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Hello I am the owner of a fairly new store and was wondering if anybody had ideas for a league tailored to the casual and competative players. Any information would be appreciated.

With a league, you want it to be competitive or more relaxed, is there a tangible prize for 1st/2nd/3rd, best painted, etc. Or a dozen other options?

Since you are a fairly new store, and most definitely want to bring in new patrons as well as regulars, I would suggest a fairly relaxed league, with more of the modeling/painting rules encouraged than enforced, with more emphasis on having fun with many different people. Keep it in around the 1000-1500pts range, with no special characters or 'Legends' datasheets. This keeps everyone on a reletively level playing field.

I would also strongly suggest giving no prizes - Even something as benign as medals/trophies can really make people go a bit OTT so to avoid. Pointless driving away potential players from WAACers. Painted models optional, but models HAVE to be assembles, with a slant on WYSIWYG, so it is less confusing for all involved.

Lastly, have a staff member pretty clued up on 40k to adjudicate games, in case of rules disagreements or other such issues - like a tournament judge. It will help games progress smoothly and can report back with any concerns or issues he/she has seen.

I would suggest not having prizes, but make it clear it's for fun/to grow the community. The minute there is prize support you'll get people bringing competitive netlist garbage and making casual players quit.

You should consider some kind of crusade campaign instead of a league, and have fun making up some background. Make your own warzone!

Unfortunately there is no system that will work for both casual and competitive players. 40k balance is awful and the difference in power levels between tournament meta lists and some random collection of models is way too much to overcome. Either the competitive players will win every game by decisive margins and the casual players will stop coming or they'll get tired of all the "no tournament lists" rules and lack of competition and go elsewhere. Your best-case scenario is that the two groups each do their own thing with minimal interaction. Everyone gets the kind of game they want, nobody goes home angry and never comes back.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Dr. Mills wrote:
With a league, you want it to be competitive or more relaxed, is there a tangible prize for 1st/2nd/3rd, best painted, etc. Or a dozen other options?

Since you are a fairly new store, and most definitely want to bring in new patrons as well as regulars, I would suggest a fairly relaxed league, with more of the modeling/painting rules encouraged than enforced, with more emphasis on having fun with many different people. Keep it in around the 1000-1500pts range, with no special characters or 'Legends' datasheets. This keeps everyone on a reletively level playing field.

I would also strongly suggest giving no prizes - Even something as benign as medals/trophies can really make people go a bit OTT so to avoid. Pointless driving away potential players from WAACers. Painted models optional, but models HAVE to be assembles, with a slant on WYSIWYG, so it is less confusing for all involved.

Lastly, have a staff member pretty clued up on 40k to adjudicate games, in case of rules disagreements or other such issues - like a tournament judge. It will help games progress smoothly and can report back with any concerns or issues he/she has seen.

Strongly disagree with not caring about painting or WYSIWYG. A lack of painting rules encourages the WAAC players because they can always buy the latest netlist, hastily assemble (or just proxy) it for the next game, and never have to worry about not having the perfect list. A requirement for 100% painted and WYSIWYG models is a better aesthetic experience for everyone and it severely limits the issue with meta chasing. Most players will be limited to their existing collections and have to put less than optimal lists on the table and even hardcore meta chasers with money to burn will have to slow down and paint everything. And the few people who are willing to pay for commission painting a new army every few weeks on top of the model costs probably aren't going to bother with the small pond of a local store league.