RTW Multiplayer Tournament

[Aristocrat]

Seeing as 90% of people who still play RTW don't visit the suggestus forum I will also post this here.

This is something I have been thinking on for a long while and would like to gauge reaction to it.

I firmly believe that TWC needs to develop a Total War Multiplayer community, and the best way to do that is through (fairly) regular tournaments.
I am thinking along the lines of 16, 32, or 64 people (I doubt 128 is doable) entering into a straight foward elimination tournament.
Like from the 2nd stage of the world cup finals onwards the winner would verse the winner of another 'bout' until only 2 are left.
The winner of the final would recieve a badge on TWC declaring his status.

The next tournament would proceed as the first but the winner of the final would have to verse the reining champion (unless he has left TWC in which case he/she forfiets) and if he beat the champion he would be the new champion.
Any thoughts?

Unlike a proposal/idea a few months ago by Tactical Withdrawal and Hader this would be purely RTW 1.5 play.
Using mods would be great and all but it wouldn't be great to have a "SPQR champion" a RTR champion and so on if there was only 4 people in each tournament.

A few quick rules that come to mind are:
1. A decent internet connection..dialup need not apply.
2. RTW 1.5 only.
3. Each battle must be recorded.
4. Before each match both players must post which team they are, etc.
5. After each match both players must post results.
6. If there is a dispute then we must go to the battle replay.
7. Disconnections raise a problem, I was thinking if someone disconnects 3 times from battles they are eliminated...if someone is losing, and is proven to have been losing and they disconnected to avoid such a loss they are eliminated. If they were disconnected earlier in the battle and it was not their third time the battle is re-fought.
8. There would be rules concerning army makeup...ones that come to mind are no more than 4 elephant units per army, kataphract limitations, and so on. Nothing too stringent but no out and out exploits. An army of hourse archers is acceptable.
9. Nearly forgot, a 25000 limit on army make-up funds.

I want to know how many people would be interested in such a tournament. :hmmm:

[Spadicus]

Problem, with point number 3, recorded replays are notoriously unreliable...at least from my experience and what I've read on these forums. They have a habit of going wrong halfway through with units wandering off the map or cavalry charging head on into phalanx points.

Otherwise I think it's a great idea!

[Mesamedasu]

Good idea.

7. Disconnections raise a problem, I was thinking if someone disconnects 3 times from battles they are eliminated...if someone is losing, and is proven to have been losing and they disconnected to avoid such a loss they are eliminated. If they were disconnected earlier in the battle and it was not their third time the battle is re-fought.
8. There would be rules concerning army makeup...ones that come to mind are no more than 4 elephant units per army, kataphract limitations, and so on. Nothing too stringent but no out and out exploits. An army of hourse archers is acceptable.
9. Nearly forgot, a 25000 limit on army make-up funds.

I have no multiplayer experience, I'll state that.
Some thoughts:

7. both players report disconnections after the battle. This way a record over several battles is made. Might help when judging fraudulous disconnections.
8. I think this should be totally free.
Maybe after a few tournaments, you could work out some handicaps, if one or the other army setup or strategy gets too dominant.
9. The only limit needed i.m.o.

10. a set of referees, not participating? 1,2,3,4, depending on tournament size. 1ref./20part.
They can judge the tricky cases, take decissions.

M

[Aristocrat]

True, I did forget about the battle replay problems, I am hoping/assuming 1.5 may have fixed this as I havent seen a problem since then but I have admittedley played few multiplayer players on 1.5.
I was trying to be as fair as I could in the disconnections issue, and I just think that if someone gets disconnected 3 times while losing then it kind gets beyond suspect, but I am open to any ideas.

On army make-up, I was actually remembering my own horror stories and exploits used before patch 1.5, armies of elephants and cataphracts are nigh on impossible to defeat, it is possible, but you have to be ready for it. Actually scratch, that cataphracts are hard to defeat while elephants can be routed or frenzied so I actually I tend to agree that no limits are needed, what with the 25000 limit for funds. (thanks).