July 2024 Monthly Challenge -- Bretton Woods

[Dukasaur]

Official Monthly Challenge for July of 2024

Brought to you by the Community Team.


Bretton Woods



In July of 1944 Allied victory in World War II was starting to become obvious. On the Russian Front, Operation Bagration had begun in late June, and by mid-August it would have led to half a million German casualties, leaving the road to central Europe open for Russian forces. In France, the British took Caen in a brutal battle of attrition, while the Americans galloped across an almost-undefended Cotentin Peninsula. In the Pacific, the Japanese were in full reverse. The Americans took Saipan on July 9th, then landed at Guam on July 21st.

With victory almost completely certain, the year in politics was spent mainly in planning for the post-war world. From July 1st to 22nd, representatives from all 44 allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire to hammer out the post-war financial order. The negotiators created the IMF and the IBRD (which later became the World Bank). They agreed to dismantle the Bank of International Settlement (although that decision was never implemented) and proposed (but failed to agree on) various other international institutions.

In the end, 43 of the 44 Allies agreed to the broad thrust of the Bretton Woods agreement, which had negotiated exchange values for all major currencies, and all being universally convertible to both gold and the U.S. dollar. The one holdout was the Soviet Union, which walked away from the agreement, protesting that it would "reduce all national banks to being branches of Wall Street." The complaint was not entirely unfounded, as Bretton Woods did mark the beginning of a world dominated by American commercial interests.

For students of economics, Bretton Woods marks the one and only major economic milestone that was settled and negotiated by (most) of the world's nations. All major economic shifts before or since were either stumbled into by accident (by climate shifts, or technological change) or imposed unilaterally by one ascendant power (Venice in the 12th century, Holland in the 16th, Britain in the 18th).

The Bretton Woods agreement was fatally wounded in 1971. The U.S. was suffering major financial dislocation as a result of Vietnam War expenditure, and in August of 1971 Richard Nixon unilaterally broke the link between gold and the U.S. dollar. Officially, the system continued, but with its one overwhelmingly-dominant power no longer participating, it was only a matter of time until the system collapsed.

In 1976 the Jamaica Accords were signed, officially admitting that Bretton Woods was dead and laying the agreement to rest.



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LINK TO JULY SCOREBOARD

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Settings -- Bronze
Map: Jamaica
Players Per Game: 4
Game Type: Standard
Initial Troops: Automatic
Play Order: Sequential
Spoils: None
Reinforcements: Unlimited
FOG: No
TRENCH: Yes
Round Limit: 20 or 30
Round Length: 24 Hours or 2 Minute Speed
Joinablility: Public

Settings -- Silver
Map: World War II Western Front
Players Per Game: 8
Game Type: Doubles
Initial Troops: Manual
Play Order: Sequential
Spoils: Nuclear
Reinforcements: ANY
FOG: Yes
TRENCH: Yes
Round Limit: 20 or 30
Round Length: 24 Hours or 2 Minute Speed
Joinablility: Public

Settings -- Gold
Map: Pirates and Merchants
Players Per Game: 6
Game Type: Terminator
Initial Troops: Automatic
Play Order: Sequential
Spoils: Flat Rate
Reinforcements: Chained
FOG: No
TRENCH: No
Round Limit: 20 or 30
Round Length: 24 Hours or 2 Minute Speed
Joinablility: Public

Settings -- Platinum
Map: World 2.1
Players Per Game: 7
Game Type: Assassin
Initial Troops: Automatic
Play Order: Sequential
Spoils: Escalating
Reinforcements: None
FOG: Yes
TRENCH: No
Round Limit: 20 or 30
Round Length: 24 Hours or 2 Minute Speed
Joinablility: Public


Medal Criteria

• Tokens are for wins only
• 1944 points are required for a medal.
• You must have two or more kinds of token, including and at least one Gold medal.
• Each Bronze win scores 90 points
• Each Silver win scores 110 points
• Each Gold win scores 135 points
• Each Platinum win scores 200 points.

Notes

• *No sign-ups required. Monthly Challenge FAQs.
• Games must start between CC Time: 2024-07-05 09:00:00 and CC Time: 2024-07-31 23:59:59 to be considered for the challenge.
• Wins will count until CC Time: 2024-08-31 23:59:59.
• Any issues will be solved by Dukasaur, and His word is final.

[Roofless]

Halo,

I cannot create the Gold map. Says settings are incompatible.

[morleyjoe]

Halo,

I cannot create the Gold map. Says settings are incompatible.

