Competitive Innovations: List Archetypes

This page acts as a summary of commonly seen list archetypes in the 40K metagame, providing a quick reference to how some lists that we see again and again function. The page is split into a section for current builds and an archive for lists that have rotated out of the metagame for whatever reason, but might still be linked from older articles.

Inclusion Criteria

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

Not every version of every army is common enough to get a place on this page, so just because it isn’t listed doesn’t mean it isn’t a valid build. In general, for an army to get included on this page we would expect it to have:

  • Made at least three top four finishes at GT+ events.
  • Done so in the hands of at least two different players.
  • Show strong evidence that it is being played by at least a reasonable number of players beyond that.

Are We Missing Something?

If you think a list archetype is common enough that it should be on this page send us an email at contact@goonhammer.com. Bonus points if you can point to an edition of Competitive Innovations that featured a good example!

Current

Adeptus Mechanicus

Mars Veteran Cohort

An all-rounder Mars list leaning on the power of Canticles and shooting re-rolls on assets like Ironstriders along with a bunch of extra tricks for Skitarii, increasing their melee reach in particular with Expedited Purge Protocol. After the Balance Dataslate, Pteraxii look like a particularly strong choice as a flexible unit, as they’re one of the few among AdMech’s best that survived unscathed.

Sample List – Brenton Weiss – 3rd Place Sunken City GT

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Drukhari

Drukhari Goodstuff

The Drukhari codex thrives because a whole bunch of their units are just good at what they do – a mobile mix of good anti-heavy shooting to take out key assets at range, and lethal melee trade pieces. While this archetype was heavily targed by the 2021 Balance Dataslate, the sheer quality it was operating at before, combined with AdMech getting hit way harder, have kept it very relevant, though list construction has changed a bit. In general, you are seeing more Ravagers, often in place of Kabalite Trueborn, more experimental use of Wracks in infantry slots, and some out-there Wych cult traits. In addition, this build has mostly devoured Cronos Drukhari as an independent entity – Cronos are still used, but they’re generally complementing a goodstuff strategy rather than anchoring it, as if you want anchors Talos are now the play.

Sample List – Boris Michev – 2nd Place UKTC Leicester Supermajor

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Sample List – Sean Nayden – 4th Place New Orleans Open

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Covens Drukhari

Talos were a terror in 8th, and although they had a bit of a lag post-codex, it turned out they’re still great, just with a completely different setup to what they were run with last edition. Then the balance dataslate buffed both them and Groteques with point cuts, and things have gotten pretty wild since then. This time around, the hotness is combining the Artisans of the Flesh custom Coven (-1D) with Talos loaded with ichor injectors, heat lances and either scalpels or Talos gauntlets. That creates a very durable unit with an extremely broad set of damage dealing tools, and they’ve also got the considerable upside of being far easier to hide on many tournament tables than most Drukhari toys. They also pair extremely effectively with Cronos as they love picking up the Pain Syphon buff early on (and with heat lances, can easily spike something to do so).

Sample List – Richard Siegler – 1st Place US Open Austin

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Space Marines

It’s not going to be mentioned every single time, but it’s worth noting that almost all top Marine builds will be using at least some Vanguard Veterans with lighting claws and storm shields to provide some melee punch.

Iron Hands Dreadnoughts

Time is a flat circle, and Iron Hands lists designed to slam the opponent out of the gate with a Drop Pod-powered opening salvo then grind them into the dust with the enormous efficiency of their dreadnoughts are back in a big way. Often (but not always) run as Successors with Whirlwind of Rage and Master Artisans, as the big draw is the superdoctrine (especially for Drop Pods and units that can’t otherwise get re-rolls) and the ability to make a Volkite Contemptor a Character with March of the Ancients.

Sample List – Alex Harrison – 1st Place Into the Hellstorm August 2021

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Iron Hands Minotaurs

An evolution of the strategy above has seen the board control elements kept but the number of Dreadnoughts dialed right back, cutting down to just two. The reason for this is that if you run as Minotaurs (and thus have access to Hekaton Aiakos), both these dreadnoughts can be bodyguardable characters with 9 wounds, making them tremendously difficult to deal with until they’re right in the opponent’s face, at which point it’s usually too late. Outside the dreads, the list goes wider on the mobile melta and board control tools Spins on this using both Master Artisans and Born Heroes alongside Whirlwind of Rage have been seen.

