UK Event - Derby Sat 1 Oct 2016 - Competition Theme?

Hi to all UK based Impetus players and anyone interested in travelling to a great UK show,

The Derby Show (actually at Castle Donnington near East Midlands airport) is running on the Sat 1 and Sun 2 October. Traditionally we have always had good Impetus competition on the Saturday and then for those who are staying for the two days, played some extra games on the Sunday.

The Derby 2016 website is up and running and have just emailed the Derby team to see if we can get some table allocation to get Impetus included again this year. This event is run carefully by the Derby team and all entries have to be paid in advance direct to the Derby team.

For now was proposing just to highlight the date and float some ideas for the Sat. competition.

Do we want the standard 400 point open competition we just had at Sheffield? Another idea to consider is having a series of fixed match ups with players presenting a historically matched pair, possibly with fixed terrain. In the competition you would then simply play three different games using different armies and from different periods.

To illustrate this listed below a few options that Matt and I could present using our figures at 400 points:

Republican Rome v Carthage
Patrician Roman v Huns


Anyone interested in this as a themed competition AND what games could others present. OR if nobody else is interested do we stick with our open 400 point 25 mm style?

Anybody got any other good ideas?

Cheers Jez

Hi Jez

First thanks for taking the reins on this one - appreciated.

As far as format goes I am a bit concerned changing to matched pairs could put some folk off. I'd rather trial the idea somewhere other than Derby first. Using matched pairs and fixed terrain may give interesting games but it also needs to be almost perfectly balanced - very hard to do. The advantage of the 400 point format is you are your own boss and if you pick your army badly, without balance (as mine was at Sheffield) then you only have yourself to blame.

Having said that I will go with the flow

Ken - sure was simply floating an idea. The important thing is to get everyone together for a good day on the Sat, so if we want to stick with the open 400 points that would work fine.

Actually we could always do an Open Tournament on the Sat and then individual challenges on the Sunday for those who are staying for the two days? Is this what happened last year on the Sunday? I seem to remember history was changed with William Wallace beating the English - Scottish independence achieved?

Hope others will want to post up their thoughts?

Cheers Jez

I'm talking with Luca and trying to convince him to come.
Well as me he would play a 1 day comp and not a 2 day comp. So fa so good.
In Italy we tried to make a competition with historical opponenents. It is a formula that I like, but for several reason it never worked out. I think that the main reason is that you need to have a less competitive approach with such a system.

With armies at 400pts, not being forced to bring our figures on the flight would be very helpy. Don't think I could easily store a 400pts army in 28mm in an hand baggage. So find there ready armies would be great.
Also fixed terrain can improve the visual aspect.

The 'matched pairs' idea is a bit like the tournament we did in Cardiff in November 2014. The details are here:

http://impetus.ativiforum.com/t244-dragon-s-roar-the-winter-warmer-cardiff-november-15th

Rather than a straight scoring system, we compared the results for each army, and people got points based on their relative success/failure with that army. I'm not sure we had the scoring quite right, as draws skewed the results a bit, but it was a good way to get to play armies that you might otherwise not get to use.

RogerC

I would like to do this in Oz but our player base has armies from all corners and time periods. 

I have been developing several armies to offer historical opponents and I always try to organise at least one historical opponent round in competitions.

I used to play duplicate bridge. Have you ever tried that approach? You play in a team of two. Table One fights as Army A vs Army B, Table Two has exactly the same armies but the players are reversed. The results are then combined.

Interesting idea but not viable in a 1 day competition environment - needs to be

1. Simple to apply
2. Require minimum input from organiser on the day, and only reasonable pre event work  
3. Be realistically achievable on 6 or more tables
4. Provide a result that day that is comparable  

Almost all the options fail on one or more of these criteria - matched armies being a good example. Sure you can do a matched pair, but if this is to be a meaningfully comparable event them you need to provide six or more identical matched pairs - it isnt going to happen. Stick with KISS for tournaments

Hi All

As an update the good news is that the Derby team can include us as a competition on the Saturday, and it would be £15 if you want to just come on the Sat. and play in the competition that day.

For those who are staying over and want to also use the tables on the Sunday to play an odd challenge game or so, the cost would be £20 in total (to highlight the preference from the Derby team is to have two day competitions for a fee of £20 so they are doing us a favour by allowing a one day contest).

As normal with Derby it is pay in advance direct to the organisers.

It looks like the preference is to stick with a 25 mm 400 point 3 match contest on the Saturday? Well the point is definitely not to put potential players off by doing something different.

Will start a new thread shortly with the confirmed competition details - last chance if anyone wants to add any input or new ideas?

For Lorenzo / Luca and anyone reading and possibly coming from abroad - know Matt and I would have some spare armies we can bring along which you are welcome to use.

Cheers Jez

I'm sure I will have a spare army or two available too

ok, this can help. I talk with Luca

Damn, Not sure if my message went or got lost just now!

What I was saying was....

Thanks Jez for taking up the baton on this. I'll look forward for both days with any luck.

As for the support of Overseas visitors, I would be more than happy to supply an army or 2 if required.

Unless previously discussed (I haven't looked at this thread before posting this,) I might suggest that anyone after an army should post on here the required army, either as an army list or just which one to start with and them we can form a queue offering the figures! If I cannot do a 28mm army I can offer 20mm ones on the correct sized bases.

Just a thought.

C B

I will have a Yorkist army to spare

Hi

Yes great idea re spare armies, maybe we should also expand so if any UK players fancy a change of army they could also borrow an army?

Anyway for anyone in Europe reading the thread - the Castle Donnington location is really close to East Midlands international airport and easily OK to get a taxi from the airport to the how area, so definitely practical to fly in.

Now all confirmed I'll start up a new thread - just to highlight the competition date and style clearly. We will be going for a 3 game 400 point open competition on the Saturday - and an any individual challenges for those also coming on the Sunday.

Cheers Jez

hi guys

not wanting to sound too bitchy...but a word of warning!!!

derby insist that you pay upfront and to an individual club member's paypal account.

they refused point blank to refund my entry fee from last year and you cant claim it back via paypal....

so Caveat Emptor

Hi All

Yes you do have to pay in advance - I think you can pay by cheque though - that's what I did last year.

The Derby show is always pretty tightly organised and you cant just turn up on the day and pay for the competition - when I start the actual competition thread I will just list players when I have received confirmation from the organisers that they have paid.

I am sure I am OK for the day so will get my entry in early and set a good example!

Cheers Jez