Iron Piglet

[Math Mathonwy]

Iron Piglet challenge for a tournament: Use the same Master in every game but have zero overlap in hired models (profiles) between games other than the Master and their Totem. This was a brainchild of @zFiend.

What do you think? Quite a bit more difficult with some Masters who rely on synergies with a limited pool of models but there's quite a few Masters that allow for a great deal of freedom in their hiring pools.

I can think of at least one person on the forums who should feel like a fish in water with this challenge (a virtual cookie for whoever first guesses who I mean) but what do you people think?

[Squirrelich]

Summons? Can you overlap those? The answer will give cheat deficits or advantages to certain masters. 

[Adran]

 Math talks about hired models.

My guess is that the spirit of the idea is that you ought not, but since that might make some masters seem unplayable, and summoner masters are those that most typically field a fixed list I would probably allow it. 

Possibly with bonus points for restrictions, such as either only summoning that model once each game, or in only one game. But the limitations are probably different for each master. 

[DonCheadle]

No overlap whatsoever seems a bit steep over five rounds, and the master limitation seems arbitrary at best. 

I'd say a realistic Iron Piglet challenge would be using every non-master (exceptions made for stuff like Huggy or Vik, but not totems, since generals exist) model a maximum of 2 times (or once if the tournament has 3 rounds) with free Master selection. 

[Adran]

I'm guessing the view is that if you took out the fixed master restriction then you could just take the masters thematic crew each time, and that's not as huge a selection issue. I'm interested to hear if anyone thinks any masters would really struggle in iron piglet. I know several wouldn't. 

[cbtb11235813]

How about hiring two (or more) of the same model in one game? Or is everything just treated as rare 1

[lusciousmccabe]

My reading of Math's post would be that you can hire multiples of the same model in one game (they use one profile) but after that you can't take any of that model again. 

[Dereikt]

I like the idea of this format. Some Masters would indeed struggle, Rasputina to give a specific example, but I feel that's a lot of what makes alternative format's interesting-they make you find alternative crews and methods to what you normally have to use.

This format, I think, would be interesting enough to justify making some masters struggle, without going too far and making them unusable. The only serious concern I can think of is the aforementioned ability of summoners to circumvent the restrictions, which doesn't feel bad enough to give up on the idea. At the very least, it's certainly worth trying to see how well players actually cope(or don't cope) with it.

[Gnomezilla]

*claims the cookie* *hoping for one of those super crispy super thin oat cookies with chocolate dip* Part of the fun of the league version is missing here: once you claimed a win you had to retire that crew from rotation. Made you build crews super focused to strategies.

[wafew]

I like this idea! I am a fan of not sticking to the same builds.

A milder idea, would be to have your opponent ban 1 ( or what ever number you decide ) models for the rest of the league. or ban a set of models before the match starts.

My 3 cents.

[Rufess]

I believe Nellie can handle this format with no difficulty. She can play with pure guild or heavy mercenary list. And with pure guild she can go with either henchman or enforcer(Executioner, Peacekeeper etc). So It is quite easy to build 3 different lists for 3 rounds tournament.

As for 5 rounds tournament, however, I think all masters in the game will struggle about the restriction.

[katadder]

easy enough using Levi and summoners have pretty good advantages although it does mean nico has to change his summoning engine and sandeep cant use his mages all the time

 

[Adran]

I think summoners might struggle more than people think. How many ways are there for nicodem to get corpses? Now split that over 3 or more games and you start to see the problem. I'd say Marcus and Leviticus can probably do this without really noticing due to the size of their hiring pools and number of ways they can be played. 

[the tick]

Brewsmaster would struggle significantly I think. I just finished soloing him for six months and there's a somewhat narrow band of strategies and schemes that work well for him. He also relies pretty heavily on either poison or having powerful beaters to order around. The one-and-done requirement for non master models hurts him a bit.