To All WineCape Tourney Vets

[mPisi]

I'd be interested in a CMBO tourny, even if it runs into the CMBB time. Heck, I'm in a CMBO campaign that is projected to run through 2003...

[WineCape]

Treeburst,

There seems to be enough interest here to fire up RoW II as a CMBO tourney instead! We'll shift RoW III to being the CMBB tourney whenever the game rolls of BTS' assembly line.

Regards,

Charl Theron

--------------

Some of these vintages won't be ready to drink for a long time. If we wait much longer, our kids will be toasting us over our graves! Let's drink up what we have, and let them buy their own.

-- Burgess Meredith, American actor (1909 - 1997) to film director John Huston (1906 - 1987)

[Holien]

Just finishing off Warren will be ready to play when ever you decide what you want to do.

In other words I will play before CMBB is released if there is time to squeeze another in.

However, are we missing some scenarios?

H

[Mattias]

A CM:BO tournament while we wait? Sounds like a good idea, sign me up

I for one would be a very surprised, and happy of course, puppy if I got to play CM:BB before August.

M.

[Treeburst155]

At this point we have a scenario problem if we're going to do another CMBO tourney. I'm working on it. If all goes well we will make Rumblings Of War II a CMBO tourney. The tourney would begin the first week of June. The scenario designers would need some time to do their thing, and I have lots to do too.

Treeburst155 out.

[CombinedArms]

Originally posted by Treeburst155:

At this point we have a scenario problem if we're going to do another CMBO tourney. I'm working on it. If all goes well we will make Rumblings Of War II a CMBO tourney. The tourney would begin the first week of June. The scenario designers would need some time to do their thing, and I have lots to do too.

Treeburst155 out.

I have a pragmatic thought about the scenario problem in the proposed ROW II/CMBO tourney: USE THE SCENARIOS FROM THE present ROW FINALS!

First the downsides:

1. Slight fog-of-war leakage. We've read some to-us quite hazy reports about the battles, with a few details about forces, etc.

2. Finalists won't get to participate.

3. We'll have to wait till the tourney is over--but that should be soon.

Upsides:

1. The scenarios are ready to go and have never been played outside the small circle of finalists.

2. Fog of war leakage is probably not all that great--I at least have little real clue what is going on in any of them.

3. We Winecape tourney Vets are all eager to play these scenarios, and it would be even better to do it in a tourney.

4. It allows the tourney to take place. We could make it a mini-tourney with just these, or start with these now and get a few more in place as we go along. In any case, it lets the tourney happen in the present very narrow time frame.

If we regard this as a "just for the heck of it" tourney, squeezed in for fun without too much ego or angst involved--which is the approach I'd recommend taking--then why not? If we try to find the perfect solution in this narrow time frame, we may end up finding no solution at all.

[ April 26, 2002, 07:28 PM: Message edited by: CombinedArms ]

[WineCape]

Ahh, just been forwarded this SA wine article (in New York Times) by Frank Prial, one of the foremost American wine critics. Allow me some indulgence/promotion here.

I met Mr. Frank Prial the first time 2 weeks ago at the International Cape Wine 2002 "Rolling out the Reds" seminar at Nederburg and asked his opinion about SA wine. It was his 3rd visit to South Africa, so he was in a perfect position to see from outside SA wine circles improvement (if any) in our wines. Naturally, I'll give the RoW II winners a choice if they want wines from his mentioned selection below.

STELLENBOSCH, South Africa - COMING back here after an absence of nine years is like meeting an old friend grown younger. The deep verdant valleys, the improbably beautiful mountains rising from the sea, the plants and flowers found

nowhere else - all rest immutable. But in and around them, one senses a new spirit, an eagerness to meet the world, not with defiance and resentment but with the pride that comes from building a new nation.

Nowhere is this delight more evident than here in the wine country of the Western Cape. Indeed, wine could be taken as a metaphor for the new South Africa. Old-style wines, obsolete techniques and winemakers living in the past are

being pushed aside, sometimes gently, sometimes abruptly, to make way for the new.

Under apartheid, the wine industry closed ranks, clinging to the old ways. "Foreign" grapes like chardonnay and pinot noir were banned. When they were grown in defiance of the law, their names could not be used to describe the wines made from them. Once, the principal South African white

grape was chenin blanc, known here as steen. It is still the Cape's most widely planted variety. But today, it takes a back seat to chardonnays and sauvignon blancs, among the better South African wines. The Cape currently produces

some of the finest sauvignon blancs in the world.

In the past, pinotage, a cross between pinot noir and cinsault, an undistinguished French hot-climate grape, was South Africa's unique contribution to the world's wines. It still accounts for about 20 percent of the Cape's red wine production. But the new generation of winemakers are either tearing out pinotage vines or working to develop a new, more attractive pinotage-style wine.

