A. Deathwatch Terminators inside Assault Brethren are running at 71.9%
A second Listhammer pull, posted as a check on the first, puts Ork detachments outside Dread Mob, Shoota Boyz, Flyboyz and Kult of Speed at 75% across 61% of the Ork field, with Runt Swarm at 77% or better on about 21% of Ork players. The author of the second pull warns against the method in his own post. Detachment data was missing for most of the 316 Ork players in his sample, and his percentages rest on the 71 players with full data. Both pulls agree on the Marine number, and both name Deathwatch Terminators as the unit at the centre.
Richard Siegler and Michael gave the unit the same reading on the Art of War tier list stream. Deathwatch as a standalone army sits in their B tier. As allied support inside Space Marines, they called Deathwatch Terminators "absolutely busted": 200 points for five Terminators with three blast plasma cannons, strong melee, and the Assault Brethren package behind them. Their line on the army was direct: "You don't really see this army right now. You see Deathwatch support." A separate community thread asked what makes the unit so strong, and the answers matched: three cyclone missile launchers in a five-model squad where other Terminators get one, two four-wound models soaking damage ahead of the rest, and damage 3 melee.
Goonhammer's Competitive Innovations roundup for the Oct 23 to 25 events found the build winning in the results. Ultramarines with Deathwatch Support, Terminator Storm Force and Assault Brethren, built around Roboute Guilliman, Marneus Calgar and two Deathwatch Terminator squads, beat Black Templars 100 to 50 in the Gangsta Bear Championship showdown in Greece. James "One_Wing" Grover closed that section with one line: "It's Ultrawatch. You know about Ultrawatch." The same build took 4-1 or better finishes at the Sydney GT, the Corsair Open, the Adeptus 5-0 Jailbreak event and the Fun-N-Games October GT. Angel's Keep recorded the pattern inside Dark Angels: Benjamin Rubenstein won the Clever Kobold's Halloween Hellscape GT with two Deathwatch Terminator squads in a Darkflight Pursuit, Deathwatch Support and Ironstorm Spearhead list. Auspex Tactics published a video on the Ultramarines list running Deathwatch Terminators, and the Win Rate Wednesday comments named Assault Terminators and Deathwatch Terminators as the units shaping every Marine matchup. Deathwatch lead both season boards: 60% on Stat Check and 55.7% on hutber, on 93 hutber players and 485 games.
How it works: A Deathwatch Terminator squad carries three heavy weapons in five models, where a standard Terminator squad carries one. Two of the five models have four wounds, so damage lands unevenly and the squad holds its output while it takes fire. Inside Assault Brethren the squad gains the detachment's melee and durability support, and the Marine book gives the list Eradicators in Impulsors, Guilliman and Calgar behind it. The squad shoots like a vehicle, fights at damage 3, and costs 200 points.
Sources: r/WarhammerCompetitive, "Deathwatch Spam has a higher winrate than Index Aeldari had during its peak"; r/WarhammerCompetitive, "Ork Spam has a higher winrate than DW Assbros for the week"; Art of War 40k, "The Art of War Tier List Revisited"; Goonhammer, "Competitive Innovations in 11th: To Take, Perchance to Hold pt.3"; Angel's Keep, "Dark Angels Update 10/26/2026"; r/WarhammerCompetitive, "Haven't played too much lately, what exactly is so strong about DW terminators?"
B. Art of War put Space Marines and Dark Angels alone in S tier
Siegler and Michael put Marines in S on breadth. Marines have run at 53 to 55% since the last update, and their best detachment combinations run in the 60s. The stream names Assault Brethren, Deathwatch support, Ironstorm builds, melta Eradicators, Roboute Guilliman, Marneus Calgar and Storm Speeder Thunderstrikes as separate working pieces. Their argument is that a points rise on one build leaves the others standing. Dark Angels drew the stream's shortest verdict: "Super good army right now. They're very obviously S tier." The lists they discussed run five or six Storm Speeders with Terminators, and the codex armies' extra command points came up as an edge other factions cannot match.