Sample List – Innes Wilson -1st Place Clash of Alba Winter Assault

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Deathwatch Dreadnoughts

Deathwatch have also been getting in on the Dreadnought action since the summer, taking advantage of some key relics and warlord traits they have the boost up Redemptors and Volkite Contemptors (the best types). The Dominus Aegis takes care of Redemptors’ singular weakness (no invulnerable save) while Nowhere to Hide and the Vhorkan-Pattern Auspicator significantly boost both flavours against lots of top metagame builds. Optionally, these builds can also take advantage of the ability to build Proteus Kill Teams that can split out a combat squad of 3-4 bikers and 1-2 VanVets, providing super-mobile and relatively durable ObSec models to control the board while the Dreads do their work.

Sample List – Alex Harrison – 2nd Place London GT Super Major September 2021

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Deathwatch Kill Team Strike Force

While it has very tight army construction rules, the Kill Team Strike Force has access to some truly absurd power plays, be it wide-ranging Advance/Charge out of the gate via the White Scars Chapter Tactic or annihilating opponents in a hail of flamer or storm bolter shots with Specialism Extremis. A very unique army, but one that will utterly dominate if given a chance.

Sample List – Michael Costello – 14th Place LCGT Supermajor

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Space Wolves

Space Wolves are one of the better Marine Supplements right now if you want to play a relatively normal all-rounder sort of game plan. They can lean in pretty hard on Dreadnoughts to some success (as they also provide great support to Redemptors via Storm Caller and Counter Charge), but they’ve got plenty of other things going for them – cheaper VanVet equivalents, slightly better Devastators (who have a way to ignore hit penalties out of a drop pod in Keen Senses) and access to a great utility datasheet in Cyberwolves. The Dreadnought plan has been on the ebb recently thanks to the presence of Grey Knights and Thousand Sons heavily discouraging non-specialist Psychic armies from bringing any Psykers.

Can also be run as Successors very comfortably – the Whirlwind of Rage/Born Heroes combo aligns very well with what the supplement wants to be doing, while a more recent build using Master Artisans played by Jamie Paris has also made a splash.

Sample List – Mathieu Boutin-Bastien – 1st Place MTL 40K

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Example Melee Successors List – Logan Antonation – 1st Place Return to IWTS

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Example Melta Successors List – Jamie Paris – 3rd Place Warzone Atlanta

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Dark Angels Deathwing

As time has gone on, (mostly) pure Deathwing have gradually provided more and more of Dark Angels best placings, as their ability to put down hard to shift, ObSec infantry is essentially unmatched. These lists aim to break opponents on the unyielding wall of Terminators they throw down, and have been pretty successful in doing so.

Sample List – John King – 3rd Place LCGT Supermajor

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Dark Angels Deathwing and Friends

Outside of pure Deathwing, the next most commen way to see Deathwing played at the moment is with a heavy Deathwing force to anchor the board and some sort of shooting backup supported by Azrael. Over time, we’ve seen less use of Ravenwing in that latter slot, and more builds leaning on Plasma Inceptors or even Hellblasters to use Weapons from the Dark Age, often backed up by Marine mainstays like Volkite Contemptors.

Sample List – Maxine Blythin – 4th Place FactoruM November GT

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Ultramarine Successor Alpha Strike

Ultramarines have some very powerful tools to enable a strong alpha strike, and lists utilising these alongside the Master Artisan/Whirlwind of Rage Successor Chapter Tactic have been very successful. Most notably, the Seal of Oath gives them a pretty much locked-in tool for destroying one of an opponent’s most powerful tools, and the ability to deploy Invictor Tactical Warsuits hyper-aggressively then pull them back if the roll-off is lost allows the army to present huge turn 1 pressure at minimal risk. Once the game is joined, the superdoctrine keeps Devastators and Suppressors mobile on turns two and three, and if the opponent tries to charge the gunline they’ll find themselves hit with a multi-overwatch fusilade.

Sample List – Samuel Marshall – 2nd Place Adelaide GT

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White Scars

In pre-codex 9th Edition White Scars were probably the single best army in the game – the combination of the speed provided to them by their Chapter Tactic with deadly melee threats and ranged units out of the old Marine codex made them an absolute nightmare to deal with early on, and the incredible late game boost that their Superdoctrine provides was usually enough to seal the deal.

Some of their top units have taken some fairly hefty nerfs over time, their synergies with the 9th book are a little less good, and 9th is less melee focused than it was early on, but the core White Scars plan of going fast and brawling the opponent out of the game is still a valid one, and they provide strong support for Devastators, one of the best Marine shooting units, via Hunter’s Fusilade, which lets them pull off an accurate volley after leaping out of a Rhino. This allows you to ration out a couple of units over multiple turns rather than going all-in with a drop pod, which adds flexibility, while Advance/Charge VanVets that jump to D2 late game are still exceptionally strong.

