Relics and pre-game

This came up in our local discussion group, and I am wondering on the views of the Dark City's denizens.

At what stage do you do things that happen 'before the battle' such as choosing relics and psychic powers? Particularly in a tournament environment where you play several games with the same list.

Relics have wording that requires you to write it down on your army roster, which would suggest they should be chosen at army selection time. In a tournament would that mean you need the same relic throughout the tournament?

Psychic powers don't have the same note, would that mean you can change game by game?

What about the use of the stratagem to add extra relics, can you do that game by game, or if you plan to use it do you need to lock in those relics and spend the command point(s) each game?

Combat Drugs are also before the game, are those locked in for the tournament? This one I don't think could work because if you roll results up and happen to get multiple good results your opponent should get to see that.

What do you think of these? Tailoring game by game or locked in for the duration?

No it all happens before the game starts but after list construction for sure. Some tournaments require it all first when you make your list but you would easily be able to choose artifacts, warlord traits, powers and all that before each game. Just ask the TO what they prefer but otherwise its whatever you want game by game basis.

This is going to be on a tournament basis. My personal opinion is all those things happen when you get to the table and see what your opponent brought.

List writing:

Units / models
Wargear loadouts
Detachments / <Factions>

At the table, before the battle:

Warlord Traits
Relics
Stratagems for more relics
Psychic powers
Combat drugs

The general view in our local group, was GW's intent was probably shown by their tournament rules:

From the GW grand tournament player pack "You must use the same army roster for each game, and all choices available to you must be noted down on your army roster. Remember that your roster must include things like reinforcement points, Command Points, army Faction, who is your Warlord and what Detachments you are using. Any kind of ability or trait you can choose before the game must be
decided on before the event and recorded on your army roster. This includes things like psychic powers, Warlord Traits, relics and specific Faction keywords, e.g. <Chapter> or <Clan>."

Personally I like the way clively and Ikol are suggesting it where you have some ability to tailor those details to suit what you are up against.

If you went the GW tournament way, would the stratagem for extra relics still be available at the table, or would you need to fix everything you can choose before the game? Even say use of Webway Portal?

I agree with what clively and ikol wrote and I believe ITC does it that way too. The GW way seems very strange to be honest. In fact, pg 186 of the rulebook specifically says that warlord traits are generated immediately before either player starts to deploy their army.

In terms of tournaments, I had to look through several rules packs when putting mine together.
The common thread in terms of Relics was that all Relics, Psychic Powers, Warlord Traits, etc had to be selected PRE-Tournament and written on the army list you submit to the organisers.

Maybe I could see an argument for who your Warlord is. But their trait?

Ikol wrote:

Maybe I could see an argument for who your Warlord is.  But their trait?

Surprisingly common across UK events (I probably should have clarified that I looked at UK events, because thats where I am).
But yeah, they generally rule that any "pregame choices" must be written on the army list pre-tournament.

Just checked for the London GT. They say:

Quote :

Please note that although you must indicate who your Warlord is on your Army List, you may select Warlord Traits and Psychic powers before each game, informing your opponent of your selections, however, relics given to your Warlord must be listed on your army list.

From that, I would say that additional relics purchased via a stratagem do not have to be shown on your army list.