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With Nova over, I wanted to discuss the Meta of 7th. Mainly I would like to create a representative list of achytypes that we are likely to see in tourneys. With that in mind, I'm compiled the following list of common tourney lists / themes, and I would like to hear from people what I am leaving out.

Please note, I'm not interested in listing the strongest, just the most common. Also, the lists I've included are examples of the themes. There are many other examples.

Adepta Sororitas
Exorcist Spam - 3 Exorcists, Saint Celestine, Usually Allied troops such as guard blob.


Imperial Guard (AM)
Mech Guard - Pask with lots of Leman Russes.


Blob Guard - A couple of blobs with Priests and psykers


Blob Guard with Knight Allies -> see Imperial Knights

Blood Angels
No common lists. Corbolo joined to Mephiston can be strong, but is very rare.

Chaos Daemons
Flying Circus Daemons - Fateweaver, 3 Flying Daemon Princes - This is losing popularity right?

Summoning Daemons - Lots of Heralds rolling on Demonology.


Chaos Space Marines
Helldrake Spam (I'm sure there is a better name) - a few heldrakes, some Oblits, Always an ally (Daemons, or Necrons usually)



Dark Angels
Ravenwing Bikes: A pile of Ravenwing Attack Squads


Dark Eldar
Beaststar - The Baron, Beastmaster with tons of beasts and an ally (usually Wave Serpents or Seerstar)


Venom Spam - Lots of Venoms as dedicated transports.


Eldar
Serpent Spam - Lots of wave serpents with min troop squads.


Seerstar - Warlock council


Grey Knigths
With the changes to the Grey Knights codex a meta is yet to emerge. Most likely there will be lists built around Centurion stars.

Imperial Knights
Imperial Knights are often taken as allies. A single Knight works well in many lists. Thanks to GW working hard to sell their profitable and popular model they now have a silly formation that costs nothing, so if you are running more than 1 Imperial Knight, you are probably going to start running the formation.

Adamantium Lance - 3 Knights in a formation plus an ally

Pacific Rim - 3 Knights in a formation plus 3 Riptides.


Inquisition
Inquisition works as an ally for many armies, but without Objective Secured, Henchman spam is dead, and I'm not familiar with any other common lists.

Legion of the Damned
Legion of the Damned work well as allies for many armies.

Militarum Tempestus
It seems like both of their formations would be very effective with an ally, but I have yet to seem them become popular.

Necrons
Flying Circus - Lots of min squads with dedicated transport Night Scythes.


Wraithstar - 3 Annihilation Barges, and Wraiths



Orks
Greentide - 100+ Orks in one unit


Warbikers - Lots of Warbikers with Biker bosses. I think this has essentially replaced the Nob Biker list.


Stormboyz - Large squads of Stormboyz backed up by Mech Gunz

Space Marines
Salamander Drop Pods - Meltas in Drop pods


White Scars Bikers - Scouting Bikes with Grav guns.

Centstar - Centurions joined to Tigi for Gate.

Space Wolves
Thunder Puppies Attack! - Thunder Hammer / Storm Shield thunder wolves.

Centurion Delivery System - Drop pods with tiggy and centurions.


Tau
Tau Gunline - Lots of riptides and Broadsides. Usually Buffmander.

Farsight Bomb - Farsight, Shadowsun, Buffmander, and lots of Fusion suites

Tyranids
Tyranid flying circus - As many Dakkaflyrants as fit in a list

Skyblight - Lots of FMC + Gargoyles that respawn.


ETA, I'll add in more example lists as I have time.

It should be noted that C:I has no form of objective secured, thus its not going to be used as henchmen spam. The vehicles don't have psychic pilots, either, and you're limited to 3 warbands total in their force organization. C:I will probably just be used as servo skull/ Inquisitor grenade caddies more than anything else.

You also forgot Dominions for sisters; 4x Melta+Combi in a scouting Immolator with a TLMM on top. Almost guaranteed first turn vehicle kill if the opponent deploys on the starting line.

GK will most likely be Draigo/Cent Stars with Dreadknights and minimum troops using the Strike Force Deatchment.

Beastpack for Eldar/Dark Eldar.

