European Single Championship (ESC) 2011 - Information and Rules

Army restrictions :


Rules changes:
- Characters will get "look out sir" versus the following spells that automatically kill models or automatically remove an entire regiment: Dwellers Below, Final Transmutation, Dreaded 13th, Infernal Gateway 11-12 effect. Normal requirements for lookout sir apply.
- Dark Elf Sorceresses cannot cast spells using more dice than normal wizards .

I. General Restrictions:

2400 Points.
No Special or Named Characters.
Army used can be any of the currently published GW Army books.
A maximum of 3 identical core choices may be taken (regardless of equipment and other upgrades)
An army may have up to 5 war machines and template weapons. Warmachines that use a template count as a single choice in this regard. All template weapons (from magic items, abilities, etc.) count, except for spells.
Max. 45 models with missile weapons with a range of 20”+ (not incl. war machines, characters and chariots).

Unit sizes are limited as follows:
Units cannot be more than 40 models nor 450 points (including all command, upgrades, magic items/banners). This restriction applies during the creation of the roster - unit size/cost may be increased during the game (for example - by joining characters to the unit). This restriction does not apply to characters.

Magic Restrictions:
- Apart from Winds of magic and Channeling, an army may only generate 2 PD/DD per magic phase.
- You may have units/abilities that actually would generate more than 2 extra dice, but any excess dice are lost
- Some magic items/abilities count as generating dice toward this limit.
- “Count as” items/abilities may never exceed a cumulative 2 PD/DD per phase. This means that if you take the Book of Hoeth, you may not take any other items that “count as adding PD/DD”
- All modifiers are applied from the army list and will not change during the game.

Detailed description
Apart from winds of magic and through the channeling rule, an army may only ever add 2 dice to its power or dispel pool in each magic phase. Any dice added to the pool, regardless of source (generated, stolen, stored from previous magic phases, generated by magic items/abilities to boost spellcasting before or after the casting attempt, produced by spells, lore abilities, and so on) count. Excess dice are simply discarded and cannot be used in any way (i.e. - they can’t be stored).

If a dice is stolen from the opponent’s pool, but your army has already generated two extra dice, the dice is removed from the opponent’s pool and then discarded.

Some special items and abilities DECREASE the limit of power or dispel dice you can add to the pool. We refer to those as “count as” items. What this means is that, if your roster includes one “counts as 1 Power Dice (PD)” item, your army can only add 1 power dice (instead of the usual 2 dice) to the pool in each of your own magic phases of the entire game (regardless of whether the item is destroyed or used up).
Please note that you cannot have a combination of items that would decrease the limit of extra power or dispel dice to below zero.

Item restrictions:
- Power Scroll is banned
- Each Loremaster ability counts as generating 1 PD each magic phase
- Any item that auto-dispels a spell counts as generating 1 DD each magic phase.
- Folding Fortress is not allowed

Army Specific Restrictions:
Beastmen: Beastmen armies have an extra 200 points for their roster (2600 total). All victory points scored against this army are decreased by 10% (excluding bonus points for banners, general, etc.).
Bretts: No Restrictions
Dark Elves: Hydra is a 0-1 choice. Max. 35 repeater Crossbows in the army (regardless of who carries them). Repeater Bolt Throwers 0-2. Flying units (inc. characters on flying steeds) in the army limited to 0-3. Shades max 20 models per army. Dreadlord on pegasus cannot take Crown of Command.
Dwarves: Each spellbreaker/spelleater rune counts as +1 DD. Grudge Throwers are a 0-2 choice; May generate Max. +4 dispel dice instead of +2
DOC: Max. 28 Models per unit; Flamers are a 0-1 choice. All daemonic gifts are 0-1. Bloodletters and Herald of Khorne are 0-3 total. Daemonic Battle Standard can take either daemonic icon or gifts.
Empire: Steam Tank counts as a war machine; Tank, Rocket battery and Engineers are 0-1 choices
High Elves: Max. 500 points or 40 models per unit; Vortex Shard counts as +1DD; Book of Hoeth counts as 2PD and 2 DD; Banner of the World Dragon counts as +1 DD
Lizardmen: Salamanders are a 0-1 Choice ; Terradons and Stegadons (any kind) are 0-2 choices; Beclaming Cogitations counts as +2DD; Cupped hands counts as +2PD
Ogres: Ogre Kingdoms armies have an extra 200 points for their roster (2600 total). All victory points scored against this army are decreased by 10% (excluding bonus points for banners, general, etc.). Rhinox Riders are allowed.
O&G: Night Goblin Shamans are 0-3 (max 3 of any kind of NG shaman); mushroom dice do not count as power dice in regard to the PD limit.
Skaven: All Skaven rare choices 0-1; Gutter runners are a 0-2 choice; Engineers are a 0-3 choice;
Vampires: Wraiths and Varghulf are 0-1 choices. Wraith unit size - maximum 5 models. Army may have maximum two units (total) of: wraiths, black coach or spirit hosts. Army may include a maximum of two of the following: Helm of Commandment, Master of the Black Arts, Drakenhoff Banner.
TK: Neferra's Scrolls of Mighty Incantations counts as 2 PD AND 2 DD. Hierotitan is worth 1 PD so long as it's alive. Sphinxes of all kinds: 0-3 per army
WE: Wand of Wych Elm counts as +1 DD
Warriors of Chaos: Hellcannon is a 0-1 choice. Infernal Puppet counts as +1 PD and +2DD; Tendrils of Tzeench and Conjoined Homunculus both counts as +1 PD. Favour of the Gods cannot be taken by a Champion of a Chosen of Tzeentch unit


