Announcing the THRO 2020 Tournament!

This is being posted on behalf of our good mate Red Jacket, who has offered to run the THRO 2020 tournament for me!

TMAT’s THRO 2020 Official Tournament Rules

Welcome to the TMAT THRO 2020.  This MESBG tournament will be a return to the longstanding, but briefly disrupted traditions of our small gaming community. We fully anticipate being able to hold this event, and look forward to it with anticipation.  However, the world being what it is, and pandemics being what they are, we are holding the date and the exact location of the event with a light hand.  Current logistical details for this event can be found at the end of this post.  To ensure you are kept up to date as we draw closer, make sure you reach out and express your interest in the event to the tournament director: r3d.jack3t.1853@gmail.com

Without further ado, the tournament rules are as follows:

1: Gameplay Rules, Profiles, and Scenarios

Unless otherwise explicitly noted in this document, the following are the rules for this tournament:

The Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual is the source for all game play rules.

Model profiles will be derived from the most recently released publication from Games Workshop that includes the profile in question.

All official errata and FAQs published by Games Workshop as of the date of the tournament will be considered authoritative. All current erratas and FAQs are linked to here: https://www.warhammer-community.com/faqs/#middle-earth-strategy-battle-game

The individual supplying the terrain for various battlefields determines the kinds of terrain represented, as well as the level of in the way test required for shooting attacks if necessary.

 

2: Conflicts and Resolutions

All players are expected to play with honesty, sportsmanship, fair play, and generosity.

In the event of a question regarding the rules, the game clock will be paused, all games will stop. The rules manual will be consulted. In the event that interpretation is required, all players in the tournament will be able to give a brief argument for the interpretation they believe to be correct.  Once all players have had the opportunity to give input, the tournament director will make a determination on how the rule will be interpreted. For the remainder of the tournament, this interpretation will be in effect for all games. The game clock will be started, and play will resume.

In the event of a disagreement regarding a specific model/battlefield situation, the game clock will be paused, all games will stop. The players involved in the disagreement will, if possible, recreate or describe the situation to the tournament director without indicating the players relative correlation to the description. If this is not possible, the tournament director will examine the actual situation on the game board. Both players involved will be allowed to make a brief argument for their position, and the tournament director will make final determination. The game clock will be started, and play will resume.

 

3: Army Building

Army lists may not exceed 700 points.

List building must comply with the requirements as found in the MESBG Rules Manual.

To encourage thematically appropriate army lists, impossible alliances will not be accepted for the THRO 2020 tournament.

Legendary Legions are acceptable, as are all profiles in the official Games Workshops Supplements.

All models must be painted. (Minimum of 2 colors and full coverage.)

Proxy models are acceptable if:

• They can be clearly identified as representing a specific model, and are consistent in visual appearance with any other models that share an identical profile.
• (i.e. if your list includes 10 wood elf warriors with bows, it is acceptable to proxy non-GW miniatures that form a consistent sculpting aesthetic to represent these 10 wood elf warriors with bows.  It would not be acceptable to run 4 GW wood elf warriors with bows, and then 6 non-GW proxy models that are also supposed to represent wood elf warriors with bows.  Similarly, if your army includes 10 wood elf warriors with bows, and 10 wood elf warriors with swords, you may use proxy models to represent the 10 bowmen, and GW models to represent the swordsman, as these groups do not share an “identical profile” in the sense that their capabilities on the battlefield are distinct, due to their war gear.
• They represent less than 33% of the force fielded

 

4: Scenarios and Matchups

All players will play the following three scenarios:

• Lords of Battle
• Breakthrough
• Storm the Camp

If you are unfamiliar with, and would like more details about these scenarios, please contact the tournament director via email at: r3d.jack3t.1853@gmail.com

Matchups will be randomly determined and no player will face the same opponent twice. All matchups will be determined for the entire tournament before the first game commences, and after all armies are checked-in the morning of the event.  

 

5: Game Time and Scoring

All games will run for 120 minutes.  If a round is in mid-progress when the clock expires, that round will be the final round. A new round of play may not be started if there is less than 90 seconds left on the clock.