 TheKbob wrote:
It should be noted that C:I has no form of objective secured, thus its not going to be used as henchmen spam. The vehicles don't have psychic pilots, either, and you're limited to 3 warbands total in their force organization. C:I will probably just be used as servo skull/ Inquisitor grenade caddies more than anything else.

I didn't realize that. I guess Henchman spam is dead, I will remove it.

 TheKbob wrote:
You also forgot Dominions for sisters; 4x Melta+Combi in a scouting Immolator with a TLMM on top. Almost guaranteed first turn vehicle kill if the opponent deploys on the starting line.

I have seen this list in the past, but I wasn't able to find anywhere it was fielded recently. Maybe I don't know how the list is built, could you post an example?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Thud wrote:
Beastpack for Eldar/Dark Eldar.

I've got it. I called it "Beaststar" under Dark Eldar. I think the beasts are the key to the list even if they are spending more points on Eldar allies, but YMMV

Necrons
Flying Circus - Lots of min squads with dedicated transport Night Scythes.

Wraithstar - 3 Annihilation Barges, and Wraiths

These are not mutually exclusive! Most of the time you will face both.
Some groups of 5 Warriors in a Nightscythe combined with Wraiths and Barges.
They often go with a Destroyer Lord and our new delicious Overlord in a Barge.

I find the Pask punisher best with this loadout:

Punisher, Pask, Hull Las Cannon, multi melta sponsons.

The punisher cannon is 24" anyway so you get good value out of the multi melta sponsons. Give it the las cannon for more Anti Tank punch, and let's not forget the punisher cannon with pask gets rending so can hurt up to armor 14 on a roll of a 3 for the extra rending roll.

 Dalymiddleboro wrote:
I find the Pask punisher best with this loadout:

Punisher, Pask, Hull Las Cannon, multi melta sponsons.

The punisher cannon is 24" anyway so you get good value out of the multi melta sponsons. Give it the las cannon for more Anti Tank punch, and let's not forget the punisher cannon with pask gets rending so can hurt up to armor 14 on a roll of a 3 for the extra rending roll.

Lol, that the EuroPask loadout. Its pretty awesome actually.

 Zagman wrote:

 Dalymiddleboro wrote:
I find the Pask punisher best with this loadout:

Punisher, Pask, Hull Las Cannon, multi melta sponsons.

The punisher cannon is 24" anyway so you get good value out of the multi melta sponsons. Give it the las cannon for more Anti Tank punch, and let's not forget the punisher cannon with pask gets rending so can hurt up to armor 14 on a roll of a 3 for the extra rending roll.

Lol, that the EuroPask loadout. Its pretty awesome actually.

Indeed it is. I'll be bringing that to beerhammer tonight!

Space wolves with UM allies. Rune priest, GH with meltas and WG with combi melta in pods. Tigurius and grav cents in a pod. There's 2 ways this list is run, I run it with a stormfang for anti air, tigurius and 1 squad of grav cents. Fortin runs it with no stormfang, a regular librarian and 2 squads of grav cents using sentinels of terra. Either way doesn't rely on gate, usually either prescience or invisibility. Invisibility is easier to pull off with tig re rolling 3 psychic powers. Prescience has the added bonus of a 4++ power also. This is more effective than GK cent stars because gate relies on rolling enough psychic dice without getting denied or periling yourself to death.

Tau has something new:

2-3-4 Fire Warriors loaded with either Rifles or Carbines in Devilfishes - one of them has an Ethereal to give buffs and morale. This group advances to murder rain enemies
This army is supported by backfield Broadsides with HYMP and DS Crisis with MP (vs AV12-) or Fusion Blasters (for AV 13+); Buffmander or MP/FBmander with one group
2 groups of Pathfinders + 1-2 Skyrays for ML support and AA; Tetras can replace pathfinders.

Not exactly new, but with the new Jink rules, Devilfishes became much more interesting. Other people can give some finishing to this

 Vector Strike wrote:
Tau has something new:

2-3-4 Fire Warriors loaded with either Rifles or Carbines in Devilfishes - one of them has an Ethereal to give buffs and morale. This group advances to murder rain enemies
This army is supported by backfield Broadsides with HYMP and DS Crisis with MP (vs AV12-) or Fusion Blasters (for AV 13+); Buffmander or MP/FBmander with one group
2 groups of Pathfinders + 1-2 Skyrays for ML support and AA; Tetras can replace pathfinders.

