Rules

Welcome Ambassador. In the spirit of civility amongst armed nations, it is necessary for us to lay some ground rules for your lordships. These will be the rules of the tournament.

Format

The Ambassadorial Tournament is a 4-round bracket tournament, not for the faint of heart.

For the benefit of those who may not have encountered a bracket tournament before, we are providing this handy chart to demonstrate which tables you will play on when you win or lose. In this way you can immediately move your armies to the next table you are going to be playing on once you complete your round!

The key things to remember in these tournaments are:

• Lose in the first round, and you may still compete for 3rd place.
• Lose in the second round, and 5th place may still be yours.
• Lose in the third round and you are eliminated, permanently…
• Two randomly chosen factions will have a first round bye.
• Victory points are never a mission objective.
• However, victory points are used to determine which ambassador earns a bye for the next round.
• 5th and 6th place will be determined by those in the bottom bracket with the highest victory point total for their final game.
• Only one Ambassador will be selected to represent each Faction, so registering early is recommended. Thus you will NOT play the same codex twice, ever. This is one of the trademarks of our tournament.

Schedule

List Construction

You are allowed 2,000 points with which to build your force, following the normal force organization chart. Lists may only be from the 16 currently published codices on Games Workshop’s website as of April 1, 2012.

• Necrons
• Tau Empire
• Chaos Space Marines
• Eldar
• Space Marines
• Imperial Guard
• Sisters of Battle
• Dark Eldar
• Orcs
• Space Wolves
• Chaos Daemons
• Grey Knights
• Tyranids
• Blood Angels
• Black Templars
• Dark Angels

You may not change your list after it has been submitted. By attending you agree that anything illegal in the list will be removed by a judge for the duration of the tournament.

Models that are listed in your army must be fully painted and based. The minimum requirements for every model in the army are explained in the Painting section below. In addition we apply the WYSIWYG rule, which means anything on the list must be modeled and conversions made clear to the opponent before the game starts (for example using Axes instead of Hammers for Grey Knight Nemesis Daemon Hammers as long as the enemy knows what to expect and they are noticeably different than other weapons). Conversions are encouraged, not discouraged. So is clarity.

Supplies you must have on hand to participate

• Your codex FAQ
• Your codex
• The main 5th Edition rulebook.
• Large and small Blast and template markers, as necessary for your list
• 5 objective markers
• Tape measures
• 1 Scatter die
• Your army fully painted and based
• 5 copies of your army list, in a legible format.
• Glue for field repairs

Painting

There is no painting score. As such we are going to be strict in the painting requirements. There is a 3 color minimum for the models themselves for this tournament. So if every model does not have 3 colors on it, it is not eligible to compete and can be forced by a judge to be removed from play for the remainder of the tournament.

All the bases of your models need to be painted and then flocked or decorated in some manner. This takes probably an hour, perhaps 2 hours at most to do an entire army with two basing materials. Ask a friend to help if you have to. Judges will be looking and you will forfeit those models for the remainder of the tournament if you have not done this.

Sportsmanship

Bracket tournaments have no sportsmanship score as part of the overall score. As such one might feel freer to embrace ones more uninhibited nature. Refrain from doing so. First of all out of self-interest: the prize for Best Sportsman is pretty nice. The second reason is that you are an Ambassador for your faction; it would be a pity for you not to return for future events if you are as good as the Great Ones believe you are.

We have adopted the Adepticon rules pretty much word for word as follows:

Slow Play: Games should be played in a timely fashion. Stalling is not the mark of a good general or an honorable and worthy opponent. You are held responsible, to both yourself and to all your opponents, to run your army list effectively in the time frame allowed. Slow play will be monitored. Judges reserve the right to first warn and then if necessary dock players for slow play/stalling.

Spirit of fairness: Good, if not stellar, sportsmanship is an absolute requirement. While certain events have scoring systems in place to deal with this aspect of the hobby, good sportsmanship is simply expected from all attendees. Throwing a fit, acting out against your opponent, arguing your position with a judge after the final decision seems set to everyone at the table or any other manifestation of poor sportsmanship won't be tolerated.

Quitting: We are all adults and are expected to behave as such. Quitting during an event affects the quality of the experience for all attendees and creates a significant disruption for event staff. Failure to finish a game will lead to forfeiture of all games and potentially future participation. There are legitimate circumstances that would require someone to have to leave the event. For such instances, please speak to the head event staff prior to leaving the premises so the judges can have time to make the proper adjustments. Appropriate reasons include such things as Family, Health, and Work-related emergencies.

Rules Disputes: Rules disputes are bound to occur at an event. Players should attempt to resolve all rules disputes between themselves at the table (using the appropriate codex, rulebook, and FAQ). If this fails, contact a Judge who will attempt to resolve the dispute using the appropriate game system documents. In some extreme situations, a Floor Judge reserves the right to escalate issues to the Head Rules Judge– his/her decision is final.

Cheating: Cheating will not be tolerated. Cheating affects the quality of the experience for all attendees. Proof of cheating will lead to forfeiture of all games.

Players are expected to have a solid grasp of the rules and are responsible for challenging their opponent(s) when those rules are broken. If the players cannot come to a resolution, then the matter must be brought to the attention of a Floor Judge DURING the game. At that point the Floor Judge(s) will weigh the evidence and take appropriate action (which might result in anything from a warning to expulsion). Please remember, this is a complex game and honest mistakes are often made. Every attempt to resolve the issue should be made prior to calling over a Floor Judge. Claiming your opponent is cheating to simply influence the outcome of the game is cheating in and of itself.

Observing Games: As some of the larger tournaments enter the final rounds, it is often tempting to seek out and watch the ‘top tables’. Simply observing a game in progress is fine, but observers should NEVER interject their own commentary, rules interpretations or tactical advice to either player involved in the game.

Care of Terrain: Please treat the terrain with the utmost care throughout the weekend. If accidental damage does occur to a piece of terrain, please notify an event judge so the piece can be flagged for repair.

Trash: Please, please, please pick up after yourself. Leaving trash on and under tables makes for an unpleasant environment for everyone.