Running tournaments for AoS

[mrbedlam]

Hello all, I'm getting ready to start running every other month events for my local game group. I've run tourneys and events for other games but I was wondering if there's any specific advice that's good for AoS tourneys specifically? We are going to start small at 1k points and build up to fully painted required as there's a lot of newer players in the group. 

Follow up question: Any ideas for good, but not expensive prize support for spots other than first? I was thinking measuring widgets, custom markers etc

[rokapoke]

Gauge the intent of your players before committing to the form of the prize support. For instance, in the local tournaments here the prize support is random (not for winning), so a handful of equally-valued prizes makes sense. If your players want to compete for the prize support, then a relatively big prize for first place and some other odds-and-ends for lesser placement makes sense.

[gjnoronh]

Yeah depends on where you are doing it.  I'm assuming at a store.  My suggestion is turn the entry fees into store credit and turn it into prizes.  What ratio of the entry fees the store is willing to use as store credit is up to them but there is a good argument to be made for making it 100% of entry fees.   Store actual cost is closer to 55% of retail, and players tend to spend more then their store credit to get something they want but wouldn't have otherwise bought.

Don't commit to any specific dollar/item at all it's just trouble if you get a low turn out.

Ask players if they want to do best sports, best painted best general or something else.  The We are the Neon events tend to feature some very cool non standard awards like most  generals or behemoth's slain and the like that can be achieved by someone even in the loss.

 

[Overread]

Honestly it sounds more like you are doing a growth campaign with the idea of increasing points each month/period. That's a great way to get new people into the game (you might drop to 500 for the first round, it might not be as balanced, but 500 points it a lot quicker to get ready than 1000). You could even wipe the 500 point results from the final tallies or have that not affect placements for 1K games and beyond. 

In general I think you need to decide on the overall objective and intent. It sounds like you're doing a growth game where the intent is focused play but also growing armies to get newbies in and such. So I don't think you need a prize, the prize is the game players get as reward for working and improving on their own armies  through the series of linked battles. If you've got many newbies then you don't want to foster a hyper competitive edge any way because they will be  trounced by the experienced players, so its no fun for the beginner. 

Heck I'd even give more awards or accolades for good painting, building et.c.. I'd also be ready to be flexible and keep tabs on how people are keeping up with the shifts in points. If everyone struggles slow down the advance, whilst if there's a few lagging they might play games against each other even if they've not met the limit for that month. Ergo be adaptive as the main intent is fun and army size increase rather than who wins. 

 

 

I think prizes work better when you've got a more formal competitive event built around pure competition rather than around building an army up from scratch (since some gamers might not build good lists, esp if they are newbies). Save the prize pool for a paid for entry competition where a %  of the entry fee goes to the prizes and where everyone comes with the known intent of competing.