Friday, April 20, 2012

The NEW Tournament Structure

In anticipation of 40KEGGER 4, we are pleased to release the all new tournament structure. While the classic bracket style tournament provided for some memorable battles, we were left with the challenge of facilitating a larger tournament, while packing all the action into a one day event. Hence, we sat down and came up with a tournament structure that players will find more in line with the standard 40k tournament. This was the only way we could fit a growing audience into the next tournament. But not to worry, this new system will make for a great tournament, and the whole 40kegger atmosphere will be stronger than ever!

The one thing to note in the new system is that the emphasis is on atmosphere, and not on ruthless competition. Throughout the rules description, we have added Designer Notes so that people can capture the vibe we are going for.


Tournament Structure

At 40kegger events, members of the 40kegger Tabletop Wargames Club gather to do battle with one another in an epic tournament of dice, miniatures, beer, and laughs. Players will have the opportunity to score up to 80 points through a guaranteed 4 games. The 80 points are divided into 3 categories and are reflective of the 3 major components of Warhammer 40,000: the game, the miniatures, and the players. At the end of the tournament, the player who scores the most points gets to take home the coveted “Mug of Champions”.


GAMEPLAY

Players can earn up to 40 points through gameplay. At the outcome of each game, players will score points as follows:

10 points for a win
6 points for a draw
4 points for a loss


Designer notes:  the change to Mission Points is one of the most significant changes to the new system. Each mission will come with a specific and straight forward description on how to achieve victory. There will be no bonus points available in the missions and no secondary objectives. This system will make gameplay simple so that players can relax and enjoy the fun atmosphere.


MINIATURES

Players can earn up to 15 points for their hobby efforts. During the lunch break, the 40kegger staff will carefully assess each army in the tournament. Up to 10 points are awarded using the following checklist, with each item worth 1 point:

[ ] Army was painted by the player
[ ] Entire army is painted (at least 3 colors)
[ ] Highlighting techniques were used throughout army (hard edge, drybrushing, airbrushing, etc.)
[ ] Shading techniques were used throughout army (washes, shades, inks, etc.)
[ ] Conversions are evident on some miniatures
[ ] Freehand was used on some miniatures
[ ] Small details are completed throughout army (eyes, gems, pouches, etc.)
[ ] Environmental effects were used throughout army (weathering, wear, slime, etc.)
[ ] Squad markings, unit differentiation, or unit grouping elements were used
[ ] Basing is completed throughout army


In addition, players can earn up to 5 points for additional efforts, impressive brushwork, and overall mastery of certain techniques.

Designer notes: the focus for Miniatures scoring is on completion. The idea here is that players can earn a majority of the points for taking the time to bring complete and characterful armies. In addition, the checklist keeps things streamlined and provides points without a subjective approach. However, expert painters will still have their efforts recognized with the additional 5 points available for excellent hobby work.


PLAYERS

Players  can earn up to 20 points for their overall presence and demeanor at the tournament. While some might use the term “sportsmanship”, we like to refer to it more as a measurement of fun. At the end of each game, players will score each other up to 5 points using the following checklist, with each item worth 1 point.

[ ] Was the game fun?
[ ] Was your opponent’s army list fun to play against?
[ ] Was your opponent’s army list creative?
[ ] Did your opponent maintain a good pace?
[ ] Did your opponent display a positive attitude?



TOTAL

The 3 categories total up to a maximum of 75 points (40 for Gameplay, 15 for Miniatures, and 20 for Players). The remaining 5 points are a bonus available to players before the event begins. Players that submit their army list before a designated date will earn 5 points towards the tournament.  The date will be announced long before each event on the 40kegger website.

4 comments:

  1. It's an interesting move to adopt a "Renaissance Man" style tournament format. Don't get me wrong, I really like RenMan events. However, one of the differentiators of 40Kegger was it's Mission Points only scoring. (Besides the beer. Hooray for the beer!)

    With a potential field of 24, is it too hard to determine who will play with whom for each successive round if, say, you went with Swiss scoring? If you wanted to include painting without scoring, you could strictly enforce a 3-colour minimum as a criterion for entry.

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  2. Hi Dave,

    Changing the format of the tournament was one of the most difficult challenges we have faced while moving formward. It quickly became evident that a large audience wouldn't be able to play out a proper bracket style tournament unless it took place over 2 to 3 days.

    We decided to move to renaissance scoring because it is something everyone is familiar with. At the end of the day, scoring is scoring, but the essence of a tournament is in the atmosphere and the vibe. While we may have changed the scoring, there are certain things that will always be same: beer, 1000 point skirmishes, unique missions, and beer girls :)

    There has been some suggestions within the club to start a 40kegger beer league (like hockey beer league). This is something that would happen throughout a year, with games here and there at people's houses. We would adopt the bracket and mission points scoring for that. Hopefully you can be a part of the design process for the league is we get it going?

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  3. A league sounds great! I'd be happy to help in any way I can, including hosting games; I have lots of terrain.

    We could couple it with beer tastings...

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  4. Awesome. 40k and a new beer every gaming session. I love it. Okay, lets get this up and running in September. We shall discuss planning in the near future...

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