This set of guidelines constitutes a set of rules for the design, operation, and scoring of Air Superiority and Air Strike tournaments. Tournaments which are officially sanctioned by AIR POWER magazine should adhere to these guidelines as closely as possible.
Individual Scoring
Ultimately, tournaments have as their goal the ranking of the participants in order of finish. The most common and simplest tournament is the Individual event in which each participant winds up with a final score. Each pilot can be ranked by this score and the winners determined. A new scoring system, AIR POWER Match Point Scoring (AMPS), was invented for the 1991 Origins tournament and it was well-received.
AMPS System
In an AMPS scored event, play is divided into a number of rounds. In each round, a single scenario is played at several tables. At each table, a number of teams compete (usually two but the scenario may call for more) with each team consisting of one or more pilots. Each pilot will receive Scenario Points (SPs) for actions they perform during this scenario. In addition, each member of a team will receive Team Points (TPs) based on the degree to which the team's scenario objectives have been satisfied. The combination of SPs and TPs received by a pilot will allow the tournament director to award Match Points (MPs) to each participant. An individual's final score for the event is the total of the MPs received in each round.
The motivation behind the ANTS system can be expressed concisely: the system was designed to be simple, robust, fair, and goal-oriented. The mechanics underlying the scoring system are adapted from duplicate contract bridge scoring, and bridge players will no doubt recognize the similarities, but there are numerous differences as well. Unlike bridge, Air Superiority and Air Strike do not have a well-defined "single game" scoring system. It was necessary to devise a reasonable method to generate SPs in order for the ANTS system to work.
Scenario Points
An individual receives Scenario Points (SPs) based on the task required of his or her team. ANTS currently uses three team tasks: Air Combat, Strike, and Defense Suppression. A pilot may receive SPs only in the category assigned to his team by the scenario designer. In certain cases, a scenario designer may wish teams to have multiple roles. In such cases, a pilot may receive SPs from each task category designated to his or her team.
Air Combat Task
Goals: Outmaneuver the opponent, take good shots, inflict damage on the enemy.
A pilot receives points for inflicting damage based on the level of damage (*, C, H, L) inflicted. Pilots do not receive points for an enemy which suffers progressive damage, nor do they receive points for damage due to collisions. No aircraft may be source for more than 12 points in damage-based SPs.
A pilot receives points for taking valid shots which have the potential to do damage. Each time a pilot takes a roll on any damage table, award SPs equal to two plus the column rolled on, i.e. a shot rolled on Damage Table 4 is worth 6 (=2+4) SPs.
A pilot receives points for outmaneuvering the enemy. When a pilot's Advantage state changes for the better, he or she receives points. There is no penalty for losing an Advantage. The points are awarded only when the Advantage state changes, i.e. a pilot who was Advantaged last turn and remains so this turn receives no additional SPs.
Air Combat Task
- Enemy a/c receives * : 12
Enemy a/c receives C : 8
Enemy a/c receives H : 4
Enemy a/c receives L : 2
(total may not exceed 12 per enemy a1c, no SPsfor progressive damage results or collisions)
Each roll on Damage Table k : k+2
(no points for collisions)
Disadvantaged to Neutral : 1
Neutral to Advantaged : 1
Disadvantaged to Advantaged : 2
(awarded only on a change of Advantage state, not each turn)
Strike Task
Goals: Deliver ordnance on the target with good parameters, destroy the target, bring the aircraft home.
The scenario designer must assign at least one target as the Primary target for each strike-tasked aircraft. In addition, Secondary targets may also be specified. All other targets are considered Opportunity targets.
Strike pilots receive points for making good bombing runs. Each time ordnance is released, the pilot receives points equal to two plus the column ratio used on the Bombing table plus any net beneficial modifier on the attack. Thus if a pilot makes an attack on the 4:1 table with a -3 modifier (net), he or she receives 9 (=2+4+3) SPs. Attacks on tables less than 1: 1 are treated as a '0' for the table value. Attacks at greater than 10: 1 odds are treated as '10' for SP purposes.
Strike pilots receive points fordoing damage to their targets. Each 'D' result scores points, up to a maximum of three 'D' results per target, or one 'D' per target with a white silhouette. Pilots who strike the same Primary are awarded the full value of their strikes, even if the target is destroyed (receives more than 3 'D' results, total). Secondary and Opportunity targets, once destroyed, may not be struck again. The rationale for this is based (loosely) on the notion of bomb damage assessment. A large fixed target is not known to be destroyed (usually) during the raid, but only much later when new reconnaissance information becomes available. Therefore, each pilot receives full value for doing the job: striking the Primary target.
