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Post 03 Jan 2011, 8:13 pm

1.0 Tournament Overview
    1.1 The “Deadly Sins” tournament (henceforth: “tournament”) will be a forty-nine player, three-round, individual gunboat (no press) diplomacy tournament open to all Redscape members who have completed at least one game (any variant) on the site.
    1.2 orange/GMBobby will act as the tournament director, as well as each game’s GM.

2.0 Definition and explanation of a “Gunboat” (no press) tournament.
    2.1 For the purposes of this tournament, participants and nation identities will not be announced or made public, and no press or communication between players will be allowed during games or between rounds. Player identities will be known only to the tournament director, and will be preserved until the conclusion of the tournament.
    2.2 Attempts to communicate with other players, discern another player’s identity, or announce to another member of the site that you are participating in the tournament will be considered cheating, and will be grounds for removal from the tournament at the discretion of the tournament director.
    2.2.1 A player so removed from the tournament will forfeit all rights to their score and position within the tournament, as well as eligibility to be named champion.
    2.3 Use of orders to communicate
    2.3.1 The use of written orders to communicate strategy and intention is within the scope of a gunboat game, and may be utilized.
    2.3.1.1 As an example, a German player may order “A Berlin S A Moscow – Vienna”, even though the order obviously cannot succeed, even if there is no Russian unit in Moscow, in order to communicate to the Russian player that Germany seeks peace, and assistance against Austria. The order will be invalid, but it will be posted as written.
    2.3.1.2 Germany may not order “A Berlin supports Russia against Austria, and hopes that Russia will join Germany in pursuing a two way draw”. This type of message would be considered “press”. The order will be deemed invalid, and all that will be posted is “A Berlin Holds (invalid order - press)”.
    2.3.1.3 Determination of what constitutes “press” is the sole discretion of the tournament director.
    2.4 What to do if you become aware of a participant or player’s identity
    2.4.1 Do not communicate with that player regarding the tournament in any way, shape, or form.
    2.4.2 Contact the tournament director and explain what you know and how you found out.
    2.4.3 There will be no consequences for what is determined to be an honest mistake, but the tournament director does need to know if it happens.
    2.4.3.1 If a player is knowingly trying to communicate with you about the tournament, you should inform the tournament director so that the offending player can be removed, and replaced.

3.0 Timetable
3.1 The tournament will be conducted over the second half of 2010, beginning July 1st 2010 and ending in early 2011.
3.2 Registration will be available beginning May 30th.
3.2.1 You may register by E-mailing (orangesfwr (at) gmail.com) or private messaging the tournament director.
3.2.2 Registration will be on a ‘first-come, first-served’ basis.
3.2.3 If there are not at least forty-nine participants by June 25th, the tournament may be postponed, or cancelled, at the discretion of the tournament director.
3.3 The tournament’s objective will be to clear one game year per week. Therefore, deadlines will be set at two weekdays per phase (no orders will be due on Saturdays, Sundays, or specified holidays). Due to the gunboat nature of the tournament, this pace should be easy to maintain for the GM and players alike.
3.4 All games within each round will be adjudicated, posted, and E-mailed to players at approximately the same time.
3.4.1 For ease of communication, the tournament director my simply BCC the entire tournament with a message indicating that the latest results are available on the Redscape website.[/list]

4.0 Structure
    4.1 Round 1
    4.1.1 Round 1 of the tournament will feature seven (7) boards and forty-nine (49) players.
    4.1.2 Each game in Round 1 will have a mandatory DIAS imposed after the fall (autumn) retreats of 1908.
    4.1.2.1 An early DIAS is not allowed. A board may end early only by solo victory.
    4.2 Round 2
    4.2.1 Round 2 of the tournament will feature two (2) boards and fourteen (14) players.
    4.2.2 Each game in Round 2 will have a mandatory DIAS imposed after the fall (autumn) retreats of 1908.
    4.2.2.1 An early DIAS is not allowed. A board may end early only by solo victory.
    4.3 Round 3 – Championship
    4.3.1 Round 3 of the tournament will feature one (1) championship board consisting of seven (7) players.
    4.3.2 The championship round will have a mandatory DIAS imposed after the fall (autumn) retreats of 1914.
    4.3.2.1 An early DIAS is allowed by active consent of all remaining (non-eliminated) players.

