Tournament Rules for Dogcon 2010 January 23-24th 2010 Dogcon 2010 is run by The Dogs of War Warhammer

Club. In the interests of fairness, and open competition, we have endeavoured to make the scoring system as transparent as possible. To use a common war gaming phrase; "what you see is what you get!'' The rules should cover most eventualities, however in the event of an issue arising that is not covered by this document, the decision of the Tournament Organiser (TO), Geoff Tewierik (geoff_tewierik at hotmail.com) is final. The overall objectives of Dogcon 2010 are to promote the game of Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WFB) to the world, provide the opportunity to play in the biggest WFB tournament in the Southern Hemisphere against the best players available and to have fun. All results from Dogcon 2010 will be passed onto the team at Irresistible Force for inclusion into the Warhammer Fantasy Rankings. SCHEDULE Tickets: can be purchased from the Irresistible Force web site here. Army lists: due on or before: 8th January 2010 Venue: North Sydney Anzac Memorial Club, Anzac Ave Cammeray NSW 2062 Day 1: Saturday 23rd January 08:30 08:50 09:00 11:30 11:45 12:15 12:30 15:00 15:15 18:00 Sign in and unpack armies at your playing table Briefing & Welcome Game 1 No grudge matches allowed, random pairings Players Choice Inspection Lunch Players Choice Voting Game 2 Seeded on Battle Points Afternoon Break Game 3 - Seeded on Battle Points Second hand goods sale (offload the stuff you will never get around to playing/painting and should never have bought in the first place)

11:30 11:45 12:15 12:30 15:00 15:15 17:45

Day 2: Sunday 24th January 08:30 09:00 11:30 12:00 14:30 14:45 17:15 17:45 Venue opens for players, Game 4 draw made available. Game 4 Seeded on Battle Points Lunch Game 5 Seeded on Battle Points Afternoon break Game 6 Seeded on Battle Points Pack up of Venue Presentation

11:30 12:00 14:30 14:45 17:15 17:45

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PRIZE CATEGORIES Prizes will be awarded in the following categories:

Overall - The best performed player over all categories. Best Sports - The best performed player in Sportsmanship. Best Army - The player who finishes highest Overall with maximum points in Appearance and also received no penalties for their army in Composition. Players Choice - The player who receives the most players choice votes for their painted army. Youngblood the best performed young player, under the age of 18. Best Newcomer the best performed new player at their first or second tournament.

Plus we will also be awarding random prizes throughout the tournament as lucky door prizes and for interesting events that have happened in games. The aim is to make 1st through to 5th position prizes available in the Overall category, and 1st through to 3rd place in the individual component categories. Each player will be eligible for a single 'major' prize only (i.e., from the categories listed above). To make the prizes better for you, get your entries in early! PLAYER REQUIREMENTS As the venue is a licensed premise all people under the age of 18 are restricted from entering the bar or gaming area of the venue without the supervision of a responsible adult. This doesnt stop junior players from attending the event; it just means that a responsible adult has to buy your non-alcoholic drinks for you. Its also one of the reasons the bar is not open downstairs. Entry: Entry to the event is completed via the Irresistible Force website http://www.irresistibleforce.com.au. This allows for an automatic ticketing system and acceptance of online payment of entry. Armies: Armies are to be of 2250 points or less. 2500pts or less for Orcs & Goblins, Beasts of Chaos and Ogres. Armies used at Dogcon 2010 must use figures representative of the troops in their army list, and must be fully painted. "What You See is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) will be enforced. Players using unrepresentative figures will not be able to use the miniature, or will be required to use it in accordance with the figure type and equipment represented. If

