Christopher Vasquez’s 5-0 Astra Militarum took the WarGamesCon 16 army lists crown with three Rogal Dorns crashing through a Custodes-and-CSM top 8.
Last year’s WarGamesCon ended with a Chaos Daemons, Thousand Sons, and Blood Angels top 3, so the year-over-year shift across the top Warhammer 40k army lists at the marquee event is firmly toward Imperium and traditional armor to close out 10th.
Christopher Vasquez ran the Astra Militarum tank line at the WarGamesCon 16 Warhammer 40k Championship GT and didn’t drop a round.
Plus, two of the three top finishers came from Tundra Tactics, each running a completely different faction. Justin Moore’s Gladius Ultramarines and Nick Carpenter’s Seer Council Aeldari both went 4-1, which is the team-vs-meta best and worst armies look we’ll get to in a minute.
WarGamesCon 16: Top 3 Warhammer 40k Army Lists
Updated on June 26th, 2026, by Rob Baer with the latest winning armies
- Christopher Vasquez ran Grizzled Company plus three Rogal Dorns into a 5-0 WarGamesCon 16 finish: Astra Militarum took the crown with a stacked tank line, Gaunt’s Ghosts, and a Bullgryn brick screening the midfield.
- Justin Moore took silver with Gladius Ultramarines while Nick Carpenter brought a Seer Council Aeldari to bronze: Both went 4-1, and both came from Tundra Tactics running completely different detachments.
- CSM filled three of the top eight slots, but Imperial armor and Aeldari psykers carried the medals: The elite-infantry meta got answered by a Guard tank wall, and the recent Seer Council nerfs didn’t keep psykers off the podium.
Thanks to Best Coast Pairings, we can walk back through the whole event with real pairings and battle point data.
Christopher Vasquez’s Grizzled Company Tanked Through Five Rounds Undefeated
Christopher Vasquez ran Grizzled Company at the WarGamesCon 16 Warhammer 40k Championship GT and went 5-0 with three Rogal Dorns, Gaunt’s Ghosts, and a Bullgryn brick screening the midfield.
The army’s game plan is the kind of Astra Militarum stradegy most players already know but rarely see executed this well.
Grizzled Company Roster Breakdown
At the top of the list, Vasquez ran a Commissar carrying the Abhuman Detail enhancement plus Gaunt’s Ghosts, and a Catachan Jungle Fighters screen for the chaff layer. Behind that, he paired two Militarum Tempestus Command Squads with a Taurox for the deep-strike threat Guard usually leans on to apply early pressure. Then the final third of the list does almost nothing but shoot. The Basilisk lobs in from the back line, the Kasrkin sit in a pocket waiting for a meltagun moment, and Sly Marbo lurks for the assassination round nobody plans for.
Then three Rogal Dorn chassis, one classic Battle Tank with the Pulverizer cannon, and two Rogal Dorn Commanders (one of them his Warlord), troll up behind the Bullgryns and unload. Two more Tempestus Scions round out the Other slots for the deep-strike pressure, and Scout Sentinels do the early-game scoring.
Overall, the list lives or dies on the screen-and-fire trade-offs. Bullgryns and Catachan plus Sly Marbo eat the first wave, the Dorns roll up to the mid-board behind them, and the Tempestus Command Squads come in late to threaten the home objective.
How Grizzled Company Wins the Damage Race
His first game came in at 73 BP, a steady opener but not a stomp, and then rounds 2 and 3 went 98 and a maxed-out 100, which is when a Guard list this stacked usually gets going. Round 4 landed at 90, with round 5 at 76, which locked in the 5-0.
It turns out that 840 points of Rogal Dorn is a damage-race answer that elite-infantry detachments don’t have a real response to at the end of 10th edition.
That’s because this is the kind of list where the opponent looks across the table and asks how they were supposed to push midfield in the first place. Custodians want to walk up, bikes want to harass, and CSM’s Defilers want to roll forward. None of them want to do it into three Dorns plus a Basilisk and a Bullgryn brick that won’t budge off the centerline though.
Justin Moore’s Gladius Task Force Walked a Vehicle Wall to Second
Justin Moore ran the Ultramarines Gladius Task Force, and his list title (“Farewell 10th”) says it all…
Marneus Calgar in Armor of Antilochus is the Warlord, anchoring the army with the durability profile that’s defined in Gladius lists all 10th edition. A Lieutenant with a combi-weapon and a Techmarine fill the support slots, both cheap and there to keep the bigger pieces moving.
