World Eaters: Top 25 at ACO!

Hey all, Danny from TFG Radio here, and today, I want to take a look at a list that I missed from Frontline Gaming’s inaugural Atlantic City Open. A World Eaters player, Mark Whittaker, managed to make the top 25 out 250+ players, so that really is taking some skulls for the skull throne. Let’s break down his list, and as always, keep yourself up to date on all the goodness at Frontline’s Tactics Corner!

Let’s take a look at the list:

World Eaters Battalion:

• Dark Disciples x2
• Apostle – Brass Collar Illusory Supplication, Wrathful Entreaty
• Kharn the Betrayer
• 5x CSM, 1 autocannon
• 5x CSM, Powerfist, 1 Melta
• 8x Berserkers, Icon, combi-melta,  lightning claw, 4x Sword/Pistol, 3x Sword/Axe
• Greater Possessed – Warlord. Violent Urgency. Taliman of Burning Blood
• Helbrute – Melta-Melta, Power Scourge
• 10x Warp Talons
• Chaos Vindicator x 3 (Demolisher cannon)
• 2x Rhinos. Combi-Melta

Super-Heavy Aux:

• Lord of Skulls

So this is a mechanized list that relies on a lot of T7+ to survive the shooting that some of the best codexes can bring, but it also makes good use of the out of reserve drop that World Eaters can do. You have a Lord of Skulls, which I covered before as an excellent multi-dimensional threat that excels at popping transports, so you can melee the folk that get out. The Lord of Skulls also packs a strong melee punch, so it can take down other Titanic threats if it has too. You have 2 rhinos, one for Kharn and the Berserkers, and 1 for the two CSM squads, each with weapons capable of popping transports, so again, more ways to ensure that you can actually get to the meat in the center of those cans as well as navigate the board quickly.

Then you have the big Warp Talon bomb that when in range of the Greater Possessed, goes up to S5 and puts out 4 attacks each, and with Lightning Claws giving them a reroll to wound, they are doing pretty good work, and the turn they drop, they cannot be shot by Overwatch, so against a lot of heavy shooting armies, they provide an excellent counter. They are a cheaper, less CP heavy version of the Red Butchers, and they offer a distinct meta-counter as they cannot be shot on the charge in from reserve.

Making the Greater Possessed the Warlord is smart for the Warp Talon bomb as it allows him to run and charge with the Talisman of Burning Blood, letting him actually get into the fight and keep the auras up for the Warp Talons, which they need for the charge out of reserve and their overall combat prowess. The Dark Apostle is also good with the Collar for helping stop some psychic tricks, and then Kharn is just Kharn and a little blender on his own. Putting combi-meltas on the rhinos also increases the amount of shooting threat here, especially against T7 transports.

To add to the tek here, and some interesting ideas that I want to explore more myself, you also have a Helbrute and 3 Vindicators. The Helbrute is another good, somewhat unused tek for World Eaters. At 115 points, it packs 2 melta-shots at range, and with a power Scourge, on the charge, it puts out 9 attacks at S8 AP-2 D2, that’s pretty good. It provides a decent amount of threat for very little points, so if it dies, it is absorbing shooting that could be threatening other targets. The Vindicators are also an interesting choice as they are only 130 each, so 390 for 3 (cheaper than a Lord of Skulls), and while they don’t have any melee threat, they do put out d6 S10 AP-3 Dd6 damage shots each, and they are T8, so they are a bit tough for their points and make good objective campers to lay down fire that are not easy to shift at range or in melee. They provide some really heavy hits, something that again World Eaters can struggle to bring, so they can crack armor, and even against a horde, with the blast rule, you can get a lot of value out of them.

Matt went 5-1 with this list, and you can see why as it has the tools to play the mission with a lot of units, it has strong ranged threat with some very powerful melee thrown in, and it has resilience, so it is not as vulnerable to the alpha-strike as other lists can be. Matt even took down a Dark Eldar list, which is never easy to do, and while he did lose to Ad Mech, that is this list’s biggest predator as they pump out enough shots to threaten just about anything.

Overall, this list has a lot of everything in it, and it has the tools to play the mission as well as table your opponent. With a skilled general behind it like Matt, this is not a list that can be underestimated at all, even by the big bads of the meta. Khorne is undoubtedly pleased with Matt and this list, and if anything, it shows that World Eaters can do some work if you know how to leverage the strengths that we have while mitigating the weaknesses. Thanks for reading as always, and keep going out there and get some blood for the blood god. That’s all he ever asks for.

Play games and be nice to each other.