against Necrons. Finally, Soto ended strong with a 100-82 win against Necrons. I guess by the end of the event, all that practice against Necrons paid off in the end!
The next list was played at the Dark Sphere July 40K GT, where Tom Holmes too a Gladius Task Force, going 3-2 to scoren15th out of 62 players. Here is Tom's list on BCP, with the short version below.
Dark Sphere
Azrael
Captain in Terminator Armor: Artificer Armor
Chaplain in Terminator Armor
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Gladiator Lancer
Gladiator Lancer
Inceptor Squad: 3 flying chonky bolter boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Land Raider Redeemer
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
This list does bear some similarities to the lists that did well last week. Deathwing Knights are putting in their welcome appearance, and clearly did some work for Tom. I imagine the Lancers' primary job is to de-mech transport mounted units so the DWKs can get at the squishy prizes inside, with one of the DWK squads riding in the Redeemer, and the other probably Deep Striking with the Captain's free charge reroll to hopefully get them into combat.
I think I might have made some different choices than Tom did though. One thing that stood out to me was the Terminator Chaplain being kind of redundant on a DWK squad with maces. He would have been more of a value-add on a squad with swords, ensuring they could punch up into anything less than T 12. Another thing I probably would have done differently is have Azrael join a 10-strong Assault Intercessor Squad, and probably had them ride in the Land Raider. The Intercessor Squad and combi weapon Lieutenant would have been a pretty straight swap for 10 Assault Intercessors. I'm also not sure I'd have used the Redeemer. 285 points is expensive enough where I'd question how much its Overwatch potential is worth. A Crusader is literally 65 points less and has more carrying capacity, and the standard Land Raider would have been 35 points less and added to the long-range anti-armor capacity of the list. Finally, Artificer Armor seems odd on a Terminator Captain. It doesn't become relevant till the Captain is on his own, at which point he already has the 2+ armor save. I'd have probably gone with The Honour Vehement for more and stronger attacks.
Tom started the event with a 1rst round win against World Eaters, 75-60. 2nd round, Tom doubled down on dunking on heretics, winning 100-28 against Chaos Marines. 3rd round Tom took a very tight loss, 77-78 versus T'au Empire. 4th round was also a loss, a disappointing 48-100 loss against Adeptus Mechanicus. Still, Tom ended strong, getting retribution against the filthy xenos with a 100-73 win against T'au Empire.
The last next list I'm going to review today was played at Geekfest - Summer Heat - Warhammer 40K GT in Shearwater NS Canada, where Zach Konway took a Gladius Task Force and went 3-2 to score 10th out of 32 players. Here is Zach's list on BCP, with the short version below.
Azrael Chaperones a Field Trip
Azrael
Lieutenant: Fire Discipline
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon: The Honour Vehement
Assault Intercessor Squad: 10 choppy boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Ballistus Dreadnought
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Inceptor Squad: 3 flying chonky bolter boys
Land Raider Redeemer
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Redemptor Dreadnought
Scout Squad
Scout Squad
This is an interesting and eclectic collection of units. One notable thing is that all the vehicles have a native 2+ save, except the Darkshroud, which can do its thing without ever really needing to be exposed to fire. Lately I've been harboring the notion that the Darkshroud adds the most value to a list that's heavy on durable vehicles, because every failed to-hit or passed save is going to have more significance than with, say, anti-infantry fire into Intercessors. Anyway, there's that 10-man Assault Intercessor squad for Azrael to join, likely but not certainly riding in the Redeemer, because the DWKs and/or the Hellblasters are also possible passengers. Giving Fire Discipline to the Lieutenant lets him lead the Hellblasters for Azrael, and giving The Honour Vehement to the combi-weapon Lieutenant makes at least some sense, but if there was a character I'd stick Artificer Armor on, it'd be that guy.
There are some different choices I'd have likely made. The most prominent is that Redeemer. I understand it's got great Overwatch potential, but seriously the difference between that thing and a Crusader is a whole additional character or unit. Taking a Crusader instead of the Redeemer would have saved enough points to add a Terminator Chaplain to the DWKs, who with the swords would have benefited from reliably wounding on at least 4+ versus most targets. I also think I'd have taken a Librarian to carry Fire Discipline instead of the Lieutenant, though maybe Zach was thinking the faster Hellblasters die, the faster they damage his opponent's forces.
