Also, since the playoff format seems to be embryonic at best, allow me to make the following proposal:
The winners of each bracket advance to the playoffs, where they're seeded according to # of wins (ties will be broken by how the tied players fared in their head-to-head matchup), so the bracket winner with the most wins plays the one with the fewest wins, and the other two match up accordingly. Semis and Finals should be best of 3, since after all this it would be a bummer to get to the semis or finals and get hosed in a single game 'cause the other bloke dropped two villages and got to go first.
Also, since the games are foggy, there's a slight disadvantage to being the first one to join, as the other player may join and get to go first while player 1 is offline, thus depriving player 1 of being able to see the initial deployment. Thus I'd suggest some sort of honor system whereby, if you are the second to join and get to go first, you allow some length of time (4-8 hours seems fair) so as not to penalize the 1st player to join a game... just my wee two pennies.