Tournament Post Mortem: Lessons Learned and 2013

Early in 6th edition my staff and I decided on going 100% with the rule book as written.  We received an enormous amount of emails both angry and pleading in tone.  Players threatened to not only not attend, but to tell their friends to not come as well.  In what I believe was a fear-based response I buckled and gave the players what they wanted…6th edition lite.  We kept many aspects of 6th (warlord traits, etc.) but removed double force org and created custom missions.  Shortly after publishing our missions the public began to come around to the simple fact that 6th is in fact a good tournament system and that it doesn’t need to be tweaked, as we had originally stated, but it was too late to go back when people had spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours getting ready for the published rules.  As a note, the Open GT used double force org, forgeworld, and all the 6th edition rules.  We had custom missions, but there were no complaints at all about anything relating to balance.  

6th edition: In 2013 we are going pure 6th edition just like we wanted when it came out.  We realize some players won’t like this but we will be using rulebook missions and be lowering our points to 1850. Why?  

Missions: When I went around to the tables I asked players what missions they used when practicing for Feast.  a good amount said the actual FOB missions, but everyone said they either played the rulebook missions in addition to the FoB missions or only played rulebook missions.  By using the rulebook missions games will go faster because players are more practiced with them.  They don’t have to spend time thinking about how they could best win the game.  To put it bluntly, there is no reason to not use the rulebook missions. 

Invitational Points: Let’s get this out of the way… There is NOTHING WRONG with 2000 points and double force org.  We have played a lot of it, including the entirety of the Open GT and nothing outside of the usual imbalances was apparent in such levels that it needs to be banned.  The reason we are going down in points is one of time and pre-game meta.  At 1850 players are forced to make at least one “tough decision,” you have a sort of Sophie’s choice at lower point levels, which encourages swiss army knife list choices in an army build.  It’s interesting to see how the humble tactical squad improves at lower points due to ‘free,’ missile launchers and flamers.  Not to mention the list building decisions that it forces players to make, but you can also play a faster game with the smaller list. 

*As a note, the Open GT will likely stay at 2000 points and double force org.

Tournament Format: We will be making no changes to the format of Margin of Victory day one (4 games) and Win/Loss on Day two (3 games in 8 man brackets).  This format saw peers playing each other in later rounds which is proof to me that it gets everyone into their peer group for tight fights on day two. 

We ran 2.5 hour games with good breaks in between and we had 90%+ of our games finish on time.  So, we feel that at 1850 points and with rulebook missions that 2 hour rounds in completely sufficient.  This means no more 12 hour days at the gaming table!  We can get four rounds done by 5-6pm at night.  Which means you can go out and see Denver, or visit our amazing vendors in the evening…Or even set up a pick-up-game with a friend you haven’t seen since WargamesCon or Adepticon… Heck, you could get to bed early (if we allowed you to 🙂 )

I have been talking to the other national Convention Organizers and their TO’s and carrying my message of 1850 rulebook.  They have all been very open to my suggestions and time will tell if they personally decide to go that direction or not, I’ll say this that even though we are going in that direction it doesn’t mean it is the CORRECT way to play, only what we have figured we like the most.  I will still attend all the events I personally can to support those other great events!

Event Nuts and Bolts

Duke