Lists of the Week: Top Performers 9/30/2024

Hello battle brothers! The last weekend of September had a lot of events, including the massive London Grand Tournament! As you can imagine, that means there are a lot of lists to go through, so let's get started!

The biggest event of the weekend by far was The London Grand Tournament - 40K Main Event, a 5-10 round, 834 person event. Four Dark Angels lists made the top 10 percent, so let's talk about those first. The top scoring list was played by Louis Ballington of Mind Goblins, who bucked the trend, went 5-1, and placed 14th with a Stormlance Task Force! You can check out Louis' list on BCP. The short version is below.

Acies Triplex Stormlance
Azrael
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 macey boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Predator Destructor
Predator Destructor
Predator Destructor
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

The detachment is different, but it's still leaning on the three squads of DWKs and the squad of ICCs with the Judiciar. Fire support is provided by the 3 Predator Destructors. The Pred Destructor is an efficient platform that are useful into both big targets and heavy infantry.

The Predator autocannon is a significant threat to a wide range infantry and mounted targets, and even monsters or vehicles aren't going to like being on the receiving end of  a whole pile of Damage 3 attacks. Between that, a pair of lascannon sponsons, a HK missile, and a storm bolter, a trio of Destructors can really make opponents not want to stick their important units out in the open.

This is the other piece that makes Predator Destructors such a good value for the points. Terminators, Eradicators, Aggressors - they're all 3-wound models.  The Pred autocannon will take Terminators to their invulnerable save and 3+ save infantry to 5+ saves. You don't have to pick up too many of those for a Destructor to make back its 130pt price tag. 

The detachment rule for the Stormlance grants the whole army the ability to declare a charge after advancing or falling back, which is certainly of use to an army where assault units are going to do most of the heavy lifting. The downside to the Stormlance for Louis' list is that 2 of its 6 stratagems can't be used by anything in his list, but the remaining strats evidently made up for it.

• Blitzing Fusillade: grants a unit's ranged weapons the Assault ability
  
• Wind-swift Evasion: Grants a 6" reactive move after an enemy unit moves within 9"
• Full Throttle (2 cp): Grants a vehicle unit an auto 6" Advance
• Armor of Contempt: everyone knows what this does

I can't see Louis really needing to use Blitzing Fusillade and Full Throttle very often, so he was probably spending most of his CP on Wind-swift Evasion, Armor of Contempt, and generic strats. 

Using the Stormlance lightens the decision making burden on a player, because there's no reason not to YOLO with Advancing and/or Falling Back and attempting Charge rolls every turn, whereas with the Gladius one has to pick the right turn to go into Assault Doctrine or Tactical Doctrine. There's an argument to be made for just being able to do it all the time. 

Louis went 5-0 for the first 5 rounds, taking an L in the 6th. 1st round he crushed World Eaters 100-33. 2nd round he had a tight 90-85 win against Chaos Daemons. 3rd round he went 88-77 against Sororitas. 4th round he went 71-56 against Thousand Sons. 5th round he won 87-61 against Grey Knights. He got knocked out of the running in the 6th round against T'au Empire, 75-92. His opponent placed 4th overall. 

Our next list was played by Pierre Alexandre Hughes-Daly, who went 5-1 with his Gladius to place 16th. His army is listed as Space Marines on BCP, but I clicked on it to check it out, and it's a Dark Angels list. You can see Pierre's list on BCP. The short version is below. 

Popped out of the closet.
Azrael
Apothecary Biologis: Fire Discipline
Judiciar: The Honour Vehement
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
Bladeguard Veteran Squad: 6 awesome swordy-shieldy 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
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Repulsor

This list is pretty conventional, with the main points of differentiation from the Lennon List being the points-neutral swap of Inner Circle Companions for Bladeguard Veterans, and ditching the Battleline Assault Intercessors in favor of a second Scout Squad and The Honour Vehement for the Judiciar. It's a little weird in that it leaves Azrael without a squad to join. Maybe Pierre just has him hang in the backfield to deal with anything that sneaks around to threaten his Infiltrators. I think we'd all agree that Bladeguard Veterans don't provide the damage output that ICCs do, but they do come with their own invulnerable save, allowing Pierre to have both that and Fights First, which honestly I've thought about. I've actually got an idea in the back of my head for a list I'd give the title of Invulnerable Saves For Everybody! and it would include that combo. I haven't banged it out on New Recruit yet though. 

