Announcing the TMAT Grand Tournament 2019

Good morning gamers,

With two tournaments under our belts with the new rules, it's time for a Grand Tournament - our first initwo years! The tournament will be held at Patrick Henry College on May 11, 2019. For this year's tournament, we'll be running fairly small armies, allowing for a focus on the new rules and what they do. Without further ado, here are (in my typical style) the Ten Commandments of the Tournament (Rules):

1) Thou Shalt Understand The Canon

The ruleset from the new Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual (MESBGRM) will be our baseline. The Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement will govern the rules for armies from the Lord of the Rings, while the Armies of the Hobbit supplement will govern the rules for armies from the Hobbit. Any player who has a copy of the Gondor at War supplement may use the Legendary Lists provided in it (and the profiles for the new models contained in it). Any GW errata for these books will take precedent over the printed text of these three documents.

2) Thou Shalt Honor Thy Alliance

This tournament follows the alliance "restrictions" provided in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement - players are allowed to have mono-focused armies or Historical/Convenient/Impossible alliances. 

3) Thou Shalt Honor Thy Lists And Alliances

All armies shall be worth no more than 700 points. Once a list is submitted on this blog, it may not be edited based on the opponents it faces. The army brought to the tournament must reflect the army lists provided on this blog. Unlike many of our tournaments in the past, there is no model limit for lists submitted for this tournament (except as required by the Heroic Tiers of the heroes included in the force or special rules for certain army lists). Note on proxy/converted models: proxy models will be automatically accepted if they are 1) not available from the GW website, 2) has the same equipment (weapons, armor, gear) as the model it's proxying, and 3) is clearly distinct from other models in the list. Any model being proxied that is available from the GW website must still follow rules #2-3, but there must be a note that the model is a proxy on the post. Converted models should have the same gear as the model profile that they're substituting for and should also be distinct from its original profile.

4) Thou Shalt Know The Scenarios

Each round, players will be assigned to different tables - each table will have two scenarios on it. Instead of players rolling to see who gets to pick a side of the board, the winner of the roll will determine which scenario is being used, while the other player then gets to choose whether to be the first player or the second player. The scenarios will be used in the following priority order:

• Domination (p. 139) OR Capture and Control (p. 147) - requires five objective markers
• Hold Ground (p. 141) OR Seize the Prize (p. 145) - requires one objective marker
• To the Death (p. 140) OR A Clash By Moonlight (p. 144)
• Storm the Camp (p. 151) OR Reconnoitre (p. 143) - requires two "camps"
• Lords of Battle (p. 142) OR Contest of Champions (p. 146)

Scoring for each game will follow the rules provided in each scenario. If one player scores at least double his opponent's battle points, he will be awarded 10 Tournament Points (while his opponent is awarded 2 Tournament Points). If a player has more battle points than his opponent (but not double his points or more), he will be awarded 8 Tournament Points (while his opponent will be awarded 4 Tournament Points). Players who tie in battle points are awarded 6 Tournament Points each.

5) Thou Shalt Be Able To Give Kudos

In each round, your opponent can award you up to 1.5 Tournament Points in "kudo points" based on three different categories (first three in the list, 0.5 Tournament Points each) and you can achieve 1.0 Tournament Points by successfully completing two feats (last two in the list, 0.5 Tournament Points each). Since these are Tournament Points (not Victory Points), they will contribute to the player's Tournament Score, not the scoring for the battle. The categories are:

• My Dice Are Trying To Kill Me: it seems like the vast majority of your rolls go unnaturally poorly in a given round OR you fail to win Priority rolls ... like ... ever.
• You Lucky Boy: you experience a ridiculously hot streak of good fortune in your rolls in a given round OR for a particular model over several rounds.
• You Sneaky Guy You: you execute a maneuver during the battle that at first made absolutely no sense but later was seen as a stroke of brilliance.
• You Lily-Livered Cowards: one of your heroes (or a warrior model that was scoring you battle points in some way) flees the field on a roll of "snake-eyes."
• Bravery Beyond Belief: ten or more courage tests during the battle are passed by your models on a dice score of 10 or higher (aka you didn't need your Courage stat to pass the Courage test).

6) Thou Shalt Have A Grand Winner

Similar to our last THRO tournament, we will have two randomly-assigned preliminary rounds with the players paired off after that to fight based on their ranking after two rounds. Ties between players will be broken with the higher priority being given to the player who posts their army on the blog first.

7) Thou Shalt Not Take All Day

All games will have a maximum time cap of 120 minutes. Time will be displayed visually for all games and will only be stopped in the event of a "red flag" being thrown. A red flag will be thrown when two players cannot agree on a rule (line of sight, special rules for a unit, etc.), in which case all fights will stop and the other competitors will mediate what the proper ruling is. If a resolution is still not met due to an even number of players voting evenly on the issue, a dice will be cast by one of the competitors not playing in that particular game to determine what the rule is for that game.

Should the time limit elapse without the victory conditions being met, the current round will be played and then the game will end. Any player found intentionally stalling the game to make time run out will be awarded 0 Victory Points for the round. Between rounds there will be 15 minutes to finish the round, determine the standings, move to the next table, and take necessary breaks.

8) Thou Shalt Fight In Middle-Earth

Players who have built terrain for a thematic board (48" x 48") are encouraged to bring their boards to be used in the tournament. Players intending to bring a board for the tournament should mention it in their army post. Players should use their best judgment when building their maps to ensure that armies are able to maneuver the map within the time constraints (e.g. having too many walls, doors that must be battered down, difficult terrain, etc. can make a game more tedious than interesting). If more boards are supplied than are needed for the tournament, priority will be given to those posted first.

9) Thou Shalt Be Gentlemen

Players must be courteous to their opponents and play these games in the spirit of good fun. Should a player conduct himself in a manner which destroys the fun atmosphere of the tournament, a red flag will be thrown and depending on the severity of the infraction, the player may be issued a warning against future infraction, forfeit the game, or be dismissed from the tournament.

10) Thou Shalt Not Be Late



Players who are bringing terrain to the tournament must arrive by 9:15am to set up the tables and register their armies. All other players must arrive by 9:30am in order to get preliminary check-in requirements, set up their armies at their tables, and fellowship with other players. All armies need to have a sheet of paper that provides their complete army list (with profiles), along with necessary unit-count information (total units in the army, how many units are to be lost when the army is broken (and how many units the army must lose before it tests for Courage if the player is bringing an Isengard army), and how many units must be lost to be reduced to 25%). The tournament will follow this schedule:

• 10:00am - 12:00pm - ROUND 1
• 12:00pm - 1:00pm - Lunch
• 1:15pm - 3:15pm - ROUND 2
• 3:30pm - 5:30pm - OUTROUND
• 5:30pm - 6:30pm - Tournament Score Summary and Clean-Up

Looking forward to see the armies that participate!

Tiberius