Best posts made by gamerman01

@MrRoboto said in Post League Game Results Here:

I always find it fascinating how in a game that does involve luck in quite a substantial way, some players are still so consistently strong and come out top of the league year in year out.

JWW used to say that.

Strategy/skill/experience/tactics, not blundering, and ability to adapt, like to bad dice, is much more influential than dice in G40 A&A. I think was true of AA50, too. Did I mention the psychological warfare, and imposition of will? Even speed of play can affect.

Consider - Every move in Monopoly except whether to get out of jail by paying money or using a card, is determined by dice or random cards. The entire path of your token for the entire game is pre-determined and you make decisions based on that. Yet with such a big role for dice, a better and more experienced player will rarely lose to an average or casual player.

@gamerman01 said in Post League Game Results Here:

OK, for those of you who don’t know, it’s a big deal that Mr. Roboto is back.

Last seen in 2019, he has played exactly 200 games of G40 in league play, from 2013 to 2019.

One of his highlights is ripping off 70 games in 2014, the iron man. He edged out Whackamatt who “only” had 69. 69 was not enough for Mr. Roboto, he had to have 70.

Welcome back Mr. Roboto, you deserve this re-introduction because you are a legend around here, for anyone who’s been around awhile. :guitar: :tada: :flag-jp:

I told you!! But even this tear surprises me. Obviously he misses A&A - right, MrRoboto?

It is fabulous to have @Adam514 back also, for sure. He keeps everyone humble.

Hi everyone, I had a new thought this morning.

I think there should be a backup league moderator in case I get hit by a truck or something.

Mainly, the standings spreadsheet that has years of history in it. Oh, I guess that would still be there and a new leader could just start a new one and do it better, but if someone would volunteer, I could give dual access to the standing spreadsheet. If I ever disappear, the new leader would need to ask Dave Jensen for moderator powers so that the stickied threads that are locked could be updated, like the rules and the league history results, etc.

Anyway, anyone wanna volunteer to be backup? No responsibilities unless I disappear. Unless you want them. Many years ago there have been dual moderators - it works.

I would train you briefly on how the standings/ranking spreadsheet has been done in the past.

I will politely refuse anyone who doesn’t have a lot of history or an excellent reputation here, to protect everyone.

It’s not like I’m going to retire, and I drive carefully and try not to consume TOO much sugar every day, but you know. Life insurance policy.

@MrRoboto said in Post League Game Results Here:

I always find it fascinating how in a game that does involve luck in quite a substantial way, some players are still so consistently strong and come out top of the league year in year out.

@crockett36 said

In my review of one of these big games, the players avoided big battles and it was almost entirely posturing, logistics and economics. There were probably 3 or 4 big battles, almost all taking place in the first round with high precentage odds going in.

It’s like when a general retreats without firing a shot because his position is untenable.

One more point from me - if you know your opponent is better than you and won’t give you shots on his units, you can in turn give him shots on yours that you other wise wouldn’t. If he’s so risk averse because he knows he’s awesome, then you can get away with leaving less defense. He still won’t attack it, and maybe if he does, you get lucky. But if you don’t roll dice, you’re toast, right? So at least up your chances by defending with fewer units.

I know that’s really hard to do and goes against our experience. We HATE to get attacked and destroyed. But when you’re up against Goliath, you’d better try a different strategy than just dying. Dying is not a strategy. :blush:

This is where the action in the league, on revamping the old rankings system is.

https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/40302/proposal-for-a-new-elo-based-ranking-system/2?_=1698764284876

This morning I just saw a whole new outcome when 2022 and some of 2021 data was added, and now I know that this revamped system is coming to all of us in 2024. Further improvements will be accomplished during November and December.

It has come to my attention that there is a new map with new sprites for G40. Indeed, the Balanced Mod 4 with 14 IPC bombers and Vichy ruleset is included.

I don’t know how much it’s been played and there could be bugs. My understanding is you can’t load up the game that you are playing right now, but you will start a new game to play this.

UHD World War II Global map in Triple A
Look under the experimental tab.
I think you need 2.5.22294 to see it, can’t use a .6
That’s AFAIK for now
It looks awesome, or if nothing else, a new look after all these years! If I had time to start a new game with someone, I WOULD, but I don’t!!
So it kinda kills me you will enjoy this before I do, but I will do my duty to fellow gamers and let the cat out of the bag!

A feature that quickly grabs my attention is bigger islands. Should be great.

Well… a number of thoughts

1. Yes, it’s December 31, last opportunity for me to get 6 games and enjoy? next year’s playoffs

2. 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!

3. 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)

4. 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.

5. Although I perceived various weaknesses in your game, the grand strategy and your experience and my lack thereof were the difference, in my view.

6. 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.

7. 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)

8. 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

I need to say -
I know it is 1/2/2024 and the 2024 league rules were just posted a couple days ago.

No one should feel ambushed by changes - the 2024 playoff rules can be changed. I just rolled the rules out on time this year, and it wasn’t long ago I entered all the data back to 2012, so there hasn’t been time for the protests/questions.

The 2024 playoffs being set by life-time ELO at 12/31/24 is open for discussion and I can always edit the rule. (It’s not set in stone)
Those playoffs are a year away.

Oysteilo’s questions are so helpful - you can’t really debate the change knowledgeably until you have some examples… until you see what the numbers do and what impact it would have on potential playoff participants. And this is what he’s getting at, and what we need to show you in order for you to be satisfied that you understand how it works

@Adam514 said in League General Discussion Thread:

@gamerman01 said in 2024 League Rules:

The nation placing a unit in a territory or sea zone must have started with a unit in said territory or sea zone prior to placing the bid.

