Here are some of the shocking 40k army lists that players chose to go against the grain of the Marine meta last weekend. Check them out!

Every now and then, there is a hobbyist that shows up to a tournament rocking the anti-meta units that most others would overlook. However, more often than not, those units actually perform better than anyone ever expected. Check out these three unique lists that were spotted at different events recently. Maybe it’ll inspire you to venture out from the safety of the obvious “meta” choices!

Looking back at the Cross-Swords 40k tourney, here are some of the most unique lists pulled from the event.

Thanks to Best Coast Pairings, we can look back at the event as if we were there ourselves.

Ricky Callan- Imperial Guard

Looking at this Guard list, Ricky pulled out tactics from what would be considered an old supplement in today’s meta. Bringing two detachments from the Vigilus Defiant, he spammed Tank Commanders with battle cannons and Basilisks for that juicy shoot twice stratagem! While this is a tactic that we’ve seen off and on, we really haven’t seen too much of it in the Space Marine meta.

Where this list really stands apart is the fact that it’s 100% Imperial Guard. And not only that, but the way he filled out the rest of his list is something we’ve never really seen. Bringing two Battalions for a nice CP battery, he gave every Troop a transport. Bringing a mix of Chimeras and Tauroxes, this list turned into a heavily-mechanized list.

Overall, it’s not a bad strategy. He could dump Cadians out on an objective and send the cheap transport barreling into an enemy unit to tie them up. Meanwhile, the heavy guns of the list could focus-fire anything that wasn’t being tar-pitted by transports! Great job.

Thousand Sons- Luke Grant

This list was pretty unique from most Thousand Sons lists we normally see. Usually, it’s a cloud of Tzaangors and Horrors while Daemon Princes nestle themselves in the ranks until it’s the time to strike. However, this list made use of Rubrics and even a Leviathan. And while Ahriman is almost always an auto-include in every T-Sons list, Magnus even came out to play on this one! Really, it came down to the Rubrics protecting the characters by being able to withstand a crazy amount of small-arms fire. Meanwhile, Magnus, Ahriman, and a couple of Sorcerers spammed their psychic phase as best they could.

Orks- Steven Goodsell

This list is pretty unique because although it took Boyz, it was never in the amount that we normally see. Really, they were taken just to fill out the mandatory troops slot for filling out a brigade.

Jumping into units we NEVER see, Kommandos, Deffkoptas, and Battlewagons hit the field. It’s important to note that these Battlewagons were decked-out with the ‘ard case and deff rolla for maximum melee carnage.

And finally, the Dread Waaagh! Vigilus detachment was brought with the Big Mek bringing the relic souped-up shokka. Meanwhile, the Big Trakk FW tank rolled in with a total of five Deff Dreads. Just like the Guard list, this army was heavily mechanized and didn’t capitalize on model numbers that most Ork players default to. Great job!

With these lists being so unique and doing so well, has this inspired you to experiment with your collection? What faction do you play?

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