Almost all lists will be running a couple of big VanVet blocks and a double Devastator Rhino, and from there other popular choices include Volkite Contemptors to pop Raiders and Bladeguard for general purpose board control and murderising. Scars do also have some strong character options, with Kor’sarro being pretty popular, and various models carrying around either Plume of the Plainsrunner also frequently seen.

Sample List – Patrick McAneeny – 2nd Place Tables & Towers Flames of Autumn GT

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Blood Angels Jump Pack Spam

Blood Angels do one thing well, which is put down walls of angry men with jump packs to rip opponents to shreds. Sanguinary Guard and Death Company both provide some unique tricks (6″ heroics with Unbridled Ardour from the former, pre-game move with Forlord Fury from the latter), and being able to fly around a Chief Apothecary Sanguinary Priest with the Guard is very valuable. As well as that, Angel’s Sacrifice provides a powerful, unique tool to mess with the flow of combat for profit, and you’ve got a few other cool herohammer combos you can set up if you’re so inclined. Lacking any real shooting buffs is a major strike against them right now, but experienced players are still managing to make melee-themed builds do some work.

Sample List – Jack Harpster – 4th Place Crucible 9 GT

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Black Templars

The new Black Templars Codex Supplement has made a splash almost immediately, taking down several majors and putting up multiple further top four placings. That’s being driven by a few things, notably that Helbrecht is one of the best Chapter Masters out there, Uphold the Honour of the Emperor is extremely good with both Redemptors and elite infantry, and Relic Bearers being one of the best paid upgrades systems in any book, giving you tonnes of ways to make already powerful units great. They also have the option of using cost efficient Primaris Crusader bodies to dominate the board, and the incredibly nasty Tannhauser’s Bones/Bike Chaplain combo. Adding this all together creates a Marine army plays an extra strong all-rounder game plan.

Sample List – Matt Root – 1st Place Renegade Open

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Adeptus Custodes

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

Shadowkeepers

Successful Custodes lists cluster around one build, but it’s a strong one. Shadowkeepers handing an extra defensive stratagem to an army that already has plenty gives them a critical mass of tools to keep their units on the table, vital for an army with a low model count. Those tools almost always comprise Trajann, a Bike Captain, 3×3 troops (either shield Custodians, Sagitarrum or a mix), a Venatari bomb and a Telemon, filled to taste with more of the above or a few other things. You also sometimes see Trajann swapped for a second Bike Captain for extra mobility.

Sample List – Alun Perkins – 1st Place London Open August 2021

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Adepta Sororitas

Bloody Rose

Hyper aggressive builds packing large numbers of Repentia, Sacresants and Zephyrim (often given ObSec by a Dogmata and fired at the enemy) to handle melee punch and a few units of Retributors backed by Morvenn Vahl to burst down key targets at range. Celestine is also a staple, providing an extra threat and some positional trickery via the ability to bodyguard her high-footprint unit with Sacresants.

Sample List – Stephen Box – 2nd Place FactoruM 40k GT August 2021

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Martyred Lady Board Control

The Order of Our Martyred Lady can squeeze just enough value from their Codex Supplement to break the Bloody Rose’s stranglehold on Sisters lists, as it provides them some unique angles of attack. Being able to have multiple units of Sacresants operating with ObSec at any one time makes them very difficult to outplay on the Primary, and as their shooting threats die they’ll make their opponent pay dearly for it via Rejoice the Fallen and A Martyr’s Duty. Finally, the extremely over the top Blade of Sacrifice murder Canoness has turned out to be the real deal rather than just a meme, threatening to absolutely flatten a key opposing unit at an inconvenient moment.

Sample List – Stephen Box – 2nd Place Entoyment GT

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Orks

Goff Pressure

Note: Re-named from Mech Orks, as Goffs are clearly what’s driving the power here.

Orks love getting into the opponents face and krumpin’ them, and the Ork Codex gives them some pretty decent tools to do just that, most notably Trukk Boyz and the supreme power of the Kill Rig ferrying Beast Snagga Boyz around. Add in great utility infantry units for scoring secondaries and various ways to build powerful herohammer champions and you can craft a list that can body the opponent hard and fast enough, while scoring reliably enough itself, to run away with the game.

