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Old March 18th, 2011, 11:43 AM
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Exhaustive List of Ways to Play

Forgive me if there is a similar list posted anywhere, but I couldn’t find one. I am trying to put together a list of all the various tournament structures and ways to play. I am not talking about variants on the game, jut different formats. Ideally, I would like to put together some quick reference card so before I sit down to play, I can look down the list and pick out how I want to do it. Perhaps even some kind of randomizer to help decide. But before I can do that, I need your help to make this list complete. Thanks!

    • Army Creation
      • Pre-made Armies
        • Generally the restriction is a point total, 500 is usually standard. Players do not see each other’s armies while creating their own.
        • Sideboarding
          • True Sideboard
            • Bring a higher total of points than the allowed amount and modify your army from that pool before each round. (e.g., players bring up to 700 total points and make a 500 point army out of it before each round)
          • Reinforcements
            • Some formats may allow units to be added to a prebuilt army later. GenCon has done this in the main event by allowing players who advance to day two of the tournament to add a random number of additional points on the second day.
          • Terrain-Specific
            • Some formats allow players to add specific units based on the map being played (e.g., Dzu-Teh on Tundra Maps)
          • Freebies
            • Some formats allow for a small pool of additional units that can be added in before each round based on the opponent you are facing, generally regardless of point cost.
        • Worst Army
          • You bring the worst army you can make. Before each game, you and your opponent swap armies and try to win with the bad army they have given you. Restrictions generally include:
            • No Marro Hive
            • No Rechets without Iskra
            • No Kato Katsuro (sometimes)
            • No Spartacus (sometimes)
        • Legacy Format
        • Melee Only
          • No unit may be put in an army if it has a range of more than one or a ranged special attack.
        • No A+ and/or A Rated Units Allowed
          • This refers to the Heroscape power rankings and disallows some of the generally accepted most powerful units.
        • Living Banned List
          • This takes place over several tournaments. Units from the winning army are banned from play, forcing players to continue to use different, and often worse, units each tournament.
        • General Wars
          • Armies must consist of units from only one general.
          • Conversely, there can be a “rainbow” restriction where your army must contain units from 3 generals or even more.
        • Heroes Only
          • Self-explanatory
        • Master Set Figures Only
          • Generally used in a draft format.
      • Balancing formats
        • Reverse the Whip
          • In the first part of the tournament, you play the army you brought. In the second part, you and your opponent trade.
          • Sometimes, you will simply roll before each match to see whether you keep your own army or trade.
        • Halved Armies
          • You bring two armies, each worth half the value of the point total (e.g., two 250 point armies for a 500 point tournament). You will select one of your opponent’s armies and he/she will select one of yours. Your army will be comprised of half units you brought, and half your opponent brought.
      • Draft
        • Full Army Draft
          • At the start of a tournament, all armies are placed on a table. Players choose an army from the table that they would like to play for the whole day. Generally, the order of selection is either random or takes place part way through the tournament with losing records choosing first.
        • Pooled Draft
          • Before each round, the two opponents pool their armies together, and draft from that. Generally, players bring a higher point total than the point limit for the actual army.
        • Pure Draft
          • Rarely used in tournaments due to the massive amount of figures it requires, players may draft from a pool of every available unit. Best used for games at home.
        • Draft Deck
          • A drafting format that allows players to draft from a pool of randomly selected army cards. This can be done by simply dealing a set number of random cards to each player, but there is a more sophisticated version here: http://www.heroscapers.com/community...ad.php?t=29542
        • Auction Draft
          • Format in which units or some sets of units are auctioned off to bidders, each of whom has some amount of "money" with which to bid.
          • Killercactus has come up with an especially complex and interesting method. Here's a link to it.
    • Game Rules
      • Starting zones
        • 24-hex limit is the usual standard, but more or less adds interesting variance. Higher limits strengthen squads, lower limits strengthen heroes.
      • Heat of Battle
        • Instead of starting in a given zone, players take turns placing units anywhere on the board. Restrictions generally include:
          • Cannot be placed on a glyph
          • Cannot be placed adjacent to opposing figures (sometimes)
          • Squads must be placed adjacent to each other (rarely)
      • Slugfest
        • Units with a range of 1 receive an additional attack die when making a normal adjacent attack.
      • Battle Above Cursed Lands
        • Non-flying units roll lava field damage at the end of each round.
      • Winds
        • Units may not fly.
      • Melee Fog
        • All range numbers are reduced by half (rounded down).
      • Alternate Win Conditions
        • It is usually assumed that a player wins the game by killing all his opponent’s units (or being closer to that goal when time runs out), but this is not always the only way to win. Here are some of the most common other ways to win:
          • Capture the Flag
            • A player can also win by getting a figure onto their opponent’s flag (usually a glyph). Usually, the figure is required to be unengaged as well.
          • Capture the Treasure
            • Kind of a mobile capture the flag. A hero is given a treasure glyph (Brandar) to represent the flag. You win by having a hero pick up your opponent’s treasure or by getting an unengaged squad figure on it.
          • Dragon’s Hoard
            • A player can also win if a dragon they control holds three treasure glyphs.
          • Round Limit
            • Usually used in scenarios like defending a castle, one side will win if they are not otherwise defeated after a set number of rounds, regardless of remaining figures.
          • Kill the General
            • Each player designates a hero to be their general. Kill your opponent’s general to win.
          • T-Glyph Tourney
            • Each round 2 T-glyphs are available. Winner keeps their T-Glyphs and goes on to play others who have a similar number of T-Glyphs. End of the day winner is whoever has the most T-Glyphs after X rounds.
Also keep in mind, it can be fun to do a randomization of these before each round. There have been tournaments, for example, where players roll before each round to see if they will play Capture The Flag, Heat of Battle, or Standard.

