Hunter Spakes’s 6-0 Leagues of Votann took the 2026 Central Arkansas GT crown over Necrons, Grey Knights, and a top 8 with zero repeat factions.
Eight different factions on eight different detachments filled the Central Arkansas top 8. At a 6-round 40k tournament in 2026, that’s not a meta anyone can call locked-down with a straight face.
Spakes’s Oathband Leagues of Votann ran the table at 6-0, followed by Heath Shepherd’s Cursed Legion, and Taylor Barger’s Sanctic Spearhead Grey Knights closed the podium at 3rd. Sisters Bringers of Flame, Imperial Knights Questoris Companions, Chaos Daemons Scintillating Legion, Dark Angels Bastion Task Force, and Adeptus Custodes Solar Spearhead all filled the rest of the top 8.
Honestly, Oathband Votann and Cursed Legion Necrons are the two detachments worth studying first. Spakes’s win is the biggest Votann result since the faction took down Invasion in 2024, and the top Warhammer 40k army lists behind him give you a real cross-section of what’s actually working at GT level right now.
Central Arkansas GT: Top 3 Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- Eight different factions on eight different detachments: The Central Arkansas top 8 didn’t repeat a single army at the top.
- Three Land Fortresses plus three Thunderkyn squads is the heaviest Votann gunline anyone’s brought to a GT this year: Spakes’s 6-0 with 111 BP says the chassis stays on the table.
Use these winning armies to sharpen your own lists alongside the latest balance dataslate updates and points changes.
Thanks to Best Coast Pairings, we can walk back through the whole event with real pairings and battle point data. Plus, click this special promo link to save $20 on a year’s BCP subscription. And if you want to take your competitive game further, consider applying to Team USA to compete at the Warhammer World Team Championships.
Hunter Spakes’s Oathband Leagues of Votann Took the Crown With Three Land Fortresses
Spakes’s winning list is Oathband, which was anchored by three Hekaton Land Fortresses and three Thunderkyn squads. Nobody else at the event brought a list that shot like this. It had Ûthar the Destined as Warlord, Berehk Stornbröw and Buri Aegnirssen handle midfield support, and a Brôkhyr Iron-master with Oathbound Speculator stacks the buffs that keep the Hekatons hitting through return fire.
Oathband Roster Breakdown
Well, obviously, the three Land Fortresses do the actual work. Two run heavy magna-rail cannons for tank-cracking, and the third swaps to the SP heavy conversion beamer to cover everything in the soft-target column. Three Thunderkyn squads cover what the Land Fortresses can’t reach: a six-stack on Graviton blast cannons for midfield armor, another six-stack on SP conversion beamers for long-range plinking, and a three-model beamer cell that scores cheap board control on the flanks.
The rest of the list is the Oathband infantry kit you’d expect. Five Cthonian Beserks plus Ûthar handle the midfield counter-punch, two Hernkyn Pioneer squads scout for early objectives, a ten-Yaegir block sits on the home objective with a Kapricus Carrier ready as the redeploy option, and the Iron-master with three E-COGs and an Ironkin Assistant keeps the army’s repair clock running on the Land Fortresses through every round of return fire.
Why Three Land Fortresses Still Shoot in Turn 6
Spakes hit 111 of a possible 120 battle points across six rounds, and at that level, your gunline can’t have lost a Land Fortress halfway through the day. The Iron-master with three E-COGs is the reason it didn’t. Wound repair on a 14-wound chassis goes a lot further when the secondary damage is coming from Thunderkyn squads instead of the Hekatons themselves, so the big guns don’t have to split fire on chaff.
The Oathband detachment rule also rewards stacking Judgment Tokens on priority targets, and with this much shooting going out, tokens start cashing in by turn 2. Spakes’s worst round of the weekend was a 16, the one game where someone managed to put a Land Fortress on its side. Every other round came in at 17 to 20. That’s six rounds, with only one game where the gunline took a real punch.
Heath Shepherd’s Cursed Legion Necrons Took 2nd on Pure Character Kills
Shepherd finished 2nd at 79 battle points on a Necrons list that doesn’t include a single scoring infantry block. The body of the army is three full Skorpekh Destroyer squads, two Ophydian cells, and two Lokhust blocks with Gauss cannons. The eight Lord-tier characters between Skorpekh Lords, Lokhust Lords, Hexmarks, Nekrosor, and Imotekh are all there to feed the Cursed Legion detachment rule.
Cursed Legion Roster Breakdown
The character stack handles buffing, character-killing, and bring-back math. Nekrosor Ammentar runs as Warlord and carries the Nullstone Field Generator aura. Imotekh the Stormlord works the backfield with the Gauntlet of Fire and the Staff of the Destroyer. Three Skorpekh Lords filter out one per Skorpekh squad, so the melee punch never drops off, and two Lokhust Lords with Resurrection Orbs keep Destroyer bodies coming back for second swings.
