Thanks are due to Jonny for passing on the information required to compose this little essay. Sharing is caring. We have a Northern tournament under the spotlight today and I was quite curious to see if there would be any major shifts in army choice or results. The latest Assault on Arkham event was a 5 round, 1750 point, ETC 2011 style tournament with largely Northern players and a small Dublin detachment. With only game balance in mind, I disregarded all but battle points and I believe we now have a passable initial overview of the Northern tournament scene.
There is a strong similarity to Gaelcon and Dominicon in some of the army percentages. We see that the Grey Knights have taken a dominant position again. Space Wolves and other Marine codexes are present in the normal amounts. The Blood Angels codex seems marginally more popular than elsewhere. The main surprise is the presence of Orks, these have been rarer in the Dublin-area tournaments.
So although differences can be highlighted, the overall picture suggests that there is only very slight variation in army preferences in the region.
We see the Grey Knights under-perform again, despite their abundance, results have been patchy. This either represents people playing softer lists, less experienced players or a less clement meta-game in the icy wastes up North. Which it might be isn't immediately apparent. The Space Wolves also take slightly less than their expected share. Since we've started making these charts, the Dark Eldar have been the most consistent performers and we see it again in Arkham Assault. Their efforts are only overshadowed by an exceptional performance by the Ork codex. The greenskins take more than their due.
Undoubtedly, strong players are responsible but it is possible that there is more to the phenomena.
The Orks return with a bang with an average score of 71. That actually stands as the highest average for any codex in the three tournaments examined so far. With Jan's triumphs earlier in the season providing the backdrop, the glory days of the Ork roll on. Surprising, as internet wisdom would claim that the codex is sub-par. It's possible that the Irish focus on eliminating medium and light mech has limited the amount of anti-infantry fire these lists face.
The second and third strongest codexes were Dark Eldar and Imperial Guard, running only slightly ahead of the Dark Angels book. But that's not important. What really matters is the following message.
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Dear Space Marine players,
Please stop hurting yourself.
Yours,
Dodgy Statistics
--------------------------------------------------Labels: Arkham Gaming Centre, Irish Tournaments, Irish Wargaming, Newbreed, Orks, Stats, Warhammer 40K
