Rules for Tournament Players

Everything a Tournament Player Needs to Know!

Round B Official Rules, 3rd Edition, 7-May-98.

Written by the Rules Gurus (Gary S. Best and Bob Heeter), with help from the Moderators and players.

[ Version fran¨aise également disponible (French Version) ]

For a quick summary of the main rules, see The Ten Commandments of Tournament Play

Outline:

I. Getting Started
  1. Introduction and Philosophy
  2. "Prepare Thyself!" - What you should do before Registration
II. Overview of the Tournament
  1. Registration and the Practice Round (Round P)
  2. Official Rounds and Cuts
  3. The First Three Rounds (A, B, and C)
  4. The Middle Rounds (D and up)
  5. How to Win the Tournament
  6. Prizes and the Final Rounds
III. Game Setup and General Rules
  1. Scenario Packages
  2. Using the Warlords Remailer
  3. Game Settings
  4. Turnaround Time Limits, Timeouts, and Absences
  5. Shared Information and Limited Diplomacy
IV. Taking Your Turn
  1. Receiving Gamefiles
  2. The Fundamental Rules
  3. Heroes and Hero Actions
  4. Combat
  5. Rules Violations
  6. Sending Gamefiles
V. Game Endings
  1. Losing Gracefully
  2. Forfeits and Lost Players
  3. End-of-Game Statistics
VI. A Last Word on Cheating

For even more details, philosophy, and discussion, see the "Moderators' Bible".

I. Getting Started

  1. Introduction and Philosophy:

    Since SSG released Warlords II we have all wondered, "Who really is 'The Greatest' at Warlords?" Many dreamed of organizing a World Tournament to have fun finding out. But until the spring of 1996, a single problem killed every effort: it's too easy to cheat! For nearly 2 years stories abounded of players who reverted to win battles and receive heroes. The cheaters scored easy victories - they could not lose! Hope for a World Tournament wilted with each blow to fair and honest play. But then inspiration struck, and for the past year "a mighty battle has been brewing"! A talented and dedicated team of Warlords fans - all volunteers - argued and debated and finally playtested the rules and tools needed for the Tournament you are about to join!

    The Tournament style of play resembles "traditional" Warlords as much as possible. But special rules and a new Warlords Battle Odds Tool make cheating easy to spot - and therefore a foolish decision! Because of the rules, when you join the Tournament, you may feel a little overwhelmed at first. Battles must be calculated beforehand and many actions reported in a "turn-change message" sent by email each time you move. But have no fear - After a few tries you'll find it's as easy as butchering sleeping cattle! We'll explain everything as we go along, and your turn reports will take only a few minutes using our standardized template. And the new Warlords II Automatic Remailer makes playing by email as easy as it is fun. After 7 months of playtesting, our veterans like the Tournament rules so much that many no longer enjoy playing any other way! With a little effort, you can join in the fun too!

    To make things as easy as possible for novices, the Tournament begins with a "Practice Round". Veteran playtesters (the Moderators) and a step-by-step rules tutorial by the "Rules Gurus" will get you up to speed. Join us in this great adventure and we're confident you'll enjoy Tournament games as much as we do! Have patience and get the basics down now, and you'll pick up the fine points in the Practice Round!

    The Warlords II World Tournament has three main goals:

    1. To have as much fun as possible playing Warlords against others from all over the world.
    2. To decide who is The Greatest in 4-player tournament play.
    3. To seed players for the upcoming Head-to-Head Play-by-Email Ladder, which will be even more fun.

    Each player is responsible for making sure the rules are followed, by learning the rules and checking others' moves to catch mistakes/cheating. Once the tournament starts, the Moderators will no longer teach the rules, they will only answer rules questions and resolve disputes.

    Please print a paper copy of these rules for reference during the tournament!

  2. "Prepare Thyself!"

    Entering the tournament is straightforward:

    1. Forget the hype for a moment. This is a serious, long-running tournament, requiring 3+ hours of your time every week for the next 6-18 months, depending on how well you do. We've worked hard to make this as easy as possible, but it will still require some time and energy on your part!

      To join, you must accept some important values:

      If you do not agree with these principles, or you will not have time to play, please don't register. (You can drop out after any round, but by registering you commit yourself to finishing any round you start.)

    2. Now that you are psychologically prepared, upgrade to the latest version of Warlords:

    3. Finally, you need to know how to send and receive saved-game files via email. Be sure you have an up-to-date collection of encoding and decoding tools so you can receive a wide variety of files.

