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Hey there.
As the title sayy i didn't play in over two years and have yet to touch the new edition (coming weekend yaaay).
So i turn to dakka and wonder what is the meta like? What threats did i miss so far (e.g. imperial knights)?
And what are the cornerstones of list building (tac) these days?
My armies are Guard and Black Templars.
Any advice is deeply appreciated

Wilkommen back haha. I'm not sure what the tournament scene is like in Germany but in the US we have two distinct competitive metas; the NOVA tree of events and those that use the ITC packet. To make a long story short, GTs are now limiting GW's codex rules. Some with ban lists, others with restrictions (to varying degrees of efficacy).

Imperial Knights for example, in the NOVA tree at least, are (for now) banned. That is because they are now all super-heavy lords of war.

As for the meta, it's still dominated by Eldar even though they have a new book. Ranged strength D is now a thing (for Eldar). As a response to this, MSU lists are making a comeback. Search "Lictorshame" and "Decurion MSU" for more info.

As for your armies, SM get a new codex next week, so good timing! AM still function as decent imperial allies.

Hope that helped!

The black Templar are getting a new codex soon in codex marines so juries out on what to expect of units beyond rumours and what we know about assault marines and anders (such as ic's and characters paying less for weapons than normal marines, and the eviscerator chainsword coming to standard marines from sisters and blood Angels).

Well the first thing you need to be aware is that it's open season on power creep beyond the really nutso stuff like imperator Titans and thunder Hawks you can field whatever you want.

Gw has been openly trying to demo major tournament play by using game mechanics to turn players on rule makers. For example lots of major hq choices can't be fielded due to the lord of war restrictions (as an example Logan grimnar is a lord of war and so is Caldor draigo).

Gw has been publishing codecies for smaller organizations as codecies they are: harelquinns, skitarii, adeptus mechanicus (labeled cult mechanicus), imperial Knights, and militarum tempestus (storm troopers/karsakin). They have no heroes and limited unit selections but lots of crazy game mechanics such as Knights having the ability to hurl mc and vehicles with a special power fist they have, and the mechaniums ability to buff different stats with an order issue similar to the way guard do it.

The meta has gone sort of pear shaped if you ask me as tournament play has gotten wayyy out of hand. With the eldars mega buff to starcannons, and eldar wraiths being stronger and more resilient than anything but a lord of war it's tough for me to pin down commonalities between armies. My best description is that at the top necrons and eldar reign supreme with other armies in the lower end of the food chain for the moment. Flyers, forge world, and even some super heavies like bane blade variants and the big stomps have made their way into common high end casual play and it don't be surprised if you see them.

Not much has changed beyond the introduction of formations and more charts for you to look at and remember in new army books. For example the army flow charts (dubbed the decurion detachments by the common folk though it has other names). These are basically a "my first army" shopping list that has a set base formation and then a series of formations you can add too it. When taking together these formations only get stronger but they can be taken separate as well.

Using the guardsmen as an example of such a flow chart here's how one might look:

Base formation:

Lord comissar
Platoon command squad
2-4 imperial guard squads
1-2 ratling squads m

From here once these requirements are met you have other formations like 3 leman Russ and a hellhound or another with three storm trooper squads and 3 valkyries and when you bring them together you get extra special rules they don't have by themselves.

And as stated you can take these formations independent of the flow chart so don't think their trapped in there, and you can take as many of those formations as you want (providing they don't have a unique ic in them like say lt harker or knight commander pask).
If this all sounds too complicated then you still have you standard force org chart (the CAD), and taking allies like in 6th.

Also be aware that it's possible to toss it all out the window say stuff it to charts and run an army unbound. This means anything goes. Add some bane blades, take a vendetta as your commander, go crazy.

Everything now scores objectives (including fortifications like the bastion and wall of martyrs, however troops choices (and their dt's) have objective secured meaning they need to either be contested by another troops or pushed off. (Yes this means chimera's and drop pods can hold objectives).

The pre ioualy off limits magic tables in the grey Knights codex and and daemons codex are fair game. That's right inquisitors can summon daemons (be aware that they do it a lot less reliably than a daemon or a chaos marine). Anyone can now ally with anyone. Come the apocalypse is now desperate allies with even more restrictions.

Traitor guard have their own army codex it's inside imperial armor 13

New changes to the way ap of weapons interacts with damaging vehicles, they got a lot tougher as a result

Sniper rules have changed shots are now ap2 on a 6 to wound as opposed to rending. This rule still exists In cities of death however.

You missed three campaigns:
Storm klaw: guardsmen, gk, space wolves, Knights v orks
Shield of Baal: blood Angels, flesh tearers, tempestus, sisters v tyranids
Blood oath: smurfs, Knights /w legion titanica, gk v chaos daemons and csm

Oh and the chaos space marines got a new army codex for khorne specific armies called khorne daemonkin. It's got a huge emphasis on khorne units (but kharn is absent oddly enough).

It's fine if you don't go too deep into the 'competitive' pit. I'm not sure about the power creep season yet. Just ott broken eldar so far. We'll see what happens with sm in a week.

Cpt. Icanus wrote:
Hey there.
As the title sayy i didn't play in over two years and have yet to touch the new edition (coming weekend yaaay).
So i turn to dakka and wonder what is the meta like? What threats did i miss so far (e.g. imperial knights)?
And what are the cornerstones of list building (tac) these days?
My armies are Guard and Black Templars.
Any advice is deeply appreciated

Heres some knowledge:

Whats changed

Astra Militarum HQ's

Tips n tricks

Where we at with Astra Militarum Atthe moment?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Cpt. Icanus wrote:
Hey there.
As the title sayy i didn't play in over two years and have yet to touch the new edition (coming weekend yaaay).
So i turn to dakka and wonder what is the meta like? What threats did i miss so far (e.g. imperial knights)?
And what are the cornerstones of list building (tac) these days?
My armies are Guard and Black Templars.
Any advice is deeply appreciated

Heres some knowledge:

Whats changed

Astra Militarum HQ's

Tips n tricks

Where we at with Astra Militarum Atthe moment?

Thanks so far to the elaborate replies, sounds like the game is pretty much all over the place.
I'm really curious about the FLGS now

WWhere its always been: with someone complaining all the time, someone who no longer plays trying to drag us down, some enthusiastic fan boyz who dont know the difference between Games workshop and good sense. and then you have the rest of us who just want to throw down. kill a lot of stuff and keep the matchups within a reasonable parameter of sane.

After stalking around the forums i wonder what to bring to the flgs this weekend when i get my hands on brb and new codices.
Option a would be my BT, running MSU shooty squads and two LRC including melta toting blob and termis.
Option b would be mechanized guard with melta/plasma vets manticores and loads of av 12.
From what i read blobs are back bigtime for guard so i fear i can't adjust my lists on the fly for lack of model count.
As i don't have the transport capacity to bring both armies, am i right assuming that my BT will be more adjusted for current competitive meta?

Manticores are cool. But Wyverns are ridiculously cool.

Mechanized guard are good, just make sure you have a melee unit to slow the enemies roll when they try to charge and grenade the vehicles to death. A fast moving melee threat like Rough riders, while constantly Maligned, work well when hiding behind that mechanised wall of steel, and smashing into the mean things that plan ill for your armor.

Another option are the Bullgryns who can give considerable cover to the advancing armor.

Anywho, I hope you have fun with it!