Lists of the Week: Top Performers 9/2/2024

 

Hello battle brothers! Another week begins, and with it we have the lists our battle brothers have had the most success with over the weekend! We had one tournament win and 8 lists place highly, so this may take me a little while to get through. Plus this Monday was a holiday, so I was busy doing other things, so bear with me if this doesn't make it out till Wednesday, please and thank you.

The biggest event of the weekend was NOVA Open in Washington DC, a 9-round event with 364 players. A pair of Dark Angels lists made the top 10%. I used going 4-1 in the first 5 rounds as my cutoff for which lists I'd discuss here, and these two made the cut. 

The first list belongs to Frank Viruet of X-4, who took a Dark Angels Gladius to score 14th place. Frank didn't play all of his games. It looks like he decided to drop after his 7th. No shade. Seven games would stretch even my desire to play 40K if I didn't think I had a reasonable chance of scoring a near-top position. You can see Frank's list on BCP, with the short version below.

Gladius DA
Azrael
Apothecary Biologis: Fire Discipline (aka the Harmacist)
Judiciar: The Honour Vehement
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
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
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Eradicator Squad: 6 chonky melta boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Repulsor
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Callidus Assassin

This is a pretty conventional list. Azrael goes with the Assault Intercessors, the Judiciar with the ICCs, the Harmacist with the Eradicators. The Repulsor full of Eradicators is there to handle big threats, the jump Intercessors, Scouts, and Callidus run around, skirmish, and score secondaries.

Frank started strong with a convincing 1rst round win against T'au, 94-41. 2nd round Frank beat World Eaters 82-47. In the 3rd round he beat Chaos Daemons 78-64. 4th round he went 85-45 against Imperial Knights. After that his win train went off the rails though. 5th round he lost 81-91 against Sororitas*. 6th round he took a rough 59-100 loss against Chaos Marines. The last round he played was the 7th, where he lost to Blood Angels, 74-92. After that he probably decided to take a long lunch and take a nap before beginning the trek home, and I don't really blame him.

Frank's Sororitas opponent, Tony Phillips, went undefeated till the 9th round and took 2nd, so keeping within 10 points of his score is no mean feat!

Our other point-of-pride list from NOVA Open was played by Shaun Reynolds, who went 7-2 to score 29th place. You can see Shaun's list on BCP, with the short version below.

Repent! For Tomorrow You Die!
 - Lennon
Azrael
Apothecary Biologis: Fire Discipline (aka the Harmacist)
Judiciar
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
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
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Eradicator Squad: 6 chonky melta boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Repulsor
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Callidus Assassin

The only difference between Shaun's list and Frank's is that Shaun has 1 less Scout Squad and didn't take The Honour Vehement on his Judiciar and took a 3rd jump Intercessor Squad.

I tell you what, Shaun sure got himself a lot of 100's! In fact, the only games where he scored less than 90 points were his 2 losses. 1rs round he brutalized Necrons 100-40. 2nd round he was not much more merciful to Chaos Marines, drubbing them 100-43. 3rd round he took his first loss, going 82-76 against Deathwatch of all things! (They were played by Mark Hertel, which may explain a thing or two). Round 4 Shaun saw him some Chaos and got his savage back, going 98-55 against Chaos Daemons. 5th round Shaun decided to let his opponent score some points, but still wanted to all of them, going 100-65 against Sororitas. 7th round was Shaun's second loss, a close 75-81 against Thousand Sons. Round 8 he went 100-57 against Genestealer Cult. In the 9th and final round, Shaun crushed an Imperial Knights player, 100-33.

The next list for our discussion came from the 2nd biggest event of the weekend, Spain's La Voz de Horus Open, a 5-round, 102-player event with a playoff for the top 4 players. A mystery person known only as Shadowblade 40K took 4th place with their Gladius Task Force. You can see Shadowblade 40K's list on BCP, with the short version below.

DA Opcion 1
Apothecary Biologis: Fire Discipline
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
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Eradicator Squad: 6 chonky melta boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Repulsor
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Vindicator
Vindicator
Callidus Assassin

Shadowblade 40K took the conventional DA Gladius and made some interesting innovations. For starters, Azrael is notable by his absence, with the only character being the Harmacist! SB40K also omitted even the token Battleline unit and the ICC's, replacing them and the missing characters with a pair of Vindicators. That presents opponents with kind of a lot of tough vehicles to chew through instead of just the solo Repulsor. There's also an Infiltrator Squad to mind the backfield objective, something I didn't notice was missing from the previous two lists till I saw it in this one. Not taking Azrael is definitely an unconventional choice, but SB40K had arguably the best performance of the weekend. I am going to talk about an event winning list in this article, but that list rose to the top of a fairly small event, whereas this one took 4th at a big one.

