A century ago, the climax of a war was reached that would see illustrious empires wrecked and new empires emerge.  Today, the sun beats down upon as as we move up into the first line trenches, ready yet again for another round of Paths of Glory.  It’s been a long slog, but there are eighteen of us still in the fray.  Some of you have been idle for several months, others have been playing POG non-stop.  In either case, I hope both the will and way remain to get you through yet another round of tough competition!​

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BPA POG Round 6 Kick-Off

Without further ado, here are the matchups for Round 6.  Your games will be available on ACTS within the next 24 hours.  (The GMs are assuming that no one will voluntarily drop out of the event at this point.)  A few comments:

While the existing rules seemingly allow the discarding of CCs after the new cards are shuffled in and the next card draw taken, it’s become apparent that this ‘exception’ is not well known, inconsistently followed, and does not add anything to the game.  (And, of course, it requires some extra shenanigans in ACTS.)

While I was ambivalent about, and amused by, this ‘exception’, the other GMs and some other players were sufficiently persuasive about the merits (and lack thereof) of the existing rules in this area.  It will not be supported by the Deluxe Edition rules nor will we use it at WBC.  Item #16 on the tourney FAQ page will be stricken:  Effective immediately for Round 6 and the rest of this tournament:  No more ‘late discards’ of Combat Cards after the Limited War or Total War cards are added to the deck.

A little more than three weeks from now, many of us will compete in person in Seven Springs Pennsylvania at the annual WBC.  The POG tournament will start on the first day of this nine day gaming-pallooza and we expect to crown the 2018 WBC victor about three days later.  While many of the PBEM players will be there, let us not forget that some POG sharks prefer to lurk in the deeper waters – you won’t see them playing e-mail or on wargameroom, they like to take the measure of their opponents face-to-face.  Yes, the play is intense, but the fun is even more so:  New-comers and aficionados of all skill levels are welcome.  Event highlights:

Even if you don’t have the availability to participate in the later rounds, feel free to join in on either of the first two rounds on the first weekend.  I will be bringing an initial map proof of the upcoming POG Deluxe Edition so please drop by to revel in the aesthetics of the new map.

The match summary for round 5 can be found here.  A few quantitative outcomes:

Some qualitative assessments around game outcomes:

Last month I’d asked folks to maximize the chance the CP would eke out a last turn win by preventing the AP from taking two VP spaces in the west based on the following situation and two CP OPs being available.  It was known that the AP would only have 2 OPs to work with on T20AP6.

Sadly, the solution ended up being  trivial and only required 1-OP:  Move an army from Metz to Sedan to lock in the win.  With only two OPs being available, no combination of attack results would allow the AP to take both Brussels and Sedan given the constraints associated with attacking with only two spaces.

This puzzle was a disappointment for this GM.  I know that I spent more than an hour setting up this situation and an appropriate solution based on a real game situation, and I had no fewer than two correct responses within an hour.  In fact, all four of you who tendered solutions came up with a winning solution that gave the CP 100% chance of winning so I’m going to give credit to the first, Matt Johnson, and resolve to try to come up with a less ‘obvious’ challenges in the future.

Yes, we’re going to run an eighth POG BPA tournament event and, yes, we’re not going to wait for BPA VII to finish.  (Sadly, the current event has has a chance of not finishing until March 2020!)  That being said, it’s  likely that BPA VIII will start mustering up late this year and start early next year:  Stay tuned, mobilize your comrades, and practice!

 

​Good luck to all Round 6 contestants and may the rest of you enjoy a peaceful summer  For those of you in the US, have a great 4th of July holiday this coming week!