Written under my interpretation of balance changes as released for Kill Team Q1 2026 at Warhammer community.
I include a brief introduction describing what this tier shenanigan is about.
For the reader’s convenience, I amalgamated all of the recent changes in a single document that you can find here. Additionally to several factiosn being affected, the Retrieval and Flank Tac Ops changed.
- Retrieval: each operative can carry up to one marker. Before this team, very few teams could have exploited it - most notably, the Necrons due to their teleportation/movement shenanigans.
- Flank: Harder to score on earlier turns. On TP2 and TP3, you can no longer score 2 points from a single flank by controlling it since the previous turn.
The 2026 Q1 tier list
A note on Season 1 Teams: they are scratched off but stil shown. The “classified” meta (i.e. without them) would be severely different, as the landscape of natural enemies changes. Teams with an asterisk (*) defy classification.
I included Murderwing and Insidiants because their rules can be foreseen in the Warp - but they have not yet been released at the time of this writing, and I expect them to enjoy high win rates until opponents get used to them.
| Category | Teams |
|---|---|
| S | Felgor (*), Mandrakes, Murderwing, |
| A | Blades of Khaine (*), Stealth Battlesuit, Aquilons, Goremongers, Hierotek Circle, Kasrkin, |
| B | Insidiants (*), Angels of Death (*), Raveners, Wolf Scouts, Canoptek Circle, Deathwatch, Battleclade, Nemesis Claw, Breachers, Exaction Squad, Wreka Krew, Farstalkers, Inquisition, Chaos cults, Ratlings, Plague Marines, Brood Brothers, Vespid, Salvagers, Hand of the Archon, Yaegirs (*), |
| C | Pathfinders, Scout Squad, Sanctifiers(*), |
Outliers:
- Felgor: They need a category of their own. The strongest team.
- Angels of Death: It is still strong on paper, but the meta has shifted notoriously with newly released teams.
- Insidiants: I think this team will be oppressive at launch until opponents get used to its martyrdom mechanics. However a savvy opponent can neuter or dodge their strengths.
- Yaegirs: They remain a highly idiosyncratic team. Scoring on its tac ops is difficult.
- Sanctifiers: This team is extremely hard to play optimally. In the right hands, it can win big tournaments. For us mere humans, however, they might as well be unviable.
- Blades of Khaine are extremely good but exposed to a few extremely painful matchups: Hierotek Circle, Felgor, Goremongers and Murderwing. These matchups are only for masochists.
Methodology
The list above was compiled from a competitive mindset - assuming you want to play Approved Ops in a competitive league or tournament, after having a lot of repetitions on your team, and are familiar with (most) opponent factions. I factored multiple terrain types and layouts:
- Games Workshop’s Approved ops 2025 layouts.
- New England Bheta Decima, - CYRAC Season 1
- Squad Games Asymmetrical Close Quarters.
Each tier is shorthand for the following:
- 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.
Tier breakdown !
S tier
| Team | The good | The bad | The ugly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Felgor Ravagers | Excellent Tac Op & Crit Op play and durability, consistent damage output in melee. | Too linear and predictable. | Most opponents hate facing them. |
| 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. |
| Murderwing | Durable, mobile, high damage output in melee. Good tricks (activation passing, out of killzone deployment) | Too much power concentration in the Chaos Lord. | Significantly reduce the viability of Aeldar teams. |
| 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. | Declassified |
A tier
| Team | The good | The bad | The ugly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blades of Khaine | Extremely mobile with flexible operative selection. Access to all archetypes. | Fragile. Hard to play optimally. | Hard to understand as an opponent. |
| Stealth Battlesuits | High damage output in shooting, good mission play. | Liited to defensive strategies. | Extremely hard to play optimally. |
| Kasrkin | High damage output in shooting. | Too linear and fragile. Limited when choosing Tac Ops. | Dependant on keeping their leader alive. |
| Goremongers | Mobile with high close range damage output. Dangerous to Aeldar. | Savvy opponents can dodge Goremongers’ strengths. | Significantly reducee the viability of Aeldar teams. |
| Hierotek | Flexible toolbox with high durability and shooting output, good Tac Op play. | Limited mobility and unforgiving. | Hard to understand as an opponent. |
| 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. Declassified. |
| Death Korps | High volume of consistent shooting with high activation count and good crit op play. | Fragile. Limited Tac Op flexibility. | Declassified. |
| 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. Declassified. |
| Aquilons | Good mobility and damage output, Unique, excellent Tac Op strategies. | Unforgiving. | Abusive to inexperienced opponents. |
B tier
| Team | The good | The bad | The ugly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insidiants | Consistent damage output. Unique powerups when losing operatives. | Linear and predictable. | Extremely oppressive to unfamiliar opponents. |
