Goldensprue Cup 2016 Highlander Tournament

Modified Highlander Format

Please note that this may not be the final format!

Red indicates recent changes.
Last update: 2015.11.25
Date: February 6, 2016
Time: 8:30AM

Location:
Flipside Gaming in East Greenbush, NY
598 Columbia Turnpike, East Greenbush, NY 12061 (518) 479-4746

If you get lost, feel free to call and ask for directions: 892-0023

Contact the 40k Tournament Organizer with questions and lists: 
Adam Fasoldt - adam.fasoldt@gmail.com

Entry fee: $15 with ALL fees going to product prize support in store credit

ITC: This is also an ITC ranked event. The more who show up, the more points will be awarded.

Schedule:

We're going to try the 4 game format again. I know it's tough for some players, but we're going to try very hard to stick to the schedule.

8:30 - 9:00 Doors open, table assignments
9:00 - 11:30 Game 1
11:30 - 12:15 Lunch and appearance Judging
12:15 - 2:45 Game 2
3:00 - 5:30 Game 3
5:45 - 8:15 Game 4
8:30 Prizes awarded

Lists

• 1500 points 
• Lists must be Battleforged 
• Only source material released before January 27, 2016 will be allowed
• Modified Highlander Limitations
• There is no limit on which or how many Detachments or Formations you may take, however you may find that some are impossible to take anyways due to the unique restrictions below.
• Units which are Infantry Troops choices are not limited no matter what kind of Detachment they are taken in. There is no rotating troops requirement.
• You may take up to 3 of any Dedicated Transport under 80 points, 2 of any over 80 points. These numbers are after upgrades.
• For all other units, you may only select 1 for your entire army across all Detachments and Formations. This means, for example, that the Skyhammer formation is illegal because it allows you to take two Stormtalons.
• Similar units do not limit one another. For example, you may take both a Land Raider Achilles and a Land Raider Crusader. Similarly, you may take both a Space Marine Librarian and Tigirius.
• Units which are only different because they come from a different army do still limit one another. For example, Space Marine Land Raider and Blood Angels Land Raider are considered the same unit, so you may not take one of each.
• AV15 Fortifications and Fortification Networks are not allowed.
• Please see the ITC rules for Forge World and Lord of War allowance
  https://www.frontlinegaming.org/community/frontline-gamings-independent-tournament-circuit/itc-2015-season-40k-tournament-format/

Models

• All models must be a 3-color minimum and based for this tournament. We still won't turn you away if you have unpainted models, but any unit with a model which does not meet these requirements will suffer a -2 to all saves after all other modifiers.
• Any counts-as units must present a good effort to reduce confusion for your opponents. Counts-as must be provided to the Tournament Organizer (adam.fasoldt@gmail.com) before the event if you want to avoid your model not being allowed on game day.
• Kitbashes must provide your opponent all the benefits and yourself all the negatives of any difference in size you may have modeled.
• Don't be a jerk. If you follow this simple rule, you won't go wrong. We are subjective about our modeling policies, so if you try to follow them to the letter and squeak out some kind of advantage, you will be disqualified from the event.

Scenarios

Scenarios have both static and cumulative missions of various Battle Points values in your games. The updated tournament mission packet will be forthcoming, but expect very little change from the missions we've used in the past; with some possible changes to the tertiary missons. Here is a link to the last packet we used with the Goldensprue Cup missions:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7RGoi6dfv6dSjhtNXhVX0tYMTdzNE0tS1NHLV9fWDM3dTMw

What to Bring

• Your Army 
• Tape Measure, Dice, Game Aids, etc. 
• 6 Objective Markers about 40mm in size. 
• 6 Typed Copies of your army list. Be sure to notate who your Warlord is on your army list. (2 Battle Points)
• All pertinent rules for your army. Codices, White Dwarf Articles, Foregworld Rules, etc. 
• If you are using a counts as army, bring a "cheat sheet" for your opponents.
• A copy of the mission packet. (2 Battle Points)

Rules Judgments

Rules issues will be dealt with swiftly by a roaming judge. We use a hierarchy for determining rules issues as follows:

1. Main Rule Book 
2. Games Workshop FAQs and Erratas 
3. ITC FAQ
4. Tournament-specific Houserules
5. Judgements at the Table

