Our first season of the revamped Woehammer Leagues have ended, and the results are now in.
On top of this, we’re announcing the sign ups to Season two of the leagues. This will take place on TTS and via our Discord server. There are four separate leagues; America (East), America (West), Europe and Pacific. Some of these leagues will be split into at least two divisions. Players will be given five random opponents from their division to play against over the course of two months. Players can play these games in whichever order they wish. The full rules to the league are below.
KEY INFORMATION
Sign ups close on 24th April 23:59GMT
List submission is to be made directly to me via DM on Discord and must be submitted no later than 26th April 23:59GMT
You will have until 28th June 23:59GMT to arrange and complete all five of your games.
When signing up, you’ll need to be a member of the Woehammer Discord and then choose a league to take part in on the sign up sheet.
ARMY REQUIREMENTS 2,000 Points. Any rules publications released on or before the list submission date are valid for use in the tournament. Changes to the list will be allowed after the list submission deadline if there is a valid reason such as not specifying a tactic or manifestation lore.
TOURNAMENT RULES
Five opponents will be chosen at random for each player.
This is a five game league, however, there are no ‘Rounds’ and you can play your games in whatever order you wish. Opponents will be listed as Opponent 1 through to 5 for the purposes of assigning battleplans
The Battleplans will be chosen at random on 27th April once all lists have been submitted. Battleplans will be assigned to Opponents 1 through to 5. E.g. All opponent 1 games may be assigned to Noxious Nexus. We will not be playing Paths of the Fey.
Leagues will be split into division of 10 players. Those in upper divisions are placed based on previous performance and placing within past leagues. However, anyone who has previously taken part in the leagues and then missed a season for whatever reason, will need to start in the lowest division of the league they have chosen.
A division may have a minimum of 6 players. Where odd numbers occur divisions will also have a BYE opponent.
Players are ranked by first by the number of wins followed by the number of victory points scored during their games.
Players who do not respond to another player attempting to organise a game will be awarded a loss with 0 victory points if they fail to respond.
Players who are unable to organise a game between them before the end of the season will be awarded a draw. The victory points for this draw will be decided by the average scores in that division for all other players on that battleplan.
Players who concede a game will be assigned a loss andt their opponent the victory. Both of these players will have their victory points determined by the average losing score and winning scores for players who have played that battleplan in their division.
KEEPING UP WITH THE LEAGUE
We have a specialised bot on our Discord which allows players to keep up to date with results and opponents lists without the need for BCP.
With the bot, you’ll be able to see your and your opponents lists and fixtures:
If you’re interested in signing up, then please join our discord and sign up to the event here.
One interesting side effect of having our Elo system means that we are able to gather data on win rates for factions across different skill levels.
So we analysed GT games across two skills bands using our Elo ratings.
Low Skill Band: 200-400 Elo
High Skill Band: 500-700 Elo
These band represent newer tournament players versus experienced competitors. By comparing their performance we can show three different measurements.
Skill Floor – How well the faction performs in the hands of lower Elo players
Skill Ceiling – How well the faction performs in the hands of higher Elo players
Skill Gradient – How much performance improves as player skills increase
Together these three measurements should show which factions are forgiving, those that need to be mastered and those that struggle regardless of experience. Looking at you Gitz….
The Overall Pattern
Across the dataset shown below, most factions show a clear improvement as player skill increases. But the difference in this change changes quite a bit.
Some factions improve massively in the hands of skilled pilots while others remain pretty stable regardless of skill.
This gives us three categories of factions in the meta:
Forgiving factions that perform well for players regardless of their skill
Skill-dependent factions that reward experience and dedication
Struggling factions that remain difficult to win with ever for the skilled players
Forgiving Factions
Some armies do well even amongst lower Elo players. These appear more forgiving and allow players to achieve decent results even without lots of tournament experience.
