2014 Contest of Champions

The 2014 Contest of Champions will be seeing some big changes, and those will be reflected here as well.  I will no longer be playing in them, as I will be the new Tournament Organizer (TO).  So that means 18 less games for the year, which means less battle reports (18 plus 6 after posts) but also new posts related to my learning to run an event.  I haven’t done so yet, but I figure it can’t be that hard… right?

The tentative calendar for next year is just below.  All dates must be tentative as Warhammer < Magic the Gathering and if Wizards of the Coast dictates some major event be at Great Escape we will get bumped.  The calendar as of now is (all Saturdays):

February 8^th

April 26^th

June 14^th

August 23^rd

October 25^th

December 13^th

We tried to get away from the old third Saturday schedule as there is a nearby group that has their monthly meetings on third Saturdays and many of their members choose that meeting over the CoCs (even if they are playing Warhammer Fantasy).  I’m hoping that by giving them a conflict free CoC, a few of them will chose to make the drive and give us a little boost of fun players.

I’m expecting some big formatting changes for the coming year.  Even though I have been responsible for the book specific composition system, I think a more player judged comp system is in order.  Just to show you what I mean, here is the December 2013 system (post Dark Elves):

WFB Comp Scoring Itemized List

General clarifications to the WFB ruleset:

• No more than 12 Power Dice can be used in any single magic phase. If you start with less
  than 12 you can use items, spells, or lore attributes to accumulate up to 12 power dice but any excess are lost.
• All current GW FAQs are in use, please see this page for further details.
• Treat BSB as non-BSB heroes for the purposes of purchasing mundane equipment.
• The Chalice of Blood and Darkness (Chaos Dwarves) may not be used during the casting of a spell.
• Any item, character or rule that allows for the selection of spells or special distribution between lores must be declared fully on army list and the same for each round.

Each player begins with 30 points.  For each of the following, points are deducted.  Once a Composition score reaches 0, additional points will be deducted from Battle score.

The following Army books ignore the first 2 points in deductions:

·      Beastman

·      Bretonnia

·      Orcs & Goblins

·      Tomb Kings

·      Wood Elves

-2 for each 5% of total points (or fraction thereof) spent on magic items, runes, abilities, gifts, powers, or any other similar bonuses after the first 10%. This includes all points spent on special characters.

-2 for the first of the following, -6 for the second, -10 for the third (cumulative):

·      Chimera [with either Flaming Breath or Regenerating Flesh] (Warriors of Chaos)

·      Hellcannon (Warriors of Chaos or Chaos Dwarves)

·      Abomination (Skaven)

·      Steam Tank (Empire)

·      Iron Blaster (Ogre Kingdoms)

·      Frost Heart Phoenix (High Elf)

·      Terrorgeist (Vampire Counts)

·      Skull Cannon (Daemons of Chaos)

-2 for each war machine after the first 3 rounded up (Dwarves ignore first deduction). In addition to units classified as ‘War Machine’ in the rulebook, this includes the following:

·      Doom Wheel (Skaven)

·      Salamander [per model, not per unit] (Lizardman)

·      Stegadon (Lizardman)

·      Bastiladon (Lizardman)

·      Skull Cannon (Daemons of Chaos)

·      Soulgrinder (Daemons of Chaos)

·      Iron Daemon (Chaos Dwarves)

·      Hellcannon (Warriors of Chaos or Chaos Dwarves)

·      Steam Tank (Empire)

·      Any Scream (Vampire Counts)

·      Iron Blaster (Ogre Kingdoms)

·      Thundertucks (Ogres Kingdoms)

·      Scrap Launchers (Ogre Kingdoms)

·      Lothern Skycutter Chariot with Eagle Eye (High Elf)

·      Scourge Runner Chariot (Dark Elves)

·      Count the following as ½ of a war machine (round up):

o   Weapon Team (Skaven)

o   Goblin Spear Chukkas (Orcs & Goblins)

-1 for each 5 wounds (or fraction thereof) after 45 in a single unit.

