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Hi folks!

I've run a few tournaments in the past, and next month I'm doing one for the first time in 7e. In order to prepare, I'd like some input from tournament organizers and attendees regarding what they have seen before as common rules problems. Knowing of these issues ahead of time will allow me to prepare my answers beforehand and give quick rulings to let the event continue on smoothly. So please, post away!
Note: This thread isn't a rules debate. If you'd like, give a brief blurb on what you think the correct answer is to a problem, but please don't start rules debates. If I'm confused about a rules situation, I'll bring it up in YMDC! Thanks!

Here's a few I've logged away. I may have answers to these questions already:
-How many levels in a ruin can flamers and blasts hit?
-How many levels up can a flame template hit?
-How is cover determined? Is it area or LoS? Is there a front and back to an ADL?

Levels of terrain as you've noted.

How much Cover a model gets, like if a GW ruin is glued onto a larger masonite base, is it 5+ on the base, but then 4+ once behind a wall?

"Wanna jink?" Dice roll so fast I fail to ask an opponent most of the time if they wanna Jink, before I've rolled the hit and Pen. I always give my opponent choice before or if I forgot to offer, after.

Counting wounds up or down? I like that if there is no die next to the model, it is wholly intact. Once a marker is placed next to it, it's wounded. I like to count down.

Mission specifics.

 Brothererekose wrote:
"Wanna jink?" Dice roll so fast I fail to ask an opponent most of the time if they wanna Jink, before I've rolled the hit and Pen. I always give my opponent choice before or if I forgot to offer, after.

Counting wounds up or down? I like that if there is no die next to the model, it is wholly intact. Once a marker is placed next to it, it's wounded. I like to count down.

These aren't really rule debates because there's nothing to argue about.

Rushing through the steps of shooting to prevent a player from declaring a jink save is clearly cheating and no TO will ever allow it. In all situations like that the obvious ruling is that if you don't give your opponent time to respond you just go back to the point where they would have responded and redo the event. The only real question is how soon you should consider removing that player from the tournament if they keep trying to cheat.

How you mark your wounds/HP is up to the individual player, and shouldn't ever need a TO ruling unless someone is being deliberately unclear about how they're doing it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Elric Greywolf wrote:
-How many levels in a ruin can flamers and blasts hit?

I'll pick these as an example of a kind of problem you're going to have to deal with: RAW vs. RAI. The answer to this question is indisputably "every level" since the entire concept of "levels" in a ruin has been removed from the rules. But many players who are used to previous editions have strong feelings about it and want to go back to the old rules, whether because they're concerned about making blasts too powerful or because they just like the previous edition. So before you start the event you need to decide how you're going to rule things like this if someone starts an argument about it: are you going to go with and unpopular but very clear RAW, or are you going to decide how it "should" be and ignore the printed rules? Either way you're probably going to have at least one person who is unhappy with your ruling.

 Peregrine wrote:
These aren't really rule debates because there's nothing to argue about.

Rushing through the steps of shooting to prevent a player from declaring a jink save is clearly cheating and no TO will ever allow it. In all situations like that the obvious ruling is that if you don't give your opponent time to respond you just go back to the point where they would have responded and redo the event. The only real question is how soon you should consider removing that player from the tournament if they keep trying to cheat.

You are not reading to carefully, there, Peregrine. "I always give my opponent choice before, or if I forgot, after."

Plus, this is such a prevalent occurance in game play, I wonder if you ever actually play with other people.

a. not once at Game Empire Pasadena, in 2 years of monthly tourney play, (of 6e and 7e ) has an opponent ever grieved this to me, nor I him. Not once. The TO has never been called over to my table for this. Me and my opponent have worked it out. Every time.
b. Not once, at 2 LVOs and 2 BAOs ... Same scenario. 24 games of GT competition.
c. nor at Midnight Madness or BrawlitFall, a GT.

d. For that matter, any time the TO is called to my table, *I* get him.

Peregrine ... What TO have you experienced that has been so ( searches for term ) well, I will use yours ; ' will never allow it ' ?

And, sounding so authoritative about ejecting players from tourneys, when and what event have you seen this happen? Were you the TO? NOVA? Adepticon?l Local RTT? Store name?

This thread is asking for trouble, lol. In the end, try to work it out-if that fails call a TO and let their decision stand. There are three sides to every rules issue: yours, your opponent's and the TO's; and, ultimately, only the TO's matters.

Even if the rules are plainly written, sometimes it is best to let the TO explain that to the other player-or yourself if you happen to be wrong.

I've generally learned its best to let things go in favor of the opponent unless it is a game changing issue.

 Brothererekose wrote:
You are not reading to carefully, there, Peregrine.

No, you just got what I said completely backwards. I said that no TO would ever allow a player to rush through a sequence of events too quickly for their opponent to respond and then claim "oops, you missed your opportunity". Any sane TO is going to look at that situation and say "you have to give them a chance to respond, now go back to the point where they wanted to do something". So you're actually agreeing with me.

And of course in games where tournaments are actually supported this isn't even a debate. Other games (MTG, X-Wing, etc) have their own rules against trying to rush past an opportunity and prevent your opponent from acting. For example, the X-Wing tournament rules on this:

Missed Opportunities

Players are expected to play optimally, remembering to perform actions and
use card effects when indicated. If a player forgets to use an effect during
the timing specified by that effect, he cannot retroactively use it without the
consent of his opponent. Players are expected to act with respect and not
intentionally distract or rush an opponent with the intent of forcing a missed
opportunity.

I'd highly encourage you to check out or use the FAQ docs from another major tournament. Even if you don't use it, you can get an appreciation of the dizzying array of questions that people ask.

Ones that always come up for me (and I ask TO's before the tournament as they affect my list building):
- If you normally can fire more than one weapon in the shooting phase, how many weapons can you fire on intercept / overwatch?

- Pskyers, how do they work? Specifically:
- How many powers may a psyker manifest per turn?
- If a unit contains more than one psyker with a particular power, how many times may that unit attempt to manifest that power?

- How are you playing template weapons vs buildings (as covered above)

And one that seems blindingly clear to me in the rules but seemingly needs to be covered against every opponent
- Can gliding FMC's jink? (yes)

Missions, scoring and bonus points. Even if you're using widely known mission formats there are always people with questions about how it works.

Also, order of operations before the game starts. Psychic powers, warlord traits, rolling for sides, setting out objectives, etc. If you have a projector, put up a list of that during the first twenty minutes of each round. If not, at least go through it before the first round while you have everyone's attention.

Two big basic rules questions I'll add to those already mentioned:

- How many saves do I take on a D weapon attack?

I'm in the camp that models take a single save and then suffer a multi-wound Wound so that's how we play in our events, but obviously this topic is a whole big morass.

- Vertical distance for holding objectives?

We play objectives as Manhattan distance, not Euclidean, so you get 3" horizontally as per usual and then we said 6" vertically. That matches some of the other scant rules about levels, fits with previous rules, and definitively enables you to claim from one level up on a variety of terrain, but generally not two levels up.

Most common issues I see are with terrain (do those big rocks count as 4+ ruins or just basic 5+ cover?), LoS issues, Barrage weapons vs Knights, and people routinely still not understanding detachment/formation/allies functionality. Jink is also always something that causes issues.