Hello 40k tournament fanatics, the Head LVO Judge Salty John is here from TFG Radio and is bringing you a final update for the 40k Championships at the Las Vegas Open 2023!
If you didn’t see the previous announcements please read them here and here.
Let’s get the big news out of the way first. For several weeks, there have been many rumors about the new Astra Militarum codex and what will, or won’t, be allowed from it about how the secondaries will be addressed, etc. Currently the policy Games Workshop has in place is that the Astra Militarum codex will not be legal at official events until it has received a full release, meaning not just the box set. When it becomes legal, we expect Games Workshop to update the Balance Dataslate to reflect the necessary changes. We, as many other major 40k events have already done, will follow the policy Games Workshop has in place, meaning the new Astra Militarum codex, as of this writing, is not legal for the Las Vegas Open 2023.
For clarity, this is GW explaining the rationale behind their policy on Codex viability before full product release. Jump to about 7:15 in the video for the relevant discussion.
Next up on the docket, the Player Packet has been finalized. This includes having the missions listed. We will be playing the missions in order out of the Nephilim GT Book, Missions 1-9 for rounds 1-9. The Shadow Round, should it be necessary, will use a Mission from Nephilim rolled at random by our Shadow Round judge, Daniel Ruiz. We have also finalized the terrain section of the packet. Besides the aforementioned change to how the bottom floor will be played for certain pieces of terrain, we have also taken further steps to help mitigate the advantage of placing the first piece of terrain. Certain terrain sets now have pieces marked with a C, these pieces are preset and do not move. Another change is with the terrain being used, we have gone to great lengths to make sure the least popular terrain sets will be used the most sparingly and are the first sets that will be phased out of use due to drops and event attendee attrition.
Lastly, I am happy to publicly post the new FLG Paint Rubric for the Las Vegas Open 2023. Every player who wants to be paint-judged will be judged using this rubric. The scores will be input by a trained judge via an online form, these scores will be made public so every player can see their scores. The publication of your score is for the purposes of transparency, scores cannot be disputed, and a paint judge’s scores are final. With a large number of players at LVO, it is a very time-consuming, and difficult, task to paint-judge the event and we do not have the time and resources to go back and re-judge armies.
Please remember that even with a rubric judging the Hobby side of Warhammer events is still a highly subjective activity. It is entirely possible two judges could have different scores for the same army, the point of the rubric is to help the judges look for the same factors and make you aware of what those criteria are.
The LVO 40k Judges and TOs strive every year to bring you the best possible experience at the world’s largest Warhammer 40k event and I can’t wait to see you all there in a few short weeks!