Playing: Team tournament musings

I've been thinking about putting together a Sprue Posse team tournament for one of our open tournaments for the upcoming 2011 season. The idea is intriguing because it's a different spin on something standard without completely redefining the ruleset (although from a balance perspective it can completely blow up conventional wisdom).

There are plenty of options on how to do these things and what to allow or prohibit. A variety of choices indeed present themselves.

What armies are allowed to team up? For those with fluff in mind you can always use the handy apocalypse allies matrix. You could prohibit sworn enemies or give them some kind of penalty. You could encourage trusted allies by offering bonuses. Another option is to just open up arcade mode where anything goes. This idea might be more suitable because it allows for a bit more creativity and more importantly gets more players into the tournament.

After you decide what codex combinations are legal among the teammates you then need to decide how different codices interact with one another, if at all. Lots of options here. Should buffs be shared across codices? Can your KFF grant chimera's a 4+ save? What about debuffs like doom? Or Fateweavers save re-roll ability? Fortune on a TH/SS unit? Aside from buffs should mixing and matching transports or independent characters be allowed? Nobs in a Land Raider for instance? A warboss leading a unit of space marines?

I think from a team up perspective mixing and matching vehicles and IC's can get a bit complicated. At that point you're not sure who is in charge of moving what unit or vehicle since it becomes a blending of the two. Another issue with some of the buffs is wording. Many buffs state "friendly" units. That could imply it works for allies. Other buffs like fortune specify specific race like eldar, or marker-lights for tau. You could go further and create a "team-up" rule where all references to CODEX include your teammate too. This would allow markerlights working for IG or IG orders working for lootas.

Other basic questions. Should teammates share phases? Most likely for ease of play. Should they share force organization? Should there be minimum's on FO or troop choices? Or could you just run imbalanced teams with one side taking HQ and troops and another taking all Heavy Support and Fast Attack.

So the questions I'd have to answer:

1) What codices are allowed to team up?
2) What do the individual and team force organization charts look like?
3) Do "buffs" or special abilities work across codices?
4) Do debuffs work across codices?
5) Can IC's attach themselves to teammates' units?
6) Can vehicles work with teammates units?

Lots to cover here. Maybe I'll come up with something coherent on this in the near future.