    That's it! Now you have everything you need. We'll provide the scenarios, army sets, and Warlords Battle Odds Tools (WarBOT) once you register and we get the tournament started.

II. Overview of the Tournament

[ This section still being revised. ]

  1. Registration and the Practice Round (Round P):

    The registration phase will last for roughly a month, during which players will be registered and materials distributed. All registered players will then enter the Practice Round, consisting of as many 4-player games as necessary. These games will last 10 turns or 2 months, whichever comes first. The Practice Round does not count in the official results, so you can freely explore the rules. A Moderator will provide active guidance. Only those players who complete the Practice Round will be allowed to continue.

  2. Official Rounds and Cuts:

    The tournament will consist of 3 initial rounds, followed by a series of additional rounds and cuts, until only The Greatest survives. Each official round will consist of enough 4-player, 20-turn games to accomodate all surviving players. Each game will have a designated Moderator to provide rules guidance upon request. The exact structure of Rounds and Cuts will be announced at the start of the First Round; it depends on the number and distribution of players.

  3. The First Three Rounds (A, B, and C):

    For the initial 3 rounds there will be "Four Groups" of players, corresponding to the four flavors of Warlords: PC-Deluxe, PC-Classic, Mac-CD/Deluxe, and Mac-Classic. Players will be assigned to games randomly while minimizing the number of players who fight the same opponent more than once and maximizing the variety of colors each player has a chance to play.

    Each player will be involved in at most 2 rounds at the same time. Round B will start towards the end of Round A, but before Round A ends. Round C will begin after Round A ends but before Round B ends.

    When the first cut occurs, a single pool of players will be chosen for Round D, based on the rankings at the end of Round B. (This pool may be divided into "Classic" and "Deluxe" groups with cross-platform play within each group; this would allow Classic players to play one more round before obtaining Deluxe.) Those who miss the cut will be seeded on the Head-to-Head Warlords Ladder by final rank, and they will also become alternates - and may thus get a second chance in the tournament.

  4. The Middle Rounds (D and up):

    The middle rounds will be played using only the Deluxe/CD version of Warlords. Players will now be seeded according to prior performance, with players from different Groups initially interlaced and evenly distributed. If a player drops out of a late-round game, he or she will be replaced by the highest-ranked alternate available from the same initial group. Each alternate will have 48 hours to respond to this "call to arms"; once an alternate is found, he/she has 3 days to complete the lost player's move. Alternates who enter a round immediately after they were cut will play entirely for themselves; alternates entering later will inherit the ranking of the player they replace, and continue by playing for themselves.

  5. How to Win the Tournament:

    Players in all four flavors of Warlords will be ranked on a single scale. You will be "pooled" within your group each round based on the side (color) you play. After each round you will be ranked within your color-pool based on how well you did playing your color. The ranking criteria are:

    1. If you eliminated all your enemies, turn when last enemy died.
    2. Number of Turns You Survived (Call this your Survival Turn), if tied then
    3. Number of "Sides" you survived on the turn you died, if tied then
    4. Fraction of Remaining Cities you held at the end of the game, then
    5. Your position within your game (1st, 2nd, etc.) at the end of your Survival Turn.
    6. For those who survived the entire game, the final tiebreaker criteria are:
      1. Total Sum of the Unmodified Strengths of your units on Turn 21 (or else on the turn after your last completed move), then
      2. Total Gold at the start of your move on Turn 21 (or else on the turn after your last completed move), if *still* tied, then
      3. Net Profit (Loss), i.e. income - expenses, on your Turn 21 (or else on the turn after your last completed move)
    7. For those eliminated during the game, players continuing on in the Tournament will outrank those who give up on the Tournament. Lost Players will be shown as eliminated on their own side, while everyone else will be eliminated by an opponent, so there will generally be no ties between Lost Players and other eliminated players.
    8. Ties among Lost Players are broken as follows:
      1. The better rank goes to whichever Static Defense had more cities when it was fully set up and the player became officially Lost.
      2. If still tied, then the better rank goes to whichever Static Defense had more gold at the start of the turn when it was set up.
    9. Any remaining ties among eliminated players will be broken as follows:
      1. The City History will be used to find out the maximum number of cities each player controlled during their respective games. For the last turn when each player held the most cities, their city fraction will be determined. (Sort of their "high-water mark" in the game.) Whoever held the higher city fraction wins the tie.
      2. If there is still a tie, then the players' gold will be counted from the end of their move on the turn used to determine their maximum cities, and whoever had more gold along with their maximum city count will win the tie.
      3. As a last resort, the Triumphs for the eliminated players will be compared, and ties will be broken in favor of whoever reportedly eliminated more enemy units, then ...
      4. ... in favor of whoever killed more enemy heroes and allies, then ...
      5. ... in favor of whoever lost more of their own units, and so produced more in the first place.

