The 2008 New Zealand Masters

Over the weekend of 15/16 November I ran the inaugural NZ Masters in Wellington. There were three game systems - Fantasy, 40k and Field of Glory.

Like the Australian Fantasy Masters the system was designed to reward those players who had performed consistently at tournaments over the past 12 months.

Warhammer 40k

The NZ Rankings (thanks Mark Croxford)were used to determine invites - however only best three results used and only NZ tournaments.

The tournament attracted the nine top ranked NZ players and the player ranked 12th. I was extremely happy to have such a top flight field.

I deliberately designed the scoring to ensure that army selection could have an impact on overall result if there was a marked difference in army strength. The components were 60% Battle, 30% Comp and 10% Sports. Comp was marked by fellow competitors and a panel of judges from NZ and Australia.

Here are the results:




In the end the Comp difference between the top and bottom rated army was 10.9% or just over two games (each win was worth 10 points, a loss worth 0 points. There was also five bonus points on over each game).

Armies were 1500 points and the missions were from the 5ed rulebook. The rulebook victory conditions were used however when a draw eventuates I have a secondary filter. If one army has killed/destroyed 500 AP more than the other then they gain victory. There are no points for half units etc. You must have destroyed the unit/vehicle. This meant that only in the event of a very clear margin was a win achieved. At the Masters no draws were converted to wins.

Going into the 5th Round the top six competitors' combined Comp and Battle Scores were within 4 BPs of each other making it extraordinarily tight. Given a field of 10 people I think that reflected a very strong competition. Mark Buttle was leading the competition into the last round but his loss to Dave Lewy cost him first place.


Warhammer Fantasy

The invites were determined using the NZ Rankings which are based on the Irresistible Force algorithm - however only best three results used and only NZ tournaments.

Due to a variety of reasons there were a number of qualifiers who couldn't make it, however in the end ten of the top twenty ranked people attended.

I deliberately designed the scoring to ensure that army selection could have an impact on overall result if there was a marked difference in army strength. The components were 60% Battle, 30% Comp and 10% Sports. Comp was marked by fellow competitors who assessed all lists.

Here are the results:



One of the talking points was the lack of Vampire Counts and Daemon armies at the event. The two armies that scored lowest for Composition both had dragons while the Skaven army had 10 PD.

In the end the Comp difference between the top and bottom rated army was 10.8% or 21.6 Battle Points. This effectively meant the Ogre army had a over a game's advantage at the outset of the tournament.

The lower ranked Dark Elf army was able to make up 12 Battle Points while the High Elf army dropped a further 8 BPs in relation to the Ogres.

I'd be interested in comment as to how the competitors saw Battle vs. Comp - i.e. did the system work?

The only problem I ran into was trying to make a Swiss Chess draw in Round 6. Because there were only 10 players we got to the stage where in the final round there were two games where battle point rankings were 6-7 places from one another. To be fair to the highest ranked player the correct Swiss Chess draw was adhered to.