Lists of the Week: 2/24/2025
The first list we're looking at was played at 22 & 23 Feb 2025 - OWN's Breaking Point GT at Primal Nerds, a 6-round, 52 player event held in Yukon, OK. Lewis Hersman of Crimson Lion Games went 5-1 with his Stormlance Task Force and took 4th place. You can see Lewis' list on BCP and below.
Lion Storm(lance)
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Sammael
Chaplain on Bike: Fury of the Storm
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter 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 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
For starters, Lewis sure did pack the characters into his list! He's got enough for an opponent to max out what they can score from Assassinate. Lion Dad is a force all on his own, Azrael is clearly joining the Inner Circle Companions, Sammael and the Chaplain are clearly getting attached to the Outrider Squads, and the Combi-Lieutenant is there to follow Lion Dad around, carry his water bottle, and activate his Lion Op.
Second, Lewis went all-in on punching things to death. No shade, because there's not much that these units will struggle to punch to death. The Chaplain's native AP is a little low, but Fury of the Storm corrects that quite nicely.
I can't quite decide if the Outriders with their attached characters are trading pieces or if they're intended to run around, score secondaries, and skirmish with opponents' utility pieces. It seems like they could do either. With the attached characters, the two units have 7 and 8 OC respectively, so they can oblige opponents to put some real OC on an objective to flip it, and/or dedicate the required effort to pick them up, and at 4 wounds each even a 3-man squad of Outriders take some effort to pick up. Martin can make picking them up take more effort than an opponent might like with AoC and Ride Hard, Ride Fast, inflicting -1 To Hit and To Wound for the duration of the opponent's Shooting Phase. That said, they also have the mobility to cross the table and declare charges into whatever utility units Lewis' opponents might have pop out of Reserves. They'll likely pick up little utility units pretty handily.
The obvious things to do with the Infiltrators and Intercessors are to have the Infiltrators sit on the backfield objective and the Intercessors run around, sticky objectives, and score secondaries if they're in the right place to do so. That said, there may be times when you'd want the Infiltrators further forward, to protect important units from shenanigans out of Deep Strike. Sometimes during the course of a game, you just wind up coming off your backfield objective, and an opponent might take it with some kind of uppy-downy nonsense, but if you're sitting on a majority of the other objectives (especially if one is theirs), you can afford to let them hang onto your backfield objective.
Lewis started strong, absolutely stuffing Imperial Knights for a 1st round 97-25 win. 2nd round he buried Space Wolves 98-47. 3rd round he beat another Space Wolves list, this one a Stormlance, 72-58.* 4th round he took his loss, his opponent eaking out the win by 1 point, 68-69 against Imperial Knights. 5th round he squeaked out a 72-67 win against Chaos Knights. He ended strong in the 6th round, 92-69 against Ultramarines. Sadly his Ultramarines opponent didn't take Guilliman, so the brothers didn't get to have a heartwarming reunion by crossing swords in the middle of the table.
*Interestingly, Lewis beat the player who placed one rank above him for 3rd place, BamBam Hunter. You'd think that'd count for more, but BamBam consistently scored higher than Lewis did throughout the event, which apparently makes the difference. I admit I don't perfectly understand how BCP calculates rankings.
Our next list comes from Oxford Onslaught 4, a 5-round, 50-player event held in Drayton, England. Tom Spicer of Powerhouse Wargaming went 4-1 to take 5th place with his Stormlance. You can see Tom's list on BCP and below.
Yeah I may not have double Oath, free Strats or +1 to wound but I’ve got Sammael
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Sammael
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Ballistus Dreadnought
Ballistus Dreadnought
Ballistus Dreadnought
Incursor Squad: 5 spotty choppy bolter boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys
Storm Speeder Hammerstrike
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Stormraven Gunship
I have to admit, as I was scrolling through this list, I was thinking "What the hell am I looking at?" I wondered if maybe I hadn't gotten the detachment mixed up, because this particular selection of units would seem to make more sense in a Company of Hunters, or possibly an Ironstorm. However, there is a method to the madness, but we really have to look at how the components interact to make sense of it.
The TLDR version is, I figure the list is built around maximizing the Stormraven's shooting and keeping it flying with the Ride Hard, Ride Fast strat, which imposes a -1 penalty on opponents To Hit and To Wound rolls for the duration of their Shooting phase.
Let's start with the flying elephant in the room, the Stormraven Gunship. It's a Toughness 10, 14 wound brick with its Armored Resilience rule imposing -1 Damage on incoming attacks. It bristles with Twin-linked guns, and it can carry up to 12 Infantry models AND a Dreadnought. It's got a 20" move in Hover mode, and if Tom elects to have it in Fly mode, it's got at minimum a 20" move. That means it can simply fly over screens to get angles for both its own guns and for the Ballistus Dread it's certainly carrying. If it's in Fly mode, it can't be interacted with in the opponent's Charge and Assault phases except by other models with Fly, which might be relevant if Tom is playing a really choppy melee army like World Eaters (assuming he can put down Angron early). Even if Tom has it in Hover mode, it's still a T10 vehicle with -1 Damage, and it can simply shoot out of combat if Tom wants it to. Ride Hard, Ride Fast can be played on a Fly Vehicle, so opponents shooting at are potentially trying to stick wounds through -1 To Hit and To Wound, AoC, and its native -1 Damage effect.
