Winter Tournament - 2020

[blondus]

Crescent Bay seems to be doing better, score balance wise, but that may also be because people haven't figured out a "trick" yet

oh my! now I want to know the trick mate! don't tell me paratroops
anyway that's an amazing scenario!
Luca

[Shards]

Heh, I've tried to defend against paradrops in the design.

Both myself and my opponent have tried and failed with them in my game, which is a good sign

[Celeborn]

I learned the hard way that the Japanese can block the US crossing of the river on turn 2 with speedy light tanks, thereby allowing a fairly easy concentration around Bay Town. I suppose the US could buy additional engineers to provide extra crossing but unless the initial deployment is changed it will still allow the Japanese to get the jump and pretty much assure control of Bay Town for the first several turns.

On a general tournament scoring note suggest that if a player fails to complete their moves the opponent be given either their current score or 150, whichever is greater. (in my last round I would have been received about 30 more points had my opponent never played a move)

It seems there should also be a mechanism where players who abandon a tournament game are either disqualified from future tournaments, or perhaps that there be occasional "invitational" tournaments open only to those who have successfully completed at least one tournament and never abandoned a tournament. Just something where dedicated players can have fairly high confidence of getting paired up against those of similar dedication.

Crescent Bay seems to be doing better, score balance wise, but that may also be because people haven't figured out a "trick" yet

oh my! now I want to know the trick mate! don't tell me paratroops
anyway that's an amazing scenario!
Luca

[jeannot le lapin]

It seems there should also be a mechanism where players who abandon a tournament game are either disqualified from future tournaments, or perhaps that there be occasional "invitational" tournaments open only to those who have successfully completed at least one tournament and never abandoned a tournament. Just something where dedicated players can have fairly high confidence of getting paired up against those of similar dedication.

A sort of blacklist ?

[Shards]

I learned the hard way that the Japanese can block the US crossing of the river on turn 2 with speedy light tanks, thereby allowing a fairly easy concentration around Bay Town. I suppose the US could buy additional engineers to provide extra crossing but unless the initial deployment is changed it will still allow the Japanese to get the jump and pretty much assure control of Bay Town for the first several turns.

The swimmer tanks are great for rushing the river, but they are made of absolute paper and don't pack that much of a punch. They can certainly take early control, but it's very hard to keep it.

There's also a "one cool trick" for loading infantry units onto Trains in Turn 1 to get them onto the river hexes in the first turn, and therefore on the other bank on Turn 2. You might get shot by a swimmer tank, but they're not that much of an offensive threat.

[blondus]

In my game playing with USA, I conquered the 4 main objs at turn 14, but the game didn't end with major victory. We also play turn 15 and I've lost the hq. At the end I had anyway a major victory. Is that correct? I suppose the game had to end at 14
Luca

[Shards]

Hmm, I'll have to check that, but yes, I'd expect the game to end on T14 if you're holding all 4 primary locations

[Vindictus]

Firstly, I must comment the map maker of Crescent Bay, it really is a very interesting map with a lot of scope for different strategies. My only comment would be that too many air command point are seem to be allotted compared to the amount of planes that can actually be deployed. Maybe there is some game mechanic I am not aware of.

Personally I am mainly a land warfare guy (only ever played the Sandstorm, Blitzkrieg,Panzerkrieg series) so my noobiness with naval warfare and the various mechanics has been totally exposed - ports, amphibious landings, - but that's ok maybe I need to spread my wings a little in this regard

One question I must ask. My opponent took 3 days to have his first turn, and as a result it is unlikely we will finish the full 15 rounds ( we are currently only at round 10) If we do not finish because of this, is there a point penalty/bonus allotted to as compensation?

[Celeborn]

I too really liked the map...really all the maps that had a naval element.

FWIW in my previous round we also started 3 turns late and timed out a couple turns before the end which probably cost me a couple dozen points. I have suggested that anyone who suffers this fate be given either 150 points or what they scored when the round ended--whichever is greater.

I also try to keep in mind that no tournament scoring system is perfect and that the challenge for Shards et al is to find a balance that at least keeps the whining, griping and complaining to a dull roar.

Steve

Firstly, I must comment the map maker of Crescent Bay, it really is a very interesting map with a lot of scope for different strategies. My only comment would be that too many air command point are seem to be allotted compared to the amount of planes that can actually be deployed. Maybe there is some game mechanic I am not aware of.

