Never Mind the Blog Wars - 11th November 2017



Nevermind the Blog Wars
Saturday, November 11th 2017


Kindly sponsored by:
Discount Wargaming


PLEASE TAKE TIME TO READ THIS RULES PACK BEFORE THE EVENT!

Tickets
Tickets will remain at £17.50 which gives you 3 games of 40K, lunch, free entry into the raffle and a chance to win spot prizes throughout the day. No refunds will be issued for players who drop out after the list submission deadline (see below). This is because prizes will have been purchased and food ordered.

Remember, the tournament is open to non-bloggers and bloggers alike (the name is just a throwback to the origins of the event).

To purchase tickets, please send £17.50 per ticket to alexjbrown58@hotmail.com on PayPal (using the Friends and Family option). Please include your preferred contact email address and the addresses for anyone else you're buying a ticket for. Please also include your dietary requirements (or just say you don't have any).

Event Location
North West Gaming Centre in Stockport. For those not sure where the venue is the address is:

North West Gaming Centre
Hallam Mill,
Hallam Street,
Stockport,
SK2 6PT.

The venue is pretty close to Stockport railway station so it's worth considering that as an option. There's also a Premier Inn across the road for those who want to stay over the night before/after. Room rates increase in price closer to the date so, if you intend to go for this option, I recommend getting it booked early.

Event Schedule
There will be three games of 2.5 hours each. The schedule for the day is as follows:

09:00-09:15 - Registration 
09:30-12.00 - First Game
12.00-12.15 - Painting Competition Setup*
12:15-13.00 - Lunch
13.00-15:30 - Second Game
15:30-15:45 - Break
15:45-18:15 - Third Game
18:15-18:30 - Results & Awards

*During this time, players can set their armies up for judging in the painting competition. Voting will take place over lunch but will not commence until everyone has had chance to display their miniatures. See below for more details of the painting competition categories.


Please try to arrive well before 9.30 to allow registration to be completed and the first game to start on time. Every effort will be made to run to time but unexpected delays can occur.

Prizes (kindly sponsored by Element Games)
There will be awards for: 1st, 2nd & 3rd Place, Last Place, Best Painted Army, Best Painted SC and Best Conversions. These will take the form of store credit with Element Games (the in-house hobby shop) who offer discounted GW products. The prize breakdown is as follows:
  • 1st Place: Certificate & £25 voucher 
  • 2nd Place: Certificate & £15 voucher
  • 3rd Place: Certificate & £10 voucher
  • Last Place: Certificate, £5 voucher & Limited Edition Wooden Spoon!
  • Best Painted Army: Certificate & £15 voucher
  • Best Painted Vehicle or Monster: Certificate & £10 voucher
  • Best Painted Character: Certificate & £10 voucher
  • Best Conversion(s): Certificate & £15 voucher
There will also be a series of spot prizes throughout the day (assuming enough tickets are sold) and, as usual, a generous raffle at the end (regardless the number of tickets sold). The specifics of these prizes will be announced nearer the time when numbers have been confirmed.

Bear in mind that the top raffle prize will be worth more than the tournament prizes combined. This is completely intentional and hopefully encourages people to write their lists with the spirit of the event in mind. Basically, you could bring a horrible list that isn't fun for you or your opponents and win £25 and a crappy certificate or you could bring something a bit different that's more fun, enjoy your day more, piss your opponents off less and win the raffle anyway! 

Refereeing 
I won't be playing this time unless I'm required to stand-in for a last minute cancellation to keep numbers even. This means I'll be free to answer any rules queries you might have during the rounds. I will also identify a second referee on the day.

That being said, I hope this won't be necessary most of the time as it's intended to be a friendly tournament. Please try and use the relevant source material to solve any issues. I'll be happy to provide a final adjudication but this may simply be to ask you to roll off where the rules are unclear.

As ever, please try to contact me in advance with rules queries so that rulings can be made before the event to save time on the day.

Army Selection 
The following restrictions are in place for army selection:
  • Each army can cost upto and including 2,000pts
  • Armies can contain a maximum of three detachments
  • No detachment may be taken more than once per army
  • Units with the Troops battlefield role are limited to three of each type across the entire army. e.g. two units of Grey Hunters in one detachment plus a third unit of Grey Hunters in another
  • All other units are limited to two of each type. For example, you could run two Venerable Dreadnoughts and an Ironclad Dreadnought but not three Venerable Dreadnoughts
  • No unit can have more than 25 total wounds e.g. 25 Termagants or 2 Leman Russ Battle Tanks 
Forge World units and/or armies are not permitted. That being said it's perfectly acceptable to use a FW model as a proxy for a codex unit provided the models are of a similar size and shape. If in doubt please email me with your intended substitutions.

