List of 40K Cheese

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The history of Warhammer 40,000 is a history of violence. No matter what people will tell you, the game has always had excessive problems with imbalance, min-maxing and blatant bullshit - From the days of Rogue Trader to modern day 8th Edition, the game has fostered many cheesy units, army lists or deathstars, who have changed the meta and repeatably broken the game - Not through players maximizing their gear or people abusing unclear rules, but by simply being awfully balanced and written.

Fortunately, many of these, if not all of them, are the very concept of "The flame that burn twice as bright dies twice as fast", as they all got their reckoning at some point or another. Being either nerfed to the ground, changed to the core or completely removed from the game, this allowed the next-cheesy thing to step in with a silly hat and a way too small point-tax.

But life will go on. New codices will be under/overpowered and grind the others to dirt, the meta will change to deal with what-ever is the most powerful at the moment, and the forums will be white-hot with rage over the unbalance present, but life will go on, and as soon as you accept this eternal struggle for our fun and wallets, you will be at peace.

As time goes on, this list will grow, to encompass more and more cheese as it gets released. If you feel that a unit, model or deathstar needs mentioning in the list, feel free to add to it with your own experiences and knowledge.

2nd Edition

Polymorphine: Assassins used to be able to magically appear in the middle of a squad via Polymorphine (killing a troop when you exploded out of his body, leading to such shenanigans as a Guardsman hiding a dude in power armor on a bike). Then Jump Pack over and throw a Vortex Grenade and killing anything on a +2.

3rd Edition

Eldar Exarchs with the unique ability to "Build your own Exarch." You could have a bright lance that shot twice with warp spider pack that allowed you to jump all over the field, then add a Powerfield that gave you a 2+ invulnerable save). This was just one of many cheese custom Exarchs that were possible; however, they were also the only thing keeping Eldar on the table - those customizable Exarchs, though cheesy, were expensive in an army with nerfed and expensive units and weapons. Eldar were largely bottom-tier in 3rd edition.

3.5 Edition

In general, 3.5 had 3 specifically cheesy armies, two of which belonged to Chaos.

Necrons

Necrons were introduced as a stand-alone codex army for the first time in 3.5. Their release was met with immediate hostility once neckbeards read their codex; here's why:

• Warscythes in abundance that ignored all saves and rolled 2D6 for pens .
• We'll Be Back made infantry immune to death as they basically had a 4++ that could be rolled after they failed their 3+ armour save and after your opponent was done shooting.
  • Compounding that, the Resurrection Orb that ignored any of the restrictions previously applied to the WBB rule like instant death or bypassing armour saves in CC.
• Veil of Darkness which allowed you to Deepstrike hop a unit all over the board.
• Basic infantry guns that could kill a landraider with a lucky shot.
• The fucking Monolith - immune to anything that wasn't S9/10 and/or ordnance, could deepstrike and never suffer a mishap, fixed your broken troops and could deepstrike in any from reserves.
• Necron Pariahs - they lowered opponent's troops Ld to 7 unless better, made psykers piss themselves unless fearless AND had warscythes and gauss blasters, the latter of which were basically heavy bolters that could kill vehicles too.
• Wraiths had the only 3++ save in the game and were proper Necrons unlike today, meaning they too had WBB.
• C'tan being IMPOSSIBLY GOOD! The Nightbringer could use a Bloodthirster as a speedbump while the Deceiver allowed you to reposition your army after deployment.

Necrons earned the title "n00bcrons" for a reason; though they didn't have the sheer quantity of cheese that Chaos had at the time, what cheese they had was prevalent throughout their army and was way too good for the points paid.

Chaos

Going into third edition, Chaos was... unremarkable. Bland. Decent crunch-wise, but without the wealth of options to field Daemons/Cultists/Mutants/Fallen/Renegades/... they had in 2e. Pete Haines listened to the players (yes, GW did that back then) and Chapter Approved articles in White Dwarf did provide those variants over the years. Eventually GW decide to bring out a 3.5 Codex updated with all those options and a couple extra added on top... and that's where it went horribly wrong. A wealth of options meant a wealth of possible combinations and some were just... too much. Though not the same level of cheese as Necrons quality-wise Chaos Space Marines got a massive truckload of it, that went from 'strong but expensive' to 'outrageous'. Here's a smattering of what CSM had in 3.5:

Young cheese (things that were a-okay on their own but could combine into ungodly monstrosities.)

