Hey Reader!
It is my privilege to announce a new TMAT tournament: Winter Whirlwind 2023! This tournament, set to take place on Saturday, February 25, 2023 at Patrick Henry College, is a Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game tournament, following the rules laid out by GamesWorkshop.
The tournament will consist of 5 matches (that's right: five matches in one day!), using one scenario from each pool (one pool will not be used - more on that below!). So you will have an idea of what possible scenarios will await you, but which scenario will occur each round will be drawn just before the round starts.
Below is the information regarding how to register for the tournament and what to expect!
I. Tournament Schedule and Scenarios
The tournament will consist of five (5) matches. The schedule is below:
9:30 AM: Check-In and Army List Verification (see Part IV below)
10:00 - 10:45 AM: Round 1
11:00 - 11:45 AM: Round 2
12:00 PM: Lunch Break
1:00 - 1:45 PM: Round 3
2:00 - 2:45 PM: Round 4
3:00 - 3:45 PM: Round 5
Each round will run for 45 minutes, or until the end conditions for the scenario are reached, as noted in the rules for the scenario. If there is less than two minutes remaining on the clock, players must both agree to start a new round. If one or more players do not agree to start the round, the game ends and scores are calculated (because we're on a clock, people, and I'm trying to keep a tight schedule).
In addition, the following scenarios are in play for the tournament:
Pool 1: Hold Ground
Pool 2: Breakthrough
Pool 3: Retrieval
Pool 4: To the Death!
Pool 5: Divide & Conquer
Pool 6: Fog of War
Of these pools, one will not be used. Based on what we draw, we'll find out together before each round!
II. Army Lists and Restrictions
Players shall create armies using the alliance rules from the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game (Historical, Convenient, or Impossible alliances are allowed, as are legendary legions), to a maximum of 300 points. This is a whirlwind tournament with short timeframes, so small armies, people!
In addition, all models in the army must cost 150 points or lower, including upgrades and wargear. So no Azogs, Aragorns, or Dragons - this should make for easier special rules and learning curve for newer players.
In addition, any of the homebrew legendary legions (including new model profiles) on the Tell Me a Tale blog is available for use inasmuch as it fits the points limit parameters above (so if you run the Watchers of the Road legendary legion, you can do so but without Aragorn or Tom Bombadil, etc.). You can find information on our legendary legions here. NOTE: the legendary legions are available for use; faction revamps are still being tested, so we are not approving those carte blanche for this tournament.
Armies shall be submitted to the tournament director via email (counterplanfan@gmail.com) no later than 11:59:59 PM on February 21, 2023 (so as long as the timestamp on the email says, "February 21" you're fine). Players are free to post their lists as a comment on the blog (as is our custom at TMAT), but are not required to post their lists.
The tournament director will confirm the army list submission within 24 hours of submission (though it will likely be faster as long as it's not submitted late at night). Your confirmation will come in the form of an email detailing both your army list (to confirm accuracy) as well as the army lists of the other declared participants so far in the tournament. So for those who submit their army lists first, they will have more time to think through how to prepare for the other armies in the tournament.
III. Tournament Scoring
We will be using the rules as written in the Matched Play Guide with two exceptions. First, inasmuch as there is an the official errata released by GamesWorkshop, the errata stands. Second, there will be scaled levels of victory for each match, as noted below:
Draw: A tied Victory Point score (e.g., 0-0, 2-2, etc.)
Minor Victory/Loss: One army has more Victory Points than the other, but not double or more than double the number of Victory Points of the other force (e.g., 5-4, 3-2, etc.)
Major Victory/Loss: One army has double or more than double the Victory Points than the other (e.g., 6-3, 8-2, etc.), and has at least 6 Victory Points.
Total Victory/Loss: One army has 12+ Victory Points, and the other army has 0 Victory Points. The standard rule of "if one force is wiped out, the other side wins a total victory" is not in play for this tournament.
Players will receive the following Battle Points to their final score for the tournament based on their performance in each round:
Total Loss: 1 Battle Point
Major Loss: 2 Battle Points
Minor Loss: 3 Battle Points
Draw: 4 Battle Points
Minor Victory: 5 Battle Points
Major Victory: 6 Battle Points
Total Victory: 7 Battle Points
So the minimum Battle Points a player could score if they fight all of their matches is 5 Battle Points and the highest score they can receive is 35 Battle Points. A player who does not fight his assigned match forfeits the round and his opponent is awarded a Total Victory. A round is forfeited if the player does not arrive within 5 minutes of the starting time, abandons the tournament early, or does not appear for check-in during the proper check-in time (see Part IV below).
