2008 BPA PBEM Tournament: Patton's Relief of Bastogne

PBEM Tournament Guidelines

Patton’s Relief of Bastogne

1) Players must be members of the BPA for 2008 or 2009 in order to enter the competition. Once entered, an entrant may finish out the tournament regardless of whether they keep up their BPA membership. (This is a BPA requirement.)

2) All games will be AREA rated. (This is a BPA requirement.)

3) The tournament will follow a single elimination format. Match Assignments will be made by AREA Rating. In the first round, highest seed will play lowest seed as in tennis. After the first assignments are determined, the field will be split in two and brackets will be developed – highest seed in one bracket, second highest in the other, etc. Thereafter, later round assignments will be based upon success in each bracket, as in tennis.

4) In accordance with BPA recommendation, there will be no byes. When an uneven number of participants advance into a round, a person who is not advancing will be enlisted to fill out the round. The enlistee will be seeded by AREA rating.

5) The length of each round will be 13 weeks. The goal is completion of a full turn each week. Each player should respond with his next e-mail (see the pbem procedure outlined below) within three days of receiving the opponent's last e-mail. Each player will be able to declare one week 'off' in which he will not have to make a move. That said, players may make any arrangement between themselves as long as the match is completed within the time limit.

6) Adjudication and Advancement. If a game goes beyond the specified time limit, the game will be adjudicated by the GM and the Assistant GM’s. Both the current position on the board and the relative speed of play of the two players will be considered. If a game is heading towards adjudication, you may wish to look at your emails from the whole game to determine the amount of time each player spent between moves. The winner of each game advances to the next round.

7) The GM will be Bruno Sinigaglio. Any and all questions, disputes, situations, etc. should be reported to him first at brunofjs@hotmail.com. The Asst GM's will be: Bob Ryan - bobmryan@aol.com and Ed Witkowski - edwski@comcast.net.

8) Choosing Sides and Scenario. The GM will determine sides by die roll. There is NO requirement to play each side an equal number of times. It is possible to go through the entire tournament and only play one side (this is ok). The scenario will be Patton’s Relief of Bastogne with certain pre-set Random Events in play for each match.

9) The printed sequence of play is to be utilized verbatim. The German Player must allocate reserves after the Allied Interdiction Phase, not during the German Movement Phase.

10) Die Rolling. Players should use a random number utility which usually provides die roll results by e-mail in less than one minute. The web utility irony.com is recommended. Any other method must be approved by the GM.

11) All die rolls MUST be resolved in the order listed by the phasing played.

Deluxe Bitter Woods PBEM procedure

Sequence of Play and PBEM Message System

1. German Player Turn. Each phase is described in detail as follows:

a) Mutual Supply Phase. The German player checks the supply status for all units in play and denotes out-of-supply units with an OOS marker. The German player checks the Allied player end of turn message from the last Allied turn to determine, if the Allied player has scheduled supply air drops for this Mutual Supply Phase. If necessary, the German player places Air Drop markers. The German player sends for internet die roll(s) for German units subject to Surrender.

b) Allied Interdiction Phase. The German player checks the Allied player end of turn message from the last Allied turn to determine, if the Allied player has scheduled air interdiction for this phase. If necessary, the German player places Aircraft markers.

c) Random Events. If this is a Random Event turn, the German player sends for an internet die roll to determine the random event. The Random Event rolled will be immediately reported to the Game master.

d) German Special Movement Tactic E-Mail. When there will be a German challenge of US Air Interdiction, the German player will first e-mail the involved unit's move to his opponent, listing all units placed in reserve in the email. The Allied player will then request the internet die roll(s) to resolve the movement attempts. If there are no German special movement tactics, this message phase will be skipped.

e) German Movement E-Mail. The German player sends his movement, listing the final locations for all units at the end of the movement phase, plus notation for units placed in Reserve, units repairing bridges, and units building Improved Positions and Forts. The Allied player checks the move for errors. This German Movement E-Mail also includes a list of bombardments, attacks, and angriffs, which could be all attacks OR the first set of attacks to be resolved with a note alerting the opponent that there may be more attacks after the first set is resolved. Attacks must list the units involved, any air or artillery support allocated by the attacker, and odds as calculated before Allied artillery or air support is added. Do NOT send for combat rolls at this point.

f) Allied Defender Response E-Mail: The Allied player sends his air and artillery support allocation to the German player listing the recalculated odds and simultaneously sends for die rolls for all listed combats. All die rolls must be resolved in the order listed by the German player - no exceptions.

g) Combat Results E-Mail: The Allied player lists the combat results together with any retreats or losses applied to his units (taking into account, as much as possible, the advances by the German in prior combats). Advances after combat in earlier attacks will sometimes cause the elimination of retreating Allied units.

h) German After Combat E-Mail. The German player lists any advances after combat and any exploitation movement.

i) German End-of-Turn E-Mail. The German player lists any bridge demolition attempts and any bridge construction with bridge construction move across a river with any accompanying units. The German player simultaneously sends for demolition rolls.

Note, that the German After Combat E-Mail and the German End-of-Turn E-Mail may frequently be combined, when the situations are not complicated.

