NOVA Open 2023: Certified 100% Eldar Free
So I’m back at NOVA for a second year, playing the kind of event slate that makes Dan over at the Badcast angry – all Heresy, all the time. Why […]
Tournaments
Statistical Threats to Metawatch
January is often a time when graduate students everywhere begin frantically cramming for various exams with words like “Qualifying”, “Comprehensive” and “Defense” in their names, which means it’s also the […]
Balance Dataslate Hot Take: Extended Edition
It’s been awhile since I’ve talked about the competitive landscape of 40K – there’s myriad reasons for that, ranging from people doing the basic stats of tournaments well and the […]
In Defense of Coaching in 40K
There are a lot of things I don’t like about Competitive 40K. This is…known. The hot takes (irony, I know). Some of the toxic personalities and poor gamesmanship that comes […]
Coronavirus, Cons and the Tallyman of Nurgle
We’re going to take a bit of a break from MathHammer to consider what I do in my real life – the study of infectious diseases, including COVID-19. We’ve used […]
Why Competitive 40K Is So Easy To Talk About
So awhile ago, on an episode of Splintermind I somehow snuck onto, we got to talking about why, when the internet talks about 40K, they almost always talk about Matched Play […]
My (Belated) Takeaways from the LVO Warhammer Panel
The Las Vegas Open was awhile ago, and the Warhammer Preview panel that was held the first night has been detailed in depth, as has the tournament itself. The results […]
Murder Your Darlings (or: Why I’ll Never Be a Serious 40K Contender)
“In fairness, ‘The Floor is Lava’ may not be the strongest competitive build.” – Val Heffelfinger, paraphrased There is a notion in writing called “Murder Your Darlings”. Basically, what it […]
2018 NOVA Open Invitational Bracket Benchmarks
So the 2018 NOVA Open Invitational is coming up, and there’s a bracket at https://challonge.com/NOVAinvite18 . Predictions based on brackets are always interesting, because they both give you the chance to […]
Are Small Countries at a Disadvantage in the ETC?
I’m going to briefly channel the spirit of Adam Abramowicz of The Best General, and talk about 40K via an extended analogy to an obscure, expensive sport that’s dominated by […]