For many years, tournament organizers have created additional rules, objectives, and army composition requirements (colloquially known as ‘comps,’ which is how we’ll refer to them going forward in this article) for their wargame systems of choice. These amendments to gameplay have generally been done with the intent to promote either internal game balance, unique new ways of list building, or to advance a narrative theme. For some, the very concept of ‘comp’ is anathema to their gaming existence and even suggesting it brings to mind their darkest fears and causes them to tear at their clothes and gnash their teeth.
Luckily I am not one of those people. My friends, before we go any further I need you all to know that I love comps, just about all of them if they make any sense, and am therefore incredibly biased. No matter how wild or complex, I love the little extra puzzle they create to try to solve and the narrative they create as I try to adjust my concepts of what is ‘good’ and ‘balanced’ for one of my armies. While I can understand that for some, comps take away from the core spirit of the game or perhaps make the game harder for a company like Games Workshop to balance if they are unable to get solid data, none of that takes away from the enjoyment I get as I sit down with my favorite list builder or notepad and begin to play with the new concepts.
Prior to the creation of the General’s Handbook for Age of Sigmar and Mission Packs for Warhammer 40k, both of Games Workshop’s pillar games saw significant forms of community comp. In 40k, for example, we had the ITC and a number of other circuits/beloved events that created their own mission packs to adjust how the game was played from the provided missions over multiple editions. In some cases, these organizations even had extensive independent FAQs that adjusted how armies played ‘out of the box’.
Warhammer Fantasy Battle events were infamous for their comps throughout 6th, 7th, and 8th editions (and I am sure even further back in their history; I will only speak to my experience with them). These comps were as varied in their impact as they were in their complexity. Some events added small tweaks to Force Org charts and Army Composition rules or allowed seemingly weaker factions to play with more points than their stronger compatriots. Factions like Tomb Kings and Beastmen in 8th edition would often get a 200+ point boost to offset their more lacklustre options. Other comps, like Swedish Tournament Comp, went so far as to assign a separate point system to items, units, or particularly potent combos that would give you a handicap in your games the further you delved into the sweatier lists you could build. Generally, because Games Workshop only had a limited interest in organized play back in those days, comps allowed tournament organizers to do what they felt would best protect their players’ fun.
Now here we are, deep into The Old World with all major armies released, and we are beginning to see a real call for more complex comps as the rules of the game are pushed to their brink and the more potentially ‘unbalanced’ aspects are taken to their extremes. Most events had already introduced ‘soft’ comps of one kind or another going back to the opening months of the game. Games Workshop themselves implemented a ‘Rule of 3’ for their Warhammer World events early in the edition and their Matched Play Guide further limited the base army composition rules in their various books. But what impact have these updates actually had? Do these changes correct anything or do they open up further issues? That’s always the question you should ask when you consider running a comp of any kind. We’ve known for some time that certain Ridden Monster builds have been particularly toxic for the game, so having a 500 point limit in a 2000 point game has had a strong impact on a few things from the get go. Characters on dragons become very bare bones for Warriors of Chaos for example. But this change had no impact on armies like Tomb Kings or Cathay whose most powerful characters fall well shy of this mark. Limiting level 4 wizards was a bit of a bane for some armies at first but the severe changes to magic made the impact of that change pretty moot.
The general malaise around Cathay’s strong performances since their release has caused a number of larger tournament organizations to take balancing the game to more and more extremes while we await a potential major FAQ in January. So where is the community at? What comps have begun to stand out? Let’s take a gander at what’s evolved in the wake of this lull in the game.
Square Based Beginnings
As previously mentioned, some comps are simple, like my cousin David who thought the finger bowls provided at his wedding were dip for his biscuits. There is a delicate balance when it comes to managing the game for players and keeping it accessible to a wider audience that often leaves more casual tournament goers at a bit of a loss. The Old World is an extremely complicated game as it is and layering additional rules and restrictions on its armies can be a bit too much for some people. Enter the new(ish) Square Based comp. Previously known for their Renegade Faction rules pack that adjusted army rules for Legacy factions to try to make them a little more balanced versus their supported counterparts, the Square Based team has also built their own comp system for testing and it has already seen some use at events (like the recent Cali Cup).
Square Based is an extremely basic comp system meant to try to balance the Old World’s factions not so much with specific nerfs or buffs to particular units or armies but simply by giving the factions that are perceived to be the weakest access to more toys. As such, in a standard 2000 point event, stronger armies like Cathay or Bretonnia see no changes and simply bring their normal 2000 point list, while armies that have struggled, like say the Nomadic Waagh or Dwarfen Mountain Holds, can bring 2200-2600 points to the same tournament. Factions provided with this handicap then apply a modifier to the unit costs so as not to give up too many extra battle points (an army running with 2400 points, for example effectively gives up 83% of their actual points). While I’m sure not everyone would agree with just what factions are placed in what tiers, and some people would complain about the extra bit of math involved, there is something to say for not having to remember any additional rules.
German Complex
Where comps like Square Based go wide and try to flatten the curve with a sledgehammer, many others choose a path of a thousand cuts. Created and hosted by LD3 over the last year with significant input from different Europeans organizers and players, GermanComp (see the latest copy here) is a complete rebuild of the game for competitive play with tiers of adjustments you can apply to your events based on your preferences.
