In English:
Welcome to the first (of many, hopefully)AoW3 tournament.
The purpose of this tournament is to test players from around the world, but also to have fun and to raise awareness of the game, and to build a community based around strategic and tactical acumen and fairplay.
This is a 1.v.1 elimination tournament.
Players will be placed in randomised pools of 4, and you will play at least one match against ever other player in that group, i.e. 3 matches minimum. The top 2 players from each group will proceed to the next round. If you are familiar with the football (or soccer, depending on where you are from) World Cup, then this format should hold no surprises for you.
In the next round, you will play a match against one of your opponents, and the winner advances. This is an elimination round.
Stage/Round 1 starts with 64 players, but only 32 will go to the next round, and here a loss will mean you are out of the tournament.
This is repeated until there are 2 players left, who will then fight a best of 3 series for the championship.
Players 3 and 4 will do the same to determine 3rd and 4th place.
The final 6 games will be recorded, and if we have time the others may be as well.
*What is split stacking?
The best definition I have come across is from Jomungur, and says:
“Relevant when you have multihex armies. An opponent deliberately attacks a side hex rather than the center hex of your main army to split your army out. To counter this, you need to move them slowly and in a coordinated, “frog hop” manner. Because of lag wars, this is often difficult to do.”
To a degree, the 15 second rule counters this.
From Mezmorki:
“Opportunistic” Split Stacking is attacking part of a larger multi-stack army while the other player is trying to move it in some coordinated fashion. This is more about fast reaction times and more exploitive play.
“Deliberate” Split Stacking is, for example, sieging an enemy 4-stack army from a direction such that you only engage 3 of their 4 stacks with ideally four of your own.”
Opportunistic is what we are trying to avoid.
From Kozzie:
“but while i was scouting a player i noticed that he has placed 4 of his stacks in groups of 2 – connected by a road so it would take 1 turn to combine them.
He kept that for several turns – gaining the effect of good defence on 2 fronts at the same time. But after a moment in the middle of a turn another player attacked one of his army groups with 3 or 4 stacks – the played that had divided his stacks went on a rant that this is cheating etc etc – no split stacking etc. claiming that he wanted to move the stacks in that very turn to move as one”
That is NOT split stacking. Again, if there are any allegations, nothing can be proven without video.
“what if i had a leader with forest concealment or even 2 – parked with 2 full stacks in forest – and a 3rd stack next to them acting as bait – and my enemy would move 1 stack near my stack – why should i bother to ask if he wants to move in more stacks? he just got suprise attacked and fell into a trap – why would i give him an option to run away ? that would be unfair to me as the one making this trap as it took me time and effort to lure him to my trap.”
Well played. You set a trap and your opponent got greedy. Had he suspected a trap he could have moved his stacks forward slowly, or sent a scout towards the area (which is what I would have done)
Addendum:
Player attacks a city with 3 stacks, decides to retreat, with his forces now out of moves and no longer in a triangle. His opponent attacks him in such a way as to engage 2 stacks instead of 3. This is "deliberate" split stacking as defined above, ergo a good move.
Welcome to the first (of many, hopefully)AoW3 tournament.
The purpose of this tournament is to test players from around the world, but also to have fun and to raise awareness of the game, and to build a community based around strategic and tactical acumen and fairplay.
This is a 1.v.1 elimination tournament.
Players will be placed in randomised pools of 4, and you will play at least one match against ever other player in that group, i.e. 3 matches minimum. The top 2 players from each group will proceed to the next round. If you are familiar with the football (or soccer, depending on where you are from) World Cup, then this format should hold no surprises for you.
In the next round, you will play a match against one of your opponents, and the winner advances. This is an elimination round.
Stage/Round 1 starts with 64 players, but only 32 will go to the next round, and here a loss will mean you are out of the tournament.
This is repeated until there are 2 players left, who will then fight a best of 3 series for the championship.
Players 3 and 4 will do the same to determine 3rd and 4th place.
The final 6 games will be recorded, and if we have time the others may be as well.
- Players are encouraged to video their matches, for the enjoyment of others and also to allow judges to verify any allegations, because without video proof of breaking the rules, it is your word against the other player's. This is especially pertinent for rules 1, 3, 4 and 8.
- No 'split stacking.'* The definition of split stacking is: An opponent deliberately attacks a side hex rather than the centre hex of your main army to split your army out. Usually done to stop the additional army participating and usually done by whoever clicks the fastest.
- Please allow sufficient time to finish your match. If you repeatedly quit then you may be liable to forfeiting your games, or forfeit your place in any future tournaments.
- 15 second rule. You must not attack a player in the first 15 seconds of your turns. You may manoeuvre away to your heart's content, but no attacking. This is inviolable. If you break it, you must retreat your forces. If you do not, then you forfeit the match. It is as simple as that.
