Lists of the Week: Top Performers Roundup 7/1/2024

Hello battle brothers! It's the beginning of a new era in 40K 10th edition! Dark Angels made a pretty solid showing at events over the past weekend, with one event win and five 4-1 placings. The Ironstorm didn't go away, but the Gladius has also risen to the top scores, including the event win, so let's take a look at what has done well at the beginning of the new meta.

The event winning list seems like the obvious place to start, and that was brought to us by a familiar name - Alex Vian of Midwest Murdersports. Alex brought a Gladius Task Force defeat all comers at the Built Forge Tough GT in Chaska MN. Here's the link to Alex's list on BCP. The short version is below.

Back On my bullshit

Azrael

Asmodai

Apothecary Biologus

Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Impulsor
Assault Intercessors with Jump packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Eradicator Squad: 6 chonky melta boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome choppy boys
Land Raider Redeemer
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

Dang. Hasn't Alex heard the Dark Angels are supposed to be the shooty chapter? This list does most of its work in brutal melee, with 3 squads of Deathwing Knights and a full squad of Inner Circle Companions. I imagine the Eradicators are primarily in the list as a can opener for the choppy squads. I expect Azrael gets to hang out with the Intercessor Squad on the backfield objective and supply CP, maybe leaving it stickied and coming out to lend a hand after opponents have committed anything Deep Strike or Strategic Reserve characters they have, with Asmodai joining the ICCs and riding in the Impulsor and the Biologus obviously linking up with the Eradicators and likely riding in the Redeemer, though I suppose they could be on foot and an DWK squad could be in the Redeemer as the situation warrants. For utility work, Alex has the two squads of Scouts and the squad of Jump Pack Intercessors.

Alex's stops on the win train were as follows: Round 1 he went 100-31 against Orks. Round 2, 98-71 vs Tyranids. Round 3, 67-57 against World Eaters. Round 4, 76-51 against Chaos Daemons. Round 5, 77-68 against T'au Empire. Go Alex! Murder those filthy xenos and dirty heretics!

Two of the 4-1 finishes occurred at the Glasshammer GT in Birmingham England. Both of those lists were also Gladius Task Forces, one played by James Bedford who came in 17th out of 162 players, the other by Ben Jones who placed 19th. We'll start with James' list, the short version of which is below.

G.D.A.

Azrael
Captain in Terminator Armor
Lieutenant: Fire Discipline
Lieutenant with Combi-Weapon
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys

Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

Here's another list with 3 squads of DWKs. This time the shooty element are 2 squads of Hellblasters, giving Azrael something more exciting to do than sitting in the backfield minding an objective. Both squads get Sustained Hits with their respective characters. If it were me, I'd have wanted a way to squeeze in a Storm Speeder Thunderstrike to help the Hellblasters punch up against tougher targets, but clearly they worked well enough for James.

This event used the Swiss scoring method. 1rst round, James went 20-0 against Blood Angels (ouch for that BA player). 2nd round he went 16-4 against Space Marines. 3rd round he went 12-8 against Necrons. 4th round he took his loss, 0-12 against Imperial Knights. He ended strong in the 5th round though, going 20-0 against Aeldari. I know I should be bigger than this, but I always find it satisfying when Eldar get dumpstered. 

Now let's move on to Ben Jones' list. Ben apparently decided shooting is for suckers, and went with an all-assault, all-the-time style of list. You can see Ben's list on BCP, with the short version below.

test
Lion El'Jonson
Azrael
Captain: The Honour Vehement
Librarian
Librarian
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Impulsor
Impulsor
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys

Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys

Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys

Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome choppy boys

Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome choppy boys

Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

I guess the test worked. It's nice to see Lion Dad make it into a high performing list, and he certainly brought enough high-test melee units so he wouldn't feel lonely as he's putting traitors, heretics, and aliens to the sword. Guessing which character goes with which squad is kind of an interesting game of musical chairs, as there are 4 squads for 4 characters. My guess would be that Azrael again is saddled with minding a backfield objective with the bolter Intercessors so he'll be on the table producing CP from Turn 1, with the Captain joining the Assault Intercessors and the Librarians joining the Inner Circle Companions squads to give them both invulnerable saves. For utility work there are 2 squads of jump pack Intercessors and the 1 squad of Scouts, and the Impulsors can be tasked to secondaries once the squads they're toting disembark.

1rst round, Ben went 17-3 against World Eaters. 2nd round he went 15-5 against Chaos Daemons. 3rd round he went 17-3 against Thousand Sons. I want to stick on that for a second because the TSons traditionally are an army that dishes out a lot of Mortal Wounds, and Lion Dad effectively cuts that output in half, making him a good bit of tech against TSons and similar armies. Anyhow, Ben's loss came at the hands of the Adeptus Sororitas, 1-19. Ouch. However, he ended strong with an 18-2 win against Space Marines.