    Starting with Round B, your cumulative ranking will be determined. It is based on your average rank-within-pool, combined with an "opponent quality" factor which depends on your opponents' average rank-within-pool. Details will be explained when Round A begins.

    Thus, you will fight against other players in your game, but your real objective is to play your color better than anyone plays that color in the other games. But you won't know how those other games are going until they finish, so you'd better play your best!

  6. Prizes and the Final Rounds:

    Prizes will be awarded to the top 16 players, and also for the "Best Role-Play" (individual effort) and "Most Entertaining Game History" (group effort by the four players involved) in each of the first three rounds. At the end of the round players can submit reports of clever battle victories for the Warlords Hall of Fame, and those who wish can have their accumulated Hero slayings tallied in the Roster of Warlords Aces. (Players can nominate themselves or each other, and will be judged by a panel of moderators.)

    Eventually there will not be enough players to maintain the color-pool system. In the final rounds players will send in their preferences for sides, with the higher-ranked player having priority for a side. Eventually there will be four players left, in the final round. This game will be fought to the death, with no 20-turn limit. The Diplomatic History of this game alone will be made "public" on the remailer so that everyone may observe (but not interfere). Players will be allowed twice as many "timeouts" as usual. The winner of this game is the winner of the tournament! The final four will receive prizes and the winner will be declared "The Greatest!" - at least until the next tournament!

III. Game Setup and General Rules:

  1. Scenario Packages:

    At the start of each round you will receive via email a Scenario Package which contains the scenario and army set for that round, a starting gamefile, and a ReadMe file with any additional information you may need. The starting gamefile is included because the ruin contents have been edited to improve the scenario balance and we want all games to start with the same ruin contents. The contents of the ruins will be indicated in the ruin descriptions, or else a "Ruin List" will be provided showing the contents of each ruin.

  2. Using the Warlords Remailer:

    When it is time for the round to start, the Moderator will introduce himself and set up your game in the Warlords Remailer. When the game is set up you will receive an introduction to the Remailer. The first player then takes his/her turn using the Starting Gamefile from the Scenario Package, and sends the game on its way with his first Turn Report.

    We will use the Warlords Remailer for all game-related email. Each game is considered separate and independent - you will not have access to history files of ongoing games, and you may not discuss any other past, present, or future tournament games with the players in your current game.

    The Remailer is usually reliable, but if you email the Remailer and get no response, do this:

    1. Check the address and subject line and try again. If the Remailer doesn't match the subject line with a game, password, and command, it simply ignores the message.
    2. If the Remailer still doesn't reply, check the remailer game status with a "gamename, password, status" message. Make sure your *own* email address is correct in the status report!
    3. If the Remailer still doesn't respond, notify Elam Birnbaum (elam@madness.net) that the Remailer seems to be down.
    4. Wait until noon Eastern time (GMT -0500) on the next business day (to allow time for Remailer resurrection) and try sending your game or message through the Remailer then. When the Remailer is down, incoming mail is queued until it revives, so it may have processed your mail while you were waiting.
    5. If it's *still* down (unlikely, but possible) then email Bob Heeter () and Elam again, and then send the messages via direct email (the old-fashioned way, without the Remailer) while we work on the problem.
    6. When the Remailer revives, the downtime-delay may have messed up the game status (turn and player), the remaining turnaround time, and some players' timeouts. Fix everything except the timeouts via the Web interface and contact your moderator to have the timeouts fixed.

    More information on the Remailer settings used is provided in later sections.

  3. Game Settings:

    Consult the Moderator's Bible for details.

