Scramble either of those sea zones and how many planes?
BM 23 Playoff Final Gamerman (L+4) vs Farmboy (X)
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I’m starting to doubt you will give up before January 1
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Well… a number of thoughts
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Yes, it’s December 31, last opportunity for me to get 6 games and enjoy? next year’s playoffs
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It’s fine because I can see I will not win. The timing is amazing. Even though I took many days between moves sometimes, we made it. The first ever championship game (I think) to end 1 year after the playoffs start, and almost certainly the first time it was needed for one of the participants to qualify for the next!
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Russia should fall G19 even without you being very aggressive. Even if you take your sweet time, it will go down soon and I’m not strong enough to face Germany and Japan with only 1 front each. (India barely counts)
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I should have left more India planes in the mideast to prop up Moscow, but it would only delay a turn and the planes are needed in India for offense.
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Although I perceived various weaknesses in your game, the grand strategy and your experience and my lack thereof were the difference, in my view.
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I didn’t know what your grand strategy was going to be, and it has become obvious that I still play the Balanced Mod too similarly to out of the box.
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The dice were amazingly fair, I thought. We had 2 big battles, Bryansk I and II, and I came out a little short, but overall all dice were in a pretty fair range I think. It’s harder to tell when you’re a participant. That said, losing 2 Russian fighters to AA at the beginning of Bryansk and getting slightly below average dice after that was a significant setback. But by itself, definitely can’t use as an excuse for losing. (See above excuses LOOOOL)
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Not only do you not blunder, but with your experience you’ve seen most of the tricks in the book. I couldn’t muster enough of the type of units I needed to really do something sneaky that could tip the balances. I had a UK bomber lurking in Moscow hoping to attack a 112 fleet and land in an American taken Norway. But you are too good for that.
CONGRATULATIONS
First championship!!All I can do now is try to win the next championship in 6 months to keep you from reigning for a whole year loooolll
Pop off a couple extra fireworks tonight in Canada, you are the CHAMP!!
I will cry into my soda bottle and settle for playing on my snooker table with cousins tonight.
No, I should be thrilled to be the runner-up.
See you in next year’s championship where you are #1 and I am #3 seed?! Bad karma for you ;) If Adam doesn’t join.Note you also retain your position ahead of me in lifetime BM
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G gamerman01 referenced this topic on
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@gamerman01 thanks! It was a great and very fun game. And while I think the dice probably balanced out too there were certainly moments if the dice hadn’t gone so badly for you where you might have gotten it early (And of course I’m referring to Bryansk here).
I hadn’t had a lot of time to consider Germany’s next turn but on my brief look, I was debating between going for Moscow the next turn (and conceding Normandy) or keeping the allies out of Europe and delaying Moscow by a turn or too.
I thought I was in a strong position in this game the last few rounds, and that I should be able to win it if I could avoid major mistakes or dicings. But I felt that the dice in G17 also made that more likely. I picked battles that were safe to win, but there was lots of room for strong defensive roles to really make me pay and put the outcome more in doubt. I was lucky the dice went my way there too.
Your allied play was a amazing. Very creative and solid and I had to be very careful.
Glad you are in the tournament again!
Have to run, but more to say later.
Happy New Years!
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@farmboy said in BM 23 Playoff Final Gamerman (L+4) vs Farmboy (X):
Have to run, but more to say later.
I would like that
Happy New Years!
To you too!
And I see the win also pushed you above me in All-time
So I have more motivation than before llloooolll -
@farmboy said in BM 23 Playoff Final Gamerman (L+4) vs Farmboy (X):
I hadn’t had a lot of time to consider Germany’s next turn but on my brief look, I was debating between going for Moscow the next turn (and conceding Normandy) or keeping the allies out of Europe and delaying Moscow by a turn or too.
I’m really glad. I kind of wanted to spare you the Germany turn
I also considered if you waited a turn, but that’s only 3 fighters from India unless I sent some UK, which maybe I would have. Still, 9 units cranked out per turn compared to 3-4, with mech looking at UK and then driving full speed at Moscow. -
Congratulations, @farmboy and @gamerman01 !
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I think @JDOW provided a pretty good summary of our game. (thanks!) I had some random thoughts below.
One point worth noting is that while the axis had better odds in the first Bryansk battle, it was less risky for the Soviets than it appeared. For one, the odds were close (38-62). Secondly, a Soviet win was likely game winning. Third, the balance of forces was such that I would lose more high combat value units early (defensive inf vs offensive inf so a good first roll could change the odds dramatically and the Soviets could retreat if not). Fourth, even if I won, the most likely outcome was heavy attrition on both sides. And that probably would have favoured the allies as I wouldn’t be able to take and hold Volgograd and Caucasus given the allied pressure from both Moscow and the ME.
