Okay the thought here is that each team has to take 8 teams.
So does it make a difference to get a single skill (or in a few cases 2).
No, not compared to the truly good races - but it does for quite a few others.
An extra skill or two makes your team alot more competitive than it seems - we have tried it many, many times now.
Not so much better that it´s broken or shifts balance.
But enough to make it
viable to take the slightly less powerful teams of tier 1.
One such example is humans that isn´t as strong as Dwarves, Orcs etc. but still acceptable.
The idea isn´t to make every team of the same strenght - as that is impossible.
The idea is to make them competitive.
Does it work - yes it does. Not to the extend that everybody changes race, and that is good, because that isn´t the intend.
It is to open up for new choices - all captains (to my knowledge agrees on that).
Again I accept that you might feel other systems are better. And you may be right or you may not. However we won´t go too far away from this suggestion.
Why - because we need a system that has been playtested and that everybody has the time to playtest. Otherwise it simply won´t be accepted.
This one has been playtested alot.
Another argument is that the more changes and/or the more drastic these are the less chance they have of getting through.
With that said:
@Afroman: The big difference between forcing players to choose bad teams and giving teams a small boost is that you open up for people to choose a team that perhaps is slightly more challenging. But with the right skill choices can be somewhat better. (perhaps 5-10%).
Fx a human team that starts with an extra guard blitzer or a blodge Catcher extra or perhaps a leader thrower. A Chaos team that starts with an extra block Warrior or what you feel like.
Especially in the first games that extra skill makes a difference.
Also most people want to feel like thay have about the same chances as the next man - and you simply don´t with a Halfling team.
About inducements - they can be powerful, and actually quite powerful.
First off the Wizard is really good - really, really good.
Especially for those with cheap players.
The same goes for a undead team with the count for example. (despite the fact that he is so expensive).
We have tried and seen that at alot of tourneys and most feel it doesn´t belong here.
@Sillysod - the idea that the teams of different tiers cost points and you have a particular amount to use is (IMO) a rather interesting idea.
However I feel it has to be playtested to be implemented as the EB isn´t a place to test if things work in general. (Though this wouldn´t be broken in any way - the exact amount of points needed would have to be tested some times). It still have the issue that it isn´t based on free will - and that is an issue. Especially for those that say you need to do so and so well to keep your place in the team. (or it´s open for everyone - yourself included to "win" it.)
@Dave I am not sure I follow you here.
Those guidelines you quote are for new countries - not well astablished countries.
For us there´s alot of fight for getting a position on the team and around 30 people or so want to be in I believe. That isn´t possible - therefor some kind of "fair" system to make sure that the team continues (som people who continues from time to time to keep it moving on), that it stays very competible and is "objectively" chosen (i.e. the captain picks his friends fx) is needed. So it is a problem for the organizers if me make a rule that gives some players a disadvantage right from the start.
and not write a ruleset to discourage certain races
- but we haven´t done that at all - we are doing the exact opposite. writing one to encourage a wider selection of races chosen - without overpowering these or tip the balance too far.
or did I missunderstand you?