Mani Cheema’s 8-0 Pactbound Zealots took the Warhammer Open UK Games Expo army lists crown over another Chaos list, with T’au in 3rd.
Three of the top 8 at the Warhammer Open UK Games Expo were Chaos Space Marines, all running Pactbound Zealots, which tells you where the Warhammer 40k meta sits right now from GW’s first UK Open. Cheema took 1st undefeated at 8-0, Stat Check’s Innes Wilson took 2nd, and Kyle Grundy’s T’au Mont’ka was the only non-Chaos answer in the top 3.
At this point, we all know that the two CSM lists were two takes on the same Pactbound Zealots shell. Mani Cheema’s Chaos Space Marines “Zealots!!” roster ran the table at 8-0 for the win on Abaddon, Huron, Vashtorr, and three Defilers. Innes Wilson’s Stat Check version ran the same Abaddon + Huron + three Defiler core but slotted Cypher and a Nurgling pocket for secondaries to take 2nd. And finally, Kyle Grundy’s T’au Empire Mont’ka list held 3rd with three Riptides, three Ghostkeels, and three opening 100-point round wins.
The story these lists tell is as much about CSM ownership of the top of the bracket as it is about the two takes on Pactbound Zealots doing the actual work. Abaddon plus three Defilers is the top Warhammer 40k army lists archetype worth studying up on right now, especially with three Chaos players in the top 8 (Cheema 1st, Wilson 2nd, Bennett 7th) and a fourth on the same shell at 22nd from the Glasshammer team.
Warhammer Open UK Games Expo: Top 3 Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- Mani Cheema’s Pactbound Zealots ran the table at 8-0: 726 battle points across eight rounds, with Abaddon, Huron, and Vashtorr leading three Defilers into every game.
- Innes Wilson’s Pactbound Zealots took 2nd with the same Chaos shell: Cypher and a Beasts of Nurgle pocket for secondaries, three Defilers carrying the long range, 620 battle points on 6 wins.
- Kyle Grundy’s T’au Mont’ka was the only non-Chaos list in the top 3: three Riptides, three Ghostkeels, and The Twin Lance opening with three 100-point round wins before settling into 3rd.
Use these winning armies to sharpen your own lists alongside the latest balance dataslate updates and points changes.
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Mani Cheema’s Pactbound Zealots Took the UK Open Crown 8-0
Cheema’s winning Chaos Space Marines tournament list, written up on the BCP sheet as “Zealots!!”, is a Pactbound Zealots roster with a triple-character headline and a triple-Defiler back line. Abaddon, Huron, and Vashtorr the Arkifane all start the game as big threats, and spend the early rounds pulling attention away from the Defilers that actually win the damage race.
Pactbound Zealots Roster Breakdown
Abaddon with Drach’nyen and the Talon of Horus headlines as Warlord, Huron Blackheart provides the Tyrant’s Claw and exalted power weapon plus the heavy flamer for screen clearance, and Vashtorr the Arkifane brings his claw + hammer combo as the third major melee threat. That trio is roughly a third of the list cost and just pulls a lot of opposing target priority just by walking forward.
The body of the army is two Cultist Mobs with mark of Nurgle, a Legionaries squad marked for Slaanesh with a lascannon and plasma pistol mix, a Chaos Rhino for deliveries, a small Chaos Bikers unit with twin meltaguns, and a five-model Chosen squad packing accursed weapons and combi-weapons.
The backfield is where the damage actually comes from. Three Defilers, all marked for Nurgle, each carrying the ectoplasma destructor + two excruciator cannons + two heavy reaper autocannons profile, just sit and shoot up the board. Finally, the Masters of the Maelstrom adds five Chaos character bodies as a utility scoring pack, and Red Corsairs Raiders close out the list with a meltagun and a power fist for secondary work.
How Three Defilers Turn Pactbound Zealots Into a Scoring Engine
Cheema posted the only 8-0 of the tournament. He took two 100-point round wins early, a 96 in round 3, then a slightly slower 70 in round 4, then back-to-back 100s in rounds 5 and 6 before closing 71 and 89. That’s 726 battle points across eight rounds, more than any other Championship Bracket finisher put up, and how you take a UK Open without losing a game.
The reason it ran 8-0 is the matchup math for the most part. Three Defilers shooting into anything that isn’t a knight or a Riptide is a damage race you usually win, and Pactbound’s Dark Pact reroll engine plus Vashtorr keeping the army moving means the engagements go Chaos’s way more often than not.
Innes Wilson’s Stat Check Pactbound Zealots Brought Cypher and a Nurgling Pocket
Wilson’s runner-up list is the same Pactbound Zealots shell as Cheema’s, with two notable swaps. Cypher slots in next to Abaddon and Huron in the character slot, and a small allied Nurgle pocket (Beasts of Nurgle plus a Nurglings unit) handles the kind of secondary screen play that Cheema’s version asked the Bikers to cover. It’s the same engine, just tuned for a different secondary game.
Pactbound Zealots Roster Breakdown (Innes Wilson)
The character package is heavier in this list. Abaddon is Warlord again, along with Huron Blackheart, plus Cypher with his bolt pistol and plasma pistol setup, and two Traitor Enforcer units (each one Enforcer plus a Traitor Ogryn) marked for Slaanesh. That’s five character drops before you get to the army proper, which is a lot of early-deployment information for an opponent to track.
