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Hey there I am recently new to AoS and havent really met many people in my area or cant really attend the local GW due to work hours etc.

However i do get the odd weekend off and since ive joined a couple forums ive seen the excitement that a tournsment can generate and i got rather swept up in at all but I am a little bit shy about the whole thing so just a couple questions on what to expect.

I personally will be attending the tournament not necessarily to win but just to have the chance to play against a variety of different armies as this is probabley the most exciting aspect of the game for me...the variety.

My questions are however

: Are tournaments very welcoming to beginners of the game or are the strict in the sense they expect everyone to know the rules down to a tea?

: Is it intense in the sense players just play to win?

o you get the chance to make friends at them for future games?

:How are games selected for example if you have to play 5 games over the weekend are they drawn out at random or a special way so you play someone of your own experience.

:Are armies kept apart so you avoid playing the same force as your own e.g high aelfs vs high aelfs?

Thanks for any replies people

Hey and welcome to the hobby! While I'm not in the UK I can at least give a teensy bit of help, I hope.
One of the best things about joining Warhamer now is that AOS is new for everyone so you won't find anyone with disproportionate years of knowledge, even though they may be players for 30 years, since we are on the starting phase since the game is only 6 months old

If anything, newcomers have less Fantasy to unlearn--I mean that in a fun way, like what I'm trying to shift gears in my brain from dwarf to duardin. I had these same questions 4 years ago before my first tournament and found the experience quite enjoyable. Smaller events are good for socializing and making new friends, especially if there are food options to keep the players together or on site. From my understanding of chatting with some UK tourney movers and shakers it's not that different from the US. You still have soft scores, even if they are not weighed the same. That means sportsmanship, painting (you guys recently added display boards) and sometimes a scoring for fluff lists over win at all cost optimized lists. I've never heard of a tournament in any game where new players are not welcomed and helped learn the event side of the hobby (at appropriate times of course). If it's a large event you may find a split after the second game where the higher scoring players compete for top spots and the rest of us know we are not getting anything so have fun on the bottom table area, you can even set up camp and make yourself comfortable But certainly make sure you are having fun.

Try telling the event organizer ahead of time that you are new and they might /should pair you with an appropriate first round opponent. I don't see why European events wouldn't do that. And personally, I wouldn't worrying about what's the best list or what the Internetzzz commands you take, especially, again, with AoS being so new. Play what you like, even better if it allows for a cool narrative to give yourself and your opponent a great story (making new friends) so that you both have fun and enjoy. You won't find a room of players only wanting to win and damned be the rest...especially with AoS. If the event has a social Media page post something before the event to introduce yourself and put some names with faces if you can. You should absolutely walk away from the event with new playing tips, new friends and great stories. Best of luck!

One of the few good things about AoS over other games is there are only 4 pages of rules, though only really 2 are worth knowing, so you will have them down before you go in even if you only spend 5 minutes. there isnt much you need to know, except your warscrolls and how they interact with the few core rules. I have never seen a AoS tournament, or even event being held anywhere but I would imagine it wouldnt be much different from the other games, so yeah you will meet some great folks and some real d-bags at the same time. overall tournaments are fun, heck I have found they can make even unfun or ridiculous games fun ( looking at you "Carnage") so if you can get into one by all means do it, at least once.

I'm jealous of people in the UK with access to so many tournaments. As has been said, from what I gather, they're friendly places that want new people because they want the scene to grow.

I'd suggest checking out Heelan Hammer and Face Hammer podcasts. They're run by some of the main tournament guys over your side of the world and often talk about/review recent events. They're also jointly running the SCGT, which I wiiiish I could attend. Good start having just opened ticket sales:

Dan Heelan
‏@HeelanHammer
Fantastic response so far (5 mins in) for first SCGT under AoS, already the biggest AoS event to run. At 125 in 5 mins