The 2005-2007 BPA PBEM Four-Player
The Napoleonic Wars Tournament
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The 2005-2007 Boardgame Players Association (BPA) PBEM tournament for The Napoleonic Wars will consist of a Preliminary Phase and a Knockout Phase. All Players will play the four-player version of TNW, although if there is an uneven number of Players in the Preliminary Phase, three-player games may be held to make up the difference.
Players wishing to participate in the tournament should contact the GM, Darren Kilfara, to formally register their interest. All participants must be members of the BPA – an entry-level Associate Membership costs $10 and allows you to enter as many BPA PBEM tournaments as you wish in the current year. (Players are not required to renew their BPA membership for 2006 and beyond to continue playing in the tournament, although they are certainly encouraged to do so.) Details of how to become a BPA member can be found here.
LATEST UPDATE (March 10, 2007): The four Finalists have been confirmed – congratulations are due to:
1) Steven Payne (won semifinal #2 with 11 VPs as France)
2) Jimmy Eaton (won semifinal #1 with 4 VPs as Russia)
3) Bruce Young (won semifinal #3 with 4 VPs as Britain)
4) Phil Barcafer (finished second in semifinal #3 with 3 VPs as Russia – pipped Steve Pleva for the final spot, as Steve had 3 VPs but finished in second as France)
These four players will choose sides for the Final in the above order – the game itself will begin as soon as they’re ready!
UPDATE (January 13, 2007): The Semifinal lineup has now been confirmed, and revised dates for the remainder of the tournament (owing to delay caused by the recent ACTS outage) have been posted below. In the unlikely event that ACTS should go down again in such a way that all data from a game is lost, this procedure will be followed:
· If any players currently have cards remaining in your current turn: The current turn will be declared null and void in its entirety – when ACTS comes back online, you will be required to redraw cards and revert to the position at the start of the turn. Players will be required to save CyberBoard (etc.) files at the start of a turn to guard against such an eventuality.
· If no players currently have cards remaining in your current turn: No special adjustments will be necessary – play will recommence from the position gained prior to the outage.
Hopefully all of this will not be necessary, but it never hurts to outline the necessary procedures in advance, just in case!
UPDATE (January 4, 2007): The Preliminary Phase is now complete – below is a listing of everyone who scored 150 points or more:
Pairings for the Semifinal matches
are currently being determined – these matches will begin as soon as ACTS
comes back online from its current outage.
UPDATE (October 9, 2006): Owing to a number of games in Rounds 3 and 4 falling behind schedule, I have decided to implement the following revised tournament procedure:
· All remaining games in Rounds 3 and 4 get a one-month extension. Round 3 now ends on November 15, and Round 4 ends on December 15. (We’ll then adjourn for the holidays and begin the Knockout Phase at the start of the new year.) While there were stronger feelings than I expected in some quarters regarding a strict enforcement of the tournament rules as written, I was pretty lenient for a few games in Rounds 1 and 2, and I don’t think it would be fair to not be somewhat flexible for the remaining two rounds as well.
· That said, all games which are still unfinished at the relevant deadline will be treated harshly. At the end of an unfinished game, each player will have to secretly vote for 1-2 players who they think caused the game to move slowly: if a majority agrees upon who the slow player(s) are, they will be punished singularly, but otherwise all players will suffer a 10-point penalty, and the game will be adjudicated based upon the current score at the end of the game. In addition, if any player who is in the lead or in second place in an unfinished game is seen to be proceeding more slowly than normal as the deadline approaches, i.e. to possibly protect their standing as an artificial point of termination looms, such players will be punished most severely – I will review the journal at the end of every game, but please point out any such behavior you might see along these lines to me as soon as possible.
Please bear these points in mind if your game is running behind schedule. If your game is running significantly behind schedule, and you’re worried about finishing, it is your responsibility to contact me and ask for help in coming up with a solution – possible ways of abridging a game may include the automatic assumption that “Europe Exhausted” has been played in each turn even if it is still in the deck, mandatory and equal discarding of cards from all powers at the start of a new turn, and so on. If you do not act to help move your game along, even if you don’t feel that you are one of the slow players in your game, you are at risk of being punished.
