The first weekend in July I am running Maelstrom VII for Warhammer 40k.
The purpose of the tournament is twofold; Firstly, it is to offer the local gaming community another year of what has been a very popular gaming event. This year the event has sold out attracting the full 30 participants. There are a mix of local and out of town gamers but of real note is the quality of the field. Around 80% of last year's NZ Masters field will be there so the event will be very competitive. The second reason is to trial a number of the scoring mechanisms, missions etc that I will be using for this year's Fields of Blood in September.
I am trialling a couple of new missions at the event. This gives me the opportunity to get feedback and iron out any flaws for future tournaments. The guys playing are very savvy and I know I'll get a heads-up should there be any conflicts, contradictions or anything that just plain doesn't work. In addition, I have introduced some new Special Rules into missions I've used before to mix things up a bit.
I have overhauled the Bonus Point scheme that I have been using for the past two-three years. My Gameplay scoring is 10 points for a win, 5 points for a draw and 0 points for a loss. On top of this there have been 5 standard actions that earn bonus points e.g. kill most expensive unit etc. I've done away with this and introduced Secret Mission cards (my inspiration being GWUK's Fantasy GT). Each player is issued with six Secret Mission cards at the beginning of the event. Each has a specific task on it e.g. Kill opposing HQ; Hold Terrain Feature in Deployment Zone etc. At the start of each game you select a mission as does your opponent. Neither of you know what the other's mission is. At the end of the game you reveal your secret mission. If you achieve yours while denying your opponent his then you get 5 bonus points; If you get yours and your opponent gets his then you get 2 bonus points each; and if you fail to achieve yours then you receive no bonus points.
The twist is that you surrender each card after it is played so you have a reducing number of options as the tournament progresses. This ups the meta-game somewhat. You can use easy to achieve missions to deny specific opponents/armies etc bonus points for instance or you can choose Special Missions that complement the main missions. I'm fascinated to see how it turns out and how the players utilise another tool in their arsenal.
For the first time I am allowing Grudge Matches in the First Round. But again there is a twist. Usually these are used to bunny hunt but at Maelstrom you can only challenge a player who is "better" than you. This is determined by utilising the rankings on www.rankingshq.com
Looking forward to the event and seeing how the players enjoy it.
I seem to recall telling you the WFB UKGT Secret Mission cards were a good idea ;)
ReplyDeleteGood to see you've brought the blog back to life as well.
Cheers Phil.
ReplyDeleteIn this case the Secret Missions don't directly affect the outcome of the battle whereas at UK Fantasy GT they did. Here they are an add-on.
For me the main attraction is the meta-game they provide.
Think someone is your main competition at the tournament then hold back your 'easy' secret mission :-)