BPA

Through the Ages BPA Tournament 2024

This is the home page for the 2024-25 Boardgame Players Association “Play By Email”  tournament for Through the Ages. 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 2024, 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: Randy Buehler and Galen Loram

Tournament Format

This tournament will be played on the TTA app by Czech Games that launched in 2017 for iOS, Android, and Steam. You must own the app AND the New Leaders and Wonders expansion in order to participate in the tournament.
 
This tournament using the TTA app Tournament feature, which will automatically create games, balance seat order in the final round (and possibly also in the semifinals), record finished games, and automatically calculate standings.
 
Games will be 4-player, use “Random Mix” for the card set, “Rules: Digital”, and “Default Async” 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).
 
Stages: There will be 3 stages in the tournament: heats, semifinals, and finals. In each stage, all players will play in 4 simultaneous asynchronous games.
 
Advancement: Advancement will depend on number of participants.
  • 26-31 participants: Top 13 in heat standings will advance to the semifinals where each semifinalist will play all others once. Top 5 in semifinal standings will advance to the finals where each finalist will play the others three times each.
  • 32-47 participants: Top 16 in heat standings will advance to the 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.
  • 48+ participants: Top 20 in heat standings will advance to the semifinals where each semifinalist will play 12 different opponents; seeds 1-4 will not play each other, seeds 5-8 will face exactly one top 8 player in each game, and seeds 9-20 will face either one or two top 8 players in each game. 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. Points for tied positions in games will be divided evenly among the tied players.
 
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. Later average seat order in current stage, then in previous stage(s)
  7. Random

Resignation: Players may resign as their political action prior to age IV, by clicking on ‘Game Menu’, ‘Forfeit the Game’, and ‘More about resigning”. A player who resigns will place last among the players currently in a game, and will still earn tournament points
accordingly.

Pace of Play: The game app has a timer function which it automatically enforces. You get 24 hours whenever you have to make a decision, which includes responding to colonization/aggressions/pacts on others’ turns, and your own turns. If you go beyond 24 hours, then you will start to deplete your personal time reserve of 72 hours, which refreshes at the start of age II and age III. For example, if you moved yesterday at 3 pm and a colony flips on someone else’s turn yesterday at 3:15 pm, but you don’t move until today at 8 pm, then you’ve used up the 24 hours, plus 4 hours and 45 minutes of your time reserve.

Bot Alert: When a player runs out of time or abandons a game, the app replaces that player with a bot. This is generally unpleasant for all parties involved, so please resign on your political action if you will not be finishing the game. You will not receive any points for games in which you were replaced by a bot, while the remaining players will receive points according to their finish rank including the bot.

 If a player is replaced by a bot in age I and in the first two weeks of a stage, then the game is to be restarted as a 3-player game unless all players agree to continue playing with the bot. If a player is replaced by a bot at any other point, then the game may be restarted as a 3-player game if all players agree and the GM approves, on the basis that this restart will not prolong the stage.
 

Sportsmanship: Please be respectful to your opponents. Each player is entitled to make their own decisions in the game. However, it is not permitted to discuss pacts before offering them, to reveal any hidden information, or to intentionally help another player without any personal benefit in game. If you have any concerns, please contact the GM team.

Schedule

Registration Opens: March 21, 2024

Registration Closes: August 5, 2024

Heat Stage Starts: August 12, 2024

Semifinals Start: TBD, likely October 2024
 
Finals Start: TBD, likely December 2024

Sign Ups

Sign up below, or click here for the form in a new window

Quirky Quarks BPA Tournament

—-TOURNAMENT CANCELLED AS WE DID NOT GET SUFFICIENT SIGNUPS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST!—

This is the home page for the 2024 Boardgame Players Association “Play By Email”  tournament for Quirky Quarks. 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 2024, then you are already a member. If not, you can purchase an “Associate Membership” (PBEM only) for $10 from this website: .If 24+ players sign up, this tournament will award laurels and contribute to the annual Caesar award, all of which is tracked through that same website.If we get less players, then we may run this as an unofficial tournament.
 

GM: Allan Jiang

AGMs: TBD

Tournament Format

This tournament will be played on BoardGameArena. The goal of this tournament is to introduce the game to BPA members to help prepare them for the tournament at this year’s WBC.
 
You can learn the rules of the game at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pcRUmHIGyI I recommend playing one or more games on BGA before the tournament starts to get familiar with the game and the interface.
 
Stages: There will be 2 stages in the tournament: heats and finals.
 
