WineCape

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-masters-20110411,0,2165950.story Winning the Masters! Well done, another South African wearing a green (flak) jacket.

On a Blackberry, so excuse me not reading this whole thread while being driven 365km from a stadium. It's a bumpy road! Can I ask a simple question: Why did BFC decided to drop eLicense? Was the eLicense 'service' running in the background such a hindrance & problematic for Battlefront? eLicense seemed an elegant system. Obviously some serious consideration(s) by BFC changed their minds to forgo this DRM method?

In due time you will have RHINO Shermans crashing through the bocage into a foxhole and mow the weapons squad therein down - all in motion and in noisy sound

Rumblings of War VI? Why not? At least some tasted South African wine for the 1st time in their life. Below are the players, again, in good standing from previous RoW tourneys... 76mm/Tom Reiter Abbott Ace Pilot Andreas Andrew Kulin/Ankulin Artavash Beeper Bertram Big Dog Bigdogg944 Bigduke6 BigMac644 Bil Hardenberger Bimmer bobm44 Boris Balaban Brent Pollock c3k Capt T Combined Arms Cpl Carrot Cyrano Dalem Dandelion Dangerous Dave Deadly 88 Denwad DerBlitzer Diesel Taylor Dirtweasle Elmar Bijlsma Enigma Enoch Fangorn Flenser forseti Frenchy/Steve Dixon Frunze George Mc Green Hornet GreenAsJade Grimthane Heavy Drop Holien Hunter Jarmo JasonC Jaws JeffWilders Joachim John Bertles John D Salt John L John O JonS JPS K.A. Miles Kanonier Reichmann Kettler KingFish Kip Anderson kump Lindan Londoner Lt Bull Malakovski Melnibone Mick Oz Mike8g/Marcus Bloss mPisi nathangun NG cavscout Nidan1 noob Other Means Panzer Twat Peterk Platehead RawRecruit Reanimator Redwolf Renaud Richie rune Runyan99 Sandy Scott B Scheer Sergei Shmavis Sivodsi Spanish Bombs SpineRipper Sripe Steve McClaire SteveS Stickypix(x)ie Stoffel StoneAge Stryker/Kevin Grande Tabpub Ted The Enigma The_Capt tlKillerich Tom Travisano Treeburst155 U8led Victor Charlie von Lucke wadepm Walpurgis Nacht We Build We Fight wellsonian Wreck WWB xerxes/Marc S STANDBY LIST: 1. para 2. Baneman

Your persistence, para, is duly noted. A good thing.

I get this almost every other week. Literally. Being a pro football referee has its .... ups. Unfortunately, a tourney is only as good as its number of non-drop outs. So, while you might not get selected initially, people missing the initial selection should not give up - there are quite a lot that filled slots for those that dropped out. Thus, you might become a RoW "drop-in". Don't get despondent if you're not in the first 24, 48, or even 72 selected players. Again, I tip my hat to Treeburst155, Cpl Carrot and KingFish, as well as the designers. They did sterling work managing such a massive undertaking. There is the "RoW rulebook/playbook" as some basic/minimum requirements - just gotta find it again - but it must be remembered that the ultimate aim is/was to have extreme, tense fun and to test your skills against a PBEM opponent that might become an email friend at least. By and large, I think the RoW tourneys succeeded magnificently in this endeavor, in no small part due to the sporting behaviour displayed, which we did - and do - value as one of the highest unwritten qualities in RoW. Obviously, with the aid of the Nabla scoring system, where balanced scenarios are not a given or a necessity, you are judged by how others played the exact same unbalanced never-seen-before scenarios. Some nasty nightmares were let loose on the poor PBEM players... probably the only reason why some here still remember the Rumblings of War

The Cardinal sin is dropping out/vanishing without trace. Real life suddenly cropping up, of course, excluded. Even a slow PBEM turn rate can be excused, to some degree. We vowed never to invite the vanishers again. It's like a credit check: you defaulted without valid excuse means your credit for future invites are zero. We will again have some on standby list in order, for those that DO drop out with/without excuse. It might be that we run 24x2 or even 24x3 mini tourney within RoW VI to accommodate demand.

