I’ve been brainstorming ideas for articles recently. To get inspiration, I asked around in a few places about what were the most intimidating parts of playing in a tournament for the first time. To my surprise, one topic came up a few times: Interacting with judges.
When you’ve been in the competitive 40K world for a long time (and having played since mid-8th Edition, I feel like I’ve been here a long time), it’s easy to forget how it feels like to get started in the competitive scene. But for many players who are new to competitive 40K or competitive wargaming in general, a judge can seem intimidating. Having a judge called to your table can be a stressful moment, and they might not know how to act.
And you know what? That’s totally okay!
So without further ado, let’s de-mystify the whole process. We’ll talk about the etiquette around calling a judge, how to present your case, and anything else you might not know about dealing with 40K judges.
Let’s Clear Up Some Misconceptions
Let’s start by clearing up some misconceptions that newer players might have around interacting with judges at tournaments.
I Don’t Want to Call a Judge Because I Don’t Want to Be “That Guy”
Some players are afraid to call a judge because they don’t want their opponents to think they’re “that guy”. I want to completely put that fear to rest.
Judges are not there to scare players. They’re there to make the experience smoother for everyone! An experienced judge will be friendly and put any tension to rest, not make things worse.
If you’re worried that your opponent will think you’re a jerk for calling over a judge, I promise you that its just in your head. Experienced players have dealt with judges plenty of times and know its just a part of competitive play that everyone has signed up for. And if your opponent is completely new and has never dealt with a judge before? They’re lucky their first judge experience will be with you, a friendly opponent who just wants a fair resolution to a situation.
In fact, if your opponent bristles when you bring up the idea of calling a judge at a tournament? They’re being “That Guy”, not you for doing something completely normal in tournament play.
“There Is No Need for a Judge. It’s a Friendly Game.”
The idea that judges aren’t called in friendly games is just wrong. In fact, some of my favorite games were games in which my opponent or I called the judge over multiple times. There have been a few games where my opponent and I are having a great battle, and one of us explains our intent for an upcoming very technical play. The other person then responds, “Yeah I totally see what you’re going for, but I’m not sure whether that unit has the movement to actually do that”, or something along those lines.
Do either of us want to grind a friendly game to a halt as we measure micrometers? Of course not!
You know how games turn difficult? When a game that is moving smoothly grinds to a halt as two players stop to debate minutiae for a long time.
You know one of the open secrets about competitive 40K? The rules are awful and inconsistent.
You know what I like doing at 40K tournaments? Playing 40K. You know what I don’t like doing? Spending a long time trying to decipher the intentions of poorly written rules we unfortunately have to deal with to play this great game.
Let’s just hang out, chat about how life is going, and wait for the judge to do their job instead of trying to sort this situation out ourselves.
“I’m Too Non-Confrontational to Call a Judge“
With absolutely no judgement, I’ll say this: There are plenty of conflict averse people in the 40K hobby. And that’s completely fine. I’m personally towards the other end of that spectrum, but I think that instinct is very sweet. You just want to push your minis around, not get in potential arguments.
And that non-confrontational nature is exactly why you should call a judge when a disagreement comes up! If you know you’re right but don’t feel comfortable advocating for yourself, let the judge do it for you.
We all think of ourselves as unbiased, but we’re all going to be biased on some level when trying to consider an interaction between our army and our opponent’s. If you’re very non-confrontational and don’t have a judge to help resolve the situation, you’re just going to let the louder personality win that interaction. That’s not fair to you.
“I’m Afraid Of Getting Carded If I Make a Mistake“
I’ve heard dozens of stories of cheaters and assholes that deserved cards and didn’t get them. I have never heard of someone making an honest mistake and getting carded as a result.
Judges are experienced and are going to be able to tell the difference between an honest mistake and consistent cheating.
If you’re a new player going to a tournament, don’t be afraid of getting in trouble for making a rules mistake. We’ve all been new at some point. Do your best to play your rules correctly of course, but you don’t have to be afraid of a judge watching your table. Worst case scenario, they’ll notice something you played incorrectly and help both players un-do the mistake in a fair way.