The Ironstorm Spearhead may be down, but it's not out yet. At the PKH x BAC Warhammer 40K GT 2024 in Scotland, Duncan Brown went 4-1 with one. You can see Duncan's List on BCP, with the short version below.

Dark Angels Solo Stormraven

Azrael

Librarian in Phobos Armor
Techmarine
Techmarine
Assault Intercessor Squad: 10 choppy boys
Ballistus Dreadnought
Ballistus Dreadnought
Gladiator Lancer
Gladiator Lancer
Inceptor Squad: 3 flying chonky plasma boys

Inceptor Squad: 3 flying chonky plasma boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Redemptor Dreadnought
Stormraven Gunship

Looks like tanks and Dreadnoughts are still good. It's interesting to see the Techmarines without the usual enhancements, but now that they're only useable on 1 vehicle a turn rather than auras they're not as attractive as they used to be. That said, it looks like the Techmarines are still useful on their own merits. The Stormraven and the Redemptor still form a package that opponents will find challenging to deal with, and I'm inclined to think Duncan uses Azrael and the Assault Intercessors to try and dominate midfield, with the Infiltrators and Phobos Librarian minding the home field objective. Utility work is probably done by the Inceptor Squads, but with their plasma exterminators they can also be put to enemy-killing work, which I consider kind of a mixed bag. If you can put 6 twin linked S8 AP-3 D3 twin linked shots somewhere, you're apt to do it, which can conflict with secondary scoring. Could be Duncan had a fixed Secondary plan that didn't require too much in the way of utility units.

For his 1rst round, Duncan scored an 82-72 win against Tyranids. He took his loss in the 2nd round, 64-78 against Orks. 3rd round, Duncan got back on the win train, going 64-65 against Custodes. 4th round he went 77-62 against Aeldari. 5th round, he went 77-62 against Blood Angels.

For our next list, James Walsh went 4-1 with a Gladius Task Force at the 2nd Annual Dragon Egg WAAAAAAGH!!!!!! in Billings MT. James scored 5th out of 31 players with this list here, the short version of which is below.

DA Gladius

Azrael

Apothecary Biologus: Fire Discipline

Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 extra-chonky shooty boys

Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 extra-chonky shooty boys

Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 extra-chonky shooty boys

Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys

Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys

Eradicator Squad: 6 chonky melta boys

Inceptor Squad: 3 flying bolter boys

Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys

Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

I wouldn't have expected to see Centurion Devastators outside of a Vanguard Spearhead, and yet here they are, and having looked at their loadout and unit rule, I can't argue against their inclusion. It does look like Azrael doesn't have a unit to join, so I suspect he's just hanging out on the backfield objectives next to the Infiltrators, or possibly just lurking in a LOS-blocking ruin ready to jump out and ruin the day of anybody who thinks they can be clever and slip past all the Deathwing Knights. The Inceptors being bolter boys definitely seems to solidly ensure they will be used for utility work rather than killing power, and of course there are the Scouts as well. As for killing power, the Cents, DWKs, and Eradicators bring plenty of that.

1rst round, James won against Necrons 66-41. 2nd round was an 80-71 win agaisnt Custodes. 3rd round brought an 80-73 win agaisnt Orks. 4th round was James' loss, 61-77 versus Blood Angels. James ended strong with a 96-50 win against Astra Militarum. 

For our next event we go to the Bouvr’On Games by Les Dés’Luminatis 40k solo.in Bouvron, France, where Ichou went 4-1 to place 3rd out of 48 players with an Ironstorm Spearhead. You can see his list and game results here on Miniwargaming.com. To save you the trouble, the short version is below.

Armoured Wrath

Azrael

Captain

Techmarine: Master of Machine War

Techmarine: Target Augury Web

Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys

Repulsor Executioner

Gladiator Lancer

Gladiator Lancer

Redemptor Dreadnought

Redemptor Dreadnought

Redemptor Dreadnought

Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys

Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys

Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys

This one is a little more classic, going with the types of units that appeared in the Ironstorm before the Stormraven innovation. It's light on actual Dark Angels units, with only Azrael for his CP generation. Ichou could have taken one less jump pack Intercessor squad, one more Scout Squad, and used Marneus Calgar instead. It's got Gladiator Lancers for anti-armor work, a trio of Redemptors for everything else, and kind of a lot of infantry for an Ironstorm, with 30 assorted Space Marine pairs of boots on the ground.

Round 1, Ichou beat an Aeldari list 100-71. Not a thrashing, but any game where the arrogant space elves lose is a good game. Round 2 was a 63-56 win against Leagues of Votann. Round 3 brought an 89-76 win against Adeptus Sororitas. Round 4 was the loss, 50-81 versus Orks. Round 5, Ichou ended the event on a high note with a 74-55 win against another Adeptus Soras list.

