RoW II: The Boots & Tracks Brawl (Part VI)

[Treeburst155]

As usual, we will start the new thread off with the tourney "manual".

HOW IT WORKS

Once the 72 players have been assigned to one of the three tourneys (24 in each) as described in the first post to this thread, they will be further divided into four sections of six players. This division into sections will be done in a completely random manner by drawing names out of a hat.

Your section is where the "regular season" action is. You will play one game against each of the people in your section. You will also play each scenario one time. This means you will play five games in the "regular season". The sides you play, and your attack/defend duties could very well come out lopsided. You may play the Germans four times, or you may find yourself defending four times. The only guarantee regarding your matches is that you will play each scenario once, and each member of your section once.

The scenarios will be provided by the "Boots & Tracks" design team headed up by SuperTed. They will be historical/semi-historical scenarios never before seen by the community. The guys at B & T are working on our scenarios right now. Without them the tourney would not have happened.

The scenarios may or may not be balanced. Don't count on a fair fight! The scoring system will determine balance. It is possible to "lose" the battle, and still win if you perform better than the median established for that side of the scenario. I will explain how this works later.

You do not need to understand the nitty-gritty of the scoring system, although some may be interested. You need only be aware of the following:

1) Points for contested VL's will be split. This means final game scores will always total to 100. There is a very good reason for this I'll not get into now. If you think "gamey" you can probably figure it out.

2) Voluntary surrender is ALWAYS bad. Your opponent gets too many points for all the people he captures. You should always withdraw your people from a hopeless situation. This way you deprive your opponent of capture points. The game will auto-surrender you once your global morale drops to a certain point. Every unit that you successfully withdraw off the map will lower this global morale. Try to have all your people step off the map together once you are near the auto-surrender point. This prevents capture of units who would have made it off, but didn't due to the auto-surrender.

If you score very poorly in relation to the median for a scenario you will suffer a penalty (your score will be made even worse). This is to discourage surrender, and careless play just to get the game over with. If your score is that low compared to the median we assume you surrendered or got purposely stupid. WITHDRAW YOUR TROOPS IF POSSIBLE when faced with a bad situation!!

I'm telling you all this because it is quite possible you will find yourself in a very bad situation due to deliberate scenario imbalance. Do not give up!! Withdraw!! The median score for your side of that scenario may only be 20 points. IOW, if you score 32 points you did very well. You can "lose" and still win if you get your people to safety so they can fight again another day.

3) Your goal with each scenario is not so much to beat your opponent (could be impossible), but to get the highest score of the 36 people (three tourneys) who play that side of the particular scenario. "Winning" the game may be virtually impossible due to imbalance. You never know what hand you may be dealt.

LAUNCHING THE TOURNEY

Each player will receive the schedule for his section only. Where your name is on the LEFT you will play the Allied side for that scenario. Along with the schedule of games you will receive a contact list with all the email addresses of your five opponents. When you receive these the tourney is officially underway.

After this, over the course of the next several days, you will receive an email for each of the five scenarios. For games where you are the Allies you will find two briefing files attached, a general briefing and your Allied briefing. This email will also contain your password for that scenario. Your German opponent will start the game. To open the first file from him you will need to use the password I provide you. This will put you in the Allied setup phase.

If you are playing the German side you will also receive a secured saved game file in addition to the two briefings and password. By 'secured' I mean that the briefings have been stripped out, the game begun, and the passwords entered. This is the file you will use to start the PBEM game. It will be a .cmb file, not a .txt file. Start the game just as you would any other new PBEM game. The only difference is that you will have to enter the password I provide you. You will find yourself in the Axis setup phase.

DEADLINES AND GAME RESULTS REPORTING

All games should be completed within 90 days of the date I send out the last scenario files. This means you will need to keep at it. Don't be the one to hold up the show. Don't get lazy. Take your turns. We want to at least get into the playoff stage before CMBB comes out. The tourney cannot be scored until ALL games have been completed.

The LOSER reports game results. If you end up being on the weak side of a few unbalanced scenarios you will find yourself having to report most of your games. This is, as they say, tough luck.

Game Report email needs to have the subject, "Game Report". The body of the email must contain the following information:

Tourney Number (1-3), Scenario Title, Your username on this forum, the side you played, your score, your opponent's username and his score. The body of the email should then look like this if you are Fred:

Tourney 1, The Ambush, Fred (Axis) 37, Joe 43

Reporting games in this manner will save me a great deal of time. With 72 people I NEED to have games reported this way. Do not send me final game files. Keep these in a safe place in case of disputes.

FOG OF WAR

No discussion of scenarios is allowed on the forum until ALL players in all three tourneys have completed a scenario. I will let you know when it is alright to talk about a scenario. It won't happen until near the end of the tourney.

No game results are to be revealed on the forum. You won't know who beat who until all is revealed at the end. Think before you post, and remember, no game scores, no blow by blow descriptions of the last movie, no general discussion about the scenarios, etc..

THE NABLA SCORING SYSTEM

Your game scores will be recorded on an input file for the Nabla Scoring Program, created by Jarmo Hurri (Nabla). The Nabla program will crunch the scores and spit out your Nabla Score, also called your "Tourney Score", for each scenario. Below is what the program does:

1) Checks for game scores that total less than 100. Adjusts to 100 if necessary (60-30 becomes 65-35)

2) Determines the median score for both sides of every scenario based on all 36 instances of that scenario.

3) Determines the distance, plus or minus, of your score from the median for each scenario.

4) Calculates a Nabla Score based on this distance from the median using a rather complex formula.

5) Averages all five of your Nabla Scores to give your final Tourney Score.

By establishing a median for each side of a scenario we determine the balance of the scenario. Your score is then compared to this median. If you score 30 points and the median is only 20 for that side, then you have done very well inspite of your "loss". This is why you don't want to surrender. You never know what the median of a scenario might be. You won't know this until the end. Establishing scenario balance (the median) means we can measure relative performance within your section without the necessity of balanced scenarios. This is a major breakthrough for competitive CM IMO!! With this scoring system we can play virtually any scenario and not worry about unfairness due to the balance issue.

AARs

Bonus points will be added to your final Tourney Score if you submit AARs. Each full credit AAR will be worth 4% of the highest player's tourney score (before adding his AARs). If you write five full credit AARs you will receive additional tourney points equal to 20% of the highest player's tourney score.

AARs will receive either full credit or half credit. You must write more than just a few short paragraphs for full credit. I will let you know if an AAR is too short soon after you send it to me. You don't have to write a book either. Just give us a fairly good description of how the game played out.

You are not required to write AARs. You just get a few extra points if you do. This could put you ahead if you're in a tight race in your section.

The primary purpose of the AARs is to provide the scenario designers with feedback on their work. If you've ever designed a scenario for the community, you know how rare it is to get this feedback. Writing AARs is one way to express your thanks to the designer. Even negative feedback is welcome as long as it's constructive and not mean spirited.

Another thing AARs do is help people learn to improve their tactics. Every scenario is played twelve times in a tourney such as this. There are eleven other people who had to deal with the same tactical situations you did. It can be very instructive to learn how others handled things, especially if you did worse than most. (BTW, all the AARs will be sent to you upon request once you have completed your games.)

Lastly, by writing an AAR (feedback) you are doing the community a small favor. This is because the designer can tweak the scenario based on feedback before releasing it to the community. Having a scenario played twelve times by twenty four different people is a great test of a scenario. I think it's safe to say that very few scenarios get that degree of testing before they are put out to the public. They may get played twelve times, but not by twenty four different people, and certainly not under blind conditions.

Those of us who enjoy these tournaments need new scenarios (security). In return for these scenarios the designers get the feedback they like.

IMPORTANT!

Submitting AARs

1)AARs should never be sent in with game results. Send them in a separate email.

2)AARs can be .txt, .doc, or .pdf files. Do not write them in the body of an email.

3)AARs should not be more than 4 MB UNcompressed. Screenshots can cause you to go over this limit easily. I would recommend the .pdf format if you want to include several screenshots.

4)In the subject line of emails containing attached AARs, write your username and the scenario name. For example: Madmatt, The Ambush

THE PLAYOFFS

Everybody makes it to the playoffs! However, only the four section winners in each tourney are eligible for the prize. The four section winners will play a 3 scenario round robin. The second place finishers in each section will do the same, and so on. If you place last in your section, you will face the other three last place finishers in the playoffs. The playoffs will be scored exactly like the "regular season". Those of you who aren't eligible for the wine (not first in section) are still very important to the tourney. Your scores will determine the accurate median we need for the playoff scenarios.

THE PRIZES

The winner of the "First Place Playoff" in each tourney will win the prize. The winners of Tourney I and Tourney II will each receive six different bottles of WineCape's fine South African wines, postage paid to their doorstep. The winner of Tourney III will receive three almost new VCR movies. They are, "Stalingrad" (by the people who made "Das Boot"), "Cross Of Iron", and the somewhat obscure "A Midnight Clear". I purchased these a year ago from Amazon.com and watched them all twice. All three are very good war movies IMO, and the tapes are in mint condition.

REPORTING MIAs

In order to keep all games proceeding at an acceptable pace we need to identify any potential dropouts (MIAs) promptly so I can find out their intentions regarding the tourney, and replace them if necessary.

Please email me if you have not heard from an opponent in 3 days unless that opponent has informed you beforehand of his inability to send turns for a specified period of time. This way I know what is going on. The tourney cannot be scored until every last game is completed. By informing me of possible problems (3 days and no turns) I can act promplty so matches don't get way behind. It's up to you guys to keep me informed.

That should cover just about everything. Ask questions if you have them. I probably left something out, or explained something in an unclear manner.

Treeburst155 out.

[John Kettler]

Boris responded with an appropriate expression of pain, and I have issued new orders.

Regards,

John Kettler

[White4]

Have not heard from sgt gold or tom norton lately, and have resent my turns to them. mPisi and I are wandering blindly by each other in the *censored*.

[John Kettler]

Have received turns from all three foes, of which two were movies and one allowed me to issue orders in response. Fate and I are dying of military boredom, Tero and I are in a mutual mauling phase
full of juicy CM goodness, and Boris and I are about to come to serious blows.

Regards,

John Kettler

[mPisi]

I cleverly outfoxed white4 by invading Sweden instead of Norway, haha! Much nicer and people aren't shooting at me except for the occasional narrow escape from a lady friend's house.

My boys in Epron are wishing they were in Sweden too, although the future rests on the 1mb file I jsut sent to Sgt Gold. Emillville is just a nice ride through the countryside, what if they called a war and nobody came?

[Ali]

Lopaka, did you get my last move I sent last week? If you're just busy, then ignore this message :D

Just making sure I have sent you the last turn.

Cheers,

Ali

[John Kettler]

Fate sent me another turn, and I issued some orders by way of reply. Boris and I had a nasty knife fight. He winged me, but I killed him in that particular clash. His losses continue to mount.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Turns in from all foes. Issued orders in my fights against Tero and Boris. Tero's pressing hard, but Boris has something up his sleeve. Watched movie from Fate and issued orders in response. Yawn!

Regards,

John Kettler

[jjelinek]

Hobo,
I've just sent you an email with my alternate address, jejelinek@hotmail.com

Let me know if it works.

[John Kettler]

Have sent out out a fresh set of replies to all three foes. As anticipated, Boris did indeed initiate a move against me. Tero continues to hammer away, and Fate's about to discover that I have teleporters. Hey, I can dream, can't I?

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

I continue to torment Fate by being everywhere and nowhere. Tero's not going to like the movie I sent him. Boris hasn't been heard from since I last issued orders.

Treeburst155,

Please check your E-mail and respond privately. Something strange happened that I need to clear up.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Hey, Mick Oz... you back from overseas yet? Just thought I'd check to see if you're close to getting your 3 games underway.

Regards

Jim R.

[Mick_Oz]

Originally posted by Kanonier Reichmann:
Hey, Mick Oz... you back from overseas yet? Just thought I'd check to see if you're close to getting your 3 games underway.