A variant on this exists that also includes a Deathskulls detachment, which helps the army pressure objectives. Because all Deathskulls INFANTRY get ObSec, you slam some durability relics on a Warboss and Big Mek in Mega Armour, and ride them into battle alongside your Trukk Boyz (who don’t care if the Trukk they are riding is Deathskulls). This can make it even harder for armies without good ObSec support of their own to deal with the green tide.

Sample List – Mark Perry – 2nd Place New Orleans Open

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Sample List (Deathskulls Variant) – Marshall Peterson – 1st Place Westminster Hobbytown GT

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Speed Mob

The Speed Mob has quickly proven that it’s one of the Armies of Renown that “get there”, as the huge boosts it gives to buggies (defensively and via the Speed King Warlord Trait), Warbikers (speedy and ObSec) and most especially Deffkoptas take an already strong set of datasheets and turn them up to 11, making the trade of no infantry very worth it. The dominant build thus far is a mix of Evil Sunz and Freebooterz, with an Evil Sunz Outrider of Warbikers firing them at the opponent with Faster than Yooz and the Freebooter buggies teeing up Competitive Streak for a pair of Wazboms.

Sample List – Adam Batista – 4th Place Objective Secured Perth GT

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Chaos Space Marines

Iron Warrior Daemon Engines

Chaos Space Marines have a few cool tricks up their sleeves, and one of them is definitely the Daemonsmith warlord trait out of Iron Warriors. Daemon Engines are some of the best datasheets that Chaos have access to, and piling on extra hits to their shooting (along with the other cool toys Iron Warriors bring like healing) gets them over the line to where they’re genuinely pretty good. You usually see a Master of Possession for Cursed Earth (improves invulns for Daemon Engines) and infernal Power (RR1s) carrying the trait around along with a Lord Discordant with the powerful Insidium buff leading things up. In terms of the Engines themselves, Decimators are very popular and the Lord of Skulls is a genuine player, but almost all of them are at least fine. More recently, this has been seen as a soup list with Death Guard for a Terminator brick wall to significant success.

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Emperor’s Children

The Emperor’s Children stratagem sheet in Faith and Fury/Book of Fire is wildly better than all the others, with powerful buffs for shooting and melee and one of the best charge reliability stratagems in the game. Honour the Prince lets you change a dice in a charge roll to a 6, which takes your charge percentages out of deep strike sky high. That’s great with lightning claw Terminators, who are a pretty decent unit on rate anyway and also want to be Slaanesh for Endless Cacophony, so lists built around lots of these plus a unit of Noise Marines in a Dreadclaw for Discordant Frequencies are a pretty potent prospect compared to the rest of what the (non-Iron Warriors) faction has to offer.

Sample List – Leigh Churchward – 8th Place Twisted Onslaught Devastation

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Death Guard

Mortarion’s Anvil

Mortarion’s Anvil has gradually crept to a position as the “default” Death Guard build, edging out the Inexorable. This is largely because they provide help with a bit of everything  in support of the basic Death Guard strategy of a shooty castle protected by Terminators and the Reviolting Stench Vats. Access to the Gloaming Bloat to fire into your opponent’s lines on a key turn cranks the durability even higher, Relaptic Assault can make it very hard to dodge a fight with the Terminators, and the Warp Insect Hive juices one Daemon Prince to the absolute gills as a counter-charge threat.

Sample  List – Allan Davidson – 12th Place Clash of Alba Winter Assault

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Inexorable

While edged out by Mortarion’s Anvil these days, the Inexorable provide a very reliable baseline for a shooty Death Guard build. These build an anvil of Deathshroud Terminators protecting Plagueburst Crawlers and Volkite Contemptors (who love the Ferric Blight of this company, though it’s not mandatory), and dare the enemy to either ignore it and get ground out by the shooting, or charge in and risk getting sliced into tiny pieces once slowed by the Revolting Stench Vats of an omni-present Blightspawn. A Tallyman with Tollkeeper is also a very common sight to boost the Volkite Contemptors.

Sample List – Scott Sasser – 2nd Place Gateway Open

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Blightlord Bomb

Take many of the same tools that make one of the two lists above list great but cuts down on some of them to free up points for a big unit of Blightlords, providing an extremely hard to shift core that’s also pretty versatile in the field of murder. Cloud of Flies can give some clutch protection, and this flavour also sometimes runs as Mortarion’s Anvil to unlock Relaptic Assault to make them harder to avoid. With Cloud of Flies as a part of the plan, Poxwalkers to gum up the board and get in the opponent’s face are particularly important.

