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BPA Brass Online Tournament 2020

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Game Assignments
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Standings

This is the home page for a Boardgame Players Association “Play By Email” tournament for Brass. It is open only to members of the Boardgame Players Association (BPA). If you attend the World Boardgaming Championship (WBC), and are up to date on your registration fees for 2020, then you are already a member. If not, you can purchase an “Associate Membership” (PBEM only) for $10 from this website: www.boardgamers.org. This tournament will award laurels and contribute to the annual Caesar award, all of which is tracked through that same website.

GM: Allan Jiang

AGM: Rob Murray

Format

Please note that the format is different from the WBC tournament. All games in this tournament will have 4 players, and players will be randomly be assigned a starting position in each game.

We will use the implementation of the original Brass: Lancashire game at brass.orderofthehammer.com. Rules for this version of the game are available here. This implementation does not include the minor changes made in the more recent Roxley version.

For new users to OrderOfTheHammer, please note that accounts will have to be manually activated by the webmaster here. Please sign up below once you have created an account, even if it hasn’t been activated yet.

Ties: We will use the in-game tiebreakers for finish positions. The 1st tiebreaker is income space, the 2nd tiebreaker is cash on hand, and the 3rd tiebreaker is hypothetical turn order in rail turn 9.

Standings: In each stage, you will be awarded 10 points for winning a game, 6 for finishing 2nd, 3 for 3rd, and 1 for 4th. Any ties in the standings will be broken by average % of winner’s score. Standings will not carry over between stages, although semifinal games will be seeded based on heat standings.

Heat Stage: You will play in 4 simultaneous asynchronous games, all against different participants as determined by a roll of the dice. If we have at least 32 participants, then the top 16 in the heat standings will advance to the semifinals. If we have less than 32 participants, the top half (rounded down) in the heat standings will advance to the semifinals
 

Semifinal Stage: All qualifiers will play in 4 simultaneous asynch games. The first priority for these assignments would be to minimize the number of repeat matchups, and the second priority would be to minimize the number of matchups between the top 4 players in the heat standings. The top 7 in the semifinal standings will advance to the finals.

Final Stage: The 7 qualifiers will play in 4 simultaneous asynch games. Each of the other finalists will be in 2 of them. The top 6 finishers will be awarded BPA laurels.

Pace of Play: You are expected to check your games and take your turns (at least) once per day. It’s OK to have an occasional break of a couple of days, but we expect most games to finish in less than two months. Games that haven’t finished in 8 weeks are likely to be adjudicated, and the adjudication will include demoting slow players to lower finish positions.

Schedule

Registration Opened: January 3, 2020

Registration Closes: February 17, 2020 (tentative)

Heat Stage Begins: February 20, 2020 (tentative)

Semifinals Begin: April 16, 2020 (tentative)

Finals Begin: June 11, 2020 (tentative)

Sign Up for BPA Brass 2020 PBeM Tournament

If you want to play, please sign up by using the form below OR click here to see just the signup form.

Game Assignments

Game Assignments will be posted here.

BPA Brass 2020 Tournament
Report Results

The winner of each game should record the results, unless otherwise arranged.  The form will be available here once the tournament begins.

Standings

Standings will be posted here.

Through the Ages Online Tournament

Through the Ages Season 12
Online Tournament

Standings
Report Results
Pairings
Sign Up
Overview & News

Sign Ups Open for Through the Ages
Online Tournament
Season 12

Sign up on bucketofdice.com

Remember, the Tournament now uses the expansion cards set. You must have that to play.

If you don’t already have one, create an account for the sign up system the Meeple League is using. Be sure to add your Czech Game Edition online user name (and any others you have) to your account.

bucketofdice.com

Under the Play! menu select Register for Tournament to see all the events open for sign up.

Our TTA event uses the online implementation on ios, Android and Steam (for Mac and Windows) from Czech Game Edition. The app is based on the most recent edition of the game (“A New Story of Civilization”) and no house rules.

Players are sorted into Groups of 7 players based on previous results.  In a season, each player plays in 4 games and each other member of your Group will be in 2 games against you. Winning a game is worth 10 points, 2nd is 6, 3rd place gets you 3 points, and 4th nets 1. You can read more details about the rules for Meeple Leagues HERE.

