~~~ East versus West – Season One ~~~
“Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack.” --- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Welcome to a reimagining of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (LEOG). With the culmination of the Digital League and the tremendous efforts made by Pete and his assistants I have decided to raise the banner of the precursor to all once again. Back in the original FOG days when combat resolved around a simple six-sided die I started the league as an opportunity to bring players together in friendly competition and as a way of promoting better play and sustenance for a game I truly enjoyed. The original format involved playing historical scenarios selected specifically to challenge players using a variety of lists. This continued for a couple of seasons and saw the player base grow and the desire for something more formal and ranked to appear. With this in mind the first official season incorporating player selected army lists was added and then over time separated into divisions of ranked players within historical periods until finally seeing the advent of a themed section and a purely open section. When I stepped away at the end of the sixth season the League continued for a final seventh season before morphing into the original Digital League and finally being overhauled for the launch of FOG2. Since then Pete has nurtured the Digital League through 12 seasons and has decided to end on a high note. Already Eric has started rallying support for a new FOG2 League centered around a communal effort which will likely model the tried and tested format all are use to. With this all in mind LEOG will use a hybrid of league play and what I setup for the Caracole tournaments for Pike & Shot. Initially I'm looking to run just two periods, Early Classical Antiquity and Late Middle Ages, with the goal of ironing out any teething issues. I hope enough interest will be shown to bring this all to fruition and as such I look forward to gaming with as many of you as possible.
Cheers,
Steve (aka pantherboy)
1. Overview
Each period for LOEG will be played over three rounds with 32 players. Each period will be divided into two conferences, East and West, consisting of 16 players apiece. Players will be required to select either an eastern or western army as defined by geography and join other players with alike lists. In the first round players will then be allocated to pods of 4 players wherein they will play the other pod members with their selected list. Once scoring is completed the top player from each pod will enter a second round pod of first placed players while the second placed player will join other second placed players and so on with third and fourth. Scoring for the second round will be independent of the first round and final standings will determine overall ladder position from 1 to 16. The third round will see east and west clash with like ranked players competing to create a final ranking of 1 to 32 and whether their conference wins overall. This will require each player to finish 7 matches with everyone's final match of being of equal importance towards the ultimate conference win. Players then will receive an ELO rating based on their performance for future first round pod allocations and a tally of matches won/lost plus whether they were in a winning conference to keep track of their performance.
2. East and West Conferences: Joining & Selecting an Army
Early Classical Antiquity (500BC to 0AD) and Late Middle Ages (1200 to 1500AD) will both be divided into an East and West conference with eastern armies covering African, Middle Eastern and Asian lists while western armies will be drawn from European lists. To participate in Early Classical Antiquity players will need to have both the base game and the Immortal Fire DLC while Late Middle Ages will require the base game of FOG2 Medieval, the Reconquista DLC and Swords and Scimitars DLC.
For each league a player is required to select a specific army list and whether they have selected allies (e.g. Armenian 331 BC-252 AD w/no allies) and post it to the appropriate thread for their League (e.g. LOEG Recruitment – Early Classical Antiquity). The actual recruitment thread will have an exhaustive list of available armies that you will be able to reference against. For this initial season everyone will be allowed their first pick.
Recruitment will be limited to the first 32 players interested for each period. A reserve list will be started if interest goes beyond 32 and if we reach 64 then I will take into consideration the formation of two divisions within each league. Also please restrict entry to just one period initially to allow as many players as possible to participate. After a certain cut off date for initial recruitment I will allow entry into the other period for players interested in playing in both.
3. Round One
Players will be allocated to four different pods (A to D) each with four slots within their conference. The four highest ranked players, based on their performance in the Digital League, will take the first slot in different pods with the fifth to eighth taking the second slot and so on. This will ensure a more varied range of opponents allowing players to earn experience fighting veteran players.
Round one will involve fighting three matches once versus each opponent in their pod. The round will officially last for 3 weeks with any incomplete matches being judged based on my discretion. Your final ranking in the pod will be used for seeding in the second round.
4. Round Two
In round two players will progress into a new four-player pod based on their ranking in the first round. The round one highest scorer of each pod will enter Pod “A”, the second highest scorer Pod “B” and so forth. Players will then fight three further matches with the rounds scoring being independent of the first. As before the round will last three weeks.
At the conclusion of round two final standings will be tallied and players will be ranked from 1 to 16 based upon their score in the second round with Pod "A" players taking positions 1 to 4, Pod "B" positions 5 to 8 and so on.
