There are going to be unaccountable amounts of heavy hitting 40k lists at this year’s Las Vegas Open. Here are the top 10 competitive lists you will see at this year’s LVO.
This is an opinion piece. I have no idea if any of these lists will win the tournament, nor do I expect one to. I just wanted to rank the lists I felt were the most powerful in the current ITC meta. I also wanted to write this article for people who may be preparing to play in the LVO 40k Championships who will want to know what kind of lists their list should beat. As you are reading this I encourage you to imagine the potential of each list because I do not have actual army lists. These are more army list concepts that expert players use to tailor fit the perfect list that caters to their playstyle. Now, without further ado…
Tau w/ Piranha Firestream
Now, I might not have even placed this army list in the top 10 if it wasn’t for the results of the TSHFT championship and Andrew Gonyo breaking into the top 5 in the ITC rankings. I went over this style of list on my 18th episode of Chapter Tactics but i’m going to break it down a little here. Basically this is a Tau list that is Riptide-lite and focuses on the Tau Piranha Firestream formation and healthy amounts of markerlights and crisis suits. If you want a perfect example of a similar style of list, check the BCP player app on your smartphone and look for Paul McKelvey’s TSHFT winning Tau list. This Tau list has the models to compete with MSU, and still contains enough Tau firepower to shoot most armies off the board. Players who run this list tend to play really intelligently and cagey and I think it has surpassed the Tau “Monster Mash” list you would come to associate with the faction. This list is a refreshing reminder that Tau don’t always need big monstrous creatures to win.
Tripartite Lance w/ Psyker Support
Here is the only Imperial Knight list worth worrying about right now in the meta. Sure, if your army can’t deal with Imperial Knights you may have a hard time, but Imperial Knights can be outplayed with solid movement phase fundamentals and enough warm bodies. Deathstars have an even easier time dealing with knights, and most dedicated shooting armies use killing Imperial Knights as the golden standard for what your army should be able to blow up. Enter Joshua Death. Josh may not be the sole person responsible for building this list, but he is the guy I would expect to be across the table from me when i’m quivering at the thought of playing this list. Now, I know what you may be thinking. “Pablo, he is only one guy. Why should we worry about him in a 400+ person event?” Well, this army is EASY to build, and pretty easy to pilot. You have a Tripartite Lance. A single unit made up of a Knight Gallant, Knight Crusader, and Knight Warden. A Librarius Conclave, and a Psykana Division which summons a healthy sprinkling of demons. I could easily borrow the models for this list. Every Imperium player worth their aquila has at least one Imperial Knight now, demons are everywhere, and librarians are easy to come by. All any player has to do is obtain this mishmash of 15-20 models, roll for key powers, summon demons on objectives and hope for the best. Now, Josh Death obviously plays this list a lot better than that, but I think it is a list you will see spark up a lot more. There are already a lot of Knight players because of how easy of an army it is transport. How hard would it be to grab some demons and librarians on the way out the door?
Riptide Wing + Best Ally Units Available
I know I know, this is an open ended list concept and barely counts as an actual list. But hear me out on this. This is a staple of some of the best players I know. Riptide wing is such a splashable formation that it can often times be one of many pieces of a swiss army knife. A buddy of mine dominated some of the best players with a Riptide wing, Wraithknight and friends, and 2 units of Wulfen in drop pods. Sean Nayden was recently spotted at the Goldensprue Cup GT with a Riptide wing, Corpsethief claw, and Skathatch Wraithknight. Basically the concept behind this list is Riptides for shooting, a powerful self-sufficient melee threat, and good scoring capability. If your army can’t deal with Riptide wings you may want to re-evaluate your list.
Genestealer Cult
Right now I think Genestealer Cult is the most overrated underrated faction in the history of 2017. Everyone I talk to has them making the top 8, everyone is preparing for them. The truth is, there are not going to be a lot at the LVO. The few that will be there are going to do really well. Geoff Robinson, Todd Silber, and Tyler Devries come to mind. The truth is, this faction is a balanced competitive faction that you should worry about, but it is still not better then a lot of the other more established factions. It is also a bit luck dependant. It is a dynamic army that can either look like the greatest army in the world, or the slowest. Which is why it is only number 7.
