How will an army of 6 Dreadnoughts fair at the 2016 ATC’s? Hobby Maniac Horton is on the scene breaking down Andew Whittaker’s home brew to the max. Come see!
The ATC is full of competitive lists, many of which players have heard of and have tried to prepare for. Thunderstar, War Convocation, and Eldar jetbike spam are just a few examples of lists that can be found on many teams.
There are however a handful of lists that break the mold. These are unique lists that utilize less popular armies to make a competitive build that no one saw coming. When in the right hands, a list like this can take on even the most competitive and well known tournament list and emerge victorious. Of the 230 lists submitted for the 2016 ATC, there are several that I would put into this category but today I want to highlight one in particular.
The Blood Angels Army of Andrew Whittaker, from The General Staff Loyalists. Let’s take a look at his army:
Lucius Dreads
Blood Angels: Codex (2014) (Combined Arms Detachment) (1850pts)
HQ
Librarian Dreadnought
Furioso Force Halberd, Lucius Pattern Dreadnought Drop Pod, Mastery Level 2
Librarian Dreadnought (235pts)
Furioso Force Halberd, Lucius Pattern Dreadnought Drop Pod, Mastery Level 2, Meltagun (10pts)
Elites
Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, Lucius Pattern Dreadnought Drop Pod, Replace Fists with Blood Talons
Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, Kheres pattern assault cannon, Lucius Pattern Dreadnought Drop Pod, Replace Fists with Blood Talons
Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, Kheres pattern assault cannon, Lucius Pattern Dreadnought Drop Pod Replace Fists with Blood Talons
Troops
Cassor the Damned, Lucius Pattern Dreadnought Drop Pod Magnagrapple, Blood Talon with built in meltagun, Blood Talon with Built in Storm bolter
Tactical Squad, Meltagun , 4x Tactical Marine, Drop Pod
Tactical Squad, Meltagun , 4x Tactical Marine, Drop Pod
Tactical Squad, Heavy flamer, 4x Tactical Marine, Drop Pod
Tactical Squad, Heavy Flamer, 4x Tactical Marine, Drop Pod
Fast Attack
Drop Pod
This army does something that has not been done in a long time: makes a competitive army using Dreadnoughts! This alone makes Andrew a true hero, as he carries the torch for all of us that love the good old Astartes Walker. For those of you that are not convinced, let’s break down why this army is good:
Lots of Armor 13
The ability to present lots of Dreadnoughts with front armor 13 really helps this army excel against the guns of the Eldar and the CC power of Chaos Daemons.
Lots of Strength 10
With the GW FAQ adding 2 attacks to dreadnoughts from BA, SW, and GK, as well as the Contemptor variants having 3 attacks, this army can throw out a ton of S10 in CC, some of which can have force and even be used in a challenge thanks to the librarian dreads. This will make even a deathstar think twice before approaching the Dread-wall, and should seriously intimidate Imperial Knight players.
10 Objective Secured units
ATC is 2/3 objective based, and with lots of OBJ SEC units running around grabbing objectives, this army is sure to rack up progressive points and have the units it needs to secure end game chips.
Lucius Pods
The Lucius pattern drop pod lets you put your units EXACTLY where you need them, without scatter, and even more importantly, you can STAY INSIDE these open topped pods when you drop! This means that you can not only shoot from inside the protection of a 3HP AV12 shield, you can assault out of this pod on the following turn. So, to keep a dreadnought in a Lucius pod from assaulting you, you have to be able to kill both the Pod, and the dreadnought inside in the same turn. This essentially makes all of these Dreadnoughts have 3 extra hull points!
The Element of Surprise
This is by far, the biggest advantage of this army, and one of the reasons I chose to write about it. Outside of Andrew’s immediate 40k crew, I highly doubt ANYONE at the ATC has played a game of 40k against this army, which means that anyone Andrew plays against at the ATC will be doing so with no prior experience. On the other hand, Andrew has probably gotten in TONS of games against the current meta lists and had a game plan to take them down.
And so, there we have it. Andrew’s Dreadnought army is an inspiration to all of the dreadnought fans in the 40k community and is a unique and powerful build. I am not saying his list is all-powerful, but I think it will catch people off guard and he will do well. We will find out this weekend.
Good Luck, Andrew!
