2nd FCOL Tournament: Simultaneous movement question.

[ericphillips]

Here is a problem with the FCOL client we deal with all the time. However, we may all deal with it differently, and I would like to devise a fair rule for the tourney that we all use.

This deals with simultaneous actions. Normally, when two or more ships have the same priority and speed, they move at the same time so no player gets an advantage of seeing the other's move first.

However, FCOL does not handle this situation well. The best solution I use is when play on Skype. When one of my pieces have to move simultaneous to my opponent, we move the piece to the hex it will move to, but don't release the mouse button. We then say "ready... go," and on go we release the button and the pieces appear at the same time.

This idea does not work in the tourney because:

A) Not Everybody uses Skype.
B) Too many pieces.

The first is self explanatory. The second is just a problem. In this game we have the potential for up to 8 ships moving at the same speed/priority in a game (two fleets of four similar sized ships all at the same speed). More likely, some of our ships, certainly more than 1 per side, will need a simultaneous move.

How to fix this? Any ideas?

[JimDauphinais]

Eric -- I am glad you asked this question. I agree that we should establish a rule for resolving this in the tournament.


Simple Proposal

Both players roll a die (using the die roller in FC Online). Reroll ties.

The high roller moves one of his tied ships of his choice.

Then the other player moves one of his tied ships of his choice.

The movement of individual tied ships continues back and forth between players until all of the tied ships are finished their move for that subpulse.


A More Complicated Variant

A more complicated variant of this would be to borrow from the optional sequential movement rule of Starmada:

The player with more tied ships moves one of his tied ships first.

The other player then moves one of his tied ships.

This goes back and forth until all tied ships are moved.

If both players have an equal number of tied ships, roll a die to determine which player moves the first tied ship.

If the player with more tied ships has twice as many tied ships as his opponent, that player may move up to two tied ships at a time.

There are certain advantages associated with this more complicated variant. However, I favor the simpler approach I have proposed above.

[ericphillips]

Simple Proposal

... There are certain advantages associated with this more complicated variant. However, I favor the simpler approach I have proposed above...

yeah. I think the second approach should become our standard. Simple, fair, and gets the job done.

[JimDauphinais]

By "second approach", do you mean the "Simple Proposal" or the "More Complicated Variant"?

[ericphillips]

Note that I quoted "simple" above.

Yeah, as I look at my response, I can see how that can be confusing.

[JimDauphinais]

Thanks.

I'll add it to the tournament rules this evening unless we get some input posted here to the contrary.

[JimDauphinais]

Rule #19 has been added to the tournament rules per above.