As regular readers of TheChirurgeon's Road through 2023 posts may have seen, I took home the trophy for Best Painted at the Tacoma Open. It was a great event and I had 8 fun games against good opponents, but as I went 3-5 I don't think anyone's going to be particularly interested in play-by-plays of all the games. Instead, I'm going to walk through my army and look at how each unit performed overall.

The List

I built this army with a couple goals in mind:

Use primarily models I've painted recently, particularly being sure they're in my current yellow formula
Have models that stand out well from a distance
Require minimal new painting
Be easy to drive

The last part is key - I hadn't had a chance to play any practice games, so game 1 on Friday was also my first game of 10th. To hit everything else, I had the option of going with either tanks or dreads, and going with dreads would let me run the shiny new ballistus and my brutalis (which I think is my best painted dread). To run tanks I would've needed to source some gladiator lancers, which I think are an endangered species in North America. With the dreads this list also ends up very simple to run - be durable, stand on objectives, shoot things.

Jack's Tacoma Open List



Tacoma open (1980 points)


Space Marines
Imperial Fists
Strike Force (2000 points)
Gladius Task Force


CHARACTER


Captain in Terminator Armour (110 points)
• Warlord
• 1x Relic weapon
1x Storm bolter
• Enhancement: The Honour Vehement


Primaris Techmarine (75 points)
• 1x Forge bolter
1x Grav-pistol
1x Omnissian power axe
1x Servo-arm
• Enhancement: Artificer Armour


BATTLELINE


Heavy Intercessor Squad (110 points)
• 1x Heavy Intercessor Sergeant
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Close combat weapon
1x Heavy bolt rifle
• 4x Heavy Intercessor
• 4x Bolt pistol
4x Close combat weapon
3x Heavy bolt rifle
1x Heavy bolter


Heavy Intercessor Squad (110 points)
• 1x Heavy Intercessor Sergeant
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Close combat weapon
1x Heavy bolt rifle
• 4x Heavy Intercessor
• 4x Bolt pistol
4x Close combat weapon
3x Heavy bolt rifle
1x Heavy bolter


Intercessor Squad (95 points)
• 1x Intercessor Sergeant
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Bolt rifle
1x Power weapon
• 4x Intercessor
• 4x Bolt pistol
4x Bolt rifle
4x Close combat weapon


OTHER DATASHEETS


Ballistus Dreadnought (170 points)
• 1x Armoured feet
1x Ballistus lascannon
1x Ballistus missile launcher
1x Twin storm bolter


Ballistus Dreadnought (170 points)
• 1x Armoured feet
1x Ballistus lascannon
1x Ballistus missile launcher
1x Twin storm bolter


Brutalis Dreadnought (220 points)
• 1x Brutalis bolt rifles
1x Brutalis fists
1x Twin Icarus ironhail heavy stubber
1x Twin multi-melta


Desolation Squad (170 points)
• 1x Desolation Sergeant
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Castellan launcher
1x Close combat weapon
1x Vengor launcher
• 4x Desolation Marine
• 4x Bolt pistol
4x Castellan launcher
4x Close combat weapon
4x Superkrak rocket launcher


Eliminator Squad (95 points)
• 1x Eliminator Sergeant
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Bolt sniper rifle
1x Close combat weapon
• 2x Eliminator
• 2x Bolt pistol
2x Bolt sniper rifle
2x Close combat weapon


Redemptor Dreadnought (225 points)
• 1x Icarus rocket pod
1x Macro plasma incinerator
1x Onslaught gatling cannon
1x Redemptor fist
1x Twin storm bolter


Redemptor Dreadnought (225 points)
• 1x Icarus rocket pod
1x Macro plasma incinerator
1x Onslaught gatling cannon
1x Redemptor fist
1x Twin storm bolter


Terminator Squad (205 points)
• 1x Terminator Sergeant
• 1x Power weapon
1x Storm bolter
• 4x Terminator
• 1x Assault cannon
4x Power fist
3x Storm bolter

Captain in Terminator Armor

Imperial Fists Terminator Captain. Credit: Jack Hunter

I mostly took this guy because he was one of my favorite models out of the Leviathan box, but I did end up overall pretty happy with his performance. I was running him with The Honor Vehement for the extra strength and attack, which worked out well enough that on a turn when I had Abaddon as my oath target I was able to use the Epic Challenge stratagem and kill him.