Please make sure all of the other players in your game are aware of these rules, OK?
UPDATE (July 15, 2006): The fourth and final preliminary round of the tournament is now underway. Please note that Assistant GM Christopher Schwalm now has a new e-mail address – click on his name to send him a message regarding the published rules of The Napoleonic Wars.
UPDATE (March 16, 2006): Please remember that Assistant GM Christopher Schwalm is the only person authorised to answer questions pertaining to the published rules of The Napoleonic Wars. GM Darren Kilfara can only answer questions pertaining to the tournament itself, procedural matters or ACTS usage.
(Previous updates to the website can be viewed here.)
All participants are asked to read the below tournament rules and guidelines closely before the tournament begins. An outline of this page reads as follows:
Tournament Format
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Schedule
Other Relevant
Information
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Special Accommodations for
E-mail Play (including FAQs)
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GM
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Time Limits and Expected Player
Commitment
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Slow Play/Player Disappearance
(and Substitute Players)
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Prizes (as such)
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Tournament Ethos
(“Designer’s Notes”)
Tournament Format
The provisional schedule for the tournament is as follows, although the dates may be moved forward if all of the matches in a given round have been completed ahead of schedule:
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Round |
Start Date |
End Date |
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15 October 2005 |
15 April 2006 |
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15 January 2006 |
15 July 2006 |
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15 April 2006 |
15 November 2006 |
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15 July 2006 |
15 December 2006 |
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15 January 2007 |
15 May 2007 |
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Knockout Phase
– Final |
15 May 2007 |
15 September 2007 |
The Preliminary Phase will consist of four rounds, each of which will begin at three-month intervals. Each Player must register his intent to play in each round – Players may drop out of or enter/re-enter the tournament prior to the beginning of any round.
Pairings: All matchups in the Preliminary Phase will be determined randomly by the GM in consultation with his assistant GMs, subject to three conditions (in order of precedence):
a) No
Player may play the same side twice. (A Player who participates in a
three-player game as Austria/Russia may subsequently play
b) No Players may play against each more than once.
c) Three-player games: in Rounds 1-3, the participants in any three-player games will be determined randomly; in Round 4, the Players with the fewest tournament points will be slotted into any necessary three-player game(s). Regardless, no Player will play in more than one three-player game, and rules a) and b), above, take precedence.
Scoring: Players are awarded tournament points per game as follows:
· 60 points for the winner
· 30 points for finishing second
· 20 points for finishing third
· 10 points for finishing fourth
· Each Player’s final VP total is added to or subtracted from the above totals
When the three-player version of the game is being used, scoring per game is instead as follows (to account for the increased chances of winning or finishing second):
· 55 points for the winner
· 25 points for finishing second
· 15 points for finishing third
· Each Player’s final VP total is added to or subtracted from the above totals
Tiebreak Procedure:
At the end of the Preliminary Phase, the final standings will be computed by
comparing each Player’s cumulative points total. Ties will be broken as
follows: 1) most games won; 2) highest point total in each Player’s worst
of the four rounds; 3) cumulative points total excluding games played as
The top finishers in the Preliminary Round will advance to a two-round Knockout Phase.
The Knockout Phase will consist of a Semifinal Round and a Final Round. The top 12 players in the Preliminary Phase will qualify for the Semifinal Round, which will be seeded as follows:
· Game 1: #1, #6, #7, #12
· Game 2: #2, #5, #8, #11
· Game 3: #3, #4, #9, #10
The winners of these three games plus one runner-up (note the below Tiebreak Procedure) will advance to the Final. If any Player who would otherwise qualify for the Knockout Phase cannot participate for whatever reason, the next Player in line qualifies, and all seedings are adjusted accordingly.
