Warhammer 40K: Big Shake Up at the Top of the Meta – Look Who’s on Top
Goatboy here with a Warhammer 40K Meta roundup as head into mid-March. Here’s who’s on top as we are approaching Adepticon 2025.
We have Adepticon coming in a few weeks as well as some other events so the question is what will end up being king of the meta mountain after this update. The March 40K Balance Dataslate knocked a bunch of top level armies down but surprising left a few contenders left so who is gonna be the Monarch of the Tabletop?
Right now the game is in an interesting spot, with a lot of different armies winning. The top 3 “best” army contenders got hit this past week with Bridgehead getting capped a bit, the All Slaanesh daemon armies getting run over, and even the weird “codex” compliant Blood Angel builds getting erased out of the game. This is leaving an interesting hole at the top and while some of the other builds that got hit will be hurt – it makes you wonder what ends up rising to the top of this meta.
Orks Rising – Thanks to “More Dakka” Tankbustas
Right now I think the big Meta winner and the army that will be brutal is the new Ork Army. Taktikal Brigade got hit with changes to their rules right when people were figuring out how to use it. This was fine but we now have an even more brutal detachment showing up in More Dakka. I am sure if you are watching YouTube videos you can see this army and how it works.
Let’s throw out a bit of math for you on a unit of Tankbusters jumping out of a truck and spraying the enemy down with some rokkits.
- Tankbustas – 6 Orks with 6 Rokkit Launchas
- Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun and Enhancement – Dead Shiney Shootas
- Dead Shiney Shootas – Gives the unit Rapid Fire 1
If unit is within 12” the Rokkits become D3+ and the Shokk Attack Gun Becomes D6+2
They will be hitting on a 6+ due to coming out of a Trukk.
Shooting at Infantry unit of 10 models
- D3+1+2 X 6 = 5X6 = 30shots – 5 6’s and with the reroll of 1’s becomes 6 which ends up being 18 hits.
- Shokk Attack Gun is d6+1+2 = 6 shots with most likely 3 hits.
That becomes a crap ton of firepower from a pretty cheap little unit.
Heck if you are shooting at a Vehicle or Monster it gives you even more hits and better wounding. This is a crazy amount of damage from a little Ork unit that you can easily take three of as well as having a ton of Lootas. You could even go into a completely different direction with Walkers too and cause a ton of damage with models that are very hard to chew thru. This is a lot and I do think this will get “reworked” in the future to either remove the Sustained 2 option to bring it back to Sustained 1 with some caveat to say if you already had Sustained you get to be Sustained 2.
Ynarri -Never Say Die!
The next one I expect to show up more is Ynarri from the new Aeldari codex, as it didn’t get any fixings to some of its movement tricks. As the better players start messing with it you can be sure to see it towards the tabletops right now. There is no reason an army that lives on causing death and utilizing that death to move a crap ton of inches to not do well. It isn’t an easy army to play, so that will most likely keep it in its place from showing up a ton but if some of the better players are wanting to rock it you know it will be brutal to deal with.
Be’lakor’s Shadow Legion Rising Fast
The final army I think will be towards the top and reminds of Ynarri in how it utilizes movement tricks and other options to control the opponent is the new Shadow Legion detachment from Be’lakor’s mindscape. It feels like any army that can allow you some options to “control” shooting into your army, movement across the table, and redeployment options just feels like it will be good. The army ends up having Cheap Sticky objective holders in Cultists, some long range shooting in Havocs, and even some brutal “engagement” options in fast Cav like the Blood Crushers. It will be an interesting time as people figure out what is the best way to combo all of this and still get access to things like Chaos Knights to help shore up some of its defenses.
Do you think I caught the top three armies will start to see show up in the finals? Am I just missing some broken Marine combo? I think Deathwatch is another sleeper army with the ability to redeploy tough as nails units with very brutal damage. I also think there will be some marine builds that figure it out and forgot that whole Bloodless Angels nonsense we had for a bit. It is an exciting time and I think the game is just gearing up to have a crazy year with Cult books, Knight options, and more Marine fun coming in the next few months.
Happy Gaming and see you at Adepticon 2025!
