Holien

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

You have great flexibility on that game for placment. Mine took nothing and were dispatched by the end of the game. I took the approach of trying to get limited LOS but covering the approaches to the flags. I will send you the set up file. My opponent did a great job of breaking my defences down bit by bit. H P.s your suggested approach was rejected due to gamey sods that would use smoke to stop the PB's firing. Also with good LOS any tank or Greyhound would take the PB really easy. IMO. But I could be wrong. As I was in this game, ohhhh soooo badly wrong.... [ January 30, 2002, 04:37 PM: Message edited by: Holien ]

Yep send me the AAR and I will see how you did. I can see that for some players it might have hurt but in the balance did it for all the games? I remember that second game of Ranville, you used the knowledge well of where the Germans would pop up. I failed to use smoke to secure that route, mind you not sure that I had any at that stage? H

Hi KF, Not sure what you mean about Real Guts? As the German Defender I might have missed a trick in the positioning of my defences. As for using smoke, well I think people tend to not use it. That would have helped you? Would you send me your AAR on that game, and explain further about that game and what happened so we can understand you point of view. I would waffle some more but I will wait until I understand what happened in that game. H P.S. Have you been taking coaching lessons from JK? P.P.S That last comment should be viewed as a Brit piss take and not seriously by any Yanks. P.P.P.S Sorry I am going for the racial wind up route today and feel I must apologise for my race.

Hmm all I can say in response is that you were lucky it did not hit X as it should have done considering X was on a long straight road. I could have done with them being more effective in that game. If memory serves me right they did *OD all. As or the residents well being a Brit we don't care too much about our French neighbours, apart from their wine and smelly cheeses. H [ January 30, 2002, 12:55 PM: Message edited by: Holien ]

I am always dubious about planes in a tourney game as it is pure act of god if they have an effect. The problem is in design, if you allow extra resources to the Germans to balance the game and the planes fail to do anything then the game is un-balanced towards the Germans. If they do have an effect then it might be more than the designer wanted and un balance it towards the Allies. Now of course I know that we are using Nabla's scoring system and there are enough games to average out these sort of skews. But if it was just down to a single game and it had planes I would be worried. So in this tourney I think there is enough to balance it out and is not really a problem. Looking at it in this Scenario does anyone think the planes made all the difference? I don't think they made much of a difference in my game, but I am willing to be corrected. Tom? H

If you are having fun with SintN then you are certified. That was one of the games that nearly caused me to have a break down, and did cause CDIC to have one. We are replaying it at the Moment as therapy to help us get through our trauma. H

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by wadepm: I can tell you Warren's approach, he played a crappy German player, the gamey bastard! But seriously, my "ambush" position was severely hammered by his planes and when I moved he nailed me with long range fire from the hills. I don't think I got more than 1 or 2 of his tanks in return, it was pretty easy for him really.<hr></blockquote> Those planes can be a right royal pain in the rear and Tom was not happy with what mine did to him. Mind you none of my planes capped any of the Panthers, but those 1/2 tracks were chewed badly. As for long range shots on Panthers, did he get side hits on you or use the Tungsten to burn through the front? In what way did you move those Panthers? H

Redeker I sent a quick reply from home this morning before heading into work. I hope the size does not trash your mailbox. It would be interesting to hear Peters or Warrens experience with Duel. They did very well as the Allied attacker and it would be nice to see which approach they took. Redeker as for our future competition I am the least of your worries. There is one man to beat in this competition and we will be both hard pressed to best him. Just another side note on Duel. Part of the German downfall in my game was he realised that by taking the two flags it would be a draw and played a defensive game in the hope of doing more damage to me. Well that is my read on what was happening. I realised that I could not win in this situation and made a determined effort to create a winning situation and while it was a gamble it was worth taking. Mind you I might have said differently if I had been creamed in that gamble. H

The Dompaire game was one of the hardest challenges for the Allied player and I would guess easier for the Germans to win if they managed to hang back and get good LOS. People seem to have had opponents who (French) attacked down the Sunken road into the Town. This IMO was and is sucidal if no smoke is used. Once in town then the Shermans have a good turn of speed and can usually best the Panthers if the German Infantry can be avoided. I did not want to get into town by this route until I had a good idea where the infantry and all the Panthers were. The Left flank for the Allies offered the best approach as there are some good undulations in the terrain which allow quick moves in and out of sight. This combined with smoke allowed me to get close to the German right flank forces. The final push involved my infantry going over the top and distracting the tanks, just as a big 105mm Smoke barrage fell. This was followed a minute later by the A/c's and Shermans driving like crazy down the left (French side) semi sunken road. At the same time I had two M10's pop up in the middle and caught the German Panthers in a cross fire as they turned side on to engage the Shermans. I alos used a troop of Shermans on the French right flank to engage the Panthers in range that had turned to deal with the Left flank charge. It took a long time to get all the units in place but the turn that it all kicked off was magical. In two minutes of intense action four Panthers, 3 A/c's and the AT Gun had been knocked out for none in return. The infantry had buttoned the German commanders and the smoke played havoc with targeting. The slow turret speed and fast moving Shermans and their quick turrets were the undoing of the Germans. This broke German morale and after that I was easily able to flank the Town and put the squeeze on the Two remaining Panthers. If you do not use your force as a whole in a combined way (as the Allies) you will be hard pressed to defeat these cats. H

I would like that AAR Redeker and I will send you mine. That game was one of the most daring I played and I had a magic shoot out where I took most of the German armour in one turn. The secret for the French is to get in close and side shoots. I did a co-ordinated attack down the left flank (German right) and used the ridge line to hide behind. I then laid smoke and got in close. At the same time as I did this I manuevered into position on my right to take shots at the Panthers engaging this move. It was a horrific loss for the Germans in one go and from then on it was a downward slide for the Germans. I managed to encircle the Town and the German player was forced to pull out. The AAR will explain better, but the secret is to use the terrain to get in close and then smoke and use speed to get in side shots on the slow moving Panthers. H

Hi, I agree with Wild Bill and my discussion of the three named scenarios is just for a bit of banter and seeing if their are any gems of wisdom out there. I will head over to the other place and continue the banter. As for mistakes we have all been there and I am still making them. Now if JK can only tell me how to use rockets properly without them falling on my head and half falling off the edge of the board... H