5.0 Advancement and Scoring
    5.1 Advancement
    5.1.1 Of the forty-nine (49) players in Round 1, only fourteen (14) will advance to Round 2. Two players of each nation will advance from Round 1 to Round 2.
    5.1.1.1 This provides both a competition on the player’s board, and, a competition with players on other boards playing the same nation.
    5.1.1.1.1 As an example, each Russian player will compete on his own board for points, and, with Russian players on other boards to earn the “Best Russia” or “Second Best Russia” titles, which allow for advancement to Round 2.
    5.1.1.2 The primary determinant of “Best [Nation]” and “Second Best [Nation]” will be total SCs at the game’s conclusion.
    5.1.1.3 The secondary determinant will be total score at the game’s conclusion.
    5.1.1.4 Due to this structure, some boards may have more of its players advance to Round 2 than other boards, and there is no guarantee that a player from each board will advance.
    5.1.1.4.1 As an example, if Board 1 ends in a three-way draw where each player ends with appx. 11SCs and a total of appx. 74 points, and Board 2 ends in a seven-way draw in which each player ends with appx. 5SCs and a total of appx. 39 points, the three surviving players on Board 1 may all advance to Round 2, while the seven players on Board 2 may all fail to advance.
    5.1.1.5 In addition, having a higher number of SCs or a higher total score in Round 1 than another player does not guarantee priority in advancing to the Round 2.
    5.1.1.5.1 As an example, an English player that finishes Round 1 with 10 SCs and 75 points, but is the third best England, will not advance to Round 2, while an Austrian player that finishes with 7SCs and 50 points, and is the second best Austria, will advance to Round 2.
    5.1.1.6 This structure was devised to offset the potential advantage or disadvantage of playing a perceived “strong” or “weak” nation in Round 1.
    5.1.2 The highest cumulative score for each player through both Round 1 and Round 2 will determine advancement from Round 2 to Round 3, as well as seeding.
    5.1.2.1 The top seed for Round 3 (based on cumulative score) will be allowed to choose their nation, provided it is not a nation that the player has played previously in the tournament.
    5.1.2.2 The second highest seed for Round 3 will then be allowed to choose their nation, provided it is not a nation that the player has played previously in the tournament, and that it is not the nation already chosen by the top seed.
    5.1.2.3 This scheme will continue until all nations have been chosen, or, until it is no longer possible for a player to choose in a way that eliminates the possibility that another player will play a nation they have already played in the tournament.
    5.1.2.3.1 Sounds complicated, but really it isn’t. Stated preferences may be used to speed assignments along - the tournament director will assist in this process.
    5.1.2.4 Seeds and their choices will NOT be announced to avoid revealing the top ranked player, and potentially ‘giving away’ their history within the tournament.
    5.2 Scoring
    5.2.1 All supply centers are worth one (1) point.
    5.2.2 A player’s score for each year will be calculated by adding the total number of owned supply centers following that year’s fall (autumn) retreat phase.
    5.2.2.1 The maximum score in any year is eighteen (18). If a player ends a year with more than eighteen (18) supply centers, they will still earn only eighteen (18) points for that year.
    5.2.3 A player’s score for each round will be found by adding the total number of points for each year of play, and accounting for any bonus or penalty points.
    5.2.4 A player’s total cumulative score will be calculated by adding the total number of points from each game round.
    5.2.5 Bonus Points and Penalties
    5.2.5.1 A player will earn eighteen (18) bonus points, plus an additional eighteen (18) bonus points for every remaining game year, by achieving a solo victory [gaining eighteen (18) supply centers prior to the established deadline].
    5.2.5.2 Each player on a board where another player has achieved a solo victory [gained eighteen (18) supply centers prior to the established deadline] will incur a three (3) point penalty, plus an additional three (3) point penalty for every remaining game year. This penalty applies to both surviving and eliminated players.
    5.2.5.3 As an example: If Russia solos in 1906, Russia earns [18 + (18 * 2)], or 54 bonus points. Every other player on the board incurs a penalty of [3 + (3 * 2)], or 9 penalty points each.
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Post 03 Jan 2011, 8:14 pm