• Khornate chain axes: Being one of the only things that could outright modify armour saves, reducing them to 4+ unless worse, across the board - that's right, your terminator's save is no better than carapace armour against them. Ork Choppas did the same on an army-wide level for free back then.
• Unit Champions could take Psy Powers and even Daemon Weapons. Strong, but with only 1 HP it could turn very ugly very quickly both ways.
• Possessed were expensive but they could buy their powers instead of rolling for them, which included rending, fleet and a magical bolt pistol shot, making them point-for-point one of the best assault units in the game.

Aged cheese (This is where it started to get really ugly, although those things were still within hailing distance of manageable.)

• Chaos Lords that could out-punch anything, point-for-point.
• Vehicle upgrades that could regrow lost weapons and unimmobilize themselves on 4+, ignore crew shaken/stunned and grant +1 AV on all sides.
• Bloodletters that wore power armour and wielded power weapons. Basically an evil deep-striking space marine honour guard.
• Sonic weapons - anything with a MoS could exchange their guns for sonic weapons (and get access to the Slaaneshi armoury if they were characters). This lead to rhinos, dreadnoughts, defilers, Lords, Lieutenants, marines, chosen, possessed, aspiring champions, bikers, havocs and terminators sporting sonic weapons. They weren't as good in later editions, but they were better than the bolters and autocannons they replaced.
• That enemy crab thing gets introduced as both a monstrous creature and a walker.
• Obliterators. Back then they were fucking GOD-TIER - S/T5, loaded with heavy and special weapons, Fearless, deep-striking. Luckily for your opponents you could only take a single squad of up to three of them. Eventually they got FAQ'd down to T 4(5) but they were still hard customers.

Premium cheese (The really retarded things that could break the game. Never mind those costed arms and legs in points, unless the opponent knew what was coming and went to great lengths to avoid them, those things were "I-win" buttons.)

• A Daemon Prince with Power Armour, Wings and the Dread Axe. Tough, moved like jump pack, a beastly statline, 3+/5++ and the really cheesy part: the Dread Axe ignored invulnerable saves and wounded on a 4+ unless better (sorry, 4th edition introduced d6 attacks and +1 S for the basic daemon weapon). Combined to the fact the DP was a monstruous creature that ignored armor saves; and you had a tough, fast motherfucker with a truckload of attacks that hit/wounded easily, ignored all saves and could easily consolidate from unit to unit, remaining locked in CC and untargetable the whole game as it solo'ed the enemy army. (And I wish I was exaggerating...)
• Siren. A Slaaneshi minor psychic power that made a model immune to shooting and blocked line of sight. Spam generously.
• Veteran skills - ranging from 1-3 pts. per model, could be taken on any squad (only 1 skill for marked units) with higher costs for independent characters. You could load up whole squads that infiltrated, moved through cover and furiously charged.
• Chosen. Chosen were... absurdly powerful since you could make any member in the squad an aspiring champion, giving them access to the armoury. If they were marked and if you took a chosen squad in a multiple of the number of that God (Slaanesh 6, Nurgle 7, Khorne 8, Tzeentch 9), then the 10 pt. upgrade cost was free! Deathstar of 8 Khornate champions that could butcher through anything (and I mean anything) with a truckload of exploding dice S7 attacks ignoring armor saves on the charge coming out of a Land Raider to chain-rape unit after unit, anyone? Or if you prefer, 9 Tzeentchian Sorcerers auto-succeeding on psychic tests thanks to the Mark of Tzeentch with psychic Heavy Bolters and Lascannons unleashing some next-level mind-bullet dakka (or alternatively turning everything into Chaos Spawns)? Yeah, it was kinda like that back then...
• The Emperor's Children Legion list. Sirens, sirens you can't shoot and that will demolish you in CC everywhere.
• The Iron Warriors Legion list. Remember above where I said only one unit of god-like Obliterators? Well, nope! Take as much as you can! Oh, and you can exchange two Fast Attack slots on the FOC for one more Heavy Support choice! More Obliterators? MORE OBLITERATORS!