Pairings: All matchups in the Semifinal Round will be determined by the final Preliminary Phase standings, as indicated above. In both the Semifinal and the Final rounds, the highest-placed Player in each game has the first choice of sides, followed by the second-placed Player, etc. – Players may choose whatever side they wish with no restriction.
Tiebreak Procedure: Ties to determine advancement to, or side selection (between winners or runners-up) in, the Final will be broken as follows: 1) winners take precedence over runners-up when choosing sides; 2) end-of-game Semifinal VP total; 3) reverse movement track order (Russia gets the nod over Austria, Britain or France, etc.); 4) Preliminary Round standings.
Other Relevant Information
All BPA members for 2005 are eligible. The BPA pays for the plaques and provides coverage on their web site.
Non-BPA members for 2005 are eligible if you join the BPA in 2005 at least Associate level of membership. Associate membership is $10, and gets you into all the BPA e-mail tournaments you want which begin in any calendar year.
Players must have internet access and a valid e-mail address. Changes in e-mail address should be forwarded to the GM.
All games will be played on the Automated Card Tracking Site. Each game will be set up and moderated by the GM. The ACTS site provides recordkeeping of moves, provides a die roller, and serves as a secure card dealer. There is no fee for use of the ACTS web site.
The turn of a
Neutral Proxy should be conducted by the Player with Preempt ability
or, if no Player-controlled nation has the Preempt ability, whoever just
finished the previous impulse. For example, if
Players unfamiliar with ACTS will want to note several quirks in the way it handles various aspects of the game, including:
· A Player must choose whether or not to Mulligan for his Power and any Proxies he may control in the order in which his cards are dealt in ACTS, even if this contradicts point 2 of rule 14.31 (regarding the Order of Movement).
· When playing the House of Rothschild card (#4) as an Event, one should always draw his two new cards before playing HoR as the Event (announcing that you will be playing HoR when doing so), as the deck is immediately reshuffled in ACTS upon revealing the card, and the two cards drawn from the deck should not be among those cards which were in the discard pile.
· Selecting a card from your hand and selecting the “Discard” button will hide the identity of the card being discarded – when the identity of a Discard should be revealed, you should hit “Play as CP” or “Play as Event” instead. (For example, when playing the Council of War card (#62) as the Event, the identity of one of the cards being discarded must be revealed.)
· When you create or break a Minor Pact, do not assume or relinquish control of the Minor until all other Players have been given the chance to play the Age of Metternich card (#88) or otherwise cancel the action used to create or break the Pact. When a Pact is broken, ACTS will automatically discard any cards remaining in the Minor’s hand and replace them with new ones, so do not attempt to do this manually.
· When Palace Intrigue (#10) is played as an Event, the Player in question should first request a random card and then give Palace Intrigue to the victim.
· Several Events require a Proxy to draw an extra card. Should this happen, make a note that this will be resolved in that Proxy’s next Impulse – when that Impulse arrives, follow this procedure:
a) If any Player-controlled hand is either empty or has only Home Cards remaining, the Player owning said hand should 1) draw an extra card from the deck and 2) immediately play it as the neutral Proxy card from the previous Event.
b) If the above does not apply: if any other Proxy hand is either empty or has only Home Cards remaining, the Player with Preempt (or, if no Player controlled-nation has Preempt, whoever just finished the previous impulse) should 1) temporarily take control of the Proxy in question, 2) draw an extra card from the deck, 3) immediately play it as the neutral Proxy card from the previous Event, and then 4) restore control of the Proxy to Neutral status.
c) If neither of the above applies, draw a card for the affected Proxy as normal and wait until the Proxy’s next Impulse to apply a) or b), above.
d) Should all of the Players forget to follow the above procedure but remember at a subsequent point during the turn, the procedure can be implemented when the Proxy takes its next Impulse. If the turn concludes without anyone having remembered to draw the extra card, the extra card due to the Proxy is ignored.
(Any other quirks you identify which you feel would be helpful to know should be brought to the GM’s attention for posting here.)
