Tourney force size & format options

[Travis Syxx]

Hey guys,

I apologize if this has been covered already. I am just wondering how many figures/points an average tourney game is going to be. I do realize that the game can scale to be fairly large. I also realize that for tourneys I would not want rounds to go longer then 90 minutes. I assume early on staying with a smaller number is going to work well to get the rules down and such.

I was thinking about doing something at my store similar to what Privateer did with the first release. They allowed player's to pick a starter force and play that. At the time there was only one other mini out and it was a mercenary. Player's were able to swap that out for something of equal or lesser point cost in their pre-made band.

Is a tourney just allowing player's to use starter boxes going to be fair/equal in terms of points? Do you guys think this is a good idea and something that could work?

This is kinda a new experience for me having a game release a set of rules with such an already diverse line of mini's. I realize that when GW comes out with a new ruleset there are already a ton of mini's. I just don't want to overwhelm player's looking to get into the game due to having so many options. Let me kow what you guys think.

Thanks

TS

[Angus Khan]

The tournament at GenCon will be 25 SS, after that, its all up to the discretion of the TO.

All the box sets are roughly 25-30 SS and are balanced against each other. Despite this, if I were a TO I'm not sure I would always do a 'starters only' tournament. There is such a wide variety of minis already released and nearly limitless combinations that players may not like using only those models which come in a starter. Part of the strategy when playing Malifaux is crew composition, and doing a 'starters only' comp too often would remove the ability of players to customize their crews to their play style.

All that aside, as a first-ever Malifaux tournament, using only starters could be an interesting way to get people into the game. (I just wouldn't treat is as the 'norm') Since first time players don't know what makes a good crew anyway, using only the starters can let people get right into playing the game. Then, after they have a grasp for the rules let them design their own crews.

Hope this helps!

[Travis Syxx]

Angus,

We are on the same page then. I was looking at from the stand pint of bringing the game into the store. Anytime people are making a choice to play a game initial cost money wise always factor's in. With the rules being 35 and most box sets being around that the initial purchase is under $100.00. If I want to offer prizes, I will need to charge an entry fee as well.

I completely agree with letting them take it and make their forces out of whatever they like. I just wanted to make sure that no one is going to have a negative play experience because they bought Starter A and it's 20% weaker then Starter B and got their butts kicked. Guess I could run the points after I get the book and if a few starter forces are lower then offer those people buying those starter's the option of buying a mini of comparable cost to round out their force.

I want his game to sell well in our store. I want people to be excited about it. Having a large line of mini's already is going to help that. I need to start thinking about how am I going to present this after Gencon to make people want to get involved.

Thanks for the insight

TS

[Angus Khan]

Sorry, I must have misunderstood what you were saying in your first post, glad to hear we both are coming from the same place.

All of the starters have about the same points values and none should be 'better' or 'worse' than any of the others. Bear in mind that some may be harder to play than others, but that is true for almost any game.

Good luck with your tournament!

[EricJ]

Good questions, and personally I do like the idea of starter only tournaments. A 25ss scrap using the basic box sets is a very doable tournament, and with the exception of the Ramos box, which comes in at 28ss (but can very easily be told to drop 1 spider to get to 25), all the models can come into this range. The balancing factor is that unused soul stones are not just lost, but put into a soulstone pool which can be used throughout the game for positive effects. Alternately you can have a starter box tournament, and just allow people to add either additional models from the box, or mercenaries to fill out to 25ss for some of the lower ss cost boxes, as the balancing factor. Both work I think.

We did take a lot of time to try to create boxes that were fairly balanced, and could interact with each other in this way.

I think for some of the more standard tournaments, where players have full control of what they bring (within the rules), I would a more popular level of play would be either 30-35ss, which gives players the basics, plus a bit of chance to customize or focus their force.

[nerdelemental]

35 SS is my favorite, but I play quite a lot of my regular game-night games at the 30 point level. I always like just that one big guy to get added to make the games just a bit more robust.

[TheLemondropDan]

I really like the 30 to 35 range, too.