Faction
Low Skill Win Rate
Maggotkin of Nurgle
52%
Ironjawz
46%
Idoneth Deepkin
46%
Flesh-eater Courts
45%
Ossiarch Bonereapers
44%
These combine a solid base performance with strong ceilings, meaning they remain competitive even as player skills increase.
For players new to tournaments, these armies may provide an easier learning curve.
High Skill Ceiling Factions
These factions show really strong performance among high Elo players.
Faction
High Skill Win Rate
Idoneth Deepkin
84%
Maggotkin of Nurgle
77%
Flesh-eater Courts
76%
Ironjawz
74%
Ossiarch Bonereapers
74%
Ogor Mawtribes
74%
They are capable of strong results when played by the most skilled players.
Factions That Reward Skill the Most
The skill gradient shows how much a faction improves as player skills increase.
Faction
Gradient
Idoneth Deepkin
+38%
Ogor Mawtribes
+36%
Stormcast Eternals
+32%
Flesh-eater Courts
+31%
Seraphon
+31%
Skaven
+30%
Ossiarch Bonereapers
+30%
These are factions with largest improvement between the skills bands. Experienced players can tap into a lot more performance from these than newer players.
Balanced Skill Scaling
Several factions fall into the middle ground, showing only moderate improvements as player skills increase
Faction
Gradient
Blades of Khorne
+29%
Ironjawz
+27%
Maggotkin of Nurgle
+25%
Kharadron Overlords
+24%
These are more balanced between being accessible and their skill depth. Newer players can still achieve reasonable results, while experienced players gain an advantage through better decision making.
Stormcast Eternals
Stormcast always seem to be a case unto themselves.
They are an example of a faction with a low skill floor but strong ceiling. Lower Elo players win only around 36% of their games, but higher Elo players reach 68% win rates.
This skill gradients suggest that Stormcast performance in strongly influenced by player skill.
The Concerning Faction
At the opposite end we have Gloomspite Gitz.
Low Skill Win Rate 33%
High Skill Win Rate 50%
Gradient +17%
Even amongst experienced players the factions struggles to push much beyond 50% win rate. They are vastly underpowered and very difficult to play.
What This Means for the Meta
These stats highlight that Faction strength is not experienced equally by everyone.
Some factions appear stronger because their elite players are able to extract more from them. Others are the same no matter the experience, while a few struggle across the board.
Understanding this helps explain why faction power can feel different depending on the player who uses them.
Final Thoughts
By looking at skill floors, ceilings, and gradients we can get a more complete picture of how factions perform across the competitive player base.
Some armies reward mastery, others offer a more forgiving learning curve, and a few may require further support to compete consistently.
With the next General’s Handbook expected out in July, the competitive Age of Sigmar community is approaching one of the turning points in the game’s meta. Each new handbook brings new battleplans, tactics, and most importantly the seasonal rules that can shape the year to come.
For the current season, our interactions are tied to the Scourge of Ghyran units and formations. So, how much of the current meta relies on Scourge of Ghyran?
Firstly, thanks to Neil who raised this as a suggestion for an article on our Discord. If you have any suggestions for articles, why not pop onto our Discord and drop me a message?
To get around this question, I analysed tournament data from the current Battlescroll, looking at how frequently options appear in lists and what effect they have on the factions performance.
WOT I DID
For each faction, I took each list component tied to the Scourge of Ghyran. These incluse:
Warscrolls
Battle Formations
Heroic Traits
Artefacts of Power
Spells, Prayers, Monstrous Traits and anything else tied to the season
For each of these list components I tracked:
How many games it was used in
What % of total faction lists used it
The Win rate of the component when used
The Win rate of lists that didn’t use that component
The Average Elo of players using it
This would allow me to determine not just whether an option is popular, but whether it is helping or hurting its faction.
In the dataset, the average Elo of competitive Age of Sigmar players attending GTs sits at roughly 429, while each faction has its own average Elo based on the players using them. This helps provide context when we start looking at the win rates. High-performing components used mainly by highly skilled players can sometimes exaggerate their strength.