To receive all SPs awarded above, a pilot must bring the aircraft back undamaged. Penalty points (negative SPs) are assessed based on the state of damage of the aircraft when it returns to base. These penalty points may not drive the total below V. A pilot may not receive more than -12 SPs for damage done to the aircraft.
Strike Task
Each D result on Primary : 6
(total may not exceed 3D per target per pilot)
Each D result on Secondary : 3
Each D result on Opportunity : 1
(total may not exceed 3D per target, 1D for white
silhouette)
Each roll on Bombing Table k: 1,-m : k+2+m
(tables less than 1: 1 have k=O, k may not
exceed 10)
Pilot's a/c receives * : -12
Pilot's a/c receives C : -8
Pilot's a/c receives H : -4
Pilot's a/c receives L : -2
(total may not exceed -12 or drive SP below 0)
Defense Suppression Task
Goals: Render the enemy's air defense ineffective, destroy AAA and SAMs.
Defense Suppression (DS) is a difficult task and largely goes unrewarded. A DS pilot receives points for suppressing and destroying enemy radars, AAA, and SAMs. If a SAM site is destroyed, the pilot receives points equal to six plus the number of ready missiles left unfired at the site. This is intended to reward pilots who promptly destroy the most dangerous SAM sites. SPs are not awarded for suppression when a target is damaged. No target may receive more than three 'D' results.
Example: a DS pilot gets a 2D result against a Hawk battery and receives 12 (=6+6) SPs. If he later gets another 2D result against the same battery with 3 Hawks remaining, he receives 15 (=6+3+6) more SPs. White silhouetted SAMs may only receive one 'D' result. A DS pilot receives SPs for destroying Infantry SAMs, but does not receive points for damaging or suppressing them.
Defense Suppression Task
Radar Suppressed : 1
Radar Destroyed : 3
AAA Destroyed : 4
AAA Suppressed : 2
AAA D Result : 4
(total may not exceed 3D per target)
Infantry : SAM Destroyed ....5
SAM Destroyed, k shots left : k+6
SAM Suppressed : 4
SAM D Result : 6
(total may not exceed 3D per target, 1D per white
silhouette)
Team Points
Team Points are a special kind of SP which are used to reward cooperation by players with a common objective. The scenario designer may assign TP values to actions and events that he or she feels are important within the overall setting of the scenario. As an example, T?s might be awarded to a Strike team based on how quickly they destroy the primary or to a Defense Suppression team when all strike aircraft return undamaged. Two guidelines which should be followed:
- 1. TPs should be of secondary importance in comparison
to SPs and should be strictly limited, usually to a maximum
of 12 points per pilot,
2. The designer should award T?s for actions which are outside the scope of activities already covered in the SP list, and which are directly related to team goals.
A violation of the second guideline would be team points awarded to an Air Combat team based on total enemy kills. These are accounted for in the existing SP system. A better source of TPs for an escort Air Combat group would be the survival rate of the strike group or bonus points for elimination of all unfriendly aircraft. By making the points based on a secondary objective (strike tearn survival) or a "yes/no" event (all enemies destroyed), the TP awards become distinct from the SP awards. A pilot's final score for around, the Round Score (RS) is the sum of his SP and TP points.
- RS=SP+TP
Match Points
Match Points are awarded based on the order of finish of all pilots on the same team across all tables where the scenario was played. The set of all pilots who flew on a given team at all tables is known as a section. As an example, let us suppose that the director is overseeing a scenario involving a Strike team of four pilots, a DS team of two pilots, and an interceptor team with three pilots.
At each table there are nine (4+2+3) people playing, six on one side and three on the other. Suppose the scenario is being played simultaneously on four tables. The Strike Section consists of 16 (4 x 4) pilots, the DS section eight (2 x 4), and the interceptor section 12 Q x 4).
The basic UP scoring rule is quite simple:
- A pilot receives 1 MP for every other pilot in his or her
section who has fewer RS points. A pilot receives 0.5 MP
for every other pilot in his or her section with the same
number of RS points.
In the example given above, the score for the Strike section will range from 0 MPs (lowest Strike RS total) to 15 MPs (highest Strike RS total). The RS is used only to determine the order of finish of the pilots within a section; the MPs are NOT scaled to match the RS scores.
The tournament is decided on MP totals for each pilot. The RS is used only to determine the M[Ps awarded for a particular round and are discarded after that. In a multi-round tourney, a pilot will score some number of Ups for each round. His or her score at the end of the day will be the total number of Ws received. The player with the largest UP total is the winner. Other finishing places may be designated in descending MP order.
