The big LVO is well on it’s way and with over 1000 participants and list deadlines coming up, it’s time to take a look at some armies you’ll be facing off against and what they’re bringing and how to deal with them.
When heading into a tournament, especially a major like LVO it’s always good to know what you’re going to be going up against. Remember, “Knowing your enemy is half the battle” I think that’s Ghandi or Abraham Lincoln. Could also be Robert Downey Jr. or Gordan Ramsey.
So today we’re taking a look at some of the armies you need to be watching out for when going to LVO and how to deal with them. List submissions are on the 17th so make sure you get your lists in before then to make sure you’re good to go!
We’ll be going over more armies in the next article, otherwise this would become a dang essay. Let’s start off with the most obvious culprit here…
DRUKHARI
Drukhari have been to no one’s surprise running amuck through the tournament circuit. With the highest winrate of any faction and the highest amount of Top 4 placings at tournaments this is an army you’re more than likely going to face off against when it comes to LVO. The hardest part about this faction is that they can build in so many different ways making it hard to figure out what exactly you need to bring in order to deal with them. There’s the infamous Thicc City where their Haemonculus units get -1 damage along with Insensible to Pain for a 5++ Feel No Pain, you can soup them in with Craftworlds for more speed, you can still run the traditional Raider spam if you really want, you can go Dark Technomancers to give your Cronos more bite with their flamers…the list goes on an on.
Basically you’re either fighting against T5+ units that are hard to shift and some Court of the Archon for more melee combat prowess or you’re going up against annoying transports holding a bunch of T3 units that just trade up every time that they activate.
It’s a hard road to go against just because there’s just so much room that they cover in their lists for having such cheap units. No matter what list you’re bringing, you should be checking off the ability to pop 1-2 raiders a turn, have an option to clear some chaff and also have some form of way to deal with -1 damage and T5 units (which you can double up on in another faction we’ll be looking at.
What You’ll Need
A well balanced list that deals with both melee and ranged threats. Contemptor Dreadnoughts do well into things like Raider Spam with T3 chaff but don’t do as well going into things like Thicc City. I’m not going to sit here and lie to you, this is usually an incredibly hard match up but it’s not unwinnable. Focus on your secondaries and be prepared to trade down most of the time. Court of the Archon aren’t super hard to kill and deal a hefty amount of damage so try to get rid of them as fast as you would get rid of things like Incubi, the only difference is that Court of the Archon move pretty fast. If you have ways to snipe off characters that’s also pretty huge. Be wary of the Succubus with a whip as well because she’ll deal a crazy amount of mortal wounds.
GREY KNIGHTS
Another menace, but pretty easy to predict since there’s really only 1 build going around at the moment. We’ve got the Grey Knights who made a small splash when their codex dropped and slowly became more of a tidal wave as time went on. Although they give up Abhor the Witch points like crazy with their pretty easy to kill Interceptors, they make up for it with their own secondary Psychic Ritual so really all the army has to do is play cagey to get a victory. These lists are comprised of mostly spamming both forms of Nemesis Dreadknights to get the most value out of a T6 gun platform with reliable shooting and great melee combat to boot.
If you have psykers or ways to deny any psychic powers, there’s no point in trying to stop Psychic Ritual – they’re going to get the full points on it and if you only have 1 way to deny a psychic power it’s not worth it. Instead watch for when they say the words Empyric Amplification, this basically points at a unit and increases all of the damage on their Nemesis and Psi Weapons by 1, taking their Psycannon’s to 3 Damage and their Halberds to 3 Damage as well. Absolutely brutal.
Other powers you may want to deny is Gate of Infinity to let a unit Da Jump across the board, but this can be avoided by practicing your screening! Screen screen screen, that’s the name of the game when it comes to Grey Knights. With a 1+ Grand Master Nemesis Dreadknight that can teleport after being selected from a ranged attack you want to make sure you’re limiting their choice of where to go when they do activate the ability. Not to mention all the other Dreadknights and Interceptors running around the board.
What You’ll Need
Interceptors aren’t very sturdy in melee combat and are meant to trade. They don’t really care if Interceptors die, so any form of MSU Marine killing tech you have is going to work here. The biggest problem is dealing with their T6 platforms since in Tides of Shadow they have a 1+ save and with a Techmarine they can just heal them if you’re not smart. You’re going to need some way to knock out 1-2 Nemesis Dreadknights per turn to really put the Grey Knights players on their heels!
THOUSAND SONS
The brother codex drop to Grey Knights, although not making as much of a splash are still here and are going to make you think twice about bringing a psyker at all because of their secondary Wrath of Magnus. If you’re not taking a psyker the match up becomes a lot easier since they don’t have a reliable secondary to match point for point with Abhor the Witch.
Don’t be fooled though, these bad boys can absolutely melt units through just Mortal Wound spam and their bolters are absolutely insane with S4 AP2 1 Damage that has a plethora of ways to increase it’s strength while also getting +1 to wound. This army EXCELS at fighting things that are T4 and lower but struggles against anything that’s T7 or higher since their amount of anti-tank is pretty low. The best reliable answer they have against T7 is just weight of fire and mortal wound spam.
Units you need to watch out for are the Exalted Sorcerer that’s going to be a their Mortal Wound engine, Rubric Marines with either Flamers or Bolters just because they’re so efficient, Scarab Occult Terminators that are extremely hard to shift off the board and Chaos Spawn that can zip across the board and deal some massive hurt on your units by being able to select their upgrade for 1CP while also adding 1 to their dice roll when determining their attack characteristic.
