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So we have just recently started hosting tournaments and haven't quite decided what's the best way forward in regards to prizes. So I was just wondering if you can give any suggestions.

For us we are trying to make it as cost-effective as physically possible so there isn't a lot of money at the end when we are taking out all the expenses and the initial investment on scenery etc.

So I was just wondering whether or not use can help? and for those of you interested check out the below links to see them for yourself

Our 2nd N.D.G.H Ranked 40k 1850pts and WFB 2400pts Tournament 6.05.12
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.363610133687466.76799.244599218921892&type=3

Our 1st N.D.G.H Ranked 40K Tournament 08.04.12
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.344144775634002.73858.244599218921892&type=3

Who is "we"? Club, store, what? If store, retail credit at the store based on entry fees is always good. Club can be more difficult, but you can have custom engraved dice or templates, shirts, etc with club logos, or similar items. Low expense. Establish a permanent trophy and add a small plaque on the base for each events winner.

They seem to be a group looking to put on a regular (monthly?) local tournament in northern Ireland

Discount on future entry fees (e.g. free ticket to the next tournament for the top 3 plus best sportsman- you want the best back if you are going to build the scene),
You could even give some of the scenery as prizes, (probably not at the moment though, although you could auction any surplus to help with the cash flow). it would be appropriate if the key moment in the final was a shot through 2 windows on a particular terrain piece that won the game, you could give that piece to the winner (or loser!)
A custom painted figure (if you have someone on the organisational team with the time to do it) - perhaps even turn that into a trophy. My son and I play for a cup that came out of a cracker that has been painted gold - at a club, its not about the prizes its about the bragging rights.
You could do certificates (or rosettes if you make them look like purity seals) for the best army per codex.

The coolest prize I've ever gotten is a large customer-sculpted (150ish mm) space marine statue painted gold with a plaque with my name on it. The downside with the prices at that tourney was that nobody else got anything at all.

Another tourney I frequent give out boxed sets & other warhammer-related stuff to 1-3 place, best sportsman and best painter. They also have small prices, single blisters, to winners of various competitions shouted out during play (first to kill an enemy heavy support etc).

A combination of the above two would be perfect IMO. The statue demands a significant investment into sculpting for the first time, after that you can just cast them up. Boxed sets and blisters as prizes should be covered by the ticket price. It doesn't add too much spread over 30+ contestants.

The above suggestions really only fit larger tourneys which are not held very often.

For smaller tourneys, smaller prices would be the norm. 20-man tourney = just one battleforce for the overall winner etc.

Trophies, plaques, dice, etc... Those are the sort of things that last and people remember. I believe those make the best prizes and anything like store credit should be secondary. I can look at all my trophies, etc. and remember them, but I have no idea which pieces of my armies are from which prizes I've won.

For secondary prizes, I am not a fan of handing out random boxes or blisters because odds are decent that I don't want whatever it is. Store credit is superior in every way if it's a FLGS tournament. Obviously bigger tournaments not affiliated with stores can hand out boxed prizes, but gift certificates work better.

Bat Manuel wrote:Trophies, plaques, dice, etc... Those are the sort of things that last and people remember. I believe those make the best prizes and anything like store credit should be secondary. I can look at all my trophies, etc. and remember them, but I have no idea which pieces of my armies are from which prizes I've won.

For secondary prizes, I am not a fan of handing out random boxes or blisters because odds are decent that I don't want whatever it is. Store credit is superior in every way if it's a FLGS tournament. Obviously bigger tournaments not affiliated with stores can hand out boxed prizes, but gift certificates work better.

IMO, boxes are better. It is cooler to get an actual physical prize than a gift card and it makes for a better prize table. The box can be exchanged (they expect you to do that). Gift cards are pretty lame IMO, just in Norway (5 mill inhabitants), gift cards for around 340million$ go unspent each year. Gift cards are a lazy present often forgotten, gift cards as a prize is slightly better and probably more likely to be spent (at least it is for something you want), but still lazy and a poor choice IMO. Easier to remember to exchange that box of something you don't need than finding that gift card you stashed somewhere.

Of course, if it is a store, they could actually save money on people forgetting their gift cards