NE Ohio NHSD 2009

[lefton4ya]

UPDATE: See official Thread Here for current info!

Original (Modified) Post [Not currently applicable - for reference only]

Hi,

I have never attended or planned a Heroscape tournament, but would be be willing to do one. I know about 15+ people who would play in the Cleveland/Kent/Akron area, and we could always look for more people. I can look at the resources on the site for organizing and running tournaments, but would like input and help from anyone who would be willing to attend.

Here is my 2nd attempt at preliminary details on the tournament:


WHEN:
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
10am-11:30am: Registration & Set-up
11:30am-12:30: Round 1
12:30-1pm: Lunch (Potluck)
1pm-6pm: Tournament
6pm-7pm: Dinner (Pizza), prizes, clean up
7 pm-?: More HS for fun, maybe bonfire or othr activity for those who choose to stick around.


WHERE: (TBD)
Need to find location to fit 15+ Maps/tables in the South Side of Cleveland (I know 30+ people in Geauga County & Kent). Anyone with suggestions or places to volunteer in the area post here. Should have a place by mid-September

SCENARIOS:
Each round have different set of rules/scenarios/point cost, but all tables play by same set in each round.
For all rounds, tournament-style draft of armies with random starting point value done by adding starting base points + 5 * 20-sided die roll (i.e. for first round, if 7 was rolled, points would be 300 + 5 * 7= 335, which would be the point value for all players at all tales that round.

Round 1:

• 2 player game
• NO Customs or Marvel Figures, Repaints of Exclusives OK &, but no Proxies, only two of each common squad/hero allowed
• Official rules, no glyphs
• 350 + random point draft (355-450)

Round 2:

• 2 Player game
• NO Customs or Marvel Figures, Repaints of Exclusives OK, but no Proxies, only three of each common squad/hero allowed
• House rule of X marker is 4th order marker to be used at anytime (everyone I know plays exclusively with this rule), glyphs
• 550 + random point draft (555-650)

Round 3:

• 2 Player Game
• All figures allowed, including Customs (TNT & NM24 Only), Marvel, proxies, only two of each common squad/hero allowed
• House rule above, no glyphs
• 800 + random point draft (805-900)

Round 4:

• 2-Person per Team, 2 Team Game
• NO Customs or Marvel Figures, Repaints of Exclusives OK &, but no Proxies, only three of each common squad/hero allowed
• Official rules, glyphs
• 450 + random point draft (455-550)

Final Round:

• 2 Person Game
• NO Customs or Marvel Figures, Repaints of Exclusives OK, but no Proxies
• Players decide rules, Scenario
• 500 + random point draft (505-600)

MAPS: TBD
I need suggestions for maps. I think some official ones, some Heroscapers proven ones (Debate: Should we also include one made on the spot for those who show up early for final round to have a better challenge?)

PRIZES:
A 2009 NEOH NHSD Trophy or Medallion!
(TBD) Prize Support from WotC and/or HSers.com vendors
(TBD) Gift Certificates or Unopened Sets, to be given out as:
~40% of all entry fees to the winner
~30% of all entry fees to the 2nd place runner up
~20% of all entry fees to the 3rd place runner up
~10% of all entry fees to the 4th place runner up

COST:
$5 for buy-in. I suggest keep it low, as focus will be on fun playing not winning $$$/sets.

ALL SUBJECT TO CHANGE:
If you live in the Northeast Ohio area (or would be willing to travel for a day) please let me know. I would gladly take input on any part of the tournament, so keep an eye here for any changes and more information as it comes along.

[southwest ninja]

couple of things to note if your going to undertake this.
no one is going to want to register by noon then take lunch, usually they want to show up, finish setting anything up that needs to be set up, and start playing. Also, most people are not going to want to stay afterwards for other activities. It is very hard to pull away from families and various duties to attend even the main part of the gaming day. NHSD tends to have one location for a large area causing playings to drive 3 hours easily to attend the event. These people are going to want to get on the road as soon as possible. Extra activities like these would most likely be better off held after a more informal gaming day, not NHSD. In regards to the format changes from round to round, its NHSD and its going to be hard to justify a clear cut winner when your formats change. I definitely wouldnt allow people to just create some of the maps as they want when they arrive. If you did they would have to be balanced to not create an advantage for either side. Your also going to need more than 6ish maps. Last year I had 22 maps up and wound up needing 18 of those with 6-8 less people than expected. Not trying to nag or get on your case, just wanted to point out some things I have learned over the years hosting some events.

[lefton4ya]

Hey Shouthwest ninja,

Thanks for your advice. Yeah, when coming up with this I was at first just planning mostly for my friends who all live close and like hanging out to do other things before or after playing. Also, I have know I idea how tournaments work out in terms of number of tables/maps and people per table, especially with an indefinite number of attendees, so I appreciate your suggestions based on experience. As far as the format changes from round to round, everyone would play by the same rules each round, so I think it would be fair to judge by changing the rules from round to round as everyone would still have the same experience overall, but just adds variety, giving those who are better at different scenarios/rules/point cost to not have an advantage over those who may e better at others. For example, those who are good at say 500 point squadscape with glyphs and those who are better with 600+ mostly HERO scape without glyphs would both have opportunities to do good in different rounds. But I would be willing to standardize the rules.

