Date: Wed, 1 Oct 1997 09:35:27 +0100
From: Tournament Headquarters 
Subject: W2WT: Tutorial #7 - How to Win the Tournament!

This tutorial explains the structure of the tournament, how games are
scored, how players are ranked, and how prizes are awarded.  Read carefully!


*** The Structure of the Tournament:

The tournament consists of a series of rounds:  Round A, Round B, etc.
Each round consists of a set of 20-turn, 4-player games (A01, A12, B19, etc.).
All games in each round are played in parallel on a single scenario. Each
game uses the "privacy" features of the Remailer so that players will
not know what is happening in other games until the end of the round.
At that time the history logs of each game will be made public in the
Remailer archives, and the game results will be used to update the
Tournament Standings at
    http://www.heeter.net/tournament/Standings.html

Rounds A, B, and C are open to all players and will be played using
all four flavors of Warlords.  Round D will be restricted to the
top 32 players (based on the standings after Round B), and Round E
will be the top 16 (determined after Round C).  The ranking method
is described further down in this Tutorial.

Round F will be the final round, with 4 players fighting for the
ultimate victory!  The final round is a fight to the death, not a mere
20-turn game.  It will be run "live" on the Remailer, for the world
of Warlords players to watch. :)

Note: Rounds D, E, and F will only involve the Deluxe/CD versions.
If a player does not have W2 Deluxe, we will help them buy it.

You can drop out after any round, but please don't bail out
in the middle of a round!  If you drop out during a game it screws
up your game and distorts the tournament rankings.  Players leaving
the tournament after the end of each round will be given a final
"Tournament Rank" as they withdraw or are eliminated.  This rank will
be used to seed any and all interested players in the upcoming
Head-to-Head Warlords Ladder, where all can continue the struggle
for glory and power, using any and all flavors of Warlords!
(For a sneak preview of the ladder, visit the Ladder playtesting page:
http://www.heeter.net/w2home/head2head.html )

In schematic form, the structure of the tournament looks like this:

=============================================================================
TOURNAMENT STRUCTURE: 6 rounds, 20 turns/round, 2 days turnaround, 18 months
=============================================================================
  Round A         Round C   Cut   Round E   Cut
----------->    -----------> |  ---------->  |             |
All players     All players  |  16 players   |  Round F    | The
                                             | ----------->| Greatest
        Round 2      |    Round D            |  4 Players  | Warlord!
       ----------->  |   ---------->         |             |
       All players  Cut  32 players
***************************************************************************
10/97  1/98   4/98      6/98    9/98          1/99       4/99  (Month/Year)

In a different form, here's an approximate calendar for the tournament.
There will be about 5 turns of overlap when one round is finishing and
the next is beginning.  Later rounds may overlap more as players become
more experienced; that will shorten the tournament.  For example, by
having Round D overlap Round C, instead of waiting for Round C to end,
we save about 4 months.

1997:
   Oct  4:  Round A begins
1998:
   Jan 10:  Round B begins.  Extra timeouts given for Round A.
   Feb  4:  Round A ends.
   Apr  1:  Round C begins.  Extra timeouts given for Round B.
   May 10:  Round B ends.  First overall tournament rankings.
            Select top 32 players for Round D.
   Jun 20:  Round D begins.
   Aug  1:  Round C ends.  Second overall rankings.
            Select top 16 players for Round E.  (Prizes assured!)
   Sep 10:  Round E begins!
   Oct 20:  Round D ends.  Third overall rankings.
1999:
   Jan 10:  Round E ends.  Fourth overall ranking.  Select top 4!
   Jan 15:  Round F begins; fight to the death!

We may need to increase the number of timeouts in order to keep
everyone sane.  We have to run two rounds in parallel in order
to complete enough rounds to clearly pick out the best Warlord
before the end of the milennium!  (Over 95% of the players who replied
to the survey on this agreed with this decision, as long as extra
timeouts were allowed.)  Do not worry if you need to take vacations
or aren't sure how fast you can do your moves; we'll do our best
to keep everyone happy while keeping the tournament moving.
But play as fast as you can so we can finish the tournament quickly!

Generally each player is assigned to only one game in each round, but
occasionally we will not have a nice multiple of 4 players and then
someone will be asked to be a sub in a second game.  We may need a
few players to replace lost players, too.  Anyone playing in two
games has the liability of having to get them both completed in the
usual turnaround time.  To compensate, they also get the advantage
of choosing their best result as their "official" result for that
round.  Someone playing in two games in the same round will play
different colors in each game, so they don't get a special advantage
from playing the same color twice.  Any player may volunteer as a
potential sub.  When a sub is needed one will be chosen randomly from
the available pool.  No one will serve as a sub in more than one round
unless we run out of subs. :)


*** How Games are Scored and Players are Ranked:

Each game will run 20 turns.  At the end of Turn 20 all combat ceases,
and it becomes time to evaluate the game results.  Tutorial #8
explains in detail how this is done.

