Scout shame

A list sporting a tonne of scouts came second at the Las Vegas Open and then did very well at Adepticon. These are big tournaments, and the list is really cool, so I thought I'd profile it.

SENTINELS OF TERRA CAD

Lysander
Scouts (10) with boltguns, sergeant has combi-grav
Scouts (10) with boltguns, sergeant has combi-grav
Scouts (10) with boltguns
Devastator Centurions with grav cannons, omniscope, missile launcher for sergeant (Elite slot)
Thunderfire Cannon
Devastator Squad with 4 lascannons
Devastator Squad with 4 lascannons

BLOOD ANGELS CAD
Mephiston
Librarian lvl2 with auspex, force staff, hood, veritas vitae
Scouts (6) with boltguns, sergeant has combi-grav
Command Squad with apothecary, champion, 3 melta guns, pod
Drop pod
Drop pod

1846 points

So how does this shit work? Lysander joins the command squad along with, I believe, Mephiston. This makes the command squad a fair beat stick, especially with the apothecary and company champion there (note that apothecaries and champions come free in blood angels command squads). I believe Lysander tanks wounds for them on the drop (during which they melta something), then Mephiston (and potentially Lysander) splits and goes after Knights and challenge targets. He has I6 STR10 force attacks and is really strong in challenges where the opponent doesn't have A2. He eats Knights. I think the other librarian goes with the Centurions and hopes for invisibility, which he can cast pretty well thanks to veritas vitae.

The thunderfire and devastators hold backfield objectives. The devastators can wittle wounds off Monstrous Creatures (MCs) and pop tanks, including wave serpents, through weight of high str low AP fire. When I first saw them I assumed Imperial Fists tactics (which makes devastators really quite good), but then I saw he was using Sentinels of Terra tactics (to get the Centurions in an elite slot and make the scouts quite lethal against other infantry), so nope.

While the enemy is dealing with the two drop pods full of nastiness that come in turn 1 the scouts can infiltrate onto objectives or slowly make their way on through outflank to claim maelstrom points. Sentinels of Terra tactics (re-roll all misses with bolter weapons at half range) makes for a reasonable alpha strike from infiltrate against infantry, but my recent experience with scouting Raven Guard tells me this isn't worth much. Still, makes them very reliable against genestealers, guard blobs, jetbikes, space marine bikes etc. In cover, which is abundant at LVO and Adepticon, they are really hard to remove because of T4 and probably a 3++ cover save (go to ground), and they are super cheap. I presume he combat squads them. You have to expend quite a lot of firepower to remove a unit that costs 55 points from an objective, which is inefficient. I don't know what the thinking is behind the grav-guns. They seem like the best options alongside flamers for a squad that can't bring a lot of heat - at least they get 3 shots. But what is the intended target? Maybe they are just used to concussion things before the special melee characters arrive.

Note that the third drop pod was usually empty as I understand it. He would just drop it on an objective at the start of turn 2.

So the list is basically a combination of some nasty distractions that can net kill points, plus a tonne of cheap, precision scouts for scoring Maelstrom objectives. What a funky list! I can't imagine it is easy to play but it is clearly extremely good.