I thought I would share my journey of building out my 40K Tournament List. I have a tournament coming up soon at Sanctuary Gaming Centre! Yah! It’s this one. I’ve never been to this store before so I’m hoping it’s great!

I only want to take painted stuff. Fully painted and completed models. I’m unsure if that’s a requirement yet, but I think it’s good to assume it is.

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This somewhat limits me of course. But by doing this task now, I can plan and paint ready for the tournament.

40K Tournament List Restrictions

So far there have been no restrictions published for lists. They are 1,750 points though. But I think it’s safe to assume the following might be in place;

• Matched Play
• Battle-Forged
• 1,750 points
• Eternal War Missions
• Max 3 Detachments
• Max 1 Super Heavy (but I have none painted anyway)

The last two may not be true. I made them up as I feel they might be likely.

The Eternal War missions are interesting. I haven’t played them for some time. So any list will need to have some staying power – to keep on the objectives until the end of the game.

Completed Models

These are my completed models at the time of writing, so this is the pool of models I have to draw from.

Cadians

• Creed
• 50x Guardsmen
• Several Sergeants/Platoon Commanders/Company Commanders
• 6x Vox Casters
• 3x Meltaguns
• 4x Plasma Guns
• 3x Autocannon Teams
• 3x Chimeras
• 2x Wyverns

Steel Legion

All completed by Endar.

• 4x Plasma Guns
• A Sergeant with Chainsword and Laspistol
• Company/Platoon Commander with Bolt Pistol and Power Sword
• A Missile Launcher Team
• A Grenade Launcher
• 6x Lasguns

Steel Legion

Custodians

• Trajann
• Shield Captain
• 5x Custodian Guard

Custodians

Catachan

• 36x Catachan Infantry – including 3 Flamers and 3 Vox (close to being done by the_unrelenting_brush)
• Straken (close to being done by Siege Studios)
• 3x Company Commanders with Power Fists and Plasma Pistols (close to being done by the_unrelenting_brush)
• 3x Cyclops Demolition Vehicles
• 3x Hellhounds

The Catachan vehicles could easily be Cadian, given that they are generally green and tan coloured. But work best as Catachan because of the re-roll on the number of shots.

Hellhound

Astra Militarum

• A Primaris Psyker
• Yarrick
• 10x Ratlings
• 2x Crusaders
• A Vindicare Assassin

Inquisition

• Eisenhorn
• Daemonhost

Adepta Sororitas

• A Canoness
• 2x Death Cult Assassins
• 2x Acro-Flagellants
• 2x Crusaders (also listed as Astra Militarum)

Raven Guard

• 15x Vanguard Veterans
• Shrike

And that’s it! I’m unsure if I will get anything completed between now and the tournament date – March 9th.

Raven Guard

List Aims

I’d like to win one game and not come last. That will equal my performance at the last event I attended.

I’d also like to take a fun list that’s not a power list. It should be competitive but not a min/max list.

Initial 40K Tournament List

With that in mind, I have put together this list for now. I think my main issue looking at my list of models above will be high damage weapons to take our high wound targets – such as Land Raiders and Super Heavies. I have only Melta Guns that can do this really.

I started with this base;

• 3x Infantry Squads each with a Melta Gun
• Company Commander
• Creed

This gave me a Battalion of Astra Militarum. And then;

• Shrike
• 3x Raven Guard Vanguard Veteran Squads

This was a Vanguard Detachment. This is 850 points. Over half of the 1,750 points, I have available.

With this, I have three Thunder Hammers to dish out high damage and three Melta Guns. But the Meltas will need to get close and survive in order to be effective.

The Guardsmen are not good for keeping on objectives until the end of a game. The Raven Guard will be better at this but will be a priority target once they arrive.

Raven Guard Note

I must remember that Deep Striking the Raven Guard may not be optimal.

If I don’t have the first turn, which is likely, then the enemy will move towards me for a turn. I can then move 12″ with my Raven Guard with their Jump Packs. If we assume the enemy deploys 24″ from me and then moves 6″ and then I move 12″ – this leaves me a 6″ charge on turn one. Which is a lot better than a 9″ charge on turn 2.

This also results in an extra 16 models being deployed in my deployment zone. It’s going to be cramped!

I will need to assess each game and see if the enemy is likely to charge up the battlefield or not. This approach won’t work with Tau. But against anything melee based it is well worth considering.

It does mean they will be exposed to fire for a turn though. Decisions, decisions!

Current 40K Tournament List

The Raven Guard remained the same and the Astra Militarum portion was updated to this;

Battalion Detachment 1

• Yarrick
• Company Commander with Power Sword, Plasma Pistol, Kurov’s Aquila and Old Grudges Warlord Trait
• 3x Infantry Squads with Melta Guns – in Chimera
• 3x Chimeras with Hunter Killer Missiles, one with turret Heavy Flamer
• 2x Hellhounds

Battalion Detachment 2

• Company Commander with Bolt Pistol, Lord of Ordnance Trait and theAgripinaa-Class Orbital Tracker Relic
• Company Commander with Relic of Lost Cadia
• 3x Infantry Squads with Autocannons and Plasma Guns
• 2x Wyverns as Emperor’s Wrath Detachment

This gives me 3CP + 5CP + 5CP + 1CP, a total of 14CP.

I will pay the 1CP to make the Detachment into an Emperor’s Wrath Artillery Detachment, then another 1CP to take the extra Warlord Trait. I’ll also pay 3CP for the 2 extra Relics.

These leaves me with 9CP for the game.

I removed Creed from my original base list, he is not able to rake a Relic of any type so is just a point sink in this list it seems.

Final Thoughts

The Emperors Wrath Detachment could be extremely useful when the Raven Guard comes to charge. For 1CP I can stop a unit from using Overwatch – which is incredible.

The Agripinaa-Class Orbital Tracker Relic removes the benefit of Cover for an enemy unit – for one of the Wyverns. And the Lord of Ordnance Trait allows the Wyverns, if they are within 6″ of the bearer, to have AP-1 shots when rolling a 6 to Wound. The Wyvern already re-rolls all failed wounds so this could be really handy to absolutely shred light infantry.

The synergy of this list between the Wyverns firing from afar and the Raven Guard getting up close and dirty could be glorious. Along with the infantry with Yarrick – it is going to be a true spectacle!

Can the Raven Guard get into combat to disrupt the enemy and take objectives while the Guard hold their lines?

I have a game very soon with this list – so we shall see…