[bkde]

Hey everyone, I'm thinking of hosting a small 500pts tournament for a small group of gaming friends.

We started out as a group of 3 people and have gradually grown to a size of 10. Some of the players are just starting out, so we want to keep the points levels low as well as hold an event that will serve as an icebreaker.

I'm more concerned about the logistics of the event, and was wondering if anyone had any advice or tips to suggest. We do have a space to rent for free (benefits of being a student) which should provide enough table space to hold 4-5 games simultaneously on 4x4 spaces. Keep in mind though, because we are not a club and just a small group of friends, we do not have membership fees or any other cash sources to draw from for funds.

Plan is to have each player play 3 games with a hour and a half time limit, then have overall winner determined by points (most games will be objective based, or players will score points for varying mission goals) and maybe some bonus points awarded if all the models are painted (enough to encourage people to play with painted figs, but not penalize them hard if they don't have one or two models done). Tables will be pre set-up with terrain (which may be an issue as we currently do not have a lot of it, thinking about having each member either contribute a piece of scratch built terrain to enter the tourney or hosting a short terrain making night).

Each game will follow a pre-determined mission:

• 1st game will be a king of the hill style take and hold center objective or possibly a relic style game
• 2nd game will be a plain kill the enemy style game, points awarded for wiping out the opposing force
• 3rd game will be objective based each player with one objective and maybe a centre objective, score 1 point for yours, 2 if you hold the centre, and 3 if you hold the enemies, etc

Due to the small points value, there will also be some modifications to the force org chart:

• Must include one HQ choice
• Must include one unit of troops
• Army must be at least 30% troops
• No AV14
• No flyers

Oh, and of course participants will be encouraged to bring some food, liquor, etc.

If anyone has any thoughts or comments regarding this set-up as to how to make the event flow as smoothly as possible, tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Scoutfox]

For 500 point games you might also not want to let people take units with 2+ armor, like the old combat patrol rules. Google them and I'm sure they will pop up.

You might not have any money backing but see if each person can put $5 in the pot, or maybe a beer if you are all 21. Get so e raffle tickets from Walmart then give one ticket to each person that has a painted army and another for bringing in terrain. Split the money/beer in half, with half of it going towards 1st and ,abbé 2nd place while the remainder goes to one of the randomly chosen raffle tickets.

You could offer another ticket for people that produce fluff for their armies or for heavily converted ones too. In any case it encourages people to do all aspects of the hobby, but doesn't penalize straight up gamers who are there to win.

 

[bkde]

For 500 point games you might also not want to let people take units with 2+ armor, like the old combat patrol rules. Google them and I'm sure they will pop up

I've came across this rule before in a lot of 500pt rulings. However, I've chosen to waive it for one very important reason: I'm playing Sisters of Battle, and really want an excuse to paint up St. Celestine... haha. Lil' selfish but I've also taken on the decision to organize this small tournament to help spurr me on to painting some sisters.

maybe a beer if you are all 21

Oh the joys of living in Canada and being able to drink legally at 18.

I like the money pot idea. The other thing I've been toying around with is having everyone bring a piece of terrain (doesn't have to be extravagant, although that may not be fair to those people who are only just getting back into the hobby or won't have the time to make up a terrain piece before the tournament).

May have to toy around with the money pot/ticket idea. Thanks!

 

[Polaria]

AV14 limitation is all good, but you might want to change the Flier limitation to "maximum one flier or flying monstrous creature". On 4x4 table fliers are actually pretty damn bad, but someone might want to bring one. Plus at 500 points you can't allow FMCs if you don't allow Fliers.

 

[bkde]

What are FMCs?

 

[Polaria]

What are FMCs?

Flying Monstrous Creatures. Like Daemon Princes with Wings, Tyrants with Wings and such. They have some of the same rules as fliers and are very popular in certain army lists (Daemons, CSM and Tyranids).

 

[bkde]

Hmm, okay. I'm re-thinking the objectives for the games. At 500pts it may be tough and most games will probably just end in one player being tabled regardless. Unless does anyone have any good ideas for objective games at this low point value?

With the event being meant more as an icebreaker, majority of the players are just getting into the hobby, so I want to limit the amount of emphasis on winning games, and put more emphasis on showing up with painted armies/piece of terrain. It's more a social event with some gaming thrown in for good measure.

