HGR Journal Entry 002...

December 30, 2005

This one's for the books. Unusually high attendance of WFB players came that day with both Saturday and Sunday WFB regulars playing or just passing through. In fact, the attendance was big enough to even hold an impromptu mini-tourney based on the numbers. It was just ironic that NG Galleria was scheduled to close early at 6pm (scheduled company Christmas party) when there are so many players who would want to put some games in. Attendees that day were as follows:

1. Lito (who I understand has left earlier when I arrived)
2. Ryan
3. Emcee
4. Ronald
5. Ian (looking at prospect of crossing over to Fantasy next year)
6. Kim (only passing the time while waiting for the Commander-in-Chief )
7. Jun
8. Clarence
9. Clemence
10. EJ
11. Jeff
12. Gelo
13. Justin
14. Obi (40k player crossing over to Fantasy using Orcs and Goblins!)
15. Romy

Some results that day:

Emcee (Brets) vs. Ryan (Brets) - Result: Ryan's Bretonnians win this Balikatan Exercise
Ryan (Brets) vs. Romy (Dark Elves) - Result: Ryan's Bretonnians prevailed over the Dark Elves today
Ronald (Vampire Counts) vs. Jun (Chaos Khorne) - Result: Vampire Counts win!
Clarence (Vampire Counts) vs. Obi (Orcs and Goblins) - Result: Clarence wins in Obi's first ever WFB game!

Obi just got his push in the right direction in the WFB scene courtesy of Clarence (newly designated WFB newbie rapist? ). Don't worry Dude, everybody falls the first time (take it from a guy who's used to falling. ) Ian has shown interest in starting WFB (maybe Brets *shiver*) and got Ronald (WFB grizzled cheezy veteran) giving the backgrounder and subtle differences between WFB and WH40k game systems well into the night (Ian's interest really got Ronald on a roll. )

The atmosphere was festive that afternoon despite the thought that NG will close early, thanks to Gelo's words of wisdom (and stealthy exit I might add ). Ended up with a game of billiards with some of the guys who wanted to get even before we called it a day. No official scores were tracked by the guys after my 10th straight win. OT: Mental note to restudy my billiard game. I think I'm losing my edge...

HGR Journal Entry 001...

December 26, 2005

Several Galleria regulars wanted to try out Fantasy gaming for a change after the rigors of the previous 40k Glad Cup. Reporting for duty that day were Salubri, The Meanderer, midnight and Kyuzo. Summary of results are as follows:

Salubri (Brets) vs. The Meanderer (Wood Elves) - Win for Bretonnians
midnight (Vampire Counts) vs. Kyuzo (Dark Elves) - Convincing massacre by the Undead
Salubri (Brets) vs. midnight (Vampire Counts) - The Lady favored the Bretonnians that day

Some things of note that day:

1. Although I saw only briefly the game between the Bretonnians and Wood Elves, I would like to note of The Meanderers steady pick up of the Wood Elves' strengths and was able to threaten to envelop the Bretonnian surge as early as the second round. Mental note for me to be wary of this force from Athel Loren the next time we meet.
2. Midnight's Blood Dragons are fierce and difficult to beat. I decided to lay back majority of my troops and sent my dark riders forward as outriders. Midnight's wolves made short work of them and my RBT's were not able to give the support they needed. Midnight noted after the game that my general overextended and is forced to go up against the black knights on its own which led to his eventual demise. Was able to take out at least one of his necromancers but by then my two sorcs died quickly soon after and things went a lot faster from then on. :D
3. Midnight should have invoked more troops and used Van Hel's when the time was appropriate to counter charge Salubri's lances. His magic went full circle on him when he miscast a couple of times in that game (I counted three times I think).
4. It was proven in the above games that players can provide an appropriate amount of magic defense against magic heavy armies.
5. We were all rusty on our knowledge of the rules. Will edit into this post any comments from your post-game analyses.

Some rules/info worth remembering:

a. Units can deny enemy units from marching if they are within 8" at the start of the Movement phase.
b. Spirit hosts, despite 4 attacks per base are US 3 per base.
c. Fast cavalry, when rallying after fleeing as a previous charge reaction, can move in the Remaining Moves portion of the Movement phase. They cannot shoot.

...

After all the trash talking and rules consulting, we then headed off to play a couple of games of billiards to finish the day. Midnight and Salubri showed great competitiveness and did not dissapoint in playing a good game. Results are as follows:

9-Ball Challenge : Kyuzo-14, Midnight-6, Salubri-5
Killers: Kyuzo-2, Midnight-0, Salubri-0

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to the 101st Galleria Regulars! May your dice rolls favor the brave! Hehehe...

