Titan at the World Boardgaming Championships

For more information on Titan see my Titan Home Page.

This tournament is essentially a followon to Avaloncon run by the Boardgame Players Association instead of The Avalon Hill Game Company, who have been bought out by Hasbro.

Results of previous Titan events are available, including the 2016 WBC Titan events.

It looks like things are going to actually happen in 2022, but there will be some changes. Stay tuned, but most likely we are look at four fixed heat rounds. No more getting back into a new game if you get knocked out. The tie breaker rules will probably be changing, but firsts and seconds will still be the first two tie breakers.

I want to note that a significant chunk of my WBC event reports is based on write ups provided by participants. In particular I usually corral someone into writing up notes about each semi-final and the final. This makes getting a reasonable sized report into Ken a lot easier. Some years I'd have trouble making the 400 word minimum on just the stuff I come up with. So thanks to all of you that have helped me out with this.

Note this year we may only take 12 players in the semi-final because we don't have enough turn out to justify 16, especially for players that didn't win a preliminary game.

We didn't get disposition to run a heat during the auction, so we are using almost the same schedule as last year. However with two player starting early, the Tuesday evening round will start right after the auction. My demo will be that morning. The two player demo (which could substitute) is on first Sunday.

The other big change this year is that we will experiment with providing dice. While we really should use precision backgammon dice (casino dice don't work well for bordgames), since this is just an experiment I'm going to get a bunch of Chessex dice for a lot lower cost. I'll want feedback on how people feel about during an after the event, to see if it is something we want to continue. If we continue, I'll try to start accumulating precision backgammon dice.

The top 12 to 16 will advance to 4 semi-final games and the 4 semi-final winners will advance to the final. The semi-finals will be held at 9 on Friday and the finals at 9 on Saturday. (In the different location than the heat rounds.) I will take up to 16 players who have won a preliminary game into the semi-finals. I will not go beyond 12 for players that haven't won a preliminary game. Preliminary games will start Tuesday night and run through Thursday night. There are scheduled starts every 4 hours. We can start games off the schedule if I think it will help participation, but not less than 1 hour before the next scheduled start. (If you are interested in two player Titan, that is expected to start on the first weekend and finish before the auction.)

Preliminary games will have three, four or five players, with a preference toward having four or three player games as opposed to five player games. The semi-finals and finals will be four player games.

The qualifying tie breakers, in order, are firsts, seconds, thirds, fourths, titan kills, opponents' firsts, opponents' seconds, opponents' thirds, opponents' fourths, opponents' titan kills, lowest game number of the last game started, lowest tower number in the last game started. Finishing last in a game will not count as a third or fourth in a three or four player game, respectively. (Note that there will not be any ties under this tiebreaking system.)

In a mutual situation, both players get one titan kill and there is a roll off to see who gets credit for the higher and lower of the two positions. The attacker should roll seven dice needing 4s, 5s and 6s. If he gets 4 or more hits he is considered the victor of the battle and gets the higher placement, otherwise the defender gets the higher placement.

If a player withdraws from the game (this doesn't include conceding a battle involving his titan), his titan kill will be credited to the winner of the game (even if won after a mutual roll off).

The winner of a game (other than by winning a mutual roll off) also gets a titan kill for their own surviving titan.

If you play the same player more than once, you get credit for their results multiplied by the number of times you played them.

In order to be in the top sixteen for the event you must participate in the semi-finals. If there are players who would have qualified for the semi-finals but do not participate, they will be dropped out of the top sixteen and the next highest ranked players (that are able to participate) will be moved up into the top sixteen. You have to have at least finished not last in a qualifying game to get into the semi-finals even if there aren't sixteen other people participating in the semi-finals.

Players who are likely to end up in the top sixteen, but will have a conflict preventing them from participating in the semi-finals should let me know so that I can advise players who are likely to move up, to show up for the semi-finals.

Winning a preliminary game doesn't automatically qualify you for the semi-finals. Not winning a preliminary game doesn't preclude you making the semi-finals.

If a semi-final (or final) game runs extremely long we may need to award a victor by adjudication (which may include a roll off). (This should be very unlikely now that semi-finals and finals are on different days.) I will select three judges (which may or may not include myself) who will determine approximate chances possible finish orders. After assigning finish orders to the possible die rolls I will roll a die to determine the outcome.

