Goatboy’s Monday 40k – 4 Reader Lists to Control the Win
Goatboy here again – continuing the talk from last week where I give more hints on winning the game – with 4 lists from YOU.
I asked for reader lists to look at and I got a ton of email. First I got a lot of good lists.
Analysing the Lists
There were small things that could be changed and few things that needed to be focused. What I mean about focused is finding ways to plug in obvious holes I would use as an opponent to hurt your army. A lot of the time the lists had one push unit (Aggressive, hard to deal with, high damage output) but no ways to support it. So an opponent could deal with the unit (killing, stuffing, or diverting) and then move on to either winning the game or guaranteeing a tie with a win on some random end game points tie breaker. Most of the time I just tried to look at what they wanted to do and tweak small things. This is a collecting hobby and telling someone their army sucks does no good to the game, yourself, and your opponent’s hard earned time in building said army.
I saw a lot of Marine lists that pushed a good amount of scoring mixed with enough overall options to confuse and damage the opposing plastic dudesmen. I didn’t see a ton of biker lists but I think the overall thought is that the biker list equals WAAC and a lot of players are not moving towards that direction. Lucky for us the new books can make really interesting lists that are both good and not extremely mind numbing to see and play against. Look we all know the Wave Serpent spam and Riptide power team are good but if you can get the same options/power out of a list that looks like a pile of junk – which one would you rather play?
But that is another thought for another day when I go into the idea of Highlander style lists. The new books let you do this and with some of the new ally creations you can do singleton armies that both kick ass and look insane.
“Controlling” the Win
This article was about controlling a Win so let’s go into that. What I mean about controlling is that you can create distinct advantages while using “subpar” army choices. To give you an example I was playing a local buddy Kevin this past Thursday. I figured I needed to get a game in my with Feast List and Kevin was up for trying to beat up on my Screamer Star list. Kevin was playing a very aggressive CSM/Daemons list with 3 Maulerfiends, Lord on Jugger, CSM DP, Plague Bearers, Khrone Cannon, Dragon, and *Gasp* some CSM. It was not the best list in the world but it did have some tools to beat up my list if played correctly. I goofed on some deployment and let myself get charged by things but I got lucky with Fateweaver getting Terrify and I was able to break out and win the game in the end. I told Kevin afterwards that he could have seriously pushed me to change decisions if he had just picked the right things to go after.
He wanted to try and kill the star instead of just containing it and moving on. He had the Spawn to tie up the unit and should have just left them hold the star down as everything else moved around to kill my troops. I do have an extra unit to try and stop this with a CSM/Spawn bomb but still it meant I had to throw them into a fight that wasn’t good. This small little change in his game plan would have probably flipped the table and I would have been playing for a tie instead of playing for a tabling.
This is what assault does for a lot of armies. The game has turned into a shooting fest and a lot of options just shoot very well and assault for crap. Sending in units that are tough to remove when locked in is a great way to turn off an opponents option for a few turns. I love my Chaos Spawn with the Mark of Nurgle and think if the Dragon wasn’t so dang good we would see more. In fact I think straight CSM lists should just be CSM/Ally Black legion to get two Spawn with 2 Dragons as the starting point. It gives you all the options for the flying nonsense and two units to tie things down as well as protect your Sorcerers/Lords.
I know I talk about dealing with troops as the main plan for most games so let’s look at ways to circumvent that choice. I am a big fan of hammer units. I like options that come in fast into an opponents zone and try to force them to make terrible decisions. These units have to be fast and either large unit size or very tough to remove. These types of units cause your opponent to back peddle and we all know this game at the upper levels is won on bad decisions and force dice rolls. So these types of armies remove the opponents ability to focus on your own troops because they have to remove a fast and aggressive threat. Plus it helps you get that Linebreaker point which can remove the First Blood an aggressive army will most likely lose.
The 4 Tuned Reader Submission Lists
Here are some hammer armies for those interested that are not copy and paste jobs.
Daemon – Fast Attack Burrito V.1!!!
Fateweaver
Herald of Khorne, Juggernaut, Exalted Gift, Locus of Wrath
Herald of Tzeentch, Disc of Tzeentch, Lvl 3, Exalted Gift
Herald of Tzeentch, Disc of Tzeentch, Lvl 3
Herald of Slaanesh, Locus of Grace
Pink Horrors X 10
Pink Horrors X 10
Plague Bearers X 10
Flesh Hounds of Khorne X 15
Screamers of Tzeentch X 8
Seekers of Slaanesh X 20
Basically you have 3 bombs that should be able to deal with whatever is out there. They are big enough to be a pain and fast enough to get anywhere on the table top. I know I duplicated two heralds of Tzeentch but you need some anti air firepower with flickering fire. Fateweaver can’t kill everything. The big issue is that it is a big list with lots of models all over the table top so play-time could be an issue.