Players will be responsible for tracking their own moves. A CyberBoard module for TNW is available for download via GMT’s The Napoleonic Wars website and is highly recommended; if all Players wish to exchange .gmv/.gam/.gsn CyberBoard files, they may do so, but it is not mandatory. However, if such files are not exchanged, it is highly recommended that Players confirm the locations of their playing pieces on a regular basis – the end of each Interphase being an opportune moment for posting and comparing each nation’s entire order of battle – as all Players will be responsible for the repercussions of their own recording errors.
Peace Roll procedure: Prior to the Peace Die Roll procedure
(rule 5.8) at the end of each turn, the players must clearly calculate
how many VPs each player has and how many cards each player would be drawing in
the following turn. Only then do the players decide whether or not to burn a
card to modify the Peace Roll.
All games will use the v1.2 Living Rules (available for
download at GMT’s The Napoleonic Wars website). The
official Q&A should be used
in conjunction with the Living Rules, particularly with regard to card
clarifications.
It is expected that all participants will play the game with good sportsmanship and in the spirit in which the game is designed. The special PBEM rules and guidelines listed here are meant to guide Players in the application of the written rules of the game along these lines – any incidents in which a Player looks to manipulate these rules to his advantage against the spirit of the game should be brought to the GM’s attention. The GM retains the right to punish the offending Player should circumstances warrant, e.g. by forcing the offending Player to Discard a card or cards from his hand, docking him tournament points in the standings, or possibly expelling him from the tournament altogether.
SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS FOR E-MAIL PLAY
TNW is a highly
interactive game, but Players will be expected to complete their moves without
undue delay – e.g. if you’re planning on moving an army four
spaces, do not move it one space and
pause to see if anyone has the Stragglers
card (#39). Where appropriate and within reason, the Active Player should
make potential interception/evasion rolls for his opponent and only pause to
wait for his decision in the event of success. For example, if
Other points to consider:
· Evasion and Interception (naval and land): When ever there is an opportunity for an inactive Player to Evade or Intercept the Active Player must inform that Player of said opportunity by a Journal entry. The Inactive Player then has 24 hours to make his decision and roll any necessary dice (unless e.g. he has properly notified the other Players that he is on vacation) – failure to resolve within that timeframe is equivalent with not wishing to Evade or Intercept.
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Combat
Resolution (includes sieges, land battles, and naval combat): Players
are encouraged to announce their intention to play or not play Response or
· If more than one Player wishes to play a Response card and the order in which they are played makes a difference, follow the current Movement Track Order (starting with the Active Player) to resolve timing issues. This may make subsequent Responses moot – such cards are retuned to their owner(s).
· Drawing cards: At the start of a new turn, Players should draw their cards from the deck in any order. Mulligans (or the lack thereof) can likewise be announced in any order, although Players may wait for other Players to make their announcements in Movement Track order if desired.
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Preemption:
Play should pause to allow a Player with Preempt ability the chance to declare
his intention to use it; however, the Player with Preempt should specify his
intentions in advance where feasible. For example, if
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Retroactive
card play: Within reason, Response and
- Steal a March (#8) could be played after one or more Impulses have passed by to retroactively Preempt someone – all cards played after the Preemption point would be returned to the respective Players’ hands, and all CPs expended would be ignored.
- Continental System Fails (#18) could be played as a Response to effectively nullify a Preemption impulse – play would be rewound to the point at which the Preemptive impulse was conducted.
- Rally (#20), Massed Grenadiers (#48) or other similar cards could be played to modify the results of a first battle round even after the dice have already been rolled for the second round (on the assumption of a tie in the first round) or if play has continued.
- Stragglers (#39) can be played after a multi-space move and implemented at any point during the move – all CPs expended after the point at which the moving army takes Attrition would be ignored.
- Dysentery (#45) can be played after part of a move in which e.g. one army passes through another – all CPs expended after the point at which the affected Player takes Attrition would be ignored.
