Tripleskull wrote:You have some valid points but I find that a quick browse is not enough. There are many interdependent and complicated mechanics to consider if you go down this road. However I appreciate your comments and hope I can trigger you to give it a more thorough look at some point.
Figure of speech
I don't type particularly quickly and tend to mull things over as I go along so you can rest assured I gave it some time. This sort of tournament is popular (not prevalent) in the UK so I've played in at least seven events that use this kind of costing system plus I played a ton of fumbbl when TS was important in blackbox. Thus I'm relatively familiar with
alot of the intricacies and potential break points.
(on the flip side I am an out of practice has been ^^)
Asterisks are an interesting topic. I'll try address this sometime later in the week because combo costings are complex and therefore a tricky thing to debate.
If I were to try and break your current system I would probably start with humans. You have generally under-valued some of the more traditional skills (relative to the weird/crap ones) and humans are in a good place to abuse that. Humans are also getting a stack of bonus skills which is what raised a red flag in the first place. So...
Standard 110k Human Roster:
Ogre - 140
4 Blitzers - 360k
Thrower - 70k
Catcher - 70k
6 Linemen - 300k
2 Re-Rolls - 100k (personal preference)
Apothecary - 50k
10k spare
Skills:
Leader - 20k (super super super
ridiculously cheap, although it costs skill points I guess)
4 x Guard - 160k (guard is very reasonably priced and four will put you at least one ahead of any other team in the tournament)
1 x Tackle - 20k (on a blitzer, guard sits on three blitzers and the ogre)
1 x Kick - 20k
2 x Wrestle - 60k (redundancy vs blodge, possibly worth turning one of these into SF on the ogre)
That feels like a very well kitted out team. Compare it to, for example, dwarfs who get maybe 3 x guard and a block runner? I'd definitely feel confident with that team given that a) the top tier teams can't get many skills and b) the lower tier teams are mostly shafted by the restriction on star players (notably underworld and halflings). Humans are already kitted out to deal with most styles and the format pretty much guarantees that they aren't going to get surprised. That's my main problem with the format as it stands actually - the asterisk system completely kills a bunch of interesting options and the "standard" skills aren't expensive enough to really justify diversification. It all feels a bit too "safe" so you end up with lowest common denominator teams (humans with guardspam + cheap tech) performing very well.
Sorry if that feels a bit aggressive. I have some rather particular opinions
I get the impression that you want to shake things up and in my experience you will have more fun accidentally discovering broken things than if you create a conservative system that encourages more traditional skill choices. White Isle Star Bowl II was completely and utterly broken but, iirc, most people loved the crazy novelty even if they didn't necessarily want to play the same format again (the ruleset had been solved by the end of the tournament, but not the start).
Interesting point about strip ball and sure hands. I mostly play teams that don't care about sure hands so didn't think about it too much. Cheap strip ball plus cheap sure hands is definitely a good way to go.
If you are concerned about costing stat increases then try them out on wood elves, halflings and slaan. Wardancers, stunties and slaan are the most abusive pieces that you can attach +Str or +Ag to and gutter runners, catchers and treemen make the best use of +Ma. I guess vampires might be worth a glance too because of the skill stacking.
It may also be worth taking a closer look at two heads. IMO you will get some more interesting teams if you keep it cheap but two heads is probably undercosted as it stands, relative to other mutations.
Other team builds that I looked at were underworld and vampires. Underworld make great use of the cheaper mutations and utility skills but shy away from being a powerhouse because they can't take skitter. Vampires feel solid but not outstanding. Much like most of tier 2 they are well pitched but kind of sad standing next to tier 3 humans. I'd be pretty comfortable playing the following:
4 x Vampires (block, dodge, dodge, pro) - 440k (140k)
10 x Thralls (wrestle, frenzy, kick) - 400k (100k)
4 Re-Rolls - 280k (20k spent from skill money)
Stacking blodge on the vampires might not be a bad way to go either. Ditching wrestle and frenzy gives you 60k to play around with chucking dodge and sure hands onto the block vampire. Maybe slap on tackle or frenzy for a mean ass vampire backed by some pro vamps and a kicker.