nice article

[burroughs]

Agreed, but if a well balanced, hard fought, enjoyable battle is what you are looking for then this type of opponent is not going to provide that, all you will gain is a very easy victory. ;)

I second that; at first - at the very, very beginning I mean - it seems a funny thing and an easy advantage, but once You are seasoned wargamer with a taste for the approach as serious at least as Yours - it's not much more fun than just pure cheating like studying Your OpFOR TO&E and their initial deployment prior to launching a scenario. That is also why I have never understood the sharks surrounding the new guy onboard and I definitely never will. Nor the ones who play wargames like they were shooters. Those things and a few more suck big time. Do not,I repeat - do not try this at home, kids.

[Fhil]

Hi Burroughs,

You´ve jusnailed it! That´s exactly what I wanted to say!

Trust me, 90% of the enthusiasm falls away from me when someone writes to me in the middle of the game - hey, your XXth Panzer Korps will be released on the next morning, you´ll be able to slow down my tanks, for example. I hate such things, really.

When I start a game, I´m not spying on enemy releases, initial deployment and reinforcements etc. I consider it gamey, no way that the sides involved in the battle could´ve had such a great intelligence on the enemy. Common, it makes the game more enjoable and fun, you don´t know what to expect, and for intelligence, there´s that damn air recon!

I know that the game engine allows many gamey tactics, but the right gentlemen should avoid them.

You´ve nailed it with the last three sentences man! You´ve put it all into the first one of ´em.These are not shooters in any way!

If you´ll find yourself with a free slot for a game anytime in the future, let me know please, it would be an honour to me to meet someone like you, who shares my opinions on the battlefield! Trust me, I´m not playing these like shooters I always try to take it in the realistic way, including the usement of the units and all of the mentioned previously. I´m just trying to make the time that I put into playing these great games worth it.

Best Regards,
Filip

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[JDR Dragoon]

The problem is, that playing a scenario a number of times (or designing one) will give you a feeling for the possibilities and strenghts/weaknesses of the setup and various strategy option, even without opening up the scenario in the editor. And there is just no way to make that knowledge go away.

[burroughs]

The problem is, that playing a scenario a number of times (or designing one) will give you a feeling for the possibilities and strenghts/weaknesses of the setup and various strategy option, even without opening up the scenario in the editor. And there is just no way to make that knowledge go away.

Aye, Colonel Sir, that is why I never play mirror games nor swap the sides straight away after completing one even if it feels tempting to learn what the other guy would do himself, especially if he has just managed to beat the hell out of me. It may sound fair in terms of offseting the illegitimate intel issue - You know what he would have in his store and he is going to know what You have in Yours as that has just been his shop previously - and a few more unrealistic results that follow, but as Fhil put that - it never happens in reality. Even when Gen. Maj. Student laid his hands on the detailed "Market-Garden" plans on the dead body of an allied officer in a glider that had crushed , they distrusted that "miracle" that much so as to have deemed that a fake and have never actually acted on that a bit.Sometimes and those are rare, rare occassions if I particularily like certain scenario and want to try walking in the other side's shoes, I let some meaningful ammount of time pass first.

@ Fhil - sure I am all for that; I ofen say that wargaming is probably the only instance I know of which is a source of a funny adverse phenomenon; if You get with Your opponent like a house on fire, the more You understand one another, the more vicious and prolonged fighting ensues. It's normally quite otherwise in so-called real life,eh? ...

[JDR Dragoon]

Even so, the 8th Guards Army will start each and every game of DF85 consisting of 3xMotorrifle Divisions and 1xTank Division. It will have mostly T64s in its tank units and is in the process of exchanging the last T62s for new T80s. It will have a large area of responsibility between the Fulda and Main rivers, making it vulnerable to early counterattacks from the US V and VII Corps and to defeat in detail. This is information I know and that I cannot un-know.

[burroughs]

Even so, the 8th Guards Army will start each and every game of DF85 consisting of 3xMotorrifle Divisions and 1xTank Division. It will have mostly T64s in its tank units and is in the process of exchanging the last T62s for new T80s. It will have a large area of responsibility between the Fulda and Main rivers, making it vulnerable to early counterattacks from the US V and VII Corps and to defeat in detail. This is information I know and that I cannot un-know.

That's exactly why the Russians have a saying which goes like: "tishe yedyesh, dalshe budyesh" and that is suppossed to mean " the more quietly You go, the farther You'll get ... "