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So I'm continuing to slip slowly into madness and create different events to try on people. This is my latest. Pretty cut and dry really, but I would like feedback on if you'd like to play or if you have any ideas in the matter.

Helps support the FLGS, and he would cut us all great deals on the stuff we'd need to get this done.

Anyway, the event:

Battleforce Box Paint-N-Play Event Rules

Purchases:
- Players will purchase a 'package' consisting of the battleforce box and a codex of their choosing. This packages also includes entry into the event. Players then have the option of purchasing one (1) more box sets for their chosen race. The player then decides on an army that cannot total more than 500 points using only the contents of the battleforce box and the extra box set if purchased. The final 500 point army MUST MEET MINIMUM FORCE ORGINAZATION REQUIREMENTS OF 1 HQ CHOICE AND 2 TROOPS CHOICES! A list will be kept of all player purchases to ensure nothing else ‘sneaks’ into the player’s final event army. Note that not all of the Battleforce contents need to be included in the final army. No fliers, fortifications or special characters are permitted.

o Example 1: Player 1 purchases the Imperial Guard Cadian battleforce and the Imperial Guard Codex. The player sees that constructing an army from the battleforce box will only yield a 330 point force without using the sentinel, so the player decides to purchase a Leman Russ Battle Tank and give their tank Heavy Bolter Sponsons which makes the entire army 500 points.

o Example 2: Player 2 purchases the Space Marine Battleforce box and the Space Marine Codex. The player constructs a legal army by converting a Space Marine Captain from some of the Marines in the box contents and equips him with a power sword. The player’s force is then made out to 500 points using their converted Captain w/ power sword, a Space Marine Tactical Squad w/ missile launcher and flamer, a Scout Squad w/ heavy bolter and an Assault Squad w/ melta bombs (Sgt).

Painting:
- After deciding on a race and purchasing the appropriate models, players will then have a set amount of time to assemble, paint and base their armies. This time could range from less than 48 hours to one week, but speed will always be important!

Playing:
- Players will then participate in a Rogue Trader Style tournament using only the armies they have purchased specifically for the event. Best General, Sportsmanship and Best Painted awards will be presented!


Thoughts? What would you change, if anything, and why? Would you play in this event? The idea is to get everyone a new painted force, which could be added as allies to another army they already have or just start a new army entirely.

**Edit**- Not sure what I would do if someone came and wanted to start an army that DOESN'T have a battleforce (Grey Knights, Sisters). What ideas do you have?

You might want to brainstorm on some other rules for play at 500 points to keep things from going lop-sided. I've played in a couple 500 pt. games at the local GW and a couple of the house rules I remember were no models with three or more wounds, no vehicles with armor value of over 33 (front+side+back), and no models with better than 3+ armor save. There were some others but I can't recall them off the top of my head.

Another thing you might consider is turning your battleforce tourney into a league. Have a league tourney once a month with point levels rising each time by an another 250 points or so. Gives everyone ample time to paint up a new unit or two every month to expand their army.

Thanks for the ideas. I may actually keep that in mind. Keeping the wounds and AS down would actually be a pretty good idea. As would disallowing AV14 vehicles, although that makes me grumble as I was hoping to play IG!

I'm wanting this to be a one-and-done event as I'm already trying to get a fantasy league going, so only one league at a time!

First, don't make purchasing a codex mandatory, since anyone who already has the codex for the army they want to use is excluded from the event.

Second, you are going to have to accept that your event is going to be completely unbalanced and the winner will be whatever army happens to have the most powerful battleforce, not the most skilled player. Limiting armies to a single battleforce is a ridiculous constraint when there's such a huge variation in power level between the different battleforces.

One of the stores up here in Cincinnati (Art of War) does something similar, they let you order in an army, and then stay open all weekend (Friday from 3pm until Sunday at midnight) so people assemble and paint the armies friday/saturday, then have the tournament on Sunday. From what I've heard, it works pretty well and they usually have 8-10 people play.

I remember the first time I went there while it was going on, there was a guy sitting at a table with a pile of metal plaguebearers about 10" across and a few inches tall. I don't know why he would have subjected himself to such torture (or spend that much money...).

Are there any battleforces that give you a legal army in the box??? The Guard one at a push I guess if you run the squads as vets...

@peregrine: yep, that is a real issue, but hopefully one that is workable. I've seen these run before with much success, so they must be doing something correctly! Good point on the dexes! I'll adjust for that.

@bartowned: Thanks for that! Good to know it can work!

@JohnnyHell: Most boxes will require an HQ purchase to be viable, which you're allowed to do. Not sure if that should be your +1 purchase or if I should allow a separate HQ purchase in addition to. It would be interesting to see what people can convert up if they have to make something with the box contents! The guard box is a complete army if you run the Squads as vets, as is the current tau box, which is soon to go away. Pretty much all of the boxes seem to offer at least 2 core choices though, meaning that only an HQ choice is needed to get it going.

Hmmmm.... Maybe instead of the 'package' being the box and the codex it could be the box and an HQ selection (SM Captain, Succubus, Farseer, Etc....)

Edit: Some info. I only have the SM, Eldar and IG codexes (codeci?) and I figured out the points values of the boxes. These are just the boxes, without any upgrades or with the minimum amount of upgrades (the elder heavy weapons platform is equipped with the cheapest option) in order to be viable.

