Event Rules

Hello fellow denizens of Commorragh.

For quite a while now, I have played my Deldar only casually with my friends. Luckily I have quite a few friends and all of them have armies, so there is almost constantly a game being planned. However, since we have so many people there are many times when someone isn't free and we would have to cancel that apocalypse game or someone who had come would be missing their 1v1 opponent. Due to this, I am looking to expand my warhammer play and take my army to a store, in addition to playing casually. However, there are many many things I don't know about store play that I would need to before I go in.

1. Should I have my army list created beforehand or should I make it there?
2. Do certain kabalites need to be specially painted so that it is clear they are carrying a blaster/dark lance etc compared to the normal kabalites? Same question for Wracks with ossefactors and Wyches with their Special Weapons.
3. Do most stores follow Matched Play or the Beta FAQ rules?
4. Casually, I have run my raiders as ravagers and my ravagers as raiders before seeing as they look almost exactly the same, the only difference being the 2 extra gun turrets on the sides. Would I be allowed to do this in store or do my models have to actually be constructed as what I play them as? Same question for Hemlock Wraithfighters/Crimson Hunters
5. Does my army need to be painted?
6. Can I run models that I have specially edited to look cool or unique? (For instance I have an unfortunate kabalite who got experimented on by my Haemonculus and was given Genestealer Hands.
7. Can I run models that are partly broken or missing pieces? (I better, already bought a bunch with various imperfections on ebay)
8. Can I run an outdated version of a model as long as that model is still supported? (Such as old school Grotesques?)
9. Should I calculate my various deployment/before the game stratagems into my army list or wait until we are at the tabletop? (alliance of agony, screaming jets, prizes of the dark city)
10. How much time do they generally give for a game, and how many points? (Please, 2000)
11. How many points under or over the points mark can I be? For instance, me and my friends casually play with 20 points over or under being the max, but many lists I have seen posted here are either dead-on or only off by 1 point.
12. Anything else important I should know?

Thanks!

First of, it depends a lot on the store you are in.
So I can awnser for the 2 stores where I played, but it might be different everywhere.

1. Usually people make a list made beforehand here, but it is not mandatory, it just leaves more time to actually play.
2. Painted differently never heard of that. Modelled with the right options is encouraged, usually it is not a big issue if it is not the case if you want to test something out etc. This probably varies a lot so ask in the store.
3. Again it depends on the store, in my case it varies and is usuually discussed beforehand, with matched play being very common, beta rules not really?
4. Again varries per store. For me it is usually not a problem if it happens once or twice to try out something, but if you go there for a year and have the same counts as in every list you are expected to convert/ buy the right models.
5. Most stores do not say it have to be fully painted although strongly encouraged to have it mostly painted. Where I play there is no real restriction, but stores like to see some increase in painting if you come there multiple times and most players also prefer playing against painted armies.
6. Most of the time as long as it is clear it is allowed. As far as I noticed most players in independent stores actually encourage it while in GW owned stores they prefer most components to be GW based and often stricter that it must be clear what it should be.
7. Often it is not a problem if something broke, although it mgiht be encouraged to fix things if possible.
8. Here it usually depends more on the opponent and the player you are. I find that most casual players and stores do not mind and might actually like it. But if it feels like you use the old model for the gaming advantage since they are often smaller than people often do not like it as much.
9. For most pickup games those are not mandatory to have in the list, for tournaments it might be. When a local store often organizes a tournament and there it is people might come to expect it as well from pickup lists.
10. This varies and is one of the reasons why lists are often not made beforehand.
11. Usually the max is the max in stores. Although if your favorite list is 2018 points you can always ask to play an 2018 point game instead, I find that most people do not care that much about it.
12. Most stores do not have very strikt policies, the exceptions being GW stores which rarely allow non GW models. Stores might enforce a basic painting minimum (because this looks way better to encourage others to buy/play models), but I have never seen this be striktly enforced. The first few times you play in a store they often are just happy to have you there and learn their expectations as you play your first few games there.
Most other things can be discussed with the opponent, it sounds like you are used to casual games, so make sure the opponent knows this and play some friendly matches.

I think it completely depends on the local stores. It may be worth a scouting run to see who the manager is, ask them for recommendations, see who else is out playing and when.

Myrvn wrote:

I think it completely depends on the local stores.

It also depends on the people in them - most stores, outside of organised competitive events, won't generally have firm rules about anything and will just allow you and your opponent to decide how you'd like to play. Some people are going to be fine about playing against broken or incomplete models, some might not want to play against anything except a fully painted army.

Can even vary event by event.
Different events at the same place have had 3 colour minimum rule, no requirement for painting, and no requirement but there were two prize tiers, on purely for game results, the other results plus painting and sportsmanship score.

It can vary wildly between different events.
I did a bit of research when preparing the rules pack for my club, so here's the best answers I can give:

1. I would say its very common for the majority of events that army lists are written beforehand, and must be sent to the organizers for checking (to prevent cheaters, and yes, I've caught a few in my time)

2. The vast majoroty of events, especially any bigger than a dozen or so people, demand WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), meaning all models must be modelled with the thing they are armed with.

3. Not sure about GW stores, but events tend to run Matched. I think everyone does actually, just generally. I've yet to actually see anyone play Open or Narrative, though I have seen people trying to convert Narrative missions to Matched. FAQ is usually a yes, but Beta depends entirely on the group.

4. Again, usually the rule is WYSIWYG.

5. At the vast majority of events I've seen that aren;t just casual get-togethers, theres a three colour standard for painting.

6. Yes. I've never seen anyone ban conversions outright.

7. Usually frowned upon unless the model broke at the event. Its generally assumed that breaks can be fixed before the event, and that this is just part of building an army.

8. Organizers will frown if you "model for advantage", meaning using things that have been modelled in such as a way that they end up with a battlefield advantage. Using old-school Grotesques for example, because they;re smaller, makes them harder to see. They could be used as Wracks because they're the right size, but not as Grotesques which should be bigger.

9. THeres another thread discussing this actually. Most events now ask that some things be on your army list when you submit it - for example your Warlord Traits, Relics, etc. Which would mean Alliance Of Agony and Prizes would need to be determined beforehand (not all events are the same on this though). But other Strategems such as Webway and Screaming Jets can be decided during deployment as usual.

10. "Events" are usually about 1500, 1800 or 2000pts, depending on the organizers. Games tend to be 2.5 to 3 hours.

11. Under, you can be anything you want. Over is a complete no-no.

12. That each event is different, and you need to careful read the rules pack of the specific event you're looking at to know all the answers for that particular event.
Also, that most events use the Swiss pairing system, meaning you end up playing people with roughly the same tournament points as you. As such, more fun games tend to be mid to lower tables, because the more competitive players are near the top. If you want pure fun and to avoid the uber-competitive, lose your first game.