Blog Wars X - This Time It's Numeral!



BLOG WARS X: This Time It's Numeral
Saturday, November 7th 2015


Kindly sponsored by:
Discount Wargaming


PLEASE TAKE TIME TO READ THIS RULES PACK BEFORE THE EVENT!
(there have been significant changes since BW9)

Tickets
The event has now sold out. If you'd like to be added to the reserves list please use the "Contact Me" section of the web version of the site and I'll add you to the list. In the event of a drop-out, reserves will be contacted and offered first refusal of the spare ticket before it is released back to general sale.

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 thoughout 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:

09:00-09:30 - Registration 
09:30-12:00 - First Game
12:00-12:45 - Lunch
12:45-15:15 - Second Game
15:15-15:30 - Break
15:30-18:00 - Third Game
18:00-18:30 - Results & Awards

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 & £20 voucher
  • Best Painted Special Character: Certificate & £10 voucher
  • Best Conversions: Certificate & £15 voucher
There will also be a series of spot prizes throughout the day and, as usual, a generous raffle at the end. 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 
BLOG WARS IS INTENDED AS A FRIENDLY EVENT PLEASE BEAR THIS IN MIND WHEN WRITING LISTS! PARTICULARLY FILTHY LISTS WILL BE RETURNED DURING CHECKING. Thankfully I've rarely had to do this!

Each army can cost up to and including 1,850pts and can be made up of a maximum of two detachments/formations. Come the Apocalypse allies are not allowed. Detachments which consist of a combination of formations (e.g. Necron Decurion) are not permitted.

Compulsory Special Character
Each army MUST include a Special Character (SC) in their primary detachmentThe allowed Special Characters for each army are listed hereUnique units not featured on this list MAY NOT be taken. If you believe there is an error regarding your army's choice of characters then please contact me. 

This SC acts as the "Hero" where specified in the scenarios below. Please note this is not necessarily the same model as the Warlord. Also, an army may include multiple SCs but only one can be used as the "Hero".

All current codices are permitted but the following are exempt from the compulsory SC rule (see below):

Cult Mechanicus
Harlequins
Imperial Knights
Militarum Tempestus
Officio Assassinorum
Skitarii
Space Marines (Iron Hands only)

These codices are exempt from the compulsory SC rule (since they don't have any options). However, a model with the Character or Independent Character rule must still be chosen as the "Hero" for Blog Wars mission purposes. This model is still worth 100 bonus BPs in the first mission but DOES NOT receive the bonus Objective Secured rule in missions 2 and 3.

Lords of War
Only the following Lords of War are permitted and only ONE of those marked with "#" may be taken per army*.
  • #Baneblade#
  • #Banehammer#
  • #Banesword#
  • #Khorne Lord of Skulls#
  • Ghazghkull Thraka
  • #Stompa#
  • Logan Grimnar
  • Kaldor Draigo
  • Commander Dante
  • Gabriel Seth
  • Imotekh the Stormlord
  • #Obelisk#
  • #Tesseract Vault#
  • #Wraithknight#
  • #Avatar of Khaine#
  • Marneus Calgar
  • Azrael
*Imperial Knights are the exception to this rule as up to TWO can be taken per army.

As per the rules in Escalation, Lords of War (including those like Logan) will give up an extra VP for every full 3 wounds or hull points they suffer. These will be recorded as Bonus VPs on the score sheet.

Fortifications
Each army can also include ONE fortification* from the Stronghold Assault expansion from the following list:
  • Aegis Defence Line
  • Imperial Bastion
  • Skyshield Landing Pad
  • Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Line
  • Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Emplacement
  • Wall of Martyrs Imperial Bunker
  • Plasma Obliterator
*Please note these are not a separate detachment and must still be part of one of the two detachments/formations in your army e.g. a CAD allows one fortification to be taken. Still, only one fortification can be take per army.

Secondary Sources
Dataslates are permitted and form part of the army as detailed in their particular rules.

