Almost have a finished tournament pack. Starting to shape up like this:
Battle - 120pts
Composition 30pts
Painting - 20pts
Sportsmanship - 30pts
Battle - 120pts
6 rounds with the standard 20 points on offer for each round. Will be using most of the scenarios from the rulebook (not the length-wise one) with a couple of changes. Battleline (twice in rounds 3 and 6), Meeting Engagement, Dawn Attack, Blood and Glory, Watchtower...
Watchtower will become "King of the Hill" where the building is replaced by a terrain piece (hill or equivalent) in the centre worth a sizeable VP bonus to whoever is holding it at the end.
Looking at additional mission options tying bonuses to fulfilling certain other objectives each round. Things like Recon (getting into the enemy deployment zone), Tall Poppy Syndrome(bonus points for killing off enemy Special or Rare choices), Giantslayers (killing a Monster or Large Target - I don't expect many to turn up though).
Composition - 30pts
This needs to be substantial enough to be worthwhile aiming for but not so substantial or implemented in such a way that someone who gets consistently poor battle points results somehow pogos up the table to podium. Here's what I'm going for:
- each army scored on a sliding scale 0-5 by me
- '0' is the baseline equivalent of "normal tournament soft"
- your comp score compared to your opponents and this differential artificially added into the draw calculcation
- your comp score at the end of the event truly added to your final score to determine the final rankings
Example One - Tony gets a score of '0', Dave gets a score of '5'. Dave plays Tony and gets hammered 19-1 (obviously nothing to do with player skill and everything to do with the power difference between their armies!). This gets Tony 19 points and Dave 1 point but when it comes to calculating the draw for the next round Tony will still get 19 points, but Dave will get 6 points (1 for the battle itself + 5 for the difference between their two comp scores)
Example Two - Next round Dave (comp score 5) plays Nick (comp score 4). Dave manages a win (glory hallelujah!) and the result is 12-8. Nick carries his 8 points into the next round, Dave gets the 12 + a bonus 1 for the different in their comp scores.
This is a bit like what I encountered at DogCon earlier this year and it seemed to work out ok there.
At the end of the event each player gets their comp score added into their final score, multiplied by 6 for the games they have played (giving a total comp score out of 30). So Dave, with his awesome comp score of 5, gets an extra 30pts. Tony, with his lacklustre comp score of 0, gets no extra points.
This pushes Dave up the ladder (quite a bit! - remember though that most players will get a reasonable comp score and very few players are likely to get 5/5 for comp!) BUT the important thing is that Dave hasn't necessarily been able to lurk on the lower tables for the whole event playing bunnies - his comp score has forced him up the tables artificially to play some of the tougher armies and opponents.
At least I think it works! :/
With the comp system including a description of the above and a list of army red flags as well as a strong brief about the nature of the event and much open consultation from me I'm happy with how this looks. Also, at 15% comp it will add in enough of a boost to make a difference without (hopefully) adding in so much of a boost that someone can come from absolutely nowhere and nab first place!
I realise many players are happy (happier?) with hard caps so they know exactly how hard they can go before getting slapped. Fair enough but I'd like the choices and variety to remain open albeit with some personal guidance from me as TO.
Painting - 20pts
Scoring either 0/5/10/15/20 for no painting/some painting/half painted/mostly painted/fully painted. Most players will score either 15 or 20pts.
Sportsmanship - 30pts
5pts for each round. The standard Sports questions and tick boxes.
Next on the list - firming up those red flag/"what's hot" lists for each army. This will be based on what the current tournament environment demonstrates in terms of the most powerful/common choices for each race. Some of these will be easy (Hellpit Abomination/Hydra/Rumination/Cupped Hands for example), some not so much as they are a bit more situational.
Hoping to get some sample lists (of my own devising) up here soon.
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