Newbie on deck - (more chum?)

[Lionfish]

I am very glad to have found The Blitz after purchasing the Campaign Series by Matrix.

A little preface as to me background….
Back in school, I had played Panzer Leader, Risk, and A&A. In the Navy my division officer was a huge Harpoon fan and we played several games in the early hours in our small compartment between watch sessions. It was a great game – killed the time when floating around for months – and kept my brain active.

Time passes – and I had put my board gaming to bed after leaving the Navy. I started working on the floor of the Pacific Options exchange in the early 90s – starting off as a runner – working my way up to Broker and eventually becoming a Market Maker. Talk about one of the best GAMES – derivative trading with all its probability, strategies, arbitrage, etc. fit me like a glove. While on the exchange my partners at my firm were professional poker, backgammon, chess, and bridge players. We had two world champion Backgammon players, Grand Master Chess player, a Black Jack card counter, and a champion Bridge player who had played with Warren Buffet. After a little further digging – I found that most of them had all been war-game players as well, Risk, A&A, Panzer Leader, etc.

I had not played any of those games in over a decade; however one of the traders introduced me to Steel Panthers. Wow – it was great. I was very excited to see the game on a computer – it reminded me of Panzer Leader. Later on I got West Front in the mid-to-late 90’s Steel Panthers and West Front was on my computer.

However, times again change. Those wargames didn’t update with the time and XP and then Vista rolls out. I too changed – got married – had a kid. Moved off the trading floor into an office and started designing financial software and running my own trading operation. There was no time for games, and when I got home – “undivided attention” was for my son – not games or reading.

I was searching around the internet a little while ago and found Matrix Games – I hadn’t taken the plunge on any purchases – but I recently revisited the site to see that they had purchased and updated West Front (and the entire Campaign Series) – I took the plunge last week and purchased the game.

I played 3 small West Front scenarios to get back the feel of the game mechanics. However, I was itching for a H2H match. I have never played a H2H game – only the AI. The traders in our group, way back when I was introduced to Steel Panthers, were not much for email or for that matter PBEM. Steel Panthers and West Front a decade ago – were for personal enjoyment only. I am VERY pleased to find others interested in the game and that there is a group that plays (and has been playing) these games H2H for some time.

I took the plunge yesterday in my first H2H game with 1925frank. He contacted me on the Matrix Forums and so we are playing (my first) H2H WF small scenario.

I use Microsoft OneNote for work on my tablet PC (where the game also resides) – so taking notes, screen shots, and drawing is very easy. I plan on creating a detailed AAR report – for newbies – on my experience. For anyone with a Tablet PC – get OneNote! It is awesome and should be easy for creating the AAR report.

However, I do have some questions that maybe someone could answer. Please keep in mind that my experience is almost from a decade ago and only against the AI.

1. Opportunity Fire – I had traditionally set Opportunity Fire on stationary units (defending) changing the range or to Never. Is that something that should be rethought when playing against humans?

2. Action Points, Opportunity Fire, and Assaults. If I set my Opportunity Fire to NEVER for a stationary defending unit – thus saving action points – if I am assaulted by the enemy – does saving action points (by NOT firing) help my defense against an Assault? – I would think it SHOULD!

3. Smoke ICON sometimes not showing up. Sometime when I set areas for laying smoke in the 2D map I sometimes get a smoke icon and sometime not. It is very frustrating as I have to wait for the turn to see what kind of ammo I am shooting into that hex! Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong?

4. Artillery fire – sometime my artillery will NOT fire – even though I have ammo and the battalion headquarters (has not moved) is in range. Is there something I am missing (maybe forgot).

I am still remembering things from when I use to play – so I could be forgetful on some of the items.

Anyway – I am looking forward to some games and hope that I can at least hold my own. I don’t expect to have a very good result this first game – but never-the-less will report my AAR and results.

Regards –