Supplements for any Faction are permitted provided they are still valid with the current version of their parent codex. If in doubt, contact me to make sure.

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 24th 2015) 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. 

Scoring
The scoring for each scenario is detailed in the next section. Primary and Secondary VPs will be recorded separately but totalled when calculating tournament points. Tournament points will be award as follows:
  • 30 Tournament points for a win, with a VP difference of 21 or more
  • 25 Tournament points for a win, with a VP difference of 11-20
  • 20 Tournament points for a win, with a VP difference of 1-10
  • 15 Tournament points for a draw
  • 10 Tournament points for a loss, with a VP difference of 1-10
  • 5 Tournament points for a loss, with a VP difference of 11-20
  • 0 Tournament points for a loss, with a VP difference of 21 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.

Scenarios
The scenarios will be as follows:

Game 1 - Cleanse the Xenos with Hammer & Anvil deployment
Game 2 - Hold Your Own with Vanguard deployment
Game 3 - Into The Maelstrom with Dawn of War deployment 

Secondary Objectives in each mission are First Strike, Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker (each worth 1 VP).

Please note the secondary objective "First Strike" is in use rather than First Blood. This awards a VP to either player if they manage to completely destroy an enemy unit in their first turn.

1. Cleanse the Xenos
The points value of each unit you've destroyed (referred to here as Blood Points or BP) is added up. Destroying the "Hero" will gain you 100 bonus BP. This gives a maximum of 1,950 BP (1,850 for the army plus 100 bonus for the Hero). The total will then be converted into a VP score out of 30 to determine placings for the second round.

Units which have suffered 50% or more casualties, multi-wound models which have sustained 50% or more wounds and vehicles which have lost 50% or more hull points will give up half of their points value (rounding up) e.g. a rhino with 1 HP remaining is worth 18 pts.

Tabling your opponent does, of course, give you maximum points in this round (automatic 1,950 BP). 

If your opponent generates extra units (e.g. spawned termagants or daemons from a portalglyph) they are worth their standard unit cost e.g. 7 spawned termagants = 28 BPs. Similarly, some units give up bonus VPs. In both instances, the maximum number of VPs for the round is capped at 30.

2. Hold Your Own
One central fixed objective worth 10 VPs to either play. In addition, each player places one objective in their own deployment zone. This is worth 5 VPs to you but 15 VPs to your opponent, i.e. holding all three objectives would be worth 30 VPs.

Scoring units are as described in the 40K rulebook with the exception that the "Hero" gains the Objective Secured rule as described in the 40K rulebook.

Tabling your opponent DOES NOT automatically give you maximum points. If, at the end of any game turn, one player has no models remaining on the table, the game ends immediately and the players determine how many objectives are being controlled by the victor. If you table your opponent and are not controlling any objectives you will score ZERO primary VPs. Please bear this in mind when writing your army lists and playing your games.

3. Into The Maelstrom
As per the rulebook mission "Cleanse and Control" except:
  • Dawn of War deployment instead of Vanguard Strike.
  • The "Hero" gains the Objective Secured rule as described in the 40K rulebook.
  • The Blog Wars tactical objectives deck will be in use (see table below). A copy of the deck will be issued to each player at the start of the round.
  • 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 flyers.
  • Objectives that become impossible during the game may be discarded using the usual single discard per round.
  • Fixed at 6 turns instead of random game length
Click to enlarge. Please note the Secure Objective missions are worth 2 VPs each.
Tabling your opponent DOES NOT automatically give you maximum points. If, at the end of any game turn, one player has no models remaining on the table, the game ends immediately with no further scoring possible. In the unlikely event that you table your opponent before achieving any tactical objectives you will score ZERO primary VPs. Please bear this in mind when writing your army lists and playing your games.

Scoring
There will be a maximum of 30 primary VPs available in each round. There are also secondary missions in all three rounds which will be recorded separately. The total VPs (out of 33) will still be used for determining the placings for subsequent rounds and overall winner.

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.

