Academy of Witchcraft Arts
In this Main Match, compete in three events at the festival to obtain the highest average ranking.
| Designer(s): uriquack | Match Type: MM (for 10 players) |
| Featured in: The Genius: House of Larks | |
Academy of Witchcraft Arts
You are a first year student attending AWA, the prestigious Academy of Witchcraft Arts. Winter break has just ended, heralding the arrival of spring and the long-awaited AWA Festival, in which students participate in various Events to earn academic credit and fluff up their resumes for the harsh, post-graduate world of today’s economy.
Your beloved senpais have come to cheer you on.
General
In this game, players participate in two out of three Events of their choice, vying for the highest average ranking.
This Main Match will last 6 rounds.
In the 48h pregame, each player must list their first and second choices out of 3 Events. The Events are Alchemy, Elemental Continuum, and Summoner’s Dream. Players will each participate in 2 out of 3 of these Events.
A maximum of 7 players may participate in each Event. First choices will be examined first, then second choices. The number of garnets spent on your preference list will be the tiebreak; after that, ties are broken randomly.
Alchemy is a game in which players engineer magical constructs with raw materials, selling them on a round by round basis according to a common market price.
Elemental Continuum is a game in which players configure a 8x8 board of pentominos and earn points based on their spell attacks.
Summoner’s Dream is a game of attack and receive tower defense in which players summon Familiars and use them to invade others’ Territories for Treasures.
The currency known as "coins" in Alchemy and Summoner's Dream are separate from one another.
Note: For Elemental Continuum and Summoner's Dream, you may present your boards in any legible way, but spreadsheet and image editors are largely preferred.
Endgame
Players are ranked according to their respective Events.
The player with the highest average ranking will become the sole winner and earn two Tokens of Life and a garnet; the player with the lowest average ranking will become the Elimination Candidate. If the highest average ranking is a tie, among those tied, the player with the highest earned placement becomes sole winner. If this is still a tie, each winner earns a single Token of Life.
Garnets are then distributed to players as per the following:
(1) 1st place in an Event earns 2 garnets.
(2) 2nd place in an Event earns 1 garnet.
(3) 3rd place in an Event earns 1 garnet.
(4) The player(s) with the most gold (material) remaining in Alchemy at the end of the Main Match earn 1 garnet (each).
If the lowest average ranking is a tie, among those tied, the player with the lowest earned placement becomes the Elimination Candidate. If this is still a tie and there is a sole winner, the sole winner selects the Elimination Candidate. If in the case this is still tied, the tie will be broken by the Gamewide Tiebreak.
Alchemy
In Alchemy, players gather raw materials, engineer magical constructs, and sell them to earn gems.
Currency
There are three currencies: money, energy, and gems.
Money is used to purchase any additional materials or parts. Each player begins with 500 coins. (These coins may not be used in Summoner’s Dream.)
Energy is spent on gathering materials. You have a base of 17 energy per round. Every material has an energy cost (written on the Alchemy spreadsheet). Additionally, for x number of different materials you harvest in the same location, you get an energy reduction of (x-1) to energy costs.
Gems are the earnings you make from selling alchemy sets. At endgame, players will be ranked according to their number of gems.
Materials and Harvesting
Materials have two attributes: location and energy cost.
Materials are harvested according to the number of players harvesting from the same location. Harvesting multiple materials from the same location results in an energy reduction: for x number of different materials you harvest in the same location, you get an energy reduction of (x-1) to energy costs.
Harvesting a material from a location earns you 4-x of the materials for which x = number of other players harvesting in your location, capped at a floor of 1 (meaning players will always harvest at least 1 of the material).
You may only harvest any one material once per round.
Harvesting is the first thing that happens in a round.
Machines
Machines are items that can interact with materials and recipes. Machines cost coins and sometimes materials.
Machines are applied after all materials are harvested and before constructs are engineered.
Each player may only purchase one machine per round.
Recipes and Engineering Constructs
Materials are required to engineer constructs via Recipes. There are 21 constructs, each belonging to one of seven different sets.
