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Just as you read before go from the strongest to the weakest in order...Lets hear what you got

1. Grey Knights
2. Imperial Guard
3. Space Wolves
4. Blood Angels
5. Orks
6. Space Marines
7. Dark Eldar
8. Tau Empire
9. Eldar
10. Dark Angels
11. Chaos Daemons
12. Chaos Space Marines
13. Black Templars
14. Witch Hunters (Because I haven't seen the WD Sisters of Battle mini-dex yet)
15. Necrons

Tough thing to do, make a list from best to worst. It's hard to judge the strength of a codex based solely on the codex itself, because there are (usually) all kinds of powerful lists, differing player strengths, and luck always comes into it. For example, I listed Chaos Daemons as eleventh on the list...and it was a guy playing Chaos Daemons that took first in my FLGS' 'Ard Boyz this year. And while Blood Angels are in fourth here, one of three players playing the army came in at second-to-last in our league cycle last time around.

Locclo wrote:1. Grey Knights
2. Imperial Guard
3. Space Wolves
4. Blood Angels
5. Orks
6. Space Marines
7. Dark Eldar
8. Tau Empire
9. Eldar
10. Dark Angels
11. Chaos Daemons
12. Chaos Space Marines
13. Black Templars
14. Witch Hunters (Because I haven't seen the WD Sisters of Battle mini-dex yet)
15. Necrons

Tough thing to do, make a list from best to worst. It's hard to judge the strength of a codex based solely on the codex itself, because there are (usually) all kinds of powerful lists, differing player strengths, and luck always comes into it. For example, I listed Chaos Daemons as eleventh on the list...and it was a guy playing Chaos Daemons that took first in my FLGS' 'Ard Boyz this year. And while Blood Angels are in fourth here, one of three players playing the army came in at second-to-last in our league cycle last time around.

Yeah I hear yeah it’s a tough thing to judge but I just wanted to see different peoples options because I’m sure there will be some different answers, but all and all I would agree with your list

1: Imperial Guard
2: Space Wolves
3: Blood Angels
4: Dark Eldar
5: Grey Knights
6: Tyranid
7: Space Marines
8: Eldar
9: Orks
10: Tau
11: Chaos Daemons
12: Chaos Space Marines
13: Black Templar
14: Dark Angels
15: Witch Hunters
16: Necrons

1st: Imperial Guard - Blood Angels - Space Wolves (These Armies are very forgiving and highly competitive)

2nd: Dark Eldar - Grey Knights (Not forgiving at all and require a lot of planning to make work. Very competitive.)

3rd: Space Marines - Orkz - Tyranids (Balanced and forgiving but lacking in numerous highly competitive builds.)

4th: Chaos Space Marines - Eldar (Somewhat forgiving, but very plan oriented armies. Competitive to an extent, but highly reliant on a few stock tactics.)


Everything else is fun/ok, but these armies are the best at most tournies, campaigns, standard games etc.

1-GK,waaaaaay OP
2-Guard
3-SW.2 words,Long Fangs
4-DE-"so...many...lances..."
5-BA
6-SM,DA,BT,Chaos Marines
7-Orks/Daemons
8-Eldar/Tau
9-Tyranids
10-Necrons


I haven't included SOBs,because we don't yet know the full codex.

Imperial Guard-They embody everything that works in 5th; mech and 36" shooting.
Space Wolves-Space Marine book with a 15% discount.
Blood Angels-Feel no Pain and Mech spam works.
Dark Eldar-Lances, fast vehicles, reliable CC units.
Grey Knights-Good at what they do best and really bad at what they don't.
Space Marines-Average.
Orks-Overwhelm mech armies easily, but get run around by fast vehicles. Kustom Force Field walls work really well, though.
Eldar-Some cool things like outflanking War Walkers w/Scatter Lasers, but everything's overpriced.
Chaos Space Marines-1 build that works. One.
Dark Angels-Dual Wing is pretty fun and relatively effective, rest of the Codex is balls.
Black Templars-Same as DA really. Fun factor but they aren't good in game.
Tau-Not enough shooting to reliably keep you out of combat and you fall apart like paper once you get in combat.
Witch Hunters-Plays alright due to it being a mech-based melta spam army at heart, but it's so much less effective than most others.
Chaos Daemons-Randomness, virtually no ranged AT.
Necrons-Virtually no dedicated AT/AP2 shooting, mostly some of the same reasons as Tau. Glancing things to death doesn't work.