Players may use models from the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game created by GamesWorkshop, or proxy models from other distributors (or conversions of other models made by GamesWorkshop). If proxy models are used, they should be clearly identifiable. Wargear purchased for the model does not need to be present on the physical model, but should be declared both on the army list submitted to the tournament director (see Part IV below) and to the opponent at the start of the match.
The biggest rule on proxies is that the base size of a model should be the same size, while also being distinct from other models in the army so that your opponent knows the profile tied to each model.
If players have questions, please contact Centaur at counterplanfan@gmail.com.
IV. Registration, Arrival, and Check-In
Players should arrive no later than 9:30 AM at Patrick Henry College for check-in. The tournament will take place on the 2nd floor of the Barbara Hodel Center. Parking can be found in the Founders Hall lower lot, or behind the Barbara Hodel Student Center.
Players will need to verify their army lists with the tournament director at check-in no later than 9:50 AM. To verify your army list, you must present your army to the tournament director during the registration and verification period, noting the following things:
The Army Leader for your army, as this scores points for the scenarios,
The warbands of your force, with units tied to their respective warband and warband leader,
The total number of units in your army, and
The break point (how many casualties must be inflicted against your force to bring you below 50%) of your army.
Armies that are not verified within the timeframe set by the tournament director will only be allowed to compete in the tournament at the discretion of the tournament director.
V. Final Notes
As tournament director, I welcome any questions you may have about the rules, requirements, or elements of the tournament. If you have questions, please send them our way! We look forward to hearing from you.
Watching the stars,
Centaur
"We watch the skies for the great tides of evil or change that are sometimes marked there." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Hey TMAT team! I have a question here. I'm really interested in this tournament, but the inclusion of the homebrew LLs scare me to death. They simply aren't sufficiently tested or edited for a competitive environment... I'm specifically thinking of the Barrows of Cardolan LL. First, RAW with the new FAQ, your arnor and ranger spectres do not have the Angmar key word, and therefore are not immune to its effects. Is this intended?
ReplyDeleteSecond, if this LL is allowed, I don't think you have considered the ramifications of a 300 point limit with harbinger of evil, shades, and a barrow wight with about 40 points at least of free stats that can generate additional 15 point models and can regenerate with additional will. This LL will be both miserable to play against and also just smash anything that doesnt have fearless at 300 points (which is most things).
Hey there! I think Centaur should weigh in seeing as how it's his tournament and his Legion baby, but a few notes on general concerns: first and foremost, this is the only custom LL that's likely to be viable at this tournament - Sauron breaks the point limit (and the hero limit), Celeborn and Galadriel eat up potentially all the points (and Celeborn won't be mounted), Thranduil's Legion won't be that different from a normal Thranduil's Halls list, and your Last Alliance list would need to run Isildur or a Captain with Gildor or a Captain with 8-12 guys in tow - not that dangerous.
DeleteThe Watchers of the Roads Legion only has access to Gildor, Maggot, Barliman, and Murin and Drar, but a few of these guys could see you get decent numbers, but pretty trash heroes all things considered. The Barrow-Wight Legion could see 3 Barrow Wights/1 Barrow Wight and a Shade with 15 warriors (which would be scary, but without Harbinger in the first and very limited casting with the second - and F2 with average numbers). While I could see it being difficult, it's likely only going to complicate the lives of armies that ditched Courage for Defense.
Also, I assume it's an oversight that these profiles don't have keywords - but this is also a Centaur question. :-)
DeleteI appreciate the response and discourse! First, I think there are two lists that are extremely undercosted, which becomes a huge problem at 300 points. The Last alliance list gives you a Cirdan for 75 points who realistically should be at least 100 minimum, and an Anarion who is probably the most undercosted 50 point model in the game, to say nothing of the massive buffs around burly elves and rerolling numenoreans. Cirdan + anarion gives you two F6 2A 2W hitters with extremely good magic for 125 points combined. These two heroes are so undercosted that you can still boost out plenty of numbers.
ReplyDeleteSecond, you have to remember that the barrow wight in the shade/barrow wight combo gets 2 might, 2 will, extra casting, regeneration, etc without an increase in points cost. That’s actually insanely good casting at 300 points, barrow-wights are already extremely efficient at 50 points. So you also get a shade and maintain good number balance while wounding extremely easily and presenting a terror wall. At 300 points armies cannot afford courage mitigation easily. This LL likely represents one of the worst play experiences someone could encounter (shade has been nerfed a million times for a reason, this buffs him).
