BriantheWise

Poor Brad, He's going to wake with all this posts! He's going to think we don't like each other! He's going to think that, just because Rambo and I were in the middle of a game, where he couldn't take Poland as fast as he wanted too, and then just terminated the game, like he was all mad or something.... CvM: To respond to your earlier post (way back a few days, about not wanting to elimate good competition): Two things: I wouldn't have minded if You had to play him in the first round, and eliminated him. And, I am very grateful that he immolated himself and eliminated himself from the first round. It gives me a chance to show whether I am good at all (maybe). Besides, it's all good. We're not playing for money here. We're playing for the bragging rights. Speaking of which, and this has been alluded to, previously, the winner should get the opportunity to play (get crushed by), with AAR's, Hubert. That would be a prize for winning for. (sorry Rambo. I just love sticking him with needles.) Brian the kind

Rules: 1: Two out of Three. 1st game: One player is Axis, I don't care which. 2nd game: That player is Allies. Third game, loser by points, gets his choice. 2: There are no serious time defaults, per se. Players must be available for at least, say eight hours a week. (we both are, so it shouldn't be an issue) 3: It's ICQ. 4: $10 bet. Money where mouth is. 5: After action reports. Say what you will, but AAR's required from both sides, complimentary or not, at Jan 40, 41, 42, etc. Doesn't have to go on too long. 6: Losing a computer, or a saved disk, shouldn't be an excuse. Losing power is (like I, in Seattle will probably be doing in about two hours). 7: Audience participation is appreciated. This is not a Grudge match. It's just a grudge match. 8: Be nice (within the extent of the match.) 9: Enjoy it. 10: Win it or lose it with grace. Rambo, them's my rules. If you care to add, change, adjust, do so. Let me know if I left things out. To the room: The games will take time. It's to the death. Signed, Brian the very Patient.

Brad! Now I know how I was getting these emails forwarded from my wife.... I messed up signing on way back when and signed up using hers. I am at Bpoulsen60@hotmail.com Oh, and by the way, smile, I am not Brain the Wise. It is actually Brian the Wise (which I am not, but I like the name).

Either pouting, or need to go to Peng... Compassion, smile. all is good. Rambo, smile. all is good. Waltero, let me know. Rambo, after I finish the rounds, and win or lose, I'll take you on, conditionally (As such: Two games, one as Axis, one as Allies, to the death, decided at the end by the points. I'll put $10 on it, and my championship, should I get it. Now don't be all mad. I can't be any fairer than that. ps: You're really a pretty good player. And enough about all of that here on this thread. I'll start a new one, just for you).

Rambo, there you go again... (He is very mad at me)

Waltero, My Email address is bpoulsen60@hotmail.com I also have hotmail at the same. I think my nick is Brian. My basic schedule is this: Today is Thursday and it's about 8PM, PST. It's a bit late to start, but if Rambo will let, you it's fine by me. Tomorrow, I'm free from about 4PM, give or take, depending on your schedule. Saturday, I'm free from as early as noon. Sunday, I will try to flex my schedule to ensure we conclude as soon as is convenient for you. Look forward to your schedule, either here or on my Email, which I haven't checked yet. Brian

Brad, I don't mean to get technical, but if the Allies won 5 out of 6 times, how come there are only 4 teams left? Just curious.

Rambo, there you go again... 1st: You can't call me gamey because you default. 2nd: You claim you didn't need to default, but you were going on vacation. It seems to me, that since you managed to bring the SC game with you, you could have brought the saved game with you also (on a disk, maybe) and waited with your comment of default. 3rd: You claim you weren't losing in the match that both defaulted on and forgot to bring with you, but you were! The Germans were making no headway, conquered Poland after what, five turns, six, France had lost and replaced a couple of unit, the Germans were weakening and the Italians weren't helping. 4th: You didn't ask me to save the game. I tried to bring it up, but I had played another game since, so I couldn't, as you informed me. If you had asked, I would have. Last: The opportunity for you to have a second opportunity was conditional. The key words being time permitting. I told you I had a few hours yesterday, sometime today at 8PM. I had reasonably thought that since there had been delays in getting games completed, Brad might, as moderator, allow a time extension. He didn't. So, therefore, you defaulted the first time by defaulting, and you defaulted on the opportunity by not winning quickly enough (and even that is questionable, as I have you right where I want you: England took its hits, and you own the Med, but in getting there, you lost an air fleet, an armor, two armies, and when France finally did fall, most of your units, including air were at five or below. England would stand, and the only way you could have had a chance to win is in Russia, and it would have taken a very long time for you to do it, if even you could. But the fact is, that it's irrelevant. You defaulted. I'm not the moderater, I can't overrule him. And I don't think there was anywhere in the rules that it said, anyone who wants a rematch can have one, with extension of time. Everyone involved would probably want that opportunity. But hey, Rambo, you can be my wingman anytime.

