Richard Siegler’s 8-0 Adeptus Mechanicus took the Warhammer Open Newport army lists crown by handing an undefeated Drukhari list its only loss.
Patrick Harrison hit round 8 at 7-0 with a Drukhari army built around being anywhere except where you wanted to shoot it, and Richard Siegler’s Ad Mech shot it anyway. That pretty much sums up the weekend; it all came down to the last table at Newport Open, with a final score of 99-83.
A lot of the early 11th Edition talk has been about movement tricks and how quickly the new detachments can cross the board. Siegler showed up with Cawl and a pile of guns, basically refusing to play that game.
One event isn’t enough to declare the meta solved, of course. That being said, the 11th Edition’s first GT crown also went to an army that was much happier shooting than running across the table.
Warhammer Open Newport: Top 3 Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- Richard Siegler’s Adeptus Mechanicus went 8-0 through 190 players without dropping a game: Cawl held down the gunline while cheap servitors screened and the Ballistarii and Disintegrators handled the damage.
- Patrick Harrison’s Drukhari reached round 8 undefeated and only lost in the final: Four Wych squads and three Incubi packages rode in six transports, and nobody stopped them until they ran headfirst into Siegler’s screens.
- Nine skimmers and the Lion pushed Mikey Herbert’s Dark Angels into third place: Company of Hunters opened the event with four straight 100-point games and held third by just two battle points.
Thanks to Best Coast Pairings, we can go back through the event using the actual pairings and battle point data.
Richard Siegler’s Adeptus Mechanicus Won Without Chasing Anybody
For Adeptus Mechanicus detachments, Siegler brought the Lords of the Forge paired with Skitarii Hunter Cohort with Priority Assets as the disposition, and the whole list feels built around making the opponent come to him. Because if you want to score objectives, Cawl’s already sitting there with the rest of the army around him, repairing whatever survives.
Lords of the Forge Roster Breakdown
Cawl and Thulia Ghuld hold the middle, keeping everything working, letting Siegler spend more of the roster on guns instead of building around ineffective characters.
Two full Skitarii Vanguard units give him scoring bodies. One runs with Inquisitor Draxus and a Skitarii Marshal carrying Cantic Thrallnet, while the other gets a Tech-Priest Manipulus with TL-4o9. Both ride in Skorpius Duneriders, so they arrive where they’re needed without getting picked apart.
Three Ironstrider Ballistarii with twin cognis autocannons and two Skorpius Disintegrators with ferrumite cannons handle long-range damage.
Three Servitor Battleclades, five Sicarian Infiltrators, and two units of Pteraxii Skystalkers give Siegler enough extra bodies to screen, clog lanes, and keep the guns working.
How Lords of the Forge Wins the Damage Race
Round 6 against Will Leach’s Adeptus Custodes finished 100-55, with the Custodes having to cross open ground into a list built to shoot anything trying exactly that.
Tom Godfrey’s Orks pushed Siegler to 96-92 in round 7, the closest game anyone gave him all weekend. Orks getting into an Ad Mech gunline is where this kind of list should struggle, but being the pro player he is, Siegler held it together.
In the final, Harrison spent seven rounds choosing where fights happened, and against Siegler, there just wasn’t a clean line of charges waiting for him, from the looks of it.
Patrick Harrison’s Exhibition of Slaughter Drukhari Won Six Straight
Harrison named the list “WEEEEEEEEE,” which is a pretty accurate description of Exhibition of Slaughter paired with Skysplinter Assault. With Lelith Hesperax leading it, Reconnaissance is the go-to disposition, and almost the entire army starts turn one riding in something.
Exhibition of Slaughter Roster Breakdown
Five character-led melee packages bring most of the damage. Lelith runs with Wyches, while an Archon with Nightmare Shroud takes ten Incubi; Drazhar and Lady Malys each get five more, and a Succubus carrying the Periapt of Torments rides with the second Wych squad. Finally, two more Wych squads run without leaders.
Two Raiders and four Venoms move all of it around, and Mandrakes and Reavers handle screening, while two Scourge squads with dark lances provide most of the shooting.
It’s the usual Drukhari deal: move fast and make sure the first real contact goes your way.
How Exhibition of Slaughter Wins the Movement Phase
Round 6 was a 99-56 win over Adam Crellin’s Space Marines. Harrison followed that with an 89-76 win over Mikey Herbert in round 7, putting him into the final undefeated.
Round 8, of course, is where the matchup turned on him. Servitor Battleclades weren’t worth much to charge or kill, and while Harrison worked through the screens, the Ballistarii and Disintegrators were knocking Venoms out of the sky. Once the transports disappeared, the Drukhari had to start walking, and that ended badly for them.
Mikey Herbert’s Company of Hunters Dark Angels Brought Nine Skimmers and the Lion
Herbert submitted the list as “Dark Angels Speeder Griffin,” which doesn’t quite prepare you for what it actually looks like on the table. It’s Company of Hunters into Darkflight Pursuit with Reconnaissance as the disposition, plus a paint score of 70.
Company of Hunters Roster Breakdown
Sammael runs with a Ravenwing Command Squad carrying Recon Hunter and an attached Outrider Squad; one of the more familiar Dark Angels builds. Lion El’Jonson, as the Warlord, runs on his own.
Three Land Speeders, one Land Speeder Vengeance, two Storm Speeder Hailstrikes, a Hammerstrike, and two Thunderstrikes give Herbert that nine-skimmer flex. A single Assault Intercessor Squad and a Scout Squad handle the scoring jobs the faster units don’t want to stop for.
Finally, five Deathwing Knights are basically the only unit interested in planting its feet somewhere.
It’s the kind of army that asks whether you brought enough shooting to deal with nine skimmers, and apparently most people didn’t.
How Company of Hunters Wins the Board
Herbert opened with four straight 100-point rounds before beating Matthew McCurdy’s Space Wolves 92-84 in round 6. Then, Harrison finally handed him a loss in round 7, 89-76.
So Herbert finished with an 87-85 win over Tom Godfrey’s Orks in round 8. Only two battle points separated third from fourth, so realistically, scoring one objective could’ve changed the final placing.
Final Thoughts on the Warhammer Open Newport Army Lists & the 40k Meta
Overall, two of the top three armies ran Reconnaissance and were built to get places quickly. Unfortunately, the army that ultimately beat both of them was perfectly happy sitting behind cheap bodies and shooting them down from safety.
If that keeps happening, expect the cheap-chaff-plus-long-range-guns setup to show up in more Warhammer 40k tournament-winning army lists. We’d rather see the meta start doing some of the work against it than watch everything immediately get shoved through another points adjustment.
The next few events should tell us whether players start bringing enough anti-air to punish nine skimmers, and whether Adeptus Mechanicus numbers rise now that Siegler has shown what the army can actually do.
đź”— Related Reads:
- How to Play Adeptus Mechanicus
- How to Play Drukhari
- 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 Warhammer Open Newport army lists?