Did I mention that their Terminators have Objective Secured and that their Rubric Marines and Termies are fearless?
What You’ll Need
Again, screening, screening, screening. This army can teleport across the map and with some highly durable units it can be hard to shift them when they do eventually pop up. With All Is Dust and Unwavering Phalanx any weapon that’s 2 Damage is bring brought down to 1 Damage activating All Is Dust and giving them +1 to their armor save. That makes things like Contemptor Dreadnoughts pretty bad into this matchup since they can just pop Unwavering Phalanx and have their Rubric Marines save on 2+ unless you have a way to give the weapon an extra AP.
Melee combat is your friend here. Their melee isn’t very good and Rubric Marines just punch with their fists. Being able to wrap things up in combat to force them to either stay in combat or fall back stopping their psychic powers or having them waste their Teleport psychic power on a unit they don’t want to use it on is a key factor here. So make sure you have some melee threat to deal with these Rubric Marines and Terminators!
TYRANIDS
An army that has come out of the gates blazing with their new Leviathan upgrades as well as their own Army of Renown Crusher Stampede is going to be a tough nut to crack. You can check out our articles here on how well Crusher Stampede did last week at events.
With access to either a Forces of the Hive Mind build souping Genestealer Cults to get some blips in order to protect their precious cargo of Hive Guard or running high toughness models with Duty Eternal AND their remaining wounds counting as the number of models on an objective, this army has 2 different playstyles that are both extremely potent. Plus the Genestealer Cults book comes out before the deadline which means they’re also getting some upgrades if they do decide to soup.
No matter what archetype the Tyranid player runs one thing stays constant, speed. Swarmlord being able to double move a unit is a huge threat to your army. They could be deployed at the back of the board but the second it’s their turn, you’re going to have Tyranids in your face, whether it’s small little Genestealers whacking you with double exploding 6’s or a Dimachaeron slapping you with D3 extra attacks, has obsec and deals 6 mortal wounds on the charge.
You can try to bubble wrap and screen as much as you want, but you also have to deal with Hive Guard or Barbed Hierodules. Now call me crazy, but if you have to choose between shooting at Hive Guard or Termagants with Devourer’s, trust me – you’re gonna want to shoot at the Termagants. They’re a huge threat and will literally nuke any unit that has a 3+ save from their shooting alone. Hive Guard are still definitely scary, but mowing down Termagants means there’s less obsec on the field and they’re incredibly easy to kill. Taking No Prisoners is a no brainer here since there’s just so much chaff. If the Tyranids are running Crusher Stampede, Bring It Down is another amazing choice into this army.
Keep an eye out as well for fight on death. A Tyranid Monster in Crusher Stampede that isn’t a character can fight on death at top bracket for 2CP AND they could have already fought that turn. So if a Dimachaeron charges you and fights then dies, they can spend 2CP and have the unit fight AGAIN at it’s top bracket.
What You’ll Need
Durability to withstand Hive Guard shooting, making sure you’re protecting your characters, ways to nuke a Tyranid Monster. Remember, Tyranids are working with old Datasheets and so everything in their army folds like paper. Storm Bolters rip through Termagants and Genestealers and the Hive Guard, I’m going to be honest – are probably going to stay on the board all the way to T5. So focus on getting No Prisoners and Grind Them Down. Once you start knocking off their chaff it get’s easier but it’s still a hard fought match.
ADEPTA SORORITAS
Sisters can be a difficult matchup, even with changes to Miracle Dice they still have enough ways to deal reliable damage and have some of the strongest characters in the game right now. Morvenn Vahl, Celestine or even a Cannoness that can dish out mortals for funsies. With body guard rules and an option to rez, Celestine is absolutely brutal to deal with. It’s going to take a lot of effort to try and take her down and at the point you’re stuck asking yourself if it’s even worth it.
Repentia and Retributor Squads are also still a thing here. Retributors with Melta’s is going to be an amazing answer going into some of the harder to kill units like your big Tyranid Monsters and Thicc City, so be sure to watch out for that. Although considered more of a “Kill More” secondary, Assassinate is actually pretty decent going into Sisters. They usually bring a hefty amount of characters and so if you have a way to reliably burn through them it’s a pretty good pick up.
They also have an army wide deny a psychic power on a 6 that can be bumped to a 5, and a stratagem to deny a power on a 4+. If you’re playing an army with Psykers, be prepared to have your psychic powers just not go off from time to time. One big thing is that if you do see Repentia, remember that they can fight on death so if you do find a way to get into melee combat with these suckers thinking you have the upperhand, they can just spend 2CP and have the Repentia slap back.
Thankfully, they can’t fight > Die > and then spend 2CP to fight on death. Sisters also heavily rely on Rhino’s to protect things like their Repentia and Retributors with Ablative wounds. So knocking the Rhino’s down to slow down their army more is a good plan to roll with.
What You’ll Need
Ways to deal with T3 chaff. Contemptor Dreadnoughts are huge here and Storm Bolters will quickly chew through a majority of their army. Screen out key characters since they do have deepstrike with some gnarly melta equivalent weapons along with a way to deal Mortal Wounds. Making your list so then it’s harder for them to choose a third secondary will also go a long way considering their codex secondaries aren’t the best and they would have to tech into certain builds to run them reliably.
That’s it for this article for now. Next time we’ll go over things like Orks, Necrons (yes), Genestealer Cults, Custodes, Imperial Knights and some other juicy competition!
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
