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Good post Dash. A few things I can think of;


Explain:

Always explain clearly what you're doing during the game. "I'm moving 6 inches right outside the forest but I'm not entering it". "I'm moving up a bit and it appears I have clear LOS now for the shooting phase, agree?" Saves the shooting/LOS debate to follow with the inevitable "Well if I had known you were going to say I didn't have LOS I would have moved another inch....". True LOS is a gentleman's game and take it as such.

State your stats as you roll----even if it's a common (Marines) stat. This helps keep your mind clear if your army has different BS present plus is a courtesy to your opponent;

"Ok, so rapid firing 8 bolters means 16 shots, I need a 3+ to hit...ok now strength 4 and your toughness is?" Keeps your opponent engaged and your sequence clear.


If measurements are close, don't simply whip out the tape and say "Ok, I'm in range to assault" then move your mini. The minute you move the miniature, all debate is lost because it will inevitably fall back to "Well if you hadn't moved it yet we could remeasure..." Measure, then leave the measurement there and say "Ok, I'm in range do you agree?".

Regarding measuring, always measure front of base to front of base! I've been surprised at how many times during tournaments I've seen people measure from the front of their base...then move their miniature to where the back of the base = the measurement. Difficult to explain but it essentially adds an inch to movement.


....and always remember;

This game is a social contract, even in a tournament setting. You have sacrificed time away from your children, wife, family and friends to play this game.........and so has your opponent. Be respectful of that fact and try to create an enjoyable experience. In a world where people die of cancer/car accidents and other various tragedies....your toy soldier game is inconsequential. Remember that!

Redbeard wrote:In general, I agree with the, "if you're going to use it, have the rules for it with you," approach. Print a couple pieces of paper and that DA storm shield ceases to be an issue.

Billinator wrote:
For measuring, i've found that the red measure-sticks are much ideal for movement, when you cut some inches...

- One is cut for 6"
- One is cut for 12"

Make sure you measure those red sticks against a real tape measure before cutting, the GW ones are notorious for being either longer or shorter than they should be. And be prepared to demonstrate this to your opponent.

Yikes! Had no idea... Thanks for the tip, Bro' :s

This is great.
My first ever tourny is in a week and a half.
Will keep all of this in mind.

Great info, very much appreciated.

Wish I knew all these tidbits before entering the tournament scene. After trial and error I picked things up but I agree, this guide is a great asset to those green horns.

AgeOfEgos wrote:Always explain clearly what you're doing during the game. "I'm moving 6 inches right outside the forest but I'm not entering it". "I'm moving up a bit and it appears I have clear LOS now for the shooting phase, agree?" Saves the shooting/LOS debate to follow with the inevitable "Well if I had known you were going to say I didn't have LOS I would have moved another inch....". True LOS is a gentleman's game and take it as such.

This this, all of this!

How many rule arguments can be averted by declaring intentions... If you intend to gain 'cover' by moving into cover, then say that!!! It can prevent minutes of dicking around with 'oh, you spent all that time moving but I can see 51% of your unit! no cover!'

If you explain your intentions and I agree that you can probably pull it off, we can keep the game moving.

I am always surprised why people seem to want to not explain or cloak their actions as if it gives them an advantage.

Updated with a note about keeping a running monologue.

Great read, appreciated.

I don't know if anyone else does this, but I find in a tourney it is hard to hear the TO announce how much time is left sicne there is often so much general noise happening. As such I bring a timer and set it to go off when time is up, or if need be with 30 minutes left, depending on the type of game we are playing.

Great article, sir. Thank you for all the advice. I'm looking forward to my first tournament. That's some time off, but I will remember your words.

I created a Dakka account just so I could chime in and thank you.

Gavric wrote:Great article, sir. Thank you for all the advice. I'm looking forward to my first tournament. That's some time off, but I will remember your words.

I created a Dakka account just so I could chime in and thank you.

Thanks! I get PMs like that here and there and they always cheer me up; I don't post all this stuff to watch myself type, I'm trying to help. Hopefully you'll stick around and read some of the other good stuff here too.

Nice one, Dash!

But I have one issue.
Yes of course, the opponent has to be informed about the details of your actions.
But do you inform him about your intentions?

an example:

I move my guys just outside the 12" of an ork unit in order to force an early waaagh call.

Am I supposed to declare the unit being intentioned outside of 12"? Then I would make the issue prominent and my opponent would sense the trap (if he is alert, he will do it anyways, so drawing his focus off the action in a still transparent way would help). Or (if he appears to be not the most witty) I would stress that I am outside of 12" so he will not charge me. (Forcing him into the conclusion "indeed I will, I have a waaagh to call.")

