Well you’ve seen what we came up with, and now – our fury spent – we turn to the rest of the Goonhammer Cinematic Universe, for some other takes on the concept. We’re genuinely shocked by how well this idea has gone over – I’m not exaggerating when I say that I ran a draft past editorial a few weeks ago, asking if the concept was too stupid to post on the site at all. Instead of being placed gently into the recycling bin like I expected, my inbox exploded with upwards of 20 new ideas, and the Goonhammer offices talked about nothing else for days. What I’d intended as a single throwaway post turned into our own little cause celebre, and here we are. It kicks ass.
Other than a little snag we hit due to my misreading the rules, at least. The root problem here, which a few people called out, is that I vaguely recalled encountering something about the Rule of 3 becoming the Rule of 2 in Incursion. I checked the core rules, and found a reference to a two-detachment limit, which I took to be the thing that I’d half-remembered. That issue seemingly resolved, I stowed my concerns and started cracking out lists with 3 units of drones and such, which was fine until roughly an hour after we started publishing this. At that point multiple readers pointed out that if I had read the Grand Tournament 2k20 rules, which due to my own hubris I had gone out of my way to say we were going to follow, I would have seen the Rule of Two presented there, clear as day. We tried to fix up the lists as best we could (this was mostly Rob – I was ready to give up and just edit out the references to the GT packet entirely – so credit is due to him there), and they do remain legal for Matched Play, but I’ll take the blame on that one: they were not, in fact, all GT-legal. Goonhammer regrets the error.
We presented the ones we had at the time – which were also created before the new AdMech rules dropped, hence the lack of that particular type of robot – but here we bring you a bonus installment, with submissions that came in after the deadline. Some are from existing Goonhammer contributors, and others from our lovely readers, who really took the (very dumb) concept and ran with it in our comments section or inbox. Sorry if I left yours out, but I tried to get them all, and I do hope that someone out there takes on the challenge of buying six Recruit Editions to build a Necron army.
Scott Horras – Guard Tanks
We asked Scott to fix our TONK list, and he did. He gave us two other lists as well, which we’ll get to in a second, but this one was the easiest to transcribe, so it’s coming first. It’s basically the same as our “5 Demolishers” list, but manages to sneak in a sixth demolisher (cannon) while cutting down to a legal maximum of 4 demolishers (tanks). The secret was in the ForgeWorld book, and the Thunderer Siege Tank, which is basically a Leman Russ that’s had the turret removed and the cannon hull-mounted (back in 7th this would have been a problem, but it’s basically pure upside these days). Scott assures us that this is an easy conversion, and honestly we love the multi-tank list too much to argue the point. We’re just glad to have TONK back.
Shopping List
$354, 6 Leman Russ Demolishers
Army List
Astra Militarum Spearhead Detachment (996 points, -4CP)
Regimental Doctrine: Gunnery Experts, Spotter Details
Stratagem: Tank Ace
HQ: Tank Commander: Punisher Gatling Cannon, hull Heavy Bolter, Hunter-Killer, Storm Bolter. Warlord. Weapon Expert. Relic: Kurov’s Aquila (218)
HQ: Tank Commander: Punisher Gatling Cannon, hull Heavy Bolter, Hunter-Killer, Storm Bolter. Weapon Expert (218)
HS: Leman Russ Demolisher: hull Heavy Bolter (160)
HS: Leman Russ Demolisher: hull Heavy Bolter (160)
HS: Thunderers: 2 Thunderer Siege Tanks (240)
Competitive Outlook
As with the previous, illegal, version: Very good. Almost none of the absurd lists we’ve come up with have the raw anti-tank punch to handle a wall of 12 wound, T8/3+ hulls, and this one sneaks in a sixth. We gave Scott the tools, and he proved why he’s the first and only Guard player to have TiWP in all of 9th.
Scott Horras – Guard Mans
Oh Christ not again.
Shopping List
I think this one uses the Genestealer Cults Brood Brothers box, since that’s the only “guard” infantry box that comes with a Heavy Weapons Team, so let’s go with that. In that case, this is $585, for 13 boxes of Brood Brothers (it uses quite a few Lascannons, and basically every single one of the 130 bodies in those sets).
