Chapter Update: 6/23/2025
Our top list from the weekend was played by James Walsh of Coors Light Saedath, who we've seen perform well before. He took his Company of Hunters list to the Mountain West Classic Grand Tournament '25 - Warhammer 40K event in Utah, the biggest event of the weekend with 126 players. He went 5-1 and placed 4th! You can see James' list on BCP. We'll discuss it below.
Gotta Go Fast
Ravenwing Command Squad: Master Crafted Weapon - Warlord
Ravenwing Command Squad: Recon Hunter
Ravenwing Command Squad: Master of Manoeuvre
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Ballistus Dreadnought
Ballistus Dreadnought
Ballistus Dreadnought
Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 chonky grav+missile boys
Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 chonky grav+missile boys
Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 chonky grav+missile boys
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Hammerstrike
Storm Speeder Hammerstrike
James definitely seems to get the Company of Hunters detachment, and it shows in his list. Mounted units have unparalleled ability to act however you want them to, but primarily it's a shooting detachment, with Mounted units able to hold back the opponent and support with some well-placed assaults, able to bounce in and out of combat as you see fit.
For his Mounted element, James went with 3 Ravenwing Command Squads attached to 3 Outrider Squads. Those units synergize well, with the Outriders buffing the melee output of the Command Squad members, and the Command Squad making them more mobile and durable. Backing them up are the Invader ATVs, who can run around and score Secondaries and maybe occasionally put their multimelta into something. With the enhancements he chose, his combined RWCS+Outrider squads can all rush past the middle quite fast, with two units potentially coming out of Reserve 1st turn (picking up one with Rapid Reappraisal if his opponent goes first) and the third bombing forward with the Scouts 9" from Recon Hunter.
Most of the work of killing enemy units is getting done with shooting. James packed in a lot, with 3 Ballistus Dreadnoughts, 3 units of Centurion Devastators, and 2 Hammerstrikes. I was a little surprised to see grav cannons on the CentDevs instead of lascannons, but upon consideration I figure James was leaning into the meta, with both Imperial Knights and Chaos Knights being popular and high-performing factions before all their stuff got cheaper. Chaos Knights dropped off precipitously in player numbers this weekend for some reason, but Imperial Knights were still up near the top in player numbers and performance this past weekend. Whatever slack the CentDevs having grav cannons may have left in James' list was made up for by the Ballisti and the Hammerstrikes, who between them provide plenty of unit-type-agnostic high-damage shots. Also, between the Ballisti and the CentDevs, there's a bit of a stat-check, with a lot of high-Toughness 2+ saves to chew through. Most of this shooting doesn't need Oath either, as both the Ballisti and the CentDevs come with their own built-in rerolls, so James is free to put Oath on something he's going to have his Mounted units run down.
It's a bit surprising to see a Dark Angels list without Azrael in it, but he's less vital in a Company of Hunters than in any other detachment. You play the CoH for the detachment rule, not for the stratagems.
James started strong with a 1st round 95-59 drubbing of Invasion Fleet Tyranids. 2nd round he similarly manhandled Creations of Bile Chaos Marines 99-60. 3rd round he crushed a Salamanders Gladius 99-31.4th round he had a close 75-66 win against Invasion Fleet Nids. 5th round he took his 62-82 loss against one of the bullies of the meta, Virulent Vectorum Death Guard. He ended strong though, squeaking out a 61-59 win against Liberator Blood Angels. So, not only did James get an X/1 result, but he also had a 4-0 event start. Well done James!
Our other list from the weekend was played at Goonhammer 2025 Presented By Gaming Under the Ice, a 6-round, 66-player event held in Winnipeg Canada. Corey Trumbley of United Wargamers went 4-1-1 with his Wrath of the Rock list to score 6th place. I wondered for a bit if this constituted an X/1 result, eventually deciding it did as the number after the slash indicates losses and Corey only took 1 loss. You can see Corey's list on BCP. We'll discuss it below.
new bike wrath
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Captain in Terminator Armour: Deathwing Assault
Chaplain on Bike: Lord of the Ravenwing
Ravenwing Command Squad: Ancient Weapons
Sammael
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Outrider Squad: 6 choppy biker boys
Outrider Squad: 6 choppy biker boys and a gatling buggy
Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
This list is not at all what I thought the first successful Wrath list would look like. Put simply, there are way more bikes and way less Terminators than I'd thought a dominating Wrath list would have. Plus it's got Lion Dad, who I love, but despite his recent glow up is still, I think, considerably too many points. He can teleport from point to point on the table at will though, which is probably the whole point of this list.
Follow me through here. There's Sammy, who inherently lets his unit Advance+Shoot+Charge. The Tactical Mastery strat lets another unit do so as well. Deathwing Assault grants 1st turn Deep Strike, with a reroll on Charge rolls thanks to the Captain. The Captain also enables Corey to play Inescapable Justice for just 1 CP, which is important because this list cares about Oath of Moment more than a typical DA list built around three units of Deathwing Knights. This list can put significant pressure on an opponent Turn 1, and then be following up with one more big brick of bikes, Azrael and the ICCs, and of course Lion Dad.
