Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K Meta Hotness – October 2023: The Top 5 Armies
Goatboy here again with a 40K Meta hotness discussing the Top 5 armies dominating the meta around this Halloween!
With the balance dataslate coming in hot we saw a nice shift in the upper armies winning. I think the biggest thing is just shifting some of the “ease” of playing Eldar and making other armies work better. This in turn, again shifts the better players to try different things in hopes to “solving” the meta. On top of that Terrain, and other tournament options also have affected the top armies ranking.
1: Aeldari Still On Top – Barely
The number one army is still Eldar with a few very good players still throwing them on the table. They are a case of being hyper efficient in all aspects of the game in 40K. They even can utilize the Assault phase with two very powerful punch bros in the two different Avatars. You mix it with very powerful shooting and the only real thing the army misses is that it isn’t a pressure list. Instead you have a very powerful axe that can chop thru all your defenses and wreck your face. I expect will see another balance hit to this army again as a few simple tweaks will bring them in line. I would think removing the Yncarne’s ability to assault after jumping would be the best thing to tweak but I am sure it will be a lot of point adjustments. I do wonder how much their Codex will change when it comes out.
2: Orks WAAAGHing On Up
Next up we have to talk about Orks and the ultimate pressure army. Look at the winning lists and all of it revolves around assault, getting close to you, and locking you in your zone. This is a huge method for the Ork army and something bad players will mess up as throwing a ton of meat into their faces will cause a lot of poor decision making. It makes you forget how to score as you are trying to get rid of all the psycho fungus going crazy in your lines. It’s another army that isn’t easy to play as you have to know when to Waaagh and when to bide your time for that perfect green punch in the mouth. I don’t know if GW will tweak them anymore and it will really be dependent on how much their army shifts when their Codex comes. I expect any kind of pressure detachment that emphasizes fast speed and assault will be the biggest winner for Ork armies.
3: Chaos Space Marines Rising in the Long War
From there we have Chaos Space Marines. They are one of the other weird lists that mix pressure options in efficient Chosen bombs, very good shooting with Forge Fiends/Obliterators, and then really good area control with Accursed Cultists. It’s a pretty interesting set of options in the book and makes for a very powerful list to play with. It favors smart players who can know when to “go hard” and when to utilize the terrain to win the game. They also have one of the best armies to go fixed missions with some Ally-Lone Operatives in the Changling and Blue Scribes who love to call down teleport homers. A pair of ForgeFiends, some Oblitserators, and a bunch of bodies is the telltale sign of a strong CSM list.
4: T’au Empire Rising
T’au Empire is up next and their aggressive costing has created a very powerful shooting army. If the terrain lets you play on planet bowling ball you can see these armies winning a lot of events. They will just shoot you off the table as their units of Crisis Suits blow away everything in their path. It isn’t the most exciting army, and again a fast pressure list can get there and start wrecking things quickly. TheT’au Empire’s bread and butter is really just playing keep-away and the only pressure they put out is bullets. If they can’t put their bullets in your face it means they just can’t get there nearly as well.
5: Death Guard Stinking Up the Place
Since I didn’t rank Marines yet will go talk about the Death Guard. This is an army that is just waiting for some strong pilots to wreck some face. It has all the options to help win with efficient tanks in the PBC’s, decent options among all its things, a good leader in Mortarion, and just a lot of powerful damage options. The update to their Contagion was an amazingly simple option and it has really helped their game push into the good territory. It is crazy how a simple Add 1 AP to their guns really shifts them into a better section. I think will see some wins for them in the coming weeks as players want to try something new. Just know it is 3 PBC, Morty, and some Deathshroud showing up in your backfield.
The Space Marines – Too Soon to Tell
Finally, on the Space Marine front we’ll just have to wait and see how they end up. The new book should show up for events next week. So while I am not technicallyranking them just yet we will see some show up. I know some Black Templar armies did well at Tampa and the whole “horde” marine option is available. Currently we are talking about playing some “null” interaction style lists that let you play all the missions, have an anvil to smash into, and might let you sneak a game away by just playing cards dealt. We’ll see if it ends up working in the end.
The Future?
Right now a lot of the armies look to be in pretty good places and a few small tweaks – most likely after Jan – will shift the game again. We have a few more releases but as we can tell from the ones we have gotten – GW are not shifting a ton of the rules around. They are putting out very small tweaks and options which feels cool as the game starts to settle into the rhythm we expect it too. I bet the biggest shift next year will be how the new season missions will play out but will have to wait and see.
Does this match what you’r seeing in your neck of the woods?