Divisions are based on previous Season results. New players enter at the bottom level for their first season.

You’ll receive a notice in your email once the pairings are ready. If you do sign up, you are committing to checking the app a couple of times on most days (it’s OK if something comes up every once in a while, or if you’re out of town for a weekend (for example), but in general we’re hoping game lengths will be measured in weeks not months.

To sign up for this (and future) season of Through the Ages, you must create an account at BucketofDice.com.

Add your user name on the Czech Game Editions application and then sign up.

This system is run by the Meeple League, but has a separate domain name because it isn’t part of our WordPress system. We are developing it on our own.

The reason we are doing sign ups with it now is to make sure players are credited for participation in all Meeple League events. Mis-typed and slight variations in names causes many problems with our previous sign up and score reporting system. Having your own identity for use in all events saves a lot of sifting through data.

Season 11 Standings

As games end the standings are updated. See how each league is doing and check on your friends and rivals.

If the frame below is hard to read on your device follow the link:

Tournament Results

Through the Ages Online Tournament
Season 11 Report Results

Only the winner of each game should record the results. Use the form below.

If you have problems using the form on this page CLICK HERE TO SEE JUST THE FORM.

Season 11 Game Assignments

See below for your group and match assignments. When each game ends, the winner should report the scores using the form on this page.

The Through the Ages tournament uses Czech Games Edition application ofthe game.

Click on the title below to open assignments in a single page or tab:

Game Assignments

Previous Season Results

Season 10 games should be over. If any new results have to reported, email the game coordinator.

If the frame below is hard to read on your device follow the link:

Tournament Results

BPA Agricola PBEM Tournament 2020

Sign Up
Player List
Game Assignments
Report Results
Standings

This is the home page for a Boardgame Players Association “Play By Email” tournament for Agricola for 2019-2020. It is open only to members of the Boardgame Players Association (BPA). It you attend the World Boardgaming Championship (WBC), and are up to date on your registration fees, then you are already a member. If not, you can purchase a “PBEM Membership” for $10 from this website: www.boardgamers.org. This tournament will award laurels and contribute to the annual Caesar award, all of which are tracked through that same website.

GM: Randy Buehler

Format

All games will be 4-player games using the tournament mode and draft 7 settings on boiteajeux.net (which uses the original version of the game, minus a few tricky-to-program EIK cards).

Heat Stage: Everyone who joins the event will play in 3 asynch games, which will launch simultaneously. They will be paired randomly within the constraint that we will do our best to avoid putting people into multiple games together. If you win any of your games, you advance to the playoffs.

Quarterfinal Stage: If more than 50 people enter the event then single winners from the heat stage will be entered into two quarterfinal matches each. Winning either earns advancement to the semifinals along with the double winners from the heat stage.

Semifinal Stage: You will be placed in 4 simultaneous asynch games. They will be seeded based on the results from the Heat Stage as much as possible (details will depend on the number of semifinalists who qualify). In addition, we will avoid giving anyone repeat opponents if possible.

You will be awarded 10 points for winning a game, 6 for finishing 2nd, 3 for 3rd, and 1 for 4th. The top 7 point-earners will advance to the finals, with heat performance serving as the first tiebreaker and percentage of winner’s score in the semifinals as the second tiebreaker (and from the heats as the 3rd tiebreaker).

(This stage will be eliminated if there are 7 or fewer heat winners.)

Final Stage: You will be placed into 4 simultaneous games and each of the other finalists will be in 2 of them. We use the same scale of points for each finish position as in the semifinals and the final standings go by these points. (Ties in the overall standings will be broken by semifinal points, then heat points, then % of winner’s scores in the finals, then semis, then heats.)

Note on Ties: We will not use the in-game tiebreakers for finish positions. In the heats and quarterfinals, anyone tied for 1st gets credit for a win. In the semis and finals the points for tied positions will be divided evenly among the tied players.

Pace of Play: You are expected to check your games and take your turns (at least) once per day. It’s OK to have an occasional break of a couple of days, but we expect most games to finish in less than six weeks. Games that haven’t finished in 2 months are likely to be adjudicated, and the adjudication will include demoting slow players to lower finish positions.

