Hey guys,

So I don't know if I am just missing something that FFG has already released, but how would deployment, objectives, and terrain be chosen during a tournament? When only the core set was released, everyone would have the same pool of all these to randomly draw from; but, now that new cards and terrain are available through the hero packs, not everyone will have access to the same ones.

I would propose that each player selects 3 deployment, objective, and terrain cards to be added with their lists. Then before each match, the players shuffle their cards together and 3 deployment and objective cards are drawn from the shared pool. Then player 1 picks either the deployment or objective, and player 2 picks the other (as stated in the core rules). Then the shared pool of terrain cards is drawn from to fill out the board.

What do you guys think of this method? Does anyone else have a solution they have tried?

Thanks!

They did something similar for obstacles in XWMG. Seems within reason that they would do something similar.

Though a question about sleeves comes up. If you sleeve them and I don't, it becomes obvious when shuffling cards whose is whose. Though I think it'll be minor as you can always unsleeve

4 hours ago, Church14 said:

They did something similar for obstacles in XWMG. Seems within reason that they would do something similar.

Though a question about sleeves comes up. If you sleeve them and I don't, it becomes obvious when shuffling cards whose is whose. Though I think it'll be minor as you can always unsleeve

They aren't regular playing card size so it's not like you can use dragon shield sleeves.

We just talked about this while recording the podcast. Preview: I expect a similar system to X-Wing, but we cant wait to see how FFG does it.

I expect it to be like Armada, you build a terrain and objective stack with your list.

Then I expect the person who ends up first to choose to use EITHER their objectives or their terrain/deployment set, other comes from opponent. Then follow the applicable rules.

Sounds like a valid idea to me.

Sleeving the terrain and objective cards could be an issue but you can always temporarily take them out of the sleeve. Sleeves are to keep them from getting ruined by crap on the table not keep them rigid when shuffling (not that you can properly shuffle the traditional way with so few cards to begin with anyway)

17 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

Sounds like a valid idea to me.

Sleeving the terrain and objective cards could be an issue but you can always temporarily take them out of the sleeve. Sleeves are to keep them from getting ruined by crap on the table not keep them rigid when shuffling (not that you can properly shuffle the traditional way with so few cards to begin with anyway)

I wouldn't want someone to shuffle my cards without sleeves because it increases the likelihood of scuffing the edges, due to the limited number of cards you are shuffling.

Well I mean, if it ends up being 6 cards like the core set, just lay them out and roll a die?

Just now, taylorcowbell said:

Well I mean, if it ends up being 6 cards like the core set, just lay them out and roll a die?

I was thinking the same thing. And at that point, if the numbers are assigned randomly before the die roll, it really doesn't matter whether they're sleeved or not.

If OP would take the wraps on whatever they have for tournament rules we could have a whole new thread :-)

That said, I think the idea that FFG would have two players contribute cards to 'combine' for a terrain, deployment and objective decks wouldn't fly. It's too easy to get things mixed up.

Another option that might be worth considering is if the TO draws and sets the cards for the round, or even 3 each and sets the options for the round. More complicated and prone to error in my opinion. It would also mean for tournament play that you'd always have to have a full set of terrain and now you're buying boxes for an army you might not care about just so you can field terrain or deployment. So I don't see this one either.

I could see it worked into the point bid process, something like use Player 1's deployment card stack, use player 2's terrain stack, etc. This seems more like a happy medium to me.

One observation that I'll pass on as it's not my own, for tournament play there can be quite a swing on victory points, especially based on the objectives in play. The same can be said for Armada, but in Armada you don't bring the whole set of missions, you have to pick 3. Is it, or isn't it an issue, where across the same round, some will be playing something advantageous that'll result in lots of MoV or not so much. Dunno how to feel about this one without meaningful data.

Oh yeah, thats a very good point. It might be so that official tourneys have everyone doing the same deployment/objective each round... but then you could have issues of I lost to the really bad guy on a scenario with large swings in points, but i won barely against the best guy in a scenario with a small point spread?

i think having the TO decide it is a bad idea.

There are reasons to pick the Blue deployment over the Red based on army composition and what objective was chosen (if any yet). Having a TO pick that for everyone that round to follow would really eff things up.

If you seriously are against combining your cards/terrain, even though xwing does that with no issues on rocks/debris, then simply have your deck of deployment cards, objectives, and terrain ready and alternate starting with whoever has Initiative's pick who uses what deck.

In otherwords:
Player 1 has initiative and picks to use his Deployment deck
Player 2 picks to use his Terrain deck
Player 1 uses his Objective deck by default
this of course could go in any order. Once you have decided who's decks are used, shuffle and draw normally.

In Armada its "choose an objective from the 2nd players deck". So the second player selects his 3 objectives. So I would imagine that the person choosing the objective would get to choose from the narrowed down objectives of his opponents, same with deployments.

The exception is terrain. Terrain comes from the deployment card so the person who provides the deck isn't "deciding" because the deployment card and random draw decides for you.