Semi-final seeding will be random with constraints on who can meet which opponents. Players will be able to form groups of up to four players that will not be allowed to meet each other in the semi-finals. Each player may only be in one such group. All players in such a group must agree to being in it. A player should declare the group they are part of before playing any games. (I'm flexible here if I don't think this is being abused.) I will rule on any inconistant group declarations to make them consistant in what I think best matches the intent of the players. In addition the 16 players will be broken up into four groups of players based on their ranking from the preliminary rounds (1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-16). Players in each group will be split accross tables. This will tend to split up the better players, without people knowing enough to be able to "game" things at the end of the preliminary play.

Players who have picked Multi-player Titan as their team event will not be allowed in the same semi-final game as any of their teammates.

Note that seeding will still affect the finish order for people who do not win their semi-final game. If you have chosen Titan for your team event, then it may be important to you to finish 5th or 6th rather than 7th or 8th.

Only the four semi-final winners will be allowed to participate in the finals. If there is a no show, no fill-in will be used.

I will play in heat round games, but will not play in the semi-finals or finals under any circumstances. There are two reasons for this. One is that I set up most of the matches (though assistant GMs may set up a couple). This would allow me to play in easier matches if I chose and I think it is better for appearance sake not to play in the semi-finals. Also if a ruling is needed for a final or semi-final game, I want to be free to make the correct ruling. I still may bring in an assistant for cases involving people I know (though now that is likely to include most of the people in the semi-finals and final) to back up my opinion (or point out a mistake).

While I (or a designated assistant) will make the final ruling on the composition for heat games, the following guidelines will normally be followed.

• Now that we have set start times, I will be able to better split apart people who have already played each other in the event and people in the same clique. There are no guaranties, but I will try to give people a chance to play against a variety of opponents.
• For eliminators to play in a game, all of the non-eliminators must be comfortable with having them play.
• Generally eliminators will be placed in games with people who are either already very likely to make the semi-finals or have almost no chance to make the semi-finals.

I will be taking room numbers of players who wish to be called if they aren't present 15 minutes ahead of the semi-final (final) start time. I will only do this for people staying at the hotel.

Anyone who is not present at semi-final (final) start time or hasn't checked in with me in the previous hour will lose their spot. Any players who are still not present at 10 minutes after the start time will be dropped whether they checked in previously or not. Fill-ins will be taken from the top ranked players present when a vacancy opens up. We will wait up to 15 minutes past the start time if we have less than 16 players. Otherwise play will start as soon as all checked in players are present. Please save wear and tear on the GM by showing up early.

The following are WBC specific rules.

• Players absent from a game (or refusing to take an action) for more than 15 minutes will be treated as refusing to move. If players agree to a break, they should be sure to notify me or one of my assistants (not in that game) so that we know at what time the game was scheduled to resume. The consequences of refusing to move are spelled out in the clarifications and errata.
• Players are NOT to agree to balanced starts. This is not skill indifferent (i.e. it isn't "fair" to some players) and should not be used when rolling for initial towers.
• Players are expected to start each game playing to win. If it is found that a player was more interested in helping another player than how he did, adjustments to the results may be made.
• Players are permitted to use revenge tactics (i.e. play that hurts another player even though it also hurts you) for events that happened in that game. Players are NOT allowed to use revenge tactics to punish players for events that happened in other games.
• Players are allowed to take into account the standing in the event and skill of other players and mental notes about player tendencies, when making decisions.
• Players are allowed to make and keep non-binding agreements, even if keeping an agreement hurts their position (including deals which immediately lose the game for them). Generally these deals are expected to benefit both players at the time they are made.
• Physical memory aids (paper, computers, etc.) are NOT allowed except for recording information requested by the game master (such as points, who killed who, etc.). Players may only use their memories to keep track of stack contents or to make decisions in the game. Some simple notes intended for beginners will be allowed if approved by me before the game starts.
• Note that players still in the game have an interest in the outcome of battles being fought by other players, and as such are allowed to give advice as long as they aren't bothering the player who it is being given to.

You may also want to take a look at the current set of clarifications and errata which be used for my Titan event at the WBC.

A secure version of this page is located at: https://wolff.to/titan/bpa.html