Now that we’ve seen the same top lists in tournaments, We thought it was the right time to finally talk about the winners and losers of 8th edition 40k.
And just like that, it’s time for another breakdown of the armies of 8th edition. The same lists are popping up no matter what competitive tournament you go to. It looks like the meta is at a standstill until more codexes drop and new units hit the shelves. So let’s look at some factions.
Imperial Guard-Winners
As it turns out, Imperial Guard can decimate anything they really want to on the tabletop. Space Marines are supposed to be the poster child of 40k but it looks like Imperial Guard is rising to the top in terms of popularity. Sure Guard have a lot of fire power, but the real strength comes in their points cost of units.
Guardsmen can field units with the same toughness characteristic, wounds, save, etc. for half the points of a Space Marine faction because they have a slightly worse Ballistic Skill. Guardsman can also farm CPs like no other faction. Combine cheap Battalions with Kurovs Aquila (and or Grand Strategist) and you’ve got enough fuel to last you the whole game. It’s not uncommon for Guard to have 10+ command points in a casual game where a Space Marine player may have 4-8.
Space Marine Characters-Winners
Space Marine Characters are powerhouses for their points. Chapter masters give a reroll aura and are usually complete beatsticks in combat. For example, “Slamguinius” is a Blood Angels Captain geared up with a Jump Pack, Thunder Hammer, and Storm Shield. Players can also give him things like the Black Rage and extra attacks ON TOP of the relic that he can take for free. all of this for around 130ish points.
Space Marines may be mid to low tier right now, but their characters have a lot to offer. Characters in Terminator armor are still viable even though Terminator armor has been completely gutted with the way AP and saves work in 8th edition.
Chaos Undivided-Winners
Okay so at the surface, of course, we know Chaos is fantastic. Cultist spam is something not many armies can deal with. But looking deeper into the way their keywords work make them so much more deadly. Imperial factions can’t even hope to compete with.
Remember all the Imperial and Chaos soup lists we were seeing at the start of 8th edition and then a FAQ came out that basically said <Chaos> and <Imperium> <etc.> couldn’t be the only keyword that was used to make a force battleforged?
Well, Chaos has a sneaky way around this. They still got affected by the FAQ but not quite like the Imperium did. A Chaos player can still toss out marks of the Chaos Gods to all the different units in his list and make sure they have the mark that makes them the most potent.
For example, Cultists and Obliterators can take the Mark of Slaanesh to they have the option to shoot again. In the same list, he can give his psykers the mark of Tzeentch. Then for survivability, give a Daemon Prince or two the Mark of Nurgle. Maybe even the mark of Khorne if he wants to use them like wrecking balls.
Bottom line is that Chaos has four unique options to buff up their army that the Imperium completely misses out on.
Imperial Knights-Winners
In the competitive scene, you can’t sneeze in the direction where a Knight isn’t. It looks like every single player is bringing AT LEAST one Knight. Some are even taking a combo of Armigers and Knights. With their new codex, out and power creep totally not being a thing (heavy sarcasm used here), they are a ridiculous force to go against.
As a side note, Knights may be very good but no one wants to go against multiple lords of war as a casual game at your local game store. So don’t do it.
Grey Knights-Losers
Rest in peace to all Grey Knight players. In a meta where CPs are getting into the 10-15+, you may have 4. In a meta where some players may have 200+ models on the table, you may have 30. If you can’t see a problem with these two numbers, you haven’t played much of 8th edition.
Grey Knights have some fantastic characters and back in the days of 6th and 7th edition, this army was actually scary. Thanks to the way armor saves and AP works now, the army that is almost entirely filled with terminator armor has been stomped into the ground.
Grey Knights have quickly become one of the most overcosted armies of 8th edition. We are guessing that the points are coming from the “psyker” ability everyone has. Even though all of the units may be psykers, it’s usually just a single mortal wound that a player can get out of it.
It’s actually somewhat surprising that GW hasn’t stepped in and done something to bring them back up to playability.
Necrons-Losers
Necrons don’t have it as bad as Grey Knights do but they definitely aren’t where they were back in 7th edition. It was pretty much impossible for Necrons to win a game in 8th edition before their codex came out. For whatever reason, Necrons aren’t fearless so you can blow through half of a blob of warriors to make them run away or force your opponent to spend two CP to keep them.
The codex definitely helped but it could’ve been a lot better. The codex did at least bring them up to playability with some of the best stratagems in the game. We also can’t forget about the Warlord Trait that makes them fearless. Bottom line is we aren’t saying the entire faction is bad. They sit about where Space marines sit. Both of the factions have a lot of units and Stratagems to choose from, but only a few are actually worth taking.
Most competitive lists we see for Necrons involve a swarm of Destroyers picking apart one target at a time, or three Tesseract Vaults spamming mortal wounds. There are definitely some other good unique lists out there, but those two are the most popular.
Orks and Space Wolves-TBA
Winners & Losers of 40k 8th Edition Right Now
There are still so many factions to cover to check back for more winners and losers in the future. We Could say that Orks and Space Wolves are losers as well but they haven’t gotten their codex yet. It just wouldn’t be fair comparing an army without a codex. It is safe to say that they got the short end of the stick for now. However, with the way power creep is going, we may see them shoot up to be some of the top armies. Only time will tell.
What do you think about some of the armies in 8th edition? What army do you play now? Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group.
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
