I have been traveling this week and had limited time to review the UK Masters 2024 lists, so this preview focuses on a few field-wide trends. The 2024 UK Masters starts tomorrow, with a strong field and a range of armies. The field includes many of the region’s top players, each with a distinct list and approach. The pre-tourney data gives a useful snapshot of the tournament meta and key trends to watch.
High-Level Statistics
The 2024 UK Masters features a wide range of factions and player strategies. Here are some highlights from the data:
Faction Breakdown
The field for the 2024 UK Masters features a mix of popular and less-common factions:
- Basileans and Empire of Dust are tied for the lead, with three players each bringing their armies to the competition.
- Forces of the Abyss 2024 and Undead follow closely, each represented by two players.
- The overall HHI is 694, so we have a great spread of factions represented.
Top Units
Certain units dominate the meta this year, showing up frequently in the lists:
- Gargoyles, Mummies, and Revenant Cavalry are the most popular choices, with each appearing in six or more lists.
- Versatile units like Phoenix and Gur Panthers also make a strong showing, highlighting their effectiveness and versatility.
Magic Items
Players have varied approaches to magic item usage:
- The average spend on magic items per list ranges from 25 to 40 points. We continue to see the trend of “boys over toys” when it comes to minimizing magic item investment.
- The lovely j-boots continue their trend of dominating the list every year to provide much-needed terrain mitigation.
Observations and Lists to Watch
Here are a few trends and standout lists to keep an eye on:
- Chris Lynch built out a nasty ice elemental Northern Alliance list. The midrange shooting might catch people out, and he has a host of frostclaws backing it to provide threat projection. It’s a fun list that provides some interesting opportunities.
- Alistair Vowles is taking the Jeff Traishe approach to Abyssal Dwarfs–gargoyle chaff, main line of halfbreeds, and then some halfbreed champions. It’s a powerful list that projects out 64.4 damage all the way to range 16, so if he can pick and choose his combats, this build can do some hurt.
- James Williams has a speedy Order of the Green Lady list (avg speed 9.1). That said, it’s only 11 drops (10 scoring) with 20 unit strength, so there is very little margin for error.
- The most interesting list is Tom Robinson’s Undead: only 8 scoring drops, but he leans hard into the zombie trolls I’m such a fan of. He then brings a slew of non-scoring characters to keep things fun. It’s a very different look than we’ve seen in the past, but if anyone can pull it off, he can.
- Unlike the American scene, the UK Masters isn’t overrun with Dwarf builds (even though CoK was just won by a Dwarf list!). What do we make of the difference in the meta?
For a detailed preview of some of the standout lists, check out Death by Dragons’ video preview here.
Stay tuned for results and analysis after the Masters concludes. Best of luck to all competitors!