Regards

Jim R.Leaving US for Sydney later today KR... arrive back on Sunday. Realistically, I don't expect to be at the CM keyboard however until Tuesday. Also, I am initially slow with setups but as Treeburst will confirm, am quite dependable about spitting out turns once that process is out of the way.

Talk to you soon..

[CombinedArms]

Originally posted by Mick_Oz:
Leaving US for Sydney later today KR... arrive back on Sunday. Realistically, I don't expect to be at the CM keyboard however until Tuesday. Also, I am initially slow with setups but as Treeburst will confirm, am quite dependable about spitting out turns once that process is out of the way.

Talk to you soon..[/QUOTE]

Yes, TB has said you get the emails out so fast that "it's always your turn when you're playing Mick_Oz".

Anyway, KR, Spanish Bombs and I are lying in wait for your upon your return. You should have a turn in your mailbox from me. Let me know if it's somehow faded away.
;)

[Boris Balaban]

Originally posted by John Kettler:
I continue to torment Fate by being everywhere and nowhere. Tero's not going to like the movie I sent him. Boris hasn't been heard from since I last issued orders.

Treeburst155,

Please check your E-mail and respond privately. Something strange happened that I need to clear up.

Regards,

John KettlerWe shall see what I have planned for you tongue.gif

[John Kettler]

Very sneaky, Boris, and not nice! Hope you enjoyed the little gift I gave you, too.

Watched movie and sent same to Fate.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Treeburst155]

Yes, MickOZ is just about finished with his month long US vacation. He will be getting home just in time for his two week paid "holiday", followed by his normal six weeks off for the holiday season. After that he begins using his sick days, which accrue 2:1. IOW, each workday adds two sick days. This means Mick will be unavailable for PBEM sometime next July due to grueling 5 hour workdays which must be endured for a full week before his next scheduled vacation. :D

Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.

[CombinedArms]

Originally posted by Treeburst155:
Yes, MickOZ is just about finished with his month long US vacation. He will be getting home just in time for his two week paid "holiday", followed by his normal six weeks off for the holiday season. After that he begins using his sick days, which accrue 2:1. IOW, each workday adds two sick days. This means Mick will be unavailable for PBEM sometime next July due to grueling 5 hour workdays which must be endured for a full week before his next scheduled vacation. :D

Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.Nice "work" if you can get it....
And if you get it, tell me how.

;)

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Good to see you'll be back on deck shortly Mick. Look forward to our clash in the near future.

As for you C.A. Where's my next Rat file? smile.gif

Regards

Jim R.

[Cpl Carrot]

My non wine batttles are coming along.

All, so far, have had their moments of:

"I can't bear to watch" or
"Mahhhahahhahaha" or
"Ohhhh, that gotta hurt" or
"They're coming to take me away, haha,
They're coming to take me away, hehe"

Stressed out Cpl Carrot

[John Kettler]

Boris has been heard from, but he failed to provide a turn. Issued orders to further escalate the fight against Tero, and watched yet another oh so exciting movie in my nonbattle against Fate. My strategy? Bore him to death!

Regards,

John Kettler

[Holien]

JK I wonder what game that might be...

So much boredom for so little action...

Sleep on sleep on...

;)

H

[jjelinek]

Have made contact with Hobo. He has limited access to the PC at the homeless shelter. He said it's full of CM grogs. Most lost everything due to too much gaming. All 3 games now under way.

[Spanish Bombs]

Made the mistake of renting 'Windtalkers' last night and watching that instead of playing CM. I just wish I was supplied in my ROW games with those 37mm guns that cause Sturmtiger explosions that the Japanese had in the movie.

Anyway, was too tired and buzzed after the movie to process turns, but have atoned this morning by sending turns to CA and KR, both games of which are in the nitty-gritty stage. Looking forward to catching up to Mick Oz here in a few days, too.

[CombinedArms]

Originally posted by Kanonier Reichmann:
Good to see you'll be back on deck shortly Mick. Look forward to our clash in the near future.

As for you C.A. Where's my next Rat file? smile.gif

Regards

Jim R.On its way now. I can post to the BTS forum from work, but not play CM....

[Frunze]

Originally posted by Spanish Bombs:
[QB]I just wish I was supplied in my ROW games with those 37mm guns that cause Sturmtiger explosions that the Japanese had in the movie.[QB]It's a little known fact that Sturmtigers had thinner armor during the German-Japanese War.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[Treeburst155]

I have ten game results in so far, and even a couple AARs. The AARs are greatly appreciated. I hope to see more in my mailbox. :D Say "Thanks" to the designers by writing a little about the scenarios. Feedback helps them create better scenarios for YOU.

Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.

[Boris Balaban]

Originally posted by John Kettler:
Very sneaky, Boris, and not nice! Hope you enjoyed the little gift I gave you, too.

Watched movie and sent same to Fate.

Regards,

John KettlerYes, I liked it tongue.gif
I see another one to pick off if he ever stops retreating :D

[Fate]

Boris and I have completed Epron. A CENSORED victory to the valiant CENSORED. Boy, those CENSORED sure can do a lot of CENSORED CENSORED.

[Mick_Oz]

The truly desperate among you - and this means most of you and certainly includes the organiser of this little tourney :D .. might like to cast a jaded eye over my five travel-delayed AAR's which are now posted by scenario name in the Scenario Talk Forum.

To my opponents in the finals: Don't think reading my gem-like prose will help you anticipate my subtle tactics as we fight it out for the wine. Although jet-lagged, I will tell you my plan right now: I've got Bob Hope in reserve and his jokes are going to kill ya. It's a horrible death. It makes it worse if I'm the Germans. That means we've captured him.

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Nice one Mick. I like your style. :D

Regards

Jim R.

Edited to say "one" instead of on. :(

[ October 29, 2002, 02:16 AM: Message edited by: Kanonier Reichmann ]

[White4]

Have not heard from Tom Norton - TGHCGN@aol.com, since the 18th. Which is good, since I'm pulling all my hair out in Emilville - I apparently command the "blind and deaf" battalion..

[Treeburst155]

White4,

I'll see what's up with Tom Norton. He's always been reliable in the past.

Kanonier Reichmann vs MickOZ,

Hehe...usually I root for the underdog in these situations; but since Mick is my long-time PBEM foe, who I USED TO BE ABLE TO BEAT, I'm pulling for Kanonier. As they say in the Peng Thread, "Die-A-Lot Now", Mick. :D

Treeburst155 out.

[mPisi]

I did at least one mail with Tom over the weekend. Finished Epron with Sgt.Gold too.

[White4]

So when are you going to come out of the fog? I'm almost done with the keg!

[Treeburst155]

Thanks, mPisi! I appreciate your taking the time to let us know about Tom.

BTW guys, mPisi is the one who taught me how to secure the scenarios for these tourneys long ago. Needless to say, he has contributed greatly to the FOW you enjoy in ROW tourneys.

Treeburst155 out.

[Jim L.]

Thought I would post a reply since it's been quiet here lately.

Finished my game against Cpl_Carrot. Came down to the last turn; quite fun.

Strider and I are past the halfway point. This one might not make it to the time limit. :D Sorry Strider!

Haven't heard from Visom too much this week. No worries though since we're past the halfway point on that one too. Works in my favor anyways since it gives me more time to consider my next move against him. ;) You reading this Visom? :D

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Originally posted by Treeburst155:

Kanonier Reichmann vs MickOZ,

Hehe...usually I root for the underdog in these situations; but since Mick is my long-time PBEM foe, who I USED TO BE ABLE TO BEAT, I'm pulling for Kanonier. As they say in the Peng Thread, "Die-A-Lot Now", Mick. :D

Treeburst155 out.Hey, I thought I was the underdog? Mick Oz has a very early member number so I assumed he's been playing Combat Mission since its Alpha days. smile.gif

As for that "Die-A-Lot Now" bit, that's what I'm hoping will happen to Mick's forces as well... strangely enough. And thanks for your support TB, I'm gonna need all I can get against this wily customer.

Regards

Jim R.

[Jim L.]

Damn. Got another movie file from Strider. I guess he's not finished yet. I need to start thinking the same way and close this game.

[Mick_Oz]

Originally posted by Kanonier Reichmann:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Treeburst155:
[qb]
Kanonier Reichmann vs MickOZ,

As for that "Die-A-Lot Now" bit, that's what I'm hoping will happen to Mick's forces as well... strangely enough. And thanks for your support TB, I'm gonna need all I can get against this wily customer.

Regards

Jim R.Ha, KR! You can't take the underdog tag from me that easily! I'm a walking example of how human beings refuse to learn. I frankly think you should feel sorry for such an abject loser as myself and just surrender out of pity.... ok?

[CombinedArms]

Originally posted by Mick_Oz:

Ha, KR! You can't take the underdog tag from me that easily! I'm a walking example of how human beings refuse to learn. I frankly think you should feel sorry for such an abject loser as myself and just surrender out of pity.... ok?Hey, wait a minute. I'M the underdog! A certified two-time loser in previous WineCape tourneys. Plus, I'm up against the built-in Aussie advantage. AND Holien is about to tan my hide in "Another Day." I'm the underdog's underdog.
:D :D

[ October 31, 2002, 12:33 PM: Message edited by: CombinedArms ]

[Boris Balaban]

What happened to John Kettler :confused:
Was he in at that foward squad fox hole and I killed him :eek:

[Ali]

Yeah, all games finished!

Now it's time for a little break...until CMBB tournaments begin...

Scenarios were good and I had fun! Thanks to all opponents and Tournament organizers smile.gif

Cheers,

Ali

[Treeburst155]

Boris,

John Kettler is out of action for awhile. He informed me, and I forgot to pass the word along. Sorry about that.

MickOZ,

You are the underdog downunder based simply on Nabla scores achieved during the first round. KR
hammered the rest of his section rather thoroughly IIRC. Hopefully he will do the same to you. :D Don't get me wrong here. I like you. You're a great guy. Really! I just think it's time you Die-A-Lot again since I can't kill you anymore. Go Kanonier! Hehe...

Treeburst155 out.

[Boris Balaban]

Originally posted by Treeburst155:
Boris,

John Kettler is out of action for awhile. He informed me, and I forgot to pass the word along. Sorry about that.

MickOZ,

You are the underdog downunder based simply on Nabla scores achieved during the first round. KR
hammered the rest of his section rather thoroughly IIRC. Hopefully he will do the same to you. :D Don't get me wrong here. I like you. You're a great guy. Really! I just think it's time you Die-A-Lot again since I can't kill you anymore. Go Kanonier! Hehe...

Treeburst155 out.Thank you.
Do you know when he will be back in action?

[Treeburst155]

Hi Boris,

I'm afraid not even Mr. Kettler himself knows the answer to that. He will be back online before too long I think.

Treeburst155 out.

[Boris Balaban]

Originally posted by Treeburst155:
Hi Boris,

I'm afraid not even Mr. Kettler himself knows the answer to that. He will be back online before too long I think.

Treeburst155 out.As long as you know.
I am proceeding with Tero Leppänen in the third game.

[Jack Trap]

Well, that's it for me. I have completed the three final battles for ROW2.

Good fun, being German for all three final games!

Thanks Treeburst and all those contributing to these unbalanced tournaments.

In lieu of coming home with a case of fine South African wine, I just bought myself a beer for my own completion celebration and just-a-hair-above-average award.

-Jack Trap

[Jim L.]

Finished game number 2 today. One more game to go against Visom. Last 10 turns are going to be fun I think.

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Just finished Rat Labs.

All I'll say on this battle is that the foibles of night battles came into play to a pretty large degree.

Regards

Jim R.

[CombinedArms]

Originally posted by Kanonier Reichmann:
Just finished Rat Labs.

All I'll say on this battle is that the foibles of night battles came into play to a pretty large degree.

Regards

Jim R.I was KR (or JR's) opponent in this battle, and I would have to agree! This one will be interesting to discuss when the tourney is over....

[Jim L.]

My God! I am close to suffering one of the worst defeats ever in my CM career. I'll be interested in seeing the spread for this scenario. I may have to go over to the "Unbalanced Scenario" thread and agree with Holien! :eek: Just kidding! I won't judge the scenario until it's over since I don't know the opposing forces/setup, and I need to consider the possiblity that I suck! :D It ain't over until it's over. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the other possibility...that my opponent played better than me. Sorry Visom! God that was hard.