Finally, each list component was labelled according to its impact on the faction:
Positive Impact – achieves a high win rate than the faction overall
Negative Impact – the overall faction win rate outperforms the specific list component
This should give a clear view of whether Scourge of Ghyran options are genuinely pulling up a faction, or not having any effect.
The Bigger Picture
One of the first things that’s clear in the data is that Scourge of Ghyran is not universally dominant across the factions.
Many options appear rarely in lists, and when they do appear they often perform worse than the faction’s average win rate.
For several factions the Scourge of Ghyran options seem to be a nice to have, but not essential to how the army plays. But the opposite to this is also true. In a number of factions, it shows that specific Scourge of Ghyran options are core parts of competitive lists. These are the armies that are most likely to have a difficult transistion into the new Handbook.
Factions with Low Reliance
For some armies, the list Scourge of Ghyran components only appear occasionally in lists.
Examples of this are where:
The Scourge of Ghyran component have low usage rates
Their win rates are below or equal to the faction average
In these cases, Scourge of Ghyran does not impact on the faction’s competitive play and when the handbook does drop, these factions are unlikely to care.
Armies such as Disciples of Tzeentch, Idoneth Deepkin and Seraphon show this. For these July may present an opportunity.
Factions with Moderate Reliance
Many factions fall into the middle ground. Scourge list components appear with some regularity and sometimes outperform the factions average. These options are usually supporting the faction rather than being core components.
In these factions, the handbook change could still alter their list construction, but the faction should remain stable. Players will shift to alternative builds.
Faction with Heavy Reliance
This is where we get the interesting cases. In these factions the Scourge of Ghyran options appear in a large number of competitive lists and are often outperforming or carrying the faction average.
Examples of these are:
Sylvaneth – Scourge of Ghyran Drycha Hamadreth appears in almost 70% of lists, and the Soggy Revenant Seekers in 42% of lists. The faction heavily relies on the Wargrove of the Burgeoning and Wargrove of Everdusk battle formations. These two battle formations feature in 66% of all lists. While the Artefact Glamourweave is in 65% of lists.
Ogor Mawtribes – 70% of Ogor lists feature the Soggy Ironblaster which gives lists that feature is an average of 53% win rate. 94% of Ogor lists use the Soggy Big Name Mage-Swallower. While just over half of all Ogor lists use the Mawpath Menaces battle formation.
Skaven – The Soggy Grey Seer on Screaming Bell sees strong turnout in Skaven lists with 65% of them using it and achieving a win rate of 55%. While The Soggy Brood Terror gets used in half of all lists and achieves 57% win rate.
Kruleboyz – 77% of all Kruleboyz lists are using the Swamphorde Bullies battle formation which sees a win rate of 53%. While the Soggy Gnashtoof is used in 70% of lists with a win rate of 55%.
In these cases, the removal of the Soggy list components could have a negative impact on the faction performance which their players will struggle to replace.
Usage v Performance
One of the more interesting things shown by the data is that high usage does not always mean high performance.
In a number of cases, widely used Scourge of Ghyran components can be tied to a lower overall faction win rate. This suggests that some choices have become popular through perceived synergy rather than actual effectiveness.
On the other side of this coin, a handful of low usage options are showing strong win rates, but in the hands of very high-Elo players. This makes it difficult to work out their true underlying strength.
What Happens in July?
If the next GHB removes the Scourge of Ghyran elements as epxected we are likely to see three different outcomes across the factions:
1) Minimal Change – Factions that rarely use the options will continue much as before. These are factions like Blades of Khorne, Disciples of Tzeentch, Flesh-eater Courts, and Helsmiths of Hashut.
2) List Adjustments – Armies that have use of the Ghyran options as support rather than core elements will need to seek alternative tools. Factions here include Cities of Sigmar, Daughters of Khaine, Fyreslayers and Gloomspite Gitz.
3) Meta Shifting – The factions that we previously mentioned that heavily rely on Ghyran options may see their win rates fall and their list builds change drastically.
