Brass

Brass Online Tournament

Brass Online Tournament

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Overview & News

Season 20 Standings

Season 20 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 20 Report Results

Only the winner of each game should record the results. Please, use the form below. Use bucketofdice to report the results.

https://www.bucketofdice.com

Season 20 Game Assignments

Group and Match Assignments for Season 20 are here. You can also see your games on bucketofdice. 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 for
Season 20

Missed it? Fill out the form for notification of the next season.

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 sign up system the Meeple League uses. Be sure to add your orderofthehammer user name (and any others you have) to your account.

You can sign-up by clicking the button on the home page or use the Play! menu and 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

Alexandre Fafard has broken through the Andrew Emerick streak of dominance by winning Brass Season 18.  Andrew still came in strong by finishing in second, as Alex’s 3 wins were too much to overcome.  Rob Flowers rejoins the top tier for Season 19, joined by Scott Rothstein after Division 2 victories.

You can see lifetime standings HERE.

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

Brass Online Tournament News

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!

BPA Brass Online Tournament 2021

Game Assignments
Standings
Signup

NOTE: THIS TOURNAMENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED BECAUSE THE WEB IMPLEMENTATION HAS BEEN DELETED 🙁


This is the home page for the 2021 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 2021, 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

AGMs: Rob Murray and Rob Flowers

Format

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, accounts will have to be manually activated by the webmaster here. *Please create an account and request activation ASAP, as the webmaster does not check the activation thread very frequently.* You may still sign up below once you have created an account, even if it hasn’t been activated yet.

All games in this tournament will have 4 players.

Stages: There will be 3 stages in the tournament: heats, semifinals, and finals. In the heats and semifinals, all players will be in 4 simultaneous asynchronous games. In the finals, all finalists will play 2 simultaneous asynchronous games if there are 24-31 total participants, and 4 simultaneous async games if there are 32+ participants.
 
Advancement: Advancement will depend on number of total participants.
  • 24-25 participants: Top 12 in heat standings will advance to the semifinals where each semifinalist will play one opponent twice, and everyone else once; repeat matchups will be #1 vs #12, #2 vs #11…#6 vs #7 in heat standings. Top 4 in semifinal standings will advance to a 2-game final with relatively balanced seat order.
  • 26-31 participants: Top 13 in heat standings will advance to the semifinals where each semifinalist will play all others once. Top 4 in semifinal standings will advance to a 2-game final with relatively balanced seat order.
  • 32+ participants: Top 16 in heat standings will advance to semifinals where each semifinalist will play all others once, except those in their quartile (i.e. top 4 in heat standings will not play each other). Top 7 in semifinal standings will advance to the finals where each finalist will play the others twice each.
Standings: Each stage will have its own standings. You will be awarded 10 points for winning a game, 6 for finishing 2nd, 3 for 3rd, and 1 for 4th. We will use the in-game tiebreakers for finish positions: 1) income space, 2) cash on hand, 3) hypothetical turn order in rail turn 9. Each stage will have its own standings.
 
Standings Tiebreakers:
  1. Points in the semifinals (if applicable)
  2. Points in the heats (if applicable)
  3. Average % of winner’s score in current stage
  4. Head to head record in current stages, then in previous stage(s)
  5. Average points of opponents played in current stage (strength of schedule)
  6. Total endgame income steps in current stage, then in previous stage(s)
  7. Random

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: June 13, 2021

Registration Closes: July 25, 2021

Heat Stage Started: August 3, 2021

Semifinals Start: September/October 2021
 
Finals Start: late November 2021

Game Assignments & Standings

All game assignments and standings are in the Google Sheet that was linked in an email to all participants on August 3, 2021. Please contact me if you’ve lost that link.

Signups

Signups are closed.

BPA Brass Online Tournament 2020

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 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 Closed: February 23, 2020

Heat Stage Started: April 3, 2020

Semifinals Started: May 14, 2020
 
Finals Started: June 9, 2020

 

Game Assignments

Click here to see just the game assignments.

Standings

Click here to go directly to the standings.

Tournament Report

28 BPA members entered the second Brass PBEM tournament. 49 games of Brass: Lancashire were played over three rounds, and in every round each participant played four games. The tournament cut to 14 players in the semifinals and 7 players in the finals, and followed the same format as last year’s tournament.

In the heats, Eric Freeman achieved the tournament’s high score of 185, in a game where he scored all four of his iron works, a port and a shipyard in the canal era. Jason Pytka achieved the largest margin of victory with a 42-point win. Two games were decided by a tiebreaker, with John Emery and Paul Sampson both prevailing over Jack Jung by virtue of higher final income. Defending champion Rob Murray had the best record with three wins and a second, and the other seeds went to Jay Spencer, DJ Borton, and Rob Kircher. There was a four-way tie for the last two spots in the semifinals, and past WBC champions Philip Shea and Bruce Hodgins both barely missed the cut according to the standings tiebreaker, average % of winner’s score.

The semifinals were competitive, with all players achieving at least one second place finish. Ben Scholl won one of his games by 42 points, matching the tournament’s largest margin of victory. Another game was decided by a tiebreaker, with DJ Borton prevailing over Andrew Emerick. Ben Scholl led the pack this round with three wins and a second, and was joined in the finals by DJ Borton, Allan Jiang, Rob Murray, Jason Pytka, Jay Spencer, and Jay Matthews.

The finals were the fastest stage, taking just 16 days to complete. In three games, two players used a cotton strategy, one player used a port strategy, and one player used neither. In another three games, two players went cotton and two players went ports. And in one game, three players chose cotton while one player chose ports, which unsurprisingly resulted in the port player winning. Overall, there was a good balance as cotton strategies won four games and port strategies won three games.

In a repeat from last year, there were three double-winners in the finals. And in a repeat from last year, Rob Murray’s other finishes were the best, with a second and a third in addition to his two wins to defend his championship. Interestingly, Rob’s winning path saw him go for cotton in all of his games.

Final Standings:
1. Rob Murray
2. Allan Jiang
3. DJ Borton
4. Jason Pytka
5. Ben Scholl
6. Jay Matthews

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, 52 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.