Playing without mixed armies.

[keglo]

I was thinking that I would like to try some games where you pick a general and then only draft/choose units that actually serve that general. So if your playing say, a two player game, I would, for example, have an all Ullar army vs. an all Utgar army. This seems to me like it would be quite fun. Do any of you do this? Or do you always just pick random armies.

[Dread Pirate Fooflesnort]

I have never officialy played this way, but a lot of the time when my friends and I play we use armies from only one general anyway.

[Raudulfr Shieldcrusher]

We play this way about 50% of the time.

Usually we put one of each Valkyrie die in a dice bag and roll the 20-sided to determine pick order. First guy picks and can take the army he picks, or throw the die back in and picks again, but then you have to keep the second pick. Then the second guy goes and so on.

If we only have two players. Highest roll picks whatever general he wants and then the other player picks.

[Dumb Dwarf]

We do it as a drafting style. I like it alright, but you lose out on a lot of synergies possible. Roman Leggos and MBS for example. Plus if a person takes Utgar, they have a lot more options for their army then the person running Einar. As more units come out, this is less of a problem, but as of right now, if someone picks a certain General you can be 60% sure what they are going to run. 90% if you get two choices.

I found with a two player game, the best is to do it like a draft. 1st picks one general, 2nd picks 2, and 1st finishes with last General.

[Raudulfr Shieldcrusher]

Originally Posted by Dumb Dwarf

I found with a two player game, the best is to do it like a draft. 1st picks one general, 2nd picks 2, and 1st finishes with last General.

I'm might have to try that.

[keglo]

I like the way you both do it. I just figured it would be fun, especially from a role playing the story sort of way. Not that I'm really a role player.

Originally Posted by Dumb Dwarf

I found with a two player game, the best is to do it like a draft. 1st picks one general, 2nd picks 2, and 1st finishes with last General.

Nice, I never really though about it that way, but choosing a couple of general each sounds like a good idea. It would be the same principle, just tow allied generals and their armies fight two enemy generals and their armies, and would give you much more drafting options. You guys rock!

[grizz]

I would, for example, have an all Ullar army vs. an all Utgar army. This seems to me like it would be quite fun. Do any of you do this? Or do you always just pick random armies.

We almost always play this way.

[Faustus]

We play by general a lot, even with 4 or 5 players. Usually at least once or twice per game day. Sometimes we roll to determine draft order (highest roll picks first general, second highest picks the next general, etc.) This actually saves time b/c then we all construct our armies at once.

My group is not competitive, so people will usually just pick the units they want to play with rather than build the same uber powerful utgar army every time.

Sometimes we have the loser of the last game pick first and so on, so that the winner of the last game picks last. This allows the loser to start constructing their army, too (and not get too bored!)

[RageAngel]

Now that I have a much larger collection we might do this as my one brother takes forever in drafts. Limiting him to one faction could speed things up a bit.

[Junge Roman]

It's faster to build 1 general armies, so we usually do that at least once per session. The best case game day for me is usually:

Game 1, 300 - 500 pts depending on time estimate: Premade armies (by me the host) which are usually themed or balanced in some way.

Game 2, ~600 pts: 1 general armies made simultaneously on the spot.

Game 3, ~400 pts: freeform draft.

If we get to more than 3 games, we take a poll to see what people want to do. I find fun in all the variants.

[Faustus]

Originally Posted by Junge Roman

It's faster to build 1 general armies, so we usually do that at least once per session. The best case game day for me is usually:

Game 1, 300 - 500 pts depending on time estimate: Premade armies (by me the host) which are usually themed or balanced in some way.

Game 2, ~600 pts: 1 general armies made simultaneously on the spot.

Game 3, ~400 pts: freeform draft.

If we get to more than 3 games, we take a poll to see what people want to do. I find fun in all the variants.

Wow, that sounds exactly like my game days! I'm the only one in my group who buys product, so I always host, build the map, and well, I pretty much follow the same format you do...

[LilMoochie]

We always draft by General. It solves the problem of long draft times when playing with people who aren't really well-versed in the game. (We also bypass the draft all together and just pick armies individually) Have you ever seen someone's eyes glaze over when you tell them to draft and you give them a huge stack of cards? I also like the added flavor of having units that fight for the same General.

An added benefit is that the "overused" units are less drafted because "killer combos" are not as common (Raelin&Krav, Raelin+Q9, etc) I admit that it limits a lot of the potential combinations but since I have piles of units I haven't played with yet I'm not terribly concerned.