Carcassonne Central
Carc Central Community => Online Games and Competitions => Leagues (including expansion leagues) => Topic started by: MrNumbers on February 20, 2017, 11:14:06 AM
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Bazaars:
- khalidqasrawi
- jungleboy
- TheSteveAllen
- Hounk
- Piet_Agoras
If you are new to the competitions, please, carefully read the following tournament notes/guidance/rules before continuing.
If you already participated in some Carcassonne Central competitions before, the following rules are pretty much the same as always, except some changes in point 4.
1. Players have already been divided into three different groups (Bridges, Castles, Bazaars). Each player will play one game of Carcassonne against every other player in their group individually via a series of 2-player/ head-to-head games. The winner of each game will be awarded two league points whereas the loser gets nothing. If the game is tied, both players receive one league point each.
2. Players in each group will be ranked according to the number of league points they have scored. PD (Points Differential) will be used as an initial tie-breaker if there is no clear winner based on league points alone, and total combined score (from all games) will be used as a second tie-breaker if necessary. Your PD is calculated by taking the total number of points scored by you and subtracting the total number of points scored against you (combined across all games).
3. Games will be played online through the latest stable version of JCloisterZone (currently 3.4.2). Please ensure you have downloaded this and are familiar with its controls and features before the competition begins. It is also recommended that you have played at least one practice game against a live opponent in order to identify and resolve any technical problems before your first game.
4. JCloisterZone includes a number of artificial aids such as farm hints, projected scores and even tile-counting assistance. We all are busy people, and time is valuable for all of us. Many players spend decent amount of time anyway to count points for farms and uncompleted features, so with the purpose of speeding up our games, I allow to use "projected scores" feature. Other aids are still prohibited. I can't stop you from using them anyway, and won't know if you do, but I do urge you to play as fair as possible. I know it's a competition and we all want to win, but let's keep it fair, fun and friendly as far as possible...
5. Each game will include the basic tiles plus the Bridges, Castles & Bazaars expansion only (no other expansions please). This is 84 tiles including the start tile, so 83 tiles will be shuffled and randomly drawn for you and your opponent in turn. The starting player should be chosen at random through JCZ by selecting the “Randomize seating order” checkbox on the pre-game screen.
6. If any unexpected behaviour occurs during your game (for example if you think you have discovered a bug within JCloisterZone which may have altered the course of the game for you), please consult with your opponent and the CAR/ anyone else who happens to be in the chat room at the time to determine whether it appears to be a genuine bug. If it is, please save your game and post details of the bug along with anything else relating to how it came about on the forums. If however, you and your opponent are both happy to continue with your game despite the bug then feel free to do so, but don’t forget to mention the bug afterwards no matter how minor it may have seemed!
7. Please post a screenshot of your game, including final scores and score breakdown, back to your group thread as soon as your game is complete. It's always interesting to hear what happened during the game too, so please feel free to post any thoughts/ comments at the same time if you wish. If you're not sure how to capture/ post screenshots, please ask on the forums and either myself or someone else will explain how to do this (we're a friendly bunch!)
8. It is the players responsibility to liaise with their fellow group-members in order to find a mutually convenient time to play their game. This is expected to be done predominantly through Private Messages but feel free to use your group thread (here) too if this is easier. Please do keep any appointments you make, or at least give your opponent as much notice as possible if something occurs which prevents you from playing at the agreed time (more on the "Unwritten Rules" is available here (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2700)).
9. Each of the 3 initial groups contains 5 players so the first stage of the competition will end when every player (all 15 of us) has played 4 games. At this point, the pool will split into 5 groups of 3 depending on finishing position in the initial groups. So, the top-ranked players from groups will form group F1, and those who came second in each group will form group F2. The same will be true for groups F3 to F5.
10. Play in groups F1 to F5 will constitute the second stage of the competition which will run in the same way as the first except with more groups and fewer people per group. League points, PD and total score will be reset at this point (but remembered for overall stats) so that no single player in any group has any kind of advantage. Finishing positions in groups at the second stage will determine overall rank: 1st=F1-1, 2nd=F1-2, 3rd=F1-3, 4th=F2-1, 5th=F2-2, ..., 12th=F4-4, 13th=F5-1, 14th=F5-2, 15th=F5-3.
Finally, you may find the following links helpful: Carcassonne Central IRC Chat (http://sydby.com/carcassonne/irc/index.html) and JCloisterZone (http://jcloisterzone.com/en/).
Good luck everyone! ;) :(y)
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Hi bizarre bazaar colleagues :)
I'm free tonight if anyone wants to start our group. I'm on GMT time (Portugal) and I should be free after 8pm, definitely after 9pm.
