we are 161 Days away from Adepticon. Additionally, the Pre-Registration Shopping Cart goes live on Monday November 12th at 7PM CST. What does this all mean? Well, it's time to start thinking about Adepticon 2013 and making plans.
It just so happens that I started putting together a new event for this year a couple of months ago. Its an idea I had been kicking around for a couple of years, and I think it will be a lot of fun. But before I get to that I want to talk about the events I want to participate in.
This event runs a couple of times Adepticon weekend. I participated in it last year and it was the most fun I had all weekend. It had a lighthearted atmosphere, it was only 1000 points, my opponents were fine and accommodating with me even though I hadn't played Warhammer since 6th Edition. If you've got a Fantasy army that never seems to come off the shelf, bring it and play in this event. Personally, I have a Warsphinx I bought just for this year that's still in the box. Hopefully I can find the time to pull it out and paint it up.
I honestly haven't played Necromunda in over 10 years. I doubt I remember how any of the mechanics work. But! Depending on what Hobby Seminars get scheduled Thursday night I might just dust off the Cawdor models and bring them along. Necromunda was the first GW game I became completely immersed in honestly. I had been playing Warhammer and dabbled with 40K but they didn't fully suck me in. Necromunda honestly showed me that the bigger games could be just as immersive and it was after my love affair with Necromunda that I truly fell in love with 40K. As I said though, whether I participate in this is dependent on Hobby Seminars and any schedule shuffling. Its not a top priority.
This is my baby - I'll be running it. I'll talk about that in detail at the end of this article.
If this event wasn't taking place during the exact same time slot that mine is, I would be way into participating. This event sounds exactly like how tournaments used to be - lighthearted with cool scenarios. This is some of what I'm trying to bring back with my own event. It'll be hard to compete with this event but with 800 40K players in a room I guess I'll be okay.
I'm really looking forward to what my friends at Hyacinth Games are cooking up. Once again, Brian from Gentleman's Ones who is now part of the Hyacinth team is making the tables so I know they will be beautiful and Wreck Age is a really interactive game that keeps all of the players engaged constantly. Plus, I only need to bring 3 models? Sure, count me in.
The 400 point classic tournament many have come to know and love - myself included. I was planning on this being my go to 40K event this year that I was going to put a lot of time and energy into preparing for until the Zone Mortalis event jumped in the way and hit me like a truck. I'm still excited for some Combat Patrol, but I'll worry about those models after I complete my boarding party.
Okay, so with all of that excitement out of the way, let's talk about the Warhammer 40K Warzone tournament that I will be running. And since I only have 4 days to get the organizers everything for my pre-reg cart info, I'd love to get some feedback and discussion going.
-Nick"
40K Warzone Tournament
Throughout the galaxy the forces of the Imperium and their foes wage battle across every imaginable war zone - arctic tundra, ash wastes, cavernous space hulks, jungle death worlds, cities in flames, and former paradises ground down to nothing but endless lines of muddy trenches. The nature of the field of battle is as much the concern of warlords, generals, and entities as are the enemies they fight. But what would you do when you were forced to battle your way across a near featureless desert, and every scrap of cover is so important that they are objectives in and of themselves? How would your masses of troops fare when cornered on a narrow street and faced with the billowing flamers of the enemy? Can you dig yourself in enough to withstand an orbital bombardment from your enemy? The 40K Warzone Tournament will force you to ask yourself these questions. How will my forces and generalship stand up to battling my enemies across 4 varied and unique war zones?
The 40K Warzone Tournament is meant to present a new challenge for 40K players coming from both tournament and narrative predilections, and is meant for fans of 40K Expansions like Cities of Death, Planetstrike, and Zone Mortalis. Those familiar with some of those expansions may recognize the concept of Stratagems. This tournament utilizes the Stratagem mechanic and features its own list of available Stratagems to pick from and use.
Each player in the 40K Warzone Tournament must bring a force of up to 1000 points with an additional side board of up to 250 points. Every general may also select 1 Stratagem from the provided list. All Stratagems must be properly modeled to be used in play and please be certain to read the Stratagem fully as some have changed slightly from their original GW published versions.