RULE CLARIFICATIONS AND AMENDMENTS

Warp Charge and Daemonology
The maximum number of warp charge points that may be generated is capped at 12 (plus the additional D6 each turn). Any excess warp charge is lost. Whilst Malefic Daemonology is allowed, only armies with the Chaos Space Marines or Chaos Daemons faction may make use of it. Please consider the spirit of the event before submitting a list that relies on summoning hordes of Daemons.

Saves & Re-rolls
A re-rolled invulnerable OR cover save may not be passed on anything better than 4+. That means your unit is still pretty damn durable but your opponent should at least feel like they have a chance! This does not apply to armour saves as they can be taken away by low AP weaponry. 

When deciding which is the "best save" for a unit you do not take re-rolls into account. For example, a Ravenwing biker's best save is his 3+ armour and not his 4+ re-rollable cover save. Note that a unit which has a 3+ armour AND a 3+ cover save could chose either.

Invisibility
The Invisibility psychic power from the Telepathy discipline will not be in use at Blog Wars X. If you roll this power during the pre-game generation of powers you may re-roll the dice until you get a different power.

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 BW9 Event Pack
  • A copy of the 40K 7th edition rulebook (and FAQ)
  • Your army's codex/codices/supplements 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. Martin Waine
2. Rob Hill
3. Graham Sanders
4. Nathaniel Gibbs
5. 
6. Luke Fogg
7. Michael Corr
8. Matthew Grimes
9. James Winsor
10. Matt Calow
11. Jason Roberts
12. Andrew Mascarenhas
13. Peter Barrett
14. Hendrik Müller-Joswig
15. Daniel Johnson
16. Christopher Buckle
17. Kyle McSweeny
18. Ian Plumpton
19. Jonathan Lyness
20. Tobias Schulz
21. Liam Ainscough
22. Daniel Lane
23. Chris Benstead
24. Sam Georgiou
25. Josh Secretan
26. Adam Tudor
27. David Irving
28. Dave Weston
29. Ben Houghton
30. Chris Otterburn
31. Archie Homer
32. Stephen Bailey
33. Keith Duncan
34. Tess Yoxall
35. Dan Evans
36. Will Pomfrey
37. Alex Martin
38. Daniel Russell
39. Adam Robinson
40. David Seago
41. Rob Nathan
42. Gareth Williams
43. Ian King
44. Tom Capper
45. Luke Capper
46. James Coldrick
47. Dave Halfpenny
48. Kevin Stonebanks
49. Marshall Trower
50. John Broome

37 comments:

  1. Sad to see the decurion is banned though will just have to work around it >.< will be buying ticket on Friday :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The individual formations are still permitted. I just think 4+ RP is too much. Sorry.

      Delete
    2. Is the detachment from the Khorne Daemonkin codex banned too? Its hard to compare it to the decurion.

      Delete
    3. I'm not sure which detachment you mean from Khorne Daemonkin. I can't see one that's made up of formations but if you let me know which you're referring to I can give you a proper answer.

      Delete
    4. Sorry Alex; Was't too clear. I meant the Slaughter Host Detachment. Its similar to Decurion, made up of a core formation an then a combination of smaller formations. Gives the benefit of generating an extra blood tithe a turn. In my opinion it makes the codex viable... without the Slaughter Host Detachment Khorne will struggle. I think you should just ban the Decuriion and let Khorne, Space Wolves, etc play normal.

      Delete
    5. ... A note on above; am I right in thinking you can use 2 CAD from the same codex now? (It appears we can mix and match detachments as we like). Brilliant :)

      Delete
    6. Sorry I'm not all that familiar with the Khorne book but no that detachment would not be allowed. I know it isn't as bad as the others but I have to be even handed on these things. I just wish GW would stop overcomplicating everything.

      Yes you can use two CAD or two of whatever other detachment you like. As ever, please try to avoid filth when doing so!

      Delete
  2. Just bought my ticket, cannot wait! I'm hoping to be lucky in the raffle or otherwise the wooden spoon race!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Someone better remind to bring an actual spoon this time!

