The Warhammer 40k ITC format is being shaken up with some new scoring, BETA secondaries and missions in March. Don’t miss the latest changes that are headed your way!
Coming from Frontline Gaming themselves, the ITC format is getting a bit of a facelift. Long story short, there are new beta changes and you’ll be able to get more points from smaller events. (Don’t worry, the bigger tournaments will still count for more per the norm).
Points From Smaller Events
The ITC formula for points has been reworked to make the points spread closer together for the different sized events! It’s based more on a curve now, so the spread should be more close together, rather than a stair spread of points.
If there’s a lot of smaller tournaments in your area that you never bothered to go to in the past, simply because there weren’t many points involved, now you’ll be able to score more. Sure, they won’t count for the same amount of points as winning something like the LVO. But you’ll at least get more out of your time and it gives smaller tourneys a chance to grow!
Essentially, the spread of points is a lot more even. Winning large tournaments won’t spike your points up to an astronomical level and coming in last at something won’t knock you down a few rows either.
New Playable Beta Secondaires & Missions
With the new scoring method, there are also a few BETA secondaries and missions being thrown into the mix. We can see a few army lists being changed around and played slightly differently here. Check out the new secondaries!
Engineers
- Engineers: Select two non-character/non-fortification/non-artillery crew units from your army to be Engineers. Starting from Battle Round 2, if either of these units starts and ends your turn within 3” of an objective marker you control, and it did not make any attacks or manifest any psychic powers during your turn, earn 1 point at the end of that turn. These units may not score this objective if they join other units during the course of play or split into multiple units. Units chosen to be Engineers may never benefit from a rule that keeps them from being the target of attacks, Cloud of Flies, for example. They can benefit from terrain blocking Line of Sight to them.
This is a decent way to get points fast. However, you’ll be locking yourself out of any shooting, moving, psychics etc. from those units. That means that they’ll probably be on the cheaper side. Which in turn, means that they’ll be easily killed. If your opponent manages to kill both of them, they’ve just locked you out of any scoring for that mission all game. be careful.
King of the Hill
- King of the Hill: At the end of the Battle Round the player who chose this secondary scores 1 point if they have two non-character, multimodel, units wholly within 6 inches of the center of the table. Units that score King of the Hill, cannot score Recon, Ground Control, or Engineers.
You’ll want to bring two beefy units that can take a lot of firepower. Stormshield Kill Teams from Deathwatch or even Psychic-enhanced Bullgryn would be perfect for this.
Pick Your Poison
- Pick Your Poison: Pick up to four keywords from the following list: psyker, fly, vehicle, monster, Titanic. You cannot pick a keyword more than once. For each keyword you pick, nominate an enemy unit with that keyword. Score 1 point for each nominated unit that is destroyed.
You’ll want to use this against an army with an even spread of things. Since you can’t pick a keyword more than once, you’ll only be reaping max benefits of an army that has four out of five things on this list.
Gang Busters
- Gang Busters: For every 6 wounds inflicted on a unit that contains more than 1 model with 3 or more wounds, score 1 point. Units with the SWARM keyword do not count towards this mission.
This mission could be tricky. This essentially picks out tanky units. However, we know that there are some units out there that just don’t seem to ever come up off the table. Grotesques and Bullgryn are going to be a real hard option to go with here. Just make sure you have the firepower to scoop them up quick enough to score your other objectives as well!
Deploying & First Turn Changes
Deployment is going to get looked at more carefully. Some of the feedback Frontline Gaming got was a request to use the Chapter Approved 2018 Matched Play deployment rules. They’ll be testing the old “you go I go” rule on half the missions and the other half will be using the deployment method out of Chapter Approved 2018. From our understanding, one player drops everything first.
You can check out more on the Beta Secondary Objectives & Deployments they are using for March:
ITC Missions 1, 3, 5 will continue to use the ITC Mission Deployment and Matched Play deployment style from previous seasons. Missions 2, 4, 6 will use the new deployment, and who goes first, as outlined in Chapter Approved 2018 on page 48, (and below).
- The players roll off and the winner determines which of the standard deployment maps is used in the battle (see the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook) and picks one of the deployment zones for their army. Their opponent uses the other deployment zone. The player who did not pick their deployment zone then deploys their entire army first. Their opponent then deploys their entire army. A player’s models must be set up wholly within their deployment zone.
- The player who finished setting up their army first chooses who takes the first turn. If they decide to take the first turn, their opponent can roll a dice: on a 6 they seize the initiative, and they get the first turn instead.
Ultimately, the ITC is becoming a bit more intricate by giving players more options to score points. If the deployment style changes, could we see lists start to bring more defensive builds? Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group.
About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials: @RealmbrushPainting
About Wesley Floyd: Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He is known for his satirist takes on trending topics and imaginative yet amazingly affordable hobby solutions to painting Warhammer miniatures.
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4. If you like what he writes and want to contact him or have your tabletop minatures painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