[Boris Balaban]

Originally posted by Jim L.:
My God! I am close to suffering one of the worst defeats ever in my CM career. I'll be interested in seeing the spread for this scenario. I may have to go over to the "Unbalanced Scenario" thread and agree with Holien! :eek: Just kidding! I won't judge the scenario until it's over since I don't know the opposing forces/setup, and I need to consider the possiblity that I suck! :D It ain't over until it's over. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the other possibility...that my opponent played better than me. Sorry Visom! God that was hard.What game did you just finish?

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Hopefully Jim L. wont reply directly to your query Boris because if he lets on, then everyone will know that that particular game is possibly heavily biased in favour of one side and possibly may change their style of play because of this information.

Regards

Jim R.

[Ali]

Hi lads!

KR is absolutely right. Please don't reveal what scenario you're talking about. Not that I thought you would ;)

TB155: is there any scoresheet done so far? If so, I'd like to get my hands on it :D

BTW, when is deadline in this one?

Cheers,

Ali

[Holien]

Why would you want a score sheet Ali...

;)

TB if he gets one, send me one too please...

smile.gif

As for game silence this is hard to keep I know, but it is really essential as everyone should be in the same boat.

tongue.gif

H

[Ali]

Hi H!

I think that our section have played all games (unless Capt and Lopis has unfinished game?).

Curiosity is killing me, and I like to see do I have a chance ;)

Cheers,

Ali

[Holien]

I think you do...

It will be close but I think you have it...

;)

But next time I will get my revenge....

tongue.gif

H

[CombinedArms]

I think we should all pat ourselves on the backs because FOW has been much tighter in this forum for the finals than for the first round.

The finals in section two (mine) is running a bit behind because one finalist got a late start due to an extended trip, so maintaining FOW out here would be welcome. But TB said it was OK to discuss the scenarios privately with others who had completed all games and I'm guessing that will be OK this time too?

[Treeburst155]

Hi guys!

Out of the three prize eligible sections, the Tourney I section is done. You four may feel free to discuss the scenarios among yourselves via email, but don't post anything yet! We'll have to wait until ALL the games are very near completion before we do that. Remember, we're determining scenario balance with the eight groups of non-section winners.

In this Final Round we have 44 people playing 66 games (each scenario is played 22 times) so it will be awhile. The slowest players set the pace. I will start pushing hard to get things wrapped up towards the end of this month. With any luck I'll be running the results through the NEW IMPROVED Nabla Scoring program in early December.

I will send out scoresheets to those who have finished their games within a few days, as soon as work gives me a little break again so I can work on it.

Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.

[Jim L.]

Don't worry everyone. FOW is extremely important to me too. That's why I didn't mention the name of the game in my original post. :D

[Vadr]

Bah! FoW Sucks! We Hates it! We Hates it forever...

smile.gif

[tabpub]

Giving a shout out to TB/Mike8...haven't had any thing down our improvised pipeline for a bit...is there a blockage, or is something lost in the ether somewhere?

[Treeburst155]

TabPub,

You should have received a turn from Mike8g some 12 hours ago.

Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Just to update the situation, 2 games are now completed with only my scrap with Mick Oz to go. Hopefully that battle will be completed well before the deadline once I can get this infernal study out of the way. :(

Regards

Jim R.

[CombinedArms]

To further clarify on KR's statement above, the Tourney II finals are pushing toward closure. I finished my games with KR and Spanish Bombs a while back. Mick Oz had to begin late because of an extended trip, but we've been making rapid and steady progress since he got back. Like KR, I'm confident we'll finish before the deadline. ;)

[ November 12, 2002, 05:39 PM: Message edited by: CombinedArms ]

[Vadr]

Finished all my finals games. Not sure who else is still playing in Tourney III.

Most enjoyable. I (salute) all of my opponents for the interesting and challenging games.

Big thanks go out to Treeburst and the Boots & Tracks team. Great job all.

Just go ahead and put my name in for RoW III. Can't wait...

Vadr

[ November 12, 2002, 08:33 PM: Message edited by: Vadr ]

[Spanish Bombs]

What CombinedArms and Kanonier Reichmann said, ditto.

[White4]

Its been since 10/18 since I got a turn from tom norton (TGHCGN@aol.com). Talking with my other opponents, they havent heard from him in at least a week.

I must say though, one of my games I extremely dislike. That is saying something, because I have never had a bad thing to say about a scenario until now.

[Holien]

Guesses on a postcard as to what that might be...

;)

ROFL

H

P.s. A light hearted jest at the discussion just waiting to happen....

[White4]

oh, I had a bad feeling looking at the map, or should I say funnel?
It got even worse with my orders and the composition of the enemy. Lets just say this game will ruin my average! tongue.gif

[JonS]

Originally posted by White4:
...I must say though, one of my games I extremely dislike. That is saying something, because I have never had a bad thing to say about a scenario until now.Amen. Although, in my case its two that I feel were little more than a waste of time.

Any AARs I write for those - if I bother writing one at all - will be ... how can I say this politely ... short.

[Vadr]

Well, I think I can certainly guess one of the two in question, but how can any of the scenarios be a waste of time with this scoring system?

I turned in AARs for all 3 games, and did not hold my fire in the "Conlusions" section... smile.gif

Unleash the hounds James! :D

[JonS]

Originally posted by Vadr:
... how can any of the scenarios be a waste of time with this scoring system?Had it not been part of a tournament, there is no way I would have played them. In fact, it was only because of the scoring system (i.e. more games gives a better result on the Nabla Magic Maths) that I played them at all. If I had been looking for a game against the AI or a casual PBEM these most definately wouldn't have made the grade.

IMHO, FWIW, YMMV, etc.

Regards
JonS

[Fate]

Hey Treeburst, any news from John Kettler? You posted a while ago that he's unavailable for a bit, but never heard anything after that. Got 1 game finished and the other nearly, but John's are lagging far behind.

[Holien]

Hmmm I know the two....

smile.gif

This will prove most interesting.

The curse of the finals has struck again...

;)

Only teasing TB, please don't hit me.... (Again)

H

P.s Whats the difference between cream cakes and fruit cake?

[ November 13, 2002, 03:25 PM: Message edited by: Holien ]

[Boris Balaban]

Originally posted by Fate:
Hey Treeburst, any news from John Kettler? You posted a while ago that he's unavailable for a bit, but never heard anything after that. Got 1 game finished and the other nearly, but John's are lagging far behind.Me to. Fate and I finished our game and I am almost finished the second game.

[Kingfish]

Gents,

Just got an e-mail from a friend of John Kettler. Apparently he is still having computer problems and may need a new one altogether. I'll see if I can get any more info later on tonight, but for now it looks like he'll be out for a while.

[Treeburst155]

White4,

I'll see what's up with Tom Norton.

To All,

If you really did not like one or more of the scenarios, please tell us why. I think constructive negative comments are at least as helpful as words of praise when it comes to scenario design. Don't be shy, but be constructive. Write me some scenario reviews I can pass on to Boots & Tracks. Thanks!

Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.

[CombinedArms]

Originally posted by Treeburst155:

To All,

If you really did not like one or more of the scenarios, please tell us why. I think constructive negative comments are at least as helpful as words of praise when it comes to scenario design. Don't be shy, but be constructive. Write me some scenario reviews I can pass on to Boots & Tracks. Thanks!

Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.I guess we can cover these in our AAR's. I still need to write them on the two scenarios I've finished.I'm also very curious to know what the Nabla results will be on all three scenarios. Hard to judge their balance accurately from a single game.

[Thomas Norton]

I have had a Hard drive die, but now have finally got the replacement. With some data recovery, I should get this going again tonight.

[Treeburst155]

Aaah, Tom is still with us. Excellent!

I've been getting killed by work recently; BUT, starting Sunday I have five full days off. This means I will be updating my results sheet and sending it to those who have finished their games, ONLY if they email me requesting it.

At this point I'd estimate that 40% of the games are completed. The deadline we are trying to make with this final round is the holiday season. To me that means I should be announcing the winners by December 15th. If you're a slow poke, keep that date in mind please.

Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.

[Boris Balaban]

Originally posted by Kingfish:
Gents,

Just got an e-mail from a friend of John Kettler. Apparently he is still having computer problems and may need a new one altogether. I'll see if I can get any more info later on tonight, but for now it looks like he'll be out for a while.Thank you

[John Kettler]

(physically and emotionally cut to pieces and bleeding from myriad wounds, he staggers in and reports)

I have returned--sort of! After cybernetic battles to which my friend George and I gave our all, I finally appear to have a stable Internet connection
at last and have managed to reinstall CMBO, complete with the 1.12 update. I still need to locate and reinstall my previously saved and compressed PBEM and Scenario folders, locate and reinstall my huge E-mail files, then download all my backlogged E-mail. I think I have two turns to send out and one to process. Am far from being out of the woods, but I can see pools of light here and there.

By dint of superhuman restraint, we managed to avoid .357 1.0, Battleaxe 5.0 and other extreme solutions to a problem which cost us over 12 hours today alone. To test the "seismic grunching theory," we took my computer over to his house a few miles away. Eventually IDing a botched E-mail setting not caught by my ISP's tech troops after multiple queries, we got the computer running Netscape Communicator 4.8 on a phone line. CD drive was recognized and ran fine. Considerably more work with his AT&T cable modem tech types (not much Mac experience there) eventually got blinding performance via Ethernet. Great! Not quite. Also, we should've taken the SuperDisk drive with us. We paid for that one later. In spades.

We come back here, and the computer goes insane and intermittently on strike. The CD drive no longer reads, though sometimes comes back after a reboot; Netscape doesn't run much of the time. We get errors we've never seen before, and to compound our joys, we find that the SuperDisk drive, whether plugged in directly or via the hub, somehow aborts
bootup completely. Unplugging the drive restarts the boot. We had drivers, settings, even wires coming out of our ears. While there have indeed been several correctable problems here, including a splitter cable used to support the computer and fax, it is a gross understatement to say we've seen highly anomalous computer behavior as well, behavior so bizarre and unexplainable that my friend considered chaos well organized by comparison. I have even gone so far as to call the Electrical Engineering Chair of a nearby university, with the specific goal of seeing whether I can convince the Chair to send out a field research team with appropriate measuring equipment (especially an E-field meter) to see whether there's some detectable phenomenon taking place here.

I am profoundly sorry my long sojourn in cyberhell
has been such a spanner in the Finals, but the worst appears to be over. I hope. The last crash was around 2:30 a.m. PDT, when I lost the Netscape connection with the 1.12 update 93% done. Grr! At least the second try worked!

Keep those positive thoughts coming. I can definitely use them!

Regards,

John Kettler

[Spanish Bombs]

OK, last game finished, all reports sent into Treeburst. As a priority, wanted to express thanks again to all involved in setting this up and putting together a bunch of fun scenarios, which were challenging and frustrating and rewarding in turns. Kudos to Treeburst, whose effort and dedication is nothing but remarkable.

I wanted to add that finishing these final scenarios also brought with it a measure of sadness, as it is also the passing of CMBO as the primary game in my life. Like many others, I'm still warming to CMBB and just beginning to appreciate its depth and possibilities, and anticipating the patch. However, it is clear that CMBB will be surpassing CMBO as my main focus. The ROW tourneys were a source of some of my best CMBO experiences, and I hope that the CMBB tournaments serve the same purpose.

[John Kettler]

Time for a quick update. I did manage to get most of my E-mail files (everything but the vital Sent file) restored, and I was able to download a staggering 428 backlogged messages, almost all of which were spam. I even found a couple of CM messages from my foes in the Finals.

The good news is that not only did I have the E-mail, complete with bookmarks, running, but I also reconstructed most of the other programs and drivers as well. Was up until 6 a.m. local time working on things. The bad news is that today Netscape, which worked perfectly hours before, is on total strike and instantly generates a no socket message. My workaround, a freebie AOL deal which allowed me to independently verify things like proper modem operation (huge source of error messages earlier when trying to connect with my ISP), also crashed today on the first attempts, only to finally grace me with the connection which allows me to post this.