Heats: All players will play 2 simultaneous asynchronous games in the heats. We will try to  have all players play a 3-player game and a 4-player game, but this will depend on the exact number of signups.
 
Heats Standings: You will earn points as described below:
Win = 1000 points + one-tenth of your score / 2nd place score
Second = 100 points + your score / winner’s score
Third = 10 points + your score / winner’s score
Fourth = 1 point + your score / winner’s score
 

Advancement:

-1 to 5 double winners: Top 4 advance directly to the finals in a winner-take all game to determine the top 4 places in the tournament. The game will be asynchronous by default, but the finalists may choose to play it live if they are able to schedule it.

-6 to 10 double winners: Top 9 players each play a single 3p semifinal game, each consisting of a player in the top 3, middle 3, and bottom 3 in the standings. Winners plus the closest second place by % will advance to the finals.

Pace of Play: You are expected to check your games and take your turns (at least) once per day.


Schedule

Registration Opens: March 21, 2024

Registration Closes: May 15, 2024

Heats Start: May 22, 2024

Finals Start: Upon Completion of Heats

Sign Ups

Please sign up using the form below, or click here to open in a new window

BPA Through the Ages Online Tournament 2023

Sign Up
Game Assignments
Standings
This is the home page for the 2023 Boardgame Players Association “Play By Email”  tournament for Through the Ages. 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 2023, 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: Randy Buehler and Galen Loram

Tournament Format

This tournament will be played on the TTA app by Czech Games that launched in 2017 for iOS, Android, and Steam. You must own the app AND the New Leaders and Wonders expansion in order to participate in the tournament.
 
This tournament using the TTA app Tournament feature, which will automatically create games, balance seat order in the final round (and possibly also in the semifinals), record finished games, and automatically calculate standings.
 
Games will be 4-player, use “Random Mix” for the card set, “Rules: Digital”, and “Default Async” 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).
 
Stages: There will be 3 stages in the tournament: heats, semifinals, and finals. In each stage, all players will play in 4 simultaneous asynchronous games.
 
Advancement: Advancement will depend on number of participants.
  • 26-31 participants: Top 13 in heat standings will advance to the semifinals where each semifinalist will play all others once. Top 5 in semifinal standings will advance to the finals where each finalist will play the others three times each.
  • 32-47 participants: Top 16 in heat standings will advance to the 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.
  • 48+ participants: Top 20 in heat standings will advance to the semifinals where each semifinalist will play 12 different opponents; seeds 1-4 will not play each other, seeds 5-8 will face exactly one top 8 player in each game, and seeds 9-20 will face either one or two top 8 players in each game. 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. Points for tied positions in games will be divided evenly among the tied players.
 
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. Later average seat order in current stage, then in previous stage(s)
  7. Random

Resignation: Players may resign as their political action prior to age IV, by clicking on ‘Game Menu’, ‘Forfeit the Game’, and ‘More about resigning”. A player who resigns will place last among the players currently in a game, and will still earn tournament points
accordingly.

Pace of Play: You are expected to check your games and take your turns (at least) once per day. 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.

June 2023 clarification: The game app has a timer function which it automatically enforces. You get 24 hours whenever you have to make a decision, which includes responding to colonization/aggressions/pacts on others’ turns, and your own turns. If you go beyond 24 hours, then you will start to deplete your personal time reserve of 72 hours, which refreshes every age. For example, if you moved yesterday at 3 pm and a colony flips on someone else’s turn yesterday at 3:15 pm, but you don’t move until today at 8 pm, then you’ve used up the 24 hours, plus 4 hours and 45 minutes of your time reserve.

Bot Alert: When a player runs out of time or abandons a game, the app replaces that player with a bot. This is generally unpleasant for all parties involved, so please resign on your political action if you will not be finishing the game. You will not receive any points for games in which you were replaced by a bot, while the remaining players will receive points according to their finish rank including the bot.

 
If a player is replaced by a bot in age I and in the first two weeks of a stage, then the game is to be restarted as a 3-player game unless all players agree to continue playing with the bot. If a player is replaced by a bot at any other point, then the game may be restarted as a 3-player game if all players agree and the GM approves, on the basis that this restart will not prolong the stage.
 

Sportsmanship: Please be respectful to your opponents. Each player is entitled to make their own decisions in the game. However, it is not permitted to discuss pacts before offering them, to reveal any hidden information, or to intentionally help another player without any personal benefit in game. If you have any concerns, please contact the GM team.

