40k List-Tech: Winning with War Convocation
Come check out the second place list at Adepticon 2016, Matt Root’s War Convocation!
The list-tech segment is a series of articles designed to focus on unique, competitive lists crafted by players in the community in order to provide new and experienced players with tactics, tips, and tricks to use in the heat of battle.
“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Sorry about missing last week’s List-Tech guys, I was busy with the BroadsideBash results as well as some other work related stuff. Anyways welcome to another List-Tech article, today we have Matt Root’s second place Adepticon War Convocation list. There isn’t anything particularly unique about it, however Matt is an excellent player and the analysis on his list is great for both player wanting to play War Convocation or beat it. As always check out our Tactics Corner for more great content!
Remember to email me at [email protected] if you want your list featured in an article!
Convocation of WAAAAAGHH (1850pts)
Cult Mechanicus: Codex (2015)
HQ
Tech-Priest Dominus (War Conv.)
Conversion field, Digital weapons, Eradication ray, Infoslave Skull, Macrostubber, The Scryerskull Perspicatus
Troops
Kataphron Destroyers (War Conv.)
3x Kataphron Destroyer
Cognis flamer, Heavy grav-cannon
Kataphron Destroyers (War Conv.)
3x Kataphron Destroyer
Cognis flamer, Heavy grav-cannon
Skitarii: Codex (2015) (Battle Maniple (War Conv.)
Onager Dunecrawlers
Cognis heavy stubber, Cognis manipulator, Icarus Array – Twin autocannon, Gatling rockets, Daedalus, Mindscanner probe
Sicarian Infiltrators
Flechette Blasters and Taser Goads, 4x Sicarian Infiltrator
Infiltrator Princeps
Conversion field, Digital weapons, Infoslave Skull, The Phase Taser
Sicarian Ruststalkers
4x Sicarian Ruststalker, Transonic razor, Chordclaw, and Mindscrambler Grenades
Ruststalker Princeps
Conversion field, Digital weapons, Prehensile Dataspike, The Omniscient Mask
Skitarii Rangers
Omnispex, 2x Plasma caliver, 4x Skitarii Ranger
Ranger Alpha
Arc maul, Arc pistol, Arkhan’s Divinator, Conversion field, Digital weapons
Skitarii Vanguard
Omnispex, 2x Plasma caliver, 4x Skitarii Vanguard
Vanguard Alpha
Arc maul, Phosphoenix, Conversion field, Digital weapons,
Sydonian Dragoons
5x Sydonian Dragoon w/ Phosphor Serpentas
Imperial Knights: Codex (2015) (Imperial Knights part)
Knight Crusader w/ Rapid Fire Battle Cannon, Heavy Stubber, Heavy Flamer, Meltagun, Stormspear Rocket Pod, Avenger Gatling Cannon
Space Wolves: Codex (2014) (SW Company of the Great Wolf Detachment)
HQ
Lvl 2 Rune Priest
Rune Axe, Bolt Pistol
Elites
Servitors
Servitors
Fast Attack
3x Drop Pod
1) Tell us a little bit about your army, why did you go with certain units? Why did you pick this army list in particular? Is there anything special about your army that you want to highlight?
Well, with War Convocation, a lot of units are set in stone. The wargear options and certain options are more flexible, but that’s also where a lot of the variances are seen in War Convocation armies.
First of all, I go with the Knight Crusader over other knights because BULLETS. YOUZ CAN ALWAYZ UZE MOR DAKKA! While I can certainly appreciate the Str D CC weapon that most knights carry, I can count on two fingers the number of times it actually became relevant (notably, charging a Brass Scorpion and a Stormsurge). Being double barrelled means tons of Dakka, and he often kills 2-3 units a turn alone. Furthermore, there are a rare few number of combat situations where Str 10 with stomp cannot do the job that Str D with stomp can.
As for the rest, it often comes down to relics/wargear. I take the scryerskull precipitation (or however it’s spelled) because rerolling to pen against vehicles is often huge. I give the phaser taser lazer to my infiltrators because it just makes the sergeant better at what he already does. The ruststalkers get the omnipotent mask to make them fearless and to reroll with their haywire grenades, which often spells the difference between doing 2 or 3 HP to 6+ HP against, say, another knight or super heavy. The phosphokleenex is great for drop podding, though I wouldn’t recommend it otherwise, and the rest of the relics are just personal preference. I throw all plasma on my vanguards and rangers because I find the Arc rifles and Transylvanian Aqueducts to be sub-par. The Onager takes the Icarus array, because it guarantees that my opponents will have no flyers in their lists. The moment I don’t take it, I’ll play against 12x night scythes allied to 3x Hive tyrants.