Sample List – Brenden Chrustie – 3rd Place IWTS Open

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Terminus Est Assault Force

Most Death Guard builds make heavy use of Daemon Engines, but the one exception is the Terminus Est Assault Force, which leans hard on Poxwalker-based infantry board control. With the added power of Unleash the Horde and Rotting Tide to augment and replenish these units, plus Mutant Strain to make them a real threat to all and sundry, this list can take over the whole table if left unchecked, and is plausibly well positioned in a meta that’s pretty tuned for heavier targets right now.

Sample List – David Horn – 3rd Place LGT 2021

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Thousand Sons

Cult of Duplicity

The Cult of Duplicity are first out of the gate as a clearly identifiable and successful archetype out of the Thousand Sons book. The reason isn’t especially complicated – Rubricae and Scarab Occult Terminators both absolutely rule in the new book, and being able to teleport them around the board with Sorcerous Facade on demand provides some exceptional board control and objective play capability. Running tandem with the Umbralific Crystal and Temporal Surge also lets the lists throw some big punches out of the gate, and Master Misinformator is a potent optional addition to help them adapt at game start.

Sample List – Jony Velazquez – 4th Place GW Open New Orleans

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Duplicity/Time Pressure

After a bit of refinement, this combination is starting to look like the Thousand Sons list to beat. The combination of a big Time Scarab unit using the Umbralefic Crystal, Duplicity Warpflamer Rubricae using Risen Rubricae and Master Misinformator to adapt pre-game and lots of Spawn provides a truly nightmarish amount of pressure out of the gate, putting the opponent on the back foot, pulling ahead on primary and allowing the attrition tools that back the rest of this up to grind the opponent into dust.

Sample List – Mike Porter – 3rd Place UKTC Coventry Major

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Chaos Daemons

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

Be’lakor and Friends

Be’lakor’s datasheet is just incredibly good, providing strong layered defences, a powerful disruption spell in the form of Pall of Despair, and acting as a very potent counter to enemies leaning on invulns. Add in his compatibility with Locus of Swiftness for Advance/Charge and he’s been single-handedly spearheading a revival of some of the Daemon lists that were powerful in early 9th, teaming up with multiple Keepers to land spectacular early hammer blows while a Lord of Change grinds out loards of Mortals. Add in some Nurgle board control tools and you have a list template that can perform very strongly, and also adapt in quite a few directions depending on the exact metagame you’re expecting.

Sample List – Scott LaFountain – 8th Place SoCal Open

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Grey Knights

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

Dreadknights and Interceptors

Dreadknights of both the Grand Master and regular flavours are exceptionally strong all-rounder units, able to deal great damage at range and in melee and pretty hard to shift thanks to a 2+/4+ invulnerable, creating a very strong army core that puts the opponent under pressure fast thanks to multiple ways to redeploy them. Meanwhile, Interceptors are exceptionally vast and very deadly infantry who can quickly take control of the board (almost always Combat Squadingfor max coverage) and rack up secondary points. Put these two together and you have an extremely powerful list, especially with access to Foretelling of Locus for pre-game flexibility.

After quite a bit of experimentation with different Brotherhoods early on, this army now overwhelmingly runs with the combo of Prescient Brethren for one GMDK and lots of Interceptors and the Swordbearers for the rest of the Dreadknights. This is pretty much down to Foresight being incredibly pushed for only 1CP on a GMDK or big melee unit, and Divination providing something for a backline Techmarine to do, while the Swordbearers layered anti-tank buffs helps in the mirror and against Orks. The other build that still gets the odd look in is the Blades of Victory list that uses Vanguard Aggression to hit extra hard early on.

Sample List – Adam Lane – 2nd Place Da Winter Waaagh 2

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Sample List (Blades of Victory) – Ben Cherwien – 1st Place Iron Halo 2021

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Harlequins

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

Bikes and Boats

One of the few archetypes from right at the start of 9th that’s still just about holding on, lists featuring a swarm of tooled up troupes riding around in starweavers blowing things up with fusion pistols and backed up by some nasty characters and (optionally) one big bike squad for Prismatic Blur can still do a number on opponents who don’t have the right tools to deal with it.

Sample List – Matthew Ehlinger – 4th Place Western Wisconsin Wargaming Weekend

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Aeldari

Harlequins and Artillery

The Craftworld codex is extremely dated at this point, but their heavy support section holds up, with Tempest Launcher Dark Reapers, Shadow Weavers and Night Spinners all being valid ways to chip away at opponents over the course of the game. These make a strong backup for a cut down Soaring Spite contingent to dominate the mid board, helping reach out and pick off small units that you can’t affort to send a clown car after, and pressure the opponent into committing to positions where they’re vulnerable.