Final Thoughts
Seasonal rules are designed to shake the meta up, and the Scourge of Ghyran options have influenced list construction over the past 9 months. However, the data shows that their influence is far from universal. While some factions have powerful combinations around the options, others have largely ignored them.
When the new handbook arrives in July, we may not see a large overhaul of the meta but a shift affecting a few of the factions. Which of them will adapt quickly and which will need complete overhauls?
While the list is mostly unchanged from previous iterations, in this infantry centric ogors army there’s one main difference, which is hard focusing on two kill tactics instead of including Restless Energy. The pack for this tournament gradually progressed from dense maps to spread maps, in which Restless Energy is difficult to score steps 2 and 3 (particularly on Creeping Corruption). Being forced to play a certain way just to score this tactic makes those battleplans more difficult. Instead, with only kill tactics, I was able to focus purely on combining primary objective scoring and positioning against my opponent. While it resulted in me only scoring two tactics in my harder matches, it still gave me the freedom to position for counterpunch as opposed to forcing me to position for tactics. In addition, it usually meant that I was able to be the underdog and have 5 CP for more counterplay in my opponent’s turn. This is very ideal for redeploying + burgerlusting closer to an opponent that’s choosing to be very far away. All in all, having more freedom to respond to your opponent’s plays is quite nice!
This last weekend Fabien Barbusse took Cities to first place at the Cherokee Open. This is the first time this battlescroll that we’ve seen a Cities list place in the top three of any event.
We asked Fabien how the list worked.
Cities of Sigmar Fearless Exemplars General’s Handbook 2025-26 Drops: 5 Spell Lore – Spells of the Collegiate Arcane Prayer Lore – Scriptures of Sigmar Manifestation Lore – Forbidden Power (20) Battle Tactic Cards: Intercept and Recover, Master the Paths
General’s Regiment Fusil-Major on Ogor Warhulk (150) • General • Brazier of Holy Flame (20) • Cosmopolitan Leader (20) Freeguild Cavaliers (300) • Reinforced Freeguild Command Corps (180) Freeguild Command Corps (180) Ironweld Great Cannon (110)
Regiment 1 Freeguild Marshal and Relic Envoy (100) • Heirloom Warhammer Freeguild Command Corps (180) Freeguild Command Corps (180)
Regiments of Renown Sky-Port Profiteers (350) Codewright Grundstok Thunderers • 2x Grundstok Mortar or Aethercannon Grundstok Thunderers • 2x Grundstok Mortar or Aethercannon
Fabien: Cities right now is not in a great place: the most powerful/effective build (SoG Cavaliers with Zenestra and Cannons) is subpar compared to other armies, and is frankly quite boring to play. That’s why I went with my list (and also because new Tzeentch was not out in time for Cherokee).
This list is fun to play, with a ton of tools but it has 2 mains weaknesses: lack of damage (especially against good armor) and high randomness (hello Command Corps). And the downside of having a ton of tools is that the decision tree is massive, so it’s easier to miss the optimal play, in which case the army will really struggle.
The list plays as a castle formed by the 4 units of Command Corps as screens, around the Fusil-Major, with the remaining heroes and cavaliers safe in the back. The goal is to win on primaries and eventually score enough tactics to win the game, but it’s usually small wins. The KO RoR brings the tools for the list to work: turning off wards (4 of my 5 games were against armies with army wide 5+ ward) and teleporting Command Corps then moving 3″ with the Advance in Formation order (it doesn’t have the MOVE keyword so it works after setup). Finally the Cavaliers are the only source of consistent damage in the list so they need to be protected until they can go into a valuable target.
This week we’ve got something a little different for you, I’ve been wanting to scrape the brains of the community out there for more thoughts about competitive AoS. So why not start at the start, so to say! We’ve had a few people in the discord recently who have been attending their first tournaments and I thought this was a good chance to grab a random bystander and grill them to get the best info on starting out at tournaments for you all.
