Shachi Bowl 2016

[Grim Ironjaw]

That was great, Tanya. Thank you.

Justin, much obliged for the minis.

There only change I'd suggest would be to use the point system for skills like in the message you sent me.

Dave, it was all fun and games before we knew that there was a trophy at stake. Power gamer mode engaged <rawr>

[YellowStreak]

That was great, Tanya. Thank you.
There only change I'd suggest would be to use the point system for skills like in the message you sent me.

I quite liked the way the skills choice was done. Simple and easy. Although in hindsight I should have thought about my skills a bit more...!

[Spevna]

I liked the way skills were added, but I'm curious I about this points system that Jesse mentioned.

[me_in_japan]

The skills system worked reasonably well, but in retrospect I can see that it favours some teams over others. While I certainly didnt set out to purposely overpower my team, the Lizardmen are a case in point. A "normal" lizardmen team will have the skills spread around the skinks, because that's who's scoring the touchdowns. There'll be a few points on the Saurus and maybe the Krox, but in general there'll be a heavy weighting towards the skinky side of things. When I was building my team for last weekend, I just (innocently enough, I might add) looked at the players who needed skills most and went "right, block for everybody who can get it. Job's a good un" - this meant the Krox got block, as well as 3 Saurus (one of them got guard. This was as tactical as my thought processes got.)

So, long story short, the system can lead to somewhat skewed skill assignments in certain teams. Not a major issue, but could (and did) cause some raised eyebrows across the pitch.

[The Underdweller]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

I liked the skills pack we used because it was easy, and people who needed to build their team that morning could do it quickly.

The system I mentioned in my earlier PM borrowed liberally from the Spike Magazine Blood Bowl Tournament rules, which happened to come up on a google search I did. It was a little more detailed, with 2 tiers of Skills and different numbers of points depending on the team you play (so for example, Undead teams would get 9 points, whereas Halflings would get 17).

Link here: http://spiketournament.com/?page_id=18

I didn't end up using it for 2 reasons. One is that it seemed a bit complicated for a casual, small event; the other is that Blood Bowl is inherently unbalanced, I have learned, and rules that look to correct that seem to go against the nature of the game.

But I am willing to consider some changes for next year, of course, and am open to suggestions!

Maybe only allowing specific skills to be taken by 2 members of the team? (I liberally bought Block for my Undead, mostly because it looked useful and I figured it would be easy to remember if everyone got the same thing, but I can see how it would be tough to play against)


The NAF has some examples for team building listed here which could be useful:

http://www.thenaf.net/tournaments/runni ... /examples/

[Primarch]

Could you not assign the skills randomly? E.g. roll a 1d12, the player with that number gets a skill.
Or you could limit it to 1-2 of each skill per team, to avoid the 'everyone gets Block' situation.

[Spevna]

I like the idea of possibly limiting skills rather than making them random.

[me_in_japan]

How about choosing a skill category (one available to te player) but rolling a random skill from that category. It'd make for some unusual skill choices, but might be interesting.

[YellowStreak]

I like the idea of possibly limiting skills rather than making them random.

Some tournaments only allow you to pick a skill once or twice.

[Spevna]

How about choosing a skill category (one available to te player) but rolling a random skill from that category. It'd make for some unusual skill choices, but might be interesting.

Would be interesting, but I reckon there'd be a couple of possible drawbacks.

1. You would have to do that at the actual tournament rather than before hand, just to keep things above board.

2. You could end up with skill that you aren't familiar with.

Limiting skills to once or twice per team would be interesting and allow players more creative control over their teams while forcing them to branch out and try new skills.