Ashley Brown’s Salamanders took the Napalm Hobbies Summer GT army lists crown as one of three 4-1 finishers, separated by battle points alone.
You don’t see Salamanders sitting on top of a GT very often, so Ashley Brown’s Vulkan list winning the Napalm Hobbies Summer GT is worth checking out. The event had 28 players, in five rounds of 11th Edition, and all three armies on the podium finished 4-1.
Battle points once again decided the final order, which gives us a pretty useful snapshot of what early 11th Edition looks like alongside the rest of the Warhammer 40k tournament army lists we’ve been tracking so far.
There are a couple of things that stand out from this event right away: two of the top three lists brought a Librarius Conclave and stacked up the psykers, while the odd one out was an Emperor’s Children speed list that just kept scoring.
Salamanders showing up here isn’t completely out of nowhere, but it has been a while since they also did much of anything competitively.
Napalm Hobbies Summer GT: Top 3 Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- Ashley Brown’s Salamanders won the Napalm Hobbies Summer GT with a Vulkan-led fire-and-melta list: he finished 4-1, with his only loss coming in round three.
- All three podium lists finished 4-1, so battle points decided the final standings: nobody at the top made it through undefeated.
- Two of the top three used a Librarius Conclave and brought a pile of Librarians: NERF alert? Psykers are already doing real work in early 11th.
Thanks to Best Coast Pairings, we can go back through the event using real pairings and battle point data.
Ashley Brown’s Forgefather’s Seekers Salamanders Cooked the Whole Field
Ashley Brown built this list around a pretty straightforward idea: get close and make Toughness stop mattering. His Forgefather’s Seekers brought a Librarius Conclave alongside Vulkan He’stan as Warlord, with the whole army leaning hard into flamers, melta, and getting those weapons where they need to be.
Forgefather’s Seekers Roster Breakdown
From the top, two Land Raider Redeemers carry a lot of the workload, moving bodies into position while a ten-man Terminator squad with a Librarian in Terminator Armor takes over the middle. Vulkan boosts the flamer and melta side of the army, so Ashley backed him up with four Infernus squads, plus a Gravis Captain running with the Aggressors.
Then the Librarius Conclave gives the list a little more pizzazz than simply driving forward and setting things on fire. The two Librarians add board control and re-roll support around the units that actually want to be in the middle. Finally, two multi-melta Land Speeders are there for anything tough enough to survive the rest, and some scouts (just because).
How Forgefather’s Seekers Win the Attrition War
Ashley scored 100 points in three of his five rounds, so the plan clearly worked more often than not. The army wants to take the middle of the table, while having enough durability to sit there, and brings a pile of flamers for anything that tries to push into it.
Round three was his only loss, where he still put up a respectable 88 points. So, staying that close, even in the loss, was clutch once the event came down to battle points.
Kieran Hatton’s Coterie of the Conceited Emperor’s Children Never Stopped Moving
Kieran Hatton brought the army that kept the Marine-heavy podium from turning into an all-Imperium affair. His Emperor’s Children ran the Coterie of the Conceited, finished 4-1, and did it with the fastest list among the top three.
Coterie of the Conceited Roster Breakdown
Starting off, Lucius the Eternal is the Warlord, while a winged Daemon Prince of Slaanesh gives the army another melee piece that can reach places Lucius can’t. Three Lord Exultants each lead a block of Infractors, giving Kieran three separate melee threats that can hit objectives and smash into whatever is sitting on them. Then, three Noise Marine squads handle the shooting.
A Defiler sits behind all that as the big gun, while two Tormentor squads and a pair of Chaos Rhinos help control the middle. Finally, a Chaos Spawn rounds things out wherever another cheap body is useful. If you missed where these detachments came from, we covered the new 11th Edition Emperor’s Children detachments when they arrived.
How Coterie of the Conceited Wins the Movement Phase
Kieran finished the event stronger than he started, scoring 89 and then 94 points in his last two rounds. Which is exactly what you’d expect from a list built around speed and pressure once it gets room to work.
Overall, the Emperor’s Children have already been showing they can hang in 11th Edition, and this result lines up with the Emperor’s Children army list that went undefeated at Salt City. Kieran’s only loss came in round three, where he still scored 86 points; then he won out from there.
Michael Sonsino’s Inner Circle Task Force Dark Angels Ground Down the Cut
Michael Sonsino finished third with the other Librarius Conclave list, this time built around Dark Angels and the Inner Circle Task Force. He also went 4-1, but his army got there in a very different way.
Inner Circle Task Force Roster Breakdown
Azrael takes the Warlord slot and, paired with that plasma unit, brings serious shooting, while the Lion Helm helps it deal with return fire. Meanwhile, Ezekiel runs with Bladeguard Veterans, Deathwing Knights bring the elite melee threat, and two units of Inner Circle Companions give the army more units for pushing onto objectives.
The Librarius Conclave shows up here with three Librarians adding even more psychic utility to an already durable Marine army. Two Impulsors move the Companions around, while a pair of Scout squads and an Invader ATV handle some of the early board work. It’s the kind of flexible Space Marine chapter list that has an answer in most phases.
How Inner Circle Task Force Wins the Late Rounds
Michael was the steadiest scorer of the three for most of the event because he opened with 100 points and didn’t drop below 75 until the final round.
That last game was also his only loss, where he scored 52. By that point, he had already done enough across the first four rounds to keep the podium spot via battlepoints. Overall, this Dark Angels army is a grinder list, and the scoring looked the same too.
Final Thoughts on the Napalm Hobbies Summer GT Army Lists & the Warhammer 40k Meta
The Napalm Hobbies Summer GT gives us another early look at 11th Edition, and Space Marines are doing just fine overall thanks to Librarius. At this point, stacking those psykers looks less like a gimmick and more like something players are getting real value from.
The other podium list went the opposite direction and leaned into Emperor’s Children speed instead. Nobody finished undefeated, though, and all three players ended on 4-1 before battle points separated them.
So, overall, that’s a much tighter finish than a tournament where one army simply rolls through everybody, and it leaves plenty of room for the next round of events to shake things up.
🔗 Related Reads:
- How to Play Salamanders
- How to Play Emperor’s Children
- Top Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- More Top Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- 40k Tournament Guide
- Warhammer 40k Factions Guide
- Latest 40k Balance Dataslate
- Munitorum Field Manual Points Updates
What do you think of the army lists that topped the Napalm Hobbies Summer GT?
