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The local 40k scene has a fairly regular tournament scene, with 12-16 players showing up to one every 3 weeks or so. While I really enjoy the turnouts and those that participate, the owner of the store we play in says he has 50-60 people buying on a regular basis. This led me to wonder where all these players are, so the guy who organizes the tourneys and myself agreed to start up a less competitive apocalypse setting so anyone with any army size can play and have a chance to win some money (in store credit). The store owner blessed off on the idea, and we started doing research on other apoc events around the country to get an idea what we might be dealing with. This is what we have so far based on batreps and house rules used by other TOs. Btw, I understand that Apoc is never balanced, but since there is money involved (to support the store we play in and help put an incentive to come participate), we are trying to make it somewhat fair and discourage autowin lists.

What’s Allowed
-Any army from a published Codex or Codex supplement
-All apocalypse units and formations
-All models and fortifications from Escalation and Stronghold Assault
-All models approved for 40k or apocalypse use in any Forge-World or Imperial Armour supplement
-Any modified or scratch built models (that match original model scale and measurements within reason, and have an honest attempt and effort put into them. A duct tape cereal box won’t cut it as a Tau Manta)

What’s Banned
-Ork Pulsa Rokkit (as it slows the game down too much)

What’s Limited
-Deathstrike Vortex Missiles are limited to one per player
-Super-heavies are limited according to the list building rules below.
-All invulnerable saves cannot be improved past a 3+
-Void shield generators and Void Relay Networks are limited to one per player. A single player may not take both.
-Any rule that makes a team re-roll a Seize the Initiative attempt, or modifies the roll result needed, does not work unless the controlling player first rolls a 4+ (both friendly and enemy rules). Each side may only roll this once regardless of how many models modify this roll, and a StI roll may only be re-rolled once.

What’s Required
-The posted entry fee for the Apocalypse event
-A hard copy of a codex for any army being represented in your force
-A hard copy or print out of any datasheet for models/formations being used that aren’t covered in the codex
-A typed or handwritten list of your army prior to setup.
-Each player needs to bring his/her own dice and tape measure. Templates are strongly suggested as well.


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LIST BUILDING
In an effort to both negate cut throat list building and increase the overall experience for all players, a modified force organization is in effect for this Apocalypse game.

-For every 3000 points a player has, he may fill the standard force organization chart. Every 3000 points requires 1 HQ and 2 full troop choices before the next FOC is unlocked at the next 3000 point landmark.
-Each player may take 2 Lord of War (Any non-standard FOC vehicle or gargantuan creature that has 6 wounds/hp or less) choices per 3000 points.
-Each player may only field one super-heavy or gargantuan creature (not listed as a lord or war choice above).
-Each player may take 2 fortifications per 3000 points. Note that only one of these two may be an apocalypse fortification.
-For every 20,000 points a team has, that team may use an additional super-heavy and lord of war. The team should decide which player will field this extra model; however points must still be spent on it as normal.
-Any number of apocalypse formations may be used; however notes should be made outlining which units are parts of a formation.
-No duplicates of named characters in any team, regardless of how many players or FOCs unlocked by point scale. A team may benefit from characters special rules if they are on your team, even if they are not in your list.
-Allies may be taken from any force, regardless of alliance level. However, an HQ and 2 full troop choices must be taken to field this force. These choices take up slots in your existing FOC. This lets everyone field their full collection and develop a unique lore army in the apocalypse setting without breaking the game balance.
-Lists will be made prior to determining attacking or defending side.


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RULES
Rules will follow standard 40k and apocalypse rules with some notable changes.

Weapons
-Unlimited Range –Weapons with an unlimited range have a range of 120” if fired directly and 360” if fired indirectly.

Flyers
-Refueling/rearming – Any flyer which flies off the board and spend at least one full turn off the board may rearm any one type of 1 shot weapon (bombs or rockets)

Deepstrike
-Any models with a rule that allows them to deepstrike turn 1 will be ignored. Instead, models with this rule may deepstrike turn one a roll of 4+, or be placed into ongoing reserves.
-Any models deepstriking into an enemy’s deployment zone scatters an additional 1d6 inches, and increases result on the mishap table by 1. Units that normally do not scatter will still scatter this 1d6 inches, and units that would normally stop their scatter before landing on terrain or models continue to scatter the additional 1d6 inches rolled as normal units without this rule. The hail of AA fire above the battleground forces incoming units to delay by avoiding fire, and may sometimes steer them off course (or some similar lore friendly explanation that applies to your army).