Not exactly new, but with the new Jink rules, Devilfishes became much more interesting. Other people can give some finishing to this

Fire warriors have to be taken in groups of 7. Skimmers are ok. I'm not sure that is a new list so much as an alteration to the gunline tau.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Toofast wrote:
Space wolves with UM allies. Rune priest, GH with meltas and WG with combi melta in pods. Tigurius and grav cents in a pod. There's 2 ways this list is run, I run it with a stormfang for anti air, tigurius and 1 squad of grav cents. Fortin runs it with no stormfang, a regular librarian and 2 squads of grav cents using sentinels of terra. Either way doesn't rely on gate, usually either prescience or invisibility. Invisibility is easier to pull off with tig re rolling 3 psychic powers. Prescience has the added bonus of a 4++ power also. This is more effective than GK cent stars because gate relies on rolling enough psychic dice without getting denied or periling yourself to death.

Definitely. I think this list will lose popularity fast, because Cents are great, but you don't want to get assaulted. But for right now, this is definitely a wildly popular list (at least in theory hammer).

A lot of Grey Knights players are doing this apparently:

-Primary CAD of Grey Knights
-x3 Squads of Purifiers
-Secondary CAD of Space Wolves
-Cheap Wolf HQ
-x2 Squads of Grey Hunters
-x3 Drop Pods

You then put the Purifiers in the Drop Pods and they Deep Strike in Turn 1 with the rest of the Grey Knights force for a Grey Hunter tax (which they are arguably better then Strike Squads for their points) and a cheap Wolf HQ. Purifiers come down and its Cleansing Flame everywhere....its brutal to fight. Why they made Space Wolf Drop Pods Fast Attack and no Dedicated Transports

 Vector Strike wrote:
Tau has something new:

2-3-4 Fire Warriors loaded with either Rifles or Carbines in Devilfishes - one of them has an Ethereal to give buffs and morale. This group advances to murder rain enemies
This army is supported by backfield Broadsides with HYMP and DS Crisis with MP (vs AV12-) or Fusion Blasters (for AV 13+); Buffmander or MP/FBmander with one group
2 groups of Pathfinders + 1-2 Skyrays for ML support and AA; Tetras can replace pathfinders.

Not exactly new, but with the new Jink rules, Devilfishes became much more interesting. Other people can give some finishing to this

The Tau Fish of Fury list is VERY strong especially when backed by support from Riptides and Crisis Suits. A friend of mine runs his Tau like this and his list is brutal, all his vehicles have a 3+ Jink except his Piranhas. oh and he has x15 Piranhas that just annihilate everything they come across. Throw in some Hammerheads and Skyrays and you have a potent force with the 3+ jink and tougher vehicles this edition.

 gmaleron wrote:

 Vector Strike wrote:
Tau has something new:

2-3-4 Fire Warriors loaded with either Rifles or Carbines in Devilfishes - one of them has an Ethereal to give buffs and morale. This group advances to murder rain enemies
This army is supported by backfield Broadsides with HYMP and DS Crisis with MP (vs AV12-) or Fusion Blasters (for AV 13+); Buffmander or MP/FBmander with one group
2 groups of Pathfinders + 1-2 Skyrays for ML support and AA; Tetras can replace pathfinders.

Not exactly new, but with the new Jink rules, Devilfishes became much more interesting. Other people can give some finishing to this

The Tau Fish of Fury list is VERY strong especially when backed by support from Riptides and Crisis Suits. A friend of mine runs his Tau like this and his list is brutal, all his vehicles have a 3+ Jink except his Piranhas. oh and he has x15 Piranhas that just annihilate everything they come across. Throw in some Hammerheads and Skyrays and you have a potent force with the 3+ jink and tougher vehicles this edition.