Like Louis, Pierre went 5-0 for his first 5 rounds and got knocked out in the 6th. 1st round he won 79-60 against Chaos Marines. 2nd round he beat Death Guard 90-66. 3rd round he beat Astra Militarum 94-83. 4th round he beat Space Wolves 78-55. 5th round he beat Chaos Daemons 89-75. In his loss in the 6th round, he went 72-100 against Adeptus Mechanicus.

In 22nd place we find Rafael Harbinson of Warmasters, who went 5-0 but didn't make the cutoff to go into the 6th round. On the upside, he can state he went undefeated, which is no small thing! You can see Rafael's list on BCP.  It's the Lennon List. I considered not giving the brief version, but here it is anyway. 

Snowflake's tears
Azrael
Apothecary Biologis: Fire Discipline
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 swordy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Eradicator Squad: 6 chonky melta boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Repulsor
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

As anything I say about this list would just be repeating commentary from previous articles, I'm just going to skip to Rafael's record for the weekend, which was a nonstop ride on the win train. 1st round he won 67-56 against Drukhari. 2nd round he humbled Genestealer Cults 99-53. 3rd round he beat Blood Angels 97-65. 4th round he drubbed T'au Empire 94-27. 5th round he beat Astra Militarum 86-62. 

The last Dark Angels list that made the top 10% of the London Grand Tournament was piloted by James Shapiro, who went 4-1 with his Gladius to score 61rst place. You can see James' list on BCP. The short version is below.

James' list (remember brethren, give your lists clever names in case some fanboy blogs about them!)
Lion Dad
Azrael
Apothecary Biologis: Fire Discipline
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter 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
Eradicator Squad: 6 chonky melta boys
Inceptor Squad: 3 flying chonky plasma boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

It's always nice to see Lion Dad in a list that performs well! He's replacing a squad of Deathwing Knights. Conventional wisdom suggests that's not a good swap, but he will pretty reliably kill anything he touches and provides solutions to problems DWKs aren't the best tool to solve. Inceptors are a throwback to earlier in the edition when they were more reasonably priced, and it is nice to have the 3-damage twin linked plasma, and not everybody has access to a unit like Infiltrators to block their 3" Deep Strike ability. There's no Repulsor for the Eradicators to ride around in, but I find they usually do fine just coming out of Strategic Reserve. 

1st round James won 78-65 against Adeptus Sororitas. 2nd round he had a near loss against Tyranids, 84-89. 3rd round he got back aboard the win train by drubbing Astra Militarum 100-43. 4th round he beat T'au Empire 73-63. 5th round he ended strong with a 100-54 win against Chaos Daemons. 

The next biggest event of the weekend was Flying Monkey Con 40k Champs in Wichita KS, a 6-round, 112 player event. Kyle McCord of Rolling Sixes took a Dark Angels Gladius, went 5-1, and took 5th. I don't have a link to his list because the event won't open on my laptop for some reason, so I'm getting the data on my phone. You can see the short version below though.

Eradication Angels
Azrael
Apothecary Biologis: Fire Discipline
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter 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
Gladiator Lancer
Land Raider Redeemer

That's a little unconventional. The Lancers do add some long range punch, plus buckets of dice to throw at chaff, and the Redeemer of course has the murderously efficient Overwatch. The list is a little light on units to score Secondaries with, the Lieutenant being the only obvious choice. I suppose Azrael joins the Intercessors, and they can sticky the backfield objective and move up to score Secondaries as well, but that leaves it unprotected from opposing units coming out of Deep Strike or Strategic Reserve.

1st round Kyle won a decisive 100-62 game against Adeptus Sororitas. 2nd round he brutalized Necrons 100-45. 3rd round he faced more Necrons and squeaked out a 69-64 win. 4th round he prevailed over Black Templars 89-74. 5th round he finally took an L to Necrons, 60-79. He ended strong though, with a 75-58 win against Space Wolves.

