Hi all, when I went to run an event, I found there wasn't really a set of guidelines that did enough to sort balance issues while also being relatively flexible for the players. So I came up with the 1000pt version of this as the precursor. Feedback on that from players and people here eventually led to this version. Hope it helps others with their events.

WOTR 1000-1500pt draft competition guidelines.
Rules: 'Will of iron' works on a 3+ OR (Organiser's choice) 'Will of iron' is free as long as a hero has one might remaining.

Lists: There is a list of all the Epic heroes in the game, below. There are three categories for each faction: 'Restricted', 'Limited' and 'Unrestricted'.
Your army may only contain one hero from the 'restricted' list. At 1000pts, it may also have one hero from the 'limited' list (or two, if there is no 'restricted' hero) and at 1500pts it may have two heroes from the limited list (or three, if there is no restricted hero.)
You may take as many other heroes or legendary formations as points permit. You may not take any allied Heroes or Monsters from either the 'restricted' or limited' lists, though Good lists may use Epic Heroes from the Forgotten Kingdoms list ('The Shadow of the Nazgul' fulfils the same role for Evil).
Battlehosts may be fielded but the restrictions on Epic Heroes remains. The sole exception to this are Battlehosts which require more than one Epic Hero from the restricted list, in that case they may take the minimum necessary. Since the restrictions on Epic heroes remain in place, you may not take one restricted hero in the battlehost and another for the rest of the army.



Good

Gondor:
Restricted: Aragorn, Boromir, Elendil
Limited: Faramir, Imrahil, Isildur
Not Restricted: Peregrin,

Rohan
Restricted: Eomer,
Limited: Eorl, Theoden, Deorwine
Not Restricted: Eowyn, Erkenbrand, Theodred

Elven Kingdoms
Restricted: Galadriel (Lady of Lothlorien), Thranduil,
Limited: Elladan & Elrohir (pair counts as one choice), Haldir, Galadriel (Protectress of Lothlorien), Legolas
Not restricted: Celeborn, Elrond, Cirdan, Gil-Galad, Arwen,

The Dwarf Holds
Restricted: Dain, Gimli
Limited: Balin
Not Restricted: Floi

Forgotten Kingdoms (may be allies for any Good list)
Restricted: Saruman the White, Gandalf the Grey, Radagast the Brown
Not Restricted: Gandalf the White

Evil

Mordor
Restricted: Ringwraiths (except Witch King of Angmar), Gothmog
Limited: Mouth of Sauron, Kardush, Witch King of Angmar
Not Restricted: Gollum

The Fortress of Isengard
Restricted: Thrydan, Saruman,
Limited: Lurtz
Not restricted: Grima Wormtongue

The Misty Mountains
Restricted: Stone Giant, Dragon, Druzhag.
Limited: Balrog, Durburz

Fallen Realms
Restricted: Ringwraiths (Shadow of the Nazgul), Suladan
Limited: Amdur, Queen Beruthiel, War Mumak, Dalamyr

Angmar
Restricted: Ringwraiths (Shadow of the Nazgul)
Limited: Buhrdur, Witch-King of Angmar

I've considered the combos that I've seen out there (though perhaps not the Ringwraith flying circus - those are legendary Wraiths afterall) and I think the above is a good balance between keeping things in bounds and allowing players some flexibility. I definitely think it is a more helpful approach than simply asking players to 'theme' their list - that is the worst of both worlds, in my opinion. Some players end up having to defend their list choices vs (often not particularly knowledgeable) people with strong ideas of what a list should look like AND the sneakier players find effective ways of combining 'theme' with some pretty horrible and unbalanced lists. I've seen people get pretty worked up about theme, when it was clear that what was driving the angst was concern over other players having some unfair advantage. When balance is taken care of on it's own people then approach the issue of theme much more positively.

Prettier version here: http://roughwotr.blogspot.com/2012/01/w ... .html#more

Cheers

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http://www.roughwotr.blogspot.com

Thank you yet again Xelle for your hard work that you put into this, very well executed, like the WoI options dependong on if you like the Undying, and the tw levels of restriction (though I believe we have mentioned that earlier). For the most part, you have placed them in the right categories, particularly for Gondor, Dwarves, Mordor, Isengard etc.

There are just a couple of things though. In Rohan, I think Theoden and Theodred should swap places as I rank his abilty better. The other one is in MM, where the problem is Durburz + Stone Giant combo. Also, (perhaos) put Amdur in Restricted as hew does have Epic Rampage.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

Hi Gmtw, yes previous feedback gratefully incorporated. Maybe just chuck Theodred in the same category as Theoden? I think that Theoden does need to be limited, especially in the context of guidelines that mean less ES heroes to knock him out.

Heroic actions with the Stone-Giant are a definite issue (I rule it out when using full houserules) but I am not quite sure how to handle it with this style of guidelines? The army needs a legal leader and hopefully players will be prepared to deal with sudden moves by the Stone-Giant?

I think that what really hampers Amdur is his measly 3 might combined with the lack of options for Evil players to boost that. I can see how he'd be good alongside the Betrayer on a unit of Haradrim Cav though. Risky, could be rewarding.

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http://www.roughwotr.blogspot.com

When I think about, Theoden does become more potent, but putting Theodred with him would help I think, as Theodred could potentially do very well.

The Stone Giant is problematic and I too cannot find a way out of it. I wonder what MM armies will look like...

If this was SBG, you wouldn't call 3 might measly, but it isn't so you can. If him and Ringwraith No 2 where in cavalry it would more likely be MKs, but the the more specific combo I was thinking was Amdur + Betrayer + Half Trolls X 3 + two-handed weapons = a lot of pts but very deadly, at 590pts it would be silly for 1000pts but not for 1500pts.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.