CvM, Rambo is trying to go two out of three, in a tournament of one out of one. Time permitting, it'll work. We're playing now, a second match, and He is winning, but Jeez, I'm making mistakes all over the place. It's Christmas. I drank wine, schnapps, and many other fine drinks. He is a worthy adversary, but...evil smile....rules are rules.... I also saw the Two Towers, rambling (can't go into in, not on this forum, but to say, worthy to watch)...

Jersey John, I agree with you on the tech issues. That is how the tech game works. I agree with you on the entry of the entry of Spain or Turkey. Turkey will maybe enter, when you really really don't need them anymore, depending on everything else. Spain with enter, though, as you're Sea Lioning, when you might maybe need them. If Englad falls, you won't need them. But if Sea Lion quagmires, with the Axis holding London and a few hexes, but kind of stuck while readiness is rising in Russia, US has joined or is close too, Spain can come in very handy, if you're going to try to pull a rabbit out your hat (and it's hard, because the hat is very small, and the rabbit is very big (Russia): If Spain joins, use their units to take Portugal. This will allow the plunder to buy either a key air or HQ for Sea Lion, or a few corps to stave off the Russians when they do join. Since none of them actually did enter in WW2, but could have, I think the game accurately reflects this.

Brad, Just my opinion (hell everything I say is just my opinion), but I had thought this was basically an IQ match with games playing out over as much as three days (if the games were staying close). There's no way, someone is going to get finished with a PBEM type game in a limited amount of time. Moreover, I think PBEM is somewhat obsolete, with the advent ICQ. It's too hard to stay focused, too much hassled to download/upload. My vote: Sandy needs to get on the IP (if he can) and play you out. If he can't, then I don't think this was the approrpiate contest for him to enter (no offense), since it's time constrained, and he should willingly default, as far as the contest is concerned. Privately, of course, the game between you and him can continue, should both of you choose. (This, I think goes under the "someone didn't write out the four page entry form, in triplicate copies, complete with disclaimers that the host of the contest assumes no liabilities that result from SC imposing upon a player issues with marriages, friendships, sleeping habits, exercise patterns." Because I think we all understood. The contest was meant to start last week, reach middle stage next week, or so, and final sometimes in mid January). p.s.: My wifes' atty wants your physical address for serving papers - kidding. Really! So, my vote is that Sandy defaults. The rest of the contestants should may vote as well.

If I'm tracking this correctly, 3 games out of 8 are completed. Round 2 would begin this weekend sometime?

Thanks for the responses, everyone. In response to the Norway gambit (to me everything in this game is a gambit, just because when it works, it's just wonderful), as Germans I would never even think of doing that. Just my opinion. Killing France opens up that option, and many others, but doing something like that while France is in play doesn't seem viable. Less like a gambit, more like a gamble. I'd like to try to play someone who tries that move, not because I don't think it can be done, but because I'd think it'd be fun. As far as sharing my strategies, even during the contest, etc., maybe I'm not....hmmm. Maybe I'm just trying to find out the good strategie from everyone else for my next game, where I will probably have to play as Germans. hmmm. Actually, I am sharing my strategy for what has worked for me, and clearly there are some here who disagree. Besides, winning in SC isn't that important to me. I would rather lost a very good and enjoyable game than win a boring lopsided non-conversational game (I type alot in all my games, good move this, that worries me that, etc). So far, most of my games have been very good. Bruce, I liked the rest of your strategy comments. But we will have to agree to disagree on the Norway one (on the other hand, it makes for a good staging point for a Sea Lion, hmmm)...

I didn't know you actually could delay Russia until mid 42. That's a nice trick, and I would love to learn it.