Houserules and FAQs

• ITC Houserules
  Click on the FAQ in the menu under "ITC": https://www.frontlinegaming.org/community/frontline-gamings-independent-tournament-circuit/itc-2015-season-40k-tournament-format/
• True Measuring: When measuring range to and from any model or Objective, you must measure diagonally in three dimensions if the models are on different elevations.
• Barrage and Imperial Knights: “Top” is considered an option to protect your Imperial Knight with its directional shields. Declaring “Top” protects you from Barrage and Barrage-like weapons (bombs, etc). Declaring “side” does not. 
• Zooming Blasts: Models in Zooming or Soaring mode cannot be hit by nor targeted by blast or Template weapons. 
• The Saint Is Dead: If Saint Celestine or any other model is incapacitated (as a marker or otherwise not in play) at the end of the game, they are considered killed for all victory conditions. 
• Fast Dice: If your opponent requests that you use Fast Dice for your rolls when you can, you must do so unless you use a dice tower. The only reason to roll one die at a time for saves which could use Fast Dice would be for either superstitious or cheating reasons. The odds are otherwise the same. 
• The Bigger They Are…: Super Heavy and Gargantuan Creatures can never claim to be in cover when the model itself is not at least 25% in cover. This means that positioning of the model is essential to gaining a cover save. This is as opposed to keeping a “toe in area terrain for cover”. This is done to help balance out the use of larger models in competitive play. 
• Sevrin Loth has returned from his escapades, however he doesn't want to talk about what happened. An army containing Sevrin Loth may only comprise of units with the Adeptus Astartes Red Scorpions Faction or no Faction.
• Tall Models and Ruins: If an assaulting Walker, Superheavy Walker, Monstrous Creature, or a Gargantuan Monstrous Creature is at least face-level with a model which is on a level of a ruins, then the assaulting model does not need to count the levels up in order to assault the model on that level if the assaulting model's head is fully above that level. The assaulting model moves horizontally as far as it can, reaches out, and attacks the target unit. When measuring in this manner, do so from the closest point on the assaulting model, whether it's a part of the body or the base. Ignore any body parts that are normally ignored for cover purposes (melee weapons, etc.). This rule assumes that the assaulting model being used is modeled at reasonably equal height to the retail model kit.
• Voidshields and Markerlights: Guidance from the ITC organizers indicate that Voidshields do not intercept Markerlights. This may change in the future.
• Fateweaver's Re-roll: Guidance from the ITC indicates that Fateweaver's re-roll from the Staff of Tomorrow works while the model is alive whether it is on the board or not. However, if the model is considered destroyed, then the army does not benefit from the re-roll. 

Terrain

Terrain will be static and narratively-placed by the judges. If both players agree, however, some terrain may be moved. 

• Hills: All rolling hills are open terrain, granting 5+ cover via LOS blocking/interference as normal but do not count as difficult terrain. 
• Rock Towers, Crates, and Can Towers: Are impassible and block LOS completely (even if there are actual gaps in the terrain pieces).In order to facilitate easy use of Woods terrain and reduce Line-of-Sight arguments. 
• Woods are treated differently from other terrain rather than just being simple difficult terrain. If any model is in woods or up to 25% of your model is behind the woods base, including vehicles, they enjoy a 5+ cover save even if the model is not obscured. The height of all woods is assumed to be as tall as the tallest tree on the base, so if a flyer stands over the tree-line, it will not enjoy the cover save. Similarly, if you are in woods and trace line of sight through any part of the woods you are in, your target also enjoys a 5+ cover save. 
• Note that the bases of terrain count as part of the terrain piece and therefore, non-vehicle units enjoy cover saves for being on them. 
• Terrain Data Slates (such as the Twisted Copse) will not be used. 
• Fortifications are placed before your other models during deployment. You must remove one piece of terrain that is at least partially within your deployment zone before you place your Fortification. The exceptions to this are the Aegis Defense Line and Promethium Relay Pipes which are allowed to snake through other terrain as needed, even up hills. 

Scoring

Battle Scoring

Every scenario is worth 25 Battle Points with a Primary Mission worth 11 points and a Secondary Mission worth 8 points. Three Tertiary Objectives are in play, one worth 3 points, and two others worth 2 each.

Note that any ability which awards additional victory points (such as some Warlord Traits or the Tankbustas’ Glory Hogs ability) are applied to a specific mission. Again, see the mission packet for more details.

Additionally, the following scores are awarded:

• 2 Battle Points: You bring 6 copies of your finalized list to the Tournament. 
• 2 Battle Points: You bring a copy of the Mission Packet 
• 4 Battle Points: You email the T.O. (adam.fasoldt@gmail.com) your finalized army list by February 1. Battlescribe or Army Builder formats are favored, but PDF or just text is okay as well. No changes to your list will be allowed after this point if you want these points.
• 6 Battle Points: You email the T.O. (adam.fasoldt@gmail.com) a selfie of yourself with an unpainted unit by February 1. If that unit is painted on the day of the event, you score these points.  (Single infantry, such as a single, small HQ, do not count. The unit must be somewhat significant.) 

