Boon’s Road to LVO: We Built This City on Wrack and Roll

Sunday, January 30^th is a big day – frankly one of the biggest days of the season’s calendar. A day to exorcise playoff daemons and finally get over that championship hump, secure a prominent position in history, and prove the haters wrong. Instead, as the snow fell on the quintessential Lambeau game, the roaring of the home crowd and a small but sustainable lead, the Green Bay special teams shit the bed in a truly historic fashion and probably closed the book on three decades of sustained success. And as sure as a Robbie Gould kick through uprights, I find myself with an empty hope for another Super Bowl title, an empty Sunday calendar, and an empty hope for the future – so I guess I’ll go and try to win the LVO instead.

The Last Dance

The Drukhari meta-menace has carried me all season, in one flavor or another, and after winning one GT and narrowly missing on other majors throughout the year I’m ready to move on. But first, one last push with a now familiar list – Thicc City.

I’ve been running a variation of this list ever since GW’s NOLA US Open back in October where I lost in the semi-final round to none other than Richard Siegler and his Ad Mech nightmare. Since then, the update to ‘fix’ Drukhari only made my list stronger by bringing down the cost of the Talos and Grotesques. Realistically, this is not a list that’s going to surprise anyone; it will be considered by every player attending LVO in their planning and there are some hard counters out there. However, it is my best chance at winning this crazy, stupid event as it is still a top list capable of playing well into most missions and factions, and most importantly, a thing which I own.

Is it the last dance? Well, just like a certain unvaccinated quarterback who’s to say? But the cap space on the roster is tight with that Craftworld codex around the corner and I find myself tired and wanting to return to my roots. I will say this much, I’m updating my goals for this event from “make the top cut and don’t lose to anyone from Texas” to “make the top cut and don’t lose to anyone from Texas or the Bay Area – Oakland is okay though. They’re cool”.

My List - click to expand

The characters are standard – I opted for Precision Blows on the Succubus as she brings some additional flexibility into vehicles or -1D with her potential to spike Mortal Wounds on 9/10 attacks. The Archon and his bodyguard Court lead a small Black Heart detachment that give me options with their T1 advance and charge or the Agents of Vect stratagem (looking at you Hive Guard shooting twice), and the Haemonculus upgraded increases survivability and opens the Haemoxycytes for additional durability at a small premium. I toyed with the Poisoner’s Ampule as a relic on him but I found the aura didn’t come into effect often enough against opponent’s lists of which I am primarily concerned. As a result, I chose the more traditional Animus Vitae to support my Talos and their -1 to hit in combat or for an opportunistic advance and charge in the early rounds. It’s a question of niche-but-high-impact use case vs general use case – I may regret this.

Just like any thicc list, the core is the Artist’s of Flesh damage reduction and stacking it on as many units as possible. I toyed with a Realspace Raid at GW’s US Open Finals in Dallas that leaned heavy into the coven – but frankly I did not like the list without some Cronos in support as they are just too flexible to leave out. Auto-hitting flamers at AP-2 with 2D or 3D can cover for a lot of situations where a heavy-hitter just can’t make it or would put them wildly out of position. They’re the type of all-purpose unit that provides the flexibility necessary to take on problem factions on problem missions and eke out a win – they’re in. I personally like bringing them out of reserve to ensure their survival or to force my opponent on positioning – they simply cannot be ignored, and it forces my opponent to screen or hold units that otherwise want to be moving up the board edges.

Talos and Grots are what they are – tough, moderate-speed, all-purpose hitters. They’ll swing a bevy of attacks with the option to re-roll wounds with high damage potential into almost any target. I rarely expect the Talos shooting to be devastating despite their potential and as a result I do not rely on it – instead when they spike on the hits or damage rolls I gain a windfall in my game plan.

The remaining 20x Wracks, 10x Haemoxycytes, and 5x Kabalites cover my backfield objectives or opportunistically make a play for a mid-field objective.

Watchouts

The lists that I’m hoping to avoid matching into are the ones that can deliver devastating high-D or high-volume/AP firepower at range – Salamanders, Iron Hands, and Knights Armigers all fit this description. The other type of list that I fear, are those that can hamper my mobility up the board while stealing my objectives from under me – mainly classic Tyranids.

