Wild Bill's Rumblings Of War (con't.)

[Holien]

JK the nuke was aimed at me and I got it. Tom is very unhappy with me (through the limited medium of e-mail that is the way it appears). I have offered Beer and an Olive branch but to no avail. While I might have won the battle we played, I consider it a lost war when I upset someone.

The game with Tom has ended and the AAR will be on the way this weekend.

George has kept the flow up once he had taken off his Ski gloves. I have suggested several times for him to withdraw gracefully. He has not and I (being the evil person I am) continue to tighten the noose and try to force a full surrender. If all goes well (for me anyway, if not George) I will be sending this AAR this weekend as well.

All the battles have been truly impressive and the breadth of engagement types and challenges truly stretching. The replayability is being tested with KF on one of the battles and if I had more time I would now be replaying some of the other games.

I need to consider this battle by battle but I think the balance of the games might need only slight tweaks if any. This will truly become apparent if any results are wildly off the balance mark by a large percentage.

H

[Treeburst155]

Don't forget to send me the Holien/Tom final score. If you already did I never received it.

Thanks!

Treeburst155 out.

[Holien]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Treeburst155:

Don't forget to send me the Holien/Tom final score. If you already did I never received it.

Thanks!

Treeburst155 out.<hr></blockquote>

Hi TB will be at the top of the AAR like the others.

I have to do some plumbing today but should get it done by the end of the weekend.

H

[John Kettler]

My last movie from Peter yielded a mixture of elation and sorrow. I stormed one of his positions, but I got butchered elsewhere on the field. Worse, vital momentum was lost.

von Lucke and I clashed so violently and thoroughly

that after five viewings I still don't have the who, whats and the whens sorted out. Casualties on both sides were severe. Calling the situation chaotic would be to impose order on it. There is none.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Holien]

Saturday morning here and it is all over bar the AAR's.

George has sent me the last turn and blood is every where.

Thank you to CDIC, JK, KF, Tom, George, Von Lucke and Peter. I have enjoyed your company and banter over the last few months and I hope the New Year brings cheer to us all.

They were hard fought battles and I am pleased with the way my men performed even when I lost, VL I will be avenged on you some time in the New Year if you will give me the pleasure.

TB & WBW AAR's should be out soon...

Fisher man in our replay of the JK debacle has found wire cutters and has slipped through the net and is now inside my protected zone and killing my poor defenceless boys.

It will be interesting to see how well he does on the replay as we are both playing the same side as we did 1st time. This will be a good test to see what the replay value of this much-talked about (or should I say moaned about) scenario.

Anyway must start task of writing AAR's.

Cheers

H

[Holien]

Wild Bill and TB

The AARs have now been sent and all I have left to do is take the beating being given to me by that wet fish.

It reminds me of a Monty Python scene.

Ochh ohhhh Occhhh :eek:

JK you need some lessons on attack, talk to mr Fish he is the man....

Occhhh Uccchh Occchhh.. :eek:

H

[John Kettler]

With all due deference to the formidable martial abilities of Kingfish, my forever war foe, I respectfully submit, Holien, that it is much easier to plan and conduct an attack when one knows ahead of time what one is facing and what to look out for. If I understand the matter correctly, you two refought a battle you'd previously fought, didn't you? If this is true, one then also has some idea of what the opponent's tactical predispositions might be as well. This is wholly different from swanning off into the blue, as I was forced to do when I fought the battle blind going in.

Tom did some very unpleasant things to my left last turn, but I hope the price on his end there was at least proportionate. I hit him with an unexpected visitor, too. Meanwhile, I saw some two legged rabbits running away from my main VL area on the right and killed and was killed by some of his men to my right front.

von Lucke and I have suddenly found ourselves in a horrific meeting engagement of such epic brutality and lethality that my mind can't quite encompass

what's happening. He hurt me in several areas but paid heavily for the progress. He rushed some units

in suddenly, and I'm dealing with those while under fire from their friends.

Nothing from Peter today, nor has anything been heard from the two yet unfought ones.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Holien]

JK we are fighting the one that I fought with you.

Yes it is easier with hindsight and that is what we are testing the replayability of Ranville.

I am G and he is A. He played A in his version of it.

So far he has taken out my 3 X and 1 X. I have done some limited damge to his men and I have XX and XX arrived, but not XX, yet.

We are about halfway through as we got in quite a few turns yesterday as I was trying to write the AAR's and KF kept disturbing me.

Maybe some more turns today as I try and write my Christmas cards.

H

[Kingfish]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Holien:

Maybe some more turns today as I try and write my Christmas cards.

H<hr></blockquote>

Holien,

I suggest you write those X-mas cards before you view the movie I just sent you. You're not going to be in a festive holiday mood afterwards.