The army body is one Cultist Mob marked for Nurgle, a Chaos Rhino marked for Slaanesh, a Chaos Bikers unit marked for Tzeentch with two meltaguns, and the same Chosen squad shape Cheema runs.
The back line again leans on three Defilers, with two of them running Hades lascannons instead of the heavy reaper autocannons Cheema picked, which is a small swap toward anti-tank consistency at the cost of the reaper’s volume. Masters of the Maelstrom and Red Corsairs Raiders round out the list, and then the allied Beasts of Nurgle and a Nurglings unit give this version a secondary-grabbing pocket Cheema didn’t bother with.
How Cypher + Three Defilers Earned the Runner-Up Slot
Wilson posted a 77 in round 1, then a clean 92, 99 stretch in rounds 2 and 3 before a 60 in round 4. He stabilized with 90 and 75 in rounds 5 and 6, then went 77 and 50 to close the eight-round Swiss. 620 battle points and six wins put him at 2nd place behind Cheema’s 8-0.
In this list, the addition of Cypher really helped. He’s a fast character body with a deepstrike option and two pistols, which gives Wilson a secondary actioner that can also pop into the midfield to challenge for an objective when the Defilers need another turn of free shooting. The Nurglings also let a unit sit on a far objective too, without giving up a Defiler’s killing turn.
Wilson’s only loss came in round 8, the final round of Swiss, with a 50-point score that put him behind on tiebreakers. Cheema closed the gap on the day, and overall, the matchups between two teammates running the same engine were the difference at the top.
Kyle Grundy’s T’au Mont’ka Was the Only Non-Chaos List in the Top 3
Grundy’s “GW Birmingham” roster is a T’au Mont’ka build with three Riptides, three Ghostkeels, and The Twin Lance as the Warlord package. It’s the only T’au Empire list in the top 3, and it cracked the Chaos wall by going 3-0 out of the gate before the bracket caught up.
Mont’ka Roster Breakdown
The character package in this list is only two units. A Commander in Enforcer Battlesuit carrying four missile pods and the Strike Swiftly enhancement opens the army, and The Twin Lance (Ri’Lantar as Warlord with a fusion eliminator plus Ri’Locai with an ion scattercannon) provides the secondary high-volume anti-armor answer.
Next, the heavy battlesuit body is where the points really are. Three Riptide Battlesuits with ion accelerators, paired missile drones, and twin smart missile systems, plus three Ghostkeels with cyclic ion rakers and twin fusion blasters. That’s 1080 points on six battlesuit chassis before you count the Crisis Fireknives bringing missile pods.
Screen and scoring work runs through two Pathfinder Teams (each with three ion rifles and a recon drone), two Stealth Battlesuits units with fusion blasters and homing beacons, a Kroot Carnivores squad, and a Vespid Stingwings unit. Finally, the Stealth + homing beacon pattern is what lets the Crisis Fireknives drop where they need to.
How Mont’ka’s Triple Riptide Opened 3-0 on 100-Point Round Wins
Grundy’s round-by-round: 100, 100, 100, 65, 100, 97, 46, 93. The opening three 100s are the best opening stretch any top-3 finisher posted, and the closing 93 (round 8) is a strong recovery from a 46 in round 7. The third-place finish is built on the three 100s up top, plus the round-5 and round-6 stretch holding form.
The plan is straightforward with Stealth Suits and Pathfinders pushing up the board to set homing beacons and markerlight targets, the Riptides and Ghostkeels follow with the Crisis Fireknives in reserve, and Mont’ka activates when a heavy battlesuit needs to delete a knight or a vehicle in one turn. Finally, the Twin Lance handles anti-tank in the back arc; the Commander in Enforcer Battlesuit with Strike Swiftly stays mobile to threaten secondary objectives.
The triple Ghostkeel on top of the triple Riptide is the version of T’au that pressures the midfield without sacrificing any anti-armor, which is what the round-7 drop suggests is the weak spot. On top of that, when the Ghostkeels get tagged early, the rest of the list has to score from further back, and a 46 against the wrong matchup here is what 3rd looks like instead of 1st or 2nd.
Final Thoughts on the Warhammer Open UK Games Expo Army Lists & the Warhammer 40k Meta
So what’s the takeaway from the first Warhammer Open held at UK Games Expo? Three of the top 8 were Chaos Space Marines, all running Pactbound Zealots with Abaddon and three Defilers (Cheema 1st, Wilson 2nd, Bennett 7th), plus Dawid Szmyt at 22nd on the same shell from the Glasshammer team.
The other Chaos top-8 finisher landed in 7th. So if you’re list-building for a UK GT in the next month, the Pactbound + triple Defiler engine is the build to either copy or counter, for sure.
If you ask us, the more interesting question is whether Mont’ka can keep landing inside the top 5 at events that aren’t yet seeing the “Glasshammer Pactbound build” mirror-matched into the ground. Grundy’s three opening 100s say T’au still has a real punch on round one, but the round-7 stumble says the same list might not survive a top-table Chaos pairing without a tighter screen plan.
🔗 Related Reads:
- How to Play Chaos Space Marines
- How to Play T’au Empire
- 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’s your read on the Pactbound Zealots Defiler list and the way T’au answered it at the first UK Games Expo Open?
