Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups

[Frozen Lama]

part of it is that when i played in the maptest game ShaBay2, it was with 5 players (one water nation) and it worked fine. using the same map for 2 seems like a lot. i'd vote for vfb's map.

[Aethyr]

I agree with Baalz, having a smaller map will tilt things (a bit too much)in the direction of bless/rush tactics. I vote for Sha Bay.

[Alpine Joe]

Yeah I vote shabay

[Swan]

what about silent seas? 47 lands (2 isles), 15 seas

[chrispedersen]

68 is simply too large. This could easily turn into a 70+ turn game should one nation go fort building, which would push the conclusion of the tourney into 2070.

Additionally, with easy research this strongly tilts the game.

Smaller maps will tilt it toward rush nations - but thats ok - we all know it and can take whatever precautions we feel are necessary. However it also has the salutary benefit of making shorter games.

I'd look for a map of ~40 ish territories, max. I'd vote for vfb's or silent - and I do think there should be map choice involved so as to make the water nations viable.

[Frozen Lama]

I'd be willing to practice duel with some people on a couple maps to see if sha bay is to big, or if vfb's map or silent are too small. i'm willing to be convinced that i am wrong

[Baalz]

Yeah, Silent Seas might be better than Sha Bay and also covers what I had in mind. I do think it's kinda silly to be too worried about 70+ turn games. Obviously the outliers might be absurdly long if neither player takes the imitative, but that's the case regardless of map size. I just played a duel on Sha Bay (with 2 AI players, admittedly) and we were fighting in year one and the game decided by turn 20.

The thing is, in a duel you don't have to siege all the castles while your opponent stalls - pretty much whenever you're to the point that the only thing your opponent can hope for is to cause a lot of casualties going down the game is over. I've played dozens of duels and honestly can't think of a single one that even required a capital to be taken, just for it to be shown that it was all but inevitable that it could be.

In a duel there is nobody who is going to save you. There is no diplomacy. There is no point in playing 100% defensively. There is no point in actually fighting to the last man. When you can't mount an offense and don't foresee being able to the game should be called.

[Frozen Lama]

I agree with what baalz says about duels and such, and sha bay is great for 4 people. Silent seas works for me. and with 15 water, it might work for having a sea nation too

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by Baalz

Yeah, Silent Seas might be better than Sha Bay and also covers what I had in mind. I do think it's kinda silly to be too worried about 70+ turn games. Obviously the outliers might be absurdly long if neither player takes the imitative, but that's the case regardless of map size. I just played a duel on Sha Bay (with 2 AI players, admittedly) and we were fighting in year one and the game decided by turn 20.

The thing is, in a duel you don't have to siege all the castles while your opponent stalls - pretty much whenever you're to the point that the only thing your opponent can hope for is to cause a lot of casualties going down the game is over. I've played dozens of duels and honestly can't think of a single one that even required a capital to be taken, just for it to be shown that it was all but inevitable that it could be.

In a duel there is nobody who is going to save you. There is no diplomacy. There is no point in playing 100% defensively. There is no point in actually fighting to the last man. When you can't mount an offense and don't foresee being able to the game should be called.

Baalz, my points are actually rarely silly, regardless if you agree or disagree with them.

With 64 players its the outliers you have to worry about; and which are virtualy guaranteed to happen with this many players.
Additionally, with this number of players you are virtually assured of getting matchups some of which will feature two 'slow' nations.

This is why I favor restricted nation choices: You can guarantee you wont' have to have abysia fighting LA-Ryleh.

You are going to lose a lot of players due to attrition if you have 50 players waiting around for 14 nations to finish, so keeping the game length down is is important.

[Micah]

Why would you have 64 players waiting on 14? Just start the next round up for everyone that has an opponent, there's not really any need to keep the rounds synched up.