2018 Summer FTF DC

Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2018 11:11 am

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition! Twisted Evil

Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2018 2:03 pm

ThePope wrote:

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition! Twisted Evil

But come on down!

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 1:19 am

Time is drawing nigh.
Can TMM and TUM, and now HW, continue dominance?
Will Sandy be at her finest?
Will anyone be older than The Consortium?
Will another newbie slip through with a TC?
Will DC be worth the visit/tour?
Will Green Eyes wear shoes?
Ahhhhh. It's tournament time in the Capitol.

See you FRIDAY the 13th of July.

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2018 10:56 pm

I hope everyone has a great time. Very Happy

Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2018 8:50 am

Good luck to all, think I'm going to skip this one altogether.

Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2018 9:11 am

If someone wouldn't mind sharing or posting pictures of the F-2-F, I'm sure there are others besides myself who couldn't attend who would like to see them.

Good luck on the sands!

Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2018 6:33 pm

Good luck to all. Wish I could be there!

Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 1:56 am

Good luck to all, wish I could be there.

Hey Vladimer/Steve I finally heard from Ken/Purple Sage mother today. Ken is currently out of the country doing his Army thing. I am sure he would be there this weekend if he was home.

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2956

Finals manager and style list:

Primus: TMM (AB) beat TMM (AB)

Contenders: TMM (AB) beat The Pope (LU)

Eligibles: TMM (AB) beat Khisanth (AB)

ADM: Floyd (AB) beat TMM (ST)

Freshmen: OAB (AB) beat Mannequin (BA)

Challengers: TMM (LU) beat HW (ST)

Champions: HW (AB) beat TUM (LU)

Adepts: Khisanth (AB) beat TMM (LU)

Inits: DMob (LU) beat Khisanth (ST)

Apprentices: Dr. F (PR) beat OAB (ST)

Rookies: TUM (LU) beat Dr. F (WS)

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2956

I hadn't attended a FtF in a while, so I ran everything that I had that was worth running. I ended up with 80 warriors (plus both Bloodgames), broken down as follows:

5 Primus, 2 Contenders, 3 Eligibles, 8 ADM, 1 Freshmen, 1 Challenger, 1 Champion, 9 Adepts, 4 Initiates, 20 Apprentices, and 26 Rookies

20 AB, 4 BA, 19 LU, 4 PL, 3 PR, 2 PS, 9 SL, 15 ST, 2 TP, and 2 WS

On the one hand, I was happy with the quality of some of my entrants. I was also happy that I wasn't rushing any bust-outs because I liked the prize and would be in attendance.

On the other hand, this meant that I had 0 bust-outs in Eligibles and ADM because none of my potential busts were ready. In those classes, I ran some warriors who were close to the line and working on minimum % trains with no expectations of success.

Luckily, I did have a bust-out in Freshmen and he had a big bust available to him. I tried to bust two others in the class, but they both missed their first trains post-freeze so they went back on the shelf for another day.

Primus

Primus is normally a complete disaster for my win/loss ratio, but things are starting to look up. I cut some of the chaff that has very little hope of winning stylemaster awards, and my remaining warriors are getting more developed and successful.

Goldenbeard, my LU, finally got a max bonus potion applied correctly from three years ago and started hitting the ABs. He managed to beat a perfect AB, Credit Line, in the first round with a well timed knockdown, and hit his other two perfect AB opponents 4-5 times. He suffered a quick exit at 2-2 due to a revenge killing by Drat, but I'll take that result. The ability to hit the ABs was very promising.

My completely maxed AB, Ham Burglar, went 6-3, beating a few good opponents along the way. Meanwhile, my AB Snake Oil Salesman who is still missing a handful of SP trains put up a 4-3 performance. My PS and PL did predictably poorly, but not a bad performance overall.

