Gauging interest in an army-swapper event

Darkblood Skullpulper · Earthshaker Joined: 29 Nov 2010 Posts: 195

If there is a poll-function enabled for non-admins, it's not obvious to me, so I'll put this question out to the membership in the interest of gauging whether or not the idea is feasible.

I'd like to run a Fantasy event, probably at GPC and possibly in March, with some extremely non-standard victory conditions. I'm not too worried about getting participation due to that element, but the potentially problematic part is that I want to have players use others' armies. Painting would not be required, and there would only be a very minimal bonus to overall for the best army presentation.

So, the question is this:
Who would be interested in playing a tournament where your army would be used by other people for the entire day?

Please post if you'd like to participate, and I'll move forward if I get sufficient interest. Note: I've cross-posted on the IFL board, so if interested pick one forum or the other to reply...
Thanks,
Eric
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There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

Skryre · Beastlord Joined: 01 Dec 2010 Posts: 610 Location: US

I'd be down. As long as their isn't a painting req, otherwise my hands of don't-paint-more-than-one-model-a-month is destroying someone else's score.

~Skryre

ExecutionerofKhaine. · Shade Joined: 30 Nov 2010 Posts: 2420

So, is this the bring your worst army tournament? Rolling Eyes

I would be ok with it as well. I wonder though about the lack of familiarity with armies not of your own causing an extreme slow play situation.
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Joey

9th Age Armies
Vermin Swarms 8-5-1
Mixed Daemons 2-6-0

B · Joined: 06 Dec 2010 Posts: 465

Rissan4ever · Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 820 Location: Herndon, VA

I'd be up for this if it were 40K. Fantasy isn't my thing. Not enough lasers.
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Nassir Ahmad
105th Cadian
His will, our guts!

SiteAdmin · Site Admin Joined: 27 Nov 2010 Posts: 956

Darkblood Skullpulper · Earthshaker Joined: 29 Nov 2010 Posts: 195

I think that the way I have this planned out, it shouldn't matter too much if people bring weak armies - in my three scenarios, you could theoretically win them all without killing a single enemy model. There will be no need to keep track of VP.

However, there will be always be an advantage of some sort just from having a better army, so there arises an incentive to bring a lousy army since you won't be the one who has to play with it. I like the idea of an "atrociously wimpy army-swapper" tournament as well, but that's not what I'm going for here. I think mine will work best if people bring weak, flawed, or just plain old non-min-max lists without actually aiming to make them as bad as possible.

There are a few ways to handle that objective, and I'll be using some but not others. One equalizer is going to be that your score will have 4 componants: your three games and then the average score for the army you bring. I'll also have "consolation points" for each scenario - if the scenario calls for big troop blocks and you got none, you'll get some bonus. If the scenario rewards fast troops and you got handed dwarves, you'll get bonus for that. Finally, I'll post scoring rules ahead of time and in there I'll note that there is no comp, but there will be bonus given out for the judges' top 5 armies based on theme and interesting, unusual, or unique army design (alternately, could be a 1-10 judge's rating)

More thoughts on trying to avoid people bringing useless armies: I considered and rejected the idea of having people play with their own army in round 1 just because I don't want that. Simple. I also rejected the idea of having the people who play with the army (and/or against it) rate its playability, because that's going to be tainted by the outcome of the game and also because it could penalize some cool ideas/builds that are not standard designs geared to win, but still fun.

I'd welcome additional thoughts and ideas, and I'll plan to post a full scoring system well in advance of the tourney, so that people can plan accordingly.
_________________
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

Corey · Clanrat Joined: 29 Nov 2010 Posts: 832

Eric in the past when we did swap tournaments, it was a lower point value to ensure that the speed of games doesn't hurt to bad on account of being ignorant of other lists. Also, we generally started by playing with the list you brought with you.

I actually don't think people will purposefully bring crappy lists. I've never really seen that when we used to do it, but since Joey brought it up i'd keep your eyes on THAT prick Wink

he plays dark elves after all.

KaptainKhaos · Savage Orc Joined: 28 Nov 2010 Posts: 366

All i gotta say is... all Gnoblar army. Laughing

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SiteAdmin · Site Admin Joined: 27 Nov 2010 Posts: 956

Darkblood Skullpulper · Earthshaker Joined: 29 Nov 2010 Posts: 195

I thnk I've got the thing planned to where it'd be a bad idea to purposefully try to bring a list that is total crap. that being said, since VPs do not matter in the least, even the worst possible army could still have a chance to win each of my scenarios... might not be easy, but better odds than you'd have of beating tooled-up DE in a pitched battle.
_________________
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.