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Just as the post suggests me and my buddy want to know what the people of dakka think are the top 5 armies right now..

I guess:

Space puppy razorspam
BA mech
IG Sweeper/leafblower
Dark Eldar alpha strike
SM vulkan melta spam OR Soething Grey Knights

1. The Armed forces of the Ecclesiarchy
2. Sisters of Battle
3. The Red Redemption Crusade
4. Witch Hunters
5. Guard with allied Sisters

1. Grey Knights
2. Imperial Guard
3. Dark Eldar
4. Space Marines
5. Tyranids

Grey knights
Chaos space marines
Tyranids
Orks
Tau

Grey Knights
Blood Angels
Dark Eldar
Space Wolves
Witch Hunters

Space Wolves (in general, armies that spam the crap out of Rune Priests, spamming 5x ML Long Fangs, and Grey Hunters)
Mech BA (min/max'd assault marine razorback spam with as many Fast Predators as they can fit in)
Grey Knights (lots of Rifleman dreads with gimmick Psybolt ammo, min/max'd henchmen, etc)
Imperial Guard (throwing out as many tanks as possible)
Dark Eldar (generally skimmerspam as they've always done, but work much better now)

What is the scale for measurement and comparison?

The Emperor and his Sons

Right now, I would say its this.



IG, Space Wolves, BA, Vulkan Marines, Grey Knights*


* we can't be sure on this one yet. GKs havn't been out very long and any success they are having could be attributed to opponents having no clue how to fight them.

What points limit are we talking? What are the lists like? Who are the players involved? How much terrain is on the table? Fluffy or tournament focussed?

No army is 'the best' when viewed in a vacuum.

L. Wrex

we are talking competitivly,


so that means 2k-2500 points,

Expierience Tournament players,

and on a codex by codex basis.

My 2 cents.

SW
IG
BA
DE
GK

After Space Puppies its really a tie for second. Vanilla Marines played well can crack the top 5 and replace GK.

This is from general consensus reached at my FLGS. This list is NOT definitive or official in any way.
1. Imperial Guard
2. Space Wolves
3. Grey Knights
4. Blood Angels
5. Dark Eldar

To continue personal ranking beyond the request of the OP:
6. Space Marines
7. Orks
8. Black Templars
9. Eldar
10. Tyranids
11. Chaos Daemons
12. Dark Angels (Deathwing is notably stronger; on par with Templars or Eldar, perhaps)
13. Chaos Space Marines
14. Witch Hunter
15. Tau Empire
16. Necrons

1Necrons (2*monolith ftw)
2Daemons (4* tz herald)
3Tau (kroot spam)
4 Dark Angels (mix assault with normal termi's)
5Witch Hunter

1. SWs
2. BAs
3. IG
4. GKs
5. Daemons

It does depend on what kind of list you use though.

Seriously?

Deamons?



they are one of the poorer armies out there.

Fantesy Deamons=win

40k Deamons=suck

I actually think its

1: Grey Knights
2: Blood Angels
3: Space Wolves
4: Space Marines
5: Chaos Marines
It has to be, its what all the kiddies buy and you know when they good bored of nice marines they go get nasty marines and then quit hobby.

In no order

BA
IG
SW
DE
SM

I would go:-

1. Space Wolves - for the up close and personal fighting along with the serious punch delivered by long fangs (certainly when teamed up with Logan Grimnar)
2. Tyranids - Numbers and fast initiatives
3. Orks - Very high numbers and sometimes the big weapons act un-orky and work!!!!
4. Grey Knights - More psykers than you can shake a stick at!
5. Chaos - Attributes of SM with additional extras like daemon princes and so on!

Do we really want to be telling people what the most powerful armies are? It creates a vicious cycle. People should pick their codex based on their own personal tastes, not because it might get them a more wins.

nids gave me a laugh, but here is what i think you cant have on top army just more of a list of the top armies to play and the rest depending on style stragety and size,(assuming everyone is equally skilled)
top 5 are,

Space wolves
Dark Eldar
Imperial Guard
Space Marines
Chaos Marines

chaos?


i thought they only had one or 2 viable builds which were heavily gimmicky.

Dual lash and Plague Marine spam(not mutually exclusive builds)


other then that, they have some really bad units, some which are ok, but not good enough for Competitive play, and some which are pretty good, but not outstanding.


Chaos really doesn't have any Awsome units. just a few good ones and alot of meh ones.

Was more of a SMEE moment and didnt really want to put GK up there not tested enough, maybe blood angels then? Seeing as they can spam and do DoA.

BAs are definitly contenders.


i am sure that GKs will be up there, but I can't say for sure since there havn't been any major tournaments.


this time next year we can be sure.

I don't think it's very easy to rate the top 5 40k armies. There are too many variables. Armies like Chaos Demons are so underplayed that you can't really expect them to place highly at many tourneys, yet they do win some of the top tourneys. SW/BA/IG/GK have so many people playing them right now, that they are bound to show highly in many tourneys.

I think success is bred more from the player than from the army. List building is to be considered, but it's possible for a top player to scrutinize a codex and min/max a really mean list.

Indeed,


that said, any deamon player who wins would likely have won regardless of army and at that point its irrelevent.

Imperial Guard still reign supreme in my area.

Followed closely by:
Space Wolves
Blood Angels

Then a bit further behind those:
Dark Eldar
Eldar

Grey Knights look to be in contention for one of the spots, but I want to see how they fare for a little longer before granting them that status.

Grey Templar wrote:Indeed,


that said, any deamon player who wins would likely have won regardless of army and at that point its irrelevent.

Not necessarily, funny story actually to tell. Was playing a Daemon player with my IG. Turn 5 rolls around, I've got almost my entire army left, he has 2 hidden Bloodletters on an objective that I can't see, and I have another objective, there's one more unclaimed I'm pushing two chimeras toward, my Officer of the Fleet kept his last plaguebearer squad from coming in for two turns, so his turn rolls around, they come in, land on the last objective, and he takes the game when it ends turn 5.

I screwed myself there

well, the dice gods are always an X factor.


they can royally screw you over at the most inopprotune moment