Re: ! Announce: Warlords II World Tournament (Win Prizes!!!)

From: Warlords II World Tournament Organizers <gsb@CompuPick.com>

Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 00:00:00 +0000

Greetings, Warlords fans -

A week has passed since a messenger arrived at your castle,
bearing the news that the Warlords II World Tournament
has begun.

This message is just a gentle reminder that you *might* want
to point your Web browser over to the Registration site, at:

http://tournament.verdon.org   - or -
   http://tournament.verdon.org/tournament/nojava (Javascript-free)

We hope that you've just been too busy to sign up yet.  You don't
have much time to procrastinate, however, so don't miss your chance!
Registration ends in two more weeks, on June 13.

Although most of our 95+ registered players (from 16 countries)
are totally gung-ho, some have said they had some anxiety about
registering, and others who have not yet registered have also
expressed doubts.  You might have some of the same concerns.
If, like Dirk Pellett, you aren't yet sure about joining, consider:

* If you are afraid that you "aren't good enough", you will be happy to
learn that half of the 31 prizes will be given for role-playing and
*fun* things during the first few rounds - and we assume you're perfectly
capable of having fun even if you don't expect to win!

* If you're not sure you'll have time, just think about how much
time you already spend playing Warlords and other games.  If you already
spend 2 or 3 hours a week gaming, then you can certainly handle
the tournament!  (If some of that time is spent in other play-by-email
games, just get those players to register too, slow down your
current game a little, and you can do both!)  You do not need
to check your email absolutely every single day, because we
have created rules for "timeouts" (4 days per 20-turn game) and
advance-notice "absences" that allow players some leeway in getting
their gamefiles out.  In addition, Saturday is always a grace period
so that you always have extra time on weekends.  I myself never have
access to email on Sundays, and every couple months I have
3-4 day periods where I cannot check email.  Nonetheless, I'm
not only involved in 3 tournament playtesting games, I'm also
the tournament coordinator!  As long as you normally check
email at least once a day, and you don't have many sudden long absences,
you should be able to keep up with the pace of the tournament.

* If you aren't comfortable playing Warlords by email yet, you
will be happy to know that we have learned from our experiences in
playtesting and set up a network of "Play-by-Email Buddies" who
will teach you everything you need to know about sending and
receiving files and installing scenarios, so that even before
the tournament starts you will be 100% capable of playing
without frustration.  You will not face the start of a tournament
game in fear - except maybe the fear of battle!

* If you aren't sure you'll like the rules we've chosen for the
tournament, you'll be happy to know that the very first player
to register (he snuck in even before me!) was someone who originally
thought he wouldn't enjoy the rules either.  Like many others who
are now playtesters and volunteers, once we explained what we were really
up to, he changed his mind!  [ As you will see below, we've even
managed to (partially) convince Dirk Pellett that our rules are
reasonable for a tournament! ]  If you try the tournament rules, we're
sure you'll enjoy them.  The first round of the tournament was designed
for new players to discover and explore the rules.  In this
unofficial "Practice Round" we'll teach you all the rules,
explain why we made them and how they work in practice, and give
you a chance over 10 turns (about 2 months) to learn them as well
as our playtesters have.  At the end of the Practice Round, anyone who
wishes may drop out - without shame - and the rest will continue
in the first officially-scored round of the tournament.

* If you won't be able to complete the tournament due to
upcoming time problems, or because (like Dirk) you do not have
access to Deluxe, it's still worth registering and playing
the first few rounds.  The reason is that the fun won't end
with the tournament, because any player cut from the tournament
will be seeded on the upcoming "Head-to-Head Warlords Ladder".
The Head-to-Head Ladder is a play-by-email ranking system where
players compete individually (or in teams of two in the Doubles
Ladder) against others on the Ladder.  The default rules for
the ladder are a modified version of the tournament rules, but
provided the two players in any given Ladder Match can agree,
they can play with any rules they like.  So if you can't complete
the tournament or you don't like the ranking you receive,
you can join the ladder and fight your way to individual glory
there!

A more detailed official announcement about the Ladder will
be sent out after we finish organizing the Tournament and
complete the playtesting for the Ladder.  If you are interested
in the Ladder idea but not the Tournament, let me know because
we could use more playtesters for the Ladder!  An out-of-date
but still interesting draft of the Head-to-Head Ladder rules
can be found on the Web at

http://www.princeton.edu/~rfheeter/w2home/head2head.html

So....

In other words, you have nothing to lose by registering except some
of your time, and if you do register, we're confident that it will
be worth it!  That's what our 22 playtesting games have told us, and
we think it's why most of our playtesters have volunteered in various
ways to help us start the tournament as fast as possible!

If you have any questions about anything related to the Tournament,
please write back and ask.  I would hate to see any dedicated
Warlords players miss out on the Tournament!

Hope to see you in the Tournament soon!
(And after you register, please tell your Warlords-playing friends
about the Tournament too!  The more players we have, the more
exciting the tournament, and the more glorious the battles will be!)

-- Gary S. Best, Warlords II World Tournament Organizers Representative