If Fish of Fury is a thing, could someone give me an example 1850 list? My most feared Tau Gunline is a Farsight list with Deep striking Crisis suites as troops, and a min squad of Kroot as a buffmander tax, and Fish of Fury seems weak by comparison, but there is probably something I'm missing from your description.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 gmaleron wrote:
A lot of Grey Knights players are doing this apparently:

-Primary CAD of Grey Knights
-x3 Squads of Purifiers
-Secondary CAD of Space Wolves
-Cheap Wolf HQ
-x2 Squads of Grey Hunters
-x3 Drop Pods

You then put the Purifiers in the Drop Pods and they Deep Strike in Turn 1 with the rest of the Grey Knights force for a Grey Hunter tax (which they are arguably better then Strike Squads for their points) and a cheap Wolf HQ. Purifiers come down and its Cleansing Flame everywhere....its brutal to fight. Why they made Space Wolf Drop Pods Fast Attack and no Dedicated Transports

I started to add this list, but paused because, 1) it is double CAD, and it seems to me that tournaments that allow double CAD are the exception not the rule, and 2) I don't get it. Purifiers are just space marines with Force weapons. If feels like drop podded stern guard are just as good. Unless you are facing Tyranids, this list seems weaker than Salamander drop pods, and even in the case of Tyranids, there are ways for them to deal.

tag8833 wrote:

 Vector Strike wrote:
Tau has something new:

2-3-4 Fire Warriors loaded with either Rifles or Carbines in Devilfishes - one of them has an Ethereal to give buffs and morale. This group advances to murder rain enemies
This army is supported by backfield Broadsides with HYMP and DS Crisis with MP (vs AV12-) or Fusion Blasters (for AV 13+); Buffmander or MP/FBmander with one group
2 groups of Pathfinders + 1-2 Skyrays for ML support and AA; Tetras can replace pathfinders.

Not exactly new, but with the new Jink rules, Devilfishes became much more interesting. Other people can give some finishing to this

Fire warriors have to be taken in groups of 7. Skimmers are ok. I'm not sure that is a new list so much as an alteration to the gunline tau.

Huh, I meant 2-3-4 units of Fire Warriors. And they come in 6, not 7.
It's a frontline gunline, so to speak. You don't castle them in your deploy line - you move/flat out devilfishes until you get optimal range (15" rifles/18" if carbines), deploy FWs (leave the ethereal inside) and fire. The fishes then flat out to cover the FWs

tag8833 wrote:

I started to add this list, but paused because, 1) it is double CAD, and it seems to me that tournaments that allow double CAD are the exception not the rule, and 2) I don't get it. Purifiers are just space marines with Force weapons. If feels like drop podded stern guard are just as good. Unless you are facing Tyranids, this list seems weaker than Salamander drop pods, and even in the case of Tyranids, there are ways for them to deal.

Purifiers come with Cleansing Flame, Cleansing flame is a Nova power 9 inch range that inflicts 2d6 str 5 ap 4 ignores cover, soul blaze hits.

If you get it off it automatically hits everything in 9 inches for 2d6 hits, including flyers. Cleansing flame is nasty, drop podding the area and blanket cleansing flame is more than just "Space marines with force weapons"

 WrentheFaceless wrote:

tag8833 wrote:

I started to add this list, but paused because, 1) it is double CAD, and it seems to me that tournaments that allow double CAD are the exception not the rule, and 2) I don't get it. Purifiers are just space marines with Force weapons. If feels like drop podded stern guard are just as good. Unless you are facing Tyranids, this list seems weaker than Salamander drop pods, and even in the case of Tyranids, there are ways for them to deal.

Purifiers come with Cleansing Flame, Cleansing flame is a Nova power 9 inch range that inflicts 2d6 str 5 ap 4 ignores cover, soul blaze hits.

If you get it off it automatically hits everything in 9 inches for 2d6 hits, including flyers. Cleansing flame is nasty, drop podding the area and blanket cleansing flame is more than just "Space marines with force weapons"

Ah, get it. My last tourney it got cast against me a bunch, and I managed to deny it all but once. Definitely useful coming out of drop pods. It isn't a sure thing though because lots of things will have buffs to deny.

 Vector Strike wrote:

tag8833 wrote:

 Vector Strike wrote:
Tau has something new:

2-3-4 Fire Warriors loaded with either Rifles or Carbines in Devilfishes - one of them has an Ethereal to give buffs and morale. This group advances to murder rain enemies
This army is supported by backfield Broadsides with HYMP and DS Crisis with MP (vs AV12-) or Fusion Blasters (for AV 13+); Buffmander or MP/FBmander with one group
2 groups of Pathfinders + 1-2 Skyrays for ML support and AA; Tetras can replace pathfinders.