Looking for a way to get casual players involved in Heroscape? Do your opponents lack the interest or knowledge to build/draft their own armies? If so, check out Project 500!

Last edited by happyjosiah; March 22nd, 2011 at 09:41 AM. Reason: Adding stuff
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Old March 18th, 2011, 04:03 PM
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Re: Exhaustive List of Ways to Play

That's a great start. However, there are even MORE options. See my Draft Tournament - Options and Tips for TDs which breaks down just the pooled draft format, but also pay attention to the bottom of that thread, where it says the same decisions as any other tourney. Also, pay special attention to scoring and see ollie's Tournament Scoring Methods: A Census which has tons of options on how to score as well as run tournaments in general.

I almost created this exact thread myself by breaking down my thread even further and unrestricting it to only drafting. I may link my drafting thread to yours to give more options, or even pull some of the options here into my thread.

Last edited by lefton4ya; March 18th, 2011 at 04:12 PM.
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  #3  
Old March 18th, 2011, 04:18 PM
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Re: Exhaustive List of Ways to Play

I've never heard of a worst army format outlawing Kato or Spartacus. With their strong base stats, they look like a pretty good buy for the points when compared to Hatamoto.

I would say the draft formats are a subset of the balancing formats. Another variant of reverse the whip is where you bring an army or armies, and a random roll at the start of the game determines whether you play your army or your opponent's.

The most common sideboard is where you have a larger point total (say, 700) and you pick your army out of that total before each round.

The alternative win conditions list is really endless, but capture the treasure is worth mentioning. We've played "kill the general" (where you designate a single figure as the general; game over if that figure dies) and "capture the treasure" (put a treasure of Brandar on a hero of choice; game over if the other team picks it up or gets an unengaged squaddie on it) in Colorado.
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Old March 18th, 2011, 04:57 PM
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Re: Exhaustive List of Ways to Play

"General Wars" needn't be a single general; clancampbell ran a tournament where the players were required to use at least 100 points in each of three *different* generals.

Also I ran an event with one army fixed at each map & every round had 2 games, one against the map army and one controlling the map army; that type of thing might be part of a 'Scenario' section.

Also, just my , I would get rid of the 'other' subgroup and slide everything below it one tab stop to the left; I don't see how, intuitively, the ones below that word are different from the ones above.

My next event is a Grade restricted one, but it eliminates everything B+ and up, so you might want to expand that language a bit.

This is a valuable resource, happyjosiah, thanks for taking on this project and I look forward to seeing it get fleshed out.