The IG box is actually a legal army. Before upgrades it comes out to 260 points

The Eldar box is not a legal army. It stands at 285 points before upgrades.

The SM box is not a legal army. It stands at 470 points before upgrades.

Just thought that was interesting.

My local game store did something similar,but instead of a battle force, allowed players to build 500 blocks of units over the course of 4 months (I think). Each month, we all met for paint judging and playing. Prizes were awarded to participants for painting completion and quality. Games were just for fun.

The Tyranid box can make a legal army if you call the Warriors Tyranid Primes.

It's a crappy army, but it's an army.

What would the 'best' way be of balancing things out?

I like:
-No models with more than 3 wounds
-No armor values greater than 33 (front+side+rear)
-No save better than 3+

And then some creative missions? Not sure what else.

I understand wanting to drive sales, but I think this drives sales at the expense of gameplay.

In a campaign system where you escalate based upon purchases, the nice thing is games can be played any point level based upon how established someone is and the battles can be BALANCED.

An example is an event where purchases become 'registered' units for the course of the event (campaign or weekend).

Only registered units may gain experience and such. It means people can use models they have and play a 1500 point battle but only the units purchased are seen in the event.

Then provide things like registered units can gain skills or upgrades based upon how they do on the table and if they are painted.

Allow all units which are painted to select from a list of skills. Allow units which play and Win X number of games a random stat boost.

Then at the end of the campaign when people have those units painted and experienced, do atype of tourney or mega battle to wrap it all up, give prizes for known famous units and such.

The whole goal is to promote sales, Promote painting and promote organized play in some way without harming any of the other aspects. Make people voluntarily want to do all 3 while not forcing it.

@nkelsch:

I am doing something similar to what you're voicing in Fantasy, although its strictly more of an escalation style campaign rather than an attempt to drive sales.

Please understand this: I'm not a store owner. I'm a friend of the owne'rs, but so is pretty much everybody else that games there. The point of this event isn't to drive sales. If anything, its to get everyone a base force to start off with/keep/pawn off on ebay the moment we get done with the event. Strictly a one-and-done format.

The argument of 'Battleforce X isn't balanced against Battleforce Y" is kinda moot, as the idea is that you purchase the battleforce, an HQ choice and then a third box (optional). Sure, you can run pure battleforce army if you'd like, but the option to add a third box really adds an element of balance to the entire thing, and it ensures that you get a unit that your really like added to the army asap.

The other issue I have with campaigns is that they lose steam rather quickly. You could start with 20 guys and finish with 10 or less. Yeah, those 10 are going to have a great time, but I hate to penalize those folks that had to deal with stuff that life threw at them. Things happen. A quicker format allows everyone to get in, get some enjoyment and fun and get out. It also lessens the amount of time you have to spend at the event. I like campaigns and they're fun, but this is specifically designed to be a small, fun and fast event.

And lastly, it boils down to this: no one is making people do this. If two people do it, it'll be fun. I'll be happy with four! More than that is a bonus.

To be honest, I'd say 750 would be a little bit easier to do things around than 500 points. Maybe even 1,000. A tournament at that level could easily be done on a whole Saturday. I do agree about keeping AV14 out though, but I dont think you would see too many LRs or Monoliths at 750.

But if it helps, another thing the shop up here does is they have a cutoff date for entry/product ordering. This helps in case something is direct-only (which I've had take 3-4 weeks to get to me before, in one case), or any shipping errors.

baritowned wrote:
I do agree about keeping AV14 out though, but I dont think you would see too many LRs or Monoliths at 750.

Leman Russ Battletank. 190 points for 2x veterans and command squad, then three independent Leman Russ tanks for 450. Add upgrades to taste.

 Unit1126PLL wrote:

baritowned wrote:
I do agree about keeping AV14 out though, but I dont think you would see too many LRs or Monoliths at 750.

Leman Russ Battletank. 190 points for 2x veterans and command squad, then three independent Leman Russ tanks for 450. Add upgrades to taste.

Forgot about those, but are they AV14 all around? I'm not too familiar with IG.

baritowned wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:

baritowned wrote:
I do agree about keeping AV14 out though, but I dont think you would see too many LRs or Monoliths at 750.

Leman Russ Battletank. 190 points for 2x veterans and command squad, then three independent Leman Russ tanks for 450. Add upgrades to taste.

Forgot about those, but are they AV14 all around? I'm not too familiar with IG.

14/13/10 with a Str 8 AP 3 Large Blast, Ordnance and a heavy bolter, with the option of upgrading to Str 10 AP 2 for 15 points per tank, or Str 6 AP 4 ignores cover for a similar price, just as a couple of examples.

I run a Demolisher and a Battle Tank in my 750 pt list .

What you could do, instead of using the Gee Dubs battle force, is make a 500 pt prepackaged bundle that are relatively balanced against each other. Give like an overall 10% discount off the price. Make differing bundles for each army so that players can choose what kind of force they want to run.

You could also provide a "Reinforcements" bundle if you want to escalate things. Minor discounts are important with wholesale bundles like this because it makes people think they are saving a lot more than they are.