Effectively, because not only of the Communicator
problem, but also the difficulties tracking down the carefully compressed and saved PBEM and Scenario files from the Finals and my present inability to reach my friend who moved the files to somewhere on my hard drive, I still am nonfunctional as far as the Finals go. I shall of course do all I can to get fully operational on this end, but I don't have control over certain fundamentals like my connection and couldn't play right now since critical game files are wholly absent. I have no desire to further delay proceedings, so conclude that it may be time for Treeburst155 and the other officials to consider taking over my games in progress so that the Finals finish before CM II is out.

Please post any reply to this thread and do NOT E-mail me privately, since I may not be able to pick up my mail again any time soon.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Visom]

I'm curious on how the Nabla scoring system behaves for very unbalanced scenarios. Let's assume 25 percent of all games results in an autosurrender. There will be a lot of scores in the area 85-15 (for those autosurrender games) and then a gap down to those who managed to keep the game going until the end, roughly score 70-30.

A player who almost made it (autosurrender last turn, lost a single man more than what was needed to keep the morale up) ends up with a 17-83 loss. The next one is the one who just made it, morale is on the edge after the last turn, resulting in a 28-72 loss.

Will this 11 point difference be very obvious with the Nabla system? The two losers above performed almost equally good (normally only 1 pts difference without autosurrender), but will Nabla correct that? Otherwise, winning or loosing the whole tournament will depend on being on the right side of the cut in that unbalanced scenario.

Nothing bad about the Nabla system, just curious if it can handle the above scenario as the it is designed to take care of unbalanced scenarios.

[John Kettler]

(trumpets blare; the heavens part)

Success!!! Am not only fully operational again, but I have sent turns to all three of my foes. The Internet connection remains spasmodic, though. One time it's up, another down. Will attempt to roll turns in an effort to catch up.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Received replies from Boris and Fate; have already
responded with new turn for each. Connection's not
good at all. Getting these turns out took several tries.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Kanonier Reichmann]

John, I think you're going to have to save up your pennies for a decent IBM compatible machine... much more reliable.

;)

Regards

Jim R.

[Treeburst155]

Visom,

In a scenario where half the players on a side slip into auto-surrender and the other half don't, there could be a gap between the two halves as you suggest. The Nabla system does not treat these situations in any special way. It assigns scores based on the scenario median and the standard deviation from that median.

Treeburst155 out.

[John Kettler]

Received turns from and replied to Fate and Boris. Am halfway through my, er, fight with Fate and around a third of the way done with Boris.

As far as my computer goes, someone didn't pay attention to what I said. I said it ran great at a friend's house but went berserk once over here. At my friend's, we had it running fine via dial-up and via cable modem. Interestingly, shortly after a 7.9? hit Siberia, my ISP connection started working again after two weeks of failed efforts here. I suspect there may be a connection via release of strains causing plate crushing and grinding, which in turn may have fed my machine all sorts of false instructions via strong, uncorrelated broad spectrum electromagnetic emissions from the crust. Japanese telecommunication research scientists have shown in lab tests that squeezing granite at appropriate pressures generates piezoelectrically created frequencies read by the computer as operating instructions. There were many reports in the Pacific Northwest of PC malfunctions, hard drive failures, even fried PCs before the Seattle 6.8 quake. Therefore, I believe that my cyber woes are not because I have an iMac, but rather, because I happen to live near three faults, faults which load up before a big quake and grind, generating enormous amounts of broadband EM interference. Apropos of this model, I also observed malfunctions in our answering machine and DTV reception before the Siberian quake hit. Am trying to get an engineering field team out here to take some measurements.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Treeburst155]

Wow John! Let us know if you manage to get an engineering team out there. Oh, and welcome back to the world of the unseismicly disturbed. smile.gif

Tourney Status Report

Emilville Exit completed: 9 (41%)

Lab Rats In Norway completed: 10 (45%)

North Of Epron completed: 6 (27%)

Total complete: 25 of 66 for 38%

The only section that has finished completely
is the prize eligible Section One (not Group One).

There are a few individuals who have also finished.

It's a bit early to start revealing results I think. I am keeping requests for scoresheets on file, and will process them when we get to 50%. If you requested a scoresheet, and I do not have all the scores for your games, you have been notified.

Let me know if you have any MIA problems. It's
time to pick up the pace if you've been slacking. smile.gif

Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.

[John Kettler]

Treeburst155,

Only moments ago I got off the phone after talking about this very matter to the head of the Electrical Engineering Department at Cal State Long Beach. That worthy was not personally familiar with the phenomenon but was impressed enough by what I told him to ask me to send him research paper references so he could look into the topic for himself.

Regards,

John Kettler

[jjelinek]

Treeburst,
Completed Lab Rats. Emilville turn 22. Epron turn 16, I hope to pick up the pace.

[CombinedArms]

I've completed all my games!--I believe the finalist section of tourney II has just one more game left to go.

Many thanks to TB155 and the great people at B & T for all the outstanding work they put into this tourney and to Winecape for their generous sponsorship. And thanks to all my opponents in both tourney phases for some excellent and exciting games. It's been fun! Can't wait till we can talk over all of these games.

[ November 20, 2002, 10:35 AM: Message edited by: CombinedArms ]

[John Kettler]

No turns from anyone yesterday or so far today. How odd!

Regards,

John Kettler

[Boris Balaban]

Originally posted by John Kettler:
No turns from anyone yesterday or so far today. How odd!

Regards,

John KettlerJust sent you a move again.
I will check this forum if you do or do not get it.
I thought the Germans had good mail service? :D

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Originally posted by CombinedArms:
I've completed all my games!--I believe the finalist section of tourney II has just one more game left to go.Yeh, yeh, yeh...I know, I'm the slowpoke right?

I just hope you did your erstwhile duty against that slippery opponent we all know as Mick Oz!

Regards

Jim R.

[Mick_Oz]

I just hope you did your erstwhile duty against that slippery opponent we all know as Mick Oz!

Regards

Jim R.[/QB][/QUOTE]

------

I could say so much but I don't think I will....

[CombinedArms]

Originally posted by Mick_Oz:
I just hope you did your erstwhile duty against that slippery opponent we all know as Mick Oz!

Regards

Jim R.------

I could say so much but I don't think I will....
Mick Oz
Let's just say I did my level best... ;) ;)

[ November 21, 2002, 11:41 AM: Message edited by: CombinedArms ]

[John Kettler]

Commo difficulties continue. Boris apparently never got a turn my machine shows as properly sent,
while I got an "unknown host" E-mail bounce when I tried to inform Fate that not only had I gotten the turn he was asking about, but had already sent him my turn in reply.

Boris, I've resent the turn. Fate, has your E-mail address changed? If not, I wonder why E-mail to you would bounce. Tero, where are you?

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Boris,

Got your turn and tried twice to send you my reply.
I keep getting some bizarre Command RCPT User error message each time I try to send you my turn. Will try again later.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Fate]

No idea John, I'm getting mail fine on that account.

Did it get typoed somehow?

kirkcm@telus.net

[John Kettler]

Fate and Boris,

I have tried yet again to send you the turns, only to again fail because of the bizarre Command RCPT
User not local problem. Fate, your E-mail address
was keyed in perfectly and displays properly. Frankly, I believe the problem is the seismic squeeze I've described. Unfortunately, that means I can do nothing until something lets go within the crust, thus relieving the rock strain which is presumably generating all the piezoelectric interference.

Tero,

Nothing from you in days, but since I can't E-mail, maybe it's moot.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Fate]

Well, if you can't mail to anyone, it sounds like either your ISP is screwed up, or your mail configuration is not quite right.

[John Kettler]

Fate,

I'll check, but the settings worked fine before (some three days ago) and haven't been changed since. As for my ISP, history shows the problem is rarely there. Besides, that fails to explain how AOL also fails to work, and it uses a wholly different browser, routers, etc. There are days neither Netscape nor AOL works, some where only AOL
connects, and some when both do. If Netscape works, AOL invariably also connects, but the opposite is not true. Suffice it say that the phenomenon baffles several of my power user friends. Sorry for the incredibly aggravating delays.

Treeburst155, if I'm holding up the Finals, you are of course welcome to step in and designate someone to finish my games. I'd strongly prefer to finish my own fights, but believe me when I say I'd understand.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Treeburst155]

We're not at the panic stage yet, John. Do what you can to get going. Besides, a FEW uncompleted games among non-prize eligible sections will be OK because every scenario is being played 22 times. If that count slips even to 15 or so, we still get a decent median to work with.

Speaking of unfinished games and withdrawals, von Lucke has had to withdraw due to severe computer problems. Judging from his posts to the technical forum, I'd say his hard drive is shot.

I haven't yet decided if I should even try to do anything about his withdrawal. His opponents will each miss out on one scenario, but the effect on scoring the prize eligible sections is negligible as explained above.

If you are in von Lucke's section, I will be emailing you.

Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.

I

[Ted]

TB,

I'm standing by.

Ted

[John Kettler]

Okay, here's the latest.

Tero, I got your turn 27, which I did not have. Thanks!

Boris and Fate, for hours on end today I couldn't get online at all, hence, could not have even posted here. Happily, at least that seems to be working now. Unhappily, the cursed outbound E-mail problem remains. Worse, the CD is again not being detected. Worked fine before. Grr.

Treeburst155, I appreciate your confidence.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Treeburst155]

Well now, Ted. I was just going to take over von Lucke's games myself; BUT, the job is yours if you want it. One of the games is mostly finished, another is only on turn 7, and I haven't received word on the status of the third game yet. Ya still wanna help me out here?

Treeburst155 out.

[Ted]

Sure, you bet TB.
Let me know how I can help.

tramos1@optonline.net

I've been wondering about the scenarios. It'll be fun to get a peak.

And if I loose I can blame it on somebody else.
;)

[Boris Balaban]

Originally posted by John Kettler:
Okay, here's the latest.

Tero, I got your turn 27, which I did not have. Thanks!

Boris and Fate, for hours on end today I couldn't get online at all, hence, could not have even posted here. Happily, at least that seems to be working now. Unhappily, the cursed outbound E-mail problem remains. Worse, the CD is again not being detected. Worked fine before. Grr.

Treeburst155, I appreciate your confidence.

Regards,

John KettlerJohn just sent you again file # 36
Let me know by posting it hear.
Should I zip them?

[John Kettler]

SitRep follows:

Contacted my ISP's tech support and had the line checked. No problems reported with connecting; no servers down. Also checked dial tone quality by using handset on fax/copier. Clear tone.

Am still having the much referenced outgoing E-mail problem, which has ZERO to do with what my foes are sending me or the format. Simply put, every time I try to E-mail something, I get the "Command RCPT user not local and relaying not permitted from you" error message, which is rapidly driving me mad. Ability to get online today has been sporadic, and perceived bandwidth limited, so that simple activities seem to take a long time.

I have a turn waiting in Drafts for each of my foes, but presently am unable to get those turns to E-mail. Am I frustrated? You bet! Yet I remain hopeful that whatever's strangling my computer will release. At least today the CD drive's being read. That's how I was able to view the mutual carnage in my battle against Tero.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Just a thought J.K. If you can't easily borrow someone else's computer why not pop into an Internet Cafe or something similar to send off your files saved onto a floppy disk? A temporary solution granted, but better than nothing.

Regards

Jim R.

[tabpub]

Hey, Kettler! Do you live in a house built on a graveyard like in Poltergeist? Maybe you should move out of that neighborhood with all this ****e going on? I would be outta there myself...

[WWB]

John, ever try a free email service like yahoo? You can send files from it without trying to connect over SMTP (where it seems like your problem lies).

Also, have you tried using a different email client. That one could be fooked.

WWB

[Fate]

Or if you happen to have a machine that doesn't have a floppy, pick up one of those cool liitle flash memory things you plug in a usb port.

[John Kettler]

Still no joy with E-mailing on Netscape, but a test message on AOL apparently was successful, in that I didn't get an immediate error message. Sadly, an attempt to send a small turn (18K) the same way failed miserably.