Harvested materials are used to engineer constructs according to several recipes.
Constructs can only be engineered if you have all the requisite materials for them according to their recipes; if a player does not have all the materials required to engineer a construct, the attempt fails. No materials are lost if the attempt fails.
Engineering a construct occurs after machines are applied and before sets are sold in the market.
Market Sets
Finally, constructs are sold at the Wizards’ Marketplace for gems.
When selling constructs, sales multipliers apply depending on the number of constructs sold in each set on that round.
Constructs are sold for their market value’s worth of gems multiplied by the sales multiplier.
Sales multipliers apply round by round according to the following:
(1) If in a round there is only one construct sold in its set, the sales multiplier is 1.5x for that construct.
(2) If in a round only two constructs are sold in their set, the sales multiplier is 1.25x for those constructs.
(3) If in a round three constructs are sold in their set, the sales multiplier is 1x for those constructs.
(4) If in a round four constructs are sold in their set, the sales multiplier is 0.75x for those constructs.
(5) If in a round five or more constructs are sold in their set, the sales multiplier is 0.6x for those constructs.
Market sales occur last in each round.
Endgame and Summary
At the end of each round, you will be privately told your number of gems and materials. Locations, constructs, and sales will not be revealed.
At the end of the Main Match, players are ranked according to their total number of gems earned from Marketplace sales. Players' total number of gems will be revealed.
The order of operations for each round is as follows:
(1) Materials are harvested.
(2) Machine effects are applied.
(3) Constructs are engineered.
(4) Constructs are sold.
Addendum:
For endgame ties, ties are broken as such:
(1) greatest number of unique constructs sold
(2) greatest number of gold (material) held at the end of the game
(3) Gamewide Tiebreak
Addendum:
If you try to engineer multiple constructs whose materials you are expecting to harvest in the current round, and these constructs share materials such that engineering one means not having enough for the other(s), the construct(s) you end up engineering will be randomized UNLESS you specify a listed order of priority for engineering constructs.
Elemental Continuum
The game will be played on The Surface, an 8x8 board of square tiles. Each player with participating in Elemental Continuum will have an 8x8 board that correlates to The Surface. The 8x8 board will use algebraic notation (chessboard), meaning it will be labeled 1-8 from bottom to top and A-H from left to right.
Setup
In the first round, players pre-play pentomino configurations on their 8x8 boards such that
(1) There are 12 pentominos on the board. These pentominos will be referred to as wards.
(2) Each pentomino is colored an element (fire = red, water = blue, wind = green, earth = yellow); each player has 3 pentominos of each element.
(3) There are four squares of neutral element (gray) divided in any way you like (1 tetramino, 4 isolated cells, etc.). No matter the configuration of the neutral tiles, together they function as a singular ward.
Players will also assign point values 2, 4 and 6 to each pentomino such that there are four pentominos of point value 2, four pentominos of point value 4, and four pentominos of point value 6. Neutral tiles will automatically be assigned a point value of 1.
The following board is an example of a valid setup.
Rounds 2-6
There are four elements: fire, water, earth and wind. Fire defeats wind, wind defeats earth, earth defeats water, and water defeats fire.
Players participating in this game will each fire two bolts per round at any coordinate. All bolts are fired simultaneously. Players must designate an element for each bolt. Bolts are fired at singular cells of the 8x8 Surface. The bolts will strike every other player’s boards simultaneously (meaning every board other than the board of the player firing the bolts).
To break a ward tile,
(1) one bolt of the element that defeats it must be fired at it. (Advantage Break)
or
(2) two bolts of the ward’s element must be fired at it. (Singularity Break)
For example, fire wards can only be destroyed by 2 fire bolts or 1 water bolt.
The singular tetramino of neutral element takes 3 bolts of any element to break. (Neutral Break)
When a ward tile is broken on someone's board, it will be announced.
Contribution
When 3 or more tiles of a player's ward is broken, the entire ward breaks down; its shape, element, and point value are then revealed.
Players who contribute to breaking a ward earn points equal to the percentage of their contribution multiplied by the number of points the ward was worth.
