Warhammer 40K Competitive Monday Meta Review: Imperial Agents Podium Adepticon

Welcome to another Meta Monday 40K, the weekly roundup from Grimhammer Tactics covering the latest Warhammer 40K tournament meta trends.

See all past editions of Meta Monday 40K here.

What a weekend for Warhammer fans. Adepticon 2026 has come and gone and with it the announcement of a new edition of Warhammer 40K. I am tracking all the updates to the new edition of Warhammer 40K as they come in my Warhammer 40K 11th Edition: Everything We Know so Far post.

Last week I wrote my Adepticon 2026 Preview article, where I highlighted 3 players and lists to watch out for. Two of those players went on to place in the top 5 including Folger Pyles, who piloted Imperial Agents on a dare and made it all the way to the semi-finals. This week we’ll be taking a look at the top placings from Adepticon 2026, The Sheffield 40K GT over in the UK, and the Rosehammer IV GT in Portland, Oregon. Let’s get into it!

AdeptiCon 2026 40K Championships – Milwaukee, WI – 400 Players

Adepticon is one of the biggest and best annual events for wargames miniatures players. It is a showcase of wargames from all around the world with major events in a number of various gaming systems. Adepticon was one of the first events in the U.S. to adopt a teams format event, which they also host annually. In addition to that, they have their 40K Championships singles event which has a long storied history in competitive play. This year one of the most intriguing stories of the event was the former world champion, Folger Pyles, piloting an Imperial Agents list on a dare from his Team USA teammates. While he did not win the event, he made it all the way to the final 4 semi-finals, where he lost to Brian Daugherty and his CSM. In fact, Folger only lost twice in the event both times to Brian. It was an amazing run nonetheless for a faction that everyone has plainly written off as “awful” for the entirety of 10th edition. If you’re curious to see Folger’s list check out my Adepticon 2026 Preview article. Let’s take a look at the top 5.

1. Conan Jennings – Space Marines – 9-0
2. Brian Daugherty – Chaos Space Marines – 8-1
3. Jordan Nach – Necrons – 7-1
4. Folger Pyles – Imperial Agents – 6-2
5. Oliver Smith – T’au Empire – 6-1

The Winning List: Conan Jennings – Space Marines – Blade of Ultramar

Space Marines continue to be a top tier faction in the post-Q1 2026 Balance Dataslate meta. Conan’s list features the usual suspects of Guilliman, Uriel Ventris, a couple of Repulsor Executioners, Ballistus Dreadnoughts, a squad of 6 Victrix Honour Guard and the much loathed Wardens of Ultramar. It’s a pretty typical competitive Space Marines Ultramarines list that we’ve come to expect at or near the top placings in events. Still, Conan’s road to the top was not easy and he had to take on a very potent CSM list piloted by Brian in the finals. Conan takes his Ultramarines all the way to the top and is now an Adepticon champion.

The Sheffield GT – United Kingdom – 243 Players

The story of this event was the return of legendary UK player Mani Cheema. Mani has been on a hiatus for quite some time now, but is one of Europe’s best players. He made his return to the Warhammer stage at this year’s Sheffield GT. This event uses the UKTC terrain layouts which difers quite a bit from the GW layouts. But, of course Mani’s return would be overshadowed a bit by Innes Wilson who, yet again, wins another UK super major event. This time with…T’au? Let’s take a look at the top 5.

1. Innes Wilson – T’au Empire – 7-0
2. Main Cheema – Chaos Space Marines – 7-0
3. Alex Ginns – Leagues of Votann – 6-1
4. Andy Quas-Cohen – Necrons – 6-1
5. Christopher Langton – Chaos Daemons – 5-1

The Winning List: Innes Wilson – T’au Empire – Mont’ka

Innes continues to dominate the UK scene winning just about every super major event over the past year. He’s generally been playing Space Marines but switched it up for The Sheffield GT to a T’au Mont’ka list featuring The Twin Lance. Surprise! The Twin Lance is the newest unit released for T’au from GW and they are indeed a game changer especially in the hands of a player like Innes. They get to make a nice Scout move, a BS of 2+ with Ignores Cover and Sustained Hits 1 when targeting the closest eligible target (meaning they can function without needing to be Guided) and best of all can make a Normal or Fall Back move of 6″ at the end of each Fight Phase. Innes list is backed up by the usual suspects of various Kroot support units, Pathfinders, triple Riptides and Stealth Suits. Should Innes be the next top player to try and push Imperial Agents to a podium finish? My vote is yes!

Rosehammer IV – Portland, Oregon – 65 Players

The fourth iteration of the Rosehammer GT. This event is becoming a staple event in the pacific northwestern United States. We see the usual suspects at the top-ends of play including Space Marines, T’au and Necrons. Let’s take a look at the top 5.

1. Harry Gieringer – Space Marines – 6-0
2. Tyler Bortel – T’au Empire – 5-1
3. Daniel Espanoza – Tyranids – 5-1
4. Tom Martin – Astra Militarum – 5-1
5. John Smith – Necrons – 5-1

The Winning List: Harry Gieringer – Space Marines – Bastion Task Force

Harry takes a very unique version of Space Marines to the top placing of a major event with his Bastion Task Force build. 40 Tactical Marines, a couple of Multi-Melta toting Devastator Squads, 3 Predators, and 10 Assault Terminators carry the day. This list is fascinating because it is on one hand a very classic version of Space Marines featuring a lot of firstborn units that have long been written-off in competitive play and turns it into a killer strike force on the table. The Bastion Task Force is one of the newest Space Marines Detachments from the 500 Worlds Campaign supplement.

The Detachment rule allows Space Marines Battleline units to either Advance/Fall Back and Shoot and Charge or perform an action in a turn when they Advanced or Fell Back. Additionally, when a Space Marines Battleline unit makes an attack, they choose an enemy unit hit by one of those attacks and it is “Auspex Scanned.” When your other Space Marines units target a unit that is Auspex Scanned they can re-roll a hit roll of 1. Note this works in both melee and shooting. This, combined with Oath of Moment, really ramps up the efficiency of the shooting and combat of the army.

The choice of Vulkan He’stan here is another interesting option as he has an ability that allows you to choose an enemy unit visible to him in the Shooting phase, and when any Space Marines unit targets that enemy unit with torrent or melta weapons, you can re-roll the Wound roll. As you can see, Harry’s units are toting plenty of melta weapons galore. Giving him incredibly efficient melta toting Space Marines that are essentially re-rolling 1s to hit (against non-Oath’ed targets) and re-rolling Wound rolls.

The other interesting choice here is the Librarian in Terminator Armor with the Hero of the Chapter enhancement. This enhancement gives him (and thus his unit) the battleline keyword. This makes those Assault Terminators incredibly deadly as they get the full benefit of the Detachment rule being able to Advance or Fall Back and Charge.

This is an interesting take on Space Marines with maybe not the most flashy units, but incredible efficiency on the table. Clearly a solid build in the right hands as Harry takes this to a 6-0 finish and an event win.

Final Thoughts

What an amazing weekend for Warhammer 40K. The announcement of 11th Edition, an Imperial Agents list cracking the top 4 of a super major, the return of Mani Cheema to the tabletop, and a fascinating Space Marines build that wins the Rosehammer IV GT. Space Marines, Necrons and T’au continue proving they are the top dogs in the metagame and this will likely remain so until the launch of 11th edition in June. It’s going to be an interesting ride for the next 3 months.

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