ORGANISED PLAY

ORGANISED PLAY
USING THE WARHAMMER 40,000 OP KITS
Running activities in your store is a great way to build your business, recruit and
retain customers and boost the local hobby community.

A popular Organised Play (OP) activity to run are tournaments and leagues, and here
we’ve instructions on how to run a Warhammer 40,000 tournament or a league using the
Warhammer 40,000 OP kit supplied by Games Workshop (which has materials to cover
such events up to 32 people).

These instructions are of course only a guide, and you should run your events and
activities as best suits your store’s needs, and to suit your local customer base. It may be a
tournament or league is what you want, in which case read on for some ideas, if not, then
feel free to use the OP kit’s materials for your own activity ideas.

Your OP kit includes a variety of materials (up to and including the trophy for the overall
winner). The below guidance is for the Tournament Organiser (TO).

As per any event a key to success is advertising up front, let your players know; in store,
in any materials (ie posters) you use, and on any social media (ie Facebook) you may have
well in advance.
EVENT GUIDANCE
The advice in this pack isn’t the only way to run an event, but we hope it contains some
helpful hints to ensure yours is successful.

Warhammer events should be full of good cheer and sportsmanship; essential qualities
for those looking to have a great time rolling dice in the grim darkness of the 41st
Millennium. Our belief is the tournament organiser is key to ensuring every attendee is
having an enjoyable event (regardless of winning or losing games). Keeping this in mind
while organising and running the event will ensure a great experience for all!

Note the advice below is specific to running a 3 round tournament in a single day, using
the latest Warhammer 40,000 rules (and the current Tournament Matched Play product),
but much of the commentary here is useful for other formats.

You can also use this pack to run a league. In that case simply schedule your pairing and
run your schedule by the week instead of by the hour. You can operate as the reporting
site for game results with games scheduled independantly by participants. Leagues are a
great way for a store with less table space to run an event. That said, coordinating games
and validating results can be more difficult, so we reccommend using this pack for
tournaments where practical.
RECOMMENDED EVENT ESSENTIALS

System: Warhammer 40,000 Matched Play

Battle Size: Strike Force, Incursion

Board Size: 60’’ L x 44’’ W (Strike Force), 44’’ L x 30’’ W (Incursion)

Missions: Select three from the most recent Chapter Approved:

Grand Tournament Mission Pack

Number of Games: Three

Army Selection: Follow Muster Armies in most recent Chapter Approved:

Grand Tournament Mission Pack

Tools of War: 
Attendees are expected to bring their army, dice, a tape
measure, all relevant rules publications, and several physical
copies of their army roster (one for the TO, and others to
show their opponents).
ARMY CONSTRUCTION AND PAINTING
Army Construction and Army Lists
The armies in such an event should be build as ‘Battle-forged’ as according to the
Warhammer 40,000 Core Book and the Incursion or Strike Force guidelines in the
most recent Chapter Approved: Grand Tournament Mission Pack.

Rules for army composition can be found in:

Codexes
Warhammer 40,000 App
Campaign Books
The most recent Chapter Approved: Grand Tournament Mission Pack
FAQs and Errata found at www.warhammer-community.com/faqs

Army lists exported from Battle Forge in Warhammer 40,000: The App and
printed out, for example, are good examples of the kind of clear documents
(containing all the relevant wargear and unit upgrades for instance) that are very
helpful in a tournament situation.
ARMY CONSTRUCTION AND PAINTING (cont.)
Modeling and Painting
Everyone loves playing exciting, atmospheric games with finely detailed, lovingly painted
miniatures. With this in mind we recommend all miniatures used in the tournament be
Games Workshop miniatures, and be fully assembled and painted.

We recommend participants use the ‘WYSIWYG’ (What You See Is What You Get)
principle for models (it means that if your army includes a Space Marine equipped with
a Meltagun, the model must be equipped with a Meltagun for instance). WYSIWYG
ensures fewer miscommunications between players at the table.

CONTRAST METHOD

CLASSIC METHOD

Converted Models and Units

Many players ‘‘scratch build’’ or heavily convert elements of their model collection,
and these activities are a hallowed part of Warhammer hobby history. For the
sake of fairness, we recommend that any conversion be comparable in size to
the model they represent (as size can be a rules advantage).
PLAYER CONDUCT & JUDGES
If possible you should have a judge, someone who can mediate on any disputes, a hobbyist
customer or staff member who knows the game rules well is a great choice.

The battles set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe are fast, furious, and sometimes
unforgiving, but they present an incredible opportunity for fun and friendship! The
excitement of doing battle on the tabletop combined with a community of passionate
players help make every game of Warhammer memorable. Players making the games
better for their opponents should be encouraged and rewarded.

Be clear to your players that Judges hold the final say on rules disputes on a game-by-
game basis, ensuring all players have a fun and fair experience.

Everybody Loses from Time to Time. We recommend reminding your players that
roughly half of them will be 0-1 after the first game and reinforcing that they are there to
have fun and make friends.
EVENT FORMAT
Scoring Keeping Time
You should provide a score sheet for each Outside of tournaments, most players
table for every round, so that players can tend not to complete their games against a
record their results to hand in. clock! To help participants keep time we’d
recommend regular ‘announcements’, you
You should collect the sheets after each could use the following as a guide (across a
round, and use the GT Pack to help 3 hour round as suggested above).
you score and assign players for the
next round (and decide who’s won the • Pre-Game activities, review army lists,
tournament of course). select secondaries: 5 Minutes
• Deploying your actual models: 10
Event Schedule Minutes
A suggested schedule is below, this • Playing your First Turn: 20 Minutes
assumes a whole day given over to the
• Playing your Second Turn: 20 Minutes
three rounds, and games played at Strike
Force size. Of course, you can have the • Playing your Third Turn: 15 Minutes
event spread over more days, or shrink the • Playing your Fourth Turn: 10 Minutes
size of the forces to reduce game time. • Playing your Fifth Turn: 10 Minutes

Some players are naturally less fast at

Event Time
playing than their opponents and if you
Check In 0800-0900 can, help slower players by reminding
Pre-Event Brief and 0900-0915 them to keep the time in mind.
Pairings Posted
Round 1 0930-1230
Lunch 1230-1330
Round 2 1330-1630
Break 1630-1700
Round 3 1700-2000
Awards 2030-2100
TABLES & TERRAIN
For an Incursion or Strike Force
battlefield, follow the guides in the
Warhammer 40,000 core rules for table
size and set up.

Use whatever terrain you have,

and remember you can always ask
participants to bring their own
terrain in, it’s an exciting aspect to a
tournament where players can see each
others terrain efforts.
ENTRY INTO WARHAMMER FINALE DRAWING
Participants in Organised Play have the opportunity (if they choose to opt in and meet
eligibility requirements linked below) to win a trip to participate in the Warhammer
Grand Narrative!

Terms and Conditions of the Drawing are listed here. Our Games Workshop Privacy
Notice is listed here. Please have all participants that wish to enter review the Terms and
Conditions and Privacy Notice. If they are comfortable with and agree to the Terms and
Conditions and Privacy Notice, please have them fill out this form.

Participants will need to be entered into a random drawing which will take place later in
the year. Once a drawing winner has been randomly selected; we will notify them and
coordinate their travel.