AoS: An Interesting Balance Format

Hey guys, I just wanted to share a video that I watched on Youtube that seems to have a very novel idea for at least a starting point for army selection (and deployment.

The first half the video is much like my previous post about how points are not really a necessary system, but the second half of his video is what I find very interesting. For those of you who can't watch, I'll type up (and format) the system he described for army composition and deployment:

Kingdom of Geekdom's Army Selection

Army selection is fairly straight forward, and if used by itself, may not make for the best games, but it's important to know what you're bringing first:

• 3-12 Warscrolls
• 30 wounds max per Warscroll
• 120 wounds max per army
• No more than 50% of your total Warscrolls may be Hero, Monsters or Warmachines
• No Warscroll may be taken more than twice
• Named units (like Nagash) may not be taken more than once

So a pretty standard amy selection, very similar to some others we've seen, though perhaps a bit more simplified. But how does this balance the game? The game balance is done during deployment (the player deploying first will be referred to as Player 1, the other will be Player 2):

• Players alternate deploying Warscrolls
• No more than 50% of the Warscrolls you deploy may be of the Hero, Monster, or Warmachine type
• Lists are played open, and each player knows what the other has in their army
• Each player must place at least 3 Warscrolls
• After deploying the 3 Warscrolls, players are then able to pass (which means not deploying a unit)
• If Player 1 passes, Player 2 may deploy one more unit and then deployment ends
• If Player 2 passes, deployment immediately ends

I think this is pretty cool for a few reasons. First of all, it's very simple and doesn't require a ton of changes to the rules, nor does it require memorizing a whole huge sequence of pre-game events. This system also allows new players who don't have large collections to still play in competitive events, though they will obviously have less flexibility in their army. There will be a lot of poker gaming deployment as well, you will want to get your important units out first, but at the same time, you'll want to potentially deny your opponent from bringing everything they want. It also becomes up to the player to decide which units are more valuable against different opponents, meaning you can bring a couple just-in-case units that you may not need through the full event.

While I doubt this is a "perfect" system, I thin it's interesting enough and has enough merits to give a shot. I really like the idea of having to choose when to deploy units with the risk that you may not be able to bring everything to the board, and I especially like that new players can still engage in tournaments, without having to build up the equivalent of a 2500-3000 points army before they get their first taste.