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Best Mono Codex
Tyranid s
Space marines
Blood angels
Dark angels
Space wolves
Grey knights
Astra militarum
Sisters of battle
Adeptus Custodes
Imperial knights
Chaos space marines
Chaos daemons
Thousand sons
Gene cult
Necrons
Craftworlds
Drukhari
Harlequins
Tau
Mechanicus
Deathwatch
Orks

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Made in us
Trustworthy Shas'vre



california

So who had the best mono faction codex? By best I’m talking strongest. Is topping those tournaments in the top 5 pretty consistent. Not the “but I like this army cause its the one I play” best. Vote and post you’re reasons!

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2019/05/26 11:31:17


 
   
Made in gb
Lethal Lhamean




Birmingham

Tau, Craftworlds and Drukhari. I think the 3 are fairly evenly matched with plenty of strengths and a couple weaknesses, Guard may be up there with them as well.
   
Made in us
Stealthy Warhound Titan Princeps






I'd also agree with Tau, Craftworlds, and Drukhari. Guard is close, but a notch under those 3 IMO.
   
Made in us
Pious Palatine




Guard by far. CWE is great and so are Tau, Orkz, and DE, but nothing beats guard in terms of power OR flexibility.


 
   
Made in ru
Screaming Shining Spear




Russia, Moscow

Voted Astra Militarum for a chance for them to get nerfed instead of my own army.
   
Made in us
Wicked Ghast




1.Astra Militarum
2.Craftworlds
3 Drukhari
4 Tau
5 Orks
everybody else
Blood Angels
Grey Knights

But the cool thing is, we have seen really good lists from almost every faction, so while there is a disparity in power lever between the top 3 or 4 and everyone else, there are still, for the most part, competitive builds for almost any army save for BA and GK

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/05/26 01:03:27


 
   
Made in us
Humming Great Unclean One of Nurgle





In My Lab

Seabass wrote:
1.Astra Militarum
2.Craftworlds
3 Drukhari
4 Tau
5 Orks
everybody else
Blood Angels
Grey Knights

But the cool thing is, we have seen really good lists from almost every faction, so while there is a disparity in power lever between the top 3 or 4 and everyone else, there are still, for the most part, competitive builds for almost any army save for BA and GK


Um... Why put BA so low? They have pretty much all the tools that SM have, plus the best Smash Captains in the game.

Clocks for the clockmaker! Cogs for the cog throne! 
   
Made in us
Powerful Phoenix Lord





I'd say Guard simply because of its depth.

A lot of people say Craftworld, but as a mono-codex, the book would consist of about 5-6 datasheets being spammed. There are a ton of datasheets/units which you would never ever put on the table - you can see this by watching tournaments. You know precisely what Eldar units are showing up.

Guard have no such issue. If they have something that's a bit underwhelming they're still dirt cheap. They have options/solutions for almost everything. They have fewer "mega units" when compared to a book like Craftworld Eldar, but their book is friggin' solid.

I think if you collected one army, and one book and wanted to game a long time with a bunch of builds and a lot of depth, the Guard codex is really hard to beat.
   
Made in us
Ultramarine Chaplain with Hate to Spare






Tyranids seem like a strong contender to me, that army can do a lot.

And They Shall Not Fit Through Doors!!!

Tyranid Army Progress -- With Classic Warriors!:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/743240.page#9671598 
   
Made in au
Towering Hierophant Bio-Titan





 Insectum7 wrote:
Tyranids seem like a strong contender to me, that army can do a lot.

They aren't even the best mono army in their own keyword. And there's only 2 armies in their keyword.

Solo Tyranids vs solo AM, Drukhari, Craftworlds, Tau ? I just don't see it.

P.S.A. I won't read your posts if you break it into a million separate quotes and make an eyesore of it. 
   
Made in us
Ultramarine Chaplain with Hate to Spare






 SHUPPET wrote:
 Insectum7 wrote:
Tyranids seem like a strong contender to me, that army can do a lot.

They aren't even the best mono army in their own keyword. And there's only 2 armies in their keyword.

