Meta Monday 40K

Warhammer 40K Competitive Monday Meta Review: Necrons Awaken Finally

February 9, 2026 - By 

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.

Well, it took some time, but the dreaded Necrons C’tan spam has finally won a major event. I think most of us knew this was inevitable eventually. Coming in with a 58% win rate and an enormous faction representation at GT level events, it was only a matter of time before they’d finally manage to sneak away with a big event win. That day has come. This week we’ll be looking at 3 of the biggest Warhammer 40K tournaments from the weekend of February 5th-8th, 2026. We start over in the UK with the biggest event of the weekend, Beachhead Brawl 2026. Then it’s over to the Netherlands for the Dutch Masters Season Finale GT. Finally back to the U.S. in sunny California for the Dicehammer Open 40K GT. Let’s get into it.

Meta Monday February 9th 2026

Beachhead Brawl 2026 – England – 216 Players

Our first stop over in jolly ol’ England for the Beachhead Brawl. The UK has been dominating massive events with 100+ player 40K tournaments happening on nearly a weekly basis at this point. Beachhead is an event that has been around for a few years now and seems to draw in some of the UK’s best players and this one was no exception. Let’s take a look at the top 5 from the largest event of the weekend.

  1. Ross Tully – T’au – 6-0
  2. Stephen Box – Deathwatch – 6-0
  3. William Griffiths – Necrons – 6-0
  4. Danny Evison – Astra Militarum – 5-1
  5. Struan Robertson – Space Marines – 5-1

The Winning List: Ross Tully – T’au Empire – Kroot Hunting Pack

Click to see the List

Kroot take the top spot at Beachhead! We’ve become accustomed to seeing T’au winning majors in the last few weeks and it seems there’s several builds that have the capability of performing at the highest levels. Although Mont’ka has certainly been the primary go-to for most T’au tournament players, Ross shows us here that the Kroot have enough punch to make a big splash as well. Coming in with three bricks of Krootox Rampagers for the damage dealing with d3 mortals per model on the charge, a whirling profile of melee attacks with Sustained Hits 1 at STR 6, -1 AP and 2 DMG with the added benefit of +1 to hit the target because of the Detachment rule, they make a pretty stout melee threat capable of charging, killing an enemy on the charge, and piling in to attack something else. With plenty of units for board control as well, the Kroot show that they can be a dominant force in the right hands.

Dutch Masters Season Finale GT – Netherlands – 70 Players

Over in the Netherlands we have the Dutch Masters Season Finale GT event. This event used WTC layouts and finally we see the dreaded Necrons Pantheon of Woe Detachment take away a top podium finish. I’ve been the biggest critic of the Reddit outrage over this Detachment with the argument that “they haven’t won anything” despite posting the highest win rate since their release in 40K with the 500 Worlds update. Maybe it’s time for GW to take a look at this army after all? Let’s take a look at the top 5.

  1. Chris Clayton – Necrons – 5-0
  2. Martijn Van der Most – Thousand Sons – 5-0
  3. Kjell Lutz – Thousand Sons – 4-0-1
  4. Arjan Fintelman – Necrons – 4-1
  5. JC van der Lee – Space Marines – 4-1

The Winning List: Chris Clayton – Necrons – Pantheon of Woe

Click to see the List

Pantheon rises to the top finally with a list featuring 5 C’tans and a smattering of scoring units. I think most people who have played in events over the past few weeks is already pretty familiar with similar builds, but Chris compliments the trifecta of Deceiver, Nightbringer and Void Dragon with a pair of Transcendent C’tans for that added extra measure of punch. Bringing down 2 C’tans in a single turn takes a lion’s effort and 5 is probably just a tad too much for most armies to bear before losing basically their entire army. I guess we can stop chirping about how they haven’t won anything yet. One event win surely isn’t an indication of a major problem, but the overall win rate, and the fact that Necrons have won several small and medium sized GTs has to be enough to warrant…something. Right? We will see (hopefully sooner rather than later.)

Dicehammer Open 40K GT – Irvine, CA – 75 Players

We head back stateside for the Dicehammer Open 40K GT. This event has been around for a number of years now and features some of the best players on the west coast in the U.S. This event’s top end looks more accustomed to what we have grown used to seeing in the last few weeks with Astra Militarum, T’au, Space Marines and Necrons holding down the top spots. Let’s take a look at the top 5.

  1. Andrew Dickinger – Astra Militarum – 5-0
  2. Jason McKenzie – T’au Empire – 5-0
  3. Adriaan Lubbe – Black Templars – 4-1
  4. Alex Spathopoulos – Dark Angels – 4-1
  5. Zayd Alshoushi – Necrons – 4-1

The Winning List: Andrew Dickinger – Astra Militarum – Grizzled Company

Click to see the List

Seeing Grizzled Company take a top spot in a major event is no surprise. But seeing one without a single Rogal Dorn or Leman Russ Vanquisher tank? Now that is a horse of a different color! This list is all in on infantry with Kasrkin, Scions and Tempestus Command Squads. We do see not one but two Bullgryn bricks here, one being led by the Commissar with the Abhuman Detail Enhancement, which has become a pretty standard unit in the Grizzled Company builds. It appears that Andrew had the right thing in mind building more suited to take down C’tan with volume of fire over onesy and two-sy heavy anti-tank shots that just become “gear checks” for the C’tans. Clearly it was a winning formula as Andrew takes this all the way to a top placing at Dicehammer Open.

Final Thoughts

The usual suspects keep performing well at major events with Astra Militarum, T’au and Space Marines continuing to assert their dominance among the top tables and now Necrons finally hit a major win with Pantheon of Woe. Is it time to consider a nerf yet, GW? Overall, the meta still seems to be in a mostly healthy state, however we have consistently seen the same factions in top 5 placings for weeks now, with very little room for variance. It’s been a nice ride for Astra Militarum and Necrons, but it’s clear that some changes are indeed coming forth soon to both. T’au as well most likely. We will see what the next Balance Dataslate has to offer I suppose.

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