Note that for a section of size N, the total number of MPs awarded to that section will be 0.5(N-1)N. This value is often used to check the scores to insure that they are accurate, the director merely needs to add up the MPs awarded and compare the two. If the values do not agree, a scoring error may have occurred.
Factoring
You can see from the example given above for NIP totals that merely adding up MPs for all events may not result in a fair ranking of player abilities. If the tournament consisted only of this single round, the DS team would be at a severe disadvantage. The best DS pilot would score only 7 Ws, while the best Strike pilot would score 15 MPs. There are two ways of handling this situation so that a balanced score results:
- 1. Scenarios are used and assignments made for each player so
that everyone's section total is the sameat day's end.
2.Each round is factored so that the highest possible score is the same in all sections.
The section total is the total number of participants in all sections a pilot has played in for the whole tournament. The example given above has a section total of 16 for the Strike pilots, for example. If another scenario were now played with section sizes of 18 and 18 (still 36 players), Strike pilots from the first round would now have a section total of 34, interceptor pilots would have a section total of 30, and DS pilots would have a section total of 26. It is possible to arrange a tournament so that all players have the same section total at the end of the day.
If there are irregularities (such as dropouts and new arrivals), or if the director does not wish to arrange scenarios so that all players have the same section total, it is necessary to factor the scores. To do this, every player's UP score for the round is multiplied by the ratio of the highest possible score in the largest section to the highest possible score in the section being scored. In our example, the factoring would go like this:
- DS Pilots Factor : 15/7 = 2.14
Interceptor Pilots Factor : 15/11 = 1.36
Strike Pilots Factor : 15/15 = 1.00
For example, the DS pilot who finished with the second highest round score would have his MP value of 6 multiplied by 2.14 for a total of 12.86 MPs. An interceptor pilot who finished in the middle of the pack with 6 MPs would have an adjusted score of 6 x 1.36 = 8.16 MPs. Generally speaking, MPs are carried out to two decimal places but are significant only at the 0.5 MP level. In other words, two scores that are within 0.5 MPs of one another are considered a tie.
This appears complex and is best handled using computer programs / spreadsheets or programmable calculators, but factoring and associated evils can be completely avoided. If the tournament designer is careful to insure that players participate in a "symmetric" set of scenarios, then the total possible match points will be the same for everyone.
Team Play: AVP Scoring
Players are organized into two-man or four-man teams which compete head-to-head with other teams. A team will play both sides of the same scenario and the team score is based on how well they performed overall. The points awarded to each team are in AIR POWER Victory Points (AVPs). The team with the highest AVP total at the end of the tournament is declared the winner, with other places coming in AVP order.
Each team is given a number and consists of two sections: A and B. In a tournament for two person teams, each section has only one pilot. A team-of-four competition would have two pilots in each section. A round matches two teams against one another in a single scenario. The same scenario is played simultaneously at two tables, both pitting one team's A section against the other's D section, but from opposite sides.
For example, let us suppose that team 6 is playing against team 8 in the first round of play of a team-of-four competition. The scenario is a 2-v-2 fight involving Red aircraft against Blue aircraft. At one table, the A section of team 6 will take the Red side against the B section of team 8. At the other table, the B section of team 6 will take the Blue side against the A section of team 8. In chart form, the assignments look like this:
| Team | Table 1 | Table 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Red | 6A | 8A |
| Blue | 8B | 6B |
Team Game Example Table Assignments
At the conclusion of both games, the two sections of each team will get back together and total their scores. The total number of SPs scored by team 6 (at both tables) is compared with the total number of SPs scored by team 8 (at both tables). The smaller total is subtracted from the larger and the result compared to the following table:
| SPs | 0-1 | 2-3 | 4-5 | 6-8 | 9-11 | 12-15 |
| AVPs | 10-10 | 11-9 | 12-8 | 13-7 | 14-6 | 15-5 |
| SPs | 16-19 | 20-24 | 25-30 | 31-35 | 36+ | - |
| AVPs | 16-4 | 17-3 | 18-2 | 19-1 | 20-0 | - |
AVP Scoring Table
The first number in the AVP row is awarded to the winning team while the second number is awarded to the losing Learn. Suppose that team 6A does very well, downing both enemy planes for 36 SPs total while team 8B receives only 2 SPs. At the second table, team 6B scores only 8 SPs but team 8A receives 20 SPs. For the round, team 6 scored 44 SPs to team 8's 22 SPs. The difference is 22 SPs. Checking the table we see that team 6 would be awarded 17 AVPs while team 8 would only receive 3 AVPs. They would carry these AVP totals into the next round and, as for AM? scoring, once the AVP awards have been determined, the SP totals are meaningless.
