Organizing your first wargame tournament: A step-by-step guide

In this article, I’ll show you how to organize your first wargame tournament, drawing on my own experience hosting my first Star Wars: Legion event back in 2022.

The basics

Let’s start with the bare essentials required to bring your tournament to life:

• A venue
• Gaming tables
• A date
• Participants

Once you have secured these elements, you can launch your communication campaign. While that is running, you can define other details such as tournament rules, entry fees, etc. While these are also important, they are less urgent and can be communicated to your future participants at a later date.

The venue

There are three main options for your tournament venue:

1. Coordinate with a local game store to host the event.
2. Use your own space if it’s large enough to host the tournament.
3. Rent a hall or local community center.

Option #1 is the simplest if you are a first-time organizer. You won’t have to worry about managing registration payments, as everything can be handled by the store. You will also benefit from the manager’s assistance and the shop’s existing reputation to attract participants. Option #3 is the most stressful, as it involves a risky investment: you will be forced to book the hall before even collecting registration fees.

Venue criteria

Whichever solution you choose, your venue must meet several criteria:

First, the space must accommodate tables of the correct dimensions for your specific wargame. The number of available tables will determine the venue’s capacity and therefore the maximum number of participants your tournament can host. Also, check if the space has side tables where players can place their gaming gear and casualties.

Secondly, since a full day is required to host several games in a row, the venue needs to be accessible on a weekend.

Thirdly, a non-essential point that can work strongly in your favor: the location of your tournament hall. If it is central and easy to reach via public transport, it’s a major advantage. But central to what, you might ask? To your player base! If the majority of players are located in the south of the country, don’t pick a venue in the north…

Finally, don’t forget that the location must also provide access to drinking water and functional (and clean) restrooms. A tournament lasts an entire day, and it would be a lack of courtesy to neglect this point. So no, an abandoned building is not a suitable venue.

Gaming tables

A wargame match requires a gaming mat and terrain. Unless your venue already provides them, you will need to ask your community to lend you the necessary equipment. The amount of gear you actually need will depend on the number of sign-ups, of course. However, at this stage of planning, you should be able to determine the maximum number of tables, as this was defined by the venue’s capacity.

Date, time, and schedule of events

Preparing a tournament takes time, and you must take this into account when choosing the event date. For a small tournament of about fifteen players, allow at least a month and a half between the moment you decide to organize the tournament and the actual date.

You will also need to set a start and end time. Don’t forget that you will be busy well before the official start to set up tables and welcome participants. The same applies to the end of the day, when you’ll need to pack up the equipment and clean the room.

Finally, you need to define the duration of the rounds and the schedule. Allow fifteen minutes between each round to give participants time to pack their gear and move to another table. If your tournament starts in the morning, include a lunch break to allow players to eat. Wargaming is long and tiring—proper nutrition is essential!

The participants

Without participants, there is no tournament! Start your communication campaign as early as possible to increase your chances of drawing a crowd. Note that you don’t necessarily need dozens of people to launch an event. Four players are enough to fill a day with three matches per person. If you’re nervous about your tournament being a “flop,” arrange for three gaming friends to show up no matter what. 😉

To promote your event, you should use a dedicated platform, such as Table Top Tournament, Longshank or Best Coast Pairings. You can learn more about those site in the dedicated article here:

Tournament rules

You will need to write down your tournament rules so that participants can review them. These rules should specify the game version applicable during the tournament as well as the format. Also, specify which conditions are acceptable for participation. For example, are proxy miniatures allowed? Does the army need to be painted?

You must also communicate the type of tournament and the number of matches per player. These depend on the duration of your event and the number of participants. For small one-day tournaments, I recommend Swiss Rounds. They allow you to organize as many matches as desired. Indeed, player pairing is based on individual results: winners play against winners, and losers against losers. If your tournament spans two days, it is common to use a Swiss system on the first day and direct elimination (brackets) on the second.

Prizes and rewards

While optional, rewarding players for their performance is always welcome. It adds stakes to the tournament and serves as the icing on the cake at the end of the day. The more participants you have, the better the prizes you can offer, as each entry fee contributes to the prize pool.

Pricing

The main costs of organizing a tournament vary. Generally, venue rental, prizes, and your own time are the biggest factors. Do not expect to make a profit on a small tournament; aim only to break even on your investment.

Validating registrations

To ensure that prospective participants actually show up on the day, only confirm their registration once you have received their payment and a valid army list. Army lists must comply with the format rules and should be submitted in advance for verification. To maintain impartiality, these lists should be checked by someone not playing in the tournament.

The day of the tournament

The day of the tournament will be busy. You will need to set up the room and tables, prepare the scoreboard, and organize the first pairings. Help will be greatly appreciated, so try to surround yourself with a few people to support you.

The organizing staff

The organizing team ensures the tournament runs smoothly. Based on my experience, I have identified three key roles for the staff. As an organizer, you can embody all of them yourself, but I wouldn’t recommend it:

Your spare player

Their role is to fill the gap in case of an odd number of participants. This situation should be avoided at all costs, as it means one participant will receive a “bye” during each round. This is where your joker comes in. Their participation is only confirmed on the day of the event if, for whatever reason, someone is missing.

The referee: the rules Expert

This person possesses an in-depth knowledge of the game’s rules. They help save time (by being consulted directly instead of flipping through the manual) and act as the final word in case of disagreements between players.

The TO (Tournament Organizer): The impartial lead

This person oversees the smooth running of the tournament. They record scores, enter them into the system, and announce the next pairings to the players. They also handle any emergencies or unexpected issues.

Numbering the tables

To identify each table, you must assign them a number. Remember to print out large numbers to place on each gaming table.

The scoreboard

The scoreboard (or pairing sheet) is used to communicate the time of the next round, the table number, and the opponent each player will face. Print a blank template beforehand and bring a pen and some tape.

Scoring and standings

I highly recommend using a management tool for the rankings. Longshank and Best West Coast have one integrated, but not TableTopTournament. It allows you to choose different tournament types, including the Swiss system. Based on the results entered, the site automatically calculates the standings and generates the next pairings. Compared to a homemade Excel sheet, Challonge has the advantage of being accessible to the players if you share the URL. It’s practical and allows the public to follow the tournament results in real-time!

Conclusion

I wish I’d had a tutorial on hand for my first tournament; it would have saved me from making certain mistakes. Nevertheless, even without one, I was proud of the result. I hope this article serves as a guide for yours or inspires you to organize one yourself. I can only encourage you to try this adventure at least once. It will provide you with a sense of personal accomplishment and a real boost in self-confidence. If that’s not enough, you’ll also earn the gratitude of the players. For one day, you’ll have given them the chance to recharge and escape from their daily worries.