Indy GT Circuit: St. Valentines Day Massacre

Another weekend another GT. This weekend is the St. Valentines Day Massacre; oddly enough not even on Valentine’s weekend maybe the massacre came after the actual burning of St. Valentine– Christianity and its martyrs how quaint. This GT is shockingly not on the west coast, but in always sunny Media Pennsylvania!

With the new GW definitive Deff Roller answer will we see the rise of all things Ork? Will Comp bring another tourney down a path of retardation? We will find these and other answers by Sunday, but in the meantime here is a list of the rules and missions you will be seeing at the St. Valentines Day Massacre! Now that I think about the title of the GT makes me think monster truck rally…

RULES:

Judges ruling is final. Judges may use several methods to make a ruling. These include: looking at rules in a codex or the army book, asking for explanations from each opponent, asking other people for opinions or advice, looking at official FAQ’s, or rolling a D6. Judges will do their best to be fair and accurate. Usually we get it right, but sometimes we screw up. When dealing with a judge, be polite, have some patience, answer his questions. Do not repeat your opinion over and over in an attempt to somehow overpower his mental resistance. Very Important: If you have a rules question, ask a judge to look at the situation during the game. 99% of the problems we can fix in a game, we are unable to go back to after the game is finished.

Army Size: 1850 points. You may be under 1850, but may not exceed it.

Game Length: 2.5 hours per game. You should not start a new round if you will not have time to finish it. If games do go over the limit, both players must finish their turns, and will be encouraged to ‘hurry it up so I can get the next round started and you can go eat.’ In an extreme case, I reserve the right to say “You’re done, this is how I score your game”. Please don’t make me do this.

Army lists: All current 40k Codices, and the Blood Angels list from White Dwarf are allowable. You must have an army list, preferable done on army builder, or typed, but hand written is acceptable. The list must show all costs for your armies models, upgrades, etc. It must be in a easily read format, without abreviations, so that your opponent can easily confirm that the army you are playing is the one you have in your list. You should bring enough copies so that if an opponent wants to keep a copy of your list, you have it available. WE WILL NOT HAVE A COPIER, COMPUTER WITH ARMY BUILDER, OR INTERNET ACCESS AVAILABLE IN THE BUNKER. Please remember to bring your lists. It’s your responsibility.

Scoring: Battle Points worth 110, Painting/Appearance worth 20, and Army Compostion worth 20, for a total of 150 possible points.

Note that their is no sports scores. This doesn’t give you leeway to be a jerk, cheat, slowhammer, or anything else that would generally get you docked by your opponent. You’re at a GT, not your garage, and I expect all the big boys to play nice. I reserve the right to enforce that if I have to. In past events, I’ve seen very little that needed my attention, with a couple noteable exceptions. If you do have a problem with an opponent, treat it like a rules dispute, call me over, and explain the situation. Slowhammer, or deliberately slowing down a game is not exceptable. Neither is being a slow player and bringing a horder army. Respect your opponent and speed up your play. If a game only gets 3-4 turns, then somethings wrong.

Battles: Five games worth 22 points each. All games will use scenarios with several objectives. Kill points will not be used to determine the entire outcome of a game, neither will victory points. Objectives in one mission might be a combination of things such as taking an objective, points for killing the enemies HQ choices or troops choices, controlling a movable objective, or preventing an opponent from getting into your deployment zone. Scenarios will be posted after the deadline for army list submission.

Painting: Painting/Appearance is worth 20 points. Painting will be by a checklist, with a team of judges scoring each army. The same judges will score all armies.

Painting Criteria

Basing: (0-2 points)
0 points: Basic sand, flock, gravel
1 point: Drybrushed sand and flock, painted pattern, drybrushed resin.
2 points: Sculpted bases, intricate resin bases, overall army theme. Bases have been painted to a high level, or have multiple levels of drybrushed efects and basing materials for a natural look. Water Effects or sculpted flames. Time has obviously been spent on each model’s base.

