by Lederhosen
So, with much consternation and trepidation you’ve decided to enter the rough and tumble world of Warhammer tournaments. Good for you! Brew up a cup of tea and spend some time with me and I promise your time will not be wasted - either on the article or, more importantly, at the actual tourney.
First things first - RELAX! Too many people get all wound up at the thought of attending a tournament, whether it be a Games Workshop GT (Grand Tournament), an Indy GT or even a local store RTT (Rogue Trader Tournament). There are all kinds of crazy rumors out there to frighten off the curious, most perpetuated by people who have themselves never played in one. If you follow even a bit of the advice laid out here I can practically guarantee that you will have an absolute blast.
By the way, I have a tendency to blather on - if you just want the quick and dirty checklist style go to the end of this article and you should find a much more concise “checklist”.
Pre-tourney phase:
The first step here, obviously, is deciding that you want to play in a tourney. Now, where in the name of Sigmar do you begin? The first step is to paint your army. It doesn’t have to be great, but make an effort. Most anyone would rather be across from an army painted in three flat colors than one of grey plastic and lead. I’m not gonna touch on this any more and, frankly, not all tournaments require it. That leads me into the next step of the pre-tourney phase - the rules pack phase.
Most organized tournaments will have rules somewhere - usually on a website. The information here will be such gems as how many points are the games, what lists are not allowed and often even a sample of custom missions. Yep, that’s right, not every one uses straight pitched battle. Also, any compositional requirements will be spelled out there. Whether there is comp in effect or not I personally feel that list building is the first act of sportsmanship. Now that you have the facts it is time to find out about the specific tournament and do a bit of intelligence gathering.
Most tournaments that have been run more than once have a bit of reputation. I’d recommend you find out a bit of what you can about it. Set your own expectations for what kind of tourney it is. For instance, some events like the UK GT heats are like prison rules where anything goes. There is nothing wrong with bringing an MSU Goblin army or other soft “fluffy” army to the hard core events but you might not have the best time. Still, don’t let it dissuade you entirely, there will probably be a few other people who bring a similar army type and you will quickly end up in a comparable “bracket” (some events that require you to submit a list ahead of time will match you up accordingly for your first game) and you will have a blast from there on out.
Finally, the night before, pack up your army and a survival bag with something at least marginally healthy to snack on - fruit, granola, a meal replacement bar, something along those lines, some aspirin and bottled water. Try and remember to sit down every chance you get. It seems like a silly thing, I know, but ask anyone that has ever worked in retail - eight hours on your feet will wear you out. Drink lots of fluids. Every chance you get - between standing (and, despite my suggestion that you sit often, you probably won’t - I never do...) and working out your brain you will need to replenish your fluids. You could bring gatorade or something but I like plain old water. If you don’t and you have to ask the driver to pull over on the side of the freeway so you can be sick cause you are dehydrated it won’t be my fault. And yes, that is from experience. Sorry about that... Speaking of those lost bodily fluids I also suggest that you bring along some deodorant. Most of the fluids you lose will be through sweat and there is no shame in taking a Marienburg bath midway through.
Once that is taken care of, pack up your army and everything you will need to play - dice, measuring tape, templates and multiple copies of your army list. Sometimes the rules organizers will want a copy and I typically will offer a copy of the list to my opponent (before the game if it is an open list tourney, after if it is a closed list). I suppose that I harbor delusions of grandeur, but I like to imagine that they will be so wowed by my tactical genius they will want to emulate me - or at the very least write up a battle report for all to read. In fact, you may want to do that yourself, so make sure and bring along a notebook to jot notes in during the game and a camera to snap some shots during the game and of the other armies between. It's a great source of inspiration to go back and look at what hobbyists are doing from conversions to painting to army list construction.
Okay, now that we have finished up the pre-tourney phase let’s move on to the actual big event!
Dia de los Muertos - Tourney day
The absolute most important thing you can do to make this a good day is to remind yourself that you are spending the day doing one of your favorite things in the world and that is awesome.
Arrive early at the tournament location - even if it is just your regular game store. This gives you time to get checked in and lets the organizer do the first game assignments if they didn’t do them ahead of time and to make sure you have everything you need and gives you a few minutes to just settle in. You can also take a look at the tables (often the terrain will be static for all the games on a given table, but not always) in order to start planning what your deployment will look like, which side of the table you would prefer, etc. and pull your army out and get set up. You did bring a carrier, right?
Use some kind of carrier for army to carry it to other tables and between games. It can be a fancy display board that shows the theme of your army or it can be something as simple as a fold up TV tray. (Watch this space for more info on display boards - I am helping a friend build one over the holidays and will be taking pictures along the way and writing an article on it). This will save you a ton of time between games and let you spend more time playing and checking out everyone else’s armies - more intelligence gathering. Around this time you will probably have said “hey” to all the people you know and found that army you don’t want to play - you know the one I mean, that one that you said “as long as I don’t face xxxxxx I will be fine.” About this time the organizer will announce table assignments and you’ll line up across from that army...
At this point you will remember that you are playing one of your favorite games and this game is going to rock. Introduce yourself at the start of the game and play the game like you are making a new friend, because you are. If nothing else you share a love (obsession?) of Warhammer.
What’s the best way to keep a game friendly? Set expectations. Typically the reason that games become “heated” is that the players have different expectations. If you hit them before they become an issue then they won’t become one. Talk about the terrain before deployment - what does that odd shaped lump that looks like it sorta might be a hill count as? Is that bit of terrain impassable or merely difficult? How are buildings treated, etc.
