Kasper Wennerby’s 5-0 T’au Empire took the Gulf Tournament Circuit: Dubai army lists crown with a list name that pretty much said it all.
Sometimes the list name tells you everything you need to know about an army before you start playing. Kasper Wennerby called his T’au army “V7.2 I didnt feel like learning new rules,” brought it to the region’s first 11th Edition event, and went 5-0 without dropping a game. That hits harder than another win-rate meta write-up, mostly because a lot of hobbyists have probably been thinking the same thing since the new edition landed.
And before anyone calls it a rulebook protest, the list itself says otherwise. Kasper ran Advanced Acquisition Cadre alongside Retaliation Cadre, which only works because the 11th Edition rules let players spend detachment points on two detachments. So the name is funny, but the list is still built around the new system. He just picked the tools he wanted and ignored the rest of the early meta nonsense.
The rest of the podium backs up how open things still look now, too. Emperor’s Children and Necrons finished second and third, giving us three different factions with three very different plans. So, for anyone checking where the factions sit in the meta, that kind of spread this early usually means nobody has fully cracked the format yet.
Gulf Tournament Circuit Dubai: Top 3 Warhammer 40k Army Lists
Updated on July 9th 2026, by Rob Baer with the latest army list meta from the event
- Kasper Wennerby went 5-0 with a T’au list named after skipping the new edition rules: he still used the new dual-detachment system to pair Advanced Acquisition Cadre with Retaliation Cadre.
- Mido Alturki took second on Emperor’s Children and dropped only one game all event: Lucius the Eternal and two Defilers carried a Purge the Foe build to a 4-1 finish.
- Remco Hentzepeter grabbed third with a Necrons Wraith list built around the Nightbringer: two six-model Canoptek bricks and Awakened Dynasty reanimation ground the field down to 4-1.
Thanks to Best Coast Pairings, we can look through the event with real pairings and battle point data.
Update: Mido, Matt, and Terry actually tied, and their records should be 4-0-1 and 3-1-1, respectively.
Kasper Wennerby’s Advanced Acquisition Cadre T’au Took the Crown on Board Control
Kasper’s list looks like a player running the models he already knows well with two Riptides, a Ghostkeel working the flanks, Farsight up front, and Kroot doing the thankless job of keeping enemy units off the objectives.
Advanced Acquisition Cadre Roster Breakdown
The character package is where the list gets much of its overall punch from, though. Farsight keeps the battlesuit side of the army humming, while a Coldstar Commander and the Warlord in an Enforcer Battlesuit with Starflare Ignition System bring the speed. The Twin Lance adds another mobile gun platform to the pile, so there is already a lot of ranged output before the big centerpieces show up.
The Crisis Starscythe and Sunforge teams round out the suit count, while the Kroot Trail Shaper and Carnivores give Kasper cheap bodies for screens and objective play.
Three Pathfinder Teams, two Stealth teams, Vespid, and a Piranha finish the list with speed and board presence. It is one of the more disciplined winning army lists from the weekend, honestly. It can shoot, obviously, but the real win condition is taking space and making opponents fight through layers to get it back.
How Advanced Acquisition Cadre Wins the Board
The 5-0 run was never really in danger. Kasper posted scores in the high 90s, which is what it looks like when the matchups are always under control.
The Kroot and Pathfinders handle the dirty work of holding ground while the suits delete anything that tries to push in. With Reconnaissance, he also keeps scoring while the guns do the rest. So, across five rounds, nobody found a better answer.
Mido Alturki’s Coterie of the Conceited Emperor’s Children Dropped Just One Game
Mido went full Emperor’s Children and almost ran the whole event. He had Lucius the Eternal lead the charge, backed by a pair of Daemon Princes and two Defilers doing the heavy lifting.
Coterie of the Conceited Roster Breakdown
Lucius has the Warlord tag and rides with a unit of Flawless Blades, which is exactly the kind of melee package nobody wants touching their lines. Two Lord Exultants each join a brick of Infractors, giving Mido three attached units moving up the board at once.
The fast damage comes from two winged Daemon Princes of Slaanesh. One carries Pledge of Unholy Fortune, helping it stick around once it commits. Plus, the two Defilers are the big curveball, since plenty of Emperor’s Children lists skip those hulking gun-walkers entirely.
Tormentors, a Chaos Rhino, Chaos Spawn, and a second unit of Flawless Blades fill out the rest. Overall, it’s a Purge the Foe build that wants to score points off kills.
How Coterie of the Conceited Wins the Damage Race
The only “loss” came in round one, which was actually a tie, to be fair. Mido scored 64, took the hit, then won four straight games after that, including two full 100-point rounds.
That is Emperor’s Children doing, well, Emperor’s Children things. Once the engine starts moving, the speed and melee pressure get ugly fast. Plus, the Defilers also make it harder for opponents to sit back and pretend range is a safe place to hide.
Remco Hentzepeter’s Awakened Dynasty Necrons Ground Their Way to Third
Remco brought the hardest army list to move off the table with two six-model Canoptek Wraith units, with the Nightbringer in the middle, and enough reanimation support to make every trade feel miserable.
Awakened Dynasty Roster Breakdown
The core here, though, is the two Wraith units. Each one has a Technomancer, with one carrying Veil of Darkness for a teleport play and the other carrying the Nether-realm Casket. Twelve Wraiths is a lot of tarpit, and they even hit back, which is worse!
Nekrosor Ammentar takes the Warlord slot alongside a C’tan Shard of the Nightbringer, which is never a model opponents enjoy trying to remove. A Skorpekh Lord leads Skorpekh Destroyers as the melee hammer, while a Lokhust Lord supports the shooting pieces behind them.
Finally, Lokhust Destroyers, a Triarch Stalker, a Canoptek Reanimator, and Flayed Ones close out one of the nastier Necrons builds at the event.
How Awakened Dynasty Wins the Attrition Game
Remco’s 4-1 run held strong until the final round. He won his first four games, including two max-score 100-point rounds, before taking the round-five loss. Take and Hold fits this army perfectly: park the Wraiths on objectives and make the opponent deal with them.
Awakened Dynasty is built around getting models back up, so every dead Necron might just become a problem all over again. It is a slow, punishing way to win games, and it was enough to put Remco on the podium.
Final Thoughts on the Gulf Tournament Circuit Dubai Army Lists & the 11th Edition Meta
If there is a lesson to learn here from a 5-0 list called “I didnt feel like learning new rules,” it’s that reps still beat panic-building. Kasper did not cram a fresh netlist the night before. He took units he knew, fit them into the new detachment framework, and let practice carry the rest.
So, for anyone worried the new edition wrecked their collection, that may not be the case, even after the latest balance dataslate.
Three different factions on the podium this early say the 11th edition meta still has plenty of room to wiggle, though. Plus, the dual-detachment builds are worth watching as more events roll in, because right now the strongest tech on the table still looks a lot like knowing exactly what your army is supposed to do no matter the edition.
🔗 Related Reads:
- How to Play T’au Empire
- How to Play Emperor’s Children
- How to Play Necrons
- Top Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- More Top Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- 40k Tournament Guide
- Warhammer 40k Factions Guide
- Latest 40k Balance Dataslate
Which of these Gulf Tournament Circuit Dubai army lists would you actually run at your next event?
