MrSpkr

Is there any possibility of a way to have the game automatically send a reminder to an opponent after X number of days, or to PM them through the game itself? Or even to automatically send the final "victory screen" automatically when time for tournament play has expired? Just trying to think outside the box for a way to address the problem of a non-responsive player to either remind them to send a turn (or at least get that sweet AAR screen so you can see how your pixeltruppen fare).

Good news: in Game 1 of Round 2, my unconventional forces apparently waxed a good number of my opponent's Amis. The plan I had seems to be working, and I saw a number of my opponent's pixeltruppen go down at the cost of a few overly enthusiastic guys I expected to lose anyway. Bad news: I haven't received a turn back from my opponent in a week, and I have not even received the setup file from the other game in this Round. I also have no way to reach my opponent - he is not active here or on Matrix's forum. One tweak I would suggest is that the system either automatically share each player's email with his opponent, or, at the very least, make the "share email with opponent" option in-game to default to sharing the email, rather than withholding it.

I enjoyed it. Working with small units is so much more challenging because you have no margin for error. Losing a vehicle transporting a squad could mean losing ten percent of your combat force in a single blow! I do tend to think that, when all is said and done, the Syrians have a decided edge here. There are chunks of the US setup area that can be under Syrian observation from Turn One. A clever Syrian commander who knows this can position rockets and tanks to strike a critical blow against the Americans within the first minute or two of the game. I think that should be masked a little better.

Doh!

Thanks, Elvis. Just posted two challenges, one, Ill Met by Moonlight, has the password "TEST". The other is a random QB with no password. I'll be on and off today to play around with it.

If it isn't too much trouble, can someone post the briefing for the US side of Round 2? I have not gotten that file from my opponent and it would be nice to know what I am facing (given the nature of the tournament).

Okay, on to the next round. @Cowboy00 ready when you are.

Ugh. I think that is what happened to my second game against Cristi21. We both agreed to call a ceasefire; he sent me the final file at 0715 UTC; unfortunately, I did not open it until this morning (around 1:30 UTC - five hours after the cutoff). The result is we each had around 25 points for the second match rather than the 1300/600 points he and I had for it.

A quick note on the importance of properly rested commanders in the field: if you try and give orders when you are exhausted, you might accidentally tell several vehicles to move quickly to the enemy at the top of a ridge line rather than target the enemy units at the top of a ridge line. This error might (theoretically) blow your entire plan, cost you a quarter of your troops, and completely screw your shot at winning. My puir, puir pixeltruppen. Sigh.

Per Matrix/Slitherine’s Tournament Rules, the first round is totally random; after that, they match by scoring ladder position (1 vs. 2; 3 vs. 4; etc.). The only exception to that is they will not match two players who have already faced one another in that particular tournament. https://bit.ly/43g8FCy

I got a little lucky with artillery. At about ten minutes left, I dropped a 120mm shell right in the middle of three suspected infantry units (sound contacts) that had been forming up for an assault. That caused him to delay his final assault on the Syrian right until about the five minute mark, when he advanced infantry and Strykers. I happened to have exactly ONE RPG guy on the lee side in good enough morale to defend against multiple vehicle contacts. He hit the first Stryker to emerge from the smoke one (though he did not destroy it) just about the time my adjusted artillery really started pounding the position. At the two minute mark, the Americans tried to rush the objective 1 reverse slope, but a nicely placed rocket from a team on a rooftop knocked out his lead vehicle on the left, causing the others to fall back. My adjusted artillery fire began firing for effect, dropping shells on his men (and my own - I'm pretty sure that's how the platoon commander died). The artillery and the (very light) small arms fire from the remnants of the Syrian infantry on the reverse slope convinced his troops to drop in place just outside the objective as time expired. The Syrian left (objective 2 reverse slope) was largely uneventful. I was able to plink against his vehicles with some very accurate long range RPG shots, and had some fun with my tank ducking in and out of a hull down position to knock out his Strykers (until one of his Javelins nailed it. He tried to rush the position in the last few minutes, but my infantry was in decent order and, backed by an unconventional truck, I was able to break his attack fairly easily. One lesson learned - I need to pay much more attention to the impact of slight terrain elevation changes on LOS. I had a pair of ATGM units that were largely useless due to undulations in the terrain. Had I placed them better, my tanks might have lasted longer because I would not have needed to expose them to enemy fire as often. I also learned that, despite their having a 5200m maximum range, SAM units need to be much closer to the area under attack to be effective. Mine were on a roof in the town. They had a great view of the Longbow tearing up my vehicles and strafing my men, but did not fire a single shot. I think the US had the tougher tactical problem than the Syrians. The Syrians win or lose the game in the setup phase. The US forces have to attack. Had I played it, my plan for the US side was to move somewhat aggressively with my infantry units on the left while keeping the Strykers in hull down positions (as best as possible)to protect against incoming Syrian fire from reverse slope Objective 2, and play for time until teh Longbow arrived. After that, I intended to try and inflict maximum casualties rather than seize objectives in the hopes of getting his men to surrender. But, infantry attacking across open ground is risky. It would have been interesting to play.

Finished one battle as Syrians. I largely relied on a reverse slope defense, though the guys on the Syrian left made multiple cross-map shots to help out the other side of the battle. Discovered the joys of calling artillery down on my own positions (partially, anyway) during the last four turns in order to prevent the flag rush I know he was preparing. Won a tactical victory (poor placement of certain assets on my part kept my score down). A very fun little battle.

A question about scoring (and I apologize if it has been asked - I read through this thread and the CMCW tourney thread and didn’t quite see this question answered). I know that, if I send a setup as the US side and never get a turn back, I get 1,000 points as a consolation prize. But what about situations in which both sides have set up, but the opposing player never sends a file after the set up phase? Technically, he returned one file, so I am guessing the 1,000 points is no longer on the table; does that mean each player just gets zero points for that battle? Or does the game automatically figure up the point spread when the tournament time runs out (which sort of screws the attacker because the defender will, at the very least, get points for holding each of the three geographic objectives)?

I thought more about the odd turn in my previous post. I know I did the US setup; would I still have gotten that sort of a "password only" email)? I ask because I still have not gotten a single US turn from my opponent.

This may be my ADD again, but … I just received a turn from my opponent (who is already down by at least a platoon of Americans in exchange for one vehicle on my side!). I clicked on “Automated PBEM++ in progress”, selected the turn (we are apparently only playing one scenario at a time), entered my tournament password at the prompt and clicked “okay”. The screen froze for a second, then appeared to “return” the turn to my opponent without my having even seen the map. I have tried restarting the program, even shutting down the computer and restarting it.