6.0 Rules
  • 6.1 Redscape House Rules are not used for any facet of this tournament. This particularly affects adjudication outcomes when no orders are received for a given power, a unit is ordered twice, or ambiguity is present in an order or an order set.
  • 6.2 Orders
  • 6.2.1 Players are encouraged to send preliminary orders for all phases immediately after receiving or reviewing the previous season’s adjudication. A player may update their orders as often as they like up until the posted deadline.
  • 6.2.2 Orders should be sent to the tournament director’s E-mail address (orangesfwr (at) gmail.com), and to no one else. The subject line of the E-mail should include the game name, the nation, the season, and the game year.
  • 6.2.2.1 As an example, “Game 1 Italy S1901”
  • 6.2.3 Ambiguity
  • 6.2.3.1 To avoid ambiguity, the tournament director strongly recommends that players clearly identify updated order sets with a version number. Players should take all reasonable steps to avoid the uncertainties of E-mail delivery, and make it as clear as possible to the adjudicator which is the most recent set to be used. Without a clear indicator, the last set received by the adjudicator will be used.
  • 6.2.3.2 The tournament director also strongly recommends clearly indicating the name of the territory, or its authorized abbreviation. The use of abbreviations which are unclear or otherwise ambiguous will result in the offending unit being forced to hold.
  • 6.2.3.2.1 As an example, “F Skg – Nor” is ambiguous because “nor” could correspond with “North Sea” (properly abbreviated “Nth”), “Norway” (properly abbreviated “Nwy”), or “Norwegian Sea” (properly abbreviated “Nwg”). Ideally, all unit locations will be spelled out.
  • 6.2.3.3 A unit type that is incorrectly specified in a movement phase will not be deemed invalid. This includes movement and support orders, as well as convoys, but does not include builds.
  • 6.2.3.3.1 As an example, F Vienna - Trieste would not be deemed invalid if there was an army in Vienna. A Vienna – Trieste would be adjudicated. However, “Build F Vienna” would be considered an ambiguous order.
  • 6.2.3.4 A unit type does not need to be specified in a build when the supply center is not capable of building a fleet (Munich, Moscow, etc.). A unit type must be specified when the supply center is capable of building a fleet (London, Rome, etc.).
  • 6.2.3.5 Any and all other ambiguity is to be ruled a voided order. Misspelled orders that are not ambiguous (clear as to intent with no guessing) are valid, but those that might have duplicate meanings must be ruled void. This includes those units ordered twice. If two or more different orders exist for the same unit within the same order set, both orders will be considered ambiguous.
  • 6.2.3.6 If an order in a movement phase is deemed ambiguous by the tournament director, the offending unit will hold, and will still be eligible to receive support to hold. If an order during a build phase is deemed ambiguous by the tournament director, the order will fail.
  • 6.2.4 Coastal Designations
  • 6.2.4.1 Coasts should always be specified when moving a fleet to the territories of Bulgaria, St. Petersburg, or Spain. However, if only one of the coasts is a possible destination, and no coast was specified in the order, the order will succeed.
  • 6.2.4.1.1 As an example, “F Barents Sea – St. Petersburg” will be deemed a valid order, and adjudicated as “F Barents Sea – St. Petersburg (nc)” since a fleet in the Barents Sea cannot be ordered successfully to the south coast of St. Petersburg. “F Portugal – Spain” is ambiguous because both North Coast and South Coast are valid destinations for the fleet.
  • 6.2.4.2 If the wrong coast is specified in the ‘to’ portion of an order, and it is not a valid destination, the order will fail.
  • 6.2.4.2.1 As an example, “F Barents Sea – St. Petersburg (sc)” is invalid, and will hold.
  • 6.2.4.3 Units supporting a move to a territory divided by coasts do not require a coast to be specified in order to succeed. However, if a coast is specified in such a support order, and the moving unit’s coastal designation does not correspond, the support will fail, even if that support comes from the same player’s unit.
  • 6.2.4.4 If a fleet is ordered and specifies the wrong coast in the ‘from’ portion of the order, it will still succeed.
  • 6.2.4.4.1 As an example, if F Bulgaria (sc) is ordered to move to Greece, but the order is written “F Bulgaria (ec) – Greece”, it will still be considered a valid order.
  • 6.3 No Move(s) Received (NMRs)
  • 6.3.1 NMRs will not cause the player to incur a game or tournament penalty. Due to the fast nature of the tournament, NMRs may occur. Redscape penalties for NMRs may apply.
  • 6.3.2 In the event of an NMR, the following procedures will be followed:
  • 6.3.2.1 Spring or Fall (movement) phase: All Units Hold
  • 6.3.2.1.1 Holding units may be supported by foreign units.
  • 6.3.2.2 Summer or Autumn (retreat) phase: retreating units will automatically retreat Off the Board (OTB)
  • 6.3.2.3 Winter (build/disband) phase: If the player was entitled to a build or builds, those builds will be waived. If the player was forced to disband, disbands will be applied in the following manner:
  • 6.3.2.3.1 Units furthest from a home supply center by movement distance (irrespective of ability to traverse the territory), followed by alphabetical determination, with “A” territories disbanded prior to “Z” territories.
  • 6.4 Withdrawals, Abandonment, and Replacements
  • 6.4.1 While the majority of players (over 70%) will be eliminated within two months, the possibility that a player will need to play in the tournament for six months or more should not be taken lightly. Please do not sign up for this tournament if you feel that the schedule or timeline is too demanding for your schedule.
  • 6.4.2 In the event that a player needs to withdraw from the tournament, that player should contact the tournament director as soon as possible. A replacement player will be sought from a pool of specified replacement players.
  • 6.4.2.1 Withdrawing players forfeit all rights to their score and position within the tournament.
  • 6.4.3 In the event that a player abandons his position in the tournament (generally defined as three consecutive NMRs in movement phases and not responding to messages from the tournament director), the tournament director may replace the player at his discretion from the pool of available players.
  • 6.4.3.1 Abandoning players forfeit all rights to their score and position within the tournament.
  • 6.4.4 Replacement Pool & Proxy Players
  • 6.4.4.1 The tournament director will seek out a pool of willing replacement players. If a replacement player accepts a position, they will earn the rights to the scores associated with that position throughout the tournament, and will be eligible to be considered the tournament champion, even if they did not participate in all previous rounds.
  • 6.4.4.2 Members of the replacement pool may be chosen to act as proxy players for participants involved in short breaks from the tournament, where internet access is unavailable or not practical. Breaks should last no more than one game year, and should take place no more than once per round.
  • 6.4.4.2.1 Due to the gunboat nature of the tournament, participants requiring a proxy player should contact the tournament director. All communication to a proxy player regarding strategy, etc. must be sent through the tournament director.
  • 6.4.4.2.2 A proxy player will have full control of the nation, and will be allowed to order in any way they see fit, but will be encouraged by the tournament director to follow the spirit of the original player’s perceived strategy (stated or otherwise) as much as possible.
  • 6.4.4.2.3 The identity of proxy players will not be revealed during the course of the tournament.
  • 6.4.4.3 No position will fall into Civil Disorder. Any viable position may be replaced at any time, no matter how many times that nation has NMRd.
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Post 03 Jan 2011, 8:15 pm