Now, you'd think that with that generous amount of cheese, GW would get the message and stop piling it on... But then the world-wide "Eye of Terror" campaign happened and Chaos got another toy to play with - the Lost and the Damned army list. Veteran Chaos players actually rejoiced when it was announced as it meant they could go back to the 2nd ed days of fielding traitor Guard, Beastmen, mutants and other dregs supported by a very small number of traitor Marines. Sadly enough, while it did deliver, the army list came with its own rapetrain of cheese:

• The list allowed to take units from the 3.5 CSM and Imperial Guard Codices in various FOC slots; which amounted to taking the best of both worlds.
• A cheap HQ choice (Chaos Lieutenant) that was point for point even more killy than the 3.5 Chaos Lord.
• Mutants could be taken in huge cheap hordes that could tarpit pretty much anything forever.
• Big mutants being awesome dakka blobs with 3 wounds each and great Chaos mark effects - basically, better Ogryns!
• Traitor guardsmen had better stats, access to marks, veteran skills here and there and could wield 'Bolters'. Yes, said 'Bolters' had the same "Gets Hot!" rule as plasma weapons which meant you'd lose some of them each time you fired but it was a very small price to pay to unleash an ungodly amount of dakka.

It's really no mystery as to why chaos won the Eye of Terror campaign. Games Workshop, concerned with their future revenue streams from Spess Muhreen fanchildren, decided to basically reset the crunch and shift the timeline away from the event while attempting to balance (read: nerf to the ground) what it could in 4th edition.

Honorable Mention: Imperial Guard Armored Division

This one deserves an honorable mention, even if it quickly disappeared after the arrival of Necrons and their vehicle-killing Gauss everything and "We'll be Back!" shenanigans. Back in 3rd ed., vehicles were much less prevalent as were the ways of dealing with them. This list was vehicles only!. HQ? Leman Russ variant. Troops? Leman Russ variants. Anything else? Leman Russ variants (with the token Infantery Squad in a Chimera). Park together, point battle cannons and let fly, all guns!

4th Edition

Fish of Fury

It has its own page, but the basic gist involved using a semi-invulnerable troop transport as a mobile bunker for the otherwise assault-prone Fire Warriors.

The tactic died when errata changed how skimmers worked.

Imperial Guard Unit Deletion Barrage

In the 4th edition codex, the Hunter-Killer Missile cost a mere 5 points. Because of this, an insanely common strategy was to load basically every single vehicle you fielded that could fit one with one, and with many guard armies that could be 6-7 vehicles on a 1000-point list at the time. Once loaded, the tactic was simple: find the single most threatening enemy model on the board that could be reliably penetrated with a Krak Missile, acquire line of sight, and hammer the shit out of it with all your Hunter-Killers in one go. Even with guard accuracy being what it is, the fact that you could potentially obliterate a lynchpin unit or pesky independent character meant that this was often used to secure early dominance.

When the 5th edition Tyranid codex came out, this tactic was very often used to flat-out cripple 'Nid players by taking out their DISTRACTION CARNIFEXES and Hive Tyrants from standoff range, fucking over attempts to counter.

The tactic ended when 5th edition cranked the cost of HK Missiles to 15 points each.

5th Edition

Ah yes, the height of the Cruddex and the Wardex, the game-breakingest era of 40K

Grey Knights

Seriously, there's a shitload to explain here for the noobs:

• First and foremost, Psycannons - S7 AP4 rending on models that could otherwise always shoot them.
• Psybolt ammunition, leading to the creation of the much feared Psyfleman Dreadnought, pumping out 4 S8 AP4 twin-linked shots a turn.
• Kaldor Draigo outcreeding Creed and just generally being a monster (unless and until he fought Abaddon).
• EVERYTHING ARMED WITH A FUCKING FORCE WEAPON SERIOUSLY WTF - in particular, Force Halberds. Auto-take, granting all the bonuses of a nemesis force weapon and +2 Initiative, meaning your silver armoured Mary Sues struck before most Eldar units.
• Librarians with a flamer template that removed models from play - not just instant death, they took an initiative test or were removed from play doling out auto-pens to vehicles.
• The only list that could take Assassins or Inquisitors, which both got buffed into the fucking sky.
• The goddamn Nemesis Dreadknight debuted here - absolutely broken if not expensive (MC w/ 2+ save, psychic powers).
• Oh hey, they also got stormravens - on top of being immune to melta weapons and transporting an OP squad plus an OP dreadnought, the GK stormraven could also take psybolt ammo for its heavy bolters, assault cannons, etc.

