Looking at some recent tournament results, it seems like Warhammer 40k is finally more balanced for tournament play.
Out of 11 tournaments, ten unique factions picked up first place, with Craftworld being the only repeat victor. Let’s check out some of what’s going down with the meta!
Warhammer 40k Is Finally More Balanced
The statistics come from Reddit, and there are definitely some interesting stats, but also some we have to take some of them with a grain of salt due to the low sample size.
- We have 10 unique winning factions out of 11 events. That feels like a record for Meta Monday but I’m not sure. Only Craftworld won 2 events.
- In fact, 15 factions(Not separating out CSM or SM) have a 4-week win rate between 45% and 55% an awesome display of balance for 9th edition.
Those two facts show a serious change, but as we said, it is just from a single weekend. What do you think about the meta? It does seem to look like win rates by faction are closer than we’ve seen in a long time, and not to mention that it feels like almost any faction can win a tournament.
Especially when you consider tournaments can be decided easily by a bad table with too much or insufficient terrain.
Now, let’s check out some win rates.
First up, these four armies had a decent amount of players, and while Craftworld came out much more on top, the other armies hovering right around 50% really isn’t that bad for each having over 15 people playing the armies and Death Guard all the way up at 30 players.
Then we get another chunk of pretty often played armies. Orks sat pretty low in the win rate, but for having 43 players, Necrons are almost at a 50% win rate, which is probably near the truth of their power with that many players and games.
According to this, sisters actually had a great win rate at 54%. Nothing insane, but do show they are still strong. As we said, though, this is looking fairly balanced compared to some weeks.
Then you get to the Iron Hands, who did come with a 70% win rate, but only two people played them and obviously knew what they were doing. So with small sample sizes like this, you can’t look too much into the percentage.
As often happens, people who play the lesser-known factions are great at them, so this isn’t really showing anything other than two great Iron Hands players were out over the weekend.
Here is another great example of where a faction is actually at compared to 2 good players. The Nids are sitting pretty right now with 28 players and a 54% win rate. Ynnari, on the other hand, had two great players pilot them, so while winning 91% of the games looks insane, this isn’t enough data to go on…
So Is Warhammer 40k Really More Balanced Now?
Games Workshop has been trying for a while now to actually balance the factions with all the balance dataslates, FAQs, and more. It looks like their efforts might make a difference as the tournaments from this weekend actually had various factions winning and most armies doing fairly well overall.
However, GW needs to stay on top of the Warhammer 40k balance issues just as often as they release new codex and supplements books, a daunting task that has only started to bear fruit for the competitive scene.
Here’s all the latest on the upcoming rules updates and points changes for Warhammer 40k.
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Do you feel like 40k is actually more balanced now? What do you make of the data?
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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 also co-founded and currently hosts the Long War Podcast, which has over 350 episodes and focuses on tabletop miniatures gaming, specializing in Warhammer 40k. and spent six years writing for Bell of Lost Souls.
Every year, along with his co-hosts, he helps host the Long War 40k Doubles Tournament at Adepticon and the Long War 40k Doubles at Las Vegas Open, which attracts over 350 players from around the world.
Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including multiple first-place finishes in Warhammer 40k Grand Tournaments over the years and even winning 1st place at the Adepticon 40k Team Tournament.
With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. As a member of GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association), 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 1980s, 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.