      Delete
  3. Ticket bought!

    4 month to decide between Dark Angels and Militarum Tempestus... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Picked up my ticket :)

    So does this mean the great company from the SW codex is banned as well, as it doesn't actually consist of multiple formations?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The "Champions of Fenris" Formation isn't allow as it's a collection of Formations and allows you to bypass the "two detachments" bit. The other formations/detachments in that book are fine though.

      Delete
  5. Ticket bought :) thank you Alex!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ticket bought! Now I need to decide on White Scars or Ravenwing, so many bikers, so little time......

    ReplyDelete
  7. :( sad face, hope to be there next time but can't make this one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a shame. Hopefully see you for BW11 then!

      Delete
  8. Alex, can my Relictors (SM) use Daemonology Malefic? Very fluffy if can as we have lots of Librarians in fluff and use Chaos to beat Chaos in the Emperors name. Understand if not, but if don't ask- don't get. It won't be abused, just nice fluffy chance to do something different.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The things is, I trust you not to abuse it but I don't want to make exceptions. It's easy to argue a lot of things on "fluff" grounds but I think it should be a no really. Using warp is already dicing with the fickle Chaos gods!

      Delete
    2. Fair do. And I'll have to cope without my lovely Xiphon FW fyer too... Maybe I'll get a Knight finished instead. Looking forward to it

      Delete
  9. Just a quick question for the first mission;

    The rules pack says "Units which have suffered 50% or more casualties, multi-wound models which have sustained 50% or more wounds and vehicles which have lost 50% or more hull points will give up half of their points value (rounding up) e.g. a rhino with 1 HP remaining is worth 18 pts."

    How does this work with units of multiwound models and squadron's a vehicles? Are they calculated per model, does the unit have to be reduced to 50% starting wounds/HPs regardless of how many models have been removed, or does is it just on the number of models removed? Additionally, vehicle squadrons can abandon immobilised squadron mates, counting as separate units from that point on; how would that work given my questions above?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It will be done by models. If there's an even number it's simply half the points when half the models are killed/destroyed. If there's an odd number then you'll need to kill slightly more than half (e.g. 3 models from a 5 model unit) to get half points.

      If a vehicle squadron abandons a model they're two units from then on so points are calculated as such. Obviously this can lead to people choosing to abandon vehicles to avoid giving up half points but hopefully this will be a reasonably rare occurrence.

      Delete
    2. Does that make sense and seem reasonable?

      Delete
    3. All makes sense to me. I plan on having a couple of vehicle squadrons, so just wanted to clarify as soon as possible rather than accidentally screwing over an opponent on the day :)

      Delete
  10. Hello mate. I'd like to bring fenrisian wolves as counts as fleshhounds for a fallen space wolves list. Would that be OK?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Does this mean that Be'lakor is no longer allowed? He isn't on the allowed list of special characters, so I suppose it should be obvious, but it just seems like an odd exclusion.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There was some confusion in the past as some characters were allowed to be included but not as the "Hero" (formerly Commander) SC.

      To be honest I'm not sure what to do about Dataslate characters but I have Karlean etc on there so Be'lakor should be there too I suppose. I'll update the list when I'm home again.

      Delete
    2. Indeed - that's why I had to bring Skulltaker to stand in as Commander/Hero. I must admit it would be a bit easier if Be'lakor could be the "hero" next time.

      Thanks!

      Sam

      Delete
  12. Hi Alex, I was wondering, will the 2+ re-rollable invulnerable save rule also apply to cover saves?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The wording is deliberate in that it refers to invulnerable saves only but with the DA book I might have a rethink.

      Delete
  13. Do imperial knights count as a lord of war for CAD purposes? I'm thinking of running a fluffy combined ad-mech list (not the war convocation filth). I can send you my army list if you're not sure what i mean.

    Ta
    Marsh

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If I'm understanding you right then no. Safer to email me a list though so I can make sure we're on the same page.

      Delete

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