In almost two weeks of visiting old acquaintances and meeting new winemakers, some of them sons and daughters of the men and women who were making wine here in grimmer times, I found remarkable optimism about the future, even though the country is suffering from serious unemployment -

officially 35 percent - and a painfully weak currency. "The enthusiasm of these young people and the amount of experimentation going on is really astonishing," said John Platter, founder and for more than 15 years editor and publisher of the guide to South African wines that still

bears his name.

American consumers first experienced the new breed of South African wines with the arrival in the early 1990's of the sauvignon blancs of Mulderbosch Vineyards here in Stellenbosch, 30 miles east of Cape Town. The winemaker Mike Dubrovic still turns out his flinty, racy sauvignon blancs, but now he has stiff competition. I particularly liked the sauvignons of André van Rensburg at Vergelegen Estate,...[remember I said this to be one of SA's best winemakers many a post ago ]...especially the Reserve from the Schaapenberg Vineyard. A few producers in the Loire Valley might compete

with this wine, but no one else - certainly not in

California. Two other Cape wineries, Durbanville Hills and Neil Ellis, also produce sauvignon blancs I liked.

These wines should be able to lure some American

enthusiasts away from chardonnay. But for those who refuse to be swayed, South Africa makes some intriguing versions. The best South African chardonnays manage brilliantly to combine French brightness and acidity with California's fruit.

I particularly enjoyed a couple of chardonnays from the De Wetshof Estate in Robertson, a region once given over to raising race horses. Bateleur is Danie de Wet's best, but I preferred his more intense Chardonnay d'Honneur. The limestone soil that once gave horses strong bones does good

things for chardonnay, too.

Springfield Estate, another Robertson winery, produces one of the more interesting wines I encountered here, a chardonnay called Methode Ancienne. If ever there was a white wine worthy of the "cult" designation, this is it. Night harvesting, no sulphur, almost three months of native yeast fermentation and a year in oak on the lees produce a chardonnay of monumental proportions. This is true, at least, when the winemakers are lucky; they successfully make Methode Ancienne only about one harvest in three. I'm not sure that any of it has yet reached the United States, but then it wouldn't be a cult wine if anyone could actually buy it, would it?

Other chardonnays worth seeking out that do show up in America include Rustenberg's Five Soldiers (named after trees in the vineyard), and wines from Hamilton Russell vineyards at Hermanus and Warwick Estate here in Stellenbosch. Delaire and De Wetshof both produce good unwooded chardonnays.

South African chenin blanc in the bad old days was for the most part a dull wine. Now, a few courageous vintners, mindful that chenin is also the grape of some glorious Vouvrays, are out to restore its reputation. Ken Forrester's unwooded dry chenin, along with semisweet versions from Mr. Forrester and from Morgenhof Estate, just

might bring some respectability and a bit of lustre to poor chenin blanc.

Sparkling wines other than Champagne are often not worth the trouble it takes to open the bottle. South Africa's, the few sampled at least, turn out to be an unexpected treat. I especially liked Graham Beck's Brut, which is a 50-50 chardonnay/pinot noir blend, and two sparklers from Cabrière Estate: the Cuvée Belle Rose, a rosé from pinot noir grapes, and the all chardonnay blanc de blancs, which, I found, goes extremely well with Namibian oysters. None of these wines are going to knock Krug's Clos du Mesnil off its well-deserved pedestal, but they will give lots of lesser Champagnes serious competition.

The best way to enjoy the Cabrière wines is at the Haute Cabrière Cellar Restaurant high on the Franschhoek Pass Road looking out over the spectacular Franschhoek Valley. The best way to enjoy the restaurant is in the company of

Achim von Arnim, who makes the wines and owns the

restaurant with Matthew Gordon, the chef. If Mr. von Arnim is in an expansive mood, which he usually is about 365 days a year, he will sabre open your bottle of his wine. If he is in a very expansive mood, he will show one of the women in your party how to do it. Try to get that kind of

treatment in Champagne.

OK, that was the wine promotion.

Just received an e-mail from Kiwi Joe that he received his wine prize - had to share it here. (Remember, Kiwi Joe wanted to pour all 6 bottles into a bowl and serve it to his girlfriend)

Howdy, KiwiJoe here. Just received your package … THX My wine experience to date consists of skulling 20 glasses of “woteva” at the yearly wine festival and swimming naked off the peer I’ll have to take it slower with this lot and try and savour it … or maybe its time for some more skulling

Cheers

KJ.

Sincerely,

Charl Theron

--------------

You can't be a wine snob. You have to keep your mind open. You have no idea where the next great wine you drink will come from!