Deployment
Each side will have a time limit to deploy their armies onto the table. Each side must field ½ of their forces by unit count in the initial deployment. If time runs out prior to setting up half of their force, the rest is placed into reserves and must be brought in at the start of a later turn. No more than half of any army may be fielded prior to the start of the game (before infiltrators are placed, which can increase this number).

Reserves
Small Armies- Any player who provides forces whose total point value is less than 2000 points automatically has the “recycle” strategic asset for all the units in their army. If a unit is destroyed which is subject to the recycle strategic asset, it may return in that players next deployment phase on a roll of 3+. It comes into play as if it was arriving from strategic reserve. Units arriving from being recycled MAY NOT deep strike, and no super-heavies may benefit from this rule.

Turns
Each turn will be broken into 45 minutes per side. All players on that team will act out their turn simultaneously; however, each team must remain on the same phase (i.e. all players must finish moving before you may begin shooting, all shooting must be complete before you may begin assault phase).

Super-heavies
One-shotting a 500ton engine of destruction just isn’t feasible, even in the 41st millennium, and no one likes losing a 1000 point model to one initiative roll. On the flip side, piling techmarines behind a titan to create an indestructible wall of doom is kind of a buzzkill for the ones facing it. As such, the following are powers and abilities that don’t work on super-heavies and gargantuan creatures (unless they specifically say they do):

-Any rules that states to simply remove the model as a casualty or from play with no saves allowed will instead do D3 wounds/hull points
-Any rule that grants a cover save (except for normal cover rules)

Destroyer Weapons
-Invulnerable Saves are allowed against D Weapons; however any successful save must be re-rolled, keeping the second result.
-D weapons deal damage to Gargantuan Creatures in the same manner as super-heavies. Gargantuan creature may take feel no pain checks (if they have the rule) against D weapons, and are immune to D weapons instant death.


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CAMPAIGN
The apocalypse setting will follow a loose narrative campaign format. The campaign rules will have very little effect on the following games; instead it will serve to give each faction an overall view on how well their forces are doing in the ongoing war.

Factions
Players will be divided between three factions based on their chosen armies for the battles they participate in. Players fielding multiple armies will be placed on the side best suited to the overall theme of the player’s army.

Imperial Crusade – Forces of the Imperium
Ruinous Forces – Chaos Space Marines, Chaos Daemons, and Tyranids
The War Host – All other armies that do not fall under previous factions

Campaign Rating
Each faction will have a running total of games played. Games played outside of the apocalypse setting will adjust this total as well, provided that players submit their scores to the apocalypse organizer (limit of 5 games per faction between apocalypse games). Regular games will be worth 1 game apiece, and apocalypse games will be worth 5 games apiece. The rating itself shows how well that faction is currently faring in the war, compared to the other factions. The faction in the lead will be able to draw resources first.

(Games won / Games played) x 100 = Campaign Rating

In the event that factions aren’t accurately depicted in a battle, then the games played will be divided between the factions when determining campaign rating. For example, a Space Marine force is playing an apocalypse game against a force of Tyranids and Tau; The Imperial Crusade will receive full value for the game (5), and the Ruinous Forces and the War Host will each receive half of the game value (2.5).

I really like these rules. Apoc is my favorite part of 40k, so I would love to participate in this tourney.
As for suggestions, I don't really have any. Let us know how it goes, and please post some battle reports!

Thanks! I'll be sure to post as much on how it goes as possible (hopefully with pictures as well).

Out of curiosity, how many points per game do you actually expect? - and where is this being held?

It's being held in El Paso, TX. We aren't really close to any major game scenes so we are trying to encourage local players to get together more often. The current point scale is 10k vs 10k with myself and the 3 other people who have already given us their full support on this. We are hoping to get up to 30k+ per side game eventually, but know that's a long shot until word spreads and more people show up.

large apoc games are so fun ! i hope it works for ya

I'm in Dallas... That would be quite a drive. Sounds like a lot of fun though. Hope it goes well.

