Board Thread:Challenge Arena/@comment-422690-20140804140349/@comment-4661256-20140808014923

El Alamein's Entry:

 WORLD WAR WIKIA:  The tourney's theme is going to be the Second World War, but it's not going to be a dopey "WWII Warrior User Tournament" or anything like that. This is going to be a little more structured and a little more involved, but as I have spent months getting the fine details worked out for presentation I feel that I am capable of handling it. I'll get to that later, though. The timeline starts at 1939 with the same historical background as the real WWII, but can deviate from there at any point onward. Combat will take place across a rendered map of the world with regular updates on the positions of troops on both sides. I will keep track of time and post regular updates on technological and scientific advancements so that applicable nations may boost themselves or their allies militarily.

There are going to be two kinds of participants: commanders and soldiers. The commanders will be responsible for a specific theater of combat and they make the strategic decisions to move troop bodies and reinforce/retreat/all that fancy general stuff as they see fit. They can collaborate with other commanders on the same side or not, doesn't matter. The soldiers will be the "Long Range, Mid Range, etc" guys on the ground who do the actual fighting, responsible for the tactical decisions that play out in a standard DW sim. These battles will be represented as one-on-ones or squad-on-squads in the middle of a larger scale battle, but votes should be cast with the mindset of entire armies equipped with the loadouts of the soldiers created by Users. Also, to take an acceptable break from reality, there will be no armor, artillery, or aircraft in combat so as to create a greater level of simplicity when moving troop bodies.

Entry Rules (Sample):

1. Commanders must:


 * Designate their side (Axis vs. Allies) and the country for which they wish to command troops (a complete list of available countries will be provided with the actual blog, if I am to be selected). A brief but detailed biography is necessary so I can represent the commanders in prologues, and also to ensure that they are capable of making sound strategic decisions (I will determine if an entry is acceptable to be a commander). Do not create a commander that is a blatant ripoff of a real-life WWII general (and yes, that goes for me too, no Bernard Law Montgomery).


 * Remain aware of the situation of the war as a whole - you will need to pay attention to the regular updates provided to ensure you know where you are moving your troops and why. Maybe there is a large concentration of enemy forces near Morocco and you have a small but important bastion in Algeria - would it be wiser to reinforce them or make a meaningless move from France into Luxembourg?


 * Expect to remain active (more or less) for the entirety of the war.

2. Soldiers must:


 * Designate their side (Axis vs. Allies) and the country for which they wish to command troops (a complete list of available countries will be provided with the actual blog, if I am to be selected). A brief but detailed biography is necessary so I can represent the soldiers in prologues, but keep in mind that these soldiers are only fictional entities that exist for the purpose of battle simulations - these individual troops represent larger units as a whole for voting. I am granting freedom of choice with weapon selections - that means that American troops can carry Lee-Enfields into battle, for example - but no weapons made after 1939 will be accepted (yes, that includes stuff like the STG-44). Don't worry, time does progress and I keep track of it (as stated above), so loadouts can be updated accordingly.

Loadouts exist as follows:

Rifle: Rifles were the standard infantry weapon of the Second World War - it can be an accurate bolt-action, a damning semi-auto or an experimental automatic, depending on the time frame.

Machine Gun: Belt-fed or magazine-fed, excellent for long-ranged suppressive fire.

Explosives: Hand grenades, small mortar pieces, or shoulder-fired rocket launchers are all acceptable for this category.

Sidearm: Any pistol of the era is acceptable.

Support: Maybe a submachine gun as the fighting gets close or a shotgun as the battle comes even closer - what backup weapon do your troops carry into battle?

Light vehicle: No tanks, no artillery (self-propelled or otherwise), no APCs, landing craft, planes, or heaven forbid, battleships. Basically jeeps or other light vehicles used to transport men and materiel.

 Time:  The tourney, realistically, shouldn't take more than 6 months in its entirety (unless we have really balanced teams of excellent commanders with stellar combatants under their control, which I highly doubt will be the case). I will provide weekly updates on the progress of the war (each week will likely represent several months' real-world time, with each in-game year changing every 3-4 weeks. The game can continue past 1945, if it takes that long. If the game becomes stale or reaches an impasse, the commanders can negotiate truces/ceasefires/whatever they want to give the game a conclusive end.

A lot of work has gone into the preparation of this tourney - but if you don't pick me this time around, that's okay. I am definitely open to questions/criticism and I can make small revisions if need be to ensure more balanced gameplay. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I really hope you consider me a candidate for this tourney.