Written under my interpretation of balance changes as released for Kill Team Q4 2025 at Warhammer community.
I include a brief introduction describing what this tier shenanigan is about.
The 2025 Q4 tier list
A note on Season 1 Teams: they are scratched off but stil shown. They have a heavy presence in the A-tier, where they are evenly matched, with overall advantage over the B tier.
| Category | Teams |
|---|---|
| S | Deathwatch, Canoptek Circle, Felgor, Wolf Scouts (*), Mandrakes, |
| A | Blades of Khaine, Battleclade, Angels of Death (*), Stealth Battlesuit (*), Raveners, Aquilons, Brood Brothers, |
| B | Nemesis Claw, Goremongers, Breachers, Exaction Squad, Wreka Krew, Farstalkers, Inquisition, Chaos cults, Ratlings, Plague Marines, Vespid, Hierotek, Salvagers, Hand of the Archon (*), Yaegirs (*), Sanctifiers, |
| C | Pathfinders, Scout Squad, Kasrkin, |
Outliers:
- Wolf Scouts: Not released yet at the time of this writing, so it’s hard to see on paper how strong they are. Pretty likely on S and hard to counter.
- Stealth Battlesuit: Not released yet at the time of this writing, but it’s likely a very reliable, defensive team.
- Angels of Death: Ever reliable and durable, the recent buffs to the captain and some chapter tactics give them a bit more flexibility.
- Yaegirs: This is a team that is very hard to categorize. The new Approved Op 2025 make them pretty solid and actually set them for success - but I think once opponents get used to them, they will end up in a fair spot. The current S tier has solid play into them, but it’s not one-sided.
- Hand of the Archon: This team is also hard to categorize. An expert can comfortably take them as an off-meta team and catch most A- and S- teams off guard.
- Sanctifiers: On official Games Workshop layouts using only Volkus, Gallowdark and Tomb World, this one might get bumped to A.
Methodology
First of all - I compiled the above list assuming multiple terrains and map packs used. That is - not only official Games Workshop, excluding Bheta Decima, etc. I based this on my experiences on both official layouts and community-authored like such as New England Bheta Decima, CYRAC Season 1, and Squad Games Asymmetrical Close Quarters.
This tier is framed from a competitive mindset, such as playing in a tournament or league. I’ll resort to sorting teams into different categories that loosely represent a team’s competitive power. I assume that the proverbial pilot has a perfect knowledge of the team and has played the necessary amount of games under their belt to identify optimal choices quickly:
- S tier: these teams have even matchups at worst and advantageous matchups at best.
- A tier: teams in this category have a fighting chance, and can win a tournament through superior knowledge of the game. Might have a weakness that savvy opponents can exploit as well as give the S-tier teams a run for their money. Or they may have a few disadvantageous matchups within the S-tier but otherwise be solid against everything else.
- B tier: teams that have an even distribution of favorable and unfavorable matchups. You’ll need a deep understanding of your team, the maps and missions, and every opponent to win a tournament. We can call them the “Fair” category.
- C tier: teams that, for the most, have unfavorable matchups.
I don’t have an internal ranking within each category - otherwise I would merely sort all the teams linearly.
I wanted to include Season 1 teams because at the time of this writing they are still allowed in official Games Workshop’s tournaments, but their declassification is looming and their presence is beginning to dwindle. The meta is deep in flux, not only due to these balance changes, but also for all the Season 1 teams going away - and essentially, what the Season 1 teams keep in check.
I’m puzzled by my perception of the A-tier being so heavily populated. I think the A teams are on average similarly matched, with advantage over most B-tier teams - but each A team has one or a few B teams as predators. The gap between A and B tiers is now small.
However the S tier has risen. Other than themselves, they have few threats in the ABC tiers - and map-dependant at that.
Tier breakdown !