-- Francis Ford Coppola, American film director

[wadepm]

Count me in for a preCMBB CMBO tourney. I like CombinedArms idea for the scenarios too.

[StugIII]

As for a "while we're waiting" tourney, what about a Bracket And Seeded, single elimination tourney ala the NCAA's March Madness?

It could be broken down into 4 12 team brackets with the top 4 players from previous tourneys being the 1 seed in each bracket and so on. 1 vs. 12, 2 vs. 11 etc...

Sure it would be a quick for players like me but I'm sure I'd learn alot. The end of the tourney would feature the best match-up (in theory) and the tourney would end right about when CMBB is being released.

Just a thought...

[Treeburst155]

OK guys, the CMBO tourney is a GO!! Scenarios will be provided once again by our friends at Boots & Tracks. The prize will be sponsored by WineCape. The tourney will be called, "Rumblings Of War II: The Boots & Tracks Brawl". Thank you WineCape and Boots & Tracks!!

I will treat the current CMBB sign-up list (and waiting list) as the list for this new CMBO tourney. If you do NOT want to play in a CMBO tourney, and you are on this list, post here and I will remove your name.

We will have another signup period for the CMBB tourney when BTS makes an official announcement that pins down a release date for the game.

CMBO Tourney-"Rumblings Of War II: The Boots & Tracks Brawl" sign up list:

1) Jarmo

2) The_Capt

3) Enoch

4) Uber General

5) mPisi

6) JonS

7) redwolf

8) JeffWilders

9) Joseph Porta

10) John "Katyusha" Kettler

11) Thomas Norton

12) Cpl Carrot

13) Strider

14) Warhammer

15) THumpre

16) a1steaks

17) Wreck

18) redeker

19) Fate

20) StugIII

21) MrSpkr

22) Combined Arms

23) Holien

24) ciks

25) Ugbash

26) wadepm

27) Juha Ahoniemi

28) Fangorn

29) Scheer

30) Bimmer

31) Mattias

32) Jack Trap

33) Peter svensson

34) TexasToast

35) Michael Dorosh

36) Ali

37) Cogust

38) mike8g

39) Lopaka

40) Bertram

41) Tero

42) JPS

43) Torbhen

44) Mr. Johnson

45) Mick

46) Kiwi Joe

47) Kanonier

48) Ricochet

__________________

49) Ari Maenpaa

50) Tuomas

51) Tabpub

52) von Lucke

53) Pixelmaster

I will be starting a new thread for this tourney shortly. Look for "Rumblings Of War II: The Boots & Tracks Brawl".

Treeburst155 out.

[Cpl Carrot]

I humbley request that you take my name off this torney. I am still keen on the CMBB one though

Thanks

Cpl Carrot

Ps Ari you had better do well

[Sir Uber General]

woohoo!

[Treeburst155]

Will do, Cpl Carrot. Keep an eye out for a new CMBB tourney signup thread as soon as the game goes gold.

Treeburst155 out.

[White4]

I humbly request that my name be put ON the CMBO tourney! As well as waitlisted for the CMBB, please. Must play as much as wife allows!

[CombinedArms]

I'm glad the CMBO tourney is a go and I'm delighted to be on the list.

I take it this means we need to keep our eyes out for the CMBB tourney signup when that comes, since at this point none of us are now on that list? Alas, a fresh cause for anxiety! I wonder if it would be possible to grandfather in the players who actually FINISH this tourney?

[Stefan Fredriksson]

I had so much fun with the Nordic Championship, I am certainly interested in this "little" event!

[TexasToast]

I was counting on the CMBB delay to mesh with my schedule, so I guess I will have to bail out on this fine enterprise if it is going forward with CMBO. I'll keep an eye out for the next one.

TT

[Enoch]

Unfortunately, I will have to bow out of the CMBO tourney. I will want to participate in the CMBB tourney and will look for the tourney sign up when the game is released.

[Treeburst155]

Enoch and Texas Toast,

You guys have been removed. We'll see you in the CMBB tourney. There will be a completely new signup list shortly after an official announcement from BTS that the game has gone gold. You guys will have priority, along with other vets; but there will only be 72 slots. Check the forum often as soon as a solid CMBB release date is announced.

Stefan Fredrikson, C. Rohde, and White4,

You guys are on the list for the CMBO tourney.

Treeburst155 out.

[Treeburst155]

Please post to the new, "Rumblings Of War II: The Boots & Tracks Brawl" thread if you want to be taken off the list, or added to the list for the CMBO tourney.

We will have signups for the CMBB tourney at a later date, when a firm release date is known.

Let's let this thread die. It's near the size limit anyway.

The New Thread

Treeburst155 out.