| Death Watch | Flexible operative choice, Extremely Deadly, Durable. | Linear. Too popular, many people know how to face them already. | |
| 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. |
| 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. Declassified. |
| Wolf Scouts | Mobile, Deadly on fights. | Close Quarters’ killzones weaken them. Not great at their Tac ops. | Extremely CP-hungy. |
| Battleclade | Extremely unpredictable, unique action economy, good shooting damage output. | Limited base mobility. | Extremely abusive towards inexperienced players. Hard to play optimally. |
| Legionary | Flexible operative selection to tune to ranged or melee combat, good crit op play. | Most viable compositions are not durable; durable compositions are too linear. | Declassified. |
| Wyrmblade | Excellent Crit Op play with high and consistent damage output. | Hard to play optimally. | Declassified. |
| Brood Brothers | Solid Crit Op play. Decent shooting. Fun operative selection. | Fragile and unforgiving. | |
| Raveners | Unique tunelling and durability mechanics. | Hard to play optimally. Limited map control. | |
| Nemesis Claw | Melee boogeymen with unique crowd control options. | Savvy opponents can dodge their strengths. Limited reliability and durability options. | |
| Exaction Squad | Durable and good melee, and their shooting improved recently. | Too linear and predictable. | |
| Wreka Krew | High durability and damage potential. | Poor action economy. | 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. |
| 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. |
| Hunter Clade | Flexible team composition, good mobility and damage output. Good crit op play. | Unforgiving. | Hard to play optimally. Going out of classificaton soon. |
| 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. Declassified. Only viable if playing hyper-cagey. |
| Blooded | Flexible compositions to mix melee and ranged damage output. High potential for consistent damage output. | Limited strategies to score on their archetype. | Declassified. |
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. | Declassified. |
| 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. | |
| Sanctifiers | Mobile, deadly, durable. | Hard to play optimally. | Abusive towards inexperienced players. |
| Novitiates | Good crit op play. Consistent close range damage output. | Fragile and unforgiving. | Declassified. |
| Kommandos | Durable with good Crit Op play. | Inconsistent damage output. | Declassified. |
Closing thoughts
I’m still reeling from these dataslate changes! This exercise in fortunetelling will be my most inaccurate prediction to date - I can imagine a seismic meta emerging, and competitive events restricted to Volkus and Tomb World can incentivize a very different tier list (below S, that is).
Deathwatch, Wolf Scouts and Canoptek have fallen meteorically. Wolf Scouts and Canoptek will remain competitive for a little while as people continue figuring out their counters, and can certainly win big events - but their stat checks work on less teams now. Deathwatch lost critical durability, and its double counteraction lost significant damage potential. These three teams were the previous cornerstone of the meta, influencing it heavily by gatekeeping other factions. Their descent will open opportunities for other teams to shine.
A big question is how popular will Kasrkin be. Their frequency has potent ramifications, not only posing shooting threats capable even in tight Volkus layouts - but surpassing shooting teams on the elite and e-lite tanges. On a symmetrical chain of thoughts we have Goremongers - now longer having to endure many disadvantageous matchups. If these teams are not represented enough, the meta might slide back into patterns from the last quarter.
Switching now to how this affects my Kill Team preferences - I am very interested in the Insidiants. I always enjoyed the Sister of Battle theme, and their Martyrdom mechanics have the right flavor and impact. I expect having to navigate a long path of thorns before achieving competence on them.
I wasn’t feeling particularly enthusiastic about the purely classified meta, to be honest. People seemed to favor many teams that posed horrible mirror matches (**). However I am now optimistic that the arrival of Insidiants and Murderwing will introduce new games of rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock that could motivate people to even out representation.
I should probably cease now and ponder on the meta further. The game is far from solved. Many teams have extremely strong chances of winning games, but with plans that hardly ever get over 4 Tac op points reliably. And many teams that can ensure 5 Tac Op points need to take risks - so that the relative value of the Crit Op shifts. This is all very promising - I think the current landscape will encourage creativity and varying strategies.
But of course, time will tell.
(**): I personally experienced Wolf Scout vs Wolf Scouts. Ugh. I haven’t heard good things of Canoptek-Canoptek, or Felgor-Felgor either. But you get the idea. The Deathwatch-Deatchwatch matchup has potential for fun mindgames though.