Our last list comes to us from Battle Ready Wargaming's Southern Showdown in Valdosta GA, where Chris Reeder scored 5th out of 50 with his Ironstorm Spearhead. Here is the link to Chris' list 

on BCP. As usual, the short version is below.

Well, I never said I was a clever man, but...(clipped, there's a whole paragraph)
Azrael

Techmarine: Target Augury Web

Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah
Techmarine: Master of Machine War
Ravenwing Darkshroud

Redemptor Dreadnought

Redemptor Dreadnought

Redemptor Dreadnought

Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

Storm Speeder Thunderstrike

Stormraven Gunship

Stormraven Gunship

The Stormravens in this list are shown as costing 260 points, so either this event was played with some variation of the old rules, or Chris adjusted his list and didn't update the listing on BCP. That said, he would have saved some points back with Target Augury Web and Master of Machine War both dropping in points while becoming targeted upgrades instead of auras., and he probably could drop one Scout squad and not suffer too badly for it, maybe take a squad of Voidsmen or whatever to sit on the backfield objective. Other than that, this is the unreconstructed 2-Stormraven Ironstorm we've seen quite often in the past.

Like Ichou did, Chris started the event strong with a Round 1 win against Aeldari, 90-79. Round 2 Chris picked up a 96-56 win against Astra Militarum. Round 3 was Chris' loss, 64-92 against Grey Knights. Round 4 Chris won 96-45 against Adeptus Custodes. Round 5 Chris picked up an 81-58 win against Chaos Daemons.

The most successful detachment of the weekend was the Gladius, with a 57% win rate, followed by the Ironstorm with a 53% win rate, and then one mad lad took a Company of Hunters to a 6 round event and went 3-3, giving it a 50% win rate. The buffs to the Unforgiven Task Force and the Inner Circle Task Force didn't help them rise to adequacy though, with the UTC only getting a 40% win rate, and the ICTF getting a dismal 23% win rate.

On the upside, Deathwing Knights and Inner Circle Companions can be included in competitive lists now. This weekend decisively shows that assault Dark Angels are now a thing, and are possibly the most effective way to play Dark Angels, which is wild considering that Blood Angels, Space Wolves, and Black Templars are all traditionally considered more choppy than Dark Angels are.  That said, two of the losses the above lists suffered were against Orks (both Bully Boyz lists), and one was against Blood Angels, so the assault Dark Angels list isn't as simple as spamming DWKs and ICCs and running them at your opponent. Also, we didn't see a head-to-head matchup between assault Dark Angels and a Space Wolf Stormlance. I'd be nervous playing Dark Angels into that matchup.

Azrael, of course, keeps making it into lists, but at least in some of them he's doing more than sitting in the backfield farting out Command Points. He's joined by a more diverse array of supporting characters, with the Apothecary Biologus standing out as a frequent addition, being given Fire Discipline and attached to a big brick of Eradicators. Lion Dad also put in an appearance, and I don't think it'll be too long before we see lists based around him and Hellblasters, as Lion Dad's anti-mortals aura can help keep them alive when they fail Hazardous checks. 

Speaking of Eradicators and Hellblasters, both of those units put in appearances in the above lists. I also found it interesting and gratifying to see Impulsors appear. I got fond of Impulsors playing my Firestorm list, and they make a very convenient battlefield taxi for a squad of ICCs and an attached character now. Plus, each Impulsor gives you a bucket of dice to throw at an opponent, and that's not taking into account the optional roof mounted gun, though I preferred the Shield Dome, and generally speaking if you're using them I think that's the way to go. 

I think the Ironstorm is going to remain a viable way to get good results at a competitive event, so if you've invested in Stormravens and Redemptors, you don't have to put those models up on eBay just yet. Techmarines are a value add in an Ironstorm even without the exclusive enhancements, and those enhancements are still worthwhile, and to look at the silver lining, the enhancements not being auras anymore frees up some movement options, whereas previously one would be incentivized to keep units within the auras.

All in all, it's an exciting time to be a Dark Angels player, perhaps the most so since 10th edition started. There are at least a couple viable ways to play competitively, and I suspect we haven't seen all of them yet. We get to put our sexy new units in competitive lists and not feel like we're handicapping ourselves by doing so. Unfortunately, it looks like our bespoke detachments are going to continue to be handicaps to playing competitively, but at least competitive Dark Angels lists don't always have to be Ironstorms anymore. I'll take that as a net plus.

As always, congratulations to Alex and all the other players who performed well over the weekend, Well done brother! You have represented the legion chapter admirably!