Last year as part of CONQUEST we were delighted to run a Bolt Action Tournament and this year we will be doing it again. If you played last year then the format is pretty much the same, if you did not then here is what you will need to know...
What will you need to do.
When coming down you will need to think about accommodation, where are you going to stay?
Money for food and drinks.
For the event you will need to bring:
Your rule book(s).
2 x copies of your army list chosen for the event.
Your activation dice and normal dice.
Something to draw the activation dice from.
Tape measure.
Glue(s) just in case.
Tournament Rules
1. FORCES
Players must use a 750 requisition points force.
The force must consist of a maximum of one Reinforced Platoon or one theatre selector
The platoon/selector must be selected using the army list section of any one of the following supplement books:
- Armies of Germany.
- Armies of United States.
- Armies of Great Britain.
- Armies of the Soviet Union.
- Armies of Imperial Japan.
- Armies of France and the Allies.
- Armies of Italy and the Axis.
The platoon/selector must be formed either according to the generic reinforced platoon selector (see page 124 of the BA rulebook) or one of the theatre selectors from the chosen supplement book.
2. GAME TIME
After 1 hour and 45 minutes of gameplay, the players must finish the current turn, and then the game ends automatically.
3. ARMY LIST
The players must write down the army list they are going to use for the duration of the entire tournament. They must leave a copy of their list to the referee before the start of the tournament. The force list is public and the opponent can always look at it and ask you questions about your force.
4. MATCH-UPS
The match-ups of Game 1 will be random. In the following games players will be matched using Tournament Points (TP) and Casualty points, as explained below.
5. SCENARIOS
The following scenarios will be played, as described in the BA rulebook, on table with terrain that hs been pre-set by the Conquest judges.
Game 1: Hold Until Relieved.
Game 2: Maximum Attrition.
Game 3: Demolition.
6. TOURNAMENT POINTS
Victory is calculated as described in the Scenarios being played and Tournament points are awarded for victories, defeats and draws as shown below:
Result Tournament Points
Victory 3 TP
Draw 1 TP
Loss 0 TP
In addition, players must also record how many requisition points of enemy units they destroy during their games. These destroyed enemies points (let’s call them ‘Casualty points’) are always added together in a running total and are used as a tiebreaker to pair players that are on the same level of Tournament points.
From the second round, players will be paired using a Swiss system (i.e. matching players on the same amount of TPs, in descending order).
In case of more than two players on the same number of TPs, players will be matched in descending ‘Casualty points’ total.
If they have the same TP and Casualty points total, players will be paired in alphabetic order.
When two players that have already met in a previous turn are matched to play each other again, they must randomly select opponents from the players on the next table down. This rule does not apply on the top five tables during the last turn of the tournament.
7. WINNING THE TOURNAMENT
The winner is determined at the end of the last round, according to the following criteria:
The player with the most TP will be the winner.
In case of same TP at the top, the winner will be the player with the highest Casualty points total.
In case of same Casualty points total, we’ll see if the players have played each other during the course of the tournament and the winner will be the winner of such match.
If the players never met in the tournament, the tournament ends with a joint victory and the players share the first prize.
Hopefully we will see you at CONQUEST, good luck to all those attending and taking part in the competition.
Looking forward to seeing you.
Barry
APPENDIX 1. “Wait a second! We both have US forces! Surely we cannot fight one another?!” or “A note on historicity”.
Open Bolt Action Tournaments have a very relaxed attitude and basically encourage the idea of simply collecting a force you like and turn up for a few games with friends, where we suspend disbelief and enjoy the game without trying to make it ‘historically plausible’.
If you need to explain to yourself why, for example, these Germans are fighting against other Germans, there are several ways of looking at it: you can either assume it is just an exercise, part of a massive set of manoeuvres, or a ‘what if’ scenario depicting a hypothetical confrontation between different factions of the same country (easier to imagine with some belligerent nation’s forces than others…).
On the other hand, if you don’t like this Open style, look out for ‘Historical’ tournament and events, where for example 50% of the players will have Axis forces and 50% Allied forces, or the army restrictions have been fine-tuned to represent a particular period (early war, late war…), or a specific theatre (Eastern Front, Pacific). To each his own!
APPENDIX 2. Additional rules for Conquest Bolt Action Open.
Along with the tournament rules above we have decided to apply the following rules:
Armoured platoons are not to be used.
The alternative warplane rules are not to be used.
There is no dice limit.
After much talk and discussions it has been decided for this tournament your army doesn’t have to be painted. Although all models must be WYSIWYG, converted models maybe used so long as the model is to the appropriate scale and is WYSIWYG.
Other manufacture models maybe used, again and long as they are at the appropriate scale.
