16th June Midsummer Brawl

This weekend Adam Bailey and I had arranged two 16 man steamrollers in one venue on the same day. Planning to gather 32 Warmachine players for a tournament. It was a great event with a lot of players and the first 32 person event I've helped arrange and run (I helped to run the 64 + 32 man events at Bonescon without arranging anything so it's not quite the same).

My weekend started on the Friday night as I drove up to Stockport where the event was being held in the evening, mainly because I didn't want to get up at 6am on a Saturday. After a stop over at the infamous Britannia hotel I drove the short distance to the Element Game store and met up with everyone, had a nice chat until the venue was opened and then went in with all the gear. I had a lot of gear as this wasn't my home venue, I'd had to bring terrain, zones, and a stream set-up with me as no-one else familiar with our stream could make it. This added a small level of stress to the day, but nothing TO Barry couldn't handle!

Setting up the room and stream was a little delayed due to me trying to multitask and do both, however we got started only a half hour later than we should have. We lost time after most rounds due to the unexpected amount of work required between rounds to reset tables and sort players out, this could be improved next time with a stricter enforcement of round time starts.

Overall there were very few difficult judge calls and no particularly difficult games/players that needed our attention. A brief rundown of the judge calls we had are; Do models out of formation contest, and can they have friendly spells cast on them  (no and no for reference). Can you reave fury if a transfer from a caster kills a warbeast (no), Can you make vengeance attacks if staggered (I believe yes, though I think I'm going to ask on the rules forum about this because I'm not 100% on it), can you boost a mount attack (yes, impact attacks are specifically not boosted, but mount attacks do not have this restriction),and then several line of sight and throw/least disturbance rules.

Overall it was a good day with positive feedback, only marred by our slipping schedule, which we are going to tighten up for the next brawl we organise.

Mini Rules Primer #1 : Arc Nodes

Today I'm going to run through a mini rules primer on Arc Nodes and Channeling.

Arc Nodes and Channelers aren't available to everyone, but everyone should understand how they work. Lets start with an excerpt from the rulebook:

Some models, known as channelers, can act as passive relays
for spells and extend their effective range. The most common
channelers  in  WARMACHINE  are  warjacks  with  the  Arc
Node   advantage.  A  spellcaster  can  cast  spells  through
any channeler in its battlegroup that is also within its control
range.  The  spellcaster  is  still  the  model  casting  the  spell
and, if the spell is offensive, the attacker, but the channeler
becomes the spell’s point of origin (p. 40). This means that
eligible targets and the spell’s range are measured from the
channeler and that the channeling model must have line of
sight to the spell’s target. Channeling a spell does not require
the  spellcaster  to  have  line  of  sight  to  either  the  channeler
or  the  spell’s  target.  There  is  no  additional  focus  cost  for
channeling a spell.
A channeler that is stationary, knocked down, or engaged by
an enemy model cannot channel spells. A channeler can be
the target of a non-offensive spell it channels, but a spell with
a RNG of “SELF” cannot be channeled. A channeler cannot
be the target of an offensive spell channeled through it.
Make a magic attack for a channeled offensive spell normally.
The spellcaster can spend focus to boost die rolls.
Remember,  the  channeler  is  just  a  relay.  Being  used  to
channel  a  spell  is  a  passive  effect  that  occurs  during  a
spellcaster’s activation and has no impact on the channeler’s
own activation. A channeler’s focus points cannot be used to
pay the spell’s COST or boost its rolls, for example