If we decide to do RoW VI, then, as stated before on the CMx1 forum, we will give preference as follows: -- Multiple previous RoW entrants first; -- Obviously previous winners will fall in above category, even if they won/played only a singe tourney; -- Single RoW entrants; -- having played and finished other tourneys on this + other boards; -- eager participants that will probably have to write something why we should take you in. While we never can prevent drop-outs, the above certainly tightens up the issue to some degree given previous experience. Finding good scenario designers willing to create handywork should not be too difficult, judging by the popularity of previous. I hope.

Look at the list again previously in this thread. Fionn riled Treeburst155 so heavily that the latter tendered his resignation. Since Treeburst was more valuable then Fionn from a tournament perspective, there was a certain decision we made, way back at the Invitational if I remembered correctly....

The Nabla worked well in various Rumblings tourneys given past experience. It was, if memory serves, also tweaked from the original Alpha given input/discussion.

@ Stikkypix(x)ie, You stick. Close enough. :-) @Bimmer And sending keys to your holiday house(s) in exotic places... Apart from the competition, the beauty of RoW was that scenario designers spawned scenarios for RoW specifically, and these designers received an added bonus to their off-beat creations: AAR's were compulsory for RoW participants as they carried extra points to get into the play-offs. Anything from as simple as a couple of typed pages to a full blown pictured AAR scored you the full compliment of tourney points allocated to AAR writing. In this small way, scenario designers were thanked for their unique RoW tourney created scenarios with a detailed set of comments about their work, which were thoroughly stress-tested; it gave them excellent ideas/indicators regarding future tweaking and/or public release of their handiwork in the CM fraternity. A win-win situation.

The Deadliest Duo in Dodgeville. I can state, with certainty, that the above two were the most phenomenal and dangerous players in all of Rumblings of War, Nabla or no Nabla* scoring system used. "The Nabla" has as premise: "Unlike chess, CM is not a perfectly balanced game. Due to its very nature, inequities will always exist to some degree. This is true whether playing designed scenarios or QB meeting engagements. This makes competition CM somewhat problematic. How does one measure player performance relative to the competition when all is not equal at the beginning? To complicate matters further, we don’t even know how far, or which way, the scales are tipped for the Axis or Allied side. The Nabla system for CM alleviates this balance problem to a great degree. In fact, the scoring system was designed specifically for the purpose of scoring CM competitions that utilize deliberately unbalanced scenarios. Competition scenario designers are now free to design scenarios with fun as the primary goal, rather than balance. Hours and hours of playtesting for balance are no longer necessary! Lopsided scenarios can be thrown into tournaments to keep players on their toes. No longer can players make the assumption that their forces are adequate to achieve the mission assigned if properly employed! That is the strength of the Nabla system. The foundations of the scoring system can be condensed into four principles. 1. The baseline against which performance is measured is set by average performance in a scenario. 2. It is equally difficult to be a winner in a scenario, regardless of victory margins. Therefore, the level of skill needed to score well in a scenario is considered to be equal in all scenarios. 3. When determining the goodness of a player from a set of scenarios, uniformly strong gameplay is rewarded. 4. In a scenario, both players should always have an incentive to strive for more CM points. That is, gaining a few more CM points should always be rewarded. The mathematical operations used to implement the first 3 objectives are, in corresponding order, difference from median, normalization of mean absolute deviation, and an asymmetric, nonlinear scoring curve. We believe that the Nabla system takes competition CM to a new level of fun and excitement for players and scenario designers alike, while providing an excellent way to determine players’ relative performance in a competition setting." PS: Experience has taught that the best way to organize the Nabla scored tourney is to use 24 players tournaments, divide them into 4 equal sections of 6 players. This arrangement means that each scenario will be played 12 times.

Well, we don't want your member. Only your brain.

