So I have mostly played campaigns and am about to try to break into the skirmish venue. After reading the tournament rules, my first question is:

Is the map setup the headache it seems it would be? I mean, switching maps between campaign missions takes about 20 minutes and that's sitting at the same table with the same people. Knowing what I know of tournaments there's no way that takes less than 25-30 minutes.

Seems to me it would be simpler to require people to bring 2 map sets with the 2 cards per skirmish and then select one of the 8 total at random, rather than everyone bringing all 60- odd tiles to be constructed randomly from about 10-12 different missions.

Unless I'm missing something...

Well there's only certain missions that are approved for tournament play so that slims down the choices a bit. I think the main thing is that people need to learn better systems to sort their map tiles, things like having them separated numerically so you can read the numbered pieces you need at the bottom of the map and quickly grab the ones you need.

I just played at the Regionals in the UK, I don't think anyone had any difficulty in building the maps in less than 10 minutes. Some people had map tiles pre-organised into the 3 that would be used, some had a more free-form approach.

In the campaign only the Imperial player sees the map, so it's all on one person to build, in skirmish both people can help construct, so while one finds tiles the other player can start assembling the map.

Th e n eed to build a map during a tournament is annoying. I wish that FFG would print a bundle of skirmish m aps that players could buy and that would be tournament-legal.

Talk to your TO's, they have the final say and definitely sounds reasonable to print them out if the TO agrees to it.

Most people print the maps locally and for regionals I have two core sets and split them up into three bags and setup takes like 5-6 mins max. We were the first I think to setup every time.

At the NJ Regional we actually used pre-printed maps, and they were superb. One of the players has a large-size printer at home and he printed 4 copies of each map on vinyl, and it was great. While some people can assemble maps in under 10 minutes (I'm probably at about 7-8 myself), not all people can. Nor should they have to, if another option (ie, a printed map) is just as viable. It seems that, other than Officer/Guard abuse, the need to assemble maps at tournaments has been the biggest turn-off for many players when it comes to Skirmish play. Stormtrooper721's comments above are right on target.

I think this a huge issue for tournament play.

There were three maps for regionals in KC and we had plenty of room to set up, I had each map bagged and it still took time to get them together. I can't imagine what Nationals will be like, since there is not all that much room on the tables at GenCon. I certainly agree that printed maps would be that best and that FFG continues to make sure the maps are balanced for skirmish play.