This Week in the ITC: Let’s Look at some Faction Ranks

Hello, Comp 40k players! SaltyJohn from TFG Radio and Pod Save the Imperium here to bring you another week in the ITC.

This week I wanted to take a quick look at some of the current Faction Top 3 because the top 10 really didn’t shift much recently.

Blood Angels are an army with some really unique tools. Sanguinary Guard, Vanguard Vets, Death Company with Jump Packs are all pretty solid choices to use as fast, easy to hide, objective clearing, and grabbing units. In 9th edition, the name of the game is holding things down and trying to deny your opponent their objectives when it’s time to score. Junior Aflleje has been doing some work with his Blood Angels. Sitting at 743.61 points with 4 of 4 events logged he has a healthy lead over the next two players in the Faction Rankings top 3 at the moment.

Dark Angels, or should we just call it Ravenwing/Deathwing, was (is) the subjective of some ire in the community. With Deathwing always having transhuman, and it always working regardless of any other rules, coupled with Master Apothecaries on bikes running around bringing back models and healing wounds the army does get very difficult to crack quickly. The top 3 DA players are pretty close together points-wise with Charlie Andre just edging out Kyle Myers by 30 points and Aaron Towler by 35.

Space Marines began 9th as a faction people loved to hate, saying units like Bladeguard, Eradicators, and Heavy Intercessors were stupidly broken. Fast forward a bit and the army is really not as dominant as people knee-jerk reacted to originally. The army is more balanced than not and while some units stand out in certain situations, overall the codex is pretty mild. I’ve been writing these articles for several years and I mention Patrick McAneeny as being the top, or near the top, of the faction pile a lot. With a healthy 88 and 106 point lead over Sascha Edelkraut and Matthew Talley respectively I will probably be mentioning him a lot this season too.

Adeptus Mechanicus are the new big baddies in the competitive community. Whether the knee-jerk reactions will prove true like they did with Drukhari, or whether it will prove to be a flash in the pan with no real staying power like Space Marines is yet to be seen. The codex was performing well prior to the new 9th ed book so it stands to reason players will continue to perform well with it still. Mark Hertel has a big points advantage sitting at 842 ITC points, but I know Jason McKenzie from our local GTs and he still needs to really get in and put up some numbers with the new book so there will probably be some good competition for the top-ranked Mechanicus player going forward, especially since Evan Stump is also well within striking distance if the book is as good as it seems.

The dreaded Drukhari. Even with the second round “nerf” or “balancing” FAQ out the Drukhari book is still giving the bad touch to players at events all over the world. It’s fast, it has hard hitters, there’s a prevalence of Flying units, and it’s all around pretty nasty. Unsurprisingly Brad Chester, who has won a Major with Drukhari, is sitting on top of this faction ranking. Two other great players Anthony Vanella and James Kelling are hot on their heels though. With the strength of the codex and the absolute inundation of large events in the ITC, it’s conceivable this faction’s top spot changes hands more than once in the near future.

Necrons, poor Necrons. The edition started out so bright for them. A cornucopia of new models, they’re in the edition box, a new codex, everything. But it just hasn’t panned out for them the way some players anticipated. It’s proven a hard faction to go the distance with at large events unfortunately but that hasn’t stopped Steven Christopher, Seth Piper, and Marshall Peterson from amassing large amounts of ITC points with solid finishes from their 4 of 4 event entries in the rankings.

Orks! With new Orks seemingly on the horizon from GW and the last 3 codices having proven the codex creep is less a creep and more of a rapid power grab book to book it’s looking good for Ork players! It will be interesting to see a potential new Ork codex is as strong as the Drukhari, Adepta Sororitas, and Adeptus Mechanicus books were or if the rumored Ork book will signal a return to a more normal power creep in the game. Either way consummate Waaaagh boss Rich Kilton will no doubt continue to stomp humies and take names at events with his Orks. Following up the Ork rankings just 40 and 60 points behind are Colin Kay and Lukas Troller. Whether new Orks come out soon, or not, this faction ranking will be a fun one to watch unfold the whole season.

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