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RoW II: The Boots & Tracks Brawl (Thread Two)


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Ok, we've hit the limit on posts so this is your new home for the tourney.

Ozzie Osbourne will be taking over for f1shlips in TOURNEY III, Section 4. His files have been sent to him. Welcome aboard Ozzie!! ....and YES, this is the REAL Ozzie Osbourne!!

EDIT: I'm posting the tourney "Manual" here for easy reference since the other thread is slipping into history.

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. smile.gif

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.

[ June 19, 2002, 02:01 AM: Message edited by: Treeburst155 ]

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Technical problems have been resolved with Michael Dorosh and SpanishBombs, both of whom have turns en route to them as I write this. Soddball and I are proceeding without difficulties, and Ugbash sent me a setup, to which I've already responded. This leaves only Bertram unaddressed.

Must start WP files for all my DARs!

Regards,

John Kettler

[ June 11, 2002, 04:32 AM: Message edited by: John Kettler ]

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Originally posted by John Kettler:

Technical problems have been resolved with Michael Dorosh and SpanishBombs, both of whom have turns en route to them as I write this. Soddball and I are proceeding without difficulties, and Ugbash sent me a setup, to which I've already responded. This leaves only Bertram unaddressed.

Must start WP files for all my DARs!

Regards,

John Kettler

Good to see your iMac ptoblems have been sorted out John. I'm certainly looking forward to reading your AAR's once the round of this tournament is complete. They're always entertaining.

Regards

Jim R.

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Originally posted by Treeburst155:

Ok, we've hit the limit on posts so this is your new home for the tourney.

Ozzie Osbourne will be taking over for f1shlips in TOURNEY III, Section 4. His files have been sent to him. Welcome aboard Ozzie!! ....and YES, this is the REAL Ozzie Osbourne!!

Treeburst155 out.

Yeah, uh-huh ... and well see him cursing at his opponent on the computer on the next episode of The Osbournes, right? smile.gif
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Originally posted by Treeburst155:

Ok, we've hit the limit on posts so this is your new home for the tourney.

Ozzie Osbourne will be taking over for f1shlips in TOURNEY III, Section 4. His files have been sent to him. Welcome aboard Ozzie!! ....and YES, this is the REAL Ozzie Osbourne!!

Treeburst155 out.

Come on guys.

I'm not the Real Ozzie Osbourne. :D

I spell my last name as Osborne.

I think Treeburst155 is just trying to get some excitment going. And I don't bite the heads off of bats. :eek:

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Phewww my Bats are safe and still good to play cricket with.

smile.gif

I am just getting into the game with White4 and I want more... Send a turn soon.

I am avoiding Redwolf and will do the turn soon.

I have just started the game with Jazza and see he has sent me the first video. I intend to watch that ASAP when I get home from work...

H

smile.gif

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Originally posted by Bigdog:

Has any one herd from "Uber General" [Tourney II, Section One] he seems to be MIA?

UberGeneral was out riding his new bike last week. I just got word from him, I guess you all will hear from him soon.
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I emailed GeneralSV also, and haven't heard from him.

Hey Silvio, I haven't gotten anything from you in a couple of days now, ever since I sent you the first setup turn for Head For The Hills. My poor troops are eager to make your acquaintance.

Jeb

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Originally posted by Jack Trap:

If I recall correctly an interview in the movie "Decline of Western Civilization," Ozzie Osbourne could barely make himself breakfast! :D

I don't know if any of you guys seen the Osbourne show on MTV. I laugh my ass off when he fell backwards off his chair. :D
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Treeburst, Wreck, just as a reminder, since Wreck doesn't use the scenarios in the Titans, he could get back in here. It seems there are lots of dropouts. Have to count Cogust as dropout, too, he didn't answer my mail from 30 hours ago and I didn't get a bounce either.

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Hi Redwolf,

Just because you did not get a response does not mean he has dropped out.

We know that one of our group is on holiday until next week.

It is possible he is on holiday and should be given at least a week to reply if not two weeks.

In the UK and Europe we get more holiday than you and for some 5 weeks is not unusual.

tongue.gif

I know you poor buggers are lucky to get two weeks..

;)

H

P.s. I promise to do your turn this weekend, honest.

P.P.S White4 the turn you sent was just fine and I have sent back my next installment of running up cliffs.

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Originally posted by Jeb:

I emailed GeneralSV also, and haven't heard from him.

Hey Silvio, I haven't gotten anything from you in a couple of days now, ever since I sent you the first setup turn for Head For The Hills. My poor troops are eager to make your acquaintance.

Jeb

Jeb,

I'm just being extra considerate of you in that I'm planning your Mountain Troops' demise in depth, I wouldn't want you to be disappointed with a boring "show." tongue.gif On a more serious note, I think my boys might be afraid of heights redface.gif As their trusted Officer, I will see to it that they exit the map in good order, no cheese left behind, no glorius wine spilled.

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The esteemed Michael Dorosh has sent me the first movie for "Fire on the Mountain." Let's say that the action began with a bang and is proceeding furiously. It's hard to figure out what's going on because of the heavy graphic demands the busy, high relief map places on my machine, the considerable terrain compartmentation, and multiple LOS blockages. I can say, though, that he is applying strong pressure in several sectors at once. I predict a hairy, confused fight.

In "Another Day" Soddball is probing my defenses, but no fighting has ensued thus far. The tactical situation is fuzzy, and I keep looking for rabbits to appear.

Am fully current on all turns received.

Regards,

John Kettler

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We have some that I know from past experience are slow and/or erratic with their turns. Since they have finished a tourney before I'm willing to give them some slack.

You guys are doing right by posting "no contact" situations however. Please continue to do so every few days. This helps me stay on top of things. I won't let things get too out of hand before I start replacing people.

Wreck,

You can be #1 on the replacement list for this tourney if you want.

Treeburst155 out.

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ok, as of this minute, I am awaiting turns from all my opponents. If you think I am in error, please email me.

I know that Tero is out until monday, and Holien and I are merrily blowing up mountains, and Redwolf continues to skulk through woods.

Have not heard from Jazza (sent file to him about 4 days ago) or Cogust.

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