- Nelson (#80) could be played after battle resolution is complete even after the resumption of an Imperial Player’s turn.
- Foreign Aid (#84) could be used to void a die roll which ends a Foreign War, in which case all CPs expended after the successful die roll (as well as any unnecessary die rolls after the successful one in a given roll request) would be ignored.
Note that the key phrase regarding retroactive card plays is “within reason” – common sense and courtesy should prevail. If you haven’t been online for two days and the game has moved on significantly in your absence, do not expect to play e.g. Steal a March and expect to rewind the game back to cancel out unfavorable developments which may have happened in the interim. All disputes should be immediately brought to the attention of the GM.
· Taking back a move or card play: Once a Player has played a card from his hand or declared an expenditure of CPs (or Maneuvers), those actions may only be taken back by that Player if both of the following conditions are met:
- The
Player still has CPs remaining to use, or has specified that another
action will be forthcoming (i.e. an Event, Plus card, Resource usage), and
therefore it is still his “turn”; and
- The
Player has not asked any of his opponents for a decision (regarding e.g.
evasions, interceptions, Combat/Response card declaration, etc.), or made
a move which would automatically require such a decision.
Concerning other errors and procedures which are unique to the PBEM format:
· What if too many dice were rolled? Simply remove the excess dice, from the bottom up.
· What if too few dice were rolled? Roll the missing dice unless the attacker has continued his impulse or if a new Active Player has done anything. Otherwise the result stands.
· What if dice were rolled for the wrong reason? Ignore the results and reroll the right amount of dice, specifying the right reason.
· What if a Player draws too many cards? The offending Player should randomly discard down to the correct hand size, making sure that the other Players see the card in question.
· What if a Player plays out of turn? The Player must undo the card play (and all effects thereof) unless all of his opponents agree to let it stand. The offending Player is then skipped as appropriate until his next scheduled Impulse.
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Are there any regulations regarding
“Gentleman’s Agreements”? Players may offer more information than
required to speed things along – this is at the discretion of the Player
in question. (Players are encouraged to do so but should note the following
guidelines.) For example: if Moore and 4 Units are to invade
The GM is Darren Kilfara. The two Assistant GMs will be Christopher Schwalm, the official TNW rules Q&A authority, and Steven Pleva, the reigning BPA PBEM three-player TNW tournament champion. All three GMs will play in the tournament: Darren will handle most of the procedural enquiries, while Christopher (who will continue to provide official rules clarifications) and Steve will be involved in overseeing the pairings procedure for Preliminary Phase games and will rule on any games in which the GM and/or the other Assistant GM are involved. Rulings made by any GM are final.
To ensure that an independent voice will always be available to make a ruling in any given game, no more than two of the three GMs will play in any Preliminary Phase game – pairings will be adjusted as necessary to ensure that this is the case. (In the highly unlikely event that all three GMs should qualify for the same Knockout Phase game, alternate arrangements will be made at that time.)
Please be advised that the GMs will not monitor games in progress in an official capacity, except to ensure that they are completed in a timely manner. It is the responsibility of the Players involved to ensure that they are interpreting the rules correctly – the GMs will not go back in time to remedy any incorrect interpretations after the fact.
When in doubt, the GMs will be guided in making their decisions by the principles outlined in the regulations for the 2004 three-player TNW BPA PBEM tournament, which can be found online here.
TIME LIMITS AND EXPECTED PLAYER COMMITMENT
Players are expected to be online for at least one or two sessions per day (with multiple e-mail exchanges per session) – preferably more – to ensure that the following time limits may be kept:
· Preliminary Phase, Rounds 1-3 – each round will begin at three-month intervals, but each game must be completed within six months of the start date.
· Preliminary Phase, Round 4 – each game must be completed within four months of the start date.
· Knockout Phase – each game must be completed within four months of the start date.
