The Clone Wars are upon us, and with them, the Armada 1.5 rules and a bunch of errataed cards. The Armada module has received a massive facelift with version 4.0.0, and the lobby is crawling with players. We've just started a relaxed tier CW-only tourney that drew 50+ players in no time. It's a more civilized age for Armada indeed!

The module is a labor of love for me, but I'm VERY pleased to see players use it. Anyway. To keep the momentum, I'm announcing Vassal Organized Play 2021!

I'm thinking quarterly tournaments, plus maybe league play (AFAIK, we haven't tried that yet). I've zero experience with league play, so I'm very interested in feedback regarding how to organize this - or even if it's a good idea in the first place. When I write "quarterly," I'm not rigid with the timing: Q1 means "early in the year, not causing trouble for the WC.

Rather than run these as "plain" events, each event will have a "twist/flavor." Nothing too deviant - we don't want to change too much, just enough to keep things interesting. Nothing set in stone ATM, just brainstorming and sharing my ideas with the community. If you want plain, you'll get plain 🙂

Quarterly Tournaments

Q1: Another CW-only one, with wave 10 for a more complete experience.
Q2: All 4 factions allowed. Limited selection of objectives (based on data from previous tourneys, 4 most-used objectives of each category banned).
Q3: Bog-standard... except... time-limited! Using the Chess clock from Vassal 3.5, each player has 1 h 30 mins. I'll arrange for some prize support.
Q4: Something a bit left-field: a "Hyperspace Event" for Armada. This concept is taken from X-wing, where a variable array of ships and upgrades are available (changes a couple of times each year). So maybe Imps can't take Mithel. But the ISD-1 can take a Defensive Retro. I'll provide fleet builder support for this.

https://tabletop.to/ will be the platform I use to track events, with fleet submissions using Google forms (very nice for statistics).

Vassal League

1st Half
2nd Half

... and that's all I have ATM. We divide the year into two, one league in each. But other than that, I'd really like some ideas from someone more well-versed in league play.

Looks like https://tabletop.to/ can be used to track this as well. I need to look into it some more.

Vassal Would Cup

This is BiggsIRL's baby, but I mention it here anyway. Qualifications run late in the year, with the actual WC starting in January. This is Vassal's only Premier Tier event!

TTS

I would also urge anyone interested in online play to check out TTS. Why limit yourself to one platform when you can have both? It's not for me, but it could be for you.

I like the idea of rotating objectives.

Alternatively, we could do themed events (even utilizing green objectives) where players sign up for a faction's team, then play games against the other faction using a specific objective / setup rules, where game play earns that team points. Do it as a 3 month event, and rotate the scenario each month to keep things fresh.

For the hyperspace event could you do some fleet building restrictions along the lines of:

Each fleet has to include 1 small, 1 medium, and 1 large

Or maybe the most popular ship for each faction is not allowed for the event (or maybe most popular for CW factions, and top 2 for the GCW factions)

Would be great to see an event with some unusual fleet compositions.

What about a skirmish format tournament?

Maybe a team championship?

We haven't done a team tournament in awhile. Not enough unique commanders for the Clone Wars yet, but maybe by mid-year?

We are just finishing the first season of our german vassal league. 16 Players, two groups (= 7 games) and a TOP4 CUT. It is really fun but 7 games in 6 month is way more you might expect. But it would be great, having a league concept organized world wide. If you like I can share my experiences.

12 minutes ago, Goerrit said:

We are just finishing the first season of our german vassal league. 16 Players, two groups (= 7 games) and a TOP4 CUT. It is really fun but 7 games in 6 month is way more you might expect. But it would be great, having a league concept organized world wide. If you like I can share my experiences.

I'm very interested.

Maybe a grouping of multiple local leagues each sending top players to a tournament?

Very much interested, although I do not have the most flexible of schedules!

The team tournaments were great. I found them great as a newbie at the time

3 hours ago, BiggsIRL said:

We haven't done a team tournament in awhile. Not enough unique commanders for the Clone Wars yet, but maybe by mid-year?

1 hour ago, Ginkapo said:

The team tournaments were great. I found them great as a newbie at the time

I totally agree and some of the more lasting friendships I have are a result of the team tournaments.

