Holien

Hey TB, Talk to German Boy, He is a great designer and might knock something out for you. Failing that WB is ok... (For Non Brits (or those not tuned to a Brit wave length, as there are some Non Brits that have become attuned) please take the above with a modicum of Salt, Pepper and Vingar is optional) [ February 26, 2002, 06:36 PM: Message edited by: Holien ]

I played this Op with CIKS and we gave up as it was a bit naff in our opinon. But that with standing night battles are tough for a German Tank Heavy force. You lose all advantage with the better long range fire fights. The only thing I suggest is that you screen the tanks with your infantry and concentrate them down a single axis of attack. The infantry should be just within sight of the tanks and then advance to where ever you need to go. If you are on the last map then don't advance as you have done enough to win and all you need to do is defend. If you are not on the last map then you should advance in a V wedge down a road and punch through the defenders. I have not tried this approach as I did not get through to the end in the Op, so if you do try his let us (the forum) know how you faired. H

TB, The finals sound like they will be real fun. I think it will keep to the spirit of the past games where we have been playing real battles. Well simulations of battles gone by. That is in part what has made this such fun is that we have had our paws on battles that have not been played by those other than the play testers. So doing a round robin for those in the finals and playing 3 different new scenarios is reward enough to have got that far. As for the time this would take I think it is worth it. The idea of playing a balanced (maybe boring)scenario vs something with a bit more guts is not appealing. There should be enough games to show who is top dog. H

CDIC, As you know the Welsh and the Scots have fun at one anothers expense... (Mind you I don't take cheap shots at the Italians, unlike some people around here. (That is, if you can find one to take a shot at... Heh Heh Heh...)(a cheap shot but one I could not resist....)) It sounds like you have two jammy Tiggers... Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy bounce ohhh what a wonderful thing a Tigger is fu fu fun..... As for mr Kentucky Fried Fish tut tut.... A full on charge.... That is a good approach for the Allied player as the Germans are in sheer poo if that happens. Same thing goes for Ranville as well. IMO. Anyway I await your return on Thursday. As for Gamey, it is a game and I accept as such even if people charge me with there dismounted vehicle crews... P.s. Tom getr out of bed and send me a turn I am bored... I need to finish that crew off. [ February 24, 2002, 12:35 PM: Message edited by: Holien ]

CDIC you are a gamey so and so... Those Tigers would not dare do as they did. In my Game I pulled them off board when they reached such a situation as I did not want them to die. (This was only done because of playing tourney and the need for points. This of course was the correct historica thing to do but in any other game they would have fought on and died. I wonder if we can get a scoring system for normal game play to encourage such decisions in none tourney games.) You were truely lucky not to lose them and KF was remise in not having any Zooka crews nearby. Without that action you would have lost as the flag would have been in KF's hands.. As for that PB he truely put a number on KF. What intrigues me is that it was niot taken out and did not smoke work on it. The Allied player gets quite a bit of arty and I am interested in how it survied so long... H

CDIC can you send me the last turn and the password so I can see how the master placed his PB's. Those PB's did sod all for me and I need to work out how better to place them for other games. H

Any idea on how far away these last two games are? H

H

I hope you take into account how long it will take for the game to turn up in the UK. What with all you yanks getting first pull at the game. Mind you I might just organise a weekend in Dublin if I can find out where that warehouse is. H

Redeker, You had better. You would not want to slip down the slope. Just reading some of yours again and checking out Wreck's musings. Well I am having to make do with Casey Jones against Tom and Armoured Ambush with CIKs who is offering me a serious beating. I am getting lonesome and need another tourney to keep me going. Mind you I could start calling up the souls who have offered me a fight, but I have been holding off from this, in the hope that I get some more action from this tourney. Winecape that wine sounds very good and could even compete with the beautiful bottles I tasted when over in Adelaide. H

I think the comment made about the Sherman crews actively seeking the weak point in a building wins the argument on bringing buildings down. Even with lighter weapons if you go for the weak point on a building you can cause serious damage and collaspe. All it takes is a key bit of masonary at a corner to cause a serious collaspe. E.g. Hit the lintel on a doorway a couple of times with a 20mm HE round and it would cause a collaspe in that area. Do that for the windows as well and you have collasped the front of the house and done serious damage. When you have smart crews working on that small area as per the Sherman example it will not take long to cause a serious collaspe to the structure. Until I read that I was slightly in the camp of it being too easy to knock buildings down. That post switched the light on and made me think differently. Of course the medimum of CM can not create all the varieties of houses and building structures there was in WWII, so if a degree of randomness can be introduced then that would only enhance the game for me. H

Just for a bit of fun can we rate the scenarios. 1. Top Favorite. 2. Best Balanced. 3. Most Challenging for X. (Where X = side played). All the above are subjective but it might prove interesting? I think we can name the other games uncompleted as long as no discussion about them is undertaken. Here are my selections. 1. Duel At D, Because it allows lots of possibilities and seems fairly balanced. 2. Ranville when played Double Blind. 3. High Cost when attacking as Allied when played Double Blind. Just my thoughts...

