Tavern Talk - Tournament Comp in Fantasy

 It has been a while, but once more we bring you another Tavern Talk discussion.  This time the topic is how you as a gamer view comp in Fantasy tournaments...

Tournaments are a very interesting and popular way to play Warhammer, giving an individual the opportunity to play games against players from around the country or to try out different format.  The tournament might be fun, but the organisers often find a need to change how the game is played.  These changes come in the form of restrictions, such as ‘no double rare choices’, ‘maximum of 12 power dice per magic phase’ or they might be the outright banning of certain items (‘no power scroll’).  Many tournaments come out with large rules packs full of restrictions, others have none at all.
The question is how do you feel about comp’ed tournaments?  Do you view these restrictions as important to balance out the game, or are they just a pointless dumbing down of the rules?  What do you like or dislike about these comp’ed tournaments?  What are your experience with them?

 Now personally I have not attended any tournaments in the new edition, so my views are based off of observation.  However, I do think that in an competitive environment the use of comp, to limit certain things is a good idea.  I listen to various podcasts many of which include regular tournament goers and when you hear some of the things that people bring to the table, you can see why comp is important.  I see tournaments as a place to prove who is the best player, not which army beats face the best/most, so introducing some limitations on certain things will help balance out the levels of power and hopefully allow the lower tiered armies to stand a chance against the upper ones.  To this end limiting the powerful options (such as Hydra, A-Bombs, STanks etc) is a good idea, forcing a player to utilise more than just one monster to kill all.  However, I do not believe in specific limitations aimed at certain armies.  I am more a fan of the overall comps, such as 'no double rare'.  This means that each army can include their big gribbly monster (or uber war machine) if they wish, but cannot spam out on them.

I also look at magic being fine for the most part, I don't think it needs to be altered.  Maybe a couple of tweaks here and there, but for the most part I would be happy to play within the boundaries set by the basic rule set of the game.  The major ideas for magic I like are the ones that stop the 6th spell killing off characters in one go, I prefer the idea that it either takes a wound or they get a Look Out Sir! save or something.  It's one thing to loose a unit, but it is entirely different to loose a unit plus a general; in some scenarios that is almost an instant loss.  However, I do not advocate the removal of these spells, they are required to balance out the huge unit sizes that grace the table top these days.  There are some items I can see why they are banned - the Power Scroll for example, but as long as the rules governing these are balanced across the board I have no problem with it's inclusion or disallowing it.

The final thing I see discussed at tournaments is the scenarios.  Some take them straight out of the book, others use one or two of them.  I am unsure on this.  On one hand, I see the benefit of using all six - variation and some scenarios everyone will be at a disadvantage.  However, on the other many armies struggle with certain ones - especially the ever so hated Watchtower scenario.  I think compromise should be incorporated into it, especially if you include all six.  For example, one good change to Blood And Glory (the Breakpoint scenario) is that the first army to 'break' gives up an extra 500VP but the game continues.  This means that a lucky spell or war machine hit cannot end the game on turn two (but if this is the case, kind of serves yourself right for having all your points in one unit) and allows for a more enjoyable game.

So, we have a few blog posts this time around, here they are.  Read them and let them know your thoughts!

The Bringer Of Victory
Inane Courage
Stumpy Heaven
Mr Saturday's Mumblings
Starving Crazed Weasel

If you would like to join in with these topics in the future, please email me and I can add you to the mailing list to receive the next topic.