Contenders

Shewish Whaler, my SZ 19 LU, dropped back down into the class after TVing a year ago and he had some notable wins along his way to a 9-3 TV. In his final round, he lost to Terror, a LU managed by the Pope who was skill busting over the Contenders line. Terror then went on to runner-up to TMM's AB Vista Blows in the finals. It was a very nice performance for the Pope.

Success continues to elude my two-time TC AB, Cannibal Cook. He managed a 5-3. He frequently ends up with winning records, but has yet to TV the class. I think his lack of bonuses has finally caught up with him.

Freshmen

I had a lone entrant in Freshmen, Gamma Cephei, a warrior who began life as a 7-13-13-8-20-3-20 AB. He entered the freeze at 13(6)-18(5)-13-8-20-3-20 with 140 total skills. He is not Fist favorite, is not Defense learn, has a crummy VL/VL rhythm, but does have a nice weapon favorite (LO) and some decent bonuses. Because of his low skill base, he was able to learn 16 Defense skills before reaching the Freshmen line.

Gamma Cephei entered the tourney with 101 arena fights and 101 FE. He had never participated in a tourney prior to this one, but he looked good in the past year in the Home Guard arena. He fought well with the LO and his damage was on the weak side (Good), so I planned on using the LO throughout the tourney. Since his favorite rhythm was the worst possible, I was free to choose whatever I wanted. He fought so well in the arena on 7-10 that that is what I used for most minutes, with minor tweaks in later minutes and desperation.

Gamma Cephei's relatively low Defense was his weak point, so I concentrated my early training on picking up Defense skills. I had him train WL to 21, DF to 21, and DF to 22 in the three turns leading up to the tourney, putting him at 155 total skills on round 1. During the tourney, he trained DF to 23, WT to 9, WL to 22 and 23, WT to 10 and 11, and then went for non-easy trains, getting DF and WL to 24 each. That's a lot of skills. When the tourney was finally over, Gamma Cephei had 193 skills and was closing in on the top of Eligibles. He was basically a trip-21 bust-out masquerading as a warrior that a first time player designed!

Throughout the tourney, I only made minor tweaks to his strategy: randomizing attack and protect locations, switching from ASM/S to ARM/F vs Bashers, and lowering the helm to add back-ups vs parry types. He finished up at 15-1, beating Sandbox Fury, Mannequin's impressive BA bust-out, twice in the final two rounds.

Challengers

As awesome as a Freshmen TC was, Challengers was on the opposite end of he spectrum. I had one entrant in this class, a warrior named Orc Tenderloin. He was a 15(3)-12(3)-8-21-21(4)-10-9(2) SL with great damage and 169 total skills. He has a 10-3 Rookies TV, a 13-3 Initiates RU, a 10-3-1 Dead Champs TV, and an 11-3 Challengers TV on his resume already. At 85 FE, I figured this could be his last shot at Challengers so I decided to make the most of it.

I ran him in the arena on the turn before the tourney, where he picked up a DF train to 10 and triggered his graduation notice. I discovered that he had very usable favorites (SH, VH/MO) and adjusted his strategy with them in mind. He suffered an annoying early loss, but by round five he was 4-1 and had gotten his DF train to 11. I was feeling pretty good about his chances.

And then like that, he was out. He lost the next two fights, one to a FI AB named Plumbing Airstrip and another to a ST named Pam'ehla Anderson. 176 skills wasn't enough, I guess.

Adepts

By now, my lack of basic prowess is well known. Adepts is where I start to get a little game, however.

I ended up with two TVs in the class, both STs.

Beta Lyrae managed an 8-3 TV, to add to his 8-3 Initiates TV and 8-3 Apprentices TV. At least he is consistent.

Zeta Fornacis went significantly deeper with an 11-3, but fell short of his high water mark of 12-3 in Initiates. Still, that's not too shabby for a Parry favorite learn ST.

