Posts made by BigBlocky

Paratroops just seemed to really change the game, we never played it often enough however. It really hurt the japs as the US could take island too easily. Having the germans drop 1 infantry/round into africa with no way to stop it sucked. Even if you put a piece out for defence, 1 paratroop infantry and a few fighters hurts. Germany kept taking libya, the allies need 6-8 dudes to defend against 1 bomber, 1 paratrooper and a few fighters. If the germans take africa, then with a bomber in French W. Africa they could take brazil…. Maybe it should be tried a few times to iron out some issues? I’m convinced that as is, the game is fairly slanted to the Allies. Nothing but bidding seems to address this fundemental flaw.

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If ya don’t put the german fleet in West Med ya don’t have to defend against it’s attack :-) I’m really hooked on the Germans building an xport and moving the med fleet against the brit sub. Mind you we play no russian first attack, germans get jet power, japs get super sub and IC’s are open to anybody. No bidding so the Germans in effect must do or die on T1. If you win and take egypt then only the brit bomber can attack German navy, the new xport or the xport and BB off egypt (unless the brit sub wins….). I think as the brit I would trade 2 air to prevent the germans from getting any more troops to africa. Germany just can’t afford to build another transport past T1. Even a lone bomber against an xport and BB, we both hit, you take the xport, what good is the BB now? If you put troops in algeria it’s worse, as the allies I’d sacrifice a fair bit to kill your xport AND the troops you bring over on T1.

Suds, I actuallly did purchase the CD, still have the box bud damned if I can find the CD, been looking for 6 months…. I haven’t used Kaza yet… snickers I write applications for fortune500 companies but never used Kaza, I am getting old… :-) As soon as I get it we’ll line something up! :-)

Ozone, I’m kinda new here but have been reading pret’near all the new posts. The first thing I did when I got the game was to play each country myself, a complete game. Toss the dice but even out weird rolls… You attack 4 transports and all 4 hit… yeah it happens, but… Best to say just 1 hit or maybe 2. yeah, ya gotta be able to handle that but handle the average case first!

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What, you live in Port Colborne too Xi? smirk

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Depending on what exactly can hit the Brit home waters and what is left I often build a brit carrier, xport and inf on T1. Move surviving allied navy in, kill enemy navy around with air. On US turn she supplies 2 ftrs for carrier. If there is 1 brit xport left, you have 1 loaded carrier and 3 xports. 14D with 6 units and fodder. If the Germans have > 4 air units and the allies have only 14D with 6 units then perhaps a bit too risky. If you get that allied navy up on T1 then the allies take Finland on T2 and the benefits compound over the turns.

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I agree that the gov could trim the budget a bit, so lets just imagine a pie…… then make it a bit smaller. That is what we spend and it is good. Educate the kid of the loser parents so he doesn’t have to punk off rich folks to get by, instead if s/he shows promise the path is there to become a giant in some field.

Yanny, if you are in the 50% bracket you must be earning >$100,000, if your neighbour is in that bracket he is making like 25,000. You want him to pay more so you can pay less? And 50%? You should move to Ontario, Canada… Way lower… :-)

A flat tax again bites into marginal utility. 20% of a $30,000/year pay affects the quality of life way more than 20% of a $3,000,000/year pay. The guy making 30 mill a year should be happy to pay 9 mill to net 21 mill for the chance to milk a willing workforce of millions of content peasants.

If you want the rich to pay less by any tax system you can possibly imagine, the ugly reality is the poor pay more. If you think that having an even wider gap between the bill gates and the joe dirts of the world is better then examine the history of the empires that had a class of baron robbers who rapped the masses… Check your history books because they ALL failed. Sophistry is fine but blunt logic is better. The rich pay less then the poor pay more… Finee.

Now, is the tax system wacky? Yabetcha… Is having a society where a class of people (tax lawyers etc.) do nothing but shuffle papwers good? Nope. Cut the loopholes.