There have been a number of very helpful (and interesting) on the strategies people are using against their opponents. However, many of them, even Huberts, were pre 1.06. So, now that I've played a few times on line, against excellent (and gracious, I would like to add) players, I figure I would restart this thread and bounce off a few ideas, some good (maybe), some bad (probably). A couple of months ago, someone mentioned that the game is decided in Russia. I think that's changed now. I think that the game is decided in France, and how Russia fares will depend on whether the Axis are forestalled/depleted before the Russians get involved. As Allies, I think the key, early in the game is to make sure that the French, and those key critical MMPs survive as long as possible, and you need to do everything you can to make sure that they last. Before, I used to make Britain have a hands off strategy, investing in research, and saving MMP's till the units got cheap. I don't think that works now. I won't talk about the Dutch gambit, which is risky, but fun. It's already been discussed. And I wouldn't advise it as a determined strategy, since it can be handily countered. Here is how I view it, playing the allies. The Germans start with 3 air fleets. The Allies start with 5, plus the polish and the bomber. Turn 1: I do a little sub hunting with British fleets, but not the carriers. They go to London. They will have 100%, or close, readiness to defend. I flip the Med air fleet to London, and with the purchase of an English HQ on turn 4, the British have an effective air defense to help the French. This increases the Italian readiness, but you want that, because you have your French fleet racing down to crush the Italian navy with a lot of help from the British. Over the next few turns, change out the French armies in the maginot with new bought corps, but just the bottom 2 hexes. The one at point you want as an army so he can punch the Germans units in the nose (because it's fun). The third corp goes into Marseille, as well as the fourth if you can afford it. Now I drop the Candian army in France. I don't buy a French HQ (though some do). The candian corp goes to England. Turns 2 and 3: Move the British bomber down into France, so he can see what's up. If there is an open German city, use a French unit to take it (I didn't do that, I experienced it. I didn't like it.) I lose a British fleet against the German U-boats usually, but by turn six or so, that threat is concluded. Turn 5: In the games that I have played IQ, the Germans begin attacking France about now. Poland, Denmark and the Low Countries have fallen. The Germans have 5 air fleets, but not so many MPP's per turn. So you are fighting a war of attrition as long as you can. And it can indeed be long. Sometimes it depends on when the Italians enter. Sometimes they don't make the difference then need to. Kill the Italian fleet as safely as you can. If they run and hide up near Triest, the German air fleet might wipe out your French navy quick, but you should be able to take out a couple of the Italians. Keep them in Marseilles until one turn before you think the Italians will join, including the British fleet in Gibralter, for maximum readiness. After you've killed off the German U-boats, bring the British fleet back to port. France will fall, there is no doubt about it, and the British will have almost no air left. Nor much of a defense. But hopefully enough (this is a balancing act, that I have little experience in. I got crushed by Rambo in late 40 by an Italian landing because I got over agressive and was strengtheing the med, thinking he didn't have anything to attack me with. He did). And maybe 1 point sitting in industrial tech. But hopefully by using an aggresive defense, the Germans will be weak enough to need to use some of that plunder to fix their units instead of their tech, which they haven't even been able to invest in, because you keep punching them in the nose. If you've killed off the Italian fleet, or even if you haven't, get the carrier out of there and have it ready to help you with the defense of England. Any ships you can spare will help. One of the major reasons to take Gibralter now, is so that those Italian fleets can come help Sea Lion. One of Huberts strategies, after the fall of France, was pounding Brest to make it unable to launch transports. This impressed me. I had never thought of it. It works. and it's effective. Buys time, even though it costs ships. On the other hand, that's what you have that navy for. Later in the game, it won't be doing much. That's my thoughts. If it helps. Great. If you don't like it, great. But I still think that the game is pretty darn balanced now. Thanks for letting me share.