Sample List – Mike Porter – 1st Place Goonhammer Open UK

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Tyranids/Hive Mind

Crusher Stampede

The massive new kid on the block, the Crusher Stampede‘s combination of ultra durability for Monsters and the brutal killing power of Dimachaerons boosted with Thunderous Impact and any monster (including the Flyers) running opposing Characters down with Breaking Through makes this one of the most potent Armies of Renown yet. The sheer pressure this army can exert goes a long way towards making up for it being a little light on Secondary choices, but for the closing part of the GT2021 season it can cover quite a lot of that with Lictors and Warrior MSUs.

Sample List – Michael Duke – 2nd Place (undefeated) Overwatch Open VI

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Leviathan Goodstuff

What a difference a Codex Supplement makes. The extremely high power of the Leviathan toolbox (notably Relentless Flurry on devourer Gaunts and Swarm Leader) plus the addition of Synaptic Links has fired Tyranids into being real metagame contenders, with double-shooting Hive Guard (via Single Minded Annihilation) with stacked buffs providing a tremendous firebase with which to grind out the opponent, Maleceptors/Malanthropes shielding the castle, flurrygants providing truly appalling volleys of death, and the old fallback of Genestealers and the Swarmlord to disrupt the opposition. Right now, almost all top incarnations of this are using a small Four Armed Emperor GSC detachment, as access to lots of blips via Sensor Decoys plus A Plan Generations in the Making add a huge amount of utility at a relatively low price.

Sample List – John Lennon – 1st Place New Orleans Open

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Hive Guard Spam

Hive Guard are really good, so while the balanced Leviathan Goodstuff builds are probably the best way to play Tyranids right now, you absolutely can just slam down multiple units of Hive Guard (bringing some of them as Kronos for the built in RR1s and Symbiostorm) and try and blow your opponent off the table. Hive Guard being relatively weak into Talos keeps this from being super-dominant, but it’s still viable.

Sample List – Mani Cheema – 2nd Place US Open Austin

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Harridan

The Harridan was pushed very close to viability just on base rate in the Forge World Compendium, and adding the Leviathan and Synaptic Link rules to its repertoire makes it genuinely viable, especially as there aren’t that many of the AdMech lists that would just blow it out of the sky around any more. The shooting on this thing is completely absurd into enemy heavy infantry, which can also make it good in the Tyranid mirror if it can position to blast Hive Guard out of the gate.

Sample List – Andreas Holm – 2nd Place West Coast GT

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Imperial Knights

Freeblade Lance

The archetype that sounds most like a metal album, the Freeblade Lance was already pretty good prior to the Balance Dataslate, and is now even more potent thanks to the addition of ObSec to Armigers and counting as ten models to the big Knights. This is the build that uses the latter buff most effectively, as with three big models and four Armigers you can stack things up so that all three of the larger robots have the Sworn to a Quest Quality (or you can use the Banner of Macharius Triumphant to sub for one), giving them ObSec. Army-wide ObSec coupled with being able to turbocharge a couple of Knights with either double relic from Favoured Knight or the adding the Krast trait makes this a force to be reckoned with. Versions with three Magaeras and four Armigers are common, but you can also mix things up with spicier choices like Castellans and Preceptors.

Sample List – Brian Jones – 9th Place GW US Open Austin

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General Imperial Knights

As of the Balance Dataslate, Imperial Knights as either Krast or Raven have enough power that they can be picked up and do decently at an event, with builds spanning triple big knight, one big Knight and lots of Armigers, and occasional pure Armigers lists.

Sample List – Dave Murray – 7th Place Clash of Alba Winter Assault

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Chaos Knights

War Dog Spam

Chaos Knights have always been uniquely well placed to do “whoops all War Dogs” because of how exceptionally well Infernal Power combines with lightning locks. You certainly can’t afford to slam the button every turn, but when you do the damage is phenomenal, and teaming up a backfield of Infernal Moiraxes with an aggressive clique of Iconoclast Warglaives is potent.

Sample List – Dawid Szmyt – 9th Place LCGT Supermajor

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General Chaos Knights

Similarly to loyalists, there’s enough raw power in what Chaos Knights can do now to make them at least fine, and having easy access to ObSec on one Knight with Infernal Quest only helps with that. The big source of generic power for Chaos is the Iconoclast superfaction trait, so most builds without a more specific plan will work off this, especially given how well it combos with sweep attacks, which you can double down on with Pride-fuelled fury.

