Why is 1850 the most common match?

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**Kilkrazy**

nedTCM wrote:
Brother SRM wrote:
Small enough that you can play in a couple hours, big enough that you get to take some neat toys beyond your core choices.

I think this is the main answer. 1500-2000 was always the sweet spot. For a while, 2000 felt like the main goal, because only at those point levels could you really bring enough basic units plus all the fun choices in your codex. In the past couple years, the game has drifted more and more towards apocalypses hybrid. They made infantry cheaper and easier to kill, while also making vehicles/MC cheaper. The result is bring so many fun toys usually equals cheese zone so I suspect the game will slow but surely creep lower toward the 1500 side now as things continue.

In my view, 1,000 to 1,500 used to be the sweet spot in 4th and 5th editions. It was enough to make a reasonably capable army but still made you think hard about your choices. However the basis of list choosing has been hugely altered by the additional unit types added to the game and allies and formations.

Obviously it's within TO's purview to ban the use of allies and formations, but this does not solve the problems thrown up by Flyers, Fortifications and so on.

**nareik**

I think a big part of it is people always like to squeeze a little more into their army, so points limits keep expanding until the amount of time a game takes becomes impractical (and then, instead of reducing point limit, people start taking more elite armies so they can maintain the points size, but have a more manageable amount of deploys for the game).

**Arbiter_Shade**

As far as I can remember the game was typically played at 2k for awhile during 5th, it was when 6th rolled around and the made a rule that you used double force org at 2k and above that tournaments started to the move to 1850. It was a way to keep the game at roughly the same level without having to deal with the shenanigans of a double force org. Seems silly in modern 40k context, doesn't it?

**Xenomancers**

I prefer 2k. The difference between 1850 and 2000 usually isn't even a new unit - it's just the difference between optimal and sub-optimal load outs on a bunch of squads.

**greyknight12**

1850 was the optimum points value for taudar and pure eldar back in 6th edition. It was (in my opinion) a move by early ITC organizers to favor that list. Since ITC became the dominant tournament format, it stuck.

**ShieldBrother**

Like some other people have said, it's at a level where you can have your sweet deathstar with your psyker and souped up hq with an OP bodyguard, and stI'll have a couple of troops and other options on the board. You're not gonna bring a baneblade to an 1850 match. (Or at least I hope so) tl;Dr it allows people to use what they want without going overboard

**Purifier**

1500 and 2000 were nice round numbers that have both had a lot of attention. As things changed, people found one too small and one too big. 1850 was a good number for reasons stated earlier in this thread, and I suppose 1750 wasn't quite enough.