Ladder Play Definition

Ladder Play is based upon an attacking/defending ladder rung system. Players may join ladders at their discretion and attempt to work their way to the top by attacking Players on "ladder rungs" above them. A successful result by the attacking Player results in them taking the spot or rung from the defending Player. In turn the defending Player falls to the next spot down. If the attacking Player loses the match then both Players stay at the rung they were on prior to the match. Players who are in an active challenge are the only Players that cannot be challenged. All other Players can be challenged and "must" accept any challenge made. Failure to do so could result in loss of rungs on the ladder or in removal from the ladder.

Heroscape Ladder matches are played using 500 point armies a single randomly generated map, using our usual tournament rules. The attacking player is responsible for bringing the map on which the match is to be played.


How to Join a Ladder


Each player participating in the ladder will compose a pool of 1000 points. Any match played will draw from that pool of 1000 points. Multiple commons count as multiple points. For example, putting 3 squads of Stingers in your pool counts as 180 points towards the 1000 point pool limit. Once you have composed your pool, post it in the ‘Ladder Teams’ section of the forums. Pools may be changed to any extent, but may not be changed after Midnight on the Monday before Casual Play, at which point challenges may begin.


Ladder Play Logistics

Issuing a Challenge

Players that have registered their pool, and do not have a pending challenge from another Player, are eligible to challenge up beginning the Tuesday before a Casual Play date. Challenges issued during Casual Play, will be played on a map of the defender's choice, from the available BoV maps. Challenges are issued through the Ladder forum, or during a ‘Casual Play’ session. Please see the next section for details on how high up the ladder you can challenge. You will not be able to challenge Players that have another pending challenge, or that you have lost to during the current Casual Play session.

Ladder Movement

You can challenge anyone above you 5 slots or 50% of the remaining ladder from your current rank - whichever is higher. (Ex: Rung 15 can challenge rung 8. Rung 7 can challenge to rung 2. Rung 6 can challenge to rung 1).

Challenge and Match Date Acceptance

There is a time limitation for match responses. This includes Acceptance of a Challenge and/or Date Acceptance. The deadline is the Thursday before the “Casual Play” date.

Map Selection

The map will be randomly selected by an admin from the maps listed in the BoV or any map may be used, as long as both parties agree upon it. If the attacking player cannot build the selected map, map selection and building will fall to the defending player. For example, if the randomly selected map was “Marr Highway”, and the attacking player did not have the RttFF expansion, the defending player can provide the map of his choice from the BoV.

Side Choice

The Defending Player has the right to pick their starting zone for the match.

Match Communications

All Communications concerning Match Logistics must take place within the Ladder Forum


Scoring

There is no scoring. You either win or lose. If the challenger wins, they will be placed on the rung they were challenging, and everyone below that rung moves down one rung. If the challenger loses, no one moves.

Are all the armies limited to 24 hex still? Can we up it to 30 or something. Is 24 just a random number somebody came up with? I have several armies I would really like to try, but not worth it if I can't have the whole army out there. I have a lot of armies I throw Q9 into simply because I only have a couple slots left and a lot of points left.

Also, will the games be timed, or can we play till somebody is out of figures or calls it quits?

Yet another good question. Obviously the BoV maps are set up to handle 24 spaces, which is probably due to the 24-hex tiles. If someone would like to edit the starting zones on the maps to carry more, I'm fine with that. I've been dying to play 12xrats+Marcu...



Not unless turtling is part of your strategy.

I'm okay with 24 hex starting zones... it's what we are going to have to adhere to in tourneys anyway...On the other hand if you guys want to up the count, Im fine with that as well. Im easy.

Are we using a 50 minute time limit...or playing until one side is dead/surrenders?

SURRENDER OR DIE!

I think play til you die is perfectly fine. Playing til you feel woozy is also acceptable.

Oh, I'm in, btw.

I always feel woozy... [smilie=yawn2.gif] lack of sleep an all... LOL

I know that the 50 min. time limit sometimes creeps up on me while playing in a tourney... just thought this might be a good way to get used to that pace for tournament play... but whatever you guys wanna do... I'm going to be now... night night.

