I played in a 34-player tournament a week back and I noticed that the most common armies present are those most recently released.

6 Orc & Goblin
5 Vampires
5 High Elves
4 Dwarves
4 Wood Elves
3 Empire

I expected more variation. Am I silly? Does this happen everywhere?

The winner was a Wood Elf but the highest average was achieved by the Dwarves at 7.5 (positions 3, 7, 8 and 15).

I was the only TK and made it to 20th after taking a hammering early on by a HE (4th), O&G (11th) and VC (13th). I did however hand out some pain to a Beast Heard (15th), O&G (32nd) and Dark Elf (34th).

I think I will never again take an Icon Bearer to a tournament!

i think
that exept for vampire those army are very common. the most people like them. lets face it you have to like tk to play it and those who do are few.

vampire is played becaus it is newer i think.

you have mark 6 armies to have more as 2 armies for a total of 27 players.
that gives you 7 players whit a different army(including you) is this true? if so and they all have a different army i think you have almost al the amry books out there.

in any case keep on the good work :)

I think also there's a coincidence.. the most played armies happen to be the most recently released. At my club over 50% of the players play VC. But it doesn't hurt when the army you play is also rock solid and averages well in tourneys :P


Although, hats off to you for being different, by playing Tomb Kings (1) and taking an Icon Bearer (2). I hope you at least got good comp and sports for that.

VC have always been a common toury army, even when their book was old, TK have always been rare even when we had a new book, you can always have a good idea which armies will be the most comon at tourys and it not always the most popular.

I think it is a combination of VC being one of the more popular armies (I have faced at least 1 VC opponent each year out of 5 battles at the Necron GT the past 3 years but never had a Dark Elf match even though I have faced a DOW list) and newer books having new bells & whistles.

For example, 3 years ago Mark S and I both took TK to the Necron and ended up playing each other in the 2nd round but last year Mark played WE after their new book came out (and that is what he is bringing this year). So last year we saw a lot of Empire right after their book came out and more HE after their book came out as well in the RTT.

The new Daemon book is going to be out just long enough to meet the min. 30 days from release to allow the new list for the Necron, and last time I looked there were still a lot of TBD (to be determined) out of the 70 spots even though final lists are due by May 13.

Given some of the recent power creep in the new books (my oldest nephew scored a massacare against my nephew's and mine Empire list when his dragon riding Prince rolled up our flank (after doding canonballs for 2 turns) it is harder for the older book lists to stay competitive against things like VC getting ward & regen saves against CR when we don't.

I certainly got good points for only having 1 priest.

However the game is one of conquest on the table - comp only makes a differentiation between evenly skilled players as far as I can tell!

Well I am impressed with all the players that can afford to have a new army often enough to turn up at a tournament with something different.

Maybe their is an element of the independently wealthy that pay Warhammer

Yes, the more money the more new and evil stuff you can field on tournaments. It usually takes a long time for me to get an army going. Now, that mean I may play with an "old" book when I am ready to battle.
Well, I could field my HE, but I got so angry about the changes and the ASF rule, I sort of retired them and went for my asrais. Got a sizeable number now, but they are getting a tad old, but still can fight.

I would like to take TK to a tourney, but I use non-GW minis for at least one unit, and that means I have no idea of which tourneys I can attend.