Hello fellow gamers, It’s David taking a look at this weekend’s undefeated list at GT and higher-level events. This last weekend there were several Grand Tournaments (GT)
Two River Open GT
The Two Rivers Open GT in Fargo North Dakota was a 38 player event with only 1 person to go undefeated. Nicholas Weiss brought the might of the Imperium. He had a mixed list of Grey Knights, Sisters of Battle of the Valorous Heart and a Scions detachment of the Lambdan Lions.
This list is mean unlike Space Marines, the Lambdan Lions get to keep their bonus armor penetration throughout the game. Meaning his 20 plasma guns are ap-4. They may be doing the lion’s share of the work with a re-roll 1’s to hit bubble. The Refractor Field Generator is also giving his units within 6” of the Warlord a 5++ invulnerable save. Combine that with re-roll 1’s to wound orders or re-roll all failed wounds versus vehicles this detachment will hit hard.
To gain even more command points there is a second battalion with the sisters of battle that ignore ap-1 and ap-2 as well if they are in range of the Imagifier. The bonus warlord trait of the Imagifier improves the Shield of Faith invulnerable saves by 1 for even more troops with a 5++ invulnerable save.
Finally, this list has a small Supreme Command Detachment of Grey knights. Draigo as a beat stick is nifty and he can support the Brotherhood Champion with hammer hand and is mobile with the gate of infinity. Hammer hand on the Blade of the Forsworn and the Perfect Warrior combat stance you have strength 5 attacks with a +2 to wound in close combat. The Brother-Captain has a small buff increasing range for smite but seems to be there to gain command points.
Grim Resolve GT
The next GT this weekend was the Grim Resolve GT in Anchorage Alaska.
Rob Porter was the only player to go undefeated there with his Raven guard Successors. His spearhead and second battalion do not actually specify what chapter they were. Since he had a chapter master in the spearhead, to get the most bang for his buck they may very well have been the same chapter. Master Artisans would help his two chaplain Dreadnoughts. The Whirlwind of Rage is an interesting choice as well. This will help leverage the Incursors Paired Combat Blades so that each 6 to hit is 3 hits. The 5 Centurion Devastators with Grav Cannons may not be as great post Raven Guard errata but they do have the means to move pregame and/or deep strike. They are still deadly and points efficient.
Armacon
Another GT this past weekend was Armacon in Rogaland, Norway had a good turn out with 42 players playing. There were 2 undefeated players. Iron hands and Grey Knights
Tore Grødeland and Iron Hands came first place with a twist to his list building. Flame Aggressors joined two Chaplain Dreadnoughts and a Leviathan dreadnought with dual Storm Cannons. The double battalions had Feiros and a Librarian to meet the mandatory HQ units with 4 Intercessor squads with Stalker bolt rifles and 2 scout squads with sniper rifles. A Chief Apothecary and an aggressors squad is what allowed for two Relic Whirlwind Scorpius to be taken. An Eliminator squad joined the Leviathan to meet the relic requirement. This is a solid list that will still perform even if they go to ap -2 turn 2 onward for all the heavy weapons.
Ingvar Buli was also undefeated and he managed to do that with his Grey Knights List. His double battalion and single outrider wasn’t the dreaded double Paladin list but rather there was only a single Paladin unit carrying 4 psylencers. The 3 squads of interceptors is a change from other GT winning list but do allow for more turn 1 forward projection. Finishing that outrider was Draigo. Draigo has the old chapter master rules where he can only re-roll failed hits versus all hits but with so many storm bolters its a nice little bonus to have.
What’s particularly different is how he added 2 rhinos in his list. The rhinos can survive quite a bit better and protect his strike squads fairly well versus Thunderfire cannons. All 6 of his strike squads to make the battalions were listed as Gate of Infinity for great redundancy. The first battalion has the brother-captain for double the range of Grey Knight smiting and the Librarian with key powers of armored resilience and warp shaping to switch the tides. Two Chaplains join the second battalions as fairly cheap battalions but providing support for the rest of the army.
CAGBash XIII
The final GT this past weekend CAGBash XIII in Cincinnati, Ohio.
There was only 1 undefeated player at the event and that was Daniel Sansone and his Raven guard Successors. The double battalions were both Long Range Marksmen and Hungry for Battle as their chapter tactic. The first battalion brought with it 2 Infiltrator squads and an intercessor squad with bolt rifles while the Captain in Phobos armor and a Primaris lieutenant with Stalker Bolt rifle was the Warlord. The second Battalion had a Smash Captain and a Jump Chaplain. His list doesn’t say which litany was used and he has several great options. The two boltgun scout squads and the sniper scouts helps keep the minimums for the battalions affordable. Yet, the centurions would use the rest of them in his list. There were 3 Assault Centurions two of which had 4 bodies and one that had 5 bodies. But wait there’s more. There was a Centurions Devastators squad 5 of them armed with Grav Cannons and hurricane bolters. A single Thunderfire Cannon.
In Conclusion
This was a good weekend for wargaming in general. It can’t be missed that in every GT level event the undefeated players were running an imperial army. It was somewhat soon to adopt the space marines errata, but only one of the undefeated armies would have have been hit particularly hard with it. The Raven Guard successors would enjoy moving into the tactical doctrine just fine. The Grey Knights surf the tides are not bothered by the shifting Combat Doctrines. In fact, you can click here to read up on some Grey Knight Tactics. However, if you would like to watch a battle report featuring Ravenguard click here
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