Warhammer 40K: Has The Turn One Advantage Been Tamed?
Adam here to help make sense of this crazy past weekend in competitive 40K, including a surprising development in going first.
There were a number of events this past weekend and they varied in a lot of ways. From what codexes were allowed, how the terrain was laid out and what traits the terrain actually had, it almost seemed like each tournament was in its own little world. Grey Knights and Thousand Sons were released this past weekend also and some events, and almost all the RTTs, allowed those codexes to be played. Unfortunately, because the codexes are so new, you didn’t see too many players using them. As the weeks progress, we should get a better picture of how these two new codexes fare against some of the tougher books we have right now. That being said, let’s see what we can infer from the happenings from this past weekend.
A Tournament Backed by GW
This past weekend we had Games Workshop’s first real grand tournament in a long while. It is great that they are back running events and I hope to see them run one close to me. Those that went and saw their terrain online, can see that all the tables were identical in their composition and layout. The fact that they could churn out that amount of terrain and still maintain a high level of quality in terms of the building and painting of the models shows the amount of resources one may need to create a grand tournament at a similar scale.
Unfortunately not every tournament organizer has access to the same resources that Games Workshop does so it may be difficult in both money and time to try to make something similar to the Orlando event. Having the company that wrote the rules also helps when it comes to rules issues. Even if the actual writers were not there you could still get some insight as to why a rule or FAQ was written a certain way. I am hopeful that Games Workshop will have more events in the following years so that more people can experience this kind of tournament.
How About That Win Rate?
Something we always talk about is win rate and its relation to the codexes and their power level. This week is no different. Ad Mech and Drukhari still continue to dominate the win rate, even if they are not actually winning the tournaments. Currently they are sitting at approximately the low 60s percentage-wise. This is still higher than normally and still a little concerning.
40K’s Turn One Advantage Tamed?
What I really wanted to mention was that organizers from the Orlando event are saying that they saw a 51% win rate for players that went first. If this percentage is close, if not the actual number, then that is pretty good and shows that the terrain set up that Games Workshop was using actually helps in mitigating the first turn advantage that has been a constant issue in 8th and 9th editions. Similarly, there seems to have also been some headway when using the player-placed terrain, such as used at the Lone Star Open. We don’t have the actual percentage but the general feeling, at least that I got, was that first turn was not as big of an issue using this method also. I think that you may see some events try one of these two methods of terrain setup and hopefully we will see the numbers for going first wins even out a bit. It could also be a coincidence so I hope we get more data on this as we head into the final stretch of the year.
Where Are the Orks?
So what about the Orks? The codex that was released, but not really, is in a rough spot. Many events, including the Games Workshop event in Orlando, are not allowing the codex due to the fact that it was a limited release. I don’t want to go into the arguments as to why it should or shouldn’t be allowed, just know that it was allowed at many events this past weekend and some events are still not allowing it. Be that as it may, where it was allowed, the Orks did very well. They came in 1st and 3rd in a grand tournament in Utah while placing high in other tournaments. Once the book is in wide release and events start allowing the book, we should see a huge uptick in players and results. Just from the small sample size we just got I think that the Orks are going to make a big splash on the overall meta.
~That’s all for this week. I hope you enjoyed the article. Let me know what you think, and your takeaway from this past weekend in the comments below.