Platform

Games will be played on Boiteajeux.net using the Tournament Mode (aka, there is the usual banned list) and Draft 7 settings.

Schedule

Registration Opens: 9-13-2019

Registration Closes: 12-1-2019 

Heat Stage Begins: December 13

(No Quarterfinal Stage)

Semifinals Begin: March estimated

Finals Begin: May estimated

Game Results

As games end the standings are updated. See how each player is doing and check on your friends and rivals.

If the frame below is hard to read on your device follow the link:

Tournament Results

BPA Agricola Tournament
Report Results

The winner of each game should record the results, unless otherwise arranged. Use the form below.

If you have problems using the form on this page CLICK HERE TO SEE JUST THE FORM.

Game Assignments

League and Game Assignments will be posted here.

Game option settings to use:

list of options to use on game platform.

Thurn & Taxis Online Tournament

Thurn & Taxis Online Season 15

Standings
Report Results
Pairings
Sign Up for Next Season
Last Season Results

Thurn & Taxis Season 15
Sign Ups Open

Sign up for Season 15

https://www.bucketofdice.com

If you haven’t already, create an account for yourself:

  • Go to bucketofdice.com.
  • Login  OR
  • Create an account (Register on the menu), if you do not already have one. Then activate it. If you do not receive an email quickly, please check your spam folder for the activation email.
  • Under Manage Account, select Game Names and enter your game name ids. You only need to do this once for each id. Check the spelling, as some game platforms are case-sensitive.
  • Under the Play! menu, select Register for Tournament.
  • You should receive a confirmation email. If you do not, check your spam folder.

A new feature allows you to withdraw from a tournament while registrations are still open. Just click the “Withdraw” button next to each entry for tournaments that have not started.

Season 14 Standings

As games end the standings are updated. See how each Group is doing and check on your friends and rivals.

Lifetime standings can be seen HERE.

If the frame below is hard to read on your device follow the link:

Tournament Results

Thurn & Taxis Online Tournament
Season 14 Report Results

Only the winner of each game should record the results. Use the form below. Be sure to add the seat number of the player who triggered the game end.

If you have problems using the form on this page CLICK HERE TO SEE JUST THE FORM.

Game Assignments

Season 14 Matches

Our Thurn & Taxis tournaments use the online implementation at www.yucata.de. We use the original version of the game – no expansion content, and no special options.

Players are sorted into leagues of 7 players based on previous results.  In a season, each player plays in 4 games. Each other member of your league will be in 2 games against you. See scoring rules below.

Divisions are based on previous Season results. New players enter at the bottom level for their first season.

If you have trouble viewing the list below, click here to see just the listing.

Last Season Results

It’s been a good summer for Chris Wildes.  Not only did he have a thoroughly dominant performance at WBC in late July, but he also took down Division 1 of Thurn & Taxis Season 12 to make it two in a row!  It was a very tight race, as only seven points separated first to sixth place.  The unlucky man out was Steve LeWinter, who scored 20 points (1-1-1-1) and will be relegated by losing on tiebreaker to Randy Buehler, who also scored 20 points this season.  Rob Murray and Allan Jiang will re-join the gang in Division 1 for Season 13.

Lifetime standings can be seen HERE.  

If the frame below is hard to read on your device follow the link:

Tournament Results

Brass Online Tournament

Brass Online Tournament

Standings
Report Results
Pairings
Sign Up
Overview & News

Season 14 Standings

Season 14 results will be here as the results reported. You can see lifetime standings HERE.

Click to see results on separate tab

Brass Online Tournament
Season 14 Report Results

Only the winner of each game should record the results. Use the form below.

CLICK HERE TO SEE JUST THE FORM.

Season 14 Game Assignments

Group and Match Assignments for Season 14 will be here. You may choose any color, as the webmaster of Order of the Hammer has confirmed that Start Player can not be predetermined and this capability will not be instituted.

Be sure to name the game using the game name below and invite the other players listed. All games should be password protected using the word “meeple” in all lowercase letters.  Any player may set up the game, but the winner of each game is responsible for entering the results using the  game results report form.

