Beckytheblondie wrote:round 3 should be escalating, this will take forever and we will never move to round 4
I actually thought pretty good about this one. I'll put out my line of reasoning, but feel free to continue the discussion.
First of all, the map is the plain Australia map, not Rail or Cairns Coral Coast or Sydney Metro, etc. This map is relatively small, so I hope to keep people fighting. Also, in my experience, I find that bonuses are generally not held, as they are too open. The easiest bonus is the bottom right, worth +2 armies. The problem with this bonus is that at least two players will aim for it every time. Additionally, there will be some cards, so movement should occur.
The game is about survival. I didn't want to use escalating cards, because I didn't want it to come down to a large sweep, where one player just randomly decided to kill one player before another. I was hoping it could come down to positioning and strategy. Also, this map is very open in the pretty much all areas. Lake Eyre, Uluru and Western Downs all open to several other territories. I think that there should be an opportunity to always go for a kill, if you think you are strong enough. However, that might also leave you vulnerable. I did avoid no cards, because obviously everyone would just build.
Finally, the rule on round limits is designed that I can add them if necessary, although I don't want to. However, if games hit 15 rounds, I will take a look at them, and make an announcement before 20 rounds. I will leave AT LEAST 10 rounds for them to end, so you can adjust your strategy accordingly. Like I said though, I REALLY do not want to have to do this.
Also, I plan on starting about a game every 5 days. Everyone is Premium. So I expect Round 4 to happen in about three weeks, regardless. the last two rounds should be fairly short, assassin games generally do not last all that long.
I continue to encourage feedback, however. These are new ways of scoring, and I thought long and hard about balancing them. Feel free to let me know how a map changed the outcome, or if the settings were not ideal, or anything. I hope, in the future, to continue to run tournaments with these alternative objectives.
tl;dr version:
I thought a lot about the settings.
Round limits will be imposed, BUT ONLY IF ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.
Games to start about every 5 days to keep tourney moving.
Australia map shouldn't encourage building, by my conclusions.