2005 40k Glad Cup Finals

FYI: It's on December 17, 2005, 10am at Pitshop (current venue according to the RHGC thread). Game format's not yet posted as of this writing but finalists are seeded as follows:

142pts - Art (Pitshop)
129pts - Freddie (ATC)
128pts - Doc Lance (Pitshop)
121pts(tama ba compute ko?) - Jonathan (Galleria)
114pts - Emcee (Galleria)
109pts - Donel (ATC)
104pts - Ronald (Hobby Haven)
109pts(but 6games only) - Gelo (G2)

Good luck to Jonathan and Emcee in representing Galleria Regulars! Also to Ronald for representing Hobby Haven but a Galleria regular nonetheless. Happy hunting and give 'em hell boys! :D

Back to Zero

Since we seem to be getting new players and the lack of table space during card tourneys at NG, I therefore propose that each player prep a 500 pt list in addition to the usual 2k pt lists. (700 if the newbs can make it. i think there are 2)

So sigis... no more dropping by NG without an army. 500 pts of BT can fit in tiny lunchbox. :P

League Missions

I've been going over the possible missions for the league and so far these are my best picks:

Double Round Robin(tama ba spelling ko? :D):
1st round - "Recon"
2nd round - "Secure and Control"

Knockout Round
"Rescue"

balian seems to be right in his assumption. mukhang walang fair na raid mission. they all seem to favor the attacker. medyo 1up yung 1 free round of shooting before the alarm is sounded and for assaulting armies... i forsee massacres. bleugh...

Semi Finals (best of 3)
1st round - "Take and Hold"
2nd round - "Hold at all Costs" <- this is a battle mission
3rd Round(optional round, some players might make 2 straight wins in the previous mission) - "Modified Bunker Assault"

I plan on changing the rules so as not to make it a turkey shoot. So far what I want to do is reduce the VP award for shooting/ breaching a bunker. It seems to me that doing so is very easy for anyone with a Lascannon. Not to mention Bright/Dark Lances. xP So I suggest making the VP award for Breaching a bunker should be 1/4th of what it should be. I suggest having 3 bunkers for the defending side. That would make capturing a bunker, though difficult, very rewarding(500 pts. at 1,500 pts. if i'm correct) whereas blowing it away yields less VP (125 pts.).

Finals (Best of 3)
"Fire Sweep"
"Coup de Main"
"Grand Assault"

I was looking for difficult missions for the finals but couldn't find them in the missions on the BBB. Raids were too stealthy and unbalanced, the battle missions were weak and the standard pick up game missions lacked the necessary kick... So I browsed thru Codex: City Fight and found these interesting missions. They all involve wrestling buildings from the defender. I will have to modify them a bit as well to port them over to 4th ed. This will basically set our terrain for Finals as an "Urban Jungle". Lots o buildings and LOS blockers.

Some Thoughts:
1. I was thinking of giving player performances an impact on succeeding games. Say one player wins his current mission, depending on the kind of victory(minor victory, major victory , massacre) he gets, he will then have the option to either:
a. choose to deploy first(minor)
b. choose to pick his table edge(major)
c. choose to go first(massacre)...

this system will reward players for their efforts in previous games... i'm
only considering these things :
a. the effect on his opponent
b. what happens when opposing players tied
(ex: both had minor victories in previous games?)?
c. there will be different rewards when the mission is non standard
(for battles we let the guy who gets a massacre become attacker or defender etc...)

2. We should follow the convention stated in the book... terrain when arranged together should be enough to cover 25% of the table. The exception for this would be the missions in the finals which will be Urban "Nightmares". :P

3. I would personally like it if we could cook up a way to make each army's strategy rating provide some nifty stuff in the league. can't think of anything that won't be too fancy though. :D

Something New To Read

Im in. Thanks Salubri. O, bakbakan na!

commenting

just in case you guys are new to bloging. you can comment on each of the posts by clicking on the comments link at the end of each post. the letter might be small din kasi. :D

101st Ranking System

December 6 : Additional notes

Rating updates would be done per cycle.
Cycle for pick-up games is weekly, weekend is every Saturday.
Cycle for tournaments is the entire duration of the event. In case of long term events, cycle would be up for discussion.

Coefficient (K) will be double for major tournaments such as GT, JAM Cup, Gladiator, etc.