I expect to hit both Crusher Stampede and/or Custodes, potentially multiple times. My list plays well into both, but ultimately these games come down to positioning and playing into the mission – being confident and ready doesn’t mean it’s a guarantee – it’ll be a game of who makes the biggest mistake(s) – this is where I’ll need the luck to shine. The Art of War crew is high on Custodes coming into the event and we can safely assume they are confident in their own capabilities to handle Thicc City.

The Home Stretch

This past weekend Tyler Johnson and the fine gentleman over at Cambridge United, a group out of the Madison area, hosted Wisconsin’s first ever 40k event of its size – the Fort Palooza GT. This afforded me an excellent opportunity to knock some rust and get a feel for the newer Custodes and Genestealer Cult books ahead of the weekend.

In leagues and local play, I have had opportunity to play against Crusher Stampede, Black Templar, Grey Knights, and Orks but I was hoping to get a game in against at least one of the two new books. As it turned out, I was fortunate, and I got both and more! By the time I was hitting the road on Sunday I played into a gauntlet of Drukhari piloted by Chris Kern, Custodes by Jeremy Stan, Genestealer Cults by Eric Forsman, Chaos Armiger Knights by Brian “BamBam” Hunter, and a Tyranid list piloted by Matt Root. I’ll summarize my thoughts and take-aways on these games in brief.

Game One – Drukhari – Chris Kern

Chris' List - click to expand

My first match of the weekend was into Chris Kern. Chris is newer to the game and mentioned that he was still building up his Drukhari. Starting out by getting a rep into one of the more classic Drukhari builds of the edition was good – they are outclassed in durability and output by the current coven lists, but the speed and capability of units like Raider-mounted Incubi and Wyches is still deadly.

Overall, I think it was a good warmup and an opportunity for Chris to learn a little more about his chosen faction. He will also be in attendance at LVO and I look forward to watching his progress over the weekend.

Game Two – Adeptus Custodes – Jeremy Stan

Jeremy's List - click to expand

Jeremy had made the trip out of Nashville and fortunate for me was repping the brand-new Custodes. At my last look, Custodes represent about 2,000% of the LVO field so my odds of playing into them are pretty good and I wanted to make sure I had a passing familiarity with what’s new. The bikes are worrisome for me – the upgraded damage output and their reliable rerolls represent a true threat to my big bois. But mostly it was the Katah’s and stratagems that I wanted to tease out and better understand the interaction and game impacts.

One of my big takeaways from our game was how limited in mobility Custodes can still be. Their core troop units are great, but when you’re playing 6-objective maps it’s a lot of points and capability that is anchored at home and not actively participating in the war effort. This is even more obvious on Dawn of War maps where the board can get divided in half the long way. As an aside, I think Custodes lists that are to be feared are the ones that leverage cheap back-field objective sitters. John Lennon’s list features such units. As slow as Thicc City is compared to other Drukhari builds, it’s still plenty capable of scooting around the board on the advance and charge and that can really put the Custodes on the back foot. This is particularly impactful in the mid-game if I’m able to clear a backfield objective and force the Custodes player to choose between their objectives and mine.

Ultimately, I think the most important aspect of this matchup will be how we each handle the Praetor’s – they’re the one unit in the army that I think can exploit the weaknesses of thick city by dishing reliable high-D while also maintaining great mobility to move and clean up on a charge.

Game Three – Genestealer Cults – Eric Forsman

Eric's List - click to expand

This was a matchup a long time coming. Eric is one of the Wisconsin crew and was repping the new Genestealer Cults – a matchup we were both looking forward too. For the astute readers amongst us, you might note that this is the third round of the day and the Packers game is only a few short hours from kick-off. This of course has me very excited and anxious and I’m looking forward to getting out of there and celebrating the W with my family who I was staying with over the weekend.

Vital Intelligence, with six objectives and a bonus for holding them in your command phase is something that feels heavily advantaging for the GSC. Given Eric’s Jackal’s I think it was a good mission for him. The key takeaway from any matchup into GSC is that it simply doesn’t matter how fast you are – you’re not going to pick the engagements in the first three turns. The Purestrains, if they choose, can be in your lines turn 1 and then every consecutive turn will see a unit choosing where and how they engage you out of deep strike. That means screening is back in a big way – if you don’t recall what that is, it means agonizingly figuring out where you left a 6” gap that the GSC player is then going to casually drop a unit and end the game.