Shadowblade 40K rode the win train all the way to the top 4 playoff. 1rst round they went 87-65 against Adeptus Sororitas. 2nd round they drubbed Space Wolves 71-33. 3rd round they had a close game, 89-82 against Imperial Knights. 4th round was another win against Sororitas, 75-60. 5th round was a 1 point game, 63-62 against Drukhari! SB40K lost their playoff game with another squeaker, 67-69 against T'au. 

Our next list comes from The Glasshammer GT in Wolverhampton, England; a 5-round, 49 player event. Ben Jones of Vanguard Tactics took 3rd place with his Gladius Task Force. You can see Ben's list on BCP, with the short version below.

glad
Azrael
Apothecary Biologis: Fire Discipline
Judiciar: The Honour Vehement
Librarian in Phobos Armor
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
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
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Eradicator Squad: 6 chonky melta boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Repulsor
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

This is another version of the conventional list, with one interesting innovation: Ben added the Phobos Librarian to pair up with the Infiltrator Squad. The Phobos Libby's datasheet ability is Shrouding, which gives the attached squad Stealth and effectively Lone Op, which means that any unit coming in out of Reserves can't interact with the Infiltrators at all the turn they come in. That means Ben didn't have to worry about keeping the Infiltrators behind terrain, letting him string them out further and cover more of his backfield, plus adding an extra model for more coverage to boot. It also adds some punch to the Infiltrators both in shooting and in combat, which they can really use in the event an opponent does get something close enough to threaten them. I've thought about doing this myself but didn't think it was quite worth the points. Ben's performance is an argument that it is.

Glasshammer used WTC scoring. As a reminder, WTC scoring indicates not just how many points you score, but also how many points you prevent your opponent from scoring. So, a score of 10-10 is effectively a tie, with every deviation of 1 point indicating a 5 point difference in score.

1rst round, Ben beat a Blood Angels list 15-5. 2nd round he drubbed Black Templars 20-0. 3rd round he handed out another 20-0 drubbing, this time to Imperial Knights. 4th round was his loss to the event winner's Adeptus Sororitas, 9-11. 5th round he ended strong, going 16-4 against Drukhari.

Our next list came from Hive City Gaming GT August 2024 in Little Paxton, England. At this 31-person, 5-round event, Black Crow Gaming's Toby Bennett took 4th place with his Gladius Task Force. You can see Toby's list on BCP, with the short version below. 

The Lion's very own DILF battalion
Azrael
Apothecary Biologis: Fire Discipline
Judiciar
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy 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 macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Eradicator Squad: 6 chonky melta boys
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

The point of variance with this list is the removal of the Repulsor and the inclusion of the Hellblaster Squad. As my current list also sports both the Eradicator brick and the Hellblasters brick, I approve. My list adds a Lieutenant with a power fist to the Hellblasters for Lethal Hits, the tactical flexibility, and some extra powerful close combat attacks to make the squad a legitimate threat in melee, but the Lieutenant with Combi-weapon is a tech piece of undeniable utility. He probably uses terrain to keep his Eradicators safe on their approach, or puts them in Strategic Reserve, which I tend to do a lot. Toby seems to be using Intercessors as his backfield unit, which gives him some options, as he can sticky the objective and move off it if doing so is advantageous, and helps insulate him from an opponent picking up an easy Secret Mission.

Toby had a tight 1rst round game, but prevailed 79-76 against Space Wolves. His 2nd round game wasn't much less of a nail biter, an 84-79 win against Grey Knights. 3rd round he had a much more comfortable win, 97-59 against Tyranids. 4th round was his loss, 63-82 against Grey Knights. He ended strong in the 5th round though, 95-69 against Drukhari.

The next list comes from Karnage at the Keep - August Royal. At this 5-round, 29 person event, Timothy Grant of Deepstrike Gang went 4-1 to score 3rd place with his Gladius. You can see Tim's list on BCP, with the short version below.

Tim's List
Azrael
Apothecary Biologis: Fire Discipline (aka the Harmacist)
Judiciar: The Honour Vehement
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
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
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Eradicator Squad: 6 chonky melta boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Repulsor
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Callidus Assassin

Tim's list is identical to Frank's list up at the top of the article. I literally copy-pasted it from there. 

Tim started strong with a 1rst round 99-52 win against Blood Angels. 2nd round he had a 94-82 win against Chaos Marines. 3rd round was a 74-67 win against Tyranids. 4th round was the 60-65 loss against Adeptus Sororitas. 5th round was a strong finish, 97-42 against Custodes. 