S tier
| Team | The good | The bad | The ugly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mandrakes | Excellent mobility and damage output with good crowd control options. | Fragile and unforgiving. | Hard to read the models as an opponent, even with careful color coding. |
| Death Watch | Flexible operative choice, Extremely Deadly, Durable. | Linear. | An ugly stat check for opponents (other than raveners) |
| Canoptek Circle | Great mission play, durable, mobile. | Too much power budget on the Geomancer and Tomb Crawler - makes the macro readable. | Abusive to new players. Hard to play optimally. |
| Wolf Scouts | Mobile, Durable, Deadly both in fighting and shooting | Close Quarters’ killzones weaken them. | Beating them takes a custom-tailored plan. |
| Phobos Strike Team | Fair durability with high mobility. Flexible toolbox with unique crowd control tools, reliable damage output, and good crit op play. | Easy to choose the wrong tools. | Going out of classification soon. |
| Felgor Ravagers | Excellent Tac Op & Crit Op play and durability, consistent damage output in melee. | Too linear and predictable. | Most opponents hate facing them. |
A tier
| Team | The good | The bad | The ugly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Angels of Death | Durable, deadly. | Too linear and popular, so that most opponents know how to face it. | |
| Void-Dancers | Extremely mobile, extremely deadly, fun Aeldar shenanigans | Fragile. | Most opponents hate facing them. Going out of classification soon. |
| Battleclade | Extremely unpredictable, unique action economy, good shooting damage output. | Limited base mobility. | Extremely abusive towards inexperienced players. Hard to play optimally. |
| Wyrmblade | Excellent Crit Op play with high and consistent damage output. | Hard to play optimally. | Going out of classification soon. |
| Blooded | Flexible compositions to mix melee and ranged damage output. High potential for consistent damage output. | Limited strategies to score on their archetype. | Going out of classification soon. |
| Death Korps | High volume of consistent shooting with high activation count and good crit op play. | Fragile. Limited Tac Op flexibility. | Going out of classification soon. |
| Blades of Khaine | Extremely mobile with flexible operative selection. Access to all archetypes. | Fragile. Hard to play optimally. | Hard to understand as an opponent. |
| Corsair Voidscarred | Good Crit Op play, mobility and damage output. | Fragile and unforgiving. | A great team that has extremely frustrating matchups into melee-heavy teams like goremongers and felgor. Abusive to inexperienced opponents. Going out of classification soon. |
| Raveners | Unique tunelling and durability mechanics. | Hard to play optimally. Limited map control. | |
| Brood Brothers | Solid Crit Op play. Decent shooting. Fun operative selection. | Fragile and unforgiving. | |
| Aquilons | Good mobility and damage output, Unique, excellent Tac Op strategies. | Unforgiving. | Abusive to inexperienced opponents. |
| Hunter Clade | Flexible team composition, good mobility and damage output. Good crit op play. | Unforgiving. | Hard to play optimally. Going out of classificaton soon. |
B tier
| Team | The good | The bad | The ugly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sanctifiers | Mobile, deadly, durable. | Hard to play optimally. | Abusive towards inexperienced players. |
| Goremongers | Mobile with high close range damage output. Dangerous to Aeldar. | Savvy opponents can dodge Goremongers’ strengths. | |
| Elucidian Starstriders | Solid Tac Op play, high damage output, access to unique game sequence alteration mechanics. | Fragile. Hard to play optimally. | Hard to understand as an opponent. Going out of classification soon. |
| Nemesis Claw | Melee boogeymen with unique crowd control options. | Savvy opponents can dodge their strengths. Limited reliability and durability options. | |
| Novitiates | Good crit op play. Consistent close range damage output. | Fragile and unforgiving. | Going out of classification soon. |
| Exaction Squad | Durable and good melee. | Too linear and predictable. | |
| Wreka Krew | High durability and damage potential. | Poor action economy - specially on most Gallowdark match ups. | Extremely swingy - occasionally fun but frequently frustrating as pilot or opponent. |
| Farstalker Kinband | Good mobility and crit op play with high activation count. | Fragile and unforgiving. | |
| Inquisitorial Agents | Flexible toolbox with unique crowd control mechanics. | Unforgiving, absurdly hard to play optimally. | The hardest team to understand as a pilot and/or opponent. |