[Holien]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by John Kettler:

As Holien notes, there are indeed two sides to this battle. Do I claim I've fought a perfect battle? Hardly! But I do assert that much of what may appear to be bad decisions on my part is a direct result of what I got, when I got it and where it arrived. Frankly, the coordination of force problem has been so daunting it's a wonder I'm not bald from tearing my hair out. This has allowed Holien to really put the hurts on my guys in succession, while at the same time I'm trying to beat the clock

because of certain dire scenario considerations. And things went badly awry on my rate of advance.

The result is the present do or die attack, which seems to be working and was possible only because I finally was able to work enough men into position to be able to launch it while relatively protected.

The outcome is up in the air, but Holien seems to be sweating. Perhaps I caught him on the hop? We'll see. I sent him a turn.

<hr></blockquote>

This text relates in its entirety to the situation Fishman is inflicting on me.

I am being ripped to shreds by his X and His X has started falling on my arrival point. His X has been moved to cover the road and has destroyed X and X on the 1st turn.

The second VL has nearly fallen and it is a long time till my XX arrive which is the only thing that can take his X head on. Until then his X will be the big fish in the pond trying to eat my nippers.

He has plenty of XX and this has slipped past my X with little or no damage. Because his XX are Vets and mine are not I am losing big time to his mass charges and will lose this same game that JK lost and complained about.

Hindsight has certainly helped Fishman but in reality he could have made those decisions even when playing this game blind 1st time. If he did my forces as they are now would be ripped to shreds and I would be complaining that the game is unbalanced.

This is something I think is unbalanced unless you get benefit from the fog of war and that all depends on your opponent. I will bet some beers that many of the other players won this fairly easily as the side JK took. I would say more won it than lost it. I will honour the bet for those who take me up on it at the next London meet.

H

P.s. I am doing a spring clean the cards will have to wait.

[John Kettler]

It's Sunday, no one's here but me, yet I've seen one turn all day so far, that from von Lucke really early this morning. The casualty production rate in our fight is staggering.

Tom and Peter, where are you? And where are the other two Section II people I've yet to fight? I've posted my desire to fight you repeatedly, and I have room for at least one fight right now, maybe two.

Someone please send me a turn!

Regards,

John Kettler

[Holien]

JK a turn has been sent to you and a suggestion of a game to play with a certain Fish Man.

He has just about finished me off and I believe that the game we played is unbalanced in favour of the Brits.

Perhaps you and he could replay it and see if you agree or disagree.

I have sent you one of my turns so you can see the hurt and pain he is inflicting.

Good job our game did not go this way or I would be in the poo.

H

P.s. Before we have a long discussion about hindsight I think Fishmans approach could have been taken by a player first time. Anyway I would like to see what you think if you replay it.

[Holien]

Just finished the game replay with KF and the score was 19 to 81.

My most horrible defeat in the "Replay Tourney".

The game is totally impossible for the Germans to win. (Unless they are very lucky in certain conditions and then it will only be a minor victory at best.)

E-mail on way to WB.

Second test being run by JK and Fishman who will IMHO (Well IMO) confirm these findings once they have played it.

How anyone could say it was balanced more in favour for the Germans is beyond me.

H

[gredeker]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Holien:

The game is totally impossible for the Germans to win. (Unless they are very lucky in certain conditions and then it will only be a minor victory at best.)

H<hr></blockquote>

I'd beg to disagree. I will agree that a faster, more aggressive Brit player will tend to do better than a slower methodical one in this particular scenario.

Also, I would think that a replay of this scenario (or even some of the other scenarios in the tourney) would yield somewhat skewed results because of the when/where foreknowledge of reinforcement group appearances.

[John Kettler]

To clarify, I am not presently involved in replaying any scenarios with Kingfish. How Holien came up with that one is beyond me.

I am most interested in getting turns from Tom and Peter and renew my pleas for the remaining unfought Section II foes to get the ball rolling so we can fight. Treeburst155, this makes at least three times I've posted concerning the unfought duo. If these two don't act soon, I'll miss deadline. I don't expect to be penalized because of them.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Holien]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by redeker:

I'd beg to disagree. I will agree that a faster, more aggressive Brit player will tend to do better than a slower methodical one in this particular scenario.

Also, I would think that a replay of this scenario (or even some of the other scenarios in the tourney) would yield somewhat skewed results because of the when/where foreknowledge of reinforcement group appearances.<hr></blockquote>

But by saying :- "I will agree that a faster, more aggressive Brit player will tend to do better than a slower methodical one in this particular scenario".

you have agreed.

As I said :- "The game is totally impossible for the Germans to win. (Unless they are very lucky in certain conditions and then it will only be a minor victory at best.)"

