And the Winner is...

Thanks to everyone who came & made this event successful

Special Thanks to Imperial Outpost Games for their unexpected generosity

And the Winners are

Derek Page - Best Overall

Don Hooson - Battlemaster

Josh Jury - Best Appearance

Timing is Running out to Purchase Tickets!

The final preparations are coming along 

• The trophies are in
• Terrain is coming along
• Table toppers are in
• Finalizing arrangements with Torrent of Fire

One little hiccup

To ensure everyone who attends the event actually get the food they paid for (people get weird about expecting what they paid for) I need to provide the venue with a head count by need of business Tuesday 5/12

So there will be a limited number of tickets available day of the event
To ensure you get in, sign up as soon as possible!

In case you are wondering we have already sold 2/3 of the tickets

Eldar Verdict

Keeping it simple

The new Eldar Codex will not be valid for this year's Scorched Earth Open

It's just too new we won't prepared to make proper rulings during games

Update on ITC Changes

As mentioned in the previous post, Frontline Gaming, the organizers behind the ITC, have reviewed a ton of feedback from the LVO regarding possible changes to the format. The plan is to widen their poll to previous ITC players to help shape the circuit for the better.

As we are cutting it close the our event on May 16th, I did not want to catch players by surprise with a rule change that could force them alter their army at the last minute

So we are making an executive decision based on feedback from our judges reviewing the LVO poll results and the discussion on the Signals from the Frontline podcast.

The following Lords of War are now removed from the approved list
Eldar Lynx
Necron Pylon

Additionally, the Aquila Stronghold fortification (both variations) will not be permitted at the event

Army construction will remain restricted to a maximum of 2 detachments
Come the Apocalypse allies remain an option to all players

The ITC was looking at altering their missions. Since we went with our missions (previously posted) this would not effect the event.

Hope this clarifies what to expect on May 16th and look forward to seeing all of you there!

Possible Changes Coming to the ITC

Hello Everyone!

I wanted to make all of you aware of some possible changes coming to the ITC format.

As you know, Scorched Earth Open is an ITC event.

In case you did not know, ITC stands for Independant Tournament Circuit
It is a series of tournaments througout the country where players who compete in these events are tracked and ranked like a season.
The final event of the circuit is the Las Vegas Open.

Scorched Earth is one of the first 3 or 4 that are state side, so we expect several players to come in and get some early points

For more information, go to Frontline Gaming.org

Why should you care?

On their podcast (episode 390) Frontline Gaming annouced that after receiving player feedback at the LVO they will be creating a poll for some propsed changes to the ITC.

They anticpated this poll to come out second week of March

Most of the changes that are proposed revolve around list building.
I do not have a complete list as of yet
but they did mention perhaps expanding to 3 detachments for example.

I highly encourage you to vote when this poll comes out.

I also highly encourage you to let us at Scorched Earth know how you feel about the poll & the results once tablulated.

As you have seen in earlier post, we have already strayed from the standard format for missions.
Regardless of the poll results, the missions will not change so please continue to practice the missions as they stand now.

However, we too have heard concerns/comments about list composition rules. Plus most of our game group went to LVO so we have had lots of practice games in the format & know where you guys are coming from in your opinions.

We have demonstrated our ability to adapt and welcome your feedback

Scorched Earth Open Missions

Here is a preview of the missions we will be running.

Unlike the Army Composition rules, which follow the LVO format, we have chosen to deviate from the LVO Missions and use our own.

We post them here so you have a chance to review & practice them prior to the event.

Most of what you will find here are familiar themes, but there are a few subtle changes that you may want to familiarized yourself with

All Missions are based a Primary Mission, a Secondary Mission, and a Tertiary Mission

• Winning the Primary Mission earns you 4 points
• Winning the Secondary Mission earns you 3 points
• Winning the Tertiary Mission earns you 2 points

Player with the highest total wins the game

So if you lose Primary, you can still win the Game by winning both Secondary & Tertiary for 5-4 win

It does not matter if you win the Primary or Secondary by 1 point, or 1000 points, winning gets the number of points described above

Primary & Secondary Missions will described below

Tertiary Missions

Tertiary Missions are based on Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker, & First Blood

The player the scores the most of these wins the Tertiary

Example, Player A earned First Blood & Warlord, Player B earned Linebreaker. Player A has won the Tertiary 2-1 and earns 2 points while Player B earns 0

Objectives

All of the missions that involve objectives have you gain points for each turn you control an objective, unlike the Eternal War Missions where there is a late turn grab for objectives

This allows armies to build up a lead early or swing the game in later rounds for the win

Players earn points for objectives at the start of their turn, prior to reserve rolls

This is a big change as you need to be in position at the end of your previous turn & weather your opponent's turn

Pre-Game Sequence

    Both players roll off

    Winner chooses to either to go first or second to determine Warlord Trait, Psychic Powers, Demonic Gifts, etc

    Roll for Night Fighting 

    Place Objectives

    Roll off for Sides

    Roll off for Deployment. Player who chooses to deploy first goes first.