Every judge I know got into judging because they want people to enjoy touranments and have good experiences. They don’t want to hand out penalties unless its something so egregious or clearly violating something in the tournament packet that they have to act. If you’re new and acting in good faith, you have literally nothing to worry about.
Just The Facts, Man
This is something I’ve seen opponents do that bugs me. When a judge arrives, they rush in to spam out as much information as possible to beg for the answer that they want. Judges can see right through it, and it just makes you look like a clown.
Judges don’t want your animated arm-waving and excited storytelling. They want the facts. They just want to hear the objective facts of the interaction.
Pull up the relevant rules so judges can read the exact wording, explain what exactly the question is, and then let them think. If you’re calling over a judge, unless it’s something very obvious like how terrain works, you should have the exact wording available for the judge to read.
You’ll be amazed how many “rules questions” are quickly resolved by actually reading the relevant rules. There’s definitely plenty of grey areas or poorly written rules in this game. But there are also plenty of self-created “rules questions” that would be quickly resolved if everyone actually read the rule instead of trying to debate based on imprecise summaries of the rules that only exist in their heads.
Don’t: “My opponent doesn’t understand the timing of these stratagems. In my local meta, my TO has ruled it this way and I can’t imagine that anyone could read it any other way. His stratagem works like [vague description of a stratagem], and my stratagem says [half correct summary]. It’s a key moment in the game because I need these Berzerkers to survive and get me the win. He’s trying to pull some bullshit because he’s salty about how hot my dice have been and is getting desperate.”
Do: “My opponent and I are using these two stratagems, which we have available for you to read here. Can you tell us which triggers first?”
You’ll Get Rulings You Don’t Agree With. Handle It With Class.
It’s much more important for judges to make a ruling quickly than the perfect ruling in 20 minutes. Events have limited time for each round, and no one wants to miss lunch or dinner because they spent an extra hour in the last round trying to resolve some rules interaction. Even if feel in your heart that you’re 100% certain that your perspective is correct, sometimes a judge will make a decision you don’t agree with. If you have such a strong temper or need to be right that you can’t accept this possibility, please just stay home.
You know what’s happened to every single player who had a bad ruling against them at a tournament? They survived. It might feel like the end of the world to you if you’re someone that always has to be right. I promise you that it’s not.
Time during games is very limited. You don’t want to spend a long time during a timed round wasting everyone’s time arguing a decided ruling.
Do: “Thanks for the ruling. I don’t agree, but I’m happy to play it this way for this tourney.” If you’re really certain you’re right, ask the judge if you can see them after your game is over to discuss it further.
Don’t: Keep arguing your point for 15 minutes while getting increasingly heated.
By the way, you know what has never happened in a tournament? A judge makes a ruling. A player disagrees with the ruling. The judge insists the ruling is final. And then the player starts yelling and refuses to play the game after that point. After being yelled at for 10 minutes, the judge smacks their forehead and goes, “My god, I’ve been an idiot. You’re totally right. Your passion has won me over. Not only are we going to play it your way at this tournament, but I’ll book a flight to Nottingham and recommend you for the position of head rules writer because your passion and intelligence for the game has become so apparent to me while you were screeching like a man child for 10 minutes”.
Don’t Negotiate with “That Guy”. Just Call a Judge.
This is something I’ve had to learn over time. When I run into a guy cheating or lying or doing something blatantly wrong, I’ve stopped wasting my time trying to reason with unreasonable people. I just put up my hand and say, “No worries, let’s just grab a judge to help us here”.
“That Guy” is probably used to steamrolling people with bullshit. Even if I know I’m right, I don’t want to deal with them throwing shit at the wall for 10 minutes and trying to see if any of their inane points stick.
A great example was from a Major I played towards the end of 9th. I had very clearly wrapped a model in my opponent’s horde unit with 3 of my models after my unit had finished consolidating so that unit couldn’t fall back in his next turn. I pointed to that exact model surrounded by 3 of my models and told him what was going on. He was fine with everything that had happened. I confirm that he won’t have 2CP available for Desperate Breakout in his following turn. There is no grey area here.