Our next list comes from GRIMDARK 22: september slaughter, a 5-round, 44 player event held in Stockholm, Sweden. Johan Nicolaisen of NOD brought a Gladius to go 4-1 and place 5th. You can see Johan's list on BCP. The short version is below.

Johan's list
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
Inceptor Squad: 3 flying chonky plasma boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Gladiator Lancer
Repulsor

The big deviation from the Lennon List here is the replacement of the ICCs with the Gladiator Lancer. Also missing are the Judiciar that would have went with the ICCs and the Infiltrators to mind the backfield objective. In their place there's the plasma Inceptor Squad and a second Scout Squad. I kind of like the Lancer-Repulsor combo, because the Lancer can set up an enemy unit with its laser destroyer, and then the Repulsor can finish it off with its las-talon and twin-linked lascannon. I'm less sold on the Inceptors because they're so pricey and Infiltrators are a thing, but not everyone has Infiltrators. The extra squad of Scouts, on the other hand, requires no argument.

This event used WTC scoring. To briefly summarize, scores can range from 0 to 20, with every point of difference indicating a difference of 5 victory points in the final result. So 10-10 is a tie, 11-9 is a close game, 20-0 is a blowout with at least a 50 point difference in scores. 

Johan rode the win train to the second-to-last stop. 1st round he drubbed Tyranids 18-2. 2nd round he had a convincing 15-5 win against World Eaters. 3rd round he went 13-7 against Aeldari. 4th round he trashed Tyranids 17-3. Sadly he took an L in the 5th round against Thousand Sons, 7-13.

Next we're going to Rooks 40k Open, a 5-round, 39 player event where Dark Angels took both 1st and 2nd place! Go First Legion! The 1rst place list was played by Colin Kay of Big D Energy. It's a Gladius, but it's kind of wacky. You can see Colin's list on BCP. The short version is below. 

What’s better than 15 Deathwing Knights? 0 Deathwing Knights! (And the Lion[he’s only in the list because of the memes (and I paid for a super expensive commission on him 😂)] (Good job on the name Colin!)
Lion Dad
Azrael
Apothecary Biologis: Fire Discipline
Judiciar
Librarian
Librarian in Phobos Armour
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Impulsor
Eradicator Squad: 6 chonky melta boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Land Raider Redeemer

How this list is unconventional: including Lion Dad, no Deathwing Knights, 2 squads of Inner Circle Companions, including 3 Combi-weapon Lieutenants. I imagine Colin sends the Redeemer full of Eradiators into the middle of the board and the two ICC squads up the flanks, with the ICCs joined by the Judiciar in the Impulsor. The 3 Combi-weapon Lieutenants are clearly the Secondary scoring units. They cost 5 points more than a Scout Squad and don't uppy-downy, but between having Lone Op and a reactive move on their datasheet they might actually be more survivable, and they afford Colin wound rerolls on all of the midfield objectives. Having the Phobos Librarian join the Infiltrators makes it impossible for opponents to interact with them without actually walking within 12" of them, and the extra body extends the bubble of interdiction the Infiltrators generate. And, of course, Lion Dad reliably kills anything he touches. 

If someone posted this list in a competitive 40K group, it'd probably get ripped to shreds in the comments, but evidently it was just crazy enough to work!

Colin rode the win train all the way to 1st place. 1st round he beat Custodes 96-59. 2nd round he went 81-59 against Thousand Sons. 3rd round he actually beat the 2nd place scoring Dark Angels list 77-49. 4th round he drubbed Astra Militarum 92-43.  5th round he earned a tight 76-72 win against Chaos Marines.

The 2nd place list at this event, played by James Walsh of Coors Light Saedath, was also pretty unconventional. For starters he played a Vanguard Spearhead instead of a Gladius. I guess I should just show it to you. You can see James' list on BCP. The short version is below.

