The Events Companions for the new edition of Warhammer 40,000 are here! They are your essential guides to all events, from small gatherings to room-filling tournaments, and have information for both attendees and Tournament Organisers.
One of the biggest changes is that there are now four different documents. The first is the main Warhammer 40,000 Event Companion. This includes extensive information on tournaments, including changes to mission sequences and advice on pairings and rankings. It also includes an up-to-date list of base sizes for all Warhammer 40,000 units, and a selection of recommended terrain layouts.
The other three documents cover Doubles Events, Team Events, and Dominatus Events.
Force Dispositions and Terrain Layouts
The new Force Disposition system is crucial to how you play games in the new edition. A key rule for events is that players will choose a single Force Disposition available to them based on their army’s detachments when they submit their army list. This will then be set for the entire event, so you’ll have a predictable set of five primary missions that you’ll need to master.
To ensure variety, the Event Companion includes a set of three different terrain layouts for each mission, along with guidelines for which layouts to use during which rounds of an organised play event.
Here’s an example of how the three layouts can change depending on your opponent’s Force Disposition – see the difference if your Reconnaissance army is taking on a Purge the Foe or Disruption force.
Which of the three layouts you use in each game will be determined by the event organiser – it might be that in game one you use Layout A, game two might use Layout B, and so on; or the layout might be determined by a roll-off.
This also means players will set up the terrain on their table after being matched with their opponent, rather than having a standard layout in every single game. The Event Companion offers full diagrams with helpful measurements using the common terrain area set, so it won’t take long to get your board ready.
If you want to get a head start on your tournament preparation, you can download the Warhammer 40,000 Terrain Area Footprints today on our Downloads page.
Doubles Events
For the first time, there is a supplementary Event Companion download available for Doubles tournaments.
Doubles Events are similar to regular tournaments, but with two players on each side. This means you can have a friend beside you to share in the victory (or blame for your defeat!).
The Doubles Tournament Companion features extra guidance on unusual rules interactions when there are two different armies on the field. For example, do you gain extra command points because there are two of you (nope), or can your Ork Boys hitch a ride in your mate’s Wave Serpent (also nope).
While we’re on the subject of doubles forces, we've seen a lot of questions about whether you can use a 3DP detachment as your only detachment in your army at 1000 points (a common size for doubles games). Our intent is to let you do so and we will be making an update to clarify that in the first update to the Muster Army rules after launch. Effectively, you can always choose to pick any one, lone detachment, regardless of the mission size, even if it costs more Detachment Points than that game might normally allow.
Teams Events
Teams Events, as their name suggests, sees players compete in teams rather than just one-on-one. In every round, each member of a team will play a game against one member of the opposing team, and the accumulated scores of all team members will decide the winner of a round.
Teams Events have some specific new rules of engagement that will make the experience more challenging and exciting than ever before.
First up, for every five players (rounding up), only one player can select each Force Disposition. This means that your combined team will have to master a number of different playstyles to come out victorious.
The way that opponents are paired and layouts are selected is a little different too. For most games, each team secretly selects a Defender and two possible Attackers. Once these are revealed, the team then secretly selects which Attacker they want their defender to face, and each team’s Defender gets to choose which mission Layout they want to use. This system is tweaked slightly depending on how many players are on each side – check out the full Teams Event Companion for more details.
Dominatus
There’s also a new Event Companion set up for running Dominatus campaigns using the new deck included in the Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon boxed set,* which spreads a narrative campaign out over the whole event.
The document includes advice on adapting the Dominatus deck for an organised event, as well as tips on how to pair players off.
From next week, all of the mission layouts will be available in the updated Warhammer 40,000 app, too, which we’ll have more to share on shortly. These Event Companion documents are also available in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.
Download the Event Companions now, and get ready for your next big tournament!
If you’re looking for an awesome event to kick start the new edition, don’t forget that tickets are already on sale for the Warhammer Opens in Tacoma, Newport, and Kraków.
Tacoma is always one of the biggest Warhammer 40,000 events of the year, and this July we’re expecting more than 500 players to join us. For those in the UK, the very first Warhammer Open in Newport, Wales, is following soon after in August. For those looking to get a taste of a Teams Event, look no further than the inaugural Warhammer Open in Kraków in September.
* The Dominatus deck will be available to pre-order separately from tomorrow.
