Carcassonne Central

Carc Central Community => Online Games and Competitions => Leagues (including expansion leagues) => Topic started by: MrNumbers on February 20, 2017, 11:14:02 AM

Title: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: MrNumbers on February 20, 2017, 11:14:02 AM
Castles:

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)
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Adrornalin on February 21, 2017, 09:44:20 AM
thanks for organizing, mrnumbers. in case someone has time to play tonight, i will be available from now on until 10pm german timezone. just leave a reply here or pm. next possibility then is friday.
good luck to all! i think bcb will be very interesting : )
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Adrornalin on February 23, 2017, 02:15:25 PM
BCB here we come. Chooselife and I played our match today. seems to be the first game in the "Castles" group.

it was a very nice and enjoyable game. the score was very close throughout the whole game. the battle for the big farm resulted in few meeples in the stash, only one meeple each, to be precise. with approx 30 tiles left, we both were afraid to place our last meeple. each of us had one possibility to set up a castle near the shared big city where a CCCC tile was missing. although all 3 CCCC were left, a castle was too risky. so we both continued the placement tactics to not let the opponent score easy points. then Chooselife decided to place his meeple as a farmer to successfully connect right with the next tile to the big farm. I decided to place mine in a city which I could finish aswell with the very next tile, and placing a farmer after that. what happened then was pure luck because I was lucky to connect my farmer with my last two tiles thanks to the bridges and Chooselife couldnt prevent me from doing so.

thanks for playing and I'm sure next league game victory is yours  :)
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: thodekey on February 25, 2017, 06:28:33 AM
For those interested to play against this rookie: I'm available today between 12 and 16 ECT.  I'll bring my bridges, castles and bazaars with me...  :P
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Adrornalin on February 26, 2017, 04:09:15 AM
hello thodekey,
thanks for information. unfortunately i am not available today. tue/wed/thu evening 6-9am (ect) i am ready to play.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: thodekey on February 26, 2017, 04:16:23 AM
Hello Adrornalin,

I guess you mean PM instead of AM or are you available from 6PM to 9AM which seems a heck of a time?  If it really is from 6-9 PM, I guess next Wednesday or Thursday could work...I'll keep you updated.  :yellow-meeple:
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Adrornalin on February 26, 2017, 05:31:11 AM
of course, it is pm. thanks  :D
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Chooselife on February 27, 2017, 01:27:22 AM
I should be able to play during working hours including lunch this week. Just drop me a PM if you're online and available.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Leven on February 27, 2017, 02:57:45 AM
Hello everyone in the Castle! :)
I'm available this week for BCB league games usually after 21:00 CET on weekdays (maybe a bit earlier too).
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: MrNumbers on February 27, 2017, 03:28:02 AM
It is my availability time too. So hope to meet you or someone else some evening this week.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: MrNumbers on February 28, 2017, 02:17:53 PM
MrNumbers vs. Leven
161:128

Throughout the game Leven tried to trap my followers, and he actually succeeded with 2 of them. Leven's chance to reduce the gap was associated with cloister with road, but I was lucky to draw it. During bazaars in most cases I was the payer, maybe because I really wanted those tiles! :)
Good luck with the rest of the tournament, Leven!
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: MrNumbers on February 28, 2017, 02:22:14 PM
2 games played, 8 left.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Adrornalin on February 28, 2017, 02:37:49 PM
I couldnt make it today. Tomorrow evening I will be in the chatroom. Maybe there is someone around to play next BCB game.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Adrornalin on March 04, 2017, 07:15:17 AM
Castles group, whats up with you? I'm ready to play this evening (Sat) and tomorrow the whole day (Sun). Please leave a msg here which time suits you most to play our BCB league games.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Leven on March 04, 2017, 08:51:28 AM
Hi Adrornalin.
I can play tomorrow (Sunday) evening, after 8 pm CET.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: thodekey on March 04, 2017, 09:55:39 AM
I can play on sunday as well
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: thodekey on March 05, 2017, 01:23:16 AM
Castles group, whats up with you? I'm ready to play this evening (Sat) and tomorrow the whole day (Sun). Please leave a msg here which time suits you most to play our BCB league games.