Instead, the first round went great for me. Round 1 I hit 1.33 less than average but two of my hits were from 3 AA roles and you hit 8 under. Round 2 and 3 were closer but both rounds favoured me. So while at the end of it, we were both diminished, the Soviets were far worse off than expected (down about 15 units more than I was and 2 of those were air rather than land).
So going for this was not as much of a gamble as one might think. I do think a mistake here may have been the decision to continue after the first round. And there was a second battle of Bryansk that was a similar situation that I think was also a mistake (at least after the first round) as once the battle started to go south, the Soviets were losing units that were more valuable to Moscow’s defense.I’ll note here too that given the risk, it may also have been better for me not to create the opportunity. But I felt if I didn’t go for it then, I would not get another chance at getting Volgograd and Caucasus, and so not to do it would be game losing as well.
An alternative to the attack on Bryansk was to use blockers to delay the Germans from getting Volgograd and Caucasus forcing me to move the stack South if I wanted to take and hold them. I had a small Italian can opener available, so the cost of blockers would have been higher, but the Soviets (and the British) had units to spare. I haven’t perhaps thought this through enough, but I thought that was the other option here and one I might have tried for instead in your shoes.
I also didn’t try to take Moscow or India early because I simply couldn’t. There were a few moments where I might have had decent odds, but nothing certain and I felt more confident that I could get the game economically and those would come later. That certainly became the grand strategy. At the end of the game, I was in a position to take Moscow with 100% odds and I think was perhaps a couple of turns away from putting similar pressure on India, but it took quite a while.Your allied play is quite challenging. Efficient and I always felt lots of pressure from multiple directions (and often that pressure wasn’t immediately obvious so I had to be very careful).
One critique I had though was that a lot of resources in the pacific were caught up in land units defending Honolulu, Sidney, and the Caroline Islands. That does make those more of a challenge to take, but I thought a lot of those units ended up being wasted. I always had the naval superiority to keep the US on the outside of the pacific but there were a couple of moments where it was somewhat close. A couple of more carriers or 5-10 more subs might have made the difference and so I wonder if that would have been a better use of resources.
The dice went back and forth but might have helped me when I needed them more. I suffered a bit in round 1 but Bryansk 1 went great for me and 2 favoured me too, if not as much. The Japanese air attack on the Chinese inf stack in round 2 also went as well as could reasonably be hoped. The game might have gone very differently if the dice had been different in any one of those.
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@gamerman01 said in BM 23 Playoff Final Gamerman (L+4) vs Farmboy (X):
- The dice were amazingly fair, I thought. We had 2 big battles, Bryansk I and II, and I came out a little short, but overall all dice were in a pretty fair range I think. It’s harder to tell when you’re a participant. That said, losing 2 Russian fighters to AA at the beginning of Bryansk and getting slightly below average dice after that was a significant setback. But by itself, definitely can’t use as an excuse for losing. (See above excuses LOOOOL)
I am pretty happy to read that you knew exactly what happened at Bryansk and I don’t have to give the biased loser version.
I did not remember that I also rolled 7 hits under in round 1, but I see that now. Yeah, that’s a killer. Most important roll of the game, most important time.
Very gracious for you to highlight that!@gamerman01 said in BM 23 Playoff Final Gamerman (L+4) vs Farmboy (X):
and it has become obvious that I still play the Balanced Mod too similarly to out of the box.
I’m conditioned all the way back to Classic that the Axis have to be very urgent before the Allies catch up and crush.
I still expect Japan to bum rush India, then turn around and threaten Sydney/Hawaii, especially from the Carolines, sucking all America away from Europe. And the Germans to roar after Moscow and simply turn to mideast money and position if unsuccessful. If the Allies can ward this off, the Allies win.
Hence the defenses of Sydney and Hawaii, as you rightly point out.
After a 2nd lesson that there is another, maybe even better way for the Axis to win, I will adapt.
I really enjoyed the kind words and critique
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@gamerman01 said in BM 23 Playoff Final Gamerman (L+4) vs Farmboy (X):
I’m conditioned all the way back to Classic that the Axis have to be very urgent before the Allies catch up and crush.
I still expect Japan to bum rush India, then turn around and threaten Sydney/Hawaii, especially from the Carolines, sucking all America away from Europe. And the Germans to roar after Moscow and simply turn to mideast money and position if unsuccessful. If the Allies can ward this off, the Allies win.
uh, you caught me to play it the same way!
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Works until they see it and then do the sleeper hold
You’ve had a lot of success, pacifier, what do you think?
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do you mean the win over Andrew? Ya, maybe my most brilliant game and his weakest - so it worked out
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