In addition to the maddening defense, the Stormraven also packs formidable offense. Tom has his kitted out with a twin heavy plasma cannon and twin multimelta in addition to the stock pair of hurricane bolters and Stormstrike missile launchers. Everything but the Stormstrikes are rerolling Wound rolls, and the heavy plasma cannon is a Damage 2/Damage 3 weapon with Blast, so it's going to do some work against elite Infantry and is a credible threat to Vehicles and Monsters, particularly if it's paired up with the buff from the Thunderstike.
In addition to its own firepower, the Stormraven will be dropping off a Ballistus with angles on something Tom's opponents will prefer it not have angles on. There might be a squad in that Stormraven too. My guess is that if Tom is putting a squad in the thing, it's generally the Incursors. They can buff the Stormraven's shooting, throw their Haywire Mine into an appropriate unit, and then charge some chaff and chop it up with their Sustained Hits 1 knifey-knives.
I don't much care for the Thunderstrike on the basis of its own firepower being underwhelming. For the points, I'd rather pay for something that can fulfil a proper role in a list instead enabling something else to punch up into something that it should have been able to handle on its own. That said, the +1 To Wound the Thunderstrike hands out against Monsters and Vehicles takes the Stormraven's plasma cannon and multimelta from wounding T10+ targets on 4's instead of 5's, and being Twin Linked they will wound those targets pretty reliably. Plus, the potential 24 shots from the hurricane bolters wounding on 5's with Twin Linked will do enough chip damage to be hard to ignore.
There's also the Hammerstrike, its not-inconsiderable firepower, and its cover-stripping ability. The Hammerstrike can zoom out, strip cover from something with its Krakstorm launchers, and use its Hammerstrike launcher and Melta destroyer on something else - possibly the same target Tom puts the Stormraven into, though that may be difficult to manage if the Stormraven zooms too far ahead. My thought is that it's probably stripping cover for whatever Tom is putting his other two Ballisti into. I like the Hammerstrike better than the Thunderstrike. I think it gives appropriate value for its points cost.
Azrael is undoubtedly joining the Sternguard, and that unit is probably shadowing Lion Dad to keep his Lion Op up until he can charge in and wreck something. Possibly Tom keeps Lion Dad back with the other two Ballisti to keep his opponents from getting cute ideas about having something run in and punch them to death. Azrael with bolt rifle Sternguard have a fair bit of reach and can put some Devastating Wounds into something as needed, and throw a not-inconsiderable amount of attacks, making them a credible threat to utility units, and likely able to finish off opponents' heavy units that are on their last legs.
The list appeared to work for Tom quite well. He scored a decisive 1st round 97-52 win against Astra Militarum. His loss came in the 2nd round, and it was by only 4 points - 81-85 against Imperial Knights. 3rd round he racked up a solid 100-80 versus Orks. 4th round something weird happened - he doesn't have an opponent listed. At first I thought he got a by, but there are two players listed with no opponents that round, and both are recorded as wins for the listed players. Did their opponents get disqualified and their results stripped? Anyhow, whatever happened, Tom has a 90 point win recorded for that round. 5th round Tom ended strong with a solid 95-74 against Orks.
Our last list for this week was played at Norcal Open GT 2025 RBBR, a 5-round, 26 player event held in Red Bluff, CA. Jofonz Bow of RBBR went 4-1 and placed 3rd with, I'm happy to report, a Company of Hunters! You can see Jofonz' list on BCP and below.
We are the Shadow Riders, born of night,
We ride for the Emperor, wielders of might.
Not for glory, nor for fame,
In shadows deep, we etch His name.
Our path is unseen, our strike is swift,
Through veils of darkness, our engines lift.
No trace we leave, no sign remains,
Only silence, where darkness reigns.
The road is long, the battle rough,
But with my brothers, we are enough.
Through shadow alone, our spirits soar,
Together we ride, our engines roar. (Now THAT'S a list name!)
Ravenwing Command Squad: Recon Hunter - Warlord
Ravenwing Command Squad
Ravenwing Command Squad
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Gladiator Lancer
Gladiator Lancer
Gladiator Lancer
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Invader ATV: multimelta buggy
Invader ATV: multimelta buggy
Invader ATV: multimelta buggy
Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome choppy plasma boys
Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome choppy plasma boys
Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome choppy plasma boys
Oh boy is that a lot of bikes! It's interesting to see that Jofonz has opted to do without Azrael, but the strength of the Company of Hunters is in its detachment rule, not its stratagems. Jofonz has given himself not only three full sized combined RWBK+RWCS bricks, but also a plethora of inexpensive Mounted units he can flood the board with, grabbing objectives, scoring Secondaries, and generally being nuisances.