The 4 Warzones featured this year will be an arid desert wasteland, a city on fire, a ship or space station zone mortalis, and a muddy trench battle under punishing bombardment.
General Rules and Restrictions:
- Select a 1000 point army adhering to one of the 3 FOC Charts listed below with a 250 point side board that stays within the constraints of your chosen FOC.
- Pick and model 1 Stratagem from the provided list.
- Allies are legal.
- Fortifications are not legal. (Its hard/dumb to drop a bastion in the middle of a series of tunnels or a dense city.)
- 1 Imperial Armour unit is allowed per player.
- You must select and comply with one of these Variant FOCs.
Combatant FOC: 2 HQ, 2 Elites, 2 Fast Attack, 3 Troops, and 1 Heavy Support.
Attacker FOC: 2 HQ, 3 Elites, 2 Fast Attack, 3 Troops, and 1 Heavy Support.
Defender FOC: 2 HQ, 2 Elite, 1 Fast Attack, 4 Troops, and 2 Heavy Support.
- There are no restrictions on what you can bring, but understand that a Flyer, Landraider, or Battlewagon will probably be useless in the corridors of a zone mortalis and will not be able to be fielded on that table. Infantry, walkers, jump troops, and light vehicles should compose the majority of your forces. Save your large vehicles for your side board or leave them home all together.
Scenarios and Tables:
- Every Warzone table will have a name and 2 laminated cards.
- The Scenario Card will be double sided and have two scenarios on it to choose from. One will be a standard scenario. The other would be an attacker/defender scenario. The scenario card will explain how to determine your scenario.
- The Special Rules Card will have all of the Warzone special rules and classifications for every piece of terrain on the board so that the pre-game terrain discussion can be skipped/shortened to make more time for game play.
- Scenarios and Special Rules will be posted in advance. It is highly recommended that you read through your Rule Pack in advance of not only the tournament, be previous to making your list.
- Table size will vary based upon the Warzone being fought over.
Awards:
- Best General (battle points acrued)
- Best Painted (highest painting score)
- Best Sportsman (highest sportsmanship score)
- Best Overall (highest combined score)
Stratagem List
DIRTY TRICKS
Booby Traps
-D3+3 booby trap markers may be placed in any terrain feature that a model can reasonably enter (city ruins, forest, fortifications, trench lines, swamps, etc) on the table not within the enemy's deployment zone.
-Should the terrain feature in which the marker is placed be removed or destroyed, the marker itself is lost along with it.
-The player controlling the booby trap may choose to trigger it when any enemy model or unit moves through the terrain feature where it is placed. Roll a D6: on a 4+, the booby trap is triggered. On any other result it is removed as a dud. The owner of the target unit must choose a single model (Note: this should be the front model as per 6th Edition) which takes a Strength 8 hit, at AP 2, with no Cover Save allowed. Booby traps only work once the attack has been made. Vehicles hit take the damage against their front armor.
-Booby traps only affect the level of the terrain piece that they are on. For example, a booby trap set on the 2nd floor of a ruined building only affects models that move onto the 2nd floor.
-Objective markers cannot be booby trapped unless they are place within a piece of terrain that can be booby trapped. Mysterious Terrain can be booby trapped, and it will not interfere with its pre-existing Mysterious properties.
Demolition
-The Demolition stratagem is declared during the Deploment phase as normal, but its target is kept secret until the stratagem is actually used. The target can be any terrain piece not in the opponents deployment zone or it can be any underground or shipboard passage.
-The player writes down the target area, and the turn in which the demolition will occur. This is kept secret to be revealed when that turn arrives.
-In the player's own Shooting phase of the nominated turn, roll a D6. On a 1, the device is a dud and does not explode. On any other result, the piece of terrain is destroyed and replaced with suitable rubble or wreckage with a smoke cloud.
-The cloud of smoke is so dense that it confers a 5+ Cover Save for any models behind it.
Nick. Compare “Destroying City Ruins” CoD 37 to 6th Edition building rules.