There have been a number of very helpful (and interesting) on the strategies people are using against their opponents. However, many of them, even Huberts, were pre 1.06. So, now that I've played a few times on line, against excellent (and gracious, I would like to add) players, I figure I would restart this thread and bounce off a few ideas, some good (maybe), some bad (probably). A couple of months ago, someone mentioned that the game is decided in Russia. I think that's changed now. I think that the game is decided in France, and how Russia fares will depend on whether the Axis are forestalled/depleted before they get involved. As Axis: I take Poland in two turns and declare war on Denmark on the first turn. It falls on the third turn. The German fleet does the work. I operate the Axis forces over to the West Front, spending precious points. I buy two air force units. On turn 4, I invade and take the low countries, and punch France in the nose. On turn 5, my forces are tired, but I punch france in the nose again because it's fun. And then I poke france in the eye, because that's fun too. In other words, I weaken the defending air forces by attacking Frances front line and then kill units. Usually two. On turn 6, my back up corps take over, while I fix my armor and armies, and try to get a hex next to Paris. Usually kill one unit, weaken others. On turn 7, everything goes bam! and I usually can take Paris. It might have to wait till turn 8 After that, things go wide open. Sea Lion is a game killer that will either win you or lose you. In a tournament, I would be reluctant to take the chance. It's very expensive. I would prefer to go after Vichy, then Spain, then Portugal, while simutaneously taking Norway, Sweden and Malta. Honestly, I haven't gotten that far, or done that yet. Instead I did the Sea Lion, Russia prepared slow, the U.S. came in, but my air force crushed all resistance, even though I lost much force, both my headquarters, all of my navy. It was a nail biter (and I loved it). Those are my thoughts, this far along. Use them if you like them. I am sure many or all, already are. I have not yet gotten to where Russia is involved, in an online game, so I'm no expert on this. But that's why we're all sharing.

Merry Christmas from surprisingly dry Seattle.

The Italians can't gambit for a while. The only reason why we smack talk, is because we are intense. Anyone talking on this link is intense. Sometimes hasty. Sometimes hasty. I love this game. I love this forum. I forewarn you. I am bam! no smack. but alot of bam!

blah. This has been said,, You didn't read. It's all good, and it's all bad. this is not smack talk, but ser. The game has flaws. It is excellent. Learn it. Then criticize. The flaws are few. WE all want SC2, only because SC1 is done so well.

Brad, It appears that I do go into the winners column. Rambo usually plays a better game, but I think, and this is only my opinion, this time he was hasty, and overly aggressive. He knows how to kick my butt, although as allies, I still punch him in the nose. Twice. In summary, I won (still doesn't feel right). Who's next? Or to quote Rambo, Rack em. Smile.

Mr Wagner, I appreciate the strategy, but when do you have the time to buy the HQ. When I play allies, I'm buying French corps as fast as I can. First to change out the Maginot, then to build a unit or two for the defense against Italy. The first turn, I can't buy anything. The second, third and fourth, I have 3 corps in the Maginot and my secondary defense ready. By that time the Axis have taken poland and have started pounding me. So when do you have time to buy the HQ, and actually, how effective is it?

Be well, Rambo. Be nice your girlfriend (otherwise you'll be talking to your right hand - that's not smack, it's just funny, and well meant). Your gambit was extremely audacious. And it had me worried. But it cost you and you had nothing left to take Denmark. Poland fell late, and you had no MMP's. In fact, having played you a few times before, I would have to say, you played poorly, which is unlike you. Considering that this was a quote unquote tournament, I would have expected you to play something tried and true. I can only assume that you took the risks you did because you knew you were flying out and either needed a quick kill, or you intended for me to win. As such, while fun (and thrilling to see you hurting as the Germans), it was almost dissappointing. You are a better player than this. However, that said, gotcha. I won, you would have lost. And both Heaven and Hell are smiling. (maybe some of the forum folks too) On the other hand, after you've taken your brain break, and are ready to go at it again, I would sincerely enjoy another matchup against you. I'll take either side. In the meantime, be well.

I think I may have to plead guilty here. I try not to face fart folks, but I may have. I try not to get off topic, but I know I have done so. For this, I sincerely apologize. And I stand with this apology. This is a great forum for a great game with a bunch of very good people participating. As my byline says, I love this game, and I will try to contribute to this forum. Unfortunately, there have been occasions when, I believe, I have detracted from it. That ends, as of this moment. "Wisdom is strength with humility, guile without deception, knowledge shared but not preached"

Yohan, I actually was (inspired to speak this topic because of the pissing match). Rambo is a riler. He is in your face! He is outloud, he is baggadousess (sp). He talks a good game, but frankly, he does not play well. Just my opinion. Hubert would crush him. I don't mean to brag, it is not my way (wisdom is kind advice and never given if not wanted) Rambo is humbled. This tray is level. All is good. Brian the honestly now very wise at all.

I am almost sorry that I posted this. Rambo is rambo.He doesn't cheat. He almost earns the right to brag (though when I play him, somehow he loses). He just brags too much. That said, I think some one needs to make rambo lose. I have done this. The game is over, even should he try to forstall it. It's not gravy rights. I would love to play Bruce, or Brad, or any who are a bit less "hasty". And actually anyone. It's a great game.The best I have ever known since War in Russia (those old days) and 3rd.