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players have any doubts, they should seek guidance from the TO prior to fielding the miniature(s) in question. Nominated armies must be drawn from the latest Games Workshop published WFB Army Books, or in the case of Dogs of War and Chaos Dwarfs use the lists hosted on the Irresistible Force web site as they've had minor updates. Chaos Dwarfs Army List (PDF) Dogs of War Army List Main (PDF) Dogs of War Army List Regiments of Renowned (PDF) In all instances, the latest published lists and rule clarifications shall be deemed to be the only such applicable and these must be released by the army list cut off date of Friday the 8th of January 2010. Due to the fact that they are not available to all armies, armies from the 'Back of the Book' alternate lists and special/named characters will not be permitted. What to bring: Players are requested to bring their own pen/pencil, tape or other measuring device, sufficient dice, a legible copy of their army list, and copies of the reference materials used to design the army list (eg. WFB Rulebook, WFB Army book etc). You should also bring your army, a way to move it safely between tables (i.e. a tray), cash to buy drinks and food at the venue, any second hand miniatures/gaming paraphernalia you wish to offload on Saturday evening. Army Lists: Army lists must be submitted by Friday the 8th January 2010 at the latest. Please ensure your army list is legible and legal. Army lists can be submitted via email to the Tournament Organiser on geoff_tewierik at hotmail.com. Armybuilder html format is the preferred file type, though formats such as PDF, Word .doc or .docx, Excel .xls or .xlsx, .txt or html are all acceptable. If there are any issues with reading the file submitted then the TO will contact you. The TO reserves the right to refuse an army list and ask for a list to be changed and resubmitted. Any late lists will incur a 10 Battle Point Penalty, applied at the end of the event, so make sure you get it in on time. GAMES Games will consist of 6 turns, or as many as can be completed within 2 hours. The timings for games will be strictly adhered to. Players will be given 30 minute and 10 minute "warnings" prior to the end of the game. At the 10 minute point, if players are not finished their game already, it is recommended they finish the turn they are on, and end the game at that point. Games will not be allowed to extend into the break. Players deemed to be deliberately delaying so as not to finish the full 6 turn game will be warned once only by the TO, and will then forfeit any subsequent games where they are deemed to be delaying. Any player noted as completing less than five turns consistently in their games will be first Player Pack and Tickets available at http://www.irresistibleforce.com.au

warned and then disqualified. The rules to be used are those of the current (7th) edition of WFB. Terrain will be Pre-set by the TO and we ask you to please leave it stationary, or return it to its starting place after the game. Remember, there are no grudge matches allowed, round 1 pairings are completely random. All rounds will use the standard Warhammer scenario, as outlined in the WFB rule book, pgs 2-3, and using the Victory points on page 102.

SCORING SYSTEM All players will receive at the start of the event a single sheet on which to record their results for the weekend. It will include a summation of the scoring criteria applied as well as opportunity to record any votes cast during the weekend. At the conclusion of each game results are filled in for the game, as well as peer marking of your opponent and then forwarded to the TO for data entry purposes. Your sheets will be returned in time for the next game. Why do we have votes? We choose to use votes to determine winners in categories because most people are genuinely good, which leads to a bunch of people tied on the same points. Do the votes contribute to the overall score? No. Battle (120 points) After each game, tally up VPs according to page 102 of the WHFB rulebook. Determine the number of Battle Points you score by comparing the Victory Points Margin on the following table: Victory Point Margin 1/2-250 251-500 501-750 751-1000 1001-1250 1251-1500 1501-1750 1751-2000 2001-2250 2251+ Battle Points Winner 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Loser 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

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Each player will know their composition score prior to the start of the event. It will be printed on their tournament score card for their opponent to see. After the conclusion of each game the players will compare their composition scores and find the difference. This difference will then be halved and will be known as the composition modifier. The player with the higher composition army will add the composition modifier to their battle score. The player with the lower composition army will subtract the composition modifier from their battle score. The final score (after modifiers) will be the value entered onto the scoresheets and handed to the TO as the result for the battle for each player. Example: Andrew plays a standard Orcs & Goblins list that score 0 from the panel judges. His armys composition score is 7. Jeff is playing a very tough High Elf list that scored -1 from the panel judges. Therefore his armys composition score is 4. The Battle score result from the game was 14-6 to the High Elves. The composition modifier between the two armies is 1.5 i.e. ({7 4} / 2). Therefore Andrew gets 14-1.5= 12.5 points out of the game while Jeff gets 6+1.5 =7.5 points from the game. Note the following: No grudge matches allowed, 1st round pairings are completely random Round 2 onwards will use Swiss Chess system based on cumulative Battle points No one will play the same player, nor on the same table twice There are no draws, experience shows that this encourages players to actually play the game and not sit back and play for a draw Conceding a game is frowned upon, tournament results can and are negatively affected by conceding games.

