Heroscape League Brainstorming

[Onacara]

As many of you may or may not know I am the President of NESA (North Eastern Scapers Association). We are made up of all of the folks who run and play in Heroscape Tournaments in the North East. While we were working on getting NESA organized we made sure that we did not fall into the "trap" of calling ourselves a league...because a league is something totally different. I have seen several "leagues" on here but they too are more like a club or an association than a league.

All of this did get me thinking as to how a Heroscape League would/could run. Please provide any ideas you have on what should or shouldn't be included.


Here are some of my basic thoughts

1-Schedule Now while it is great if everyone in the league could get together once or twice a month to play all in the same place this is not a reality. So to combat this what you would do is make the schedule for the entire season and then leave it up to the individual "teams" to arrange the play of their games. The schedule would also need to include the map each game is to be played on. Set a deadline for people to finish their schedule by and then plan a live game day for the playoffs.

2-Roster Rather than have everyone pick an army to play for each game, have each team draft a roster at the beginning of the season. This can also be done a number of ways...
Serpentine draft where you draw numbers out of a hat and then they guy who puls #1 selects first and then at the end of the first round the guy who picked last goes first and then so on and so on till everyone is gone (Common would be drafted in groups of 3). With this style noone will have the same figs as anyone else You can also allow people to make trades during the season if you wanted.
Point Draft Allocate X number of points to each team and let them take whoever they want before the season as long as they do not go over that point amount but then that is it ...they cannot trade during the season(see exception below) and would have to build all of their armies out of their pool/roster of players.


Exception: If new units come out during the season players would be able to take the new figures but would have to then cut the equal point total from their roster.

There can also be limitations put on how many times you can use a certain figure during the season if you don't want someone just playing the same army over and over again.



Would love to see what we can come up with and then hopefully some people can try it out and let us know how it works out.



(oh if this belongs somewhere else please move it...I sat here for 10 minutes wondering where it should actually go)

[Onion Knight]

Ona, (can I call you Ona?) when I saw that you put together NESA I thought that it was a great idea. I'm interested in how organizing it is going. How many members are you up to? What kind of hurdles have you gone through? And how exactly did you decide on the territory NESA covers? I ask because I've fiddled with the idea of of starting a South Eastern 'Scapers Association. If I did, it would probably be advantageous for it to run similarly to NESA. Who knows, perhaps a National 'Scapers Association isn't far away?
I was intending on PM-ing you about this, but this thread kinda gave me the opportunity to ask.

Regarding you ideas (and back on topic)...

I think that these are really interesting ideas. While I am most intrigued by the Serpentine Draft idea, and think that it would be most fun, I'd be worried that people who drafted poorly would flake off during the season, but I don't know. The point draft seems to be the best route. It also may depend on how many groups within NESA exist.

How's that for no help?

[Onacara]

Originally Posted by Onion Knight

Ona, (can I call you Ona?) when I saw that you put together NESA I thought that it was a great idea. I'm interested in how organizing it is going. How many members are you up to? What kind of hurdles have you gone through? And how exactly did you decide on the territory NESA covers? I ask because I've fiddled with the idea of of starting a South Eastern 'Scapers Association. If I did, it would probably be advantageous for it to run similarly to NESA. Who knows, perhaps a National 'Scapers Association isn't far away?
I was intending on PM-ing you about this, but this thread kinda gave me the opportunity to ask.

Regarding you ideas (and back on topic)...

I think that these are really interesting ideas. While I am most intrigued by the Serpentine Draft idea, and think that it would be most fun, I'd be worried that people who drafted poorly would flake off during the season, but I don't know. The point draft seems to be the best route. It also may depend on how many groups within NESA exist.

How's that for no help?

I would be happy to talk to you about about setting up a NESA like set-up for your area. Send me a PM or you can usually get me on AIM (MESAmailbox)

[IAmBatman]

I'd thought about something like this before and how fun it'd be to actually do it (in the dream world where I had people who'd actually play me regularly). I think fantasy football might actually be a really fun model for this type of thing - with the ability to change your army lineup between every game and a community pool of free agents, as well as the ability to trade. That might help members who feel like they got the raw end of the draft stay interested and competitive. And for players who'd otherwise get tired of playing the same armies week in and week out, it'd provide a little variety.
I think in drawing up schedules, it'd make sense for, like major sports schedules, for everyone to play half their games at "home" (which in this case might mean, literally, their house). Home would also mean a specific map, though, which would be like their "home" map. Players would be able to select their home map from a pool of tournament worthy maps and then would have the ability to assemble their armies with the advantages and disadvantages of their "home field" in mind.
They would also, of course, play half their schedule "on the road" touring various other tournament worthy maps.
I think something like that could be killer fun. Makes me wish I were in the Northeast!