Start Competing: Meta Hopping 101

So you’ve been looking at your army hovering at the bottom of Stat-Check’s win rate chart for weeks now, all the while going negative at your local events. It shouldn’t be this hard, should it? What if you just played a better army - that means you’d win more games, right? So you load up Competitive Innovations, look at the top lists, paint up some models and… go 2-3 at your next GT.

What gives? Why didn’t playing a better army mean winning more games?

Well, the short answer is “it’s not that simple.” Meta hopping to a new army to get success is not automatic. In this article, we’ll walk through a step-by-step guide on how to actually win games while changing gears to one of the top armies of your current meta, why you might do so, and why sometimes it’s better to stick with what you know.

What Is Meta Hopping?

We should really start by defining Meta Hopping. If you’ve been around the hobby for any amount of real time you will have heard this phrase before and all the baggage that comes with it (we may talk about said baggage in a future article). If you haven’t however, Meta Hopping is the process of leaving the well trodden ground of the armies you know for an army currently at the top of the meta, often with something that puts it well above the rest of the field.

There is always a top dog in 40K, whether it was Index Eldar at the release of 10th edition with Wraithknights tabling you from across the board, or More Dakka jailing you with Gretchin while shooting you with hundreds of Ork guns. These armies are fundamentally playing different 40K and often are so ahead of the curve that it feels like nothing can face them.

Sometimes it’s not that drastic. Maybe the best army or armies are not playing unfair 40K, but are just really good at what they do, like Codex Death Guard, which were at the top of the meta by just having the best combination of rules and points we’d seen in a long time. Whatever is at the top, they often appeal to players who have been playing for months, or even years, with a faction that is struggling, luring them in with the temptation of easy wins and glory at events.

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

Why Would I Meta Hop?

The obvious answer is “To win more games.” Playing a stronger army won’t guarantee you’ll win, but it’ll certainly make it easier.

But besides the obvious of winning more games why would meta hopping benefit you as a player. I believe there are three main things that you should consider as reasons you take the leap into meta chasing. The first is you will probably have an easier time then your current army. I have seen many players spend months and months attending RTTs and even GTs slamming their head against the wall with an underpowered army, spending maximum effort for often little gain. If that same player just picked up triple C’tan Starshatter they would have a very good chance at just going X-0 or X-1 with little effort. You don’t have to break your brain to be a winner.

If you are already a more experienced 40k player, Meta hopping will give you a shot in the arm to the next level. If you’re a 3-2 player who makes three or four mistakes per game, this can get you to X-1. Picking up an army that is more powerful, in general, will be more forgiving, giving you more leniency to deal with those mistakes. Now, you make less mistakes because you have an easy win button, or maybe your mistakes matter less. Now you have become a 4-1 player, will this hold when the army you jumped to gets nerfed? Most likely not, but you can use the experience you have gained from this new army's tools to build the knowledge you need to become a 4-1 player for real, perhaps next time you meta chase to the best army you will become a 5-0 player instead.

Next you can take down those tough opponents easier. I have played armies before that really have a matchup that feels unwinnable, sometimes because that matchup is tied to a player in your local area who just beats your socks off. Now what if you had a magic button that if you pressed it your 20/80 matchup into you local menace or your least favorite army into a 80/20 matchup instead. Well that's what meta hopping can do for you.

Finally, you can skip one of the hardest parts of 40k: Writing lists. I have seen so many players fall into the rabbit hole of writing lists for days, only to get run over as soon as they put one on the table. Lists are very easy to mess up and there is a reason that people pay real money to 40k coaches to write lists for them - this is one of the few real shortcuts to competitive success. When you meta hop to the best army, you can also jump onto an already winning list and go wild with it. When I jumped on the GSC Host of Accession train last year, I did not write a list from scratch; I took the list(s) that Innes Wilson and Floof Cox wrote, two of the best GSC players in the world, and I won a GT with them. If I had gone to GSC and started with my own list from scratch I probably would not have won my event or the many other games before it. Taking the best list, just like taking the best army, has big payoffs if you are willing to do it.

Genestealer Cult units. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"

But before you go running to pick up Mont’ka T’au or three Custodes Land Raiders from your LGS, we should talk about what you need to do before you take the leap into this wild world of chasing the meta.

How Do I Meta Hop?

There are some practicalities to meta hopping you may not be aware of. A lot of people spend months, or even years, painting their armies to high standards. You cannot afford to do that when you are meta chasing. This may hurt if you are a painter at heart, but some sacrifices must be made for the competitive grind. You may have to take some short cuts in painting. Maybe you skip your highlights, or just do some basic layering instead of your normal process. Some way you have to save time otherwise by the time you are done painting your army will already be nerfed.

