Warhammer 40K: What Will 11th Edition Army Lists Look Like?
Goatboy here with some thoughts on what kind of lists you should expect to see in 40K 11th edition.
It is going to be a wild time these upcoming months with players trying out a lot of different things to see what works. Here are some of the thoughts I had for armies in the coming months and what might work, based on 11th Edition’s rules, and talking to a lot of competitive players.
Invulnerable Saves Are MUCH More Important
The shift from cover giving a +1 to your armor save and now a -1 to hit, means a save you can always take is going to be important. If your unit can survive things a lot more by just giving you a chance to live through brutal firepower will be great. This also means regular armor saves are just not going to be nearly as good as before, especially if AP -2 starts to show up a heck of a lot more. This has me wondering if Adeptus Custodes will continue to be annoying just like they were in the beginning of 10th when they were the only army that always had a save with FNP versus mortals and a flat 4+ invulnerable saves.
The Parking Lot is BACK!
There is going to be a lot of vehicle spam armies – especially the ones that have a lot of different vehicle options available. Look at CSM and how they can have Predators, Vindicators, Venom Crawlers, Forgefiends, and a Defiler. They don’t need to spam one single platform, as so many overlap and get powered up when they use and abuse Pacts. This is the same for the Astra Militarum that has giant tanks at the top end, medium tanks with all the Leman Russes, and now even more smaller tanks to gum up the table. If you have options that can move 10-12” and throw out a crap ton of firepower, you will probably do alright in the new edition.
MSU That Punches Up
Units that can punch up will also be important. If they are cheap enough that losing them to some annoying firepower won’t blunt your offensive might, you will probably have a good chance to succeed. This isn’t going to be an edition where your precious units need to live to the end of the game. Their job is to get mixed in, try to punch up into the enemy, and hopefully trade with the advantage going to you. Armies that can have a ton of powerful mini options will do well with this, with things like the Drukhari loving the nature of being able to give up units to pull the enemy into a bad position.
Sticking To Your Primary Mission is CRITICAL
Having a mission you can easily do while competing in the nature of a wargame will be powerful. If your job is to kill as much stuff as you can and score while doing so, you will be alright. A lot of the time, players get lost in the destruction of the enemy, but when that is the right choice for the test of wills on the neoprene tabletop, you should do alright. The player who understands how they should win and it falls within the nature of their mission choice, you will get more points than your opponent most of the time.
Flexibility Makes a Great Player
The wildest thing in all of this is what shows up as broken and meta-smashing. Week 1 will probably be solved by week 2. You will need to understand that you will have to morph and evolve your army as the game comes out and players get involved in the battles. There is a whole slew of extra things on top of the basic rules of hitting and wounding in this game, so understand that you can’t get attached to specific set-ups in your army. Someone will figure out how your army might be broken and bring a tool that wrecks you.
In the coming weeks, I will be going through more of the armies I like and how I think 11th will roll out. It is a pretty amazing game, and while it isn’t perfect, we have seen GW willing to do a lot to right the ship and get a solid game. 10th was pretty dang good, and I expect 11th to easily get into that position quickly.
What are you expecting to change in your new 11th Edition army?