Hello Adrornalin,

I'm able to play now and the following hours...so if you're too...BCB it is! :-)
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Chooselife on March 05, 2017, 01:41:00 AM
I can play right now
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: MrNumbers on March 05, 2017, 03:18:27 AM
I am available in the following couple of hours, if anyone is up for a League game.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: thodekey on March 05, 2017, 03:33:15 AM
Finally got the time to play 2 of my BCB-games, the first one against Chooselife and the second one against Adrornalin...which were also the first 2 games in an official league for this rookie.

My first game against Chooselife went close for a while, not conceding a large point advantage on to each other until I managed to close the big city where I had the majority which gave me a nice advantage.  After that, the big battle over the farms began together with the battle over a large city with 4 pennants.  Chooselife won the battle over the largest farm with 2 (or was it 3?) meeples which gave him an extra 37 points, I managed to join a second meeple to the big city on the right which gave me an extra 13 points in the end.  The rest of the game for me existed out of getting hold of the minor farms and because all of those farms didn't join one to another, my 4 farmers gave me also an extra 27 points.  So in the end, the score was 155-108 with the big closed city as the major decisive project.  In the end, the bazaars and the castles didn't make much difference in this game...the bridges were mainly used to enlarge the farms.

So, we had a nice Sunday morning game and my first win in an official game is a fact now.  Time for the second challenger, Adrornalin.

PS: sorry, for the crappy screenshot...now I know I have to make two shots: one of the playing board and one of the scoring board.   :o
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: thodekey on March 05, 2017, 03:49:02 AM
After a couple of tiles, the game against Adrornalin bursted out into a major battle over a large city.  The result was that 3 of my meeples and 2 of adrornalin's meeples would be stuck there till the end of the game.  To make it even worse, one of my other meeples got stuck in a cloister by smart tile placement of Adrornalin. 
So, short of meeples, I had to concentrate on smaller projects and keeping the large farm field I had started.  But that didn't work out either because Adrornalin joined 3 farmers to my field while I had only 2 farmers. 
Meanwhile I kept on closing the big city until I only needed the same tile as the starting tile.  On that moment, Adronalin had a rather big point advantage so in my mind, I was thinking of damage control to keep the points gap as close as I could.

Before I could see my last tile, Adrornalin congratulated me.  Seems the starting tile was also my last tile with which I could close the big city, gaining 48 points extra and placing my last maple as a farmer, my only farmer who would give me (6) points. 

In the end, to my own surprise and -it has to be said- a big portion of luck I won the game with 13 points difference. 
Good luck to Adrornalin for the rest of the league...I'm sure you won't be that unlucky in the games to come.


Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Adrornalin on March 05, 2017, 04:44:40 AM
Congrats to thodekey. I would not name you a rookie, you played well. And I deserved to lose that game, because I was the one who forced the creation on that big city right after the beginning of the game. The much better option would have been to build on some smaller cities on my own with these tiles. So I have to accept the coinflip in the end and your completion of the big city that gave you the win.  O:-)

My next game or should I say loss is waiting against MrNumbers. Today is not my day concerning Carcassonne-ing. Leven lets please postpone ourmatch on another day.  ::)
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: MrNumbers on March 05, 2017, 04:53:34 AM
MrNumbers vs. Adrornalin
161:109

