Warhammer 40k Winter Escalation League: Goal: To build and paint a 2000 point 40k army and five objective markers, To encourage players to build, paint, and expand their army. Schedule: The escalation league will run from Saturday, January 7th, 2012 to Saturday, March 31st. A total of 12 weeks. The league will start with a 500 point Combat Patrol Force, and steadily grow in increments until the final weeks, where a player will have his full 2000 points on the table. Players are restricted to one codex for league participation. Each week will start on a Saturday, and games may be played at that points level any time during that week for league points. The points limit during each week is the minimum points limit for games to be played at, and it is expected that Escalation League Participants have a force of this size available for games. However, you may, with your opponents consent play larger point games. The weeks will be structured as follows: January 7th - 500 Point Combat Patrol * January 14th - 500 Point Combat Patrol * January 21st - 750 Point Restricted Force Organization Chart (FOC) ** January 28th - 1000 Point Restricted FOC ** February 4th - 1000 Point Restricted FOC ** February 11th - 1250 Point Standard FOC February 18th - 1500 Point Standard FOC February 25th - 1500 Point Standard FOC March 3rd - 1750 Point Standard FOC March 10th - 1850 Point Standard FOC March 17th - 2000 Point Standard FOC March 24th - 2000 Point Standard FOC March 31st - 2000 Point End of League Tournament. Rules to Follow. * Combat Patrol Rules are as follows: You must stay within the allotted points limit. You must use this Force Organization Chart; 1 HQ, 1 - 3 Troops, 0-1 Elite, 0-1 Fast Attack, 0-1 Heavy Support, 0-1 Optional additional Troop, Elite, Fast Attack, or Heavy Support Choice. You must field at least one HQ and one troop choice. You are not required to field any mandatory choice per your codex rules. HQ choices that don't take an HQ slot may be taken as your HQ, provided they do not require any additional codex requirements. (I.E. you still need a commander to have a command squad) You may not field additional FOC chart slots than the ones listed, including choices which don't take a Force Organization Slot. No models in your army may have more than 2 wounds with the exception of HQ choices, troop choices, and swarms. No model in your army may contain a 2+ armor save, nor a 2+ or 3+ invulnerable save. No vehicles in your army can have an AV value greater than 12 on any facing, this only counts a vehicle's base armor. Do not count Wargear or Special Rules which add to the armor value. ** Restricted FOC. All the standard rules apply, but you must follow the following FOC chart. 1 - 2 HQ, 1 - 6 Troops, 0-2 Elite, 0-2 Fast Attack, 0-2 Heavy Support, 0-1 Optional additional Troop, Elite, Fast Attack, or Heavy Support Choice. Scoring: All scores must be recorded to and verified by a tournament referee or Sci-Fi Employee. All players will be eligible for the following scores: 30 Points for any model/unit converted and painted prior to the escalation league's start. A player may only receive this award once. 10 Points for any model/unit completed (converted and fully painted) during the course of the escalation league. 10 Points per Custom Terrain Piece (converted and fully painted) themed to your army completed during the course of the escalation league. 5 Points Per Game Played, a player can only receive these points up to 4 times a week. 15 Points for a custom character converted and painted during the course of the escalation league. * 5 Points Per Game Played with your escalation league character in an escalation league game, a player can only receive these points once a week. 5 Points per objective marker converted and painted during the course of the escalation league, to a maximum of 5. ** 15 Points for a converted and painted 24" x 24" display board for your army. This must be completed during the course of the escalation league to be eligible for points. * A custom character is a character you invented your own back story for and converted and painted specifically for this event. A custom character may not be a "counts as" special character. A custom character can be any character from the following list, with wargear choices as permitted: Black Templars - Chaplain Blood Angels - Captain or Reclusiarch Chaos Deamons - Herald of Khorne, Herald of Slaneesh, Herald of Nurgle, or Herald of Tzeentch Chaos Space Marines - Chaos Lord or Chaos Sorcerer (without Mark of Slaneesh) Dark Angels - Interrogator Chaplain or Captain. Dark Eldar - Archon or Succubus Eldar - Farseer or Autarch Grey Knights - Brother Captain or Brotherhood Champion Imperial Guard - Commissar Lord, Primaris Psyker, Ministorum Priest, or Techpriest Engineer Necrons - Necron Overlord without a Command Barge Orks - Big Mek (without KFF) or Weird Boy Sisters of Battle - Cannoness Space Marines - Chapter Master, Captain, or Master of the Forge Space Wolves - Wolf Guard Battle Leader (without Thunderwolf Mount) or Wolf Priest Tau Empire - Ethereal, Shas'o or Shas'el Tyranids - Hive Tyrant or Tyranid Prime Designers Note - There is nothing stopping you from converting and painting a character not included on the list. You will simply get the standard points for