The last list for this article is our event winner, from Malmo Game Week II, a 5-round, 35 player event. Olof Svensson of Legio Svecia went 4-0-1 with his Gladius Task Force to take the top spot! You can see Olof's list on BCP, with the short version below.

glad
Azrael
Apothecary Biologis: Fire Discipline
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Eradicator Squad: 6 chonky melta boys
Gladiator Lancer
Inceptor Squad: 3 chonky flying bolter boys
Repulsor
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

We've seen a solitary Lancer pop up in a list before. It gives Olof an option for popping a light vehicle from across the table. I could see using it and the Repulsor to gang up on a target, with the Repulsor taking the last few wounds off something the Gladiator put the hurt on. That said, I'd want my Repulsor to have the hull twin-linked lascannon, and Olof stuck with the hull heavy bolters instead.  The Inceptors are a bit of an unconventional choice because of how expensive they are, but their 3" Deep Strike ability is not to be denied as long as Olof's opponent's aren't rocking Infiltrators, and even then one can find uses for them. That said, a Callidus Assassin would have been cheaper, and I find it hard to believe a squad of bolter Inceptors is more useful than a Callidus. Then again, Olof did win his event, which is hard to argue with. 

Malmo Games was another event that uses WTC scoring. Olof bodied his 1rst round T'au opponent 18-2. 2nd round he went 15-5 against Adeptus Mechanicus. 3rd round he drubbed Necrons 17-3. 4th round he had a 10-10 draw against Chaos Daemons. I suppose WTC scoring makes draws a little more likely. Then, in the 5th round he schooled Drukhari 17-3. Way to go Olof!

Statistics

Dark Angels are sitting on a weekend and 10-week win rate of 46%. We had 1 event win over the weekend and have had 7 since the Balance Dataslate. That sounds like a lot, but in the same time frame Sisters of Battle have had 17, and there are 4 other factions that have more event wins than Dark Angels. We had 8 X-0/X-1 results. 50 players played 287 games. 

Some madman took a Stormlance Task Force to a 6-game event over the weekend and won 4 of them, giving it a 67% win rate and making it the winningest detachment by percentage.

The Gladius Task Force was our most-played detachment with 39 players who gave it a 50% win rate for the weekend. Gladius players scored all of our X-0/X-1 results and our event win. The 10-week win rate for the DA Gladius currently sits at a 51%.

The Inner Circle Task Force was the next-most played with 8 players, but it only got a 32% win rate - which is still the 3rd highest of the detachments played over the weekend. 

The people trying to boost the Inner Circle Task Force's numbers seem to have taken this weekend off. Only 1 player took it to a big event, and he won only 1 out of 6 games for a 17% win rate.

One other player took a 1rst Company Task Force and got similar results.

To address concerns about Dark Angels being nerfed, the data doesn't really support that course of action. What it does support is some internal balance corrections to make other detachments and units more competitive. I don't imagine we'll see much of that beyond some points tweaks. Our detachments would need a significant overhaul to make them worth considering over the Gladius, and Ravenwing Knights could use a points-drop and/or a datasheet rule that synergizes with their shooting output instead of their melee output. If the Anti Monster/Vehicle 4+ was on the plasma talons instead of the corvus hammers, that would be pretty hot!

My Weekend

I went to an RTT at The Battle Standard in East Windsor CT on Saturday. If you get a chance, I highly recommend you check them out. They moved into a big new location with tables at optimal height for 40K and a good selection of terrain. They have a wide variety of merchandise, and they have a bar in the store that serves food and mead! The mead is pretty good too!

I went 2-1 at the event. I lost my first game against Astra Militarum. My dice deserted me, continually leaving all his tanks on 1-2 wounds instead of eliminating the targets as I needed, and Lion Dad's epic challenge against Lord Solar wound up with Lion Dad going down and Lord Solar remaining standing instead of the other way around as you might expect. It didn't help that my opponent was a sharp player.

My second game was against Chaos Knights. I tabled him with an hour left on the clock for the round. I felt bad about that.

My third game was a win against Thousand Sons. I legit thought I was losing because I got Assassinate and Marked For Death as my 1rst turn secondaries, and wasn't able to clear them till my 3rd turn. Plus, everything I put into Magnus kept failing to bring him down. I was so focused on my failure to bring down Magnus that I didn't notice that my 2 squads of DWKs and Azrael and my remaining Hellblasters were crushing the other flank until my opponent said aloud he was giving up on it. After that, when I looked at the score, I realized I was up by 20 points. Three sword DWKs chewed through a 10-man squad of Rubrics led by Ahriman over the course of a couple rounds of combat, so don't sleep on the sword guys. 

I'd like to take a moment to boost Dank List Wargaming. Heath and Bailey produce the Path to Redemption podcast focused exclusively on the First Legion! They are a pair of fans with a genuine enthusiasm for 40K and the Dark Angels, so they are well worth our support.

If you're enjoying reading my blog, I'd appreciate it if you could click on the Follow button over on the left. It's nice to have some validation for the effort I put into this.

That's it for this roundup! Congratulations to all our battle brothers who have shown the mettle of the legion chapter! Hopefully we can all learn from your fine examples. For the rest of us, let's get in our practice games and rise to examples set by our battle brothers. For The Lion!