Game 1

Dawn of War deployment

Primary: Beacons in the Abyss

Each Player places one Black Objective anywhere within 6” from their long edge and at least 6” from either short board edge

At the start of your player turn, prior to reserve rolls, determine how many VP you earned

Player with the most VP at the end of the game wins the Primary Mission
For each Black Objective you control
 

Turns 1-4             0 VP

Turn 5                   1 VP

Turn 6                   2 VP

Turn 7                   3 VP

Secondary: Haunting the Chapel

Place three Red Objective Markers

Two markers are placed

· 6” from each short edge

· 24” from the long edge

· The third objective is place at board center

 At the start of your player turn, prior to reserve rolls, determine how many VP you earned

For each Red Objective you control        +1 VP

Player with the most VP at the end of the game wins the Secondary Mission

Supply Drop

At the start of your player turn, prior to reserve rolls, a player may opt to use the Supply Drop rule. 

A player may choose to do this once per game.

The player may spend 1 VP from the Secondary Mission. One objective currently under the player’s control gains one of the rules (player’s choice) shown right for the rest of the game.

Players may continue to gain points for controlling this objective in subsequent turns

Should the opposing player hold a Supply Drop objective, they may use the special rules but they cannot alter it with another Supply Drop

Supply Drop Options

Scatterfield - A unit the controls this objective counts its cover save as being 1 point better than normal. This bonus is cumulative with Stealth & Shrouding

 Sabotaged - At the start of the next player turn, and at the start of every turn thereafter, all units within 3” of the objective suffer D6 St 4 Ap - hits

 Targeting Relay - A unit controlling this objective re-rolls failed To Hit Rolls of 1 when shooting

 Grav Wave Generator - Any unit attempting to charge a unit in control of this objective subtracts 2 from its charge range. This is cumulative with the penalty for charging through difficult terrain.

 Skyfire Nexus - A unit that controls this objective can choose whether or not all models in the unit have Skyfire each time they shoot

Game 2

Hammer & Anvil deployment

Primary: War Ensemble

Place four Objectives

· Two objectives 12” from the long board edge & 36” from the short board edge

· Two objectives 6” from the short board edge and 24” from the long board edge

At the start of your player turn, prior to reserve rolls, determine how many VP you earned

For each objective controlled in neither Deployment Zone                         +1 VP

For each objective controlled in your opponent’s Deployment Zone                      +2 VP

Player with the most VP at the end of the game wins the Primary Mission

Supply Drop

Secondary: Raining Blood

At the end of the game, use the following formula:

(# units destroyed/# units in opponent's army at the start of the game) x10 =  VP earned

Example: Player A killed 6 of the 12 units in his opponent’s army. They would earn (6/12) x10 = 5 VP for this mission

When calculating, round to the nearest integer. In case of 0.5, round to the nearest even integer

Player with the most VP at the end of the game wins the Secondary Mission

Units that are created mid game, such summoned demons or spawned termagants, do not alter the points awarded per unit destroyed. If destroyed, these units award the same number of points as if originally included in the army list. This may result in a player destroying more units during the game then actually started in the opponent’s army at the start of the game.
 

For example, an army with 19 units at the start of the game spawns 6 additional units. His opponent kills 10 units plus all 6 spawned units, earning (16/19) x 10 = 8 VP

 Game 3

Dawn of War deployment

Primary: Haunting the Chapel with Supply Drop

Secondary: Beacons in the Abyss

Game 4

Hammer & Anvil deployment

Primary: Raining Blood

Secondary: War Ensemble with Supply Drop

Any questions please leave a comment below

Army Composition Rules

Army Composition

· 1850 point limit.

· 1-2 Detachments Total

· You may take any 2 detachments you wish, but may not repeat any detachments

Example you may not have 2 Combined arms detachments, or two Adamantium Lance formations

· Detachments may be produced from a maximum of one Codex / Codex Supplement

Example – You may not selectively include units within one Combined Arms Detachment from both Codex: Tau and Codex Supplement: Farsight Enclaves, despite them being within the same Faction per the Detachment creation rules in the 40k Rulebook.

