Fellow Warhammer fans! SaltyJohn from TFG Radio and Pod Save the Imperium here to bring you another weekly article about the comings and goings in the ITC.
This weekend was interesting for the ITC. There were a few major events and with the new Balance Dataslate only coming out 6 days ago several events had to decide quickly what to do with it. Some simply said they wouldn’t use it, others like Warzone Atlanta said they would use the rule changes, but not the point changes, a few adopted it in its entirety. Regardless of the decision(s) made the full impact of the Balance Dataslate on the meta is yet to be seen. With the Games Workshop US Open in Austin this weekend we may get our first real glimpse at what this new meta will look like.
Warzone Atlanta was this past weekend and like I mentioned they used some of the new Rules from the Balance Dataslate but not the points. The top spot went to Jack Harpster from Art of War running Grey Knights with Mechanicus coming in second and Space Wolves coming in third! The Ork menace came in 4th. Looking over the results it’s not surprising who was in the running to win it all with Nayden, Lennon, and Perry all in the mix with the better locals.
Let’s take a look at Jack’s winning Grey Knights list followed by Jaime Paris’ Space Wolves.
- Sword Bearer’s Patrol
- Techmarine
- Grand Master in Dreadknight Psilencer and Psycannon
- 5 man Strike Squad
- 2x Dreadknights with Psilencer and Psycannons
- Prescient Brethren Outrider
- Techmarine
- Grand Master in Dreadknight Psilencer and Psycannon, Sigil of Exigence
- 3×10 man Interceptor Squads
- Dreadknight with Psilencer and Psycannon
It’s an interesting take on the fairly standard 4 or 5 Dreadknight build that is running around. It has a lot more mobility with the 3 10 man Interceptor Squads and the double Techmarines are going to be putting in some work keeping those Dreadknights healthy and in the fight. Congrats to Jack Harpster on a great win! 3rd place finisher Jaime Paris took Space Wolves to a truly impressive showing.
- Space Wolves Successor. Battalion. Master Artisans and Whirlwind of Rage
- Company Veterans (no force Org slot) Storm Shield/Chainsword
- Chapter Master Combi-melta, Lightning Claw, Frost weapon, Warrior of Legend, Imperium’s Sword
- Lieutenant with Jump Pack, Thunderhammer, Armor of Russ
- Primaris Chaplain on Bike, Exortation of Rage, Canticles of Hate
- 5 Assault Intercessors
- 5 Blood Claws
- 5 Incursors
- Company Veterans (same as above)
- 2×5 man Scout Squads
- 3×5 man Wolf Guard with Jump Packs, Lightning Claw, and Stormshield
- 3×1 Cyberwolf
- Long Fangs 4x Multimelta 1x Gravcannon
- Drop Pod
- 2x Land Speeder Storm
Jaime’s list is an interesting mix of what is known to work well, Wolf Guard and Drop Pod Long Fangs, with the unusual in Scouts/Storms and Company Veterans. It looks like a list that puts out a lot of damage close up and has some decent speed and staying power for maxing Secondaries. Nice work on getting 3rd place with a very cool, well-crafted, list Jaime. Also over the weekend Logan Heath hot off his win at So Cal Open attended a GT at Gameology in Pasadena, the Old-Town Showdown, with his Orks! The events at Gameology usually feature some very stiff competition and this weekend’s event was no exception. There were also some very nice armies!
The weekend saw Carlos Kaiser taking first place with his Adeptus Custodes list which seemed tailor-made to handle the flyer lists that were seeing their last hurrah in the So Cal meta now that everyone will be adopting the Balance Dataslate going forward. Let’s take a quick look at Carlos’ list.
- Shadowkeepers Patrol
- 2x Shield-Captains on Jetbike
- 3 man Custodian Guard squad.
- Vexilus Praetor
- 2×3 man Venatari Custodians
- 2x Telemons with Storm Cannons
- Ares Gunship
Congratulations to Carlos for taking an extremely low model count army, which was quite unforgiving, and making a run to win it all at the Old-Town Showdown.
Going forward into the last few months of the ITC Season in the run up to LVO could be interesting. Normally November and December are slow months in terms of GTs and Majors but this season we have a few still on the docket. Games Workshop’s US Open in Austin is this coming weekend, and Frontline Gaming has its New Orleans event at the beginning of December! So there’s still plenty of time to see how the meta settles after the Balance Dataslate hit and as Grey Knights begin to permeate the meta more. Sadly, it does seem like Thousand Sons are not making quite the impact Chaos players had hoped for, but perhaps the matrix has yet to be decoded for that particular codex!
If you like the lore side of the hobby as much as the gaming then check out our latest episode of Pod Save the Imperium on your podcast listening app of choice! This time around we discuss whether or not Guilliman should use the Primaris Marines created from the genetic material of the Traitor Primarchs.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