TauDar
I was so tempted to put Genestealer Cult above Taudar, but two things made me change my mind. Taudar are a lot more consistent, and they can take a Skathach wraithknight. Basically TauDar lists are an Eldar list of the usual suspects, mixed in with a riptide wing. Nothing fancy, just a bunch of amazing units which can put out a lot of firepower and jump on late game objectives. This list beats regular pure Eldar lists because it has a better capability of shooting vulnerable demon flyers off the board. Something a lot of armies really need to be able to do.
Battle Company
Ah, the perpetual 5-1 list. This list is actually in a better spot than it was last year at the LVO because a lot more armies are starting to become more susceptible to losing purge the alien. Also, battle company players got a mission boost in the form of Big Game Hunter. Because of the MSU nature of the list battle company players have an important tertiary point they can easily deny and take. Whichever battle company you decide to take (White Scars or Dark Angels are your only options) the battle company still suffers from a serious lack of top tournament wins though, and I don’t think has what it takes to beat the next 4 armies on our list from a threat-level perspective.
Renegades w/Demons
Renegades are a great army. They do everything the elite guard lists of old used to do, but better, and cheaper. They can shoot any army off the board with tough T7 artillery, they can tarpit and zone with obsec zombies, and have access to melee threats like screamer stars and renegade knights. Throw in Fateweaver and a little demon summoning actions and you have an army which has evolved from a more static army, to one which can threaten every part of the board and contest any objective. Oh, and that GW FAQ didn’t hurt either. The only armies which don’t fear renegades, are the ones which don’t need to hide in multi-level ruins. Which brings me to…
Magnus and Friends
If you were wondering where big bird brain was, in all his horn-nippled glory he was right here. The Rehati War-Sect is the new kid on the block of tough formations, and it is kicking butt and taking names. This list is a very simple design but is oh so hard to general at the highest level. As one great 40k player said a couple weeks ago “This list is deceptively easy, but one mistake, and you lose your Magnus and the entire list comes crashing down from the sky”. Which is why I am going to put it at number 3. Nick Nanavati recently won an event with what I think is the most optimal way to run this list. Basically a Rehati War-Sect and as many brimstone horrors as he could fit. These lists are nasty because they can do a variety of things in multiple phases of the game. They have close combat threats, a variety of shooting attacks, access to cheap obsec, and mobility in the form of hard to kill flyers and demon summoning.
The Cabalstar
James Carmona can explain this list way better then I possibly could. So if you want to listen to his analysis here and here I will not be offended. In the mean time let me explain to you what exactly it is you are dealing with, when it comes to Cabalstars. You are dealing with the best psykers in the game. That’s it. Nothing else. The chaos factions have cheap warp dice (brimstone horrors), cheap IC warp dice (heralds), the best generic psyker HQs (sorcerors), the best FMC flyers (Magnus, and Fateweaver), and access to the best non-psychic deathstar buff in the form of the Grimoire. Not to mention summoning, and fast dogs of their own. The beauty of these lists is you can run a cabalstar in any list exactly like a librarius conclave. The rest is up to the player and their preferred playstyle.
I do think these lists have one achilles heel though. They can be really dicey. Warlords like Fateweaver, and pink heralds can blow themselves up or wear themselves down over the course of the game. These lists also don’t have easy access to mobile obsec (unless you count deep striking demons) which means they sometimes have a rough time beating armies like battle company. Speaking of which…
Battle Company w/ Deathstar
So, I know this is a battle company. So it should be ranked number 5. However this army concept is so much more terrifying and different then it’s less furrier barkstar-less counterpart. Basically Superfriends players and battle company players got together and decided that they were sick of losing specific missions like The Scouring, and Purge the Alien. So people started running deathstars in their battle company lists. You will see some prominant players run these lists, and you will see almost as many battle companies with deathstars as ones without. These lists come in a variety of chapters, deathstars, and styles but they all play the same. They shove a hard to kill unit down your throat and cover everywhere else with cheap obsec. The worst of these lists is the Dark Angels battle company with a non-psychic dependant barkstar. Which trade an expensive deathstar unit for one with a larger footprint that cannot get it’s buffs turned off.
Also, in case you were wondering Brandon Grant’s recent reign of terror did have an effect on my decision. Matt Root may be the number one player but I honestly think Brandon Grant is the hottest player of the ITC season right now.