Fog of War
-Your enemy is not expecting to be attacked and are not sure of your positions. On the first game turn enemy units may only shoot or assault normally if they first pass a Leadership test in order to do so. If the test is failed they may not do so that turn. Units that failed their roll may fire Snapfire shots but cannot choose to run instead. Units that failed their roll may not make a Fleet move.
Preliminary Bombardment
-After both armies have deployed but before the first turn, roll a D6 for every enemy unit and terrain piece on the tabletop. On a roll of 6, the unit or terrain piece is hit.
-A squad takes D6 Strength 5 AP 4 hits that cause pinning. Cover saves are allowed if the majority of the unit is within area terrain or behind barricades.
-Vehicles struck suffer a Glancing hit on a roll of 4+.
-Vehicles in a squadron are rolled for individually.
-Units that start the game in reserve will not be hit by a Preliminary Bombardment.
-Small terrain pieces, such as sections of razorwire, tank traps, and barricades are removed automatically if hit – replace with a crater if you have one.
-A squad deployed within a building or fortification cannot be targeted, but of course the building or fortification can. If the building or fortification is hit roll a D6. On 1-3 the result is a Breach!, 4-6 the result is a Tremor. Units on the battlements can be targeted as normal.
-If a unit is struck whilst sheltering in a potentially dangerous terrain feature, roll a D6. On a result of 4+, the potentially dangerous terrain feature becomes a dangerous city ruin. These terrain features will be clearly marked during the tournament, but as a general note will be reserved to city ruins, large precarious rock features, forests of massive trees where large dangerous objects could become dislodged and crush those below, and terrain features like fuel and ammo dumps that could be ticking time bombs waiting to explode.
-If a unit is struck while sheltered within underground tunnels or on board a ship, designate a target model the blast is centered on. Roll a D6. On a 1-5 the squad simply takes a pinning test instead of taking casualties for being hit. On a 6 the squad take hits exactly as detailed above. Additionally, the force of the explosion is so strong that every unit friend or foe, within 12” of the target point must also take a Pinning check. Each unit only has to take a single Pinning check during the Preliminary Bombardment.
Slash and Burn
-All pieces of terrain are on fire or are a smoking ruin. Before either side deploys roll a D6 for each piece of area terrain. 1-3 Burning: The area counts as Dangerous Terrain. 4-6 Smoking: Add +1 to the Cover Save of any unit in the terrain.
-Both Burning and Smoking terrain blocks any line of sight that is drawn across and beyond them.
ARMORY
Combat Engineers
This stratagem provides a means of equipping your army with a wide range of combat engineering equipment. This confers all of the rules listed below, regardless of how individual models are equipped.
All Infantry models are equipped as combat engineers. All of the following rules apply, unless the unit is falling back.
- (Nick. Lots of things to check against 6th Edition rules and CoD38)
Flakk Mods
-One unit in your army my grant Interceptor and Skyfire to all of its heavy weapons.
Sacred Totem
-The Sacred Totem must be modeled on a 40mm base and be representative of either a non-combatant of the race or some sort of motive device carrying the Sacred Totem.
-The Sacred Totem can be deployed with a unit at the start of the game or it can be held in Reserve with a unit. If deployed in a Transport it counts as 2 models.
-When the Sacred Totem is deployed or comes on from Reserve roll a D6. 1-2 the unit becomes Fearless. 3-4 the unit has Preferred Enemy. 5-6 the unit gains Furious Charge.
-If the unit with the Sacred Totem is defeated in close combat or the Sacred Totem is destroyed, the entire army becomes -1 Leadership for the rest of the game.
-The Sacred Totem is Infantry, Independent Character, WS/BS 0, Toughness 5, Wounds 2, and has a 4+ Invulnerable Save. As an Independent Character it can leave and join other units and benefits from Look Out Sir.
Siege Shells
-All of your tanks already armed with Strength 10 ordnance blast weapons are equipped with siege shells in addition to their normal ammunition.