Army List
Astra Militarum Battalion Detachment (1000 points, -1CP)
Regimental Doctrine: Disciplined Shooters, Wilderness Survivors
Stratagem: Imperial Commander’s Armoury
HQ: Company Commander. Relic: The Laurels of Command, Warlord Trait: Old Grudges (35)
HQ: Company Commander. Relic: Kurov’s Aquila (35)
TR: Conscripts: 26 models (130) GREGNOTE: Scott what the hell
TR: Conscripts: 26 models (130)
TR: Infantry Squad: Lascannon, Grenade Launcher (75)
TR: Infantry Squad: Lascannon, Grenade Launcher (75)
TR: Infantry Squad: Lascannon, Grenade Launcher (75)
TR: Infantry Squad: Lascannon, Grenade Launcher (75)
EL: Platoon Commander (25)
EL: Platoon Commander (25)
EL: Veterans: Lascannon, 3x Grenade Launcher (95)
EL: Veterans: Lascannon, 3x Grenade Launcher (95)
HS: Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x Lascannon (65)
HS: Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x Lascannon (65)
Competitive Outlook
I like this one because it has two of everything, and you could just take half as many of each and make a 500 point list. In all other respects and for any other reasons, I do not like this. It’s better than the horde of 125 Catachans, yes, but there is no possible claim to need this many guardsmen. I’m not sure you need any guardsmen, actually.
Scott Horras – Tempestus Scions
Rounding out the lists from Scott, he’s given us the “gift” of a second (third overall) Guard Mosh Pit list, this time using the somewhat better Scions. Yes, it’s still expensive, and yes, it probably gets creamed, but this time around there are enough special weapons – and even the default hotshot lasgun is no slouch – that it will at the very least go down swinging.
Shopping List
$532, 14 boxes of Militarum Tempestus Scions
Army List
Astra Militarum Patrol Detachment (505 points, -0CP)
133rd Lambdan Lions
HQ: Tempestor Prime: Tempestus Command Rod. Relic: Refractor Field Generator. Warlord Trait: Keys to the Armoury (45)
TR: Scions: 10 models, 4x Plasma gun, Tempestor with plasma pistol (130)
TR: Scions: 10 models, 3x Plasma gun, 1x Grenade launcher, Tempestor with plasma pistol (125)
TR: Scions: 10 models, 3x Plasma gun, 1x Grenade launcher, Tempestor with plasma pistol (125)
EL: Command Squad: 4 models, 4x Plasma gun (80)
Astra Militarum Patrol Detachment (495 points, -2CP)
9th Iotan Gorgonnes
Stratagem: Imperial Commander’s Armoury
HQ: Tempestor Prime: Tempestus Command Rod. Relic: Kurov’s Aquila. Warlord Trait: Old Grudges (45)
TR: Scions: 10 models, 4x Meltagun, Tempestor with plasma pistol (130)
TR: Scions: 10 models, 3x Meltagun, Tempestor with plasma pistol (120)
TR: Scions: 10 models, 3x Meltagun, Tempestor with plasma pistol (120)
EL: Command Squad: 4 models, 4x Meltagun (80)
You get barely enough special weapons, by using an absurd 14 kits, to build this list, but enjoy every single one of your plasma gunners having that stupid “gun under the arm while pointing” pose, I guess.
Competitive Outlook
Yowza, that’s a lot of special weapons that hit on 3s, with enough ablative wounds from the lasgunners that you might still get to fire some of them even if you go second. There are plenty of Objective Secured bodies, and lots of infantry to do Activities. It’s still guard, and we don’t see a lot of these models surviving a full 5 turns, but coming from Scott we have to give this one it’s due: it kind of owns.
Ed – Phobos Marines
Ed sent this one in via email, as a variant on our Tactical Marine and Intercessor spam lists, and we dig it. The Phobois aren’t something we really considered, but the dual-build of Infiltrators and Incursors, plus the ability to convert multiple HQ characters from the same basic model, plus the fact that they aren’t Reivers, makes this new spin on Astartes worth a look.
Shopping List
After all those guard shopping sprees, this seems positively cheap and cheerful at $240, for 4 boxes of Primaris Incursors
Army List
Adeptus Astartes Battalion Detachment (995 points, -0CP)
Use whatever Chapter you want, as long as it’s Dark Angels.
HQ: Captain in Phobos Armour (95)
HQ: Lieutenant in Phobos Armour (80)
TR: Incursor Squad: 10 models, Haywire Mine (220)
TR: Incursor Squad: 10 models, Haywire Mine (220)
TR: Infiltrator Squad: 10 models, Helix Gauntlet (250)
TR: Infiltrator Squad: 5 models, Helix Gauntlet (130)
Respect to that 5 man squad, saving us a couple of models to convert up some HQs while still leaving some parts.
