Take a look at the recent 2026 Adepticon Championship winning list for Warhammer: The Old World, and why it works.
The other weekend saw the 2026 Adepticon Championship take place. Held in Milwaukee, in the US, Adepticon is one of the biggest singles events in the world. 78 players registered and I believe this makes it the biggest singles event we’ve seen in North America just slightly edging out LVO and NOVA. It had some significant comp you can find them here (only 2 Grand Cathay Lanterns, limits on flyers and monsters being the biggest) and did not use the Renegades pack. When the dust had settled on five epic rounds of The Old World, one list had won all five rounds. Andrea Ninni with Jade Fleet took the crown. So today lets look at Andrea’s list and why it works.
The Unbeatable List – Jade Fleet
Characters
384 – Shugengan Lord, Heavy Armour, Wizard Level 4, Lore of Yang, Illusion, The Monkey King’s Wisdom, Learned Feng Shi Bo, Scrolls of Wei-jin
354 – Shugengan Lord, Heavy Armour, General, Wizard Level 3, Lore of Yang, Illusion, Jade Blade of the Great Fleet, Lore Familiar
Core
256 – 8 Jade Lancer, Ambushers, Drilled, Stubborn, Jade Lancer Officer, Ring of Jet, Standard Bearer, The Jade Banner, Musician
246 – 7 Jade Lancer, Ambushers, Drilled, Jade Lancer Officer, Ruby Ring of Ruin, Standard Bearer, Icon of Heavenly Fury
Special
165 – 2 Cathayan Grand Cannon
• 1x Ogre Loader
165 – 2 Cathayan Grand Cannon
• 1x Ogre Loader
130 – Cathayan Grand Cannon
Rare
150 – Sky Lantern, Sky Lantern Crane Guns, Sky Lantern Bombs
150 – Sky Lantern, Sky Lantern Crane Guns, Sky Lantern Bombs
How The List Works
Now if you’ve been paying attention to the meta or the game you should have a pretty good idea of how this list works. The three cannons provide a lot of table control by slowing down the enemy, and also let you put wounds on big things. The pair of Lanterns provide a good amount of extra ranged support and can clear off chaff. The two units of Lancers normally start in ambush to avoid being tied down. They can pop on and grab objectives, magic missel some things, and add a little combat res if needed.
A huge amount of the power in the list comes from the two Shugengan Lords. Both rock Illusion, are tough to kill, and pack a punch in combat. They both have Doppleganger and are looking to use that to spike some damage. One of them is a little more tanky and the other a little more deadly. This lets Andrea pick the best lord for each job. A nice touch in the list is the Lantern bombs on the two balloons. Though they are set up for long ranged Crane Gunnery, the bombs let them be a little more flexible and move around, spike some damage if needed. It’s a flexible, evasive, high damage output list.
How The List Played
Now Andrea is a very very good player. I went up against him at NOVA 2 years ago and he took best general there last year. He also runs the YouTube Channel Sun Tzu Secrets. The channel started out in Italian, but now has a lot of English coverage and is a great place for check out international meta coverage and see a lot of events. All that is to say that Andrea is a good player and runs the list very well. On the other hand I even Andrea will tell you he got a little lucky with match ups (though not with his dice, as I witnessed).
In round one he fought a very nice looking Chaos Daemon list. Round two found him paired into a strong VC with a strong player, possibly the worst match up. Round three was vs a double dragon High Elf list. Both rounds 4 and 5 were against Wood Elves with very similar lists, both being a single dragon Wild Hunt list. Those last two are also pretty good match ups for the list. However a lot of these players are very, very good and not anyone could have pulled out big wins vs all these lists. Very well done to Andrea for some great games.
2nd Best Overall
I also want to give a little attention to the other Undefeated list at Adepticon. Blue Ford who runs SquareHammer also went 5-0. Though he ended up with a few points less then Andrea and took 2nd Overall, it’s still a really strong performance from a very strong player. Blue was running a Tomb King list, that while I think you see what everything does, isn’t quite the normal set up with a few nice tricks.
Tomb Kings of Khemri -2000 pts
Characters -959 pts
Tomb King Djedefre -440 pts
– Heavy armour
– General
– Necrolith Bone Dragon
– Armour of Meteoric Iron
– Talisman of Protection
– Flail of Skulls
High Priest Merneith -335 pts
– Wizard [Level 4 Wizard]
– The Hierophant
– Flying Carpet
– Lore Familiar
– Scroll of Withering
– Scroll of Summoning
– Elementalism
Royal Herald -129 pts
– Great weapon
– Light armour
– Battle Standard Bearer
– Arch-Lightning Rod
Mortuary Priest -55 pts
– Wizard [Level 1 Wizard]
– Elementalism
Core Units -515 pts
4 Sepulchral Stalkers-216 pts
– Halberds
– Heavy armour
– Ambushers
36 Skeleton Warriors -169 pts
– Shields
– Nehekharan Phalanx (0-1 per 1000 points)
– Master of Arms (champion)
– Standard bearer
– Musician
10 Skeleton Skirmishers -60 pts
– Ambushers
14 Skeleton Skirmishers -70 pts
Special Units -196 pts
4 Ushabti -196 pts
– Greatbows
Rare Units -330 pts
Necrosphinx -195 pts
Casket of Souls -135 pts
This was another strong list that did really well. Overall a big a shout out to Andrea for a stellar performance and taking the win. Congrats to Blue for a great run as well. And huge thanks to everyone who came out and made the event great.
Let us know what you think about the list, down in the comments!
Don’t Miss:
Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers Warhammer: The Old World, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe mourned over loss of WFB for its entire hiatus, but has been reborn like a gaming phoenix with Warhammer: The Old World.
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