After a few weeks off looks like we got our next GT. This one is taking place in the little piece of American history known as the Alamo (San Antonio). This is the 40k GT for this group (known for great Fantasy events) so expect the beer to flow early as these boys know how to get down.

This is standard 5 game event over two days. As for the scoring here is a break down.

Players can score a maximum of 270 points, broken down as follows:

  1. Battle Points 100
  2. Sportsmanship points 80
  3. Army points 80
  4. Alamo Points 10

Sportsmanship once again plays an important role in determining total scores. Army points are paint score and comp rolled into one.  Alamo points has everyone start out with the full 10 and depending on your general behavior can be taken away.

Sportsmanship is instituted a bit different from other events. Here take a look.

Sports (0-80)

Sportsmanship is about having a good game. There are a thousand things that can make a game good or bad, and no one can list them all. It is very hard to determine how good or how bad a game was. It’s very subjective and different to everyone. However, it is easy to tell if a game was good or bad and pretty much everyone can agree on it, so for the Alamo GT, sportsmanship will focus on if the game was good or bad.

BASE POINTS

We assume that everyone coming to the Alamo 40K Grand Tournament will be a good sport and because the average score is 64, we will give them those 64 points on credit because we think they will keep them.

Start with   64

After each game the players will have one question on the score sheet which asks, “Did your opponent’s behavior make this a bad game for you?” Here are the criteria to apply:

  1. Did the opponent play sloppily (sloppy measuring, sloppy movement)?
  2. Did the opponent appear to deliberately slow play to avoid finishing the game?
  3. Was your opponent prepared (on time, had a copy of his list for you, etc.)?
  4. Was your opponent open with die rolls—i.e. did he clearly announce what rolls were for, did he allow you to see all dice results before picking them up, etc.
  5. Did the opponent remain consistent in his rules interpretations—i.e. did he interpret a rule one way when it worked in his favor, and another way when it did not work in his favor?
  6. Did the opponent treat you with respect? He doesn’t have to be your best buddy, but can’t be a total asshat either.

This list is not exhaustive, but please reserve bad game votes for people who really deserve it. Players who give or receive 3 or more bad game votes may (or may not) be asked in a friendly manner by a judge for some explanation of the circumstances.

If someone receives a bad game vote then they will have to give back some of those points given on credit.

1 bad game    -4
2 bad games   -8
3 bad games   -16
4 bad games   -32
5 bad games   -64

These are not cumulative modifiers. Only the lowest applicable modifier will be applied. Unlike a simple linear system, each vote is not worth the same. Everyone might have one bad game. But when someone is rude over 4 games there is something going on and it should cost them more, and under our scoring system it will cost them much more.

No one should be worried about being dinged out of spite which is so prevalent in other systems because this system focuses on the consensus of all five of ones opponents. While one bad vote will cost you points it cannot not knock you out of the running because of its small worth. However, when someone scores poorly over several games it is usually their own fault and they deserve what they get.

RED CARD – Judges will be empowered to hand out a Red Card to any player who acts in an egregious manner that is unbecoming to an INDY GT. Each Red Card will act as an EXTRA bad game mark.

BEST SPORT VOTE POINTS

At the end of the tournament everyone shall vote for their best opponent. The question will read, “I certify that ______ provided me with the best game of the weekend.” As with bad game votes, the value of each best game vote goes up dramatically the more of them you get:

1 best game    1
2 best games   2
3 best games   4
4 best games   8
5 best games   16

The remaining Base Points (after bad game deductions) will be added to the Best Sport Votes to determine the total sportsmanship points.

This puts a lot of pressure on players to police themselves unless the judges are present enough among the tables to enforce giving out red cards

Adding some flavor, the Alamo GT has great names for their awards…

Jim Bowie Award: Battle points + Sportsmanship points + Army Points + Alamo Points
Jim Bowie had it all—well dressed, cool and hard. He was an all around awesome dude with a wicked knife.
Davy Crockett Award: Total Sportsmanship points
Everybody loves Davy Crockett.
Santa Anna Award: Total Battle points
Gen. Santa Anna brought a totally broken army list to the original Alamo and tabled the Texians by the bottom of turn 2.
Col. William B. Travis Award: Total Painting points (exclusive of fluff bunny)
Let’s face it, Travis was a pretty boy.
Seguin’s Cavalry Company award: Total Fluff Bunny Points
Brought a knife to a gun fight.
REMEMBER THE ALAMO Award: Player’s Choice Votes
The army everyone will remember…

Alamo GT  provides a great blue print for missions at a competitive event. They don’t make complicated scenarios the and they represent an almost ideal combination of mission types you can find in the basic rule book. As well, the secondary objectives are not list breaking and do what secondary objectives should only do: break ties. Here is how Battle points work and the scenario PDF.

Battle Points (20-100)

Every participant will be able to earn a maximum of 20 Battle points per game:

Win        16
Loss       4
Tie        8

Objective  4

Victory conditions will be defined in the scenario, and/or in the main rulebook, as applicable. In addition to winning each game, players will be able to score 4 additional battle points by achieving the objective defined in the scenario. Only one player will be able to achieve the objective in each game.

Alamo-Scenarios

I should get results as soon as they are made available. I have an intrepid Goatboy reporter on the ground playing at the event and I hope he won’t be too distracted from playing or drinking.

If you want more information about this event visit their site at http://www.alamogt40k.com/