Steal the winning tech from The Glass City GT and check out the top 40k army lists for Space Marines and Drukhari.
The Glass City GT had a very interesting top 8 placing of Warhammer 40k factions.
We’ve rounded up the top 40k army lists from the event that crushed it, so you can see what’s winning right now, and maybe steal a few ideas for your army.
Glass City GT: Final 40k Army Lists & Tournament Standings
Checking out these winning army lists and their tactical synergies can really help you sharpen your strategy, especially with the latest updates to the balance dataslate rules and points.
If you’re looking to level up your game even more, think about applying to Team USA to compete in the Warhammer World Team Championships!
Plus, thanks to Best Coast Pairings, we can look back at the event as if we were all there ourselves. Click this special promo link to save $20 on a year’s subscription to BCP.
1st Place: Conan Jennings, Adeptus Astartes Army Lists (Ultramarines)
This Ultramarines build is basically a big “Macragge management seminar” where the board gets run by two Primarch-sized buff bubbles, then the heavy guns do the actual yelling.
The core plan is simple: pick one or two enemy lynchpins, stack buffs and target priority into them, and delete them with long-range firepower.
After that, the list plays clean, boring 40k in the best way: hold the midboard with tough bodies, trade cheap units onto objectives, and keep the shooting castle alive long enough to win on points.
First up, the Captain in Gravis Armour (Armour of Antoninus) is the list’s tough, punchy problem-solver. Even without an obvious bodyguard unit in the roster, a Gravis Captain can still act like a midfield speed bump that is annoying to remove, and a credible melee threat against light and medium stuff that tries to tag the tanks. The enhancement screams “make this guy stick around,” so the role is less “heroic solo charge” and more “stand here, be durable, and make the opponent waste real resources.”
The Lieutenant with a Combi-weapon is the sneaky utility piece. This slot is usually about annoying angles: poking something important, pressuring a flank, or doing the awkward jobs that the big names do not want to waste time on. In a list that wants the expensive bricks focusing on killing, a lone Lieutenant doing actions, screening, and generally being a nuisance is exactly the kind of low-maintenance tool that keeps the plan running.
Marneus Calgar is one of the two big engines. He brings a serious melee profile, real durability, and the kind of “the army feels better when he is alive” value that makes Ultramarines tick. Calgar also comes with his Victrix Honour Guard, which matters because it lets the list play more aggressively with its centerpiece package. When the army wants to stand in the midboard and dare someone to interact, having bodyguards glued to a premium character changes the whole risk math.
Everyone’s favorite, Roboute Guilliman, is the second engine and the obvious centerpiece. The list is built to take advantage of what Guilliman does best: make nearby units more reliable and turn a normal shooting phase into a “no, that target is just gone” shooting phase. Guilliman also gives the army a very real counterpunch threat, which is a big deal when running double big tanks. Opponents love to tag vehicles to shut off guns, and Guilliman makes that plan feel a lot less safe.
An Intercessor Squad is the one honest Battleline unit. They sit on a home objective, do mission chores, and free up everything pricier to go fight. This list does not need them to be heroes; it needs them to exist, score, and not get in the way.
A unit of Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs is the list’s trading knife. They threaten the annoying little objective plays, punish exposed chaff, and give the army a fast way to flip an objective late or pick up an easy secondary. They are not here to grind. They are here to arrive, hit something that matters to scoring, and force the opponent to react.
Two Ballistus Dreadnoughts are the early-game reliability pieces. They sit back, point big guns at enemy armor and monsters, and make sure the list can start removing threats from turn one without overexposing the tanks. Two of them means redundancy: one bad roll or one dead Dread does not shut off the anti-tank plan.
A single Incursor Squad is where the list gets its “make the math better” button for the whole gunline. Incursors are great at turning a chosen enemy unit into the obvious target, then helping the rest of the army hit that target harder and more consistently. That pairs perfectly with a list full of high-quality shots. The Incursors do not need to kill much. They just need to mark something and be annoying on an objective.
Two Repulsor Executioners are the sledgehammers. These are the primary damage dealers, and the list is clearly built around having two of them so one can bully a lane while the other covers angles or holds back to stay safe. Once the buffs are up and the priority target is selected, these tanks are the ones that cash the check. They also create a nasty problem for opponents: killing one is doable, killing both fast enough to stop the shooting plan is a much bigger ask.
