The Tournament Battle is a variation on the Meeting Engagement but uses the special tournament set limits as described in the following section. This scenario is ideal for playing strangers, as it reduces the player's choice of the wilder elements in his army, so generals can concentrate on the game rather than worrying about what kind of army they will be facing. It is also ideal for competitive play in tournaments, inter-club competitions, club-organised league games, knock-outs and all forms of competitive situations where players are not necessarily close friends with a common gaming style.
Scenery
In a Tournament Battle each player takes a hill and either a wood or a group of two buildings and places them within his own table half. Terrain is placed alternately and players roll a dice to determine who places first.
Armies
Armies are chosen from the Warhammer Armies army lists to 2,000 points as defined by the standard tournament limits (see the next section). Each player must provide a written roster list for his army which his opponent is entitled to see after the game (in formal competitions tournament organisers may wish to check your roster beforehand).
Tournament Limits
No special characters.
No unridden large monsters.
No allies.
No more than 1 war machine to be chosen for each regiment of troops included in the army.
Wizards are limited to a maximum magic level of 3; no magic items can improve on this.
Magic items with a points value of more than 50 cannot be included.
Deployment
This is conducted in the same way as a Meeting Engagement and players must prepare their order of march before the game. Both players make a list of all the units in their army in the order of their column of march. Character models other than Champions are always listed together as one entry and must be placed last in the column of march (at the bottom of the list).
All war machines including chariots are listed together as one entry, and all large monsters are listed together as one entry. Neither war machines and chariots, nor large monsters can be placed first in the column of march (at the top of the list).
Once players have completed their marching order the player with the most entries places the first unit from his list, then his opponent places the first unit from his list. The players continue to alternate placing units from their list until they reach the last entry which will always be the characters.
Units can be placed on the player's own half of the table no closer than 6" to the centre line and no closer than 12" to either side edge. In addition, a unit cannot be placed within 18" of an enemy unit that has already been placed. This is important because it enables the player to grab areas of the tabletop which he will use to his advantage in the battle.
When it comes to placing characters, large monsters, and war machines, all the models from each category are placed at once. Note that this doesn't mean you have to put all the characters in the same place! Models can still be positioned in different locations either as individual units or units of several models grouped together as described in the rules.
Special Deployment Rules
As for a Meeting Engagement troops which would normally deploy in a special manner, such as Wood Elf Scouts, cannot do so as they have no time before the battle to scout out the battlefield. Because the armies are deploying as quickly as they can from a column of march all units are placed as described above. Also, units capable of skirmishing cannot be deployed in a skirmishing formation as this would enable small units to grab disproportionately large areas of tabletop. Such units are deployed into standard formations and can break into skirmish formations when they move.
Turns
The game lasts no longer than two and a half hours or four turns per side, whichever is soonest. If playing in a competition where victory points are used to work out an overall position, players cannot concede before completion of the game. However, if the game is a one-off a player may accept his opponent's surrender at any time (victor's choice).
Who Goes First
The player who completes his deployment first takes the first turn.
Victory
Unless one player concedes beforehand the winner is the player who has accumulated the most victory points at the end of the game. The standard Victory points schedule explains how these are worked out.
Session
If a tournament consists of several battles played within a limited time then players must use the same army for each game. This encourages players to field a force capable of facing a broad range of opponents. This restriction would normally apply to inter-club games fought over a single session, but not to club-based leagues or knockouts where games are played over longer periods and where players may wish to hone or change their armies from time to time.