Sportsmanship (30 points) Sportsmanship will go towards determining the "Best Sports" award and also be worth 30 points of the total score. At the end of each game you will be asked to score your opponent against the following criteria: Excellent conduct. What more can I say? I wish more players were this good. 5 points Above average conduct. More than what I expected. They are a credit to the gaming scene. 4 points Average conduct. What I expected. Played within the spirit of the game. 3 points Below Average conduct. I expected more. They need to lift their game. 2 points Very Poor conduct. Mmmm. Do I need to say more? 1 point Deplorable conduct. Expulsion from the event should be considered 0 points

Players will therefore receive a total of between 0 (for not being given any points by any of your opponents) to 30 sportsmanship points (five points each from all six opponents).

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At the end of day 1 you will be asked to nominate, from the three opponents you faced on the day, one player who stood above all the others when it came to Sporting behaviour. At the end of day 2 you will be asked to nominate, from the three opponents you faced on the day, one player who stood above all the others when it came to Sporting behaviour. You can then choose which of your two daily nominations your most sporting opponent of the weekend was. Each player that is the final nomination at the end of day 2 will receive one point. These points will be used as a tie breaker to determine Best Sports if there are players tied on the maximum score of 30. The vote points will not contribute to the Overall score of the event. Note: At the time of writing this rules pack there are 20+ players on maximum sports score of 400pts in the Rankings, this is something that has also been noted by the IF crew. The reason is due to the nature of tournament scoring not including sports votes in the Overall results of the event. While we all appreciate thats the way it needs to be to determine Overall winners of events, unfortunately its not flowing into the Rankings well and indicating who the true top Sports really are. To alleviate this problem the results submitted to the Rankings will indicate which players received extra votes, thus preventing X number of players all getting 100pts for the event. Only one player will get the 100pts, the true Best Sports player at the event. This has been discussed with the IF crew, and they agree that this is the right thing to do. Army Composition Due to the drawn out process in which army books are released its hard for Games Workshop to effectively balance armies across their range. Composition in tournaments is players attempt to introduce some balance back into the game. A variation of the current tiered scoring system for armies will be used at Dogcon 2010. At Dogcon 2010 all armies start on the following points for an average army: 2pts - Daemons of Chaos, Dark Elves, Vampire Counts 4pts Lizardmen, Tomb Kings 5pts - Bretonnians, Empire, High Elves, Skaven, Warriors of Chaos, Wood Elves 6pts - Chaos Dwarfs, Dwarfs, Dogs of War 7pts - Orcs & Goblins, Ogre Kingdoms, Beasts of Chaos

Regardless of the Tier system used, some armies have natural disadvantages and find it hard to be competitive. As we want to encourage diversity in armies taken, we have also provided some additional benefits to three armies. Orcs & Goblins Allowed to field an army size of 2500 points. Allowed to field 5 special choices (i.e. an extra special choice). Beasts of Chaos Allowed to field an army size of 2500 points. Allowed to field 5 special choices (i.e. an extra special choice). Player Pack and Tickets available at http://www.irresistibleforce.com.au

Beasts Herds will rank up to a minimum of 5 models wide. Ogre Kingdoms Allowed to field an army size of 2500 points. Allowed to field 5 special choices (i.e. an extra special choice). Allowed to field a Slaughtermaster as their Lord level character. Before the event starts your army list will be assessed by a panel of experienced tournament players. They will then mark an army equal to or down from the starting value based on their knowledge of composition and the impression of playing against the army. For the three armies with extra benefits fielding the extra points and an extra special slot will not be held against them.

