Tournament play for this game seems pretty straightforward, but my local play group has been batting around the idea of a persistent league and I figured I'd see who else might be entertaining the idea and how folks are going about doing it.

We'd like to set up a series of battles where the Imps and the Rebs can gain territory, plunder each other's resources and just generally scrap it out before hosting a huge mega battle event centered around the Battle of Endor (one of out players is working on a second Death Star infrastructure table).

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions?

Ryan the Lion said:

You could make wins and loses (or other objectives) affect the number of squad building points each side gets in the battle of Endor at the end. I wouldn't want to make the swings in squad building points too big or else one side might end up with an overwhelming advantage. It could even be as little as 1 squad point per win if you are planning on running it for many weeks and have a lot of players.

Another option would be to keep the last battle size constant but change the starting positions or rate of deployment based on previous battles.

You could take the winner's ships from the last game, and put those in the play area for free. Then each group gets a new set of allotted squad points to spend. The drawback is having Darth Vader survive with one hull point left, but no shields. He'll go down fast during the next game and nobody can choose him or any other uniques that survived that last battle. This could give you some feeling of push an pull between the two sides.

EDIT: This would require players to keep the same side for a given number of games before switching. Otherwise you get this weird tactic of trying to lose most of your ships while still defeating the opponent's, just so they are denied more ships in their next game.

It also makes R5-D8, R2-D2, and Determination more appealing because it not only affects this game, but possibly the next as well.

I'm sure there are problems with this idea that I'm not seeing, though.

League Setup -

This concept works best with an even number (but so does the game… lol)

at the beginning of the season, players are somehow allotted to a specific side (random is fairest, but then you get people playing a side they don't like… i'm not sure best way)

regular season

each session day should consist of at least 2 sessions, players using same squad for both/all,

if playing with large number of players, each session/day could allow for each side to choose 2 members to fight the 2 of the other factions choosing… creating a 2 win 2 loss game…

wins are tracked first by faction, then by player within faction

winning faction at end of season gets special prize rewarding type or something… also winning faction gets to enter 60% of post season contestants, other side brings 40%

Post season -

1 or 2 days depending on league size, bracketed elimination based on seeding from regular season (wins determine rankings, when 2 ships are tied place them on opposite sides of bracket, when more than 2 ships are tied the top two ships are determined by least amount of "modified" wins…)

then decide if you want to do single or double elimination… you could also run this as a sanctioned tourney only open to league members who qualified for post season…

Prize support: have each play pay a nominal fee per game played during regular season, something small somewhere around 2-5 bucks depending on how long your season will be, number of players, and amount of prizes… you could also try to get your FLGS to "sponsor" you if you hold your games there and your group is supportive of the store- maybe they'll throw in a gift certificate/discount coupons/boosters… never hurt to ask ;-) and it'll always be a "no" if you don't ask!

Adding to what's already been said,

Set various goals for each side, offering bonus points towards their faction and player points totals.. if you don't mind a few extra numbers to deal with.

Set it up kinda like video game achievements. This can focus on various build and upgrade combinations, point handicaps, etc.

Add special recognition for ace players based on winning streaks.

It's more time staring at spreadsheets at the end of the week, but it can be pretty rewarding for the players, and garner you some local geek fame. I've run a few video game leagues and added in a few bells and whistles for some subcompetition. The players seemed to like it.