Or would you call this kind of gamble with the opponent dirty gaming?

-Nazdreg- wrote:Nice one, Dash!

But I have one issue.
Yes of course, the opponent has to be informed about the details of your actions.
But do you inform him about your intentions?

an example:

I move my guys just outside the 12" of an ork unit in order to force an early waaagh call.

Am I supposed to declare the unit being intentioned outside of 12"? Then I would make the issue prominent and my opponent would sense the trap (if he is alert, he will do it anyways, so drawing his focus off the action in a still transparent way would help). Or (if he appears to be not the most witty) I would stress that I am outside of 12" so he will not charge me. (Forcing him into the conclusion "indeed I will, I have a waaagh to call.")

Or would you call this kind of gamble with the opponent dirty gaming?

You can call it however you want, but the only way to know if you're just outside of 12" to an ork unit would be for you to measure the distance between you two, which is in itself cheating. =p Announcing intent is *very* useful when you're talking about LOS because it saves arguments about cover. Announcing intent regarding moving and assaulting....probably not so much.

but the only way to know if you're just outside of 12" to an ork unit would be for you to measure the distance between you two, which is in itself cheating. =p

Well, I trust my skills estimating someone being just out of 12".

Announcing intent is *very* useful when you're talking about LOS because it saves arguments about cover.

But I actually like surprises and tbh I did not have serious issues with LOS in 7 years tournament gaming. Most issues I have are with scattering and models under blast templates...
So I highly support your way to deal with it (which is common sense but still nice to see written down) rolling close to the action.

Awesome guide, will definitely be taking all this into account for my next tourney, which will be non local for once!!

Thanks Dash!!

This is for the Moderators: For the love of the Emperor, please sticky this.

Great guide Dash.

Sadly, stickies tend to get overlooked a lot. However...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Tournament_Preparation_Guide

Stickies in the appropriate forum tend to get noticed more than articles do.

So few people look at articles. I don't. =p

If nothing else, I linked it in my signature, so the few folks who look at signatures can at least find it.

Signatures help.

Lego has the numbers on views. Your sense of "so few" is mistaken. Believe it or not, articles get a LOT of views, especially over the long term. We don't suggest people make them for no reason.

Dash strikes again *dun dun dun*

Good guide bud

Articles get WAY more views than Stickies...

But since I don't read articles, I presume no one else does either.

I will vainly admit that I wrote this guide specifically FOR the tournament discussion forum, specifically in the hopes that it would get stickied. It would make me feel like an actual contributing member if it *did* get stickied, no lie. My DCM status is up in a week or two, and I look back on a year of posting and wonder if I've actually managed to influence anything positive around here. ><

*edit* I just spent 5 minutes navigating through the 40k articles and couldn't find this one. =p

Yes.

Excellent article Dash. Getting ready to attend my first major tournament and I found this very helpful. Thank you!

Dashofpepper wrote:But since I don't read articles, I presume no one else does either.

That's your mistake right there! Just because you don't, you think other people don't. In point of fact (as Lego has shared with the Mods) it's very much the opposite.

Dashofpepper wrote:I will vainly admit that I wrote this guide specifically FOR the tournament discussion forum, specifically in the hopes that it would get stickied. It would make me feel like an actual contributing member if it *did* get stickied, no lie.

Just because articles don't get as many comments, and you can't see the pageviews, doesn't mean it's not helping people. If (as is the case) articles actually get more views than sticky threads, is it more important to you that it gets seen by more people, or that you get public thanks?

Dashofpepper wrote:*edit* I just spent 5 minutes navigating through the 40k articles and couldn't find this one. =p

Weird. I just click "articles", click "categories", "500", and "tournaments", and I see your article and mine show.

Alternately, and faster, I click "articles", search "tournament" or "tournament preparation", and your article is the first thing on the list. If I search "tournaments" (plural) it's a bit further down the page.

Here's a sticky:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/351803.page

good advice

-Hygeine: Not joking.

Love this one, and is one of the more important, because most places have a packed to full in a small place (nuts to buts so to speak).

Lol I deal with tapeworms every once in awhile. Thats my codename for overzealous movers. They like to worm their way a couple inches too close or far away.

I added a section to materials to bring:

-Explosion Templates: Cut felt/paper/plasticard to the size of your vehicles. I have DE raider shaped felt pads that I place for vehicle explosions. Also rhino, land raider and chimera shaped pads. When a vehicle explodes, passengers get placed in the footprint of the vehicle. Having a vehicle footprint sized crater nullifies rules disputes, and solves a lot of issues!