As we mentioned yesterday, this week is the Art of War’s Streamhouse RTT. Today we’re going to be diving into the remaining four competitors, looking at their lists, talking about their strategies, and offering a bit of our own thoughts – mine and Wings’ – on how we think they’ll fare during the event.
As a reminder, the event will be streamed, and you can catch all the action on Wednesday, March 26th at 10am EDT on the Art of War’s YouTube channel.
The Format
This is a three-round event with winners moving on. The missions will be as follows:
- Round 1: Linchpin, Raise Banners, Search and Destroy. GW Layout 3
- Round 2: Take and Hold, Prepared Positions, Hammer and Anvil. GW Layout 8
- Round 3: Scorched Earth, Inspired Leadership, Crucible of Battle. GW Layout 1
Now, let’s get into the competitor profiles.
Mike Muzeni
Mike's List - click to expand
Why did you pick this?
Deathshroud are my favorite Death Guard unit!(scythes are cool) And running 3 buggies and 3 lawnmowers is how Papa Nurgle always wanted it.
Wings’ Thoughts
Wings: Grindy Death Guard here, maxing out on the always excellent Deathshrouds to ominously march towards the foe. Adding the cheap Daemon engines alongside those lets you get the foe into Contagion range early then keep them there, dragging their capabilities down into the muck while they get chopped up. Lots of Deathshrouds is also an excellent answer to Quinton’s Sacresants, though it’s also fairly vulnerable to Castigator shooting in response.
Richard’s fast shooting once again feels like the biggest threat here – the army can punch up into a few things between Mortarion and the Sorcerers, but it can’t carve through hulls at the pace you’d want to handle the Mont’ka menace. It feels like it can cause real issues for builds like the Creations of Bile though, as they have to fight it on its terms, and may struggle to push through.
TheChirurgeon: This army can theoretically scrap with anything but dealing with fast armies which can stay out of range and shoot them full of holes is always going to be a problem, and Lions can just fully ignore the -1 WS/BS from contagion (though realistically you go -1 on saves against them anyways).
Kyle McCord
Kyle's List - Click to Expand
Why’d you pick this?
Dark Angels rule. I think a substantial part of the competitive scene forgot about Gladius DA because Ultramarines has some incredible synergies. But -1 damage, four wound terminators with anti-vehicle/anti-monster maces still hit. Azreal is still a bananas CP generating machine. And Inner Circle Companions will still make sashimi of your opponent’s line and just keep going.
Beyond the faction-specific units, I think tough shooting platforms pair well with the durable frontline units that Dark Angels provide. The combined force of the dedicated melee units and durable shooting platforms can put pressure on an opponent that is very challenging to overcome as an opponent.
What’s your game plan?
I don’t want to give away too much, but the Redeemer is mean. It’s a deadly overwatch threat, and it’s carrying a payload of mace wielding knights who would love to ride into my opponent’s line and charge. Ballistuses are great for overwhelming opposing armor with free rerolls. Azzy and his ICC love to steal objectives and smash hard to break units. Then I have a series of mission play units with movement shenanigans, bombs, and extra deadly chainswords. If it can be broken, my boys are gonna break it.
What list are you most afraid of in the tournament?
Jack always brings the heat, and that new Custodes detachment is spicy. I am not super excited to face down anything that can reduce all my big guns to one damage each then do it again! Then there is Magic Mike Muzeni. He is bringing plenty of tough melee bodies who can ignore my rules. That being said, I’m playing Space Marines, and we know no fear. And anyone who says we were anything except good, loyal protectors
Wings’ Thoughts
Wings: Kyle’s really hit all the key beats up top here – Dark Angels get some fantastic Datasheets that give them answers to most of what’s out there, and Deathwing Knights can trump other elite melee Infatry effortlessly. The Redeemer is also great here, and I think the time is right for single Redeemer builds to pop back up in the metagame, The combination of Armour of Contempt and the Overwatch threat it presents can make it challenging for some builds to concentrate enough punishment on it to take it down.