·      Screaming Bells and Plague Furnace (Skaven) count as 10 wounds in the unit it is assigned to

-1 for the total of the following after 3 (round up):

·      Non-character unit with the fast cavalry rule (Characters count as ½)

·      Monster with the fly rule (Non-monster flyers, including characters, count as ½)

·      Characters with both fly and vanguard rules (This overrules other deductions for the character in this section)

·      Do not count the fly rule on units or characters that cannot march (Vampire Counts can march)

-4 for each of the following:

·      Folding Fortress

·      K’daii Destroyer (Chaos Dwarves)

-3 for each of the following:

·      Combining the 3rd eye of Tzeentch with a 3+ ward save (Warriors of Chaos)

·      Daemon Prince [If NOT Level 3 or 4 Wizard] (Warriors of Chaos)

·      Book of Hoeth (High Elf)

·      Banner of the World Dragon (High Elf)

·      Chalice of Blood and Darkness (Chaos Dwarves)

·      Cauldron of Blood (Dark Elves)

-2 for each of the following:

·      When more points are spent in Special than in Core

·      Each unit of monstrous cavalry [Do not count first unit]

·      Hellheart (Ogre Kingdoms)

·      Dragon Hide Banner, when on Mournfang (Ogre Kingdoms)

·      3+ ward save without 3^rd eye of Tzeentch (Warriors of Chaos)

·      Chosen unit under 10 models with a Champion (Warriors of Chaos)

·      Unit or character with the Ethereal rule [Do not count the first 2] (Vampire Counts)

-1 for each of the following:

·      Anything that lowers leadership outside of combat [per point of leadership lost]

·      Cube of Darkness (Lizardman)

·      Doomrocket (Skaven)

·      Ring of Volans [on Witch Hunter] (Empire)

·      Ruby Ring [on Witch Hunter] (Empire)

·      Combining the 3rd eye of Tzeentch with a 4+ ward save (Warriors of Chaos)

·      Daemon Prince [If Level 3 or 4 Wizard] (Warriors of Chaos)

·      Mark of Nurgle [Do not count the first 3] (Warriors of Chaos or Daemons of Chaos)

o   Count units of Beasts of Nurgle (Daemons of Chaos) as 2

·      Magma Cannon (Chaos Dwarves)

·      Casket of Souls (Tomb Kings)

·      Per fanatic [Do not count first 6] (Orcs & Goblins)

·      Unit of Doomfire Warlocks (Dark Elves)

And here is the system I’m probably going to institute for 2014:

WFB Subjective Comp Scoring

General clarifications to the WFB ruleset:

• No more than 12 Power Dice can be used in any single magic phase. If you start with less
  than 12 you can use items, spells, or lore attributes to accumulate up to 12 power dice but any excess are lost.
• All current GW FAQs are in use.
• Digital or .pdf only rules may not be used.

·       Treat BSB as non-BSB heroes for the purposes of purchasing mundane equipment (Wood Elves, Bretonnia and Dwarves).

• The Chalice of Blood and Darkness (Chaos Dwarves) may not be used during the casting of a spell.
• Any item, character or rule that allows for the selection of spells or special distribution between lores must be declared fully on army list and the same for each round.

After all games have been played, rank your opponents by how “hard” their list was.  “Hard” should not be based on the results of the game (win/loss/tie) but on the army selections and synergy.

1.________________________This person had the hardest list I played today.

2.________________________This person was neither the hardest nor the softest I played today.

3.________________________This person had the softest list I played today.

Your battle score will be adjusted for composition as follows:

            -15 Points – All 3 of your opponents marked your list as hardest.

            -5 Points – 2 of your opponents marked your list as hardest.

            +5 Points – 2 of your opponents marked your list as softest.

            +15 Points – All 3 of your opponents marked your list as softest.

Right there I just saved a million trees.  The specific system was both fun, challenging and frustrating to create and maintain.  It would have required me to readjust every time a new book came out, and would also require me to look for the newest and greatest cheese in the older books.  This new system removes all of that.  I actually expect that lists will get harder under this new system, but I will make sure to maintain the older system just in case there is a large outcry and we need to switch back.

I also expect to make changes to both the Paint and Sports systems, but I haven’t figured those ones out yet and I think this post is quite long with its 2 page specific comp system.