Warhammer: Age of Sigmar
The Las Vegas Open
Grand Tournament
A Matched Play Event
Purchase your Age of Sigmar Championships tickets, here.
Date: 4th-5th of February
Welcome
Welcome to the first Warhammer Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament in over 6 years! This event is for anyone who enjoys using a canny mix of army selection, canny generalship and good cheer to win games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. It’s one of the most fun games in the world and being crowned the American Grand Champion of Warhammer Age of Sigmar is an opportunity not to be missed.
Only a canny general will be able to raise trophy belonging to the Grand Champion – Games Workshop’s unique prize we offer only to those who can not only play the game, but do so in the spirit of the Age of Sigmar, and with a well painted army to boot.
Interested (of course you are) in being part of this seminal event? If so, read on!
What is a Grand Tournament?
For the longest time Games Workshop has run tournaments and events of all sizes across the world. Probably our most historic is the Grand Tournament, an event we use to decide once and for all who the best players are all across the world.
At this event we will be deciding who The Las Vegas Open Warhammer Age of Sigmar Grand Champion is. So if you fancy a shot at the title, or just want to test yourself, or even just enjoy some great games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, get your ticket before they run out!
Event Essentials:
System: Warhammer Age of Sigmar
Army Selection: Select an army worth a maximum value of 2,000 Points using the rules and restrictions provided in the Pitched
Battle section from General’s Handbook. You may also have a Sideboard of up to 500 Points. The sideboard is additional units at your disposal before each game to allow you to tailor your army to make for a better scrap. How to select your Sideboard and how to used itis explained below.
Only Warscrolls and Warscroll Battalions with Pitched Battle Profiles may be used at The Las Vegas Open Grand Tournament, see pages 128-152 of the Generals Handbook for details.
Note that Allegiance Abilities can and should be used.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Grand Tournament House Rules:
· At this tournament, we will measure all distances between models using their bases as a reference point. This is commonly known as measuring “base-to-base”.
· You will not be allowed to be play with unpainted or unbased models. We will politely ask you to remove any such model from the table (what counts as painted and based is detailed later on in this pack).
· Any Forge World Warscroll or Warscroll Battalion with a Pitched Battle profile is fine to use at this event.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A NOTE ON PAINTING AND BASING:
At registration we will ask you if your army is fully painted and based. If it isn’t don’t panic! We will do our best to give you the time and space you need to get your models finished before your first game. As we don’t allow anyone to play with unpainted or unbased models, but we understand that life gets in the way sometimes, we will do our best to help you get them up to standard.
If you have a model which is unfinished, then we will politely ask you to remove it from the table, as we are obliged to protect the experience of every attendant - we all want to play against fully painted armies, and this event is designed to give everyone the opportunity to do just that!
All miniatures in your collection must be produced by Games Workshop and be fully assembled, painted and based. Each model must fully represent what you have presented on your army lists.
It’s worth bearing in mind that who is crowned the Grand Champion (more on that later) will be partially decided by well painted armies, so do your best!
THE SCHEDULE
SATURDAY
9:00am - Event Opens for Registration
9:55am: Welcome and event briefing
10:00am–12:30pm: Game 1
12:30pm–1:30pm: Lunch and the Hero, Beast and Engine of Legends
1:30pm–4:00pm: Game 2
4:00pm–4:30pm: Break
4:30pm–7:00pm: Game 3 and the Company of Legends
7:45pm—9:00pm: The Age of Sigmar Pub Quiz Held in the Social Hall!
SUNDAY
9:00am: Event opens.
9:30am–12:00pm: Game 4
12:00 pm–1:00 pm: Lunch and the Best Army Competition Voting
1:00pm–3:30pm: Game 5
4:00pm–4:30pm: Break
4:30pm–7:00pm: Game 6
7:30pm: Award Ceremony
Registration:
At the beginning of the weekend, you will need to register with us for the event. All you need to bring is your ticket (either electronic or physical), a copy of your army list and we will give you your score card, a player number and assign you to your first table for the weekend.
At this event, you must use the same army all weekend, and we will be doing spot checks of the army lists to make sure all the points are added up correctly and that each army has the required units.
If we come across a small mistake, we will let you know and, if needed, help you make corrections to the list. If it’s a mistake of Godbeast-like proportions, we will have a chat and decide what to do – it may involve a modification of your previous game results, as we want this to be as level a playing field as possible.