  4. Turnaround Time Limits, Timeouts, and Absences:

    In order to minimize the duration of the tournament and make it as fun as possible, players must make their moves reliably in as little time as possible. However, some allowances for vacations and emergencies must be made. The following rules embody this philosophy:

    1. The turnaround time limit is 48 hours, enforced by the Warlords Remailer. The limit will be increased to 72 hours if two players are eliminated from the game and only two players remain.
    2. Saturdays do not count in the 48-hour limit. Any event (file receipt or turn deadline) that would fall on Saturday is set to the same time on Sunday. (The "1-day weekend" rule.)
    3. Players may not suspend the game; the moderator controls the flow of the game.
    4. "Vacations": You are allowed up to 2 weeks of vacation per round, but any vacation must be announced in advance. Please give as much advance notice as you can, to avoid inconveniencing others. If need be, you may declare a vacation when it's already your turn. The game will be suspended by the moderator when your turn comes up after you leave, and will be revived when your vacation time expires. If you use up your two weeks of vacation time, the "additional absences" rule (see below) will apply, unless you request beforehand to use timeouts instead (see below).
    5. "Additional Absences:" You can take up to 2 weeks of "additional absences" in addition to the allowed vacation. As with vacations, you must announce the absence before you leave. Unlike vacations, though, during an additional absence the game must continue. For up to 2 weeks your turn will simply be skipped by the next player. In this case it's your responsibility to position your forces for defense (and live with the damage afterwards!). After 2 weeks you start using up timeouts (see below).
    6. You have four 1-day "timeouts" to extend your turn in case of crisis. These do not need to be announced in advance and will be used one at a time automatically by the remailer whenever your move becomes overdue. You do not need to use the whole day; however, once a timeout is started, it is gone. (The number of timeouts per round may change.)
    7. Timeout Replacement: You may replace lost timeouts by asking the moderator to subtract two days from your allowed vacation time for each timeout that is replaced.
    8. If you have a serious real-life crisis, you can announce a brief vacation at any time. If you have vacation time remaining, the game will be suspended, and you'll lose vacation days instead of timeouts. (If you are out of vacation days, the additional absences rule will apply once you run out of timeouts.)
    9. If you are going to run out of timeouts, you MUST contact the moderator before the last timeout expires, so that we know you are still "alive" in the game. Players who run out of timeouts and miss a turn without announcing an absence are subject to the Lost Player rules (see below). If this happens, you may soon forfeit the game and be out of the tournament. If you get your move in before the Moderator applies the Lost Player rules, that's allowed, but you will be charged 2 vacation days as a "retroactive timeout".
    10. Moderators may "suspend" the game during discussion of rules issues. Please check the Moderators' Bible before bringing rules questions to the moderators. Players should never suspend the game unless the moderator requests it.

  5. Shared Information and Limited Diplomacy:

    1. "No Secrets:" All game-related discussion must be sent to all participants via the Remailer. Diplomacy must be carried out in public or else semi-privately via game features (signposts, etc.). PRIVATE MESSAGES TO DISCUSS AN ONGOING GAME ARE CONSIDERED CHEATING. THERE ARE NO SECRET TREATIES. If you are offered a secret treaty, turn that person in immediately or you will be considered a cheater too.

    2. "Everyone Gets the Gamefile:" You are entitled, but not required, to receive any and all gamefiles sent in your game. Change the Remailer setting as you wish. By default all players receive all game files; we recommend that you use the time during other players' moves to check for cheating and plan your own strategy, so that you may make a better move in less time when your own turn comes up.

    3. "Every Warlord Stands Alone:" You may neither give nor receive advice about ongoing games to/from anyone in the tournament, except through diplomatic messages sent via the Remailer (only) to players in your own game. You must turn in those who attempt to cheat by violating this rule (which will then eliminate an opponent in your current game and in the tournament). You are still allowed to discuss the tournament with anyone who is not involved in it.

    4. "Private Histories and Public Archives:" The Remailer will archive your game email in a History file. The Privacy feature of the remailer will be used, so that during a round only the players (and moderator) who know the password will be able to view the history file for a given game. However, once the round is finished, each game's history will be put into the public archive of finished games, and all tournament players can read what happened in each of the other games. The one exception is the final game, which will be entirely public.

    5. "Limited Diplomacy:" You are limited to two diplomatic email messages per turn. Your turn-change message is always considered a diplomatic message. You may send one other diplomatic message at any time between your last turn-change message and your next one. Non-diplomatic email (such as rules clarification questions and messages to point out rules errors) may be sent as often as you wish.

    6. "No Impersonations:" It goes without saying that falsifying messages is considered cheating. You can lie in your own messages, but you can't change what others have written or pretend to be someone else!

