From: "" Subject: Re: We the People Bidding In a message dated 97-06-02 09:07:52 EDT, you write: << At Avaloncon, they use a bidding system, although a little different from what you describe. Basically, players bid the number of PCs that the British player may place AFTER all of the Committees of Correspondence are placed. The Americans get to place their Committees -- then the Brits place the number of PCs bid anyplace they choose, within the limits of the placement rules. They are placed one at a time, which allows the British player to build on the previous one (unlike placement with a 2 or 3 Ops card, in which case the Brit. can only build on previously placed PCs). Bids ranged from 0 to 6 (the GM, Jim Falling may have more precise information), but I think the norm was about 2 PCs. The winner tended to bid higher than average (he played only the Americans). Personally, I think the Americans have a slight edge, but tend to think 1 PC is enough to give away. More than that allows the British to create some serious early threats if he has decent cards. >> Hey Guys, I'm the GM for WTP at Avaloncon. I kept stats on the win/loss/bid ratios for the tournament. I've pasted below the summary of the tourney that I wrote for the General. The traditional response to supposed play imbalance has been bidding to play the favored side. I personally believe that the Americans have more of an advantage, particularly in a longer game. Eventhough we use the bidding system outlined by George, I tend to build high for the American because I think it is relatively easy to isolate big groups of PC early (given that the American pass the first play so that he can move last). I think in the last tourney I didn't put any chain restrictions on the placement of the Brit PC due to the bid. I did this because Ninety-Six and one other (Camden?) Brit PC start the game discontiguous. I have thought about changing the bidding to colony victory conditions, rather than bidding inital PCs. For example, the player who wants to play the Americans would bid 10 colonies to win instead of only the game's nine. However, I don't know how this would unravel the flow of play or balance. Jim **We The People Tournament Report - Avaloncon 1996 We The People attracted Fifty-four generals even with afternoon competition from its new sister game, Hannibal. George Seary as the American player prevailed over George Young to win the final match in the 1779 turn. This was remarkable in that the Americans could neither declare their independence nor gain French intervention. The remaining top players were Michael Arrighi, Steve Huskey, Kirk Harris, Terry Coleman, Dave Tianen, and Dewayne Curry. Out of a total of fifty-four games played, the British won twenty-five games, the Americans won twenty-seven, and there were two draws. Players bided pre-game PCs (average winning bid of 2.2 PC) given to the British in order to play the Americans. George Washington was a hunted man in this tournament - almost 70% of the British wins resulted from his capture. In one game between James Smith and Steve Huskey, Washington was unsuccessfully chased from New England all the way to Charlotte in one year. Excluding British automatic victories and one American automatic victory on turn one by George Seary, the majority of the games ended with a “War Ends” card in 1780 or 1781. Only four games lasted until 1782 or 1783. Combat in WTP is usually brutally short. However, Charles Severence and Tim Miller twice played out all of one side’s battle cards in back to back battles. What Generalship! Extraordinarily poor luck also played a part in Robert Taylor’s defeat to James Smith. Taylor’s American forces failed two interception attempts and three counterattacks in his unsuccessful defense of George Washington’s freedom.