Why not? If your name is not on this list below, you can forget getting through the revolving door, unless ...... 76mm/Tom Reiter Abbott Ace Pilot Andreas Andrew Kulin/Ankulin Artavash Beeper Bertram Big Dog Bigdogg944 Bigduke6 BigMac644 Bil Hardenberger Bimmer (Gestapo has to verify this one) bobm44 Boris Balaban Brent Pollock c3k Capt T Combined Arms Cpl Carrot Cyrano Dalem Dandelion Dangerous Dave Deadly 88 Denwad DerBlitzer Diesel Taylor Dirtweasle Elmar Bijlsma Enigma Enoch Fangorn Flenser forseti Frenchy/Steve Dixon Frunze George Mc Green Hornet GreenAsJade Grimthane Heavy Drop Holien Hunter Jarmo JasonC Jaws JeffWilders Joachim John Bertles John D Salt John L John O JonS JPS K.A. Miles Kanonier Reichmann Kettler KingFish Kip Anderson kump Lindan Londoner Lt Bull Malakovski Melnibone Mick Oz Mike8g/Marcus Bloss mPisi nathangun NG cavscout Nidan1 noob Other Means Panzer Twat Peterk Platehead RawRecruit Reanimator Redwolf Renaud Richie rune Runyan99 Sandy Scott B Scheer Sergei Shmavis Sivodsi Spanish Bombs SpineRipper Sripe Steve McClaire SteveS Stickypixxie Stoffel StoneAge Stryker/Kevin Grande Tabpub Ted The Enigma The_Capt tlKillerich Tom Travisano Treeburst155 U8led Victor Charlie von Lucke wadepm Walpurgis Nacht We Build We Fight wellsonian Wreck WWB xerxes/Marc S

Jarmo, a lot of .... below par red wines there indeed. Baneman is correct with the bold names above. Selecting the better ones below from the list, seeing there is NO vintages, but at least these wineries mentioned have consistent quality vintages: -- Capaia (usually Merlot/Cab/Petit Verdot blend) If it's a 2005 vintage, definitely grab it! -- L'Avenir Cabernet OK. L'Avenir Pinotage = top class! One of the top 10 (under the reserve "Larouche" label) in South Africa this year. -- Rust en Vrede Estate cab - usually very elegant, softly structured wines. Their "Estate" (usually Cab/Shiraz/Merlot blend) a delight to drink the last 7-9 vintages. -- Penny Black (Post House), if it's the 2004 vintage, a good serious blend, heavy style; taste profile close blackcurrant/ liquorice/very minerally, earthy. Have not tasted subsequent vintages. -- Bellingham Maverick Shiraz - Outstanding wine, though price IS steep, as it sells here for equivalent of 25 euros roughly. -- Allesverloren Cab - OK to good. I love their Shiraz and Port. Their wines in general heavier, fuller style, high alcohols (due to warmer temperatures in Riebeeck Kasteel area) and tend to be like SA rugby Springbok players: Well-build with finesse. Allesverloren Means "All is Lost" after the farmer lost his farm to a scorched earth policy of the English during the Anglo Boer War during start of 1900's] -- I assume the Vergelegen Cab-Merlot blend = their titled 2nd label, called the "MILL RACE RED" -- selling here for 6-7 euros. Cant go wrong with this, given the price. Decent. Every year. BACK TO LURKING ....

Manx! Long time no see! Hope you are well and in rude health.

You say! :cool: Indeed. Volume sells. To the lowest bidders. International markets are unfortunately suckers for volume @ the lowest prices. Seems a trend in many wine industries exporting their produce. Even gaming software, where they get fed mediocre stuff so much (via marketing etc.) that at times it is a losing battle to ween them off rubbish and try rather CM instead, or by analogy, a De Toren, Veenwouden, Boekenhoutskloof, Kanonkop, Springfield, Jordan, Tokara, Thelema, Rustenberg, Vergelegen, Le Riche

Summed it up perfectly; only I had a CMSF manual to read while fiddling with CMBN

I'm having my revenge when I swopped and batted for the Germans. Now.

And I thought I was converting the winners of RoW to good wine... Sheeeeshhhh. I converted The Jar to South African, albeit temporarily ...

I'll see if I have enough private stock left for a RoW tourney, after selling the business/property in 2007. I have been raiding my own stock extensively for past 4 years. Might as well see if there are more drinkers abound to share in loot ...

Ohhhh yes. A few HMG/LMG's at strategic places in the bocage and whole platoons/companies' struggle to advance, if at all. Grazing fire is deadly, coupled with mortars after pinning plts. and you have a recipe for scratched platoons within 1-2 turns after being pinned

The words 'pretty precise' should be construed as "danger close" in most CMBN battles.

We call it "crunchies" in CMBN-speak.

Real lurkers get counters for posts although they never do post. BFC is trailing a new forum feature ....