Sample List – Adam Baker – 6th Place Lightly Salted Holiday GT

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Necrons

Eternal Expansionist Swarm

Being able to get army-wide ObSec from the Eternal Conquerors Dynastic Code, comboed with a pre-game move from Relentlessly Expansionist, gives Necrons their biggest unique asset right now, letting them dominate Primary scoring to a ridiculous degree. There are broadly three directions this can be taken, the first of which is just to pack in as many wounds with the trait as possible, using a tonne of Scarab Swarms, Wraiths and Lychguard to bog the enemy down on objectives for long enough to claim the game for the Necrons. Even better post Balance Dataslate, as you can give your Wraiths an extra little boost.

Sample List – Dick van der Harst- Into The Hellstorm: The Chainsword

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Eternal Expansionist Destroyers

The swarm builds of Eternal Expansionists can sometimes crumble in the face of armies that present high melee threat, so some spins on it cut down the sheer number of bodies in favour of some that can actually do some killing, usually Skorpekh Destroyers. These are often backed up by Lokhust Heavy Destroyers at the back, providing a mixture of objective control and some ranged spike damage.

Sample List – Joe Guzowski – 2nd Place War on the Shore GT

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Eternal Expansionist C’tan

As above, but bring two C’tan instead (almost always the Nightbringer and Void Dragon).

Sample List – Jason Roberts – 2nd Place Northern Warlords

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Mephrit Silent King

A build that was knocking on the door of competition prior to the rise of Drukhari, and is showing early signs of being back after the Balance Dataslate, combining Mephrit and the Silent King lets you squeeze lots of value out of a block of gauss flayer Warriors, providing mid-ranged all-rounder capability, and now also sends the melee power of Wraths and/or Skorpekh sky high thanks to wound re-rolls.

Sample List – Seth Piper – 1st Place Dicehead Holiday Event

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Silent King Eternal Expansionists

Pick one of the other Eternal Expansionist flavours, find 450pts and slam in the Silent King for a great To the Last target and a lethal trump card for the late game.

Sample List – Matthew Chinn – 2nd Place FactoruM GT

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Archived Archetypes

Lists in these sections are no longer guaranteed to be legal.

Rogue’s Gallery

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

The lists in this section have exited the metagame thanks to targeted action from GW, whether it be points hikes, rules changes or otherwise.

Adeptus Mechanicus

Mars & Lucius

Reason for Archive: No more mixed subfactions, Warzone Nachmund

Mars/Lucius combines the deadly shooting efficiency of Mars Ironstriders, Wrath of Mars and often a couple of Stratoraptors with the durable infantry and early game Solar Flare sucker punch of Lucius to create a list that can deal brutal damage out of the gate while still having the staying power to play the long game. After the Balance Dataslate, it’s working with quite a bit less stuff, but still has some ferocious output at range and the staying power to compete as at least a tier 2 army.

Sample List – Jakub Falkowski – 2nd Place Polhammer 40K

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Mars & Lucius Plane Spam

Reason for Archive: Flyer cap, Balance Dataslate Q4 2021.

A spin on the standard Mars/Lucius list, this cuts down everything that isn’t Skitarii and planes to give outrageous reach turn one and a very uniform and hard to attack defensive profile. Has the advantage that it can deal a nightmarish turn one punch whatever the terrain, but can’t hide its assets as well in the mirror.

Sample List – Malik Rubio – 1st Place London GT Super Major September 2021

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Lucius Horde

Reason for Archive: Points increases in Balance Dataslate Q4 2021 appear to have largely killed this.

A gigantic carpet of Lucius Skitarii designed to overwhelm the opponent with durable bodies and chip firepower.

Sample List – Rickard Nilsson – 4th Place Alliance Open September 2021

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Metalica Veteran Cohort

Reason for Archive: Points increases in Balance Dataslate Q4 2021 appear to have largely killed this.

A pressure build designed to exploit the melee and mobility buffs provided by the Metalica supplement and the Veteran Cohort to brawl the opponent out of the game via Infiltrators and Ruststalkers.

Sample List – Richard Siegler – 1st Place Orlando Open August 2021

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Drukhari

Cronos Drukhari

Reason for Archive: Post Balance Dataslate 2021, no longer feels like a distinct archetype to Goodstuff, especially in light of the Cronos price rise.

Cuts down on some of the standard goodstuff tools to bring in two units of Dark Technomancers Cronos, providing a durable unit that is ideal for hosing down 2W models and vehicles without damage reduction.

Sample List – Matt Root – Flying Monkey August 2021

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Double Trueborn

Reason for Archive: Post Balance Dataslate 2021, no longer feels like a distinct archetype to Goodstuff, and is much rarer with the hike in cost of Trueborn and Ravagers going down at the same time.

