Randomly building armies from a "deck"

[kenjib]

I had a thought. Each player puts together a "deck" of 15 army cards. Each common card represents an unlimited number of units for that unit. Before starting you draw 7 random cards out of those 15. You then build your 500 point army using units only from those 7 cards (you can choose to not use any of the cards). I think this would allow you to still build around certain themes but still inject some randomization and on-the-fly army building.

So let's say I chose these 15:

Roman Legionaires
Sacred Band
Marcus
Tagawa Archers
Airborne Elite
Blastatrons
Gladiatrons
Kaemon Awa
Roman Archers
Tagawa Samurai
Kozuke Samurai
Ninjas of the Northern Wind
Parmenio
Ne-Gok-Sa
Me-Burq-Sa

Now I came up with these 7 through randomization:

Parmenio
Tagawa Archers
Roman Archers
Kozuke Samurai
Roman Legionaires
Marcus
Blastatrons

With a bit of luck I got both the romans and marcus so that's a solid start and I'll go with this:

roman legos x 2: 100
Marcus: 100

The blastatrons are no good without the gladiatrons to back them up so they are out. Paramenio might be decent just to have some bonding options but without the Sacred Band probably not. I need some range and I have 2 ranged units to go with. I'll take some tagawas.

Tagawa archers x 3: 195

With 105 points left I can add in the Kozuke.

Kozuke Samurai: 100

Here's another:

Q9
Raelin
Deathreavers
Nakita Agents
Krav Maga Agents
Laglor
Gorillinators
Agent Carr
Nilfheim
Warriors of Ashra
Ninjas of the Northern Wind
Kozuke Samurai
Syvarris
Kaemon Awa
Marro Warriors

Randomized I get:

Syvarris
Kaemon Awa
Gorillinators
Deathreavers
Warriors of Ashra
Marro Warriors
Kozuke Samurai

Deathreavers are a core part of this "deck." That is a great pick but unfortunately I did not get the Nakitas, KMA, Q9, Nilfheim, or Raelin - the other core parts so now I have to improvise more. The gorillas are also not so good without the nakitas so they are out. Kaemon Awa is always a solid pick.

Deathreavers x 3: 120
Kaemon Awa: 120

I need more ranged so the marros and syvarris are in by default.

Marro Warrios: 50
Syvarris: 110

With 100 points left I can go with 2 WoA or the Kozuke. I'll go with:

Warriors of Ashra x2: 100

And that's the army. It's not really what I was hoping for most from the deck but it turned out really well regardless. This army and the previous one would make for a nice competitive game against each other. What do you think? I'm thinking of something like this for when my boys all get older some years from now and we play frequent games. It can keep things from getting dull.

[LilNewbie]

That's very cool idea, kenjib.

Newb.

[yagyuninja]

I like this idea too! You came up with two neat and creative armies there in your example.

I don't know if you have heard of the Long Island Heroscapers league, but they do something similar to this. They build a "deck" (with theme restrictions) at the start of the season, and for each game they assemble an army from their deck. Not randomly, but still... They also keep interesting stats from their games. Their website is:

http://www.liheroscapers.com/index.htm

[Fuzzie Fuzz]

Ooh... I like that idea! Unfortunately, I don't get to play HS enough with the normal rules anyways, so I probably won't play this... though now that I think about it, THIS particular thing is quite likely... I don't know.

Anyways, great idea!

[HS ~ KNT]

I like it!
I'll talk to my friends, maybe we'll play a game.

I assume that one could adjust the numbers for higher point games, like 20 --> 10 for 700pt armies or something.


Cool idea.

[Nooblar]

This sounds like a good way to speed up drafting. Gibberish, do ya hear? lol.

[Supergeek]

:ponder:
That's a good idea.

[MRGood]

My buddy and I tried this the other day and it was pretty fun. We chose the 15 cards and then the random 7 and picked the 500 points just like you suggested. But we ran into a touch of a snag, out of the randomized cards that I picked I was unable to choose 500 points-- I had plenty of cards, I just could get more than 470 points and I had no fillers.
Well, my question is this: In this situation, am I just out of luck, or is the other player's points restricted also. We played with my army restricted and it was still fun, but I was just curious for future games.

[LilNewbie]

You could always make the Swog Rider and Dumutef Guard available to all players as 25 point fillers.

Newb.

[ZBeeblebrox]

Great idea Kenjib, could make an interesting tournament option.

[kenjib]

My buddy and I tried this the other day and it was pretty fun. We chose the 15 cards and then the random 7 and picked the 500 points just like you suggested. But we ran into a touch of a snag, out of the randomized cards that I picked I was unable to choose 500 points-- I had plenty of cards, I just could get more than 470 points and I had no fillers.
Well, my question is this: In this situation, am I just out of luck, or is the other player's points restricted also. We played with my army restricted and it was still fun, but I was just curious for future games.

Tough question! Did your army underperform because it was missing the 30 points or do you think it did okay regardless? Also, did your deck have several low cost (25-60 pt) options in it?

[MRGood]

It was only my buddy's third or fourth game, so my handicap actually worked out well making the game real close. We never got to completely finish it though, our girlfriends got bored of waiting for us to finish and wouldn't even toy with the notion of playing.... We'll fix that though,,, eventually.

Though if I was playing someone who new more of the game mechanics and strategy I think it would have been a tougher game. I'm always up for a challenge, so I don't mind being handicapped, but I was just curious.

My deck was pretty spread out, some high points, most were in the 100 and below range. I just got unlucky I guess. I tried it again the other day just to see if it would happen again and 2 out of the 5 times I tried, one of the armies was a little short. What lilnewbie said about keeping some open to everybody as fillers would easily fix that though. Looking back I think my main problem was having only one card for most of the commons. From your original post I can see that multiple commons were used and that seems to be my main difference. Maybe that was it, or maybe not.. Whatever the case, I really like this method.