Here are examples of five simple things I’ve made to make my tournament and friendly games run more smoothly.

1) The FlyerSpotter™

One of the hardest things to do to both players satisfaction in 6th Edition is movement of Flyers. The rules for doing so are as optimistically precise as anything you can imagine when transferred to the real world of cluttered tabletops and textured surfaces. Pick a flyer up and then find it won’t fit where you thought it would and you could struggle to find its original position and make an alternative move.



What I have done is very simple; I have an extra base with a clear arrow to show direction, which I can measure 18-26″ from the real model’s base to check a landing zone. This is very simple, and a big step up from trying to mark the original location with dice or any of the other ad-hoc methods I’ve seen.

2) BarrageTripod©

I consider this an extremely useful idea for anyone using multiple barrage weapons at tournaments. Scatter dice are funny things, and it is really hard to ever get two people to agree on the exact angle they indicate. If you think it’s bad with 1 scatter roll, try doing three, when your opponent really really doesn’t want you to be able to vaporise their most cherished favourite model they were up until 3am painting before the tournament.

Rolling near the target is great advice but only takes you so far, so what I have done is “invented” a little tripod; by lucky coincidence the Large Blast is the same size as a CD, so if you take the clear transparent top from a spindle of blank CD/DVDs and cut it so that it has 3 legs, you can use this to place the original blast marker and then move it. This gets you maximum fair amount of casualties without simultaneously demolishing your Sports Score, because the clearer the result is to players the happier they both will be.

3) PodDenier(tm)

This has a simple purpose – a template that shows the base size of a Drop Pod, so you can place it anywhere in your deployment zone as you set up and instantly see if you’ve accidentally left enough room for the opponent to drop in where you don’t want them.

This can be done with a correctly sized piece of cardboard or plasticard. The one above is overly ornate for no reason apart from scoring HobbyPoints®, and shows the size of the less common but more dangerous Lucius Pod.

4) Model Spacers

This is the simplest of the tools – it measures a 2″ gap to speed up delpoyment or movement vs template armed adversaries. Some companies make tools like this, but this one I made to be pocketsized (and therefore actually used), and the main commercial alternatives don’t have this one’s added bonus of also boosting sports scores by acting as a bottle opener.

5) A FlipFile

This isn’t as imaginative as the above examples, but I think a FlipFile for FAQs, Crib sheets on other Codexes, your own army lists and plans (if you pre-plan games) is a definite must-have for the busy Tournament Gamer.

(As a bonus, you can see an example of my game plans from last year’s national masters. Which probably means I need to sort out my FlipFile!)

I hope these ideas are helpful. The BarrageTripod and FlyerSpotter are the ones I would most strongly recommend to any players with applicable units.

Got any helpful accessories or ideas of your own? Feel free to post them below.