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Hi bizarre bazaar colleagues :)
I'm free tonight if anyone wants to start our group. I'm on GMT time (Portugal) and I should be free after 8pm, definitely after 9pm.
I'm in GMT+1 (Belgium). I'll be available tonight too :)
Give me a heads-up when you are ready to play.
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First game of the tournament!
jungleboy 123, Piet_Agoras 72
This game was closer than it looks because I claimed outright possession of the 34-point farm with my last tile (luckily I still had one bridge left to do it!). It was a pretty close game and once the two main farms were merged it became pretty clear that if one player won the farm outright, they would probably win the game. Fortunately for me, Piet_Agoras had some meeples tied up elsewhere and was never able to finish his cloister, so in the end all seven of my meeples were on the farm. I didn't play any castles all game but I felt that I did pretty well with bridges, so I think this can be a pretty fun expansion after all.
Thanks for the game and good luck with the rest of the tournament!
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That is an accurate report :) Considering that it was my first game here, and I didn't get my ass totally kicked, I might even call it a small succes :P
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:red-meeple: khalidqasrawi 135 : 94 Hounk :green-meeple:
My first game of the tournament and Hounk was killing my strategy from the word go. He took an early points lead and got an early farm down. I worked so hard to trap meeples thinking this game is all about the farm and that I could clean up at the end. I really thought I had his guys covered then bit by bit he freed them with crafty bridges. I was stunned and thought everything lost. I have a thing or two learn on that front. Well we reached this point near the end of the game where I was attacking his farm on all sides. He responded well and with just a couple of tiles to go the farm passed to me. The sad thing about this game is that Hounk miss-clicked near the end making a castle when his intention has to place a farmer. That probably cost him the game. Sad, very sad.
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No worry, the game would have gone to you anyway, no matter, how much I would have paid for the auction of the curved road, and if I would have placed my farmer correctly. The 5 point unfinished road, you could score in the end, would have saved you anyway. The odd thing was just, I did not noticed, I placed a castle instead of the farmer, I intended to, until after I purchased the worthless CCRR quite expensive. And if I would have placed the farmer correctly, the final score would have been quite close, but still in your favour. So you definitely deserved the win, and played better, even if it would not be for my mistake, I blame on fatigue.
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2 games played, 8 left.
Now "Group rank" is calculated automatically based on current situation in the group.
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Normally (or at least for the past leagues), group points highlighted in yellow would mean that a player has played all his/her games. C:-)
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Normally (or at least for the past leagues), group points highlighted in yellow would mean that a player has played all his/her games. C:-)
True, thanks for noticing. Fixed ;)
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:red-meeple: khalidqasrawi 165 : 120 TheSteveAllen :green-meeple:
Second league game but it seems I'm not learning. Same strategy as last time, same mistakes, but somehow managed to deplete his meeples early enough to start mopping up easy points and win the farm. It was pretty tense at the end but the final score revealed that I didn't need the farm to win. Excellent play by TheSteveAllen. You will go far.
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I will be available tonight after all, from 8-8:30pm GMT (9-9:30pm CET) if anyone is free for a league match.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Khalidq and I are now in chat, in case, you are still interested.
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:green-meeple: jungleboy 73 : 97 khalidqasrawi :red-meeple:
Third game and yet again, I felt as if I was losing from the start. Same strategy again, but different story. This time, the start was mostly just like a regular base game but I drew tiles that didn't make me happy. Mostly road, so boring. Then the big feature was that mega city. jungleboy stuck his neck out and put 3 meeples on it. Bad choice - I had to trap them. I wasn't going to make the same mistake again and ignore the possibility of the bridge changing the edge requirements of the city. After that I was a meeple up. I 'd also collected quite a few points and had an advantage. He couldn't defend the farm. Once I had that, the win was secured. Neither of us were playing well but it was still somehow quite tense. Still, I can't really complain now.
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After losing to Khalid in a game where I wasn't happy with how I played, I backed up and played Hounk straight away. This was a strange game but in the end it was:
jungleboy 103, Hounk 82
I started out really well, finishing a 20-point city with my own attached castle for a 40-point score that gave me a huge lead after only about 30 tiles. But then I only scored nine more points for the rest of the game until end-game scoring. I went into a weird farmer mode and just didn't keep the score ticking over like you should when you have a lead like that. But in the end I did need to win the farm outright or I would have lost. Nice comeback Hounk!
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5 games played, 5 left.