Not exactly new, but with the new Jink rules, Devilfishes became much more interesting. Other people can give some finishing to this

Fire warriors have to be taken in groups of 7. Skimmers are ok. I'm not sure that is a new list so much as an alteration to the gunline tau.

Huh, I meant 2-3-4 units of Fire Warriors. And they come in 6, not 7.
It's a frontline gunline, so to speak. You don't castle them in your deploy line - you move/flat out devilfishes until you get optimal range (15" rifles/18" if carbines), deploy FWs (leave the ethereal inside) and fire. The fishes then flat out to cover the FWs

Could you post an example of an 1850 or 2000 point fish of fury list you use?

 WrentheFaceless wrote:

tag8833 wrote:

I started to add this list, but paused because, 1) it is double CAD, and it seems to me that tournaments that allow double CAD are the exception not the rule, and 2) I don't get it. Purifiers are just space marines with Force weapons. If feels like drop podded stern guard are just as good. Unless you are facing Tyranids, this list seems weaker than Salamander drop pods, and even in the case of Tyranids, there are ways for them to deal.

Purifiers come with Cleansing Flame, Cleansing flame is a Nova power 9 inch range that inflicts 2d6 str 5 ap 4 ignores cover, soul blaze hits.

If you get it off it automatically hits everything in 9 inches for 2d6 hits, including flyers. Cleansing flame is nasty, drop podding the area and blanket cleansing flame is more than just "Space marines with force weapons"

Are you sure it's not just a nova power that's Assault 2d6? That means you have to roll 2d6 'to-hit' rolls against the enemy, then you wound them.

Unless I'm misremembering the Nova rules and they say you don't have to roll to hit.

 Unit1126PLL wrote:

 WrentheFaceless wrote:

tag8833 wrote:

I started to add this list, but paused because, 1) it is double CAD, and it seems to me that tournaments that allow double CAD are the exception not the rule, and 2) I don't get it. Purifiers are just space marines with Force weapons. If feels like drop podded stern guard are just as good. Unless you are facing Tyranids, this list seems weaker than Salamander drop pods, and even in the case of Tyranids, there are ways for them to deal.

Purifiers come with Cleansing Flame, Cleansing flame is a Nova power 9 inch range that inflicts 2d6 str 5 ap 4 ignores cover, soul blaze hits.

If you get it off it automatically hits everything in 9 inches for 2d6 hits, including flyers. Cleansing flame is nasty, drop podding the area and blanket cleansing flame is more than just "Space marines with force weapons"

Are you sure it's not just a nova power that's Assault 2d6? That means you have to roll 2d6 'to-hit' rolls against the enemy, then you wound them.

Unless I'm misremembering the Nova rules and they say you don't have to roll to hit.

Nova rules states the power automatically hit, you generate 2D6 hits, then roll to wound.

Cleansing flame casts succesfully
All units in 9" automatically hit
Roll 2d6 hits on each unit (rolls 8 for example)
8 rolls to wound.

 WrentheFaceless wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:

 WrentheFaceless wrote:

tag8833 wrote:

I started to add this list, but paused because, 1) it is double CAD, and it seems to me that tournaments that allow double CAD are the exception not the rule, and 2) I don't get it. Purifiers are just space marines with Force weapons. If feels like drop podded stern guard are just as good. Unless you are facing Tyranids, this list seems weaker than Salamander drop pods, and even in the case of Tyranids, there are ways for them to deal.

Purifiers come with Cleansing Flame, Cleansing flame is a Nova power 9 inch range that inflicts 2d6 str 5 ap 4 ignores cover, soul blaze hits.

If you get it off it automatically hits everything in 9 inches for 2d6 hits, including flyers. Cleansing flame is nasty, drop podding the area and blanket cleansing flame is more than just "Space marines with force weapons"

Are you sure it's not just a nova power that's Assault 2d6? That means you have to roll 2d6 'to-hit' rolls against the enemy, then you wound them.

Unless I'm misremembering the Nova rules and they say you don't have to roll to hit.

Nova rules states the power automatically hit, you generate 2D6 hits, then roll to wound.

Cleansing flame casts succesfully
All units in 9" automatically hit
Roll 2d6 hits on each unit (rolls 8 for example)
8 rolls to wound.

Okay, got it. Thanks, sorry for missing the part about nova auto-hitting.