The bolts fired and the players who fired them will not be revealed.
Percentage of contribution is defined by the number of bolts a player fired that contributed to the ward breaking over the total number of bolts all players fired that resulted in the ward breaking.
If tiles break simultaneously from both Advantage Break and Singularity Break, then both count towards the percentage of contribution.
For example, consider a 6 point Fire Ward on Spadez's board consisting of tiles from A1-A5.
R1: hedger fires Water at A1, Uri fires Fire at A1, cam fires Fire at A1, Hedger fires Water at A2.
R2: hedger fires Water at A3, Uri fires Water at A4, cam fires Fire at A4.
The ward breaks in Round 2. All bolts contributed to the breaking of the ward apart from cam's Fire Bolt in R2, as the A4 tile was broken via solely Advantage Break. The total number of bolts players fired that resulted in the ward breaking is 6. hedger fired 3 bolts that contributed to the ward breaking; uri fired 2, and cam fired 1.
Thus, hedger would earn 3/6 x 6 = 3 points, uri would earn 2 points, and cam would earn 1 point from Spadez's Fire Ward.
Endgame
Points are calculated as follows:
the sum of points of all remaining wards on your board + the sum of points earned from breaking wards (contributions)
Players’ points will not not be revealed at the end of the Main Match (a full ranking of players according to their scores will be revealed).
Amendment:
In Round 1 or during the 48h pregame, you may not discuss your pentomino configuration. This communication ban will lift at the start of Round 2.
Addendum:
For endgame ties, ties are broken as such:
(1) greatest number of unbroken tiles remaining on your board
(2) greatest number of individual tiles you have broken
(3) Gamewide Tiebreak
Summoners' Dream
In Summoner’s Dream, players summon Familiars to invade others’ territories for their Treasures while defending their own Treasures with a system of towers.
General
In this game, players attack each others’ territories while defending their own to protect their Treasures. Each player begins with 50 Treasures and 200 coins, and will receive 100 coins at the beginning of each round (including Round 1, even if there are only 6 players participating in this Event).
In each round players may not spend twice as much coins on Towers as they do Familiars or vice versa.
The game begins either Round 1 or Round 2, depending on the number of players participating in the Event. If there are 6 players participating in this Event, the game begins in Round 2. If there are 7 players participating in this Event, the game begins in Round 1.
At the beginning of each round, a choice between four maps is presented to each player. There are 2 choices of Blessed Land maps and 2 choices of Grotto-Heaven maps. After selecting a map, players place their Towers onto this map. Other players will not be told which map you have selected. All map options will be presented on the spreadsheet at the beginning of the Main Match (after the 48h pregame period).
Players can purchase any number of Towers and Familiars during any round of the game; however, the types of Towers and Familiars available for purchase vary from round to round. Each Tower and Familiar will be represented at least once in the sales pool. Purchases are permanent, meaning that all Towers and Familiars that are purchased stay in your inventory for the remainder of the game, even if Familiars perish in battle. At the start of the new round, these Towers and Familiars will be reused on new maps.
All information about Towers and Familiars are available in the Summoner's Dream spreadsheet channel (you may make a copy of this spreadsheet to use as you please).
Familiar movement and Tower attacks are standardized to units, which will function as the measure of passing time.
Adjacency can be defined as bordering a tile orthogonally or diagonally.
Towers
Towers may be purchased any time during the game but only on the rounds they are available for sale.
After a player selects their option among the four maps, they may place Towers they own onto their map in any configuration. Towers may not be placed on the lighter-colored road tiles or the cyan-colored Treasure tile (marked E for e_is_cool) and may only be placed on the darker green tiles (for blessed lands) and blue tiles (for grotto-heavens), except for the Gan (Mountain) Tower, which may only be placed on road tiles.
Except for the Geon Tower (Heaven), all Towers deal damage to all Familiars within range.
Geon (乾 Heaven)
Yi (離 Fire)
Tae (兌 Marsh)
Jin (震 Thunder)
Son (巽 Wind)
Gam (坎 Water)
Gan (艮 Mountain)
Gon (坤 Earth)
Each Tower’s abilities and details are available on the Summoner’s Dream spreadsheet channel.