A shootier skew on goodstuff that dials back some of the trade pieces to bring in a second Kabal and unit of Trueborn, usually run with either Black Heart/Obsidian Rose to access the two different kinds of free re-roll, or swapping one of those for a detachment of Poisoned Tongue to gain access to Insidious Misdirection, allowing the Trueborn to be kept safe out of the gate.

Sample List – Jay Wood – 1st Place Da Summer Waaagh

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Orks

Freebooterz – Plane Version

Reason for Archive: Taken out by Plane and Buggy limits.

A mixture of buggies and Dakkajets, powered up by the Competitive Streak faction trait, deal an outrageous punch to the opponent out of the gate, then the combination of being able to use Get Da Loot on random infantry like Kommandos plus the massive Badskull Banner anti-ObSec aura from a Deffkilla Wartrike lock in the primary over the course of the game while the opponent’s offence breaks against Ramshackle.

Sample List – Ben Jurek – 3rd Place Wargames for Warriors August 2021

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Blood Axe Buggies

Reason for Archive: Shut down entirely by buggy limits.

An army that goes pretty much all in on Squigbuggies and Megatrakk Scrapjets as the Blood Axe clan, which gives them extra durability and the option of deploying almost nothing on the table in matchups where that’s advantageous thanks to I’ve Got a Plan Ladz. 

Sample List – Mani Cheema – 1st Place Wargaming Guild Open – Summer Slaughter August 2021

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Adepta Sororitas

Bloody Rose & Argent Shroud

Reason for Archive: No more mixed subfactions, Warzone Nachmund.

Bloody Rose melee threats backed up by the excellent shooting reach and reliability of the Argent Shroud. Often brings a few Rhinos and units of Dominions to even further extend the early threat.

Sample List – Matt Robertson – 1st Place Into the Hellstorm: Chainsword August 2021

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Bloody Rose & Ebon Chalice

Reason for Archive: No more mixed subfactions, Warzone Nachmund.

Bloody Rose melee threats backed up by the grindier, mortal wound based shooting of the Ebon Chalice, plus leveraging their ability to play around with Miracle Dice and Sacred Rites.

Sample List – John Lennon – 2nd Place Orlando Open August 2021

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Other Retired Builds

Credit: Robert “theChirurgeon” Jones

Builds in this section have either fallen so convincingly out of favour with the metagame that people just aren’t running them any more, or have become outdated thanks to new rules shaking things up in a non-targeted way.

Space Marines

Dark Angels Ravenwing

Reason for Archive: Too rare for continued inclusion, Q2 2022.

A bit rarer than it once was, but Ravenwing handing out free 5+ invulnerable saves to already decent units makes them pretty efficient, and if you go heavy on them the Death on the Wind secondary becomes very reliable and powerful. These lists have been shaken up a bit by the Balance Dataslate, as some were running the full three Dark Talons, and in the wake of that you’ve seen some snapping entirely the other way and cutting them, as without a critical mass to alpha with they’re less good.

Sample List – Johnj DeMaris – 4th Place YHP Fall Brawl

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Tyranids

Kronos and Kraken

Reason for Archive: Out-moded by Leviathan Goodstuff and Leviathan/Kronos mix.

The one true Tyranid list right now. A Kraken Swarmlord, usually with a unit of Genestealers (and optionally some other big nasties) riding shotgun, provides fast pressure and some janky combat tricks to keep the enemy locked down. While that’s being dealt with, a Kronos Hive Guard unit using Single Minded Annihilation to double shoot and an Exocrine taking full advantage of Symbiostorm grind the enemy down. The true glory days of this build are past, but it still works and it’s the best thing that nids can put on the table.

Sample List – Jake Harris – 7th Place Gateway Open

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Orks

Freebooterz

While this is one of the builds that the 2021 Balance Dataslate took direct aim at, its power pre-nerf was sufficient that a slightly toned down version still represents one of the bests lists in the metagame, and the substantial nerfs applied to AdMech, which was previously a near hard counter, only help further. Freebooterz use the extreme power of the Ork buggies and Wazbom Blastajets, coupled with the Competitive Streak Clan Kultur, to blow their opponents clean off the table, and use the Badskull Banner and powerful Get Da Loot stratagem to punch above their weight in Primary scoring ahead of that. Deffkoptas are also increasingly popular, as they’re very good in the mirror.

Sample List – Brian Seipp – 1st Place LCGT Supermajor

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