II. Scoring

Victory points scored as per the rulebook, with the exceptions that:
- units that are at 25% or less of their original models yield 50% VP's to the opponent (characters, monsters and handlers, war machines and single models are unaffected).
-units that are fleeing at the end of the battle yield 50% VP's to the opponent.

In both cases, bonuses (for generals, banners, etc.) are not counted towards the 50%. Units that are both: fleeing and at/below ¼ strength still only yiled 50% VP’s.

0-20 Victory-Points per game
60-100 Battle-Points per team, except for the last round, when the lower limit is dropped.
(The losing team gets 60 points even if they score less[except in the final round] – the winning team never gets more than 100 points, even if they score more. Real Battle Points [non-limited by the 100-60 bracket] will be used in case of the Battle Points tie as tie-breaker.)

Victory points to Battle points per game:

0-150 Victory-Points difference - 10-10
151-300 - 11-9
301-450 - 12-8
451-600 - 13-7
601-750 - 14-6
751-900 – 15-5
901-1050 – 16-4
1051-1200- 17-3
1201-1350- 18-2
1351-1500-19-1
1500+ - 20/0

III. Scenarios

There will be no scenarios at the ETC due to: lack of good proposals and balance issues.

IV. Virtual Line of Sight

Size chart:
0: Swarms - models of this size never block line of sight or give cover.
1: Infantry, War Beasts, War Machines, Unique without the Large Target rule
2: Cavalry, Monstrous Infantry/Cavalry/Beasts, Chariots, O&G Manglers
3: Monsters, all Large Targets

Line of sight is always checked virtually, drawn "base to base". Models see in their front 1/4 zone. Line of Sight is blocked by models that are equal to or larger than both: the model whose line of sight we are checking and its target.

Line of sight and war machines:
Catapults (and similar) can place their template so that the center is over any one unit that is at least partially visible to them.
Cannons can choose any point between themselves and a visible target when firing. Over- or under-guessing to shoot at units the cannon does not have line of sight to is not allowed

Terrain
Hills are size two for each level (so a 3-step hill is size 6) and block sight / give hard cover just like models of that size. Models standing on hills add the hill size to their own size. In 2012 all hills are level 1, therefore size 2.
Buildings and large rocks always block line of sight completely.
Forests do not block line of sight, but soft cover applies to all shots fired through or into (but not out of) forests.
Ruins do not block line of sight, but hard cover applies to all shots fired into (but not through/out of) ruins.
Units standing behind obstacles gain soft (wood) or hard (stone) cover as per the RB.
Buildings are treated as: as infinitely high, units inside are height 2 I (in terms of what they can see and determining cover against their shots). All buildings are level 1
Lakes – treat lakes exactly the same as rivers in the Rulebook
Hedges/fences etc. – treat all of them as stone obstacles: grant hard cover and -1 to hit in close combat against the defender, exactly as per the rulebook.
Fields – Soft cover for any unit inside the terrain (discerned by majority of models/base), no other effects.


Cover from intervening units/terrain
Cover is granted when at least 50% of models in target unit are fully or partially obscurred by other units/terrain from the shooting model. In order for intervening models to grant cover, their size must be: larger than, equal to, or one size smaller than both the target unit and the shooting model.

Skirmishers
Skirmishers never block LoS, and are seen in accordance with their size on the chart, but provide cover as per the above rules. The gap between skirmishers is treated as part of the unit when determining if skirmishers give cover to something behind them. Skirmishers formed up for combat block Line of Sight like normal units.

Final temporary notes
Rhinox and bull rhinox: please refer question to FAQ team. Until then, we suggest a conservative approach (both have Stomp, not Thunderstomp)