In the Spirit of St. Patrick's day, we should properly set the tone with an Irish classic:
traditional wrote:As down the glen one Easter morn to a city fair rode I
There Armed lines of marching men in squadrons passed me by
No fife did hum nor battle drum did sound it's dread tatoo
But the Angelus bell o'er the Liffey swell rang out through the foggy dew
Right proudly high over Dublin Town they hung out the flag of war
'Twas better to die 'neath an Irish sky than at Sulva or Sud El Bar
And from the plains of Royal Meath strong men came hurrying through
While Britannia's Huns, with their long range guns sailed in through the foggy dew
But the bravest fell, and the requiem bell rang mournfully and clear
For those who died that Eastertide in the springing of the year
And the world did gaze, in deep amaze, at those fearless men, but few
Who bore the fight that freedom's light might shine through the foggy dew
Ah, back through the glen I rode again and my heart with grief was sore
For I parted then with valiant men whom I never shall see more
But to and fro in my dreams I go and I'd kneel and pray for you,
For slavery fled, O glorious dead, When you fell in the foggy dew.
To commemorate the 92nd aniversary of the Easter Rising, republicans and unionists are invited to battle for Ireland over six days starting Easter Monday, *March* 24 {oops}. This is not the kind of tournament where you show up, fight, and that's it. This tournament is about plotting the elimination of the opposition (and winning tournament points in the process).
Tournament mechanics will be as follows: Players sign up as either a Republican or a Unionist (recruiting phase). Rosters will close on St. Patrick's day. A list of all Republicans and Unionists will be posted.
The tournment then moves to the "plot" phase. During the plot phase, any player can challenge up to four players of the oposing side. Players will post challenges. On Easter Monday, games will be set up as though all battles will be fought (see scoring below).
<< timeline graphic to come>>
Tournament points will be awarded as follows: each win will count as +3 points. each game not concluded by day 6 will count as +1 for the player who was challenged to the match, and 0 for the challenger. Each game not concluded because one party did not join the game within the first 3 days will count as +1 for the party joining the game (the party not joining will credit 0 points.) Losses count as 0.
By way of explanation, the context is a revolt where one side tries to pick fights they can win, and also strategically engage enemies that are not able or unwilling to respond. For example, if the strongest player in the tournament is challenged by the lowest cook in the tournament, there's a good chance the stonger player won't show up because they don't want to loose cc points. In this way, the cook gets tournament points by occupying an uncontested field of battle. On the other hand, the stronger player might decide to simply crush the cook quickly and gain an outright win - so the cook is taking some risk based on confidence and other strategic factors. If a challenger cannot win the field within the timeframe of the revold (i.e., 6 days), then the other side is viewed as holding on long enough for reinforcements to arrive, and gets the tournament points..
In order to reward the difficulty of matches, the tournament points will be weighted using a FIFA style system. We will first multiply by a "game difficulty" factor, depending on the game characteristics set by the challenger (cards, fortifications, etc.) We will then multiply by an "opponent strength" factor, based on a heirarchical ranking of each tournament entrant. (This "handicap" factor will be calculated and posted at the time the plotting phase begins so that it can be taken account of in making challenges.)
More on game attributes... the challenger decides the conditions of battle. They are waiting for the right time when they can do the most damage, so challengers can set fog-of-war, cards, and fortification attributes. Fog-of-war game points will be multiplied by 1.50 (more difficult to find and crush you opponent). Games with cards (either escalating or flat) will be multiplied by 0.66 (victory by providence). Again, the challenger sets these parameters - remember to include in your challenge (once we get to the challenge phase) or we'll pick for you randomly.
At the end of day 6, a total score will be added up based on the status of all games at midnight EST.
Here is a simplified hypothetical example, and assuming only two challenges allowed. Suppose the muster roll after recruiting looked like this: Unionists: SkyT, negge. Replublicans: PooMaker, alangary. For negge, challenging PooMaker would have a bigger payoff, but then again lower probabiliy of payout, unless, of course, negge believed that PooMaker would be a no-show, in which case negge would get free tournament points. PooMaker, on recieving the challenge, along with many others, would need to decide wither to 1) ignore the challenge and not join the game (good grief, this guy has 9 points!); 2) join the game and play defensively to hold out for 6 days just to get the tournament points, or 3) join, go for the KO and show this upstart who is in charge of Ireland. Now negge can also decide to really concentrate on the planned attack of PooMaker and not make an addittional challenge, or he could also challenge alangary. Playing 2 games is no big deal, but he might also be challenged by both Poo & alangary, meaning - if we now go back to the four challenge rule with 10 to a side - he could end up having to play as many as 44 games at once.
You do not need to have premium membership to enter, but that will limit your point scoring ability as a practical matter. As a practical matter, sign up but remember to check back to see how the rolls are filling up.
If we don't get at least 10 republicans and 10 unionists by March 8 (St. Patrick's Day), the tournament will not go forward to the plotting phase. Other than that, it is fine to have more republicans than unionists, and there is no limit to the number of players that can join.
Again, this is a different kind of tournament. We're hoping the idea won't be too much to swallow, as it could be a lot of fun. Please sign up below if your interested.