You can also skip the painting process entirely if you have something rare and powerful: Friends who play Warhammer! You can just borrow models from people. For the Las Vegas Teams Tournament just a bit over a month ago I ended up meta hopping to Grizzled Company Astra Militarum with just a week's notice. Out of the entire list I took to that event, only seven of the models in my army (out of sixty) were ones I owned. I borrowed models from friends and other local armies to field an army that scored me a 5-0 finish and helped my team make the finals. It would have been impossible for me to even attempt to get all of the models I needed for my army by myself, but thanks to those around me I was able to get ahold of everything I needed.

You also will need to pick an army to play. There often are multiple armies on the top of the meta, so how do you pick what is your best option? Three factors are at play here:

Which army or archetype do you have experience with,
Which top army beats the other top armies, and
What do you have access to?

If you have experience with one of the best armies in the game, take that army as your meta hop of choice; even a small amount of experience can make a huge difference at top tables when facing other top contenders. This may also be based on the army type - if you're more comfortable playing melee pressure than a shooting list, that can make a big difference.

Next, if one of the armies has a significantly better match up into the other top armies, that's your best pick. Back in peak GSC Host of Ascension Power, one of its main strengths was that it usually completely rinsed the other best armies as most of the time they were not capable of cracking the hordes of cultist profile targets.

Finally, sometimes all that matters is what you can play. If your friend has Gladius Ultramarines for you to borrow instead of Grizzled Guard, then the choice has already been made for you.

Once you pick your faction, take some time to practice. Even if you only get one or two practice games with your newly acquired hotness, it will help immensely. Knowing the basics of how your army functions before day one of your GT will be hugely helpful to make sure you do not lose in an embarrassing fashion round one because you forgot that your army had an army wide feel no pain as part of your detachment rule, this definitely isn’t something that I did I promise I am just making up this specific example for no reason. Understanding the basic interaction of your units and stratagems on the table top is worth days of reading your datasheets and Codex and will allow you to succeed way more often has a meta chaser.

Now we have to tackle the tough bits.

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

You Are Going to Lose

First, you have to be prepared for something: Even after hopping, you are probably going to lose. Which may be something that you think is strange when you are moving to one of the best armies in the game, but if you stop and think about it, it's not that wild. 40K is a complicated game, and often armies play radically differently on the table from each other. If you've been playing World Eaters for your entire 40K career, jumping straight to T’au is going to have some road bumps. Setting up layered sight lines, layering screens to protect your guns from melee, and, God forbid, learning not to charge everything that is in charge range will take some time to understand.

There are further layers to this. Often, but not always, the best armies can be complicated. While sometimes the best army will simply be applying an overturned gun profile at your opponent’s face, there are often layers to the power of the top army. For a very recent example, let’s look at Richard Siegler’s WCW army that brought him to the finals and, in the end, victory on 40K’s biggest stage, as well as his opponent Liam VSL and his army.

Credit: Games Workshop

Richard Siegler - Adeptus Mechanicus: Skitarii Hunter Cohort - Click to Expand

Adeptus Mechanicus Strike Force (2000 points) Skitarii Hunter Cohort

CHARACTERS

Belisarius Cawl (175 points) • Warlord • 1x Arc scourge 1x Cawl’s Omnissian axe 1x Mechadendrite hive 1x Solar atomiser

Skitarii Marshal (60 points) • 1x Control stave 1x Mechanicus pistol • Enhancement: Cantic Thrallnet

BATTLELINE

Skitarii Rangers (85 points) • 1x Skitarii Ranger Alpha • 1x Alpha combat weapon 1x Close combat weapon 1x Galvanic rifle • 9x Skitarii Ranger • 1x Arc rifle 9x Close combat weapon 6x Galvanic rifle 1x Omnispex 1x Plasma caliver 1x Transuranic arquebus

Skitarii Rangers (85 points) • 1x Skitarii Ranger Alpha • 1x Alpha combat weapon 1x Close combat weapon 1x Galvanic rifle • 9x Skitarii Ranger • 1x Arc rifle 9x Close combat weapon 6x Galvanic rifle 1x Omnispex 1x Plasma caliver 1x Transuranic arquebus

OTHER DATASHEETS

Ironstrider Ballistarii (225 points) • 3x Ironstrider Ballistarii • 3x Ironstrider feet 3x Twin cognis lascannon

Ironstrider Ballistarii (225 points) • 3x Ironstrider Ballistarii • 3x Ironstrider feet 3x Twin cognis lascannon

