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
Today on 40k List-Tech we have the winner of Fastawar (warning: site isn’t in English) Michael Bræmer Nielsen. Michael is going to representing Denmark in the ETC and he certainly knows the game of 40k very well. Just from our light conversations I could tell that Michael was well-versed in multiple different Metas, and rules formats. This makes him a strong candidate for an ETC team as well as someone I would like to learn from which is why I contacted him! His Battle Company list seems generic except he actually walks grav-centurions around the board and has a knight! Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself.
Michael’s White Knight Scars
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?
I wanted to test out a particular build that i might use for the ETC, but painting requirements and me not having much time made me look elsewhere. I ended up bringing a list that i knew would have a lot of options in all 6 games and should be able to play just about anything. The list has two primary elements: the knight and the centurions (usually with the hunters eye). The rest of the army has a lot of flex, but they can all do something. The main thing i wanted to “fix” about the battle company was it’s inability to defend itself against really strong units – screamerstar, tooled up command squads and stuff like that. Having a chance of stomping them right off the battlefield changes things quite a bit.
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? How did you plan to beat common meta lists like Eldar Varients, other Battle Companies, and Daemons?
ITC is pretty new in Denmark, so my guess was that guys was gonna bring what has been seen abroad – battle companies and eldar. I knew that if i could just keep my knight alive after the first turn against melta-droppers, it would smash up the battle field. Facing wraithknights its next to useless though…
Battle Company:
Play better 🙂 I only played 1 other BC and that was a white scar with lots of gravcannons, where i fortunate enough to start and cripple him in turn 1. In a mirror-setup you can only rely on you having more experience and a bit of luck.
Eldar:
Eldar is always an issue… Lots of grav takes care of any wraith knights. Lots of warp spiders is a bit of an issue, but them only jumping once in ITC makes it a bit easier. The knight could get me out of a lot of problems, but is very vulnerable to the WK, so basically kill the WK and then let the knight run amok.
Daemons:
Stomp, stomp, stomp and more stomp! Get your dudes ready to charge the screamers/plague drones alongside the knight, so that the knight doesn’t has to get hit by 7-9 screamers or plague drones. You should always try and lure them into assaulting something and then kill them on the counter. The daemons are almost always 1-2 core units and then some backfield, if you can smash your way through the core unit, then it’s open season on nurglings and horrors. Knowing your assault rules and how to pile-in is an essential skill. The new S:D power is of course a bit of an issue – but they can’t shoot you if you’re locked in combat, so you need to push! If it’s the odd flying daemon list, then you’re in for a bad day and need to get lucky on the maelstrom, because you’re gonna be bleeding units all over the place.
3) Hindsight is 20-20 and looking back on the tournament was there anything you would have changed about your list to better accommodate the meta you experienced?
The scouts are pretty useless, but in order to fix that i would have taken stuff away from the other units. Talking about changing the army after winning all my games is also a bit “meh” 🙂 The army played very well and i felt like a had options against all my opponents, which is nice. My captain was also immensely useless, which feels like a shame, but also hard to fix. Maybe drop a gravcannon or two and gear up the captain/scouts?
4) What are some tips or tricks you have for people who might want to start using your army?
The main trick is keeping the knight and still getting use from it – it has to get to work! A knight stomping through a battle company or similar is pretty savage. In order to do that, you need to keep it not-dead. It’s meltadrops that should get you worried, long range fire will usually take quite a while to take it down. Walling up your knight with your carpark and scouts works like a charm against meltadrops. The second part is getting your opponent to stand in the line of fire of your gravcents. Gravcents with hunters eye (and quite likely reroll 1s from a doctrine) is gonna slaughter anything without invul saves. I usually play ETC-style where just tossing away kill points is usually a really bad thing to do, not so much in ITC – knowing when to sacrifice something and picking the correct sacrificial lamb is key.
5) Tell us all about the rules for the tournament. Were they strictly ITC? If not, how did that affect your army list?
Yep, ITC straight up. I had only played 1 ITC-mission prior to this tournament, but i figured out pretty swiftly that keeping up with the maelstrom was gonna be key. If you bring an army that can’t consistently score maelstrom, then you’re on to a loser in ITC. Bring a deathstar? Better make damned sure you’re gonna wipe your opponent… The Space Marines has a LOT of options these days and a lot of viable builds, many of these utilize allies, both from space marines, but also many other imperial codixes. Keep an eye out for when the lists for the ETC are in in a couple of months. I’m expecting many weird and wonderful builds!
You can see the tournament itself here. I make the site because we didn’t have anything in Denmark to help organize tournaments, now we do. If anyone wants to use it for organizing tournaments, feel free to do so. Its free to use and there’s a manual on the front page that will guide you through it.
