Tournament Themes

[kevinj]

This year we've seen a number of tournaments use themes rather than Open which I think is a positive move as Opens tend to be dominated by 17th Century European armies. I've certainly enjoyed the Early themed tournaments which have allowed a number of different armies to make an appearance, but I think it would be good to take a check to see what people think is or isn't working and also if there are any themes that people would like to see. So some questions:

1) Do you think "Open" is so domimated by later Western Armies that "17th Century" isn't really needed as a theme if only one is available?

2) Is 1590 (with Pistols) or 1570 (without) a better end date for an early (pre-musket) period? Would there be much appetite for a Western only version of this? If so, where do you stop? Do you allow Ottomans? Poles and Russians? Austrians?

3) Do you like really narrow themes e.g. 30 Years War, or do you prefer something more vague?

4) Is there a theme that hasn't been tried that you'd like to see?

5) Is there a theme that would actually put you off from entering (for reasons other than not having a suitable army)?

6) Anything else?

[hazelbark]

1) Do you think "Open" is so domimated by later Western Armies that "17th Century" isn't really needed as a theme if only one is available?

Well if you want to encourage non 17th century armies i think you need a theme forbidding them. I did that a Hugenot to what other wise was a TYW theme. Did well but the cavalry was very good and the infantry had some odd compensations that made it vlable. (8 bases). But since the general assumption is the non mainstreadm 17th century armies are disadvantaged you see too few.

2) Is 1590 (with Pistols) or 1570 (without) a better end date for an early (pre-musket) period? Would there be much appetite for a Western only version of this? If so, where do you stop? Do you allow Ottomans? Poles and Russians? Austrians?

In any theme you need to make sure you have obvious counters to the main choices and the counters to the counters. (ie Rock, paper, Scissors). If you let in the pistol cavalry you start to threaten the early period cavalry.

3) Do you like really narrow themes e.g. 30 Years War, or do you prefer something more vague?

Narrow that still attracts enough people. At Historicon we are doing a TYW / ECW theme. A touch wider but not huge. We are running it as Catholic versus protestants and going to have a map. to make it more historicalish-campaign like. Tournaments in my view are beating the history out of the game. A group of guys run DBA tournaments that look like campaigns. They had a 1066 and all that. It was both a campaign and a tournament and they had great fun.

4) Is there a theme that hasn't been tried that you'd like to see?

Matched pairs or duplicate. I guess it has been tried but essentially you have two battles and its 4 rounds. You will play each side in each battle. Take the devious cynical army choice out and allows an assymetric battle. As you will be on both sides of it.

6) Anything else?

More history less gamey-ness.

[alasdair2204]

I think we have nearly got their with themes

1) pre 1570 you could go eastern and western but considering the top three at rollcall were one eastern (Tatars) one western (Irish) and one in the middle (Hungarians) or go even more specific ie Italian Wars but that is probably best covered in the team Theme periods ie Campaign

2) Post 1570 is interesting as most players will take TYW /League of Augsburg armies, so is there a gap 1570-1630 (that is what warfare at Reading is this year and it'll be interesting to see which armies are used.

3) Colonial I think an interesting period but I don't think the western colonial armies really need to be excluded as they often are, have you ever see an Colonial British in America army, no but is is often excluded or allowed only as an allied army. The only problem with this is that in a cities of gold and colonies and conquest competition (they are often put together) most armies will be colonies and conquest due to the amount of cavalry they have.

That said the variation is fun and the more themes the better with just the odd open probably for the major competitions so they are accessible to others

anyway just my feelings

Cheers

Alasdair

[viperofmilan]

"More history less gamey-ness."

Amen brother Hazelwood.

Kevin

[highlandbevan]

I like the idea of combined campaign and tournament, do you know how it was done in detail?

I did a tournament last year based on duplicate bridge methods and scoring, well recieved but a major pain to organise all the armies and battlefields

[hazelbark]

I like the idea of combined campaign and tournament, do you know how it was done in detail?

I did a tournament last year based on duplicate bridge methods and scoring, well recieved but a major pain to organise all the armies and battlefields

It is always a great pain for the organizer.

The Campaign tournament idea the best examples are DBA and I think you can find references on the fanaticus forum.