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Last edited by Dad_Scaper; March 18th, 2011 at 04:59 PM. Reason: WTH? When did I rep happyjosiah before? I'll have to come back for this one...
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Old March 18th, 2011, 05:12 PM
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Re: Exhaustive List of Ways to Play

Here are a few we've done:

Jexik's Shake-up - you roll before each round, all players then play a game of either HoB, CTF, or standard Kill 'Em All (same army each round, just a different variant each time).

Capture the Flag (CTF) - either a single Glyph placed in/near the enemy's start zone--must control it unopposed at the end of a round. Or, a glyph that must be placed on a unit's Army Card and "carried" back to any space in your start zone.

T-Glyph Tourney - each round 2 T-glyphs are available. Winner keeps their T-Glyphs and goes on to play others who have a similar number of T-Glyphs. End of the day winner is whoever has the most T-Glyphs after X rounds.

Melee Fog - All LOS and Range numbers are reduced by half (rounded down).

I'll keep thinking of other events. (Do you want Team Tourneys as well?)
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Old March 21st, 2011, 10:42 AM
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Re: Exhaustive List of Ways to Play

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!

I have updated the list above. I'd actually never heard of capture the treasure and it sounds pretty cool. I'd like to try that sometime.

I'm not really going into tons of detail on the exact structure of each way to play. In drafting especially, I'm not getting into the who goes first, two picks in a row, etc. that has to be figure out. It's more of a list just to remind me "here's a way to play" and if I need more detail, I can look it up on one of the excellent threads like lefton4ya listed.

Looking for a way to get casual players involved in Heroscape? Do your opponents lack the interest or knowledge to build/draft their own armies? If so, check out Project 500!
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Old March 21st, 2011, 10:52 AM
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Re: Exhaustive List of Ways to Play

..... and then there's my crazy Army Auction format, which no one will ever use but me, but which totally rocks the house.

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Old March 21st, 2011, 11:18 AM
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Re: Exhaustive List of Ways to Play

Well met!

You might incorporate the following into your list:

http://www.heroscapers.com/community...ad.php?t=26845
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Old March 21st, 2011, 11:56 AM
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Re: Exhaustive List of Ways to Play

Quote:
Originally Posted by kolakoski View Post
Well met!

You might incorporate the following into your list:

http://www.heroscapers.com/community...ad.php?t=26845
I'm not sure about this. It seems like almost a completely different way to play. I actually really like the Quests of Heroscape, for example, but I'm not sure that really fits here...

Looking for a way to get casual players involved in Heroscape? Do your opponents lack the interest or knowledge to build/draft their own armies? If so, check out Project 500!
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Old March 21st, 2011, 11:47 AM
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Re: Exhaustive List of Ways to Play

Quote:
Originally Posted by killercactus View Post
..... and then there's my crazy Army Auction format, which no one will ever use but me, but which totally rocks the house.
I'll at least put in a link to it up there if you have one, though it's pretty tough to even give a one sentence summary of it.

Looking for a way to get casual players involved in Heroscape? Do your opponents lack the interest or knowledge to build/draft their own armies? If so, check out Project 500!
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Old March 21st, 2011, 11:51 AM
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Re: Exhaustive List of Ways to Play

Quote:
Originally Posted by happyjosiah View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by killercactus View Post
..... and then there's my crazy Army Auction format, which no one will ever use but me, but which totally rocks the house.
I'll at least put in a link to it up there if you have one, though it's pretty tough to even give a one sentence summary of it.
Auctions are similar to drafts. I think you will find you can capture a lot more just by broadening your wording slightly, happyjosiah.

"Auction formats: Formats in which units or some sets of units are auctioned off to bidders, each of whom has some amount of "money" with which to bid."

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Old March 21st, 2011, 02:45 PM
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Re: Exhaustive List of Ways to Play

Quote:
Originally Posted by happyjosiah View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by killercactus View Post
..... and then there's my crazy Army Auction format, which no one will ever use but me, but which totally rocks the house.
I'll at least put in a link to it up there if you have one, though it's pretty tough to even give a one sentence summary of it.
Here's a link to it. I think Dad_Scaper's description works just fine.

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