Don’t miss the top six Warhammer 40k army lists that are proving to be nigh unbeatable in tournaments this month! Where is the meta at now?
40k seems to have never been more competitive. Check out these lists and what they brought to events over the weekend, for a closer look at the meta. We’ll be going over the 1st place army lists from across multiple events.
Thanks to Best Coast Pairings, we can look back at the events as if we were there ourselves.
1st Place Beef & Wing Brawl: Chaos- TJ Lanigan
In this list, the classic Daemon package was mixed in with some Blightlord Terminators. Plaguebearers were beefed up with cherry-picked Nurgle characters and held objectives all game. Meanwhile, the Horrors were able to throw down some serious Daemonic firepower and added some speed to the list. Ahriman led some Daemon Princes in a Supreme Command detachment for a mean psychic phase.
And lastly, a massive squad of Blightlord Terminators were fielded. These guys are really slow so they were probably deepstriked in on turn 2 to peel screens back or secure objectives up the field. All in all, this is a great twist to the classic Daemon package we’ve been seeing come in 1st place over and over. We’re sure we will continue to see more of it until it gets nerfed.
1st Place Hooded Goblin GT: Dark Eldar- Ridvan Martinez
There’s a lot to cover in this list. Jumping right in, the first detachment was a simple Spearhead loaded with Disintegrator Ravagers and Razorwings. This list was meant to drop any kind of enemy armor at all costs. With over 10 different Disintegrator Cannons in one detachment, even a Knight with a 3++ invulnerable would have a hard time staying alive.
For the second detachment, just a cheap Battalion was brought along for the CP with Wyches forcing things into combat with them.
And finally, a huge Battalion loaded to the brim with Kabalite Warriors and Venoms were brought along. These guys were in the perfect position to grab objectives and intercept any kind of fast enemy unit that might have been trying to slip by on the table.
While Dark Eldar lists have been all over the meta, we haven’t seen one quite like this. It harkens back to the start of 8th edition when Ravager spam was pretty common. But we’ve never seen this many Troops used as the backbone to the list. Great job!
1st Place Amiable Bright Kelowna GT: Orks- Scott De Wynter-Wilkie
The classic Evil Sunz Boyz package made up almost half of this list. With the fastest Boyz in the business, they ran straight towards combat being led by a Warboss on a Warbike and a Weirdboy with Da Jump.
Next, there was a cheaper Battalion with a Dread Waaagh! Vigilus formation. The Big Mek brought along the special souped-up Shokk Attack gun that’s honestly too good not to take. A squad of 15 Lootas hid behind some Gretchin and a Blastajet supported whatever was in the thick of battle. It also put one some great turn one pressure in case the Boyz from Da Jump didn’t make the charge.
Finally, a cheap Battalion was thrown together for the extra CP and two Dakkajets flew ahead with the Blastajet to pepper any kind of screens there might be.
1st Place War in the Burg: Chaos- Austin Wingfield
This list essentially runs the classic Daemon package with a Chaos Marine twist. Ahriman, a Master of Executions, a Sorcerer, and Morty all rolled into one mixed Supreme command detachment for a cherry-picked ball of goodness.
Moving onto the classic Daemon package we were talking about, two big squads of Plaguebearers acted like screens and nigh unkillable objective grabbers. The Horrors were a faster unit that could apply some decent dice rolling in the shooting phase. Lastly, three Lord Discordants were brought along in a second Supreme Command detachment. They didn’t have any Daemon Engines to buff besides themselves but they slap so hard in combat that they didn’t need them.
It’s easy to see the main function of this list. Important characters hid behind Plaguebearer screens while Morty acted like the wrecking ball he is. Once the enemy was close enough, the Lord Discos went to town.
1st Place Terracon: Dark Eldar- Gabe Dellolio
In this list, four whole squads of Kabalite Warriors loaded into a Battalion snagged a ride with three Venoms. The odd one out probably just sat on an objective in the deployment. Venoms are a cheap and fast way to snag the objectives early before the enemy does. Plus, they can tie up things in combat pretty well in the first few turns.
As for the main fighting force of the army, three more squads of Kabalite Warriors made up a Battalion with some Archons. Oh, and every single Disintegrator Cannon known to man was brought out of the armory. Six Ravagers and Raiders were all decked out with Disintegrators to pop any enemy armor the enemy thought they’d keep.
Finally, for some early pressure to pair with the Venoms, three Craftworld Crimson Hunter Exarchs were taken with two Bright Lances a piece. Bright Lances paired with the Disitengrators just made the enemy armor column’s day even worse.
Honestly, we may be at the start of another meta shift. With Dark Eldar’s ability to spam such high strength-multi damage weapons, we could see Knights start to sit back on the shelves as the Imperium rethinks their strategy.
1st Place Slagcon: Imperium- Rune Kappel
Last on the list of meta stompers is a mixed Imperial list. Three Tank Commanders were the backbone of some heavy firepower leading a Battalion of Guard loaded with a Bullgryn buff-ball. Bullgryns with supporting character buffs from the Astropaths and Priest turned them into a melee blackhole. The best way to deal with Bullgryn that get buffed to Super Saiyan status is to honestly ignore them or mortal wound them to death. Note that this player also spent -1CP on the Vigilus Emperor’s Tank Company formation.
A second Guard Battalion fielded enough mortars to clear any kind of screens for the Bullgryn to get through and punch the key threat. Supporting all of that, a Battalion of Blood Angels came to play with two Slam Captains taking command. To help counter whatever kind of enemy list this army was facing, enough points were set aside to pull the ol’ Assassinorum hat trick Stratagem. At the start of the game, this player could pick any kind of Assassin he wanted to help in the fight. This is basically an auto-include for any Imperium list. Great job!
And there you have it! Six total lists that went undefeated overall in 40k’s most competitive meta. What do you think about these lists? Have you put your own twist on something similar? Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group.
About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials: @RealmbrushPainting
About Wesley Floyd: Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He is known for his satirist takes on trending topics and imaginative yet amazingly affordable hobby solutions to painting Warhammer miniatures.
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4. If you like what he writes and want to contact him or have your tabletop minatures painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