You can’t really afford to stay at a distance from this either, as three Ballistus Dreads continues to be an exceptionally high value firebase, giving you enough heft that no foe is truly safe. I like the use of the Thunderstrike to give the list pseudo-super Oaths into a key large target, which helps shore up games like that against Brian, or a hypothetical one into Great Unclean Ones.
I think this build is actually exceptionally well positioned into the Streamhouse micro meta, and would be my dark horse pick for an upset victory. The biggest strike against it in that regard is the lack of Scouts, which might make it a little too easy for John or Richard to bully it with pre-game nonsense, and were I running this I would definitely swap the Outriders and one ATV for 2x Scouts.
Sascha Edelkraut
Sascha's List - Click to Expand
Why did you pick this?
New year, new army. I’ve been a Space Marine player for years and I felt it’s time for change. With the increasing amount of team events I wanted to pick an army that has a stable background (unlikely to receive too many nerfs in upcoming balance sheets), has a strong team play style and isn’t played by too many team members yet.
The transition to CSM felt easy as they play similar to Marines but at the same time have some unique twists that I’m enjoying a lot.
What is your game plan?
CSM can dominate the midfield and jail the opponent into their deployment zone. They have speed, hit hard and my list has enough bodies/ wounds that some bad roles won’t lose me the game right away. The Army is really good at fighting for primary and I need to pressure my opponent to mess up their secondary plan as I have a low utility unit count.
What lists are you most afraid of for this this event?
Jack’s Custodes and Kyle’s Dark Angels. I think my biggest issues are T6 or higher 2+ saves, my army struggles quite a bit with that. Also if my opponents has enough screening units and utility units that can slow me down I might not have enough tools to recover.
Wings’ Analysis
Wings: Creations of Bile has got speed, reach, and devastating melee power on its side, and also does extremely well out of War Dogs to lock in any positional gains. I played against a very similar list to this recently, and the combination of the pressure, the War Dogs to dominate objectives and Cypher to tank Command Points meant that the game slipped away from me despite feeling like I was in the driving seat for a lot of it. The sheer aggression gives it a good story to tell even into nasty shooting builds, and I think it’s one of the lists with a better shot of buzz-sawing through Quinton’s Sisters.
The big spoiler matchup for it feels like Kyle’s Dark Angels, who combine the durability to soak a big push with the shooting and damage output to counterattack hard. Jack’s Custodes also feel well placed to give it a hard time, especially as their boosted shooting is incredibly real here.
TheChirurgeon: Those are some brutally tough matchups for this Creations list. You need so much to go your way and you can’t just rush them and put pressure on units that can shrug off your attacks and murder you in response.
Russell Tassin
Russel's List - Click to Expand
Why did you pick this?
I have been playing Demonic Incursion since the fall, playing Daemons is so much fun. The new shadows detachment is demonic incursion level fun turned up by 10. Dark Pacts with Belakor, free advance and charge with Khorne. Flesh Hounds might be the new best skirmish unit in the game. I can’t wait to try it out!!
What is your game plan?
I’m a cagey and reactive player by nature, which gives me a large second turn advantage. With this new list I wanted the option to choose the game plan based off mission match up. This list can be super agressive or reactive, based off the conditions presented to me.
What lists are you most afraid of for this event?
Richard’s Tau and Quinton’s sisters. I’m scared may have brought the knife to the gun fight in those match ups.
Wings’ Thoughts
Wings: Attack, rinse, repeat with a big flying monster – pretty much guaranteed to be great. This build has great scoring from Flesh Hounds (who can pivot to violence with the help of a Rendmaster), and three spectacular threats from the Bloodthirsters and Be’lakor, one of which can basically charge anything on the board turn one if the opponent doesn’t have Infiltrators to screen it (or you get first drop to carve out a spot with the Nurglings). Great into any sort of enemy big stuff, and I imagine Brian is crossing his fingers to not run into this early on. It’s also extremely good into Nick’s Aeldari, which I just fully do not think can handle what this build is putting out unless they spike a wraithcannon volley.
