First place wasn’t Space Marines! Check out the top three 40k army lists that went undefeated at The Socal Open as the meta starts to shift once again!
The Socal Open brought over two-hundred different players under one roof to roll dice, With such a big tournament, the competition was high. In the middle of all the Space Marine hotness, these three lists shaped the SoCal meta.
Thanks to Best Coast Pairings, we can look back at the event as if we were there ourselves.
3rd Place: Space Marine Soup- Colin Mcdade
Coming in third place, Colin brought a unique list of Space Marine soup. He brought three separate Chapters in his list and proved it was worthy of the fierce competition. A Blood Angels Battalion served as a CP battery and slots for two Smash Captains. Then, a Battalion of Deathwatch was brought. The Deathwatch had their own version of a Smash Captain leading the charge along with three groups of Veterans decked out with 2+/3++ saves.
These guys were able to deepstrike and sit on the board for a hot minute. A 3++ invuln is harder to uproot than you might think! And lastly, a Raven Guard Successor with custom rules ( +3″ shooting range, and +1 to charge and advance rolls) was taken. A Smash Captain and chaplain led another cheap battalion. The leftover points probably went into the nasty Centurion Assault Squad infiltrate turn-one strat.
All in all, this was an aggressive list. Between four Smash Captains, a block of five Centurions infiltrating up the board, and Deathwatch invuln squads sitting in the mid-field, this is definitely unique and proved itself as competitive this past weekend!
2nd Place: Space Marine Soup- John Lennon
White Scars and a splash of Iron Hands Successors made it into this 2,000 pt list. Starting off, two Chaplains (one on a Bike) led a cheap CP battery of Scouts in a Battalion.
Next, a Smash Captain and Librarian Terminator led another Battalion of Scouts. However, nearly 500 pts of the list were also sunk into two fatty squads of Centurion Assault Squads. It seems like these guys are able to be used in just about every Chapter GW has brought up to speed lately. Thanks to their speed, from the White Scars Chapter Tactic and bonus movement for charging with a Chaplain closeby, Centurions are a solid option.
Finally, a splash of Iron Hands Successors was taken in a Spearhead and was led by a Chaplain Dreadnought. Eliminators kept the enemy’s Character’s heads down (or off) while Two separate Thunderfire Cannons pelted screens and slowed the overall movement of the list. Lastly, a Lascannon Dread topped it all off to get a little extra bonus damage against enemy armor. Great job.
1st Place: Tau- Brian Pullen
Moving into the 1st Place list of the event, Tau actually pulled past the Space Marines in all their new rules! With what you’d expect, over thirty Drones were brought to act as waves of reactive armor for Bust Cannon Riptides.
This has been the classic Tau list in the meta since before the Space Marine rules update and it looks like it’s still a totally viable option. To support the gun platform of Riptides, a Battalion was brought for a chunk of CP. For making every shot count, a Pathfinder team was taken to paint a target in markerlights before the Riptides unloaded. And lastly, Commanders with Fusion Blasters were in charge of getting close enough to enemy armor and finish off whatever the Riptides couldn’t. Great job overall.
What do you think about these lists? Did you expect to see Space Marine soup? Did you think Tau would be the faction to pull ahead of the Space Marine meta?
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials: @RealmbrushPainting
About Wesley Floyd: Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He is known for his satirist takes on trending topics and imaginative yet amazingly affordable hobby solutions to painting Warhammer miniatures.
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4. If you like what he writes and want to contact him or have your tabletop minatures painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