Currently, Germancomp is comprised of a nine page document split into three tiers as well as a community FAQ that tries to address some of the gray areas that still exist in the game. Tournament organizers/players that wish to adopt the comp may choose any combination of the tiers in the document, though the creators recommend using the entire package. The first tier (or pillar as they call it) is the Restriction pack, which applies extra army composition restrictions to factions to keep the more powerful combinations in armies in check. Examples here include limiting all factions to 4 Flyer units (including characters) and 4 war machine units in their lists, limiting the amount of Outriders in City State of Nuln lists, minimizing Mortis Engines, and applying extra restrictions to units like ridden dragons and characters in Sky Lanterns. This is probably the most consequential part of the comp as it completely changes the top end builds in the game and leads to some interesting decision making during list creation.
The second pillar is the ‘Gamechanger Pack’. This section is listed as “Fixing Game Problems and Rules Holes”, though it also does a fair amount of work through unit option upgrades and adjustments. This pack states that all changes in the ‘Renegade Pack’ from Square Based are in effect in Germancomp (further adding to the extent of this comp’s departure from the core rules) and then adds effects like: All Ogres gain MR(-1) and Regeneration(6+), all infantry (including Monstrous Infantry) gain access to Press of Battle, and Skaven gaining access to a single Daemon Prince (of Nurgle) if they so desire. There are some really interesting choices in this part of the pack that really tickle the list engineers and combo goblins that hide in my brain.
Finally, the ‘Pointed Pack’ is all about stats and unit point costs. This part of Germancomp adjusts the point costs for a whole swathe of unit upgrades available to armies across the scope of the game and gives a few weaker units a facelift with stat line adjustments (like the poor Cygor and Shaggoth going up to Toughness 6). While perhaps not as impactful as the other pillars in the book, I would argue that none of these changes are surprising and most are probably tame by some players’ standards. Lesser used units like Saurus Warriors, State Troops, and Sea Guard (and a plethora of others) gaining free command squads for example are small quality of life improvements that can go a long way towards making them usable.
As someone who played a lot of Swedish tournament comp and other pretty extensive restrictions in 7th and 8th edition WHFB, Germancomp is a really intriguing set of adjustments to a game I already love. While the full gamut of changes are probably a bit much for your average garage game of the Old World and not something I want to use all the time, if you’re interested in spicing up your next event or tabletop get together I highly recommend you at least give it a gander if you’re up for the challenge.
Aussie Aussie Aussie
Where Square Based goes broad and Germancomp goes deep, Aussiecomp (see it here), created by a bunch of real bogans (the actually astute players behind Pashhammer) in the deep recesses of Australia, does a little bit of both. In Aussiecomp a select group of legacy factions and armies of infamy are provided with an additional 10% in points for their army lists (Ogre Kingdoms, Wood Elves of all varieties, and Troll Horde for example), while other like Skaven, Lizardmen, and Daemons gain an additional 15%. Additionally, no unit in an army list may make up more than 25% of an army’s points or more than 25% of the army’s total unit strength and further limitations are applied to characters (33% of your army instead of 50) and Flyers.
While far less complex and nuanced than Germancomp, the changes Aussiecomp suggests address many of the same imbalances the other comps have also seen in their own way and is actually a nice middle ground for people looking to spice up their experiences.
SPC (Selection Point Comp)
Last up, if you’re someone looking for a more unique take on a comp system I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about SPC (found here). SPC harkens back to the old days of Warhammer comp systems. It eschews adjusting unit rules or providing ‘bonus points’ to poorer factions in favor of a balancing secondary ‘selection point’ system. This system gives players a pool of ‘Selection points’ meant to limit the stronger things found in their army compositions. In this format a tournament organizer or 2 players looking for a game can choose a limit to how many ‘selection points’ any army list can have and get a relative feel for their power levels that way. The creators of SPC recommend using a number between 10 (for ‘softer’ lists) and 20 (for more competitive ‘harder’ ones).
The SPC method isn’t anything new and has been around for a while in WHFB and other gaming systems. In this case list designers are penalized for things like taking multiples of the same unit (generally more than 3 will begin to cost you, though stronger faction units like Dragons, Pegasi, Wizards, and named characters start to rack up points earlier), taking specific magic items (like say the Skull Staff for Vampire Counts, or Infernal Pupper for Warriors of Chaos), or running units with specifically powerful special rules like Arise!. This form of game balancing has a lot of pros, particularly in how open it allows a player to still be in their list design compared to some other systems. The major con, especially at a tournament level, is the extra bookkeeping it requires from TOs and judges as the overlapping point ‘penalties’ can become complex even for experienced players.
What Comes Next?
The wonderful thing about the Old World, as it is with any one of the innumerable hobbies my ADHD brain has glomped onto over the years, is how incredible its core player base is and what I think sets them apart is how passionate they are about making the game better regardless of what is going on with its development. We’ve been blessed with some great FAQs and game updates for the Old World that I don’t think many of us old guard used to what happened in previous editions were expecting, and I’m excited for what is to come in the new year. That said, the game has been in a weird place for some of us in the months after the release of the Matched Play Guide and big FAQ. Having communities come up with their own adjustments to keep the interest alive in the game is a truly cool thing in my opinion, even if the stats head inside me hates what it means for gaining an exact picture of what is going on. So, if you’re feeling a little bored with the game, or simply wish to see what folks around the world are doing with it, why not slip into one of the above comps and see what it does for your favorite fantasy factions?
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