Apprentices

Its not often that I do well in this class, so I was excited to have a warrior make it to the finals. Tau Ceti is a ST who I created from a traditional AB set-up. He looked great up until he hit every STs worst nightmare: a good PR. Dr. F whooped him in the finals with his PR, Pheast.

Congrats to Dr. F on a very impressive tourney. In addition to his Apprentices TC, he managed a Rookies RU and two Bloodgames grads. Awesome job.

Bloodgames

I tinkered with my Bloodgames designs this time around, paying attention to the old-school luckfactor stats for each style and making sure I didn't have a 3 in them.

What this mean is that I designed my LU, PL, TP, and PS with 5 SP and I gave my BA a 9 SZ. The experiment was a success, I think, but more research is needed.

I've never had success with TPs in the Bloodgames because I just can't get them to swing and kill enough. This time, my two 17-16-3-11-21-5-11 TPs were my best performers. In the MI Bloodgames, Procyon came in 3rd place with a 7-3-4 record. So now I get to set up a shiny new TP for Freshmen.

And The Rest

You may have noticed that I omitted some classes. In some, like Eligibles and ADM, I was just running guys going for min % trains, so there was nothing to report. In others, like Rookies, I had high hopes, but there was STILL nothing to report. I went 0 for 26 in Rookies in terms of winning awards.

When the sand settled, my 80 entries had produced 5 awards and had managed a record of 272-235-7-5. Not the award or win percentage that I would necessarily shoot for, but I couldn't be happier with the results. 1 TC, 1 RU, and 1 Bloodgames graduate is all any manager could hope for.

I had a good time at the FtF, sitting at a table with The Pope and Talon Volksie. It was nice meeting The Pope and it was nice to see Talon again. I also got to meet a returning manager who was my ally in my first Hyborian War game nearly 25 years ago, who doesn't even have a manager name! What great games that keep people coming back after so many years...

I proxied some warriors for Assur and he managed 3 TVs, which is a much better awards percentage than I got! Unfortunately, his ADM bust-out proved to be a disappointment. Hopefully he has better luck in October and January.

Thanks to Vlad for picking such a nice location for the FtF. It was great to have easy access to public transportation and decent restaurants in walking distance.

Congrats to all the other winners, as well. I'm already looking forward to October and I may make an extra effort to try and get to Tempe for the KoP finals.

Advanced Expert Poster Joined: Jul 15, 2014 Posts: 192

Welcome to the Deutschland Edition of Monday Morning Tourney Quarterback (MMTQB)! In between four cities and two countries, I spent some time reviewing the Ballston TEABAG Team’s performance and, for what seemed to be a very tough tourney, I am pleased by the results. While there will certainly be lamentation and wailing from a few of my crew, by a number of objective measures it was successful. I didn’t set forth any pre-tourney goals. In my world, that’s called “managing expectations.” Let’s go to the tape!

Awards of the week

Remember how I once suggested this would be the FTF where I only sent 20 – 30 warriors so I could concentrate on every fight, every opponent? The thought being that, as proximate as the FTF was, if things went severely south, I could always drive home and spend Sunday with the family. There were, understandably, screams from the Chatzy group as everyone feared all those easy wins going away. Sooooo…. I sent a total of 87 warriors. Now, in fairness, 4 of them were TWXI teammates to one of my tourney warriors. And 13 others in basic were just being run for FE towards future tournaments. Along those lines, 6 more were new Freshman and recent grads beginning their ADM development. And, of course, I had to run that immortal adept, right? Anywho….

I patted the butts of 87 warriors, ranging from grizzled veterans to bald-faced baby rooks, and 73 of them came back with Washington Monument tee shirts, US Capitol challenge coins and sheepish grins. Nine of them didn’t come back at all and, as I understand it, are being pursued by ICE. Five, however, came back with autographed Furious Bear™ branded magnets for achieving Tournament Victor status. There were no Tournament Champions this go round and, thus, no coveted Make Alastari Great Again™ red caps; however, one warrior came in third and got to admire DMobster's warrior Argon Elite’s hat from up close.

