There has been a lot of positive talk of late regarding the Warhammer Fantasy tournament scene in Australia. Over the last few years there has been a steady building of momentum towards the current situation where we enjoy a good range of solid tournaments across many states and cities, a well known and accurate rankings system and an end of season Masters event where the best of the best come together to compete for the year's ultimate prize. Other peripheral elements that contribute to the healthy environment is a regular Warhammer pod cast, a popular and dedicated online forum and a semi-regular e-zine (not mentioning any names!).

One of the most pleasing aspects from my perspective is the apparent evening out of power between the different armies. The perceived differences in relative strengths and weaknesses between armies has been the bane of previous editions and a constant bugbear with players for many years. Games Workshop are often derided for their failings in this area by many players however these same players would cry foul if the incredible amount of choices and flexibility they currently enjoy in their armies was to be reduced in an effort to improve inter-army balance.

The truth is we have a wonderfully interesting, compelling and incredibly fun rule-set in Warhammer Fantasy Battles. The armies all have a distinctive character and playing style and Games Workshop are to be commended for continuing to do a fantastic job with the game over a number of years. Sure there have been mistakes made in the past with respect to balance but one can only shudder at the ominous task faced by the game's developers each time they release a new army book, let alone a new edition of the game.

The biggest tournament on the Australian calendar, DogCon, was run just 2 weeks ago and the top 20 armies looked something like this:

Empire

Lizardmen

Empire

Skaven

Bretonnians

Dwarfs

Tomb Kings

Orcs & Goblins

High Elves

Empire

Chaos Daemons (Khorne)

Dogs Of War

Ogre Kingdoms

Tomb Kings

Skaven

Lizardmen

Bretonnians

Wood Elves

Bretonnians

Chaos Daemons (Nurgle)

Looking through the list you can see there are 12 different armies that made it into the top 20. This is a tournament where the very best players from Australia and New Zealand compete and over 90 players attended. I cannot think of a better reflection on the evening out of the various army's strengths than that list.

However it is important to take into consideration other factors that influence lists such as this, not the least of which is a good healthy composition system. And in this I don’t mean just the composition system used at DogCon, I mean from a broader sense of composition across the entire Australian Fantasy scene. For the last few years a combination of good tournament organisers and an open forum of discussion by the tournament scene's leading players has cultivated a very healthy understanding of composition across the broader community. This coupled with a well run online forum has enabled all tournament players to gain a sense of what is acceptable and what is not with respect to Australian tournaments.

The good news for Australian tournament players is that the shared idea of what makes for a well composed army is at a good healthy level that gives the opportunity for a range of armies across the spectrum to compete at tournaments. Australian players have also improved their army building and playing skills as they have the chance to use a variety of troops and come up against many different armies.

One thing that seems to be unique to the Australian scene and one that I am very grateful for is the banning of special characters at tournaments. I just cannot understand why people think they are balanced for tournament play. It continues to astound me. Each of the Warhammer communities around the world has their own idea of what is acceptable and what is not and I don’t want to cast aspersions but going to a tournament and seeing 8 Dwarf armies with the special character Thorek and 6 High Elf armies with the special character Teclis is not my idea of a tournament scene I would be happily involved in.

To finish off I am very excited about the state of the Warhammer Fantasy tournament scene in Australia at present and also proud to have played a part in its journey to this point. There is fantastic camaraderie amongst the gamers from different cities and states and a lot of positive encouragement for new/young players that are entering the scene. Well done to all involved.