The point of it all is that models in the LLs are not properly balanced at all, going as far as buffing heavily two models that were so problematic they have been nerfed repeatedly (cirdan and shade), while also giving many free points of overly efficient heroes that are magnified at low points totals.
Just weighing in on the Cirdan/Anarion thing: while I thought I updated the document download, rest assured that the changes in v1.1 (as currently visible in the comments section) do have the Cirdan and Anarion updated profiles with a 25pt and 15pt price hike respectively. This would make a High Elf Captain with shield or Elf bow (80pts) go up 105pts to be Cirdan and the Numenorean Captain with heavy armor and shield (normally 60pts) becomes a 75pt hero to be Anarion. This does give you the ability to buy two heroes for 180pts, but you're looking at at 14-15 model army which isn't that unreasonable.
DeleteThe change log also fixes the burly thing to be only on a natural 6, which makes it possible to two-hand for free (especially with a banner), but not automatic.
These are great changes that make the list more balanced while still fun.
DeleteI totally understand if this tournament is meant specifically just as a LL testing ground, that makes sense and could be quite fun, I just wanted to make it clear that these are probably not ready for balanced play yet and could lead to negative play experiences for people expecting that.
ReplyDeleteHey Stephen! Sorry for the delayed response - I'm in the middle of an All Hands three-day meetings for work, so just getting caught up on the blog. A few quick notes:
Delete1) Currently I don't have the Angmar keyword on the new spectres; that's not an oversight (as they are intended to be turned Arnorian/enemy forces, but also to provide game balance in case you run a shade), though in the future I might add them. I figured that if we were going to test it green in a tournament setting, that's one of the safest ways to do it, and then we can open it up later if it proves too difficult.
2) It's a fair concern regarding how powerful they may be at low points levels; considering though that all of the new legions struggle heavily in the mobility and shooting category and these are 4'x4' maps with only 300pts worth of troops, it means that there is a lot of room to maneuver to deal with armies like the legions in question (either for horsemen to run over Cirdan and the tiny guard that would surround him or F1-2 frontline spectres, or for people to shoot out the few troops that Cirdan and a barrow army that sports 150-200pts worth of heroes), so there are quite a few ways to work around them in this setting. At 800pts, that's yet to be tested.
3) Since this is a one-off tournament at low points levels, it's a "fun tournament" in comparison to our more established Grand Tournament (typically in late spring/early summer) and The Hunters Red October tournament (or THRO). So I'm personally okay with using it as a testing ground for janky lists, if for no other reason than it provides yet another avenue for testing on top of the casual games we play each week. Plus you get to see more people, which would result in a wider range of play styles.
4) None of this is to detract from the fact that it's a fair concern; personally I think every other list in the tournament would have a substantial Might advantage over any of the legions (current submitted lists have Might ranging from 3-7), so while yes, there would be a lot of good support/magic abilities coming from those armies, I don't think they'd actually overwhelm or overpower any of them as they would likely get tagged before getting off their magic. And that's something that we've discovered about the Barrows legion in particular (as it's my baby, so I'm tracking its performance more than the others): the lack of Might makes it so that if you aren't playing against a Shire army, there's a good chance that after you cast once you won't get a chance to cast again for a while thanks to not having enough Might to call Heroic Moves. Tack onto this that the few Might you have is also the only way to trigger coming back at a barrow, and it becomes an even more precious resource.
So, all that being said, we're giving it a try, and we'll see how it goes. All of the legions have pretty substantial drawbacks and gaps in their inventory that, when considered in a vacuum, may not look that important, but upon trying out a wide range of scenarios proves that they require the user to put in a lot of work to actually put VPs on the board. So we'll see how they perform, :)
Thanks for the thought-out responses! I was mostly concerned about the barrow legion (LA is undercosted and strong, but not completely out of the realm of the other top tier lists).
DeleteKnowing that the shade does not affect the basic 10 point model troops basically removes the concerns I had for the legion and balances it much better. And knowing the vibe of the tournament is helpful too.
Just saw the changes to the LA LLs after I posted this, and I would say my concerns about both LLs are assuaged. If I can’t make this tournament, I’ll definitely be watching for the next two! I hadn’t realized you folks were local!
Delete