The King is Dead, Long Live the King! Let’s look at some of the past 40K killer army lists and how broken they were, back in the day.
The King id Dead, Long Live the King! As long as I can remember there is always the best 40K list. It could be a broken combo or rules, things ending up too cheap, or just efficient damage dealers. Every edition has someone that is just too good for the game and the players have to react to it to try and solve it. Let’s look at some of the lists I remember and how broken they were as we currently deal with an almost 11th Edition world of Defiler-spam.
Leaf Blower – Imperial Guard (Astra Militarum) – 5th Edition
This is my buddy Nick Rose’s lists from back in the day that he terrorized players all over with. He won Adepticon with the list, Ard Boyz, and a ton of other events. It is the perfect example of efficient damage dealers and the push of just piles of shooting and tank shells. The start of the parking lot revolution of 40K that utilizes so many hulls to get in the way, are hard to kill, and just wreck you all day. I can remember the days of the Manticore dropping templates on my head and just being upset at the damage I was taking.
Chaos Daemons Screamer Star – 7th Edition
Who thought having a rerollable 3+ save was a good thing for the game? There were a ton of these options in the game with death stars and rerollable options but for a little while the Chaos Daemons Screamerstar was a brutal piece of tech that wrecked tables. The only true answer was stomping them out with a Knight that rolled a 6 and ignored all the invulnerable saves. You took a bunch of Psykers, threw them with some Screamers, rolled all your powers, and hopefully you got the +1 to invulnerable save with Cursed Earth. You then try to roll for Precognition on Divination and get the pure rerolling nonsense of all your hit, wounds, and saving throws. This was a brutal combo that could just – ignore your opponents army all game as you flew around, shot some magic, and maybe killed some stuff. This type of unit was why D weapons and spells started to show up to just ignore those saves.
Codex Drukhari – 9th Edition
Oh man was the 9th Edition Drukhari army insanely busted. I know they took so many nerfs as GW desperately tried to get them back under control. But each time they got FAQed, something new came bubbled up from their codex and brutalized the meta. The initial waves saw their Coven units just wreck everyone. You had mountains of Flesh in their Pain engines that got Feel No Pain, good saves, and high damage potential. The initial set of army’s had Venoms full of flamers that were damage 2. The second wave save Incubi and Drazhar show up to put everyone to sleep permanently. You then had Talos Engines that would come in units of 3 as they stalked up the board with too many wounds and a bad attitude. All the characters were insane, everyone punched up, and you just couldn’t get away from them. It was probably one of the most broken books to come out and they took so many nerfs in hopes to rein them in.
Leagues of Votann Launch Box – (what could have been) – 9th Edition
This is a nice extra bit to talk about. I remember when this Leagues of Votann boxed set released and you got the codex but not all the models to look at. Everyone read their rules and shouted in unison as that sheer insanity that was presented. This army had so many ways to just murder you thru shooting. They hit hard, hit harder with rolls of a 6, and then had abilities that let them get that 6. Everything was insanely tough and just brutal. I remember events instantly banning them and we had the first true shift of an army before they even were released. It was a wild time in 40K to never see a fully powered Votann army actually come out and showcase how damaging them can be. This was also the first time we see GW act quickly on a release and showcase the type of changes we see happening right away when something comes out completely busted now.
~What are your most memorable 40K army of yesteryear?
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Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I’ve been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on – or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.
Source: Bell of Lost Souls
