Here’s why Warhammer 40k tier lists don’t matter; just play the armies you love and dominate the competition with experience!
Well, obviously, some armies are much easier to play than others, and some are more inherently powerful, but that doesn’t mean you can’t win with what are considered “bad” armies. If you’re good with a faction, you can do well regardless.
We’re not saying Games Workshop doesn’t need to balance the game either, but what are considered bad armies do well when piloted with the correct general behind them.
With so few people playing the lower power level armies at tournaments, their data is such a small sample size that many overlook it in their race to see who’s at the top of the leaderboards.
With that in mind, even a lot of the lower-level factions have done quite well when actually taken to a tournament!
Here’s Why Warhammer 40k Tier Lists Don’t Matter
While we generally see the better armies at the top of tournaments it makes sense because no one has had enough games on their favorite army to truly unlock the right lists and tricks. Not only should you pick an army you like to hobby on, but you also want to play an army you know how to use every little trick.
As we said, many times in 9th, armies that were considered the worst actually came out and won tournaments.
There are a few factors for this:
If you play something out of the meta, most people won’t have a list specifically made to beat your army. They also won’t be ready for the little tricks you have up your sleeve. Whereas, you can plan for the meta and have a list that will perform well against the majority of the armies you play against.
This gives you a bit of an element of surprise and lets you tailor a list specifically for the armies you know you will be playing.
We’re not saying this is easy, but if you spend time on an army that is considered bad, you will know them far better than almost anyone. This will, at the very least, let you win best in faction, and then when the balance datasheets drop, you will be far ahead of the game and can actually start crushing all the tournaments!
Looking at the Warhammer 40k Tournament Data
The data from early August 2023, comes from Stat Check.
When you look at the number of players actually playing these armies, it’s such a tiny percentage of the population, which skews the data. Because one person who doesn’t really know the faction can drag the numbers down.
However, Adeptus Mechanicus, Dark Eldar, Space Wolves, and Tau all have had 4-0 starts! Then, an army like Ad Mech (which is supposedly oh so terrible) had 12 players playing them at events so far in 10th Edition, with some 4-0 tournament starts even!
That is pretty insane for an army that’s supposed to be really bad. Sure, they get beat down towards the top, but these players do know what they are doing, and any time a top-tier army slips, they will overtake them in a game.
When compared to some of the top armies (Aeldari not included because they really just are the best…), Ad Mech have just as high of a percentage of players starting off 4-0 at tournaments, they just have so fewer players actually playing them that the numbers are smaller, but the percentage is far better because people piloting the army know how to win with them!
Obviously, playing an army with worse datasheets will be an uphill battle, but it doesn’t really matter. Because if you love an army, hobby hard on them, practice, and reap the rewards!
Don’t worry so much about people saying your army is bad because Warhammer 40k tier lists really don’t matter at the end of the day when you put in the effort to get good with an army.
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About the Author: Rob Baer
Rob Baer
Job Title: Managing Editor
Founded Spikey Bits in 2009
Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X
About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures. Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including the Adepticon Team Tournament and American Team Tournaments, and is on a first-name basis with almost every major company in the space.
He’s all gaming all the time. With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. He advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.
While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1908s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.
