http://40kwarzone.blogspot.ae/2014/02/tournament-attendance-down-across-board.html
I want to continue discussing tournament attendance and what other changes may need to be made.
Comp
Alright, so we touched on this in the previous article. Comp in 40k was a big no no back when 6th edition hit. Most tournaments dropped it all together, and have been running off a non-comp system ever since. However, from reading a lot of community feedback surrounding the topic, it appears that the majority of players want some form of balance returned to the game.
A group down here in Australia is trialing a comp system that can be used universally in creating army lists. It works by giving you 20 "comp points" to spend on units within your codex/allies etc. If you dip below zero, you can't play with that list. Funnily enough, my tournament list scored -14! Haha. Probrably have to rethink that one. Spam is a huge nono in the system. If you plan on spamming Serpents, you will pretty much hit the negative comp score within just a few seconds. The system will take a long, long time to get right. However, it is a step in the right direction. I've already chatted to a number of event organisers about such a system, and many seem to be open to the idea of trialling it.
Alternative Measures:
Here is something interesting that appeared on Faiet212 recently:
http://natfka.blogspot.ae/2014/02/alternate-scoring-for-tournaments.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Faeit212+%28Faeit+212%29
It is an alternative scoring system to 40k. The aim of the system was to restore some form of balance back into the game, and it seems that, through recent tournament testing, the system is creating just that sort of desired environment. Having scoring each turn means your 5 man Dire Avenger squad will be mounting up victory points well before they get destroyed in turn 5. That seems to be a pretty good system. No more hiding in AV12/14 transports until late turn 5. It also mitigates the whole fiasco about going first or second. Many competitive gamers, or Eldar players (Scoring Jetbikes ftw!), would often say it is better to go second so you can last turn score/deny. By scoring every round, players will, firstly, have to bring more scoring troops.
Seeded round pairings:
This is an interesting one. Let's say that at my 12 person event, 4 of the people there are super OP gamers. As the organiser, I would pair up the super competitive players in the first round. Furthermore, come the second round, I would pair up the two competitive gamers, that won their rounds, vs each other. Whilst the other two who lost would play. The other 8 gamers would play off normal round battle points etc. Most of the social gamers I've talked to have been in complete support of this method. However, it seems rather unfair to the competitive players who have paid an entry fee of their own. Should we care though? In my opinion, yes. First round pairing seem to be okay, but not in subsequent rounds.
Thoughts?