See in separate tab.

">

Sign Ups Closed
Season 14

Season 14 Has Started

Make sure you have a user identity and Sign Up at:

bucketofdice.com

If you don’t already have one, create an account for the new sign up system the Meeple League will be using in 2019. Be sure to add your orderofthehammer user name (and any others you have) to your account.

Under the Play! menu select Register for Tournament to see all the events open for sign up.

Players are sorted into groups of 7 players based on previous results.  In a season, each player plays in 4 games. Each other member of your group will be in 2 games against you. See scoring rules below.

Divisions are based on previous Season results. New players enter at the bottom level for their first season.

You’ll receive a notice in your email once the pairings are ready.

Last Season Results

Season 12 results should all be in. If you get a late result, contact the tournament administrator. You can see lifetime standings HERE.

Click here to see standings is a separate tab/window.

Brass Online Tournament News

Not one to be outdone, Allan Jiang joins Maciek Dud as three-time champs of Meeple League Brass.  In fact, over 12 seasons, only other other player has one the league more than once (Jon Wilcox).  Allan also won WBC in back-to-back fashion by taking the shield this year.  Perhaps he can make it three in a row next year…!

Tournament format:

Players will be sorted into Groups of 7 players based on previous results. In a season, each player plays in 4 games. Each other member of your Group will be in 2 games against you. You can read the full details about league and scoring rules HERE.

Brass is Martin Wallace’s game of economic development in the early Industrial Age around Manchester and Liverpool.

Our Brass tournament will use the online implementation at brass.orderofthehammer.com. We will use the original version of the game – no expansion content, and no special options. You’ll receive a notice in your email once the matchups are ready. If you do sign up, you are committing to checking the website a couple of times on most days (it’s OK if something comes up every once in a while, or if you’re out of town for a weekend), but in general we’re hoping game lengths will be measured in weeks not months.

Good luck!

Agricola Online Tournament

Agricola Season 10 Online
Tournament

Standings
Report Results
Pairings
Sign Up
Overview & News

Season 10 Standings

As games end the standings are updated. See how each league is doing and check on your friends and rivals. You can see lifetime standings HERE.

If the frame below is hard to read on your device follow the link:

Tournament Results

Report Season 10 Agricola Online Tournament Game Results

Only the winner of each game should record the results using the form below.

If you have trouble using the form shown, click on the title below to open the form in its own tab or window.

Game Report Form

Game Assignments

Season 10 Game Assignments will be here when sign ups close.

This Agricola league uses the online implementation at www.boiteajeux.net. Games must be created with the Tournament mode setting (which just means the banned list used in most tournaments is implemented) and “Draft 7” will be used to distribute occupations and minor improvements from all 3 of the implemented decks: E, I, and K, though there are a few cards from the printed version of the game that have not been implemented  (see the article about online Agricola).

Be sure to name the game using the game name below and invite the other players listed. Any player may set up the game, but the winner of each game is responsible for entering the results using the form further down the page.

If you have trouble reading the iframe, click on the title below to open it in its own tab.

Game Assignments

Sign Ups Closed for Season 10 of
Agricola Online Tournament


 Fill out the FORM to be notified about future seasons of the tournament.

If you don’t already have one, create an account for the sign up system the Meeple League is using. Be sure to add your boiteajeux user name (and any others you have) to your account.

Under the Play! menu select Register for Tournament to see all the events open for sign up.

Players are sorted into groups of 7 players based on previous results.  In a season, each player plays in 4 games. Each other member of your group will be in 2 games against you. See scoring rules below.

Divisions are based on previous Season results. New players enter at the bottom level for their first season.

Our Agricola tournaments use the online implementation at www.boiteajeux.net. We use the original version of the game with drafting.

You’ll receive a notice in your email once the pairings are ready. If you do sign up, you are committing to checking the website a couple of times on most days (it’s OK if something comes up every once in a while, or if you’re out of town for a weekend (for example), but in general we’re hoping game lengths will be measured in weeks not months.

Previous Season Results

The results of the last season (9) are here. The overall standings are on a separate page. Please see the menu under Standings.

