Change Places!

The main thing to note is the Regional Cup document has undergone some fairly dramatic structural changes. The actual contents haven’t changed an enormous amount, but we’ve changed how the information is laid out. Previously, we’d attempted to front load the document with all of the knowledge T.O.s need in order to run events in the first few pages, but we’ve realised that it’s better if the Organised Play Document is laid out with all the information players need at the front.

We’ve also taken alternate formats out of the Regional Cup document. We didn’t believe they were adding very much, since T.O.s already have a lot of freedom in making up their own formats. They were also adding a lot of text to the document which didn’t seem entirely necessary. Additionally, the Mob Football Association (MFA) document is typically where we list the rules for a variety of alternate formats, so it didn’t make much sense to have them in the Regional Cup document as well! Therefore, the Regional Cup document now opens with the Regional Cup format, then goes onto the modified Tournament Pre-Match Sequence, then Player Responsibilities. The next section is Tournament Rules, followed by T.O. Responsibilities, and finally we have the Game Plan Cards. We’re confident that this new layout is more intuitive and useful for most players, and puts the majority of information where people can more easily access it.

We mentioned just there that the Tournament Pre-Match Sequence had been modified; this is to take into account of the change from Guild Plots to Game Plans, since these have different rules and requirements. The full core rules for the Game Plan cards have also been put into the Regional Cup document, the included rules are identical to the rules cards which were included in the Game Plan cards download.

Equality For All

After we spoiled the Game Plan cards, we saw a lot of people asking what this term ‘Squaddie’ meant. Squaddie is simply a term which means any non-Captain, non-Mascot model. Frankly, for our point of view, it was just a hassle having to type that out every time, so inventing a term for it saved us a lot of time! Squaddie is defined in this document for the moment and will be defined in the Season 4 rulebook when that is released.

One aspect of the updated Regional Cup document we’re extremely happy to finally be able to talk about is the Minor Guilds. These Guilds are releasing with one Captain, one Mascot, and six Squaddies. We’ve playtested these Minor Guilds extensively, and we’re happy that they’re just as competitive as any Major Guild, but the lack of model options compared to other Guilds can mean that they could use a tiny boost in Regional Cup events, where Major Guilds can bring two more models than Minor Guilds. As a result, any coach playing a Minor Guild in a Regional Cup gains [+1] to their roll to determine who will kick or receive. In addition, where normally coaches will be dealt [7] Game Plans from the shared deck, and discard [2], any coach playing a Minor Guild will instead be dealt [8] and discard [2]. This means they have more options for Game Plans both in general, and on a turn to turn basis. We’re confident that these rules give the Minor Guilds that little extra touch of flexibility that they sometimes want.

Unlimited Powwwwaaah!

The final thing we’ve made clearer is the role of T.O.s. We recently made a change to the Regional Cup document which meant pre-released models were legal for use in any tournament. We believe this was overall a good thing, since allowing people to play with their models is the main thing we like doing! However, we’ve seen several comments from potential T.O.s and players who felt this would create an unfair playing environment in their tournaments where one person had a model that other people hadn’t had a chance to get a hold of yet.

We’re sympathetic to these sort of issues, and so as a result, we’ve reinstated the rule that pre-released models cannot be used in tournaments as standard. However, we’ve made it clear that a T.O. can at their discretion make an exception to any of the rules within the Regional Cup document. The document as written is the format we will use for any official events such as the National and World Championships, but outside of that we intend this document to be a framework. T.O.s should feel free to modify sections of it to better suit their local communities. If a T.O. is comfortable allowing pre-released models at their event, then that’s perfectly okay. But if a T.O. believes their community would be better served if this wasn’t the case, that’s okay too.

Practically, this has been the case for a long time, but we wanted to make it clearer in our own rules.

Well, there you have it, a pretty big Regional Cupdate! Thank you all for reading, please go check out the actual document here: