Last Updated: 10.11.2021
This will be a double elimination tournament. This means that players who join for the 1st round are guaranteed to be able to play at least two games. All matches will be played using the Campaign Scenario, with a 1942 start (see 17.8 in the Rulebook) using the latest, 4th printing, of the Empire of the Sun rules (rulebook will have v3.2 on the cover). See FAQ for more details.
For round 1, all pairings will be seeded by AREA Rating for those players who have one. In the following rounds, players will be sorted based on loss record and paired randomly with other players with the same loss record as much as possible. Rounds will continue until there are only two players remaining without two losses and then those players will play a final match to determine the 1st and 2nd place winners of the tournament. The remaining ranks (3rd-6th) will be filled out by rounds achieved and then strength-of-schedule.
If there is an odd number of active players in a round, an Eliminator will be found to play. The GM will arrange this and will draw from the ranks of former tournament participants or from the Empire of the Sun community.
The GM is Chris Crane, with Chris Thibault as the assistant GM. For any given match, one of us will be assigned as a moderator in ACTS. Players should escalate to their moderator for any issues in their game. All GM rulings are final.
Rounds will be about 4 months in length. Adjustments will be made for major US holiday weeks.
This is a Boardgame Players Association (BPA) sponsored Play-By-Email event, so all players must be Associate/PBEM members or higher in order to participate. Please note: it is only $10 to be an Associate/PBEM member of the BPA and it only needs to be paid once to participate for the entire length of any tournament you sign up for in the year you join, even if the tournament spans multiple years. See the FAQ for more detail on BPA membership and PBEM events.
All games will be played on ACTS in a match setup by the GMs. All dice rolls and card plays will be performed in the ACTS interface and tracked in the ACTS log for the match being played. It is recommended, but not required, that players use Vassal (with the latest EotS module) to track the board state and exchange .vlog and/or .vsav files through a cloud storage service (i.e. Box, Google Drive, Onedrive, etc). Regardless of how the board is tracked, however, it should be strongly noted that the ACTS log is THE authoritative record of events for the game and the GM will use it exclusively when considering a ruling or adjudication. See the FAQ for more information on ACTS play etiquette.
In all rounds, players will bid for sides. A die roll by the GM will determine which player bids first. The bidding player must choose a side and a starting bid number of zero or greater. The bid represents the number of US Political Will boxes that will be added (in the case of a JP bid) or subtracted (in the case of an Allied bid) at game start. Once the player has bid, the opposing player can chose to accept the bid and play the other side or bid higher for the same side. Bidding can continue back and forth until the bid is accepted.
The '42 Campaign Scenario has been proven to be very balanced through a great many play-throughs over the last 10+ years. Bids are usually either 0 or 1 for a given side.
The time limits for the round lengths are fixed and will be strictly adhered to. If a match has not completed by the allotted time and the players cannot agree who is likely to win the match then the GM will rule who is the winner and the ruling will be final.
The absolute highest consideration of the GM making this decision will be player delay and the ACTS log will be used to assess this. In other words, unless the board state obviously favors one side, the player who took the longest in between card plays and/or dice rolls will end up losing the match if the game doesn't complete on time. See the FAQ on ACTS etiquette to learn the most efficient way to step through a card play.
Please note: a quirk with the ACTS system is that if you "nudge" the opposing player in the ACTS log, be aware that the elapsed time prior to your nudging gets credited to YOU, so it is advised you send a direct email to the opposing player to nudge. If you anticipate being unavailable for an extended period of time, be polite and alert your opponent, but be aware that such time counts against you if it comes to an adjudication. The round length is calculated at 2 card plays per day (1 from each player) and there is allowance built in for absences so there should be more than enough time to finish a match being actively played.
Players wishing to join this tournament should send an email to the GM at craniumgroup@gmail.com with your full name, email address and ACTS ID. The GM will reply and that means you're in!
All registrations for Round 1 should be received no later than November 28th, 2021. The tournament will start on December 7th ("A date which will live in infamy").
Late registering players may join in on Round 2, but it will be recorded that they took a loss in Round 1. For latecomers, the tournament will essentially be single elimination for them.