In his movement phase on the following turn, he moves that model and his unit. My immediate thought is he must have forgotten we had talked about that a few minutes ago. No worries at all, there’s a lot to remember in this game. I point out that we agreed that model wasn’t going to move in a friendly way, and wait for him to put that model back.
“Well, that model wasn’t surrounded when I went to move it.”
Alarm bells start going off. Is this guy serious? Am I being trolled and he’s going to break out laughing in a second and say, “Just fucking with you, [mutual friend] told me to mess with you”?
He had been moving other models nearby afterwards and something must have gotten bumped, but that’s exactly why I pointed out that key wrap to him after my unit was done moving.
“I’ve already moved this unit, I’m not putting it back”.
I don’t know how long I have in this world, but I know that amount of time is limited, and I’m not spending another second debating whether he could move his models out of a wrap we both agreed on. I suggest we grab a judge and throw my hand up.
The judge comes over, hears what happened, and of course tells him to put that model back. That opponent grumbled about “giving me that” after the game. I just shrug like, “Yeah TOs rule the craziest things”, and left for lunch.
And for the record, I don’t think this opponent was a bad guy. I think they just didn’t understand how tournaments work, or maybe had dealt with some bullshit in their local area and had to get difficult in response to avoid getting run over. But whatever the reason, I’m glad I quickly called a judge instead of trying to reason with him further.
Let Judges Know About the Issue When It Happens, Not After The Tournament
This reminds me of something that judge Bam Bam at Flying Monkey said at the start of the event that made me laugh. Basically, he said if you come up to him with an issue during the tournament, he’ll do whatever he can to fix it and make sure you have a good experience. If he hears about an issue at the tournament a week later on social media, he was going to laugh at you.
If there is an issue, whether its a rule that you think is being played wrong or another player cheating/being a dick, tell the judges during the event! If they hear about it when its happening, they can fix it. If they hear about it later in a DM, there is nothing they can do at that point.
If your opponent is playing something wrong or cheating and you don’t tell a judge when it happens, not only are you forfeiting the chance to fix your own game, but you’re also making everyone else in the event that has to play that player deal with that bullshit.
If for some reason you don’t call a judge during your game, let them know after the game about the difficult situation. This will give them the information that something might be going on with that player, and they can keep an eye on that player’s table or check-in during their next game.
I promise you that you’re not bothering a judge by sharing information about a game. That’s literally what they’re there for!
I remember at NOVA several years ago, I faced an opponent who was cheating about absolutely every rule in their army. They were playing a very niche faction that probably no one else in the room besides me knew very well. Unluckily for them, they were facing someone who had literally written the guide to playing that faction. With no exaggeration, I corrected them on 20+ rules in that game. No, that unit doesn’t move that far. No, that unit doesn’t have that good of a feel-no-pain. No, that unit doesn’t have the right keyword to receive that buff. On, and on, and on.
After the game, I found a judge and let them know the biggest ways that player had cheated. The judge said they would stop by that opponent’s next game and make sure he wasn’t making those same “mistakes” again.
I didn’t need to call a judge mid-game because I was very capable of catching any bullshit and advocating for myself, but I was worried for his future opponents. The judge wouldn’t have known about the bullshit that was going on if I didn’t say anything. Hopefully, as a result, that person’s remaining opponents had cleaner games and better experiences than I had. And that player did seem like a nice guy. Hopefully he was able to take a step back and realize he didn’t have to pull those moves to win, and became a better sport going forwards.
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re a complete beginner or tournament veteran, hopefully you feel more comfortable interacting with judges and advocating for yourself in your next tournament!
Here at Warphammer, I’ve been personally alternating between playing my beloved Chaos Space Marines and my new Adeptus Mechanicus army. I’ve got an article on using 5 off-meta CSM units and an initial set of tips and tricks to playing AdMech coming up in the pipeline, so keep an eye out for those next week.
As always, have fun, stay safe, and may the Dark Gods bless your rolls!
This is great stuff