painting a unit. The purpose of these points was to encourage use and conversion of rarely used HQ choices. Building these characters are not mandatory. ** Objective Markers. Must be built on a 40mm base, converted to match your army, and must be able to reasonably fit in most ruins, estimated height of 3". Designers Note - If you wish to build custom themed terrain, you are perfectly capable of doing so, and receiving the points for it. Objective markers are standardized to avoid any, perceived or otherwise, in game advantage/disadvantage. Note to existing players - The goal is to add to collections and award painting, but not hurt somebodies chances if they already have painted models. So if you have a painted army, you immediately get 30 points. If somebody painted just their combat patrol before the start of the league, they get 30 points. No matter how much prior preparation you put into the league, you get 30 points. However, nothing is stopping you from adding additional units to your army and simply using them to get additional points. For example, if you play space marines and already have 2 tactical squads painted, you can build and paint a 3rd tactical squad during the course of the league and gain those points by fielding it in lieu of a tactical squad you already have. Considering one of the goals is eventually to get to an APOC sized army, adding more units is never a bad thing. But the point of leaving it intentionally vague, was to allow players leeway on painting schedules and adding to their army if it was already existing. Forgeworld: Forgeworld models and units may be fielded any time during the escalation league games. It is recommended that the actual forgeworld model be fielded if possible. However, a sufficient conversion may be used in lieu of the actual model. The conversion must match the Forgeworld model as much as possible (for example, a Land Raider Achilles must be built on a Land Raider, must have a thunderfire cannon mounted on the front, and must have MM sponsons on the sides. A dreadnought drop pod must be bigger than a standard drop pod and have sufficiently larger doors. Etc.). For all Forgeworld Characters, you must field the appropriate specific codex in order to field it. A player may convert a "counts as" character for his army, but it must match the specified wargear in that characters entry, unless said wargear is unique to the character. You may field any model/unit or army list out of any Imperial Armor book with the exception of any vehicle with structure points, flyers, and Gargantuan Creatures. However, the rules for models found in Imperial Armor Apocalypse Second Edition will always take precedent to models found in older books. Rules precedent will be as follows: Rules found on the website here, with the exception of an item found in an FAQ of an older book. An item listed in an newer book always takes precedence over an older book. takes precedent over Rules found in Imperial Armor APOC Second Edition takes precedent over Rules found in Imperial Armor APOC 2 takes precedent over Rules found in the Imperial Armor Books Basically check to find the latest rules for an item before fielding it. Any Rule labeled as "Experimental" is allowed. End of League Tournament Rules: The tournament will be a typical 3 round 2000 point tournament with the following prizes. All prizes will be equal, and a player may only receive one prize. A player must have a fully painted army to qualify for any prize. The prizes are listed in awarded order (I.E. determine who is the seasonal champion first, and go down the line.) Seasonal Champion: The player with the most points at the end is the winner.They must have 5 objective markers and a league character fully painted to be eligible for this prize. Best In Show: At the end of the tournament, players will judge which person has the "Best in Show" army at tournaments end. This is an army that is well painted, or just plain cool, etc. Theme Champion: At the end of the tournament, players will judge which person was the "Theme Champion" army at tournaments end. This is an army that was structured around a piece of fluff, or has a particularly cool theme. In case of a tie, the player that used his escalation character the most during the course of the escalation league wins. Best Painted: The player with the highest painting score during the tournament, and the most best painted votes wins. Forgeworld Best of Show: A player that has the most forgeworld conversion parts and/or models and units in his army. In order to qualify for this prize, all forgeworld units are required to be actual Forgeworld model. Tournament Winner: The player to win all three games during the course of the tournament and have more objectives gained during the course of the tournament wins. Designers Note - Even though there is a points system in this escalation league and a reward for everything you get accomplished, there is only one prize at the end where the points actually matter. The goal is to keep the emphasis on painting and theme, and not trying to abuse a points system to grab prizes. Some of the league prizes are player voted, so players who put effort in painting quality and not just spamming to get quantity points will have a goal to shoot for. See you at the tables!