Did I miss any armies? Agree with my list? Which armies would make up your top 10?
Of all the lists, The Rehati War Sect is the only one that I think has the tools to beat all of the others. I think it has a very good chance to make top 8.
The issue with the War Sect is that it’s an FMC psychic army, and both FMC armies and psychic armies are _extra_ dice dependent, which can be really tough in a long tournament. You’ve gotta get through 5-6 rounds of fighting without being Seized on at a bad time, without rolling garbage for your important powers, without failing critical Grounding checks, without suffering a bad Perils, etc.
It’s not impossible to do, and there are ways to mitigate it, but at the end of the day it’s dependent on factors that can be largely outside of the player’s control.
On the other hand, Horrors and the Split mechanic are just intensely stupid, which goes a long way towards solving your problems.
The horrors are what makes Rehati War Sect really work though. The split thing allows you to have a pretty strong board presence especially when it comes to things like blocking off lanes for charges to key targets, etc. Plowing through 40 extra models is not an easy task. Especially when some of them will have 4+ re-rolling 1s.
I realize that- getting easy warp charge, and the potential for good spells, and tough scoring units in a package for a fairly trivial amount of points is huge. But War Sect isn’t the only army that can take advantage of Horrors.
“War Sect isn’t the only army that can take advantage of Horrors”
All true statements in the history of mankind pale in comparison to these words.
LMAO yes that is so true. I am actually predicting that Tzeentch Daemons win LVO this year and NOT the Rehati War Sect (although I wouldn’t be that surprised honestly)
If any demon players out there are worried about Magnus. Or any people are worried about Magnus and want to convince their demon playing friends to help clear Magnus off the boards here’s a helpful hint. Switch to the tzeentch warpstorm table before the event The 12 result literally kills Magnus instantly and sometimes you get a lord of change in the deal too. With fateweaver reroll and the incursions +1 its reasonable to get during a game and is sure to bring the poor Magnus players to their knees in utter disbelief.
This has been a psa brought to you by the make Nanavati cry foundation. And it’s founder.
The 12 result is actually only for friendly models. Cannot use it to turn an enemy Magnus into a lord of change.
He is also immune to the 2 result because he is a daemon.
About half the time he will ignore that table entirely and the other half only helps him. Remember he cannot perils but you can.
Nothing in the Tzeentch Warp Storm table under the entry for 12 specifies that it must be a friendly model. The only requirement is that you select a character on the table that is also a Daemon of Tzeentch. So yes, Magnus dies. If he passes the leadership you get a Lord of Change.
Is it intended that way? Probably not. But RAW it works.
My copy of the rules doesn’t say friendly only. Does yours? Double check for me.
Where does it say that it only effects friendly models?
Says select ” a Character” not friendly or enemy, as in select any character.
A wonderful observation. It works out.
I dont think you could actually use the incursion modifier on it tho, as its quite specific to the normal warp storm.
Where did you talk about the Piranha formation lists? You must have cited the wrong episode of chapter tactics, because it wasn’t in 18 at all. Im all curious now! 🙂
Paul mcKelvey’s TSHFT winning list. To be fair I think I just glossed over it.
Where is this list? I tried using the app he talks about in the paragraph on list 10 and nothing comes up; there’s no ability to search in that app and there’s no ability to look at past events, let alone army lists. I don’t get it. Is it really discussed in Chapter Tactics 18? If you have a link to the list, would you mind sharing it? Thanks in advance!
Gotcha. Any chance you could please post that list? I tried using the app, but it doesn’t go back far enough for me to see TSHFT.
Thanks!
Apparently TSHFT fell off already on the BCP app. I got the list from Paul.
