In the near future a whole bunch of people around the world will get their hands on the Eve War for New Eden Board Game. You can be one of them simply by going over and making a pledge to the Kickstarter, which is up and running right now.
One thing I wanted to bring up here - and something I've been thinking about a lot the last few weeks - is that soon a whole bunch of people are going to have a whole bunch of cool miniatures of Eve spaceships in their hands. Both regular and 200% versions. Along with the Ship Cards and a rather robust combat system. And from the comments I've been reading, a lot of potential players are wondering what to do with those minis. I mean, besides playing the Board Game with their friends.
Combat system. Cool spaceship miniatures.
Why not hold your own Alliance Tournament?
Think about it for a second. Pick your own ten man fleet composition to represent your team and then your friends do the same. You can make up your own rules or follow the AT rules if you want. You can have a round robin set-up, with a losers bracket, or just a single elimination style tournament. You can let people change compositions or stick with the ones they have. Really, the rules are totally up to you and your friends, or your organizers.
This would be great for player meets. I'm sure a lot of player meets in the future will feature games based around the board game, which is awesome. But this Alliance Tournament idea could be yet another way to enjoy the board game in person. Or even on-line. Who knows?
I just wanted to bring this concept up now so you had time to think about it. You've got hundreds of miniature spaceships in your hands, with a system already built to handle combat in a truly unique way - why not explore additional ways to enjoy those systems? Not to mention gorgeous ship cards with beautiful art?
I really like the idea of real world Alliance Tournaments, but I can imagine that the ever creative Eve community will come up with even more clever ways to use the Board Game that I haven't even thought about.