Conan Jennings Goes Undefeated 9-0 at AdeptiCon 2026 with Space Marines

Nine rounds. Zero losses. Conan Jennings did it again at AdeptiCon 2026, winning the 40K Championships with a tweaked version of his Ultramarines shooting-heavy list, this time piloting a Blade of Ultramar variant. The field he conquered was no small affair: 375 players registered for this year's Championship, making it one of the most contested 40K opens in North America.

In the finals, Jennings defeated Brian Daugherty, who ran his own spin on Chaos Space Marines, a punchy, shooting-heavy build with tough units anchoring the mid-table. Daugherty ultimately finished 8-1, with Jordan Nach rounding out the top tables at 7-1 on a Necron list. Three different factions, three different threat profiles, and one player who solved the field cleanly enough to never drop a game.

Jennings built around Marneus Calgar leading a single unit of Victrix Honour Guard, supported by Ballistus Dreadnoughts and double Repulsor Executioners. The Blade of Ultramar's -1 to wound on vehicles pushes the detachment toward a ranged approach, while Calgar, the Victrix Guard, and named characters still provide genuine midfield presence. The real edge sits in the detachment's Mastered Doctrines rule: at the start of each Command phase, you select a Combat Doctrine, but you cannot reuse one you have already chosen unless Marneus Calgar is on the battlefield. That flexibility, being able to double down on Doctrines with Calgar in the list, is the engine that separates a strong Blade list from a great one. Over nine rounds, Jennings used that recycling ability to stay in Devastator Doctrine for the AP improvement precisely when he needed it most, then cycled back rather than being locked into diminishing returns.

The two Repulsor Executioners handled the range game against armored lists; double Repulsor Executioners give the list a much bigger punch against Knights, Tau, and other big stat-check armies. With Calgar and the Victrix bricks holding the middle and generating threat saturation, opponents were consistently forced into impossible positioning choices.

STEAL THIS, NOT THE WHOLE LIST

Before ordering a second Repulsor Executioner kit, understand what is actually doing the work. Calgar's Doctrine recycling is the non-negotiable piece; without him, Blade of Ultramar plays like a less flexible Gladius. If your budget constrains the vehicle pool, a Predator Annihilator covers the long-range anti-tank role at a lower kit price than an Executioner, and a single Repulsor Executioner paired with a Gladiator Lancer is a functional two-vehicle core for pickup games and local RTTs. The Ballistus Dreadnoughts are the most accessible piece in the list, efficient in points and straightforward to run.

The skill floor here is honest: Doctrine selection demands active decision-making every Command phase, and misreading the sequence wastes the ability that makes the list tick. For newer players, defaulting to Devastator Doctrine the majority of turns and treating the flexibility as a bonus rather than the plan is a reasonable starting point. As your game sense develops, Calgar's recycling shifts from a nice-to-have to the decisive edge it was at AdeptiCon.

Announced at AdeptiCon 2026, Warhammer 40,000 11th Edition is arriving in June, which means this may stand as one of the last major 10th Edition results to shape the competitive conversation. Jennings has now won back-to-back AdeptiCon championships, a 2025 Gladius title followed by this 2026 Blade of Ultramar run, proving that the blue shooting core does not win in spite of its pilot. It wins because of him.