One unit I want to make note of that I think is vastly under appreciated are the chicken walkers (aka Sydonian Dragoons). These things wreck so much face it looks like a picasso painting. Coming with a 5+ cover standard is huge, because that means with shroudsong they are rocking a 2+ cover regardless of where they are on the field. Furthermore, doing extra str 8 hits on the charge on a 6 to hit with 5 guys can do a ridiculous number of wounds or hull points against many things – Knights, Wraithknights, whatever. Plus, they’re fast as hell with dunestrider! I highly recommend them to others.
As for why I picked the army? I love the way it plays. I play my War Convocation aggressively, like a wiener dog going for the ankles. People are surprised at how often I can kill units, and it fits my playstyle of “overload your opponent with threats”. I go for the throat with just about everything, and there is very little I cannot kill with the list.
Matt Root playing against Aaron Aelong in the finals
2) What expectations did you have for the meta? Were there any armies you were worried about? What match-ups did you feel most comfortable with?
Honestly, I didn’t expect to do NEARLY as well as I did at Adepticon. My list has zero objective secured. Zero. Nada. A goose egg. The missions for Adepticon HEAVILY favored ObSec, so I was often fighting an uphill battle to kill things before the end of the game. While I can easily kill most armies – if you go second with obsec in an Adepticon mission and can live long enough, I’m likely gonna have a bad time. That isn’t to say I can’t beat Obsec – after all, I faced (and beat) a demi company, 21 obj secured Dark Eldar vehicles, and so many Eldar bikes that they were more prevalent then glitter on a cheap stripper. The one match up that I was TRULY worried about was, not so ironically, facing an invisible death star that had objective secured and went second. If it’s not objective secured, I can out-objective it. If it’s not invisible, I can kill it. If it doesn’t go second, I can out-contest it. Guess what I ended up playing in the championship game that I lost to?
There aren’t any really “easy wins” with War Convocation, except against inexperienced players, merely because they don’t know the capabilities of my list. Conversely, there are very few hard counters either, though if a Tau player has enough ignore cover that I can’t disrupt, they can give me a bad day too.
3) Hindsight is 20-20 and looking back on the Adepticon was there anything you would have changed about your list to better accommodate the meta you experienced?
Truthfully? Not really. I could add some obsec to the list in the form of allies, but I came to play my style, not to win (though winning was a nice bonus!). If I had really wanted the best of the best list to compete at A-con, I would have taken -SHOCKINGLY- Eldar or Demi company. But those aren’t my playstyle, plus I have too much respect in myself to play Eldar.
The two games I lost (4th game in day 1, which put me as a first alternate, and the championship game) were both strongly due to the fact that my opponent went second in a 6-objective mission where the objectives were worth 5 points each, and they had obsec units to boot (not to mention the fact that the armies were run by very intelligent players). Hard to counter that unless I change my list drastically, but I love how my army plays, so I expect it will remain largely the same for now.
Some people would argue for a Culexus, which I can absolutely understand – but I find him to be such an annoying crutch. I rarely play a game where his psychic null-ness comes into play, in which case he’s a slow, boring, easy to kill pricey model that requires I take out nearly 200 pts of stuff I like better. Sorry, but your sleek leather body suit just isn’t quite sexy enough to fit into my army, Mr. Culexus.
4. What are some tips or tricks you have for people who might want to start using your army?
READ. YOUR. CODEX. I seriously can’t even stress this enough. It sounds obvious, but there are SO MANY rules and tricks in the codex that people playing the army don’t even know. For example, did you know Infiltrators and Ruststalkers come with a 6++ invul base? Did you know that infiltrators decrease the WS, BS, I and Ld of units by 1 within 6″? Did you know that your Onager Dunecrawler comes with a searchlight, which is actually a BIG deal in Night Fight missions? Did you know the ladies love a man who knows how to handle his enhanced data-tether?
The army is far, far more complex then “Drop in, declare shroudsong, and shoot stuffz!~!”. It has a very high learning curve. However, the army is incredibly rewarding to play if you are willing to put the effort into learning it.