Players are encouraged to do everything within their power to complete Preliminary Rounds 1-3 prior to the start of the following round, but as the start of Preliminary Rounds 2-4 may therefore overlap with the conclusion of Rounds 1-3, Players wishing to compete in each Preliminary Round should be mentally prepared to play two games at once for some length of time. (Players unwilling or unable to play two games at once who are involved in games which look likely to continue beyond the start of the following round may choose to not participate in the second round – they will be given this opportunity – but everyone is expected to complete the games they start, without exception. To be fair to the other players in the tournament, please do not commit to play in any given tournament round if you do not expect to be able to complete the game on time.)
Unforeseen difficulties: In the event that e.g. the ACTS server suffers an outage for an extended length of time, the GM reserves the right to extend the listed time limits as necessary.
SLOW PLAY/PLAYER DISAPPEARANCE
Everyone plays at a different pace, and there must be some tolerance and sportsmanship toward Players who do not play with lightning speed – the goal is to ensure that all games are completed on time (and not e.g. at the pace of one week per turn). However, if you are concerned about completing your game on time, and believe that a specific Player is dragging down the pace of play, please contact the GM, who (in addition to keeping the identity of the complainant secret) will review the Game Journal at ACTS to assess the situation. In the event that a Player is adjudged to be playing too slowly, the following punishments may ensue:
· First offense: the Player will be given a written warning.
· Second offense: the Player will forfeit a Resource (or, if the player has no Resource, he will be forced to discard a random card and permanently lose a VP for the duration of the game).
· Third offense: the Player will be disqualified from the current tournament round, and his place given to a Substitute Player.
· Fourth offense (in a subsequent Preliminary Phase round): the Player will be disqualified from the entire tournament.
A Player may be immediately disqualified from the current tournament round if he does not take an active part in his game – e.g. make a single Journal entry at ACTS – for seven days without prior notification (but see below re: Vacations). Should this occur, the other Players should immediately notify the GM so that he can arrange for the provision of a Substitute Player.
Vacations: Players are allowed to take breaks from the game (when e.g. going on a trip or otherwise entering circumstances which will temporarily take them out of e-mail contact), within reason. Players going on vacation must notify their opponents before they depart of the dates they expect to be away – failure to do so may result in penalties for slow play and/or immediate disqualification from the current tournament round. Vacations of more than two weeks in which no e-mail access will be available must be cleared in advance with the GM and one’s fellow opponents. (If any Player feels that one of his opponents is abusing the Vacations provision, please contact the GM.)
Substitute Players – Volunteers requested: A list of Substitute Players will be retained by the GM – volunteers are encouraged to submit their names for consideration as potential Substitutes. In the event that a Player must be removed from a Preliminary Phase game, a Substitute Player from the GM’s list will be named at random (subject to the restriction that no Player should play the same side twice in the Preliminary Phase, and that no Player should Substitute for more than one game per round if possible) to fill in. If a Player must be removed from a Knockout Phase game, the highest-ranked non-qualifier who is willing to join the game will be named as the Substitute. Substitutes will be rewarded as follows:
· In the Preliminary Phase, a Substitute earns tournament points for the best score he gains in any given round. (For example, in the first Preliminary Round, if a Player earned 18 points in his original game and 33 points as a Substitute, his original game score would be disregarded.)
· In the Knockout Phase, a Substitute is eligible for advancement by right as though he had qualified for the relevant round.
In the event that a Preliminary Phase game is not finished during the allotted time period, which for this purpose will conclude at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (US) on the End Date for each round, each Player will be given a 10-point penalty. An immediate VP count (as per rule 5.81) will be conducted, using the state of play at the conclusion of the allotted time period, to determine the game’s final placings.
In the event that a Knockout Phase game is not finished
during the allotted time period, an immediate VP count will be conducted, using
the state of play at the conclusion of the allotted time period, to determine
the game’s final placings. If the game in question occurs in the
Semifinal Round, participants in the affected game automatically lose all
tiebreaks when determining advancement to, or side preference in, the Final
Round.
