Corrected star player lists?

[plasmoid]

Hi NAF,
I was wondering: I guess that the new stars will be added to tournament lists, but will stars also be pulled?

We know from spike 1 that Brick Farth no longer plays for Chaos. Will he be removed?
Similarly, will he be removed from the other team lists that have him?

We know from Spike 2 that Ithaca Benion no longer plays for the Dark Elfs. Will he be removed?
Similarly, will he be removed from the Khemri list?

Pushing things a bit further, we know from the gossip column of Spike 1 that Zara married Lord Borak. Could this be a hint that Zara is no longer on active duty? (She has after all been "replaced" bu Karla von Kill).

And finally we know from the the description of Mordrix in Spike 2 that Dolfar is dead. (And he is after all fairly useless). Should he also be removed?

Cheers
Martin

[Purplegoo]

Hi there,

Please see this section of the forum for the answer on this.

Cheers!

Phil.

[gjnoronh]

@Purplegoo
The yearly NAF November 1st review and update makes a lot of sense and I agree with that approach.

But I'd like more clarity on the post you linked to in April about how approved tournament packs should handle new releases:

SNIP
The NAF will be considering and reviewing rules as they show up, and then each November 1st, we'll release a document containing the rules we'll be using for NAF tournaments during the following year. Then, it'll go live on Jan. 1, and all tournaments in those 12 months will be expected to follow that rules document. This (we hope) will lead to a greater level of clarity compared to our previous strategy and some soothing routine in a time of churn, rules-wise. New stars that appear will be treated in the same way as we treat house ruled star players currently submitted in tournament rulespacks; if you as a TO want to use them, just ask. They're pretty likely to be approved if they're in an official book and they're not crazy!
SNIP

Since the first 2 Spikes are out I'm quite happy to allow any star players from the magazine. Our local environment is not very experienced veterans but a growing community largely brought into the game with BB16. The new stars seem fine from my events standpoint.

I just edited my previously approved rules pack to now say "If any additional GW release comes out between the time of creating these rules and the actual event the Tournament Organizer will review the release for appropriateness. Star Players and inducements from Spike Magazines will be allowed"

It used to say: "If any additional GW release comes out between the time of creating these rules and the actual event the Tournament Organizer will review the release for appropriateness. You can expect core rules/inducements (not optional ones) from future Spike Magazine’s / Deathzone season 3 to likely be legal and White Dwarf rules to not be legal. "

Do I need to resubmit my event pack for re-review? If so how?

I think this gets to a general question that might be hard to answer do minor tweaks/clarifications to a tournament pack require re review?

In many cases we are asking for approval 6 months in advance of the event. Player feedback, new GW releases, play testing might encourage minor adjustments to skill packages, allowed stars. At what point should I ask for re-approval? I asked for a rereview after changing the skill pack in this tournament to allow a few more skills (going from 6 skills to 8 ) for lower tier teams. I also felt bad asking for it given how busy I knew you were.

[Purplegoo]

Good questions.

I'm never too busy to reply to an e-mail asking about a tweak to an approved rulespack, please don't feel bad for asking. So long as you're giving attendees adequate time (changing a week or two out is not good) to absorb your change, the correct procedure is dropping me a line, and then me quickly checking and giving you the thumbs up. Tweaking an approved rulespack without asking isn't something we want TOs to be doing.

You bring up a good point regarding how to deal with upcoming Spike! rules in tournament rulespacks. On the one hand, we encourage TOs to submit as far in advance as possible, for lots of good reasons. On the other, this may mean one or two Spikes! and/or a NAF annual review occurs between submission and the event and your rulespack might have to change, or you may want to include new newness pre-review.

Not to totally repeat your quoted passage, but unless something remarkable and controversial pops up, Spike! additions (stars / inducements) are going to be treated as pre-approved house rules until an annual review where we formally take or leave them. I would prefer TOs to write to me and say 'Just checking, can I include the DE stars in my already approved rulespack?' so I can say yes (or, in the event Mordrix Hex had been clearly mega-broken for example, not her!), but I appreciate that's a faff and we might not get 100 % coverage, so your holding pattern text there is the next best thing. If any of the new stuff is plainly crazy on release, I expect I'd be making loud noises about how you shouldn't include it via the usual channels, so it should reach you. Ditto with the annual review - the results will be loudly communicated, you should not be able to miss them, and if you have to tweak accordingly, you have a two month buffer from Nov - Jan to do so.

If / when you do include new things, should anything show up as problematic, please let your local staff or me know. When we conduct the annual review, notes from the field will be useful. I don't presently see anything from either Spike! that we should say no to in November; if that's incorrect, we need to hear about it! Expect more review comms nearer the time, don't worry, I'm not expecting everyone to read TFF and react immediately.

[gjnoronh]

Sounds good PM sent.

[spubbbba]

We know from Spike 2 that Ithaca Benion no longer plays for the Dark Elfs. Will he be removed?
Similarly, will he be removed from the Khemri list?

I think this is kind of a shame, Ithaca was an interesting and unique player, I like that he could play for 2 very different teams.

The new DE stars are fine, but all tend to be a bit bland. I hope future spikes will be more like the chaos version with some interesting new stars rather than just bunging stats and skills on each of the positionals for the team.

I'd also guess that Glart jnr will be added to the list of removed stars too.

[Wobert]

I think I'd be happiest seeing star removal on a team by team basis. So Brick is gone for Chaos but kept in for Ogres for now. When Ogres are finally released, assuming Brick isn't listed, then agree his final removal. I think to do otherwise hurts teams who have the simple misfortune of not being released yet.

[Saebelsultan]

I agree with Wobert.

[Purplegoo]

It's certainly another approach, although it doesn't come without its own difficulties. Taking toys away from people is always harder and more politically difficult than giving them more to play with. It might be that, at the end of the BB2016 release cycle, we decide to break with CRP, keep CRP elements or go for some halfway 'optional elements' sort of a house. I don't have a crystal ball and I can't tell you when BB2016 will end, what that will look like or what we'll do about it, but I think for now we're safest giving coaches what they are used to and then some, rather than trimming here and leaving in place there. If nothing else, that would up the confusion level for those less likely to keep up with current events.

As ever - a tricky issue without a perfect answer, I think.