Draft-Pool Strategy

[Elginb]

Even though I didn't get to attend the Colorado drafting tournament, I'm eager to get a shot at trying one. So far, most versions of a drafting tournament involve each player bring an army-pool that they mix with their opponent's army-pool, with each player taking turns drafting from the larger army-pool. This has got me thinking about strategies for building army-pools that you'd bring to the tournament. Do you want to bring an army-pool with lots of synergistic units? Or should you bring army-pools with units that are well-rounded on their own? Should you bring high quality units? Or would it be better to bring low quality units? How would an army-pool full of counter-punchers fair? Anyway, I'd just like to open up a discussion about the best way to build an army-pool for a drafting tournament.

Obviously, some of the strategy would depend on what specific drafting rules were in play, but I suspect that we could abstract some common strategies that could be used in a wide variety of circumstances. But for the sake of starting the discussion, let's imagine we're building a 1000 point army-pool and drafting to 520 point armies. The tournament is kill 'em all with normal glyphs and treasure glyphs mixed into the maps.

[Filthy the Clown]

Draft Codex v.1.0 (some basic stuff, but hey, it is brainstorming, man):

1. Bring units that you are comfortable using, and that you are comfortable being used against you.
2. Research the Books to become familiar with as many units as possible. Take notes, and keep a small notebook/cheat sheet that you can take with you. It might be worth printing off some of the synergy charts.
3. Study the maps that will be used at said event, and what units will shine on those maps.
4. Expect to get screwed over occasionally. Learn to adapt quickly, and to make the best with what you have. Familiarize yourself with basic strategy and proven tactics.
5. If there is a drafting dispute, resolve it with the d20.

[yagyuninja]

I guess the first thing that pops up to me is that I want to have a counter in my pool to anything I bring that is overly strong. I can't count on my opponent to provide that, and if they win a coin toss to draft some powerhouse (that I provided) first, that sucks.

[dok]

Originally Posted by yagyuninja

I guess the first thing that pops up to me is that I want to have a counter in my pool to anything I bring that is overly strong. I can't count on my opponent to provide that, and if they win a coin toss to draft some powerhouse (that I provided) first, that sucks.

I agree with this. It gets tricky if your counter needs a counter, although some counters, like Omnicron Repulsors, aren't very strong except as counters.

The easiest path, I think, is to try to place your entire draft pool in a fairly tight power ranking range. At the tournament last weekend, everything in my pool except for Otonashi and the Warden was between a B- and a B+. (The Black Wyrmlings aren't ranked yet, but I'm going to go ahead and pencil them in for a B+.) So there wasn't one obvious winning pick (or losing pick) if you got the first shot at the figures I brought. Similarly, in the zombie pool I just posted (the first reasonably well-thought out pool I've made since that one) everything in the whole pool is a B+ except Laglor (A, but I think he's overrated) and Nakitas (B, and they get synergy with Laglor).

On the flip side, Wild_Imagination got his Raelin taken away from him basically every time he lost the initial d20. I probably wouldn't bring Raelin unless I was also bringing 4th Mass or rats or something similarly nasty.

The big thing, really, is to make sure that your draft pool doesn't have one clear dominant option. If it does, you might not be the one who gets it. As long as you avoid that, you can focus on having figures that you know how to play well (hopefully, better than your potential opponents), and perhaps throwing in some figures that you like to use for counterdrafting.

[ollie]

[Disclaimer: I haven't done this for real yet, so this is all theory at the moment.]

I think the most interesting strategy is to bring a mix of units that you think are generally underrated (or at least you think you can play them better than their perceived strength) and units that you think are overrated (or at least you think you can do better against them than their perceived strength).

I haven't quite worked out what units fall into these categories for me. I'll get back to you in November.

[lefton4ya]

All your cards could be multiples of one squad- even all zombies, vipers, or any kyrie or calvary squad! Rely on your opponent for heroes. This would be an interesting strategy.

[kolakoski]

Originally Posted by lefton4ya

All your cards could be multiples of one squad- even all zombies, vipers, or any kyrie or calvary squad! Rely on your opponent for heroes. This would be an interesting strategy.