People hated the Grey Knights - even longtime GK players hated them. A list that was built to destroy daemon armies (during a time when they didn't even need a special list to destroy them because they were so bad - seriously, it wasn't uncommon for GK players to fight demons without suffering so much as a wound!) got buffed into a list with units that were just flat-out better than anyone else could field. Some GK players took to making lists that used none of the staples mentioned above in order to give themselves a challenge.

Blood Angels

Cheesy for the exact same reason as Grey Knights. Here are just a few things they received:

• Deep-striking Landraiders, because that's just great - just fucking great.
• Furioso Dreadnoughts in general. Their FA13 made them immune to Krak grenades prevalent on most infantry; coupled with Blood Talons which generated more attacks every time you caused a wound. With S6 and WS6. Fuuuuuuuuck!
• In addition to regular Furiosos, you could also take a FLYING. LIBRARIAN. DREADNOUGHT. Jesus Christ...
• Death Company Dreadnoughts were also outrageous - taking up a fucking Troops slot, they were Furiosos with a more offensive focus, their WS and FA lowered by a point in exchange for fleet, more attacks and furious charge and rage.
• Blood Angels Dreadnoughts could also take a Magna Grapple on top of their arm weapons, an S8 AP2 assault 1 weapon with a 24" range that, should it pen a vehicle or wound a monstrous creature, could then drag it closer to the dreadnought.
• Mephiston - basically, a monstrous creature with psychic powers that could take cover. And fly. And reduce his opponent's WS/I to 1.
• The Stormraven gunship debuted in this list - a flying landraider with weaker armour but immune to melta weapons that could transport a squad AND a dreadnought. Oh, and it's an assault vehicle ffs. Given how powerful in CC Blood Angels infantry is as well as just how deadly their dreadnoughts are, getting them where they needed to be in a fast skimmer that was immune to melta weapons AND was heavily armed was the cherry on top of this particular cheesecake.

Imperial Guard

Arguably the only army in 5th that got a stratospheric Cruddex buff, the rest getting nerfed into uselessness as Robin Cruddace hates you:

• This was the first time Guard could field vehicle squads, particularly for Basilisks and Leman Russes allowing players to cover the field in pie plates.
• Master of the Fleet, which subtracted 1 from your opponent's deep strike rolls. Particularly nasty against the above two lists which relied on deep-strike spam to get close enough to shred armies.
• Master of Ordnance, which came with its own pie plate attack.
• CREEEEEEEED!!!!1
• Hellhound squads and variants get introduced, especially the bane(wolf) of all MEQs, the banewolf.
• Veterans - particularly melta-vets. They are legend when it comes to vehicle busting.
• Valkyries and Vendettas - fucking hell, where do I even begin? Super fast chimera, identical armour and a shitload of guns; Vendettas take it to the next level with 3 TL Lascannons.
• Hydra flak tank debuts in this list outside of FW and is amazing at taking out bikers and fast skimmers with its super-long range autocannons that bypass Jink saves. Eldar tears flow unstoppably.
• Orders are introduced here as well; they weren't OP per se, but combined well with other buffs to the list for horrifying efficacy.
• Up until the release of the GK codex in 5th, Guard could still take allies with Daemon or Witch Hunters leading to the construction of the infamous Guard leaf-blower list, so named for how fast it removed your opponents models from the board. Mind, when GK came out with their Wardex, this didn't really put too much of a damper on the blower but now they had competition at least.

6th Edition

The Heldrake

The Heldrake was added to the 6th Edition Chaos Space Marine Codex as a new unique flier. The Codex itself was generally considered a weak book, and many cried that the CSMs would be left in the dust for the third edition in a row... Which would have been true, were it not for the Heldrake. As the only flier in the codex, and by far one of the most efficient ones in the entire game at the moment of release, it became the crutch for the entire codex. It could singlehandedly take on entire squads of Space Marines with impunity, because of 1) An AP 3 flamer, that everyone upgraded the Hades Autocannon to get and which could fire from its cavernous rear due to RAW, 2) the Vector Strike rule, that made it able to strike the unit it would be about to toast and 3) being a flier, few things could take it down quickly enough. Three of them could be taken in the Fast Attack slots, and you can be sure that people did just that.

With the arrival of 7th Edition, the rules for Turret-mounted weapons got changed (no more asses of fire), as did the changes to Vector Strike - Now, the flamer can only be placed wherever the mouth is pointing, and because it is a flier, it cannot just swivel around to hit an enemy like it used to. On top of that, Vector Strike only does one attack on ground enemies, compared to the old D3+1 that it hit everything with. Nowadays, the Heldrake is still a tough, fast flier, that can take out both fliers and infantry, but it isn't so overpowered that every CSM player has to have three of them in any army list.