Coherency and Theme: (0-3)
+1 point: Army has been properly put together, with no mold lines, excess glue, or gaps in the models.
+1 point: A consistant painting style was used. Colors, techniques, and style draw the army together.
+1 point: Overall or consistant army theme. Models are obviously all in the same army, with theme, basing, colors, or conversions
giving the army an overall look.

Highlighting, Washes, Blending, and overall army quality. (0-7 points possible.)
0 points: Why is this army here? It’s not fully painted. No, primer isn’t a color.
1 point: The army is fully painted. It lacks most highlighting. It might have a wash put over it or be dipped. Might have a couple
models that aren’t really fully painted.
2 points: The army has dry brushing or some highlighting done to it. Possibly just on characters. It’s a decent tabletop army. Much
better
than what you see at the typical gaming store, but still not really ready for taking to a GT. Could be obviously be dipped
and some details done. Could also be a work in progress with just basecoats and a wash. Little fine detail.
3 points: Complex dry brushing with several colors, or highlighting with more than one layer. Use of washes. Some detail work
done on most models. Characters have had highlighting and fine details added. An average army that you see at a large
tournament or GT.
4 points: Several layers of highlighting with smooth transitions. No clumsy drybrushing. Detail work done on most models: teeth, fangs,
claws, skulls, shoulder pads, etc. Characters stand out from the rest of the army. Better than average tournament army. Could
also be an army that would score a 5 or 6, but has some obvious flaws that knock it down some.
5 points: Skilled use of blending, washing, and highlights. Good attention to detail. A high quality tournament army.
6 points: As number 5, but to a higher level. You could see this army could easily compete for best painted at most tournaments.
7 points: Superb level of painting. Every model has had a lot of time and attention. All small detail work has been done on each model.
Character models have had hours of work done on each one and stand out. You could easily see parts of this army entered in
Golden Demon and making at least the first cut. Armies will rarely get this score.

Fine details, free hand, banners. (0-3 points.)
0 points: Little work has been done on details. Maybe simple white on teeth or claws. Army is finished, but not much work has been
done on each model individually.
1 point: Small details painted on most models. Fangs, claws, eys, belt buckles. etc
2 points: Nicely painted banners, icons, eyes, and simple freehand work. Rivets on vehicles stand out, searchlights painted like glass
Shoulderpad icons, vehicle numbers, tatoos or warpaint,
3 points: Incredible detail, extreme freehand on banners, tatoos, or flame effects. Eyes painted on all models. Fangs and teeth have
multiple layers. Wiring, rivets, and damage on vehicles stands out.

Modeling and Conversions (0-3 points)
0 points: Not much done to the army. Very vanilla out of the box. Maybe a couple of small things, but not very generic and minimal..
1 point: Some models have been reposed or had extra equipment added. Character or general has custom work. A vehicle has had
some bits of work done to it. Minor greenstuff work. Head or weapon swaps. Trophy racks, etc.
2 points: Either most of the army has had minor work done to it, or the army has some pieces that have had major conversions done
to them. Custom models, large amounts of good quality sculpting.
3 points: Major conversion work has been done to the army, and it’s very obvious at a glance. Vehicles has extra armor, battle
damage, and unique elements.
Note: Conversion probably is the most wide open of catagories, ecompassing many different things. Subtle variations to high elves or necrons might be harder to pull off than flashy things on Orks or Chaos. Judges may use their discretion to give points in this catagory for a number of things that just don’t fit elsewhere. An example might be a full army of forgeworld Deathkorp models. They aren’t conversions, but a huge amount of time and effort is put into the finicky resin models, and the effort can give the end result a very nice look.

Display Board (0-2 points)
0 points: No display board, or something you just use to move models around with. Does not match your army, little work done.
1 point: A Basic board. Sand gravel and flocking, hopefully matching the army. Does the job, looks good.
2 points: A themed display board with scenic elements that match the army, and adds to the overall effect when displayed with the
army. Even a fabulous display board is only worth 2 points, so these may have a wide range of skill and looks.