Games, Battleplans, Scores and Timings:
Games
Over the course of the weekend, you will get to play six games of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, with armies chosen using the rules and restrictions laid out in the Pitched Battles section of the Generals Handbook. After each game there will be either lunch or a brief break while we get the results in order to decide your next opponent.
After the first game, where opponents will be randomly allocated, we will assign you opponents with a similar score according to the ‘Swiss’ system.
The way this works is players with the same number of Major and Minor Victories will play against each other. So if you are winning all your games, you will play against opponents of a roughly similar skill level to you, ideally helping to ensure an enjoyable event for all concerned.
Timings
Each game will last two and half hours. As we need to get your results after each, we will need you to finish each game quite quickly and hand in your results after the timer runs out.
The size of the game has been set up so that both players should be able to set up and play your game comfortably in the time allotted. We’d recommend having some practice games against your mates to get used to it!
If you discover from practice that you play really slowly and can’t get your game finished to a satisfying conclusion, then bear in mind that this makes it less likely that you will pick up any Favourite Game Votes, so you are unlikely to win anything, so do your best to pick up the pace!
Battleplans
Before each game, we will roll a D6 to decide which Battleplan to use for that game. As there are six games over the weekend, you will play all six, but in a random order.
Once that Battleplan has been used, it will be crossed off our list; each one will only be played a maximum of once.
There is one additional step that happens before the players decide which territory they will use, which is to determine what Warscrolls, if any, from their sideboard they will use. Rules for how to select your Sideboard are given below.
In order to use units from your Sideboard each game use the following process.
1: Both armies and sideboards must be placed on the table beforehand so everything that is available can be seen by both players. It should be made clear, both in your army lists and on the table, what is your main army and what is your sideboard.
2: Before deciding Territories, the players must roll off. The loser of the roll of decides if they wish to replace Warscrolls in their army with a Warscroll from their sideboard.
3: If they do, then they may remove as many Warscrolls from their main army list as they want, and replace them with one Warscroll from their sideboard, bearing in mind the following:
- The addition of sideboard Warscrolls may not take an army above 2,000 points.
- Their army must still adhere to all minimum and maximum restrictions for Battleline units, Leaders, Behemoths and Artillery Pieces after the new Warscroll has been added.
- Warscrolls may have their model count increased by adding Sideboard Warscrolls to them, where applicable. This may not take them above their normal model count limits (if any) nor may any Warscrolls have models added to them which they could not normally contain.
- You may replace your General, but when you do you must immediately choose a new one and inform your opponent who your new General is.
- Any Warscrolls removed from your army do not become part of your Sideboard, they are completely removed and are no longer an option for you to have in your army for this game.
4: Once the first player has gone through this process once, their opponent must then do it as well.
5: Once a player chooses not to replace Warscrolls from their Sideboard, or can no longer do so because they are either out of replacement Warscrolls or points, they can no longer replace Warscrolls from their army with Warscrolls from their sideboard.
6: Repeat the process alternatively until both players have either chosen not to replace models, or can no longer do so.
As you can see, you don’t have to take a sideboard if you don’t want to. This is an option if you simply can’t get 2,500 points painted on time, for example. Having one is a marked advantage as it can allow you to take certain units to give you an edge in your game, or even remove units that your opponent doesn’t want to fight, if you are aiming for the Most Sporting Opponent award. We recommend taking no more than 10 minutes to sort out your sideboards before you run into the danger of not finishing your game on time.
Selecting your Sideboard
The sideboard is 500 Points worth of models that can be chosen using the normal rules for army selection for Matched Play, with, the following additions:
- Your main army must contain the required minimum and maximum number of Leader, Behemoth, Battleline and Artillery Warscrolls, regardless of your sideboard.
- Your Sideboard must be from the same Grand Alliance as your main army.
- If you replace a model with a Command Trait or an Artefact, that Trait or Artefact are lost.
- Any changes to your army will still count towards your allegiance. Once deployed your army must still adhere to any requirements in terms of allegiance requirements, Grand Alliances, Command Traits, Artefacts and Battleline units. This means that if your army has Ironjawz Brutes as its Battleline units, and you swap a Megaboss for a unit of Grotz, then you will need at least two more Destruction Battleline units in order to play.
