40k Editorial • The Current (Meta) 3 Kings are…
When 6th Edition launched most of the armies were on a level playing field. It’s not that way anymore…
Approximately a year ago when sixth edition was first released the playing field was leveled and everybody stood on equal ground… Except of course for Necrons and their still hated death croissants. Those days are over now and there are plenty of nasty lists out there such as ScreamerStar and the Jetseer Council.
So let’s talk about the current state of the meta. Three big face stompers that immediately come to mind are:
– Tyranids
– Jetseers
– Iron Hands.
I have already briefly discussed the new rules from Forge World for Space Marine chapter tactics and characters that took part in the Badab War on my blog. Let’s look at these in turn.
The Old King
The pathetic Terrifying Bugs!
Tyranids are soon to see a new codex so there is no telling what will happen with the bugs. Remember when 6th launched and everyone said Tyranids were the worst army ever? Heh. I feel certain some of the major havoc reaping meta units like Doom and those ever gant pooping Tervigons are going to take a really big hit from the nerf bat. You never know, they might even drop the Doom from the codex and it’s happened before to many other special units such as Moriar the Blood Angels dreadnaught and Tyrannic Veterans from the Ultramarines — there’s no official model so I could see this to make room for the new units. It could be a good thing too… It just seems like every Tyranid army you see nowadays has all the same units:
• Flyrant w. twin linked devourers
• Flyrant w. twin linked devourers
• Tervigon
• Termagant Brood
• Tervigon
• Termagant Brood
• Doom in a Mycetic Spore
Sprinkle in some Gargoyles, Biovores, Zoanthropes or Hive Guard. Most of the 2000 point lists I see have up to 10 psychic bugs (most of which are monstrous creatures) and they are rolling for a Endurance and Iron Arm. Sure it’s very competitive but something new could be a good thing. You never know exactly what will drop and GW has kept things air tight. At one time there was a rumor that Mat Ward wrote the new codex… That’s scary! I am hoping units like genestealers will be playable again at the competitive level. I have always wished that Warriors were T5 with a 3+ armor save but I seriously doubt that’s ever going to happen. So it’s soon to be back to the drawing board for the Hive Mind.
The New Kings
Jetseers
Another sixth edition deathstar army is the Jetseer Council. I am actually quite intrigued by this army, and it is yet another that heavily depends upon its rolls for psychic powers plus Warlocks are only leadership 8. Still a lot of knowledgable players are saying this is one of the most if not the most competitive armies. Here is the basics of the list:
- Full squad of Jetbike Warlocks
- Dual Jetbike Farseers (1 runes of warding, 1 fearless gem)
- The Baron
- Dual Venoms with Trophy Racks (so you never fail checks)
- Wraithknight
- Various Scoring units per your liking
You end up reliably with another deathstar with a 2++ rerollable that is fearless, never fails any leadership checks, is lightning fast, and breaks apart like Voltron on turn 5 into 4 parts to grab/contest objectives! NASTY!
Iron Hands
Next up and finally are the Iron Hands and I’m very excited about the new supplement. This was well coordinated with their release in the second Heresy book from Forge World and I think we will see more of that in the future (i.e., Blood Angels and Space Wolves). One of the things I really like is being able to field more Techmarines – if you take two HQ then you can field up to five and even more if you have a Master of the Forge… So it’s possible for each of your tactical squads to be lead by one. Their new relics and Warlord traits are very good and I think it’s possible to field a competitive melee army using drop pods. This will be my next project so expect more discussion on Iron Hands. An army that just lives 18% longer than it should will regularly win games just based on attrition.
That’s a wrap — maybe new things have dropped and are on the horizon. Maybe one of the new armies to release with feature a solid counter to the much hated 2++ re rollable invulnerable save, or some really hard counter to psychic powers. What was GW thinking? For now we just have to deal with it the best we can. The Jetseer council sounds like for right now – it’s the biggest brute on the block.
What counters do you think can handle these types of armies? Maybe there is something easily accessible that can trash these types of lists.