| Chaos cults | High melee damage output, potential for durability. | Hard to play optimally. Too linear. | Currently paying for past sins. |
| Ratlings | Good shooting and mobility with decent melee options. Good Crit Op play. | Hard to play optimally. Deceptively hard operative selection. | |
| Plague marines | Extremely durable with high damage output. | The least mobile of Astartes teams. Savvy opponents can dodge Plague Marines’ strengths. | Abusive to inexperienced opponents. |
| Vespid Stingwings | High mobility and access to fly, consistent shooting damage output. | Unforgiving. | Abusive to inexperienced opponents. |
| Hierotek (*) | Flexible toolbox with high durability and shooting output, good Tac Op play. | Limited mobility and unforgiving. | Hard to understand as an opponent. |
| Kommandos | Durable with good Crit Op play. | Inconsistent damage output. | Going out of classification soon. |
| Salvagers | Durable with good Crit Op play and reliable shooting. High potential for consistent damage output. | Limited mobility. | |
| Hand of the Archon | Extremely mobile, high potential for consistent damage output. | Fragile and unforgiving. | Abusive to inexperienced opponents. |
| Yaegirs | Reliable, durable, high damage output. | Limited mobility. | Would be an easy S if they had one different archetype. |
| Breachers | Durable, reliable damage spikes during a TP, good action economy. | Too predictable. Insufficient base damage output. | Paying for past sins. |
| Warpcoven | Flexible operative selection, variable number of activations mixing Astartes with 2APL melee operatives (TL;DR - great Crit Op play). Access to both Recon and Security Archetypes. | The least killy among Astartes teams. Extremely hard to play optimally. | Extremely hard to understand as an opponent. Going out of classification soon. Only viable if playing hyper-cagey. |
C tier
| Team | The good | The bad | The ugly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gellerpox Infected | Extreme durability as a hyper horde. | Hard to play optimally, restrictive action economy, too linear. | Going out of classification soon. |
| Pathfinders | High volume of shooting that can ramp up in reliability, fun drone operatives. | Fragile and too linear. Bad action econonmy. | Paying for past sins. |
| Scout Squad | Unique pre-game mechanics. Durable. | Too linear. Poor action economy. | |
| Kasrkin | Reliable shooting. | Too linear. Fragile and unforgiving. Hard to score on their archetypes. |
Closing thoughts
This is a bittersweet post and not because of the nefarious nerf to Warpcoven. Soon, Season 1 teams will go out of classification. Void Dancers, Death Korps, Starstriders, Phobos, Kommandos… They might not have been the most liked, but they heavily influenced the feel of the game.
I see the argument that delisting old teams allows the design space to reset and aim for better balance - but this extinction event affects almost everything I played recently. Granted, I was trying to squeeze the juice before they get dropped by the community - but also I would have played them the most anyway.
On a personal level: I would keep playing Warpcoven but unfortunately I need to git gud at something if I don’t want Adepticon 2026 to be just ruin and misery for me. I am now looking for my next core team and suddenly got thinking about how more likely mirror matches will be after declassification. And I realized, Blades of Khaine, the team I was aiming at, has a pretty unappealing mirror. Similarly for the other nerdy teams like Canoptek and Hierotek, that I might consider if not for their mirrors. Deathwatch mirrors do not feel that bad so maybe I’ll settle for it. But if I have to think of a fun mirror, I think Yaegirs are likely the funniest. Yes, as in funny.
Taking a step back to the meta in general, the Worlds Championship of Warhammer 2025 showcased a lot of top performers in the midrange to e-lite flavors. I haven’t analyzed that yet but I wonder - will that event get to influence the meta in upcoming months? I think there was a decent variety of teams overall, 9 players out of the top 16 brought Mandrakes, Canoptek, and Deathwatch.
I was surprised by the large presence of Mandrakes. I’ve thought they should have the juice to take the podium, following conversations from Spain’s discord, but it is an extremely unforgiving team and there is a resilience factor to most factions favored by the hyper-competitive players. I celebrate such commitment!
But enough ramblings for now. Now, I’m going to do some fortune telling on my own and hopefully emerge wiser with a top meta pick for the next months.