Bonus points (regardless of performance; cumulative) will be given as follows :
1)Joining a major tournament (100) or minor tourney (50)
2)Winning over-all or Best General in a major tourney (200) or minor tourney (100)
3)Winning best sportsman ("your quality will be known among your enemies, and forever you meet them, my friend"... something like that); 50 major tourney, 25 for minor
4) Winning best painted (you look good, that counts for something); 50 major tourney, 25 for minor event
5) Extraordinary feats (killing 2 carnifexes in a game in close combat, for example); 25 pts. Must be nominated by at least one, with concurrence of 3 other.

Ratings will be affected by games outside of Galleria Sector (non rated players). For computation purposes, default ratings of non 101st players are :

Tourney format -
Tourney Champ/Best General - 2000
Others - 1750

Pick-up games - 1750

This should effectively adjust our ratings when gauged against players outside of the sector

This would not be like in mordheim wherein you have auto exp when battling a higher ranked opponent... yes there is a premium but you still have to win to get additional rating points...

One player, one rating ( I nixed my idea of multiple ratings per army you have )
--------------------------------------------------------------------

December 5, 2005 :

Here's my proposal on the ranking system.

Our's would be based on the ELO rating system used for chess.

Ranks would be the following :
0000-1199 Private
1200-1399 Sergeant
1400-1599 Lieutenant
1600-1799 Captain
1800-1999 Major
2000-2199 General
2200-2399 Commander
2400-up Warmaster

We all start as privates, at 1000 pts. The basic premise is that your actual performance in a game or a series of games is compared to your should be performance based on your current rating and the current rating of your opponents. You are expected to win over someone with a lower rating, your are expected to draw an opponent with equal rating, and so on...

Probability Table:

Probability Rating Difference (your rating - rating of opponent)
0.99 677
0.98 589
0.97 538
0.96 501
0.95 470
0.94 444
0.93 422
0.92 401
0.91 383
0.90 366
0.89 351
0.88 335
0.87 322
0.86 309
0.85 296
0.84 284
0.83 273
0.82 262
0.81 251
0.80 240
0.79 230
0.78 220
0.77 211
0.76 202
0.75 193
0.74 184
0.73 175
0.72 166
0.71 158
0.70 149
0.69 141
0.68 133
0.67 125
0.66 117
0.65 110
0.64 102
0.63 95
0.62 87
0.61 80
0.60 72
0.59 65
0.58 57
0.57 50
0.56 43
0.55 36
0.54 29
0.53 21
0.52 14
0.51 7
0.50 0
0.49 -7
0.48 -14
0.47 -21
0.46 -29
0.45 -36
0.44 -43
0.43 -50
0.42 -57
0.41 -65
0.40 -72
0.39 -80
0.38 -87
0.37 -95
0.36 -102
0.35 -110
0.34 -117
0.33 -125
0.32 -133
0.31 -141
0.30 -149
0.29 -158
0.28 -166
0.27 -175
0.26 -184
0.25 -193
0.24 -202
0.23 -211
0.22 -220
0.21 -230
0.20 -240
0.19 -251
0.18 -262
0.17 -273
0.16 -284
0.15 -296
0.14 -309
0.13 -322
0.12 -335
0.11 -351
0.10 -366
0.09 -383
0.08 -401
0.07 -422
0.06 -444
0.05 -470
0.04 -501
0.03 -538
0.02 -589
0.01 -677


It also follows that you get more chances to increase or decrease your rating depending on the level of your opponent... yes, your rating can decrease even if you win... no newbie rapes here people... on the other hand, it encourages newbs to challenge vets (all to gain, nothing to lose)

the formula is this :

NR = CR + K (AS-ES)

where :
NR - New Rating
CR - Current Rating
K - variable coefficient (the higher the coefficient, the higher the effect on rating; this varies depending on current rank. The lower the rank, the higher the coefficient for speedier level-up)
AS - Actual Score
ES - Expected Score

Values assigned to K based on rank
Private - 50
Sgt - 40
Lt to Capt - 30
Major to Gen - 20
Commander - 15
Warmaster - 10

Updates in rating will be done at the end of each week (Saturday) and after every tournament. Scoring is W=1, D=.5, L=0

I now have a working worksheet on this and started with our games last Saturday, December 3.

So based on these performances (all started at 1000 so probability is at .5):
Ryan 2W, 1L
Emcee 2W, 1L
Romy 2L

Current Ratings :

Emcee Private 1,025
Ryan Private 1,025
Ian - Beefcake Private 1,000
Ian "Sigis" Private 1,000
Joel Private 1,000
Ronald Private 1,000
Zeb Private 1,000
Romy Private 925

Romy, syensya na... just let me know if you guys want to start over. Good thing about this is if you win or even just draw against us, you would increase your rating more than what we can.

Dramatic Entrance

... it's just what the title says. :D