Its game plan is the one that’s been carrying Gladius since the codex dropped, only this time with more dakka in the back rank than most players are running right now.
Gladius Task Force Roster Breakdown
The key is three Redemptor Dreadnoughts, each running Macro plasma incinerator plus Onslaught gatling cannon. Every one of them is a heavy shooting platform that walks straight up the table behind the Calgar bubble. Then, two Repulsor Executioners back them up with Heavy laser destroyer plus Heavy onslaught gatling cannons, which is a package that’s hard to grind through inside a 90-minute round. Plus, the Calgar Warlord bubble fortifies the whole thing against the kind of Lone-Operative assassination plays that usually pick a Marines list apart.
The Intercessor squad and the Incursors do the dirty work, an Assault Intercessor jump-pack squad and the Scouts handle early scoring, and the Victrix Honor Guard plus the Wardens of Ultramar give him the close-combat insurance bubble that Gladius loves to play around.
Sure, the Wardens are a 5-model unit and not a brick, but they make the Calgar package an absolute nightmare to dislodge once it sits on an objective.
How Gladius Task Force Wins the Late-Game Trade
Moore’s only stumble came in round 1 at 70 BP, the only score below 80 he posted all weekend. From there, he snagged 100s in rounds 2 and 3, then 95 in round 4 and 82 in round 5 to secure the 4-1. The fact that the loss came in round 1, not late, is the takeaway here.
He never lost control of a board once the tank line set up, and a Calgar bubble plus three Redemptors is the kind of footprint where if your detachment doesn’t have an early melta wave, you’re playing catch-up the whole match.
Honestly, this is the kind of list that doesn’t beat you with one big trick. It beats you because every piece of it doubles as a screen, a shooter, or a melee patch on the round it’s needed for.
Nick Carpenter’s Seer Council Stacked Six Psykers and Hit Bronze
Nick Carpenter’s Seer Council is the kind of Aeldari list that looks like a fanfic until you see it actually work. We don’t see this density of psykers in many top-3 Aeldari lists right now. The trend’s been Wraith-heavy or Wave Serpent rush. Still, Carpenter brought it anyway and scored bronze at third place.
Seer Council Roster Breakdown
Eldrad Ulthran is the Warlord, and around him, Carpenter packed Jain Zar, and Fuegan. But it’s the body of the list that does the killing. Two ten-strong Storm Guardian blobs with Serpent’s Scale platforms for objective work, a ten-Reaper Dark Reapers brick for the missile-launcher damage profile, and ten Fire Dragons for the elite-killing fusion wave. Howling Banshees and two Ranger units fill in scouting and screening.
Plus a War Walker for the cheap heavy weapon platform and two Warp Spider squads for the deep-strike chaff-clear job that Aeldari lists usually struggle to fit in.
The Aspect rotation is built around the Warp Spiders, the Fire Dragons, and the Dark Reapers, each doing one job perfectly. Around all of that, the psyker spam runs the show. Three Skyrunner Warlocks, plus the foot Warlocks and two Conclaves, give Carpenter the Strands of Fate enablers Seer Council needs to spam discounted Stratagems all game.
How Seer Council Wins the Movement Phase
Carpenter’s rounds tell a story that’s as old as the tournaments we play in. A slow opener at 66 BP, a recovery to 77 in round 2, then his one loss in round 3 at 95 BP. Which is kind of crazy that this list can score the heck out of the table on a good round and still lose if the matchup goes sideways. Round 4 came back at a max 100, and round 5 closed at 92 for the 4-1.
Final Thoughts on the WarGamesCon 16 Army Lists & the Warhammer 40k Meta
What WarGamesCon 16 actually told us is that Astra Militarum still has a 5-0 answer going into 11th edition. Grizzled Company carrying 840 points of Rogal Dorn through five rounds is a meta lesson that elite-infantry detachments need to respect at the next big event. Gladius Marines plus Calgar isn’t going anywhere either, and the Seer Council nerfs from the April dataslate kept Carpenter from catching the leader, but didn’t keep him off the podium.
For everyone heading to a GT in the next two months, there is quite a bit to consider on top of the edition change. The Tundra Tactics double podium placing, with two completely different detachments, shows that the team prep work matters as much as the codex you pick right now.
Plus, the CSM three-of-eight finish in the top 8 says the meta isn’t getting any less spikey, just more layered if people find a way to keep all those Defilers in lists now.
🔗 Related Reads:
- How to Play Astra Militarum
- How to Play Space Marines
- 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 WarGamesCon 16 army lists?