With just 5 TVs, I missed the Cool Manager litmus test of 10% awards by a wide margin even if I subtract out the posers I included in the crew. They say it is better to have loved and lost then to never have loved at all. All I know is that since I’ve lost Cool Manager status I can’t get into the Jasper Gulch restaurants I used to be able to frequent.

The five TV’s consisted of 2 strikers, a lunger, a parry-riposte and a wall of steel, this latter style being an inaugural TV for me. It looks like the beatings applied to the last 7-3 Waste prior to sending them to the Dark Arena had their intended affect. Speaking of discipline, once again, two warriors came back with seven wins, three losses and fear in their eyes. Suffice it to say, there will be blood tonight!

Stats of the week

Overall, we managed 277-249-13-9, or 52.66%. If only by baby steps (in this case 57 basis points), we continue to widen the margin above .500, which is typically one of my go-to goals. That said, the nine deaths included a 17/21 SL who was near graduation, 17/21 and 21/15 LUs, one of which was the basis of my TWXI team, and a BA who was 6-1 when he died and soooo close to bringing me an inaugural TV for that class as well.

Best class(es): Inits at 61% followed by rooks at 56%. Yes, you read that right. Rooks.

Worst class(es): Freshman, which came in at 18% but I was expecting nothing there. All other classes came in between 48% and 50%.

Best style(s): TP’s and Wastes at 63%, followed closely by PS’s at 60%. Yes, you read that right.

Worst style(s): PL’s at 25%. Virtually all of these were off-class and came back home proudly displaying their “Free drinks at the next tourney” gift cards which all the other managers pitched in for.

Quotes of the week

“So far, so good, as the guy who’d fallen off the cliff said halfway down” – Steven Brust, Hawk.

I came out of Day One feeling good. After six rounds, I was 238-195-11-7 and hadn’t had a round under .500. And for once, I had crushed rookies out of the gate, going 22-10-1-2 in Round One and still had a good number of nice newbies in play. Day Two hit me like a freight train or, perhaps, the hard water at the bottom of the cliff. Of the deaths mentioned above, two of those were on round 8. My overall record from rounds 7 on was a sad 38-54-2-2.

“It’s like a Dippity Do.” – Floyd, “Yeah, but your Dippity didn’t Do!” – Howlin Wolf

Once again, some of my “best” warriors failed to enlighten. That include my first TV striker who I patiently prepped for champs just to go 1-3 and now will be patiently prepped for Freshmen, faves depending of course. Half of my Adepts didn’t make it to Day Two and likewise for 2/3 of my Champs.

“You don’t realize you’re my bitch.” – Lord Sandy

I don’t envy Lord Sandy in the least. The typical tourney has, what, over two thousand warriors that have to be entered successfully in order to proceed? A decent number of which are probably entered at the tournament, amidst handing out team sheets, rolling teams, distributing held turns, etc. etc. So, with that homage properly placed, I had a couple funny things happen. First, I finally clued in somewhere around round 7 that one of my STs, who was doing quite well, mind you, was wearing plate armor. And had been the entire tourney. Yep, I’d had a Mutant Ninja Striker Turtle. Needless to say, I immediately kept the plate. Why mess with a good thing, right? Secondly was a ST that I noticed, well into the day, had, let’s say, an inordinate number of backup weapons and had since round one. Note to self, like the rest of us, Lord Sandy isn’t perfect and I’ll need to be more diligent on round one to look for entry issues.

“Do you call them ‘bagged’? – Consortium, gesturing to the wall of teabags. Honorable mention: “We’re going to need a bigger boat.” – Jerman

If you aren’t going to excel and bring home the championship, it’s damn satisfying to plaster a wall with someone else’s hopefuls. TEABAG laid down 22 warriors this tourney and it was fine. It was also lucky, because, at 22, we were out of teabags. It was a bit like being fresh out of bubblegum. Of course, it is particularly pleasing to send someone who achieved a TV or two to meet their makers. Runoff Bonus!

