40k League - 11th - Season 1 - Round 1 - Division 5

Well buckle up butter cup it’s the Hobby Henchmen League 5 Round 1 predictions.

To an outside observer this league has the worst players and therefore should have the most normal people in it. For that to be true the observer would need to be looking through a telescope, from the moon, having been awake for the last 72 hours and drank a litre of vodka. A new edition and league format was always going to bring challenges, what Sam didn’t expect was that two of these would involve a lack of volunteers to write the predictions and the list submission deadline passing and all but this league being ready to go. That being said what would you expect from the division containing the South Coast GT Wooden Spoon winners from 2025  & 2026. 

It may still be too early to say but most of the chosen armies for this league have been doing well on the tournament scene, we’ll have to see if the (in)significant seven will have the same success. With four Space Marine armies in this division will the 11th edition Codex Space Marines have a large boost in the last couple of games? That is a question we can answer in a few weeks time. Anyway let’s get this show on the road! 

Round 1 Predictions: 

Ben J vs Neil (Ultramarines Gladius v Ultramarines Librarius + Reclamation) 

Prediction: Neil

The battle of the Smurf’s, the mirror match, oh look blue and gold space marines (the wrong blue and gold space marines). Nearly all of the named characters will be present for this game complete with a Captain Titus and Wardens of Ultramar on both sides. Ben has brought a best of tenth list to the table with a good mix of damage and holding units where as Neil’s list appears to really lean into the Take and Hold disposition with several tough infantry bricks that Ben will have to clear. I have played both of these fine gentleman twice in previous editions, using this as a basis combined with what I believe is and unfortunate force disposition for Gladius I think Neil will take the win. 

Nick v John (Thousand Sons Hexwarp & Ritual v Tau Mont’ka) 

Prediction: John

Close range shooting vs long range shooting on a Purge the Foe mirror match. Nick will want to avoid the long shooting lanes of 11th whilst John will want to see targets in these. Changes to cover the cover mechanic will be key here and the players will need to carefully select their targets. The Tau as always are packing some serious fire power and will need to make the most of it. Thousand Sons aren’t normally known for their melee prowess but if they get close there will be sushi on the menu. Jon has three rounds of buffs from Mont’ka, is this going to be enough to kill 4 monsters and a big brick of Scarab Occult Terminators? These may be strong but Nick has a 100% loss rate into Tau so John will keep the streak alive. 

Jamie v Aidan (Blood Angels LAG v Custodes Shield Host & Tharanatoi)

Prediction: Aidan

Jamie has been really getting to grips with Blood Angles since winning the wooden spoon at South Coast earlier in the year. That being said they haven’t had the smoothest transition to the new edition. Custodes on the other hand appear to have hit the ground running and are looking very strong. A melee take and hold mirror match will hopefully lead to a lot of combat over the objectives. As someone who owns both these armies I think we’ll see a lot of Space Marines getting blended. 

Phil v HH (Blood Angels LAG v 7 player league format)

Prediction: HH

Phil has the first bye round of league five automatically giving him the win. Will he spend the two weeks off wisely or get some practise games in? We won’t know till the end of the round. What ever he chooses to do we know the real winner will be the club. 

That’s it folks for the league five predictions, thank you to all two of you that got through them all. Hopefully all games go off without a hitch and non of the players get lost on the way to the club in the meantime. Catch you next time for the results.