A look at the competitive data from recent Kill Team tournaments!
Today’s article is all about competitive stats for Kill Teams! This is something I’ve been working on for a while but big thanks goes to Honest Wargamer Discord user Hotsauceteddy for compiling and presenting all the data for me. While other people have done stats for Kill Team, these are my own takes on it. I’ve also done this as a more in-depth video on YouTube which you can check out here:
Flaws with the Data
Before we go into the analysis I’ll cover the flaws with the data as any good research piece should. First up is that all results are collated on the Best Coast Pairings (BCP) app , so tournaments not recorded on there will be left out. This is unfortunate but BCP is the most commonly used app for recording tournament data so it should still cover the majority of events. Next is another BCP flaw and is the incorrect entering of faction played, which can partly happen due to the time it takes BCP to officially add new factions. The final factor is terrain, which is mainly with ITC terrain (not knocking the TOs) due to how it kinda changes the entire game due to how its unqiue properties differ from general Kill Team yerrain but I cover it better in the video.
The Stats
Thanks again to my main man.
Just another summary of all the data used and collected by Hotsauceteddy. Casual and compendium only events have been left out as they don’t reflect the actual meta of the game..
From the data, Brood Coven (Genestealer Cults) are the best performing compendium team, albeit with only 4 players. This could also be due to Wyrmblade players selection this faction as an error/having no choice. Commorrite, Troupe and Forge World have great win rates too, although the first 2 factions mentioned do so with very high player representation. This isn’t surprising considering the firepower of Commorrites on top of their good rules while Troupe kinda break the game. Hive Fleet also have a strong showing as a compendium team, no doubt due to their strong roster choices and Genestealers.
For bespoke teams, Novitiates come out as the best performing team overall with a 63.9% win rate. I knew they were good but it is surprising to see these sisters getting such great results. Strong rules combined with easy dice manipulation via acts of faith is helping Novitiates do so well. Vet Guard have the most usage AND a great win rate too, perhaps representing players getting more used to how they play with 14 operatives. Pathfinders are doing great too, although there has been a community “silent ban” which means their usage has been lower. Kommandos are still super solid although have the reverse effect of Vet Guard where their large player representation is hurting their overall win rate. Legionaries are there too but they’re far too recent to make anything concrete out of.
Void Dancers are technically the best performing kill team with a 100% win rate. As with Legionary, not enough to go off of. However, Void Dancers did win days 1 and 2 at Adepticon with 36 players each day and only a lone Void Dancer player, putting them on a 3 tournament 100% win rate. My personal view is Void Dancers are way too over-tuned but we’ll have to wait for more data. Outside of that, generally White Dwarf teams are doing pretty well which is not surprising as they’re all strong but balanced, except for the poor Hunter Clade. They just suffer from being the first White Dwarf team and too balanced.
For the sample size, we have over 750 players with Spain leading the way in events and attendance. It’s great to see but we should see more events from other areas of the world as we go into Spring. Still, amazing performance by the Spanish scene.
Ignoring Void Dancers, we have a pretty healthy meta. Ideally we want factions in the 45% to 55% win rate, which most kill teams are reaching. Pathfinders, Brood Coven and Vet Guard are slightly above this although Novitiates are getting close to the worrying 70% win rate. Not too close but it will be interesting to see how this changes going forwards, especially with their decent player representation. All bespoke/White Dwarf teams have have a 45% or higher win rate, which is great. Except for poor Hunter Clade of course.
Compendium teams are slowly dropping in power but maintain a good level of power.
From this, bespoke teams are unsuprisingly the most popular type of kill teams being used, which makes sense as they have more rules, abilities and are fully designed for the current edition. White Dwarf teams have risen in popularity, namely when new White Dwarf teams drop, whereas compendium teams have dropped in usage but maintain a more stable usage rate.
Compendium teams seem to have mostly consistent win rates.
Bespoke and White Dwarf mostly follow this pattern as with compendium teams sans Ork Kommandos who spike and drop hard, the curse of being the popular strong Orks.
Tournament Stats Overview
Overall, the stats paint an interesting and healthy picture for the game. Novitiates are the surprise standouts but make sense as to why. Compendium usage is slowly dropping, which is again understandable. In the next 3 months it will be interesting to see how the stats evolve and how much of an effect the balance dataslate will have. Are the Void Dancers going to dominate too? I believe so as I find them far too over-tuned but I’ll wait for the data on that. Pathfinders are likely to drop in popularity as more of their players shift to Void Dances, although I can’t wait to see how the Corsair Voidscarred affect the meta. They’re not broken but still a very strong team.
Either way I hope you enjoyed my look at the stats over these past few months. This should be a regular occurrence for me going forwards so I’d love to hear your feedback. As always, big thanks to Hotsauceteddy who made this all possible with his amazing work.
Until next time, no matter what the stats say, remember you always have the chance to roll a crit!
Can You Roll A Crit? 