Warhammer 40K: Power Armies – Past & Present
Don’t worry about the Iron Hands. Their reign of terror will be short lived like the power armies who ruled before them. Take a walk down memory lane.
The Game Has a King – For Now
In case you hadn’t heard the Iron Hands are ruling the meta. According to BCP, the Marines just broke the all time winning streak for most winning weekly armies since they began tracking. Everyone is running around like this is the death of tournaments because no one wants to play against them. Some advice from an oldtimer – it’s fine. Not only that – less than year form now Iron Hands may be down in the dumps again. Remember how fast Ynnari went from #1 to gone after their White Dwarf update. That’s the thing about 40K. It’s ALWAYS feast or famine when you are at the top.
The King is Dead – Long Live the King
But like all else in life the only thing constant in Warhammer 40,000 is change. So let’s take a look at three of the other “unstoppable” lists “will kill the game” from years long past. I’ll try to give you all some context and details on how they functioned.
Eldar Falcon Spam – 4th Edition (2006)
Ahh who could forget the toughest army in the game. If you thought killing an Iron Hands Leviathan Dread was hard, then you never faced a trio of Falcons tooled up with Spirit Stones, Holofields, and with a Farseer to buff them up.
How it Worked
In a nutshell, the tanks were fortuned, so they got to reroll failed saves. Holofields meant that every roll on the vehicle damage table was rolled on 2d6, and you took the lower one. Spirit Stones meant the Crew Stunned got reduced to Crew Shaken, which pretty much had no effect.
So you had multiple Eldar tanks (very well armed for the time), that were super hard to even wound, then only had a 1 in 36 chance of inflicting a deadly penetrating hit upon. They were moving fast and probably packed with Fire Dragons to hop out and melt you to slag. Long before the Death Guard, it was a disgustingly resilient and disheartening force to face.
Grey Knights Psi-Bolts – 5th edition (2011)
When the Grey Knights got their first codex it was a good one, and they descended upon the game like a plague of locusts, blazing away with psi-bolts, blowing everything off the table.
How it Worked
It was an entire army based on Psi-bolt Ammo. This was super inexpensive and make all weapons +1S. You saw armies loaded to the gills with anything that could carry it, from Razorbacks with now S6 heavy bolters, to the feared “Psi-fleman Dreads” with dual twin linked S8 autocannons, and all that S5 move and fire infantry. The army was tough, had lots of movement tricks, packed a wallop in Assault and could outgun most opponents. A faction that had no obvious weak spot and dominated in every phase of the turn.
Necron Flying Circus – 5th edition (2011)
A virtuoso act of denial deployment, the Necron Flyer spam list floated like a butterfly (by not being there), and stinging like a bee carrying a sack of bricks. It arrived with the introduction of the Doom Scythe and Night Scythe.
How it Worked
This army relied on limited null deployment. It would deploy with a minimal footprint, normally one or two 5-man squads of Necron Warriors and a C’Tan who would hide out of LoS. The C’Tan was exceptionally difficult to kill in the top of turn 1, and once the Necron player survived being tabled that first turn the pain arrived turn 2.
On turn 2 ALL the flyers came in and using a combination of Aerial Assault which allowed them to fire all their weapons and the massed Tesla Destructor fire laid waste to all. It was a flying version of leafblower that gave an opponent only 1 turn to shut down the list before the inevitable occurred. Further units of Necron infantry would teleport in turn 3 to clean up any trouble spots. I personally witnessed more than one top player just walk away from tables mid game when facing this one.
So don’t fret my friends, we have been here many times before and I assure you that this too shall pass. There are many more “game killing” lists from editions past I’m sure you remember. I actually find it liberating to play during times of a clearly broken faction. If you know there’s a boogeyman list out there, just pull out your favorite army and play for the pure fun and joy of it. Use crazy gonzo armies, fluffy lists, whatever you want.
The next king of 40K is always just around the corner…