I do just the opposite. My pool is all heroes, with 2 120s, 2 100s, 2 80s, etc., plus Theracus, Eldgrim and Isamu (and Wyrmlings, probably), such that I am never without options. If I want to draft squads, I'll draft them from my opponent's pool.

[Rich10]

I have only started doing "Draft-Pools", but I try to find the strongest figure/squad in the pool that doesn't have a good counter. Then I try to make the rest of my army with figures/squads that either support my main figure/squad or counters the figures that my opponent is likely to take.

[Matthias Maccabeus]

What nobody has mentioned (at least in my feeble attempt to look) and I've only played in one draft tourney and it wasn't against the rules, I would bring 2 of the uniques you really wanted. For example my draft pool would look like -

Knights x 10 - 700
Sir Gilbert x 2 - 910
Eldgrim x 2 - 970
Isamu x 2 - 990
Oto - 1000

This way I'm guaranteed to get my knights, Gilbert, Eldgrim, and Isamu.

[dok]

Originally Posted by ollie

I think the most interesting strategy is to bring a mix of units that you think are generally underrated (or at least you think you can play them better than their perceived strength) and units that you think are overrated (or at least you think you can do better against them than their perceived strength).

There's no question that "figures you can play better than their perceived strength" is a good way to go. "Figures you think you play better than your expected opponents" is a similar approach.

I toyed with throwing some figures that I consider overrated in my pool, but after putting in a couple army cores and some counterdraft figures, I was already out of room.

Originally Posted by kolakoski

I do just the opposite. My pool is all heroes, If I want to draft squads, I'll draft them from my opponent's pool.

Sure, you can go all-hero, or all-squad, or all-melee, or all range, or all unique, or all common. You can even go "all-suck" and rely on your opponent's pool for everything (unless, of course, they also go "all-suck"). But none of these, in and of themselves, are a strategy for success. "I'll go all-hero because I think I'm better at OM management than most people and I want to push the armies toward OM-intensive hodgepodges" is a strategy, but it's the part after the "because" that's the strategy, not the part before it.

Originally Posted by kolakoski

with 2 120s, 2 100s, 2 80s, etc., plus Theracus, Eldgrim and Isamu (and Wyrmlings, probably), such that I am never without options.

This is only helpful to a degree. I had a wide point spread in my draft pool, but it helped my opponent top off his army about as often as it helped me. I'm increasingly of the opinion that having a range of filler options and a spread of different point options isn't that important in a pooled draft event.

Originally Posted by Rich10

I have only started doing "Draft-Pools", but I try to find the strongest figure/squad in the pool that doesn't have a good counter. Then I try to make the rest of my army with figures/squads that either support my main figure/squad or counters the figures that my opponent is likely to take.

This all makes sense, and this further supports the idea that you shouldn't make a draft pool where one card is clearly the dominant option.

[killercactus]

I want to do some experimenting on pools that try to force your opponent into something. For instance, my A+ Hodgepodge pool has Q9, the Krav, and Raelin. If the first player drafts Raelin, the 2nd player will draft Q9/Krav nearly everytime because they don't want to give up the Q9/Raelin or Krav/Raelin combo. It's weird because it can work against you too, but it's interesting enough for me to start thinking along those lines.

[kolakoski]

Originally Posted by Rich10

I have only started doing "Draft-Pools", but I try to find the strongest figure/squad in the pool that doesn't have a good counter. Then I try to make the rest of my army with figures/squads that either support my main figure/squad or counters the figures that my opponent is likely to take.

Originally Posted by killercactus

I want to do some experimenting on pools that try to force your opponent into something. For instance, my A+ Hodgepodge pool has Q9, the Krav, and Raelin. If the first player drafts Raelin, the 2nd player will draft Q9/Krav nearly everytime because they don't want to give up the Q9/Raelin or Krav/Raelin combo. It's weird because it can work against you too, but it's interesting enough for me to start thinking along those lines.

So, if I understand all this, a viable strategy might be to have Q9, Krav, Raelin, and Deathreavers, and theur counters, Heavy Gruts, Grimnak and Nerak in the same pool?