8th edition winners and losers.

[royalecheez]

So with what we have seen so far, what kind of power rankings do you guys give the armies so far??. I know this will flux with codexes and CA and the like but just as it stands right now, who is the top dog and who is last to the teet?

[Jabberwocky]

Eldar and Tau seem to have been toned down ever so slightly, but I expect when they get their books they'll move back to top tier.

Chaos have definitely seen big improvements.

On the whole I'd say the faction rankings remain very similar, but the particularly strong builds within those factions are different, not least because of weapon loadouts thanks to split fire and also due to changes with flyers and detachments.

[N.I.B.]

AM Conscript spam, Bobby G rerolling lascannon spam and Chaos Daemons Brimstone spam seem to be the current top dogs.

[nidzy]

Sisters of Battle got way better as far as I can tell as well. Dominion/repressor rush is a thing and it is ugly, especially when it is appropriately backed up by other Celestine plus other imperium. Don't sleep on 12 melta guns that start the game by moving 12 inches closer to you in their transports (that they can shoot out of) before the movement phase OR that bubble around Celestine for a 5+ invul using that same movement.

I think Gully backing up basically any well written imperium list is going to be tough to deal with. The guy is just so good at everything. I have been writing pretty pure ultramarines lists with him and doing okay, but I have seen some messed up combos as well. Str 5 spam (heavy bolter devs, retributors/thunderfire/backed by significant lascannons is going to be tough to deal with from them as well since it actively negates that kind of list's Achilles heel which is massed bodies. The fact that you can spend less than 300 points and get an AM brigade with 60+ conscripts around him is just another low blow.

Quick shout out to assassins who almost universally got significantly better.