DA Vanguard
Azrael
Judiciar: The Blade Driven Deep
Lieutenant in Phobos Armour
Devastator Squad: Sergeant and 4 grav cannon boys
Eradicator Squad: 6 chonky melta boys
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Redemptor Dreadnought
Redemptor Dreadnought
Stormraven Gunship
Stormraven Gunship

Well, this one is wacky! Again, crazy like a fox. The Vanguard detachment rule debuffs enemy shooting made from outside 12" of the target, but most opponents aren't going to want any of these units within 12" either. James has also hit on a clever piece of tech with the grav cannon Devastator Squad. The main weakness of grav cannons is their lackluster -1 AP. The Strike From The Shadows strat can be used to buff their AP, and improve their Ballistic Skill in the process! Thusly buffed, that 3-shot, 3-damage profile can do a lot of work against anything that isn't a Monster, thanks to also having Anti-Vehicle 2+. The Vanguard also mitigates one of the drawbacks of the Eradicator Squad because they can be rapidly repositioned with Guerilla Tactics.

This list does seem to lack for a unit to hold the backfield objective and units that can score secondaries. My knee-jerk reaction was that James was relying on the Phobos Lieutenant to hold the backfield objective, but it occurs to me that he could be his secondary-scoring tech, because he's got Deep Strike, and Guerilla Tactics could be used to reposition him as well. Maybe the missions the event used were ones that didn't give Primary points for holding the backfield objective? In that case, if it was relevant for a Secondary, James could always pick up Mr. Phobos and drop him on it that turn. 

It was also a throwback to see the pair of Stormravens and the pair of Redemptors. Putting them in the Vanguard gives them the same first-turn protection they'd have had from a Darkshroud, and then James can shove them up his opponent's nose. Chewing through 52 wounds on -1 damage platforms is going to be a bit of a challenge.

1st round James got a solid 96-70 win versus Chaos Marines. 2nd round he went 89-52 against Astra Militarum. 3rd round he took his L against Colin's Dark Angels, 49-77.  4th round he got a convincing 99-68 win against Orks. 5th round he scored a very solid 100-63 win against Astra Militarum.

We have one more list to talk about this week. It came from the 2024 Wars on the Shore GT in Erie, PA, a 5-round, 28 player event. Michael Worth of best team name played an Inner Circle Task Force, went 4-1, and took 4th place. You can see Michael's list on BCP. The short version is below.

War on The Shore DW
Azrael
Belial
Captain with Jump Pack
Lieutenant
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Land Raider Redeemer
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Vanguard Veteran Squad: 5 flying swordy-shieldy boys
Vanguard Veteran Squad: 5 flying swordy-shieldy boys

For starters I'd like to congratulate Michael for ending the weeks-long drought for the ICTF making a dent in the competitive statistics. His list is certainly unconventional in a few ways, not the least of which being that it's an ICTF. Picking Belial instead of a Terminator Captain was also an unusual choice. I'm actually less surprised to see the Vanguard Veterans. Our supplement gives them the Deathwing keyword, thus making them eligible to get a 3" Deep Strike via Relic Teleportarium. He's got the Jump Captain to reroll charge rolls with one of the squads when it comes in too. 

1st round Michael soundly defeated another Dark Angels list 95-55. 2nd round he convincingly beat Aeldari 82-49. 3rd round he drubbed World Eaters 97-53. 4th round he took a bruising 50-100 loss against Thousand Sons. He ended strong in the 5th round, spanking Custodes 94-38.

Statistics

We had a good week, with 60 players playing 300 games and winning 151 of them for a 50% win rate. We have a 13-week 47% win rate. We had 10 X-0/X-1 results and 1 event win.

The most played detachment by far was the Gladius, with 45 players playing 227 games and winning 116 of them for a 51% win rate. 5 of our X-0/X-1 results came from the Gladius, as did our event win.

Next most played was the Vanguard Spearhead, with 7 players getting a 46% win rate and scoring 2 X-0/X-1 results.

After that was the Inner Circle Task Force, with 5 players getting a 44% win rate and the 1 X-1 result.

2 players used the Stormlance Task Force for a 64% win rate and 1 X-1 result.

That's all I've got for you today. Click on the Follow button to keep up with my scribblings, and for some fun content by genuine enthusiasts check out Dank List Wargaming. 

Congratulation to all our battle brethren who rose to the upper echelons over the weekend. May we all follow your excellent examples. For the Lion!