AA Anniversary Tournament Possiblities?

Greetings AA Gamers,

I would like to take just a moment, maybe a long moment, of your time and bring everyone up to speed on the latest and greatest from the Axis & Allies Convention World.

The first item on the addenda is the Spring Gathering VII, set for April 17 & 18 in Cincinnati, Ohio. There have been several questions regarding the AA tournament format as well as which game will be played, AAR or AA50. The answer is Revised. Since AA50 just came out, it is hard to establish a good format for a tournament this early in the game. The SGVII will be a good play test run on the playability of an AA50 tournament format for the rest of the year but for now, the SGVII tourney is Revised. There will however, be an AA50 tournament at Origins and GEN CON run by myself under whatever format we come up with in the meantime.

With this being said, don’t delay in your registration for this year’s Spring Gathering VII. Registrations for events are coming in, so if you want to secure your spots in any of the events, you need to register.

On to additional AA news. Both of the schedules for AA events at Origins and GEN CON have been submitted. Please go to the SmoreySwamp for the times and schedules for each. I hope I got everything down correctly and if there any questions let me know. Now, before any of you go screaming at me, yes, there is some overlap, but in the timeframe allotted, it is the best I could do and it is almost impossible to get every AA game scheduled without some compromise for the prime time slots.

The AA50 tournament at both Origins and GEN CON will be formatted as a qualifier tourney. Basically, there are four times on Thursday and Friday one can play the game and if you/teammate win, you advance to SE round. I am still working on the official rules for this game for tourney play but I can tell you, it will be played in 6 hour time slots with 2 player teams, not three. Victory conditions have NOT yet been determined but something more concrete will come just after the SGVII.

At Origins, we will also be running, ALL AA versions of the game, (except 2nd Ed) at some point and we will also be having our AA minis and WAS games as well.

At GEN CON, the biggest change will occur. The biggest change is in the MEGA Revised Tournament format and starting time. The Mega Revised tournament has been moved from an 8am Saturday start time, to Friday night at 6pm. And the format is three rounds of Swiss play and then the top 4 teams advance to SE play on Saturday night. This does away with the one and done format that so many have complained about for however long it has been. This also gets the tourney on the exact same format of play as the Origins Mega and the Masters…

The Masters Invitational will stay the same and the AA50 tourney will be structured the same as it is at ORIGINS.

Also at GEN CON, we will be moving our location to just down the Hall from the 500 Ballroom, the location we have been in the past several years. We have secured a separate room for A&A Board gaming and A&A Minis together in one room. The location will be Rooms 116 & 117. This is on the same hallway as the 500 Ballroom that we are usually in (but closer to the food court and the exhibit hall). I think this location will work well…You can see a floor plan of the Indiana Convention center at http://www.icclos.com/Assets/userfiles/PDFs/ICCLOS_Marketing_1st_17x22_FINAL.pdf

Well, I guess that is enough damage for one day. Again, please go to the SmoreySwamp for Spring Gathering VII registration and events schedules, as well as the Origins/GENCON Events listings 09. You can also go to the SmoreySwampForum to chat with others about any or all of the information one needs to know about the upcoming AA year. If you have not registered, please do so, it is free and we love to hear from you…

http://aaswampform.forumandco.com/index.htm

If you have any questions, fire away.

Thanks for your time and consideration and hopefully we will see you soon. Oh, and don’t forget to pass the word…


Peace,

Hey Greg,

Question (of course)- Is there a limit to the number of teams that can play at Origins or GenCon for the AA50? Will the SE players be selected by how many wins they can rack up in 2 days? Not sure how this quite works from your explanation.

Also, on a side note, I started playing some PBF games (axisandallies.org)- awesome!!! This is really the most effiecient way to get a lot of play- you should try it. I'm in a 5-round tourny right now for the 41 version- no tech. FTF is still the toughest though, but PBF is great practice. TripleA just came out with their new version for the AA50 game and they are just finishing cleaning up the final bugs- pretty sweet also.

Questioneer

Questioneer,

Yes, I am going to most likely let as many as I can handle play and then just keep track of who wins and how many VC they won by and then determine the top 4 or 8 teams to play in SE play...

Hope this helps...

Peace,
Greg

Greg,

On Board Game Geek a player by the name of Michael Tan wrote a thread called Unstoppable Opening Axis Move (1942). Using Japans fighters to to shore up a German push on Russia. I have play tested this move and it is devastating to the Allies. No mater what the Allies throw against it Russia falls turn 3 or 4 at the latest. Now I know nothing is unstoppable. But this comes as close as I have seen. I think the 1942 setup needs to be looked at before using it in the tournament.

Thanks,

Harry

Greg,

Never mind on the fighter gambit. After a little more testing we found a stop.

Harry

Harry,

Thanks for the heads up. Will look at it anyway...