Exception – Units that are added to various Factions by means other than the primary or supplemental Codex are exceptions (i.e., Dataslate Characters, Forgeworld 40K approved units where they are permitted, etc.).

Codex Supplements will be considered their own Faction, ie. Farsight Enclave, Black Legion, Crimson Slaughter, Militarum Tempestus and Legion of the Damned, etc.

In the case of a Forge World unit having a profile in a Forge World book and Codex or Codex Supplement, the rules in the Codex or Codex Supplement are always used.

Your Allied Detachment may be the same faction as your CAD.

No Fortification or Apocalypse Formations will be allowed.

If your detachment allows for a fortification, all of the rules may be found in the Stronghold Assault supplement. No Fortification Networks will be allowed . All upgrades from the Stronghold Assault book will be allowed.

Lords of War

All of the rules for Lords of War available may be found in the Escalation, Apocalypse and Imperial Armor: Apocalypse supplement with the updated rules found in the BRB in effect (such as the new D Weapon rules). Players are required to have the actual LoW model to use them. Exceptions will only be made for exceptional conversions. What constitutes an exceptional conversion is determined at the sole discretion of the Tournament Organizers. Send pictures of your model in advance if you have any doubts.

All Special Character LoWs such as Ghaz, Draigo, etc. can be used.

Please note, the Impending Doom (+1 to Seize the Initiative for a player facing a LoW who does not have one), and Through Attrition, Victory (+1 Victory Point for every 3 Hull Points or Wounds done to a LoW, counted towards the tertiary mission) special rules will be in effect if either player in a given game has a Super Heavy or Gargantuan Creature Lord of War, but not for a Special Character LoW such as Draigo.

A Lord of War may be chosen from the following list.

*Please note, the Battle of Keylek legacy of glory upgrade is not allowed for this event.

· All of the Baneblade chassis vehicles except for the Hellhammer (and Traitor’s Bane variant) & Stormsword, which are not allowed.

· All of the Imperial Knight LoW variants.

· Crassus Armored Assault Transport

· Gorgon Heavy Transporter

· Minotaur Artillery Tank

· All Macharius chassis vehicles.

· All Malcador chassis vehicles except the Malcador Infernus

· Valdor Tank Hunter

· Marauder Bomber (may not take Hellstorm bombs)

· Maurader Destroyer

· Fellblade

· Cereberus Heavy Tank Destroyer

· Thunderhawk Transporter

· Greater Brass Scorpion of Khorne

· Khorne Lord of Skulls

· Nurgle Plague Reaper

· Obelisk

· Gauss Pylon

· Stompa

· Gargantuan Squiggoth

· Kustom Battle Fortress

· Kill Krusha Tank

· Kill Blasta

· Cobra

· Scorpion

· Lynx with Pulsar (but not with Sonic Lance)

· Tiger Shark (Escalation version)

· Orca Dropship

· Scythed Hierodule

· Barbed Hierodule

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. FAQs and Erratas

3. ITC FAQ

4. Please note, the change to the 2+ reroll save is still in effect. Ie., any save of any type of a 2+ that can be rerolled is failed on the second roll of a 1,2 or 3.

Consensus of judges present at the time. Please note, that these judgments are final. We are da law!!!

Painting

All models must be painted to a 3 color minimum. We count primer as a color. If you have any models that are not painted to a 3 color minimum, you will be ineligible for prize support at the end of the event. Your paint score is determined by the Scorched Earth paint staff.

Sports

Sportsmanship will be handled as a simple thumbs-up, thumbs-down check box on the results sheet.

The temptation to ding someone on sports after a tough loss is often too much for many players to resist. We therefore are providing a very narrowly defined set of terms under which a player may mark their opponent with a thumbs down mark on sportsmanship. This system is intended to punish those who are being abusive, but to not allow chimpmunking. After a great deal of real world use, we have found this system to work very well.

Legitimate reasons to give an opponent a thumbs down on sports:

1. Your opponent was 15 or more minutes late to the round.

2. Your opponent was verbally abusive. This does not mean you argued with your opponent or that your personalities clashed, but that they were verbally abusive and insulting.

3. Your opponent intentionally cheated. Be prepared to support your case to a judge.

4. Your opponent slow played. We define slow playing as not completing 3 game turns of play.

What does NOT constitute a thumbs down on sports?

1. You argued over rules with your opponent.

2. Your opponent beat you.

3. You didn’t like your opponent’s army.

4. Ben Affleck is a superior Batman. NERD RAGE!!!

A negative mark on sportsmanship will be met with administrative action as follows:

1. First thumbs down: A verbal warning from a judge, up to reversing a win to a loss.

2. Second thumbs down: Reversing a win to a loss, up to disqualification from any prize support.

3. Third thumbs down: disqualification from any prize support, up to expulsion from the event with no refund of the ticket price.

