A Random Draft

[Mud Turkey 13]

My friends and I have been discussing the idea of playing a game with a random draft. What we would do is set a point total just like for any other game, and we would roll to see the draft order like normal. However, when it's your turn to draft you stick your hand in a bag and pull out a random army card. We keep doing this until you reach your point total. If you draft a card you can't afford you put it back and pull out another one. The idea is that if the game is as truly balanced as we think it is as long as everyone has the same point total they should have an equal chance of winning. Has anyone ever tried anything like this?

[Dreaded Gazebo]

We've been doing random drafts for our last few games. We decide on a point total and take turns drawing cards until you are over the point limit. Then we compare point totals and if they're too far off we agree on an intermediate point total to whittle down to. If someone is an exact amout off from the other (meaning exact unit value, like 25, 40, 100, etc.) we'll then pull out all the cards of that value and make someone draw randomly from those specific unts.

Surprisingly it seems to work fairly well. You end up being forced to really work the strengths and weaknesses of all the units drawn and have to sometimes be very creative. I think it's fun to draw what appears to be a really crappy team and do everything to can to pull off a win. The only real problem is that you can draw a team that's just going to be at a major disadvantage due to the terrain.

I like it, though. You get to see a lot of units played that people typically would never choose, and sometimes we've been surprised at just how effective a unit can be. We've been having fun with random draft and I think we'll pretty much be sticking to it from now on. It's fun!

[feekonea]

I do random drafts all the time, and I think its lots of fun, I just shuffle my cards in a random order, then yell @ my sis to give my a random #. We keep doing this until weve got from 380-400 pts.

[Alastair MacDirk]

Sometimes to speed up the draft we randomly divide the cards into 5 random piles (no matter how many are playing less than 5). Then each person takes a pile and makes their best army from that. We announce our armies at once so there is no counter-draft strategy. Good for quick games when you don't want the draft to last 45 minutes.

[LilNewbie]

You can use the Random Team Generator too.

http://mail.magnaspeed.net/~seyer/hsdraft.htm

It's a great application and speeds up random drafting.

Newb.

[feekonea]

O ya newb, I forgot about that, good call!!

[Hendal]

Random sounds interesting to use all the cards and such, but you don't have a chance of having 2 or more sets of commons, which is there best feature???

Back on HQ< someone had posted about if your playing a few games in a row, they would make you raise the point value by 10 pts if you wanted to use the same card in the next game. SO to pick the krav is 100, the 2nd game they are 110, and if you pick them a 3rd game 120,a nd so on, but we used this idea a few times and really liked it to get cards used that are usually ignored ( omni snipers come to mind ).

Sorry I don't remember who posted the idea, but I really liked it...

[MrBishop]

Has anybody tried randomly assigning armies (equal points of course) to start a game rather then using a draft? I have not tried this yet, however I am thinking that it may force you to utilize different strategies then you would usually rely on. You may also end up with units then you would normally never use (for example I have never drafted DeathWalker 7000 and probably never would if he was not assigned to me).

I guess it would also be possible to end up with a very unbalanced game if you ended up with units that did not work well together.

Has anybody tried this method and did it work well?

[KeeperOfPeace]

No not yet, like the idea though. I was sitting here thinking of how you would be able to choose something random. You just reach your hand in and pick one? Or do you just look and pick?

I thought about maybe creating a chart with all the units you own, then roll a d20 to see which ones you get. Maybe have 1 chart for bigger point units/ squads, then a smaller chart for the cheaper squads and units.

Or, you could just make one really big chart of everything you own, then, you roll to see what you get. However, instead of points, just say you get 3 rolls or whatever. It would be awesome and kind of funny to watch people play like that.

I like to call this, the Random Roller

[Revdyer]

We haven't played with random armies, but have played with the temporary rule that you have to pick only cards you have never used before (or, not used in a long while...honor system, of course). This method, too, gets little used guys into the game and has produced some interesting results.

[Grungebob]

I have done this a couple of times and it is pretty cool. You end up with armies you never would have drafted.

[Ryougabot]

I do all the time. Drafting armies you like tends to get boring real quick. It also does not take much skill to win that way. If you have to pull off a victory with Khomuset, Dund, the Gorillanators and 2 squads of Arrow Gruts, that makes you a better player.

[feekonea]

I have also done this, and I think its lots of fun and turn you into a better heroscape player.

[AmishBurrito]

That is all my friends and I do. It saves time to get random armies, and also it makes you perform well with units you may not like or know how to use properly yet. Either split the cards up into groups of point values and "draw them out of a hat." or use The Draft Wizard http://mail.magnaspeed.net/~seyer/hsdraft.htm

[netherspirit]

Merged :)

And the draft wizard is awesome.

[Kahrma]

I've used the draft wizard for a couple of games. We have the draft wizard make up 3 or 4 armies and each player selects one. Not completely random, but makes things interesting and speeds up the drafting process.

[netherspirit]

If you turn off the draft synergies it will draft some pretty random armies.

[DoesntCompute]

I tried to draft a random army once. I was very ugly because my opponent was NOT drafting a random army. <shudders>

[vernz]

i think it would make an intresting game if both parties picked by random i might have to try that out next time

[Aranas]

Most of the time, we play two games in the same evening. On the second draft session, we often force ourselves to not draft any figure used in our previous army. It forces us to play with a lot of different figures. Also, when playing with kids, I let them draft their entire army and make mine out of what is left.

[Revdyer]

The way I play with my grandson (age eleven) is for him to pick six army cards that he wants, and then I pick an army 50 points smaller.

[Rÿchean]

The way I play with my grandson (age eleven) is for him to pick six army cards that he wants, and then I pick an army 50 points smaller.

When My oldest son (11 at the time) and I first started playing together, we started with him 150pts up on me, then after a time 100pts, then 50. Now we play even up. (That is when I can get him to play,stupid runescape)

[Revdyer]

I used to play with my son-in-law (grandson's father) but Runescape has taken him too. Even at 50 points down, my grandson, who seems to be a wizard at dice (daughter says she's taking him to Vegas) beats me about half the time.