Ironstrider Ballistarii (225 points) • 3x Ironstrider Ballistarii • 3x Ironstrider feet 3x Twin cognis autocannon

Pteraxii Skystalkers (140 points) • 1x Pteraxii Skystalker Alpha • 1x Flechette blaster 1x Taser goad • 9x Pteraxii Skystalker • 9x Close combat weapon 9x Flechette carbine

Pteraxii Skystalkers (140 points) • 1x Pteraxii Skystalker Alpha • 1x Flechette blaster 1x Taser goad • 9x Pteraxii Skystalker • 9x Close combat weapon 9x Flechette carbine

Pteraxii Skystalkers (70 points) • 1x Pteraxii Skystalker Alpha • 1x Flechette blaster 1x Taser goad • 4x Pteraxii Skystalker • 4x Close combat weapon 4x Flechette carbine

Sicarian Infiltrators (140 points) • 1x Sicarian Infiltrator Princeps • 1x Flechette blaster 1x Taser goad • 9x Sicarian Infiltrator • 9x Flechette blaster 9x Taser goad

Sicarian Infiltrators (140 points) • 1x Sicarian Infiltrator Princeps • 1x Flechette blaster 1x Taser goad • 9x Sicarian Infiltrator • 9x Flechette blaster 9x Taser goad

Sicarian Infiltrators (140 points) • 1x Sicarian Infiltrator Princeps • 1x Flechette blaster 1x Taser goad • 9x Sicarian Infiltrator • 9x Flechette blaster 9x Taser goad

Sicarian Ruststalkers (150 points) • 1x Sicarian Ruststalker Princeps • 1x Transonic blades and chordclaw • 9x Sicarian Ruststalker • 9x Transonic razor and chordclaw

Liam VSL - Aeldari: Aspect Host - click to expand

Bon i guess i come with the broken shit (sniff sniff) wesh alors (1995 points)

Aeldari Strike Force (2000 points) Aspect Host

CHARACTERS

Fuegan (120 points) • Warlord • 1x Fire Axe 1x Searsong

Jain Zar (105 points) • 1x Blade of Destruction 1x Silent Death

Lhykhis (120 points) • 1x Brood Twain 1x Spider’s Fangs 1x Weaverender

BATTLELINE

Storm Guardians (100 points) • 10x Storm Guardian • 8x Close combat weapon 2x Flamer 2x Fusion gun 2x Power sword 6x Shuriken pistol • 1x Serpent’s Scale Platform • 1x Close combat weapon 1x Serpent shield

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS

Wave Serpent (125 points) • 1x Shuriken cannon 1x Twin bright lance 1x Wraithbone hull

OTHER DATASHEETS

Dark Reapers (90 points) • 1x Aspect Shrine Token • 1x Dark Reaper Exarch • 1x Close combat weapon 1x Tempest launcher • 4x Dark Reaper • 4x Close combat weapon 4x Reaper launcher

Dark Reapers (90 points) • 1x Aspect Shrine Token • 1x Dark Reaper Exarch • 1x Close combat weapon 1x Tempest launcher • 4x Dark Reaper • 4x Close combat weapon 4x Reaper launcher

Dark Reapers (90 points) • 1x Aspect Shrine Token • 1x Dark Reaper Exarch • 1x Close combat weapon 1x Tempest launcher • 4x Dark Reaper • 4x Close combat weapon 4x Reaper launcher

Fire Dragons (220 points) • 2x Aspect Shrine Token • 1x Fire Dragon Exarch • 1x Close combat weapon 1x Firepike • 9x Fire Dragon • 9x Close combat weapon 9x Dragon fusion gun

Howling Banshees (95 points) • 1x Aspect Shrine Token • 1x Howling Banshee Exarch • 1x Executioner 1x Shuriken pistol • 4x Howling Banshee • 4x Banshee blade 4x Shuriken pistol

Rangers (55 points) • 5x Ranger • 5x Close combat weapon 5x Long rifle 5x Shuriken pistol

Rangers (55 points) • 5x Ranger • 5x Close combat weapon 5x Long rifle 5x Shuriken pistol

Striking Scorpions (85 points) • 1x Aspect Shrine Token • 1x Striking Scorpion Exarch • 1x Biting blade 1x Shuriken pistol • 4x Striking Scorpion • 4x Scorpion chainsword 4x Shuriken pistol

Swooping Hawks (190 points) • 2x Aspect Shrine Token • 1x Swooping Hawk Exarch • 1x Close combat weapon 1x Hawk’s talon • 9x Swooping Hawk • 9x Close combat weapon 9x Lasblaster