Competitive Outlook
Double Helix Gauntlets is Real Good, and the list goes wide on troops for Activities and capturing objectives. Even with their base guns, every unit can put in work using the hit/wound rerolls from the HQs, and the list will benefit from screening out any deep strikers. This is a good solid start to a Phobos army, though it may be a bit too heavy on infantry for a real springboard into marines. Throw in some Inceptors and an Invictor or two, and you have an effective and fluff-appropriate Tier One Operator marine army. We like this.
Primaris Kevin – A more “evolved” form of Tyranids
Kevin did what Kevin does, which is push the envelope in one direction until it strains under the pressure, carrying any idea to its logical conclusion. He managed to produce an army that requires a good bit of conversion work, and also costs more money than anything else we’ve seen. In addition to converting a Hive Tyrant, you may have noticed that the Trygon box does not include Rippers. This is because Kevin has elected to convert them from spare Trygon parts. How does any of this work? Reader, your guess is as good as mine.
Kevin: Greg doesn’t remember Rippy the Ripper, but Rippy remembers him.
If that all sounds like a bit much, we actually agree, though with a caveat: this is objectively insane, but we’re allowing it because he has actually done this, in real life, and posted photos to prove it. At that point, I’m powerless to do anything but respect the hustle.
Shopping List
There’s no easy way to say this. It’s $800. You will be buying 10 Trygons, the majority purely for bits to be used as Rippers.
Army List
Tyranids Patrol Detachment (1000 points, -0CP)
HQ: Hive Tyrant: 2x Monstrous Scything Talons, Adrenal Glands, Power: Hive Nexus, Resonance Barb, Toxin Sacs, Warlord. Adaptive Physiology: Murderous Size (185)
TR: Ripper Swarms: 9 Rippers, Spinemaws (135)
TR: Ripper Swarms: 9 Rippers, Spinemaws (135)
TR: Ripper Swarms: 9 Rippers, Spinemaws (135)
HS: Trygon Prime: Adrenal Glands, Biostatic Rattle, Toxin Sacs (205)
HS: Trygon Prime: Adrenal Glands, Biostatic Rattle, Toxin Sacs (205)
Competitive Outlook
Please, for the love of god, do not attempt to buy this army. Nobody needs that many leftover Trygon parts. Much like Hammer of Math, we do not, and will not, recommend that you do this in real life. This is pure theory.
Kevin: Even if it is technically cheaper than buying Rippers out of Gaunt boxes.
Davis Centis – GSC
Reader/Commentor Davis was kind enough to provide a Genestealer Cult list, after calling me out for not including one (in my defense, I don’t know anything about GSC, either their rules or their model range, and I refuse to learn). I’ll let him take it from here:
Credit: Pendulin
Pretty much you’re going to try to hide those 5-man squads out of sight yet still scoring objectives. Sneaky-steal objectives by making strings of the 20-man squads. You pretty much HAVE to bring down both big squads on the same turn with the Primus, choose 2 units for reroll 1’s to wound against (a 2nd squad is chosen due to the Heart of the Creed strat), and either use Perfect Ambush to double-shoot Hand Flamers against something or move yourself +d6″ closer to enemy. I hate this stratagem because rolling a 1 here, and no longer being able to re-roll it, means you just KNOW you’re going to roll a 1 and be faced with an 8″ charge (with +1 to charge from your Cult Trait). After this, you either have no opponent left, or you are literally dead because all you have are 50 wounds of Guardsmen with barely any defensive bonuses whatsoever, other than a 6+ FnP from the banner. You could lose that +1 to charge, and lose the game’s only counterspell strat (once per game, 3cp) to instead get a 6++ invulnerable on your units from Bladed Cog, and a full reroll on wound rolls warlord trait for your hand flamers. That might be worth it as you could change up a relic to give your warlord a respectable 3++, but still at T3, lots of stuff in the game will just cause him to die to 2 failed saves with the damage most of the game is now pumping out.
Shopping List
$440, 11 boxes of Acolyte Hybrids
Army List
Genestealer Cults Battalion Detachment (1000 points, -2CP)
Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor
Stratagems: The Heart of the Creed, Grandsire’s Gifts (extra relic)
HQ: Primus: Warlord: Alien Majesty, Relic: Sword of the Four-Armed Emperor (85)
HQ: Acolyte Iconward: Blasting Charge, Relic: Icon of the Cult Ascendent (60)
TR: Acolyte Hybrids: 20 models: 20x Hand Flamers, 6x Heavy Rock Saws, Cult Icon, Leader w/Bonesword (295)
TR: Acolyte Hybrids: 20 models: 20x Hand Flamers, 6x Heavy Rock Cutter, Cult Icon (290)
TR: Acolyte Hybrids: 5 models (40)
TR: Acolyte Hybrids: 5 models (40)
Fun fact, you can’t make it with 12 Heavy Rock Cutters without purchasing a 12th box, hence why one squad has Saws instead.
