With tournaments starting to re-open it got me thinking again on the different tournament scoring systems.
Majority of systems use a combined pointage system, ie Clash of Kings, Northern Kings and BlackJack or variations of these, with tie breakers an after thought.
Others are designed with the tie breakers in mind upfront and use a football style scoring for the result.
There are pros and cons with each system.
Example Results
Clash of Kings scoring system
The original Scoring System.
A 20-0 scoring system, with 15 points for a WIN, 10 points for a DRAW and 5 points for a loss, with up to an additional + or - 5 points for the attrition (your kills minus your dead).
- Can perform ties on:
- the units you have killed
- Strength of Schedule (ie the tournament ranking of each position of the players you played)
- coin toss
- Cannot / Should not perform ties on the following as they are already part of the scoring system, so you would be double counting
- kill attrition score (difference between your kills and your own dead)
- The following are not recorded as part of the system scoring, so out of the bag cannot be separated on
- the highest Scenario points (in game Victory Points),
- your VP attrition score (difference between all your VP and all your opponents VP)
Weight of system
The initial tournament system, and the one that most are familiar with.
The system scores Winning and Killing the opponent while keeping yourself alive above anything else
Does not matter how well you won, a 7-0 or 1-0 it is still scored the same.
The tournament points despite being combined, ties occur frequently meaning deciders are required, depending on how the tournament recorded the results this could be a double counting on attrition.
Results comparison
1st in this system lost a single game, and is first in the other combined scoring systems (they were 2nd in King of Herts).
2nd in this system did not lose a game and is 1st in King of Herts, 2nd in Northern Kings and 3rd in BlackJack.
5th and 6th consistent across all systems.
Bottom of the table is more consistent across systems.
BlackJack scoring system
The System was designed to give weight to Scenario scoring, not just Win and Kill.
A 21-0 scoring system, with 14 points for a WIN, 10 points for a DRAW and 7 points for a loss, with up to an additional + or - 3 points for the attrition (your kills minus your dead) and up to an additional + or - 4 points for the scenario attrition (your scenario VP minus your opponents scenario VP).
- Can perform ties on (if full data captured):
- the units you have killed
- the highest Scenario points (in game Victory Points)
- Strength of Schedule (ie the tournament ranking of each position of the players you played)
- coin toss
- Cannot / Should not perform ties on the following as they are already part of the scoring system, so you would be double counting
- kill attrition score (difference between your kills and your own dead)
- your VP attrition score (difference between all your VP and all your opponents VP)
Weight of system
The system scores Winning, how well you won by (Largest Scenario VP difference) and Killing the opponent while keeping yourself alive above anything else
Scenario score matters, winning 7-0 scores better than 1-0
But winning 4-3 is the same as winning 1-0
The tournament points despite being combined, ties occur frequently meaning deciders are required, depending on how the tournament recorded the results this could be a double counting on attrition.
Results comparison
1st in this system lost a single game, and is first in the other combined scoring systems (they were 2nd in King of Herts).
2nd in this system is 3rd or 4th in other systems.
5th and 6th consistent across all systems.
Bottom of the table is more consistent across systems.
Northern Kings scoring system
The System was designed to be a simple as possible so that the player can easily calculate their score with out error.
A 25-5 scoring system, with 15 points for a WIN, 10 points for a DRAW and 5 points for a loss, with up to an additional 5 points for your kills and up to an additional 5 points for scenario VP.
- Can perform ties on (if full data captured):
- kill attrition score (difference between your kills and your own dead)
- your VP attrition score (difference between all your VP and all your opponents VP)
- Strength of Schedule (ie the tournament ranking of each position of the players you played)
- coin toss
- Cannot / Should not perform ties on the following as they are already part of the scoring system, so you would be double counting
- the units you have killed
- the highest Scenario points (in game Victory Points)
Weight of system
The system scores Winning and Kill the opponent while keeping yourself alive above anything else
Does not matter how well you won, a 7-0 or 1-0 it is still scored the same.
The tournament points despite being combined, ties occur frequently meaning deciders are required, depending on how the tournament recorded the results this could be a double counting on attrition.
The system scores Winning, how well you won by and Killing the opponent.
Losing can still score well, ie a 4-3 loss means 3 extra tournament points.
Scenario score matters, accruing VP means more TP regardless of result
Killing matters, accruing Kills means more TP regardless of result
The tournament points despite being combined, ties occur frequently meaning deciders are required, depending on how the tournament recorded the results this could be a double counting on VP or Kills.