If the frame below is hard to read on your device follow the link:

Tournament Results

Castles of Burgundy Online Tournament

Castles of Burgundy Online
Season 10

Standings
Report Results
Pairings
Sign Up
Overview & News

Standings Season 10

As games end the standings are updated. See how each group is doing and check on your friends and rivals. You can see lifetime standings HERE.

If the frame below is hard to read on your device follow the link:

Tournament Results

Report Season 10 Game Results

The winner of each game should record the results using the form below. 

If you have problems using the form on this page CLICK HERE TO SEE JUST THE FORM 

Season 10 Game Assignments

Group and Game Assignments for Season 10 are here.

The Castles of Burgundy tournament uses the online implementation at www.boiteajeux.net. Use the “single random board” variant, which means that all 4 players in a game will play on the same board, and which board it is will be determined randomly.

Be sure to name the game using the game name below and invite the other players listed. Any player may set up the game, but the winner of each game is responsible for entering the results using the form further down the page.

If you have trouble viewing the list below, click here to see just the listing.

Sign Ups Closed for
Castles of Burgundy Online Tournament

Sign ups are closed for Season 10.

Fill out this form to be notified about the next season:

Notification request

www.bucketofdice.com

If you don’t already have one, create an account for the new sign up system the Meeple League is using in 2019. Be sure to add your boiteajeux user name (and any others you have) to your account.

Under the Play! menu select Register for Tournament to see all the events open for sign up.

Last Season Standings

Season 9 games should have ended.

 If you need to report a late game, email the results to online_league@meepleleague.com

If the frame below is hard to read on your device follow the link:

Tournament Results

Overview

Players are sorted into Groups of 7 players each based on previous results, so you should be matched against players of about your ability. In each season, you will play in 4 simultaneous games and each other member of your league will be in exactly two of them. Do well and you’ll get promoted to a tougher division. Do badly and you’ll drop to an easier one. Full details about our format and scoring system (which is the same for all our online leagues) are here: rules page.

Our Castles of Burgundy tournament use the online implementation at www.boiteajeux.net. We  use the “single random board” variant, which means that all 4 players in a game will play on the same board, and which board it is will be determined randomly.

After signing up, you will receive an email notifying you once the schedule has been posted. If you do sign up, you are committing to checking the website multiple times on most days (it’s OK if something comes up every once in a while, or if you’re out of town for a weekend, for example), but in general we’re hoping game lengths will be measured in weeks not months.

The event sign up form will email you as soon as you submit it.

BPA Through the Ages PBEM Tournament 2019

Sign Up
Player List
Game Assignments
Report Results
Standings

This is the home page for the 2019 Boardgame Players Association “Play By Email” tournament for Through The Ages. It is open only to members of the Boardgame Players Association (BPA). It you attend the World Boardgaming Championship (WBC), and are up to date on your registration fees, then you are already a member. If not, you can purchase a “PBEM Membership” for $10 from this website: www.boardgamers.org. This tournament will award laurels and contribute to the annual Caesar award, all of which is tracked through that same website.

GM: Randy Buehler

Format

Games will be 4-player games whenever possible, using the app that launched in 2017 for iOS, Android, and Steam. You must own the app in order to participate in the tournament. Games will use “Rules: Digital” (which, yes, is slightly different from the tabletop version of the game but the massive quality of life gains are worth it) and “Default Asynch” timing (which means you have 24 hours to make a move once it is your turn, plus a time extension bank that refills whenever a new age begins … if you run out of time you will be dropped from the game and replaced by a bot). 

Heat Stage: Everyone who joins the event will play in 3 asynch games, which will launch simultaneously. They will be paired randomly within the constraint that we will do our best to avoid putting people into multiple games together. If you win any of your games, you advance to the semifinal.

(Quarterfinal Stage: If more than 50 people enter the event then single winners from the heat stage will be entered into two quarterfinal matches each. Winning either earns advancement to the semifinals along with the double winners from the heat stage.)

Semifinal Stage: You will be placed in 4 simultaneous asynch games. They will be seeded based on the results from the Heat Stage as much as possible (details will depend on the number of semifinalists who qualify). In addition, we will avoid giving anyone repeat opponents if possible.

