Nice question DL, but I think it's a bit premature.
Since in Round1 we had a 7-way draw and a game in which Countries with 1 or 2 SCs (not belonging to any stalemate line) survived, I don't think the experience of it be enough.
I didn't follow close enough those games to call who should have done what. But if that one has been the outcome, then surely someone has (unconsciously) given his own TPs to another player for free.
This is the reason why I said that the comments in your Modern were the most interesting. You and diatarn were talking about how to win the only thing you can win here: the Tournament. You clearly got that you didn't sign up for a Modern or for some gunboats. The game you have signed up for is a tournament and the only possible goal is to win it.
That's the meaning of what I said in the OP: "the points you don’t score will be scored (and kept for a while because of Carry-Over) by someone else.".
So I wouldn't talk about the settings of the Tourney until most of you the Competitors have clear what game you're playing.
About their Modern discussion, I agree with most of the things both of them said although sometimes they're opposite! They're both valid points of view and God only knows who is right. We'll discover it at the end, maybe.
But it's a profound discussion about the nature of Tournaments. It's really informative, because there's no point in the motto "Play for the win!" if you don't know what's the game you're playing!
The only thing I want to add about that discussion is that I'm under the feeling that somewhere the "Scoring System" of a single game (SSg) and the "Rating System of the Tournament" (RST) get confused.
The first is only a part of the latter, the latter is what's important for the Tournament. The first tells us how many points each player will score in a single game - which is important - but the latter will tell us who will win the Tournament - which is essential.
So... Which other things make up a RST, other than a SSg? In this Tournament, they're mainly 3 more.
- The Carry Over and how it works. It links each Round to the others. It even links each game to all the others. Also, in the 1st Round all players indistinctly begun with 0.00 TPs, while at the beginning of the next Rounds there will be (even huge) differences between players.
- The elimination rules. Each Round has a different percentage of players to be eliminated, I guess you're going to notice the difference very soon.
In the 1st Round it was 4/20 - only a 20% -, so "just qualify" wasn't an actual goal for most players. In the 2nd it'll be 5/16 (31%). In 3rd 36%. So, while playing the next Rounds, some of you at some point could be crying: "FML, why didn't I score those 3 easy TPs in the previous Round?? why I let someone else have them??" :)
- The "Structure" of the Tournament. This is a large group of facts - more or less important - which might have their impact on the gameplay too and which are related to the Map(s) of the Round. In short: 1) *How many* games are there in the Round. RST will look rather different when there will be only one game. Even SSg will; 2) *Which* Map you are playing: how many SCs are in it (and hence how many BPs are in play); what's its Victory Condition; what's its imbalance and its Benchmark; how many players are in it (and hence how many SPs and VPs are in play); etc...
There is a fifth thing making up the RST. I didn't put it in any of the previous 4 just because it is related to all of them. It's the Tournament's Victory Condition.
Each time you start a game, don't you wonder which is its VC? Well, IMHO, you should do the same if the game you're playing is a Tournament. :)
Don't misunderstand me, anybody. Soloing a game is still the best idea you can have.
But you don't have so often the chance to do that good and at some point, in some game, someone could make decisions founded on the only important thing here: to win the Tournament.
Fog-of-War players needed
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each. Random countries. Classic map. WTA. Anon. No messaging.