Don’t miss three top 3 40k army lists that took down the 2020 LVO. These were the factions that were left standing after the smoke settled…
The biggest tournament of the year, the 2020 LVO, brought in people from all around the world to roll some dice. Taking the course of a weekend, the results are finally in and we can check out which lists were still standing once the dust settled. Let’s dive in.
Thanks to Best Coast Pairings, we can look back at the event as if we were there ourselves.
Las Vegas Open 2020- Coverage
3rd Place: Aeldari- Sean Nayden
(Note: Depending on which filter you use, you might find the third-place player different. In either case, it was another one of the Brohammer Space Marine lists that is almost an exact copy of the first place list. So for the sake of variety, we chose Sean’s Aeldari list).
Sean rolled up with all kinds of Aeldari goodness. In the first detachment, he cherry-picked the best Harlequins units, spamming Skyweavers with haywire cannons and bringing a Shadowseer, Death Jester, and Solitaire. This added a ton of speed to the list and created space for the characters to work comfortably.
Next, a Craftworld Battalion was brought bringing Rangers as place-fillers while a massive punch for the force came in the form of two squads of Shining Spears. Coming right behind the initial shock of the Skyweavers, Shining Spears were able to clean up whatever they charged into.
And finally, a Supreme Command detachment was taken bringing the Yncarne for that element of 1990’s pop-up spam virus hotness. (He can appear anywhere a unit died instantly, and multiple times in a game). For the other places in the Detachment, he brought to Spiritseers. These guys were cheap and they gave a free smite.
2nd Place: Raven Guard- Brad Chester
For the Raven Guard, Brad used the McPick Two rules option and brought +3″ to ranged weapons as well as getting a free reroll for each unit thanks to Master Artisans. Jumping into this list, it incorporated the classic Centurion spam tactic to bring blobs of heavy infantry in close range quickly.
Raven Guard has a few tricks up their sleeve from Warlord Traits and Stratagems to get Infantry where they need to be in the blink of an eye. And with about half of the list’s points being dumped into Centurion bodies, this list had a wall of auto-hitting flamers and armor-melting Grav.
Going into the more unique aspects of the list, this army rolled out Scout Squads with sniper rifles, bringing one unit of ten. Once the second turn rolled around, these dudes were able to hit on a 2+ and proc mortal wounds on characters with a 5+ to wound. (This is good but we’ll talk about how they were REALLY good later).
A Thunderfire Cannon was brought in for the two Stratagems pulled from the vanilla Marine codex. And for the final detachment, a Battalion of Primaris was brought in with a named character we’ve never seen used in the top tables since 8th edition started- Lias Issodon.
Lias Issodon comes from a Forge World Chapter, the Raptors. But using the Successor Chapter rules GW put out, he was able to take a named character from a FW Chapter and use Raven Guard rules. What makes this guy especially brutal is that, on top of being a Chapter Master with all those rerolls, he can set himself and three other units that aren’t Termies, Centurions, or Primaris in the shadows. They get to come in 9″ away at the end of the movement phase.
Basically he’s a super deepstriking stick with rerolls and a dope rifle. Meaning, he could throw all the Scouts with him in Deepstrike. And by turn two, (which is when the +1 to hit & +1 to wound Doctrine bonus procs), these Snipers could turn characters that might have been trying to hide into paste. With leftover points, some Infiltrators were brought to create space and slow down the enemy for a turn if they somehow managed t0 make it past the Centurions. Great job.
1st Place: Iron Hands- Richard Siegler
For first place, Iron Hands managed to pull out a victory essentially spamming heavy weapons and exploiting their Doctrine bonus, as you’d expect. Not bringing any particularly “big” unit outside of a Leviathan to help deal with enemy armor like Knights, this list brought bodies, bodies, and more bodies for board control. Or to just be a distraction Carnifex absorbing ridiculous amounts of fire.
Moving into the list, a Battalion of Stalker Intercessors was led by two Chappy Dreads loaded with twin lascannons for some armor-cracking firepower. Being a character under ten wounds, they were able to beef up a unit and then punch their opponent without having to worry about being shot back.
A second Battalion was brought that really doubled-down on Intercessors bringing two squads of ten with Stalkers and being led by Feirros and a Primaris LT. The two fat squads of Intercessors were probably the prime targets for the Chaplain Dreads to throw their litanies to.
And finally, a Spearhead was brought with a third Chappy Dread toting a twin lascannon. In the Heavy Support option, Eliminators were brought along with a storm cannon Leviathan also coming loaded with three hunter-killer missiles.
As we said, the overall theme of the list was board control with Intercessor spam. Chappy Dreads were able to give bonuses to the bigger Intercessor units first while Feirros buffed those around him. The Leviathan and lascannons from the Dreads all focus-fired enemy armor to bring them down. Plus, with so many two-damage bolters in the list, in a pinch, Intercessors could help bring down a Knight.
After these lists have been dissected, which composition do you like the most? Do you prefer the Repulsor gunline for Iron Hands? What’s the best Aeldari unit for melee in your opinion?
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials:@RealmbrushPainting
About Wesley Floyd: Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He is known for his satirist takes on trending topics and imaginative yet amazingly affordable hobby solutions to painting Warhammer miniatures.
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4. If you like what he writes and want to contact him or have your tabletop minatures painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
