Meta Snapshot 5/11/2026

 

Hello 40K enthusiasts! Once again, I'm here to bring you the news of the top factions of the week. I suspect this week's results are less relevant than usual, because there were only five events over Mother's Day weekend. Clearly, more moms need to be introduced to the joys of pushing elaborately painted toy soldiers across tables while rolling absurd amounts of dice and making pew-pew noises. Since we're not at that joyous state, I'll just report on what we've got.

Top Faction of the week is Death Guard! I'm going to eschew the tables I've been posting, and just write out that Death Guard earn the top spot by taking a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place result, all with Virulent Vectorum lists. 

The lists were all pretty similar too. All three of them included Mortarion, a Daemon Prince of Nurgle with Revolting Regeneration, a Lord of  Virulence, at least 2 units of Poxwalkers, and as you may have guessed from the article picture, at least 2 Defilers. A Lord of Contagion, Bloat Drones and Chaos Spawn appeared in two of the lists, and the winning list went heavy on Terminators, with 10 Blightlords and 3 Deathshrouds.

The Number Two faction of the week is Chaos Space Marines, on the strength of a 1st place finish with a Pactbound Zealots list and a 2nd place finish with a Fellhammer Siege-host list. 

The two lists were broadly similar. Each had 2 Defilers, a solid investment in punchy units (which CSM have in enviable abundance and some Cultists to cheaply sit on objectives and score Secondaries, with an assortment of characters as suited the player. Both did have Cypher though.

The Number Three faction of the week is Leagues of Votann, on the strength of a 1st place finish (Needgaârd Oathband) and a 3rd place finish (Hearthband). Votann happened to win the biggest event of the weekend, but while that was a respectable 47 players, it wasn't a massive super-major.

The two lists were fairly different from each other. The 1st place list leaned heavily into shooting, with 15 Brôkhyr Thunderkyn and 3 Hekaton Land Fortresses, with just one unit of 5 Cthonian Beserks as a counterassault unit. The 3rd place list was not un-shooty, as it was based around 25 Einhyr Hearthguard, which can manage a pretty good fusillade (they make me jealous that Deathwing Terminators don't pack similar firepower) but they are also a respectably punchy unit, and they're backed up by 2 units of 5 Berserks. 

Event List

The 2026 Central Arkansas Warhammer 40K Grand Tournament: 47 players, 6 rounds

  1. Leagues of Votann: Needgaârd Oathband
  2. Necrons: Cursed Legion
  3. Grey Knights: Sanctic Spearhead

09 & 10 May 2026 - OWN's Breaking Point GT at Game HQ: 33 players, 5 rounds

  1. Aeldari: Aspect Host
  2. Adeptus Custodes: Talons of the Emperor
  3. Grey Knights: Warpbane Task Force
Israeli 40K National Championships: 28 players, 5 rounds
  1. T'au Empire: Kroot Hunting Pack
  2. Chaos Space Marines: Fellhammer Siege-host
  3. Death Guard: Virulent Vectorum
Gulf Tournament Circuit: Abu Dhabi: 27 players, 5 rounds
  1. Death Guard: Virulent Vectorum
  2. Death Guard: Virulent Vectorum
  3. Imperial Knights: Freeblade Company
III IBERIAN OPEN GTS GRANADA: 22 players, 5 rounds
  1. Chaos Space Marines: Pactbound Zealots
  2. Blood Angels: Gladius Task Force
  3. Leagues of Votann: Hearthband
That, fellow 40K 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!

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