Puffing Billy

The Puffing Billy® tournament will be held at 2024 EuroQuest

Conductor: Pierre LeBoeuf

 

Tournament Start time: Thursday 12 noon
Tournament End time:  Sunday 2:00 PM

The Puffing Billy tournament format is owned by the Train Gamers Association and has a structure similar to the EQ Wild Card tournament.

Games List and Schedule

PuffBillygames24 (MS Word)

EQPuffBill_schedule_24 (MS Excel)

Schedule

The conductor will specify time slots for each category. Meet at the Puffing Billy table at the specified time to be matched up with others who want to play games in the same category.

Any of these games can be played as pickup games outside of their scheduled time as well. Stop by the Puffing Billy desk or the Front Desk to pick up a score sheet. All games must have a valid scoresheet to be counted. 

OVERLAP WITH OTHER TOURNAMENTS

A few of the other events at EuroQuest are running games that also count for Puffing Billy points. You may turn in a second score sheet for those games at the Puffing Billy desk. 

• Ticket to Ride “minis”
• Ticket to Ride Team Asia
• Great Western Trail – Argentina & New Zealand

Game Availability

It is strongly suggested that you bring your own copy of a game to ensure that you can play it. There are some games available from the GCOM library at the convention, and the conductor will also bring some.  If more people show up to play a game for the time slot than there are games to accommodate everyone, the people that brought the game will have first priority and the remaining players will be determined by lot.

Plaque

The top finisher in the overall tournament will have their name engraved on the EuroQuest Puffing Billy plaque and will receive an individual take home plaque.

Overall Puffing Billy Tournament Rules

All games are to be played according to the latest published game rules version, with TGA exceptions. Call the Conductor if there are any questions. Variants may be played with Conductor approval if all players approve.  Conductor rulings are final.

Scoresheet completion instructions

Take the correct scoresheet corresponding to the game category you are playing.  At the start of the game, fill in the day, start time, game played, the player name and badge number.  After completion, fill out the ending time, place results, and score for each player.  Each player is responsible for completing the scoresheet and turning it in to the scoring table.  See the conductor if there are any questions.

Puffing Billy scoring

For the purposes of scoring in the Puffing Billy tournament, a player’s best score in each of the four categories will be used to determine their overall Puffing Billy score.  Only games of 3 or more players will count towards Puffing Billy scores, and a player must finish at least 4^th in a game to have that score count towards their Puffing Billy total.

1^st place = 3 pts + bonus; 2^nd place = 2 pts + bonus; 3^rd place = 1 pt + bonus;
4^th, 5^th, and 6^th place = bonus only

Bonus calculations: (maximum bonus is 0.05)
1^st place bonus (4 or more players) = 0.1*((1.5-2^nd bonus – 3^rd bonus – 4^th bonus)/3)
1^st place bonus (3 player games) = 0.1*((1.0-2^nd bonus – 3^rd bonus)/3)
2^nd place bonus = 0.1*((2^nd place score/1^st place score)*0.5)
3^rd place bonus = 0.1*((3^rd place score/1^st place score)*0.5)
4^th place bonus = 0.1*((4^th place score/1^st place score)*0.5)
5^th place bonus = 0.1*((5^th place score/1^st place score)*0.5)
6^th place bonus = 0.1*((6^th place score/1^st place score)*0.5)

A finals bonus of 10% of the Puffing Billy score from the 18xx finals game will be added to a player’s best score from any 18xx game.

Last Updated Oct 29, 2024