Fantastic Lists and Where to Find Them: Chapter Three

This particular series of articles explores unique lists and trends developing in the competitive Warhammer 40k meta. The focus is on interesting lists that performed unusually well and/or being played unexpectedly by top level players. 

The headlines from Las Vegas Open 2019 featured the same old, same old of list builds; with Castellan Soup and Ynnari dominating the top tables, this still didn’t stop some great players from designing creative lists a bit out of the ordinary. One of the best things about the LVO is the amount of players who end up only a single loss , so here are some great lists that ended up outside the Top 8, but still went 5-1 at the journey.

The first list comes from Daniel Yeh the best performing Space Wolves list.

Daniel Yeh Las Vegas Open 2019 Space Wolves

Talk about operation kill Castellan, this unique list uses the Falchion to destroy any Knight on the board dealing apocalyptic damage from the 2d6 shots of its Volcano Cannon. Then you also have the Falchion soaking up damage and protecting mega ton of characters flying around the board. Adding to the defenses of the army is Njal with Storm Caller and Tempest Wrath to increase Armour Saves and adding -1 to hit from certain units (Castellan). This list even has the CP to use Cloaked by the Storm for addition -1 to be hit.  Everything is built around the Falchion, but combined the Space Wolves characters can clear almost anything that gets too close to the Falchion. Against other armies, like Eldar Flyer Spam even then the Falchion can use Keen Senses to negate any penalty to hit. It seems that Daniel thought Space Wolves provided the best set of stratagems and powers to complement the Falchion

The second list comes from Thomas Christensson and his best performing Necron list.

Thomas Christensson Las Vegas Open 2019 Necrons

What makes this Necron list impressive is how it goes against much of the current Necron meta of Sautekh Stormlord based lists. Of course the standard three Doomsday Arc is still present, but outside of that, very little is standard. It starts with going Mephrit for some extra -AP, as well his one Tesla Immortals or Destroyer unit can use Talent for Annihilation for some extra hits. I wouldn’t be surprised if Thomas used his Ghost Arks aggressively because of Mephrit Dynastic code. This whole army besides the Arks seems predicated on getting within 12″ of the enemy and doing tons of damage. The only thing about this list that is head scratching is why keep the Wraiths Mephrit when going Nihilakh seems more obvious?

The third list comes from Patrick McAneeny and his Space Marine.

Patrick McAneeny Las Vegas Open 2019 Space Marines

A few things make this list special and unique, first off is the use of the Victrix Honour Guard and the going old school with Veterans on Bikes (Command Squad), this gives Patrick lots of multi-wound 3++ models. As well this is also a lot of ablative wounds for the Captain and Guilliman. You have Tiggy for -1 to hit on whatever. The backbone of the list though is Emperor Wrath Wyverns shooting twice and dealing out ton of damage. Tallarn is a great choice as well for this detachment not only for Ambush stratagem, but most importantly to move and fire heavy weapons without penalty. Finally you have the sneaky good Supreme command detachment with the Emperor’s Champion for Abhor the Witch stratagem and the Rune Priest for Tempest Wrath’s -1 to hit.

The fourth list comes from Samuel Lucidi Death Guard army.

Samuel Lucidi Las Vegas Open 2019 Death Guard

Unlike most Death Guard armies these days, you won’t see a Mortarion. You do still see good old Plagueburst Crawlers, but outside of that nothing else is ordinary. It starts with the odd choice of Necrosius, but when you consider the Poxwalker buffing and tons of Psychic powers you start to see the possibilities. This is just the start of the tricks with the Putrifier and Plague Marines riding a Rhino into the heart of the enemy to throw a ton of damage 2 grenades. Then you have surprising resilient Contemptor Dreadnoughts, with even more 2 damage weapons to be unleashed. The final punch of the list is the Blightlord Terminators keeping any opponent off balance, by having to dedicated most of its firepower to keep them contained. Finally, we have Ahriman who is one of the best Psykers in the game, giving the army access to Death Hex and combined with Necrosius 5 deny attempts.

These were some of favorite under the radar lists from the LVO along with the following honorable mention from Brad Townsend and his Ad-Mech list below.

Brad Townsend Las Vegas Open 2019 Ad-Mech