Exeter Legionary 2012

[Emperors deviant]

Legionary is the annual games show held in Exeter,Devon. Building on a very successful show last year we are holding this years show again in our new venue of the Matford Centre,Exeter on Saturday 5th May,10am to 4pm. Close to the M5/A30/A38 with plenty of free parking and a bus route that runs close by the venue.
As well as the usual host of traders there are demonstration and particpation games,a large bring and buy, raffle and competions for Warhammer and Warhammer 40K, others to be confirmed.
For more information visit: [url]www.legionaryshow.co.uk[/url]

[Col.Gravis]

Shame the 40k rules pack is naff...

[Aldramelech]

Cheap shot Col.

[Mick A]

Don't see a problem with it myself. It has all the info you need...

Mick

[Col.Gravis]

I'm sorry, but I'm just calling it as I see it, a spade is a spade.

I've not missed a legionary in years, and in that time I've only not played in the 40k tournament once because I was running a participation game Sadly though this is the poorest tournament pack that I've seen - and I've seen a lot. The missions are weird, and IMHO poorly thought out and scream untested, it doesn't help there are glaring ommissions in the special rules, or that the pack is poorly presented. I sent an email pointing this out, albeit a frustrated one and got no response, so you'll have to accept my rant here. I don't know how many tickets youve sold for 40k, but in it's current format I won't be buying one, and I haven't yet met anyone who is. For all that I do wish the event well.

[Mick A]

I believe it has been play tested by the local GW in Exeter and takes the same format as previous years tournament packs. No it doesn't have lots of flashy graphics but like I said earlier, it does have all the info you need to enjoy a good tournament. Its a shame you won't be joining in this year if you've enjoyed all the other tournaments bar one...

Mick

[Col.Gravis]

Has it? By Neil, Andy or Marcus? I know last time I spoke to Neil about it he was similarly unhappy with the pack and certainly did'nt suggest that they'd play tested it there.

The format of the event if fine, 3 games, 1500pts, one day, no complaints there, or over the price of the tickets. Also a non-graphical pack is fine, but this one is badly formatted with blocks of text which really does'nt read well, that a minor formatting thing, but one which is easy to work on, it could be done in a lunch break.

The problem which is the kicker lies with the missions.

Game 1 - The Rescue.
Pitched battle, no problem.
Defender places a piece of terrain, unorthodox (and unspecified as to what the nature of that terrain is, which is probably ought, eg size of piece,/type/a new piece or is it one on the table which is moved) but okay. But who is the Defender, and who then is the Attacker? How is this decided?
The boss. Where to start? We know in this mission it can't be killed, and we know only the attacker has one and that it joins a unit of guards. So...
How does the boss otherwise act, like an IC or an uprade character? That is can it choose to leave the unit by itself or not. How does it move, like infantry? What effect does it have on non-infantry units like Bikes then, does the whole unit then have to mvoe at its rate like normal or not? Can it get in a transport, and if so does it take up a space within the transport? If it does'nt act like an IC what happens if the guard unit is wiped out? Can it still move in that instance by itself (if so how?), or must it stay still unit collected by another unit? If so how does a unit get it to join, like an IC moving into cohearancy? What happens if the unit it is with breaks? Does it run off the board as well or get left behind? And how does an opposing unit contest/take it, like an objective by getting within x" of it? Some of these need answering, some of them may well not come up at all, but for a tournament you need to be very clear so that everyone does the same thing - you need clear an concise special rules which this does not have, or to use standard missions.
Oh and no deep striking at all within 18" is a horrible rule, that creates a 36" no go area which is a major problem for any army which deploys entirely or partially in this manner unbalancing agaisnt them horrendously - has it even been tried against such an army?
Oh and 'victory conditions are the same as in the rulebook', presumeably you mean Victory Points, so why not just say so? This makes it sound like the writer does'nt actually play 40k at all.

Game 2 - Blown away.
Unorthodox but reasonable with some adjustment, the explosion if you dont get away is a little pointles IMHOs, but otherwise I've played this mission at Dice & DaggerClub and it works well.
However, you do specify that a model in base contact can destroy it as long as hes not in combat, though the rest of his unit can be, whoever wrote this should remember that if the unit is in combat so is every model in the unit - charged or charging you would then need to move towards the nearest enemy model. Better to specify that the unit cant be combat at all. Also clarify how long, one turn, is that from one movement phase to the start of the next? Or say contact is achieved through a massacre move, does it then last from the asasult phase to next? Best to specify from one movement phase to the next.

Game 3 - Decapitation
Same comments on Boss as with Game 1, except now the boss can be killed. What is the bosses bodyguard? The unit he joins initially? Does any unit he joins confer the same 4+ from long range shooting? For VPs whats a long range weapon and whats a short ranged weapon? And whats the bosses WS if your trying to kill it in close combat? At the moment the profile you provide does'nt give it one!

Hows that for starters of things which need addressing? You may think some of this is common sense for the gamers, and it should be, but all you do by assuming that is give yourselves and the players headaches. Be clear, concise and specifcy EXACTLY what the rules are to avoid that, otherwise people will be unsure, or simply take advantage of the lack of clarity to get an advanatage in their own game. Iron these things out and the bizarre missions are okay, or switch to standard missions.

Personally I think with refinement Game 2 is fine, I'd think serious about dumping the other two for more standard missions like Kill Points or Cleanse. Refining the ideas behind the others would be fine though, either sorting out the missions as they stand or reworking them, for example, giving each side an objective token in mission one, it does not move by itself, but can be 'carried/collected' by having an infantry unit in cohearancy with it, but noting it cant be carried inside a transport (too big) would be a more straight forward, but still unusual scenario.

[Aldramelech]

but in it's current format I won't be buying one, and I haven't yet met anyone who is. For all that I do wish the event well.

Thought you lot were all going to a wedding anyway?

[Col.Gravis]

Originally yeah, but we moved the wedding forward to September last year in the end, I'd love to say it was so we could have all gone to Legionary lol, but it was a less happy reason then that.

Incidently, something else I was wondering and forgot to mention, whats with the Sportsmanship scoring, is there a fixed matrix for awarding your opponents points (i.e. Bad game =0, poor game=150, average game =250 etc) or is it you just pick a random number you feel appropriatefor your opponent between 0-500 as it appears in the pack?

[Aldramelech]

And this has nothing to do with your group setting up a rival tournament?