+ Combined Arms Detachment (Tau Empire: Codex (2015) v2005) ++
+ Uncategorised +
····Farsight Enclaves
+ HQ +
····Ethereal [Homing beacon]
+ Troops +
····XV8 Crisis Battlesuits [Bonding Knife Ritual, Crisis Shas’ui]
····XV8 Crisis Battlesuits [Bonding Knife Ritual, Crisis Shas’ui]
+ Fast Attack +
····Tetra Scout Speeder Team [FW] [Tetra]
····Tetra Scout Speeder Team [FW] [Tetra]
····Tetra Scout Speeder Team [FW] [Tetra]
+ Fortification +
····Wall of Martyrs Imperial Bunker
++ Tau Dawn Blade Contingent (Tau Empire: Codex (2015) v2005) ++
+ Uncategorised +
····Farsight Enclaves
+ Core +
····Retaliation Cadre
······Commander
········XV8 Commander Crisis Suit [Command and Control Node, Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite, Neuroweb System Jammer, Puretide Engram Neurochip, Vectored Retro-Thrusters]
······XV104 Riptide Battlesuits [Bonding Knife Ritual]
········Riptide Shas’vre [Early Warning Override, Earth Caste Pilot Array, Heavy Burst Cannon, Twin-linked Fusion Blaster]
······XV8 Crisis Battlesuits [Bonding Knife Ritual]
········Crisis Shas’ui [Fusion Blaster, Positional Relay]
······XV8 Crisis Battlesuits [Bonding Knife Ritual]
········Crisis Shas’ui [Fusion Blaster]
······XV8 Crisis Battlesuits [Bonding Knife Ritual]
········Crisis Shas’ui [Fusion Blaster]
······XV88 Broadside Battlesuits [Bonding Knife Ritual, 6x MV8 Missile Drone]
········Broadside [Target Lock, Twin-linked High-Yield Missile Pod, Twin-linked Plasma Rifle]
········Broadside [Target Lock, Twin-linked High-Yield Missile Pod, Twin-linked Plasma Rifle]
········Broadside [Target Lock, Twin-linked High-Yield Missile Pod, Twin-linked Plasma Rifle]
+ Auxiliary +
····Piranha Firestream Wing
······TX4 Piranha (Team Leader) [Burst Cannon, 2x Seeker Missile]
······TX4 Piranhas
········TX4 Piranha [Burst Cannon, 2x Seeker Missile]
········TX4 Piranha [Burst Cannon, 2x Seeker Missile]
········TX4 Piranha [Burst Cannon, 2x Seeker Missile]
······TX4 Piranhas
········TX4 Piranha [Burst Cannon]
········TX4 Piranha [Burst Cannon]
······TX4 Piranhas
········TX4 Piranha [Burst Cannon, 2x Seeker Missile]
····Ranged Support Cadre
······Pathfinder Team [Bonding Knife Ritual, 4x Pathfinder]
······Pathfinder Team [Bonding Knife Ritual, 4x Pathfinder]
······Pathfinder Team [Bonding Knife Ritual, 4x Pathfinder]
······XV88 Broadside Battlesuits [Bonding Knife Ritual, 2x MV8 Missile Drone]
········Broadside [Early Warning Override, Twin-linked High-Yield Missile Pod, Twin-linked Smart Missile System]
········Broadside [Early Warning Override, Twin-linked High-Yield Missile Pod, Twin-linked Smart Missile System]
······XV88 Broadside Battlesuits [Bonding Knife Ritual]
········Broadside [Early Warning Override, Twin-linked High-Yield Missile Pod, Twin-linked Smart Missile System]
······XV88 Broadside Battlesuits [Bonding Knife Ritual]
········Broadside [Early Warning Override, Twin-linked High-Yield Missile Pod, Twin-linked Smart Missile System]
Agree on your top pick, it’s scary how many death star points you have left over after filling the minimal bc requirement. That situation will only get worse (/better as I actually have a bc) with Celestine
I’m thinking we see Magnus and the Rehati War Sect easily in the top 8. A list I’m surprised didn’t make the cut is War Convocation. It is still an incredibly difficult army to defeat. I definitely agree with having the BC w/ barkstar as top list. I think that’s probably the nastiest list out there right now (aside from Rehati War Sect maybe).
I think there’s a lot of hype for GSC in this event but I don’t really see them having too big of an impact because even out of 400+ players, GSC is still so new I doubt we see enough GSC lists in the event to make a significant impact. That said, I do think Geoff makes it into the top 10 with this army.
Yeah, i just felt like War Convo’s place in the meta took ablow because of Magnus, and deathstars. Though the same could be said of Tau. I did debate the 10 spot for a while.
It was a good top 10 no doubt. It’s hard to narrow it down to 10 though because there are so many good builds out there. I loved the list though.
