2006 BPA PBEM Paths of Glory Tournament
BIG congrats to Mr.Drueding - the ONLY person to have won the PoG Triple Crown: The email PoG tourney (2005), the big dog PoG-a-thon at WBC (2005) and PoG WAM (2006).
He was the PoG top dog...until the WBC 2007 PoG tourney. 48 turned out to play 6 seven hour rounds (up 14 players from last year) to determine the new big PoG dog. For further information, see http://www.boardgamers.org/ .
The next big PoG tourney will be held at WBC July 29 > 31, 2007, Lancaster, PA. For more information, see: http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/gunsaug.htm
The tournament began May 1, 2006. Questions should be sent via an email to GM Peter Reese: mail: PREESE4@cox.net . For the latest developments regarding the tourney, check the PoG discussion board at www.consimworld.com
1 Current BPA member associate level or higher. All entrants must be members of the BPA the year the tournament starts, Associate level or higher. To join go to http://www.boardgamers.org/
They do not have to renew in subsequent years to reamin active in your tournament.
Schedule - Registrations will be allowed up till April 20th. Games will start May 1, 2006. Players may join the tournament later for either the 2nd round (they will be put in the lower bracket) or as replacements for players who drop.
GAME - PATHS OF GLORY - 4th edition rules (we can all thank Mr. Falling for his efforts here)
Players will be set in flights of 3 people. Each person in the flight will play the other 2.
3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss. The players with the highest scores will advance (so it is possible (but not likely) that no one in a flight will advance.
It is uncertain (until I see how many people are playing) how many will advance but here is the general format for advancing, assuming there are 81 people playing.
Round 1, 27 flights - the highest 36 people will advance. Note in the case of equal scores I will just roll the dice and the lucky (or unlucky depending on ones perspective after the first round) advance
Round 2 - 12 flights of 3 people each plus an unknown number of people (3 per flight in the lower bracket). 13 people with the highest scores plus 2 people from the lower bracket will be advanced to the 3rd round
Round 3 - 5 flights of 3 people each
Round 4 - 2 flights of 3 people each
the people who did not advance will be 4, 5 and 6 for BPA laurels
Round 5 - finals
Draws (agreed upon or just ending that way) are allowed, peace terms are not.
I will post the exact format, when the tournament starts.
1 person in each flight will be seeded, depending on the then current AREA ratings, highest AREA ratings first. Everyone else will be randomly assigned.
Bidding.
Players roll randomly roll to see who gets the first bid. Bids are in the following format. VPs bid (which may be 0) plus the side one bid for>
Assistant GMs (who will rule if I am playing or if I don=t respond in say 12 hours - I try to respond within day but sometimes I am elsewhere) - Stefan Mecay and Jim Falling
LOWER BRACKET - Anyone who does not advance to the 2nd round may choose to play in the lower bracket (this hopefully sounds better than the loser=s bracket or the consolation bracket). I will advance a variable number of people in order that the 3rd round has complete flights of 3 people. The most likely number that will advance here is 2 people. The two people that will advance to the 3rd round will be the two highest scoring entrants in the entire bracket. In the case of ties a random selection will be made (I suspect entrants will have to win both games here to advance)
Players who drop out - I will almost always replace a player if the games are not too far along. My reason for doing this is that players should have to win (or tie) their games to advance. I do not want players to advance or qualify to advance because they had the fortune to have an opponent drop out. It is unfair to the other players.
GM dropping a player. Anyone who does not move or respond for 2 weeks may be dropped by the GM and replaced. To avoid this if you are going to be gone for a couple of weeks leave a note in the log that you will be gone. In that case the time gone will not count for dropping out. It will still count for the time used to complete the game.
General Comments on how I or my Assistant GMs are will rule for situations not clearly covered by the rules (at this point the rules cover pretty much everything)
1) Games not complete by deadline. General Rule is that the player who took the longest amount of time loses. However, as I am interested in games being completed (at least to the point where players agree on the result either a concession or agreement to draw the game) rather than adjudicating games, there are exceptions to that rule and will be handled on a case by case basis by the GM. and if the game is just short of completion I may allow a few more days (so long as it does not slow down the tournament)..
2) A log entry to cancel a move. If this is made before either dice or rolled or the other party moves/plays a card all subsequent actions are halted until the party cancelling the move redoes his/her move. This includes any dice rolled. After the cancelling move any dice already rolled or cards played are to be redone. In the case of response type cards played after the cancellation, the cancelling party should give the other player time to return the card to their hand.
3) Too many/too few dice rolled - multiple entries for the same combat etc. In my past games I always just rerolled all dice when I used the wrong number. However, it would seem all BPA people now seem to use the following system.
a) First set of dice rolled counts
b) If too many dice are rolled the excess are ignore. Dice are counted from the top down. So if 2 dice are required and 3 are rolled the bottom one does not count.
c) If too few dice are rolled all the ones rolled count and the needed rolls are then done.
d) If only 1 party is identified in a combat (MO or other applicable situation) and two parties are required the unidentified roll is assumed to be the other parties die
e) If too many sides are used, say for example the fire was done using 8 sides for dice (don=t laugh all these things come up) but the dice result falls within the allowed numbers, 1-6, the result count. The converse is of course not allowed. If a player rolls a combat and uses 4 sided dice on the Roller it has to be rerolled regardless of the result
4) Illegal Moves. General Rule - if an illegal move is made and the dice rolled all dice are voided and the move is redone and all dice are rerolled. This is particularly true in a case where a person makes multiple moves/attacks and has too few OPs to cover them (A person should not be able to pick and choose, after the dice are rolled, which moves/attacks are made. However, like all rules there are exceptions. Example the Ge has the 9 and 10A in Nancy and a flipped 7A and Full Strength 8A in Verdun. German move is as follows: Ge9A Strasbourg to Verdun, trench 10A Strasbourg trench Verdun. Its clear here that the German move was to trench Nancy not Strasbourg, which had no units and if the trench roll succeeds the trench is there. Same situation if the German wrote the move correctly and then rolled the dice for a trench (the only trench he is rolling) for Strasbourg the trench is in Nancy. I would hope players can general resolve situations like this between themselves. If it is clear what is intended let it stand. However, the one area where it is never clear what is intended is when a player makes an illegal move, e.g. Ge 1A Ge Liege to Nancy. Trench Strasbourg, Metz and Sedan. Nancy is however occupied by the by the French and all the other spaces have 2 x Ge armies in them. This one is redone regardless of what the Germans get in the way of trenches. To allow otherwise would permit the German to deploy his extra army to the space that needs it most.
5) Conditional moves (lets face it in email situations sometimes one is not sure of the positions of units). For example. A 2 OPs move.
AGe 1A Liege to Brussels, Attack with Ge 2 and 3As Koblenz to Sedan. If Brussels is occupied void the entire move including dice rolls@
In such a case if Brussels was occupied the entire move, including any dice rolls by attacker would be void and the move would be redone.
6) Player Droping - I will almost always replace a player if the games are not too far along. My reason for doing this is that players should have to win (or tie) their games to advance. I do not want players to advance or qualify to advance because they had the fortune to have an opponent drop out. It is unfair to the other players.
7) GM dropping a player. Anyone who does not move or respond for 2 weeks will be dropped and replaced.
And, now, for something completely different, a website about Paths of Glory infamous Mati Hari: