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RoW II: The Boots & Tracks Brawl (Part V)

Treeburst155
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Treeburst155 Senior Member

Treeburst155

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Here's the new tourney home complete with "the tourney manual" in this first post.

HOW IT WORKS

Once the 72 players have been assigned to one of the three tourneys (24 in each) as described in the first post to this thread, they will be further divided into four sections of six players. This division into sections will be done in a completely random manner by drawing names out of a hat.

Your section is where the "regular season" action is. You will play one game against each of the people in your section. You will also play each scenario one time. This means you will play five games in the "regular season". The sides you play, and your attack/defend duties could very well come out lopsided. You may play the Germans four times, or you may find yourself defending four times. The only guarantee regarding your matches is that you will play each scenario once, and each member of your section once.

The scenarios will be provided by the "Boots & Tracks" design team headed up by SuperTed. They will be historical/semi-historical scenarios never before seen by the community. The guys at B & T are working on our scenarios right now. Without them the tourney would not have happened.

The scenarios may or may not be balanced. Don't count on a fair fight! The scoring system will determine balance. It is possible to "lose" the battle, and still win if you perform better than the median established for that side of the scenario. I will explain how this works later.

You do not need to understand the nitty-gritty of the scoring system, although some may be interested. You need only be aware of the following:

1) Points for contested VL's will be split. This means final game scores will always total to 100. There is a very good reason for this I'll not get into now. If you think "gamey" you can probably figure it out.

2) Voluntary surrender is ALWAYS bad. Your opponent gets too many points for all the people he captures. You should always withdraw your people from a hopeless situation. This way you deprive your opponent of capture points. The game will auto-surrender you once your global morale drops to a certain point. Every unit that you successfully withdraw off the map will lower this global morale. Try to have all your people step off the map together once you are near the auto-surrender point. This prevents capture of units who would have made it off, but didn't due to the auto-surrender.

If you score very poorly in relation to the median for a scenario you will suffer a penalty (your score will be made even worse). This is to discourage surrender, and careless play just to get the game over with. If your score is that low compared to the median we assume you surrendered or got purposely stupid. WITHDRAW YOUR TROOPS IF POSSIBLE when faced with a bad situation!!

I'm telling you all this because it is quite possible you will find yourself in a very bad situation due to deliberate scenario imbalance. Do not give up!! Withdraw!! The median score for your side of that scenario may only be 20 points. IOW, if you score 32 points you did very well. You can "lose" and still win if you get your people to safety so they can fight again another day.

3) Your goal with each scenario is not so much to beat your opponent (could be impossible), but to get the highest score of the 36 people (three tourneys) who play that side of the particular scenario. "Winning" the game may be virtually impossible due to imbalance. You never know what hand you may be dealt.

LAUNCHING THE TOURNEY

Each player will receive the schedule for his section only. Where your name is on the LEFT you will play the Allied side for that scenario. Along with the schedule of games you will receive a contact list with all the email addresses of your five opponents. When you receive these the tourney is officially underway.

After this, over the course of the next several days, you will receive an email for each of the five scenarios. For games where you are the Allies you will find two briefing files attached, a general briefing and your Allied briefing. This email will also contain your password for that scenario. Your German opponent will start the game. To open the first file from him you will need to use the password I provide you. This will put you in the Allied setup phase.

If you are playing the German side you will also receive a secured saved game file in addition to the two briefings and password. By 'secured' I mean that the briefings have been stripped out, the game begun, and the passwords entered. This is the file you will use to start the PBEM game. It will be a .cmb file, not a .txt file. Start the game just as you would any other new PBEM game. The only difference is that you will have to enter the password I provide you. You will find yourself in the Axis setup phase.

DEADLINES AND GAME RESULTS REPORTING

All games should be completed within 90 days of the date I send out the last scenario files. This means you will need to keep at it. Don't be the one to hold up the show. Don't get lazy. Take your turns. We want to at least get into the playoff stage before CMBB comes out. The tourney cannot be scored until ALL games have been completed.

The LOSER reports game results. If you end up being on the weak side of a few unbalanced scenarios you will find yourself having to report most of your games. This is, as they say, tough luck.

Game Report email needs to have the subject, "Game Report". The body of the email must contain the following information:

Tourney Number (1-3), Scenario Title, Your username on this forum, the side you played, your score, your opponent's username and his score. The body of the email should then look like this if you are Fred:

Tourney 1, The Ambush, Fred (Axis) 37, Joe 43

Reporting games in this manner will save me a great deal of time. With 72 people I NEED to have games reported this way. Do not send me final game files. Keep these in a safe place in case of disputes.

FOG OF WAR

No discussion of scenarios is allowed on the forum until ALL players in all three tourneys have completed a scenario. I will let you know when it is alright to talk about a scenario. It won't happen until near the end of the tourney.

No game results are to be revealed on the forum. You won't know who beat who until all is revealed at the end. Think before you post, and remember, no game scores, no blow by blow descriptions of the last movie, no general discussion about the scenarios, etc..

