What is a “Blind Round”?

A Blind Round means that none of the scenarios are published beforehand. You get to see them for the first time on site, when the round begins.

At Supporting Fire, no scenarios are presented before the tournament. This means that, as a regular participant, you have no opportunity to playtest a scenario, work out a setup or prepare a plan. You come to the table with your ASL skills, but not with any knowledge of the particular scenario you are about to play.

At many tournaments, having played a scenario before can give you a significant advantage. If you have played the same scenario several times, you will naturally have an advantage over someone who has never seen it before. With Blind Round, we try to reduce the importance of this kind of preparation and instead let you face your opponent based on your general ASL skills.

We also think it contributes to a more relaxed atmosphere. You don’t have to feel that you should have found time to playtest a particular scenario or spent hours analysing a setup before the tournament.

But is it really 100% Blind Round?

No. A completely “true” Blind Round would mean that all scenarios were completely new. However, there is a reality we have to deal with. Quite simply, there isn’t enough time to come up with fifteen completely new and thoroughly playtested scenarios every year.

…and besides, there are so many exceptionally good and interesting scenarios to choose from! 🙂

But what if my opponent happened to play this scenario last week?

It happens, of course. We cannot decide who plays what, and that’s simply the nature of the beast. The important thing is that no participant knows beforehand which scenarios will be played.

If a scenario has been played by a participant as part of our playtesting, special rules apply. These are described under Playtesters further down this page.

Theme

Every year, Supporting Fire has a theme. We do this for three reasons:

  • It keeps down the number of nationalities and counters you need to bring with you.
  • With Blind Round, this is particularly important. Since you cannot prepare beforehand, you have no choice but to bring everything we ask you to bring. It therefore helps if we can keep the number of counters to a minimum.
  • It’s fun!

A theme can be almost anything: a particular vehicle, a nation, a period of the war, a terrain type or something completely different. We have previously had themes such as “Early War”, “The Tiger Tank”, “PTO” and “The Brits”, among others.

The theme also gives the tournament a common character. Sometimes there are special rules associated with the theme, giving you an opportunity to focus on and learn those particular rules.

The overall tournament theme is presented during the briefing at the start of the tournament. What you need to bring with you will be published on the website no later than one week before the tournament.

In addition to the overall tournament theme, each round also has its own theme. This theme will, of course, fit within the overall tournament theme, but will be more specific to that particular round.

We do this because it’s fun and interesting.

What does Blind Round require from us as organisers?

Running a Blind Round puts considerable demands on the organisers. We need to find interesting and fun scenarios that fit the tournament theme, have a reasonable playing time and can be played, including presentation, within the 5–8 hours available for a tournament round. They also need to be as balanced as possible.

Since you cannot prepare in the same way as you can for a regular tournament, we feel it is our responsibility to make things as straightforward and fair as possible once the scenario is presented.

Balanced scenarios

The most important thing for us is that the scenarios we present are balanced. You should be able to sit down, look at the scenario and know that it is balanced regardless of which side you would prefer to play.

Most scenarios are balanced, but let’s face it, there are quite a few dogs out there…!

That’s why it is not unusual for us to modify scenarios to improve the balance.

This may involve adjusting forces, VCs or other parts of the scenario. We always try to keep the changes as small as possible, but we are not afraid to change a scenario if we feel it is necessary.

“But what about ABS?”

Absolutely. However, in a Blind Round tournament, the idea is not that you should use ABS to choose the side that has the greatest advantage in the scenario. When you have never seen the scenario before, it is very difficult to judge for yourself how well balanced it actually is.

Instead, the idea is that you bid for the side you would prefer to play and are prepared to give your opponent the handicap that comes with your choice.

What do we do to make things easier?

We try to make things as smooth as possible for you. Since nobody knows which scenarios are going to be played, it is difficult to prepare a setup or a plan.

We therefore do as much as we can to make things easier for you. More specifically:

  • Joint briefing: Before each round, the Round Director goes through the scenarios. They are presented on a projector, showing the scenario map, where the troops set up and enter, SSRs and VCs. In short, a verbal and visual presentation of the scenario card.
  • Scenario booklet: After the presentation, everyone receives a booklet containing the scenarios for the round. Each spread contains the scenario card, of course, but also ROAR, ABS and a map with clear markings. We are convinced that this speeds up both the decision on which scenario you want to play and which side you want to play.
  • Maps: In some cases, particularly when there are lots of overlays or unusual maps, we have printed ready-to-use maps that you can look at if you want to.
  • Rules briefings: If a round contains special rules, we spend 20–30 minutes going through them together.
  • Scenario Setup Notes: All scenarios are handed out with ready-made notes for HIP, Depletion and similar items. Everything to save you, the player, from having to look this up yourself.
  • What do I need to bring? We publish on the website which maps, units and overlays you need to bring. This is done no later than one week before the tournament.

Our goal is simple: as little preparation as possible for you, and as much help as possible once the round begins!

What is required of the Round Director?

Being a Round Director at Supporting Fire is quite a responsibility.

As Round Director, you are expected to:

  • Find three scenarios that fit the tournament theme.
  • Make sure the three scenarios have a common theme.
  • Make sure the scenarios are short enough to fit within the round. Too short is better than too long.
  • Choose scenarios that are fun to play.
  • Playtest the scenarios as many times as possible, preferably against another person, but at least by yourself if that’s the only option.
  • Know all the rules used in the scenario. If a player has a question during your round, you must be able to give a correct answer.
  • Last but not least: make sure the scenarios are as balanced as possible. Don’t be afraid to modify a scenario to improve the balance. If the forces need to be changed, we try to avoid adding new units whenever possible. We don’t need more counters to play with.

Playtesters

Blind Round involves a small paradox: the scenarios have to remain secret from the participants, but at the same time they need to be thoroughly playtested.

Because of the rigorous playtesting involved, we sometimes need to playtest scenarios with players who will also participate in the tournament. This is obviously not ideal, but sometimes it is necessary if we are to do the best job possible.

If you have playtested a scenario for Supporting Fire, the following rules apply:

  • Before you choose a scenario in the relevant round, you must tell your opponent which scenarios you have played.
  • If one of those scenarios is selected, your opponent has the option of choosing sides.
  • If you have a higher rating than your opponent, you play with ABS1 on the side you are assigned.

The same rules apply when you play against the Round Director. You choose the scenario and side according to the same principles described above.

The procedure for determining the scenario and side can be found under “Determine Scenario” on this page.