The game has started with the grow of big city, which we shared later with 2 meeples each. Adrornalin have tried to trap some of my meeples, never succeeded though, but instead placed a castle and later completed my 11-points road. After that my opponent have tried to connect to my south city, but I not only have connected second meeple to it, I also placed a castle and won 20+20 points with it! This move boosted me in points and I started to think about farm, because Adrornalin already had 3 farmers down. The farmers fight started, and I was unexpectedly lucky in connecting my farmers to the main farm. Soon enough I had 4 farmers, and Adrornalin went all-in by connecting his part (west) with main farm. Still, he lost farm battle, as all xfff tiles where gone.
My second win, and again with 161 points :D I think there will be an interesting game against thodekey, who also have 2 win by now >:D
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: MrNumbers on March 05, 2017, 04:54:51 AM
5 games played, 5 left.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Adrornalin on March 05, 2017, 05:56:17 AM
That was really a enjoyable game even if I lost. MrNumbers did a very good job especially with the castles. And I realised too late what is gonna happen with the farming situation. But also I did not want to prevent him from joining because there where millions of possibilities to join. After losing the lead in the second half of the game it felt that I was always one step behind with my decisions. Three times in a row it happened that I placed tile and farmer, and MrNumbers drew my needed tile. Anyway, was fun!
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Leven on March 07, 2017, 12:27:18 PM
Adrornalin, Chooselife, thodekey: I'm free to play our group games this week usually after 8 pm CET.
Please tell me when you're available.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Adrornalin on March 08, 2017, 12:49:30 PM
I try to be in the chat tomorrow, Thursday evening. Today it is too late and I am away over the weekend. So maybe tomorrow, otherwise on Monday.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Leven on March 08, 2017, 03:26:43 PM
I try to be in the chat tomorrow, Thursday evening. Today it is too late and I am away over the weekend. So maybe tomorrow, otherwise on Monday.
Great. Let's try it on Thursday then.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Adrornalin on March 09, 2017, 01:12:36 PM
hi there,
here's another result of the castles group. finally I could manage to win a game again. right from the beginning Leven boosted ahead with 16-0 points. after I gathered some small cities and castles, then the score difference was extremely close through the whole game. luckily I had the better options for winning the farm and had more meeples left in my supply. bridges were essential for me holding the farmers lead. castles we both placed well and finished quickly with moderate points amount. bazaar tiles appeared in a good way for me I felt, until the last bazaar, but Leven acted nice and sold me an (maybe decisive) tile very cheap.  8)
thanks for playing!
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Leven on March 09, 2017, 02:24:01 PM
Finally (after 5 defeats in a row) I managed to win a game.

:yellow-meeple: Chooselife vs :violet-meeple: Leven 68:108

This time the blocking tactics worked quite well, for the last period of the game Chooselife had either no meeple or only one meeple in his supply. That helped me a lot, particularly in winning the majority on the main farm.
Thanks for the game, Chooselife.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Leven on March 09, 2017, 02:39:24 PM
I made a screenshot of this interesting situation right at the beginning of my game with Chooselife.
At the first bazaar one of the two auctioned tiles was a CCCC, and it was clear that this tile would be impossible to place anywhere on the playing field. We wondered what would happen. I received this tile at the bazaar, and I was the second player after the auction. The solution was obvious: as the CCCC was skipped I was the next player to draw a tile. (As a consequence at the end of the game I could draw the last tile although Chooselife was the starting player.)
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Adrornalin on March 10, 2017, 07:31:06 AM
What happens if the first player in the bazaar gets an unplaceable tile? Does he receive immediately a new tile (would be rather unfair for the second player because his bidding tactics maybe become obsolete due to the new tile) or is he just skipped (would be obviously unfair for the first player).
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: MrNumbers on March 11, 2017, 02:51:03 AM
7 games played, 3 left.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: MrNumbers on March 16, 2017, 02:52:02 PM
MrNumbers vs. Chooselife
82:98

I lost the farm therefore lost the game. My two meeples were stuck in the big city for the whole game, needed crrf tile, and it came with last two tiles, which were actually bazaar bidding tiles, me choosing. Chooselife wisely bid and I would lost regardless of my choice (sold or buy). Well played, Chooselife!