If you’re someone who is interested in heading to a tournament for your first time, I’ve also got a guide for first timers and some reflection on how to move on up from there. None of which Andrezzo seems to need as he’s already killing it out there and having a ball. On with the interview!
…
Fittsy: First up, thanks for agreeing to this interview, Andrezzo! I’m really interested in your experience at your first tournament and what it felt like. What sort of armies do you play and how long have you been playing Age of Sigmar for?
Andrezzo: Thanks for this opportunity, make me feel much more important than I am… I’m not new to the hobby, I started too many years ago with WHFB 5th edition with my brother, then 7th edition and 40k with some friends but when adult life occurred I stopped for several years. Finally my children was old enough to play (at least that’s what I told myself) I jumped back again in 40k but when I discovered a club nearby I enjoyed it and here I discovered about AoS. And it was love at first game. I bought the Seraphon’ spearhead (it seems fair to begin again with the first army I ever played), then the second one and I jumped completely into the hobby. This was in October. Then suddenly my father passed away and the only way I find to relax, besides my family, was the hobby: I painted more minis in two months than in my entire life, I played at least once a week and I can state that warhammer saved my mental health in these months. To summarise, I have been playing Seraphon (and AoS) since November.
Andrezzo’s Krozigor, looking great and they smash on the tabletop too
Fittsy: Never underestimate your own importance! It’s great to get the perspective of somebody new to the hobby and going to tournaments. Sorry to hear about your father! Good to hear though that the hobby could help you through a tough time. Wow though, so you’re only a couple of months into your AoS adventure and already hitting the tournaments, that’s amazing. What sort of list did you run?
Andrezzo: As I said I started from the two seraphon’ spearhead, I mixed them together (proxying something else) and playing step by step I realised what I enjoy the most and which style I preferred. I don’t like the idea to copy champions’ lists, so I preferred to create one of my own learning by mistakes and losses. I really love the new saurus and kroxigor design, and although their ability is quite strange and hard to activate I decided to make them the core of my list, and my personal record so far is playing with 40+9 of them! Then I tried (and still doing) to balance the rest of the list around them and the sunclaw starhost battle formation. After several adjustments (I must thank the Woehammer community discord for the help) I decided to bring this list.
Fittsy: That is an interesting list and you’ve chosen a good path by tailoring the list to the way you want to play. It sounds like you used the community well to get some feedback. Is there anything else that you did to prepare for your first tournament?
Andrezzo: I asked for advice to some friend of course but mainly, my army works well if every unit can buff the others, so I arranged at home a table with the three battleplans to try some set-up, to try understanding how could I manoeuvre my army and prepared two or three strategies for each game. And of course I made a match with my children in the battleplan I have never played before. With this method I have prepared in advance the set up and I could deploy my drops without over thinking.
Fittsy: That’s a good idea to practice the deployments. It’s something I recommend to newer players. Just to get a feel for that deployment and make the start of the game easier on yourself! Running through the first turns definitely helps too. Also, cool to involve your kids in your practise! I wouldn’t recommend having kids just for that reason but it’s definitely a side benefit! After all your preparation did you feel nervous about going to your first tournament?
Andrezzo: Having children is a very long-sighted plan to become a better Warhammer player XD. You’re not just preparing for a tournament; you’re playing with your sons, and nobody can blame you for that! My aim was to end every game with something still alive on the fifth turn; a bonus goal was being close to winning in the last round. Surprisingly, I was nervous. I had played rugby for almost two decades, and other sports before that, and my thoughts were: ‘OK, I’ll definitely lose every game, but this is the worst thing that can happen: nobody is going to beat me up’. Nevertheless, I was still anxious. Luckily, the tournament was at my own club, so I got involved in the preparation of tables and stuff to keep my mind busy. Then my first game started. I was paired with (I don’t like to say ‘against’, it’s a fun game, not a fight) one of the best players in my region, who had an army I wasn’t familiar with (Hellsmith of Hashut set up for heavy firing), and I had the first turn. I spent the first two CP redeploying the Slann after a bad move I made, and unbinding the Malevolent Maelstrom I had cast… But with a bit of luck and some bad rolls from my opponent, we had a nice game. I learnt a lot (he was very nice, patient, and taught me a lot) and the game was decided in the last turn, ending 51 to 56 in his favor. So, I accomplished my bonus goal in the very first game! I was happy but exhausted, and I hadn’t eaten yet! Now I could lose every match and still be satisfied with my tournament…
This looks like a nicely set up tournament… maybe I should head over to Italy for a weekend 😉
Fittsy: Ah, that’s nice to be at your own club for your first tournament! That sounds like a really exciting first game. What did you eat for lunch afterwards? And how did your other games go?
