Tourney Primer

Here's a cut/paste from something i wrote on our club forum for those of us who are going to a tournament soon. I felt that they needed to know what to expect and what i expect from fresher members so our club isnt given a bad name hehe.

Share your thoughts and experiences on tourney play below. Also note this is all about soft score tournies, so comp and sports and paint all part and parcel of the experience. If you want Ard'Boyz than meet me for some Black Ops over XBL hehe.


This is gonna be a primer for everyone who is goin to the tourney in January. We have a lot of players goin up from all skill levels of playing and painting and many of you don’t have experience in a tourney scene like this one. So I’d thought id put some things out there for people to consider and take seriously just to ensure you get what you want out of this trip.
Now there’s two reasons people go to these events so I will cover abit of those and than cover some universal things that everyone should know going into this. This is by no means official as its just some thoughts I’ve accumulated from going to regularly run events for over 5 years now.

To Win: this sounds weird at first cause ya know, everyone wants to win. Everyone goes in thinkin their coming home with an award and tales of glory but the fact of the matter is that your lookin at only about half the field if not less at big events are actually capable of serious play.
-These are the types of folks who prolly have played for a long period of time, grasp the rules as a whole, have concepts of what works and what doesn’t and just are generally better players than the majority of us. Now the winners don’t necessarily have to be bad people, with hard ass lists that have no fun, although there will be these players there. But this will be your top 10’s, upper tier top percent players and hopefully nice enough guys.
To Have Fun: this is what generally brings most people out to these events, have fun, meet new players, have a good time etc. This is your general body of 40k player, the person that still puts some time into painting so their models look nice, play once and awhile within a group and generally loves the game as a whole. Most of the time these players will have ‘softer’ lists and not play as hard.
-Usually these games will feel naturaly to you guys as it will be the closest you get to our normal type of gaming. The other nice thing is if they use a classic Swedish rules system than the winers play winners and the losers playing losers than most of the field of ‘winners’ will be busy with themselves after the first round leaving everyone else to have a good time.

So your gonna deffinatly have a few types of players up there, but there are a lot of things people need to think about and abide by for going into these events. These ensure that both you and your opponents get the most out of their games and feel like they got their monies worth.

Rules: this seems arbituary but this is the most important thing. You need to know the rules of the game, im not talkin rules lawyering but a general grasp on the rules as a whole. This goes double as you need to know your rules and the general rules of the game. Now no matter how much you know or think you know you’ll still find yourself in certain situations where there will be a dispute and the more you know the easier it will be to resolve them.

Mini-Presentation: this is usually the biggest change for folks as it’s not as important on the club/friends house level. Most real tournies require fully painted, based and WSYWIG armies. This means you need to have at least 3 colors on the model, the round bases under them painted and flocked and most importantly WSYWIG. (what you see is what you get)
-bPainting is self explanatory, basing a model can be a bit trickier but a quick Google search will get you all sorts of ideas on what you want. Finally if your models are armed with certain weapons or options than it is critical that they are represented on the model. This saves time and confusion among players and usually if models are not WSYWIG than they will not be allowed to be used or some penalty on the player points wise.

Conduct: this is as important as rules knowledge, if not more so as it not only reflects on you but on our club as a whole. I’m gonna break this down even further into the most important points, at least in my opinion.
-Outlook- this covers how you deal with the ups and downs of the game and how you interact with your opponent. So yes you can be excited when things go your way, but not so much that it’s over the top or viewed in any way negative by your opponent. On the flip side it also means how you deal with downs of the game. Your dice not going well, plans falling through you can’t be sighing or making excuses or getting mad. Not only will this reflect on you and how your opponent scores your conduct but the mind gets clouded and you will not be able to come back from the grasp of defeat. Plus severe bad behavior will get people kicked out of the event and that makes us all look bad.
-Outgoing- talk to your opponent before and after the game. Try and get to know them, what they play, what else they like, who they are etc etc. Abit of small talk will make the game go by so much better and make any disagreements easier to manage. Not saying be annoying or over-bearing but just nice to one another. Basically how you would like to be treated in return.
-Resolution– now your going to forget to do things, everyone does it at some point. Usually this happens at the worst times and seems to mean the way the game will swing. (at least at the time) Now the trick is to choose what you let go and what you stand firm on. I find the eye for an eye works well, if your opponent gives a little, you do the same and vice/versa. Your overall relationship with your opponent helps a lot with this. If you two have a good report than he will understand when you don’t let him make that move off-phase because it will affect your game negatively.
-Stoic– does anyone like being bullied? Of course you don’t, no one does. So you can’t play that way either. This means no pressuring for faster play, forcing your opponent to forget things by moving them through their phases etc etc. No telling them what to do, what models they can take off from wounds no ‘telling’ in general. By all means suggest or help along but never force or pressure them. Also you cannot touch their models unless you ask first or they ask you. This is a big no-no that if brought up by an opponent to an organizer will get you booted prolly automatically. Again making all of us look bad.

I think that pretty much covers the big stuff for you guys to know and think about. Tournaments like these are very serious business and should be treated as such. Because it’s in that seriousness that everyone will have fun and feel like their not waisting their time and money.