Experience With Clash of Kings Tournament Tweaks

Earlier in the month I ran a tournament in Wellington (New Zealand, for my overseas readers) that utilised the tweaks in the tournament pack for Clash of Kings.

At the outset, I think it is important to note that our local community did not have the "rage" against flyers, allies and individual models that the tournament tweaks were seeking to address. So we were probably a "control" for the tweaks.

The event was four rounds, 2000 points with tables with 8-10 terrain pieces on them. Scenarios used were Dominate, Invade, Loot and Pillage (so not the two new scenarios). The rest of the tweaks were used.

You can find the lists and results by searching back through the blogroll - both are on the second page.

So how did we find them?

Well I asked for feedback and here is the collated opinion:

• Changes to Flyers – Good/Bad? Did it impact your game markedly - Had an impact in that Flyers were less prevalent than in prior events. Expect this was uncertainty as to the effects but the change did alter army composition to a minor extent. The majority found that the actual in-game effects were minimal as people amended their tactics somewhat knowing that they couldn't just park then dash.

• Changes to Scenarios – limiting the impact of Individuals and War Engines, Movement limitations in Loot - Overwhelmingly the view was positive. The restrictions on control/claiming of objectives were seen as sensible while movement limitations in Loot were welcomed. Most people said that their use changed the outcome of at least one game.

• Restrictions on multiples of units, limits on allies, no magic artefacts for allies - Again the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. Wellington doesn't see a lot of Allies (hangover as a result of most of players being ex-WHFB) anyway. Less than 20% of the armies had them and they were not the normal suspects generally. Some discussion as to whether Artefacts below 25 points could be allowed for Allies but majority saw this as cleaner. Limit on spamming welcomed though to be far the only likely list change was a Goblin who wanted to bring 4 Rock Lobbas.

• “Downgrade” of Pharaoh - this was the one that provoked the most discussion. There was only one Empire of Dust and one Undead army at the event (previous event slightly larger had seen three EoD and two Undead). Two schools of thought - firstly, hurrah! Much needed as he was very strong especially in the hands of a good player. The second, was why single him out? The Dwarf Lord with Wings is also a handful. In the end he still proved to be very hard to kill. However he is seen as something whose existence limits the proliferation of shooting Hordes (our local meta is strong in EoD and Undead usually). Probably the most debated of the changes.

In the end the event was won by the Empire of Dust player who finished second at the previous event with the same list. I guess that gives a nice feedback point. The changes weren't game-breaking.

However after the event, the TO for the next event Call to Arms asked for a show of hands as to whether his Players Pack should be amended to include the tweaks. This was overwhelmingly positive. In the end that's probably the best feedback the Rules Committee can get.