“We need a groin attack location. Hatchet to the groin!” – JE

One of the things that has upped my game – at least I think it was a causal factor – was protecting the arms in many of my standard strats. It seems almost universal that people attack the arms in tournaments. Maybe because I am not protecting the groin and environs, or for some other reason, but I see some very successful people who, when looking at the majority of their hits, are attacking the body. And that’s pretty cool.

“What complimentary toothbrush?!” – Dr. F.

I think the concept here is that you can plan to bring something to the game, or you can hope to get handed something you didn’t bring, sort of like a complimentary toothbrush. Former Eagles guitarist Don Felder once said that he’d been “promised” a couple songs to sing on Hotel California and, ultimately, didn’t get them. This was in particular relation to “Victim of Love”, a song that Felder originated to some degree and brought to the band. However, Don Henley and Glen Frey told a different story:

From Don: “We did let Mr. Felder sing [Victim of Love]. He sang it dozens of times over the span of a week, over and over and over again. It simply didn't come up to band standards.”

From Glen: “Perfection is not an accident. Don and I felt like there was no space now for filler.”

Perfection is not an accident. It simply didn’t come up to band standards. No space now for filler. Increasingly, that is how I have come to approach my tourney crew. They’re either worth the investment or not. Many in the past that I would have thrown in are a lot like Don Felder singing Victim of Love: Filler that wasn’t up to band standards. And I’m trying hard to raise those standards.

Factoids that may only interest me

I. My average wins per TV landed at a solid 10, although this dropped slightly from last tournament.

II. While my Winless Warrior % remained relatively steady at 16%, these shifted from warriors I thought going in would do well in previous tourneys to ones I fully expected to underperform, including my Freshman class and off-class warriors running for FE, in this tourney. Only three rooks failed to achieve a win and two of those died on their first fight. The final, a 9-9-15-21-15-4-11 ST, is a bit of a mystery.

III. Despite having 13 in total, none of my warriors managed more than one kill. In fairness, none of my warriors managed more than one death, either. It reminded me of a lament from someone doing the BloodGames, I think Dr. F. or Otto X, who said his kills were “equally distributed in a way that’s not helpful.”

Mr. United Global Services Member Travel Note

Knowing when to bail on a warrior you’d hoped would be successful warrior in a tourney is a lot like knowing when to throw in the towel during airline travel. In DM, this is usually around the third failure, or Inits, where there is a significant additional investment to try Adepts with a proven Loser. On a recent trip to Boston, the flight back, which happened to be the last flight of the night, was delayed, then delayed again, then delayed again. I’d seen that movie before and that’s when I knew it was time to get a hotel for the night. Sure enough the flight was delayed 3 more times, until early in the morning, before they finally cancelled it. And, much like me with some of my warriors, I bet there will still some schmoes sitting there hoping it would go this time.

Brief truths

A. Seeing Jerman go deep into a few classes was a wonderful thing. This included coming in tied for third in rooks.

B. Causing Sandy to re-run a later rooks round because I was still filling out a couple strategies when she initially ran it, where that initial turn resulted in a loss for each of the two rooks finalists and a win for a certain table- and alliance-mate’s third place warrior, to the opposite when the turn was rerun, makes for an awkward silence at the alliance table.

Ten things I think I think

1. I think we need a post-final-round-reading interview process where a reporter says, “What was your strategy out there today, Floyd? Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.”

2. I think I need to remember to wear APL / L vs ABs and maybe BAs.

3. I think (SS / DA) > (SC / HA) in terms of the ST decise battles. I think I am not certain about DA vs SS. I also think I’d like to experiment with the LS to see if OAB’s “weapon reach” theory has merit.