Solo Tyranids vs solo AM, Drukhari, Craftworlds, Tau ? I just don't see it.


Possibly, though I'm consistently impressed by the diversity of options in there.

And They Shall Not Fit Through Doors!!!

Tyranid Army Progress -- With Classic Warriors!:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/743240.page#9671598 
   
Made in us
Trustworthy Shas'vre



california

 Insectum7 wrote:
 SHUPPET wrote:
 Insectum7 wrote:
Tyranids seem like a strong contender to me, that army can do a lot.

They aren't even the best mono army in their own keyword. And there's only 2 armies in their keyword.

Solo Tyranids vs solo AM, Drukhari, Craftworlds, Tau ? I just don't see it.


Possibly, though I'm consistently impressed by the diversity of options in there.


I love that we have a handful of top armies. I remember when it was 2, necrons and craftwolrds. That was 5th, 6th edition in a nutshell
   
Made in us
Heroic Senior Officer





Western Kentucky

If you're talking purely competitive tournament play that'd be tough, almost no one runs a "pure" army. The big power players like Eldar and IG still tend to have allies.

Ironically I'd bet by this metric the answer would be something like Tau or nids, a book that can't take allies. So they may have like 10 tournament wins but they are true pure wins whereas guard may have like 50 but the vast majority allied knights/assassins/marines etc.

That said, guard and Eldar have very powerful mono builds, it's just allies are way too tempting so you won't see a truly pure army in many events. If events went to forced single codex lists tomorrow, I think guard would see a resurgence. They really do have a tool for everything, even if it's not the best in the game. The one exception being a fast, elite cqc unit. The thing is there's 0 downsides to allies so you'd be stupid not to run them.

'I've played Guard for years, and the best piece of advice is to always utilize the Guard's best special rule: "we roll more dice than you" ' - stormleader

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Made in ca
Discriminating Deathmark Assassin





Stasis

Image a tournament with standard points, etc, but all lists are limited to a single Codex Faction (plus forgeword).

I think Necrons would actually do better in that kinda thing.

213PL 60PL 12PL 9-17PL
(she/her) 
   
Made in us
Stealthy Warhound Titan Princeps






 MrMoustaffa wrote:
If you're talking purely competitive tournament play that'd be tough, almost no one runs a "pure" army. The big power players like Eldar and IG still tend to have allies.

Ironically I'd bet by this metric the answer would be something like Tau or nids, a book that can't take allies. So they may have like 10 tournament wins but they are true pure wins whereas guard may have like 50 but the vast majority allied knights/assassins/marines etc.

That said, guard and Eldar have very powerful mono builds, it's just allies are way too tempting so you won't see a truly pure army in many events. If events went to forced single codex lists tomorrow, I think guard would see a resurgence. They really do have a tool for everything, even if it's not the best in the game. The one exception being a fast, elite cqc unit. The thing is there's 0 downsides to allies so you'd be stupid not to run them.


Reason I don't think you'd see Guard dominating in single codex events is because Eldar just shut it down hard. -1 or -2 to hit flyers are almost impossible to kill for Guard when you're hitting on 5's or 6's. Alaitoc Craftworlds just utterly dominates Guard.

Green Tide Orks smashes Guard pretty hard as well. Good luck dealing with 60-90 boyz in your front line turn 2. If Guard tool up specifically to beat this they can do it, but if you're doing a TAC list... yea it's not gonna end well.

Tau also smash Guard up real good... they get a solid turn or two of removing shield drones before any real damage can be done to them, so all they need to do is remove the Tank Commanders before that happens.

Guard really needs allies to help it. It's a solid codex, but it's certainly not going to win tournaments against most Xenos lists (other than Necrons).
   
Made in us
Fixture of Dakka





 Blndmage wrote:
Image a tournament with standard points, etc, but all lists are limited to a single Codex Faction (plus forgeword).

I think Necrons would actually do better in that kinda thing.


We've done that a few times locally. It's a nice change of pace. It screws over armies that depend on strats but don't generate CP very well, but it's a refreshing change of pace for most factions.


