Warhammer 40k: A Highlander Tournament

This is a cropped image; the full image can be found on the novel "Fifteen Hours"
By Michael Scanlon; a phenomenal Imperial Guard novel

It has not come up much on this blog, as I mainly post Infinity-related battle reports for the time being, but I have a decent history with what is likely one of the most popular tabletop wargames in the world: Warhammer 40k. Over the years, I participate either as a player, judge, or tournament organizer (T/O) of numerous events in my local county-wide area. Numerous Extra-life Charity Mega-battles, doubles-tournaments, the occasional RTT (in the annuls of yesteryear for those), and a handful of escalation leagues from late 6th edition to the current 10th edition. One of the tournament formats that I truly enjoy running is one I initially threw together as a joke ruleset in 7th Edition, but it has grown over the edition with the rules changes; this tournament is known as Highlander.

If you're here and only want to see the game results specifically and not my words, the BCP event link is here.

For those who want the generic details of what the Highlander format is, here's a quick rundown and a little backstory:

### The History of my Highlander Format ###

Jumping back to 7th edition 40k, where we had wild concepts such as Scatter Dice, Explosion and Flamer templates, "Independent Characters," and a dedicated "Special Rules" section of the core rulebook. One of the things I disliked about the game, other than Formations, was the concept of spamming anything other than Troops choices (now known as Battleline choices) and the concept of death-stars, with the most common one at the time being Super-Friends (see the video battle report from The Long War for an example; timestamp would be around 3:40 or so.) Well, how do we combat this in a goofy sorta tournament? Well, you let the one guy willing to throw together some jank, find some willing buddies to try it out, and send it.

Key thing with Highlander is there can only be one of any unit option. This fluctuated a little bit to allow for more than one battleline/troop unit, but it started and currently lives in the form of only 1 of any unit card. 

Continuing on though, Highlander also was to represent the generic army, battling on some backwater world for a system that is wholly inconsequential to the galaxy at large. This lead to the restriction that no player can take faction relics or Named Characters (this identifier has changed over the edition, it's now known as "Epic Heroes"). This also typically had a restriction where Warlord Traits were restricted as well, as players are representing a generic battle-force for their faction. All armies were mustered to a 1000-point limit.

Over the editions as well, there would be other items restricted from use in Highlander to keep another pillar of the tournament standing tall: time. All games are done at a 90 minute runtime. This includes deployment and playing the game. Terrain is usually static across the tables. With all of the editions from 8th edition to now, I have restricted the use of "faction specific" stratagems, with players only being able to use the stratagems from the core rulebook for that edition.

The biggest change from this rendition of Highlander and last years rendition was the allowance of the "Titanic" keyword, allowing Knights to be fielded as allies or as their own bespoke army.

Lastly, as a thing I started doing for Highlander starting at the 2nd time I ran it, I like to see people play with fully painted models; so regardless of how Games Workshop tries to incorporate a fully-painted army into the Victory Points for the game, I will still continue to have 2 primary award winners: Best General and Best Painted, where Best General is determined by the player with the highest Win/Loss/Tie ratio, with ties handled by Victory Points scored; and where Best Painted is determined by a player vote for the best looking army. Can this be biased? absolutely. Is it normally? Not from what I have seen. To handle ties for best painted, I will usually ask for passerbys in the event location to give a vote between the prominent armies.

The final prize is given to the unfortunate position of dead last: the Wooden Spoon. Normally, I do prizes as a game-aid, such as a token set, measuring gauges, etc. depending on the venue and not always a cash prize or store credit.

Anyway, now onto this years tournament!

### Highlander 2025 ###

This year, a total of 10 players made the journey to the local game store (Swords and Spoons) to play in the 5th iteration of the Highlander tournament. Overall, myself and the other T/O would have approached a total of 14 people individually for this tournament, with 3 inevitably bowing out due to schedule complications, and another bowing out so we would avoid having a round with the "bye" player.

Players were to sign up for Highlander 2025 using the Best Coast Pairings website. Submitting a list through Best Coast Pairings was not a requirement for this tournament.

Players had to construct their army using the following restrictions:

--- Force Construction ---

When mustering your forces for this event, you will need to muster a 1000-point detachment using the following force organization:

1-2 Characters

0-3 Battle Line
0-3 Dedicated Transports

0-6 Other Datasheets

0-1 Allied

In addition to this force organization chart, you will need to abide by the following restrictions:

1. You can only bring ONE of any datasheet from your codex.

2. No datasheet may contain the EPIC HERO keyword

3. No ENHANCEMENTS can be taken.

        IV. Legends models are NOT allowed.

This years highlander tournament was set up using the Mission Layout #4 from the Games Workshop Pariah Nexus tournament pack (see below).

Screenshot taken from the Pariah Nexus Tournament Companion here

The missions per round we're compatible with Tournament Layout #4, much the the dismay of the players, at least for round 3.