Manual is not permitted on this map with 6 players.

I've let Mad777 know too, as it appears Duk is on vaca.

[Dukasaur]

Halo,

I cannot create the Gold map. Says settings are incompatible.

Manual is not permitted on this map with 6 players.

I've let Mad777 know too, as it appears Duk is on vaca.

I'm here.

I'll pass this to BW right away. Probably won't get fixed until tomorrow morning.

[Scarlet Lady]

Halo,

I cannot create the Gold map. Says settings are incompatible.

Manual is not permitted on this map with 6 players.

I've let Mad777 know too, as it appears Duk is on vaca.

I'm here.

I'll pass this to BW right away. Probably won't get fixed until tomorrow morning.

Wouldn't it be easier just to change the settings?

[Dukasaur]

Halo,

I cannot create the Gold map. Says settings are incompatible.

Manual is not permitted on this map with 6 players.

I've let Mad777 know too, as it appears Duk is on vaca.

I'm here.

I'll pass this to BW right away. Probably won't get fixed until tomorrow morning.

Wouldn't it be easier just to change the settings?

Yes, that's what we did, but it still requires BW's intervention to change the programming on the games.

Anyway, fixed as of 2130 last night. I see some people have made games already, so all is well.

[Dukasaur]

Just to be clear, updated settings for Gold Token games...

Settings -- Gold
Map: Pirates and Merchants
Players Per Game: 6
Game Type: Terminator
Initial Troops: Automatic
Play Order: Sequential
Spoils: Flat Rate
Reinforcements: Chained
FOG: No
TRENCH: No
Round Limit: 20 or 30
Round Length: 24 Hours or 2 Minute Speed
Joinablility: Public

[xroads]

Suggestions

Why dont you make the monthly contests a little more realistic to the average player?

[Dukasaur]

Suggestions

Why dont you make the monthly contests a little more realistic to the average player?

Be specific. What difficulty level would you like to see?

[xroads]

Suggestions

Why dont you make the monthly contests a little more realistic to the average player?

Be specific. What difficulty level would you like to see?

Specifics, hard to say.

Looking back on most monthly scoreboards, there usually 10 players that even come close, and a few months not even that.

one get rid of the requirment for multiple wins in games with 6-8 people.

May for example you had to have 4 wins on conquer 500 with 6 players in the game. Lets say a player was lucky enough to win one out of every four games. That is still 16 games, and that still doesnt get you all the requirements you need.

Having settings using unique opponent kills or something that makes it attainable to more people rather than the 1-2 people who always plays 300 games a month on the monthly challenge, and 3-5 people play enough just to get the medal.

[Scarlet Lady]

I'm failing to see how you can terminate a player on these setting as you can't hit the ships:

Settings -- Gold
Map: Pirates and Merchants
Players Per Game: 6
Game Type: Terminator
Initial Troops: Automatic
Play Order: Sequential
Spoils: Flat Rate
Reinforcements: Chained
FOG: No
TRENCH: No
Round Limit: 20 or 30
Round Length: 24 Hours or 2 Minute Speed
Joinablility: Public

[plurple]

I'm failing to see how you can terminate a player on these setting as you can't hit the ships:

Settings -- Gold
Map: Pirates and Merchants
Players Per Game: 6
Game Type: Terminator
Initial Troops: Automatic
Play Order: Sequential
Spoils: Flat Rate
Reinforcements: Chained
FOG: No
TRENCH: No
Round Limit: 20 or 30
Round Length: 24 Hours or 2 Minute Speed
Joinablility: Public

Yeah this map can only be won by objective

[Dukasaur]

Suggestions

Why dont you make the monthly contests a little more realistic to the average player?

Be specific. What difficulty level would you like to see?

Specifics, hard to say.

Looking back on most monthly scoreboards, there usually 10 players that even come close, and a few months not even that.

one get rid of the requirment for multiple wins in games with 6-8 people.

May for example you had to have 4 wins on conquer 500 with 6 players in the game. Lets say a player was lucky enough to win one out of every four games. That is still 16 games, and that still doesnt get you all the requirements you need.

Having settings using unique opponent kills or something that makes it attainable to more people rather than the 1-2 people who always plays 300 games a month on the monthly challenge, and 3-5 people play enough just to get the medal.

In general, I agree. I used to be the one pushing for more challenges based on different scoring formulas, so that at least once in a while you could hope to win a Challenge without playing a million games.