You will be awarded 10 points for winning a game, 6 for finishing 2nd, 3 for 3rd, and 1 for 4th. The top 7 point-earners will advance to the finals, with heat performance serving as the first tiebreaker and percentage of winner’s score in the semifinals as the second tiebreaker (and from the heats as the 3rd tiebreaker).

(This stage will be eliminated if there are 7 or fewer heat winners.)

Final Stage: You will be placed into 4 simultaneous games. Each of the other finalists will be in 2 of them. We use the same scale of points for each finish position as in the semifinals and the final standings go by these points. (Ties in the overall standings will be broken by semifinal points, then heat points, then % of winner’s scores in the finals, then semis, then heats.)

Note on Ties: We will not use the in-game tiebreakers for finish positions. In the heats, anyone tied for 1st gets credit for a win. In the semis and finals the points for tied positions will be divided evenly among the tied players.

Pace of Play: You are expected to check your games and take your turns (at least) once per day. It’s OK to have an occasional break of a couple of days, but we expect most games to finish in less than two months. Games that haven’t finished in 2 months are likely to be adjudicated, and the adjudication will include demoting slow players to lower finish positions.

Platform

Games will be played exclusively on the (awesome) app from Czech Games.

Schedule

Registration Opened: October 2018

Registration Closed: January 13, 2019

Heat Stage Began: January 15, 2019

There was no Quarterfinal stage 

Semifinals Begin: March 27, 2019

Finals Began: May 13, 2019

Game Assignments

Matches should be created inside the app using “Rules: Digital” and “Default Asynch” timing.

Click Here to See Just the Assignments

Game Results

If the frame below is hard to read on your device follow the link:

Tournament Results

BPA Through the Ages Tournament
Report Results

The winner of each game should record the results, unless otherwise arranged. Use the form below.

If you have problems using the form on this page CLICK HERE TO SEE JUST THE FORM.

Sign Ups Are Closed

The tournament has started.

Players in BPA Through the Ages PBeM Tournament

These people are signed up for the tournament:

Players will be listed here as they sign up.

2018 Online Player of the Year is Allan Jiang

The final standings are in and Allan Jiang is the first-ever Meeple League Online Player of the Year. Allan crushed the field, finishing with a very impressive 36% more points than runner-up Randy Buehler. Fully 355 players played at least 1 season of 1 game in 2018. You can see the full standings here, but here’s a look at the Top 25:

1. Allan Jiang – 617.5
2. Randy Buehler – 454
3. Rob Murray – 419
4. Rob Kircher – 357.5
5. DJ Borton – 324.5
6. Nick Henning – 323
7. Richard M. Shay – 277.5
8. Stephen Voland – 262.5
9. Steven LeWinter – 259.5
10. Matthew Vienneau – 256
11. Sky Winslow Roy – 255
12. Haim Hochboim – 247
13. Mike Turian – 246
14. Chris Bert – 231
15. Andy Schwarz – 227
16. Antero Kuusi – 225.33
17. Gilbert Quinonez – 220.5
18. Andrew Norgren – 216
19. Alexandre Fafard – 209.5
20. Aaron Buchanan – 209
21. Sceadeau d’Tela – 208
22. Eric Freeman – 203
23. Ray Wolff – 201.5
24. Andrew Emerick – 197
25. Alex Bove – 189.5

For 2019 we’re going to tweak the formula slightly, but the basics will be the same: only your best 3 seasons of any given game count and you get credit for all the league points you earn plus bonuses for winning games and winning your group (where the bonuses scale up depending on how difficult your division is). We feel this worked pretty well (especially for a first attempt), but the one tweak we want to make is to reward folks for maintaining their position in the higher divisions: 2nd place – 5th place in Division 1 will now receive 5 bonus points and 2nd – 5th in each Division 2 Group will earn 2 bonus points.

We don’t have separate official awards for each of our 5 online games, but that’s not going to stop me from pointing out who our highest scorers were. I’ll be looking at aggregate scores here (aka, the sum of your best 3 seasons) since that’s what counts toward Player of the Year. 

