Need help with a tournament!

[paladin7221]

The story as it stands:

 Local GW has a new manager who wants to run a 40k tourny/campaign instore for his first 'big thing'. Now, this laddie is fresh out of Uni; this is his first job and he doesn't have a damn clue about the game at all.....
 I provided him with the rough flesh of a campaign idea for X number of players but now he really wants it moulded into something he can run - essentially, I do the work but he gets paid.

 But, since I too have not a damn clue, I just want to run this one past the assembled cognoscenti to get as many idea/opinions as I can before this thing hits the ground running on Saturday. I know it's not much time but can anyone help?

There's 2 pages of stuff I've created, but this is the rough draft:

" There is something on Qretu 5. Something ... powerful. Nobody seems to know where it is and, even more worryingly, nobody seems to have the remotest idea of exactly what it is.
Theories run from a sudden appearance of a coven of Alpha-level psykers, a mysterious stone said to hold back the powers of the warp, an Eldar Webway lodestone, an artefact of quite staggering age or any one of a half hundred other ideas, each more outlandish than the last.   

Regardless of it’s true identity, it’s appearance was enough to melt the brain of every single sanctioned psyker on the plant in an instant and send a bow-wave of energy washing across the entire system and beyond. Clearly, such power cannot go unclaimed. It is therefore imperative that either the mysterious object is destroyed or protected against all comers. Furthermore, it is clear that merely being of the same race or faction as another party hunting for the same thing is no guarantee of friendly relations.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Qretu 5 is only just fully recovered from an assault by a splinter of a Tyranid hive-fleet a bare 4 centuries before. It is conceivable that, in the manner of such beasts, there are descendants of these xenos still out there. Whether indeed this mysterious source of power was accidentally uncovered by them or is in fact one of them remains to be seen. And there’s only one way of doing that....."

[paladin7221]

Forces.

Normal Force Organisation charts only, there will be no Unbound armies. Lords of War such as Knight Titans are questionable, up to Joseph (the manager) to decide if they are allowed or not. Three games per player, escalating points values. Paired off appropriately. This is to reflect an initial scouting force from each side that then has to call on reinforcements to handle the heavy lifting. Depending on the number of players available, of course.
Regardless of points value or composition, each force is to have a minimum of 1 HQ and 2 Troop selections. Anything after that is up to the player’s choice. Would advise against deep strikers or Drop pods and the like, though, or aircraft of any type. After all, nobody wants to show their hand too early. Plus, most scouting forces are completely boots-on-the-ground anyway.

At .... points and .... points, there are a minimum of 2 HQ choices. 1 of which MUST be a psyker (Space Marine Librarian, IG Primaris, Chaos Sorcerer, Inquisitor etc etc).The reason for this is straightforward enough; the first game at .... points – is merely a scouting mission, a recon-in-force to determine who else is on-planet, the subsequent games are devoted to actively hunting for whatever this thing is. Since it’s more attuned to psykers it’s obvious that a psyker is needed to find the damn thing.

There is a possibility that the ‘Nids might decide to crash the party. At the start of each game, roll a D6. In games of .... points, a single quad of gaunts (either shooty or stabby) pops up on a 5+. At games of ... points, the roll needed is 4+ and the bigger ’nids have started appearing along with the gaunts. (1 or 2 big guys plus the gaunt squad) In the final game, the roll needed for appearance is 3+ and it’s big critters only. The Tyranids that do turn up are at full squad strength for a unit of their type, no other options available to them are used.

If the gribblies arrive then control of them switches off each turn to the player who’s turn it is not. Normal rules for synapse behaviour in the second and third games is in effect, not the first.
In all games, the winner scores 3 points. If it’s a draw then both players get 1 point each. After the three games are up for each player, add his points together. The two highest scorers then face off in a game of .... points to decide the campaign winner. In this final game, there are no rolling objectives, no tactical considerations, just slaughter everything that’s not yours. Last man standing. Do the nids appear? Up for future discussion. But what actually is the power source that drew everyone here in the first place? Ah well, only Joseph knows that one.....

[Geifer]

Sounds good if it is a (mini) campaign first and foremost. Not sure how the tournament idea fits into that, though. In my experience a third force interfering does in fact interfere with the game, if games are timed. If there is plenty of time, that shouldn't be a problem. I can see armies competing within the limits of the campaign, but I wouldn't call what is happening a tournament in any way. But that may just be me.

As for some of the other points:

1. Combined arms FOC, no Unbound. What about allies? What about the Ork and Inquisition specific charts? What about formations? What about Ghazghkull, who is a Lord of War but not a gargatuan creature or super heavy vehicle?

If your emphasis is on a campaign, and with the disclaimer that even Imperial fight among each other, I assume the idea is to go without allies?

2. If you want a specific scenario for the first game, it should be easy to rule out unwanted units by unit type. Ruling out vehicles of the subtype flyer, for instance, is easy enough and covers all codices equally well. Deep strike is a bit trickier. Does it make more sense for Daemons to already be on the scene, or get summon then and there? Kicking a couple of Marines out of a Thunderhawk is bound to draw attention. Teleporting Terminators popping up out of thin air in some forest can be quite stealthy, depending on the circumstances.

3. What do you do with armies that don't have psykers, like Necrons? What do you do with armies that don't even have anti-psykers (or wargear to that effect)? If you are set on the idea, it would probably be best to come up with a list of sages that may act as the mandatory HQ meant to discover that which must be discovered.

4. I would advise a random table for the Gaunts upon which they act, rather than pseudo-integrating them into the turn and giving the opponent control. First, switching control between two players will result in predictable erratic behavior (I move the critters away from my troops and shoot the enemy this turn, try an assault. Then my opponent moves turns them around, comes my way, shoots my troops, and tries to assault, and so on). It'll look strange having them go back and forth like that, which may not be what you want. i would do something along the lines of (provided there is an objective):

D6 Initial Behavior table:

1-2 Unit moves towards closest unit of player A they can harm, and engages the unit in the shooting and assault phase if possible.
3-4 Unit moves towards the closest objective, running if necessary in order to get into range to control it. The unit shoots the closest unit it can harm, and may overwatch if engaged.
5-6 Unit moves towards closest unit of player B they can harm, and engages the unit in the shooting and assault phase if possible.

At the start of each supsequent player turn, take a leadership test. If passed, the unit continues what it has been doing. If failed, roll on the table and apply the new result.

Then decide which you like better: In every phase of the game, the Tyranid unit acts [first or last]. Which is to say at the start of the phase or at the end of the phase, whichever you think is best.

[paladin7221]

That certainly simplifies the Tyranid thing!
As to whether it's a campaign or a tournament, I too would lean towards the former; we have no real time limit on the games apart from who's instore at any given time.

[ZOG!]

If you are running a campaign, then a quick search on Google will give you a plethora of options.
You may even find a pre-done nid one.
All rules are optional remember. Campaigns will usually not run more than 6 weeks. This is usually down to enthusiasm, not content.
A sad fact but one that has rung true in all the campaigns I have been involved in (running or playing)
A tale of... Like which I'm involved in with droconiroth seems to run better for last-ability.
They work well in stores as it also increases sales.
The other option is use mighty empires rules.

[paladin7221]

Well, we have a basic framework in place, or rather I have - now we'll see if it works....