Regards,

John Kettler

[ November 28, 2002, 04:35 AM: Message edited by: John Kettler ]

[Kanonier Reichmann]

So I gather John, you don't think much of the suggestions above or are they impractical for some reason?

Regards

Jim R.

[jjelinek]

North Of Epron, turn 21 with JAT. Steady but slow
about 1 email each per day.

Emilville Exit, turn 22 with HOBO. Haven't heard from him for about a week. He said "real life" stepped in but he'll be back shortly. His wife has delivered a new addition to the family. Congratulations!

[Boris Balaban]

Originally posted by John Kettler:
Still no joy with E-mailing on Netscape, but a test message on AOL apparently was successful, in that I didn't get an immediate error message. Sadly, an attempt to send a small turn (18K) the same way failed miserably.

Regards,

John KettlerJust a thought try zipping the files and then send them? :confused:

[John Kettler]

Success!!! What AOL wouldn't do last night, it for some reason did today, or so it's claiming. The text message I E-mailed on AOL last night did get through. I have confirmation from the recipient. I sent out turns to each of my three foes, and they are the proper turns, too. Foes, please reply to my relaypoint E-mail address, not AOL. That'll make my life simpler.

KR, I appreciate the suggestions and have been trying to figure out how to implement them on this end. Also, I plan to have a friend over who has an identical model iMac with the same OS as mine for tests where my computer sits. Further, I plan to explore via our main phone line in another room whether there's something happening on/near this desk that is highly localized in terms of where the interference occurs.

Regards,

John Kettler

[ November 28, 2002, 04:06 PM: Message edited by: John Kettler ]

[Boris Balaban]

Originally posted by John Kettler:
Success!!! What AOL wouldn't do last night, it for some reason did today, or so it's claiming. The text message I E-mailed on AOL last night did get through. I have confirmation from the recipient. I sent out turns to each of my three foes, and they are the proper turns, too. Foes, please reply to my relaypoint E-mail address, not AOL. That'll make my life simpler.

KR, I appreciate the suggestions and have been trying to figure out how to implement them on this end. Also, I plan to have a friend over who has an identical model iMac with the same OS as mine for tests where my computer sits. Further, I plan to explore via our main phone line in another room whether there's something happening on/near this desk that is highly localized in terms of where the interference occurs.

Regards,

John KettlerJohn I got your email and I made my move and sent it back to you. :D

[John Kettler]

Boris,

Excellent news! Assuming you sent it to my relaypoint E-mail address as requested, though, it must still be in transit, since it's not in my Inbox.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Boris,

I found your turn in my AOL Inbox and have responded.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Boris,

Turn 41's headed your way.

Treeburst155 and troops,

Ran some additional tests and found that whatever's going on is consistent regardless of phone or fax line and isn't affected by available phone locations downstairs and upstairs. The error message remained the same throughout.

No turns from anyone other than Boris. Guess the Finns (Tero) celebrate Thanksgiving too. I forget where Fate lives.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Fate]

Canada John, where our thanksgiving is a bit different as the natives made the 1st european vistors a little less welcome at L'Anse-aux-Meadows than down in the states.

No move received from you.

[ November 29, 2002, 11:37 PM: Message edited by: Fate ]

[Mick_Oz]

All games finito! Congratulations to all the hard-working scenario designers for fashioning such a challenging mix of evil maps to test out our mettle.

Mike, I do believe that all the finalists in my section have now completed the roster. Can we discuss the sheer villainy of these battles amongst ourselves?

[Treeburst155]

If you're sure your group is finished you may discuss the scenarios WITHIN your group.

I have quite a few game results in now that I need to process. I'll be honoring the requests for scoresheets that I have on file after I record these latest results. This will happen tomorrow evening with any luck.

If you're finished, and you want a scoresheet just email me so I can simply reply with an attachment. Thanks!

Treeburst155 out.

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Yes, all games now complete in out ROW II Section 2 area. Thanks to Treeburst and the scenario designers for a, shall we say, challenging series of scenario's. I guess this means I'll have to do some of those dreaded AAR's now. :(

Also, thanks very much to my opponents in these games, they were always very hard fought and always taxing on the ol' grey matter.

Regards

Jim R.

[John Kettler]

I have good news and bad news.

The good news is that I have Boris's latest turn. The bad news is that I can't open it because the CD drive has again cloaked itself and isn't being read in spite of every trick I can conjure up. Too bad I was brain dead and forgot to make a disk img of the CMBO CD when the drive registered properly! Apparently, too, at least one of the the turns I sent out to my nonBoris foes didn't get through either. Sigh.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Guess what? Netscape's returned, joined a short time later by the CD drive. This allowed me to watch the newest turn (high pucker factor) from Boris and issue orders. Netscape still won't send E-mail, though, so the outbound turn went by AOL.

Would some kind Mac soul please explain to me again how to make a disk image of the CMBO CD so that any further stealth mode events won't knock out my ability to play?

Oops! Still need to resend turn to Fate. Have n idea as to whether Tero got his.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Fate]

John, go to applications (os 9), find Disk Copy, then just drag the cmbo cd icon onto it. Got your latest.

[Visom]

Finally finished Epron tonight. This should be the last game in the group. Did better than expected in two games and a bit worse in one, so I'm looking forward to the result file from TB.

Many thanks to TB for hosting, WineCape for sponsoring and all my opponents for good games and always returning files quickly.

[Treeburst155]

As of now I show 36 of 66 games completed. I have prepared a scoresheet to send out to those who have finished. If you have finished, and you want a scoresheet, email me so I can simply reply and attach.

All of the prize eligible players have finished their games. For this reason, I am going to score the tourney on December 15th or so. By then I will have enough instances of each scenario completed (15 or more)to get a good median.

This does not mean that you HAVE to finish by December 15th. It just means that I would LIKE you to finish by then. smile.gif If you don't make it, your scores will not be used to determine scenario balance. No big deal, as long as I have 15 or so completed scenarios for that purpose. I don't want to keep the prize eligible players waiting any longer than necessary, since they are all done.

Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.

[Visom]

TB, got the scoresheet, but 2 of my results are missing from the 36 in the list (Emilville and Epron). Let me know if I need to resend them, Emilville was finished a few weeks ago.

[John Kettler]

Was effectively gone all day and most of the night, but I nevertheless managed to receive turns from and respond to Boris and Fate. I came off a distant second best against Boris in the movie and continue to blunder about in my battle against Fate, to whom thanks for the disk image procedure. Hope it's the same in OS 8.6 as what he outlined for OS 9. Tero, did you get the last turn I sent you?

Treeburst155, I was heartened to see that I wasn't the only one who hadn't finished his games yet. Looks as though I'm far from alone there.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Treeburst155]

Visom,

I now have your missing scores. Jim Liang sent one and you sent the other. Thanks!

Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.

[John Kettler]

Tero's returned--with a bang! Replied to him and Boris and Fate, who were kind enough to send turns also.

Tero and I are about a third done; the Boris and Fate games are each halfway finished.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Kanonier Reichmann]

So John. What have you done differently to get your system more reliable?

Regards

Jim R.

[John Kettler]

Received and replied to another round of turns from my foes. KR, the CD problem cleared through no intervention of mine, Netscape reads inbound E-mail only still, and all outbound turns and the like go by AOL when it works. The situation is far from wonderful, but I am rolling turns. Tried and failed to locate the disk image utility; maybe OS 8.6 either lacks it or has it somewhere other than Applications.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Boris Balaban]

Originally posted by John Kettler:
Received and replied to another round of turns from my foes. KR, the CD problem cleared through no intervention of mine, Netscape reads inbound E-mail only still, and all outbound turns and the like go by AOL when it works. The situation is far from wonderful, but I am rolling turns. Tried and failed to locate the disk image utility; maybe OS 8.6 either lacks it or has it somewhere other than Applications.

Regards,

John KettlerYour move.
Is that all you have is 2 tanks tongue.gif

[mPisi]

It's going pretty well with White4 (I mean the email exchanges, not the battle. Oh yeah, let's run forwards into the BLANK under fire!). But still slow with Tom Norton, approx 1 turn per week :confused:

[John Kettler]

Have gotten turns from and responded to both Boris and Fate.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Originally posted by John Kettler:
Have gotten turns from and responded to both Boris and Fate.

Regards,

John Kettler"Gotten"? Tsk, tsk.

Try "received". Much better use of the Queens english. smile.gif

Regards

Jim R.

[John Kettler]

Had I more energy I might engage in a semantic debate, KR, but I believe that per American usage, the statement is correct as written. I, though, would dearly love to know why the British insist on using plural verbs with singular nouns, such as squadron, team, troop and the like, not to mention the use of personal pronouns in describing such entities.

Have just replied to Boris with a turn from me.

Regards,

John Kettler

[White4]

Originally posted by mPisi:
It's going pretty well with White4 (I mean the email exchanges, not the battle. Oh yeah, let's run forwards into the BLANK under fire!). But still slow with Tom Norton, approx 1 turn per week :confused: I have only gotten one file from him since early october.

[Treeburst155]

Yeah, it sounds like RL has all but wiped out Tom Norton's CM time. :(

Treeburst155 out.

[CombinedArms]

Originally posted by White4:
I have only gotten one file from him since early october.As per John Kettler, and White4, "gotten" is standard American usage. Cf. The American Heritage Dictionary: "gotten v. A past participle of get."

As for the Queen's English, KR, some Aussies seem to have forgotten that Britannia no longer rules the waves--or the style books. H. L. Mencken proclaimed the emergence of The American Language in a book published in 1919, and we Yanks have continued to revel in our linguistic independence.
:D :D ;)

[ December 03, 2002, 10:10 PM: Message edited by: CombinedArms ]

[John Kettler]

Received a hot turn from Tero and a low key one from Boris. Replied somewhat in kind.

Combined Arms, insightful and somewhat droll grammatical commentary.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Bleedin' Yanks. Next thing you know you'll be saying things like "we'll be rootin' for the New York Yankees" when we all know that the only time this sort of expression should be used is when the Dallas Cowboys and Debbie are in town.

Regards

Jim R.

[CombinedArms]

Originally posted by Kanonier Reichmann:
Bleedin' Yanks. Next thing you know you'll be saying things like "we'll be rootin' for the New York Yankees" when we all know that the only time this sort of expression should be used is when the Dallas Cowboys and Debbie are in town.

Regards

Jim R.Ah, so "bleedin' Yanks" is the Queen's English, whereas "rootin' for the New York Yankees" is not? :D
I for one will be rootin' for my Yankees even when the Dallas Cowboys aren't in town--and when they do come to town, it's not just to do Debbie, but to play the Giants--in football, American style! Last time I looked, the Yankees were a baseball team.

Ah, the intricacies of the American language.... As we Yanks count our "ill-gotten gains" (Shakespeare?), we'll continue to use it with pride. :D

[Holien]

KR if we get him in our group in the next tourney we can take him behind the bike sheds and give him a good going over.

;)

H

[CombinedArms]

That's why I'm glad this game is played in virtual space.... :D

[Spanish Bombs]

Further clarification, for those outlanders. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say just "New York Yankees". It is either "New York friggin' Yankees" or "friggin' New York Yankees", or less common, "New friggin' York Yankees" (Shakespeare?).

[CombinedArms]

Originally posted by Spanish Bombs:
Further clarification, for those outlanders. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say just "New York Yankees". It is either "New York friggin' Yankees" or "friggin' New York Yankees", or less common, "New friggin' York Yankees" (Shakespeare?).Another common expression is "those poor Cubbies" (if you're not a Cubs fan) or "those fricken Cubbies" (if you are a Cubs fan.) :D

[Fate]

John, no move from you lately, could you send or resend your last.

[Kanonier Reichmann]

That's right, almost forgot. There's a game or two associated with this thread isn't there.

;)

Regards

Jim R.

[John Kettler]

Received a turn from Boris and replied. Resent my previous turn to Fate, since he apparently didn't get it the first time.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Treeburst155]

OK then, it's time to take an inventory of incomplete games. My goal here is to catch any finished, but unreported games. Below are the games I do NOT have scores for. If you see your name below, AND you lost the game, please send me the final score. If the game is in progress, then Fight On!!

