Knights and Death Guard are crushing 40k events, and tournaments are bringing restrictions to balance the meta until GW steps in.
The Warhammer 40k meta right now is like watching a runaway train; impressive, terrifying, and a little exhausting. Death Guard, once the tough “smelly boys” of the tabletop, have charged straight to the top with a staggering 18 event wins and a 9% player share. They’re not just surviving; they’re turning every game into a slow, toxic grind their opponents can’t escape.
Then you’ve got Imperial Knights and Chaos Knights, matching each other blow for blow with 10 event wins apiece and win rates over 55%. In other words, they’re stomping across the battlefield like it’s their personal catwalk, and everyone else is just set dressing.
Here’s what’s happening now.
Why Events Are Throwing the Ban Hammer
With this kind of dominance, it’s no surprise that some tournaments have had enough. Enter Hellstorm Wargaming, who’s decided that if Games Workshop won’t fix the problem fast, they’ll just fix it themselves. Their new rules aren’t about destroying these factions, just trimming the sharp edges that keep cutting everyone else out of contention.
For Knights, that means a “rule of one” on anything that isn’t a Wardog or Armiger. Say goodbye to spamming double Questoris Knights; variety is now mandatory.
For Death Guard, it’s a “rule of two” for all non-battleline units. So no more triple Lords of Contagion, Deathshroud blobs, and Bloat-drone spam in the same list. Oh, and they can’t just plug the gap with Chaos Knights either.
A Pattern We’ve Seen Before
This isn’t the first time the competitive scene has taken matters into its own hands. Back in 9th edition, Leagues of Votann were benched by multiple events until GW dropped an emergency change. Aeldari have also had their turn in the naughty corner.
Maybe most notably, and recently, the Orks More Dakka was banned pretty much everywhere. Now it’s Death Guard and Knights’ time under the microscope, and history says these bans might possibly push GW into an emergency dataslate. Or at the very least, a points update.
Final Thoughts From Us
We think the bans are only a temporary plaster on a much deeper issue. When the game reaches the point where event organizers have to enforce house rules just to keep things interesting, that’s a clear sign the meta’s gone stale. Players don’t want to show up to an event where half the tables are running the exact same lists.
A real fix would mean points adjustments and proper rules changes. Until then, expect more events to join the movement, because no one wants another season where a handful of armies are playing an entirely different edition than everyone else.
See the Best and Worst Armies in the 40k Meta Right Now
I personally think it’s rather childish. Banning these 2/3 army lists or putting extreme limitations to what you can field to an event. So what if someone can read the rules and find things in them that gives their armies an advantage over the others. That’s called reading the rules. I don’t care about all that. I only read the rules for the unit structure for modeling. It’s just sad that those that can read them and find ways to make best use of different things in those written rules are the ones being penalized. To me, the nerfs/buffs given after a codex is published mean absolutely nothing to me. It’s GW curating to the losers. And seeing those 3 codex published roughly a year within 11th ed coming out, of course they will be more powerful.
All that said, I guess I will be looking to build a massive Plague Marines and Chaos Knights army list just to see what all the crying is about. 4 Q Knights and 9 Wardog Knights would be a sight next to DG.
I find this hilarious because I just started back in 40K last year (as a former 2nd edition Space Marine player who quit during 5th edition) and I started playing Death Guard because I thought they were cool looking and fun to paint even though they were the army that always lost
I do not care about the Meta, I care about having fun with my friends.
Nerf us. Don’t care.
For what its worth, I think you’re doing it “right” lol.