Waraxis…… They complain because it’s the way to get into power. It get’s very personal and vicious and stupid… If you are in the minority party you want to be the majority, and you try to make them look bad… But the majority doesn’t need the minority unlike the US congress. So the opposition asks an embarressing question of one member on the majority side, they reply and try to make fun of the minority… It might be silly, but when the PM wants something done and has a >50% majority he lays down the law, the loyal butlickers goosestep in unison and thus a new Canadian law gets on the books… :-) It sometime’s amazes me that Canada is always either #1 or in the top 5 at the UN best countries list. Then again, free Canuck beer buys alot…

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Out of position to Alaska perhaps. Again, it’s all about the current situation. I’m just saying that if the situation warrents knocking out German troops in Africa (yes you can show examples where it’s a bad move, in those cases don’t do it……) and you really wanted to do something with that transport off India, you might think about taking 1 or both the india infantry and hitting Egypt hard, with extra air power (ie Bomber) you might leave an infantry behind in India. The bomber could land in the Congo, Kenya, E. Africa or Syria. I say land in Kenya, and on T2 you can anything you want from Kenya. You lose the ability to bomb W. Europe and Germany granted on T2, but how often do you do that on T2? However, you gain the ability to bomb anywhere in the Med Sea and could attack ambitious Jap transports. Of course you better win that land battle in egpyt…

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Yanny… you think the British parliment is whacky, I’d suggest you watch my Canadian parliment in action but I’d fear you would lose respect for Canada, hell after 5 minutes of watching those clowns I lose respect for Canada. One thing I admire about the US political system is the 2 sides can sometimes work together. We have a ruling party and the opposition, it is the job of the opposition to oppose any and everything… When the opposition gets into power they maintaing the very things they promised to get rid off…

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Burnout…. You’re a bit of a drive since I am near Niagara Falls, but if you’re ever thinking about a trip…

Xi, if I could cross the border… Question, why only Canadians? Do you fear your fellow countrymen’s right to bear arms? snicker

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Suds, if only I could lose…… snickers Yeah, I’d love a game!

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I have to agree with Don. We tried paratroopers, cost 1 IPC more than INF, a bomber can fly 1 and NOT attack. We had to have the paratrooper have ZERO offense when air dropped and still it changed the game too much. Island hopping? Why not drop paratroopers with a ftr or two.

What DO you do to balance the game, bidding I guess but never tried it…… Yet.

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Burnout… If the brits build the carrier on T1, ya must move the existing transport, if the Germans have a bomber in W. Europe you are a bit of a bind, build 4 transports. There will be a hiccup as you won’t have equipment but that leaves 4 1s against 1 4 on the bomber attack. A safer bet is england save her money, the transport off canada moves south, the US builds 3 transports making 5 in that SZ bring on that lone German bomber that can’t be replaced in reality.

Xi, I’m not sure what your point is. As for my opponents trying something new. Having 2 transports, a sub and a battleship on Turn 5 for Germany is pretty good for them no? This is the second time you’ve mentioned this and I will agree with you once again. I wish somebody would try something new that works, after well over 100 games in 20 years I don’t see much new at all. To be honest, I feel like an old gun fighter hoping to lose one day… As for the AI… chuckles What AI? Play against the computer? What’s the point, try for victory in 2 rounds instead of 3?

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Yanny, how can you seriously claim that a progressive tax system (ie brackets) is not constitional? There is a concept called marginal utility, it means basically “How much does that extra really change your life”. A family of four with an income of 30,000 gets 5,000 more or 20%. For them that extra money might mean health insurance or an education for the kids. A family of four earning 30 million a year gets 20% more or an extra 5 million more. How much does their life change? More cavier for the dogs pet?

The US has the largest economy for 1 simple reason…. The life of the average joe is good enough he or she doesn’t seriously think about eating the rich, they are happy enough making a decent living and making some filthy rich. You make the rich richer at the expense of alienating the masses you have a situation life south america where the rich are truly afraid for their lives…

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Waraxis: It’s true that often governments do things their citizens don’t like, but they never do anything really radical. I wouldn’t want a government based on polls. Question, are you in favour of eliminating all tax? I bet more than 50% would say yes. Is that a good idea, nope…. I’m not sure a majority of Canadians were in favour of declaring war on Germany (2 years before the USA i might add :-) ), can anybody argue it was wrong to stop Hitler?

