Goatboy’s 40K: What’s Hot in Quarantine 40K
We’re all holed-up, but the Grimdark is on the move! Let’s talk the current meta from reading other posts, people playing virtually, and changes we got right before the lock-down.
Goatboy here again on another Monday as we sit in our houses and hopefully working on some models to pass the time. Or at least playing a cool video game or two. I’m sitting here finishing commissions, watching Community, and trying not to get too bogged down in real life work from home fun. I know I can’t wait to get back to playing events again – beyond just seeing friends and cool armies I want to play a game or two. Today’s thoughts are about the current Meta from reading other posts, people playing virtually, and the overall changes we got right before the shut down started happening.
Grey Knights – Hot
First – the big winner from the initial shift would be Grey Knights. I just finished a commission for a buddy and it seems a lot of players have been messing with lists. It usually revolves around a batch of Strikes to get CP, a Paladin squad or two with Terminator help, and then a bunch of characters. It feels like a strong army as it can shoot decently to kill marines, has smites to throw at powerful things, and has a mean counter punch in close combat. I don’t know how good it would do in the non daemon horde match up let alone very tailored rush lists that cover the table and force the Grey Knight player to sit in their corner. It is a much more skilled list as you have to know where you can sacrifice and when to be patient. These are all good things as it means the Psychic Awakening update for them is a hit bonus rules wise and probably one of the biggest winners from that update. I would say expect to play a few of these lists when events start to be a thing again.
Sisters – On the Rise
After that the other interesting thing from all the Table Top Simulator games is that Sisters might be a legit thing. The mix of having a horde army full of ignore damage effects and effective shooting can be a big problem for armies to deal with. The ability to have all the toys to play with when throwing down virtually means players get to test out a ton of things before they have to truly jump into the vat of brand new plastic goodness. I would advise competitive players to read up on the Sisters rules as I am sure some will show up at events to confuse the heck out of you as you try to complete your own game plan for your army.
Triple Skulls – Hot
The next thing that comes from a virtual environment play set is people messing with 3 Lord of Skulls. I know I am one of the crazy ones that has 3 to play with in real life but a lot of players are testing them out at events. There is a pretty brutal mixture using some Iron Warriors Warlord traits, a Khorne Relic, and a Lord Discordant to get your 3 crazy Knights hitting on 2’s, Getting an extra hit on unmodified 6’s, and then rolling a 6 to wound generates another extra hit so you start to get more than 12 hits per Gatling Shot. That starts to be a ton of damage on top of getting FNP on one of them, healing some of the others, and just being a pill to deal with in close combat. There isn’t a whole lot more with the army so it suffers as you lose pieces and can’t control a ton of the board. Heavy terrain is also a big deal so while powerful it can be easily pushed around due to bad set up. I know about this when I didn’t remember my ranges and got to close to some Tau at the last LVO.
Raven Guard – Fly to Top of the Marine Heap
On the Marine front I still expect Raven Guard to be the best of those guys. They seem poised to have ignored all the nerfs and kept up with the ability to do a ton of damage turn by turn. The return of some horde armies might make this harder for the army to deal with as well as some of the current rush lists we have seen show up. Still this is one of the Marine armies to beat and something we all need to worry about on top of the Horde Iron Hands intercessor bombs and other fun stuff coming from the 3+ armored goons.
Ghaz? Too Early to Tell
Orks seem fine too with some powerful options and horde ability. I wish we could still fly airplanes from off the table as the burner bomber gets one good game and then every player watches out for it. Ghaz still shows to be good as a painful central cog to the Ork Machine. As the army is a bit of a pain to play virtual do to all the pieces you have to move it gets harder to truly test it out. Depending on when we get the other Psychic Awakening stuff will show if this army as something to worry about or not.
Psychic Awakening?
We know Daemons, Knights, Bad Knights, and Ad Mech should be coming next so will see if any of these get a good shot to be amazing. Knights are still a weird Gatekeeper army so there is a worry if they get too good it would upset some balance on the table top. Some armies can just deal with them and others just pee the bed when those stomping jerks come out. The current better “Knight” army is the Lord of Skulls nonsense but if they get some support help it could push them towards the top. Lord do Daemons need some work on almost all levels of their army from the Greater Daemons, all their Elite Choices, and finding a healthy balance with their troops. I don’t know how to fix them but would seriously look at doing something for the Greater Daemons. Lowering the points won’t help as the rule of 3 keeps them locked in as well as needing some kind of support to do anything. I already talked about how they could use some toughness thing being powerful beings of the Warp but will see what happens. Ad Mech needs some help too just to make their Canticles decent and figuring out an identity that isn’t just the Rusty 17.
What have you been finding to be amazing when or if you get a chance to play? What Psychic Awakening rules are you excited for? I am super pumped to get Custodes and Death Guard in a book with Fabius Bile (one of my favorite characters and army options back in the day) as it is book built for Goatboy. In fact – I am on army update #4 now with looking at tweaking my Death Guard a bit by finishing up a few more Plague Marines just in time for the War of the Spyder book to come out. The other three armies I finished up were first my Chaos Knights, then Custodes, and finally my Red Corsairs Dreadnought list.
Until next time – Death to the False Emperor and his need for high fiber psykers.
