We are about to start a league in Southern Arizona and I wanted to see if anyone who has previously organized or played in an Armada league had any best practices or suggestions they would like to pass on to help make our league a success. Below are the options that I came up with and what I am leaning towards.

Schedule: Based on participation, I was looking at a Round Robin schedule with either one or two games against each opponent. There would be a published schedule for games to be played over the course of one or two weeks (again based on participation), but aside from the specific matchups between opponents, the dates would be more of a guideline to keep people on track.

Location/Platform: Players can play their game in person, on Vassal, or on TableTop Simulator. The last two are to aid people (like myself) that can't always make it out to the game store to play.

Scoring: I have seen leagues scored by simple win/loss (one point for a win, one point for a loss) or by tournament points and MOV. I am leaning towards using tournament points and MOV to prevent boring games where people are afraid to engage one another. I have also considered some kind of bonus point(s)/MOV for playing a game at one of our three FLGS and/or playing at all three of them over the course of the league. This is to help promote the game at our FLGS while we are engaged in our league, which could help to grow the game in our area.

Fleet Lists: They could be fixed throughout league (one list), completely open (new list every week, if they choose), or fixed-faction (choosing Imperial or Rebel at the start, you can have a new list every week so long as you keep that faction). I am partial to fixed-faction for thematics and think that knowing your opponent will have an Imperial or Rebel list doesn't necessarily give you an advantage.

Thoughts? Anything missing? Any constructive criticism and input is very much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Just ran/am in the middle of running my first league. We have about 8 people who enjoy Armada in our area, but live in a college town so leagues are best for helping flgs get their monies worth for kits (more participation this way). We ran it as fixed lists but I had everyone sign up for just one admiral (a la CC) to help keep things interesting each game, and because we just did a round robin of imps vs rebs (4v4). Scoring we did tournament style with the top two of rebs and imps going to square off in the 'finals'.

Couple things I wish we'd done:

1) Actually had a meeting of imps and meeting of rebs to help out some of the new players building their lists to make sure everything was 'synergistic'. No wasted points and good objectives given the opposing admirals we were going to go up against.

2) Not started right before Thanksgiving. Between it and Chirstmas/New Year's we're just now getting around to finishing something that should have only taken 6 weeks.

Something I'm glad I did: Not had a set night. All nights are taken for by other more popular games as far as space goes at our flgs, so allowing opponents the freedom to schedule when worked best for them and just setting a deadline of when it had to be played by made things a lot easier on everyone. Playing at multiple stores and eveeb rewarding players for doing so sounds like a great idea on your part! Wish we had more we could patron, but thankful for the flexibility and support our current owner gives us. Hope this helps! Look forward to seeing other people's strategys for this too!

The league I know have been running is scored with normal MoV, BUT also with Tournament Points (TP) So a win with <60 MoV 1 TP to both sides and a win with 60 MoV or more 2 TP to winner and 0 to loser.

And matches in rolling schedual of 5 weeks, where the players is in charge to find a date and place to play that match within the time.

After everyone has played maybe two games you should have a nice spread of tournament score totals with some players near the top of the rankings and some struggling at the bottom.

To keep interest at a reasonable level offer a bonus in rounds 3+ to any player who beats someone say more than three places above them in the league standings. So if a player 7th in the league beats a player ranked 2nd in the league with a 7-4 win they could get 8-4 instead (not 8-3, don't punish the looser just reward the winner).

This keeps things interesting for those at the lower levels. They know a decent win could get them back up to mid table. It also adds a small incentive to play the more experienced players in your group and not "avoid" certain matchups.

It really depends on if your league is supposed to be a slow-motion tournament or if it's an encouragement for everybody, even the not-very-competitive/new to come out and play games.

The league we run is the latter, and it's important to make sure there are incentives for even casual players to come out as otherwise they'll just get creamed by better players and earn very little and not see the point.

1 hour ago, Snipafist said:

It really depends on if your league is supposed to be a slow-motion tournament or if it's an encouragement for everybody, even the not-very-competitive/new to come out and play games.

The league we run is the latter, and it's important to make sure there are incentives for even casual players to come out as otherwise they'll just get creamed by better players and earn very little and not see the point.

It is definitely the latter. We have a few good players, but even they just want to grow the game right now. Everyone really just wants to routinely get more games in.

2 hours ago, Admiral Calkins said:

It is definitely the latter. We have a few good players, but even they just want to grow the game right now. Everyone really just wants to routinely get more games in.

In that case, I'll share the details of how our league works. It's been pretty successful and I know a few other places have copied it and done well with it too.

Quote

Leagues are conducted monthly and they persist from the first (day of the week you play Armada at your FLGS) until the day before (that day) of the next month, where the next league will begin.

Leagues are bought into at the FLGS for (whatever $ amount, we go $10). After that, you can count the following types of games towards the league:

• Games played at that FLGS against anyone (league member or no)
• Games played against another league member outside the FLGS (in whatever form)

Your first 8 games of each league count towards the league.

You get league points (LP) for playing games using the following simple formula:

• 1 LP for every 100 points of the game (e.g. 4 LP for a 400 point game)
• 1 LP if you won the game

If you show up on game night at the FLGS and are the odd man out, write "pity points" for your opponent for the night, get another player there to initial it for you, and give yourself 4 LP. You can't earn pity points more than once per league and all other players should endeavor to ensure nobody with pity points is the odd man out again that league.

At the end of the league, score 1 additional LP for each different opponent you played during the league

Total up your points from games themselves and each unique opponent and that's your grand total. Prizes will be awarded (from league kits) based on placement and 1+ raffles will also happen that all players have equal odds of winning which will entitle them to store credit.

Effectively, it rewards playing lots of games and playing against lots of different people. A new dedicated player can win through sheer chutzpah but in practice your regulars will usually do pretty well due to coming in regularly and getting that bit of extra boost from winning. I've got an MS Word document for the league that we use; if you're interested PM me and hopefully I can send it over as an attachment.