Round 1

Primary Mission: Purge the Foe
Mission Rule: Smoke and Mirrors
Deployment: Tipping Point

Round 2

Primary Mission: Linchpin
Mission Rule: Raise Banners
Deployment: Search and Destroy

Round 3

Primary Mission: The Ritual
Mission Rule: Swift Action
Deployment: Crucible of Battle

Setting up the tables was really simple, and I am (as usual) very grateful that the attending players are able to bring an adequate amount of mats and terrain sets to help populate the tables. As the tables were being setup, I chatted with the store owner as she was sitting at a table for the stores weekend Dungeons and Dragons sessions, and asked if it would be okay to have the players of the various tables take a quick 5 to 10 minute break to peruse the tables and vote for their favorite looking army. The results were recorded at the front desk and would be utilized as a tie-breaker should it come to that for voting, but it was also announced at the end of the event.

After the onslaught of onlookers filled their eyes with the wonderfully painted armies the players brought, our players were ready to go for round 1. The pairing were made and tables designated through the Best Coast Pairings app, which I have learned is a great resource for the TO for doing all that effort for pairings. The BCP page coordinator Connor (the same Connor that I am playing a lot seemingly in Infinity) was a player in the tournament, but managing the BCP app for the pairings and tables was simple enough that I did not take it to heart, much.

### The T/O Team ###

We had a T/O team of 3 people: Connor (BCP Coordinator and a player), Chris (Technical T/O and resident painter), and myself (Technical T/O, Loudspeaker, and attention-divided). 

Connor has been one of the locals who has been organizing some of the non-tournament events since our local game store opened, such as the latest Warhammer 40k Escalation League. He's also a regular at some of our non-40k events and games, such as the last few Bushido events and picking up new games like Infinity, Fallout Factions, and Trench Crusade.

Chris has been one of the other locals who has been organizing non-tournament Warhammer 40k events as well, with the latest being a series of megabattles like Knight Fight, He's also one of the regulars for our local Battletech group, who is likely the most active tabletop wargaming group in our local area.

Last is me, Sal, someone who hasn't played Warhammer 40k since my last highlander in March of 2024, but still was convinced (quite easily) to update the ruleset to be run again today. If you follow the blog posts/batreps, you know where my focus is right now: Infinity. I definitely spent my time today as T/O playing a game of Infinity, while still fielding some questions every now and again.

### ROUND 1 ###

Our Round 1 pairings and the results of those games were as follows; as of writing, I am only using the First Name for the players; this may be omitted in the future should someone want me to change it or use a different name for them:

Table 1 saw Charles piloting his Necrons against Connor and his definitely not traitorous Dark Angel space marines. The battle would end and see the Dark Angel victorious over the Necrons, scoring 75 to 50.

Table 1

Table 2 saw Jillian and her Chaos Daemons face off against Laine's Adepta Sororitas (Sisters of Battle, you cant make me change the name). The battle would end seeing Chaos victorious over the Sisters 71 to 30.

Table 2

Table 3 saw Taylor and his frozen Tyranids face off against the fresh off the assembly line T'au Empire piloted by Ryan. The battle would see the Tyranids victorious over the T'au 19 to 12. Note that this score is abnormally low as we had a new player attend to get his first grips with playing Warhammer 40k.

Table 3

Table 4 saw Maria and her Sisters of Battle cross swords with Cass and his Death Guard. This battle would see the Death Guard victorious over the Sisters 94 to 59.

Table 4

Table 5 saw Zac and his funky Creation of Bile Chaos Space Marines face off against Blake and his "hazard orange" Leagues of Votann. This battle would see the Leagues of Votann victorious over the Chaos Space Marines 30 to 21.

Table 5

### ROUND 2 ###

Our Round 2 pairings and the results of those games were as follows:

Table 1 would see Maria and her Sisters fight the buggy menace of Taylor and his Tyranids. This battle would see the Tyranids victorious over the Sisters 48 to 41.

Table 1

Table 2 would see Cass and his Death Guard fight against Connor's Dark Angels. This battle would see the Dark Angels victorious over the Death Guard 65 to 47.

Table 2

Table 3 would see Zac and his Chaos Marines fight off against Ryan and his T'au. This battle would see the Chaos Marines victorious over the Tau 26 to 23.

Table 3

Table 4 would see Jillian and her Demons face off against Blake and his Leagues of Orange Votann. This battle would see the OSHA-compliant Leagues of Votann victorious over the Daemons of funky colors 74 to 45.

Table 4

Table 5 would see Charles and his dancing robot legions of the Necrons face off against Laine's Sisters of Battle. This battle would see a re-enactment of the Massacre at Sanctuary 101, seeing the Necrons victorious over the Sisters 63 to 39.

