Poll on format for 2014 tournament

[stockwellpete]

Until now the knock-out tournament (now called The Slitherine Trophy) has used the same format of allowing players to choose any army from any of the expansion packs for their participation in the tournament. The 2014 competition, which will start on September 1st, could use the same format or it could use the new idea that I have now come up with.

The new idea for the format is as follows . . .

Players can still choose any army they wish, but they can only use it once in the tournament (so if you use an Arab Conquest army in Round 1 you cannot use another Arab Conquest army of any description in the tournament again). Furthermore, players will not be required to disclose their chosen army prior to their match so everyone will go into each match "blind", as it were. I think this might spice the competition up quite a bit and maybe lead to a more open tournament.

[ianiow]

Excellent idea. Most players would choose a balanced army to counter all eventualities. However, there is an option to gamble and choose a 'one-trick' army and hope to overwhelm an opponent with a more advantageous troop type. Bring it on.

[Jonathan4290]

It is getting old seeing the same old super armies in competition . . .

[Londo]

There's a problem here though, in the way FOG classifies and sorts armies.

Let's say you're a fan of Macedonian-style armies. Well, in round 1 you take Seleucid, in round 2 Macedonian Successor, in round 3 Later Ptolemaic (Roman) and so on ...

You can take a series of very similar armies because they belong to different nations, resulting from the fragmentation of the Macedonian Empire after Alexander's death.

But if you're a Roman fan you're stuffed. You can't take more than one Roman army in the course of the competition, even though there is far more difference between Mid-Republican Roman and Foederate Roman than there is between Macedonian Successor and Ptolemaic.

So I'm voting against this.

And in response to Jonathan4290 ... I don't think this solves the 'super army' problem. The top players will simply use a rotation of the same set of armies. Seleucid, Latin Greece Achaia, Arab Conquest, Dailami, Palmyran and so on.

The advantage of the way the competition was set up previously is that if you choose an unbalanced army - a "one-trick" army like Ian called it - you're likely to run around sooner or later. Take Swiss, fine, but sooner or later you'll hit an MF or cavalry army in close terrain and your Swiss will become Swiss cheese. The current format encourages balanced armies - as it should be.

[stockwellpete]

I think you make a fair point, Paul, but I am not sure if it is decisive in terms of undermining the new idea. I think three seasons in a row with the same format is probably long enough and that new options are worth considering at that point. Not that I am in favour of making changes just for the sake of it or fixing things that aren't broken. From an organisers' point of view the main purpose behind this is to try and make the tournament more open so less skilful players have a chance to "ambush" the better players so that we get some newer names in the latter stages of the tournament. This worked quite well when the tournament was handicapped a couple of years ago and it only took a couple of shock results to really open the tournament out.

I think there are a number of ways of calibrating the competition with the new idea. One very simple way would be to say that you cannot use the same army twice in the competition. But this would mean that a player might use the different versions of the same basic army a number of times (e.g. early, middle period, later) which is really defeating the object of the change. To go to the other end of the spectrum would be to say that players can only use one army from each nation in the competition. This would mean that players using an English HYW army in one match could not then use a Crusader army or a War of the Roses army in another. In between these two positions there is the possibility of saying that players cannot use another army from that nation from the same expansion pack, so that the player using the English HYW army could not use a War of the Roses army, but they would be able to use a Crusader army because it is from the Swords and Scimitars list.

I think on balance I would say that players can only use one army from each nation in the competition. In this way players who progress in the tournament will be forced to use a range of armies and the surprise element of not disclosing your army before the battle would be in play.

[klayeckles]

Great idea!
Sure there are lots of similar armies. ..but that's way better than getting o e super armythe entire tournament

[rexhurley]

I think you make a fair point, Paul, but I am not sure if it is decisive in terms of undermining the new idea. I think three seasons in a row with the same format is probably long enough and that new options are worth considering at that point. Not that I am in favour of making changes just for the sake of it or fixing things that aren't broken. From an organisers' point of view the main purpose behind this is to try and make the tournament more open so less skilful players have a chance to "ambush" the better players so that we get some newer names in the latter stages of the tournament. This worked quite well when the tournament was handicapped a couple of years ago and it only took a couple of shock results to really open the tournament out.

I think there are a number of ways of calibrating the competition with the new idea. One very simple way would be to say that you cannot use the same army twice in the competition. But this would mean that a player might use the different versions of the same basic army a number of times (e.g. early, middle period, later) which is really defeating the object of the change. To go to the other end of the spectrum would be to say that players can only use one army from each nation in the competition. This would mean that players using an English HYW army in one match could not then use a Crusader army or a War of the Roses army in another. In between these two positions there is the possibility of saying that players cannot use another army from that nation from the same expansion pack, so that the player using the English HYW army could not use a War of the Roses army, but they would be able to use a Crusader army because it is from the Swords and Scimitars list.

I think on balance I would say that players can only use one army from each nation in the competition. In this way players who progress in the tournament will be forced to use a range of armies and the surprise element of not disclosing your army before the battle would be in play.

That handicapping was great even though I still got thumped it was more of a challenge for the top dudes

[stockwellpete]

This poll is now closed and is 15-1 in favour of introducing the new format for this years' tournament. Players will no longer pick an army for the whole tournament but will be required to pick a different army from another nation for each match.