Fourth thumbs down: Expulsion from the event with no refund of the ticket price.

WYSIWYG

All models are expected to be WYSIWYG as much as is reasonable. Proxies are not permitted. Counts As armies with counts as allies will only be permitted if they represent a clearly concerted effort to build a unique army around an obvious theme. For example, an Adeptus Mechanicus army using extensive kit bashing and conversions will be fine. If you go this route, YOU ARE REQUIRED TO HAVE A HANDOUT TO SHOW YOUR OPPONENT THAT SHOWS WHAT EACH UNIT IN YOUR ARMY IS ALONG WITH ITS STATS AND PERTENANT RULES! You must also present this to them prior to the game so that they have time to understand what they are playing against. There will be no exceptions to this.

If your army uses only a single Codex but if for example you have Crimson Fists models using the Blood Angels Codex, or Chaos models using the Space Wolves Codex, that is acceptable. Allies for this type of army however, MUST be represented by their actual models. This is to avoid confusion. No exceptions.

If you are using converted or scratch built models with Forge World rules, this is acceptable so long as your model is as close to the represented model as possible in terms of equipment, size and shape. We will not be lenient with this.

If you have any questions about your army, ask us prior to the event so that we can let you know if what you have will be acceptable or not.

Summoned models must be accurately represented! Again, counts as in a clearly themed list are allowed, but proxies are not.

Modeling for Advantage

There is a fine line between creative freedom and modeling for advantage. We do not wish to stifle anyone’s creativity, but in the end, this is a game that relies heavily upon the physical characteristics of the models being used.

Modeling for advantage will be handled on a case by case basis. To resolve a possible abusive situation, follow these steps:

1. Ask the player to play the model as if it were a GW standard, modern version.

2. Call a judge to ask for a judgment.

Possibly substitute the model with an appropriate replacement.

Examples of what we consider modeling for advantage:

1. Using out of date and inappropriately sized models such as the rogue trader era Eldar Avatar (which currently is a large, monstrous creature model but back then, was the size of a Space Marine, which would now grant huge advantages due to being so much smaller) or Gorka Morka Trukks (which are less than half the size of modern versions). If an army is made predominantly of Rogue Trader era minis (or any era) and is clearly going for a theme, then exceptions will be made. If it appears to a judge that the player is in fact modeling for advantage, then action will be taken.

2. Increasing or decreasing the size of models to gain an advantage in gaining or granting cover. Custom Battle Wagons often fall into this category.

Altering a model to increase the range of a model or to benefit your LOS.

Terrain

All tables for games at the Scorched Earth Open have the same table set up, shown here.

Each of the terrain features are based, and the effects of the terrain apply to any models on the base of the terrain.

Battescape sections provide a 5+ Cover save to non vehicle models, even if the model is not 25% obscured and count as Difficult & Dangerous Terrain.

Ruin sections provide a 4+ Cover save to non vehicle models, even if the model is not 25% obscured and count as Difficult Terrain.

Difficult Terrain provides no Cover Save and counts as Difficult Terrain

LoS Blockers count as impassable terrain. Models that may normally land on impassable terrain such as Skimmers or Jetbikes will not be able to by design.

What to Bring

· Your Army

· Tape Measure, Scatter Dice, Game Aids, etc.

· Scorched Earth provides dice to each player as part of their admission. No other dice except Scatter Dice are permitted during the event to ensure consistency among players

· Objective Markers are being provided to each player courtesy of Imperial Outpost Games

· 5 Typed Copies of your army list. Be sure to notate who your Warlord is on your army list.

· All pertinent rules for your army. Codecis, White Dwarf Articles, Foregworld Rules, etc.

· If you are using a counts as army, YOU MUST HAVE YOUR PLAYER HANDOUT FOR YOUR OPPONENT IDENTIFYING WHAT EACH UNIT IN YOUR ARMY IS.

· A sweater. It gets chilly in Arizona.

Winning the Tournament

For purposes for ranking within the Scorched Earth Open,

· The Winner of the Mission receives 1000 additional Mission Points

· If the players are tied, both receive 500 additional Mission Points

· The loser receives 0 additional Mission Points

Example Player A wins Primary, and would receive 4 Mission Points. His opponent, Player B, won the Secondary Mission. They would receive 3 Mission Points. Player A won Tertiary. Player A has won the mission 6-3.

Player A gains 1006 points, while player B gains 3 points.