Question to ask yourself: have you surveyed the local players to see what types of models they have? I'm asking simply due to the regulations you have around list building. Everyone is a little different in the style of models they collect beyond the standard 2k or lower point levels. I wouldn't want someone to feel left out if they have a large air force, for example.

Also, I'd recommend that you do everything you can prior to the day of the battle. For example, determining who is on what side, which side is the attacker/defender, list building, etc. You might try and define team captains before hand and have them coordinate their players, with the full understanding that someone might get shuffled around the day of based upon certain players backing out at the last moment.

Apoc games take a long time to play so anything you can do before hand will make it go a lot smoother. Even setting up the table(s) the night before, if the store owner will allow it, is a huge help. I would probably even have the mission itself rolled for/defined prior to attendance. Although it may result in some tailoring, that tailoring wouldn't be one sided and would certainly make for a more realistic setting (imho). After all, it's extremely rare that an army wouldn't have some idea of their goals for a battle before committing to it.

I would have both sides deploying simultaneously while allowing the side that "lost" the deployment roll off to have an extra 10 minutes to shuffle things around as they see fit. You could probably save 20 minutes or so on this alone. Next, have well defined times that each side is allowed to take for each phase and make those hard cutoffs. For example, and I'm not sure this is the right amount of time, each side gets 30 minutes per turn to complete their actions. Whether they spend that moving, shooting or in CC doesn't matter. At the 30 minute interval they can only finish the current action (such as finishing a charge that already started ) and can't declare any others. I think everyone would appreciate that.

Along with this, allow each player on a given side to essentially work independently. In other words, have multiple people moving, rolling their own shooting, etc on each side at the same time. Most multiplayer apoc games will boil down to several simultaneous skirmishes, so allowing those to proceed will keep everyone interested. I'd only try to keep players "in sync" if there is some overlap such as when two players targeting the same unit.

I wish i could be there. I can field 15,000 points of Eldar by myself (with only 4 superheavies; 2 Rev and 2 Scorpions). Now my army might not be the most beautiful army on the field. It's mostly white as I stripped everything that was painted for a change in color scheme (my wife convinced me that Ice blue as a primary color didn't look too good).

Personally, I like Ice Blue. But it is hard to pull off.

I have pictures of both the old color scheme and the new on in my gallery. I have a falcon that has the old scheme and then there is a wraithlord (old metal one) with the new scheme.

Clively - The only reason a FOC of any kind has been implemented is because there are a few higher tier players who delight in nothing more than humiliating their opponents. That's not the spirit of gameplay we want in the community, so restricting the cheese they can bring helps even the playing field for those of us who just wanna have fun and blow each other up. An interesting point was brought up about guard and nids being too limited in their superheavy slots, seeing as how apocalypse is where these armies shine. We are trying to find a fun but balanced way for players like these, or those with large air forces and similar situations, can still bring what they want and have fun. Any ideas please share

The turns are limited to 45 minutes each, and the missions are custom generated by myself and the regular TO. Each player has 2 weeks to sign up prior to the game day, where teams will already be established. Minor shuffling will probably happen with last minute and day of show-ups, but we have incentives to get people to pre-register to avoid this. The store owner also has agreed to let us set up the day before so that when he opens his doors saturday morning the fun can start right away. The team captains organizing their teams prior to the event with their team-mates is a good idea though, definitely going to have to try something like that.

Your last point I am totally on board with. Makes for a more fun and hectic battle if stuff is dying to your left and right while you are trying to roll your own saves. Thanks for your input!

Xerics- 15,000 points of Eldar would be something I would like to see, painted or not. I am still trying to catch up on my own army (as I tend to buy before I finish painting), so I never judge another's WIP.

I got most of it in picture in my gallery. There are a few things I have gotten since those pictures but right now they arent in any condition to take pictures (as some are still soaking in paint stripper)

I actually like that blue on Eldar, but the darker blue with the ice blue highlights feels more appropriate for some reason. You've got quite a bit more than I do lol

That's actually kinda the way my new tanks look like. They are majority dark blue but then i have a metallic espresso color where the dark blue used to be and I use the light blue to fill in the divits between panels. I don't have on finished yet but I do have the top hull finished. (unfortunately no picture taken yet)