Two placements carry a warning label in the stream. Custodes sit in A with room to climb, because strong players are picking the army up and the numbers at the top end are high, but the Space Marine matchup can swing a game by hundreds of points when melta Eradicators connect. Thousand Sons sit in B on the published board, and Siegler and Michael said the last two weeks changed their read: placed today, Thousand Sons would sit in C, and possibly in D, after the points and leader increases hit Rubric Marine lists. Guard sit in C after a B versus C debate in the stream. The reasoning was survival: blast weapons and general lethality delete 20-model infantry units in one activation, and a Guard army that cannot stay on the board cannot score. The stream noted Sam Nash just won a GT with Guard, and still placed the army in C on difficulty.
How it works: The Art of War board ranks factions on what a strong player can win with now, across the whole book. A faction with one winning build lands in A, as Death Guard did. A faction with several winning builds that cover each other's bad matchups lands in S. That is why Deathwatch split in two on the board: B as an army, and part of the S tier Marine machine as support.
Sources: Art of War 40k, "The Art of War Tier List Revisited"; r/WarhammerCompetitive, "Art of War Tier List".
C. Alban de Polignac went 8-0 in Paris, and Shamblerot is the Death Guard build
The standard build won elsewhere in the same stretch. Sunday Night Stats carried a Paris note recording Death Guard at seven event wins since the last balance patch, second only to Space Marines at 13. Goonhammer's Competitive Innovations part 3 calls Shamblerot the consensus best Death Guard build, and Tayson Prete won Hell's Basement GT with the standard shape: Mortarion as warlord, Typhus with 20 Poxwalkers, two Malignant Plaguecasters, a Defiler, three Myphitic Blight-haulers and an allied Knight Despoiler. Siegler and Michael put Death Guard in A tier on the tier list stream and credited the same Poxwalker screen build. The Shinjuku top 10 shows the faction's other working shape: two Virulent Vectorium lists at 3-0 (Top 10, entries 3 and 9), one led by Mortarion and one by a Daemon Prince, both built on double Plague Marine squads and Deathshroud Terminators.
How it works: In Alban de Polignac's list the Poxwalker brick runs on two rules. The Noxious Blightbringer gives the unit minus 1 to wound, and Typhus's smite grows Poxwalkers back, so the brick holds ground while it regrows. Around it, five-model units with a character each punch up through the detachment's stratagems, and two or three of them combined kill targets none of them kills alone. The standard build works the other way: the Poxwalker screen stands in front of Mortarion, and Mortarion and the allied Knight shoot over it.
Sources: Art of War, The Competitive 40k Network, episode 367.1, "Death Guard win a French Major with Alban de Polignac"; r/WarhammerCompetitive, Sunday Night Stats (October 30th-November 1st, Paris note); Goonhammer, "Competitive Innovations in 11th: To Take, Perchance to Hold pt.3"; Art of War 40k, "The Art of War Tier List Revisited"; Best Coast Pairings, Warhammer Tournament Shinjuku, October.
D. Aeldari won the Nordic Championship and went undefeated at Calling the Banners
At Calling the Banners in Australia, a 67-player event, two players finished undefeated. Rhys Cunningham took Aeldari Corsairs, Eldritch Raiders with Path of the Outcast on Reconnaissance: Prince Yriel with Corsair Voidscarred, Jain Zar, Lhykhis with Warp Spiders, the Avatar of Khaine and Eldrad Ulthran. The video credits the diagonal deployment at the event, a 9-inch scout move across the list, and four infiltrating units for turn one board presence. Dylan Cowan won the event for Dark Angels at 5-0. His list on Best Coast Pairings is a Wrath of the Rock build: Azrael as warlord, Deathwing Knights, a 10-model Deathwing Terminator squad, Hellblasters and Inner Circle Companions in a Land Raider Redeemer. The same video covered two Ultramarines wins at smaller events, a Terminator list at Halloween Havoc in Canada and a Gravis list at Battle Between the Lakes, and noted both lists ran without Deathwatch Terminators.
How it works: Aspect Host gives Aspect Warriors re-rolls on hits, with a stratagem for lethal hits or sustained hits. Haavisto's list spends that output on speed: Dark Reapers and Fire Dragons kill the target, Shining Spears threaten the backfield from reserve, and the Avatar stands where the opponent has to deal with him. The Corsair list plays the mission instead. Scout moves, infiltrators and sticky objectives take points early, and the opponent spends the game taking them back.
Sources: TacticalTortoise 40k, "Aeldari Take MULTIPLE 40k Tournaments! The BEST Armies in Warhammer 40k 1.11.26 Edition"; Best Coast Pairings, Calling the Banners 2026 results; r/WarhammerCompetitive, Sunday Night Stats (October 30th-November 1st).