Presumably, if Learns 6 and 8 were equally capable, the outcomes of the scenarios would have been the same. Even if the scenario was unbalanced so that the Red side scored 30 SPs and the Blue side 5 SPs at both tables, the total SP score for both teams would be 35. The difference would then be zero and both teams would be awarded 10 AVPs. Only when a team does well from both sides of a scenario will they generate a large SP difference in comparison to the other team and thus receive a higher AVP score.
A team tournament is very easy to run, requiring only that several scenarios be generated in advance. Pairings for the first round are made randomly (or simply as 1-2, 3-4, 5-6...). Assignments in subsequent rounds are made in order of AVPs made during the previous round. The tourrnament director ranks the teams in descending AVP order and pairs off the highest two teams, then the next highest, and so on. If pairing in this way would cause two teams to face each other twice in a row, you should swap one of the offending teams with its neighbor, even if that violates AVP ordering).
One of the joys in a team tournament is the sense of comraderie and the immediate gratification of knowing exactly how well you performed in each round. Often running totals for the top five or six teams are placed on a leader board so that everyone can watch the teams slug it out in the final rounds. I am particularly interested in hearing from anyone who conducts a team tournament and I hope it will lead to a regular event at Origins that's unlike any other game.
Duplicate Air Combat
This is a multi-round tourney that can be played either by single pilots or Learns. The discussion below refers to teams throughout, but it applies equally well to single person events. It requires far more rounds than the previous tournament designs and so is appropriate only for an extended tournament, or with a small group.
The tournament director sets up N tables, each of which has a different scenario, for the 2N teams. Each scenario pits a Red side against a Blue side. Every team will be initially assigned to Red or Blue and they will play that side only for the entire tournament. At each table, a record of each round played is kept on a score sheet which remains face down throughout the round. At the end of the game, the results for the the current round, including the team numbers and SP totals, are recorded and the score sheet is placed face down again.
At the conclusion of a round, all the Red teams move to the next higher numbered table, and all Blue teams move to the next lower numbered table. If there are an even number of tables, the middle round of the tourney will have to include a "skip": the Red teams moving two tables instead of one. This process continues until everyone has played at each table or an adequate number of rounds have been played.
The score sheets are then collected by the tournament director and MPs awarded based on the SP scores recorded. Red SPs are compared only to other Red SP scores at that table, and Blue scores are compared only with other Blue scores. In an ideal tournament of this kind, every scenario will be played N times and so every team will receive between 0 and N-1 MPs for each scenario played. If the tournament lasts for N rounds, the final UP scores for every team will be between 0 and N(N-1). This style of tournament is the standard used for duplicate bridge games, thus the title for this section.
General Guidelines
Constructing a tournament really isn't all that difficult. The designer needs to give attention to the time required to play the scenarios, guarantee a fair tournament for every player, and insure that the games are interesting and fun. If you've never designed your own scenarios before, you can still use any of the dozens of truly excellent scenarios that have been published with Air Superiority and Air Strike or that have appeared in AIR POWER.
Be sure you carefully map out your tournament movement on paper in advance so that you don't have situations where some team faces the same opponents or plays the same scenario twice. Also, try to give some early consideration to how you intend to handle anomalies such as late entrants and drop outs. If you have access to hardware (computer or calculator) that will aids you in scoring the matches, drag it out ahead of time and make sure that any programs you need are tested and documented. There's nothing more irritating than to have spent time writing a scoring program and then be unable to remember how to use it.
Most importantly, you should write everything down. The movement, pairings, scenarios, scoring system, assigned Team Points, etc., should all be in black and white before the tournament begins. Ideally, your documentation and instructions should be so well thought out that you could turn the whole packet over to someone else and they would be able to run the tourney for you. If you can, try to make provision for recording the events at each table so that the tournament can later be analyzed. Not only will this allow us to publish your results and get you fame and fortune (well, fame at least), but it will allow the whole set of guidelines to be improved.
Having said all that, you may have gotten the impression that these tournaments are too difficult to ran. While they do involve some preparation, I think they are the most rewarding way to play Air Superiority and Air Strike. Everyone always seems to rise to the occasion at a tourney and the level of play and competition are unequalled. Rehashing the results and pouring over the scores can give a pilot new insights about tactics, and can provide a lot of entertainment in its own right. Now, get out there and run a great show!
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© Copyright 1991 by J.D. Webster
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