Allan scored 144 of his points in Brass, which was tops. Jon Wilcox pipped Maciek Dud 136-135 for the second best Brass year. Brass has proven to be our fastest game, by the way, with 7 different seasons happening during 2018. Andrew Emerick and Scott Rothstein rounded out the top 5 with 115 and 111.

Eric Freeman had the best year in Castles of Burgundy, winning Division 1 in 2 of the 4 seasons that happened in 2018 to take home 135 points. Allan had to settle for 2nd here, with 119.5 points as he worked his way up the ladder, while Andrew Norgren was 3rd with 117, Ming Wei Liem was 4th at 112, and Chris Bert was 5th at 111.

Switching to the app for Through The Ages helped us get in 5 seasons over the course of 2018. Allan spent all 5 in Division 1, winning it twice, but his 142 points was actually 1 less than Eric Krasnauskas (aka Kolo), who only played 3 seasons but won all 3 of them, climbing from Division 3 up to Division 1 (which he won last season). Eugene Harvey was 3rd with 122. Only 2 others broke 100 points: Luis Leitao (104) and Ray Fernandez (103).

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Kyle Smith earned the most points in Thurn & Taxis (with 124). No one else has won Division 1 more than once, but Kyle has won it *5* times, including in 2 of the 4 seasons that happened in 2018. Other games have had 3-time winners (Eric Freeman in Castles and Petri Savola in Agricola), but Kyle’s dominance of Thurn & Taxis is the most complete of any online Meeple League game. Rob Kircher’s 112 was 2nd for 2018 while my own 102 was 3rd. Alex Bove was 4th on 99, meanwhile with 98 points and 5th place overall this is apparently Allan’s worst game!

Agricola seasons are our longest and there were only 3 in 2018, so there was no opportunity to ignore a bad season. Manpanzee was the clear winner with 139.5 points. Having won his Division 4 group in late 2017, Elliot started 2018 by winning his Div 3 group, then won his Div 2 group, then won Division 1! Allan was 2nd with 114 as he also completed his own rise up the ladder into Division 1. 3rd place for the year was a tie between William Francis and ecotone at 105.5, with Terry Borer being the only other players to break 100 (which he did half half a point).

All in all 2018 was a very successful year for us – lots of people got to play lots of board games. Here’s hoping 2019 is even better!

BPA Brass Tournament 2019

Sign Up
Game Assignments
Standings
Tournament Report

This is the home page for a Boardgame Players Association “Play By Email” tournament for Brass. It is open only to members of the Boardgame Players Association (BPA). If you attend the World Boardgaming Championship (WBC), and are up to date on your registration fees for 2019, then you are already a member. If not, you can purchase a “Associate Membership” for $10 from this website: www.boardgamers.org. This tournament will award laurels and contribute to the annual Caesar award, all of which is tracked through that same website.

GM: Allan Jiang

AGMs: Bruce Hodgins and Rob Murray

Format

Please note that the format is different from the WBC tournament. All games in this tournament will have 4 players, and players will be randomly be assigned a starting position in each game.

We will use the implementation of the original Brass: Lancashire game at brass.orderofthehammer.com. Rules for this version of the game are available here. This implementation does not include the minor changes made in the more recent Roxley version.

For new users to OrderOfTheHammer, please note that accounts will have to be manually activated by the webmaster here. You may sign up below once you have created an account, even if it hasn’t been activated yet.

Ties: We will use the in-game tiebreakers for finish positions. The 1st tiebreaker is income space, the 2nd tiebreaker is cash on hand, and the 3rd tiebreaker is hypothetical turn order in rail turn 9.

Standings: In each stage, you will be awarded 10 points for winning a game, 6 for finishing 2nd, 3 for 3rd, and 1 for 4th. Any ties in the standings will be broken by average % of winner’s score. Standings will not carry over between stages, although semifinal games will be seeded based on heat standings.

Heat Stage: You will play in 4 simultaneous asynchronous games, all against different participants as determined by a roll of the dice. If we have at least 32 participants, then the top 16 in the heat standings will advance to the semifinals.
 
3/5 Update: We have 30 participants confirmed, so the top 15 in the heat standings will advance to the semifinals.
 