I don’t think Canadians transplant to the US in order to pay for health care, rather it’s a side effect. We do need to change some things, the governement should continue to pay but we need private enterprise to deliver it. Just cause a hospital needs light bulbs does not imply the government should own a light bulb plant… Did you know the USA spends 11% of their GDP on health care and yet 20% of the US public has no health care at all. Canada only spends 9% and everybody has coverage. Mind you there are waiting lists and we don’t have some of the cutting edge tech, partly to a system that can be improved, partly we don’t have the economies of scale the US has. Call me crazy but it seems counter-productive to employ hundereds of thousands of people to deny health care (HMO functionaries, insurance company beuracracies etc.) A blend of the best of both systems would do both countries a world of good.

Yanny: Canada is small country of 30 million not 40 :-)

Xi, the US kid who was beat was in Singapore not Vietnam and it was with a cane and all for spray painting 40-50 high end luxury cars…

I’ve got shogun but only just started playing it, lots of fun! Diplomacy is fun, and best when played with lots of players and lots of rooms to slink back to and negotiate. It’s been years since I played, we used to have a box to put your written moves down for each turn, of course nothing prevents you from showing your “allies” you move, stick it in the box, then slip in a new set of orders with “Supercedes previous orders”, backstarbbing is the name of the game…. :-)

Anybody here of a game called Nuke-war? A card game. What about a board game called apocalypse? Map of europe and north africa, 1 kind of piece, chains of various valued territries to get more men (2 green territories=1 man, 3 yellow=1, 4 tan=1 or 8 white=1). Combat was simple, you pick a # on a dice and so does the enemy. If the # is the same, you lose that # of men, if not, you win, he loses a unit and you get 1 stage to a new nuke missle or start a new missle with that stage. If the enemy is wiped out, you move that # of men in…

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I own the game and have played it lots of times over the years, a fun game and as usual, better with >4 people. I disagree with F_alk. You never really get THAT far ahead that if the other players don’t co-operate or better yet, harass you that you can soldier on for a few turns. If you’re in a tie you need more points in cards and trading cards, if you’re ahead then they can try and knock you down to 1 city and you don’t advance…. Again, with 5-6 players attacking you, you can’t coast for 2-3 turns… :-)

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I’m a masters of Orion and Civ junkee. I’ve had civ3 for years, you can get into some long games. Civ2 got to be a bit too easy, Civ3 on the hardest settings will drive you crazy, sadly, it’s not great tactics or strategy, albietly vastly improved. The game just cheats, you start out with 1 settler, computer has 3 and 10 troops…… So ya need a big world to have time to expand and long long games… Once you get 400-500 units the game really takes a long long time, they need a better interface, like um… would be nice to move a stack of 50 pieces all at once rather than point and click 50 times…

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The parties reflect the people…… It’s not like there are only 5 left wing parties and nobody has a choice… The majority votes left and the parties reflect that. There are some extremely right wing parties as well, facist really. Europe is left wing and anti-war because they have had some really major wars there in the last 200 years.

If you don’t like the government I guess you could go shoot some policemen or blow up some government buildings or you could… gasp vote the bastards out of office.

As for choice… Europe has way more choice, the USA has either democrat or republican. Most in Europe have 3-4 major parties.

Taxes in Canada are comparable to the States, toss in free health care and it’s about the same. The reason most Canadians leave is to advance, since the US has 10 times the size there is more room to advance. If you are the big fish in a little pond you can’t grow… It’s only natural that the best and brightest want to go where they can grow :-)

Tech as Russia? Why not build a carrier while you’re at it? With the no move for russia on T1, if you don’t put every single piece and build in Karelia except for 1 infantry in the Caucus you’re asking Germany to hammer you. Even if you do it’s about a 50/50 battle for Karelia…

Seriously though, if you are winning why bother with techs? If you can see the writing on the wall and you know it’s a matter of time then perhaps you might roll for techs in particular if you have air power. I was the USA and had a fleet of transports weakly defended but out of range of german air, the germans got long range and all of a sudden that fleet was in range and was sunk. The germans knew it was a matter of time once the convoy system got started to norway that he was doomed,