If multiple Familiars occupy the same tile, Geon (Heaven) Towers target the Familiar with the lower Slot number first.
All Tower Ranges on the spreadsheet are represented as if the Towers were facing north. You may place these Towers facing any cardinal direction (north, east, south, west). If left unspecified, it will be assumed that a Tower placed on the map is facing north.
Familiars
Familiars may be purchased any time during the game but only on the rounds they are available for sale.
The Familiars are: Foxes, Monkeys, Toads, Cats, Carp, Pheasants, Crabs, and Raccoon Dogs.
Players must assign their Familiars from Slots 1-22. Slots may be left empty. Familiars must then be divided into 2 parties: Party A and Party B.
Each party must contain at least half the number of Familiars represented in the other party (rounded down). Parties may only contain a singular group of familiars within a consecutive range of Slots.
For example, sending Slots 1-5 for Party A and Slots 6-10 for Party B is a valid submission, but sending Slots 1, 3, and 8-9 for Party A and Slots 2, 4-6, and 10 for Party B is not a valid submission.
Party A Familiars will follow Track A on the map; Party B Familiars will follow Track B on the map. Parties will enter maps in the order that they are sequenced within each Party (empty slots included). All Familiars must be used when invading a fellow player’s territory.
Each round, players will invade one territory. Over the course of the Main Match you will invade the territory of each player participating in this Event once. You must specify in your submissions channel the player you are targeting in each round, or your target will be randomized among the players whose territories you have not yet invaded. If a player is attacked by multiple invasions within the same round, these invasions are treated as separate invasions.
A Familiar that survives the map and reaches the cyan E tile labeled on the map will steal one Treasure from that player's territory. (A Familiar does not take damage on the E tile.)
When the round ends, Familiar Slots and parties are reset and you may reassign them. If you do not submit a reassignment, the Familiar configuration used in your previous round will be used with newly-bought Familiars randomized into unassigned Slots.
Upgrades
Upgrades for Towers may be purchased at any time. Upgrade Level X for Familiars may only be purchased on Round X. Familiars' upgrade costs are the same as their base costs.
Every Tower will have 2 available upgrades; every Familiar will have 5 available upgrades. These upgrades' abilities and prices will be listed on the Summoner's Dream spreadsheet.
Endgame
At the end of six rounds, players will be ranked according to their total number of Treasures.
Number of treasures will be adjusted for at the end of each round; players can go into negative Treasures.
There are several tiebreakers, which parse in the following order:
(1) number of Familiars sent (cumulative, meaning if a Familiar is sent from R1 to R6, it counts as 6 Familiars sent)
(2) number of Familiars you have killed with your Towers (cumulative)
(3) number of Towers built (cumulative)
(4) Gamewide Tiebreak
The number of players' Treasures will not be announced until the end of the game (when it will be publicly announced).
Clarification:
Upgrades for Towers may be purchased at any time. Upgrade Level X for Familiars may only be purchased on Round X. Familiars' upgrade costs are the same as their base costs.
All upgrades are for individual purchases; purchasing a Fox upgrade, for example, does not upgrade all your Foxes.
Amendment: You may purchase Familiar upgrades for lower/previous rounds; for example, in Round 6 you may purchase any upgrades from Levels 2-6. Upgrades are handled such that you may only upgrade to the Level directly above (+1) the current level, meaning you may only upgrade a Level 1 Tower or Familiar to a Level 2 Tower or Familiar and so on.
Tags
Crafting (The game involves combining or using resources in recipes to craft new objects.)
Economy (The game involves an economy that players must manage.)
Grid-based (The game involves play on a grid.)
Optimization (The game tests the players' abilities to find optimal solutions.)
Piece placement (The game involves pieces being placed on a board.)
Piece removal (The game involves pieces being removed from the board.)
Points-based (The game involves players earning points.)
Polyominoes (The game involves polyominoes of size greater than 2 in its mechanics.)
Strategy (The game tests the players' strategic & tactical abilities.)