Battles in Warhammer Age of Sigmar have spilled out from the tunnels of Gallet into the magically-infused tundras of Andtor. As generals compete to master the sorcerous energy trapped within this bitterly cold land, thousands of games and dozens of events and tournaments are painting a picture of which factions rule the roost.
Nick from the Warhammer TV Team had a chat with Matt from the Warhammer Studio about what the data says. It’s well worth a watch and goes into considerable detail on the state of competitive play in the Mortal Realms.
As with previous Metawatch articles, the data samples used by the studio cover a 60-day period which means that only half of the data is relevant to the new General’s Handbook: Pitched Battles 2023-24 – but by digging into the data certain trends can already be clearly seen.
With that in mind, here are the current win rates as they stand. Bonesplitterz have been left off as there weren’t enough games logged to properly compare them to the rest of the field - though many Big Waaagh! armies included war-paint daubed mobs from this persuasion of Orruk.
Soulblight Gravelords and Ossiarch Bonereapers are excelling due to a good cross-section of units to choose from, which are all viable. Though a handful of subfactions are represented more than others, even the lesser-used Avengorii for the vampires, and Null Myriad for Katakros’ armies are pulling their weight.
Previous scourges of the Mortal Realms have seen a dip back into the desired win rate window of 45 to 55%. Most notably the Kharadron Overlords and Gloomspite Gitz are back in the sweet spot thanks to some tweaks in the Battlescroll: Andtor. Positive discussions with players and event organisers helped highlight issues that the Orruk Warclans have had, and tweaks in the battlescroll meant the Ironjawz, Kruleboyz and Big Waaagh! all punch a bit higher thanks to new Battle Tactics.
Battle Tactics are also in the studio’s mind as they analyse the incoming data. The new General’s Handbook has seen an intentional shift in how these are scored, rewarding players that dedicate resources to do something, rather than just scoring more for things they are already doing. Factions like skaven find this focus challenging alongside the way their battletome’s Battle Tactics are divided up amongst Clans, and the studio is also keeping a close eye on Stormcast Eternals and Maggotkin of Nurgle for similar reasons.
With only half of the data from the window covering the new General’s Handbook, they are also monitoring factions that appear to be trending downwards and identifying challenges in the meta that might be causing this.
The Idoneth Deepkin appear to struggle with damage output against particularly tough armies, while the Lumineth Realm-Lords’ spellcasting specialism would suggest supremacy in Andtor, but access to autocasting doesn’t interact with Primal Dice. Slaves to Darkness armies built around common headline units like Chaos Warriors and Ogroid Theridons are meanwhile a little too inflexible in situations that need them to move around the board and accomplish things.
Off the back of all of this, the Warhammer Studio are digging into the data as much as they can and are actively working on developing the next Battlescroll as you read this very article – it’s due in September.