Tournament of Champions (Season 5) for AA 50 Anniversary '41 version

[Islandia]

Islandia (Axis) defeats SneakingCoward(Allies+15)

No really decisive battles, but Axis was able to gain an IPC advantage and slowly use it to push on Moscow.

[Handsome]

Banfus (Allies +15) defeats Handsome (Axis) in round 18, and gives Handsome a good lession in balanced Allied play.

Allies defended Africa heavily, and Germany/Italy used to much resources trying to secure a high income for a long game. This lead to a very strong Russia. Even though both Germany (round 5) and Italy (round 9) was able to conquer Karelia, Axis could not hold it, and Moscow was never realy threatened.

Japan was able to capture both Australia/India round 2, but due to bad leadership, decides to focus to much on an Allied threat in the Pacific. An golden opportunity to put early stress on Russia with a factory in India is missed. Banfus manages to keep the pressure on Japan in the Pacific, and the Japanese pressure on Moscow comes to late.

Germany, manages to scramble enough forces to destroy the main Russian Army in East Poland in round 15, so Japan can conquer Moscow in round 16. However, the Japanese rush to support Berlin comes to late, as the cost of the attack in East Poland has weakened the European defences in the west and south to much.

The best player won, and great thanks to Banfus for a good game.ToC5_Banfus_vs_Handsome_UK#18.tsvg

[Blasherke]

Blasherke (Allies) defeats Wasp in round 22.

I've been around for a while now, and sometimes you play a game which you will remember for a long time. My game against Wasp is such a game. It's story can be told as a game of shifting balances of power, daring sacrifices, painfull mistakes (mostly by me), heroic comebacks and most of all, a lot of fun. Only in round 20 axis attrition made the game turn in favor of the allied forces, making the axis commander to honourably surrender.

Apart from this, I'd like to add that Wasp is one of the finest opponents I've ever met. He's a real gentleman with a highly developed sense of sportsmanship. It was a real pleasure to play against him and if you are looking for a skilled, creative and fast player with a great love for the game, Wasp should be the first one to contact.

Blasherke

[Wasp]

This is where I check the all of the above box. Great game Blash. You played very well. Wasp doesn't like to lose. So you get bragging rights until I can be avenged.

Thanks for the kind words. Table top style is the only way to play imo

Now I just need to get somebody to wisper in my ear everyday "remember Blasherke my lord" Revenge!

[Islandia]

Islandia (Axis) defeats QuarterMaster (Allies + 16)
This was quite a bit of back and forth with an early all out attack on Japan that pretty much pushed them off the mainland. That allowed Germany to consolidate some gains in Europe and then take Caucusus and Russia. Well played QuarterMaster

[prastle]

Pras (Axis) defeats Banfus( Allies =13)
I would like to say there were many times I was really worried... I am sorry the dice goddess was a bit mean at times bro. I enjoyed our game greatly and look forward to our next! The only comments I can make onPrastle UK#10.tsvg the game was the sudden switch to USA pac in the middle of the game. I think that cost ya. Without doing a turn by turn examine.Prastle UK#10.tsvg

[Icelander]

Blasherke (Axis) defeats Icelander (Allies +14)
When dice don't help against a good player, there is not much point going on.
The German opening in Karelia did something, but what single handedly won the war was the Italian AA.
Congratulations to Blash and hope to play again with you in the Final
triplea_Bri5.tsvg

[Stroid]

Stroid (axis) defeats prastle (allies, 15 bid)
Allies went for a heavy UK bid with a dd with the UK battleship. Russians only got one artillery out of the bid. When the germans hit the UK fleet on G1, the germans got very lucky and killed the UK fleet with minimal losses. So the allies effectively lost most of their bid off the start. Russia was weakened with this lack of starting units and the axis pushed hard into russia. An italian can opener allowed the germans to blitz moscow on round 3, leaving russia much weaker and the germans heavily fortified against the allies. With Japan streaming through africa surrounding moscow on the east sides, italians stacked in caucus holding it strong and no allied advance in the west, the allies surrendered. GG WP!

triplea_Jap7.tsvg

[Wasp]

Wasp(axis) defeats Blasherke(allies +14)
huzzah! Vengeance is gained and the score evened at 1-1! The allies launched a bold move into the med early for a push to destroy the axis fleet operating in the red sea. The Italian fighter was able to get a hit and in doing so decrease the odds of an allied success by just enough to hold the position. And while this didn't determine the game...it surely led to a few successive battles in which the allies ended up with the short end of the stick. The axis were able to consolidate gains and lean on the allies for the remainder of the game. Now we battle one more time for the title! May Wasp be victorious!