Table 5

### ROUND 3 ###

Our Round 3 pairings and the results of those games were as follows; and unfortunately I was distracted by something else and I did not get pictures of the tables after deployment, or at all for that matter (I definitely wasn't playing Infinity with someone during the tournament.)

Table 1 would see Jillian's Daemons face of against Charles and his Necrons. This battle would see the Necrons victorious over the Daemons 73 to 25.

Table 2 would see Laine's Sister face off against Ryan's Tau. This battle would actually see the only Draw of the day, both players scoring 10 points.

Table 3 would see Taylor and his Tyranids face off against Cass' Death Guard. This battle would see the Death Guard infecting the Tyranids with Nurgle's Blessings, winning the game 76 to 15.

Table 4 would see Zac and his Chaos Marines square off against Maria and her Sisters of Battle. This battle would see the Sisters of Battle stand their ground and defeat the taint of Chaos; 30 to 24.

Table 5 would be the coveted "top table," seeing Connor's "traitor in disguise" Dark Angels face off against Blake's OSHA Inspector Leagues of Votann. This battle would see the Dark Angels pass their OSHA audit 49 to 31 (cant submit the report if you're dead, right?)

### RESULTS ###

With this, our final placing and total scores were as follows:

1. Connor / Dark Angels (3/0/0 with a Total Score of 192/300)

2. Cass / Death Guard (2/1/0 with a Total Score of 217/300)

3. Charles / Necrons (2/1/0 with a Total Score of 186/300)

4. Blake / Leagues of Votann (2/1/0 with a Total Score of 135/300)

5. Taylor / Tyranids (2/1/0 with a Total Score of 72/300)

6. Jillian / Chaos Daemons (1/2/0 with a Total Score of 141/300)

7. Maria / Sisters of Battle (1/2/0 with a Total Score of 130/300)

8. Zac / Chaos Space Marines (1/2/0 with a Total Score of 71/300)

9. Laine / Sisters of Battle (0/0/1 with a Total Score of 79/300)

10. Ryan / T'au Empire (0/0/1 with a Total Score of 35/300)

### The Painting ###

As mentioned above, our attending players spent a significant amount of time painting up their armies of plastic, some over the last few years, some very last minute as we filled spot during the week of. The photos of these armies are below as players set them up to be viewed at the end of the tournament. I did not get any pictures of Cass or Laine's armies, as they were not placed to be showcased; I did not inquire further, because of time.

The order in which the armies are showcased are based on when I took the army pictures, not based on any sort of votes received. That will be listed below.

Connor / Dark Angels

Blake / Leagues of Votann

Zac / Chaos Space Marines

Taylor / Tyranids

Charles / Necrons

Maria / Sisters of Battle

Ryan / T'au Empire

Jillian / Chaos Daemons

### End Results ###

At the end of the event, Best General was awarded to Connor based on the Win/Loss ratio of 3 wins and no losses. Best Painted by the player was given to Blake and his bright and Orange Leagues of Votann, with a runner up being Jillian and her Daemons, Connor and his Dark Angels, and lastly Ryan and his T'au Empire.

If community votes were added into the main vote, Jillian would have won with a whopping 7 votes from the passerby's, followed behind by what was (I think) a tie between Blake's League of Votann and Connor's Dark Angels, with something like 3 or 4 votes each.

Last place was granted to Ryan and his T'au.

Unlike previous years, I was not able to get any form of material prize support together, mainly due to the planning having started around the December Holidays and my likely prize (10th edition token sets from Laserforge that I don't think they make anymore), prizes were given out as store credit, except for one. Best Painted and Best General each receive an undisclosed amount of victory monies. 

Wooden Spoon should have received something truly special: a laser-engraved wooden spoon, indicating it was won at the 2025 Highlander tournament. I lost track of time with other things (work, life, sleep, playing other games, other distractions and excuses would go here too) and didn't get one procured in time; but Ryan will get one as soon as I acquire one for him.

### Wrap-Up ###

Thus ends yet another tournament for Highlander, this being the second one for 10th Edition, and the first non-serious Warhammer 40k tournament/day-long event for the year. I know Connor and some other locals are looking at reviving some "ol faithful" events, such as our Duo's tournament and some of our smaller-scale "mega-battles," like Monster Mash and Knight Fight and a differently-named Tanksgiving.

It's good seeing repeat players at this tournament. I believe this is the third time Charles has played in it, Maria's second, and I believe Taylor's 3rd or 4th over the years, as I know he was one of the original 4 people who played in the first Highlander I ran back in the latter days of 7th Edition. It's also good seeing new faces at the tournament as well, but with me not participating in much 40k over the last few years, most faces are new faces to me for the 40k circle.

As for me, I have multiple other battle reports to write up for Infinity, at least one other post for a hobby post to discuss a paint commission I am working on, and then who knows, maybe I'll play something that isn't Infinity soon?

Until next time!