Terminator Squad

Imperial Fists Terminator Squad. Credit: Jack Hunter

My other favorites from Leviathan, these guys are taking a vacation into my display cabinet. They're tough - but still die when any real effort is made to shift them, and not substantially tougher than my heavy intercessors. They punch OK, but not as well as a truly dedicated melee unit, and melee is not really in a great place in 10th. The assault cannon is a good gun, but the rest of the storm bolters are lucky to accomplish much of anything.

Heavy Intercessors

Imperial Fists Heavy Intercessors. Credit: Jack Hunter

These guys were absolute heroes. At T6, they took just as much dedicated fire to kill as the terminators (especially with +1 to their save on objectives), while putting out more effective shooting. Sure, they can't punch worth a damn, but they're a whole lot cheaper than the terminators and having a bunch of S5 guns is very nice.

Intercessors

Imperial Fist Primaris Intercessors. Credit: Jack Hunter

These guys are also going back into the cabinet. Sticky objectives is nice, but for the most part I've got other units that can just stay on the backfield objectives, and the heavy intercessors are just so much more durable for only a few points more.

Desolation Marines

Imperial Fists Desolation Squad. Credit: Jack Hunter

I want to take these out of my list but I can't, they're just too good. Even doing nothing but standing behind a building shooting the LOS ignoring weapons at things is enough that my opponent has to do something to deal with them. Couple that with the superkrak missiles if I'm up against big targets and they proved their worth in every single game.

Eliminators

Imperial Fists Primaris Eliminator Squad. Credit: Jack Hunter

I didn't end up with strong feelings either way on these. They're amusing, especially if you roll hot, and infiltrate is useful, but only 3 shots means you have a lot of opportunity to roll cold. They'll likely remain in my list for the moment, at least until I paint a squad of infiltrators or incursors to do the same job of snagging midfield objectives early for secondaries.

Primaris Techmarine

Imperial Fists Primaris Techmarine. Credit: Jack Hunter

While he never accomplished anything particularly exciting on his own, he did keep the dreads alive and threw around the to-hit buff. I wish that I could separate the buff from the repair, or that the buff/repair happened after movement rather than in the command phase, but he's staying in the list regardless. He's also surprisingly scary if a weaker unit gets close, especially later in the game when a dread has died and he's up to 7 attacks with the axe.

Brutalis Dreadnought

Imperial Fists Brutalis Dreadnought. Credit: Jack Hunter

My favorite looking dread, but sadly also the worst. It never accomplished anything that a redemptor wouldn't have done better. The multimeltas are worthless as a main gun, only 2 shots at 18" means they aren't doing shit early in the game, and you need to get within 9" to get the bonus damage. At s9 they aren't any better into vehicles than overcharged plasma off a redemptor. The mortal wounds when it charges is nice, but isn't enough to make up for losing -1 damage on the redemptor. Back on the shelf you go.

Redemptor Dreadnought

Imperial Fists Redemptor Dreadnought. Credit: Jack Hunter

In stark contrast to the brutalis, both of these pulled their weight every single game. They're durable, have great damage output, and the rocket pod can be a sudden surprise to something like the Nightbringer with anti-fly 2+. I am contemplating testing out the heavy onslaught instead of the plasma - I think the mortal wounds from it might end up close to even into bigger targets while still letting it shoot in melee, but I need to run the math.

Ballistus Dreadnought

Imperial Fists Ballistus Dreadnought. Credit: Jack Hunter

Also new with Leviathan, these two were absolute champions. The core of my anti-tank, they can sit back and are super reliable at putting damage into the target. The only real risk is if you come up against someone who rolls hot on their invulnerable saves, as they don't have a whole lot of shots. The redemptors do a good job filling in there, and there isn't exactly a high volume s12 gun hiding on something that I could be taking instead.

