Alejandro Garcia’s 6-0 World Eaters took the There Is Only War V army lists crown by scoring 100 in all six rounds.
Going 6-0 at a 52-player Major is hard enough. Doing it without ever dropping below the max score is something else, and that’s exactly what Garcia pulled off at Gamers Guild AZ North in Phoenix over September 19-20. Plus, the closest anyone got to him all weekend was Killian Minton’s 70 in round 3, which still ended 100-70.
Sure, it’s still the early days for 11th Edition, so a Major result this lopsided carries more weight than usual. And if you remember last year’s There Is Only War IV lists, things look very different this time around.
There Is Only War V: Top 3 Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- Alejandro Garcia’s World Eaters went 6-0 and scored 100 in all six rounds: Angron led three character-backed Berzerker squads, and the last two wins came over the players who finished second and third.
- Jason McKenzie’s Retaliation Cadre T’au took second at 5-1 with a battlesuit-heavy list: Farsight, two more Commanders, two Riptides, and The Twin Lance won three games by 13 battle points or less.
- Travis Finell’s Deathwatch took third at 5-1 by stacking Veteran squads behind character leaders: His Bastion Task Force list won five straight before running into Garcia in the final round.
Thanks to Best Coast Pairings, we can walk back through the whole event with real pairings and battle point data.
Berzerker Warband World Eaters Scored 100 in Every Single Round
Garcia’s plan is about as subtle as a chainaxe to the face: put more angry bodies into the middle of the table than the other person can deal with, then keep showing up with more.
Berzerker Warband Roster Breakdown
The core here is three 10-man Khorne Berzerker squads, and each one comes with its own character. Khârn with one, Lord Invocatus with another, and a Master of Executions carrying the Berzerker Glaive enhancement leads the third. Plus two Chaos Rhinos can give a couple of those a ride too.
Then there’s Angron as Warlord, which gives opponents a Primarch-sized problem on top of the Berzerkers. Two units of Eightbound add even more fast melee, so the board fills up with threats that pretty much all want the same thing.
The support crew might not be as interesting, but they’re what scores. Three units of Jakhals are cheap bodies for screening and grabbing objectives, and three units of two Chaos Spawn fill the fast-flanking role. Garcia’s own BCP list note says he almost left the Spawn at home until a friend reminded him how nasty three 24″ Spawn units are to deal with.
How Berzerker Warband Wins the Scoreboard
Round by round, it went 100-55 over Imperial Agents, 100-60 over Sororitas, 100-70 over Aeldari, and 100-55 in a World Eaters mirror. So four games in, nobody had even made it close.
Then came the wild part: Garcia beat Jason McKenzie 100-16 in round 5 and Travis Finell 100-16 in round 6, which means the players who finished second and third each took their only loss to him, and by the same margin.
Retaliation Cadre T’au Won the Close Games With Battlesuits
McKenzie brought the exact opposite of Garcia’s army, a T’au list built on battlesuits and guns at 1,995 points. And it’s no surprise he finished 5-1, because honestly, this list kept winning games. For the rules side of this list, our T’au 11th Edition detachments breakdown covers it.
Retaliation Cadre Roster Breakdown
Three Commanders sit at the heart of it. The Warlord is a Commander in an Enforcer Battlesuit with a Starflare Ignition System, leading a Crisis Fireknife team. A Coldstar Commander with a Prototype Weapon System leads Crisis Starscythes, and Commander Farsight leads a second Starscythe unit. That’s a lot of battlesuits dropping into the same fight.
Behind them, the Twin Lance, two Riptides with ion accelerators, and a Ghostkeel bring the big guns.
The rest of the list is the stuff that makes the guns work. Two Pathfinder Teams (one with rail rifles, one with ion rifles), a Firesight Team, two Stealth Battlesuit teams, Piranhas, and a Vespid unit give McKenzie spotters, screens, and bodies to score with.
How Retaliation Cadre Wins the Tight Games
The blowouts were there, 100-41 over Space Marines and 100-44 over Black Templars. But the wins that got him to second were the close ones: 86-73 over Grey Knights, 83-73 over Necrons, and 91-80 over Black Templars in the last round.
That’s three wins by 13 battle points or less, and the only loss was the 100-16 to Garcia. McKenzie didn’t just shoot people off the table; he out-scored good opponents when it mattered.
Bastion Task Force Deathwatch Stacked Veterans Behind Its Characters
Finell’s 2,000-point Deathwatch list mixes Bastion Task Force with Librarius Conclave, and it plays like a wall of armored Veterans with a character stuck to almost every squad.
Bastion Task Force Roster Breakdown
The list includes five Deathwatch Veteran squads: two at 10 models and three at 5. The Warlord is a Librarian with Temporal Corridor, attached to one of the 10-man squads, and three Lieutenants with power fists lead three of the others. That’s a lot of characters making sure the Veterans hit hard and stay put.
Two Fortis Kill Teams each carry their own Librarian (one with Fussilade, the other with Hero of the Chapter), which turns them into a second line of shooting and psychic support. Plus, two Rhinos give some of that infantry a ride.
Then the utility models fill the gaps. Two units of Jump Pack Assault Intercessors, a unit of Incursors, and two units of Inquisitorial Agents give Finell cheap bodies to move onto objectives and screen out deep strikes, etc.
How Bastion Task Force Wins the Grind
Finell opened 100-32 over Aeldari, 95-42 over Sororitas, and 87-67 over Tyranids, then beat Black Templars 100-38 in round 4.
Round 5 was the nail-biter, a 93-88 win over Terek Haehl’s Necrons. Haehl finished seventh, and his only two losses came against McKenzie and Finell. Then Finell ran into Garcia in round 6 and lost 100-16, the same score McKenzie took the round before.
Five straight wins, though, almost brought it to the top.
Final Thoughts on the There Is Only War V Army Lists & the Warhammer 40k Meta
A melee-first World Eaters list scoring the max in all six games at an early 11th Edition Major is the kind of result that shows up on every player’s radar.
So, we’d expect Berzerker Warband lists to start appearing a lot more, and it’ll be interesting to see if anyone brings a real answer to three character-led Berzerker bricks plus Angron. Compare it with the Lone Star Open 2026 lists and Commencing Armageddon results, and you can really see how the top-end of the meta is shaping up.
Behind the podium, the rest of the top 8 is worth a look too. Two Ork lists finished fifth and sixth, Chaos Space Marines took fourth, and Purge the Foe was the Disposition on half of the top 8, including both of the top two. If that pattern keeps showing up, we’ll know pretty fast whether Phoenix was a one-off or an indicator of the early 40k meta overall.
🔗 Related Reads:
- How to Play World Eaters
- How to Play T’au Empire
- 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
Is Berzerker Warband the list to beat in 11th Edition, or did Garcia just play it perfectly?
