Escalation League ideas

[pyremius]

My LGS is getting ready to start an escalation league to build some support for Malifaux. At the moment, we don't really have any good ideas for how we should organize it. Has anyone here run a successful escalation league for Malifaux, and if so, what are some of the elements that worked well for you?

[macgowan]

We ran one that was tons of fun and seemed to work well. However, the player turnout was very low, so it might not work for everyone.

We started with 25ss lists. Players couldn't play the same opponent back to back more than 2 games in a row. The TO filled in to give people more variety of play, but was ignored in the final results. We raised the crew limit by 5 every two weeks, ending with 35ss crews. I allowed 2 proxy models per crew to encourage people to try new playstyles.

Next time we have a league (probably kickoff around Halloween) here's my plan:

Crews start at 25ss. Narrative multiplayer mini-campaign scenarios for kickoff, midway through, and conclusion. When you win, your next crew must use the same Master. For every match you've lost, you get 1 bonus ss to spend on crews. I'm hoping that this allows people to ramp up slowly and naturally. Sure it makes no sense in a story-based campaign, but it might give new (or crappy) players a handicap to work with. And it will let me reward most consecutive wins, give giant-killer bonuses, etc.

[the imp]

Sounds good macgowan. You could also allow players to build lists around a henchman, if they include one in their main list, to encourage a little more variety while playing up the fluff a bit more.

[Zorlath]

I personally wouldn't allow proxies. I've always thought escalation leagues were a way to get people to expand their collections, which they're not doing if they're proxying.

Escalation leagues will definitely be different with Malifaux, mainly because you can change your list depending on what strategy you get. So I guess you'd just have people pick a faction at the start and they'd have to stay in that faction.

I would also consider starting at a lower amount of points and increasing the limit every week, instead of every two. Five points only gives room for one model per escalation, which I would personally find a bit slow if you're only doing it every two weeks. Although, this could be offset by the fact that you're able to change your list based on strategy, so chances are you would be buying more than one model per week. So, yeah, I dunno...

Seeing as how I haven't played a Malifaux escalation league, feel free to ignore me. Just some ideas