Composition: Army composition is worth 20 points. This will be decided by a group of judges prior to the tournament. All players must submit an army list by Feb. 19th at noon. We will be judging army lists friday the 19th, and Sat. the 20th. If we recieve an army list past the deadline, the player will recieve a -10 point modifier to his overall score in the tournament. We also cannot be judging lists the morning of the tournament. If you choose to not submit a list until the morning of the event, in addition to the penalty, you will automatically be placed in the pairings with a minimum comp score. Please don’t be late with army lists. It is especially unfair to other players for someone to turn in an army list after we have posted up scenarios.

Army composition is based upon 1 main criteria: How competitive is your list, in tournament style play, vs. other army lists. A 0-5 score represents very competitive armies such as double nob bikers, Vulkan Thunderhammer Dual Landraider, Mechanized veteran guard, Nidzilla, Dual Lash 9 obliterators, and similar armies. A 15 to 20 score represents weaker armies that will have little chance against many of the armies they face in the tournament. An example of this would be a pure Grey Knights list, or an aspect warrior list with no transports.

Pairings: Matches for round 1 will be based on your comp score. Harder armies will play sarder armies, softer play softer. Pairings will be lined up by comp score, and if several players have the same score, randomized. Pairings for round two will group players into 3 brackets: Those that accomplished the primary objective in the scenario, those that only accomplised the secondary, and those that accomplished neither primary or secondary. Comp scores will then be used to arrange the armies withing the brackets. Rounds 3-5 will all be done the same, with only battle points used to make pairings. If at all possible, we will try to avoid having players from the same club play each other in Rounds 1 and 2. Usually this is possible, sometimes it isn’t.

Scenery: All scenery on the tables will be arranged by judges, and fixed in place. Players may not move, add, or change scenery. The exception, obviously, is adding a crater when a vehicle blows up, as described in the rules. We will have suitable pieces of scenery available when this happens, to mark the area.
Tables will have roughly 20%-25% of their area covered by some type of scenery as described on page 88 of the main rule book. It is recommended that players discuss scenery before the game. If you have a question, ask a judge.

Dice: Electronic dice rollers or RNG apps may not be used. You must bring your own dice to play with. It is each players responsibility to bring a set of fair dice. With the proliferation of ‘custom dice’ with one or more numbers replaced by symbols, there has been concern that some dice do not roll with an equal distribution of numbers. There are a few ways to address this situation. 1) Don’t use one set of dice for your saves, and another for your leadership tests. You may feel they are ‘lucky’, your opponent may wonder though if there isn’t a difference in your dice. Please use all the same type of dice for all your rolls.
2) If you have custom dice, ask you opponent if he minds you using them. If he does, just use other dice. I’ll have dice available in this event. 3.) A player may request that both he and his opponent use the same dice. In that case I’ll supply a set of dice and you both use them. 3) Since you have the option to object to a players dice, don’t scream about it after the game. If you want someone to not use custom dice, or you have ‘a bad feeling’ about someone’s dice, ask for new dice. Don’t complain about it after the game.

Also, please be aware that perfectly random dice can still roll 6’s or 1’s in strange patterns, it’s part of the randomness. I’ve got a masters in stats theory. So someone “Making 16 out of 17 3+ saves” is perfectly fine to me. It’s easily in the realm of possibilities for 80 people playing 5 games each. Someone rolling 40% 6’s in over a hundred rolls isn’t. If I have to, I’ll check a players dice. This means rolling them over 100 times, and isn’t something I like to do, but you can’t show dice are unfair without rolling them enough times to take advantage of the law of large numbers. So use some common sense before claiming someone is cheating with their dice.