I've been using the Black Knight bricks myself, so I can comment on them from personal experience. They are jack-of-all-trades units, being highly mobile, requiring a fair bit of work to pick up, having high OC, and effective in both the Shooting and Fight phases. You can throw them at anything with more than a snowball's chance of picking up what you point them at, but you'll get better results if you choose their targets with care. In my experience, that is generally midrange-toughness units, from elite Infantry to light Vehicles or Monsters - generally anything in the T4-T8 3+ save range. They can do some reasonable work on the charge against Monsters and Vehicles, but generally the big show with them is their plasma talons. It's a good idea to have something in your list to handle bigger badder targets, freeing up the Black Knights to attack what they're best at attacking. Jofonz is clearly aware of this, because he included the three Lancers to put into anything the Black Knights might struggle to pick up.
Jofonz' only other non-Ravenwing unit is the Infiltrator Squad. He probably figured he had enough small high-speed units running around that he didn't need to include any other dedicated Secondary-scoring units. He can uppy-downy Mounted units as needed with Rapid Reappraisal. He probably rapidly reappraises a unit every turn just as a matter of course, just to have it in reserve to pop out where he needs it next turn. It also gives him a way of getting out of jail if his opponents try and block him into his deployment zone.
My one criticism of Jofonz' list is that I'd arm at least one of the ATVs with the Onslaught cannon, so I could rapidly reappraise it into my opponent's backfield after the 2nd turn and have it gun down my opponents' backfield objective holding unit. Those units are usually pretty weedy, so an ATV with an Onslaught cannon would stand a decent chance of picking them up, or at least knocking them below 50% so they have to take Battleshock tests.
Jofonz didn't have a great start, taking a 1st round 57-89 loss against Death Guard. Not letting himself get discouraged, he bounced back with a crushing 2nd round 100-43 win against World Eaters. 3rd round he delivered a similarly devastating 99-38 against Grey Knights. 4th round he racked up a convincing 89-64 against Black Templars. 5th round he both ended strong and avenged himself against Death Guard with a decisive 95-57 win.
Statistics
There are some irregularities in the Dark Angels listings on Meta Monday, but I'm just going to report the figures as they appear. As a whole, Dark Angels had a 50% win rate, which is not bad. We didn't have any event wins though, and only 3 X/1 results out of 35 players. Our 8-week win rate is 47%
The winningest detachment for the week was actually the Company of Hunters, with 3 players scoring a 67% win rate and one of the X/1 results.
The next-winningest detachment is the Stormlance, with 8 players racking up a 56% win rate and the other two X/1 results.
Next in win percentage, thanks to that one hero who flies around going 3-2 with it, is the Unforgiven Task Force. Our anonymous hero and one other player between them scored a 50% win rate.
The Vanguard Spearhead had 3 players who also managed a 50% win rate with it.
The Gladius Task Force, with 13 players, was the most played. It got them a mediocre 48% win rate.
And then there are the detachments that a couple optimists try to make work, but in spite of their positive thinking just don't perform. One player played the Inner Circle Task Force and went 1-4 (I guess he dropped), and then one more diehard played all five games with his Lion's Blade Task Force while only managing to win one of them.
There's a lot at the top of the meta to be aware of. This weekend's top army by win percentage is Genestealer Cult with a 56% and 5 X/0-X/1 results. The detachments to particularly look out for are Bionsantic Brood Surge with a 59% win rate and Outlander Claw with a 65%, plus one player went 4-1 with a Brood Brother Auxiliarly list.
I'm going to skip to Aeldari, who only scored a 51% win rate, but picked up 20 x/0-X/1 results and 4 event wins. Five detachments had a 50% win rate or higher, with Devoted of Ynnead getting a 58%, 2 of the event wins, and 7 of the X/0-X/1 results, and Aspect Host which picked up a 53% win rate, 10 of the X/0-X/1 results, and 1 of the event wins.
Chaos Daemons also bear watching, having scored a 55% win rate, 17 X/0-X/1 results, and 4 event wins. The Legion of Excess detachment got a whopping 60% win rate and picked up 13 of those X/0-X/1 results and 3 of the event wins.
That, battle brethren, is what I have for you today. Be sure to check out Dank List Wargaming's latest video, where you can hear about Heath and Bailey's experience playing at War on the Shore in sunny Hawaii. Also, do me a favor and leave a comment telling Bailey to paint the flags! And to keep up with my work, track down that Follow button like you're a member of the Ravenwing. Until next time battle brethren! For the Lion!
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