7.0 Board and Nation Assignments
  • 7.1 Round 1 board and nation assignments will be random. No preferences will be requested. If provided, they will have no influence on assignments.
  • 7.1.1 The method of random assignment will be simplified. All player names will be placed into a ‘hat’ (or similar sorting mechanism) and drawn to fill each board’s nation assignment. For example, the first player drawn will play Board 1 – Austria. The second player drawn will play Board 1 – England. The last player drawn will play Board 7 – Turkey.
  • 7.2 Round 2 board assignments will be as random as possible, but will be somewhat dependent on nation assignments, as explained below.
  • 7.3 Round 2 nation assignments will be structured so that a player who has advanced to Round 2 will play a specified nation based on their nation in Round 1. The scheme of this system will be kept confidential to avoid allowing players to link and identify their opponents from round to round. The scheme has been designed by the tournament director to allow players to play different nations from round to round, and, to avoid players playing nations with overly similar positions or strengths.
  • 7.3.1 As an example, a player will not play Italy in Round 1 and Austria in Round 2.
  • 7.3.2 The mechanism for deciding a player’s Round 2 nation have been set in advance and can be proven after the fact to avoid accusations of bias or favoritism, if necessary.
  • 7.4 Round 3 nation assignments will be made as explained in section 5.1.2.

8.0 Determining the tournament champion
  • 8.1 The tournament champion will be determined in the following manner:
  • 8.1.1 Of the Round 3 participants, the player who ends the game with the highest number of supply centers will be declared champion, unless more than one player shares the highest number of supply centers.
  • 8.1.2 If more than one player ends Round 3 with the highest number of supply centers, the player among these with the highest score in Round 3 will be declared champion.
  • 8.1.3 In the event of a tie, the player among these with the highest cumulative score throughout all three rounds of play will be declared champion.
  • 8.1.4 In the event of a tie, the player who ended any of the three games with the highest point total for that game will be declared champion.
  • 8.1.5 In the event of a tie beyond this, co-champions may be declared at the discretion of the tournament director.

9.0 Loose Ends
  • 9.1 For any topics not expressly mentioned in the rules above, the following diplomacy rules will apply.
  • 9.1.1 Avalon-Hill Diplomacy Rules (4th Edition, 2000) (Available: http://www.wizards.com/avalonhill/rules/diplomacy.pdf)
  • 9.1.2 Anything not covered by the above will be decided by the tournament director.
  • 9.2 In the event that you feel a rule has been improperly adjudicated, or a mistake in adjudication has occurred, please bring it to the attention of the tournament director immediately.
  • 9.2.1 All decisions on such challenges will be made at the sole discretion of the tournament director.
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Post 03 Jan 2011, 8:15 pm

Q: When will player identities be made available?