As far as the house rule I had, its just that everyone I know plays with that rule and only with that rule, so I just wanted an opportunity for everyone to play that way as well us for us to have to play by official rules, but I understand if people come expecting and used to only the tournament rules, they may feel out of place.

As far as the maps, my friends usually just make up maps on the spot, but I would definitely be willing to use already designed and playtested maps. Since all rounds would have random drawings at the start of the tourney for what maps to be played, I think it would be better if people come prepared for all types of maps, but I understand the desire for hardcore players to see list of maps ahead of time to prepare armies and strategies for each in advance.

Also, If you want to combine and pick a spit in the middle, say southern Cleveland/northern Akron to play at, It'd be cool to have more players in the tourney and more help in planning

See description changes above

[Agent Minivann]

Just as a matter of practicality, it really should be uniform from round to round. For tournament purposes 3 player games aren't that great IMHO. The winner is not necessarily the best player and/or army. 1 on 1 premade armies with a hex limit on a BoV type map is the norm for tourneys, and I think there is a lot of wisdom in that approach.

[killercactus]

I agree with everything Agent Minivann just said. In my opinion, the best tournaments are Swiss style with 5-6 rounds (5 is probably the most practical), fixed army point totals and starting zone hex limits, and BoV / GenCon maps.

That being said, if you have 20-30 players in NE Ohio that are outside of our normal tournament scene (15-20 players) and outside of the other local tourney scenes that usually come to our NHSD (Columbus, Western PA, etc... 20-30 more players), we could be looking at a HUGE tournament. I'd love to see a 60-70 player NHSD tourney (especially since I should be able to make this one and I missed GenCon), and I could even host it in Warren if needed. I would just need a lot of maps, as my collection will let me build only 7 or 8.

Wherever the tournament is and whoever hosts it, I'll help where I can. I really want NHSD to be great this year!

[southwest ninja]

Gencon just gave me the ability to build 32 maps with only 5 of them needing to be master set only builds. as for a location I think Shieldcrusher was talking about his school location or the winery that may be used for free. I dont know if he has to be in attendance for them to be used though. he has a wedding the day of NHSD and wont be there.

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by southwest ninja

Gencon just gave me the ability to build 32 maps with only 5 of them needing to be master set only builds. as for a location I think Shieldcrusher was talking about his school location or the winery that may be used for free. I dont know if he has to be in attendance for them to be used though. he has a wedding the day of NHSD and wont be there.

OK - that would be fine too. The Warren card store that we played at last time is also free and can accomodate lots of players and maps. I might even be able to get the owner to kick in some prize support too since I know him. Plus, if I tell him ahead of time that we're coming, I know he'll order a bunch of Wave 9 stuff and other Scape because he knows we'll buy it. He's always asking me when the next tournament is going to be so he can sell out his Heroscape stock.... The only thing I would have to do is run it by my wife that I'm actually hosting the tournament. I think she'd be OK with it, though.

I know that probably creates problems with terrain, especially for you Terry if you're going to be the one supplying most of it, to lug it all down here. So if you guys can get a place up there that's easier on you, I'm all for that. However, if by chance we want to do Warren, I'd like to figure it out pretty soon so I can talk with Greg (the owner) and see what we can do.

[Brownsfan82]

Originally Posted by killercactus

OK - that would be fine too. The Warren card store that we played at last time is also free and can accomodate lots of players and maps. I might even be able to get the owner to kick in some prize support too since I know him. Plus, if I tell him ahead of time that we're coming, I know he'll order a bunch of Wave 9 stuff and other Scape because he knows we'll buy it. He's always asking me when the next tournament is going to be so he can sell out his Heroscape stock.... The only thing I would have to do is run it by my wife that I'm actually hosting the tournament. I think she'd be OK with it, though.

I know that probably creates problems with terrain, especially for you Terry if you're going to be the one supplying most of it, to lug it all down here. So if you guys can get a place up there that's easier on you, I'm all for that. However, if by chance we want to do Warren, I'd like to figure it out pretty soon so I can talk with Greg (the owner) and see what we can do.

If we can I'd like to have it in lorain since it is closer to Terry the owner of the maps. I think the owner of the building won't care if we have it there if Bob would be there some of the time, if it fits his schedule.

If not, Warren sounds awesome! I should be able to help set up maps.

[killercactus]

Yeah - I'd hate Terry to have to lug 20-some maps worth of terrain down here an hour away. Wherever we can have it is cool with me.

Also, I've been spying on the Louisville thread and it looks like the Columbus guys are planning to go down there this year, which kinda sucks. Maybe we need to do a better advertising job....?

[Fedex worker]

I would like to come to a tournament like this as I live in Ohio, and is the really a card store in Warren with HeroScape stuff?

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by Fedex worker

I would like to come to a tournament like this as I live in Ohio, and is the really a card store in Warren with HeroScape stuff?

Yes - All American Cards and Comics. It's right in the square in downtown Warren. We played our last tournament there.

[Chip_Dip]

I agree with Agent Minivan and Killercactus in that the swiss style, fixed points, etc is the best way to go for NHSD. I didn't get to make it for last year's, but I had a lot of fun two years ago. It's just easier and it eliminates any confusion that may arise.

I may have to plan a small trip to Warren to check out that card store! Lol.