Emilville Exit

Boris vs John Kettler
Tero vs Fate
Ted vs Cpt_T
White4 vs Sgt Gold
mPisi vs Tom Norton
JJelinek vs Hobo
Mike8g vs WadePM
Easy V vs Bertram

Lab Rats In Norway

Tero vs Boris
John Kettler vs Fate
Ted vs Mikeydz
mPisi vs White4
Sgt Gold vs Tom Norton
Hobo vs Saport
Mike8g vs Cuzn

North Of Epron

Boris vs Fate
John Kettler vs Tero
Mikeydz vs Cpt T
a1steaks vs Ted
White4 vs Tom Norton
Sgt Gold vs mPisi
JJelinek vs Saport
Cuzn vs WadePM
Easy V vs Jack Trap
Beretram vs Michael Reddy

I have 14 game results for "Emilville Exit", 15 results for "Lab Rats In Norway", and 12 results for "North Of Epron". These are enough to score the prize eligible sections, but it would be nice to get a few more, especially for "North Of Epron".

Having said that, the ROW II Finals will be scored on Sunday, December 15th, no matter what. Enjoy your games. There's no need to rush. Just make sure you have reported all your losses to date. Thanks!!

Treeburst155 out.

[John Kettler]

Was on the hop all day yesterday and then had friends over until the truly wee hours. Was therefore surprised to find only one turn waiting for me this afternoon. It was from Boris, and I have sent off my reply. He and I are 2/3 done in our battle.

Whatever weirdness is affecting my outbound Netscape E-mail seems to have eased a bit, for instead of a near instant error, I am treated to a long delay followed eventually by a connection refused, try later message. Sadly, this isn't quite enough to let me revert to standard procedures.

Regards,

John Kettler

Regards,

John Kettler

[ December 07, 2002, 06:31 PM: Message edited by: John Kettler ]

[John Kettler]

Boris sent me a further turn and was replied to in kind. Nothing from Tero and Fate.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

The cybernetic curse continues--on both ends! Earlier, AOL wouldn't connect and kept giving an error message that the port was already in use, when it emphatically wasn't. After opening and closing AOL several times, I gave up and restarted. That solved the problem. Tero has had Internet problems, but is now back in the game, and Fate apparently didn't get my second shot at my newest turn.

Boris and Tero both sent me turns, and I have replied. I also resent Fate the turn he didn't get. Let third time be the charm!

At the rate things aren't going, my game with Boris
will be complete by the deadline, with Fate a possibility, and with Tero rather unlikely, unless turn rate can be dramatically increased. We're only a third done, versus two thirds for Boris and halfway for Fate. And we haven't discussed AARs!

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Boris has survived again with his bulletproof @#$$%^^! Am starting to smell brimstone, but I shall continue to gnaw away at his force, with time on my side. My latest effort was just sent.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Bertram]

Hi,

I havent heard from Easy V for some time now (and that right when our game got tense, he finally got some inf among my guns). He stated that he was having some trouble (hard disk failure), and that he would contact me when he had solved that. Since then I have had a system crash myself, so I lost his adress.

Havent looked to hard though, been to busy with CMBB smile.gif .

North of Eprom was finished, thought the result was send in, but appearently not. I lost that file as well, so I'll ask my opponent to send in the result (if I can find HIS adress).

Dont you hate system crashes? :(
Bertram

[ December 09, 2002, 02:08 AM: Message edited by: Bertram ]

[John Kettler]

Tero and I continue to brutalize each other; Boris is pressing me hard but is showing some signs of mortality. He convincingly demonstrated that my men are killable, too.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Fate]

Tero and I have finished, just John left. Could you try another resend of your last John?

[Boris Balaban]

Originally posted by John Kettler:
Boris has survived again with his bulletproof @#$$%^^! Am starting to smell brimstone, but I shall continue to gnaw away at his force, with time on my side. My latest effort was just sent.

Regards,

John KettlerI can finally leave a message.
Its not my bulletproof trucks it is that the bullets just go straight through the canvas.
tongue.gif

[John Kettler]

Fate,

I am clueless at this point, having sent you the turn no less than three times, using methods shown to work well with Boris and Tero. I shall carefully recheck your address, but if not that, maybe you need to have a chat with your ISP to see whether my ISP's being blocked.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Fate]

Are you receiving my mail? I can send you another couple of addresses to try.

[John Kettler]

Received a galling movie from Tero in which some of his men made a ballsy move under enfilade fire, lived to tell about it, then smote me a nasty blow. Didn't like it, so I sent it back. Am trying to keep Boris at bay (issued orders), but he seems to be all over the place and usually out of LOS.

Fate,

I carefully rechecked your E-mail address. It was correct, so this time I'm forwarding the turn to you as attempt four. I get your incoming E-mail just fine, even though both Netscape and AOL have become hard to connect and fairly unstable.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Fate]

Oh hell. My bad. A long time ago I started getting spam from various aol.com addresses and put a filter on them. I got a couple aol from you because I was out of town and using my laptop with no filter on it. My apologies. Your aol should work fine now. Boy, do I feel stupid.

[John Kettler]

Boris continues to confound both probability and reasonable expectation by surviving not only the usual lead sleet but some new additions. His units have appeared from cover and way too close for comfort. Sent orders for a nailbiter of a turn. Tero needs to be brought under some semblance of
control. Have issued orders accordingly. Fate,
did you get yourself unblocked in time to receive
my fourth try? Sorry about the AOL problem, but right now, it's the means by which I send all outbound E-mail.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Treeburst155]

...and the battles rage on!!

I will be scoring these ROW II Finals in five days (Sunday, December 15th). At this time I have about half a dozen more game results to process. I even noticed at least one "North of Epron" result. smile.gif

Even if you don't finish by December 15th I would really appreciate your sending in the final results of your games. These results will help fill out the database of Nabla scored scenarios we are building; which will in turn help Nabla determine if further improvements/changes to the Scoring System are in order.

Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.

[John Kettler]

Fate,

Your wish has been granted. I sent you the file (stripped) for the fifth time.

Treeburst155,

I apologize for the certain to be partially blown deadline (will finish at least one on time). Will attempt to get that AAR in as well.

Regards,

John Kettler

[mPisi]

White4 and I will finish Labrats by the deadline, but Tom Norton is still AWOL in real life. Pity too since it looked like such an "interesting" game... Oh well got to get back to bashing up the research scientists and their mutated guards...

[John Kettler]

No turns from anyone but Boris, but what he sent me
more than makes up for it. Never have I seen such a stunning combination of incredible luck for the foe and criminal ineptitude and/or treason from my own troops. Am beginning to think that Boris made no Faustian arrangement after all, since the evidence is more indicative of a blood connection!

Seriously, a carefully planned ambush and crossfire
yielded not one apparent kill, a huge apparent disinclination to shoot, and major lumps inflicted upon my side. There should be a charnel house in the kill zone, but it was my men who got whacked. This is a new low in my CM career.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Fate has finally been heard from. Unfortunately, the turn he sent was somewhat abridged, therefore useless. Tero sent what turned out to be a mutual hammering. Inspired, I sent one back, though I plan to be the chief dealer of blows in the new turn. He has smote me way too much for my tastes.
Time to balance the equation!

Regards,

John Kettler

[Bertram]

Easy V reported in. Unfortunatly he has lost his file due to a hard disk crash, while I managed to loose mine due to same. Seems we are stuck. Pity, it was just getting interesting.

Treeburst, if you need an other North of Ephrom score, ask my opponent (Michael Reddy), I also lost that file (I thought I had send on the score already).

Bertram

[ December 11, 2002, 05:10 AM: Message edited by: Bertram ]

[Treeburst155]

Bertram,

I got the Epron score from your opponent. Thanks!

I'm good to go now for scoring this tournament. I'll do it on Sunday the 15th. I may get a few more results in by then. The more the better, even though I already have enough.

Fight On!

Treeburst155 out.

[Ted]

Greg and David,
My ISP (cablevision)is having a problem with out going mail these last couple of days.
Like, there ain't none.
It should be fixed by tomorrow

[John Kettler]

Following yet another round of high farce with Fate over the turn (fortunately headed off by his having sent a backup turn to my normal E-mail), we finally got the game going and are in contact. Gave Tero a bit of a bloody nose, as he'll see in the movie, and issued orders in the crazy fight against Boris.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Boris's unbelievable luck has now reached the point where I've decided that he staged a coup in the infernal regions. How else to account for his increasing immunity to fire, coupled with an uncanny ability to destroy my critical weapons with no apparent effort. My guys, though seasoned and in command, seem to be utterly unable to hit him, that after they get past their can't being bothered to shoot. By contrast, Boris has weapons the Pentagon should urgently procure.

Fate and I have now managed two consecutive turns.

Have sent orders in both battles. Nothing from Tero.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Three in, three out. The battle with Boris continues to become more and more farcical and surreal, with yet further instances of mesmerized, barrel wagging, nonfiring German soldiery and still more casualties on my end. His men seem to laugh at fire. Only a few turns left. Issued orders against Tero's force (halfway mark), and I seem to be making progress against Fate.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Treeburst155]

Hmmm....looks like Mr. Kettler's computer and internet connection are doing quite well considering all the carnage flowing into and out of his computer of late.

Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.

[mPisi]

Finished up Lab Rats with White4. The beer is safe in British hands!

[CombinedArms]

Update on my replay with Holien of "Head for the Hills" to test his contention that a skillful Allied commander will be very hard to beat.

I took the Axis in this replay, and I have to admit that I am convinced. Holien has very skillfully coordinated his infantry and artillery into a juggernaut. Every time I pull off an ambush of his infantry (which has happened several times now), his artillery comes in to punish me threefold. Plus, my 88s have been quickly knocked out whenever I bring them into play.

Still about 10 turns left, but it's clear that I'm going to lose. The question is, by how much. I feel like I'm just up against too much arty. This is a scenario that stands and falls on arty use, and a skillful commander who uses it in a highly coordinated attack WILL IMHO be very hard to stop.

This counterbalances our replay of "Another Day," where I seem to have pursuaded Holien that the Allies can win if they go on the defensive after taking the first VL.

[ December 13, 2002, 01:56 PM: Message edited by: CombinedArms ]

[John Kettler]

Treeburst155,

Don't be too sure about that. It took several failed attempts today to connect with Netscape (only place Fate's turns are received intact), and success was obtained only after multiple reboots.
Got some weird error. Downloaded Fate's turn, played the movie, and saved the new file. Took several more tries to get AOL to connect, so I could send him the file and post here. Trend line doesn't look good at all, and a friend in Sacramento, California (live in suburban Los Angeles myself) reports her browser keeps crashing (Explorer on Prodigy/Yahoo) and that the tech help people report lots of trouble reports like hers.
Could get bouncy soon, if that's what's causing all the problems. We both have had TV problems, and our answering machine here has mysteriously made erased calls appear in its queue.

I have a few turns left with Boris, under ten with Fate, who just shot me up some, and am halfway through with Tero.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Originally posted by John Kettler:

Could get bouncy soon, if that's what's causing all the problems. We both have had TV problems, and our answering machine here has mysteriously made erased calls appear in its queue.Poltergeists?

;)

Regards

Jim R.

[John Kettler]

Have just sent Fate my orders. His men are to march out, empty hands held high, shouting Hitler ist kaput!" Think it'll work?

KR, I have no evidence of poltergeists. Besides,
they are historically associated with those seething seas of energy and chaotic hormones known as teenagers. Am here by myself and will soon be 48. I know many consider me to be a big kid, but that's stretching it.

Regards,

John Kettler

[JAT]

John Jelinek,

I attached some photos along with the file and it came to 1.2meg. This may have overloaded your inbox, so I sent just the file. Duh! This probably further filled your inbox. Let me know cause we only have a couple days left.

Hobo,

Hope to hear from you tonight (my night) so we can finish up by the deadline.

Treeburst,

Do we have until midnight Sunday, your Sunday?

[jjelinek]

JAT,
Taken care or. Return file sent.