At the end of the game/after the game clock has expired, each pair will come to the tournament director’s table and enter in the points scored to determine their tournament points.

• A major victory/major loss will be awarded if a player scores double the points his opponent scores in a game.
• A minor victory/minor loss will be awarded if a player more points than his opponent.
• A draw will be awarded if both players score the same number of points in their game.

Tournament points will be awarded accordance with the Games Workshop Matched Play Guide pg. 44:

• Major Victory: 6 Tournament Points
• Minor Victory: 5 Tournament Points
• Draw: 2 Tournament Points
• Minor Loss: 1 Tournament Point
• Major Loss: 0 Tournament Points

Additionally, we will use secret objectives, which will give the opportunity to earn players additional tournament points. We will use the secret objectives found in the Games Workshop Matched Play Guide. For more details on these secret objectives, please contact the tournament director.

Players will select three different secret objectives when they check-in their army the day of the event, and before they know their matchups for the tournament. At the beginning of each game, before deployment begins, each player will have the opportunity to select one of the secret objectives they chose at the beginning of the tournament to try to accomplish that game. Once they have selected a secret objective for that battle, they may not change it. Once each battle is complete, players will indicate during scoring which secret objective they attempted to accomplish. If they were successful, they gain 1 Tournament point. The secret objective is expended from the player’s list of available secret objectives when they opt to try to accomplish it at the beginning of the game, whether they are successful or not.

Players who successfully accomplish all three secret objectives will be awarded a bonus 2 tournament points.

Finally, player’s may choose to award their opponents 1 tournament point per category for the following categories:

• Unaccountable bad luck of the dice.
• Unexpectedly daring/lucky maneuvers.

These categories are flexible and are open to interpretation but should be awarded only for truly significant occurrences.

In the event of a tie of tournament points among players, the following categories will be used to break the tie in descending order of priority:

• Most major victories won
• Most secret objectives accomplished
• Most victories won
• Most total cumulative game points scored

·         Opposed dice roll with no modifiers (Roll until there is no longer a tie)

 

6: Registration

All players must register their army lists by emailing them to the tournament director by 11:59 PM August 30, 2020. Extensions can be requested, and will be considered on a case by case basis. Requests for extensions must be submitted by the same deadline. Any person who was granted an extension will be allowed to register their lists no later than 11:59 PM September 7, 2020.

Extensions will only be granted for reasonable, non-game related reasons. (i.e. I would like to attend but will not know if I am scheduled to work that weekend until the beginning of the month, etc.)

After the deadline, registered lists will be posted publicly for all players to examine.

All lists registered must include the following information:

·         The specified faction, legendary legion, or alliances your army list is built from

·         The precise name and war gear of all models.

·         The number of all non-unique models

·         Warband breakdown for your army

·         Total model count

·         Total Might, Will, and Fate

·         Break Point, and Reduced below 25%.

o   Format according to the following: i.e. Broken when 21 models are lost, below 25% when 31 models are lost.

 

7: What to Bring and Schedule

Each player is responsible to bring a list of their army broken down into detachments, as well as the profiles for every unit in their army.

Each player is responsible to make arrangements to ensure they have the models they need to play their army the day of the tournament, as well as dice and measuring implements.

The schedule for the day can be found below:

8:30: Game board construction.

9:00: List Check-In

9:30: Review of matchups and the gameboards

10:00: Game 1 begins.

12:05: Game 1 ends, scoring, and prep for game 2

12:15: Lunch

1:00: Return from lunch, finalize prep for game 2

1:10: Game 2 Begins

3:15: Game 2 ends, scoring, and prep for game 3

3:30: Game 3 Begins

5:30: Game 3 Ends, scoring, and tournament winner announced. 

5:45: Clean up and depart.

When

September 12, 2020

 

Where

Tournament Location (Subject to change):

1 Patrick Henry Cir.

Purcellville, VA, 20132

HSLDA Staff Lounge in the basement.

 

Tournament Director’s contact information:

r3d.jack3t.1853@gmail.com