Personally I am mainly a land warfare guy (only ever played the Sandstorm, Blitzkrieg,Panzerkrieg series) so my noobiness with naval warfare and the various mechanics has been totally exposed - ports, amphibious landings, - but that's ok maybe I need to spread my wings a little in this regard

One question I must ask. My opponent took 3 days to have his first turn, and as a result it is unlikely we will finish the full 15 rounds ( we are currently only at round 10) If we do not finish because of this, is there a point penalty/bonus allotted to as compensation?

[SagsGames77]

FWIW in my previous round we also started 3 turns late and timed out a couple turns before the end which probably cost me a couple dozen points. I have suggested that anyone who suffers this fate be given either 150 points or what they scored when the round ended--whichever is greater.

One question I must ask. My opponent took 3 days to have his first turn, and as a result it is unlikely we will finish the full 15 rounds ( we are currently only at round 10) If we do not finish because of this, is there a point penalty/bonus allotted to as compensation?

This happened to me too in the second round, my opponent just didn't play the last turn (we finished round 14 with 3 days to spare) as I was about to capture his HQs and I lost VPs as a result. To answer Vindictus' question, there was no penalty or bonus, we both just kept the same score we had at the end of round 14.

One possibility might be to allow the player who does not cause the timeout the opportunity to finish the scenario against the AI. This would have to be completed within 24 hours of the game end and points allocated as normal. Not a perfect solution perhaps but I think it would be fairer than the current situation and it would reduce the frustration caused by timeouts.

Meanwhile I shall keep a nervous eye on Vindictus' ascent up the leader board. Just 25 points advantage now with 28 hours to go...

[Shards]

He's just squeezed past!

[Vindictus]

Thanks for the replies guys, i did not know exactly how the points system worked exactly is all. Luckily my opponent and I managed to slip in an extra round, might have enough points but Shards might overtake yet too.

Thanks Slitherine for putting on these tournaments too, a real bonus for what is already great value content.

[Shards]

Thanks for the replies guys, i did not know exactly how the points system worked exactly is all. Luckily my opponent and I managed to slip in an extra round, might have enough points but Shards might overtake yet too.

Thanks Slitherine for putting on these tournaments too, a real bonus for what is already great value content.

With only a couple of hours to go, I think we can safely predict that we have a winner

I'm not going to be able to get in my last turns I don't think (my opponent and I are on quite opposite time zones I think), but I do have the personal satisfaction of having taken down his battleship with Kanko Torpedoes

weizhinaihe is coming up fast on the rails, but I'd be very surprised if there was enough time/turns left for them to get higher than Bronze medal position.

I am personally very satisfied that it's a player who's performed consistently well on all three maps who's looking likely to take the win!

[SagsGames77]

All over. Congratulations to Vindictus on his victory, and many thanks to the organisers. I will definitely join the next tournament and look forward to it.

In the meantime I am waiting for the new DLC to be released - is is coming today?

[Shards]

Congrats to our top 3!

weizhinaihe did indeed sneak under the wire! (well played to rth for getting the turns done quickly to give them that chance!)

There'll be a new tournament in a few weeks. We need to do some PBEM upgrades and don't want them to clash. But yes, you can busy yourself with Allies Defiant that comes out today

[rth]

Hi
ich war der Gegner von weizhinaihe, leider haben wir die 15 Runden nicht voll bekommen. Ich behaupte mal das es nicht an mir lag, ich habe immer so schnell wie möglich meine Bewegungen ausgeführt. Leider hat er erst am 4-5 Tag seinen ersten Zug gemacht. Und für mich war es das erste mal auf dieser Karte, hätte es ihm gerne etwas schwerer gemacht.
Mir persönlich hat die letzte Karte nicht gefallen, Geschmäcker sind nun mal unterschiedlich.

Meinen Dank an die Veranstalter für das insgesamt gute und interessante Turnier. Freue mich schon auf das nächste.

Gruß
Ralf

[unitlost]

I was trying to find a way to contact people who I enjoyed playing with during this tournament in order to set up additional game with them. Is there a way to IM them in the Slitherine webpage?

[Shards]

You can send them a private message from this very forum?

[Vindictus]

Thanks everyone for the congrats!

These tournaments are very fun, and I enjoyed this one as much as I did last tournament (where I finished 39th) Big difference was I was lucky to not have any opponent forfiet this tourney.

So thanks everyone for showing up to have some fun battles, and thanks Shards and Slitherine for taking the time to organize it all. Look forward to the next tourney, will get this new DLC and try to improve my naval warfare skills in the meantime

[blondus]

I'm really happy about that tournaments. 19th in my first experience and now 10th. I'm improving because I've good challengers.
thanks
Luca