Andrezzo: The game was really close, but again, that was more down to my opponent’s bad luck than my own skill, of course! We spent lunchtime together (a sandwich and a slice of crostata—a traditional Italian jam tart) talking about the game and the local AoS scene. My second game was, once again, with a very experienced player. He was bringing his incredibly tough and successful Troggoth list (18 of them!) for a ‘last hurrah’. Even so, the atmosphere was extremely chill and relaxed; it was a very fun game and he even taught me a couple of tricks with Morbid Conjurations. My 20 Saurus met a grizzly end against his wall of Troggoths, but nevertheless, the game was quite close and ended 52-59. Finally, I played with another club member who ran a Nighthaunt army with a Black Coach, Lady Olynder, and plenty of Bladegheists and Pyregheists. The battleplan was Linked Ley Lines, and he just couldn’t shift my 20 Saurus from the central objective while my heavy hitters reached the centre of his army and blew it apart. Another fun game! We were both exhausted and ran out of time at the end of the third turn. It was my first win, 42 to 34, and the game was definitely in my favor but who knows…
Fittsy: 3 good games is the best result you can have. Tournament games are a really great place to learn. While you’re really focussed, you can learn some really important things to do or not to do. Are you already planning to go to more tournaments?
Andrezzo: Yeah, the very next day I negotiated with my wife the tournament deal: once a month I can attend one tournament, once every quarter a two days tournament. I did have a great time, I feel to have improved massively and understood that, like in sports, you can train hard as you like, but the real grow comes from real games and matches, and if nobody can beat you up even better!
Andrezzo himself at the tournament. I can see the killer instinct in those eyes, I reckon he will be a real threat at tournaments soon.
Fittsy: That’s awesome! Great to hear that you had such a good time and it would be cool to find out how you go after a few more tournaments! Would you do anything differently next time and do you have any tips for other players thinking of going to their first tournament?
Andrezzo: I’m not aiming to be a ‘pro’ player (just a better one, I hope!), but so far I’m loving the process. With this schedule, I can reach almost 100 games per year (around 50 club nights and 40 tournament games), which I think is a great way to learn and grow. My principal aim is to be a solid sparring partner for the guys in my club—who are very strong right now—and to provide a challenge that helps them improve as well. I’m pushing forty (OMG!), but I’ve found a wonderful way to spend my free time, bond with my kids, and meet new friends who share the same passion. I live in Italy, and while I can’t speak for other countries, the AoS scene here is incredibly friendly. I feel welcome everywhere I go, and I believe the spirit of the game is the same all around the world. So, if you’re nervous about playing in a competitive environment: don’t be! Jump in and give it a go. You might not always have ‘hot dice’ like I did, but you will definitely meet great people and improve your game. Beyond that ‘moral’ message, I found that preparing my battleplan in advance was a huge help. It acted as an anchor and allowed me to make more sensible choices (or at least, that was my impression!). Last but not least: don’t wait until you know every single army, warscroll, or possibility because you never will. Just be confident in what your own list can do; know your strengths and your weaknesses. You can’t control the battleplans or what your opponent brings, so don’t overthink it. Be good with what you bring to the table, set a goal for the tournament, and enjoy it. If you don’t reach your goal, the worst that can happen is that you’ll have to try again next time. And remember: even if you lose every game, so what? No one is going to beat you up anyway!