Results comparison
1st in this system lost a single game, and is first in the other combined scoring systems (they were 2nd in King of Herts).
2nd in this system did not lose a game and is 1st in King of Herts, 2nd in Clash of Kings and 3rd in BlackJack.
5th and 6th consistent across all systems.
Bottom of the table is more consistent across systems.
King of Herts scoring system
The System was designed from football type scoring, with the premise that the person with the lest losses should always place higher than someone with more losses. From there with balanced scenarios the tie breakers were built into the system but outside of the scoring.
A 5 points for a WIN, 3 points for a DRAW and 1 points for a loss system, but built with the deciders in mind, so if tied on Tournament points, they are then split by:
- the highest Scenario points (in game Victory Points), if ties then:
- the units you have killed, if ties then:
- your VP attrition score (difference between all your VP and all your opponents VP), if ties then:
- your kill attrition score (difference between your kills and your own dead), if ties then:
- the Strength of Schedule (ie the tournament ranking of each position of the players you played), if ties then:
- Finally, if there is still a draw, we simulate an electronic coin toss
As the ties are not used for the initial scoring they are all clean and are never double counting.
B re-ordering the tie breakers you can put more or less emphasis on how well you won by vs how well you killed the opponent.
Weight of system
The system scores the result (win/draw/loss) full stop, more wins will always trump losses or draws.
Two draws beats 1 win, so a 2 Draw 2 loss beats 1 Win 3 loss.
The systems weighting is do via the deciders built into the system, by using balanced scenarios each round has a table max of 7VP available, highest win being 7VP, highest loss of 3VP and highest draw of 3VP.
Scenario score matters, winning 7-0 scores better than 1-0
But winning 4-3 is better than winning 1-0, same for losing.
As the tournament points are not combined, ties can be decided on all of the following:
- Total VP scored
- Kills
- VP attrition
- Kill attrition
- Strength of Schedule
Results comparison
1st in this system did not lose a single game (they were 2nd or 3rd in the other systems.
2nd in this system lost only one game, but were first in the other systems despite losing a game.
5th and 6th consistent across all systems.
Bottom of the table is more consistent across systems.
Conclusion
Which system is right?
Depends.........
It depends on:
- what slant you want on your tournament,
- how much data you want/can capture.
- how much data your players are willing to input
- how much calculation your players are willing to do
- how many calculations you are willing to correct
Combined Tournament points systems
- Clash of Kings (the kill attrition score)
- BlackJack (the kill attrition score and the scenario attrition score)
- Northern Kings (the kill score and the scenario score)
Matrix systems
- Clash of Kings (the kill attrition scoring mechanic)
- BlackJack (the kill attrition scoring mechanic and the scenario attrition scoring mechanic)
- Northern Kings (the kill scoring mechanic and the scenario scoring mechanic)
Scenario is key systems
- King of Herts (the VP accrued being the first decider)
- Northern Kings (the scenario scoring mechanic)
- BlackJack (the scenario attrition scoring mechanic)
Killing is key systems
- Clash of Kings (the kill attrition scoring mechanic)
- BlackJack (the kill attrition scoring mechanic)
- Northern Kings (the kill scoring mechanic)
- King of Herts with the Kills as the second decider, it is important but not key
Minimal data capture systems
- Clash of Kings (Result and the kill attrition score)
- BlackJack (Result, the scenario attrition score and the kill attrition score)
- Northern Kings (Result, the scenario score and the kill score)
- King of Herts (Result, actual VP for and against, Kills for and against)
Heavy data capture systems
- King of Herts (Result, actual VP for and against, Kills for and against)
- BlackJack (Result, the scenario attrition score and the kill attrition score)
- Northern Kings (Result, the scenario score and the kill score)
- Clash of Kings (Result and the kill attrition score)
Penalty systems
Negative attrition scoring
- BlackJack
- Clash of Kings
Positive only systems
- King of Herts
- Northern Kings
Summary
I have either TOed and/or played each of these systems.
I personally do not like the Clash of Kings system, as it directs every game towards the Kill scenario.
I liked the Blackjack system, as it leans heavier on how well you done in the scenario, but it can be a pain in the ass to TO and get the results in correctly, also has the personal annoyance of negative scoring.
Northern Kings system is cool with the positive only scoring, just needs a tweek on the scenario balancing so they can all score the same max points for both opponents.
I really like the King of Herts system, and it was the way shroud was looking at, together we have created the King of Herts scoring and scenario balancing system, that favours not just winning but how well you won by, equally if you lost but scored well you are also rewarded.
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