It is a massive time for fans of Warhammer: The Old World. As the dust settles on a fantastic 2025 season, the UK & Ireland competitive scene is evolving. Following a community survey with over 200 responses, the National Chairpersons are making changes for the 2026 UK season to ensure the hobby stays transparent, inclusive, and competitive.
Here is everything you need to know about the 2026 UK season of Warhammer: The Old World.
Before I jump into the details, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
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Please note, these rankings are not affiliated with Games Workshop, and are simply a way for the competitive community to get together and track their results.
What we’ve achieved together
To understand where we are going, it is worth looking back at what has been achieved by your National Chairpersons since The Old World released:
Establishing the Rankings: Built the formal system with the help of oldworldrankings.com.
Global Success: Coordinated Teams England, Wales, and Scotland for the World Team Championship, where Team England took the top spot!
Democratic Leadership: Held open applications and elections for Chair and Vice-Chair roles to ensure community accountability, with more elections planned in 2026.
Community Voice: Published the first masters and rankings survey to let player feedback drive our decisions and help other players and TOs, as well as promoting constructive discussion about everything Old World in a discord community of 170+ members.
TO Support: Created spaces for Tournament Organisers to share best practices and solve complex event issues, with over 43 TOs sharing their events and experiences.
A New Season and a New Structure
The 2026 season is already underway! It officially kicked off on 10th December 2025 and will run until 30th November 2026. This schedule gives the Masters organisers more breathing room to prepare and ensures the season wraps up before the busy festive period, with most players favouring a year long season.
Ireland Forges a New Path
The Irish community has seen incredible growth. With more players and Tournament Organisers (TOs) than ever, they have elected a new Chairperson and voted to create their own independent system.
While the UK organisers have spent two years advocating for Irish play, the community there is now ready to lead itself. This means the circuit is now formally known as the UK Masters & Rankings.
- Northern Ireland: Players here have the best of both worlds. They can participate in both the UK and Irish systems.
- Representation: Any Chairperson selected for Northern Ireland will be warmly welcomed onto the UK committee.
The Rankings: What’s Changing?
The 2025 season was a huge success, featuring 1,203 players. The competition was fierce; in the top 100, the average gap between ranks was a tiny 1.5 points!
Based on your feedback, the system is being refined to reward skill and effort while keeping local events accessible for the 2026 UK season.
Key Technical Updates
Working alongside oldworldrankings.com, the national chairs have introduced several tweaks, based in community feedback from 2025:
- Base Points: The base points allowance is moving from 80 to 78. This means 32-player tournaments now provide the top base score, accounting for incremental growth.
- Introductory Events: To keep small games (under 1,000pts) beginner-friendly, these will be capped at the minimum score. This prevents “rank farming” at events designed for new players and quicker, smaller games.
- Strength of Field (SoF): This is the big one. Events will now get a bonus (0.1 to 0.25 points) for every player attending who finished in the Top 50 of the 2025 rankings. Succeeding against a tough crowd will now give you the extra credit you deserve.
What Counts?
The rankings will continue to include a wide variety of events, ensuring that competitive play counts, no matter where it happens. As the community grows and matures, people are experimenting with what and how to play. We expect things to settle down as Games Workshop continues to support the game, but to accommodate for the breadth of our hobby we will only exclude the following types of event from the rankings:
- Narrative Events: These focus on story rather than pure competition.
- Teams & Doubles: These require a different tracking method (stay tuned for updates on this!).
The 2026 Masters
Huge thanks go to Forgotten North Gaming for a stellar event last month, celebrating the best of the 2025 season. Bids to host The Masters 2026 will open in a few months. The committee is aiming for a date in late January or February 2027.
If you are a TO interested in hosting the prestigious finale, start getting your plans ready now!
Get Involved: Community Roles
Covering the Cairgorms of Scotland, The Dee Valley National Park in Wales, the Antrim Coast of Northern Ireland and the New Forest of England, this community is vast. To keep it running smoothly, the National Chairs are looking for help.
In the coming weeks, several elected community roles will be announced. These volunteers will help:
- Support local TOs with their setups.
- Represent player interests across the UK.
- Scrutinise decisions to ensure fairness and transparency.
Tournament veteran or a casual observer, your voice matters in the 2026 UK season and in future.
Join the Conversation: Use the Rankings Discord to reach out, ask questions, find out about events or volunteer.
Next: Take a look at our reflections on the 2025 season of the Old World in the UK & Ireland.
