Lists of the Week: Top Performers 12/9/2024

 

Hello battle brethren! I'm afraid to report it wasn't a great weekend for us, but at least it wasn't a complete wash. Two DA lists went 4-1, both at the same event, the SA40k Commissar Cup GT in Edwardstown Australia, which was a mid-sized event with 44 players at it. Let's look at the lists and then discuss statistics.

The highest scoring DA list of the weekend was played by Benjamin Reggett of Indomitable Phalanx. He went 4-1 with his Gladius Task Force and took 3rd place. You can see Ben's list on BCP. The short version is below.

lion
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Judiciar
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
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
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky stay-off-my-lawn boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Vindicator
Vindicator

This is a pretty conventional list. The main point of variation is taking Lion Dad in lieu of the 3rd squad of Deathwing Knights. He does give Ben a second Fights First unit with considerable potency, and can be difficult to pick up, albeit in a different way than Deathwing Knights. His damage output is not as negatively impacted by damage reduction effects as DWKs or ICCs are, which is another point in his favor. There's always something to be said for having a variety of tools in your toolkit.

The other point of variation is the pair of Combi-Lieutenants instead of Scout Squads. They do synergize with Lion Dad, natively having Lone Op and being able to grant him Lone Op with their proximity. They have movement shenanigans and can be tasked with scoring Secondaries, but they don't have the virtue of being able to uppy-downy the way Scouts do. It didn't seem to hold Ben back too much though.

Vindicators have emerged as a go-to choice for fire support, and it's not hard to see why. The demolisher cannon is a potent weapon with a pretty reasonable range, and Vindicators being Toughness 11 with a 2+ save are pretty hard to pick up. They even give a pretty good Tank Shock.

Ben's 1st round win was a pretty tight 73-69 against Imperial Knights. He had a convincing 95-69 win against Necrons in the 2nd round. 3rd round he drubbed Custodes 99-52. 4th round he showed Ultramarines who are the superior Astartes with a 68-55 win. 5th round he took his loss, 62-77 against T'au Empire, though he did place higher overall than that player, so he at least take some solace in that.

The other Dark Angels list that went 4-1 at the SA40k Commissar Cup GT was one played by Dylan Cowan, who placed 8th with his Gladius Task Force. You can see Dylan's list on BCP. The short version is below. 

Totally not alpha legion caught halfway through painting the new chapters iconography. Azrael - Warlord Lieutenant: Fire Discipline Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Infernus Squad: 5 burny boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Gladiator Lancer
Vindicator 
Vindicator
Inquisitorial Agents: 5 squishy boys + 1 gun servitor

This list isn't too far removed from the conventional, but Dylan did make some interesting choices. For one, there's no Infiltrators. Instead, there's an Infernus Squad and an Inquisitorial Agents squad. At first glance, one might assume the Inquisitorial Agents are minding the backfield objective, but I think the default choice might be the Infernus Squad, on the theory that opponents might be hesitant to risk taking an Overwatch of 5D6 auto-hitting shots. Also, the Inquisitorial Agents gun-servitor has a multimelta, and the squad has a thing called a Tome-skull, which once per game can be used to either un-Battle-shock a friendly unit, or force an enemy unit to take a Battle-shock test. It's an interesting little piece of tech, and it's just a shade cheaper than a Scout Squad. 

I'm always gratified to see Hellblasters make it into a competitive list. In this case, it seems pretty obvious Dylan is attaching the Lieutenant to the squad, providing both Lethal and Sustained Hits. Azrael, being the only other character in the list, must go with the ICCs. They miss out on a Judiciar's Fights First, but they get Azrael's 4++ and Sustained Hits.

Once again, we have 2 Vindicators, this time joined by a Gladiator Lancer, which is another popular choice. The Lancer has a lot more reach with its laser destroyer and a bucket of dice it can throw at chaff units. It's hard to go too far wrong with a Lancer.

Dylan started strong with a convincing 87-50 win against Imperial Knights in the 1st round. 2nd round he took his loss, 65-81 against the same T'au Empire player Ben ran afoul of in the 5th round. He recovered from that loss with a solid 95-73 win against Ultramarines. 4th round he went 90-75 against another Dark Angels player using an Inner Circle Task Force. 5th round Dylan ended strong with a 83-60 win against Chaos Knights. 

Statistics

Dark Angels had a rough weekend. 21 players played 103 games and won 47 of them for a 46% win rate, with 2 players going X/1. In both win rate and X/1 we did significantly worse than vanilla Space Marines, who had a 49% win rate and 5 players go X/1, though they did have almost twice as many players with 38. We did have better win percentages than Space Wolves and Blood Angels though. 

The most played detachment was the Gladius Task Force, with 13 players who between them scored a 52% win rate (the first time it's been above 50% in a while) and both X/1 results.

The next most played detachment was the Inner Circle Task Force, with 3 players who scored only a 29% win rate. I wonder if ICTF players will switch to the Lion's Blade detachment to try and get better results, because the ICTF has consistently been a turkey.

2 players tried the Stormlance Task Force, but that lightning just won't go back in the bottle, with them scoring only a 45% win rate.

The winningest detachment by percentage was the Ironstorm Spearhead, with 1 player who went 3-2 with it for a 60% win rate.

Lastly, 1 diehard took an Unforgiven Task Force and went 0-5. I salute this brethren for not dropping out of their event!

No one played the Lion's Blade Task Force over the weekend. I suspect a lot of events have a 2-week cutoff period which would have precluded players from using it. I was hot to use it at an RTT I attended over the weekend, but they had such a cutoff, so I gave my Company of Hunters list one last hurrah and actually went 2-1 with it. Hobby lag may also be at play. What I'm looking at as an optimized Lion's Blade uses 3 Ballistus Dreadnoughts and 2 Invader ATVs, and I have precisely 2 Ballistuses and 0 ATVs. I've got a scheme to convert some of my Firstborn Land Speeders into ATVs that I've started working on, and I'll be looking to pick up a 3rd Ballistus soon. 

That's the roundup for this week. Follow my blog to keep up with my articles, and check out Dank List Wargaming on YouTube for more DA player generated content. Good luck with your future hobbying and games. May you lead your forces to glorious victory. For The Lion!