Hello, fellow Warhammer 40k fans! SaltyJohn from TFG Radio, and one of the Las Vegas Open Head Judges, here to bring you a wrap up of this week in the ITC.
It’s been about two weeks since the last article I did wrapping up the current standings in the ITC. I was busy at work and then we had the Thanksgiving holidays, I am happy to report though that not a whole lot has changed. November and December are typically slow months in the tournament scene due to the Holidays making it harder for people to travel to events, particularly in the US due to Thanksgiving being close to Christmas.
Burning wife/family points to travel for 40k or even devoting a whole weekend to 40k is much harder when there’s obligatory family time sewn into the fabric of our culture! First a look at the current top 10, then a little bit of discussion about potential changes to the meta going forward.
The only big changes to the top ten in the last 20 days are near the bottom. John Lennon and Leigh Abbey were booted out of the top ten and replaced by Nick Rose who jumped back in at 5th and Steven Pampreen who hurtled into 9th on the back of an Ork rokkit fueled by his first place win with Orks at the Renegade Open. Here is a shot of his list from the Renegade Open.
It’s nice to see Orks back on the tabletop and doing well, even if what you’re really seeing are Grots supporting Lootas for the most part. Steven’s list is a cool take on the GrotLootaStar we’ve been seeing as it is accompanied by 90 boyz as well. A horde worthy of any Warboss of renown. Another interesting point from the Renegade Open was the continued lack of Knight primary armies in the top spots and a continued return of Aeldari.
A stagnant competitive meta is not healthy for the ITC, or the game in general. If the same armies continually outperform others when it comes to winning or finishing in the top 10 it can create a problem where we see people shift to playing only those factions or they may stop attending altogether. Hopefully, Orks, Chapter Approved, and any potential early 2019 releases that might be available at LVO can shift the meta enough to give us a diverse top 8 at LVO and continue that trend throughout the ITC in 2019.
So with only a handful of events before the Las Vegas Open caps the season and we crown ourselves a new ITC champion what is there that can still throw a wrench into the works? Well there’s Chapter Approved, and it would seem there’s the potential for an early 2019 Space Marine codex part deux. I don’t like to spend too much time speculating on what is or isn’t in upcoming releases as most of the early rumor mongers are generally wrong and wish listing, and the leaks that are solid are spread far and wide already. That said if we see significant point reductions in Chapter Approved to specific armies, particularly the least played there could be meta shift before LVO. Armies like Necrons, Grey Knights, Space Marines, and Genestealer Cults to name but a few could use with a nice shake-up in Chapter Approved to breathe a little life into them.
If Chapter Approved brings us any huge changes to the game state we might see a meta shift as well. I doubt that will happen though. The biggest changes are probably going to be centered around new releases in terms of codices and point drops to current floundering factions. Space Marines standout as a group in need of help. The current number one player for the Adeptus Astartes faction is Patrick McAneeny and he’s been up there for a while now.
Even the top-ranked Space Marine player though hasn’t won a GT size, or larger, event with them as the primary faction this season. Taking a look at his personal scores from the ITC it shows that while Space Marines have the leg to do well at local sized (RTT) events they struggle in the wider, more diverse, field of a GT or Major.
Patrick was able to take 3rd place at the Triumph GT with Ultramarines though, which was a great accomplishment for a player using a primary faction that is far from top tier at the moment. So if we’re likely to see some changes to Space Marines in Chapter Approved, and there is also clearly a new codex coming for them too then we should pay special attention to the CA changes as they will more than likely be indicative of the changes we will see in the new codex. If there’s a significant enough drop in points cost for some of the more potent units in the SM codex than it’s likely we will see a more balanced field in the top 8 at LVO as some of the Primaris units, and other over costed units, could be decent counters to Aeldari and even horde Orks. While I doubt they will be meta shifting enough to mean Aeldari, Orks, Astramilitarum, Chaos, Custodes, and Tau lose their upper tier luster; a decent rebalancing of the Space Marine units in terms of points could mean less of those armies dominate as thoroughly as they do now.
The ascendancy of the Primaris Marines seems to be upon us. We got a look at the new Primaris Calgar and if GW really wants to go down that road then they’ll need to give players a significant incentive to switch over to playing those models in large numbers. A point adjustment in CA coupled with a new codex hot on it’s heels would certainly do just that. If it’s done right. It could also serve to move Imperial players away from feeling like they have to take Astra Militarum battalions to prop up the CP and body counts of their otherwise too elite detachments of Knights, Marines, Custodes etc.
Overall I think the game is in a good place and the ITC as a whole is in a good place as a result. When you think about how the game was in 4th-7th editions and compare it to how the competitive, or even narrative, game is today it’s no question we’re in a healthy place now that ever before. One more note before I leave you for the week, there have been some awesome model releases the past 3 weeks. There are also some great memes made from them out there. Enjoy.
Don’t forget to let me know what you think in the comments. Or if you’d prefer, you can come tell me what you think tonight live on the TFG Radio Twitch cast! We start, somewhat promptly, at 8:15 pm PST. On the dot. Usually. We’re professionals.
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