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:yellow-meeple: Piet_Agoras 65 : 87 khalidqasrawi :red-meeple:
A much better start for me as Piet_Agoras drew 4 bazaars so I had 4 choices. So my same strategy was deployed, don't worry about early points, just work to trap meeples, and quite early on I had 3 of his under control. He placed an early meeple on the farm too so in the end didn't have too much to work with. All going well in terms of strategy but the score line was making me more and more nervous as the gap between us grew. That and the fact that my big city was also consuming 2 meeples and that was not going to get finished and Piet_Agoras had a growing city north east. My calculations said that I needed to win the farm more than stop the city being completed and it wasn't until it finally became critical that I opposed it. Lucky I did because in the end our score difference was 22 and the unfinished city scored 11. If he'd been able to complete it, the match would have been minehis.
Thanks to Piet_Agoras and all the other Bizarre players. This group stage has been good to me. I'm looking forward to the next round.
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:red-meeple: Piet_Agoras 130 : 113 Hounk :green-meeple:
My second game of the evening went better then the first one. I got kicked out of the main farm quite early, and I didn't had an opportunity to get it back. Luckely for me, it turned out to be worth only 17 points. I tried to stop Hounk's big city, but that didn't work out either. It was a fun and tense game. In the end, we both scored double digits on all features. Thanks for the game Hounk!
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Only 3 games left to play.
Congratulations to khalidqasrawi on winning the group!
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This group stage has been good to me. I'm looking forward to the next round.
Congratulations khalid! It's looking like this is going to be another successful tournament for you! 8)
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Is anyone going to be around for a game this evening, as I am starting to feel a bit like Billy-No-Mates! I was not expecting to come on here today to find that I was holding up the completion of this league, so I need to get my games out of the way. :D
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Don't worry TheSteveAllen, Castles look like they've only played 1 game so far and Bridges have only played 3 so this group is not the one holding things up. I think I was just a bit eager top play my matches as I'll be away for a while shortly.
kq
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jungleboy 170, TheSteveAllen 92
This was another strange game, as they all seem to be with BC&B. Not a single feature was completed through the first 20-25 tiles. Steve then trapped two of my meeples with one fell swoop, but one of the two CFRF tiles in BC&B came to my rescue only two turns later, so I got out of it and was then able to complete some cities, tie Steve's biggest city, put three meeples on the main farm and eventually complete another large city with just a few tiles left. But things would have been different if I hadn't managed to get out of the trap so quickly (and luckily!). Thanks for the game Steve.
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8 games played, 2 more to go.
Jungleboy secured 2nd place in the group.
The game between TheSteveAllen and Hounk is scheduled on tomorrow.
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TheSteveAllen vs. Hounk 117:121
This was a really tight game, as can be seen from the score. I started with a cloister zone with 4 monks. Prayers went wrong as SteveAllen masterfully trapped two of them with a bridge. This had been a game of odd choices. I used one of the more peculiar expansion tiles, the CFRF with the nose to connect one of my farmers, not noticing, that it would have also fit to free one of my monks. Not sure, if it would have been a wise choice otherwise, because the field was key in the end and the farmer important. Might have been, that it would have been trapped with a T-road, might have been, that I would have gt another fitting tile for that task. Second odd choice was the RRRR-hole in the middle. I got a fitting RFRF for my last bridge 8 tiles to go. I was tempted to use it, to outwin the complete farm, although this would have free Steve's thief and castle knight, scoring him 16 points. Would it have been my last or one but last tile, I might have done that. But in this situation, chances had been, that he would use his free meeples to win back the farm. I was really lucky to win that game. Great fight, SteveAllen.
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Thanks for the excellent write-up Hounk. I agree that the RRRR in the middle was the focus of the latter part of the match, especially as I had the castle waiting to be completed. Unfortunately for me, I ran out of bridges (which I think are a really good addition to the game) and your master stroke was the extra farmer at the bottom right which I miserably failed to counter. Well played, and I wish you all the best in the rest of the competition. :(y)
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Only one game left!
Still 3-5 places are the subject to change, depending on the last game's result.
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The last game of this group has now been played, and I am pleased to be able to report that everyone in the group managed at least 1 win!
Tonight's result was:-
TheSteveAllen :green-meeple: 137 (home) v Piet_Agoras :red-meeple: 97 (visitor)
After a long battle for the main farm, I noticed that Piet_Agoras had run out of meeples and made the most of the opportunity of grabbing a few points here and there as they appeared.
Any way, I would like to thank all competitors in this group all the best of luck in the rest of the competition, and thank all of them for being such good and friendly opponents.
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Well done, Bazaars group! :(y)
Final ranking as follows.
Places 3 to 5 differs minimally and only in PD.