[John Kettler]

Have just found more of Fate's troops--the hard way--and am attempting to lethally address the matter. Eight turns to go. Surprisingly, with only a few turns left, nothing again from Boris,
and with half a game to play, nothing from Tero either. Sigh.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Fate and I are in close combat,
and is it ever lethal. Wiped out
a nest of resistance on my left,
but got chewed up on my right.
Sent the bloody movie off to Fate.
Still nothing from Boris and Tero.

Regards,

John Kettler

[CombinedArms]

Originally posted by John Kettler:
Fate and I are in close combat,
and is it ever lethal. Wiped out
a nest of resistance on my left,
but got chewed up on my right.
Sent the bloody movie off to Fate.
Still nothing from Boris and Tero.

Regards,

John KettlerI think Mr. Kettler deserves a medal of some sort for his valiant effort to complete his games despite persistent computer woes.

Anyway, my figurative hat is off to you, sir!

[John Kettler]

Sent order phase to Fate.

(knuckles forelock and mouths "Thanks, guv!)

CA, that's why it's called a commitment! Also, I like it and find it therapeutic. Still nothing from Boris or Tero. Haven't a clue as to why.

Regards,

John Kettler

[jjelinek]

Just completed North Of Epron against JAT. Results emailed to TB.

[Holien]

Is today Sunday the 15th?

Has Christmas come early or did he get shot down by an Uber Finn...

These and more questions will be answered soon...

I hope..

;)

H

[Scott B]

Originally posted by CombinedArms:
Update on my replay with Holien of "Head for the Hills" to test his contention that a skillful Allied commander will be very hard to beat.Advantage is strongly pro-allied in that scenario with foreknowledge of the contents of the defender's forces and setup zones. Holien played the axis in his first run through of H4tH, after all; I certainly won't deny that he's also a skilled player, but that only makes it more likely that his knowledge of the defender's situation will make a difference in a replay.

I think the balance is much closer when approaching the scenario totally blind, and the scores seem to reflect that.

Scott

[Holien]

Hi Scott,

Just read Toms comments.

Yep It helps big time when you are the attacker to know exactly what the defender has and where it might be.

The game is balanced by Fog of War if played blind. And god does the defender need it.

My point is that in my game the attacker used his artillery poorly and my point is that if the attacker uses his artillery well then this game is a hard one for the defender to win.

It is great playing it again and seeing if my view was correct. However that view can always be changed when playing different people and with luck which is ever present in the game.

H

[Ali]

Hi H!

Santa lives here in Finland (in Korvatunturi) and he certainly will not leave before we Finns get the presents!

Cheers,

Ali

[Holien]

Ali stop sniffing around here and go and play with Rudolf....

H

[Treeburst155]

OK then, I'm hard at work crunching scores. Below is the input file I'm using. If you see an incorrect score for one of your games, speak up. The results will be posted within a couple hours.

# Emilville_Exit

Tero 13 Fate 87
Mikeydz 36 a1steaks 64
JonS 30 Big_X 69
Frunze 31 Juha_A 66
Heavy_Drop 26 Saport 66
Cuzn 9 TabPub 88
Mike8g 31 Wadepm 67
Cpl_Carrot 31 Strider 68
Jim_Liang 16 Visom 83
Michael_Reddy 54 Jack Trap 46

Ali 75 Lopaka 25
Holien 69 The_Capt 31
MickOZ 13 Combined_Arms 86
Spanish_Bombs 17 Kanonier_R 80
U8led 10 Jeb 90
Jon_L 22 Vadr 77

# Lab_Rats_In_Norway

Tero 24 Boris 68
a1steaks 57 Cpt_T 43
mPisi 62 White4 38
Frunze 59 JonS 41
Big_X 12 Juha_A 88
Heavy_Drop 61 JJelinek 39
Mike8g 50 Cuzn 43
TabPub 14 Wadepm 86
Jim_Liang 44 Cpl_Carrot 48
Strider 21 Visom 79
Bertram 12 Jack Trap 88

Holien 36 Ali 64
Lopaka 47 The_Capt 45
Spanish_Bombs 50 MickOZ 50
Combined_Arms 37 Kanonier_R 63
Jon_L 69 U8led 31
Jeb 27 Vadr 58

# North_Of_Epron

Boris 43 Fate 57
JonS 32 Juha_A 68
Big_X 69 Frunze 31
JJelinek 26 Saport 74
Hobo 66 Heavy_Drop 33
TabPub 78 Mike8g 22
Cpl_Carrot 60 Visom 36
Strider 23 Jim_Liang 77
EASY_V 29 Jack Trap 71
Bertram 50 Michael_Reddy 47

Ali 67 The_Capt 33
Lopaka 23 Holien 77
MickOZ 52 Kanonier_R 48
Combined_Arms 58 Spanish_Bombs 38
U8led 64 Vadr 36
Jeb 23 Jon_L 77

Treeburst155 out.

[Treeburst155]

Below are the Nabla scores for each individual scenario. With this list you can see who the "Scenario Champions" were. This may be of some interest to the non-prize eligible players.

"Emilville Exit"

Ali 1.15
Holien 1.11
Michael_Reddy 0.92
Jeb 0.85
TabPub 0.84
Fate 0.78
Combined_Arms 0.77
Visom 0.68
Kanonier_R 0.61
Vadr 0.44
Mikeydz 0.35
Frunze 0.15
Mike8g 0.12
Cpl_Carrot 0.09
Saport 0.02
JonS 0.02
Heavy_Drop -0.02
Big_X -0.02
Strider -0.09
Wadepm -0.12
Juha_A -0.15
a1steaks -0.35
Jon_L -0.44
Spanish_Bombs -0.61
Jim_Liang -0.68
MickOZ -0.77
Tero -0.78
Cuzn -0.86
U8led -0.87
Jack_Trap -0.98
The_Capt -1.42
Lopaka -1.60

"Labrats in Norway"

Juha_A 1.05
Jack_Trap 1.05
Wadepm 1.03
Visom 0.93
Jon_L 0.82
Boris 0.80
mPisi 0.64
Vadr 0.62
Heavy_Drop 0.60
Ali 0.57
Kanonier_R 0.53
Frunze 0.53
a1steaks 0.46
Mike8g 0.30
Lopaka 0.18
Spanish_Bombs 0.12
Jim_Liang 0.00
Cpl_Carrot 0.00
MickOZ -0.12
The_Capt -0.18
Cuzn -0.30
Cpt_T -0.46
JonS -0.53
Combined_Arms -0.53
Holien -0.57
JJelinek -0.60
Jeb -0.62
White4 -0.64
Tero -0.80
U8led -0.83
Strider -0.99
TabPub -1.18
Big_X -1.23
Bertram -1.23

"North Of Epron"

Jon_L 0.93
Jim_Liang 0.93
Holien 0.93
TabPub 0.89
Saport 0.88
Jack_Trap 0.83
Juha_A 0.76
Big_X 0.70
Ali 0.65
Hobo 0.63
U8led 0.55
Cpl_Carrot 0.48
Fate 0.43
Combined_Arms 0.41
MickOZ 0.01
Michael_Reddy 0.01
Kanonier_R -0.01
Bertram -0.01
Spanish_Bombs -0.41
Boris -0.43
Visom -0.48
Vadr -0.55
Heavy_Drop -0.63
The_Capt -0.65
Frunze -0.70
JonS -0.76
EASY_V -0.84
JJelinek -0.92
Mike8g -0.93
Strider -0.99
Lopaka -0.99
Jeb -0.99

Next, the final Nabla Scores of the prize eligible players, thus giving us our champions:

Tourney One

Ali...0.790
Holien...0.490
The_Capt...-0.750
Lopaka...-0.803

Tourney Two

Kanonier Reichmann...0.377
Combined Arms...0.217
MickOZ...-0.293
Spanish Bombs...-0.300

Tourney Three

Jon L...0.437
Vadr...0.170
Jeb...-0.253
U8led...-0.383

Congratulations to Ali, Kanonier Reichmann, and Jon L!! You three are the ROW II Champions! Ali and Kanonier will receive the wines, and Jon L will receive the three VCR war movies. WineCape and I will be in touch very soon to get your physical addresses.
______________________________________________

Note: A score of 1.0 would be a win at the level of the standard deviation from the median. A score of 0 would mean you were on the median. Negative scores mean below median.

If you finished all three games (reported a score), and would like to know your final Nabla score, simply add your scores for each scenario (posted above) and divide by three. You may find you did rather well compared to the prize eligible players.

Treeburst155 out.

[Holien]

Congrats to all three...

:D

Now to get ready for my third attempt...

As for Lab Rats...

Let the debate begin... If we are allowed.

H

[Treeburst155]

Hi Holien,

Yes, I think we can move over to the scenario forum and start discussing these three battles. I do not know who the scenario designers are. Scott Boston or Kingfish will have to let us know this. Are you going to start the thread? Maybe a thread for each scenario would be better.

Treeburst155 out.

[Holien]

Done,

;)

As I was... (He He He)

Thanks TB for all your efforts and time it is a big commitment and I do enjoy them.

To play the games against such great opponents is the cream cake for me.

:D

The memories of White4 and the mountains,
the battle against JK and his banter in the first one,
the slow winter assualt with KF,
the banter with CDIC and horror of the night,
the speed with which Wolfie fell,
the luck of non bogging stugs,
the use of 88's,
the damn Tigers and that fine chap from NZ....

I could go on and on, but all those are worth far more than a few bottles (as fine as they might be) from SA.

;)

Well thats what I will be saying to myself as I cry myself to sleep. :(

Cheers and thanks for all the fish...

H

P.s. I just got a hug and a well done from my babe, she is going to comfort me....

;)

Night all....

[ December 15, 2002, 06:08 PM: Message edited by: Holien ]

[John Kettler]

The bloodbath got even worse this turn, with many of my men being shot down like rabid dogs and Fate's losing some as well. All this was on my right. Where are Boris and Tero? Had I gotten but a few turns, Treeburst155 would at least have had BorisvsJK to score.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Treeburst155]

Don't worry about that, John. Just enjoy your tourney game(s). That's the real purpose of the tourneys anyway. Hopefully your two missing opponents will turn up.

Treeburst155 out.

[Vadr]

Congrats to the winners!

Well played all! See you in RoW III!

VAdr

[CombinedArms]

Congrats to the winners, KR, Ali and JonL.

Cheers to TB and WineCape for a very fun and well run tournament!

On to ROW, where the Wrecking Crew (my proposed name) will meet again!

[John Kettler]

Avete victores!

I can't speak for Fate's troops, but let me merely observe that many promotion opportunities are now available among mine, this the result of extraordinary devotion to duty in the face of fire worse than withering. Can anyone say CQB?

Regards,

John Kettler

[Frunze]

Wow, I thought I got hosed in the finals, but I as far as Nabla scores, I'm barely below the median, and slightly better than I did in the regular season.

Sure I lost as Allies in Emilville Exit, but so did everybody else, and they weren't playing against an UberFinn....I got no excuse for getting wiped out north of Epron, though.

[Treeburst155]

Now it's time to announce the names of the scenario designers who brought you the final round. They are:

Emilville Exit - Wyatt "wwb" Barnett
Lab Rats In Norway - Kevin Kinscherf
North of Epron - David "Stix" James

Thanks, guys! Thanks also to the entire Boots & Tracks design team for making the tourney possible.

The scenarios each have a separate thread on the scenario forum. Feel free to head on over and have your say about the scenarios. The feedback is always appreciated.

Treeburst155 out.

[Juha Ahoniemi]

Originally posted by Frunze:

Sure I lost as Allies in Emilville Exit, but so did everybody else, and they weren't playing against an UberFinn....I got no excuse for getting wiped out north of Epron, though.I was Far from Uber myself :mad: -pointed to stupid self
My infamous greed cost me another game (remember that mass-murderer StuG?)
Hell, I don't know what else should I have done in that scenario. Of course I'm wondering what the hell others did! :D

Anyway, I made a quick calculations about our "shadow finals"-section:

Juha 1,66
Frunze -0,02
BigX -0.55
JonS -1,27

I think I must be pleased about my performance, but still...
Methinks a rematch will be in order with You Frunze. Some day....