Assuming you survive the whole game, the critical value is your
"final city fraction" - the ratio of your final city count to the
total number of unrazed cities, including neutral cities and cities
belonging to Lost Players.  Both your city count and the total cities
are determined after the last player moves on Turn 20.  This fraction
is the main ranking criterion.  Since it's a ratio, you can improve
your score by either controlling more cities, or razing cities you don't
control.

You are ranked against other players who played the same *color* in
the other games of your round.  (You are NOT ranked against the others
in your own game, because certain colors may have strategic advantages
and it wouldn't be fair.)  Winning your own game is less important
than doing better than the others playing your color in the other
games.  Winning helps - of course - but it might not be necessary
(if no one in your color wins their game), and then again it might
not be enough (if many players in your color win their game)!

If two players in the same color have the same city fraction, then we
use the first tiebreaker:  total final base army strength
(including blessings and hero Battle Items but not any other bonuses).
The procedure for determining this is explained in Tutorial #8; it's easy.
If necessary, we will use final gold and then final "profits"
(income - expenses) as additional tiebreakers.  After breaking the ties
we'll know your exact rank within your color group for a given round.

[ Note:  Different tiebreakers are used in the case of players who are
vanquished during a game, or who destroy all opposition and
control 100% of the cities before Turn 20; these are explained
in the official rules on the Web. ]

Your overall Tournament Rank is derived partly from your rank-within-color
rankings for each round, and partly from your "Opponent Quality" rating,
which is based on the average Tournament Rank of your opponents.
(The relative weightings are still being fine-tuned, but they will
be in the range of 33-67% each for your own rank and your average opponent
rank.  The rankings will not actually be needed until the end of Round B.)


*** How to Win Prizes:

The way to win prizes in the tournament is to:
  a) be a great role player,
  b) motivate your fellow players to write an entertaining game history, or
  c) play well enough to survive until you are in the Top 16 for Round E!

In each of the first three rounds (A,B,C), five prizes will be awarded!
One prize will go to the individual player who does the "Best Role Play",
and four prizes will go to the players in the "Most Entertaining Game."
The decisions will be made by a committee of moderators who will not
be allowed to receive prizes.

The top 16 finalists who make it into Round E will also receive prizes!
The prizes will be supplied by SSG; they will probably be free games!

So, to win the tournament, you need to survive as long as possible and
hold as many cities as possible at the end of Turn 20, and do better
than anyone else playing your color.  You want to do as well as you can,
regardless of how tough your opposition is!

In other words, play Warlords the way you would normally play, only don't
give up if you start to lose, because the longer you hold out and the more
cities you hang onto, the better your ranking.  And even if you get
crushed, you might still have the satisfaction of knocking your opponent
down enough that he or she doesn't make a later cut!

[ One important note:  All players and moderators will be looking for
signs of cheating during each game.  All cheaters will be immediately
and ungraciously expelled from the tournament.  News of their dishonor
will be spread far and wide!  They will also be banished from future
Warlords activities, including the Head-to-Head Ladder.  There are no
prizes for hex editing!!! ]

For full details, see the official Tournament Rules.  For wisdom about
how these rules might affect a player's strategy, ask your Moderator or
look at the histories of the playtesting games.

Now you know how to win the tournament...
May the Greatest Warlord Win!

-- The Tournament Organizers


P.S.  But what if you don't win?  You can still have lots of fun!

All but one player will lose at some point.  Unlike AI games, how
you choose to accept defeat is very important, even more so in the
Tournament than in ordinary play-by-email games.  How you lose can
strongly affect the tournament results, even if it doesn't affect
who wins your particular game.  Prizes will be won or lost based
on single cities, or even armies.  Losing gracefully is therefore
very important to the success of the tournament.

Keep in mind a few key points:

(1) It's bad for both you and the tournament if you just disappear.
Please finish any game you start.  It's usually unwise to resign
unless you will be eliminated that Turn anyway.

(2) You can lose your own game and still do well in the tournament!
Your goal is simply to play as well as you can with your own side.

(3) The longer you stay in the game, and the more cities you hold at
the end, the better your tournament rank, and the better your
initial position in the Head-to-Head Play-by-Email Ladder.
(http://www.heeter.net/w2home/head2head.html)
The Ladder gives you a shot at revenge, too.  :)

(4) The purpose of the tournament is to find the best warlord.
It's not right to lose in a way which skews the results of your game
towards an undeserving player.  Consider the consequences of your
final moves very carefully, and don't play with personal malice or
vicious spite.  Be sure that whatever you do really hinders your enemies
and helps your allies.  Analyze the effects of your actions on the
end-of-game statistics.  And take down as many foes as you can before
you die!