The hardest choice any tournament player makes is what army to take to the event, but some people are starting to ask, should we only be able to bring one army? Read on to find out.
In recent years an increasing number of tournaments are allowing, or talking about allowing, players to bring more then one army list, or variations of an army list, to tournaments and then having them pick which army they play before each game. Most Warmachine tournaments already allow some form of this. Similarly at the end of their national tournament on Sunday, the good folks over at Battlefront announced that they where strongly considering a similar format for at least some of their national events (as a side note they also announced that there will now be 3 national tournaments for Flames of War). With the two other major systems going this way how long will it be before 40k and WFB take similar steps, and how will local and IGTs view these ideas. In light of all this I decided to look at the various formats for alternate list choices, and because with me its all about what is best, so I’m off to figure out which option is the best.
1. Sideboards
How is this supposed to help me?
This is maybe the simplest option, and one taken directilly from Magic: The Gathering. In essence it would allow you to take a certain number of points of extra units to that could be swapped out with units from your main army. For instance in a 2000 pts tournament you might be allowed to take a 500pts sideboard. Before any game started you could swap out units form your main main list for units from you sideboard, provided you still stayed under 2000 pts. This allows for a little army variation and enables you to talior your force to meat your opponent to some degree.
2. Two (or more) lists.
Which one would you pick?
This is another fairly simple option, and one which a number of Warmachine tournaments already use. Simply put each player brings 2 (it could be more) lists to the tournament and chooses which one they wish to play each game with. Now this option would normally have some restriction on it, such as the two lists would have to be from the same Army Book/Codex/PDF/Company List/whatever. In addition there could be other restrictions, they might have to have to same HQ/character choices, or contain a certain number of troops that are the same or whatever. One interesting question that arises with this is which player picks his army first or do you not know at all. Since the two armies you bring might, depending on the restrictions and the game, be radically different this could mean that in effect each player is just picking blind which removes a lot of the strategy in the choice.
3. List Addons
Rememeer when picking your list there are no bad decisions,
well other then picking Zoro to fight Superman, that’s bad.
With this option each player takes a normal army and then builds a number of equal point additions he can chose to take. For instance a player might build a 1750pt army, he would then play this army in every game. But in addition to this army he would make 2-3 (or whatever) 250pt additions, and before each game he could chose which of these additions he would take in the coming battle. He would be free to, before making his choice, look at the enemies 1750pt army to base his decision on, but neither player would know which 250pt addtion the enemy had chosen until the battle begins.
Decisions, Decisions So those are the three main options out there. Each of them is a variation on the standard format of just bringing one army list, and each allows you to tailor your force to face the enemies in some form or another. Overall I think the 3rd option, the list additions is the best option. I am not a huge fan of the take two lists options, I think it allows for too much flexibility and it in many situations will utterly destroy a sense of fluff. Meanwhile, though I do not think sideboards are a horrible idea I think they are a little overly complicated and require a bit more math to figure out what parts of your army you are going to switch out today.
Of course you never swtich out the Witch Elves, they kill you if you do,
and besides, they’re for like looking at and stuff…. yeah…
To me the option for addons makes the most sense. Its simple, allows variation, but not too much variation. It also does a good job of simulating a army that has some support options available to it that it brings up depending on the job. For instance a Flames of War army might have some tank hunters that it brings up if it knows its going to fight a tank heavy force. An Empire army might have some extra cannons to use if it knows its fighting a force with lots of monsters, while the enemy conversely could have some fliers it only takes if he knows he is fighting a lot of warmachines. A 40k army might have an extra unit with Heavy Bolters to take if it fights Orks or Nids, or one with Lascannons for fighting mech. But despite all these options at heart each army will remain mostly the same, and have the same general feel and play style.
Anyway those are the various options for tournament variations. I think there are some cool options to be explored and I encourage you guys to try these out in any local events you have and see how they work. I am overall always up for more options, and overall I feel that these allow both players some freedom and some cool choices, so see how they work! And remember keep playing, keep arguing, and most importantly…..
Taking some Sisters of Battle is never a mistake.
Well that’s it for now Boyz and Sisters. I hope you will all at least think about giving some of these options a go. How do you guys feel about being able to vary your army between games? Can you think of any other options for this idea other then the above 3? Disagree with my assessment of what is the best option? Well that’s why we have a comment section, so we don’t have to read all your emails!
