Hello and welcome to Start Competing!, our series of tactics guides, tournament primers, and general other useful resources for improving your 40k play. This series is intended for everyone, whether you're brand new to 40k and wondering what everyone means when they keep talking about "the ITC meta", or a reasonably experienced player looking to kick on and take your game up a level, or even a tournament pro who's picking up a new faction and wants a quick primer on the good and the bad.

Start Competing - 10th Edition

Start Competing articles for 10th edition are in the process of being updated in a new format, and you can find the updated ones below. If your faction has not been updated, then check out the Index Review and Faction Focus articles on our 10th edition content guide.

Getting Started with Warhammer 40,000

Two linked articles on how to get started with Warhammer 40,000.

Getting Started with Warhammer 40,000: The Basics Getting Started with Warhammer 40,000: Ham Etiquette 101, or How Not To Be That Player People Talk About On Forums And Such

Getting Better at Warhammer 40,000

Two articles on improving at Warhammer 40,000 by thinking more about competitive play and understanding how probability impacts the game.

Getting Better at Warhammer 40,000: Upping Your Game Getting Better at Warhammer 40,000: Understanding Probability

Start Competing at Warhammer 40,000 - 10th Edition

Start Competing at Warhammer 40,000 - 9th Edition and earlier

The articles below were written for earlier editions of Warhammer 40,000, and may not be entirely correct for 10th edition, but new players may still find the basic concepts useful in how to think about the game.

Start Competing at Warhammer 40,000: An Intro to Tournaments, Part 1 Start Competing at Warhammer 40,000: An Intro to Tournaments, Part 2 Start Competing at Warhammer 40,000: An Intro to Tournaments, Part 3

Start Competing 40k: Practice Part 1, Prepping for your first tournaments Start Competing 40k: Practice Part 2, How to Get the Most Out of Your Practice Games Start Competing 40k: Practice Part 3, Dealing with Success

Writing Better Battle Reports

Lock, Stock, & Two Loaded Dice: Dealing With Cheating

Start Competing: 40K Deployment Tactics - Surviving Turn Zero Start Competing: How to Assess An Opponent's Army Start Competing: Assessing Armies Part 2, Real Battlefield Roles Start Competing: Assessing New Options Start Competing: This Game is Actually Not Bullshit – Playing From Behind and Hanging On When You Are Ahead