Where are CMx1 gamers hanging out and playing?

[[hirr]Leto]

There seems to be a degradation of many of the old CM communities. Is there still outposts of CMx1 that are still producing interest out there?

I know that World at War and Gamesquad (two places where I attend), have withered a bit, The Blitz is a good place to find an opponent, but not much on board banter, and WeBob, Appei Fui, and WPC have closed and shrinking communities... Not sure about PolishCMHQ...

Where are you playing?

Where are you posting?

Who are you playing with?

What tourneys are being played or are being thought up?

What innovations to CMx1 gameplay are being used to keep it interesting and fresh?

And What are you doing to keep CMx1 alive and interesting???

Cheers!

Leto

[Kanonier Reichmann]

I have been a member at the Band of Brothers website for at least the past 7 years. Although the community is shrinking that's not exactly unexpected when you consider the game system has been around for almost 10 years!

Rest assured there are many tournaments underway there at the moment (at least 5 that I can think of off the top of my head) and when you say it's a closed community, it's really not that hard to become a member since all you have to do to qualify is complete a battle against an existing member and you're basically in!

The only proviso on membership is that you show respect to your fellow BoB gamer and not SPAM up threads. It's a site totally dedicated to the Combat Mission series of games with discussions on all other games confined to one section of the bulletin board. If you're a Combat Mission afficianado then it's the place to be IMHO.

Regards

Jim R.

[RockinHarry]

TPG and SD2 still has some good traffic. Mostly scenario testing and reviewing stuff though.

[dieseltaylor]

I would think a membership of 200 is reasonable for WeBoB. Given that there is a quarterly weeding out process if you have not registered a played game, or are engaged in playing a game, the membership number is reasonably accurate.

It is however not a ladder focussed club which does mean that the vast majority are relaxed about playing odd-ball tournaments. After all picking a force that is probably going to be allocated to another player is amusing .... and does mean you can end up with stuff you would not normally use. But its fun to make the best of what you have.

There is serious stuff aswell and one day I hope the club will get to organising RoW style events with NABLA scoring.

I have argued that all the clubs work badly in that they make the BF CM forums very bare which leads potential new players to look at other games with active forums. Having said that I am playing a couple of new to CM currently. It is saddening though that potential new players can get very poor responses at the BF Seeking Players thread.

There is also imminent danger in that Les Grognards is likely to appeal to a considerable number of CM players, myself included, as the battlefields and command span are considerably bigger.

[shafty]

Leto, Check out this site

http://www.the-proving-grounds.com/

[dieseltaylor]

Scenarios - phooey : )

In the vast majority of cases I have played I have felt like there are three players involved. The designer with his views on balance and what should happen , and two others. Often I think the one who has played the least number of competitive games is the designer and it shows up in his scenario.

In some scenarios it is so prescriptive that you are under fire from the first second because the designer wants to recreate the battle as it happened. So anything that says it is historical I regard as one to be avoided.

Fortunately there are some good designs which are fun and the Scenario Depot is a handy place to go. However bear in mind the scoring system is a little broken - apparently by design so that the weighting is to the extreme scores. One of our WeBoB designers has just had a 1 out of 10 score on one of his scenarios because the downloader could not open it after he stupidly put it into the wrong directory. That kind of thing, because it is not remedied, does really make the scoring highly dubious.

We need unbalanced scenarios and NABLA : )

[Ted]

One of the things I like about 3rd party designed (or canned) scenarios is that there is a chance of playing with units or a mix of units I would never have chosen in a quick battle.

Of course there’s a bonus if there’s a well designed map.

I agree with you DT on the tournament use of the Nabla system (a system that weighs your score against others playing the same side).

In fact, right no I am sponsoring a tournament over on the Band of Brothers website for the new comers to the club called the “Heroes Welcome” tournament.

Since we just had a large group of new members sign on we designed a tournament specifically designed to mix the old and the new players.

Using the Nabla system we were able to quickly choose scenarios without being overly concerned about balance.

Leto, at the BoB there are always new tournaments, campaigns and players just looking for opponents available. And sometimes there are calls for replacements to existing campaigns/tournaments.

Every tournament has it’s own “hook” or unique theme.