I think War Con has pretty solid game against Magnus- it’s got a good amount of skyfire and assault units to whittle down the Horrors. Those D shots can be scary for it, but a combination of 4++ and Stealth/Shrouded should mitigate the worst of it. War Con, especially supported by Librarius Conclave or other stuff, is still a top-tier army.
That 10 spot is open to interpretation. You could also argue that pure Eldar, or Necron Pylon star belong there too. My biggest problem with War Convo is that it doesn’t really have any bad or good match ups. Though you still have a very valid point. It should only make this year’s LVO even more interesting.
If by lots of skyfire … do you mean taking 2 icarus array Onager crawlers or just 1?
Icarus onagers, Ironstriders (twinlinked cognis is just slightly ahead of skyfire bs3), free carapace skyfire gun on your knight/s, and/or that one relic that gives the unit cognis weapons.
I think it’s newness will really give it a curveball quality. In the hands of someone like Geoff who has been all over it since day one…real top 8 potential
If you come across the table from Josh Death or anyone playing the Knights/Psykers list. Make sure that when they go to move all of the Knights across the board within a piece of terrain that all Knights bases fit within that piece of terrain. The rules for the power explicitly state that if the models are not wholly within the terrain, they must move as if disembarking from a vehicle. I know several people who have fallen victim to this tactic at some of the larger events as of late – don’t let it be you.
Thanks for the PSA, good thing that power is banned in the ITC.
Actually you are mistaken on the reading of shifting worldscape sir. It says ““Any units that have all of their models on the piece of terrain are moved with it. If a unit has only a portion of its models on the terrain feature, then the models that occupy the terrain piece are immediately moved off it by their player” this does not require a model to be “wholly” on the terrain feature, only on it. It just requires the unit to be wholly on the terrain feature. And just as “toe in” works for any other model, so does it work for Knights. Just an FYI. But as Shifting Worldscape is not allowed at LVO, and I’m not running Knights at LVO, you have nothing to worry about.
Excerpt From: Workshop, Games. “Angels of Death (Tablet Edition).” Games Workshop Ltd, 2016-03-17. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.
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“I’m not runnning Knights at the LVO” Oh, now you say so Josh. I have to redo my entire rankings now.
Also, I think you should find a way to enter three times. One as Knights Primary, one as Harlequins Primary, and one with the intent to win the event. That way you can keep all your top scores. I have faith in you. If anything you can ride Zyuba to each table in between opponent’s movement phases.
Pablo,
Yeah, I thought about having a couple come in as my “dopplegangers” and swap around during the event and rounds, let people play the 3 card Monty trying to figure out if they are playing the real me or nor. Just couldn’t find 2 more Zyubas for the weekend! Lol
I don’t know what I’m bringing yet. Harlequins, Tau, Knights (unlikely), Daemons, maybe even Tyranids! Stay tuned…
Matt Root; he is so hot right now.
Matt, go home. You’re drunk.
I heard a rumor that Matt Root will run a Raptors Chapter tactic Librarius Conclave with his WarCon. Anyone else hear anything?
Stay tuned for my next episode of Chapter Tactics this Saturday. He is my guest.
Hmmm can one get a glimpse on Brandon Grants list (or any of those #1 lists)? thought he’d only play Lions Blade without any allies.
He talked about his list in the isode a little bit. The BCP app will have his list come the lVO
The BCP player app has his list from ease into LVO
No traitor legion love on the countdown (other than Mags I guess). There’s some pretty good builds in the book
There were a lot of builds I left out. Necrons, Pure Eldar, Corsairs, Space Wolves Thunderdome, MSU Demons, Traitor Legions, and i’m sure I am missing more.
How can you not have War Convocation on this list at all brother???
I mean thats just not accurate the army is very good and one of the most difficult to play with so requires skill and tactics and this years ITC leader for almost the entire year has played it all year long and its not like he is winning slightly he is dominating the ITC and if he makes top 8 at LVO there is a very small list of people who could beat him even if they take first place.
Root has done a brilliant job leading the scoring this year with War Convocation army and to not have it as top 10 is just silly…
Everything you just said is completely true and valid.
However, what if Matt Root isn’t taking War Convocation? Are you planning on taking it?
I just feel like War Convoction has had an average second half of the ITC season. After incontrol’s War Con win it just seemed to falter.
