Meta Snapshot 4/7/2026


Hello fellow 40K enthusiasts! Not a lot of 40K events were held last weekend. Easter weekend, go figure. I only have 9 events to work from, with 8 of those being 30 players or less, and one of them only recorded results for 4 rounds despite being advertised as a 5 round event. As you can imagine, with so few events, there's not a lot of data to go on for providing the meta snapshot.

Top Faction this week is Chaos Space Marines, with one 1st Place, two 2nd Place, and one 3rd Place finishes. The 1st Place list used the Renegade Raiders detachment. One of the 2nd Place lists used the Veterans of the Long War detachment. The other 2nd place list and the 3rd Place list used the Huron's Marauder's detachment.

There were a lot of common elements to these lists. All of them had Huron Blackheart, Masters of the Maelstrom, Chosen, Cultists, and numerous Rhinos. Appearing in three of the four lists were: Fabius Bile, Cypher, Legionaries, and two squads of Noise Marines. Beyond that there was a fair bit of variance in individual players' preferred units.

For the Number Two faction of the week, I'm picking Leagues of Votann. A Hearthband Votann list won the biggest event of the weekend, and Mercenary Oathband list took 2nd Place at another event. 

The two lists have some broad similarities, though I suppose that might have something to do with Votann having a fairly limited range of units. The winning list is punchier, with 20 Einhyr Hearthguard and a unit of 10 Cthonian Berserks. The 2nd Place list looks shootier, with more Brôkhyr Thunderkyn (though both list had three squads), two Land Fortresses instead of one, and other shootier-sounding elements.

For Number Three faction of the week, I'm picking Necrons. Necrons are the second of three factions that scored more than one Top Three results. Necrons placed both 1st and 2nd at The Kirton Ironman III, with both lists being Hypercrypt Legions. 

The two lists in question were almost identical. They both had: Deceiver, Nightbringer, Void Dragon, 1 Transcendant C'tan, Hexmark Destroyer, Lokhust Destroyer, and Tesseract Vault. The only difference was that the 1st place list had 2 squads of Flayed Ones and 1 squad of Deathmarks, whereas the 2nd place list had 1 squad of Flayed Ones and 2 squads of Deathmarks.

Here's the events and their Top Three finishes.

Gothcon 40k Open: 62 players, 6 rounds

  1. Leagues of Votann: Hearthband
  2. Adepta Sororitas: Hallowed Martyrs
  3. Deathwatch: Black Spear Task Force

Nopat ja Taktiikka GT Q2: 21 players, 5 rounds

  1. Astra Militarum: Grizzled Company
  2. Chaos Space Marines: Huron's Marauders
  3. Chaos Space Marines: Huron's Marauders
1º Iberian Open La Oficina Wargames: 23 players, 5 rounds
  1. Space Wolves: Stormlance Task Force
  2. Leagues of Votann: Mercenary Oathband
  3. Emperor's Children: Rapid Evisceration
The Kirton Ironman III: 24 players, 5 rounds
  1. Necrons: Hypercrypt Legion
  2. Necrons: Hypercrypt Legion
  3. Ultramarines: Blade of Ultramar

Peterborough Slam! - Inspired GT: 30 players, 5 rounds

  1. Adeptus Custodes: Lions of the Emperor
  2. T'au Empire: Retaliation Cadre
  3. World Eaters: Berserker Warband
Twin Dragons April Grand Tournament: 26 players, 5 rounds
  1. Chaos Space Marines: Renegade Raiders
  2. Death Guard: Virulent Vectorum
  3. Chaos Knights: Helhunt Lance
Tensei's GT: 21 players, 4 rounds
  1. T'au Empire: Mont'ka
  2. Chaos Space Marines: Veterans of the Long War
  3. Deathwatch: Black Spear Task Force

That, fellow enthusiasts, is what I have for you today. I'll make the effort to keep you appraised of what's doing well in the meta. I hope you find the information helpful to you. May all your games be fun ones!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chapter Update: 7/7/2025

Image
Hello battle brethren! It was a lighter weekend than usual due to the July 4th holiday over here in the United States, but the rest of the world didn't stop having 40K events. We had four lists go X/0 or X/1 over the weekend, and all of them were Wrath of the Rock lists. Over three times as many players played Wrath lists as all the other detachments combined over the weekend. So, let's take a look at those lists, see what we can learn from them, and celebrate the achievements of our battle brethren! I'd like to start at the Geelong 40k Town Open, a 5-round, 61 player event held in Victoria, Australia.I There, Jamie Wood of The Dirty D6 Dozen went 4-0-1 to take 2nd overall! Going undefeated at a GT is a major accomplishment! You can see Jamie's list on BCP. We'll discuss it below.   Jamie's list Lion Dad - Warlord Azrael Chaplain in Terminator Armour Judiciar: Ancient Weapons Lieutenant: Tempered in Battle Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys Deathwing Knights: 5 a...
Read more

Chapter Update: 6/30/2025

Image
  Hello battle brethren! Another weekend is behind us, and over that weekend many of us did battle on tables worldwide (not me, I was NPCing a LARP). Statistics indicate that collectively we're struggling to keep our heads above water, but there are some good results to talk about. I have 4 lists I want to talk about, and 3 of them are bespoke Dark Angels detachments! Even more wild, 2 of them are Company of Hunters lists, and one of those lists is an event winner! Let's take a look at these lists and see what we can learn from them.  We'll do the logical thing and start with the event winner. Jofonz Blow of RBBR took 1st place with his Company of Hunters lists at Bigfoot GT, a 5-round, 22 player event held in Medford, OR. You can see Jofonz' list on BCP. We'll discuss it below. We are the Shadow Riders, born of night, We ride for the Emperor, wielders of might. Not for glory, nor for fame, In shadows deep, we etch His name. Our path is unseen, our strike is swift,...
Read more

Wrath of the Rock: First Use

Image
Hello battle brethren! I'm excited to tell you I used the new Wrath of the Rock detachment for the first time at an RTT this past Saturday, at Phantasm Gaming in Branford CT. If you're within a reasonable driving distance, I highly recommend it. They have a good setup on 40K days, with high tables so you don't kill your back, the tables have extra space for staging your stuff, they have good terrain, plenty of space to move around, and the registration fee for RTTs includes pizza for lunch. Anyway, there were 26 players at the event. I went 2-1 and took 4th place. You can see the BCP entry for the event here . Just as a reminder, I did a review of the detachment last week, which you can see here . I included a first idea for a list, which I modified somewhat before it hit a table. Here's the version I played on Saturday. Rocky Wrath Flavour 1.21 Azrael - Warlord Sammael Ravenwing Command Squad: Lord of the Ravenwing Assault Intercessors: 5 choppy boys Deathwing Knights...
Read more