I think Russell is right to worry about Quinton and Richard as the biggest threats. The list doesn’t feel like it has the tools to reliably handle a full Sacresant unit that stacks -1 to Hit and -1 to Wound, which is a major cramp on its style, while Richard has the redundancy, layering, and Infiltrate capability to manage it. I’d also worry a little about Jack’s build, because this is where the value on Custodian Shooting goes through the roof; if two units with the buffs up double shoot, you’re looking at most of a Bloodthirster dead, and a whole one if it’s Kyria’s unit. That said, the Rendmasters allowing you to potentially push a kill through on an Allarus Captain with their buff up creates a fighting chance to build sufficient momentum, as does D3 sweeping a Custodian squad clean off the board with a Mortal Wound chaser, so I think it’s more even as long as you respect the shooting.
TheChirurgeon: I’m skeptical about the Bloodthirsters in Shadow Legion, but this is the right event to bring them – with no GSC or Bridgehead Strike in the mix, Russell can throw them at high-value targets early and get actual value out of them without necessarily worrying about losing them all immediately in response.
Brian Jones
Brian's List - Click to Expand
Why did you pick this?
Run it back! This is the list I won the Cherokee Open with last month. I’m excited to see how it does in the post dataslate world and it’s a great TAC list.
What is your game plan?
This list trades quite well while still forcing the opponent to deal with a more T10/T12 hulls than they would like. It offers a great mix of primary scoring, secondary options, and raw power. The immolators help with stripping cover, providing an overwatch threat, and protecting the sisters while still forcing my opponent to commit real assets to remove them.
What lists are you most afraid of for this event?
I have a recurring nightmare where Russell’s Bela’kor uses Dark Pact and cuts Canis Rex and my Atrapos in half simultaneously. In all seriousness, I’m definitely worried about Nick’s spirit conclave list as the detachment rule is “Votann Grudge but better”. Each of these lists will present unique challenges to overcome, but that’s what IK is all about facing! Glory in Honour!
Wing’s Thoughts
Wings: Last but not least (featuring the largest models, in fact) we have Brian’s Knights, recently victorious at the Cherokee open. Brian’s build uses the ability to bring in Immolators to up his activation count and ensure that foes in cover have less change of spiking saves against the big stuff, helping maintain the momentum that Imperial Knights trade on. Those plus the Subductors give the army way more ability to screen out Secondaries right into the late game, which can help lock in an early lead.
The Atrapos and Canis also have plenty of big targets to carve through out there, though need to watch out for getting Bloodthirstered or similar in response. Brian also needs to really watch out for Jack’s Custodes, which pose him all the same challenges they do to Daemons, but without +1D or end of phase mortals to help. The big Sacresant bricks may also be able to bog it down – Knights hate stacked hit and wound debuffs.
Our Predictions
Wings: Rob has insisted that I make a prediction so that he can (presumably) mock me when the players I choose get owned round 1. Having gone through the lists, I’d say Jack and Richard are my favourites to win, with Kyle as a dark horse because of how well targeted to the metagame his army is.
TheChirurgeon: I can’t believe you’d do my boy John Lennon dirty like this. Though I will admit I’m not high on Emperor’s Children, and this is definitely an arena where he’s unlikely to be able to skill his way to a win. I think I’d probably agree that Jack is the favorite to win here, just based on the fact that I think he’s running the strongest army, but does he have the reps? Trick question, Jack actually plays better with fewer reps. He’s got this in the bag.
Tomorrow: The Event
That wraps up our look at the competitors and lists. All that’s left now is the event itself – be sure to head over to the Art of War’s YouTube channel at 10am EDT tomorrow to catch the games. And we’ll be back next week rapping up the event results in next week’s Competitive Innovations.
See you then.
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