Hey all, Danny from TFG Radio here, and today, I am going to talk more about getting ready for 2021’s SoCal Open. I rarely get to do big events thanks to life, but hey, when you buy the ticket, take the ride. Of course, now I am stuck waffling between so many options, and it is hard to stay focused. While I am a devotee of Khorne, Slaanesh is always whispering in some way or another.
So last week, I detailed my general thought process for how to start preparing for a large event, and well, now that I have of course chosen my expectations for the event and the faction, I have started running into what I assume most players experience at one point or another: temptation.
So, I locked into World Eaters because I’ve never taken them to a large event before, and I want to mostly have fun and maybe, just maybe try for top CSM player, but now that I’ve started designing lists and talking with my cohorts, it is hard not to be tempted by my other factions.
One list that I’ve played with that I like a lot is “The Three Wise Men”, namely 3 Lord of Skulls supported by a little bit of infantry. It provides a lot of ranged threat, heavy melee, and it still has some fun moves like Warp Talons and a Red Butchers Chaos Lord with Z’aall who can do a ton of work. In our local world, we tend to call Lord of Skulls the King of Beers because of its backside, and well, I do plan to have conversions where I can take that back portion off and use it as a nice coozie for my drinks. That said, the competitive part of me looks at that list and thinks “why not use Chaos Knights?”
This is true, and a Magaera is just 5 points more for a bit less shooting but better melee, and it also has a host of stratagems and other options available to it that the Lord of Skulls really don’t. Plus, I could make a more well-rounded list by taking 2 Magaeras and a few Moirax or even choppy War Dogs for some more board control. Of course, then I am really only taking a very small contingent of World Eaters, so why bother? It is also fair to say that 3 Lord of Skulls is very much not really leaning into anything unique to World Eaters, but I do love them.
Of course, seeing the action over at the Orlando Open, especially the amount of double or triple Dimachaerons (A list that I love to pilot) made me think of going back to the Bugs for the event. Even if I didn’t want to necessarily be super competitive, bringing out my Hierophant could be fun as hell, especially with 6+ Carnifexes to run around (or even 3 Dimachaerons cause you can do that at 2K points). With the new Synapse rules previewed as well, assuming that’s all out by October, that also adds some new spice to the Bugs. While going to Tyranids is certainly not out of my wheelhouse, and the Hive Mind knows that I am a solidly devout Tyranid player, I tend to take them to most GT or larger events in the rare chances I get to do that lately, so I am sure that I will go back to them at some point. With World Eaters, it’d be a first time, and that means something.
And to be real, I have been playing some AoS 3.0, and I’ve been having loads of fun with my Seraphon, and that’s not just changing my mind on Faction, that’s flat out changing game systems. My teammates at #REKT are all there for 40K, and well, seeing as LVO 2022 is on the horizon, nothing helps me prepare for judging that than playing games of 40K.
So what can I do? While I have certainly gotten better at controlling my faction-hopping, the urge is still there, but what I found helps me is to write lists. So, I wrote two World Eaters list that seem fun to play, are distinct from each other to an extent, and meet my criteria from last time: be quick to play, be fun to paint (what isn’t painted already), and still as competitive as I can be using pure World Eaters.
List 1: Possessed Bomb
Battalion:
Terminator Lord. Power Sword. Warlord. Z’aall. Violent Urgency. Red Butcher.
Kharn!!
Exalted Champion with Thunderhammer
2×8 Berserkers with Icon, Sarge with powerfist.
2×5 CSM with Swords/Pistols
18 Possessed
2×5 Raptors
2x Rhinos
Vindicator with Havoc Launcher and Combi-bolter
Super-Heavy Auxiliary:
Kharybdis Assault Claw
So this list is all about stacking some high armor transports (and the Vindicator for a little ranged threat to pop open a pesky transport), but it has a lot of flexibility in how it lands its one big haymaker. Thanks to the Kharybdis being able to come in Turn 1, you can go first, drop the 18 Possessed and the Violent Urgency warlord down, and get an 8” rerollable charge on the first turn. 18 Possessed are not exactly light weights, especially as World Eaters, and you have the CP to amp them up even higher. They will obliterate just about anything they hit, and with 2 wounds and a 5++, they can be moderately resilient. The Khary can also charge and it isn’t a slouch in melee either, and the Red Butcher Sword-Lord is also a little beatstick of a blender. While your opponent has to take the hit, you are also forcing them to scrum already on their size of the board, giving the two squads of Berserkers with Kharn and a Champion moving into the mid field, and it has some little bodies for holding objectives as well as getting that sweet Octarius data. Depending on the opponent’s army, you can also play cagey, hide a bit, and bring your big drop down on turn 2 or 3.
I like this list for its all or nothing commitment to Blood for the Blood God, and it certainly plays fast, but it also has some parts dedicated to the mission, which really matters as other skew lists can really struggle there.
Three Wise Men:
Patrol:
Kharn!!
Terminator Lord. Power Sword. Warlord. Z’aall. Violent Urgency. Red Butcher.
3×5 CSM with Swords/Pistols
7 Warp Talons
Super-Heavy Detachment:
3 Lord of Skulls. Hades Gatling Cannon/Gorestorm Cannon
So this is very much a skew list, but it provides a pretty respectable shooting phase while also having a respectable fight phase. 3 Lord of Skulls is 84 wounds at T8 with a 3+/5++ with multi-damage weapons, big punches for big targets, and a sweep attack for hordes. With Kharn closely following 1 or 2, you also have easy access to full rerolls, and eventually, Kharn can also break off to flush out enemies hiding in places that the Lord of Skulls cannot threaten. You also still have a small out of reserve drop with 7 Warp Talons and the Red Butcher Lord, both respectable killers that can easily take a backfield objective and keep it for a bit. You can still try for Octalar data as you can outflank 2 of the 3 CSM squads, so at least that’s 8 points on a secondary, and depending on terrain, the backfield one can hustle over to the other side for the full 12. This list is very fast to play, can be a hard counter to a lot of lists, and well, I do love big stompy murder robots powered by blood. Of course, it is a hard skew list which means it gets countered easily, and it doesn’t give me a ton to work with in terms of the mission.
Overall, both of these lists meet my criteria and would be fun to play, and just thinking them up helped keep me focused on World Eaters and SoCal. I still need to settle on a list so I can source any models that I don’t own and then start painting, but at least in the meantime, I’ve been working on getting my Kharn to be a little snazzier. Thanks as always for reading, and as always, play games and be nice to each other.
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