This is coming from a DE player, YMMV. I've always favored DA over BT, and Daemons are atrociously bad. Like, almost Necrons bad, evidently. Space Wolves are more competitive than Blood Angels. And yes, Guard is the best army in the game.

DakkaDakka wrote:

Like I said, it comes from a DE player. Mech DE completely roflstomps Daemons unless they have tons of shooting.

Mr. Self Destruct wrote:And yes, Guard is the best army in the game.

Guard have always been one of, if not the, best foils to DE

I assume this is "best" as in "most competitive" and not my favourite. In which case:

1. Guard
2. Space Wolves
3. Blood Angels

The most competitive armies in the metagame right now

4. Grey Knights
5. Orks
6. Dark Eldar
7. Eldar

Can also be competitive but require a little more finesse

8. Vanilla Marines
9. Dark Angels
10. Chaos Space Marines
11. Black Templars

Not bad, but the higher books do similar builds better and for less points

12. Tau
13. Chaos Daemons
14. Necrons

Will loose unless you really know what you're doing tbh

I've left Sisters out as I haven't seen their new stuff yet, so it's hard to judge them. Also, GK's aren't over-powered imo, they're just new, and people aren't used to them yet.

Though let's be honest, with GW, the "best" army is really just the one with the newest codex...

Mr. Self Destruct wrote:Imperial Guard-They embody everything that works in 5th; mech and 36" shooting.
Space Wolves-Space Marine book with a 15% discount.
Blood Angels-Feel no Pain and Mech spam works.
Dark Eldar-Lances, fast vehicles, reliable CC units.
Grey Knights-Good at what they do best and really bad at what they don't.
Space Marines-Average.
Orks-Overwhelm mech armies easily, but get run around by fast vehicles. Kustom Force Field walls work really well, though.
Eldar-Some cool things like outflanking War Walkers w/Scatter Lasers, but everything's overpriced.
Chaos Space Marines-1 build that works. One.
Dark Angels-Dual Wing is pretty fun and relatively effective, rest of the Codex is balls.
Black Templars-Same as DA really. Fun factor but they aren't good in game.
Tau-Not enough shooting to reliably keep you out of combat and you fall apart like paper once you get in combat.
Witch Hunters-Plays alright due to it being a mech-based melta spam army at heart, but it's so much less effective than most others.
Chaos Daemons-Randomness, virtually no ranged AT.
Necrons-Virtually no dedicated AT/AP2 shooting, mostly some of the same reasons as Tau. Glancing things to death doesn't work.

I agree with all this. There's one problem,you forgot tyranids. I would(on this list) put tyranids between orks and eldar.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

p14tinum wrote: GK's aren't over-powered imo, they're just new, and people aren't used to them yet.

I agree with this completely. It's just a matter of finding their weakness. IMO shooting. all you have to do is shoot them and they die quite easily. Also if you know you are facing GKs try to get them to play as low points as possible. another huge weakness. they arn't good until 1750 or more points.

p14tinum wrote:I assume this is "best" as in "most competitive" and not my favourite. In which case:

1. Guard
2. Space Wolves
3. Blood Angels

The most competitive armies in the metagame right now

4. Grey Knights
5. Orks
6. Dark Eldar
7. Eldar

Can also be competitive but require a little more finesse

8. Vanilla Marines
9. Dark Angels
10. Chaos Space Marines
11. Black Templars

Not bad, but the higher books do similar builds better and for less points

12. Tau
13. Chaos Daemons
14. Necrons

Will loose unless you really know what you're doing tbh

I've left Sisters out as I haven't seen their new stuff yet, so it's hard to judge them. Also, GK's aren't over-powered imo, they're just new, and people aren't used to them yet.

Though let's be honest, with GW, the "best" army is really just the one with the newest codex...

What,no Tyranids?

Tyranids can't be played at all, what are you talking about?