Competitive Outlook
Not sure how I feel about this one. It’s a lot of bodies – they aren’t good bodies, but that is a ton of hand flamers. Swingy, which means that your games will at least be short. It does get some kudos in my book for using exactly 1000 points, and for only leaving 3 models unused, though that won’t help you once the dice drop and half your models immediately die.
Sören Trembich – Necrons
Sören is another long-time reader who had an idea, and it’s arguably better (easier to acquire, less dumb) than what we came up with. I kicked around a variant of this list myself, but it lost out to our (illegal) Lychguard one, which then itself lost out to “two super heavies”. Fortunately, our editors have a harder time saying no to readers than they do to me, so here it is (note that this is actually better than my original idea, but I did tweak it a bit, by combining the scarabs down to get them into 2 units).
Shopping List
$225, 5 boxes of Necron Warriors
Army List
Necrons Battalion Detachment (997 points, -0CP)
HQ: Royal Warden: Warlord (75)
HQ: Royal Warden (75)
TR: Immortals: 6x Gauss Blasters (102)
TR: Warriors: 20x Gauss Flayers (260)
TR: Warriors: 20x Gauss Flayers (260)
FA: Canoptek Scarab Swarms: 8 models (120)
FA: Canoptek Scarab Swarms: 7 models (105)
There was some green stuff work recommended for bulking out the Immortals, and gluing together some spare guns to make double-length Gauss Reapers that can pass as Gauss Blasters. Those are good suggestions, and you should do them, but we’re also using all Flayers on the Warriors, to cut down on any potential confusion.
Competitive Outlook
Middling? Warrior blobs aren’t the most prevalent build out there, but considering some of the utter trash we’re putting down, this isn’t doomed the way it might be in a real event. It’s a lot of bodies to chew through, and those Scarabs can gum up the works pretty good.
IncrediSteve – Drukhari
A welcome appearance from the Dark Eldar Skate Punks. I’ll let Steve give you the rest:
8 of the Hellions are assembled on foot as Succubi and Wyches. This means we’re wasting an entire box and a half of skyboards, but it’s the only way to get a legal force with Rule of 2 in play.
- Assemble the Succubi with an agonizer and one-handed Hellglaive (as an Archite Glaive).
- Assemble the Wyches with Splinter Pistols and left-handed knives.
- The Hekatrix gets an agoniser, and the Phantasm Grenade Launcher can be added to the back like an awkward jetpack (the Hellion version of the PGL is the little pod bits – parts 60 and 66)
This utterly sinful list should be able to contend against anything; even the Leman Russ spam can go down to a combination of Eviscerating Fly By, Potent Metallotoxins, and Succubus nonsense. Red Grief gets the nod over Cult of Strife since we can’t tool the jury-rigged Succubi with razor flails (unless you want to be truly soulless and try to make something work with chopped up stun claws), and the re-roll for charges comes out ahead of the CoS stratagems since everything Hellions want is in the core book already. You’ve only (GREGNOTE: “only” is a relative term here) got 8CP, and it’s absolutely getting spent on Eviscerating Fly By and probably Webway Gate for the Succubi.
Shopping List
$300, 10 boxes of Drukhari Hellions
Army List
Drukhari Patrol Detachment (985 points, -1CP)
Cult of the Red Grief
Stratagem: Tolerated Ambition
HQ: Master Succubus: Relic: Triptych Whip, Warlord trait: Precision Blows (75)
HQ: Succubus with Blood Glaive. Warlord Trait: Quicksilver Fighter (60)
TR: Wyches: 6 models, Hekatrix with Agonizer and Phantasm Grenade Launcher (70)
EL: Beast Master (40)
EL: Beast Master (40)
FA: Hellions: 20 models, Helliarch with Stunclaw and Phantasm Grenade Launcher (350)
FA: Hellions: 20 models, Helliarch with Stunclaw and Phantasm Grenade Launcher (350)
Competitive Outlook
I don’t even know why I write these for Dhukhari lists. Yes, it’s going to be good. Have you seen this book?
Next Time: Competitive Innovations
We did specifically warn against trying this at home, but in the end we’re glad you ignored us. We’ll be back soon with a series of articles where we pick the “best” lists here and slam them into each other, once we figure out what those are in the first place. In the meantime if you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions, drop us a note in the comments below, or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.