-A siege shell's use is declared before firing. It fires with the following profile:
Range 18”, Str 10, AP -, Type Ordnance 1, Blast
-Should the hole in the center of the blast marker land within a Potentially Dangerous scenery piece, it will become Dangerous Terrain on a D6 roll of 4+. If the scenery piece is already Dangerous, it will be destroyed and replaced with rubble on a D6 roll of 4+. Siege shells need not target enemy models – the scenery piece may be the target.
-Siege Shells give you +1 on the Building Damage Table.
Wrecker
-All of your Monstrous Creatures and all models armed with Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons are equipped with wreckers.
-A wrecker-equipped unit that moves into contact with an obstacle may remove it from play on a D6 roll of 4+. It may cause a Potentially Dangerous area of terrain it moves into contact with to become Dangerous Terrain on a roll of 4+, and for Dangerous Terrain to become destroyed on a 4+. Replace the terrain piece with rubble.
-The unit may not shoot, run, or launch an assault on a turn in which the wrecker is used.
-It may be used on a piece of terrain that is occupied by a unit.
DEPLOYMENT
Advanced Reserves
-D3 of your units in Reserve may roll to come in from Reserve on the 1st turn instead of waiting until Turn 2 to roll.
-Reserves that attempt to come in on Turn 1 need to roll a 4+ for their Reserve roll to come on.
Familiar Ground
-All of your units have the Move Through Cover and Scout special rules.
Hidden Deployment
-Calculate how many Hidden Deployment Counters you need. You need at least 1 counter for every unit in your army, including units placed in reserve. Each unit including attached characters should be represented by a Counter for every 10 models (rounding up) it is the equivalent of for Transport purposes, thus a unit of 6 Terminators and Chaplain in Terminator Armor is the equivalent of 14 models. Rounding up it should be represented by 2 Counters. Vehicle Squadrons should be represented by a Hidden Deployment Counter for each vehicle. Additionally, roll D3 and add this amount to your Hidden Deployment Counter total.
-Notate on your army list which counters represent units going into Hidden Deployment and which units are going into Reserves. Any Hidden Deployment Counters not assigned to represent a unit are Dummy Counters.
-Deploy your Hidden Deployment Counters in your deployment zone as if they were units as per the rules of the scenario, grouping all of the Hidden Deployment Counters for a given squad within 3” of each other. Dummy Counters may be added to these groupings to obscure your numbers.
-Hidden units remain Hidden until they take some sort of action in the game (moving, shooting, using psychic powers, etc), or they are charged in hand to hand combat, at which point they are revealed and placed on the table in base to base contact with their Hidden Deployment Counters. Units revealed on the table must be in squad coherency.
-Units under Hidden Deployment can still be affected by Preliminary Bombardment. Only reveal a unit that is hit by the Preliminary Bombardment.
Possibly remove the Preliminary Bombardment rule and add the spotting rules from the rulebook pg 366 (376pdf).
The next picture is a close up of the sidewalk tiling. I cut 1"x1" squares out of card stock and glued them down. Sidewalks are rarely perfect so every so often I cut the 1" square into 2-3 pieces and glued them down to create cracks in the sidewalk.
This corner is heavily damaged. I actually am running low on foam core so I used some scraps that were not perfect. In beat up older neighborhoods like mine, cement this busted up happens occasionally. In the grim darkness of the 41st 
Another broken section of sidewalk - again with 
Its the little details that bring a piece of scenery to life. This random piece of plastic I beam that was laying on the table was promptly glued down onto the sidewalk when I saw it sitting there. After it sat for a moment I went back, added a bit more watered down white glue and sprinkled some sand around it.
Here's the same block shot from the left. The large ruin was a building made before I standardized the bases for the movement trays so I literally glued the hardboard base onto a properly sized pink foam base and added sidewalk tiling to make it seem like the it was actually deliberate.
In my Chicago neighborhood there are vacant lots interspersed between buildings on most blocks. Some of them are makeshift parks or community gardens and others are just overgrown detritus collectors. Sometimes they are fenced in, sometimes there are walls, and other times they are wide open. This represents what was likely once one of the nicer vacant lots on the block - probably a community garden or tiny park.
When placed together you can see how the movement tray creates a more genuine looking city block.