- Any Command Traits or Artefacts that you do not have the required allegiance for as a result of swapping your units simply become unusable in your game, and your models do not count as having them.
Scores:
After each game you will have 5 minutes to record your result and hand it in to the Events Team. At this event, we will be recording Major and Minor Victories, and this will be the largest factor in deciding who is crowned the Grand Champion and winner of the event.
In the unlikely event that both players have the same score, record this as a draw.
You will also need to record the number of points scored in each game. This will be used a soft score to help resolve tied results, after Favourite Game Votes.
Note that if you are nominated for the Best Army award, you will automatically have a Minor Victory added to your tally for the weekend.
Favourite Game Votes:
Favourite Game Votes are simple - just pick the game you enjoyed the most that weekend. It’s a great way to acknowledge a really fun game, a player with whom you had a great rapport, or maybe it was just that their army looked fantastic. Votes are taken at the end of the weekend with the results of your final game, so please show your appreciation of your favourite opponent.
We want the winner of the Event to be someone who not only engages with clever tactics and army selection but also treats their opponents well and ensures they have an enjoyable experience. This means that when we find the top player of the event, they need at least one Favourite Game Vote in order to raise the Grand Champion trophy and win the event.
This makes the winner a true hobby hero, a good gamer and all round nice person.
In the case where we have multiple players in first place, we will use the volume Favourite Game Votes as a second sorter – so the player with the most will come in first place and so on.
In order to be eligible for the Grand Champion award, you must hand in a vote and of course, you must vote for some you played against.
OTHER ACTIVITIES DURING THE EVENT:
LEGENDS PAINTING COMPETITIONS
The Legends gives you the chance to show off your skills with single models and units rather than with whole armies. Simply enter
the relevant category when it’s open; once all the entries are in, we will ask all the players to vote for their favourites. The player that earns the most votes in each category will win the relevant prize. Only miniatures from your army may be entered into this competition.
Hero of Legend: Any single Battleline, Leader or uncategorised model on a 60mm base or less.
Beast of Legend: Any Behemoth or Behemoth Leader model.
Engine of Legend: Any Artillery model (plus any attendant crew).
Note: if there are any models (new releases for example) that don’t fit in a category, fear not. The staff member will make a decision on the day and you will still be able to enter your model.
THE BEST ARMY COMPETITION
Painting a whole army is a landmark achievement in and of itself, and everyone at the event should be proud that they have a painted army to play with.
Some players go above and beyond this, and produce exceptional quality armies to an incredible standard. Conversions, gorgeous basing, gorgeous highlighting, subtle airbrushing, themed models - the works.
The Events Staff on the weekend will get a shortlist of the best armies from the event and from that shortlist, they will pick the Best Army Nominations.
Every player who is selected to be a Nominee will display their armies over lunch time and then all the attendants will have a chance to vote for the one they like the best.
The player who receives the most will be awarded the Best Army Trophy during the award ceremony at the weekend.
Awards:
The Las Vegas Open Grand Champion
The Grand Champion is a paragon of the Games Workshop hobby. An enthusiastic gamer, painter and an all-round nice person to play against.
To decide who receives this mighty award, we will rank all the players based on their victories. Whoever has the most Major and
Minor Victories will be crowned Grand Champion and declared the winner of the event.
In the case of a tie, the player with the most Favourite Game Votes from the highest ranked players will win the event.
Should there be a further tie, we will use the total number of points scored as a soft score.
In the case of the players with the most Major and Minor victories having no Favourite Game Votes, we will simply move down the list using the same criteria until we find the highest ranked player with at least one Favourite Game Vote.
The Las Vegas Open Grand Herald – This will be given to the 2nd place finisher.
The Las Vegas Open Grand Equerry – This award will be given to the 3rd place finisher.
Most Sporting Opponent – This award will go to the player who has the Most Favourite Game Votes.
The Best Army Award - Whoever gets the most votes in the Best Army Competition will receive this trophy.
Hero, Beast and Engine of Legend – Whoever gets the most votes in each individual competition will receive the appropriate award.
The Wooden Spoon –This award will be given out at the Events Staff discretion, as long as it doesn’t cause embarrassment! It will be given to the person who finishes last in the event.
CONTACT US
Reece Robbins
888-781-5120