– All models in your army must be painted and have finished bases. Models that do not make the minimum standards may not be used. Minimum for an army is the entire model has at least one coat of paint, and there are at least 3 colors used on the model. Primer Coat is not a color. By finished base we mean some type of flock, sand, gravel, or painted pattern. Bringing an unpainted army doesn’t just mean a zero in painting. It also means you don’t play.

-All models must be WYSIWYG, or pretty darn close to it. A clever conversion that skirts the line, but draws applause from your opponent is cool. “My red bolt pistol is a plasma pistol” is not. Your opponent should easily be able to identify your models from your army list, and not be taken by surprise during the game. If your list says ‘hunter killer missle’, you need to have one. If you by searchlights, have them on the model. Grenades, extra cc weapons, and other small items are generally not something you need to model, especially if they are standard equipment listed in the army book. Since most all Chaos Marines have an additional CC weapon, you don’t need to glue little knives on their belts.

-All models must be complete without broken pieces, missing arms or guns. I understand things break in transit and during games. Not worried about that, more about the guys that doesn’t have guns on his devastators or arms on his orks. We’ll have glue and zip kicker availabe for quick repairs.

-Part of WYSIWYG is using the correct models: “I’m using Bloodletters on big rocks for my Bloodcrushers because I don’t want to shell out the cash.” isn’t acceptable. ” I hand sculpted all my models” is probably is fine, assuming some minimum sculpting skill and they look like what they should represent. If you have a question, call, or email with pictures. The main things that would make a model unacceptable are: extreme modeling to take unfair advantage of rules, (“my monstrous creatures are crawling which why they are all only 1/2″ high”, “My battlewagon is 24″ wide so I can pivot it to get an additional 8″ of movement to unload my boys and assault first turn”, ) or very confusing to your opponent. (“Dryads are bloodletters, ghouls are horrors, and the giant is my bloodthirster, don’t mind the square bases.”).

-It’s a GW sponsored tournament. A preponderance of your army should be GW models, or converted using GW bitz.

-Base size: Models should be on the proper size base, compared to the newest models of the same type. All terminators should be on 40mm, all bloodcurshers should be on 60mm round, etc. Monstrous creatures with 6 wounds from the new Tyranid Codex should be on a minimum 60mm base, or the base the trygon comes on. If you are totally against rebasing your army, bring some blue tack and stick them on the correct size base for this tournament.

Tournament FAQ

Many people have been asking specific questions about rules, and others have been asking if we will be using any FAQ’s such as INAT. After many hours of discussion, we are going with the following:

All GW FAQ’s and Errata will be used. Check the GW website for these.

We will be using the INAT FAQ, with a few exceptions, as a guideline for rules not covered by GW, or where GW rules are interpreted differently by different people. Specific rulings about specific situations occurring in games will still use the TO’s verdict as the final say in all matters.

Exceptions to the INAT FAQ:

1) Hive Commander rule that gives a Tyranid army +1 bonus to reserve rolls may be used even if the Tyrant is not on the table. In a similar way, Imperial Advisors (astropath, and officer of the fleet) will still grant their bonuses when not on the table.

2) When a deepstriking unit is making the initital placement of a model, before scatter is rolled, it may not be place in impassable terrain, or over enemy models. This includes Mawlocs and Monoliths. (And to avoid the immediate question, yes, spore mines may be placed on top of enemy models.)

3) If a Hive Tyrant joins a unit of Tyrant Guard, and the unit is engaged in close combat, then for purposes of the Tyrant putting attacks on the enemy unit, and the enemy unit putting attacks on the Tyrant, treat the Tyrant as an Independent Character. (IE, models can pick out the Tyrant if he is in base to base with those models, and the Tyrant must be in base to base with enemy to put attacks on the enemy unit.)

4) The Spirit Leech ability from the Doom of Malanti does not affect units embarked inside of vehicles.

5) Valkyries: To shoot at a Valkyrie, measure to any point on it’s hull. Wings and Tail sections are ignored. The Valkyrie measures it’s own shooting and LOS from it’s weapons mounts, as normal for vehicles. Use the base of the model for assaulting the valkyrie, and models embark/disembark to the base. If the model is immobilized, use the base as it’s footprint, rather than placing the model on the table.