I agree that a slower approach will maybe produce a minor Victory for G at best.

So I am glad we agree.

Anyway as for replay yes in this "Para" game I do not think replay is very balanced and would choose something else for replayability. Perhaps the French one?

I am trying to get together a report for WB which will rate the games on balance and replayability and pure fun factor. If people could do the same then it would give WB some good feed back on all the effort he has put in in providing us with a lot of entertainment.

H

[gredeker]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Holien:

But by saying :- "I will agree that a faster, more aggressive Brit player will tend to do better than a slower methodical one in this particular scenario".

you have agreed.

As I said :- "The game is totally impossible for the Germans to win. (Unless they are very lucky in certain conditions and then it will only be a minor victory at best.)"

I agree that a slower approach will maybe produce a minor Victory for G at best.

So I am glad we agree.

H<hr></blockquote>

At the risk of tooting my own horn, in the game I played the Germans won by more than a minor victory.

So... I'd beg to disagree.

[Holien]

Ahhh so we have you at the top of the curve!!!

Well I would bet I am second on the curve...

Unless anyone else comes out of the wood work.

Also have you ever heard of the Exception proves the rule.

Well done, I hope your opponent is holding their head in shame.

H

[Treeburst155]

I think many of you will find the final scores on these scenarios very interesting. If you have finished ALL your games I will send you the results to date if you email me requesting such. The score sheet is in Microsoft Works (.wks) format, but I can change it to .txt fairly quickly if need be.

We have less than eight weeks to go now so those of you who have battles not yet begun should start thinking seriously about getting those games going. Remember, nobody can be forced into a last minute TCP/IP game except John Kettler. LOL!! (I'm kidding, John, really I am.) I count ten games not yet started. BTW, there are four people who have finished the tournament already.

Well, that's enough nagging from me for now. There will be more as the deadline draws closer.

Treeburst155 out.

[Wild Bill Wilder]

You've nearly all been very good about reporting the battles and your thoughts about them.

I appreciate that information...and the rather colorful way you present it :eek:

This does not mean I will always agree with you, nor does it mean that I will incorporate every change you suggest.

But I will listen. I will consider your points of view. They do help me a lot for further fine tuning.

Tourneys are rough on everyone, even though a lot of fun. It hurts to lose. It is natural to think that if this or that, it might have been different. It might have. It might have been too much.

There is only so much designers and testers can do to insure balance. There still must be an element of the fortunes of war...no guarantees, no certainties. It can't be 2 + 2 = 4 in a battle. There must be elements that can twist a battle even for the best of players. Otherwise, it becomes a battle of wits, of who knows the system best and can work around it.

I'm not saying this about anyone in the campaign. You've all had a good healthy attitude, win or lose. But even winners lose.

Thanks for all the comments and ideas. I'm keeping track of it all on a growing results sheet of my own.

WB

[John Kettler]

Treeburst155,

Please consider this official notification that I am going to accept Fuerte's challenge in the Invitational, so that he can complete his tourney there. I'm tired of waiting when I could be fighting.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Holien]

Just got the spreadsheet.

Interesting reading and I might be losing quite a few beers unless the results swing the other way in a certain game.

As for the completions it seems as if group two are well on way to finishing all the games, followed closely by group 3.

As for the leaders well there are some clear favourites and I will keep stum about who those may be. Of course that might change with the results yet to be declared.

If you want to see what I can see then hurray up and finish your games.

H

[Wreck]

Folks I realize it is fun to analyze the scenarios, and more fun to do it out loud. But please, there are people here still playing. Let's not blow the FOW; what y'all have been doing above with the XXX scenario (as if people will not figure it out) is tantamount to giving away the game. It may very well skew the results in group 1. Hopefully they have all started and are well into the game, so the discussion won't matter. But I don't think anyone here knows that.

A few more weeks and we can talk all we want. Meanwhile, if you really feel the need to discuss it maybe we can set up a email list for WBW, Treeburst, and the folks that have finished? Of just discuss it privately between yourselves and WBW (though I would like to be CCed...

[Holien]

Fair point.

Just too mouthy for my own good. (Or just demob happy ).

As you have finished I will send you and Redeker the AAR. You can have all of mine, and Redeker can have those he has finished.

I don't think what we have said should affect other peoples games but I can see where you are coming from.

Setting up an e-mail group would be the way to go.

The AAR's will be in the post tonight.

H

P.s. I presume we can trade AAR's with people who have completed those games?

[Treeburst155]

Yes, you can trade AARs with people you KNOW have finished those games. Nobody has that info unless they themselves have finished the tourney and requested such from me. Double check who you send AARs to and what AAR you are sending.

Treeburst155 out.