Next we have a Space Marine build that will end up being my initial jump into reworking the Space Goats.
Space Marine – Zoom Zoom in your Boom Boom V.1 – Iron Hands plus Space Wolves Ally
Chapter Master, Bike, The Shield Eternal, Thunder Hammer of Butt Kicking, Artificier Armor
Captain, Bike, Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer of Skull Smashing, Artificier Armor
Command Squad, Bikes, Grav Guns X 4, Apocathery
Tech Marine, Bike, Auspex, Lightning Claw
Wolf Lord, Bike, Saga of the Bear, Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer, Runic Armor
Rune Priest, Bike, Runic Armor (JaWs, Livining Lightning)
Scouts X 10
Space Marines X 10, Rhino
Grey Hunters X 10, Flamer X 2, Rhino
Thunder Fire Cannon
Stalker
Stalker
Yeah I duplicated the Stalkers but I think they solve some random problems this list might have. Of course I put way too much in the front end but I just love death stars. They are small, can be painted up cool, and just run at your opponent daring them to play epic 40k. The troops are as basic as you can get and I wanted to try and us different options instead of the normal, copy paste nonsense. Most likely this will change up as it is played but at a “math” level it seems it might work. You turbo up and then break apart like Voltron if you need too. The Tech Marine is there to soak up any Overwatch. He is just annoying enough to force some shots on and then you can move up with your big strong options.
Here is a Necron list that doesn’t have the assault factor like the others but it still tries to create a bomb turn as so many things come over and get involved.
Disco Crons! V.1
Overlord, Mindshackle Scarabs, Weave, Phase Shifter
Royal Court, Harbringer of the Storm X 2, Harbringer of Despair X 1, Veil of Darkness
Nemesor Zahndrekh
Royal Court, Harbringer of the Storm X 2, Harbringer of Despair X 1, Veil of Darkness
Vargard Obyron
Immortals X 10, Tesla
Immortals X 10, Tesla
Warriors X 5, Night Scythe
Warriors X 5, Night Scythe
FA: Scarabs X 8
Heavy: Tomb Sypders X 3
Heavy: Annihilation Barge
Heavy: Annihilation Barge
So the idea is to create these little combos with Crypteks, teleports, and well nonsense. Normally you can combo up Obyron with the 3 Spyders and add in the Overlord to create a really annoying unit that can teleport up, be a pain, and force your opponent to take notice. The Scarabs are there as a hold unit to lock up something big with their speed. Plus it gives the Spyders a place to put their babies obviously.
This army can completely hide too as all the troops can just teleport out, shoot a bunch, and cause issues. Each Immortal unit will have Harbringer of the Storm to help deal with Vehicles as needed. The Veil will allow them to get around the board. The additional Storm Crypteks help the small Warrior squads in shooting things. Those are the things that might not be needed and instead there could be better options with other Crypteks or Necron Lords.
Finally we have another Hammer list that just screams awesome on paper. If you have every played Magic it is a very Timmy list. It has big monsters, it comes at you, and dares you to not play epic 40k. Welcome to the Thunderdoom!
CSM/CSM Black Legion Allies
Welcome to the Thunderdome/I make sounds when I play 40k! V.1
CSM Sorcerer, Bike, Lvl 3, Sigil of Corruption, Gift of Mutation, Spell Familiar
CSM Chaos Lord, Bike, Powerfist, Lightning Claw, Gift of Mutation, Sigil of Corruption, MoN
Black Legion Sorcerer, Bike, Lvl 3, Sigil of Corruption, Gift of Mutation, The Last Memory of Steve, Veteran of the Long War
Cultists X 10
Cultists X 10
Cultsits X 10
Cultists X 10
Chaos Spawn X 5, MoN
Chaos Spawn X 5, MoN
Heldrake, Bale Flamer
Heldrake, Bale Flamer
Maulerfiend, Lasher Tendrils
Maulerfiend, Lasher Tendrils
Maulerfiend, Lasher Tendrils
I think this fits in an 1850 points slot – so if it doesn’t well. I failed Excel. This is again a list that is designed to scare the poop out of your opponent as you come in, engage, and hopefully keep things locked down as your crap troops run around. I couldn’t remember the name of the Black Legion artifact that does the sunburst so now it is just known as the Last Memory of Steve.
Wrapping Up
So all of these lists work the same way in that they have a good deal of punch coming in and hopefully keeping your opponent busy for 4 turns – leaving them at most a turn to move and engage into a scoring position. If your hammer is still alive by turn 4 then the game is a lot easier for you.
Which do you like the best – or do you just do gunline?
