Goatboy’s 40K List Challenge – There Can Be Only ONE!
Goatboy here to make something CRAZY Grimdark fans! Can we make competitive lists with NO SPAM?
Goatboy here again and as my week is cut short with a small vacation to celebrate my wedding anniversary (6 years married) so instead of some kind of deep thought based discussion of so called tactics instead I want to try and create some non spammed/copy&paste style lists to see if I could even hope to get something to work. I am using the Nova’s Highlander Rules as they are super restrictive and will force me to actually think about my choices. Highlights for those that don’t want to read. No Battle Brother stuff as everyone is Allies of Convenience, no duplication of choices that are similar (Ie Blood Angel Librarian plus Dark Angels Librarian – they are both Librarians so suck it), and the only time you can dup a troop choice is if you filled up all your troop choices for that army. Oh and no duplicated transports.
I like these types of challenges as it forces me to think outside the box a bit to try and create a list that will both work well and still play to my play style. The whole army building discovery process is one of my favorite things about this game as I try to work on any kind of scenario and if I can find a tool that might get it solved. Plus winning with this type of army is pretty dang satisfying, especially if it could actually work well in a normal even environment. I also like how these limits makes your characters feel more important then just a piece of glue to stick some kind of awful combo together. I do like how Battle Brothers is gone as with that rule still in there – the imperial combos while weakened without duplicates is still really strong. It also makes each army work with itself instead of try to grab some rules it doesn’t have in its codex in order to work.
With that in mind let’s try to make a mobile Mini Death Star army that fits my aggressive play style. Since I can’t combo guys up I have to not invest so much in each mini star. It doesn’t help me out enough and it just works out better to have a ton of options on the table.
Initial List Thought – Using just 2 Sources
SM CAD – Clan Raccoon
HQ: Chapter Master, Bike, Gorgon’s Chain, Powerfist, Artificer Armor
HQ: Librarian, Lvl 2
Elite: Command Squad X 5, Bikes, Grav Guns x 4, Apocathery
Troops: Scouts X 5, Land Speeder Storm, Multi-Melta
Troops: Bike Squad X 5, Grav Gun X 2, Attack Bike, MM
FA: Drop Pod
Heavy: Centurion Devastators x 3, Grav Cannon X 3
SW Ally
HQ: Wolf Guard Battle Leader, Thunder Wolf, Storm Shield, Powerfist, Runic Armor
Elite: Iron Priest, Thunder Wolf, Cyber Wolves X 4
Troop: Grey Hunter Squad X 5
FA: Thunder Wolf Cavalry X 6, SS X 4, PF X 2
The Plan
I have 2 small stars that just do the work their actual codex tells them to do. I have 4 objective secured units and some of them even have some speed with them. I have enough weapons to hurt things that could show up – like the single Wraith Knight that would just dominate a ton of match ups. I can throw some Mind magic around if needed and if I get lucky I could have a devastating spell to use every once in awhile. It won’t work all the time but it does seem like it might be decent to take to the table top and give a lot of armies a game. Sure it probably wouldn’t survive a massed Scat bike infusion but then this style of event isn’t built to allow those turds to float to the top of the toilet bowl.
I could always go with White Scars but then it isn’t nearly as interesting to me. I would rather have a tough Chapter Master. And if I took White Scars and Khan I would lose out on the Wolf Guard Battle Leader as they would count as another Captain. Its these “fights” within your armylist that generate interesting armies. I do think some of the other books might have some issues trying to get things working but with the overall limited damage potential and chances for interesting interactions I think most books have a chance.
What kind of pure Highlander lists have you figured out. Is this something you think would actually work well for an event? Would you play it?