Semifinal Stage: All qualifiers will play in 4 simultaneous asynch games. If we have at least 32 participants, then the 16 qualifiers will be divided into quartiles based on the heat standings. You will play every semifinalist not in your quartile exactly once, according to the game assignments below. The top 7 in the semifinal standings will advance to the finals.

[If we have less than 32 participants, the top half (rounded down) in the heat standings will advance to the semifinals. This is to comply with BPA regulations. In this case, the semifinal game assignments will be adjusted at the start of the tournament. The first priority for these assignments would be to minimize the number of repeat matchups, and the second priority would be to minimize the number of matchups between the top 4 players in the heat standings. The top 7 in the semifinal standings will still advance to the finals.]

3/5 Update: The top 15 in the heat standings will advance to the semifinals. Each of the qualifiers will play all the other semifinalists except for 2 with similar records. Each of the top 4 from the heat standings will play no more than 2 of the other top 4 players.

Final Stage: The 7 qualifiers will play in 4 simultaneous asynch games. Each of the other finalists will be in 2 of them. The top 6 finishers will be awarded BPA laurels.

Pace of Play: You are expected to check your games and take your turns (at least) once per day. It’s OK to have an occasional break of a couple of days, but we expect most games to finish in less than two months. Games that haven’t finished in 8 weeks are likely to be adjudicated, and the adjudication will include demoting slow players to lower finish positions.

Schedule

Registration Opened: January 2, 2019

Registration Closed: March 5, 2019

Heats Began: March 7, 2019

Semifinals Began: April 14, 2019

Finals Began: May 27, 2019

Signups are now closed

Game Assignments

Click here to see just the assignments.

Standings

Click here to see just the standings.

Tournament Report

30 BPA members entered the first Brass PBEM tournament, including 8 of the top 10 laurelists in the event’s history. In total, 42 games of Brass: Lancashire were played over three rounds. In each round, each participant played 4 games and earned 10 points for a win, 6 points for second place, 3 points for third place, and 1 point for fourth place. The top 15 in the heat standings advanced to the semifinals, which were somewhat seeded; each participant played once against all of the other semifinalists except for two with similar records to themselves. The top 7 in the semifinals then advanced to the finals, where they played all of the other finalists twice. The laurelists were determined by the standings in the finals only.

Highlights of the heat stage included a win by tiebreaker by Antero Kuusi over John Corrado, and the largest margin of victory in the tournament: a 53-point win by Andrew Emerick. DJ Borton topped the heat standings with 3 wins and a second, and the other “seeds” went to Nick Henning, Mike Turian, and Andrew Emerick.

In the semifinals, DJ Borton set the high score for the tournament; he flipped 3 advanced ports and 3 advanced iron works in the canal era en route to 190 points. But it was Andrew Emerick who had the most dominant round, winning all four of his games! Rob Murray, DJ Borton, Rob Flowers, Allan Jiang, Jack Jung, and John Corrado also qualified for the finals.

The finals were well played by all contestants. In four games, two players used a cotton strategy, one player used a port strategy, and one player used neither. And in the other three games, two players used a cotton strategy and two players used a port strategy. In the opinion of the GM, these are the two most optimal balances between the strategies, and make for games in which all of the strategies are highly competitive. And indeed, the finals did deliver the closest game from first to last in the tournament. Andrew Emerick, using a cotton strategy scored 149 points, to Rob Murray’s 148 (port), Jack Jung’s 147 (cotton), and DJ Borton’s 142 (port).

In the end, there were three double-winners in the finals. All three happened to use a cotton strategy twice and a port strategy twice. So it was the non-win finishes that determined the order at the top of the final standings. By virtue of two second-place finishes in addition to two wins, Rob Murray took home the championship.

Final Standings:

  1. Rob Murray
  2. Andrew Emerick
  3. Allan Jiang
  4. DJ Borton
  5. John Corrado
  6. Rob Flowers

Thank you to Jack Jung and AGMs Bruce Hodgins and Rob Murray for their help in planning and running  the tournament, Randy Buehler for online templates and inspiration for the tournament format, Rich Shay for providing us with a website, and Philip Eve for the implementation of Brass at brass.orderofthehammer.com.