We have 2 more games left to play, both involves thodekey. Nothing is decided yet in our group, either first, nor last places.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: Leven on March 16, 2017, 03:33:28 PM
My last game in the group:

:violet-meeple: Leven vs  :blue-meeple: Thodekey 139:133

What a thrilling game it was.
Thodekey played excellent, made only one significant mistake but it probably cost him the game: he wanted to put a farmer on the FFFF bazaar tile but instead of that he deployed a thief on the bridge. :(
Still, he could win the main farm which was worth 41 points, but I could compensate that with completing two big cities (and one of them was located in the vicinity of one of my castles).
Thanks for the game, Thomas, you still have good chances to win the group.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: MrNumbers on March 17, 2017, 03:46:58 AM
Only one game left, and we still don't know the winner of the group. Last game will be "winner takes it all".
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: thodekey on March 17, 2017, 05:45:07 AM
That's pretty tight until the end!  Nice! Last game: Pro Player MrNumbers versus Rookie Thodekey.  Yep, hereby i claim the underdog position!

When are you available for the last game, Mr Numbers?  I can tomorrow morning or next thursday evening.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: MrNumbers on March 17, 2017, 05:55:20 AM
When are you available for the last game, Mr Numbers?  I can tomorrow morning or next Thursday evening.
I am available mostly on evenings, after 21:30 CET. If you can't play any other day before Thursday, let it be Thursday.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: danisthirty on March 17, 2017, 06:13:56 AM
How much are tickets?
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: thodekey on March 17, 2017, 07:02:43 AM
The best is, Dan, it's for free!  You just have to bring in your own beer....real beer!  >:D
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: danisthirty on March 22, 2017, 05:45:27 AM
Is this game still scheduled to take place tomorrow evening?
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: thodekey on March 22, 2017, 07:33:08 AM
Is this game still scheduled to take place tomorrow evening?

Yes it is OR even better, MrNumbers: I'm available this evening as well.  Your call.  :yellow-meeple:
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: MrNumbers on March 22, 2017, 02:20:26 PM
MrNumbers vs. Thodekey
98:131

My worst game ever. My meeple management was terrible. Thodekey dominated throughout the whole game. Excellent play by my opponent. Congratulations on winning the group!
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: MrNumbers on March 22, 2017, 02:24:54 PM
Final results table of our group.
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: thodekey on March 22, 2017, 02:36:49 PM
Thank you, MrNumbers.

The stakes on this game were big: the winning player was certain to win the group, in case of a tie MrNumbers had better results and the loosing player wasn't even certain of a second place...that would depend on the score difference.
No need to say it was a very stressing game, for me too, believe me.  Although MrNumbers' meeple trapped in the middle gave me an advantage, I think the key element was the big city in the SE.  If it had been finished, the score would have been something else but MrNumbers didn't get the tiles he wanted and this way, 2 of his meeples got stuck in it during a long time which gave me an advantage in the smal city scoring and farming part.  One extra meeple of MrNumbers got stuck on a long road in the north during quite a long time as well...in the end I completed that road giving MrNumbers 9 points extra and releasing that meeple but it joined my farmer with another with gave me the upper hand in the 12-points farm.  Not sure if that was such a great move.

Anyway, I wish you good luck for the rest of the league!
Title: Re: Bridges, Castles & Bazaars League: Castles
Post by: MrNumbers on March 22, 2017, 02:41:32 PM
One extra meeple of MrNumbers got stuck on a long road in the north during quite a long time as well...in the end I completed that road giving MrNumbers 9 points extra and releasing that meeple but it joined my farmer with another with gave me the upper hand in the 12-points farm.  Not sure if that was such a great move.
That move gave you exactly 1 point: you took from me 6 points for the farm, but gave me 5 additional points for the road plus released my meeple. But I already was in terrible position, so this meeple (released right before my last tile) didn't give me any significant advantage.