Fittsy: You’re very passionate and your drive is clear. It looks like you’ve found a hobby which you’re enjoying very much. There is a great community around AoS and that’s a large part of what makes it so much fun to take part in tournaments! Thanks very much for taking your time to do the interview, it’s been a pleasure! Keep up the awesome attitude and hope to see you in a top 3 lists article soon!
…
It was a ball to chat with Andrezzo about his experience. It was nice to think back to my own times before starting heading to tournaments.
Andrezzo really worked hard on his own preparation and I think he’s got some great advice there for new tournament players! So get out there, sign up to a tournament, and join in on all the fun!
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.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
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!
Scott and Ed at the inaugural Masters in January 2026
Get Involved: Community Roles
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So I’m turning things around a bit this week and not looking at how I can get better but rather at how to either make that little step up from the bottom tables to the middle of the pack. After my last tournament, as an exercise, I went through the sort of things that I could see either working for those players or where they could do something differently that could help up their game a little.
I’m lucky to have an active community in my area at the moment with a bunch of people who are playing in their first AoS tournaments (and they’re also getting dangerously competitive). We ran a bunch of tournaments over the last two years as well and got to see a lot of people in the region develop and lift their game up. This made it an interesting reflection to make and I thought that I would help share this as a part 1. I figure I’ll follow this up with an interview with someone trying to make their way up the placings and maybe also catch up with a real coach and see what they have to say 😊
Regardless to say, my personal options for getting better over in the Getting Good article are probably all valid here. These ones are just a little more specific and tailored towards small changes to rise up in the pack!
This song is here for a reason… because it’s AWESOME!
Use a Chess Clock
Ok… if you’ve read some of my other articles, you’ll know I sometimes why away from using one. However, that approach is flat out wrong! Practice with a chess clock, get familiar, and use it every game. This means that when the opponent wants to use one, you’ll be fine with using it and not put at a disadvantage. It also means that you’ll play on a more even footing with all types of opponents. This is a weird one to start with but small steps added up together can make a big difference.
This game 100% did not need a chess clock. But we did it anyway!
Write a Diary
Keep some sort of games log. This can be as simple as recording your game on your phone, or a little book where you write down the results. This could be as detailed as a turn by turn summary of what happened in your games. Just doing it is what I see as the most important step. Next step is to look back on it, reflect what you think you did well and what didn’t go well. In my coaching with Onwards AoS, I took this a step further by recording both of those and the mistakes I was making. I ‘ve been naughty and not keeping my diary up to date… but I’ve been busy writing articles like these 😛 Ok, shitty excuse, get back to it Fittsy!
You can inimidate your opponent with something like this, or go pay 2 Euros for a tiny thing you pop in your pocket and take with you on your bathroom breaks at work
Stick it out with one army
Now… this is one which has been easy for me in the past because I was so shit with Skaven when I tried a second army. This doesn’t mean you need to play every game with the same army but I’d say rule of thumb to get at least 3 out of 4 games in with the army you want to take to tournaments. This one has real proof on the tables, you’ll see people who really focus on one army across an edition perform better than they “should” just by knowing their own army, how it plays on different battleplans, and how it should play into different matchups. Now is a great chance to at least play out the edition with one army and do this last GHB with a focus. Avoid the temptation to switch armies!
Battleplan plans
Now… I feel a bit shitty because when I started out, I know I read or watched something which helped me before going into my first tournament but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was. But! I do remember a key piece of advice which was to learn all of the battleplans before going into the tournament with the advice of playing at least 1 game on each battleplan shortly before the tournament. Back when I started, somehow I had more time to play and I would play a couple of games on each battleplan beforehand with my old sparring partner (who stepped away from the game for a while but is back with a vengeance now… you know who you are 😉). I also used to practice my deployments on the table with terrain proxies and nowadays I try to go through the battleplan check out 1-3 deployment options beforehand and when I’m a good boy, even write down notes about my turn 1-2 options. This one will help remove some of the decisions in your early game and keep that brain fit for the tough decisions come turn 2-3.
