ACTA Tournament 2011 - Saturday April 9th

[Da Boss]

We could have a non-cheese fleet rule.

hmm and who decides what counts as competative and what is cheesy!?

re the second fleet idea - I ma concerned by the following:

Two opponents - Player One gets his Minbari fleet out, Two gets his Shadows out. Ahh hell says the Minbari player - In which case I am using my Centauri Fleet. Ah well in that case says Player Two I am getting my Minbari fleet out........etc

or just as bad:

Player one gets his EarthForce fleet out, player two gets out his Minbari, player One shudders and gets out his Shadows, Player two sighs - I only have the one fleet...........

Other possible options:
Restricted fleet choice either by ISD or faction - can be complicated due to people wanting to play the fleet they actually own - I might have 6 or so fleets but not everyone does.

Ban certain fleets - not fun if its your fleet that gets banned and hard to define what is to much - Shadows, Minbari, Centauri - where do you stop?

Pre-Tournament decleration of fleet choice so that everyone know possible opponents? Can't see any major issues as some people do it anyway.

thoughts?

 

[H]

well, we all know which fleets we mean..

.
..
...

The narn obviously.

 

[H]

ooh, how about a doubles tournament? round one is singles, then pairs are made from those results, so 1 and 10, 2 and 9, 3 and 8 etc.

 

[Da Boss]

I quite like that idea myself - anyone else?

 

[Clanger]

I like that idea, it has merit. Also something different.

Also people cannot pre plan teams. It would be a nice little unknown mix bag of fleets and ships.

 

[AdrianH]

We could have a non-cheese fleet rule.

hmm and who decides what counts as competative and what is cheesy!?

Especially since cheese is in the eye of the beholder. The same fleet can be cheesy, reasonable or cannon fodder depending on what it's fighting.

re the second fleet idea - I ma concerned by the following:

Two opponents - Player One gets his Minbari fleet out, Two gets his Shadows out. Ahh hell says the Minbari player - In which case I am using my Centauri Fleet. Ah well in that case says Player Two I am getting my Minbari fleet out........etc

or just as bad:

Player one gets his EarthForce fleet out, player two gets out his Minbari, player One shudders and gets out his Shadows, Player two sighs - I only have the one fleet...........

Shadows vs. Minbari is perfectly reasonable. In the first example, if I'm Player Two, if Player One switches from Minbari to Centauri then my answer is simply "Why?". :lol:

More generally: Allow second choice fleets in any individual game only if both players agree and only if they make their choices in a reasonable time. Otherwise they're stuck with their first choices.

The snag then is if one player wants to be cheesy and refuses to let his opponent switch to a better fleet, e.g. Player One gets his EarthForce fleet out, Player Two gets out his Minbari, Player One reaches for his Shadows and Player Two says "No". The answer to that one is Player One declares Shadows as his first choice and switches to EarthForce if Player Two has Narn and Player One wants to be nice.

Mixed Doubles for one game sounds interesting. How would movement work? Does every player roll initiative and move in turn, or does each team roll initiative and move in turn? I'd favour players rolling and moving, partly so we don't need to worry about whose initiative modifier is being used in a team of Shadows and pak'ma'ra, and partly to avoid "Me next" arguments within a team.

How would scores from the Mixed Doubles game contribute to the players' tournament scores? Both players in a team get the same score?

 

[Sting52jb]

I've actually never played a game of ACtA yet but I have all the rule books and have been going over them with the thoughts of running a campaign in the near future.

My question is, is the fleets really that unbalanced that some fleets just can not win against other fleets. Like an EA fleet can not win against shadows, or Narn can not beat the Centauri?

Thanks, hope you guys have a great tournament this spring i enjoy reading through your battle reports.

 

[Clanger]

Do not mind different fleets per game, but having 2 fleet choices per game would be a bit too much.

Also you have to think of people who are travelling who only have room for XX amount of ships.

 

[Mean Mutton]

I've actually never played a game of ACtA yet but I have all the rule books and have been going over them with the thoughts of running a campaign in the near future.

My question is, is the fleets really that unbalanced that some fleets just can not win against other fleets. Like an EA fleet can not win against shadows, or Narn can not beat the Centauri?

Thanks, hope you guys have a great tournament this spring i enjoy reading through your battle reports.

There can be a little bit of a rock-paper-scissors thing with some of the fleets, but at least in my group there are a few people who suggest that one fleet is "broken" whenever they lose to it.

 

[Da Boss]

I've actually never played a game of ACtA yet but I have all the rule books and have been going over them with the thoughts of running a campaign in the near future.

My question is, is the fleets really that unbalanced that some fleets just can not win against other fleets. Like an EA fleet can not win against shadows, or Narn can not beat the Centauri?

Thanks, hope you guys have a great tournament this spring i enjoy reading through your battle reports.

Like any other game I think there are bad match ups - especially when you factor in things like ship number restrictions. In the main I feel most fleets are well balanced but there are some nasty tournament match ups esp in low level games

Drazi versus Shadows is horrible for the Drazi
Earth versus Minbari can be little fun for EA - conversely a game where Minbari stealth can be extremely one sided - Ask Kenny and Hiffano.

Vree in high level games are extremely brutal, especially if they stick together and lurk in asteroid fields..........

 

[Democratus]

Spring, eh?

I'll have to check my calandar...and the geology reports. Stupid volcanoes!

 

[Digger]

@ Democratus - Cool - Does that mean I can have my tape measure back! :lol:

Only kidding, it would be good to see you over again!

 

[Da Boss]

Several people have suggested to me using my Dilgar War pack for a themed event - I had previosuly considered but after the Darkness Rising one did not work I was concerned that basing a tournament around a fan made pack put people off?

What were peoples thoughts on this?

Obviously the pack was not as fully playtested as offical products but even in those there are occassional issues...... It could be good fun?

all responses and thoughts appreciated

thanks

 

[Burger]

Personally I prefer to stick to the main rules, for a tournament. Special scenarios sure! But for the actual rules and ships... the official ones have been balanced and playtested more, and we all know what is what. Fan made ships would give significant disadvantage to players who haven't used that supplement before.

 

[AdrianH]

I agree. Another point is, what about those players whose fleets aren't in the supplement, e.g. Shadows, ISA, Minbari?

 

[H]

Burger said " the official ones have been balanced and playtested more"

as I am not allowed to be sarcastic, someone take up the mantle PLEASE ;-)


Adrian said "Another point is, what about those players whose fleets aren't in the supplement, e.g. Shadows, ISA, Minbari"

less cheese?

seriously though, happy to do scenarios, but best to stick to official ships, as much as I fancy trying out the hyach. The dilgar war event run at aldershot was great fun, and I had some awesome battles using stock vessels.

 

[Burger]

Burger said " the official ones have been balanced and playtested more"

as I am not allowed to be sarcastic, someone take up the mantle PLEASE ;-)

Ah, I was relying on your anti-sarcasm ban still being in force 8)
I said more... which is a relative term :lol:

 

[Shut Up Hippie!]

Count me in Charles, though will probably be attending on my own as the warlords now play 'fantasy nonsense' instead of ACTA so I have upped sticks and now go to a new club in stafford now who play FOW (which is awesome by the way)

New club have also started palying Firestorm Armada - which I haven't yet tried.

 

[H]

yup, fantasy nonsense all the way here too. I do know a FOW club and I should go and batter some people with my paras, just don't seem to have sundays free though :-(
my LGS doesn't do much wargaming anyway (and smells funny) though the new shop in st helens does firestorm.

 

[Digger]

Having play Firestorm Armada at Gaelcon, it is very good.

Mongoose have a lot to live up to if they want to improve on it!