Organising the SELWG wfb Competition – Part 2 – Points & Secondary Objectives

The next few posts will cover in no particular order, various sections of the comp pack. I’ll try and explain why the choices were made (at a superficial level at least). One thing I was very conscious of, was not putting in (or leaving out) any restrictions that would benefit me. It’s one of the reasons that I committed to bringing an army that no one else was (if possible), so that I wouldn’t know which one I would be using until well after the pack was written.

Putting together a pack is quite a daunting task. The second step for me after getting the survey set up was to go online and try and find and download every comp pack I could find to see how others had put together packs. Even though 8th ed. whfb has been out of vogue for a few years, I was still able to to find and download around 15 (quite a few curtesy of links on warhammer.org). Most were of limited use but many did list out restrictions on the most common over powered combos for specific armies which I would utilise in the list building.

I also got hold of the last few years packs for SELWG and decided to follow some of the format from this, as it would keep it recognisable for people who had entered before.

So in this post I’ll cover the points on offer. As per the last SELWG comp, points would be split into Primary, Secondary and Tertiary.

Primary are awarded based on the outcome of the game victory conditions and are available at all stages of the competition.

Tertiary are only available in the group stages of the comp and are bonus points awarded for completing the game and for having a painted army. Neither of these are game breaking but encourages players to both finish the game and it’s always nice to face a painted army on the table no matter the standard of the painting (whether pro painter or just an average tabletop standard).

Secondary are available at all stages of the competition and are smaller missions that can add to your competition points. Most of these were taken from a combination of the the secondary missions available from the previous two SELWG whfb competitions. I added one new objective, “to see what I can see” (yes the name is part of a children’s nursery rhyme but no bonus points for remembering the rest of the song which involves a bear and a mountain). The other change made was to reduce the points from 7 to 6 for a successfully completed mission. There was a point to this.

Knockout rounds – The final added restriction was that in the final rounds, if you didn’t have a fully painted army, you would only get half points. I’m still not sure about this restriction, it seemed pretty harsh but quite a few paid competitions do have restrictions on having fully painted armies. As a compromise, I made it so if a player didn’t have a fully painted army but got maximum points for a win and mission completed, (15+6 = 21/2 = 11 – rounded up) they could still have a chance of going through if the opponent lost and also completed their mission (5+6 = 11).  If you get a straight win and your opponent lost you will just go through (at 15/2 = 8 vs 5 points).

So below is the ‘Game Format and Scoring section’ of the 2017 SELWG comp pack.

 

• Primary Tournament Points

Games will be Won, Lost, Drawn, as per the tournament scenarios victory conditions. In the event of a tiebreak scenario in the knockout rounds, use victory points as per the rules in the BRB (pg 143 Tournament Points will be awarded as follows):

WIN = 15 points      DRAW= 10 points   LOSS = 5 points

• Secondary Tournament Points

For each battle pick a ‘Secret Mission’. This must be done after deployment, but before the first turn is underway. Players must note down their mission, and hand it to someone at another table for safe keeping until it is revealed at the end of the game.

• Each Player completing their secret mission is awarded = 6 points (Note the change in points from last year)
• Each ‘Secret Mission’ can only be used once during each league stage and resets for the knockout stage.

“Raid the Baggage” – Have more Fortitude bearing*** Friendly units in the Enemy deployment zone, than the Enemy has Fortitude bearing units in this deployment zone, at the end of the game.

“Cut off the Head” – Kill the Enemy General in hand to hand to hand combat by the end of the game. Any mount does not need to be killed. An Enemy General fleeing at the end of the game does not count.

 “Hero-Hammered” – To have amassed the biggest tally of dead Enemy characters at the end of the game. For calculation purposes, each Hero level character is worth ‘1 point’, each Lord level character is worth ‘2 points’. Self-inflicted deaths (such as from Miscasts or Skaven targeting their own troops), still count towards your opponents score.

“To see what I can see” – When you write down your mission also specify one hill or building that is outside of your deployment zone. This piece of terrain is the tallest in the area and will give your general the advantage in spying troop movements. If, at the end of the game, you have a unit *** occupying that terrain feature and no enemy units occupy**** that terrain feature as per the rules in Scenario 4 (Secure), your mission is a success.

“Take a Message” – Specify a model in your army to be a messenger. Specify a fortitude-bearing unit in the enemy army that contains your spy. Get your messenger model into contact with the spy’s unit. If the spy’s unit is alive at the end of the game your mission has succeeded. The messenger model does not have to be a character model.

• Tertiary Tournament Points (only available during the group stage)

In an attempt to encourage the completion of games and that they are played using painted armies, but also to reward hobby activity, the following points are available in each battle:

If your army is fully painted (minimum of 3 colours per model and a painted base) = 2 points

If the game is fully completed on the night, each player shall be awarded = 2 point

Total Game Points

A maximum of 25 TPs are up for grabs in each game.

• Bonus Tournament Points:

Submission of your Group Stage 1 tournament list by 11 August = 5 Points

Knockout Rounds

When taking part in the knockout rounds, if your army is not fully painted you only receive half the tournament points (rounding up). e.g. a win would be worth 8 points. (Note it is possible to still win the knockout stages even with this handicap).