Just spitballing here, but what about a team tourney that includes all factions? like a four person team , one of each faction. (Or 2x for eight). We could do round robins and the issues with new vs old factions will be worked into the teams instead of weakening a specific team.

On 12/7/2020 at 3:08 PM, CaribbeanNinja said:

I totally agree and some of the more lasting friendships I have are a result of the team tournaments.

Just spitballing here, but what about a team tourney that includes all factions? like a four person team , one of each faction. (Or 2x for eight). We could do round robins and the issues with new vs old factions will be worked into the teams instead of weakening a specific team.

It's better with an odd number. 3 or 5 make the matchup choices more meaningful.

Other option though: Faction lock it per era at 2 and 3. Rebels / Imperials and Clone / Droid.

Then make all the objectives unique.

Or we just go with 3 per team.

There was a tournament many years ago where you had to make fleets from random “bags” of ships. I remember that being a lot of fun. I know there was a lot of work to put it together though.

I've been thinking some more, and I'd like to propose a Team League Thing for the 1st half of 2021:

• Bc of time zones, we'll split into 2 sectors, EURO and NA. Pretty standard by now.

Players are grouped into 4 teams, 1 for each faction.

• How many players go into each team depends on how many sign up, but 3 per team is a minimum. 4 (or more) is better.
• Ideally there should be an equal number of players per team, otherwise everyone won't get to play every turn, and we've end up handing out byes, which isn't cool.

Standard list building, except within each faction, unique cards can only be taken ONCE.

• We'll have to wait until w10 hit for this to be feasible for Clones/Clankers!

This idea is to play 3 rounds, once against each opposing team. For example, during r1 rebels play vs imps. R2 its republic. R3 seppies.

• After 3 rounds, the team with the most total tourney points wins!

I've no start/end date at this point, but I am interested in hearing from potential players. Does this sound like fun???

3 hours ago, Green Knight said:

I've been thinking some more, and I'd like to propose a Team League Thing for the 1st half of 2021:

• Bc of time zones, we'll split into 2 sectors, EURO and NA. Pretty standard by now.

Players are grouped into 4 teams, 1 for each faction.

• How many players go into each team depends on how many sign up, but 3 per team is a minimum. 4 (or more) is better.
• Ideally there should be an equal number of players per team, otherwise everyone won't get to play every turn, and we've end up handing out byes, which isn't cool.

Standard list building, except within each faction, unique cards can only be taken ONCE.

• We'll have to wait until w10 hit for this to be feasible for Clones/Clankers!

This idea is to play 3 rounds, once against each opposing team. For example, during r1 rebels play vs imps. R2 its republic. R3 seppies.

• After 3 rounds, the team with the most total tourney points wins!

I've no start/end date at this point, but I am interested in hearing from potential players. Does this sound like fun???

Yeah I'd be down.

5 hours ago, geek19 said:

Yeah I'd be down.

I call team captain.

1 hour ago, BiggsIRL said:

I call team captain.

AND MY AXE

AND MY BOW

We need a random list tournament. Submit a list, someone else gets that list you get theres, than every round switch! So that way you can’t play what your used to.

I would like to join. all of the things.

Team thing sounds like fun.

I am seeing if I can form team Ireland. BTW should we move these talk to your discord before forums go boom?

9 minutes ago, Irishmadcat said:

I am seeing if I can form team Ireland. BTW should we move these talk to your discord before forums go boom?

Yes, I'm in the process of migrating static stuff to the blog, the rest needs to go to Discord land. Tabletop.to will be used to track players, lists, matches, and scores.

5 minutes ago, Green Knight said:

Yes, I'm in the process of migrating static stuff to the blog, the rest needs to go to Discord land. Tabletop.to will be used to track players, lists, matches, and scores.

Maybe put an organised play channel in the discord. I'll summon the italians organisers there then as well.

Are you a tournament organizer for the TTS community? With the FFG forums shutting down, I figured now was a good time as any to have a dedicated channel for all tournament organizers so that we can discuss the upcoming year and figure out what tournaments to run when, and brainstorm ways to build up the game we love on both online platforms, collaboratively. https://discord.gg/TYQzGfA86Y Here's the link. Direct Message me once you're in and I'll give you the proper role to access that particular channel.

GK's already in.