The handy thing about using fruit as terrain is that if you get hungry halfway you can just eat the terrain
Change that Mindset
Hah! There really was a reason for Eye of the Tiger up there… this is a song which I sometimes use to hotwire myself into a state of competitiveness (wow, that sounds a bit wanky… but hopefully you know what I mean). Back when I was on the lower to lower-mid tables, I would play lists I liked the look of and avoid deployments that looked silly because I wanted my horses pointing forwards. Forget all that! Focus on what you’re trying to do on the table and try to leave those thoughts to one side. Remind yourself that it’s ok to want to win (that’s also one of the things Onwards AoS has really helped me with).
Find your killer instinct! If you’re reading this, you’ve already got it in you!
Get out there and play games
It’s one thing to read this but at the end of the day, you need to put it into practice. Maybe you’ll find it’s other things that really help you instead, you’ll only find out by trying. I’d normally finish this article with a statement about getting wins. But hey, just playing is already a win, every game is practice and if you get out there and play against good opponents that’s even better practice.
Most Warhammer stats usually live in spreadsheets. Most Warhammer discussions don’t. They happen in Discord, Reddit threads, comment sections, and group chats. Usually fuelled by screenshots taken out of context, and the phrase “the stats says…” doing far more work than it should.
We’ve spent a long time saying the same thing now: win rates are summaries. Useful ones, but only if you’re prepared to ask what’s underneath them.
Recently, we started doing something slightly different. We brought the data into the conversation itself as something you can interrogate in real time.
If you’ve ever tried to have a discussion about balance online, you’ll know how it goes.
Someone posts a faction win rate, then someone else says it’s being “carried by top players.” Another person says “it’s actually fine if you look at usage“.
The conversation staggers because nobody is looking at the same thing.
A spreadsheet is great for analysis, but it’s terrible for conversation, which is where Discord comes in.
Discord Bot
The Discord stats bot we’ve made doesn’t add new data. It uses the same GT data we already publish, with the same filters and assumptions, but makes it accessible instantly.
Instead of saying “I think X is popular”, you can check.
Example: Stormcast Eternals
WoeBot doing WoeBot Things
At first glance, nothing looks unusual. Stormcast at time of publication have a win rate just over 50%.
This is usually where the conversation ends. But there are still questions worth asking:
– Why is the Elo gap so large?
– Why do most results sit in the 2-3 bracket?
– Why are undefeated runs relatively rare?
WoeBot Doing More WoeBot Things
Same faction. Just narrowed down to a specific formation.
The win rate increases and the Elo gap even flips direction.
We’re not saying Sentinels of the Bleak Citadels is “better”. But recognising that Stormcast performance can’t be taken at face value.
When people argue about faction strength, they’re often talking about different sets of players and builds without realising it.
That’s a disagreement about what data you’re actually describing.
Popular Doesn’t Always Mean Powerful
More WoeBot Things
These are the warscrolls Stormcast players use most often.
For example, the Knight-Relictor is currently the 4th most popular warscroll for Stormcast at GTs. But when it’s included it’s currently bringing Stormcast list performance down to 49%. Lists that don’t feature it are winning 57% of the time.
This is where the conversation usually gets more interesting. Here, warscrolls are measured against the faction’s own average, not against each other.
Some units show very high win rates, but only across a very small amount of games. Others show smaller lifts, but across dozens a larger sample size.
This is where questions start to matter: Is this unit genuinely strong? Or being chosen by stronger players?
And some of them, statistically, drag results down.
Can I Use It?
Yes. Just jump on our Discord and head over to the Bot Action channel or call up the info in one of the faction channels.
We’ve further developments on the bot coming soon which will include;
When a warscroll is included, the average number of times its used in a list
Player history across the GHB
List recall for Top 3 lists at events.
There are currently no plans to allow the bot into other Discord servers as I don’t want my job to turn into IT helpline….