Jack's 2000 point Imperial Fists army on his display board from the Tacoma Open 2023.

What's Next

Key takeaways from my weekend:

Terminators go away
Intercessors go away
Brutalis goes away
Desolation marines GREAT
Heavy Intercessors surprisingly great

With that in mind, I'm bumping the desolation squad up to a full 10 models, and sticking a primaris apothecary with bolter discipline in there. There were a couple times when they just barely didn't clear something, so this'll give them the power to take out almost anything. I think a third redemptor is going to play better than a third ballistus, and after that swap I end up with 280 points to play with. One of my bigger weaknesses was being able to cross the board, whether to threaten units in my opponent's deployment zone or to score Engage on All Fronts. I'm adding in a unit of inceptors here to help with that (probably with plasma), and then the remaining points go to a thunderstrike speeder which can both help me knock out knights and give me another quick unit.

Jack's next list

Tacoma v3 (1995 points)
Space Marines
Imperial Fists
Strike Force (2000 points)
Gladius Task Force


CHARACTER


Primaris Apothecary (80 points)
• Warlord
• 1x Absolvor bolt pistol
1x Close combat weapon
1x Reductor pistol
• Enhancement: Bolter Discipline


Primaris Techmarine (65 points)
• 1x Forge bolter
1x Grav-pistol
1x Omnissian power axe
1x Servo-arm


BATTLELINE


Heavy Intercessor Squad (110 points)
• 1x Heavy Intercessor Sergeant
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Close combat weapon
1x Heavy bolt rifle
• 4x Heavy Intercessor
• 4x Bolt pistol
4x Close combat weapon
3x Heavy bolt rifle
1x Heavy bolter


Heavy Intercessor Squad (110 points)
• 1x Heavy Intercessor Sergeant
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Close combat weapon
1x Heavy bolt rifle
• 4x Heavy Intercessor
• 4x Bolt pistol
4x Close combat weapon
3x Heavy bolt rifle
1x Heavy bolter


OTHER DATASHEETS


Ballistus Dreadnought (170 points)
• 1x Armoured feet
1x Ballistus lascannon
1x Ballistus missile launcher
1x Twin storm bolter


Ballistus Dreadnought (170 points)
• 1x Armoured feet
1x Ballistus lascannon
1x Ballistus missile launcher
1x Twin storm bolter


Desolation Squad (340 points)
• 1x Desolation Sergeant
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Castellan launcher
1x Close combat weapon
1x Vengor launcher
• 9x Desolation Marine
• 9x Bolt pistol
9x Castellan launcher
9x Close combat weapon
9x Superkrak rocket launcher


Inceptor Squad (115 points)
• 1x Inceptor Sergeant
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Plasma exterminators
• 2x Inceptor
• 2x Close combat weapon
2x Plasma exterminators


Redemptor Dreadnought (225 points)
• 1x Icarus rocket pod
1x Macro plasma incinerator
1x Onslaught gatling cannon
1x Redemptor fist
1x Twin storm bolter


Redemptor Dreadnought (225 points)
• 1x Icarus rocket pod
1x Macro plasma incinerator
1x Onslaught gatling cannon
1x Redemptor fist
1x Twin storm bolter


Redemptor Dreadnought (225 points)
• 1x Icarus rocket pod
1x Macro plasma incinerator
1x Onslaught gatling cannon
1x Redemptor fist
1x Twin storm bolter


Storm Speeder Thunderstrike (160 points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Stormfury missiles
1x Thunderstrike las-talon
1x Twin Icarus rocket pod

It'll be a little bit before I've got everything painted up, but it'll be an interesting evolution of the current list. I'm hopeful I'll be able to use it at the Grand Narrative this year, things could always go in a very different way depending on what the rules pack for that looks like.