Today on List-Tech we have Geoff “Incontrol’s” War Convocation list from Wargames Con 2016.
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.
For more great tactics articles head on over to the Tactics Corner!
“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
The War Convocation is a mythical army of special rules and intricacies none but the most dedicated 40k player can tap into. It is the newest faction, and comes with arguably the most complex pair of codices in the game. So naturally players who choose to take the wily robots into battle with them require a great deal of skill and knowledge of the game to be able to win with them. Incontrol is one of these players. Read on below to gain some insight into the mind of a great war convocation player. You can also check him out on Twitch and Twitter!
WAR CONVOCATION
SKITARII
+5 Vanguard
-Omnispex (Alpha)
-Plasma Caliver x2
-Conversion Field (Alpha)
-Digital Weapons (Alpha)
-Phase Taser (Alpha)
+5 Rangers
-Transuranic aquebus x2
-Omnispex (Alpha)
-Conversion Field (Alpha)
-Digital Weapons (Alpha)
-Arkhan’s Divinator (Alpha)
+5 Ruststalkers
-Conversion Field (Princeps)
-Digital Weapons (Princeps)
-prehensile Data spike (Princeps)
-The Omniscient Mask (Princeps)
+5 Infiltratrors
-Infoslave skull (Princeps)
-Conversion Field (Princeps)
-Digital Weapons (Princeps)
-Phosphoenix (Princeps)
+1 Ballistarii
-Twin linked Cognis Lascannon
+1 Dunecrawler
-Icarus Array
-Cognis Manipulator
-Mindscanner Probe
-Cognis Heavy stubber
Cult Mechanicus
+1 Tech-Priest Dominus
-Eradication Ray
-Phosphur Serpenta
-Stasis Field
-Digital Weapons
-Infoslave skull
-The Scryerskull Perspicatus
+3 Kataphron Destroyers
-Cognis Flamers x3
-grav-cannon x3
+3 Kataphron Destroyers
-Cognis Flamers x3
-grav-cannon x3
Imperial Knight
+1 Knight Crusader
-Storm Spear rocket Pod
-Carapace Melta gun
Librarius Conclave
Tigurius
Librarian Lv. 2
Librarian Lv. 2, Terminator Armor
Inquisitorial Detachment
Coteaz
Xenos Inquisitor, 3x Servo Skulls, Psy grenades.
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’ve been playing the War Convocation for around 2 years now (since the beginning of it’s release). I have ran it in a bunch of different ways but with the impending GW FAQ it would seem I had a need to adjust away from the drop pod style and get into something else. I had heard of a few others running it with the libby conclave and when I began to wrap my head around daemon summoning + warcon they also released new powers and I knew Phase Form and I would become fast friends alongside my crusader knight, Bobo. Beyond that, specific to this tourney I was able to add in another 150 points as it was a 2k point tourney so I went back to the best 100 points in Warhammer40k and brought along Coteaz with his good ol pal the Xenos Inquisitor armed with psykotroke grenades and 3 skulls. These two give my army so much utility it is insane. The skulls make a lot of those thunder stars/cabal stars and white scars (read: spacemarine) lists a lot more manageable. The grenades are really really good at keeping my core units a bit more safe from a super strong assault unit which the meta favors right now. It isn’t a hard answer per se but it has been instrumental in helping me fight back against those super units.
The general idea behind what I am saying is my list can still reach out and touch the 4 corners of the board with continuous summoning, made better if I get Incursion (screamers) or sacrifice (heralds on a disk), as well as bolstering the already formidable knight with ignores cover or line of sight. No pods? No problem!
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?
My expectations heading into Wargames Con were Texas has a great scene with some really solid players. I knew this was going to be a tough tourney and I also knew for whatever reason Texans love artillery and daemons.. there seems to be more of that there. The nice thing about my list and army is that I don’t really need to adjust much for any given meta. Part of the reason I love WarCon so much is I feel like I can play against anything and have a chance. That said I am always a bit scared of a big alpha strike Eldar army featuring things like Warp Hunters or the various other delivery systems of D. After that I would say the combos people can get with Daemons these days are tough! Tetrad, daemonic incursion and the usual suspects to name a few. For the most part though, I am comfortable vs everything. With Coteaz even the hard core alpha strike games give me confidence that I have a number of ways to win decisively.
3. How did you prepare yourself and your list for “meta” armies like Eldar varients, Battle company, and Daemon lists? Who did you beat on the way to victory at the tournament?
I didn’t prepare myself in any special way. I’ve messed up with my list a couple years back so ever since then before a big tourney I go over my list like a dozen times and ask others to look at it as well. Outside of that I just try and get my usual 3-5 games in that week and play the list I plan on taking so I am prepared.
During my competition I faced: 2 cabal stars, 2 eldar players one with 45 warp spiders and 5 val’s wrath batteries the other having 2 warp hunters skatchhatch knight and the usual mix with a riptide wing and the other opponent had a drop pod army with skyhammer.
4. 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 only thing I am contemplating is switching my infiltrator weapons to the taser goads and flechette pistols for the extra attack and access to high strength attacks not really due to the meta.
5. What are some tips or tricks you have for people who might want to start using your army?
WarCon takes a LOT of practice. I mean, you benefit from that no matter what army you play but this army has SO many rules and can be a really finesse type army. If you make mistakes or don’t optimize your situation you can lose fairly quickly.