Right now I am in a tournament called “A Shot in the Dark”. And yes all rounds are night battles. Quick and fierce it has me in situations I normally wouldn’t be in using a quick battle format.

By all mans stop by, take a look around and see for yourself.

http://webandofbrothers.yuku.com/directory

[Redwolf]

If we were any smart, we would join 2 clubs/websites every time their membership drops by half.

It might also have been smart to maybe do a group purchase of Panzer Command to see whether it would sustain better in an environment with like-minded people (I think few people got enough kick out of it when playing alone or with few opponents).

[GenSplatton]

I play exclusively at WeBoB now. I have played at Blitz in the past, but my account languished and no less than half a dozen emails to every CM affiliated email on the site attempting get it reactivated has gone unanswered. The advantage of WeBob (IMHO only) is that it isn't really a ladder. The emphasis is on fun and comradery. Which is definitely a refreshing concept. So, depending on what you are looking for, it may or may not be the place for you. PoS would hate it there since playing 9000 games but losing half of them wouldn't garner him any accolades. But if you like to play the game for fun, try out new things, have some good banter, etc, I don't think you can beat it.

[MeatEtr]

I think the Masters Tourney is helping and trying to bring more interaction between clubs. I joined WaW recently mainly because of this.

I still think there should be a sticky thread in the CMAK/CMBB forums dedicated to tourneys and CM clubs. It sure wouldn't hurt. I've also noticed some club sites support CMSF and I'm sure a lot of the CMSF holdouts will jump in with the Normandy release. So even having a sticky thread in the CMSF forum isn't out of the question.

IMHO, any CMx1 and CMx2 MP gaming should be front and center from the battlefront site.

[Eden Smallwood]

Well I'm "here", and I'm playing with myself.

I MEAN...

Hee.

Seriously, though-- I just got CMAK a couple weeks ago, (after playing the boobs off CMBB years ago), and I've been burning through the 50 odd scenarios at Scenario Depot II which are under 1500 pts and are "Allies vs AI" first choice. After all that CMBB, I WANT TO BE AMERICAN AGAIN!! Phew!

Anyway, I'll probably get into the PBEM circus sometime, but for now I have a bug in CMAK I hope I can fix/avoid, (otherwise PBEM would be a drag)...

Never heard of these other sites mentioned; I'll have to czek them out.

Wish I could play the latest Syrian thing, but I'm Mac or die.

[Kingfish]

I have been a member at the Band of Brothers website for at least the past 7 years. Although the community is shrinking that's not exactly unexpected when you consider the game system has been around for almost 10 years!

Rest assured there are many tournaments underway there at the moment (at least 5 that I can think of off the top of my head) and when you say it's a closed community, it's really not that hard to become a member since all you have to do to qualify is complete a battle against an existing member and you're basically in!

The only proviso on membership is that you show respect to your fellow BoB gamer and not SPAM up threads. It's a site totally dedicated to the Combat Mission series of games with discussions on all other games confined to one section of the bulletin board. If you're a Combat Mission afficianado then it's the place to be IMHO.

Regards

Jim R.

So what's the trick to signing up?

I created a Yuku account under my username, no problem, and when I open the BoB site I see my username in the 'who's online' list. So far so good, except when I try to reply I instead get sent to a screen asking to confirm my account. So I get the confimation e-mail sent (again) to my home address, click on the link as instructed - and I am told my account is already active.

WTF?

[dieseltaylor]

It may sound rather hard ass for a friendly club but we have had a few dubious people who have a bad rep who kept re-enlisting under different names. Paratrooper101 who became infamous pretty much everywhere for kickoffs. The other big crime is people who drop games and wander off when losing .. we throw them out of the club also. : )

Everyone left you can be friendly with !

