BPA War
At Sea PBeM Tournament
Subject: War At Sea BPA
PBeM Tournament Announcement
Date: April 30, 1999
From: Bruce
Monnin <monninb@bright.net>
Fellow War At Sea AREA Players,
Members of the Boardgame Players Association (which runs the World Boardgaming Championships, formerly Avaloncon) may have noticed that the BPA is currently running PBeM championships (including a plaque for the champion) in Breakout Normandy and The Russian Campaign. One of the next PBeM championships to be organized is for War At Sea.
The War At Sea PBeM competition will most probably start near the end of June. There are currently 13 players who have expressed an interested in participating, but a minimum of 16 and closer to 32 entrants would be preferred. The following rules will govern this competition:
1) Players must be associate or higher members of the BPA for 1999 in order to enter the competition. Once entered, an entrant may finish out the tournament regardless of whether they keep up their BPA membership. (This is a BPA requirement.)
2) All games will be AREA rated. (This is a BPA requirement.)
3) The tournament will follow a single elimination format with seeding determined by AREA ratings as of mid-May 1999. The higher AREA-rated players will receive any byes necessary in the first round to fill out the brackets.
4) The length of each round will be 3 months. Players participating in the War At Sea AREA PBeM ladder (contact Bruce Monnin at MonninB@bright.net for details) are currently allowed 3 to 4 months to complete each game. About half of these games are completed in under 2 months, and almost all of the games are completed in less than 3 months. A game length of 3 months will allow a 32 person field to reach the championship game in one year at the longest. Whenever two players are ready for their next match, they will be allowed to start their game immediately in order to get a head start (and additional time) on the next round.
5) Choosing sides. At the beginning of each match, both players will secretly indicate their preference of side to play by sending an email to the GM ( Bruce Monnin at MonninB@bright.net) or a designated assistant GM. If both players choose the same side, the GM will order a die roll, the winner of which will have the option of starting the bidding for that side by offering a POC handicap to his opponent. The handicap must be in increments of 0.5 POC. The second player can either accept the non-preferred side and the offered POC handicap (if any), or offer a greater POC handicap to play the preferred side. Bidding will continue until one player accepts the other player's POC handicap offer.
6) Die Rolling. Players may use any mutually agreed upon method of resolving die rolls. It is recommended (and required if a different method is not agreed upon) that players use the PBeM Dice Roller (dice@pbm.com), a random number utility which usually provides die roll results by email in less than one minute. For instructions on using the Dice Roller, send an email message to dice@pbm.com with the word 'help' as the text. The GM can also provide a detailed example of its use, if requested by email.
7) Rules. The second edition rules will be used. The only change from the first edition is that US Entry is accelerated (US ships enter on a roll of 6 on turn 4; rolls of 5 or 6 on turn 5; rolls of 4 through 6 on turn 6; 3-6 on turn 7; and 2-6 on turn 8). Any rules questions will be resolved by the GM and/or WBC War At Sea GM Vince Meconi. The current rules clarifications are listed on the War At Sea PBeM Ladder website (at www.jps.net/nmrkvch/was/rules99.html).
8) Advancement. The winner of each game advances to the next round. In the event of a draw, the Allied player will advance (remember this when choosing and bidding for sides). However, tie games will still be reported to AREA as a tie.
9) Adjudication. If a game goes beyond the specified time limit, the game will be adjudicated by the GM and the two appointed assistant GMs. Both the current position on the board and the relative speed of play of the two players will be considered. If a game is heading towards adjudication, you may wish to look at your emails from the whole game to determine the amount of time each player spent between moves.
10) Time Limit. As previously mentioned, the time limit for each round will be 3 months. Games will be adjudicated if they have not ended by the end of the alloted time for each round.
11) Effects on the Ladder. Anyone participating in the BPA PBeM World Championships who would like to temporarily withdraw from the AREA War At Sea PBeM ladder can do so without losing their place on the ladder. After elimination from the championships, they will then reenter the ladder at the start of the next round. As always, the player currently at the top of the ladder is expected to defend his or her title every round.
12) Assistant GMs. Vince Meconi and Nick Markevich are the currently designated assistant GMs.
Please let me know if you want to sign up for the BPA War At Sea PBeM competition. The competition is scheduled to start in late June.
Bruce
Monnin, GM
<monninb@bright.net>
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