Commander's Corner
February 2008
General Items A few words from the Commander
I'd like to wish you all a very happy new year. FFWC Founder Hook dropped in on the website from the UAE (United Arab Emirates) wishing us well. He was pleased to find a lot of old friends still banging away on the Parade Square.
Rakassan, Garoth, Frostbiter and Elefant have recently completed Boot Camp and are on the prowl for challenges.
CMoon earned his fourth star and continues a meteoric rise on Parade Square this past year. Kreigsheld was deservedly awarded a 5th star and is a new General of the Army! What a charming and fierce competitor who El Condoro christened “Top Bloke”! His longtime partner in 4 player scenarios immediately called for a recount, tongue in cheek.
Thereafter, however as they say nothing lasts forever…. After a hiatus Greven-il-Vec clawed his way back to the top of the heap. Is there no stopping this man? The competition at the top and all along the line remains hotter than a pepper sprout.
Some of the guys including Ironlung and Adler have had some medical problems that interfered with active participation. Tacticus and Val have fought and beat back their ailments enough to remain active competitors. We wish all those that go through such hardships a speedy recovery. And of course you are always welcome to gripe about your ailments on the forum, where advice is freely given.
Annual Parade Square 2007 Results
JP eked out the top spot in the 2007 Annual Square. His guess is since his winning percentage has always been less than 50% but his higher total of 77 games added up decided it in his favor, then perhaps we should rename the award this year to the endurance ribbon.
The annual Parade Square for 2008 has begun. You need to be in to win, and as it has started fresh everyone has the chance to take the title and the ribbon that goes with it.
Tournaments
Many thanks to von Luck, Goldfinger, El Condoro, CMoon, Crusher, Tacticus, TenCol LUPO, Woke Up Dead, and Stealth Leopard for their participation in the interclub tournament with General’s Guild.
The current US vs. The World Tournament has been a great success with 10 players from each side slogging it out in the America Attacked scenario. So far, the results are fairly even with most games still undecided. Stay tuned to see which side gets bragging rights for this year!
Round Robin
The Advanced Round Robin top five players are currently fighting it out to claim the winner’s circle. Cmoon has won the Standard SSI Round Robin – congratulations to him on being awarded the Virtute Militare medal, which is awarded only at the end of the year for the winner of each Round Robin campaign. Who will grab the Brass Ring for the Advanced Round Robin? Stay Tuned!
The 2008 Round Robin categories have now started. Sign up for some fast and furious matches against a variety of opponents.
Scenarios
Sapper
has been polishing his scenarios and polishing off his opponents despite his
numerous duties in Iraq.
LATEST
Sapper's Kampfgruppe efile available to download on the FFWC website.
Sapper’s partner, Panzer G often has to pass on his emails. They and several teams soundly beat RAF in four player scenarios which showed steady activity during 2007.
Bergsteiger has published his El Guettar scenario and plans on focusing on Arnhem in 2008. Likewise, others are working on new or improved scenarios for both 2-player and 4-player games.
Medals
Let us all offer our congratulations to the newest recipient of the Valor Medal to Greven-il-Vec against the vaunted El Condoro at Stalingrad and CMoon, awarded the prestigious Valor Medal for his brilliant offensive against Clayballs in the Staraya Russia RR!
We are actively looking for Medal Nominations. Please send in your nominations and zip appropriate files using the Medals Nomination form link found at the top of the Forum.
And please do not forget the Club Suggestion box also found on the Forum in the “News Room”.
Tip, when you are in the Forum, run the cursor over the ribbons and medals below each players name to see exactly what they were awarded for.
Axis and Allies
A new
Axis and Allies game just started with 6 heavy weight Players, including Raoul,
Wittmann and Crusher playing Allies.
Against
Tacticus, Big Tony (PG), and Greven playing the Axis.
For the
first time ever in FFWC club, Greven observed that a Pact of Steel game will
utilize the Low Luck option, without a protection net, o’ how brave these
gladiators!
Conclusion
There have been a number of players, new and returning, join our ranks recently. Cool Kid and Maurice Vander from Holland recently signed up for bootcamp. We wish them well. El Condoro and others have offered an open invitation to all new players to open fire - any scenario, using any efile on the club’s Scenarios pages. Senior members should be aware that for a trial period of approximately 6 months (Feb 1st - Jul 31st 2008) they will not be penalized if they play a low ranked player, whatever the outcome. As in the past, an across the board reduction in accumulated points has brought the new players a bit closer to the higher ranks. This is one of many efforts to encourage more challenges and greater play.
We wish everyone a healthy and happy 2008.
