Stone Age Tournament Format

Stone Age 2021 BPA PBeM Tournament Format

GM: Chris Wildes (chriswildes@gmail.com)

Assistant GMs: Eugene Yee & Steve LeWinter

Boardgame Players Association:

All players must have at least a PBEM-level membership at the time of tournament start.   The cost of this is $10 and you can apply for membership on their website: http://www.boardgamers.org/

Approximate Schedule:

  • Registration will be open via email (chriswildes@gmail.com) until December 1, 2021 at 11:59pm EDT
  • Games will start one week later (December 8) pending BPA membership confirmation.
  • Round limits will be flexible, although players will be penalized for slow play.  I am hoping rounds will go no longer than 10-12 weeks.
  • The first round will consist of 4 simultaneous games for all players, approximately December 2021 to February 2022.
  • The second round will consist of 4 simultaneous games for all qualified players, approximately February 2022 to April 2022.
  • The third round will consist of 4 simultaneous games for all qualified players, approximately April 2022 to June 2022.
  • These schedule estimates are conservative, I expect the rounds will be completed more quickly in practice.

NOTE:  A minimum of 24 players are required for this to be run as a BPA sponsored tournament.

Website:

We will be using Board Game Arena for game play: https://boardgamearena.com/

Players must register on Board Game Arena and let the GM know of their usernames. The site is free of charge although there is a paid premium option that will not be required for this event. I recommend that you at least try starting a pickup game to get a feel for the mechanics of how the game interface works.

We will be using the standard setup with no optional variants.

The site allows some actions to be undone after clicking (placing workers on resource locations), but some actions will advance the game directly after clicking (taking items from a card or placing on a hut/card/village location). I recommend playing a one or more games before the tournament starts to get familiar with the interface. If there is a difference between how something works in the online implementation, and how it is typically implemented in person, we must abide by the online implementation.

The unfortunate nature of online board games is that sometimes mistakes are made that would not be made in person, but cannot be taken back. There is no way of resetting or rolling back a move once it has been committed. That said, if you encounter an actual bug in the software, please let me know.

Players should try to check the site at least once daily, when not on vacation.

Reporting Games:

We will use a Google Sheet for reporting game results.

Rounds:

First round will be 4 simultaneous games for all players.    Players will score points for each game according to the following formula:

  • 1st place finish: 1000 points plus (your score/second place score)
  • 2nd place finish: 100 points plus (your score/winning score)
  • 3rd place finish: 10 points plus (your score/winning score)
  • 4th place finish: 1 point plus (your score/winning score)

I will avoid pairing family members together as much as possible.

Ties within games will be broken by the following:

  1. Highest total of food production, tools and people
  2. Most left over food
  3. Reverse of the turn order on the last round played.

Players will be ranked accordingly and the field will be cut after each round.

If there are 32 or fewer total players, the semifinal will cut to the top 50% of the first round field (rounded down). If there 32-48 players, the semifinal will cut to the top 16 players from the first round. If there are more than 48 players, the semifinal will cut to the top 1/3 of the first round field (rounded up). For 2021, there are 49 participants so the semifinal will cut to the top 17 players from the first round.

The final round will cut to the top 7 players from the semifinal.

Both the semifinal and final rounds will consist of 4 simultaneous games. In the semifinal, a player will play each other player at most once. Assuming 7 players for the final round, a player will play each other player exactly twice. 

After the final round players will be ranked to award laurels to the top six finishers.

Round Length:

The average game of Stone Age on Board Game Arena consists of roughly 190-210 turns.  Assuming 2-3 actions a day, the round length should be about 10 to 12 weeks.

If players will be on vacation without internet access, they must let the GM know and post a message within all their current games.  If you plan to take more than one week of vacation, please clear that with the GM before starting.

If a player is NOT on vacation and fails to take a move within 72 hours, please alert the GM.   If a player has more than two complaints for the game, that player may be penalized points (tournament points) after consultation with the Assistant GMs.

Drop Outs:

Players are expected to complete all games they are invited to.

If a player drops out DURING a game (or doesn’t take a move for at least 1 week with no vacation or other notice), the GM and assistant GMs will consult and decide whether to adjudicate the game or restart the game without the player. This player may also be barred from playing in events run by me in the future.

Any player may drop from the event between rounds. If an advancing player drops before the start of the next round, their spot will fall to the next player in the standings.