2. Allied Player Turn. Much of the Allied player turn is similar to the German player turn and much is not. Each phase is described in detail as follows:

a) Mutual Supply Phase. The Allied player checks the supply status for all units in play and denotes out-of-supply units with an OOS marker. The Allied player sends for internet die roll(s) for Allied units subject to Surrender. There is no Allied supply air drop during the Allied player turn.

b) Interdiction Phase. There is no Interdiction Phase during the Allied player turn.

c) Random events are not rolled on the Allied player turn.

d) There are no Allied Special Movement Tactics.

e) Allied Movement E-Mail. The Allied player sends his movement, listing the final locations for all units at the end of the movement phase, plus notation for units placed in Reserve, units repairing bridges, and units building Improved Positions and Forts. The German player checks the move for errors. This Allied Movement E-Mail also includes a list of bombardments, attacks, and angriffs, which could be all attacks OR the first set of attacks to be resolved with a note alerting the opponent that there may be more attacks after the first set is resolved. Attacks must list the units involved, any air or artillery support allocated by the attacker, and odds as calculated before German artillery or air support is added. Do NOT send for combat rolls at this point.

f) German Defender Response E-Mail. The German player sends his air and artillery support allocation to the Allied player listing the recalculated odds and simultaneously sends for die rolls for all listed combats. All die rolls must be resolved in the order listed by the Allied player - no exceptions.

g) Combat Results E-Mail. The German player lists the combat results together with any retreats or losses applied to his units (taking into account, as much as possible, the advances by the Allies in prior combats). Advances after combat in earlier attacks will sometimes cause the elimination of retreating German units.

h) Allied After Combat E-Mail. The Allied player lists any advances after combat and any exploitation movement. Note, that the Allied After Combat E-Mail and the Allied End-of-Turn E-Mail may frequently be combined, when the situations are not complicated.

i) Allied End-of-Turn E-Mail. The Allied player lists any bridge demolition attempts and any bridge construction with bridge construction move across a river with accompanying units. The Allied player simultaneously sends for demolition rolls. Note: For turns that precede an Aircraft available turn, the Allied player must list supply air drops for the next turn Mutual Supply Phase and he must list air interdiction for the next turn Allied Interdiction Phase.

3. A summary of DBW Play by Email die roll assignments for Patton’s Relief of Bastogne Scenario is as follows:

(a) Surrender die rolls are requested by the player who controls the units that are out of supply during the Mutual Supply Phase.

(b) If Random Events are to be used, the dice roll is requested by the German player before the start of play.

(d) German combat die rolls are requested by the Allied player.

(e) Allied combat die rolls are requested by the German player.

(f) Fuel Dump demolition die rolls are requested by the German player.

(g) Bridge demolition die rolls requested by the player who controls the units that are attempting to blow the bridges.

4) Error Protocol: Each player checks the other’s move for any errors. If any movement errors exist, e-mail an inquiry to the opponent before taking any further steps in that turn. The opponent is then entitled to correct his move and combat (not limited to just the unit which moved in error). If no movement errors are reported, the move stands as sent. If any combat errors exist (such as incorrectly calculated odds or failure to apply column shifts or die roll modifiers), the receiving player does not provide an opportunity for correction to his opponent, instead noting the correction in his listing of defensive support and final odds. Any issues not resolved by the players should be promptly referred to the GM and/or Assistant GM, whose rulings will be final. The GM and/or Assistant GM reserve the right to request assistance in the ruling from the other and/or from Bruno Sinigaglio, but are not required to do so. If the game in question involves the GM, the issue is referred to the Assistant GM, and vice versa.

DBW Default PBeM Error Resolution

1. Players are free to use any PBeM procedure; however, the following stipulations and dispute resolution protocols are based on the default DBW Play By Email Procedures. You will note that this procedure assigns combat phase die rolling to the defending player – this method assures that dice rolls will not be negated due to errors found after the fact.

2. If the non-erring player (defender) receives a move with routine errors and rolls the dice to resolve combat before alerting his opponent of the errors, the errors will stand without correction. The defender is not required to return moves with mistakes; however, if he rolls the dice for any type of game situation resolution, the errors will not be corrected. It behooves the defender to ascertain the legality of a move before he rolls the dice.

3. When a player is alerted by his opponent that an unacceptable error has been made, the erring player has the option to redo his entire move.

Example #1: The Allies move a unit further than allowed. If the German player alerts the Allied player before rolling the dice for attacks, the Allied player may correct his entire move.

Example #2: The Allies move a unit slightly in excess of its movement allowance. If the German player rolls the dice for attacks before alerting the Allied player of the illegal movement, the Allied player is not required to correct the movement.

4. Players may agree to handle errors in any mutually agreeable manner, acting as gentlemen to resolve disputes in any acceptable manner without involving the GM; however, disputes brought to the attention of the GameMaster will be addressed based upon the default PBeM procedure, the guidelines listed above and common sense.

5. GM rulings involving Combat Errors mandate that any errors which result in the rerolling of one battle will result in the rerolling of ALL battles for that player turn.

6. Resolution of some situations may dictate drastic measures by the GM when common sense requires that only drastic measures will be reasonable. The GM will not be constrained by the Default Error Resolution Procedure, if it appears that a player is using the procedure in an attempt to circumvent the rules of the game. For Example: A German unit turns up in Liege in gross contravention of movement and/or zone of control rules and the Allied player resolves German combat without catching this error. The Default Error Resolution Procedure would normally allow the German player to keep the unit in Liege; however, the GM would not permit it.

Tournament Brackets

Round 1 Results

Bracket A

Tom Gregorio Allies Defeats Bob Jamelli Allies Random Event - Air Supply for the 101st

Jim Tracy Axis Defeats Larry Hollern Allies Random Event - 653 JagdTiger Bn.

John Grant Defeats Chris Senhouse

Michael Mitchell Allies Defeats Allen Ross Allies Random Event - 7th Armor R&R

Bracket B

Bruno Sinigaglio Defeats Doug Swanson

Jeff Lange Defeats Bill Thomson

Ed Witkowski Axis defeats Roy Walker Allies Random Event - German Artillery

Lance Roberts Allies Defeats Bob Ryan Axis - Air Supply for the 101st.