Jpershing and Staff of FFWC
March 6th, 2006 Playing a 1st timer
With all the new recruits entering club lately, its important that the veterans get them involved in a game as quickly as possible before they become discouraged. Some will jump right into the games by sending out several challenges, but I've found majority need to be challenged before starting their all important 1st game.
The questions arise after getting new recruits to agree to a match. How "hard" should veterans be on these less experienced players? Should they play their normal game which likely could mean a rout, or hold back and give a competitive game? Than theres the problem for the veteran knowing if the new player is actually an old PBEM pro in disguise coming over to join our club. Playing them conservative could cause the veteran to be annihilated.
I've found that usually after 2-3 turns, its fairly clear the expertise level your opponent is playing. This will at least give an indication of how hard or competitive you want the game. Which bring us back to should they be played normally or go easy on them?
Some say to go easy or they become discouraged after one game and are likely to quit. Others say don't sugarcoat your performance thus giving them a false sense of invincibility. Sooner or later they are going to come across a brilliant general or wont be as forgiving.
I remember when I 1st joined club. I always tried to challenge players who were near or slightly above my ranking. I wanted to take it slow and learn what true abilities I had against a human rather than just the easy outwitted AI. After being successful early on, I decided to take the plunge and played a very experienced player near the top. It was Zitedelle and used SSI efile which I knew both extremely well. This meant I couldn't use either as an excuse. It would be a battle strictly between two players. I would finally know just how good I was or wasn't. In a nutshell I was massacred! My style of play which worked nicely against players of my own rank, didn't even come close to working against a top General. I felt demoralized to say the least. My confidence was at rock bottom. The worse part was he did take it easy on me looking back now.
This is where the moment of truth will be decided for our true recruits. Do they learn from this experience and develop new tactics/strategies or do they resign themselves into hopelessness? Obviously I decided to learn to play the game better.
Since becoming a veteran, I've held back very little when playing someone of lesser ability. I do this not to berate their play, but to identify it. I than add comments to help them in future games. I do this even if they don't ask. They need to know the type of player they are, but also the type they easily can become.
August 27th, 2006 4-player
Our 4-player section has been the least active the past few months so I thought I give some guidelines to how it works. Here's is the main 4-player link to get you started.
1st you will need a partner who's not already on a team. You would be surprised how many would like a teammate but are shy. Than come up with a team name. A team logo is optional. We have some good artists at club who can help. Get in touch with or Macs or me so your team can become official.
Starting the game can be difficult so I recommend having the veteran team start 1st. I could write a whole new entry on this subject alone so for now just remember to contact me if you need any help.
Every scenario made so far is set up so player 1 and 3 are the attackers (team A) and players 2 and 4 are the defenders (team B).
Once the game has started the fun begins! Here's what you need to know.
1. You will see your player's units. You will be able to see all enemy units that are not only within your spotting distance, but also within your partners. Keep in mind you will see ONLY the replay of the enemy that plays right before you. You won't see the replay of the enemy that plays after you. However your partner will.
2. Your arty will give fire support for your partners and vice versa if it's within range. Keep this in mind when attacking since the same is true for the enemy's arty.
3. Your fighters will give support fire to your partners bombers and vice versa if adjacent. Just remember it works like a 2-player in which it will only give support for one attack unless its a leader.
4. Not everything works for your partners. Your bridging units wont allow your partner to cross a river. Same with the infiltration leader. You can't give your partner prestige. Supply hexes are not owned by both teammates. You can't move your partner's units.
5. Your attack will carry over to your partner's turn and act as a "softening blow" if done in correct order. This is most important and quite frankly one of the two reasons why teams don't play at their potential. Lets say team A wants to punch a hole in the defense of team B. The easiest way to do this is for both players of team A to work together on just one of team B's players. The correct OOA (order of attack) is for player 1 to attack player 4, than have his partner (player 3) attack player 4 also. The softening blows will carry over to allow player 3 to have a fantastic turn! If you want to attack player 2 than player 4 needs to attack him 1st followed by player 1. Its pretty simple really. Just make sure both teammates can attack BEFORE the single defender gets his turn since since that resets the turn.
6. Intelligence reports are the 2nd reason for poor play. Talk to your partner! The two of you need to come up with an agreed strategy before starting. Remind your partner every so often what it is. If the situation calls for it than changing it may be needed. If so BOTH need to change. You can take it even further and give intel reports each turn along with a screenshot showing what you saw along with marks giving enemy locations and maybe even little notes. Remember, you may not see what he saw when you get your turn since he might have moved a recon late in the turn or the enemy might destroy the unit(s) that he was using to spot.
7. You can't share your partner's password or play his turn, that's another reason why step 6 is so important.
That should get you going. The more you play the more experience you will get and the more you will learn your partner's style of play. Give it a try and don't give up if the 1st couple of games don't go your way.