    7. See the Moderators' Bible for more details.

IV. Taking Your Turn:

Take your turn according to the rules that follow, and fill in the Turn Report Template each time you take your turn. When you send your gamefile onwards, you will send out a turn-change message in which you report everything from the Report Template which is relevant to your turn. The relevant rules are discussed in more detail below.
  1. Receiving Gamefiles:

    Gamefiles are normally sent as email attachments. It is your responsibility to decode whatever you receive, provided it was sent in a standard fashion such as MIME, binhex, UUencode, Base64, etc. You must be able to receive all of these types of attachments in the tournament!!! If you can't decipher a particular file, consult the Email Help page, and ask the moderator and other players for assistance and enlightenment.

    When you receive a gamefile, end the previous player's turn immediately. Do not "adjust", "explore", or do *anything*, or you may be accused of cheating! Mac players are used to a different convention and are prone to making mistakes here. Be careful!

    PC-Classic players should use the saved-game slot corresponding to the round number. (Practice Round is SAVE0, Round A is SAVE1, Round B is SAVE2, etc.)

  2. The Fundamental Rules:

    1. Anything you can do WITHIN the Warlords application is LEGAL (except as restricted elsewhere in these rules), BUT the only changes allowed in the official gamefile sent to the next player are those from playing your own turn.

      This specifically allows you to:

      • Revert moves in the official game to improve outcomes.
      • Save unofficial copies to peek at other players' upcoming turns.

      You are NOT allowed to adjust another's side in the official game file; this includes changing another player's "enhance" setting.

    2. Anything you try to do to the game file from OUTSIDE the Warlords application is ILLEGAL, except compressing the game file and mailing it to other players.

      Among other things, this prevents:

      • Editing the game file or using an outside cheat program.
      • Changing the army, scenario, or other game data.
      • Hacking the Warlords application itself.

      Cheating of this sort can be detected in its effect on the game, and anyone caught cheating will be expelled from all organized Warlords PBEM activities (tournaments, players' list, etc.) for life.

  3. Heroes and Hero Actions:

    Your side can only have one living Hero at a time, except as announced for special variants. Do not hire any additional heroes offered. If your (last) Hero is killed, disbanded, or otherwise lost, here's how you can replace him/her:

    1. On the first turn that you start your move without a hero, declare that turn as "Turn X" in your Turn Report. Turn X is the first turn you actually declare it.

    2. "Turn Y" is the first possible turn you can receive a new hero without an ally. "Turn Z" is the first possible turn you can receive a new hero with one ally of your choice.

    3. At the end of your move on Turn X, report your Final Gold and determine the values of Turn Y and Turn Z from the table below: 
      	Your Gold:         Turn Y (Hero only)     Turn Z (Hero, 1 Ally)
	==================================================================
	less than 300        *need more gold*        *need more gold*
	 300+                   Y = X + 3               Z = X + 4
	 600+                   Y = X + 2               Z = X + 3
	1200+                   Y = X + 1               Z = X + 2
	2400+                     n/a                   Z = X + 1

    4. In your Turn Report on Turn X, report when Turn Y and Turn Z will be.

      Example: If start turn 5 without a hero, and you end Turn 5 with 605 gold (pillaging helps!), you would declare Turn X = 5, Turn Y = 7 (X+2, no ally), and Turn Z = 8 (X+3, with ally).

    5. On Turn Y, you can receive a new hero in any of your cities, but you must disband any allies that arrive. If you choose to wait, then on Turn Z or later, you can receive a new hero in any of your cities, with any ally of a type allowed in that round. (Disband additional allies.)

    6. You may revert as much as you wish to get your hero in the city of your choice (and with the ally of your choice if it's Turn Z or later). (Tip - turn off the sound in Warlords to speed reverting.)

    7. You can wait as long as you like to get a new hero. You don't need to tell anyone where your hero will arrive, or what ally you will get.

    8. If your end-of-turn gold increases after Turn X, you should check the table again, because the values of Turn Y and Z can go down. If they do, report the new values of Turn Y and Z. You can only receive a new hero on or after the most recently declared Turn Y.

    9. If your gold decreases after Turn X, the values of Turn Y and Z do not change, and you can still get an ally with your hero. However, you are not allowed a new hero if you have less than 300 gold when the hero would be offered. (Warlords doesn't seem to allow it and neither do we! Beware: it will be hard to receive additional heroes if you have less than 500 gold, and very hard if you have less than 400. Only a few heroes are ever offered for 300-400 gold.)

