MethodGamer

That would definitely be an interesting idea. Like IanL though, I'm not setup for it at the moment, so we'll have to leave it for a future experiment. Having far more information that we normally have will definitely change the results of the game, and I will try to make my decisions as though I don't know what IanL is doing. But at the same time, the goal is learning, so we won't put too much time on the battle results. We may do another DAR later, which will be a double-blind game, and we'll review decisions after the fact.

You're right, it could take a while. I plan on waiting 24 for each turn, but if there's really nothing going on, then I may just go ahead and send my turn to keep the game moving. I can speak for IanL, but he may decide to do it every few turns, given his experience with the game.

IanL and I are trying a little experiment. We're going to play a CMBN mission with a DAR, but with a little twist: we'll be reading and commenting on each others' post as we're playing, and we invite everyone to post suggestions as well. Feel free to suggest strategies, tactics, orders, whatever you think we should do on our next turn. Here's a bit of background on how this experiment came about. IanL and I are very good friends in the real world. As the forum regulars will know, IanL is a pretty serious CM player. He's a very active member on these and other boards, he's very knowledgeable about the game, and he's even written software to help players get more out of the game. I, on the other hand, am not that experienced with CMx2. While I own just about every CM game released by Battlefront (even the CMx1 titles), I've probably played less than a dozen CMx2 missions, all of them almost exclusively against IanL. To say that I get regularly pummelled by him would be an understatement. During our last battle, we were discussing problems I was having as the defender. Clearly, everything was wrong: strategy, tactics, orders, etc. The chat eventually morphed into a broader discussion about how to get new players up to speed faster. Obviously, reading posts on the forums or on blogs (such as Bil Hardenberger's excellent Battle Drill) is a big help. But nothing really teaches something as complex as battle strategies and tactics like a skilled practitioner's experience. So we started comparing CM to other strategically and tactically complex games (like bridge or chess), and started thinking about how they train new players. One method they use is open play: a strong player plays against a newer player, and they talk aloud about what they're thinking and doing, and why. We thought this would be a good idea for CM, and that's how we ended up here. Here's how we're going to proceed. IanL and I will follow the usual DAR format; we'll each start a thread discussing the mission from our respective sides. We'll provide screenshots and our thoughts on what we're PLANNING on doing and why. But before we actually give orders and send the turns, we'll read, comment and take advice from everyone on the boards, including from each other. We'll normally post our plans, and give forum members 24 hours to provide advice before playing our turns. As mentioned in the inital paragraph of this post, if you have any questions or suggestions about anything we're doing, feel free to post. The idea here is to learn and get as much insight as possible into CMx2. There are a large number of skilled players, all with different strategies and tactics, tips and tricks, and I'd like to soak up as much as I can. And remember, this is an experiment, feel free to comment on this idea as well.