It's what I expected to see in an average army of this race, 0 points Just a little bit harder than average, -0.5 points Significantly harder than average, -1 point An over the top and tooled out army list, -2 points

There is no bonus applied to armies deemed to be soft or comp friendly. Players, depending on what army they take, will therefore receive a total of between 3 (for being given the maximum penalty for the army) to 30 composition points (no penalties applied at all). For those that claim little or no knowledge as to what makes up an average army we have prepared the following guide. While you may not agree with it in its entirety, as far as we are concerned, this is what we expect to see in an average army at Dogcon, and this is also the guide from which the panel markers will be marking lists against. What makes an average army? With respect to the tier system, the main gripe players have is that theres no clear indication as to what is an average army. Usually these are players who dont have a lot of tournament experience, though that number is decreasing as more and more players attend tournaments. In an endeavour to establish some base line guidance for what does or doesnt make an average army apply the following to your army of choice and see how it applies. Note: The current tier system has only been reviewed at the 2000-2250 point limits. As points limits go up and down the effectiveness of different army elements change, along with different races. This changes not only which races should be in which tiers, but also what constitutes an average army. In general, balanced armies capable of competing in all phases of the game are considered average, and also considered more effective across a tournament, as they have the ability to take on all comers. Armies which stack certain phases, be it movement/magic/shooting/combat (both offensive and defensive (high saves)), either across the board or by supporting one or two death star elements for these phases, tend to start falling apart on the battlefield, or discourage games which end in a result. Armies Player Pack and Tickets available at http://www.irresistibleforce.com.au

that are built to dominate in two of the phases in particular, magic and shooting, are the ones that suffer the most in panel voting. There is an understanding that some armies inherent strengths are based in these two phases of the game, however that is not a reason to go over the top in that phase simply because it is common for your army. This paragraph is the key point, if you have built an army around one aspect of your races ability, e.g. heavy shooting for Wood Elves, Castle for Dwarves or Plaguebearer bunkers for Daemons then you have not build an average army. This statement is tempered by some races who do not have the capacity to play in all phases but can still provide an average army, e.g. Beasts with shooting, or Dwarves with movement etc. While competitive, and encouraging variety, your opponent should not be surprised with what your army will hold after being told the race that it is based on, and you as the player should never feel the need to provide an apology when you bring your army out for deployment, if you do then perhaps your army is not average. As with anything, there are always exceptions, i.e. would 2 scorpions be considered average for Tomb Kings, and how can you produce an average Vampire Counts army without more than the characters casting magic? The intention is to provide guidance not necessarily a tick box approach to constrain army builds. Guidelines: Characters 3-4 slots taken up Around the character slots being dedicated to magicians Battle Standard Bearer Note: Not filling your character slots is seen as a concession in most cases, especially if you for go a lord choice. Units A mixture of infantry and cavalry and/or chariot units. All cavalry and/or chariots is still considered harder than all infantry, as is a high proportion of chariots and single monsters Mixtures of high and low armour save units Command models in some but not all units that can take them Banners on some but not all units that can take them Normally 7-11 deployments in the army Movement 1 march blocker, be it a unit of scouts or a flying unit, or one with special deployment conditions, e.g. miners or way watchers etc. A couple of fast cavalry/diverters, note: these are not cumulative with the above march blockers Move distances variable. Magic 4-6 levels of magic, i.e. 6-8 power dice, 4-5 dispel dice 1 bound item. 2 dispel scrolls Player Pack and Tickets available at http://www.irresistibleforce.com.au