      Example: Continuing the example above, suppose your gold increases from 605 at the end of Turn 5 (Turn X) to 1412 at the end of Turn 6 (X+1). Then Turn Y drops from 7 to 6 (X+1), but you've already moved on Turn 6 so that's no help. However, Turn Z drops from 8 to 7 (X+2), so now instead of getting a new hero with an ally on Turn 8, you can get it on Turn 7.

      Alternatively, suppose your gold dropped from 605 on Turn 5 (Turn X) to 475 on Turn 6 (X+1). Then you could still get a new hero without an ally on Turn 7 (Turn Y is still X+2), or with an ally on Turn 8 (Z is still X+3), because losing gold after Turn X can't change Turn Y or Turn Z.

    10. More hero-replacement examples may be found in the Moderators' Bible

    Heroes may revert to successfully search ruins/strongholds. You may only accept one ally at a ruin and two at a stronghold; all others must be disbanded immediately. You may revert as much as you like when receiving gold, but you may not receive more than 1250 from a ruin/sage, or 2500 from a stronghold. We recommend reverting to get 1200-1250 from each ruin/sage and 2400-2500 from each stronghold.

    All Hero activities must be reported, including arrival of new heroes and allies, new hero levels, ruin searches (allies, items, gold), and hero visits to temples. Always say which city, ruin, or temple was involved. There's no need to report blessings of non-hero units except when they fight. At the end of each turn, report hero experience and the change from last turn.

  4. Combat:

    For each battle, use an unofficial copy of the game file to preview the fight order and unmodified strengths of the defender's units. For naval battles you must run a "fake" battle and check the battle display - only the units shown with blue water splashes fight as navies. Note this information and then use the Warlords Battle Odds Tool (WarBOT) to determine the correct battle outcome. In the official game file, fight the battle and revert until the results are correct. Medals are not allowed, so revert until you get the correct outcome with no medal awarded. If you win an attack with extra units remaining that should have died, disband them.

    WarBOT determines the actual battle bonuses and battle odds, and indicates which units survive. Attackers with survival odds less than or equal to 50% should die. Defenders with survival odds less than 50% die. Ties (50% survival odds exactly) go to the defender. A thorough explanation of the Warlords battle-bonuses system (used by WarBOT) can be found in the Battle Bonuses page.

    All battles must be reported, in the order they were fought, with this information:

    1. Defender's name/color and location (e.g., Attack on Red stack 5 west of Cherupel)
    2. Complete WarBOT report, including
      • Terrain of defender (with city production, if appropriate)
      • All army types, number and base strengths (griffin (6) vs. spider (4))
      • Outcome of battle

    Unit names may be abbreviated so long as the meaning is obvious (e.g., Heavy Cavalry -> Hv Cav, Light Infantry -> Lt Inf). Note that blessings are indicated as part of the base strength. Battle reports may be simplified in trivial one-on-one battles where the attacker is clearly stronger. (e.g., "Blue Dragon roasts Red scout in Brie") See the Moderator's Bible for examples.

  5. Rules Violations (Rules Errors and Cheating):

    1. Rules violations are divided into three types:

      "Simple mistakes":
      These are minor violations, presumably due to a simple accident or misunderstanding of the rules. These are the errors that can be fixed (backing the game up a little if necessary) without affecting the course of the game afterwards. For instance, failure to report a battle(s) or hero action(s) is a rules error, and so is a minor WarBOT mistake. After the Practice Round, each player is allowed 3 Rules Errors per round (5 in Round A), with an overall limit of 12 (subject to change) for the whole Tournament. These Rules Error points are assigned and tracked by the moderator. There is no penalty for an individual error, but once either limit is reached, additional errors are considered cheating.

      "Major mistakes:"
      These are errors which cannot be fixed without affecting the course of the game. The prime example is a player sending a third diplomatic message. Messages cannot be un-sent, so this is a mistake that can't be fixed. Once Round A starts, we will use these rules:
      • A major mistake is counted as a rules arror as in (1).
      • The first major mistake causes your final reported gold and army strength values to be set to zero, causing you to lose out in any ranking tiebreaker.
      • Any subsequent mistakes result in the subtraction (at the *end* of the game) of one city from your final city count, or one turn from the your survival time (if you are wiped out).
      • Any repetition of a previous mistake is a two-city penalty.
      • A third repeat of the same mistake is considered cheating.