And honestly, with GW, the "best" army is not the one with the newest codex. Many believe the the Tyranids have gotten far weaker with their latest codex (and the ones prior to it could beat it handily). There's a lot of controversy now about the Sisters of Battle codex and its weaknesses, which while admittedly is a White Dwarf mini-dex, is the latest one. And although Grey Knights are a powerful force right now, remember that virtually every army will outnumber them - even Vanilla Marines.

All that matters is that necrons will be at the bottom until they get a new codex....

Tier 1. - Imperial guard, space pups, BA.
2. - Dark eldar, chaos (Daemons and marines), eldar, orks, grey knights (They get crushed by guard, check out my BR), Vanilla marines
Tier 3. - nids, tau, crons, sisters. (Haven't seen new dex)

My list:

1) IG
2) SW
3) BA
4) GK - they're not as OP as some people think. They just do really well against SM armies.
5) DE
6) Orks
7) SM
8) Eldar
9) DA
10) BT
11) Daemons
12) CSM
13) Tyranids
14) SoB
15) Tau
16) Necrons

Locclo wrote:Tyranids can't be played at all, what are you talking about

I play Nids quite easily.You need the correct circumstances though.

DE are just too fast.


Daemons are quite the opponents.They have the same combat orientation as Nids,but nids have the advantage of MCs,unlike other aries,and can field them in large numbers,larger than Daemons.They also have more ranged abilty than Daemons.

GK are fantastic opponents.Shadow in the Warp makes Psychic tests even more awkward,but Daemonbane and Aegis makes the counter psychic powers harder.

MEQ are easy opponents,but you need a hybrid list.

Chaos are hard,as they have MC to counter yours,and they negate the advantage of hybrid lists that work against MEQ so well.

Guard are just too powerful.They have too many shots vs hordes,too many tanks and high strength stuff vs Nidzilla,and they can easily tackle both.

Orks are an army they excel at.They have better combat troops than them,in equal numbers.They can counter their vehicles with MCs,and are better shots.

Necrons are an easy match up,unlessd they bring a Monolith.Nids have basically 3 weapons than can hurt a monolith.The Heavy Venom Cannon,the Rupture cannon,and Carnifexes,which are not as good as normal because of Living Metal.Old One Eye is better,but because you don't always know that you are going to play Monolith spam,unless it is organized play.He is too bad and expensive to use any other time.

Why does everyone either miss tyranids out or put them at the bottom,i have tyranids and haven't lost a single game,plus if you use the doom then it will boost your possibilities of winning by a lot.

By Not losing a single game, you could be playing against noobs. Not enough info to provide a valid arguement. Why not post some battle reports?

flyingsquirrels wrote:Why does everyone either miss tyranids out or put them at the bottom,i have tyranids and haven't lost a single game,plus if you use the doom then it will boost your possibilities of winning by a lot.

I've won like 80% of my Tournament games with nids and I will agree with the opinion that they are awful. The book is a disaster and the new DE and GK books are nails in the coffin for it. That said, I am talking about higher level tournament play, not "willy nilly lets take 5 10 man tactical squads" noob friendly level. Tyranids are an extremely powerful army again bad players, as you need a fair number of heavy/special weapons to put down all the big bugs, and your typical noob list won't cover that. You are likely playing against bad players if you are still winning all your games with Nids, or they are average and you are some kind of gaming genius. Equal level skill and luck against 75% of the other armies is a tough to impossible game for nids.

Also, LOL @ half the lists not even having Tyranids on it!

As for my list based mainly on tournament reports with as little personal bias as possible;

Space Wolves
Grey Knights
Imperial Guard
Dark Eldar
Blood Angels
--------------------- Above this point, almost EVERY tournament has several of these in it's top 5 finishers
Orks
Chaos Space Marines
Space Marines
Tyranids
Eldar
Dark Angels (Death wing in particular)
---------------------Above this point, Frequently in the top 5, but rarely win it all.
Chaos Daemons
Black Templars
Tau
Witch Hunters
Necrons
--------------------Rarely top 5 finish, almost never win it all.

Hard to dispute SW and GKs up top after the results of the Nova and 'ard Boyz with them basically making up half of the armies that placed. Orks also frequently show well in tournaments and are widely under-estimated. Deathwing is crawling up the list as well, but lack of players using (and cost of 40-50 TH/SS models) them is limiting their results.