Channelling a spell does not require the spellcaster to have line of sight to either the channeler or the spell’s target. There is no additional focus cost for channeling a spell. A channeler that is stationary, knocked down, or engaged by an enemy model cannot channel spells. A channeler can be the target of a non-offensive spell it channels, but a spell with a RNG of “SELF” cannot be channeled. A channeler cannot be the target of an offensive spell channeled through it. Make a magic attack for a channeled offensive spell normally. The spellcaster can spend focus to boost die rolls. Remember, the channeler is just a relay. Being used to channel a spell is a passive effect that occurs during a spellcaster’s activation and has no impact on the channeler’s own activation. A channeler’s focus points cannot be used to pay the spell’s COST or boost its rolls, for example. As usual, that's a lot of text to explain something intuitive. As with all games, this is to give us a tight set of rules, with no room for interpretation or argument (unlike with art, in this case more that one interpretation is a bad thing). Lets start breaking it down. If we want to use something to channel spells it must have Channeler, or the Arc Node advantage. Most of the time warjacks will be the channeler. However, there are a few warbeasts and warlocks that can access channelers (for example Minion's Blindwalker warbeast, or Skorne's Dominar Rasheth). Now that we know we can channel through a model, we have to determine if the spell is legal. So first process is to determine line of sight. A channeler (i.e. the Arc Node/model that's being channeled through) must have line of sight to the target of the spell. This can be blocked by clouds, terrain, other models. So, for example the channeler has true sight then this will allow you to ignore clouds for line of sight (Note: this also means that if the caster has true sight, but the arc node does not then you cannot ignore clouds). Another example is stealth, the channeler does not need true sight to ignore stealth as it can still draw line of sight to the model with stealth. Either the caster requires true sight if over 5 inches from the target, or the channeler must be within 5 inches of the target. This is due to the arc node being the point of origin for the spell, and how that interacts with the wording of Stealth (I.e. attacks originating more than 5inches away automatically miss). Whilst things that prevent channeling are usually self explanatory (abilities like the spell Chasten will normally specify that they prevent channeling and where that effect takes place), I will mention about everyone's favourite Cygnar Arc Node, Thorn. Thorn has a bond with Haley. It states that he can be channeled through, even if he's engaged. This is relatively simple for Haley 1 and 2, but a little more complex with Haley3 due to the presence of her Echoes (which have, as part of their rules, the ability to channel through Haley 3's arc nodes). Thorn is bonded to Haley 3 herself (Major Prime Victoria Haley) but not to the Echoes (Haley Past, and Haley Future) this leads to some interesting interactions. Haley3 can arc spells through Thorn if he's engaged, but the echoes cannot arc through Thorn if he's engaged (as he is not bonded to them). Also note that an Arc Node must be in CTRL range of the model casting the spell. This means he must be within 8 inches (or 12 inches the turn that Haley feats) to be a valid arc node for either echo.

Conquest in Review

Back in January a group of 6 midlands players including myself took a trip to Oslo Norway for a Warmachine convention called Conquest. It was a three day event hosted in the Anker Hotel near Oslo City Centre, by a team of dedicated Warmachine players. It was a really good event to play in, and I thought I'd give a brief review of the event from my point of view.

The first thing to note is that the event was held in a hotel, this is amazing for players that are staying in the same hotel. it meant that carrying models to and from our room to the event was very easy, and it was only a short trip if you needed to charge devices and such.

We arrived on the Thursday evening before the event and found the guys setting up the room for the event in the morning, this was very nice as they graciously let us play a few games using their terrain before they went to bed. Infact the room was already fully set up for the event when we came down for breakfast in the morning.

The next thing I really liked was the Conquest booklet (sadly I have misplaced mine now so can't share here). This was a short A4 document which contained everything you needed when taking part in the tournament, including blank list sheets and a very clever terrain set-up guide. The booklet was broken down in to 6 scenarios and 4 "maps", a map was a display of the table with terrain pieces laid out in an interesting and game play relevant manner. At the start of every round the scenario and map we declared and shown on the projected screen, making it nice and clear to all players what the board should look like.

Also contained in the booklet was a timeline of which events were on when. Another smart setup was that the tournaments were staggered by a round, So a 5 round masters was started at 9am, with a 4 round steamroller arrange to start just after 11am allowing anyone who lost in the first round to drop and get into the steamroller starting just after. This is good for very competitive players who want their best chances to get to finals.

The tournament itself was handled through Tiebreak, which allowed for quick and easy table display again on the projected screens, and very clear rankings which can be returned to after the event which is nice for those who wish to keep their own records. Two tables each day were also setup with a camera to stream to anyone who might want to watch the games online (This was done by Warroom.pl ) this is a nice addition to any tournament I think, provided the venue can accommodate such a thing.