Maximum Battle Points for the tournament: 114pts

Appearance Scoring

What constitutes "tabletop standard", "a vast majority", “a large number”, or “a handful” of models is up to the Judge’s discretion. Also note that the examples given next to a points score is just that... an example. Other factors can be involved in a points score. Suffice to say, Appearance Scoring is extremely subjective.

The player with the best appearance score will win Best Appearance with tiebreakers being decided by the players voting for favorite army.

• General Score (up to 11pts):
• 1pt Some painting has been attempted
• 2pts Army is in progress, but the majority is not complete or to any kind of standard
• 3pts The vast majority of the army is painted to a 3-color minimum
• 4pts The entire army is painted to a 3-color minimum
• 5pts The vast majority of the army is painted to a tabletop standard
• 6pts The entire army is painted to a tabletop standard
• 7pts The entire army is painted to a tabletop standard with several units painted beyond a tabletop standard with highlights and shading
• 8pts The entire army is painted to a tabletop standard and a large number of units in the army are painted beyond tabletop standard with highlights and shading
• 9pts Most of the army is painted beyond tabletop standard with highlights and shading with the rest of the army painted to a tabletop standard.
• 10pts Entire army is painted beyond tabletop standard with highlights and shading
• 11pts Entire army is painted beyond tabletop standard with nearly seamless highlights and shading
• Basing Score: (up to 4pts):
• +1pt Minimal basing (1 texture/color) on most of the army
• +2pts Minimal basing (1 texture/color) on the entire army
• +3pts More than one texture and/or color is used to base most of the army
• +4pts More than one texture and/or color is used to base the entire army
• Modeling score (up to 4pts - note breakdown adds up to 6, but max is 4):
• Conversions
• +1pt Minor conversion work has been done to a handful of models
• +2pts Minor conversion work on a large number of models or a small amount of major conversions. Conversions must be well-executed to score more than 1 point.
• +3pts The army has many major conversions
• Display Board
• +1pt Simple display board with surface matching models' bases
• +2pts Advanced display board with surface matching models' bases and matching terrain. Note that the execution of the display board must be of an Advanced quality to score more than 1 point, even if you do add terrain and effects.
• +3pts Extreme display board with surface matching models' bases, matching terrain, and matching environmental effects (lights, smoke, etc).
• Miscellaneous (up to 6pts - note breakdown adds up to 11, but max is 6):
• +1pt Army uniformity 
• +1pt Basing uniformity
• +1pt Extreme bases
• +1-2pts Extreme conversion work
• +1-3pts Freehand
• +0-3pts Judge’s discretion. This is mainly to differentiate execution between players with nearly maximum points, but could also be used to award good faith on the part of players who are trying very hard to paint their army. Judges are also encouraged to take into account difficulty level and model count, to some extent, for the awarding of Judge’s Discretion points, though the award is entirely up to them and players are asked not to grill the Judge on their final decision. If the Judge feels threatened or put off by questions by the players, the Judge is encouraged to alert the Tournament Organizer so that penalties may be incurred on the player’s sportsmanship score. Asking for advice on how to improve one’s painting, however, is highly encouraged.

Maximum Appearance score for the tournament: 25pts

Sportsmanship Scoring

At the end of the tournament, each player will offer a vote for Favorite Opponent and a Second-Favorite Opponent. Each Favorite Opponent vote is worth 5 points and each Second Favorite Opponent vote is worth 3 points. Each player also receives 5 points if no complaints are lodged against them throughout the tournament.

Maximum Sportsmanship score for the tournament: 25pts

Prizes

Main Prizes 

These prizes will be given in Store Credit in the following order from greatest to smallest award.

• Best General (Goldensprue Cup Trophy): Undefeated player with the highest Battle Points. Tiebreaker is Overall Score. There may be a 2nd and/or 3rd place depending on turn-out. 
• Best Overall: Best combined score of Battle Points, Paint, and Sportsmanship (out of 156pts) Tiebreaker is subjective. There may be a 2nd and/or 3rd place depending on turn-out. 
• Best Painted: The player with the best painted army determined by votes and Judge. Note that a player can’t win Best Painted Unit if they have already won a Best Painted prize in the 2015/2016 Season. 
• Favorite Opponent: Best Sportsmanship score. Tiebreaker is Overall Score.