Posts from The Crusade (autumn, winter 2013-14)

10/20/2013 Group #4
BISHOP (red, tavern, solmyr, solmyr) def Browser (blue, fortress, tazar, galtran) 123, 8xm12a

The starting resources were average. I spent the first week searching for computers, running into blockades, and almost getting stuck in the max crypt – I barely managed to escape with 16 gremlins. I explored a lot and almost covered the entire center of the map. I saw a path to the ramp computer, but I didn't have anything to take it with:D, and he had a treasure in his castle. I sent Solmyr to 116 and positioned two heroes with Solmyr, speeding him up. This creature attacked Solmyr in its turn, and I had to pay him off, ruining my attack...:mad: On 117, I sneak up again. Solmyr goes to take Pandora on the Orcish respawn point. There were 70 of them, and they give 15 archmages. I pass them down the chain and kill the computer. Then I start scouting. On 122, I run into the blue army; one has wyverns, and the other has everything else. I attack, GG.
Thanks for the game!

Thanks for the game.

20.10.2013 Group #5
Pyre (red, Swamp, Tazar) def. Lexmaster (blue, Rampart, Ivor, Sandro) 127, Speed-2

I gave up on a gnoll and serpent lair, the lumber mill turned out to be too far and blocked, so I built as little as possible. I placed a wivern and serpents in the main castle, and the same in the secondary castle, but in the Citadel. I explored one neighboring zone, but it was empty, with no creatures or Hive.
In the second week, I moved to another neighboring zone, where I saw a creature dwelling from afar. While I was moving, the opponent caught me off guard, breaking my defenses and taking my main castle. But I still managed to grab the creature dwelling, which unfortunately turned out to be a minor one. I passed the troops along the chain to the secondary Swamp castle and moved Tazar there. I sat there for a couple of days, thinking about what to do. The opponent was firmly entrenched in the castle and didn't want to come out. His magic power was 8, compared to my 4. At first, I thought about staying put and building a level 2 town, but then I decided to rush his dwelling. Tazar has experience, logs, and earth, which is the main tactic. I run there, but they catch up to me. I have 54 lizardmen, 70 gnolls, 10 wiverns, 1 angel, and 23 serpents. The opponent has about 60 centaurs, 40 dwarves, 18 dryads, 48 elves, and also about 15 of my serpents.
I emerge from the Fortress with 24 lizardmen and 40 gnolls.
Then the chase began. I took his native castles in one turn. And then he came out of my main castle. I took advantage of this, passed the army along the chain, and Labeta from the secondary castle reached my main castle and I moved Tazar there.
Then there was another battle where Labeta, with 7 gnolls, destroyed the 2 remaining wiverns. After that, he surrendered.
Thanks for the game!

Group 2, ready to play, hit me up!

So, our tournament has successfully passed its midpoint. In groups 1, 4, and 6, the sole winners have already been determined, regardless of the results of the remaining matches.
Palach HP, BISHOP, and SVAROG – I sincerely congratulate you! You can already proudly display the award in your signature. :)
However, this is not a reason for the others to give up; you need to fight for 2nd and 3rd place, and fight in general. Are we Knights or what? :)

To encourage the players, an additional criterion is being introduced to the tournament: rating!
We will calculate the rating using the old, reliable formula of Professor Elo, tested by chess, checkers, Go, and several decades of practice. More details here: Elo rating.

What is the rating for?
1) This is not the last tournament I want to hold. A fair criterion is needed for a well-organized draw. I don't want a repeat of the situation where, due to ignorance, I made group 4 too strong compared to the others.
2) To compare the strength of players who have not played against each other. For example, if the participants played in different groups (tournaments).
3) To motivate the players. Even if it is not possible to advance from the group, you can still fight for your points or to improve your rating.

All participants are assigned an initial value of 2000, with the exception of players who took prize-winning places in tournaments over the past year.
Players who took prize-winning places in Novice class tournaments (JustObserver, HellLighT) are assigned a starting rating of 2050.
Players who took prize-winning places in the remaining tournaments (BA/IEHOK, darkello, Javdet, c0nn3c71nkK.ppL) are assigned a starting rating of 2100.

In the Elo system, the following scale is adopted: 200 rating points mean a difference in the class of play. A difference in class means that the stronger player will win with a probability of more than 0.75. That is, if player A has a rating of 2200, and player B has a rating of 2000, and they play a match of 10 games, then player A will score 7.5 or more points.
A difference of 400 points means an advantage of 2 classes, and the stronger player will win with a probability of 0.91. For more details, you can see all the probabilities in the table at the link in Wikipedia that I provided above.

For participants who have dropped out of the tournament, the rating is not calculated, but there is a nuance. For example, heroes13 dropped out of the tournament, but Sevan_80 managed to play against him, so this match is counted in Sevan_80's rating. The same applies to darkello (he managed to play against Alessandro). The rating is calculated taking into account all matches played in the tournament.
Participants who have not played all the matches have a lower rating than it could be!

The rating system is good, but in our group, it seems to be slightly inaccurate. Two opponents are missing (Heroes 13 and Cap), and there's no way to play against them, leaving only 3 opponents.

The rating system is good, but it seems to be slightly inaccurate for our group. Two opponents are missing (Heroes 13 and Cap), and there's no way to play against them. This leaves only 3 opponents.

The rating has been calculated correctly. Since heroes13 has officially withdrawn from the tournament, the expected result is calculated based on 5 possible matches. Except for Sevan_80 (who managed to play against heroes13), this is a standard practice adopted in chess tournaments.
The Captain is missing, but he still has 2 games left to play, and there's more than a month left until the end of the tournament. He will return and finish them. If he doesn't return, I will recalculate it; it's not difficult.

P.S. The average opponent ratings in groups 3 and 6 were calculated slightly incorrectly. I'm recalculating them now; thank you for pointing it out. :)

I think that if a player drops out, it means that their games, including those they have already played, should be either considered invalid or valid, but only on the condition that all the other players who haven't played against them also agree to this.

I think that if a player drops out, it means that their games, including those they played, should be either considered invalid or valid under the condition that all the other players who didn't play against them also give technical wins to that player.

If a player has played less than half of the games and drops out, the results of their matches are annulled and do not affect the distribution of places. The rating is not calculated for such a player, but for those who managed to play against him, the results are taken into account in the rating calculation.
If a player has played half or more of the games, they receive technical wins in the unplayed matches, which affect the distribution of places. The rating is calculated.

The most important thing to understand is: rating and the distribution of places are different things and exist separately.

I have corrected the table.

19.10.2013 theShevanesian (blue, swamp, Tazar) def Scorpiona (red, Fortress, Valeska, Vidomina) 8xm8a 114
Tanya lost somewhere. Thanks for the game!

For convenience, the table with the ranking will be located in the first post of the thread.

For convenience, the ranking table will be located in the first post of the thread.

Could you please make it without the yellow letters? It's hard to see anything!

Could you make the text not yellow? It's hard to see!

The request has been taken into account; I think this contrast is sufficient.

Did I understand correctly that this will be a permanent tournament with a permanent ranking? Like a season, but with a minimum of 5 games and a balanced roster of participants?

Did I understand correctly that this will be a permanent tournament with a permanent ranking? Like a season, but with a minimum of 5 games and a balanced roster of participants?

The tournament will be permanent as long as there is interest from the participants. It is necessary to calculate the player rating to reduce the number of issues during the draw. :)

10/16/2013 Lim4 (red, Swamp, Tazar, Tazar) lose to Lucky George (blue, Conflux, random, Aenain, Luna) Panic, 144
They had nothing to counter the high-level, powerful magic. Thanks for the game.