I don’t think War Convocation has gotten any weaker in the meta, just that the players who were using it (Matt, Geoff, Ben) have switched over to other armies for their own reasons. So you probably won’t see any top-8 performances from it unless someone really springs out of the woodwork with it, but it’s still an army that people have to watch out for.
What does that say when the performance of an army depends on who’s bringing it?
I think the fact that top players are dropping it speaks volumes about how powerful the army is.
Anyways, I just think War Convo fell out of favor a little bit.
>What does that say when the performance of an army depends on who’s bringing it?
All armies depend on the player running them for performance- going from having thee top-50-or-better players using an army to zero in the space of a couple months is naturally going to hurt an army’s performance. I mean, there are only so many top-tier players in the country, after all.
Also, War Convocation is a very complex army to play. It has a lot of moving parts and a lot of elements that aren’t inherently synergistic; played poorly, it’s a collection of crappy units that don’t do anything. Played well, it is a powerhouse with answers to almost everything.
>I think the fact that top players are dropping it speaks volumes about how powerful the army is.
Except that most of them, as I said, dropped it for aesthetic or other personal reasons, not power level. Matt Root was absolutely smashing face with his Convocation right up until the day that he switched out from it, and he’s doing far less well with his Renegades now as I hear it.
Why is the Aelong superfriends deathstar (without battle company) not in this list?
And I agree with your comments about GSC; that codex is overrated. It’s good, but way way too random to be top tier. I doubt we’ll see any GSC players make top eight as I doubt any of them will be able to go 6 games in a row without Lady Luck biting them in the ass with ice cold dice.
I don’t personally think Imperium superfriends lists can hang with these lists at the LVO. Sure they could make the top 8, any Army not on this list could make the top 8, it would just take a lot more luck.
Didn’t A Leong sweep Adepticon with his list?
Adepticon was almost a year ago. The game has changed a lot since then.
Adepticon also does not use the ITC FAQ, which nerfs invis and 2++.
He also won the Glass City Major tournament and that was only a couple weeks ago.
Hiveminded, that wasn’t with an Imperium Superfriends Deathstar. I never said Aaron Aelong shouldn’t be on the list.
Us brits just had our biggest and most competitive GT and you’re top ten was well represented in the top lists. Admittedly we don’t allow renegades so that was out and we (for some reason) have started allowing multiple wraithknights, so that came second.
Woo! I feel the validation flowing through me. Or that just might be gas.
Also, forgot something. What is the name of the event? Can I find coverage of it?
Caledonian Uprising, coverage can be found on their facebook page.
Caledonian uprising. It’s been the UKs biggest for years.
For coverage follow Caledonian events on Facebook. All the list documents are on there as well.
https://m.facebook.com/events/1039389352809018/
Top 3 was:
1st Double Stormsurge with Piranna Wing, Alex Harrison
Triple Wraithknight Eldar, Josh Roberts England ETC captain
Barkstar with lions blade, Neil Powell
Look at Alex Harrison bringing the pain.
Triple Wraithknight Eldar. Man sometimes I wish the American competitive scene would open up a little more so we could see this sort of thing here.
play some non ITC events, it opens up a whole new world of lists. My North American based club uses the ETC rules for all our clubdays and tournaments, many of the lists above would still be powerful in the ETC, but full strength D, invis, and stomps all form new combinations of power, its nice.
*sarcasm
So what’s the advantage of a Lion’s Blade over a Gladius? I’m not seeing the Full BS overwatch being better than free doctrines.
You might change your tune when you try to assault a squad of grav devs that just dropped from a pod. Full BS overwatch is better than doctrines IMO. Because you will struggle to tie up hard hitting shooty units.
So that just clicked for me: most of these tournament armies don’t seem to feature the kind of cannon-fodder one would usually open an assault with to absorb overwatch, or stuff like Dirge Casters to cancel it out entirely.
That’s because for most armies, having units that are just chaff as intentional inclusions is not a great plan- you want all of your units to be doing something useful.
And CSM tanks are awful, so Dirge Casters basically never work.
Lions Blade has a cheaper min entry with only 1 scout unit aux rather than 3. 110 points that can probably be better used elsewhere, especially when trying to fit a deathstar into a BC list
Also if you take lionsblade you can take azrael to put into your Star without any extra tax.