That proves my point. You just implied that playing the game normally, is stacking the deck against newer players.
I feel that you should preserve the rules of the game despite popular opinion.
Example: Last week I was playing against one of my newer players(started in August), he had never played against me and had received most of his experience from demo games with the other Henchman in my area, casual games with his brother, and other players in our group. After explaining how line of sight worked multiple times and informing him that he can ask me questions whenever he feels the need, before he makes a decision, he tried to target something with more than 3 inches of obscuring terrain between the shooter and the target. After he measured and I told him what happens, I explained that the action fails and he does not get to use the AP to walk instead and then shoot, a failed action equals a wasted AP. The look on his face clearly stated that this had never happened to him before, he was not yet expected to follow one of the most basic parameters of the game. 4 months in, hadn't thought of the repercussions of what was just explained to him, and its not his fault, no one actually held him to the rules because he was a new player.
I cannot express the distaste I feel towards the sentiment of making it fair for new players and the above situation. There is no making it fair for new players, your making it easier, when you make it easy for them, you stunt their growth. Have some faith in your players, encourage them to ask as many questions as they want, and tell them they can learn, but it will take some time to get all the information because there is a lot of it. The number one thing that will attract people is a bunch of players having fun, not Malifaux easy mode.
If you want a game with depth, complex interactions, and an amazing storyline play Malifaux. If you want easy mode play checkers...
P.S. This post was in no way meant to express malice or malcontent toward the author or posters on this thread, just the idea of changing rules for an officially formatted tournament.