THE NABLA SCORING SYSTEM

Your game scores will be recorded on an input file for the Nabla Scoring Program, created by Jarmo Hurri (Nabla). The Nabla program will crunch the scores and spit out your Nabla Score, also called your "Tourney Score", for each scenario. Below is what the program does:

1) Checks for game scores that total less than 100. Adjusts to 100 if necessary (60-30 becomes 65-35)

2) Determines the median score for both sides of every scenario based on all 36 instances of that scenario.

3) Determines the distance, plus or minus, of your score from the median for each scenario.

4) Calculates a Nabla Score based on this distance from the median using a rather complex formula.

5) Averages all five of your Nabla Scores to give your final Tourney Score.

By establishing a median for each side of a scenario we determine the balance of the scenario. Your score is then compared to this median. If you score 30 points and the median is only 20 for that side, then you have done very well inspite of your "loss". This is why you don't want to surrender. You never know what the median of a scenario might be. You won't know this until the end. Establishing scenario balance (the median) means we can measure relative performance within your section without the necessity of balanced scenarios. This is a major breakthrough for competitive CM IMO!! With this scoring system we can play virtually any scenario and not worry about unfairness due to the balance issue.

AARs

Bonus points will be added to your final Tourney Score if you submit AARs. Each full credit AAR will be worth 4% of the highest player's tourney score (before adding his AARs). If you write five full credit AARs you will receive additional tourney points equal to 20% of the highest player's tourney score.

AARs will receive either full credit or half credit. You must write more than just a few short paragraphs for full credit. I will let you know if an AAR is too short soon after you send it to me. You don't have to write a book either. Just give us a fairly good description of how the game played out.

You are not required to write AARs. You just get a few extra points if you do. This could put you ahead if you're in a tight race in your section.

The primary purpose of the AARs is to provide the scenario designers with feedback on their work. If you've ever designed a scenario for the community, you know how rare it is to get this feedback. Writing AARs is one way to express your thanks to the designer. Even negative feedback is welcome as long as it's constructive and not mean spirited.

Another thing AARs do is help people learn to improve their tactics. Every scenario is played twelve times in a tourney such as this. There are eleven other people who had to deal with the same tactical situations you did. It can be very instructive to learn how others handled things, especially if you did worse than most. (BTW, all the AARs will be sent to you upon request once you have completed your games.)

Lastly, by writing an AAR (feedback) you are doing the community a small favor. This is because the designer can tweak the scenario based on feedback before releasing it to the community. Having a scenario played twelve times by twenty four different people is a great test of a scenario. I think it's safe to say that very few scenarios get that degree of testing before they are put out to the public. They may get played twelve times, but not by twenty four different people, and certainly not under blind conditions.

Those of us who enjoy these tournaments need new scenarios (security). In return for these scenarios the designers get the feedback they like.

IMPORTANT!

Submitting AARs

1)AARs should never be sent in with game results. Send them in a separate email.

2)AARs can be .txt, .doc, or .pdf files. Do not write them in the body of an email.

3)AARs should not be more than 4 MB UNcompressed. Screenshots can cause you to go over this limit easily. I would recommend the .pdf format if you want to include several screenshots.

4)In the subject line of emails containing attached AARs, write your username and the scenario name. For example: Madmatt, The Ambush

THE PLAYOFFS

Everybody makes it to the playoffs! However, only the four section winners in each tourney are eligible for the prize. The four section winners will play a 3 scenario round robin. The second place finishers in each section will do the same, and so on. If you place last in your section, you will face the other three last place finishers in the playoffs. The playoffs will be scored exactly like the "regular season". Those of you who aren't eligible for the wine (not first in section) are still very important to the tourney. Your scores will determine the accurate median we need for the playoff scenarios.

THE PRIZES

The winner of the "First Place Playoff" in each tourney will win the prize. The winners of Tourney I and Tourney II will each receive six different bottles of WineCape's fine South African wines, postage paid to their doorstep. The winner of Tourney III will receive three almost new VCR movies. They are, "Stalingrad" (by the people who made "Das Boot"), "Cross Of Iron", and the somewhat obscure "A Midnight Clear". I purchased these a year ago from Amazon.com and watched them all twice. All three are very good war movies IMO, and the tapes are in mint condition.

REPORTING MIAs

In order to keep all games proceeding at an acceptable pace we need to identify any potential dropouts (MIAs) promptly so I can find out their intentions regarding the tourney, and replace them if necessary.

Please email me if you have not heard from an opponent in 3 days unless that opponent has informed you beforehand of his inability to send turns for a specified period of time. This way I know what is going on. The tourney cannot be scored until every last game is completed. By informing me of possible problems (3 days and no turns) I can act promplty so matches don't get way behind. It's up to you guys to keep me informed.

That should cover just about everything. Ask questions if you have them. I probably left something out, or explained something in an unclear manner.

Treeburst155 out.