And again with the arrival of 8th edition it's kinda back, it's pricier (like most vehicles) and while it's not that good it now has its asses of fire (and wings of fire, and legs of fire, and belly buttons of fire...) back and its Baleflamer is nasty but it now only wounds MEQs on a 3+ and is only AP -2, it's good with being able to do 12 wounds and all, but it really shines against Tau infantry gunlines. While Tau aren't as common as all of the many many many SM chapters, thanks to 7th edition many players started collecting Tau and they're still seen. When Tau are seen, as you deploy your Heldrake you can be fairly certain that mass fire warriors won't do too much damage to it but god help you if you even let a crisis see it, which is easier than you think.

Chapter Master Smashfucker

Smashfucker is a character build for the Iron Hands that exploits several durability-boosting relics to become nigh-unkillable for a fraction of the points cost of a named character.

7th Edition

The Entirety of 7th Edition Eldar: No really, they're completely fucking broken. The entire army can be considered unholy rotten cheese, worthy only of being boycotted against. You know they're bad when the only way to beat them is to tell your opponent, "Fuck you, I'm not playing against Eldar!" Unless of course you play Space Marines or Necrons, who have access to gravspam (especially useful against Wraith) and resurrection cheese respectively. Any other post-Necron codex isn't bad either, but less certain than these first two. Which brings us to...

The Skyhammer Annihilation Force, a Space Marine dataslate formation. Two Devastator squads in drop pods that ignore Drop Pod Assault, and two Assault Squads with jump packs. The devs are Relentless on the turn they Deep Strike, and the assault squads can charge immediately.

Gladius Strike Force: Space Marines' detachment-size formation. Anything in a Battle Demi-Company is Objective Secured, and any Drop Pods, Rhinos and Razorbacks taken as dedicated transport have their base cost reduced to 0 if you take two demi-companies.

The Screamerstar, a combination of artifacts and psychic powers that gives a unit of Screamers a 2+ Invulnerable Save while rerolling results of 1, making them effectively invincible.

Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation: Includes units from Cult Mechanicus, Skitarii, and and Imperial Knights. Everything has Canticles of the Omnissiah, all wargear is free, and nothing Gets Hot. You like winning? Use this formation and literally pay to win.

8th Edition

The Entirely of 8th Edition Imperial Guard. Remember Eldar and Tau in 7th Edition? Yep, that's the Imperial guard right now. Between Morale immune blobs of dirt cheap Conscripts literally flooding the board and bringing down everything through sheer volume of fire or deep striking Scions shoved full of Plasma or Melta as well as the best vehicles and flyers in the game. Like Eldar in 7th, it's pretty bad when the only way to beat them is saying "Fuck you, I'm not playing against Imperial Guard".

Ultramarines, Have all of the best Marine toys plus a number of game breaking Chapter abilities. First all Ultramarine units can literally walk out of Close Combat and keep firing, making assault orientated armies useless against them. Second they can regain any spent Command Points on a 5+ so really can spam those Re-Rolls. Third they can even spend CP to re-reoll 1's. This is before we even get into what Rowboat can do to your army, Any keyword Imperium unit within 12" adds 1 to advances and charges, re-roll hits of 1 and can re-roll failed morale tests and Ultramarines units within 6" re-rolls of failed hit and wound rolls as well. Guilliman himself is effected by his own aura, allowing him to add 1 to charges and advances as well as re roll failed hits and wounds. If all that wasn't enough if your army is battleforged you get 3 extra CP.) Basically Ultramarines shoot better than any other army, fight better than any other army and are all but immune to morale.

Raven Guard, Anything shooting at the Raven Guard are shooting at -1 to hit if outside of 12" and they can spend CP to allow infantry to Deep Strike just before Turn 1. This pretty much guarantees that you will always be going first with your Aggressors dropping in right next to an opponent without having counted asmoved. Oh and thier Warlords are immune to Overwatch so MURDERWINGS is back.

Chaos Daemons Basically the only army in the game that can fill multiple Brigade Detachments thanks to Brimstone Horrors, plus they can cherry pick the Imperial Guard's best units via the Renegades faction.