Now for the missions

Mission 1: Scorched Earth

(This mission takes inspiration from the new Battle Missions book, page 14)

Setup: Before the game starts, players will need to place 5 markers on the table, as detailed in ‘Seize Ground’ mission on page 91. Ignore the part about d3+2 markers, and use 5 markers.

Game length: Normal, as per the rulebook. (Random 5-7 rounds)

Deployment: Spearhead, page 93.
(Please note, that the first player picks a long table edge, and deploys his forces into one of the quarters adjacent to that table edge. Reserves may move onto the board from anywhere along his long table edge, not just from the portion in his deployment zone.)

Special Rules: All pieces of area terrain, and ruined buildings, are either on fire, or a smoking ruin. After placing objective markers, roll a D6 for each piece of area terrain, or ruins (model could not be placed in the terrain, you do not have to roll for it.) and refer to the following table:

1-3 The terrain is on fire and burning. Count the terrain as dangerous.
4-6 The terrain is a smoking ruin. Models inside the terrain may add +1 to any cover saves.
(If a model is in terrain, and does not have a cover save, it does not gain a bonus at all.)

All other rules such as infiltrate, reserves, seize the initiative, are used.

Scoring:

Primary Objective: Control more markers than your opponent.
(10 points. In the case of a tie, neither player scores points.)

Secondary Objective: Score more kill points than your opponent.
(7 points.)

Tertiary Objective: Destroy all of your opponents HQ choices.
(4 points.)

Bonus Point: Have one of your HQ choices in the enemy deployment zone.

Mission 2: Death to my Enemies!!

I don’t care how many of you milksops die out there. Casualties don’t matter. I won’t shed a tear if everyone on this Emperor forsaken planet dies. I only care about stopping the bugs for one more day. “
Colonel Jameson of the 11th planetary brigade, Lee’s World

Setup: Use the Pitched Battle setup on page 92

Deployment: As Pitched Battle

Special Rules: All normal rules are used (infiltrate, seize the initiative, reserves, etc)

Game Length: 6 Turns

Scoring:

Primary Objective: There is only one objective. Kill the enemy. It is possible for both players to score next to nothing, or for both to achieve a near perfect score.

Scoring: Battle points are determined by the number of victory points scored in the game. Victory Points (VP), are equal to the points cost of the unit destroyed, as follows:
-Wounded Independent characters give half their victory points.
-Damaged Vehicles give half of their victory points. (immobilized or weapon destroyed)
-Immobilized vehicles with no weapons left count as destroyed for purposes of VP.
-Units taken below half, or below half, of their starting wounds, give half VP.

Victory Points Tournament Score

350 to 500 2 points
501 to 650 4 points
651 to 800 6 points
801 to 950 8 points
951 to 1100 10 points
1101 to 1250 12 points
1251 to 1400 14 points
1401 to 1550 16 points
1551 to 1700 18 points
1701 to 1850 20 points

Bonus Point: Have an HQ choice left at the end of the game. Someone has to accept a medal, after all.

Mission 3: 40k Football

(A sacred relic of Saint Lombardi has been found. Legend claims that if the inflated pigskin is placed behind enemy lines, victory will be ours! So get out there, and win one for the Emperor!)

Setup: One marker in the exact center of the table.

Deployment: Pitched Battle, as per the rulebook, page 92.

Special Rules: Onside Kick – Seize the initiative will happen on a 5-6.

Game Length: Normal Game Length. (Random 5-7 turns.)