It's difficult to think of things I disliked about the con, in fact I've asked others who went with me and they also can't think of any bad things either, except some tables might have been a bit too close together. Overall it is a very good weekend, and I would recommend it to all who consider going in future.

Powerfist 13th May event

Today I'm going to give a rundown of a tournament I ran here in Stafford on May 13th, I'll just give a brief overview and a little chat about what did and didn't go well and some of the things I had to deal with on the day. 


The day didn't start well as I was late getting to the club, arriving at half eight. I'd been hoping to arrive earlier to give me a chance to set some of the hall up, before players started arriving. Unfortunately though, I was late (my own fault really, for being lazy and disorganised). Once we'd got in, and everyone had settled, I handed out list sheets due to most of the players forgetting theirs. (as I mentioned in another article... that happens a lot!). I made another small error here, advertising a three list tournament and printing off 2-list list sheets, oops!

 Planning ahead for this tournament, I selected four scenarios that have similar placements on the board. In the end, I went with Standoff, The Pit II, Spread the Net, and Recon II. I chose these as it involves taking away one zone between round one and two, then another zone between round three and four. This means you don't have to hand out additional zones over the tables, which makes for a small time saver. 

Once I'd gotten all the tables setup, scenario laid out, and pairings done we were into the first round. I started the day with an odd number of players, so round one and two had a bye which for round one was randomly chosen. One of my players had to go to work after round two so that resolved my bye issue for the other two rounds. Once round one had started, I got some painting I'd brought with me to keep me occupied and set about that. 
Round one was uneventful with only two judge calls, both pertaining to line of sight. The players finished their games as the round progressed and they handed in their completed list sheets. Small note here, some players will forget to write either their name on their sheet, or they'll not write the name of their opponent. Check this as they hand sheets in because it's hard to work out after the fact. 

Round two was also uneventful, one judge call regarding the spell Terminal Velocity on Lich Lord Venethrax (it still affects the jack if it charges out of control range). Unfortunately, due to starting late, the round finished later than it should have. In order to catch up, I had to shorten lunch to a half hour from forty-five minutes. Thankfully, the players were all okay with this. 

In round three I had to get a bit harsh on start times, because I was still running five or ten minutes late. I explained to the players that the clocks were starting at 13:35 regardless of where the players were in their discussions. Once the clock struck 13:35, I went table to table starting the clock on whichever player was going first. This was necessary to get the round finished in time. The players weren't happy about this, but understood the need for it. At the end of round three two players dropped (dropping in pairs is very helpful as a TO, because it'll leave you with no bye if you still have an even number of players). 
Round four started just 5 minutes later than it should have and ran without issue, leaving us with an overall winner and finishing just a little late. We did a prize ceremony after I'd worked out the rankings (strength of schedule was not too difficult to do manually here in a 16 player tournament). We rounded out the day with a short prize presentation and a photo of the top three and I. 

Finally we packed up the room and were away just a little later than expected. On the whole a good tournament, if a little frantic in parts (the start of round three in particular). A solid tournament, which I can improve by starting the day off without being lazy! Don't forget to ask people for feedback after the event too, as this will help you improve for future tournaments.

Thanks as ever to Rob "Pun one, Pun all" McCormick

The Big Day

So you've made it! You're at the venue, your tables are all set up and you've been meeting and greeting everyone. Everyone's army lists are completed, their models are on trays. What do you do now?


 Setting up round one:

Shortly before the round is set to start, gather everyone's army lists and put them into a pool. Randomly draw two lists from the pool and place these two on table one. Rinse and repeat until all the player sheets are on tables. In bigger events it's customary for you to avoid making players face their club mates in round one, which can be achieved by separating the different clubs into piles and taking each member of a pair from different piles. Pick a scenario and communicate loudly to each player which it is for this round, they'll still ask you which they need anyway.
 We want to make sure we finish on time, so tell the players their clocks need to have started by whatever time round one starts. Once you reach the round one start time go round to each table and ensure their clocks have started (and if they haven't start the clock). Usually the players have decided who is going first by now, so start the clock on them. If someone has no opponent start the clock on the absent player, and tell the lone player that if their opponent hasn't turned up by a certain time, then they have won their game, I usually say 30 minutes.
 Once all your players are off and running you can relax a little (not too much though!). That's the hardest part of a round done. Now that you're running, you have a little free time to wander round watching some of the games or you can bring something light to do with you (I usually bring models to paint).