E. Custodes posted 60% in their second weekend, at the only event that counted
The first weekend thread set the baseline. "State of New Custodes" recorded a 51% win rate, one event win and six X-1 finishes for the first mostly full weekend of the new codex, with Solar Lions and Morotoi as the popular detachments and Trajann Valoris in almost every list. The thread pointed to Folger Pyles' build, two Galatus Dreadnoughts, a Telemon and a Caladius, as the common base. Siegler and Michael placed Custodes in A tier on the tier list stream and flagged the army as one to watch: talented players are picking it up, the melee kata that gives minus 1 to hit is strong, and the list pool is narrow right now, built on Dreadnoughts and Sisters of Silence. Gopher Workshop published a Custodes review episode in the same week. The two weekends read as one curve: 51% with the book new, 60% at the one event this weekend, and the top of the faction still capped by the Space Marine matchup.
How it works: The new Custodes book trades damage for staying power. Dreadnoughts and Allarus Terminators hold objectives while the minus 1 to hit kata in melee cuts the opponent's most reliable damage. The list pool is small because most of the book prices its units in the same band, so the Dreadnought core repeats from list to list.
Sources: r/WarhammerCompetitive, Sunday Night Stats (October 30th-November 1st); r/WarhammerCompetitive, "State of New Custodes"; Art of War 40k, "The Art of War Tier List Revisited"; Gopher Workshop, "Adeptus Custodes Review".
F. The Halloween weekend had one qualifying event, and six factions stayed home
Six factions had no players at the one qualifying event: Black Templars, Deathwatch as a standalone army, Blood Angels, Genestealer Cults, Grey Knights and Astra Militarum. The post notes Guard have now gone two weeks with fewer players than the number of events. Necrons posted the lowest rate among factions that showed up, 26.3% on four players and 19 games, below Imperial Agents at 33.3% on one player. The post jokes about it, and the number sits next to Stat Check, where Necrons hold 48% for the season. One event moved nothing on the season boards. It did show who is showing up: Custodes and World Eaters brought the most players, and the factions with no presence are the ones the tier list placed in C and D, plus Blood Angels, who hold A tier on the Art of War board and 54% on Stat Check.
Sources: r/WarhammerCompetitive, Sunday Night Stats (October 30th-November 1st); Best Coast Pairings collection, Oct 30 to Nov 1 window.
G. Games Workshop is ending stealth updates, and a change log is coming
For competitive players the change is practical. Silent updates meant a list legal on Friday could change by Sunday with no record of what moved. A change log gives tournament organisers and players one dated list of edits to check lists against.
Sources: r/WarhammerCompetitive, "The Warhammer 40,000 Updates Update"; r/WarhammerCompetitive, "No more Stealth Updates and a Change Log coming soon!"; r/WarhammerCompetitive, "PSA - GW Gave Company Heroes Ancient Character Keyword"; Auspex Tactics, "Games Workshop RESPONDED to the Backlash: What did they Say?"; Frontline Gaming, "GW Ending Warhammer Stealth Updates!".
H. What the creators led with: the state of the edition, dispositions, and one damage claim
Planet 40K's disposition video walks Necron players through all five Force Dispositions, Take and Hold, Purge the Foe, Disruption, Reconnaissance and Priority Assets, with the Necron units and detachment combinations the channel favours for each. BA Commander argued no Blood Angels unit out-damages Vanguard Veterans in 11th edition, comparing them with Death Company and Sanguinary Guard, and pointed at a Chaplain pairing. Auspex Tactics ranked the strongest and weakest Terminator squads in the game in a 35-minute video, and published a Necrons unit tier list in the same week. Mordian Glory's Guard video named the problems he sees in the faction and argued Guard players should hold on, and his plasma storm video worked on making Guard infantry blobs hit harder.
Sources: Preferred Enemies, episode 360; That 6+++ Show, episodes 201 and 53; Planet 40K, "BOOST Your Win Rate With These Force Disposition Tips!"; BA Commander, "No Blood Angels Unit Out-Damages Vanguard Veterans! (11th Edition)"; Auspex Tactics, "Strongest and Weakest Terminator Squads in Warhammer 40K 11th Edition?"; Mordian Glory, "Guard Sucks Right Now BUT Don't Lose Hope!".