I'm going to use the raffle idea though. $5 to enter, one ticket if your army is painted, one ticket if you show up with a piece of terrain, one ticket given to the winner, and additional tickets given out at the end for hilarious stuff that has happened or silly things that occur during the tournament (e.g. Guardsman punching space marine captain in the face, hit and run trooper hitting and running from combat...into a wall and dying). Just silly things that will keep the event light hearted and put the emphasis on having fun and socializing instead of bring beardy lists to try and table your opponent by turn 2.

If anyone has any other thoughts or ideas for small games with objectives I'd love to hear them, otherwise may just go with wiping your opponent from the board sort of deal. Keep it simple and roll dice. Thanks again for all the tips so far!

 

[Polaria]

Keep the objectives, since most games in 6th edition are objective games its really good to acquaint people with them right from the beginning. My local GW organizes 500 points full-game rules games weekly and the basic rule book missions works just fine with even such a low points. Plus, like said, it teaches people to play the mission and not for tabling which generally leads into more relaxed atmosphere instead of cheesefesting.

 

[Scoutfox]

Since they are bringing such low point armies think of why an actual army would send out such a small force, and make story based objectives with that in mind. Things like destroying a bridge, kill a VIP guarded by thei opponent, taking out a fuel depot, or escorting a weapons cache across the board are all things covert teams would try and accomplish. You could also do a hold at all costs mission where the winner is the one that survives the longest against a 1500+ army.

 

[bkde]

Hey, so tournament is only a few days away. From our gaming group it will be about 8 people attending, which is close to what I had planned (10).

Plan is to have each table pre-set up with terrain. Players show up, are assigned a table and table side. Missions are specific to each table. Players then move on table to their right after the games end.

Because each table has a different mission, I've tried to make each mission equal in terms of difficulty. Sure, some armies may excel at one type of mission, however hopefully they won't be able to excel at all the different missions. Each game, the winner will score 2 points for completing the mission objective, with the option to score an additional point for completing the objective "with style". I've made it fairly easy for the losing player to score one point, with the option to score an additional point for "style". Mission details are below:

Mission 1: Burn the Heretic
Objective: Kill opposing Warlord

• Two points for killing enemy warlord
• Extra point for killing the enemy warlord in a challenge
• Losing player can score one point if he lasted until round two of a challenge with opposing warlord
• Losing player scores one point if he wounded the opposing warlord

Mission 2: Night Fight
Objective: Secure table quarters

• Two points if you hold the most table quarters at the end of the game
• ???
• ???

Mission 3: Hold the Line
Objective: Defender must hold out against endless stream of attackers

• Attackers recieves 2 points for wiping out defenders by turn 4
• Defender gains two points for lasting until turn 4
• Extra point awarded for killing the enemy warlord

Mission 4: Seek and Destroy
Objective: Wipe out opposing force.

• 2 points for destorying enemy force
• One point for killing enemy warlord in a challenge
• Losing player may gain an additional point for wiping out half of the opposing force

Mission 5: Take and Hold
Objective: Secure centre of the battlefield

• Player recieves two points for having more units within 6" of the centre objective than the opposing player
• ???
• ???

Issues I'm having is so many missions can score full points simply by wiping out the opposing force. Which is a highly likely scenario due to the fact that there are so many small armies.

As well, I'm unsure what other one point objectives I can list for Mission 5, and Mission 2.

Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[bkde]

Minor update, there will only be 8 of us, which means I only need 4 scenarios. Thinking of dropping either Take and Hold or Nightfight.

 

[Scoutfox]

For the table quarters you can just have them worth a different amount out points. Have each army deploy in opposite corners and then award them the following for claiming them:

1 point for their corner
2 points for adjacent corners
3 points for enemy corner

 

[bkde]

For the table quarters you can just have them worth a different amount out points. Have each army deploy in opposite corners and then award them the following for claiming them:

1 point for their corner
2 points for adjacent corners
3 points for enemy corner

Thanks for the input. It sounds good in theory, but what happens if you wipe out the enemy? Then you score 3+2+2+1= 8 points, while all the other scenarios are only worth 3 points max. Because everyone will only be playing 3 games (and there's four scenarios) I need all of the scenarios to be worth the same amount of points. So if someone wins all of their games and scores all the extra objectives the most they will score is 9 points.

Finished the scenarios, because we'll only have 8 players, I was able to drop the Take and Hold scenario.

Found a really simple solution to fix the Night Fight Scenario:
Points: Score one point for each table quarter you control excluding your starting deployment zone.

Easy fix!