Judge Calls:

Usually, as a Tournament Organiser you'll probably have the added responsibility of answering judge calls. These can be nerve wracking when you first start running tournaments. My advice is to keep up playing games of Warmachine whenever you can, as this will help you keep a good grasp of the rules. In addition to this I find bringing a small rulebook along with you helps greatly too.
 Some times players will call you over to a complex situation on the board. These can be quite involved, so once you've been called, tell your players to pause their clock while you head over to work it out. Once I'm at the table, my first question is usually "Who's doing what?". The players' explanation usually helps greatly in clarifying what they want to know, and helps you make sense of the table. My usual follow-up to this is "Can you show me the card with the rule on it?". Most of the time, this combination of questions and reading the text of the rules involved will solve your query. Consulting the timing chart (found at the back of the rulebook) can also help.
 If you're still unsure at this point, it's going to be pretty complex, so make the ruling that makes the most sense in your personal judgement and say to the players something along the lines of "It's not 100% clear how this interacts, but this is how I'm ruling it today, I'll check for an official ruling later". Your players will hopefully understand you're not infallible but that also you've made a decision that you're going to stick to for the rest of the event, and you'll be looking for the appropriate solution afterwards. It's important to go and actually check on the rules forums (found here) and ask for a proper Infernal ruling to solve the rules hole for other players as well as your own sake. A small aside here, regularly checking the rules forum will really help out when you're making judge calls.

Round 2:

 So you've made it through round one with a few judge calls. Now all your games will have finished and the players have filled in their army sheets and returned them to you (if they haven't then bug them about it, there're always a few stragglers). You're now looking at a pile of sheets with winners and losers. Separate the sheets out into a pile of winner and a pile of losers, and repeat the steps for round one to get your pairings (randomly pair the sheets in each pile and distribute them to tables). If you have an odd number of winners and losers you'll be looking at what's called a pair down. This is where we find the "worst" winner and pit them against the "best" loser. In practice this means finding the person with the lowest scenario points in the winners pile, and facing them against the highest scenario points in the losers pile (SOS isn't really a factor yet).
 Once you're solved any pair downs, with a new set of pairings, round two is ready to go.
Round 3 and beyond:
 At the end of round two, you'll end up with three piles now; two-wins, one-win, no-wins. These get lined up into three piles. Any pair up/downs are resolved - important to note here, that someone who has already been paired down/up should not be paired down/up again, and then 2-wins face 2-wins, 1-wins vs 1-wins, 0-wins vs 0-wins. Round three ends with four piles and round four ends with five piles (for the more mathematically minded folks minded folks out there: Round n ends with n+1 piles).
 Once you've finished and ended up with one undefeated player you've found your tournament winner! But how do we decide on second and third place? The dreaded Strength of Schedule (SoS)!

Rankings:

 Strength of Schedule is my least favourite parts of tournaments! It involves taking your players and working out the number of wins their opponents have. The total of wins that all of a players opponents is that players Strength of Schedule score. This takes a bit of time and the more players you have, the more time it takes. One "shortcut" I use, when working out SoS, is to mark a vertical line for each win on the top corner of a player's army list. This lets me, when scanning through to see how many wins a player has, identify the number of wins quickly.
 Tally up each players strength of schedule and order them accordingly. If two players have the same SoS the next tie breaker is number of scenario points, then if these are also equal, it's army points killed. I've never had it be tied past these tiebreakers, so it's difficult to say what to do beyond there, when it happens I'll let you know how I solved it!
End of the Day:

 Now it's time to reward your players! Once your last round is done, it's nice to have a little awards ceremony. Gather all your players together after the games are all done, and thank them for coming (after all, the event wouldn't have happened if they weren't there). Then present your prizes if you have any and congratulate the players who ranked in the top 3 (it's customary to go from bottom to top). Handshakes, prize awarding and photos usually happen here, especially at the bigger events. You'll either  learn to love it or to fake smiles.
 Once you're done it's time to pack away and get home, some players will head home, especially those with long journeys ahead (if you're a player, this is absolutely fine by the way). Some might stay to help you pack up, make sure you thank these guys, they're absolute gems after a long day running a tournament.
 A small note before I end about pairing software: this is very handy and takes a lot of the hard work out of sorting our pair downs/ups and calculating Strength of Schedule. Some examples of software that does this is PG Swiss available here, and Tiebreak (web based) available here.
 That's it for this one, thanks as always to Rob "all for Puns, and Puns for all" McCormick for proof reading - He talks a lot of sense about Khador here : https://avatarofslaughter.wordpress.com/

 Next time I'll do a quick post-mortem on the Powerfist 13th May Steamroller
x

Getting people through the doors

So you've got your hall booked for a date, and your terrain, tables mats, etc, together. You're past the hard parts now, but we're missing the most important part - the players! So how do you get people to turn up?

Step one (as always) is to approach your local clubs, to see if there's interest from players in and around your area already. If you're very lucky you can fill your events with just these guys. But what if your local club(s) only fill half your tournament? This is where we have to reach further afield. Thankfully, there are plenty of tools available to help us with this.

Facebook (like it or hate it) is incredibly useful for this. For those operating out of the UK, the UK Warmachine group is a great place to advertise your event and most local clubs have groups too, join these! International readers will know their own local facebook groups better, look to them. Using social media can help you get yourself known around the local area, and even nationally. Creating an event on Facebook can help you share to these groups and get people signing up to come to your events. Using these, you can really spread the event round the community and get people through the doors.

Use your own connections as well, such as adding people you've met at events (they're likely just as passionate about Warmachine as you and other Warmachine events are a good recruiting ground for other Warmachine events). Networking is quite important in general for Tournament Organising and for growth of the community. When you ask players to come to tournaments, you can ask them to invite their friends as well. Other tournament organisers are great resources as well. Ask if they can invite people, from regions other than your own, to your event. The more the merrier!

Getting the right information out is also very important. Your potential players will want to know everything about your event, even the things you haven't thought of yet! When you put your event up on social media (whether that's Facebook or something more wargaming specific, Tiebreak for example) you'll want to include information such as:

•What format your event is
•What the players should bring
•What time they should be there
•How many rounds it will be
•Where it will be held

All this information should be readily available to anyone who wants to come to your tournament (if you're using Facebook, this usually means setting the event as Public rather than Private).
Your players should have lots of stuff to bring: models, lists, tape measures, cards, tablets for Warroom, pens, tokens, etc. There's a lot of stuff to remember, so naturally some things might be forgotten. Bringing your own spares for some of these can really help out a player in need and will net you some good karma too. Usually, the most forgotten item are list sheets, so it's a great idea to bring your own stack of spares. I've almost always had to give out spares when hosting tournaments (Blanks of these can be found in the PP Tournament packs here on page 15). If you forget these you can pass out blank paper and get players to write their list out. You'll also need lots of pens for this part, so I suggest bringing several spares.

You will need information from your players as well. If players can't make it, they should let you know! If they're going to be late, they should let you know! If they have any conversions they're using they should let you know! If they don't like the format, don't worry, they'll let you know! Communication is a big part of the tournament experience and you need your players to communicate with you just as much as you need to communicate to them.

Finally, before I get to talking about the day itself, I'll just cover some tips to think about when your players turn up on the day. Before the tournament begins, wander round as people turn up, chat with them, ask them about their armies. If you don't know them introduce yourself, ask what they're playing, about where they've come from or how their trip was. The aim is to make players feel both comfortable and to be approachable. You don't want to come off as stand offish if there is a rules query or judge call to be made. Chat about anything you might have in common, introduce them to other people who they might not know. Play the host. Players will tend to sit in their own groups, but if you can get the groups talking to each other you can help people make new friends and make them more likely to come back.

Next time - The day and event itself!

It's dangerous to go alone, take this!