Peace,

Greg, I like the AA50 tourny setup. Open to tech and NOs- that's cool. I'm not 100% convinced that the 42 is better than the 41, but I am leaning that way. 41 is played a lot online over 42. Its good to give this game a year to see the kind of games played in FTF and online.

Questioneer

I think that '41 is played more just because it is a new challenge, not because it is a better scenario.

Craig

l

I'm not 100% convinced that the 42 is better than the 41, but I am leaning that way

Again, it is not that it is better, just in the fact that basically, when starting play, we have already been through the 41 fights and that saves a lot of time when it comes to figuring out when to start the game...

Peace,

Just so we are clear on the rules for Origins...

1) 1942 start

2) Most VC wins (Allies start at ten, Axis eight) (Tie to Axis??)

3) Six hour time limit ?

4) Playing with or without Tech or NO or Optional rules???


Personally, I prefer the CAP rule. Willing to play with or without NO/Tech as the majority wish...

squirecam wrote:Just so we are clear on the rules for Origins...

1) 1942 start

2) Most VC wins (Allies start at ten, Axis eight) (Tie to Axis??)

3) Six hour time limit ?

4) Playing with or without Tech or NO or Optional rules???


Personally, I prefer the CAP rule. Willing to play with or without NO/Tech as the majority wish...

Here's the link to the specifics
http://www.geocities.com/headlesshorseman2/GENCONOriginsTournamentpage.html

click on the AA50 box and read.

questioneer wrote:

squirecam wrote:Just so we are clear on the rules for Origins...

1) 1942 start

2) Most VC wins (Allies start at ten, Axis eight) (Tie to Axis??)

3) Six hour time limit ?

4) Playing with or without Tech or NO or Optional rules???


Personally, I prefer the CAP rule. Willing to play with or without NO/Tech as the majority wish...

Here's the link to the specifics
http://www.geocities.com/headlesshorseman2/GENCONOriginsTournamentpage.html

click on the AA50 box and read.

The Allies have 93 IPC to the Axis 78. That means that the Axis needs to gain 1 VC and 8 IPC in order to win.

Except that China counts as IPC for the Axis and not for the allies. (So that the Axis gains an IPC, but the allies dont lose one). So really the Axis must gain 8 non-chinese IPC. (Or 6 Chinese IPC and 5 non-Chinese IPC, or some combo thereof).

Frankly, I think such math makes things harder AND leads to complaints of the "last round moves" that Brian was discussing at the Gathering.

You have to slow down and figure out Round X how many IPC you are at, then make math adjustments for chinese areas. It would be much simpler if Axis tie = axis wins.

It is tough enough keeping track of the numbers in the Smorey Revised Scoring System while actually playing the game (under the stress of a timed tourney game) and this is another version of that.

It is better since it is first based off of just VCs, but as always someone will grumble about losing on the IPC tiebreaker.

"Just because I was behind on the IPCs, doesn't mean I didn't have the better board position! Look I was ready to go here, here, and here on the next turn."

Or vice versa, if you went by an adjudication.

"I had more IPCs than him, at the time the game stopped. Who cares whether he was going to eventually take here, here, and here!!!!"

Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Craig

squirecam wrote:

questioneer wrote:

squirecam wrote:Just so we are clear on the rules for Origins...

1) 1942 start

2) Most VC wins (Allies start at ten, Axis eight) (Tie to Axis??)

3) Six hour time limit ?

4) Playing with or without Tech or NO or Optional rules???


Personally, I prefer the CAP rule. Willing to play with or without NO/Tech as the majority wish...

Here's the link to the specifics
http://www.geocities.com/headlesshorseman2/GENCONOriginsTournamentpage.html

click on the AA50 box and read.

The Allies have 93 IPC to the Axis 78. That means that the Axis needs to gain 1 VC and 8 IPC in order to win.

Except that China counts as IPC for the Axis and not for the allies. (So that the Axis gains an IPC, but the allies dont lose one). So really the Axis must gain 8 non-chinese IPC. (Or 6 Chinese IPC and 5 non-Chinese IPC, or some combo thereof).

Frankly, I think such math makes things harder AND leads to complaints of the "last round moves" that Brian was discussing at the Gathering.

You have to slow down and figure out Round X how many IPC you are at, then make math adjustments for chinese areas. It would be much simpler if Axis tie = axis wins.

Yeah, kinda tough here. There will be complaints either way. There will be several games that don't end at the 13VC mark. IPCs is the only way to do it. Its the only thing that's measurable. With 6 hours to play you just have to plan ahead for the possible land grab in the end.

I agree with the Axis tie (in VCs) = Axis win here as well as the China rules mentioned above for IPCs

I also think the choice of 42 OR 41 should be left open to the players since other optional rules, NOs and Tech are left up to the players as well. No sensible reason to leave out the 41 also.


Questioneer

P.S. I will be coming down to Origins with Eric Christoff. Still trying to convince Ben to come to GenCon and play.