FeedBack and thank you's for 2016

[dok]

I don't know if that stuff got recorded, outside of the main event.

Here's all I know off-hand:

ISB3's main event army: Cutters x4, Q10, Elthale, Zetacron

Infectedsloth's Reverse Draft winning army: Raelin, Blade Gruts x2, Ornak, Brunak, Mindflayer, MBS, Nerak, Marcu, Isamu

Major Q23's Utgar/Overall General Wars winner: Phantom Knights x4, Mezzodemons x4, Hydra

My Jandar GW winner: 4th Mass x5, Nilfhiem, Drake (I)

[Matthias Maccabeus]

I also want to say thanks to @fomox . I really needed a break this year. The Gen Con organizers are very frustrating to work with, very very frustrating and with the new job it wasn't something I really wanted to deal with so props to Fomox for stepping up.

For many years I played heroscape competitively. About the time the Nebraska Crew took over Gen Con I stopped (plus winning the main event when you are in charge seems a bit fishy). I love heroscape, I freakin love it but was tired of seeing the same stuff over, and over again. I mean I spent 5+ years proving melee could hang w range but I wanted to play spiders, Chain fighters etc. Reverse the Whip helped make this happen and I am ecstatic that people are starting to understand that heroscape is so much more than 4th Mass x 312452. I am delighted to hear the above comments about RtW and what it's all about. We (the Nebraska Scapers) have tried really hard to shake things up. It's not as easy as you think when there are no new units for 5 years. We didn't want somebody new coming and losing to 4th, Vydar pods, Stinger pods, etc and then going home saying heroscape is lame. Heroscape is about so much more than that.

It's about that one time in a team tourney when Fomox and I were losing but my MFM mind controlled the opponent's Q10 and lava dunked him. It's about the time 16 Chainfighters squared of with a mob of zombies and lived to tell the tale. It's about the time that Grimnak and company ate 1343 trons for breakfast one morning. It's about the time Arkmer single handedly destroyed 2 squads of my knights. It's about the community and we also happen to have an awesome game we can play together. Minus one or two people the heroscape community is by far THE best community I have ever had the privilege of being apart of. That speaks volumes about all of you.

We very much appreciate your feedback and will also try to incorporate it into next years events. Thanks so much fellas for just being plain awesome people.

[Tornado]

Wish I could have witnessed that chain-fighter army.

Easily my all time favorite build(ironically my second fav was my 24 Zombies), though your buckets of dice Heroe's Only build that I rode to second place one year(until getting crushed by Silver Surfer) was pretty sweet.

[happyjosiah]

Great fun as always!

Really think we need to bring the point values down on the team event. Most of the games went to time. Not going to get into a full vs. partial argument, but either method creates some end-of-game gaminess that I don't really enjoy.

We won the event for the second year in a row, so this isn't sour grapes or anything. Just a suggestion.

[Tornado]

What did you run?

[gamjuven]

Originally Posted by Tornado

What did you run?

We ran total cheese. Q9, rats x2, otonashi, isamu, kaemon awa with AE, krav, laglor, raelin I believe?

I will also second the wish to keep the team total lower. Nobody likes to count up points at the end to see who wins, even more so when it's full card scoring that can be very disheartening when you get nothing from putting 3 wounds on Q9.

[Tornado]

Cheese indeed.

What is the best way to eliminate cheese?

I suppose that is the age old question.

[dok]

Originally Posted by Tornado

Cheese indeed.

What is the best way to eliminate cheese?

I suppose that is the age old question.

Any format that creates the possibility you will have to play against the stuff you brought.

[Tornado]

So RtW or some sort of draft?

[Dysole]

Originally Posted by Tornado

So RtW or some sort of draft?

RtW, alternating RtW, draft (any variant), Take 2 (any variant), kevindola's Betrayal From Within (which kind of does and doesn't simultaneously) are the ones that came to mind.

Arguably something that restricts (e.g., B and lower) or something with preset armies would also prevent the cheese but they are less appealing for Gencon formats.

~Dysole, observationally

[Tornado]

Are your secondary suggestions even feasible?

The average person does not know rankings and listing pre-set armies is prohibitive.

I just wish there was a way to reward fun armies.

Anyways, thanks Dysole. I always appreciate your insight.

~Tornado - Wondering if he used the 'big words' right.
(Originally had insight as incite, yeah not right)

[dok]

Originally Posted by Tornado

I just wish there was a way to reward fun armies.

"Rewards" is hard, because as soon as you start to actually reward the weaker armies, you encourage people to come with Hive, Ornak, Acolarh, Hatamoto, and Rechets. Playing those sorts of armies is not fun for me, personally - it kind of takes away a lot of the strategy of the game.

The best you can do is split the difference and make it not a benefit at all to play cheese.

--

Matthias's objection to take 2, as I understand it, is that you can bring cheese and still do well, and there was no real incentive to bring weird things. Now, there isn't much of an incentive to bring cheese in take 2, but some people will do so just to ensure they could play one of their two armies in every game without being at a disadvantage, just because they are unsure about playing other stuff.

I totally get that, and honestly I enjoy the weird mix of armies we got in the main event this year (although I'd probably be singing a different tune if I'd gone up against the 4th Mass army or the Mezzo/Raelin/Kaemon army). But Reverse Draft delivers here where take 2 doesn't, because if your army is weaker then your opponent's, your army still gets played. It just means your opponent's army gets gutted. This is why I've flipped from pushing take 2 to pushing reverse draft (although I'd still really really like to have take 2 as a side event at Gencon).

kevindola's original pod draft format also does this. The army each player brings is split into two pods, and the players draft two pods from the four before each game in a 1-2-1 snake draft. Since everything gets played, you can bring the wackiest stuff out there and it's still getting used every game.

When we ran pod draft online, we had each person bring three pods. This meant something you brought always got played, but it was possible for it to be three of your opponent's pods and just one of yours.