Food for thought: The top 16 1850pt. lists from this past Adepticon.

[Chase]

Let me preface this by saying that I am all in favor of the CASUAL gamer and casual games.  I am posting this in case certain members would like to discuss certain aspects of these lists.  This is in no way trying to "show people what they should play" or suggesting that people use internet lists.

I am told that some of these lists are fairly standard and some are not.  This may or may not be due to the scenarios and how they were written.

Here you go.

[Benjamin]

The guy who won, Tony, I believe is undefeated at all major tournaments this year. Also, 16 years old, considerably younger than most players around here. I think that's pretty cool.

Blood Angels and Space Wolves take more than their fair share, no surprises there.

The big surprise for the casual observer was seeing a Tyranid army place so well, and there's a dedicated group on the Internet who finally received some validation for their once-crazy idea that Tyranids could be a top tier competitor.

Only one IG list made the top 16. The meta is a changin'.

Not surprised Orks did well. All-comers lists sometimes stumble hard against horde armies.

A pure BoT Daemons list. Effective, if a bit boring. 8 games of bolt. bolt. bolt. bolt. bolt. I don't think I could do it.

[Ed]

that guard list needed more chimeras.

and i like how people tell me speed freaks are bad.

and i would have never guess wolfs first....

where is the dark eldar love?

[Ian Mulligan]

where is the dark eldar love?

No 3+ save or AV12 vehicles, bro.

[Ed]

how'd the orks do it then

[Moosifer]

In regards to Tony, he won the nova open with a 2003 point list and managed to win every game but still managed to end up 82nd overall. 

The guy who played the nids is a fantastic guy as well as a fantastic player.  He was told he had an ETC spot before the championships.  There was some live coverage of the finals up online, the ork v SW game and Nids v IG as well.

[jhobin]

The Tyranid player is a good friend of mine and a great general.

I was not able to play in the championship because I didn't register in time, but it was interesting to walk around and see some of the builds. I have to say that I had written off Storm Raven's as useless and after seeing so many and finally getting to see them in action against Team Sweden my impression of them has changed.

It was an eye opener for me as far as builds go, because you really only get to see a finite amount of builds in your local area and with a huge pool of players from across the country the pool is much larger. In most of the competitive lists that placed high there was a special named character apparently this is the new norm.

I have to say there were a ton of non-standard marines there (BA,SW, etc.)

[Rurouni Benshin]

how'd the orks do it then

In my experience with playing against Orks, most (if not all) Ork lists use the Big Mek as a center piece for their hordes and hordes of Orks.  The guy that placed first in the 'Ard Boyz Tournament in my area last year used a list completely made up of foot slogging Orks, with a couple of units of Killa Kanz.  Other than the Kanz, he had no vehicles whatsoever.  Slowly but surely, he marched his army across the board each game and just consumed every person he played.  And as long as one model from any of his 20+ model unit was within range of the Mek, they got their cover save.  

What's funny though is that none of the Ork players in Chase's link seemed to have used this strategy.  Maybe because it was at 1850, the strategy and point ratio work a little differently, but somehow they managed.

[Ed]

well thats good but ork army is not killa kan wall its speed freaks....and everyone says speed freaks are bad

[GossWeapon]

I had a real feeling that this would be how the metagame was developing.  If you havent seen the trend, since warmachine has came back and increased its popularity, the 40k players have taken to heart the competitive values of warmachine (speed, brutality, and priority synergy).  Im surprised by the zero dark eldar armies placing, because not many people have a solid game plan yet for dealing with them excep hope to shoot them down before theyre on top of you.  I kind of knew transport rush would come back in a major way with the rise of grey knights and other codexes like it.  Meltaguns are so cost effective to put in a unit that the pros are starting to put emphasis on pod lists or just a simple rhino.  I will look forward to how the grey knights fall into the tournament scene.  Shunting units and the stern block seem strong lists, and power weapon spam is interesting, but they lack in some areas where the old meta players would think is unrecoverable.  Overall, good food for thought, especially with doubles this weekend and summer coming up fast.

[Ed]

funny cause im working on a daemon list that will take grey knights

[Benjamin]

Grey Knights do have the potential to be a top army. They've traded some shooting power for assault, and remain as easy to kill as any other Marine army. Once people figure out how to play them, it will not be a surprise to see them at the top every now and then.

Ed, if you figure out that anti-GK Daemon list, I'll make an anti-Daemon GK list to bring you to your knees. It's not even close to a fair fight.

[Ed]

i dont see how gk will be top wolf are a far better codex im working on a anti gk list for the next singles cause i know that the band wagon is gonna be there but they are not going to be ready for me because they arn't going to build anti daemon lists cause that would be retarded. Reading more things i write without proof reading i hope you understand cause i am on my cellphone.

on a other note they are not daemon hunters anymore they are grey knights , grey having to do with sadness so in essence they are emo knights. They kill which they don't understand Daemons. Choas is freedom I'm sorry that their eyes don't connect.

[Serring]

Reading about the top guy I would want to watch/play him sometime just to see how it would be like. Congrats to the Nid player.

[GossWeapon]

Lets just state the obvious: Njarl + Logan Grimnar = wins.

Looking at stern + the (i think its the purgation squad?), you make everyone take a strength test or get removed, then wound them on a 4+ with armour saves allowed.  THEN  you fight them with power weapons at i5 and a thunderhammer for good measures, and you got a model with a 2+ invul in CC for good measures.  You also can shunt move to distract the opponent from his unit coming in (more than likely in a stormraven). Once this unit crashes into something it virtually crushes it.  Can one say this may be the new TWC? Hard to say yet.  I have serious doubts on it surpassing wolves, but top 3 is certainly obtainable. the rough super list units is obviously going to have stern and a grandmaster as hq choices, the X squad (cannot for the love of me remember which) as troops, and then a SR or two and some shunting units.