I am planning to run a series of monthly Hive tournaments and am looking for player input on the formats. I've set up the first, here https://en.boardgamearena.com/#!tournament?id=8200. The things which are open for discussion are:
The Variants: There are 16 possible rules variations for a Hive game on BGA. Of those 4 are out of the question because they are flawed but that still leaves a fairly long list. The more obvious options are:
Standard Pieces + tournament opening (I've set up the first one on this basis)
Pillbug + standard opening
Ladybird + tournament opening
Mosquito + tournament opening
Ladybird, Mosquito, Pillbug + tournament opening
Do players have strong feelings one way or the other.
There is also the question of format for the tournament. I've got a strong preference for Swiss, as this allows everyone to play through to the end of the tournament, but am interested in how many rounds players might prefer.
In terms of time I've found 2 days is a bit tight so have gone with 3 days, but wonder if people find that easy or difficult. Organising a real-time engagement seems to difficult to co-ordinate with players in widely different time zones.
This first tournament is open to everyone. In Chess its common to divide tournaments based on player ratings. That way people with lower ratings do not have to put up with being completely outplayed and have a fairer chance in their division. How would people feel about splitting events; so Good and above in one? My feeling is there are not enough players but I wanted to solicit responses to the idea.
The Variants: There are 16 possible rules variations for a Hive game on BGA. Of those 4 are out of the question because they are flawed but that still leaves a fairly long list. The more obvious options are:
Standard Pieces + tournament opening (I've set up the first one on this basis)
Pillbug + standard opening
Ladybird + tournament opening
Mosquito + tournament opening
Ladybird, Mosquito, Pillbug + tournament opening
Do players have strong feelings one way or the other.
There is also the question of format for the tournament. I've got a strong preference for Swiss, as this allows everyone to play through to the end of the tournament, but am interested in how many rounds players might prefer.
In terms of time I've found 2 days is a bit tight so have gone with 3 days, but wonder if people find that easy or difficult. Organising a real-time engagement seems to difficult to co-ordinate with players in widely different time zones.
This first tournament is open to everyone. In Chess its common to divide tournaments based on player ratings. That way people with lower ratings do not have to put up with being completely outplayed and have a fairer chance in their division. How would people feel about splitting events; so Good and above in one? My feeling is there are not enough players but I wanted to solicit responses to the idea.