4. I think I missed a fun conversation in the wee hours of Saturday morning involving the history of the game.

5. I think I had a fun conversation in the wee hours of Saturday morning involving encumbrance, Jerman, TUM and DMobster.

6. I think the deaths of warriors with certain names tickled me, including “Optimistic”, “Wave Bye Bye”, and “You’re Terminated!”. And some of those weren’t even mine.

7. I think the creepiest warrior name I have ever encountered is “Obligatory” of the team Bash Bros Sex. What does that even mean? Who has obligatory sex? Uhm, ew.

8. I think the tourney prep thought of “I’ll just give this guy a shot” is tantamount to begging other managers to make your proposed warrior their warriors’ bitch. Or the equivalent of watching instant replay and thinking “this time they’ll make it!” Like Ron White once said, “next time you have a thought, let it go.”

9. I think “will stand behind a LARGE SHIELD” should actually say “will hide behind”.

10. I think these are the other things I think this week:

a. I think the idea that a 5-3-15-21-6-13-21 AB would stand a better chance in a tourney rather than Jasper Gulch due to the halved chance of dying doesn’t help when the original chance of dying is 200%. Dead, round one.

b. Winenerdness: I mentioned after the last Tempe FTF that finding an obscure, good bottle of wine you already knew at a restaurant was like bumping into an old friend. So, on that note, Jerman and I hit up Ruth’s Chris Friday night in what was generally a forgettable eating experience. However, as part of that, we ordered some wine that we knew and they were out. Then we ordered some wine that we didn’t know and they were out of that too. Then, as a last resort, we ordered another bottle we didn’t recognize and they actually had it. Turns out it was not only quite good but also the same wine we’d had at the New Orleans Chophouse at the FTF three years ago: Franciscan Magnificat. Funny how that works.

c. I still think riposte learns are generally for losers in the same way that responding to “IRS has filed a lawsuit against you” calls and those emails asking you to click a link to enter and verify your credit card information are. I didn’t notice an inordinate amount of riposte learns this tourney.

d. I think it is a good thing to slow down your Ripper against a TP, right up to the point where, in later rounds, he doesn’t swing at all and eventually falls over.

e. I still think that the Responsiveness tactic warrants additional consideration, both as a lead off and in desperation. I had some chances to experiment with it in Arlington and the results were thought-provoking.

f. I think an over-encumbered warrior is like Newton’s 1st Law of Motion: A body at rest will remain at rest, until they fall over from exhaustion without swinging.

g. Coffeenerdness: It was fortunate to have a Starbucks across the street from the FTF. I look back at the time when I used to wait in line for coffee with no small measure of embarrassment. The SBUX app is ridiculously easy and efficient. One touch and you walk across the street to pick up your order, which is ready and waiting. It’s almost as easy and efficient as HW makes winning TC’s look.

h. I think Ruth’s Chris has gone downhill.

i. I think recording your tourney by starting with the warriors that went to the deeper rounds first and working your way back to those that ended in the earliest rounds can drive you to drink.

j. I think, like the five stages of grief, there are five stages to attending a FTF but I haven’t worked them out yet.

k. I think I need to look critically at each armor combo and respective weights for weapon selection, particularly for odd combinations like APL + F.

l. I think I need a process to track warriors for whom I have submitted a strategy sheet change in the middle of a FTF. On a related note, I think the next time my ST who goes deep comes to a critical ST v. ST decise batte with a GA, Imma have a heart attack.

m. Obit of the Week: A 17-11-8-21-9-7-11 BA Obit-it at 6-1.

Who I like in October

From my deaths this tourney, I think my best shot for a TV in October would be the 11-13-4-21-9-15-11 ST, P/N with EX DEC that died in round one of Apps.

Adieu Haiku

Inordinately
Tough tourney, so many deaths
Thank you, October!

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 11:19 am

The Vladness is our favorite read, and this one did not disappoint.

Superb!

(Of course we are only saying this, because we had a featured spot in the document.)