Another way of setting expectations is during deployment. Don’t give away “secret” stuff like how many Fanatics are hiding in a given Night Goblin unit or what magic items that general has (unless, of course, the tourney requires “open lists”). I am referring more to things like “this is a unit of Inner Circle knights with full command” or “pistoliers with musician only”. The models should all be wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) anyway but it never hurts to reinforce it both to your opponent and to yourself as you place it.
Setting these expectations should continue beyond deployment - you will save yourself a lot of time and stress if you talk to your opponent as you are doing things and ask their opinion. An example of this is say you move your knights up the flank and think you are out of LOS of a cannon but it might be close. Just double check “I think I am out of that cannon’s line of sight, right? Does it look that way from your angle?” If not you can typically adjust your movement to make sure that you are or just suck it up and know that you aren’t. Either way, you and your opponent are clear and they can make their move accordingly.
This gets me to the next thing I want to talk about and that is planning during your opponents phase. Most tournaments will give you about 2 hours per game. That includes set up. It is amazing how quickly that time goes. Plan during your opponents turn what your moves are going to be. It will speed up the game and hopefully give you the chance to get through all six turns. I am kind of dense and forgetful so I will typically take notes of what I want to do so when my turn comes around I can just glance at my game plan. Sometimes I can even understand what I meant when I wrote “move pistol. to side by ugly tree” or “shoot hell out of big ugly” which takes us to dice rolling.
Guess what I am gonna say here. If you said “set expectations before rolling” you were right! Roll those dice openly and declare what you are rolling for BEFORE you roll. The way I like to do it is to count out the dice into my hand “five attacks for the front rank, plus one for the champion - they should all hit on fours” and then roll the dice away from any other dice so they don’t get mixed up. Then I pull out the ones that miss and just make sure that looks good to them then pick up those dice and say something like “fours to wound” and repeat the process as necessary.
Next up I would ask you to play competitively. Play as hard as you can, every step of the way. Always play like you have a chance to win, because you typically do. Hard fought games are more fun that blow outs, win or lose. That being said, remember that victory at any cost is seldom worth the price. If so much of your self esteem is tied up in winning a game of toy soldiers then please, I beg of you, spend the money you would have spent on your next army on therapy instead. One final thought on playing competitively is to remember and chant this mantra ”thou shalt remember the mission objective and keep it holy.”
Remember, win or lose, you are spending a day or two or three doing one of your favorite things in the world. If you win, be happy but don’t gloat and if you lose don’t sulk. Talk about the game with your opponent afterwards and try and pick up some pointers. To my mind that is a successful weekend regardless of the record! You may have even picked up a few new tricks to spring on the regular gaming group or earned a shiny new medal and you will definitely have some awesome stories to tell them about how your battle standard bearer made his insane courage roll 3 turns in a row while he was locked in a challenge with that khornate champion. Or something else equally story worthy.
Post tourney phase
So, you’ve finished all your games, what now? Stay for the awards ceremony, even if you don’t think you have won anything. Many tournaments will have a variety of awards not based on your battle scores or even painting. I have been to tourneys where there are “Murphy awards” where the organizers hand out new sets of dice for spectacularly poor rolling or a new character model when your general died every game. One tourney I played in even gave out a 40k rulebook to the last place finisher as a joke prize. Hey, a 50 dollar joke prize ain’t half bad! Also, let the organizers know what you thought of the event. Most of the time they are gamers too who are trying to make the hobby as a whole more enjoyable for everyone. If you thought the scenarios were awesome, let them know. If you thought that they needed work, mention that to them in a diplomatic manner as well.
Finally, you had a great time, you took notes during the games you played and you snapped more than a few pictures. You have great stories of how LuftKapitan Gephardt von Plumefeather did a suicide run on that Hierophant and the entire Tomb King army crumbled. It would be a shame for these acts of heroism to fade into the mists of time unremarked. Put them to use and post battle reports of the events (on www.warhammer-empire.com)! Most of us love to game vicariously through them and some of us will learn a few things about tactics and the game. Plus they just tend to make the community as a whole more excited about playing the game. Which makes more opponents, which makes more awesome games. It is a vicious cycle of joy.
I know I have a tendency to blather on but, really, I think that these are the important things to having a great tournament experience. I considered mentioning things like “don’t talk on your cell phone during the game” but I am sure that no one is that rude, right? If you have been on the fence about attending one, or have been frightened off my tales of bad sportsmanship, horrible armies or malodorous opponents I can assure you that of the dozens of tournament games I have played I can tell you many stories about great games I have played but very few bad experiences. Not to say that they don’t happen from time to time, but really, if anything, it will be a single game out of many and will quickly be overshadowed by the other 90% of games. I hope to see you across the table!
Here is a quick recap/checklist.
1. Prepare ahead of time - paint your army, check the rules pack, find out what kinds of lists people typically bring, what comp rules are in effect.
2. Bring healthy food, drink (bottled water is best) and aspirin.
3. Remember that you are doing something fun and act accordingly.
4. Show up early and bring an army carrier to take your army efficiently from table to table.
5. Play to win but play like you are making a new friend. And no, they aren’t mutually exclusive.
6. Discuss the terrain before a single model is deployed and preferably before sides are even chosen.
7. State what you are deploying as you deploy it even if it is wysiwyg.
8. State what your intent is when moving if there might be some issue that you think is close.
9. Openly declare what you are rolling for and leave the successful dice on the table until your opponent acknowledges the rolls.
10. Plan your moves during your opponent’s phase. Jot down notes so you don’t forget awesome ideas you had during their turn.
11. Lose with dignity, win with humility.
12. Stick around until the end of the event.