The Band of Brothers has switched to a sponsor system for joining the club. The only way to gain entry into Band of Brothers is to get a current member to sponsor you. Any Band of Brothers member that has received full-member status and is not being sponsored himself, may sponsor a person for membership in the club.The e-mail must include a brief description of how the current member knows the person and the “Big 5”:

1) The new person's real name

2) Proposed BoB Name (this must be identical with the Yuku* account name)

3) His location

4) E-mail address

5) His complete telephone number (with international country code). This number will not be published on the member list, it is just for communication / identification purposes

This helps us tracking all new members through the probationary period described below. The new member is expected to play and finish a CM game with his sponsor. Next, the sponsor will guide the new player to the instructions on how to join Yuku so we can make the new member’s proposed BoB name official. Once accepted to Yuku, the new member must make his Yuku access application post (this procedure is explained in the FAQ section). Once this is done, we will enter the new player into the BoBster allowing the new player to register games. A confirmation email will be sent to the new player and his sponsor. This is a perfect time for the sponsor to introduce the new member to the troops in the Open Discussion Forum.

Once admitted there will be a three month probationary period for the new member during which the sponsor is responsible for the new member's actions. If the new member causes problems its the sponsor's responsibility to set the new member straight. At the end of three months the new member's club participation will be reviewed and assuming there have been no problems the sponsorship will be dropped and the new member becomes a full member of the club. The new member must complete at least one game during his probationary period or he will be dropped.

Now, if you are still interested in becoming a member just go to our "List of Members" page using the link to the left. There is a column on the list labeled "Sponsor"; if it says "Yes" than that member would be willing to sponsor you. Just pick one of them, click on his nickname, and email him your desire to join up and request a game. If the member you have chosen is unable to play for any reason just move on to another one. I'm sure you'll have a game going in no time and on your way to becoming a member of the club. One exception: people who are in their 3-months probationary period (green color) cannot sponsor new recruits.

More infos about sponsoring and about getting a Yuku account be found in the FAQ section of our message board.

*) Yuku provides the software for our message board - thus every member must get himself a free Yuku account.

[Kingfish]

Thanks for the info. I thought I had followed it as instructed but apparently I must have missed something along the way.

At second thought I'm not sure joining is worth all the trouble. I am just looking for a forum to discuss topics of interest, maybe pass on a few tricks, that sort of thing. I rarely play anymore, and when I do its to test a scenario in solo mode. Most of my CM time is spent designing, a process I drag out for months on end, so I am hardly the ideal opponent for a game.

This site is slowly fading, at least for CM1, and it appears that BoB still has some life in it, hence the interest. But the whole application process, getting a sponsor, registering a game...eh.

Does BoB offer limited membership for those who only want to kick back and shoot the bull?

[GenSplatton]

Does BoB offer limited membership for those who only want to kick back and shoot the bull?

Not really. They want active members. If you aren't logging at least one game every three months, you'll end up being removed from the rolls.

[Kingfish]

Ah well, send them my regards

[dieseltaylor]

One thing BoB could do with is scenario designers. Directors running tournaments often falter when it comes to gathering a handful of balanced scenarios. I am hopeful that we will have more NABLA's tournament at BoB this year to solve the balancing problem.

Scenarios are always more interesting if you are unsure whether they are balanced or not ... and in whose direction.

I am contemplating whether it is possible you can have Nabla with an element of force picking. Basic idea is that the Axis and Allied sides alternate in having designated units for all players. The hybrid is that say in game one it is an Allied attack and the players chosse whether to go US or Commonwealth Battalion. TD applies the casualty rate and all players then set-up. Interesting to see which Allied force does the best againts the same German force. So not totally randomised so as to lose all use to Nabla but with national picks to make it slightly more interesting.

Only a thought for this year : )

[JasonC]

Kingfish - you want The Blitz (theblitz.org)...

[cargol]

You can check also the FMG, http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/

There you can find opponents, tourneys and other interesting stuff

for CMX1 series games.

Also a new CMSF ladder is being built so step in and fight

[[hirr]Leto]

I thought that FGM was a tournament area for the Blitz? Is FGM stand alone now, and has no connection with the Blitz? If so I stand corrected.

Anyways, yes, if you are interested in tournaments (I believe they have quite a few tournaments, and a new innovation for gameplay running called "domination"... where each QB game counts towards an overall game board strategy) then this is a good place to hang out.

I believe that they screen memberships, but if you are someone who is interested in community stuff, a la WeBoB, it may be worth it, as they are a dedicated lot.

Cheers!

Leto