Electronic versions of codices/supplements are acceptable, however, please ensure your tablet is fully charged before the event so that the books can be accessed throughout the day if necessary.

List Submission
Lists must be submitted at least two weeks before the event (October 28th 2017) to allow for checking and resolution of any queries. A reminder email will be sent out.

Modelling & Painting
"Counts as" and proxy armies are welcome as long as it is clear to your opponent and that there is no gaming advantage to be gained from using it. If in doubt please check with me BEFORE the event by email and include pictures if necessary.

Ideally armies should be fully painted but a minimum of three colours and appropriate basing is required. Unpainted models are not acceptable.

Scenery
Scenery will be provided by the venue and will be set up prior to the event. Please note that the scenery will be deliberately set up so that some tables provide more dense cover than others. If you and your opponent are unhappy with the scenery provided, come and find me and it can be re-arranged. Please try to avoid doing this though in order to prevent delays. 

Matchups
The pairings will be random for the first round and then chosen using "Swiss Pairs" in the subsequent two rounds. 

Scenarios
Each mission will use a combination of Maelstrom objectives and Blood Points to determine the winner. Secondary Objectives i.e. First Blood, Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker will NOT be in use a NMTBW.

Tabling your opponent does, of course, give you maximum blood points (automatic 2,000 BP). However, Maelstrom scoring stops as soon as the last enemy model is removed as a casualty (or only units with the Flyer battlefield role remain). You may score any objective cards currently in play as if your turn had ended but no further turns will be played.

Maelstrom Objectives
As per the rulebook mission Cleanse and Capture (p.230) except:
  • No objective may be scored more than once
  • Impossible objectives may be discarded at the start of the game i.e. Scour the Skies if your opponent has no units with the FLY keyword
  • Objectives that become impossible during the game may be discarded using the usual single discard per round or by spending Command Points
Scoring
Each player will be issued a score sheet at the start of the day. Losing it will result in ritual humiliation and general grumbling from myself.

There will be a maximum of 50 Victory Points (VPs) available in each round, 25 for Maelstrom and 25 for Blood Points (80 BP = 1 VP). Maelstrom VPs and Blood Points will be recorded separately but totaled when calculating tournament points (TPs) as follows:
  • 30 TP for a win, with a VP difference of 31 or more
  • 25 TP for a win, with a VP difference of 15-30
  • 20 TP for a win, with a VP difference of 1-15
  • 15 TP for a draw
  • 10 TP for a loss, with a VP difference of 1-15
  • 5 TP for a loss, with a VP difference of 15-30
  • 0 TP for a loss, with a VP difference of 31 or more
Naturally there'll be players who score the same number of tournament points. In these cases I'll separate them by their "goal difference" and then VPs scored.

What do I need to bring? 
You will need: 
  • Your painted army (at least three colours)
  • A tray for moving your army between games (not provided)
  • At least one copy of your army list (preferably typed) with your name and entrant number (your entrant number is the same as in the list below)
  • A copy of the NMTBW Event Pack
  • A copy of the 40K 8th edition rulebook (and FAQ)
  • Your army's codex/index etc. (and relevant FAQs)
  • Dice, templates and gaming aids
  • Super glue/plastic glue for emergency repairs
  • Six objective markers numbered 1-6 (don't need to be anything fancy)
What do we get to eat/drink? 
The venue is providing lunch for us (included in your ticket) and has a bar selling drinks, chocolate, crisps, etc. We will have table service from the bar throughout the day so there's no need to move during games if you're feeling lazy!!

Current Entrants List
Names of those who have purchased tickets will appear here after tickets have gone on sale. There are a maximum of 50 places. Should the event sell out I'll start a list of reserves.

1. Graham Sanders
2. Mark Crombleholme
3. Jason Roberts
4. Jonathan Lyness
5. Nick Thrower 
6. Ryan Kemp
7. Toby Liddiard
8. Martin Baker
9. Ben Houghton 
10. Matt Greenwood
11. Cal Goodger
12. Greg Barber
13. Jack Humberstone
14. Mark Hinson
15. David Irving
16. Keith Duncan
17. Liam Ainscough
18. John Purves
19. Thomas Capper 
20. Luke Capper 
21. Christopher Thomas
22. Ian Plumpton
23. Rob Nathan
24. Dave Weston
25. Kyle McSweeny
26. Tom Kendrick
27. Chris Nettleship 
28. Andrew Foot
29. Matt Calow
30. Jeremy Morris
31. Tess Yoxall
32. Alex Brown

19 comments:

  1. Well, HURRAY for Blog Wars!!! I'm absolutely delighted that my favourite tournament is back on the scene, so thanks to Alex for resurrecting it.