Two Hexmark Destroyers run dedicated character-hunt duty, and a single Canoptek Reanimator handles wound repair on whichever Destroyer block is closest to the line.
Shockingly, there’s no scoring infantry in the list at all. Cursed Legion turns the whole roster into a kill-team, and the secondary scoring comes off character kills and bonus mortal wounds from the detachment rule itself. So, if you’ve been waiting for a Necron list that doesn’t include the obligatory Warrior block, this is what that looks like.
How Cursed Legion Wins Without Scoring Infantry
The Cursed Legion playstyle is that you don’t need to outscore the opponent with bodies if you keep killing characters and anchor units ahead of the curve. Shepherd’s eight Lord-tier characters are roughly double what most Necron lists run at GT level, and every one of them is a unit that has to die before the opponent feels safe pushing onto the midfield.
Sure, the bad-draw games show up too. Two of Shepherd’s rounds came in at 10 battle points apiece, and that’s what happens when the opponent isn’t running enough characters to feed the detachment bonus.
Against an army loaded with named heroes, Cursed Legion runs over the field. Against an army that doesn’t give you priority targets to chase, you grind out 10s and 14s, and that’s where Shepherd’s 79 BP came from instead of a number that could’ve challenged Spakes for 1st.
Taylor Barger’s Sanctic Spearhead Grey Knights Locked in 3rd With Four Dreadknight Chassis
Barger took 3rd at 87 battle points on a Grey Knights list that no one else at the event ran. Three Nemesis Dreadknights, a Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight as Warlord with Sigil of Exigence, and a full Paladin Squad with two Psycannons make up the heavy-chassis core. Sanctic Spearhead is one of the visible detachments on the Grey Knights’ index, and Barger’s list goes all-in on the big-base side of it.
Sanctic Spearhead Roster Breakdown
All four Dreadknight chassis (the three regular, plus the Grand Master) run the same loadout: heavy incinerator, heavy psycannon, Nemesis daemon greathammer. Three Strike Squads and three Interceptor Squads fill in the scoring infantry, and the Brotherhood Librarian carries Vortex of Doom to add a ranged psychic threat to the kit.
A Brotherhood Techmarine handles wound repair on the Dreadknights with the Omnissian power axe and Servo-arm. The Paladin Squad (a Paragon, an Ancient with a banner, an Apothecary with Narthecium, and two Psycannons across five total models) is the durable melee anchor that finishes games when the Dreadknights have done their early work.
How Four Dreadknight Chassis Beats Lists That Don’t Have an Answer
Barger’s 87 battle points came from a six-round spread of 20, 17, 17, 10, 3, 20. The 3 points in round five is what the Sanctic Spearhead looks like when it “doesn’t work”. One Dreadknight gets isolated, the opponent has the tools to pin it down, and the rest of the list can’t generate the points to make up the gap. Round six came back at 20 against an opponent who didn’t have the tools to deal with four Dreadknight chassis at once.
If you ask us, this detachment doesn’t work without the Grand Master in Dreadknight carrying Sigil of Exigence. Free Movement at the start of every battle round is what gives him a real redeploy option, and without it, you’re stuck wherever the last shooting phase put you.
Final Thoughts on the Leagues of Votann 6-0 at the Central Arkansas GT Top 40k Army Lists
Look at what’s missing from the Central Arkansas top 8. No T’au Empire, even after T’au filled half the top 8 at the Tennessee Open three weeks ago. No Aeldari, or Tyranid Vanguard Onslaught Infiltrate sprawl, which was the answer to T’au at Tennessee. Also missing were MSU and fast melee.
Honestly, what you got instead is the format running its natural game in a room where none of the recent meta-warpers showed up. From Land Fortresses, Knight tanks, Castigators, Telemon Dreads, Caladius Grav-tanks, to an Ares Gunship, every list in the top 8 had a heavy-chassis core.
None of them needed an answer to T’au because T’au wasn’t even in the room.
So, if you’ve been waiting to see whether heavy-chassis armies still have legs at GT level, Central Arkansas says yes, but only when the room isn’t full of Auxiliary Cadre T’au and Infiltrate Tyranids forcing you to play their game.
Eight different finishers proved it in one weekend, and the only thing every one of them brought to the table was real shooting.
🔗 Related Reads:
- How to Play Leagues of Votann in 40k
- Leagues of Votann Army Guide
- Votann Finally Win a Tournament at Invasion
- Leagues of Votann Detachment Rules
- More Top Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- 40k Tournament Guide
- AdeptiCon 2026 Top Army Lists
What do you think about the Central Arkansas GT Top 40k Army Lists and the eight-faction top 8?
