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What is the current meta? I've picked my army and have a rough idea of what to do, but I've only been reading up on Guard. What's popular with other armies.

If you are going playing competitive games. Something you should be prepared to fight against on table top:

1. GMC (WK and Stormsurge
2. FMC flying circus
3. Extreme high mobility JSJ units with high Str and high RoF (eldar Jetbikes, Tau Battle Suit)
4. Super heavy
5. Psychic Death Star (Eldar Jetseer council, Daemon Factory, SM Librarian Conclave).

That largely depends on the local area where you play or whoever you choose to face.

Generally speaking the current meta from a competitive point of view is largely dominated by Necrons, Eldar and Space Marines. They have either the resilience (Necrons), sheer damage output (Eldar), or objective claiming ability (Space Marines) to put most armies to shame.

Necrons have reanimation protocols which is pretty much a much better feel no pain save that can only be nullified from strength D. It being a bog standard part of their army which can be buffed by their Decurion detachment means that it can be like punching a brick wall when killing their units, meaning they can grind your army down while you barely hurt theirs in return. Wraiths and Tomb Blades are the main staple units that both speed alongside their resiliency.

Eldar have their scatter laser jetbikes for troops which far outgun and outpace practically every troops choice in the game. They also have good survivability with their 3+ save and jink meaning you have to typically shoot them down with specialized weaponry or catch them in close combat (something very hard to do). Alongside this they have the Wraithknight which is a cheap source of strength D for both shooting and close combat that will typically stop you from reaching his jetbikes. Farseers compound this issue with their reliable psychic support.

Space Marines competitively are characterized by the Gladius detachment which gives them free transports with Objective Secured making it super hard to beat them in the objective game. Furthermore, Grav-Centurions can pretty much delete most units in a single salvo and can be highly supported with the Librarius Conclave or Tigurius to teleport or have protection from invisibility. Marines also have good alpha strike with practically none of the drawbacks from their skyhammer formation.

Everything after that hits around mid or bottom tier.

Tau is around the top of mid-tier, where dakka is their (only) game via mainly battlesuits, particularly the Riptide and Stormsurge. With little to no real close combat options and lack of access to psykers, it's somewhat one dimensional but in the current edition their niche of overwhelming firepower with the resilience/cost-efficiency of their battlesuits make them a tough army to face, especially for assault armies.

Dark Angels is mainly competitive from a Ravenwing biker standpoint due to being able to re-roll failed jink saves and cover save stacking with their Darkshrouds. Deathwing Terminator forces are rare due to how expensive they are and you can't even field the formation by itself so at most you might see a Ravenwing/Deathwing mix.

Space Wolves are upper mid-tier, mainly via battle brothers + friends, but by themselves they are mainly held together by Wulfen and Thunderwolf Calvary making them the premier marine assault army.

Blood Angels got a bit better with the recent changes but largely rely on the new formations and Death Company to get their damage output. Middle to top of low tier.

Tyranids are barely hanging on as a faction with the Flying Hive Tyrant with Twin-Linked Devourers being a staple, alongside Mawlocs, and Carnifexes with TL-Devourers as well. Rippers seem to be the most popular troops for objective grabbing.

Orks right now are kind of in a rough spot, with mainly Warbikers, MSU deffkoptas, Mek Gunz, Tankbustas and MANZ missiles being the heavy lifters in our codex. Several builds still exist but we're pretty mid-to-low tier in the power level ranking. Expect a lot of Painboyz keeping our units alive and the Mega Armour Lucky Stikk Warboss is a staple.

CSM have recently, like Blood Angels, gotten a bone thrown to them from GW with the Traitor's Hate Black Crusade detachment, which has some duds but it gave some decent options for them now including the cultist formation, the raptor talon for backfield disruption and a nifty heldrake formation. Also potential for MSU spawn. Outside of formations, CSM needs a pretty big update.

Grey Knights are mid to lower mid-tier that is really carried by the Dreadknight and interceptors doing the work in the army since they have the most mobility since otherwise they're pimped out marines that are more expensive. Sadly since they focus on the CC aspect a bit more, Deathwatch kinda beats them out due to their focus on dakka, which is favoured this edition.

Then there's some of the sub-factions that are more ally material than stand-alone ones, at least for larger point games like Harlequins, Militarum Tempestus, Deathwatch, Skitarii and Cult Mechanicus.

Isn't the war convocation competitive anymore?

https://www.frontlinegaming.org/2016/09/04/40k-list-tech-incontrols-winning-war-convocation-list/

Won Wargames con even with the recent drop pod nerf.

Thanks for the input. I'm starting to think I'm going to be bottom tier with my guard.

charz wrote:
Thanks for the input. I'm starting to think I'm going to be bottom tier with my guard.

there was something funny that I discovered about Guard. MSU playstyles allow your opponent to kick the crap out of your army while still allowing you to win on objectives. Oh, and get a Knight.

Yeah, I think Guard can be pretty good at playing the attrition game, especially if you take a nice mix of infantry and vehicles. I see lots of armies that try to just load up on vehicles, but that's one of the less-tough builds.

I think the problem with Guard and their hope of winning an attrition game, is that Genestealer Cult now seems to out-do them at the very same game, while stealing half of their toys to do so.