Touching on the configuration of the bike bricks, I expect Sammy and the Chaplain go with thee Outrider Squads and the Ravenwing Command Squad attaches to the Black Knights. With the Ravenwing Champion having Ancient Weapons, the list has 3 characters that can swing 3 damage, with Sammy and the Chaplain getting it from the Outrider charge bonus. Also, I've played at least 7 games with Sammy attached to 6 Black Knights and been really underwhelmed by that unit. Black Knights really need the Command Squad attached to them to have damage output I consider worthwhile.
Also, I've been low-key hot on the idea of Outriders with a bike Chaplain attached. That gives them Devastating Wounds with twin-linked guns, which makes them a bit like Sternguard. They won't do the Devastating Wound output Sternguard will do on average, but with the Chaplain attached to the squad with the ATV, they should do 5 or so on average, which is pretty decent. We spend a CP for an average of 3 Mortal Wounds from the Grenade strat.
One thing this list doesn't have a lot of is utility units. Really it just has those two solo ATVs. One must be the backfield objective holder, which leaves the other having to run around and score Secondaries, or possibly sit on expansion objective. I suppose you could uppy-downy Lion Dad to achieve positional Secondaries, but he seems like a really expensive asset to use for that.
Corey had some oddly low-scoring games, which makes me wonder if he managed to go the full 5 turns for all of them, but wins are wins. 1st round he scored a comfortable 43-21 versus a Daemonic Incursion list. 2nd . round he crushed a Blood Angels Firestorm Assault Force 85-30. 3rd round he had a close 71-61 win against an Iron Hands Ironstorm list. 4th round he had his 29-29 tie against a Thousand Sons Rubricae Phalanx. 5th round he had another fairly close one, 50-37 against War Horde Orks. Sadly, he ended on a loss, though ironically it was his second highest score of the event, 84-91 against Mont'ka T'au.
I'm going to editorialize a little here and opine that the stars aligned for this list a little bit. Rounds 2-4 Corey played against sub-optimal lists. Yes, that includes the TSons lists. TSons may be pretty hot at the moment, but that list had 750 points tied up in 20 Scarab Occult Terminators. The lists I've been seeing have Magnus, a Vortex Beast, and Rhinos for the Rubric Marines. I'm not throwing shade at Corey, just stating, in my opinion, he got somewhat lucky with his matchups, and luck is a factor in the game. That said, he had the skills and tools to capitalize on that luck, and that is not to be disregarded.
Statistics
I actually compiled these myself, and they differ a little than what's on Meta Monday. I went through all the events I could find on BCP, some of which were pretty small. I don't know if Meta Monday has a minimum event size for events they consider, but I included every event with at least 5 rounds I could find.
Either way, it's not great news. I counted 35 players who played 183 games and won 76 of them, for a 43% win rate. We had two X/1 results, but no event wins.
By far the most played detachment was Wrath of the Rock, with 25 players who scored a 43% win rate. A Wrath list did pick up one of the weekend's X-results.
Three players played the Gladius, scoring a 40% win rate.
Three players played the Stormlance, scoring a 41% win rate
One player took an Unforgiven Task Force, and scored a 50% win rate. It appears he didn't play his last game, because he's listed has having gone 2-2.
One player took an Inner Circle Task Force, and that poor optimist only managed a 20% win rate.
One diehard took the Lion's Blade to an event, and scored a tragic 17% win rate.
Then, of course, our man James took a Company of Hunters to his event and scored an 83% win rate, and the weekend's other X/1 result.
Factions/Detachments to Watch Out For
Tau had the highest win percentage over the weekend, scoring a 56% win rate overall, 8 X-results, and winning the biggest event of the weekend. The Mont'Ka detachment had 10 players, a 64% win rate, and 4 X-results, but the Kauyon detachment scored a whopping 82% win rate and took the event win. Only 3 players took the Kauyon detachment though, so having one event winner in that pool spikes the percentage.
Thousand Sons are right behind T'au with 29 players scoring a 56% win rate and 5 X-results. The most played detachment by far was the Grand Coven with 17 players scoring a 53% win rate and 2 of the X-results. The rest of the detachments were played by miniscule amounts of players, but none of those detachments scored less than a 69% win rate.
Death Guard continue to bully the meta, with 51 players scoring a 55% win rate, 11 X-results, and 1 event win. The most played detachment was the Virulent Vectorium with 21 players scoring a 51% win rate and 3 event wins. The Mortarion's Hammer detachment had 12 players who scored a 57% win rate, 3 X-results,a nd the event win. Champions of Contagion had 10 players, a 54% win rate, and 3 X-results. A smatteriong of players used other detachments, with the lowest win percentage among them being 56%.
Imperial Knights continue to be a faction one needs to be prepared for, with 37 players scoring a 55% win rate and 11 X-results.
That, honored battle brethren, is what I have for you. I'd like to thank Meta Monday for their work compiling the statistics of the weekend's events. Check out Dank List Wargaming for their latest video. As always, I hope you enjoy my work and find it helpful. May you strive ever for glorious victory! For The Lion!
Comments
Post a Comment