Imagine you are playing a game of Warmachine on your kitchen table. Picture everything you need to actually play that game. Now imagine you've got three more games, or even seven more games going on at the same time! Suddenly, you need a large amount of stuff! This is probably the most daunting part of running tournaments, ensuring you have enough stuff for your tables. The easiest way to handle this is to break it down into parts. In a similar vein to the last post, let's ask ourselves some questions.
What are the players going to play on? Tables, kitchen worktops, the floor? Any surface can be made suitable for Warmachine, but I doubt you'd get many returning players if you mark our 4'x4' squares on the floor! Tables are probably the best surface to start from. Though tables come in many shapes and sizes, this is where viewing the venue comes in handy. If they have their own tables, you can see if they're suitable as they are or if you'll need some 4'x4' boards to play on. Most tables aren't that big, even when placed beside each other, some tables will have lipped edges, others won't. Finding out if your tables will work without boards is a great start, as it's less you'll need to bring later, but if you do need boards it isn't the end of the world. If you do need boards, I'd recommend asking around your group of players if people have any at home that they can bring, as buying many boards isn't cheap. What if the venue doesn't have tables? If the venue doesn't have tables, you're going to have to bring some with you . If your local club (like mine) has transportable tables (folding, collapsing, etc), ask them if you can borrow them. It'll save you space and money if they say yes. If they don't, however, you're likely to have to beg and borrow from the players attending the event. Thankfully, most Warmachine players don't mind bringing extra bits and pieces with them to help a tournament function, and tables aren't a massive stretch. Do you have mats? So we've got our tables set up, with some blank 4'x4' boards on top, we're starting to look a little like a respectable tournament now. Comparing this to our mental picture of a Warmachine table we can see something that's missing. There's nothing exciting on this empty board, no forest to hide behind, no trenches to duck into, no houses to fly over. What's going to generate some excitment? Mats are nice and add a level of aesthetics to the game, but aren't completely necessary. I've played a few games of kitchen table Warmachine on bare wood boards and, as mats can be pricey, this can be reasonable thing to do without when you're starting out. Again, ask your players and usual venuei f they have mats you can borrow for the tournament. Remember you only need one half of your players to bring a mat and you'll have all you need! Do you have terrain and zones? These are a necessity for Warmachine. Few players want to play on a bare board, so lets discuss terrain. Imagining your table again, with the current scenario packet suggesting 8 pieces your table looks quite full of terrain. You've probably dreamt up some forests, some rubble, some walls, all sorts of nice stuff. Now multiply that by 4, maybe 8, maybe even 16 or 32! Suddenly, that's a lot of terrain. Where does it all come from? Naturally our first port of call, is as always, the local venue. They might not have enough for 8 tables, so we can also approach other local clubs, or the players coming over. They might be willing to bring their club terrain and zones with them. Importantly, make sure their stuff is labelled or kept separate to your own equipment, to save having to work out who owns what later. But what if no-one has this stuff? In this case, then you're looking at making or purchasing your own. Thankfully, this can be cheaper that you'd think if you get creative. One of our local players made a full table of terrain and zones from some brightly coloured foam that cost less than £5. It's simple, but it's very clear and works a treat on the table. Cork mats for flooring also work well. You can cut these to whatever shapes you like and either paint them or simply write on the bits what each is. It's not glamorous but it'll save you time later explaining what each bit is. Terrain and zone sets are an option you can look into, if you have a little more money to play with, and these can be picked up from several websites. Be on the look out for bargains as well, like a local store or convention selling off their equipment as they replace it with newer stuff. When starting out, don't be disheartened by simple budget terrain, it's a great place to start from. How are we going to stick to the timings we've set out? Round timers and chess clocks are important to keep everyone running on time and unfortunately they are one of the more expensive parts of running tournaments. As always, the local club may have some and you can ask players if they have any personal clocks to borrow. Another option is to ask players to bring clocks with them, or a device (for a example a phone app) that can track the game time. There are a few free chess clock apps that players can download with a bit of notice. I've found this to be common with the UK Warmachine scene. That about covers the equipment you'll need, as usual, any questions of comments put them down in the comments. Next time I'll get to another important part - players.

As before, thanks go to Rob "The PUNisher" McCormick for proof reading my rambling.