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John Kettler
John Kettler

Treeburst155, After I belatedly remembered to take the .cmb file out of the folder, once unzipped, I got the scenario in which I'm the attacker to be read properly by the game. When I opened it to

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I sent my bleacher filled setup out, received a setup via E-mail, and sent a certain inquiring individual a negative answer to his wondering whether I'd gotten a setup from him. Would say more, but I

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John Kettler

Sent out my setup and received the two I was owed, one of which is downright scary. May get my responses out sometime tonight--after my runaway heart is recaged. Regards, John Kettler

JAT Senior Member

JAT

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Treeburst, SaPort here. vL and I are on the last turn. He will be sending you the file as his arse was brutally spanked. This will finish up my 5 games. Thanks for putting up with my inquiries. It was really a blast. As Scott B. says, "Everytime I play CM, I learn something new." It was particularly interesting in the one game (St. LeMerde or whatever) where my squad went to fight from the roof and hoping for them never to come down but to clone themselves trying to get down. Well, got half of my wish as you know, when that MG squad cloned themselves. Thanks again, and am looking forward to part B. If you can remember, would you send me the scores that you have? If you forget, don't worry, I'll ask again.

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JonS Senior Member

JonS

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As the speakers fall silent for the last time, JonS steps back from his battle scarred PC, with his hands up and away to the sides.

"Clear! Get this one out of here - I'm done."

His face is a mixture of fear, relief, and fatigue. Mixed in is more than a little pride at completing this ordeal.

"Hmm, let's see - two wins, two draws, and a loss. Not bad, not bad at all. And certainly better than ROWI. Yes, I'm happy with that."

Suddenly a shadow crosses his face

"Oh dear lord - now I have to do the AARs, and relive the horror all over again. NOOooo..."

A lone tear trickles down his face as silent sobs gently shake his body.

[ September 15, 2002, 10:13 PM: Message edited by: JonS ]

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Treeburst155 Senior Member

Treeburst155

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Jon,

LOL! You don't have to spend a great deal of time on the AARs. Just give the designers a decent amount of constructive feedback on the scenarios.

Below is a list of all the games still incomplete as of today, September 15th. If your name is on this list, and the game is complete, and you lost the game; please email me the final score. I may have misplaced an email somehow. Thanks!

Incomplete Games (all tourneys)

Fire On The Mountain

mPisi vs Bimmer

Pixelmaster vs Torbhen

Zipper vs Hobo

Ste Mere Eglise

Mr Spkr vs Jarmo

mPisi vs Lopaka

Bimmer vs Jack Trap

von Lucke vs The Capt

a1steaks vs Pixelmaster

JeffWilders vs Tom Norton

Kanonier Reichmann vs StuGIII

Jeb vs Rat

Another Day

Jarmo vs Thumpre

TabPub vs JeffWilders

U8led vs Ligur

Charles vs EASY-V

Rat vs Heavy Drop

I Man vs Ozzie Osborne

Polish Push

Jelinek vs Bimmer

Ligur vs Gunnersman

Ozzie Osborne vs Hobo

Head For The Hills

Ali vs Mr Spkr

Lopaka vs Bimmer

von Lucke vs Diceman

Kanonier vs TabPub

JeffWilders vs StuGIII

Gunnersman vs U8led

Ligur vs Jim L

cuzn vs Rat

Mikeydz vs Vaders Jester

I Man vs Hobo

Zipper vs Ozzie Osborne

I will update the scoresheet within 48 hours. If you have completed your games and would like to see it, please email me so I can simply reply with the attached scoresheet.

Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.

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CombinedArms Senior Member

CombinedArms

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TB,

Great work on the tourney. Here's my question:

When do we get to start talking about these scenarios? Some of them are virtually complete by everyone. I've personally been done with my games for about three weeks now, and the finals won't be for a while. So things are in a bit of a lull, for me and many others, and it would be nice for those who are finished to discuss our scenario experiences. Should we wait until a given scenario is absolutely complete? Also, when that happens, can the identity of the designer(s) be revealed so they can receive the appropriate kudos (or curses--as the case might be?)

[ September 17, 2002, 12:16 PM: Message edited by: CombinedArms ]

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Treeburst155 Senior Member

Treeburst155

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The scenario designers will be announced as soon as the games are finished, and before the winners are announced.

As far as talking about the scenarios, there are still lots of Ste Mere Eglise and Head For The Hills games going so I don't think we should talk about the scenarios on the forum. I see no harm in private email conversations though. Just be sure that the guy you're chatting with has finished the scenario you wish to discuss.

I now have an updated scoresheet for those of you who have completed your games and are interested. If you have finished your games you may email me for the scoresheet.

We have ONE WEEK to go before I assess the progress of unfinished games, and take them over where necessary. All games WILL be complete by September 30th, even if I have to assign the median score to unfinished games.

If I have to do this to one of your games you will not be allowed to win your section. So, if you have an opponent who is moving real slow, I need to hear from you.

Fight On!

Treeburst155 out.

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