Warhammer Draft Tournament

I'm sure some of you have taken part in a draft tournament before.  This is typically done with card games, but I got to thinking.. Wouldn't it be fun to do that in Warhammer? I've tried thinking of how this could be done.  Obviously unlike card games, this isn't for keeps.  You are going to need to pool together your wargaming groups models and trust everyone in the group to use your models and not break/steal them.     

Everyone must bring

2 Lord - At least 1 must be a caster type | Up to 400 points|
1 BSB - No point limit
2 Heroes - 1 Caster, 1 Non-caster type  | Up to 400 points|
For all units, you must bring all the possible command options but equipment is up to you.
Core -  4 Choices |Up to 400 Points each|
Special - 3 Choices |Up to 400 points each|
Rare - 2 Choices |Up to 300 points each|
1 Thing of your choice |Up to 300 points|

Alternatively as a group you can all come up with what units to use, but for the number to work out, you should have 15 "cards" per player.  I personally like the idea of everyone being responsible for bringing what they want to add to the randomness that you get with normal draft tournaments.

Get pieces of paper and write down What kind of unit, what army they are from, how it/they are equipped(in the case of units), and the point value without magic items.

Examples

Lord, Ogre Kingdom Tyrant, 210 Points

Core, 25x Empire Archers, 200 Points

Sort the cards into the piles of Lord, Hero, Core, Special, Rare (BSB's are not put into the starter packs).  Each player takes 1 card at random from each pile.  These are the "Starter Packs"  Each player gets to know these 5 units before they draft.  (This also ensures that they get 1 of every unit type, plus you can form a "drafting strategy" based on what you have in your starter set.

Once everyone has a starter set, set up the draft packs. Take the number of players x2 and thats how many "draft packs" you will need to make.  Put 1 character card and 1 core unit in a "pack"  then combine all remaining cards into one large pile.  Randomly put 3 more cards on top of each pack then place a rubber band around them.  Then distribute the packs to the players evenly.  Then you get everyone in a big circle(or 2 big circles if you have more than 5 players)  and draft as you do for any other game. Everyone opens a pack, takes 1 card then passes it to the right.  Once all the cards from that pack are done, do the same only to the left. 

Once this is done, you have to make an army list.  The normal army composition rules apply. You don't have to use all the models in the unit, or if you have enough, you may split them into 2 units. 

Example
If I draft the unit of 25 Empire archers, I am allowed to field them just 12 of them, or I can make 2 units of 10.

Characters may only take magic items and spells from their own book. 
Units that can carry magic banners may only take those from their own book.

SPECIAL RULES

Undead spells that raise more undead can only be cast on undead units and you must have drafted the appropriate models

Example
You may not raise additional Chaos Warriors.  And if you drafted a unit of 30 skeleton warriors, you may not bring the unit size to above the number of model that you have. 

At the beginning of the game declare what race your army is representing for the purposes of augments, spell, abilites etc that effect a specific race.(You may not choose undead)  Units gain this distinction, but do not lose what they actually are.

Example
At the beginning of the game I declare my army is an Ogre Army so every model in my army can benefit from Ogre augments spells. My units of Orcs are still also considered to be Orcs for the purposes of hating greenskins or if a Orc shaman wanted to cast an Orc augment on them.

Characters are allowed to join as if they were members of the appropriate race, UNLESS there are specific restricting the characters that can join the unit normally

Example
No character can join gnoblar units, only hunters can join Sabretusk units, only Wardancer characters can join wardancer units, etc etc



I know it's crazy, but I'm a crazy guy.  Can anyone see any flaws in my system (I'm sure there are TONS of them)

So you don't give equipment or upgrades to the characters on the cards?
1. Can you give them upgrades when building an army?
2. Can you add equipment to a unit when building an army?
2.b Can said equipment take unit over the card limit? (400 core etc)
3. Is there a BIG points total that your army may not exceed?

1. If I draw a vampire lord for 200ish points.  Can I give him vamp powers and magic items as long as army points allow?
2. If I draw 7 maneaters (no equipment), can I add equipment and command up to 400 points?
2.b If I draw 8 maneaters (no equipment 400 points) can I give them extra equipment taking them past 400?
3. I assume there will be as that will go a long way to balancing the rest.

Note:  Won't it be easier to maybe include equipment/command/magic Items/banners on the cards and just have everyone fielding the cards as is?  They can still split the unit up if they want. Eg: unit of 25 Spearmen with full command can be fielded as 1 unit of 10 with champ and 1 unit of 15 with standard and muso.

I'm not trying to undermine your ideas or anything, on the contrary.  Seeing your ideas got me thinking of maybe jamming something likewise in my group.  (I think it could be awesome)

I just think it might be easier to be limited to the cards only, but I might be mistaken.  Just throwing some questions out I might have as a possible player when confronted with this game style. (I assume the questions is what we want to fix after all)

1.  Characters are left unequipped so that each player can customize what they want to use.
2.  Units are equipped however the model is equipped, but in the case of things like maneaters where there are options like Scout or stuff like that.. you get to choose once you've drafted.
2b.  Yes.  Once the drafting is over, normal army composition rules apply.
3.   Yeah you all agree ahead of time that you are going to play 2000 points(which is kind of where I was balancing it) or lower if you wanted.

The only reason I was thinking of not having everything preset on the cards is because
A.  I like the idea of still being able to customise things to your personal playstyle some.
B.  This gives everyone the chance to use all 2000 points. Otherwise you'd be drafting things just because it works within how many points you have left.

Don't worry about undermining me.. that's sort of the point of a house rules section.  Things only get better when people point that stuff out, otherwise we'd all just be saying "Great rules.. you should totally use them even though they are EXTREMELY unbalanced."

Ok cool, that room for customizing your army can probably work as long as there is a set max.
A max army points also means that if you draft MORE than that you will have to make some of the units smaller/leave out equipment on your characters.  That would make army building quite interesting.

Thank you for the idea.  We might try it out this weekend. 

All in all it looks like a system that could be great fun for a casual WHFB day.

Another note:  How will you make undead work with crumble/march without general (or having an undead core unit with no way to heal them if you don't draft a necro)

Let's face it, if there is one part of army composition undead is pulling at the short stick, it's in their core units (especially if they can't be healed).

undead will treat non undead characters as if they were undead. 

It's draft at your own risk.  So if you get a unit of skellies and no necro or vice versa,  it's all up to you.

However, I can see allowing VC and Tk spells being allowed to work with each other.  When it all comes down to it,  I dont think they care whose bones it is.

Also you dont have to use everything you draft so long as you can make 2k points.

Making them general undead (instead of VC/TK) could work in case you draft a necro and TK archers.  And the fact that you DON'T have to use all the cards balances it out when you don't have healing.

I can't think of any other issues that might arise.  There might pop up some weird armies (like dwarfs fighting with chaos or orcs) but that's just part of the fun.