Scoring:

Primary Objective: Place an objective marker in the center of the table at the beginning of the game. This is represented by a small round base. This is the ‘football.’ Any infantry unit can pick up the football. The unit must not be in a transport. To pick up the football, the unit must have one of its models in base to base contact with the football at the end of the movement phase. They will carry the football until the unit is destroyed, flee, embark into a transport, go to ground or get pinned. If any of these things happens, the unit has ‘fumbled’ the football. The opposing player may immediately place the football within 2” of the unit that lost the ball, not in impassable terrain. If the unit was destroyed, it is placed within 2” of the last model killed. If the unit was destroyed in hand to hand, one of the units that destroyed them may immediately claim control. At the end of the game the side with the football wins the primary objective. If no one side has the ball at the end of the game neither side gets the points for this objective.
(10 points)

Secondary Objective: Kill anyone that touches the ball! Destroy all of your opponents infantry.
(7 points)

Tertiary Objective: Sack the Quarterback! Destroy all of the enemies HQ choices.
(4 points)

Bonus Point: Touchdown! At some point in the game, one of your units controlling the ball had at least one model in the enemies deployment zone.

Mission 4: Dawn Raid

(Catching the enemy by surprise before he had his morning coffee was a great idea, unfortunately, he was thinking the same thing.) This mission takes some inspiration from the ‘Dawn Raid’ mission on page 26 of the new Battle Missions book.

Setup: Divide the table into quarters. Place an objective marker in the center of the board, and the center of each table quarter. Players each roll a d6, with the highest rolling player choosing a table quarter. The second player will deploy in the table quarter diagonally across from the first player. The table edge for each player will be the portions of the long and short table edges that form part of his deployment zone. The portion of table edge between the two players deployment zones should be marked as ‘right’ and ‘left’ for purposes of outflanking units.

Deployment: The first player may deploy any of his fast attack choices, and troops choices mounted in dedicated transports. Any of these units that he chooses not to deploy will be held in reserve. All other units will be held in reserve as well.

Special Rules: Night fighting rules are used on turn 1. At the end of turn 1, roll a d6 and on a 4+ night fighting will be used for turn 2 as well. Night fighting is not used in turn 3 on.
All other rules such as reserves, outflanking, infiltrate, etc are used.

Game Length: at the end of turn 6, roll a dice. On a 4+ play a 7th turn, otherwise, the game ends on 6 turns.

Scoring:

Primary Objective: Control the objective marker in your opponents deployment zone.
(10 points)

Secondary Objective: Control both objective markers in the neutral table quarters ( The ones that neither you or your opponent are deploying in.)
(7 points)

Tertiary Objective: Destroy all of your opponents fast attack choices. If you’re opponent did not field any fast attack choices, you may meet this objective by destroying all of their troop choices that have dedicated vehicles. If they have no troops with dedicated vehicles, you gain it for destroying all their HQ choices.
(4 points)

Bonus Point: Have a fast attack choice within 6” of the objective marker in your opponents deployment zone at the end of the game.

Mission 5: Annihilation

(Destroy the enemy, steal his stuff, and someone keep the beer back at camp safe.)

Setup: This mission uses the ‘Capture and Control’ and ‘Pitched Battle’ rules on page 91 and 92. (Each person has one objective, setup along the long table edges.)

Deployment: Pitched Battle, page 92

Special Rules: All rules such as infiltrate, seize the initiative, reserves, outflanking, etc are used.

Game Length: Standard Game Length as on page 90. (Random game length of 5-7 turns.)

Scoring:

Primary Objective: Control the objective marker in your opponents deployment zone.
Contesting the objective is worth 5 points.
(10 points)

Secondary Objective: Kill points. The player with the most Kill points, as described in the book,
on page 91
(7 points)

Tertiary Objective: Retain control of your own objective point.
(4 points)

Bonus Point: Have an HQ choice within 6” of the objective marker in your opponents deployment zone.

Hope to get results as they happen, I think though this organizer has some grudge against me for past lives transgressions.

Questions for Comment:

1. What do you think the idea of panel of comp judges for your army?
2. How do the missions stack up in your mind?
3. You think rules (Deff Rollers) changes so close to a tourney should be allowed in?