Just curious, can we play these games at any location, or do we have to play them at the casual play dates? Tog?

I'm fine with games being played outside of our Sundays. So if Kyle wants to walk over and smack Greg around, etc., that's fine with me. However, it should not interfere with other pending challenges. For example, if Karl had a pending challenge against Greg, it wouldn't be right for Kyle to walk over and play a ladder match against Greg.

Make sense?

Perfect sense

oh boy, this means constant challenges from my dad. well till he wins at least. Oh well I will get to play more scape!
bobofdeath

So I'm not on the list... Do I at least get to challenge rung 10, or is there a more complete ladder somewhere?

If you are not on the list, you are effectively in last place, so if 10 is the current last, then you are 11th. Then you can challenge up to half the remaining spaces, or 5 above you whichever is higher, in this case, it is the same. You could challenge anybody in 6th place or lower.

Anyone can participate Cobra... I can easily add you to the list.

I played an army that had more than the 24 hex starting spaces. We just played that the additional pieces started off the board one space. Basically they had to step to higher ground to get onto the normal starting zone when I got around to using them. It worked well in my opinion. No adjusting the starting zone, no limitation on how many figures you could have, and no unfair advantage of starting closer to the glyphs/opponent/highground/etc. Any problem with saying this is "officially" ok ongoing, at least as far as ladder play is concerned? I realize that tournaments are probably going to stick with the 24 hex for quite awhile.

I just assumed we were limited to 24 hexes.

Well... I am biased becasue I was the one getting swarmed by hounds with an 8 movement... LOL so I shall refrain from comment and go with whatever you guys decide.

My main reason for wanting more than 24 is I have a lot of armies I want to play,a nd many of them have more than 24. I don't want to limit all my gaming to the 24 hex mindset. Between all the tournaments we are having, and throwing the league in on top of them, thats a lot of games that are being limited if we don't allow it for the league. (which is great by the way). I just see the league as a more organized casual play, but shouldn't be restricted.

I can go along with that.

Will the ladder matches take place on casual play nights?

That sounds like a good workaround. I had an all four-legged army I wanted to play last weekend but I realized it took up 33 spaces!

Agree. The 24 hex limit is somewhat arbitrary, and chosen more out of convenience than anything. I think the 24 hex limit tends to benefit heroes and moderately priced ranged squads, while it hamstrings armies using cheap melee units - imagine taking on Tornak + 40 blade gruts, or Marcus + 32 legionaires!

Here is the respons I recieved on heroscapers.com when I asked why the BoV chose a 24 hex start zone. As you can see they mainly had tournament schedules in mind when making the decision. I'm all for making an "unlimited" start zone rule for ladder play. ....5 units of rats and 5 units of stingers... 35 units... and 35 asprin for the headache it'll give youre opponent. LOL

I agree with Heroscapers. The start zone should remain limited forcing Hero's into play. For special scenarios I can see swarm armies, but really that could be disheartining when a hero has to stand up against 3-4 squads of one type.... Furthermore they are also right about the cost. I've got some duplicates for those items I really like, but even those I limit to only 3 common squads. I've read where other heroscape clubs further limit to using a max of 3 of any particular common.

Then again, Im just the low man on the pole so this is my 5cents worth.

Tog, your running this puppy... are we throwing out the 24 hex start zone limit for this round of the Ladder... I hope so, cause Kyle kicked my but with about 4077 Marden hounds... LOL

On the point of time limits. It seems to me it could be very important for some sort of time/round limit. For example, I could have 2 armies of MicroCorp holding a highly defensible location backed by Raelin. My opponent may have 1 squad of stingers left. However there could be a location of the map with some great high ground that the only way up is around the back (opposite my defending army). The stingers could take up position there and then it's a stand-off. If I approach and attempt to scale the high-ground, the stingers will gladly pick-off my units. Where obviously my agents would make easy work of the Stingers if approached.

My point is this - How do we handle situations where 1 player has an obvious advantage the attacker could not overcome w/o drawing the defender out?