ATTENTION
. Psychic tests are unfluffy. Your longing for AV is understandable but misguided. Your chapter doesn't need a separate codex. Doctrines should go away. Being a "troop" means nothing. This has been a cranky service announcement. You may now resume your regularly scheduled arguing.
 
   
Made in au
Towering Hierophant Bio-Titan





The game would be so much better like that, and I say that as a dirty souper.

P.S.A. I won't read your posts if you break it into a million separate quotes and make an eyesore of it. 
   
Made in fi
Locked in the Tower of Amareo





 Horst wrote:

Green Tide Orks smashes Guard pretty hard as well. Good luck dealing with 60-90 boyz in your front line turn 2. If Guard tool up specifically to beat this they can do it, but if you're doing a TAC list... yea it's not gonna end well.


Wyvern with shoot twice vaporizes 30 boyz unit rather easily. 9 mortars also does wonders. Neither is really tooling up even...

Playing orks I see 60+ orks die in 1 turn constantly. 90 boyz is nothing. You need 120 AND green tide stratagem.

2024 painted/bought: 109/109 
   
Made in us
Stealthy Warhound Titan Princeps






tneva82 wrote:
 Horst wrote:

Green Tide Orks smashes Guard pretty hard as well. Good luck dealing with 60-90 boyz in your front line turn 2. If Guard tool up specifically to beat this they can do it, but if you're doing a TAC list... yea it's not gonna end well.


Wyvern with shoot twice vaporizes 30 boyz unit rather easily. 9 mortars also does wonders. Neither is really tooling up even...

Playing orks I see 60+ orks die in 1 turn constantly. 90 boyz is nothing. You need 120 AND green tide stratagem.


Assume the ork player has a KFF, as all good ork players do. A double firing wyvern will get 8d6 shots, or 3.5x8, 28 shots. Half hit, so 14 hits. 75% wound, so 10 wounds. 5++ means about 7 dead. Mortars are about as effective. You'd need 9 mortars, a double firing wyvern, and at least one punisher to kill 30 boys. 30 boys under a KFF is surprising hard for Guard to remove.
   
Made in gb
Norn Queen






I voted for Grey Knights because what's the point of having a poll for "best" mono-codex if you can select multiple options.

But the real answer is Imperial Guard, followed by Dark Eldar.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/05/26 07:19:26


 
   
Made in de
Ladies Love the Vibro-Cannon Operator






Hamburg

AM, Drukhari, Craftworlds are the pick in my book.
I was surprised that the Drukhari codex got so good.
But the HQs are a bit one-dimensional. No fast Archons in there.

Former moderator 40kOnline

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Armies: Eldar, Necrons, Blood Angels, Grey Knights; World Eaters (30k); Bloodbound; Cryx, Circle, Cyriss 
   
Made in fr
Trazyn's Museum Curator





on the forum. Obviously

Did you forget Orks? I don't see them in the poll.

What I have
~4100
~1660

Westwood lives in death!
Peace through power!

A longbeard when it comes to Necrons and WHFB. Grumble Grumble

 
   
Made in us
Trustworthy Shas'vre



california

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Did you forget Orks? I don't see them in the poll.

Ah, I was bound to miss an army, I honestly thought I had them all when I went through my head a few times. Let me add them in. I’d say they’d place around 5th as mono
   
Made in ch
The Dread Evil Lord Varlak





Pain4Pleasure wrote:
 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Did you forget Orks? I don't see them in the poll.

Ah, I was bound to miss an army, I honestly thought I had them all when I went through my head a few times. Let me add them in. I’d say they’d place around 5th as mono


Pure monoenvironment, if they don't run often into CW i'd say they got the tools to beat them all.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/766717.page
A Mostly Renegades and Heretics blog.
GW:"Space marines got too many options to balance, therefore we decided to legends HH units."
Players: "why?!? Now we finally got decent plastic kits and you cut them?"
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GW" MONEY.... erm i meant TOO MANY OPTIONS (to resell your army to you again by disalowing former units)! Do you want specific tyranid fighiting Primaris? Even a new sabotage lieutnant!"
Chaos players: Guess i stop playing or go to HH.  
   