Swooping Hawks (85 points) • 1x Aspect Shrine Token • 1x Swooping Hawk Exarch • 1x Close combat weapon 1x Hawk’s talon • 4x Swooping Hawk • 4x Close combat weapon 4x Lasblaster

Swooping Hawks (85 points) • 1x Aspect Shrine Token • 1x Swooping Hawk Exarch • 1x Close combat weapon 1x Hawk’s talon • 4x Swooping Hawk • 4x Close combat weapon 4x Lasblaster

Warp Spiders (95 points) • 1x Aspect Shrine Token • 1x Warp Spider Exarch • 1x Close combat weapon 1x Powerblade array • 4x Warp Spider • 4x Close combat weapon 4x Death spinner

Warp Spiders (95 points) • 1x Aspect Shrine Token • 1x Warp Spider Exarch • 1x Close combat weapon 1x Death weavers 1x Spinneret rifle • 4x Warp Spider • 4x Close combat weapon 4x Death spinner

Warp Spiders (95 points) • 1x Aspect Shrine Token • 1x Warp Spider Exarch • 1x Close combat weapon 1x Death weavers 1x Spinneret rifle • 4x Warp Spider • 4x Close combat weapon 4x Death spinner

At the time of the 2025 World Championships, Aspect Host Aeldari and Skitarii Hunter Cohort Adeptus Mechanicus were two of the best, if not the best, armies in the game, both of which you may had considered meta hopping to. Aeldari were there for their endless tricks which placed them above pretty much every faction in their ability to control the battlefield, and Adeptus Mechanicus, for their incredibly undercosted datasheets, newly buffed with Oath of Moment on a stick from Belisarius Cawl. If you took Richard's or Liam's lists to a GT the same week without having the experience playing that list, would you expect to win that event? After all, aren't these armies the best in their class, dominating the field when compared to the rest of the meta?

Well, yes - but with terms and conditions.

Aeldari and Adeptus Mechanicus were powerful factions at the time for a number of reasons, but one major factor for both was the layered rules each had access to. Aeldari had, and still does have even after nerfs, some of the most powerful and flexible movement rules in the game. The combination of Battle Focus tokens and transports gives you almost infinite lines of play to harness your powerful Aspect Warrior datasheets while keeping yourself safe from retaliation. Playing Aeldari, there is often a correct line of play, but you have to untangle that from half a dozen others that could lead to disaster and a quick and untimely demise. A difference of a few inches could lead to either having an immortal Fire Dragon brick in a Wave Serpent or losing it to a Rogal Dorn cutting a line turn one.

On the other hand, while Adeptus Mechanicus may not have as many movement rules, they have perhaps the largest rules density and complexity in the entire game. Their army rule, Doctrina Imperatives, requires you to choose at the top of the battle round which half you want access to, both with three different rules that all interact with your datasheets in unique ways.

Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-Priest Belisarius Cawl by Pendulin

Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-Priest Belisarius Cawl by Pendulin

Belisarius Cawl. Credit: Pendulin

Let’s give one simple example. You are going second and you need to decide which half to take: Protector or Conqueror. On one flank you think you might need to advance your Ironstriders to shoot the Forgefiend, but on the other you have your Skorpius Disintegrator pointing to the middle objective that you want to have Heavy and to get minus one to hit from the Legionaries about to charge it, while both could benefit from extra AP or Ballistic Skill depending on their target priority. This does not even touch on the positioning of battleline required for your army rule, the melee buffs you can access from your army, or even the Oath of Moment targeting decisions you need to make from Cawl. You also have to plan out when to save Command Points for a 5+++ on your Infiltrators or your 18” Lone Operative, while keeping enough CP to use on offensive stratagems.

Just scratching the surface of Adeptus Mechanicus and Aeldari’s rules density, you may be starting to understand the bigger picture. Top armies can be deeply complicated, and to pick one up and expect to win every time can be a fool’s errand. But if you are prepared to take that step, to throw yourself into the practice games you need to master these powerful rules, you can be greatly rewarded… with an immediate nerf from the Balance Dataslate.

The Other Way You'll Lose: Be Ready to Be Nerfed

If you're going to fly close to the sun in 40K, you better be ready to lose your wings in a blaze of glory. The top dogs of Warhammer will always be nerfed; that's a fact of life in the 41st millennium. Now, will some armies last longer than others? Yes, that is also true. You can look at how long Aeldari lasted at the top of the 40K meta from their codex release to just a few months ago. And sometimes they let you off light - just look at the latest hit to C'tan.