A: Not until all three rounds of play have been completed, and a tournament winner has been announced. At that point I will release all information about each game, who played which nations, total scores for each player by round and throughout the tournament, etc.

Q: How will retreats be adjudicated?

A: This is an important question - one which was not specifically addressed in the rules, and which must be dealt with before the first retreats are due. After a great deal of consideration, I have decided that all retreats must be submitted in advance. That is to say preliminary or conditional retreats must be submitted with the previous season’s orders. The fastest and easiest way to do this is consider ANY unit that could potentially be dislodged (any unit which borders two or more foreign units) and list, in order of preference, the retreat options that you desire. I will also accept conditional retreats.

For example, you could say “If Turkey orders A Bulgaria – Serbia, retreat Galicia to Rumania, Budapest, or Vienna (in that order). If Turkey does not order A Bulgaria – Serbia, retreat Galicia to Ukraine, Silesia, or Rumania (in that order)."

Please do not make these instructions vague, or potentially contradictory. Don’t base your conditions on the orders of two foreign units, for example, as they could both do something different and leave me with a 'choice' to make. Do not say "If England stabs me, than do this" I do not get to define what a "stab" is. I will not make choices for you. If there is ambiguity, your unit will retreat OTB. For clarity, I recommend writing conditional retreats in “IF” “THEN” “OR” “AND” "ELSE" format.

(IF X OR Y, THEN Z)
(IF A AND B, THEN C)
(IF D, E, OR F, THEN G, ELSE H)

If you do not include a retreat option for a unit, and it is dislodged, it will be retreated OTB. No ‘default’ retreat orders will be used.

I have made this decision primarily due to the short deadlines and the gunboat nature of the tournament. It simply is not fair to impose any deadline less than 24 hours for retreats, because it would provide an advantage to certain players in certain time zones. A deadline of 24 hours could potentially push back the following deadline, which is not acceptable.

Since Builds & Disbands get a separate deadline each year, these do not need to be submitted in preliminary or conditional format with fall orders, although they can be if you wish to cover yourself from an NBR or NDR.

Q: You mentioned deadlines every 48 hours – could a deadline potentially fall on a weekend?

A: No. I apologize for any confusion with regard to my opening message. My point here is that the deadlines are short, but steady and predictable. Spring is Monday, Fall is Wednesday, Winter is Friday. Time is always 5:00PM EST. This will remain the same throughout the tournament. The deadlines are 48 hours apart, but weekends are ‘off’ so to speak. The schedule is posted in the forum.

Q: I noticed that the S'01 deadline for R1 and R2 occur just after a holiday weekend. Why is this, and could this cause a problem?

A: This is by design. My goal was to avoid holidays in the middle of a round as they tend to screw up the flow of the tournament. Spring 1901 for each round has some extra time built in to allow everyone the chance to review their assignment and submit orders. As I seek to avoid NMRs in S’01 without compromising the schedule, I thought that this made sense. The 4th of July is the day before the first deadline for R1, and Labor Day is the day before the first deadline for R2. However, in Round #1 players have two weeks to submit their first order set. For Round 2 you will have between five and seven days. When we get to R3, there is a built in break for late December into early January for those observing winter holidays.

Q: Will you accept orders from multiple E-mail accounts, or by Redscape PM?

A: Yes to both, although I will not send announcements by PM, and I may not send confirmations by PM. I understand that many of you have both work and personal E-mail accounts. Just make sure you’re not hitting me with a brand new E-mail address out of the blue in, say, 1905. If you have multiple accounts that you intend to use, let me know. If you switch E-mail addresses in the middle of the tournament, send me an E-mail from your existing (old) address to inform me of the change. This is also important because I will send announcements to one E-mail address per player, so I need to know which one to use. Same rules apply regarding using the last order set received, unless a version number or some other indicator is specified.
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Post 03 Jan 2011, 8:15 pm

An important note about scoring for Round #2...

...I came across a potential dead-end in the rules, so I want to make a decision on this potential scenario now.

In the event of a tie in cumulative score for the seventh R3 spot at the end of R2, the first 'tiebreaker' will be highest SC count at the conclusion of 1908 in Round #2. Example...

Player A and Player B end in a tie for seventh place, both with 100 cumulative points. Player A ended Round #2 with 8SCs, while Player B ended Round #2 with 6SCs. Player A will advance.

In the event of a tie beyond this (both players end with an equal number of cumulative points, and SCs in Round #2) the tie breaker will be highest score in any round. For example...

Player A had games with 40pts and 60pts, while player B had two games with 50pts. Player A will advance over Player B.

In the unlikely event of a tie beyond this, I will make a judgment call following the spirit of the rules as laid out.