Made in fr
Trazyn's Museum Curator





on the forum. Obviously

Yeah, Orks are pretty solid if you build them right. Pretty much all of the faction traits are useful.
By monofaction, we mean one race and one subfaction, right? Because Orks, Necrons and Tau can't ally with anyone.

What I have
~4100
~1660

Westwood lives in death!
Peace through power!

A longbeard when it comes to Necrons and WHFB. Grumble Grumble

 
   
Made in us
Trustworthy Shas'vre



california

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Yeah, Orks are pretty solid if you build them right. Pretty much all of the faction traits are useful.
By monofaction, we mean one race and one subfaction, right? Because Orks, Necrons and Tau can't ally with anyone.

Orks are for sure strong, but a Craftworlds or Tau player that knows what to pick off will be just fine. But just mono codex
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





I have for a few editions thought Ork boyz were under rated heavily. The solid meat on the bone with Orks, is Orks. That isn't very flashy or exciting but a shed load of attacks hitting pretty reliable into a front line starting from turn 2 if not sooner, is a problem you have to deal with.

Not unstoppable but solid and KFF is a pain in the rear. I have found it annoying for editions as well.

I voted Guard however, I'd solidly say it before the nerf train hit some nice units. As is, they still have a lot of beef sitting down range, Double firing Tank commander punishers will rip apart large hordes, even with KFFsupport. Really goes down to rolls though but I've had about a 50 50 run vs them.
   
Made in us
Wicked Ghast




 JNAProductions wrote:
Seabass wrote:
1.Astra Militarum
2.Craftworlds
3 Drukhari
4 Tau
5 Orks
everybody else
Blood Angels
Grey Knights

But the cool thing is, we have seen really good lists from almost every faction, so while there is a disparity in power lever between the top 3 or 4 and everyone else, there are still, for the most part, competitive builds for almost any army save for BA and GK


Um... Why put BA so low? They have pretty much all the tools that SM have, plus the best Smash Captains in the game.


The real driving force behind competitive marines right now is Gulliman. Blood angels just don't have anything remotely close to that kind of power level available to them. Smash captains are solid, but unable to do anything on round one with all of their best units really puts them on the backfoot. The reversion of the charge rules for the fly keyword is awesome, but it isn't enough to put them back on the map, and honestly, with the game switching over to more horde style lists, capn smash just isn't as useful as he used to be, let alone multiples of them, and when that is the best model in yoru codex, i think you are in a relatively bad spot.
   
Made in us
Locked in the Tower of Amareo




 JNAProductions wrote:
Seabass wrote:
1.Astra Militarum
2.Craftworlds
3 Drukhari
4 Tau
5 Orks
everybody else
Blood Angels
Grey Knights

But the cool thing is, we have seen really good lists from almost every faction, so while there is a disparity in power lever between the top 3 or 4 and everyone else, there are still, for the most part, competitive builds for almost any army save for BA and GK


Um... Why put BA so low? They have pretty much all the tools that SM have, plus the best Smash Captains in the game.


Because their win rate is significantly lower than vanilla. BA chapter tactic is truly awful in 8th ed as it turns out.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/05/27 06:13:39


 
   
Made in de
Blood Angel Neophyte Undergoing Surgeries



Bonn

My local Warhammer Store is running a little league with 1 Detachement, 1.500 Points armies, tactical objectives. We all had 4 to 5 out of 6 games yet and the number one player is running an undefeated Imperial Guard army. Has to be said that it really helps him that the tables are only 48x48" big. So his Mortars will shoot whatever he wants. Plus GW-terrain without big LOS-blocker...

As you can use different armys and codices, I had ran Sororitas (Vs. Deathguard), Blood Angels (Vs. Orks) and Adeptus Custodes (Vs. DG again) and won all of them. My second game with Sororitas was against said IG so I obviously lost hard...

I think, Eldar, Tau and Genestealercults are on the top, too. But most armies can win against every other army. Of course this is just a small tournament in a small city with its own meta.

Fluff for the fluff-gods! 
   
 
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