      "Cheating":
      These are deliberate rules violations which cannot be explained by ignorance or stupidity. Examples are editing the gamefile, generating invalid battle reports (fudging the odds), and repeatedly making the same mistake as though one didn't know better. In a case of possible cheating the issue will be decided by all the moderators. Cheating is a serious offense which will result in expulsion from the tournament; in clearcut cases players will be blacklisted and banned from future Warlords PBEM activities.

    2. Dealing with Rules Errors:

      1. "Report Thy Own Mistakes:" If you realize you have made a mistake, report it immediately. If you report your own error before anyone else does, it is not counted towards the limit.

      2. "Mistrust Thy Enemies:" Each player is responsible for checking the play of the others and reporting any suspected rules violations to the moderator. In particular, the defending player must check the battle reports. Check the initial and final gamefiles and the WarBOT report to catch possible cheats.

      3. "No Statute of Limitations:" Rules-Error points may be assigned at any time for any previous error. In particular, anyone may protest any battle result at any time. However, only errors reported within one full turn (after the sending of the battle report in question) will be fixed.

      4. "Trust Thy Moderator:" Most battle or rules errors will be easily resolved problems that won't require moderator intervention. Should the moderators be asked to settle a dispute, their decision is final.

      5. "Retake Turns Only When Necessary:" Turns may not be replayed except to fix rules errors. Errors favoring the defender will not be fixed. If the error favors the attacker, the attacker (and all subsequent players) must retake the turn. A game will never be backed up more than 1 full turn to fix a rules error.

      6. "Reset the Remailer Before Retaking a Turn:" If you must replay a turn, first go to the Remailer and reset the game to your turn. This ensures that everything will go smoothly when you send the corrected gamefile, and that you won't accidentally use up someone else's turn, timeouts, etc.

  6. Sending Gamefiles:

    After you finish your move, do not actually end your turn.

    Save the gamefile using the Tournament Filename Convention: RxxTyySz.SAV.

    Example: a game file sent during the 3rd round (Round C) in game #17 on Turn 7 for the 2nd player's upcoming turn would be named C17T07S2.SAV

    Compress gamefiles before mailing. Use ZIP for PC and cross-platform games, and StuffIt for Mac-only games. If your mail system allows it, send the .zip or .sit files as *attachments*. Don't manually uuencode or binhex files unless you must. If you cannot send attachments, use uuencode or binhex to convert the compressed file to emailable text. The .zip and .sit files should be named the same as the saved game, but with the .SAV changed to .ZIP or .SIT.

    It is your responsibility to send files using a standard technology, and to help players who have trouble decoding your files.

    Remember to send your turn-change message with your turn report at the same time you send your gamefile! Failure to send a turn report is a major rules error.

    If you send an invalid gamefile, (wrong turn, wrong game, not compressed right, etc.) the game will be suspended until a valid gamefile is sent, and a rules-error point will be assessed against you for delaying the game, since the delay might have been intentional.

    If you send a valid gamefile, then it should be played. But if you realize that an incorrect file was sent (say a file from before the move was finished), you can say in effect "Oops, I made a gamefile transmission error" and re-send the gamefile if you wish. This is only allowed if (a) the next player hasn't sent their turn through the Remailer yet, (b) no player has sent an "archive" (diplomacy) message since your turn report, and (c) the next player's turnaround time hasn't expired yet. And if you do send the gamefile again you will still be penalized with a rules error - but it might be worth the price!

    See the Moderators' Bible for more details.

V. Game Endings:

  1. Losing Gracefully:

    All but one player will lose at some point. Unlike AI games, how you choose to accept defeat is very important, even more so in the Tournament than in ordinary play-by-email games. How you lose can strongly affect the tournament results, even if it doesn't affect who wins your particular game. Prizes will be won or lost based on single cities, or even armies. Losing gracefully is therefore very important to the success of the tournament. When you reach the point of despair, visit the Tournament Guide to Losing Gracefully for some wisdom and insight. In particular, keep in mind these things:

    1. It's bad for both you and the tournament if you just disappear. Please finish any game you start.

    2. You can lose your own game and still do well in the tournament! Your goal is to play as well as you can with your own side. In simulations, players stuck with a weak side who were eliminated from the game often managed to rank very well, since the others playing their color were eliminated even sooner!