5. Round Three
The third and final round will involve just a single match pitting like ranked players from each conference with the winner being ranked one above the loser (e.g. Rank 1 players will take final positions 1 & 2, rank 2 players positions 3 & 4, and so on). The final round will also serve to calculate the winning conference by summing all the match scores which will mean every players contribution will hold equal importance whether playing at the top of the ladder or the bottom. I'm hoping in this way everyone will remain engaged in the tournament to the end. This final round will have two weeks allotted.
6. Battle Parameters & Setting Up Games
There will be a thread for posting challenges in addition to the requirement to send a private mail to your opponent. Players will be free to set up the challenges in any order as they wish. The only requirement will be that everyone needs to have each match set up by the end of the first week. You are not required to be playing them but they do need to be created. From my experience once matches have been set up players are more likely to get them completed in time even if it is doing a turn every few days.
Matches are to be set up using the following parameters:
Pick Side A Army: <Your List>
Own Allies: <Your Allies>
Pick Side B Army: <Opponents List>
Own Allies: <Opponents Allies>
Scenario Type: Open Battle
Force Size: Medium
Map Size: Medium
Map Type: Pot Luck
Force Selection: Player
Note – Advance settings must be left on default!
Note – Include a password
Note – It can be helpful to include a comment like “Challenge for Player A”
7. Map Re-rolls
Players are permitted an unlimited number of map re-rolls to find a map suitable for a match. After setting up a game if you are unsatisfied with the map ask your opponent if they would mind re-rolling the map. If they agree then feel free to setup the next match using any terrain type that you and your opponent agree too otherwise default to random e.g. you both want an open battlefield so opt to use middle east agricultural. If one player opts to keep the map that has been generated than the onus is on them to move forward and engage in battle. If they are unwilling than they must accept a re-roll. My goal is to give players flexibility in setting up their matches and to minimize no contest results. One last point players are permitted to restart their match after any number of turns (mainly due to a stalemated position evolving) though this requires the consensus of both players and no player should feel forced to oblige and it will not be considered a poor reflection upon them. This last point is simply to afford an avenue for both players if neither feel satisfied with a no contest result.
8. Scoring
Scoring will be based upon the break level and by how close the battle was. The narrower the margin between players will result in scores rather close while an early decisive win will be wider.
Win: 60 + (enemy break% - winner break %)
Draw or Loss: (enemy break %)
Example:
pantherboy (Romans) (61%) vs CheAhn (Carthage) (48%)
pantherboy (48%) = 48pts
CheAhn 60 + (61% - 48%) = 73pts
9. Reporting Games
Reporting results will be incumbent on the player who won the battle. They will be required to log into the Slitherine Forum and post the result publicly on the appropriate thread (e.g. Late Antiquity Eastern Conference Results). Results posted should be reported in the following format;
Pod (A/B/C etc.)
Player ID (army) (Army Break %) score vs Player ID (army) (Army Break %) score
Example:
Pod A
pantherboy (Romans) (61%) 48pts vs CheAhn (Carthage) (48%) 73pts
10. Absent Players & Neglected Turns
For ease of management if you wish to quit LEOG or won't have time to finish your matches then please notify me. An explanation isn't required. The purpose is to allow me to delete you from the tournament and allow a reserve player to take your spot. Results from completed rounds will stand so in the advent a player takes over in the second round they will be required to play in the Pod that the leaving player qualified for. Since the first two rounds only require 3 matches to complete I'm hoping that finding a replacement will not prove too difficult.
11. ELO Ratings & Player Performance
Players will initially begin with a rating of 1000. At the end of each season player ELO ratings will be calculated via tournament play so that everyone's pre-tournament rating will be used for each of their seven matches. This will result in a new post-tournament rating to be used for future first round pod placements. In addition player performance will be tracked over a range of categories as of yet to be decided.
12. Timeline
Recruitment will commence on December 20 with entry to both periods from January 1.
Round One will commence on January 8 and finish on January 28.
Round Two will commence on January 29 and finish on February 18.
Round Three will commence on February 19 and finish on March 5.
Games must be completed within the stated ranges though extensions may be granted on a case by case basis if they do not significantly interfere with the tournament.
13. Comments & Suggestions
Below this post feel free to add any comments or suggestions. If you have any queries regarding any of my decisions then feel free to ask and then I'll attempt to shed some light on the old cognitive processes.
And I believe this is possible to a larger extent in the tournaments and leagues arranged by the community in this forum than in the official Slitherine tournaments.