It's basically my fault. Lately I've been rushing to compile the Challenges at the last minute, and haven't really assembled the creative scoring formulas that I used to do in 2016 or 2017. I'll try to get back to basics and re-examine some of the scoring formulas.

On the specific example, I don't completely agree with you.

May for example you had to have 4 wins on conquer 500 with 6 players in the game. Lets say a player was lucky enough to win one out of every four games. That is still 16 games, and that still doesnt get you all the requirements you need.

16 games is not a lot. In the early days of the Challenges, the breakpoint used to be 30 games, or roughly one new game per day. More than 30 games was considered a "spammy" Challenge, less than that was considered a reasonable load. 16 is really light.

[Dukasaur]

I'm failing to see how you can terminate a player on these setting as you can't hit the ships:

Settings -- Gold
Map: Pirates and Merchants
Players Per Game: 6
Game Type: Terminator
Initial Troops: Automatic
Play Order: Sequential
Spoils: Flat Rate
Reinforcements: Chained
FOG: No
TRENCH: No
Round Limit: 20 or 30
Round Length: 24 Hours or 2 Minute Speed
Joinablility: Public

Yeah this map can only be won by objective

Damn, I didn't know that. I've only played three games on the map before now.

Oh well, it still counts as a Terminator victory, even if it's all-or-none.

[Scarlet Lady]

Medal Criteria

• Tokens are for wins only
• 1944 points are required for a medal.
• You must have two or more kinds of token, including and at least one Gold medal.
• Each Bronze win scores 90 points
• Each Silver win scores 110 points
• Each Gold win scores 135 points
• Each Platinum win scores 200 points.

In which case, I think the requirement to have at least one Gold medal should be dropped, the achievement of 1944 points on 2 maps is going to be hard enough as it is. World 2.1 which yields the most points will be difficult to complete within the time frame due to no forts, unless you've got over an hour to spend on a 7-player speed game.

[Dukasaur]

Medal Criteria

• Tokens are for wins only
• 1944 points are required for a medal.
• You must have two or more kinds of token, including and at least one Gold medal.
• Each Bronze win scores 90 points
• Each Silver win scores 110 points
• Each Gold win scores 135 points
• Each Platinum win scores 200 points.

In which case, I think the requirement to have at least one Gold medal should be dropped, the achievement of 1944 points on 2 maps is going to be hard enough as it is. World 2.1 which yields the most points will be difficult to complete within the time frame due to no forts, unless you've got over an hour to spend on a 7-player speed game.

The Platinum games are No Forts, true, but they are escalating. An escalating game rarely lasts more than 12 turns or so (except on Trench, but they are NO Trench). Let's say 15 to be generous, because foggy escalators tend to go a little longer. So 15 turns X 7 players = 105 turns. The average turn (sitewide) is taken within 8.5 hours after the previous turn, so about 900 hours to complete one of these games, or about 36 to 37 days. That's with fairly conservative assumptions. I think many will be faster. Most of the platinum games should wrap up within the time limit. Might be a few that don't, but most should.

The Gold games are difficult, true. It's a map most people haven't played much, but that's kinda the whole point of Challenges -- to challenge yourself with maps or settings you don't normally play. Myself, I've only got three completed games on the map. I honestly have no clue how to play it, the Legend is bewildering to me, but I'll give it a shot and figure it out, and hopefully if I join 20 or so games I should win 1 or 2.

The Bronze and Silver games are much more straightforward, and they're both 1-in-4 odds, so if you join them in equal numbers and win at the expected rate of 25%, you only need to join about 34 games to rack up 1650 points. 30 if you think you're good at those settings, 40 if you're not.

That leaves only winning 1 game each of Gold and Platinum and you've got your medal. How many games you need of Gold and Platinum is up to you. I'm going to join about 20 of each because I'm not very confident, but if you have even a modicum of skill at either Pirates for the Gold or foggy assassin for the Platinum, you should be able to do it with 12 or 15. So probably something in the neighbourhood of 70 games all told. One of the tougher challenges, but definitely doable. I think I most people could do it with 70 games, and really skilled players could do it with less.

[morleyjoe]

Medal Criteria

• Tokens are for wins only
• 1944 points are required for a medal.
• You must have two or more kinds of token, including and at least one Gold medal.
• Each Bronze win scores 90 points
• Each Silver win scores 110 points
• Each Gold win scores 135 points
• Each Platinum win scores 200 points.

