Wednesday, April 7, 2010

In Pursuit of Perfection


I am sure that you all are familiar with Mike and his rants on 40k (and sometimes beer) and are most likely familiar with the details and mission of our tournament this summer. To date there has been much scuttlebutt about the 40k side of this tournament while Fantasy has been mostly in the dark.

Today I get to address the other half of the tournament. Most of you will not know who I am and will probably wonder how I got the illustrious job of organizing the fantasy side I am Rhett Austin and needless to say I have been primarily a fantasy player till late when I put it aside due to its “issue’s”. Despite some of its issues, I love Warhammer Fantasy and follow it diligently hoping that maybe with 8th Edition some things will get straightened out (yes, daemons, that mean you). Until that time I get the pleasure of overseeing a comp system for this year’s NOVA Open.

When this task was first put before me I got kinda giddy thinking about this perfect opportunity to fix the game and stake out the comp system to end all comp systems. So I set about this task by first investigating what was out there. I’m a regular tournament player and participated in many comp systems over time, but none of them seemed to fit what I thought one should be. It was my thought that my task would be immensely easier if I had a good starting point, though, so digging through the vast number of them out there began.

It seems like the first choice you have when running a comp system is whether to do a points based comp system (like this) or use penalties and caps to limit or expand certain armies (like this). They both have their pros and cons and both systems can work. The big deciding factor for me was that the points system was pretty complex and I prefer to keep it simple wherever possible. So I decided to proceed down the penalties and caps route to create my perfect comp system.

This is where it got dicey. I spent many long days trying to create this perfect system and in the end I decided that I couldn’t do it alone. Not that I am incapable of making good judgments on the current rule set, but rather if I did craft my own comp system I would just be adding to the dozens of questionable, home-grown systems that currently exist. It might have even been amazing but there would be no reason for anyone to take my word on this working.

There still lies the problem of having a comp system though, and it is my job to put it forth. During my research of popular systems out there I did find one that had most of what I was looking for. Though its rules aren’t perfect in my opinion, it is crafted via the input of a large community of players all seeking to build a better system. One could easily say it’s impossible to craft the “perfect” system, but I think you’ll find this one brings Warhammer Fantasy 7th Edition well into the realm of being absolutely worth playing and competing in.

So without further delay, here it is.

9 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I'm surprised you didn't put the other Manning up there, Colts fan.

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  3. If he woulda fit with the title i would have. Sadly however he did not oust the 16-0 patriots.

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  4. I'm not gonna be playing in the Fantasy portion anyway, but I figure I'll throw out my 2 cents.

    I hate comp. It's the sort of black hatred you would reserve for the guy who killed your puppy. No matter how poorly balanced a game might be perceived to be, comp makes it worse. It'll either end up simply shifting the balance of power from one army to another, screwing over theme armies that weren't competitive anyway just because they ran afoul of the arbitrary restrictions, being so mind-numbingly restrictive that they suck any life out of the game (man, I love fighting your 20 Core with my 20 Core, bo-ring) or any combination of the three.

    Fantasy really isn't that bad. There are a couple armies that are pretty bad off (O&G and OK), but most of them can field a competitive army that can tango with the likes of Daemons and DE. Lists can be a big factor in Fantasy, but beyond a few particular cases, player skill > list.

    Like I said, I'll be doing 40k so it doesn't affect me, but I'd be loath to play in any Fantasy event that has to suffer a comp system. If you do end up using one, I hope you can put together a good one, as far as comp goes.

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  5. Well I cant disagree with you that yes the game does change when you bring any sort of comp into it. It is a toned down a lot and yes there is a lot less you can do with each list. Now I have no problem playing compless games and do enjoy some of them. But there are a lot of imbalances in the army books that need to be addressed in a competetive atmosphere. That being said I think the ideal tournament would have two concurrent heats for those that want comp and those that don't. As we cannot support both we will be only be doing a comp tournament which I believe has a more competitive. But all in all hopefully I will never have to worry about comp again when 8th edition comes out.



    The final link in the post is a link to the ETC (european team championship) post on their 2010 comp rules that we will be using for this tournament.

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  6. Ugh, I think I threw up a little in my mouth.

    But hey, if y'all enjoy it and everybody has a good time, more power to ya.

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  7. What does it matter, Chumb, you're playing in the 40k tourney with a torn ACL, amirite?

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  8. Right, that's what I said. It doesn't affect me, I'm just offering my opinion.

    I don't get my surgery until May tho, so I may very well be in crutches. That'll be fun :P

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  9. Well I hate comp as well, but if you have to do it ETC is the best I've played under. However, I would highly suggest you talk with Mike Austin about the changes they made to the ETC system. They have some good changes that really toned down some of the nasty stuff that sliped through the cracks. As the system is written now I already know the list I would bring that would would really break this system. I'm not going to tell you what it is though because I want a free ticket to Vegas if you don't change it ;)

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