A lone Scout Squad is pure points play. Scouts grab space early, screen out deep strikes, pressure mid objectives, and generally do the job that keeps expensive units from being forced into rough positions. In a list with a lot of value tied up in characters and vehicles, Scouts are the cheap insurance policy that stops turn one disasters.
Lastly, a Victrix Honour Guard unit is the list’s midboard anvil and countercharge unit rolled into one. This is the squad that can stand near the big characters, soak pressure, and then punish anything that tries to step into the castle. Between this unit and Calgar’s bodyguards, the army can present a layered “come fight the center” setup: chaff and utility on the edges, a hard middle that is miserable to charge, and enough shooting behind it to make backing off feel just as bad.
How This Ultramarines Army List Scores
This list’s scoring leans on the boring but effective mix of Intercessors holding home, Scouts and Incursors taking early space and flipping mid objectives, and Jump Pack Assault Intercessors doing the fast trades when an objective needs to change hands.
Secondaries are where the list gets cute: the small mobile units handle actions and positioning plays, while the Guilliman plus Calgar core and the double Executioners keep removing whatever the opponent was counting on to score. Once the big guns pick up a couple key threats, the game usually turns into a points squeeze where the opponent runs out of safe places to stand.
2nd Place: Folger Pyles, Drukhari Army Lists (Dark Eldar)
This Spectacle of Spite list is basically Drukhari doing Drukhari things: flood the table with fast melee threats, pick the nastiest fights, and rack up points while the opponent is still trying to figure out what got tagged.
Lady Malys sits at the top as the slick control piece and warlord, while Lelith and the Succubus turn the triple Wych bricks into a rolling brawl problem that wants to hit first, hit hard, and keep the pressure on.
The Raiders and Venoms are the delivery system and trading tools, tossing Wyches and characters into the right lanes and letting the list play that classic “touch everything, dare the enemy to respond” game. Behind the punch, Cronos adds staying power and support.
Incubi exist to delete something important on demand, and then the real grind starts: double big Hellions plus a smaller unit, plus multiple Reaver packs, means constant speed bumps, flanks, and late-game steals.
Meanwhile, the two Scourge units with dark lances give the list legit reach, cracking transports and popping key targets so the melee can mop up, and the whole plan is to win on tempo by trading cheap, fast threats for board position until the opponent runs out of answers.
3rd Place: Brad Chester, Adeptus Astartes Army Lists (Ultramarines)
This Gladius Ultramarines list is built to play the table with a hard mid-board core backed by a very loud parking lot of tanks.
Cato Sicarius and Marneus Calgar bring the leadership and punch to make the army feel like a proper “push and punish” plan, while the Lieutenant with Combi-weapon in Artificer Armour is the sneaky utility piece that lurks, spots openings, and helps swing awkward trades.
The Intercessors handle the basic job of sitting on objectives and not falling over, and the Infiltrators stake out early board control so the opponent cannot just waltz into the midfield for free.
Then the real muscle shows up: two units of Victrix Honour Guard give the list a durable, elite brick feel that can bully the center and dare enemies to commit, while two squads of Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs act as fast trading missiles for secondaries, backfield pokes, or “go touch that objective right now” moments.
Behind all that, the Gladiator Reaper, two Repulsor Executioners, and the Vindicator form a nasty shooting spine that deletes problem units, forces bad positioning, and rewards anyone who steps into the open with an immediate lesson in regret.
Final Thoughts From Us On The Glass City GT Army Lists
The 2025 Glass City GT was a pretty clean snapshot of what wins games right now: not “the spiciest damage combo,” but the stuff that shows up on turn one, claims space, and keeps scoring after the first punch lands.
These Ultramarines army lists are basically grown-up 40k, with big reroll auras, layered bodies, and tanks that pick a problem and remove it from the table with extreme prejudice. The Drukhari army list is the exact opposite vibe, all speed, pressure, and trading pieces that turn the whole board into a bar fight, then quietly walk off with the scoreboard.
If there’s any tech worth stealing, it’s the boring part: redundancy, cheap mission pieces, and a plan that still works after the “cool unit” dies. No matter which faction is getting the spotlight this week, the takeaway is the same: the lists that win are being built to score first and fight second, not the other way around.
See the Top Warhammer Army Lists & 40k Tournament Schedule for This Year
What do you think of the results and top Warhammer 40k army lists at the Glass City GT for Space Marines and Drukhari?