In which case, I think the requirement to have at least one Gold medal should be dropped, the achievement of 1944 points on 2 maps is going to be hard enough as it is. World 2.1 which yields the most points will be difficult to complete within the time frame due to no forts, unless you've got over an hour to spend on a 7-player speed game.

The Platinum games are No Forts, true, but they are escalating. An escalating game rarely lasts more than 12 turns or so (except on Trench, but they are NO Trench). Let's say 15 to be generous, because foggy escalators tend to go a little longer. So 15 turns X 7 players = 105 turns. The average turn (sitewide) is taken within 8.5 hours after the previous turn, so about 900 hours to complete one of these games, or about 36 to 37 days. That's with fairly conservative assumptions. I think many will be faster. Most of the platinum games should wrap up within the time limit. Might be a few that don't, but most should.

The Gold games are difficult, true. It's a map most people haven't played much, but that's kinda the whole point of Challenges -- to challenge yourself with maps or settings you don't normally play. Myself, I've only got three completed games on the map. I honestly have no clue how to play it, the Legend is bewildering to me, but I'll give it a shot and figure it out, and hopefully if I join 20 or so games I should win 1 or 2.

The Bronze and Silver games are much more straightforward, and they're both 1-in-4 odds, so if you join them in equal numbers and win at the expected rate of 25%, you only need to join about 34 games to rack up 1650 points. 30 if you think you're good at those settings, 40 if you're not.

That leaves only winning 1 game each of Gold and Platinum and you've got your medal. How many games you need of Gold and Platinum is up to you. I'm going to join about 20 of each because I'm not very confident, but if you have even a modicum of skill at either Pirates for the Gold or foggy assassin for the Platinum, you should be able to do it with 12 or 15. So probably something in the neighbourhood of 70 games all told. One of the tougher challenges, but definitely doable. I think I most people could do it with 70 games, and really skilled players could do it with less.

Well done, agreed. Thanks!

[Scarlet Lady]

• Tokens are for wins only
• 1944 points are required for a medal.
• You must have two or more kinds of token, including and at least one Gold medal.
• Each Bronze win scores 90 points
• Each Silver win scores 110 points
• Each Gold win scores 135 points
• Each Platinum win scores 200 points.

The Bronze and Silver games are much more straightforward, and they're both 1-in-4 odds, so if you join them in equal numbers and win at the expected rate of 25%, you only need to join about 34 games to rack up 1650 points. 30 if you think you're good at those settings, 40 if you're not.

I think your maths is little awry.

If you join 34 games and win 25% that equals 8.5 x 100 (average of bronze & silver) = 850. To get 1650 (actually 1700) you need to play 68 games. So you need to win another 244 points in 2 games if you only play 70!

That leaves only winning 1 game each of Gold and Platinum and you've got your medal. How many games you need of Gold and Platinum is up to you. I'm going to join about 20 of each because I'm not very confident, but if you have even a modicum of skill at either Pirates for the Gold or foggy assassin for the Platinum, you should be able to do it with 12 or 15. So probably something in the neighbourhood of 70 games all told. One of the tougher challenges, but definitely doable. I think I most people could do it with 70 games, and really skilled players could do it with less.

Realistically most people would need to play at least 83 games (based on your calculations): 34 bronze (765), 34 silver (935), 15 gold/silver (335)

Is there any chance you could modify the criteria to make the target attainable in less games? Thanks

[sm8900]

this info is helpful. thanks!

[Dukasaur]

• Tokens are for wins only
• 1944 points are required for a medal.
• You must have two or more kinds of token, including and at least one Gold medal.
• Each Bronze win scores 90 points
• Each Silver win scores 110 points
• Each Gold win scores 135 points
• Each Platinum win scores 200 points.

The Bronze and Silver games are much more straightforward, and they're both 1-in-4 odds, so if you join them in equal numbers and win at the expected rate of 25%, you only need to join about 34 games to rack up 1650 points. 30 if you think you're good at those settings, 40 if you're not.

I think your maths is little awry.

If you join 34 games and win 25% that equals 8.5 x 100 (average of bronze & silver) = 850. To get 1650 (actually 1700) you need to play 68 games. So you need to win another 244 points in 2 games if you only play 70!

Yeah, you're right. I did screw forget to divide by two when averaging them, so you do need 68, not 34.

Is there any chance you could modify the criteria to make the target attainable in less games? Thanks

No, but we are overdue for some Challenges with a smaller game load. Will have one for September.

[groovysmurf]

Thanks to all who played and congratulations to Roofless for coming in 1st place!

Achievements and prizes awarded.