1 magic banner An expectation that only half to two thirds of spells that could be cast in a round would be direct damage causing. The emphasis is on 2*lvl 2s vs 4 lvl 1 spam casters. Note: 8 Power dice is a strong magic phase without over doing it, especially if you combine it with a single bound. If you have 10 power dice then having additional bounds and/or ways to produce more power dice is pushing the boundaries. Basically if your phase is difficult to compete with when your opponent has 4-5 dispel dice and 2 scrolls then chances are you are over the top and will get penalised for it in comp voting. Shooting 2 dedicated infantry shooting units, e.g. archers, black powder, crossbows, about 12 models in size 1 dedicated mounted shooting units, e.g. mounted yeoman, glade riders, pistoleers At least 1 ranked or combat infantry unit (e.g. Dryads, spearmen, etc) for each shooting unit 2 artillery war machines, e.g. Bolt Thrower, cannon, etc. Note: The bottom line is that players dont like removing models turn after turn from copious amounts of shooting. Comp judges are players and will mark accordingly. So dont over do it. If your army is churning out more than 45 shots a turn, then you have too much shooting (and yes that also counts for Dark Elf armies!). Balance your army with shooting and non-shooting units and you will have a more tactical force and also something that is more enjoyable to play against. Terror causers Walking/Driving - one (e.g. Giant, Stegadon, Steam Tank etc) Non-rank breaking Flyer e.g. Daemon Prince Weak rank breaking flyer e.g. Hippogriff Note: A Dragon or Greater Daemon is considered a tough, rank breaking, terror causer and will be marked appropriately. One terror causer is about the limit you should take if you dont want to get hit. Simple as that. APPEARANCE: Army Appearance will contribute to the Best Army category (a combination of Painting and Comp scores), and will also be worth 25 points of the total score. The appearance category includes (but is not limited to) painting, modeling, conversions, basing, colour scheme selection and other components. Appearance will consist of two elements - An organiser judged 'checklist' component worth 25 points and the Players Choice voting. The checklist score is a set of questions that will determine your basic painting score. The checklist will give you a potential 25 points. The criteria for the checklist scoring are as follows:

Is every model in the army fully painted with at least 3 colours? 5 points Is every model based appropriately in a pleasing fashion (e.g. painted and/or flocked, etc.) 5 points Has highlighting and shading been used throughout the entire army? 5 points

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Does the army look cohesive? (i.e., consistent colour scheme, unit markings, etc.) 5 points Have any conversions been used in the army and if so, do they look appropriate? 5 points

Judges may at their discretion award half points for any of the above questions if they feel the player has almost achieved the objective. (eg, most of the army has highlighting and shading, but there are still some models that are just base coated). Once your army has been judged according to the above criteria, you will be informed as to what score you have received and why, you will also then be asked to sign off on the score given as being acceptable. This allows you the chance to respond to the mark you have been given, and is in place to enable greater transparency in the scoring process. Players Choice This year the Players Choice Beauty Pageant does not contribute to the Overall score. Before the lunch break the draw will be done and table assignments will be posted. You should proceed to your table as normal but do not start deploying. Instead you should lay out your army for presentation (if applicable, i.e. you painted the army yourself, armies not painted by the player be they bought, borrowed or contract painted are not eligible) and place your name tag on the table with the army. Once all armies have been deployed in this manner, it is lunch time. Players have the lunch break to check out the armies on display. Once back from lunch, voting slips will be made available for you to record your favourite 3 armies. Once all players have voted, the scores will be tallied. For each 1st place vote a player receives he will get 3 points, 2nd place gives 2 points and 3rd place 1 point. Votes will be added up. The highest total of the beauty pageant will receive the award for Players Choice as voted by their peers. Note: At the time of writing this rules pack there are 30+ players on maximum painting score of 400pts in the Rankings, this is something that has also been noted by the IF crew. The reason is due to the nature of tournament scoring not including Painting votes in the Overall results of the event. While we all appreciate thats the way it needs to be to determine Overall winners of events, unfortunately its not flowing into the Rankings well and indicating who the true top Painters really are. To alleviate this problem the results submitted to the Rankings will indicate which players received extra votes, thus preventing X number of players all getting 100pts for the event. Only one player will get the 100pts, the true Best Painter at the event. This has been discussed with the IF crew, and they agree that this is the right thing to do.

TIE BREAKERS: In the event that two players are tied in scores for a particular award category, secondary and tertiary categories will be used as a fall back to determine the winner: Tie breakers: Overall Best Sports Best Army 1st Battle Sports Overall 2nd Sports Composition 3rd Composition Battle 4th Painting

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