I play scenarios and I must admit you might be right on Percentages of TH players playing choose your own forces. I prefer at the moment the playing of scenarios. I play them double blind and it is a real blast. Playing Casey Jones Railyard a the moment and it is real nerve racking not knowing what or how many points you are up against. I have been given units that I would not choose and I am trying to use them to my best ability. The WBW Tourney has been one of my gaming high points. Serious fun and serious action. H

WBW The planes did not un balance it for me and if anything helped sligtly in both cases. Mind I am sure the Germans would not totally agree with that. When you add planes do you add more German forces to balance it? How do you try and balance the games? Just trying to get an insight should I go down the route of design. H

The way I read his post, it was nearly infront of the middle PB with the AT gun. That is where my opponent placed his and it was damn effective. I could not pop it and it was close enough to flame me. H

It is possible and he is a very competent player who knows the angles of the game. I look forward to giving him a game sometime, as I might be able to break the streak. First I have to build my house and finish the Wild Bill Tourney, if I get through to the next round that is. I think there was a discussion thread on some of the tactics used by players awhile back. That thread was a good guide to how games can be won. If I can find it I will attach it here. http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=017665 Mind you, it has to be remembered that winning is not everything, life is just a voyage of experiences and those can be gained even by losing. H P.s. I have attached the thread as it describes some tactics and discusses them. I do not ascribe these to Swamps style of play as I have never played him. [ February 06, 2002, 12:51 PM: Message edited by: Holien ]

Hi VL I am glad I did not have to take you on with this one as well as Real Guts. Your approach sounds ideal and looks like the text book way to tackle this game. Just so that you know the German player had no choice in the position of the bunkers they were locked down tight. As for the poor spread of the Infantry this was again closely controlled by WBW. They were poorly split between the three regions, left, middle and right. I would have abandoned one of the VL's to mass the defense force on the two more closely together, but there was no chance of that. The PB's seemed to have caused people real problems and I am going to have to get more experience using them. I have not worked out yet how best to deploy them. H [ February 06, 2002, 09:31 AM: Message edited by: Holien ]

The High Cost of Real Estate? Well this was a bit of a bummer for my opponent who after a good start got caught from behind and certainly did not like it up him as a certain character in Dad's Army was fond of saying. For the Allied player do you think the Scenario was fair in the initial setup and the position of the German reinforcements? As the German player I had no choice as to where to locate the P/B's and I thought after seeing the first turn results that I was well and truly shafted. My ernest whiel opponent had changed the initial position of the Croc and put it in a great place to flame the P/B with AT Gun in the center. I was only saved by lucky positioning of a TRP and my reinforcements arrival like a pantomime, "Behind you, he's Behind you, ohhh no he's not" etc... Anyway it would be good to hear some other views on this as I lucked out. H [ February 05, 2002, 06:18 PM: Message edited by: Holien ]

The advice is pretty good so far. The only thing I can add is to weigh up the number of hours you will spend playing on the game. If it is more than 28 hours the you will be getting a bargain at a pound an hour. The more over that number the better the value. This game is truly great if you are a serious wargamer as your hours spent on it will far outweigh the small investment. SO BTS please don't reduce the price, as it is fair as it is. It will under value the product. The reason for games sold retail being reduced is because they are naff games (broad generalisation with some exceptions) and people will only buy them if they are made cheaper. This game does not fall into this category and should not be reduced, as it will ensure a good revenue stream to allow the next generation of games to be made by BTS. And that is something I want to happen. H

Hi KF, I am replaying CDIC at the moment and when that is finished I will jump at your offer as I am trying to limit game play while so much needs doing on the house. I should be doing a turn for Tom T but I am writing this. Must get back to Casey Jones Graveyard... Our game was a tough one and it could have swung either way. Just lucky that I managed to get the drop on some of those damn guns... Just looked at Redekers Duel game and I am really surprised at the Allied player using the right flank to attack. It is so open and exposed that the Panthers must have had fun. Why did people not use the better covered left Allied flank? H

Hi Redeker, Just seen that we can chat about my 1st challenge in the Tourney. A very tough game that I just squeezed through by the skin of my teeth. I did not play a great game and was lucky to have some ill luck on my opponents side help me out. I went for a left flank push over the low hill. All went well until I got into town and then it went badly for me with tanks being taken one by one. A darn Pak got many of them and it took me ages to locate the bugger. In the end I managed to get the main flags in town just as the clock ran down. In truth I had turned the flow by some good shooting and some brave HtH combat in town. A good game but it looks like the Allied players found it too hard on the whole? Only 3 winners out of all those games were Allied victories. Would seem un balanced but maybe it was just close calls and a tad easier to defend than attack? H [ February 02, 2002, 06:03 PM: Message edited by: Holien ]

This is like waiting for a Christmas when you were a kid. So we can chat about "We Can't Wait"... Over to the other forum.... H

A good site and thanks for the head up on the poll. I await the new game which should deal with lots of issues, and lets see what debate kicks off once we get to grips with the new game. Cheers H

The More I hear, The More I read, The More I see, The More I want. I guess I will have to start learning about Russian Tanks and maybe even Finish ones? Thxs MM for the info, your presentation style is a bit brutal but content of message is great. Cheers H

The Brit 2" is great and will fire at any range within its maximum range. It is not limited to a minimum range. The idea of using a +2 Command HQ is good and it will just about work depending on sighting abilities. TRP use is very effective and the only way to go at night and very limited sighting lines. Just remember that once you have moved your Mortar team it can no longer fire at the TRP. Your Arty spotters are however not affected by this rule so they can move around and still fire at the TRP from their new location. If you can always buy some TRP's as they are worth their weight in gold when used well. Just ask CDIC who is attacking me at night. H