It is expected that concessions should be the exception and not the rule, as TNW is a wildly unpredictable game (especially in the multi-player format) and players will very rarely find themselves unable to improve their position. But in the event that this is not the case, a game may be conceded at any point with the agreement of all four Players. An immediate VP count (as per rule 5.81) should be conducted, using the state of play at the point of concession, to determine the game’s final placings.
At least one Player should e-mail the GM when each game is completed. The final VP count for each Player must be listed at or near the end of the ACTS Journal to assist the GM – each Player is responsible for confirming that this final VP record is accurate. For statistical reasons, Players are encouraged to list the VP count at the end of each turn as well as at the end of the game, but they are not required to do so.
The tournament winner will receive:
· A BPA PBEM The Napoleonic Wars Championship Plaque
· Points toward the annual BPA “Caesar” award
· Bragging rights (e.g. the ability to gratuitously post on Consimworld until the end of the next tournament)
TOURNAMENT ETHOS (“Designer’s Notes”)
The Napoleonic Wars is one of my true Desert Island wargames, and four-player TNW is my favorite version of the game – all of the versions of the game are worthy of tournament play, but I feel the four-player model blends together just the right mix of tactics, strategy, diplomacy and unpredictability. The five-player game can work just as well if not better with the right Prussian player, but I find the four-player game to be much more idiot-proof (Prussia has to be bought, not simply enticed or duped) while still offering a vast array of cutthroat and/or Coalition-driven strategic options. When played with the right opponents, four-player TNW can be a truly memorable experience and is to my mind one of the great multi-player wargames around.
The reason I say “when played with the right opponents” is that despite its unpredictability, I’ve always felt TNW to be a tough game about which to remain fully motivated, especially when playing online. If you’re behind, why burn a card on the Peace Roll when you can simply start up another game if the current one ends? (In PBEM play via CyberBoard/ACTS, you don’t even need to set up the pieces from scratch!) What’s the real difference between second, third and fourth place, and why should I fight for every VP even if I stand no chance of winning? For multi-player TNW to function perfectly, I feel each player needs to be fully committed right to the very end – this is especially the case for the French player when he falls behind early and may not think he has any chance of recovery as the game drags on longer.
Tournament play solves many of these quandaries. I’ve designed the tournament with several guiding principles in mind:
· TNW is a wild and unpredictable game in which luck plays a significant part – hence the elongated Preliminary Phase, in which you can have a bad game or get unlucky (or be saddled with an unfortunate group of opponents) and still have every chance of progressing to the Semifinals.
· Everyone gets to play each side in the Preliminary Phase, to guard against potential imbalances in the game.
· Tournament points are awarded in the Preliminary Phase for each placing: finishing third is still better than finishing last, although there is effectively a 10-point “win bonus” to encourage players to fight for the top spot.
· Tournament points are awarded in the Preliminary Phase for every VP gained or lost – you’ll want to fight tooth and nail for every key right to the very end.
· The Semifinal Round allows at least one second-place finisher to advance to the Final, again ensuring that no game except the Final should be played with an “all or nothing” mentality.
· Speed is of the essence – you simply cannot hold a multiplayer PBEM tournament in a game like TNW and expect it to finish within five years without taking a few shortcuts and/or being willing to GM the tournament quite strictly. (Players are strongly encouraged to call upon the GM for assistance in keeping their games moving quickly.) That said, the overlapping nature of the Preliminary Phase rounds should ensure that as few games as possible go unfinished.
· When it comes to documenting tournament procedures and punishments, ’tis better to be too specific than too vague. The rules documented on this website are not meant to be onerous for the tournament participants – rather, they are meant to protect them from excessive rules lawyering and to give me and my fellow GMs guidelines with which to make future rulings as required.
I’m hopeful that this tournament will be a blessing to everyone who participates in it. TNW is meant to be a really fun gaming experience, and I hope this tournament will both identify the best TNW player (at the four-player format, at least) and be fun for each and every one of you. Good luck!
––Darren Kilfara