Chainfist

Let's continue our in-depth analysis of the recent (and most awesome) WarGamesCon event with Mission #2: Paradise by the Dashboard Light.

Thanks for the comments and the emails! Let's jump into it.
ROUND 2 PAIRINGSThe initial pairings were seeded by excluding matches where the players' home town matched and by data from the BOLSCON tournament from the previous year (meaning that your initial opponent was neither someone from your home town nor someone that you played the previous year).

We couldn't continue the seeding restriction in Round 2, but we re-seated any player that would've played the same opponent from the previous round. We were also prepared to re-seat players who were regular opponents, but the field was deep enough that this situation didn't appear.


MISSION 1: "PARADISE BY THE DASHBOARD LIGHT"
Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell album was my second favorite thing from 1977 (and no my favorite thing from 1977 *wasn't* the Apple II).

MISSION OBJECTIVES
The Primary objective ("Round First") was to control more objective markers than you opponent. If you had 3+ more, then you gained 20 points. Two got  you 15 points, one earned 10 points and a tie gave each player 5 points. One objective (per player) was worth double points.

The Secondary objective ("Go For Third") was to eliminate your opponent's Elite choices. If achieved this objective, you walked away with 13 points. Leaving only dedicated transports in your opponent's Elite section would net 6 points. Both players could achieve the secondary objective.

The Tertiary objective ("Pray For The End Of Time") instructed you to eliminate your opponent's most expensive HQ choice. If you met this objective, you earned 9 points. Both players could also achieve this objective. There were also 5 Bonus Points (called Modifiers) available.


Commentary: "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" presented both players with an opportunity to grab some much needed Battle Points. Since both players could win the Secondary and Tertiary objectives, even losing could bring in 22 points -- enough to keep you in the running. I expect a much more even distribution of scores than the previous round.

SCORE DISTRIBUTION
The total available points in "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" was 47 points. The below graph shows the count of players at each point level.



The average player scored 18.9 points (down from 20.7 in the previous round). The largest group of players (20.6%) were ones that scored almost nothing (e.g., zero or a a single modifier).

Bottom Tier (scoring 0-17 points): 50.3% of players
Middle Tier (scoring 18-31 points): 24.5% of players
Top Tier (scoring 32-47 points): 25.2% of players

Interesting Tidbit: There were THREE perfect scores in "Paradise". Two were Imperial Guard players and one was Orks! Both armies have the ability to easily manage multiple objectives and focus on their opponent's Elite and HQ choices.

ARMY PERFORMANCE
This chart shows the average Battle Points scored by army type. Ork armies managed a 28 point average in Round 2! Black Templars led the pack with a 30 point average, but this number is a bit misleading as only two Black Templar armies (and only two Necron armies) participated in the tournament. 



GAME COMPLETION
73% of games finished all six turns in two hours (compared to 85% from the previous round). That's a decent drop from Round 1 -- so either the mission was more complicated or the competition was fierce enough to encourage players to slow down and think!

Interesting Tidbit: 2,932 Battle Points were earned in Round 2 (down from 3,205 Battle Points in the previous round). Although there were more points up for grabs (because both players could win the Secondary and Tertiary), this drop might indicate that the match-ups were tougher -- forcing players to work harder for the points they scored.
 
SPORTSMANSHIP
WarGamesCon uses a simple sportsmanship system. Three ratings are allowed: Bad, Good and Great. If you score your opponent as either "Bad" or "Great", then you are required to speak to judge to explain your rating.

In "Paradise", 65% of players rated their opponent as "Great", 35% rated "Good" and 0% rated the game as "Bad". Those numbers are very consistent with the previous round.