    Obviously I have bought a ticket, and will be bringing my old Tyranids army for the day.

    Graham S.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Delighted to have you on board again mate. Been too long since I've seen you.

      Delete
  2. Looks fun! I'll be buying my ticket later today.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was interested in coming back but your selection rules count out every one of the five armies I have been collecting since 3rd edition.

    Good luck on the day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I highly doubt you can't write a list with any of your armies, especially if you've been collecting solidly for 20+ years but fair enough.

      Everyone is in the same boat so what you think might not be competitive/fun may actually be. Still, it's up to you.

      The alternative is to not bother trying to make the game more fun, remove all restrictions and allow people to bring the nonsense that shows up at standard events.

      Delete
    2. Given some of the ridiculous lists that have been turning up to tournaments so far in 8th, these restrictions seem fair and should keep NMTBW as fun as Blog Wars and Double Trouble have been in 7th.

      Delete
    3. I know it's difficult, probably impossible, coming up with comp to suit everybody.

      My issue, and I suspect i'm not alone, is that I like repeat units (some weird symmetry thing?). So my armies;

      All termie grey knights
      All warrior and monolith necrons
      Devastator and tac spam marines
      Leman Russ tank company
      Baneblade company
      Armoured Lammenter force

      None powerful, no net lists, all scuppered by comp. And then your particular comp doesn't stop the current Imperium Soup character spam which can drain the fun out of the game.

      And you are right I could write a list, but it would compromise the way I collect and play so I won't.

      I hope the day goes well.

      Mat

      Delete
    4. This has always been the nature of comp though. It's difficult to find a way to prevent the filth without inadvertently preventing normal lists. In the past I've judged lists to decide which are too filthy but there's too much personal bias involved. Equally, allowing participants to vote on them isn't impartial.

      If I removed the restrictions you'd be able to run a list and come along but you'd probably have a miserable experience playing 200 conscripts, multiple flyers or something similar.

      No disrespect but you've actually comped yourself in the way you build your armies. The combination of your own "comp" and mine is the problem.

      Delete
    5. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    6. EDIT: Posted with the wrong email account.

      I fail to see how you cannot field 2,000 points using a mixture of the models you have listed. 3 Tac squads with Rhinos is ~750, 2 Dev squads is ~470, 2 HQ is ~ 250.

      That's already 1500, and you have 500 left for an allied detachment. So you're saying you can't fit a Tank Commander and 3 different heavy support choices allied to Marines? Or even a Baneblade on its own?

      The NMTBW restrictions are more than fair, whichever way you look at it, when you consider the aim of the event is for a fun experience.

      Delete
  4. "And you are right I could write a list, but it would compromise the way I collect and play so I won'".

    This answers your first paragraph I think.

    I don't argue that the comp is not fair I just argue it misses the mark a little. It rules out fluffy/spammy (subjective I know) lists like mine but fails to address imperium/chaos character spam/soup.

    But we can take this chat to the forums I suppose and I reiterate that I hope the day is an awesome success. I have attended and enjoyed BW before and hopefully will again but just can't under this comp.

    All the best

    Mat

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think my tone came across a bit wrong in my first reply to you. I apologise for that! I usually let people know I'm on the autistic spectrum, so sometimes I manage to convey the wrong tone (especially on the internet) if I don't think about what I'm saying/writing.

      I just meant to say that in spite of the clause you referenced there, I reckon you could make a pretty decent list out of what you have, and get in a good day of gaming :)

      Delete
  5. Ticket bought. Looking forward to it :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bought my ticket. I hope you all enjoy smashing my army to bits haha!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes! Had gone of tournaments entirely but if BW is back I now have motivation to get my army painted!

    ReplyDelete
  8. What file format do you want army entries in Alex? I can do BattleScribe or write it out in an email...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Had an interesting situation come up today Alex - my opponent drew the maelstrom card that only your warlord can achieve, but the card he drew for it was hold the line, requiring three units to be in his deployment zone. We ruled that he just drew another card instead as his warlord can’t do hold the line on his own. One to bear in mind in case it comes up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is an interesting one. I would probably say to achieve that at least one of the three had to be your Warlord but it's a bit of a strange one.

      Delete
  10. Quick question apologies for the doubling up as I know I have emailed it as well. Can a guard player have one of their superheavys (26 wounds) I know it says 25 but was not sure if you were intensionaly trying to keep them (and the lord of skulls) out or weather it was more aimed at keeping hordes & squadron down. If it helps would happily comp it to 25 wounds?

    Thanks

    Markus

    ReplyDelete

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