[Deltium]

I've received notification that Wasp has won the last and final game of the AA50 Season 5 tournament. Congratulations Wasp, and a further congratulations to the runner-up Blasherke and the third place winner, Icelander. I would like to personally thank all participants who played in ToC 5, and for extra emphasis, we do not run these tournaments solely to determine who is the winner. We believe this is a good forum to connect with other A&A players around the world, some of which that you might enjoy playing with for years to come.

OK, I believe Wasp plans to submit a final note on the game itself shortly, and it would be great if we could see the game file for everyone to learn from!

Cheers, Deltium

P.S. I hope to launch ToC 6 in about a month or so, so please be patient ! Cheers.

[prastle]

@Wasp I will annoy you in lobby if you don't upload file Congrats on your win

[prastle]

@Deltium email me the payments after they have talked to u

[Wasp]

Wasp(allies +15) defeats Blasherke in the final showdown. The germans began the game with a heavy push to capture karelia. Stalin enacts the gandalf defense(thou shall not pass!) to keep the germans out of lenningrad. Which was aided by some pretty good luck. The germans ended up losing most of their air early stalling their push until the allies could push back. Japan was harassed most of the game while a KGF strategy ran its course. Again, the allies had some pretty good luck in a couple small battles that proved key imo. The first being the UK attack on german air in norway round 1 and the sinking of japan's bb/3trn off australia in the early rounds. This delayed any japanese push to persia. In the end, american bombers coupled with a double landing in europe hastened the german collapse. Great game Blash

[Raville]

@Wasp Congratulations! Well done and a deserved win! :victory_hand_light_skin_tone:

@Blasherke Good job!

[Cernel]

Interesting to see the bids used in here, the reported ones are, if I'm seeing them correctly:

18: Allies win (wow!)
15: Axis win
?: Axis win
15: Axis win
14: Axis win
14: Allies win
?: Axis win
12: Allies win
?: Axis win
14: Allies win
14: Axis win
15: Axis win
16: Axis win
13: Axis win
?: Axis win
14: Allies win
15: Axis win
15: Allies win
?: Allies win
16: Axis win
13: Axis win
14: Axis win
15: Axis win
14: Axis win
15: Allies win

So, for the reported games having both win and bid info, it is:
Average bid: 14.55
Axis/Allies win ratio: 1.857... (13/7)

For all reported games:
Axis/Allies win ratio: 2.125... (17/8)

While the common balanced bid is generally regarded to be 13, here people bid consistently above that, and Axis still won most games.

I recall that back when I used to play v3 often, I had the opinion that a balanced bid for the game would be 15, instead of 13, but that was just my opinion, and not anything I was sure of.

Just some considerations. It may totally be a coincidence or just Axis being easier to play.

[Wasp]

I've always felt the same cernel. I think 13 is too low and the balanced bid is probably 15. You might not think that 2ipc is a big difference but that extra unit or unit upgrade makes all the difference early in the game imo. That coupled with the fact that in v3 axis are easier to play. Not only do they start with more units in the right places...but they are in better position to control choke points and dead spaces. The NO's also favor the axis i think. Easier to gain and control axis NO's than allied. Perhaps the earlier 13 bid was considered balanced because of the US bomber strat and players thinking that it broke the game? A second german IC somewhere helps to protect against a bombing strategy and led me to believe 13 was too low. My standard bid is usually 16 but will sometimes take 15 if I want to play allies. Anything lower than that gets dicey imo. I have seen some pretty good allied strats with 14 though. Pherman has a pretty good KJF strat that's tough to beat It doesn't surprise me to see the axis have such a high rate of victory in v3.
I've been tinkering with my allied strategy for awhile trying to find something that evens the ratio a bit but my success is yet to be determined.

[Icelander]

Congratulations to both Wasp and Blasherke and thanks to Deltium Prastle and everyone for playing.

As for the bids, I would consider a third column in Cernel post: Germany and Japan fighters lost in round 1.
That I think may have a strong correlation with the outcome of the games

[Cernel]

@Wasp The NO definitely unbalance the game in favour of Axis. I think that without NO the game doesn't require a bid, and also bombing rush strategy with Americans on Germans is very effective, since the max damage cap is relatively bigger (having less income).