- If you (rage) quit in the middle of a fight, or disconnect and do not show up within 15 minutes, the match is considered forfeited, unless you have very good reason, such as someone violating the 15 second rule (and have video to explain yourself). Please make sure your internet connection is reliable enough for a game. If you repeatedly quit then you may be liable to forfeiting your games, or forfeit your place in any future tournaments.
- In the event of a disconnection, the match is to be saved in the turn that the game was disconnected, and reloaded from there, i.e. NOT the autosave, before TC is loaded;
>any additional actions before the battle are forbidden (enchanting/dispelling armies, global spells, moving armies);
>if the disconnection happened closer to the end of the battle, it is recommended that either both players disband units that were killed (or left with 1-2 HP) in battle and replay the battle with what's left, or (in case the battle outcome is clear) the player that was losing the battle surrenders the battle, his opponent disbands all his units that were killed (or left with 1-2 HP) and the game continues;
>if the disconnection happened closer to the beginning of the battle, the battle is replayed, and the players should stick to original tactics until they are forced to change it to adapt to new random hits, misses and damages
- The standard set-up is 2 player duels, medium maps, default settings. These settings may be changed if both players agree to it, for example disallowing dwellings etc. Advanced settings, such as force high speed tactical combat, are at the discretion of you and your opponent.
- Manual combat versus Humans always, auto against independents.
- Banter and taunting is allowed, rudeness, swearing and racial (or other prejudicial) language is not. Repeatedly trolling will lead to forfeiting the match.
- Stalling in combat, whilst dishonourable, is to be allowed. It is a legitimate tactic, and one that is really only effective for a very limited window.
- No standing on the retreat arrows to force the attacker to retreat.
- You cannot play the same class twice in a row. You must let the Judges, but not your opponent, know what class and race you will play for your upcoming match.
- You get one chance every match to ask for a reroll of the map, ONLY if the starting terrain for your start race is terrible, and only in stage 1 (i.e. your first 3 matches). This must be done by turn 5. Your opponent has the right to ask that the Judges look at the autosave. If the autosave is found to be inconsistent with the player's claim, the player will forfeit the match. If the map is rerolled, you cannot change your race or class. Clarification: Once past the group stages, you get no rerolls. If your start position is terrible, that's an acceptable risk. If you are a Summoner class, starting with no nodes is a risk you take. At this stage your skill level and scoout abilities should be enough for you to get out of such a corner.
- The decision of the Judges is to be respected. Players breaking the rules get a total of 3 warnings before being disqualified from the tournament entirely. Judges may disqualify a player without warnings if their behaviour is deemed to be completely out of order (e.g. racism).
- If you feel one of the rules had been broken, but you carry on playing, then you have no recourse.
*What is split stacking?
The best definition I have come across is from Jomungur, and says:
“Relevant when you have multihex armies. An opponent deliberately attacks a side hex rather than the center hex of your main army to split your army out. To counter this, you need to move them slowly and in a coordinated, “frog hop” manner. Because of lag wars, this is often difficult to do.”
To a degree, the 15 second rule counters this.
From Mezmorki:
“Opportunistic” Split Stacking is attacking part of a larger multi-stack army while the other player is trying to move it in some coordinated fashion. This is more about fast reaction times and more exploitive play.
“Deliberate” Split Stacking is, for example, sieging an enemy 4-stack army from a direction such that you only engage 3 of their 4 stacks with ideally four of your own.”
Opportunistic is what we are trying to avoid.
From Kozzie:
“but while i was scouting a player i noticed that he has placed 4 of his stacks in groups of 2 – connected by a road so it would take 1 turn to combine them.
He kept that for several turns – gaining the effect of good defence on 2 fronts at the same time. But after a moment in the middle of a turn another player attacked one of his army groups with 3 or 4 stacks – the played that had divided his stacks went on a rant that this is cheating etc etc – no split stacking etc. claiming that he wanted to move the stacks in that very turn to move as one”
That is NOT split stacking. Again, if there are any allegations, nothing can be proven without video.
“what if i had a leader with forest concealment or even 2 – parked with 2 full stacks in forest – and a 3rd stack next to them acting as bait – and my enemy would move 1 stack near my stack – why should i bother to ask if he wants to move in more stacks? he just got suprise attacked and fell into a trap – why would i give him an option to run away ? that would be unfair to me as the one making this trap as it took me time and effort to lure him to my trap.”
Well played. You set a trap and your opponent got greedy. Had he suspected a trap he could have moved his stacks forward slowly, or sent a scout towards the area (which is what I would have done)
Addendum:
Player attacks a city with 3 stacks, decides to retreat, with his forces now out of moves and no longer in a triangle. His opponent attacks him in such a way as to engage 2 stacks instead of 3. This is "deliberate" split stacking as defined above, ergo a good move.