Guard, alongside Orks, are probably in the most dire need of a completely rebuilt, rethought Codex.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
I think the problem with Guard and their hope of winning an attrition game, is that Genestealer Cult now seems to out-do them at the very same game, while stealing half of their toys to do so.

Guard, alongside Orks, are probably in the most dire need of a completely rebuilt, rethought Codex.

I am an expert at neither army, but from what I can tell the Guard still have the advantage in the vehicle choice (Demolishers, Hellhouds), artillery (Wyverns etc.) and air power departments. GSC seem to have some nice alpha strike capacity, but I'm thinking a smart Guard player can do some mechanized "reserve-hammer" and come out pretty well by capitalizing on coordinated fire support and defensive maneuvering. Honestly I'd love to try it out, seems interesting.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
I think the problem with Guard and their hope of winning an attrition game, is that Genestealer Cult now seems to out-do them at the very same game, while stealing half of their toys to do so.

Guard, alongside Orks, are probably in the most dire need of a completely rebuilt, rethought Codex.

Renegades and Heretics are a perfect example of "Guard but better". Even if you strip out all the chaos shenanigans and leave them with platoons, vets, grenadiers and just standard guard stuff. The way the platoons are set up, and point cost on everything makes it a much more effective army. It's basically guard, but everything is cheaper, and while it isn't a top tier book, it works out pretty damned well for mid tier. Add all those chaos things back in and it gets nasty.

Renegades is top tier if built correctly. I believe there were a few in the top32 at NovaOpen this year. If I recall correctly, there 4th place was IG/Renegades artillery with Eldar. Yeah, yeah, I get they have Eldar in the list, but if they are running IG/Renegades AND Eldar, then the player obviously believes they are strong enough to out-tier Riptide Wing

Reserve-hammer is a little risky against GSC Decurion as the enemy gets -1 to reserves as a formation bonus. You're coming in piece meal and GSC will Return to Shadows and come back at your Turn3!

 Insectum7 wrote:

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
I think the problem with Guard and their hope of winning an attrition game, is that Genestealer Cult now seems to out-do them at the very same game, while stealing half of their toys to do so.

Guard, alongside Orks, are probably in the most dire need of a completely rebuilt, rethought Codex.

I am an expert at neither army, but from what I can tell the Guard still have the advantage in the vehicle choice (Demolishers, Hellhouds), artillery (Wyverns etc.) and air power departments. GSC seem to have some nice alpha strike capacity, but I'm thinking a smart Guard player can do some mechanized "reserve-hammer" and come out pretty well by capitalizing on coordinated fire support and defensive maneuvering. Honestly I'd love to try it out, seems interesting.

If you're opponent is willing to allow FW units guard can have some extremely fun schenanigans. That's completely ignoring super heavies too. I'm having a lot of fun with flanking salamanders and co-axil vanquishers with beast shells. Combined with core dex staples such a wyverns Guard to an extent can outshoot and outflank even the tau.

Guard is mid-tier because people don't know how to play them/they really only become effective in larger scale battles (anything less than 1850 points and you're wasting your time) when you can actually make use of attrition tactics.

IMO the mistake people make when building a guard list is kitting it out with all the bells and whistles and/or expecting more from their units than is possible.

Guardsmen are meant to die, pure and simple, if they kill something along the way that's great. I'm a strong believer in that guard's strength is the low points per model and to keep it low.

My biggest issue is transports for infantry. While space marines might benefit greatly from a rhino an added chimera doubles your point cost per model for negligible gain. (I'd rather have 2 squads than 1+ a chimera)

Orders are your friend (good force multiplier) and massed infantry is the way to go. In short, consider every guard unit as expendable and build your list accordingly.

Also check out psykana division, it's pretty dope for summoning daemons.


On the actual topic of meta: deathstars, knights, eldar, riptide wings, and war convo, are the top armies atm. Ignoring cover blasts are a good counter (emperors wrath company, or FW artillery), a culexus is almost a necessity, and either a VSG or sky shield landing pad to help keep things alive (If you're playing ITC). I'd shy away from leman russ tank companies as they rarely perform well vs all the D weapons that are out there.

 Typhon wrote:
Guard is mid-tier because people don't know how to play them/they really only become effective in larger scale battles (anything less than 1850 points and you're wasting your time) when you can actually make use of attrition tactics.

IMO the mistake people make when building a guard list is kitting it out with all the bells and whistles and/or expecting more from their units than is possible.

Guardsmen are meant to die, pure and simple, if they kill something along the way that's great. I'm a strong believer in that guard's strength is the low points per model and to keep it low.

My biggest issue is transports for infantry. While space marines might benefit greatly from a rhino an added chimera doubles your point cost per model for negligible gain. (I'd rather have 2 squads than 1+ a chimera)

Orders are your friend (good force multiplier) and massed infantry is the way to go. In short, consider every guard unit as expendable and build your list accordingly.

Also check out psykana division, it's pretty dope for summoning daemons.


On the actual topic of meta: deathstars, knights, eldar, riptide wings, and war convo, are the top armies atm. Ignoring cover blasts are a good counter (emperors wrath company, or FW artillery), a culexus is almost a necessity, and either a VSG or sky shield landing pad to help keep things alive (If you're playing ITC). I'd shy away from leman russ tank companies as they rarely perform well vs all the D weapons that are out there.

Master of Ordinance will jump your gak here soon.