Schedule

Registration Opens: April 6, 2023

Registration Closes: May 15, 2023

Heat Stage Started: May 19, 2023

Semifinals Start: August 2023
 
Finals Start: October 2023

Game Assignments

We will use the CGE tournament feature to automatically create games.

Game Results

We will use the CGE tournament feature to automatically track standings.

Sign Ups

Signups are now closed

BPA Through the Ages Tournament 2022

Results
This is the home page for the 2022 Boardgame Players Association “Play By Email”  tournament for Through the Ages. 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 2022, 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: Randy Buehler and Galen Loram

Tournament Format

This tournament will be played on the TTA app by Czech Games that launched in 2017 for iOS, Android, and Steam. You must own the app AND the New Leaders and Wonders expansion in order to participate in the tournament.
 
This tournament using the TTA app Tournament feature, which will automatically create games, balance seat order in the final round (and possibly also in the semifinals), record finished games, and automatically calculate standings.
 
Games will be 4-player, use “Random Mix” for the card set, “Rules: Digital”, and “Default Async” 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).

Stages: There will be 3 stages in the tournament: heats, semifinals, and finals. In each stage, all players will play in 4 simultaneous asynchronous games.
 
Advancement: Advancement will depend on number of participants.
  • 26-31 participants: Top 13 in heat standings will advance to the semifinals where each semifinalist will play all others once. Top 5 in semifinal standings will advance to the finals where each finalist will play the others three times each.
  • 32-47 participants: Top 16 in heat standings will advance to the 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.
  • 48+ participants: Top 20 in heat standings will advance to the semifinals where each semifinalist will play 12 different opponents; seeds 1-4 will not play each other, seeds 5-8 will face exactly one top 8 player in each game, and seeds 9-20 will face either one or two top 8 players in each game. 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. Points for tied positions in games will be divided evenly among the tied players.
 
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. Later average seat order in current stage, then in previous stage(s)
  7. Random

Resignation: Players may resign as their political action prior to age IV, by clicking on ‘Game Menu’, ‘Forfeit the Game’, and ‘More about resigning”. A player who resigns will place last among the players currently in a game, and will still earn tournament points
accordingly.

Bot Alert: When a player runs out of time or abandons a game, the app replaces that player with a bot. This is generally unpleasant for all parties involved, so please resign on your political action if you will not be finishing the game. You will not receive any points for games in which you were replaced by a bot, while the remaining players will receive points according to their finish rank including the bot.
 
If a player is replaced by a bot in age I and in the first two weeks of a stage, then the game is to be restarted as a 3-player game unless all players agree to continue playing with the bot. If a player is replaced by a bot at any other point, then the game may be restarted as a 3-player game if all players agree and the GM approves, on the basis that this restart will not prolong the stage.
 

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.

Sportsmanship: Please be respectful to your opponents. Each player is entitled to make their own decisions in the game. However, it is not permitted to discuss pacts before offering them, to reveal any hidden information, or to intentionally help another player without any personal benefit in game. If you have any concerns, please contact the GM team.

Schedule

Registration Opens: May 30, 2022

Registration Closes: July 22, 2022

Heat Stage Starts: August 1, 2022

Semifinals Start: September/October 2022
 
Finals Start: November/December 2022

Tournament Results

28 players played a total of 46 games (all 4-player) in this year’s tournament. We used the CGE tournament interface again with the same format as last year, although we cut to different numbers for the semifinals and finals.

Heats: Nathan Heiss set this year’s high score with 339. Four games were decided by 1 culture or less: a tie between Nathan and Aran Warszawski, a win by Andrew Norgren over Luke Heinz, and two wins by Kevin Wojtaszczyk over Mike Assante and Aran. Andrew Norgren topped the field with three wins and a second, while Galen Loram and Allan Jiang also managed 3 wins each. There was a 3-way tie at 22 points for the final qualifying spot, which Nathan Heiss took in a tiebreak over Joel Lytle and Antero Kuusi.

Semifinals: 13 players played one game in each seat, and faced everyone else exactly once. Mike Assante had the most lopsided win of the tournament (291-158). That was one of four blowouts in this round, with Galen, Aran, and AJ also winning a game by 80+ culture. All four of those big winners made it to the finals, with Randy Buehler joining them. There was once again a tie for the final spot, this time at 20 points; Galen advanced due to his better record in the heats, over Kevin Wojtaszczyk who took 6th place.

Finals: The stage is now set for the finals. Galen has won both of his first two BPA TTA events, and is looking to make it a threepeat in the online tournament. Randy and AJ are looking to add to their hardware as the two top laurelists in BPA TTA history. Aran is a frequent finalist looking to break through, while Mike recently made it to the top division of the TTA Meeple League and is in his first TTA finals. All finalists play once in each seat, and face everyone else three times.