Fortunately, my list can handle that type of screen while protecting the key units. Except that Kelermorph – I learned to just let it do its thing – trying to prevent a 3” deep-strike is far too handicapping and it can only do so much before dying if it chooses to come behind me. I also learned that GSC can take an objective, but they can’t hold it. Play slow, keep them in front, take what they give you and push them on T3 (going second) or T4 (going first) and you’re in a good spot.

I like how GSC plays, they feel fun and interesting again without being overly tedious. But I don’t think Thicc City has a huge struggle here.

Editor’s Note: The Packers lost to the 49ers, 13-10. I’m told Boon spent the evening crying in the shower while eating a 2-pound block of government cheese

Game Four – Chaos Knights (Armigers) – Brian Hunter

Brian's List - click to expand

Another matchup that’s been a long time coming. Brian is a friend, teammate, and the host the Flying Monkey’s podcast. For you same astute readers, you might notice that this the fourth round of the event and accordingly took place after the world ended. Admittedly I was a bit cranky in this game, which was unfair to Brian, but as I learned that previous night sometimes the world isn’t fair. The good news is that at least it’s over now and nothing matters. I am sorry though Brian!

I think if there’s a list at LVO that catches people out and just thrashes them in a way they weren’t expecting, it’s probably this one. The Armigers with their new ObSec boost and their not insignificant 5-model count are very good at grabbing objectives. Their speed combined with well above average objective sitting durability makes them hard to shift. As if that weren’t bad enough, they’re backed by what is an absolutely staggering amount of high-quality fire power that just multiplies and spikes on great rolls. This list I think is one good secondary away from blowing people off the board.

And that’s the rub – my list is forced to play real cagey against this army, but ultimately it still plays the mission much better. Once I can start locking down individual knights and focusing out sections of the board I can start to limit the primary points where my opponent has the advantage and lean in hard on the secondary points. It’s very likely that I get tabled, but that hasn’t mattered in a long time. Smart use of obscuring terrain and locking units down on the charge and finishing in my opponent’s turn results in siginicant challenges for the Knight player that is difficult to overcome without strong secondary options.

Brian will be an assistant judge this next weekend at LVO so if you see him say hello!

Game Five – Tyranids – Matt Root

Matt's List - click to expand

By this point I think everyone was a bit tired. When I saw that the final match was also into a friend and teammate I was both pleased and distraught. If you’re not familiar with LVO winner Matt Root, he is in fact a Very Good Player^TM and despite having an army that was something I wanted to play against, I didn’t care to think all that hard by this point. Fortunately, neither did Matt and we had the most blasé of games. Best of all worlds, really. Importantly, this game showed me two things: The power and limitations of the traditional Tyranids damage output into my list, and the speed and blocking they’re capable of in skilled hands.

Matt had gone first which gave me my first taste of unadulterated Hive Guard output into Talos. I was apprehensive but despite some pretty good damage rolls I was a bit underwhelmed by the result. By the end of the game I’d only lost two Talos and few Grotesques as his targets shifted to opportunistically hitting my Wracks. This would repeat throughout the game as it rolled onwards and I nearly table Matt by game’s end. Not that, that mattered mind you – the other component of that list is it’s incredible Swarmlord-based speed. Having gone first, Matt was very effective in blocking me out on objectives, moving up the board, or stealing them entirely and stalling me out on points – a combination of target priority and Matt’s casualty pulls reminded me how deliberate I need to be in choosing activation targets when fighting against skilled players. A very good lesson to relearn.

The game, for how casual it was, was effective at giving me ideas on how to better use player-placed-terrain and position and advance my army. It also gave me more confidence in the thickness of my thicc city when facing down a long-board and an opposing battery of Hive Guard. I like my odds here.

Final Thoughts

I don’t know if I’ll make the top cut or not, but I’ll certainly try. I’ve done some homework and gotten some quality games in. I have a list I’m confident in even if it’s a bit unsurprising. Ultimately, I think winning any major event is half preparation and half luck. Hitting the right opponent, on the right board, on the right mission. But inevitably when you hit those tough matchups the player most prepared that can walk in with a plan is more likely to make fewer mistakes and will usually come out on top. That is unless your Special Teams sabotages all of your hard work and spectacularly gives away the game.

Orange is a shitty color for a bridge anyway.