Warhammer 40K: 2019 Retrospective – The Big Meta Shifts
The Meta of Warhammer 40k at the end of 2019 looks a lot different than it did at the start of the year. Let’s take a quick look back at a handful of the reasons it’s shifted.
2019 has been an exciting year for Warhammer 40k. It’s arguably bigger than it’s ever been and shows no signs of slowing down. It’s a seen some pretty big shifts in the overall meta throughout the year as well. Today we’re going to pinpoint a few of those big shifts and talk about how and why they had such a huge impact. Before we do that, let’s define our terms really quick.
When we’re referring to the Meta, we’re referring to the Meta-game of the competitive player pool. We’re looking specifically at Tournaments, both GT and IGTs from around the world and even more specifically the heavy influence of the ITC ruleset in that meta. We are not referring to what your typical weekly or monthly game night at your FLGS or what your home games might look like. That said – let’s dive in.
Imperial Soup Reigns Supreme
At the start of the year, the Imperial Soup (mostly led with Imperial Knights, Blood Angel Smash Captains, and other forces to individual player’s tastes) was pretty dominate. It’s still a strong contender but (for reason that will become clear down below) at the end of 2019, Imperial Soup isn’t as popular as it once was. We can trace the decline back down to a few key points. Each of which we’ll talk about below. Simultaneously, there were a few other factors that led to it’s bubbling up and down throughout the year. The first of which was…
The Day The Ynnari Died – And White Dwarf Killed It
One of the big armies that took a HUGE hit this year was the Aeldari led by the Ynnari shenanigans. They were already on their back leg with the rise of Knights and other forces when White Dwarf dealt the killing blow. The May 2019 issue pretty much ended the reign of terror that the Ynnari had cause on the meta and a new King was crowned. But that was after a battle for the throne with…
Chaos Rising
There as a brief moment in time when the stars aligned for Chaos. They had Chaos Knights, they had Vigilus Rules, They had a new CSM codex, they had the Lord Discordant, and they even got some Space Marine hand-me-down rules that all seemed to indicate that they could win the battle at the top. Sadly for Chaos, it just never quite panned out. This year was destined to be the year of Power Armor – just not the ones in spikes.
The BIG FAQ – aka Knightfall
The BIG FAQ is really what started the drop off for Knights, specifically the Castellan, and helped end the 22 week reign of the Imperium. So what, exactly happened? Well the BIG FAQ introduced some changes to Imperial Knight Stratagems, their Ion Shields got limited to a max of a 4+ invulnerable and when you combined that with the Knight Codex FAQ that finalized a points jump, too (and finalized the invulnerable save and CP changes), you got a more balanced version of the Castellan. And if it’s balanced, it’s not what the Competitive Meta wants to use. They want the “good stuff” aka the things that are more points efficient and effective than those pesky balanced units. But the final nail in the coffin was the release of the Space Marines.
Space Marines Defeat The Soup
They say that the cream rises to the top and I guess Imperial Soup must be dairy based because the Cream of the Crop is the Space Marines. (Does that make them a cow byproduct? You know what nevermind… this analogy has gone on too far.) Space Marines and all their successors ended the Imperial Soup and Knights the week of September 18, 2019. They snapped the Imperial winning streak for the Most Winning Faction and have been number 1 for the last 13 weeks straight. So basically, since the Space Marines got their new book, they have been pretty dominate. It’s a combination of survivability, firepower, and just plain old options that makes them so darn tough. And they don’t seem to be slowing down any time soon.
Imperial Soup started the year strong and has remained in the top rankings but Space Marines are #1 right now. We’ve also seen T’au stay in the top 1/2 of competitive lists and have even managed to snag some pretty big tournament wins. The Aeldari’s Flying Circus was really their last ditch effort to stay at the top but recent changes have hit them, too. Orks have popped up along the way as well as the Astra Militarum. And poor chaos seemed like it had a chance but it never quite coalesced into the top dog. But as the year draws to a close, it’s hard not to argue that the Space Marines are currently the most dominant force in 40k.
Never underestimate the power of drones!
It’s been interesting to watch how the Meta has shifted and flowed this year. There were some big stand outs and some pretty big shifts but there were plenty of ripples along the way. I can’t wait to see what 2020 brings!
There was a lot that happened in 40k for 2019 – what were some of the big shifts and little ripples you remember?