-Juha

[Cpl Carrot]

Well those results confirm everythign I said all along. I am an average player.

Congrats to the winners. I hope you enjoy your wine/videos.

Cpl Carrot

[Frunze]

You said your other two opponents surrendered to you. Sounds pretty Uber to me. And you did beat me in Emilville, just not badly enough to beat the median.

Rematch? Sure. E-mail me if you want.

[Holien]

Cpl, I have my eye on you young Ladie....

You are the dark horse and to be watched carefully.

;)

H

[Juha Ahoniemi]

Frunze, how about taking that rematch in CMBB? I sure could use some practice before ROWIII kicks in! I'll drop You email today...

[WineCape]

CONGRATS TO ALI + KR + JON_L!!!!!

Ali and KR, send me your full delivery address at WineCape@global.co.za so that I can post your 6-bottle wine prizes. Do you guys want a mix of South African whites/reds, or just the former/latter? Let me know.

A great thanks to all the participants for your participation and to Mike Meinecke, without whom this will not be possible at such pleasurable levels.

RoW III (CMBB) is kicking off in Jan. '03, so hope to see some of you guys there battling it out on a new game platform.

Sincerely,
Charl Theron
http://www.capetourism.org/images/header_Winelands02.gif
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
</font> Sponsor of the (now infamous) Invitational (Ari Maenpaa)</font> Sponsor of the 2 WineCape Tourneys (Fangorn’s Brazilian customs drank the wine prize up! + KiwiJoe)</font> Sponsor of the Nordic Championships in honor of Nabla (His scoring system revolutionized CM tourney play (http://www.cis.hut.fi/jarmo/nabla-system/manual-alpha.pdf))</font> RoW I/II/III/~ tourney sponsor (Wreck/Ali+Kanonnier+Jon_L/~)</font> Grateful donateur to the drinking habits of BTS (Baldy received the Fat Bastard Chardonnay! (http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=024924))</font> ”Thank You” donation send to Manx (He used to run the “sexiest CMBO modsite on the net”)</font> Donation send to Team Boots & Tracks (http://www.militarygameronline.com/boots_tracks/) for their splendid RoW scenarios</font> Donation send to Gordon Molek for his outstanding CMMOS (http://www.combatmission.com/cmmos/cmmos.asp) utility (Thereby making the installing of CM mods a breeze) </font> Sponsor-to-be of Pengville’s “Gamey Bastard” tourney (In honor of Seanachai + Lars for showing an act of kindness to an outerboarder (http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=003586#000000) - Well, bribery does pay.)
</font>I have never read a review that made me less sure of humanity's ability to finish out the decade, let alone the next millenium.
Obviously this 'Reviewer' (http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/launchreview.asp?reviewid=125901) [of CMBB] is capable of using a computer, and even finding employment (or at least the right to display their almost inspired lack of intelligence under the auspices of an organization), but it's equally clear that they're both incapable, and unashamed of their inability, to actually come to grips with something that requires more intelligent focus and mental participation than an arcade game. On this planet thousands are daily made homeless, crippled, and even killed in pointless and heart-rending incidents of political, ethnic and religious conflict. If any such incident had managed to whack this reviewer, we'd have to consider it worth the anguish –Seanachai, CMBB Forum, 10/12/2002.

[ December 16, 2002, 06:52 AM: Message edited by: WineCape ]

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Thank you very much Mike for all your efforts in making the tournament happen and slavishly posting updates throughout as well as calculating the scores etc. It must be a labour of love because why else would you do it? One must also not forget Nabla who created the basis on which to score "unbalanced" scenario's in the first place.

Thanks also to Charl for his generosity in providing such an impressive prize for being lucky enough to scrape through the 2nd round. I'm certainly looking forward to sampling some fine wines from South Africa (and comparing them with our fine local selection from the Barossa Valley & McLaren Vale).

Finally, without the scenario's there would be no ROW II in the first place so the efforts of Kevin, Wyatt & Stix are also greatly appreciated in designing the field of battle in the first place... although I have a small bone to pick with Stix as I thought North of Epron was pretty brutal for the Germans! ;)

Regards

Jim R.

[Mick_Oz]

Just wanted to add my thanks to Mike, Carl and the intrepid scenario designers for another great tourney.... outstanding effort as usual!

And don't listen to KR... as his opponent in North of Epron, I think his men didn't suffer nearly enough. And what an oversight, Jim, in not mentioning the Hunter and Margaret River in your ode to local Aussie vino! :D Typical South Australian chauvinism!

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Never heard of the Hunter Valley & Margaret River. Are they known for their beetroot growing areas?

One area I should most definitely have mentioned was the Coonawarra however. The best damn reds in the world are produced there (not that I've tasted any South African wines yet so I may have to withold my judgement).

Regards

Jim R.

[Spanish Bombs]

Congrats to all the winners, and especially KR, whose victory I had no small part in contributing to. Thanks to TB, Winecape and the whole B&T team. I am fortunate that the bitter taste of defeat in the finals will soon be washed by the sweet taste of victory in ROW III. Or not. Either way it'll be a blast.

[Ali]

Santa didn't leave me without presents ;)

Thanks for all the organizers, sponsors and my fellow gamers who made this excellent tournament possible.

See you all in CMBB...

Cheers,

Ali

[John Kettler]

Boris has at last been heard from, bearing the sad tidings that he didn't get the last turn I sent him. Fate and I are trying to determine whether or not he's current on turns from me. Resent turns to both. Tero has apparently been abducted by aliens.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Holien]

JK I think you will find that Tero is in fact an Elf and rather busy in Finland at the moment helping Santa to full fill his orders from all the kids around the world.

:D

H

[WineCape]

Roger. I have received both Ali and KR's e-mails wishing for a red wine in toto XMAS wish list. I'll send you my recommendation during this week gentlemen.

Please remember that the wines will be send via snailmail (postage, i.e. 12 weeks transit), so it will be a very late XMAS gift for your brilliant efforts. The 6-box wine cartons will be insured, and you might pay some duties, if at all. I'll mark it as a "GIFT" anyway, so if the Postmaster had a nice cup of coffee in the morning come when the parcels arrive at his beloved Post Office, he might just let you receive the wines without filling in too much paper work.

Await my reply gents! Congratulations again.

KR, I thank you for your kind counter-offer of some Aussie great reds, but if you taste some SA wines and compare the brilliant pricing of SA wines, you might just find that the scales have tipped ever so slightly in favour of the SA vino. smile.gif

Sincerely,
Charl Theron
http://www.capetourism.org/images/header_Winelands02.gif
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
</font> Sponsor of the (now infamous) Invitational (Ari Maenpaa)</font> Sponsor of the 2 WineCape Tourneys (Fangorn’s Brazilian customs drank the wine prize up! + KiwiJoe)</font> Sponsor of the Nordic Championships in honor of Nabla (His scoring system revolutionized CM tourney play (http://www.cis.hut.fi/jarmo/nabla-system/manual-alpha.pdf))</font> RoW I/II/III/~ tourney sponsor (Wreck/Ali+Kanonier+Jon_L/~)</font> Grateful donateur to the drinking habits of BTS (Baldy received the Fat Bastard Chardonnay! (http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=024924))</font> ”Thank You” donation send to Manx (He used to run the “sexiest CMBO modsite on the net”)</font> Donation send to Team Boots & Tracks (http://www.militarygameronline.com/boots_tracks/) for their splendid RoW scenarios</font> Donation send to Gordon Molek for his outstanding CMMOS (http://www.combatmission.com/cmmos/cmmos.asp) utility (Thereby making the installing of CM mods a breeze) </font> Sponsor-to-be of Pengville’s “Gamey Bastard” tourney (In honor of Seanachai + Lars for showing an act of kindness to an outerboarder (http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=003586#000000) - Well, bribery does pay.)
</font>

[John Kettler]

Boris and I appear to be back on track. Three turns to go! Fate got the turn I resent, but I'm unsure whether he sent one in reply. Why? I
couldn't get Netscape to work today (crashes immediately), and AOL autocorrupts game files. It barely works either. Tero's still AWOL.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Boris and I mutually annihilated each other this turn in a concentrated slaughter the likes of which I've never seen before in CMBO. Sixty seconds of force vaporization! Am continuing the trend. Sent orders in my bloodbath against Fate.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Still more slaughter in the latest from Boris. Sent him the movie to see what he wants done next.
He's way too close for my comfort. Fate and I have reduced each other to human chutney, but the fight goes on. The next turn will be important.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Boris Balaban]

Originally posted by John Kettler:
Boris and I mutually annihilated each other this turn in a concentrated slaughter the likes of which I've never seen before in CMBO. Sixty seconds of force vaporization! Am continuing the trend. Sent orders in my bloodbath against Fate.

Regards,

John KettlerI still have enough of a force but I have run out of turns :mad:
I should have made a quicker run to my left side instead of running through the woods :rolleyes:

[John Kettler]

The battle against Boris is a done deal, in that final orders have been issued and sent. The final movie remains unseen, as does the butcher's bill. Am hoping Boris will send it back before departing for his two weeks of Florida vacation. Got something from Fate but will have to get Netscape to connect before I can see the latest iteration of exsanguination.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Treeburst155]

How come I get this vivid mental image of John playing CM on a computer with a blood spattered monitor, keyboard, and mouse?

Treeburst155 out.

[John Kettler]

Because it's a pretty accurate description of the virtual horror! The latest movie from Fate only enhances the ghastliness, so I sent it back.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Tero's reappeared! Evidently I didn't get the last turn he sent me a week ago. Go figure! Have resent him my last turn, and wonder of wonders, it actually went out on Netscape when I hit Send. This is the first time it's worked since November 8th.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Netscape's not sending E-mail today, but I actually got the final movie and screen from Boris. Will send Game Report to Treeburst155, since Boris is now out of town. This marks the completion of my first game in the RoW II Finals. Still need to write the AAR, though. Fate and I have three turns left, and I issued orders for the next turn.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Tero and I are back on track at last. Watched a movie and issued orders.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Treeburst155]

It's good to see your opponents have not given up, John. Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.

[John Kettler]

Tero and I tore a strip from each other this turn. Sent him the movie as proof. Fate and I sent more good men to untimely deaths this turn, with more scheduled (his, I hope) for the next. If the seismic model is appropriate, something may be on the verge, for AOL crashed twice while sending a turn and Netscape took four tries to connect.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Fate and I actually had a blood free turn. Cause?
Mutual exhaustion! Sent him the restful movie.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Treeburst155]

No carnage?!?! It's against the tourney rules for units to become exhausted before dying. Fight on, I tell you, FIGHT ON!! :D

Treeburst155 out.

[John Kettler]

Final orders issued in the macerator against Fate.
Untold horrors ordered unleashed in the next turn against Tero. I fully expect I'll get similar presents in reply.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

I did quite well in the gift exchange. In fact, many of Tero's gift givers have permanently, er,
departed. No final movie yet from Fate.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Treeburst155]

Macerators and horrors....that's more like it. Whew, I thought you were losing your fighting edge for awhile there, John.

Fight On!!

Treeburst155 out.

[John Kettler]

No loss of fighting spirit, but combat resources are scarce, moreso since we shot each other up this turn. Also apparently scarce are basic math skills. This turn was the penultimate turn, not the previously reported ultimate turn. I get to sweat out yet another one. Nothing from Tero so far.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Fate]

In the museum of the hard to believe, I'm finished all my games, including the Famed Defense of the Heavy Schnapps Plant. Kudos to John K. for perservering and maintaing a sense of humour during his connection dificulties.

Treeburst, when John sends the results in, could you send me a copy of the results thus far?

kirkcm@telus.net

[John Kettler]

The final turn against Fate has been played, but I have no idea a) what happened or b) who won. Maybe it'll all come into focus when I see the tally and map. What I saw was beyond weird, and that was after watching it twice.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Well John, it seems clear that Fate feels that you have lost since he's requesting you to send the results to Mike. It appears that "fate" has worked against you this time.

What I'm particularly looking forward to are your typically vivid and comprehensive AAR's to follow.

Regards

Jim R.

[ December 22, 2002, 07:28 PM: Message edited by: Kanonier Reichmann ]