Check out the top 40k tournament army lists for Ultramarines, Chaos Space Marines, and Necrons from the AdeptiCon 2026, which saw some great factions at the top.
The latest AdeptiCon 2026 Champs results are real-time insights for anyone who likes usable 40k tournament tech.
Now we’re breaking down the top 40k army lists from the event and calling out the choices that mattered so you can spot meta trends fast and tune your own roster.
The AdeptiCon 2026 Champs: Top 8 Warhammer 40k Army Lists
Updated on April 2, 2026, by Rob Baer with the latest event results
Studying these winning army lists for their tactical synergies can provide great insights for playing your army since the latest balance dataslate rules changes and points updates.
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1st Place: Conan Jennings, Ultramarines Army Lists (Space Marines)
This Ultramarines Blade of Ultramar list puts a wall of hard targets on the table, forces the opponent to deal with multiple durable threats at once, and lets the army’s elite characters and support pieces turn that pressure into a clean, controlled game.
Plus has a real long-range punch, enough board control to not get bullied early, and a nasty centerpiece package that can take over the middle once the battle starts.
Lieutenant with a Combi-weapon
He absolutely helps the army play smarter and is the kind of character who sneaks into the right spot, makes life awkward for enemy action units, and helps the list get information and pressure where they need it. In a build like this, that matters because so much of the heavy lifting is being done by expensive tanks and marquee units.
Roboute Guilliman
Guilliman is the anchor, the threat, and the reason the whole army feels like it is running on premium fuel. He gives the list that “deal with this right now or else” problem while also making the surrounding units better at doing their jobs. Plus, he’s a legitimate melee hammer that can stand in the mid-board and dare people to commit, and he makes the castle of tanks and support units way more reliable.
Uriel Ventris
Ventris is another piece that keeps the list feeling flexible instead of static. He is not just there because he has a famous name on the datasheet. He helps the army pivot, and that kind of flexibility matters because it gives the army more ways to force the opponent into bad decisions.
Intercessor Squad
The Intercessors are there to hold the home field, screen as needed, and be a dependable objective unit that does not require much babysitting. The Intercessors handle the boring but necessary jobs so the expensive stuff can go hunting.
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs
This is one of the army’s cleaner utility-trading pieces. They give the list speed, they threaten backfield angles, and they can clean up weakened units or jump onto an exposed objective when the game starts to spread out. They are not a full-on wrecking ball, but they absolutely punish sloppy positioning.
Ballistus Dreadnoughts
The two Ballistus Dreadnoughts offer pure damage output. They sit back, point at enemy monsters, transports, and tanks, and delete them. This list wants a long-range anti-tank threat that doesn’t need much support to be relevant, and the Ballistus does exactly that.
One long-range threat can be managed. Two starts to overload the target priority. That redundancy is a big part of how this army works. It layers pressure until the opponent runs out of safe places to stand.
Incursor Squad
This is a key utility unit. The Incursors help the army establish a presence early, mess with movement lanes, and create uncomfortable staging areas for the opponent. They are part screen, part nuisance, part mission tool.
Repulsor Executioners
Now the list gets loud. The two Repulsor Executioners are major damage dealers and some of the most important pressure pieces in the army. They bring high-end anti-tank, plenty of shots, and enough bulk to avoid being taken out by random return fire.
Alongside the Ballistus Dreadnoughts, they form the ranged spine of the army. That opens the board for Guilliman and the infantry elements to take over the important spaces.
Scout Squads
The Scouts are some of the best mission pieces in the list. They are there to stage early, screen infiltrators, touch objectives, and generally be annoying in exactly the way Space Marines list need cheap units to be.
Victrix Honour Guard
This is the list’s big elite bodyguard brick, and it is one of the key reasons the army can play the middle of the table with confidence.
They support Guilliman’s game plan perfectly: they make the central push harder to crack, they punish enemies trying to contest objectives, and they give the list a real answer when the game turns into a midfield scrap instead of a shooting war.
Wardens of Ultramar
This is the list’s sleeper utility-combat unit. The Wardens are not the most obvious headline act here, but they help the army bridge the gap between mission play and elite combat support. They are the kind of unit that can sit in the right place, protect a lane, and then suddenly matter a lot more than expected once the lines collapse.
How This Ultramarines Army List Wins
As you may have figured out already, this army scores by controlling the mid-board with durable elite units while cheap infantry and fast utility pieces handle the mission work around them. Scouts, Incursors, Intercessors, and Jump Pack Assault Intercessors keep objectives and actions covered, while Guilliman, the Victrix, and the armor package remove whatever is trying to contest primary.
It is not flashy scoring, but it is reliable: kill the key threats, own the center, and let the utility units do the bookkeeping.
2nd Place: Brian Daugherty, Chaos Space Marines Army Lists (CSM)
How This Chaos Space Marines Army List Wins
If you like Chaos lists that don’t sit around pretending to be subtle, this one is worth a look.
It’s a slick Red Corsairs-flavored pressure build packed with fast transports, nasty ranged support, and enough expendable troublemakers to make the midfield a complete mess.
Between the Rhinos shuttling threats forward, Predators and Noise Marines laying down real damage, and utility pieces like Cypher and the Lord Discordant making life awkward, the whole army leans into layered pressure instead of one flashy all-in trick.
3rd Place: Jordan Nach, Necrons Army Lists
How This Necrons Army List Wins
This Necron build is what happens when somebody takes the most annoying parts of the army and turns them into a full game plan.
The Silent King brings the big-name pressure, the Catacomb Command Barge and Technomancers keep the engine running, and the triple Wraith units do the dirty work by storming the mid-board and refusing to go away. Add in a Reanimator making the whole mess even stickier, the Deceiver lurking as a nasty wildcard, and a few cheap utility pieces handling the boring but important jobs.
It all comes together as a list that wins by choking the table, forcing ugly trades, and making every objective feel like a bad neighborhood.
Final Thoughts from us on the AdeptiCon 2026 Champs Army Lists
AdeptiCon 2026 gave a pretty clear snapshot of where strong 40k lists are sitting right now. Ultramarines army lists brought the polished combined-arms game, Chaos Space Marines army lists showed that speed and pressure still win plenty of games, and Necrons army lists kept doing the rude mid-board nonsense they do best.
The top builds were not stuffed with random good units. They had a plan, backed it with the right support pieces, and made the mission feel miserable for anyone across the table. That is usually where events get won, and AdeptiCon was no different.
So if this event proved anything, it is that clean list construction still matters just as much as hot dice and matchup luck. A roster that hits hard, scores clean, and keeps pressure on the table is still the recipe. The names at the top may shift, but that part never really changes.
See all the Top Warhammer Army Lists & Latest 40k Tournament Schedule
What do you think of the results from the AdeptiCon 2026 Champs for Ultramarines, Chaos Space Marines, and Necrons army lists?
