How to Improve 40k Events - Eliminating Illegal Army Lists

Hi everyone ! BBF here again to discuss how to improve tournaments. These suggestions can be applied to any size event too. Currently one of the biggest issues is illegal army lists. Illegal army lists do not only affect players on the lower tables. If some top players are fast and loose it affects all of their opponents who lost up to the point at which they are caught and that’s collateral damage. The best solution is to check army lists prior to an event - the good news is there are events that already do this... taken from the London GT player pack:

ARMY LIST SCORE

Players accrue 20 points for army lists on the following basis:

• The list was submitted on time, 10 points
• The list was in the correct format, 5 points
• The list was free of errors, 5 points

If a player is caught with an illegal army list during the course of a tournament the penalty should be automatic disqualification - no prize support and no awards. Anything less only serves at worse as an example to other players that it’s okay and maybe you won’t get caught. This means don’t trust an army list building app... verify everything manually if you are going to an event. It’s also a really good idea to have other players check your list as well. The more you play the same army list to practice for an upcoming event you plan to attend the more familiar you become with it and it’s easier to find any possible errors over time.

Illegal armies also includes other things such as using a relic incorrectly (for example arming a Primaris Space Marine Captain with the Teeth of Terra), using a stratagem that doesn’t apply to one of your factions or selecting an incorrect Warlord Trait. There are ways to circumvent these types of errors such as including in your list which relics you intend to use for which models in your army. These kinds of mistakes don’t necessarily mean the offending player intentionally cheated but if they gain an advantage the end effect has the same potential result.

Hopefully one day GW will offer their own army list building app for Warhammer 40k but until then we are all ultimately responsible and working together we can reach this goal collectively.