There are countless different ways in which a Warhammer organised play event can be run. While broad-stroke concepts like pairing off players with the same record are straightforward enough, the nuance of running a successful Warhammer tournament is the subject of continuous conversation and evolution. The following recommendations are once again for newer organisers who are still establishing their principles and best practices, to help improve the average experience at any Warhammer tournament. These principles are also followed at most official Games Workshop events, and are designed to create the fairest, most fun experience possible for every attendee, regardless of standing.

While the first round of most tournaments is randomly paired, subsequent round pairing can be done in a number of ways. The first pairing metric will almost always be player record, i.e. pairing a 3-1 player with another 3-1 player, and so on. Given that most rounds will include numerous players with the same record, however, deciding pairings beyond this metric can be quite nuanced, and the different methods available can have significant impacts on the experience of players at an event. We recommend pairing players by the following criteria:

In many tournaments, the overall Best General will be the single remaining undefeated player at the end of the event. Sometimes, however, there are not enough rounds available to determine a single undefeated player, and players often wish to know their ranking regardless of whether they won the whole event. To help break ties between players who end an event with the same record, we recommend ranking players by the following criteria:

Designer’s Note: Traditionally, many organisers use total VP or VP differential to determine ranking. However, the number of VP scored within any one game of Warhammer 40,000 rarely tells a clear story about how close that game actually was. Often, a more challenging opponent will be harder to score against (and thus yield a lower score despite the victory being all the more hard-earned), or the nature of how the two armies match up may dictate a risky strategy that doesn’t pay off (and thus yield a wide score disparity despite almost working out).

As such, we do not recommend using VP as a pairing metric, nor as a ranking metric until all other metrics have been exhausted, or when further tie-breaking is required (e.g. in larger events where identical rankings become more likely). By contrast, opponent win record is an ideal metric, because when two players end up with the same record, the overall skill of their opponents is a better indicator of which player had the more challenging path along the way.