Game 1 – Galen has a tough start in first seat, losing a worker to Barbarians and territory to Uncertain Borders. But in the middle of age II, he wins the Vast Territory I with a single unit and switches his military to Cannons with Fortifications, quickly turning a bad position into an utterly dominating one. Galen does on to win with the highest score and margin of the finals, 239-168. Meanwhile, AJ went for a military all-in, and successfully attacked Randy and Aran to take 2nd place.
Game 2 – A close one until early age III, when AJ in first seat plays Napoleonic Army backed by his Great Wall, Annexes Mike’s Vast Territory II, and hits 60 strength in an early War over Culture against Galen. Aran makes a later military push for 2nd.
Game 3 – Aran’s in first seat, but falls behind in military in age II. Randy gets a strong Barbarossa supported by Irrigation and St. Peter’s Basilica. Mike gets plenty of territory with Uncertain Borders, Vast Territory I, and adds Ocean Liner. Randy plays Mobile Artillery as his tactic, and then switches to culture production with Chaplin and theatres. Mike builds two age III wonders, but can’t quite catch Randy, who wins from fourth seat!
Game 4 – Randy and Mike get a huge boost in early age III by “winning” Cold War and making an International Tourism pact. Randy in first seat plays a strong economy game eventually leading to 2 operas, computers with Sid Meier, and a massive 36-point Empire State Building. But all hell breaks loose as AJ launches a dicey last-chance War over Culture on Mike in a desperate attempt to close the gap with them. This prompts Mike to also go all-in on his turn, seeding Impact of Strength (!!!) as the weakest player and knowing Politics of Strength (!) was in the deck. He catches the break he needed, hitting Arms Race to win the war and the game, with Randy taking 2nd place. If Politics had flipped instead, then the top 3 end in reverse order.
Game 5 – It all comes down to this game, with all four contestants otherwise having 16-19 points. Mike has the first seat advantage, and takes a big lead finding Vast Territory I with Columbus and then winning Uncertain Borders. Randy also gains territory (3 tokens) by the end of age II, but his lack of civil actions cost him dearly in the endgame. On the flipside, Galen is down 3 territory by the end of age II, yet manages to hang on with a good economy. AJ gets into a population crunch, even disbanding a Scientific Method in age II, but fights back into contention by pushing military in age III and successfully attacking all other players. 
In the end, it all came down to the impacts with Mike, AJ, and Galen in that order but all in contention. A total of 9 impacts were scored, including one by Galen’s United Nations, with all three of them scoring a total of 131 or 132 culture. Mike wins 238-236!! Congratulations Mike!!!

Standings:
1. Mike Assante
2. Allan Jiang
3. Randy Buehler
4. Galen Loram
5. Aran Warszawski
6. Kevin Wojtaszczyk

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 Through the Ages Tournament 2021

Results
This is the home page for the 2021 Boardgame Players Association “Play By Email”  tournament for Through the Ages. 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: Randy Buehler and Galen Loram

Tournament Format

This tournament will be played on the TTA app by Czech Games that launched in 2017 for iOS, Android, and Steam. You must own the app AND the New Leaders and Wonders expansion in order to participate in the tournament.
 
The GM will attempt to run this tournament using the TTA app Tournament feature, which will require an extra confirmation step by participants. The Tournament feature will automatically create games, balance seat order in the final round (and possibly also in the semifinals), record finished games, and automatically calculate standings.
 
Games will be 4-player, use “Random Mix” for the card set, “Rules: Digital”, and “Default Async” 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).

Stages: There will be 3 stages in the tournament: heats, semifinals, and finals. In each stage, all players will play in 4 simultaneous asynchronous games.
 
Advancement: Advancement will depend on number of participants. Details on semifinal matchups are subject to change depending on the capabilities of the TTA app Tournament feature.
  • 26-31 participants: Top 13 in heat standings will advance to the semifinals where each semifinalist will play all others once. Top 5 in semifinal standings will advance to the finals where each finalist will play the others three times each.
  • 32-47 participants: Top 16 in heat standings will advance to the 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.
  • 48+ participants: Top 20 in heat standings will advance to the semifinals where each semifinalist will play 12 different opponents; seeds 1-4 will not play each other, seeds 5-8 will face exactly one top 8 player in each game, and seeds 9-20 will face either one or two top 8 players in each game. 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. Points for tied positions in games will be divided evenly among the tied players.
 
