Axemaster this year will be run on the 20th-21st of October 2012.

• Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition rules

• 2500pt armies

• Six games over two days

• $45 entry after the 6^th of October.

The administrator/organiser this year is Nick Hoen. The person running the tournament on the day is Peter Spiller, likely along with some other helpers. Its not me, I'm going to be playing!

The venue is our usual venue:

Hampton Community Center,
14 Willis St. Hampton, VIC

Timetable

Saturday
Sign-in	9:00
Game 1	9:30-12:00
Lunch	12:00-12:45
Game 2	12:45-3:15
Game 3	3:30-6:00
Karaoke/Shenanigans	7:30-Late
Sunday
Game 4	9:00-11:30
Lunch and Players Choice voting	11:30-12:30
Game 5	12:30-3:00
Game 6	3:15-5:45
Presentation + Pack up	5:45+

Venue

Hampton Community Centre, 8 Willis St, Hampton, 3188
Catering is not provided by the club but there are a number of restaurants/take-away stores within walking distance including numerous bakeries, pizza restaurants, fish and chip stores, a subway, a mexican place that may or may not be open by the time the tourney is on and a Safeway. There are also banks including a Westpac, an NAB and an ANZ for any money you may need to withdraw during the tournament. Hampton train and bus station is located right next to the community centre, so using public transport is an option.

Armies

Armies may be up to 2500 points. Army books and other official material (i.e. the Daemon rules from White Dwarf) can be used as long as they were released before October 6th. No 'back of the book'/unofficial White Dwarf army lists may be used. Dogs of War may be used, but only as a stand alone army and not to supplement other armies. Allies may not be used, however Dogs of War armies may field Ogre units such as Ironguts as per the previous rules. Special Characters may be used. The most recent edition of the army book must be used. Chaos Dwarfs from the Tumukhan Throne of Chaos book may be used, as will the White Dwarf Daemon supplement rules in the August WD.

 

Games

Players are given two and a half hours in which to complete their games, there is a break of at least 15 minutes between games to allow the Tournament Organizers (TOs) to enter scores and prepare for the next round.

The first round will be a random draw, if you are drawn with a regular gaming partner speak to the TO who will try to match you up with another player. Games 2-6 will be run using a "Swiss Chess" system; you will never play the same opponent twice.

Before each game you should exchange names and army lists with your opponent. You should also make sure your opponent is aware of the special rules of your army, and any errata/updates that you are using. Any such errata etc must be approved by the TO.

Play the game in good spirit, and do not stall for time. Any person deemed stalling for time to avoid a loss or cement a win will be penalised heavily. Games must be finished on or before the two and a half hour deadline; warnings will be given for 30 minutes, 15 minutes and 5 minutes. If necessary, you may have to calculate victory conditions / victory points from the end of an earlier turn than the one prescribed to end the game, but you cannot run overtime. Please play briskly and remind your opponent if he is taking too long. This is to ensure that we can enter all results and determine the next round so that we do not fall behind schedule.

Rules Disputes

All rules disputes should be resolved in one of three ways. Either look in the appropriate rulebook, roll a D6 for it, or ask a TO. The TO will either show you the relevant passage in the appropriate rulebook, or ask you to roll a D6 for it. Just because you disagree on a rule does not mean your opponent is a bad sport. It is in the way he handles the dispute, and accepts if he is wrong, that you can see his sportsmanship. Many people have different interpretations or house rules that are not used at tournaments, and these will be resolved as stated above. The TO's word is final, and arguing after a decision has been made may incur penalties.

Scoring

Parts of the tournament will be run as peer based scoring - score sheets will be provided and must be filled out after each battle. Breakdown of scores will be 120 points for battle, 20 for painting, 30 for sportsmanship and 60 for army composition, for a total of 230. You should ideally be getting full sports and painting marks. Recently I entered a tournament in Germany where there were 2 points available for bribing the TO. This is especially relevant at Axemaster this year as while I am doing the admin work some other kind souls are helping me out on the day so that I can play in the event! Therefore there are an additional 2 points available for bribing the TO's with delectable cake, cookies, or any other scrumptious foodstuffs you would like to bring along. Naturally as our TO's are immune to bribes any such items will be shared out amongst the pool of players. This makes the total attainable points 232. 

Bribery

1 Battle point will be awarded if cake, cookies or other yummy treats are given to the TO as bribes during the event. An additional point will be awarded if these bribes are home made (by the player themselves) rather than store bought or made by mothers, spouses, Gareth from the bad dice podcast (who makes truly lovely cupcakes) etc.

 

Battle

 

Battle points will be scored for each game based on the Victory Points (VP) difference between the two players. All the normal bonuses for table quarters, captured standards, etc apply.

VP difference	Battle Points
0-100	10-10
101-300	11-9
301-500	12-8
501-700	13-7
701-1000	14-6
1001-1300	15-5
1301-1600	16-4
1601-1900	17-3
1901-2200	18-2
2201-2500	19-1
2500+	20-0

Painting

Armies that are completely painted will be awarded 20 bonus points at the start of the tournament. If the army has any unpainted models in it, it will receive 0 points. This is effectively a Yes or No question - there are no partial rewards. Models must be painted to a basic standard, displaying at least 3 different colours, and the bases must be painted.

After the first game of day two, players should set up their armies on the table they're on for judging in the Players' Choice painting competition. After the lunch break on day two, each player votes for their first, second and third favourite armies. Unlike the bonus points mentioned above, this vote has no bearing on the overall result of the tournament, but will be used to select the winner of the Best Army prize at the end of the tournament.