Looking at them, though, you can see how far they have fallen, from consistently topping the meta leaderboards to now ranking second to last on Stat Check’s meta dashboard and just 25th on the February Warhammer 40K Power Rankings. AdMech, the other WCW finals army, fared better, only dropping to 15th on that same ranking. Still quite a drop from being the top armies in the game only a few short months ago.

Sometimes you can also deal with a game-wide redesign that affects your army. Armour of Contempt was nerfed game-wide because certain factions were abusing durability skews at the top of the game, and because of that it killed some of the armies that relied on that skew to exist. Dark Angels Deathwing Knight spam has never been quite the same since they can no longer use AoC for an entire phase.

Sometimes you will get your entire army’s playstyle wiped off the board. If you meta chased to play Necrons’ Hypercrypt with Monoliths, good luck doing that now with the multiple nerfs that targeted that exact playstyle. If you went to play GSC Host of Ascension with 100 Neophytes, which was one of the most powerful horde armies in all of 10th, you would be sorely disappointed with the state of the faction now, with that playstyle specifically being taken out back behind the dumpster with the dreaded triple nerf. Stormlance Space Wolves were effectively removed as a playstyle from their codex. The tax of being broken is that you can get your entire army knocked back down to earth.

Even if you do not get completely destroyed, you will have to deal with nerfs in some way as a top army. Just last month one of the best armies in the game - one that I meta hopped to personally, Grizzled Company - was nerfed suddenly. While it wasn't a huge nerf it was a meaningful nerf that will impact how Grizzled plays into other top armies. And there's always a risk that they didn't go hard enough, which will mean the army doesn't drop and needs to be nerfed again - those kinds of double-taps can often take an army from lightly nerfed to being completely dumpstered.

Rogal Dorn Tank Commander. Credit: SRM

It can be very discouraging to put together an army and get it suddenly nerfed, but that's a price you need to be ready to pay for easy greatness in Warhammer. You can take the route of going for one of the top armies slightly lower on the totem pole instead of jumping straight to the one at the very top, but more often than not you still receive the dreaded nerf bat. You just are getting smacked in the arm instead of directly in the face.

If you are not prepared to pick up an army and have it fall to dust in your hands, you should not jump into the meta-chasing process, and that is fine.

It May Not Work for You

It may seem easy, but Meta hopping is a significant commitment. To do it successfully often requires both a huge time and financial commitment. You need to have the time to buy, build, and paint a new army, which can take a huge amount of money and time, especially if you are someone who takes the hobby side of army collecting very seriously. I can name quite a few people I know who have grabbed up boxes and boxes of one of the best armies in the game and have found that by the time they are ready to put it on the table, it is already too late, now fielding an army that is much worse than when they started.

If you have it already on your shelf or have a friend who is willing to lend you an army that is at the top of the meta while not wanting to play it themselves, you might have an easier time. But often an army is thrust into the limelight by a sudden buff to an old datasheet or the release of a new miniature box, often resulting in an awkward hole in your or your friend’s collection that you now have to suddenly fill on short notice. Quite a few players at Palm Springs Open had to take creative liberties with their new Necron and Ultramarines models they suddenly had to find to put into their lists as they jumped onto the new hotness.

On top of all of this, you still need to find time to attend events and plan practice games to even take advantage of the army’s power. As discussed earlier in this article, these top armies can require a lot of practice to harness their full potential, and practice games can help a lot with that. But those require time, and if you have commitments outside of Warhammer, it can be hard to fit all that in.

You also will need to travel to events if you want to actually take advantage of your meta chasing instead of just beating up people at your local stomping grounds. Those also require time and money, and often planning beforehand. You may be suddenly ready to go conquer with your new top-of-the-line S-tier army and not have any events you can attend for months. Or you have an event next week and no access to the army buffed in this week’s Dataslate.

Finally, you may just not have the drive to meta hop, or you may be better off sticking with what you know. Meta chasing is a difficult process, and you should never feel pressured into it. Never feel pressured to chase the dragon and be forced to go to a different army. As mentioned earlier, some of the best players in the world are mono-faction specialists. Sam Pope is one of the best players in the world, and he pretty much plays nothing but Tyranids, a faction rated toward the bottom end of 10th edition power since the start of the edition, and has had enormous success with them in singles and in teams. You never have to meta chase; it is only an option in how you play 40K, not a requirement.

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

Final Thoughts

Now, having read all of this, are you prepared to take on the challenge of meta hopping to victory? If not, come back for our next article, where we explore a different path of competitive success - when you want to become the lauded “faction expert” - and the successes and challenges that come down that path of competitive play.

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Tags: 40k | Tactics | Warhammer 40k | competitive play | Start Competing