    3. The longer you stay in the game, and the more cities you hold at the end, the better your tournament rank, and the better your initial position in the Head-to-Head Play-by-Email Ladder. The Ladder gives you a shot at revenge, too. :) It's against the rules to use the "resign" command or to raze all your cities. See below for the official alternative: Standing Orders.

    4. The purpose of the tournament is to find the best warlord. It's not right to lose in a way which skews the results of your game towards an undeserving player. Consider the consequences of your final moves very carefully, and don't play with personal malice or vicious spite. Be sure that whatever you do really hinders your enemies and helps your allies. Analyze the effects of your actions on the end-of-game statistics. And take down as many foes as you can before you die!

    5. Standing Orders: (Initially conceived by Elam Birnbaum) In Standing Orders, a player stays in the game without actually taking their turns. The player arranges their own defenses. Once the "Standing Orders" command is given, the player's turn is automatically skipped by the preceding player. The preceding player takes their own turn and sends it in, and then skips the Standing Orders player's turn and sends that gamefile in as well, along with a one-line turn report indicating the cities/gold/income/expenses for the side on Standing Orders. The player on Standing Orders can cancel the Standing Orders at any time by sending an archive message to announce that they're actively playing in the game again. (If this happens just after the preceding player has skipped their turn, they can back the game up a move and actively take their turn instead of letting it be skipped. The player on Standing Orders is kept on the email distribution, since they remain "alive" in the game and the tournament; they are also given a chance to sign up for the next round (if they make the cut).

  2. Forfeits and Lost Players:

    Please finish any game you start; the loss of a player is devastating to a game and bad for the tournament. If you abandon honor and ruin a game by using up all 4 timeouts and missing your turn without announcing an absence, you may become a Lost Player. We would greatly prefer to see you put on Standing Orders (see paragraphs in the previous section on Losing Gracefully.) The following rules apply when a player disappears:

    1. If you have not been heard from, your turn will be skipped once. The moderator will return your units to the nearest friendly city. If you do not send a message to the game before your next turn comes up, you become a Lost Player. A Lost Player is dropped from the tournament. The Lost Player's final standing will reflect the turn they failed to move, as if they had been eliminated in battle.

    2. Anyone designated a Lost Player in one tournament will be given second-class status in future PBEM activities, and placed at an appropriate disadvantage until they successfully complete a year without becoming even more Lost.

    3. When a player is lost, others in the game must contact a moderator immediately and forward the most recent game file. Using criteria in the Lost Player Rules, the moderator will either replace the lost player with a human Substitute or convert the Lost Player's color to an enhanced "Static Defense". The moderator will explain the new situation and how to proceed with the game. (See the Lost Player Rules for complete details on each of the possible options.)

  3. End-of-Game Statistics:

    1. On Turn 20, play your final move. All fighting and unit movement ends when the last player makes his move on Turn 20.

    2. Turn 21 is the "Final Reporting Turn". No fighting or unit movement is allowed. Using the final gamefile sent in by the last player on Turn 20, each player should open up Turn 21 and collect the following statistics for their side:

      1. Number of Cities you control.
      2. Total Gold at the start of Turn 21.
      3. Income and Expenses at the start of Turn 21. Note: to get the Expenses to update and reflect your armies on Turn 21, you need to start your turn, save the gamefile immediately, and reopen it.
      4. Total Base Strength of all your units, including blessings and hero Battle Items, but no other modifiers or bonuses. Note: the easiest way to count strengths is to open a backup copy of the gamefile and scan through your stacks using the Return key, disbanding each one after you write down its strength.

    3. Mail the "Final Statistics Report" to the remailer, and check each other's results. When all players reach consensus on the final results, send the "Final Game Statistics" to the Moderator, who will double-check the results and send them to the Tournament Statistician for the official tournament record.

VI. A Last Word on Cheating:

  1. Cheating is PBEM Suicide:

    This was discussed above, but deserves repetition at the end: Anyone proven to the moderators to have cheated in the tournament will be thrown out of the tournament, regardless of when the cheating occurred. Serious cheaters will be deleted from the PBEM player list and banned for life from all future Warlords PBEM activities. The moderators and remaining players will determine what happens to ongoing games.

  2. Only You Can Stop Cheaters:

    The tournament rules do not prevent cheating; they only make it easier to spot. We've done the best we can to help you protect yourself, but your games will only be cheat-free if you learn the rules and take responsibility for enforcing them. The fairness of the tournament is up to you - it's your responsibility to check for possible cheats and report any you find!

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