What Does The Latest Top 5 GT Lists Say About 40k?

By Horton Doughton | December 7th, 2015 | Categories: Grand Tournament, Tactics, Warhammer Army Lists

Can you guess what won? Come see the top 5 army lists and break down’s from the first Grand Tournament in Atlanta in nearly 10 years!

Warzone: Atlanta has come and gone. Let’s take some time to break down the top 5 Battle Point lists from the event.

Will Bundy: 119/165 Battle Points
Eldar CAD 1

Baharroth

3 Bikes with shuriken cannons

Wraithknight, 2 Heavy D cannons

Jetbike Farseer

Eldar CAD2

Autarch, Swooping Hawk Wings

3 Bikes

Aspect Host

5 Swooping Hawks

5 Warp Spyders

Seer Council

2 Farseers

8 Warlocks

This is a mobile army with a ton of psychic dice that power up the seer council to be nearly invulnerable. It also has lots of highly mobile objective secured units as well as a good amount of firepower and a wraithknight. I can see exactly why this list did so well.

Horton Doughton: 122/165 Battle Points

Khorne Daemonkin CAD
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage, Warlord
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage
8 Bloodletters
8 Bloodletters
Rhino, Dozerblade
Rhino, Dozerblade
6 Flesh Hounds
Gorepack
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flesh Hounds
3 Chaos Bikes, Melta bombs
3 Chaos Bikes, Melta bombs
Gorepack
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flesh Hounds
3 Chaos Bikes, Melta bombs
3 Chaos Bikes, Melta bombs

Overwhelming MSU assault backed up by 2 heavy hitting Bloodthirsters with Strength D. It is proving to be a powerful combo. The big thing this army does is get board control, which really helped in a tournament with so many objective based missions. MSU plus the amazing benefits of blood points really power this army up to engage almost anything, even the dreaded eldar can be in trouble. It is the only list in the top 5 that gets all of its work done with just assault.

Justin Pizzoferrato: 124/165 Battle Points

Space Marines Clan Raukaan CAD:

Chapter Master, Bike, Artificer Armor, Gorgon Chain, Lightning Claw, Power Fist

Techmarine, Bike

Bike Command Squad, 4 Grav Guns, Apothecary, 2 Stormshields, 2 Melta bombs

10 Scouts with Bolters

Drop Pod

3 Grav Centurions

Assasin Detachment

Culexus assassin

DA Allied Detachment

Sammael, Jetbike

10 Scouts with Bolters

A durable and very fast biker unit with grav and anti psyker support. This list is a great combo of mobile troops, hard hitting assault, and good firepower, and the drop pods let this list put that firepower right where it is needed. It is interesting to me that this kind of list is in the top 5, but a more powerful biker star unit is not.

Mike Twitchell: 148/165 Battle Points

Eldar CAD:

Autarch, Swooping Hawk Wings

3 Scatter Bikes

Wraithknight, 2 scatter lasers, Sword and Shield

Aspect Host

5 Swooping Hawks, 1 Exarch

Aspect Host

5 Swooping Hawks, 1 Exarch

Aspect Host

5 Swooping Hawks, 1 Exarch

Don’t let the swooping hawks fool you, this is a ridiculously shooty and mobile eldar army. As is the theme, mobile Objective secured is the winner here, and the ability to collapse a flank with 54 swooping hawks is incredible. That also means 54 haywire grenades, so armor is a joke against this list.

Price Wilkes: 149/165 Battle Points

Eldar CAD:

Autarch, Warp Jump Generator, fusion gun

5 Wraithguard

3 Scatter bikes

Wraithknight, Ghostglaive and Scattershield

Dark Eldar Allied Detachment

Archon, Webway portal

5 Warriors

Venom

Eldar CAD

Farseer, Jetbike

3 Scatter Bikes

Aspect Host

4 Fire Fragons, 1 exarch

4 Warp Spyders, 1 exarch

Yet again, we see an insanely shooty eldar army with extreme mobility, and some psyker support.

What does this mean for 7th ed 40k? As much as I hate to admit it, Eldar are clearly the most powerful codex, getting 1st,2nd, and 5th at the GT. Now, Price, Twtich, and Will all had tough games that were very close, but it is easy to see the power of eldar here. But, as we can see from the Space Marine and Khorne Daemonkin armies, there are still other very powerful codex builds out there. Eldar are not unstoppable, they are just very good.

Another main theme in the top 5 is MSU and speed. ALL lists could break apart into many fast units that could cover the board and get control of the table. MSU does seem to be edging out the deathstar builds, but Will Bundy’s list was a deathstar build that had lots of support, and Justin’s list was a mini-deathstar with support, so there still seems to be a tactical advantage to a large unit that is tough to deal with.

That being said, the real winner in all 5 lists is mobility. Each list can be ridiculously fast and every player seems to have figured out how to take the most advantage of the movement phase.

So there you have it! The top 5 armies from Warzone Atlanta! You may be seeing these lists again at Southern or National Events, so watch out!