The next few posts are all entitled “Requiem for an Edition”, and will be taking a statistical look at the results of the Las Vegas Open, a major tournament taking place in early February of this year. It was originally intended to be a look at the “current” meta of the game, but a very busy March and then the rapid release of the new edition has made it more of a looking back. Never the less, I think it’s a worthwhile exercise, for two reasons discussed below.



It serves as a record of “the meta” in late 6th Edition of Warhammer 40K, as far as any one tournament can be regarded as accurately capturing everything. It is, in essence, a bit of the game’s history. It lets us actually see how big of a problem allies were, if Taudar really strode across the battlefields, or Gaming Mats as the case may be, like unstoppable titans. It allows for a numeric, data driven picture of that 6th Ed. looked like, rather than relying on the greybeards of the future to tell us all stories. It serves as an example of what I’d like to to in the future with 7th Edition.

So there you have it. What follows is my poking and prodding at the LVO results, as they interest me.

A note on statistical testing: There are only 194 players in the LVO, and as such, only 194 data points. As with many analyses in the real world, there is very little we can do to increase our statistical power and as such, null results should be taken with a grain of salt. Wherever possible, I will also provide effect estimates, averages, etc. as well as the results of statistical tests – because it’s just good practice.

My hope, with 7th Edition, is to take a somewhat more long-term approach, and actually use a number of tournaments, as they occur, to essentially create a rolling “pooled” analysis, that not only dramatically increases the sample size we can work with, but can show how the meta evolves and changes over time.

Next Post: How Big of a Deal Are Allies?