Models to be used in the tournament must visibly represent what they're meant to be (ie no proxies or stand-ins allowed). This doesn't mean you have to use the exact existing Citadel miniatures for a given character/unit, but opponents should not be confused as to what is what (i.e. having one unit of Silver Helm models being Silver Helms and another unit of the same Silver Helm models being Dragon Princes) and the models used for a unit must make sense (ie no units of Trollslayers represented by Ghoul models). If you have any queries about whether something would be acceptable, feel free to contact us.

Sportsmanship

At the end of each game, you will be required to complete a questionnaire about your opponent. The 5 questions are listed below, and each will be worth one point (so 5 Sportsmanship points are available per round and 30 total for the tournament). Questions will be answered with a simple YES or NO.

1) My opponent remained friendly throughout the game.
2) My opponent had a clear army list and made sure I understood what everything did.
3) My opponent and I sorted out rules questions amicably.
4) My opponent played fast enough, but did not rush me.
5) My opponent's movement, line of sight decisions and dice rolls were all clear and were not rushed, obscured or otherwise dodgy.

After the last game of the tournament, players will be asked to nominate 3 opponents for the Best Sportsman award (ranked in descending order). These marks will have no bearing on the overall winner; they are only used to select the winner of the Best Sportsman award.

Composition

We expect all Axemaster players to be of the maturity and calibre of gamer that they know what is acceptable and what is not. We, the judges, like armies that have a good solid troops core, as well

as a great theme that is within the WFB Ethos.

(This has been stolen from Chris Cousin’s Empire in Flames Player Pack). A panel of judges will give your army list a score out of 10, to reflect how powerful it is. The more powerful, the lower the score. This is to ensure that no matter how hard or soft your army is, you will have a chance of winning the event.

After each game, compare your score with your opponent’s. Halve the difference between the two, adding that final result to the person with the highest composition score, and subtracting that score from the lowest.

E.G. Ted and Barney have just played a game, and Barney has won by 550 Victory Points, giving him a battle score of 14, and Ted of 6. However, Barney’s composition score is 4, whereas Ted’s is 6 (i.e. Ted has a softer army than Barney). Thus, the difference between the composition scores (2) is halved, then that result is added to Ted’s score and subtracted from Barney’s, so that the final result would be 13-7 in Barney’s favour. This reflects the relative difficulty in defeating a much stronger foe. Battle scores can never go above 20, nor go below 0. If composition would alter the result beyond these boundaries, simply submit a score of 20-0 instead.

I am also borrowing the following paragraphs from Chris Cousin’s 2011 Empire in Flames players pack because it says exactly what I was trying to write:

“There will be no guidelines given for what constitutes a ‘standard’ tournament army, and this is deliberately left up to the judgement of the panel. This is because players often use guidelines as a basis for disagreeing with the score they receive. Regardless of how biased you think the judges are, they are guaranteed to be less biased than the owner of the list, and hence their decision will NOT be argued. The panel consists of some of the most experienced 8th Edition players in Australia and New Zealand, and have the best idea as to what a standard tournament list should look like.

You should be bringing an army list that YOU would be pleased to see across the table. It should not rely on any single phase to win games, and should contain a mix of units and unit types where possible. Balance and variety are what we would like to see in armies. However, the final decisions for composition relate purely to the efficacy of the armies, and while you can request a reason for the score you have been given, scores will NOT be altered once they have been awarded.”

Thank you Chris!

Scenarios

The scenario for each round will be rolled for randomly by the TO. Every player will use the same scenario for that round. (The TO may choose to re-roll or select a different scenario at their discretion; for instance if the same scenario was rolled for the third time in a row.) The 6 basic scenarios in the Warhammer rulebook will be used at Axemaster.

Please pay attention to the various requirements scenarios place upon your army. Ensure you have enough Fortitude points for Blood and Glory, and that you have units capable of holding the objective in the Watchtower scenario. You may play these more than once, so be prepared.

The modifications are as follows:

Battle Line:
As per rulebook.

Dawn Attack:
As per rulebook.

Battle for the Pass:
As per rulebook.

Blood and Glory:
Deployment as per the scenario. When an army breaks, the game ends. Work out the victory points as normal for Battle Line; however, all units in the “broken” army count as slain. Basically just use the full cost of the broken army, as well as any bonus points that were acquired from it before the army broke. Points are not gained for any standards or the general if they are alive at the point of breaking.

Meeting Engagement:
As per rulebook.

The Watchtower:
Rules as per the scenario in the rulebook, with the exception that victory points are used at the end of the game. The player controlling the watchtower at the end of the battle gains an extra 1000 victory points.

Terrain

All hills will be standard hills and considered open ground for the sake of movement. All forests and rivers will follow the rules for Mysterious Terrain given on pages 119-121 in the rulebook.

Prizes

Prizes are offered for:

1st Place Overall
2nd Place Overall
3rd Place Overall
Best Army (players' choice)
Best Sportsman (players' choice)

Registration

Entry is now $45. Online registration is available via PayPal - use the 'Pay Now' link below. When filling out the form, please include the race/army you're entering with (Empire, High Elves, Daemons, etc) and the name of the person entering (if different to the name on the credit card) in the comments section. For alternative payment arrangements, contact Nick using the address below. The merchant email address on the Paypal payment pages will show up as scatterlaser at gmail - this is correct, so don't worry.

If you would like to arrange alternate methods of payment please feel free to contact me at the below address. 

Army lists and payment are due by 6^th October. Please send army lists to the email address below. 

We may accept entries after this date, but entry will cost an additional $10 (for a total of $45). 

Contact Organiser

Send us army lists or tournament-related questions at

axemaster@hamptongc.com