Topic: 1850 Unbound Dark Angels for a tournament

[Grand Master Lomandalis]

There is a tournament that is coming up on August 16th that is allowing Unbound army lists, something rare in this area.  They are not allowing any Lords of War in lists, nor are people permitted to take Formations.  Everything else is totally legit.  The missions are scored based on three objectives.  The Primary Objective changes every round, where as the secondary objective is either The Emperors Will, or a variation of kill points.  To claim the Tertiary Objective, it is like the secondary objectives of the BRB scenarios, except instead of having First Blood they replaced it with having an Infantry model coming in contact with an objective in the centre of the board to plant a flag.  Every mission is set to 6 turns, so I don't need to worry about Random Game Length making a mess of my plans.

Anyways, since they decided they wanted to allow Unbound lists, I figured I would do something completely ridiculous.
Land Raider Crusader:  Deathwing.  280pts
        Command Squad:  Standard of Devastation.  165pts
        Techmarine:  Servo Harness, Power Field Generator, Warlord.  105pts

Land Raider Crusader:  Deathwing.  280pts
        Techmarine:  Servo Harness, Power Field Generator.  105pts

Land Raider Crusader:  Deathwing.  280pts
        Techmarine:  Servo Harness, Power Field Generator.  105pts

Land Raider:  Deathwing.  280pts
        Techmarine:  Servo Harness, Power Field Generator.  105pts

Dreadnought:  Multi-Melta, Extra Armour, Drop Pod.  145pts

Total Points:  1850
Model Count:  17

The list is very straightforward, and hopefully very hard to kill.  Every Land Raider has a Techmarine riding inside, providing it with an Invulnerable Save as well as having a 50% chance to repair it.  Top that off with Deathwing essentially making them Venerable, you have to bleed off the four hull points as getting an explodes result is going to be very challenging.

The three Crusaders run in a pack together, with the Command Squad going in the central one, allowing the other two to spread out a bit so long as they remain within range of the one with the Standard inside, letting me pump out 72 bolter shots a turn from three hard to damage models.

The standard Land Raider is on anti-tank duty and also has more leeway in being separated from the other three, enabling me to move it to capture an objective if need be. 

The Dreadnought will come down on the highest priority piece of armour and try and either destroy it in a single shot, or at least remove it as a threat for the game.  It was also put in because I was short 145pts and this was the best way to fill it up.  Another option instead of the Dreadnought would to be include two five man Tactical Squads and place them inside two of the Land Raiders, that way allowing me to have two more scoring units pop out for a last turn objective grab.  But if I go that road, I do lose a valuable anti-tank gun.

The scenarios for the tournament can be found here, starting on page 9. 

Any comments and suggestions would be appreciated.

[Grizzlykin]

Well that might not be very productive comments i agree but this indeed a purely ridiculous list ^^ I wonder what you would do if you were to be facing a team full of monstruous creature that can just reap your tank open (god bless invu save I guess><)

[Grand Master Lomandalis]

The only thing that really concerns me are Wraith constructs (Lord and Knight) due to their toughness rendering my bolters ineffective, as well as the speed on the Wraithknight.  Everything else in the game will die to enough bolter shots.  Even Dreadknights, while their potential speed and devastating close combat attacks are threatening, can be brought down with enough firepower.

If I were to use the Crusaders alone and they remained stationary, on average they are doing 2 wounds to a single Dreadknight, with the possibility of killing it.  Add in the lascannons from the standard Land Raider and the odds are in my favour that it is going down.

And, as you said, if I failed to kill it, thankfully I have an invulnerable save to fall back on, and the armour is high enough that it should provide a bit of a challenge to get through.

[Slick Samos]

Wow... 

...

Multi-Meltas on the Land Raiders?

Perhaps with the remaining points you could add a Special Weapon Command Squad in another Land Raider with some special weapons to take out the hard stuff?

I think you're better off with a 3 Meltagun Command Squad in a Raider than a Multi-Melta Dreadnought...

I'd love to hear how this list does

[Grand Master Lomandalis]

I would love to add multi-melta's to the Land Raiders, but the problem is is that I am borrowing three of them from a friend, and I don't know if he has Melta's modelled on them.  I won't be able to pick them up until the Thursday before the tournament and the army list has to be submitted by the 9th.  So for a tournament that has WYSIWYG as a strict requirement, it is easier for me to pass off that, even though they are modelled, I didn't pay for the Melta as opposed to saying that even though they aren't modelled I did pay for them.

The biggest counter argument I have against that command squad with melta guns is that for them to use those guns, they have to jump out of a Land Raider, and once they roast a single target, every gun that can't hurt the Raiders are going to turn on them.

[Slick Samos]

Perhaps put a Marine with Multi-Melta or Meltagun on top of the Land Raider and claim that he's the turret

You raise all good points, especially about the second Command Squad!

Perhaps you could drop a Techmarine and the Dreadnought for a Land Raider Phobos (2 Twin-Linked Lascannons) to provide long range anti-tank?  This would make sure that you don't have anything with less than AV14...

[Grand Master Lomandalis]

But it wouldn't be Deathwing and would have to hug another Land Raider to get the invulnerable save.


A slight snag has occurred.  The Tournament Organizer frequents my LGS's forum and he saw the list I was considering taking.  His interpretation of Unbound, and how he is ruling for the tournament, is that Unbound allows you to field units without a FOC but does not ignore requirements to take the unit.  So to field a Command Squad and Techmarine, I have to take another regular HQ unit.

So right there, that eliminates two of the Techmarines for me, though if I swap them for a pair of Librarians with PFG's they can go in two of the less important Raiders.  For most games I think that would mean one Techmarine goes with the Command Squad and the other goes in the Lascannon Raider, but in games where my opponent has very little armour I could put the second techmarine in a Crusader to keep those bolters chugging.

The drop in points to Librarians also means I can up the Dreadnought to Venerable.

[Slick Samos]

Not ideal :-/

I was suggesting another Raider in place of the Dreadnought so that you'd have AV14 all round. It does would mean that you lose something off another Land Raider, but they're already AV14...

Again, it's a shame about the Techmarines.

I hope it goes well!

Slick Samos

[Grand Master Lomandalis]

Well the tournament was today and man was this list terrible!  The Land Raiders were really, really hard for my opponents to kill.  But with the scenarios, by the time the end of the game rolled around I didn't have enough units to takes objectives and I lost every single game.

Not only did I lose every single game, but I lost them in a big way, often times not even coming close to having a chance in contesting the game.

But there is one thing that I have to say about this list.  It was, by an extremely wide margin, the most fun I have ever had playing a list at a tournament in a very long time!  After the first game I recognized that I wouldn't be able to scratch together a win, so I just enjoyed the fact that I had four beslubbering Land Raiders on the table!

Absolutely the most fun I have ever had finishing dead last in a tournament!

[Slick Samos]

That's really funny :-P How many of your Land Raiders got destroyed?

Sorry we missed the biggest floor in your list! I'm glad you had fun anyway :-)

[GreaterGoodIreland]

I suppose with a list like that, you'd have to aim to table the opponent, which would be very difficult to do, in order to win.

But yeah, looks mad fun at the same time.