Warhammer 40K Faction Tier List – Which Armies are Strong and Weak?



Let’s talk through each faction in the game and where I’d rank them respective to each other…

Space Marines in Arks of Omen here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9pLtJmZG5o

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0:00 Intro
0:27 Arks of Omen Shake Up
1:58 Tier 3
2:29 Death Guard
4:12 Grey Knights
5:58 Thousand Sons
8:13 Tier 2
8:52 Genestealer Cult
11:07 Chaos Knights
13:07 Adeptus Mechanicus
14:59 Orks
17:28 T’au Empire
19:31 Leagues of Votann
21:42 Necrons
23:36 Craftworld Eldar and Ynnari
25:28 Weaker Space Marines
28:07 Sisters of Battle
30:25 Harlequins
32:35 Tyranids
34:38 Chaos Space Marines
36:41 Drukhari
38:28 Chaos Daemons
41:04 Tier 1 (lower)
41:27 Imperial Knights
43:45 Adeptus Custodes
46:52 Space Marines
50:26 Tier 1 (upper)
50:39 Stronger Space Marines
54:55 Imperial Guard
57:38 Overall Rankings
58:48 Outro

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40 thoughts on “Warhammer 40K Faction Tier List – Which Armies are Strong and Weak?”

  1. It’s orks. It’s always orks. More dice = better. Tenth edition will reveal that Warhammer 40k was building up to reveal the true intent of the game: beating up different enemies as the main characters – the orks.

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  2. Raven Guard have the tools to abuse the massive buffs to Inceptors. Shrike is actually faster than they are so he can constantly give them the Reroll 1s to help avoid blowing themselves up and RG give those plasma AP-4 and +1 to hit and Wound vs Characters which is pretty damn scary on a model with a 28 inch threat range and that Strength 8 Profile. I think RG is a keeper scary SM choice and not just successor only to abuse as WS lite.

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  3. Weirdly enough as a tyranid player im kind of happy with the change to warriors, my favorite unit. For some reason in the main codex with all the wargwar being the same price there was no reason to bring some of the best looking loudouts like scything talons + devourers because it was SIGNIFICANTLY worse than boneswords and deathspitters, but now theyre a viable option

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  4. This is always something for someone to be able to say, and then have it change in a week, or a month, but I am just so shocked, amazed, and happy to see the Imperial Guard rank so highly; not even just mid-tier, but arguably the top! Anyone can page back through my comments, on a number of videos, and see I said this would never happen; GW wouldn't allow it to happen. Imperial Guard were a benchmark faction; they were who other armies needed to be measured against, and how easily anything that would threaten to combat the Imperium would bear them, before the Space Marines swept in and saved the day. They were the justification for Space Marines, where if something couldn't be beaten by wave after wave of nameless, disposable flashlights, the surgical hammer of the Astartes would be used. Granted, I guess I appreciate that the Space Marines have also been somewhat drug back up to prominence, but to see the rank and file Guard there, above Nids, Necrons, Harlequins, Tau, it just makes nmme so happy, even if they did do a few things with the new Guard I don't care for. I don't know how long it will last; when they will Votann the Guard back into lower mid-tier, because Space Marines sell better, and I sort of don't care. For now, I'll just be happy, and revel in the fact that I was wrong, and that was good.

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  5. Really don't think ba got better they seem to have got significantly weaker to me. They ran tons of sanguine guard before that were durable with AOC and hit like a truck that worked with secondaries. These and death company lost AOC. Unless I missed something the main unit that fits them well is thunder hammer termies got much better II be think are best a side grade to what sanguine guard were pre arks.

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  6. the only BS thing about the Hearthkyn Warriors Point Nerf is that they needed to make the Ion blasters free swaps, like with the hammers/axes on the Berserks (same with hammers on Einhyr IMHO) at these point costs the trade offs are just about even, grudges or no.

    I am still pissed I cannot take two Einhyr squads and a champion into a Boarding party game. that should have been the baseline for them.

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  7. Why are paladins so expensive they aren’t even better than regular terminators in any meaningful way. Every advantage they have can be duplicated by regular space marines pretty easily

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  8. Also admec bionic going from 6++ to 5++ is massive for them to, sure it's not the absolute biggest durability buff but it does mean that no matter how good your armor pen is there's a 33% chance for it to fail and that's wonderful for admec since they're so fragile otherwise.

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  9. Gotta say the space marine doctrine change is insane for iron hands. Played a game Friday where the majority of my army was wielding heavy weapons. The ability to move and shoot, reroll 1’s, and the extra AP for the entire game felt too good.

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  10. Anyone else taking another look at eliminators with Bolt snipers instead of Las Fusils? Executer round is AP -1 but in devastator -2. Then it ignores light cover so basically -3…remove AOC and this thing is acting as AP-4 against the right target.

    On top of that, BS 2+ even when moving. I like the Instigator on sgt. Can be clutch for a 12” move unit when you need it or jumping in and out of cover. Running Salamanders so just take a sweet wound reroll on top.

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  11. Grey knights went from a decent army to low tier pretty fast, I feel kind of sad that its the only army I have and I can’t really afford a better army. Don’t get me wrong, I love my light black/ dark white knights, it’s just I got them because they were interesting to me yet they become one of the most mid armies overall. I think my branch into sigmar will steady the tide until the Grey knights are buffed or I can afford a newer army. The Knights to me are the coolest space marine faction (I will fight you on this), but a lot, and I mean a lot, of not just other 40k players, but writers misunderstand the knights as a faction. I will admit they are very forgettable, so forgettable you are probably dead if you remember them, but they have some of the best and worst lore along with probably the worst written character in 40k (Draigo). I’m sorry if this is a rant that makes no sense, but I’m pissed the one army I was happy building became one of the worst armies in the game as soon as it’s ready to be used.

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  12. As a DG player I hate to us at the bottom of the barrel. Makes me wonder if Armor of Contempt would be a fair special rule for DG exclusively. Maybe just change the name to something Nurgle-Esque and up our points appropriately.

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  13. I'm surprised you considered Thousand Sons mid tier with how well they've been doing in tournaments, and how they were hit a bit less severely by AoC than others. Their shooting is more deadly now while their survivability barely changed. AoC was always less needed for them with the +1 to saves vs damage 1, multiple ways to heal and a 4++ buff and -1 to hit rolls you can throw about. Completely losing Wrath of Magnus is the one thing that really hurts.

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  14. Thousand Sons definately doesn't belong in low tier. Sure, we lost good Flamers and Wrath of Magnus.. and with AoC gone is a good thing! Our weapons mostly have -2 ap, so we are better at killing models in the shooting phase now than before,. we are still quite durable with All is Dust and 2+ sv from Terminators.

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  15. Are there any factions which play more utility-like then the others… Meaning they have a lot of versaitility thru usage of different equipment or stuff like that?

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  16. As a relatively new player, I don’t care about any armies outside of Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons, so seeing both getting nerfed disincentivises me from spending more money on the game.

    I’ll see how 10th edition shakes up, but I’m skeptical to see any positive changes. If I do spend more money on this game it’ll be on a top tier CSM or Be’lakor / Khorne daemons army.

    Why would I handicap myself more when GW already handicaps Chaos enough…

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