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. Later average seat order in current stage, then in previous stage(s)
  7. Random

Resignation: Players may resign as their political action prior to age IV, by clicking on ‘Game Menu’, ‘Forfeit the Game’, and ‘More about resigning”. A player who resigns will place last among the players currently in a game, and will still earn tournament points accordingly.

Bot Alert: When a player runs out of time or abandons a game, the app replaces that player with a bot. This is generally unpleasant for all parties involved, so please resign on your political action if you will not be finishing the game. You will not receive any points for games in which you were replaced by a bot, while the remaining players will receive points according to their finish rank including the bot.
 
If a player is replaced by a bot in age I and in the first two weeks of a stage, then the game is to be restarted as a 3-player game unless all players agree to continue playing with the bot. If a player is replaced by a bot at any other point, then the game may be restarted as a 3-player game if all players agree and the GM approves, on the basis that this restart will not prolong the stage.
 

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.

Sportsmanship: Please be respectful to your opponents. Each player is entitled to make their own decisions in the game. However, it is not permitted to discuss pacts before offering them, to reveal any hidden information, or to intentionally help another player without any personal benefit in game. If you have any concerns, please contact the GM team.

Schedule

Registration Opens: June 13, 2021

Registration Closes: July 25, 2021

Heat Stage Starts: ~August 4, 2021

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

Results

Thirty-eight participants played 61 games in this year’s TTA PBEM tournament, which was run using CzechGames’s tournament interface for the first time. The CGE interface allowed for balanced seating in the latter rounds, automatic game creation, easy checks on tournament progress, and automated results into standings. Also new this year were a consistent format throughout all rounds (4 games each, weighted 10-6-3-1), a strict 16 players in the seeded semifinals, and new rules when players are replaced by bots.

In the heats, Mike Turian lead the way with three wins and a second, while Ryan Feathers, Jason Leggett, and Steve LeWinter each had two wins and two seconds and rounded out the top 4. Kevin Warrender set the high score with 375 culture, and finished the round with 23 tournament points, taking the 16th and final spot in the semifinals on tiebreaker over the GM, who managed to sabotage himself with all the new rules introduced in this year’s tournament.

In the semifinals, everyone faced all the other semifinalists except for those in their quartile in the heats standings. Steve LeWinter was the star of this semis, with three outright wins and a tie for 1st/2nd, and the high score of the round with 273 culture. Jason Leggett was just behind with three wins and a second. Joining them in the finals were Galen Loram, Randy Buehler, Eric Freeman, Michael Thiessen, and Mike Turian, who made it in with 20 tournament points plus tiebreaker over Sceadeau d’Tela.

Finals report by Galen:

The finals of the Through The Ages tournament featured a whole range of exciting games that somehow all turned out okay for me. In one of them, only knight tactics were played and despite desperate attempts to stay within strength range, aggression after aggression landed. I finally was lucky enough to give up my sovereignty to Randy and be a bit sheltered from attacks and safe from wars; Watt flipped an early oil which let me build up which, when combined with a Mech ag, let me stabilize and grab wonders while not being part of the wars flying left and right, and sneak out a win. Another one featured a random early printing press and Jan Zizka to get a nice culture lead early and endure some abuse later on; Mike and I had symbiotic civilizations and a big enough culture gap between us that our impacts together took him from fourth to third and me from second to first. One other game featured a nice military and Jason realizing that I was in the driver’s seat, and that playing for second was his best play – sending a military alliance my way to direct my hostilities other ways. The other game was just a “first seat doing first seat” things – the built in advantage of going first was enough to make the game go reasonably smoothly.

The CGE tournament system was a huge boon. We could see where we were relative to other games in terms of progress and everyone in the last game was sweet enough to speed up play in order to ensure that we could finish the tournament on time. Beyond that, having seat order balanced and a bit of seeding in the semis based on the heats was really great – definitely things that I hope to see in the future! Thanks to all the participants and organizer for a great tournament, and I hope to give defending my crown for a three-peat next year a try!

Congratulations to Galen Loram for winning both of his first two BPA TTA tournaments! Will anyone be able to challenge him? Next tournament will start in spring 2022.

The final standings were:

  1. Galen Loram
  2. Michael Thiessen
  3. Michael Turian
  4. Steven LeWinter
  5. Jason Leggett
  6. Eric Freeman

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 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 Began: December 13

(No Quarterfinal Stage)

Semifinals Began: April 15, 2020

Finals Begin: August 2, 2020

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

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.

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.