Zach led the event with a 1rst round win, 79-51 against Chaos Marines. 2nd round, Zach took an 81-57 loss against Adeptus Custodes. 3rd round was a 78-48 win against Necrons. 4th round was a 62-53 win against Black Templars. The 5th round was a head-scratching loss, 70-0 against Blood Angels. The 0 point score leads me to believe Zach dropped before the final round and his opponent got a by, so who knows, maybe Zach could have gone 4-1 at this event.
I wasn't originally going to review this list, but then when I was writing about our statistics for the weekend, I couldn't help but notice a Vanguard Spearhead went 3-2. That was interesting enough to prompt me to go looking for it. Turns out it was played by Louis Ballington at the Winchester 40K GT - July 2024, a 30 player event where Louis placed 8th. Here is Louis' list on BCP, with the short version below.
It's the fucking Lion, bitch
Lion El'Jonson
Azrael
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon: Shadow War Veteran
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Centurion Devastator Squad: 6 super-chonky shooty boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Inceptor Squad: 6 chonky flying plasma boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Eversor Assassin
Voidsmen-At-Arms: 5 squishy boys
I had just been thinking that a Vanguard may be a good way to play assault Dark Angels. This isn't quite that list, as it has the rather conventional brick of Centurion Devastators, and the 6-man plasma Inceptor Squad is a pretty common inclusion in a Vanguard too. Those are build-around units in most Vanguard Spearheads, using Guerilla Tactics to uppy-downy them as needed. That said, it does have 2 squads of Deathwing Knights, and Lion Dad himself, and the Eversor Assassin is modestly hilarious (among other things, he has Deadly Demise D3!). Pairing Lion Dad with a combi-weapon Lieutenant is a good cheap way of maintaining his Lone Operative rule, and as the Lieutenant is going to be trailing along behind Lion Dad, who is going to be heading forward to kick in some teeth, the Lieutenant is apt to be close enough to Vect an opponent's stratagem under the current rules.
My main criticism of this list is the points spent on the non-DA units, particularly the Voidsmen-At-Arms. I imagine the Voidsmen were probably just sitting on the backfield objective, but ditching them would have let Louis upgrade a Scout Squad to an Infiltrator Squad to do that instead. Unfortunately, that would have left Louis with 15 points it would have been hard to spend, and no one likes leaving that many points on the table. That extra 15 points would have let him upgrade a second Scout Squad into any number of units, but none of them inherently uppy-downy on their own, so to do anything with the 15 points, Louis probably would have had to convert the Eversor into something else, which while probably more practical is not as fun.
Louis got his first win 1rst round, going 69-63 against an Astra Militarum list. He was probably able to pick up a Rogal Dorn first turn, from where his opponent would have had a hard time catching up. 2nd round was a 94-70 win against Blood Angels. 3rd round was a close 88-90 loss against Chaos Marines. 4th round was an 83-64 win against T'au Empire. Then the 5th round was a 67-83 loss against Orks.
It was not a fantastic weekend for the Dark Angels, with only a 41% win rate. We didn't have any event wins or 4-1 finishes to pull up the average. Hopefully this will be an atypical week for us. The most played detachment was the Gladius, with 5 players winning 11 total games for a 48% win rate. The next most played was the Inner Circle Task Force, with 3 players earning 5 wins for a 33% win rate. The Company of Hunters had 1 player who gained 2 wins for a 40% win rate. The Unforgiven Task Force had 1 diehard player who sadly only got 1 win for a 20% win rate. Then under the heading of weird, 1 player (Louis) used a Vanguard Spearhead to get 3 wins and a 60% win rate.
This wasn't the best weekend for the First Legion chapter, but we did have some interesting lists to check out, and they did decently. Their players can hold their heads up high, and the rest of us would be pretty happy if we routinely performed as well as they did this past weekend. Congratulations to them, and with any luck they and we will learn from their experience and take our armies to new heights of glory!
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