I would say the default rules say yes it’s legal because of this wording

The term “unit” includes facilities as described in page 27 of the Europe 2nd edition rulebook, therefore facilities may be added with a bid, and another unit may be added to a territory with only a facility.

I would also say it’s in line with the default rules because the default rules even allow placing a unit on a territory that only has a facility (which would also seem unconventional to some)

@Adam514 said:

According to the bidding rules, they don’t explicitly prevent the bidding of land units in sea zones with transports/cruiser/BB. Is it legal to bid land units in sea zones?

Yes it is legal according to the default, which would govern if players don’t agree.

Remember that if both players agree, you can do whatever, including a Chinese bomber (that makes me sound like Cmdr Jennifer).
But yes, the default rules allow land units to sea zones (would be cargo on transport or marine on cruiser/battleship) on bid

Happy gaming!

Interview of @The_Good_Captain by Crockett36 has been posted to youtube - see the stickied interview thread within the league for a link.

The Good Captain is not an A&A.org league player, but is quite involved with A&A.org.

He is a real military man and WWII buff, and a huge fan of A&A Classic 2nd edition. You will be glad you watched the interview. Spoiler alert - he gives a brilliant explanation of the power and threat of the troop transport.

JDOW is on deck.

Another titan has been interviewed by crockett36

Take in @JDOW , who is a back to back league champion 2017 and 2018, and #2 ELO over-all all time!!!

https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/40629/video-interviews-of-league-players-by-crockett36/2

Uhhhh Holy cow.

JDOW tells all! He is debriefed! In a 1 hr+ interview, the professor can take you to school.

He seems to think he’s retired and competitive games of G40 take too much time away from other pursuits (hmm, that does make sense). So he just TELLS ALL! He’s not worried about you using his own knowledge and experience against him!

He still knows what he’s talking about and knows the board and situations by memory because he still watches games!
Take advantage! Enjoy!

Who’s interviewing next?

Has anyone seen the flying tigers on an airbase and actually make use of the extra space? 🐸

@axis-dominion

While that request is sitting there,
Tacs to 10, Fighters to 11 please
Maybe even subs to 7
Bombers to 13

I know my dreams will never come to fruition, so maybe I’ll get somebody cool like @oysteilo to play it with me

AD, cruisers might be OK at 12 if they are given anti-submarine capabilities of destroyers (along with marines being in play)

JUST FOR FUN

In my opinion AA is underestimated by many players

AA is a good deterrent to hit and run for at least 2 reasons:

1. Don’t take it as a casualty, and when only AA is remaining the enemy cannot retreat
2. With AA you can smash planes to the ground in a hit and run whereas infantry only cannot, because the attacker can take off only cheapest units and most likely lose no air

In addition, the unpredictability of taking out air before the first round attack can wreck an attack and if the attacker understands this, it is a deterrent.

I actually have that situation in a game right now - prospect of taking AA hits immediately threatens defense of fleet if fighters are lost.

I also lost a big game not long ago where one big factor was losing 2/3 Russian planes in the big stack attack vs. Germany. Without AA, it would be a much safer hit and run.

AA is subtle and nuanced. The battle calculator shows you the average, so that is very misleading when AA is involved.

It seems more of us want a less dicey game than a more dicey game. You make AA cost only 4 and games will be more dicey 🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲

We had that rule for many years, but it has been abolished effective January 1, 2024.

No limit.

@MuddSlinger I just got notification of your post this morning, and not sure why I’m just now seeing your post from 3 days ago.

I’m guessing, too, that maybe you are looking for the TripleA program, which automatically rolls all the dice in our games. For many of us, it’s been a long time, but I think you go here:

https://triplea-game.org/download/

If you get stuck on anything, reach out again

Welcome to the league! I hope you’ll be thrilled you found it. Ask anyone or post back here if you have any questions.

Huge benefits of the A&A.org league are:

1. Pool of players to play
2. Rating system established, so you can play the skill/experience level desired
3. Most players are known, have reputations, so you don’t have to play just random players
4. Moderator support
5. Established community of players who can answer your questions, and improve your game if wanted
6. You can make new acquaintances, friends
7. You can play the Balanced Mod or PtV mod or the Out of the Box G40 game
8. No commitment, no signup, and from your very first completed game you will be on the rankings board
9. Exciting, seeded playoffs starting each January. All can participate if meeting the minimum number of games requirement (only 3 for out of box)
10. FREE of charge

You may peruse the league rules and learn more, like how to see the rankings, in the stickied thread, here:
https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/40449/2024-league-rules?_=1722954102442

The league has been here for many years, so things are stable.
Happy gaming!

If anyone noticed,
The results tab in the Rankings spreadsheet got messed up recently
MrRoboto has been AWOL for about 4 months, but miraculously I was able to get the results filter working without figuring out how to do lookups.

So if anyone noticed this function was broken, it’s back and working again.

For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, go to the results tab of the ranking spreadsheet and type in a name or partial name of a player in the highlighted box.
You will instantly see every game they’ve ever played, which version, elo change, axis or allies taken, bids, who won.

Very valuable function

Congratulations to @farmboy !!

BACK TO BACK Balanced Mod 4 championship wins!! 🙌

Congratulations to @Adam514 as runner-up, who also has a championship of his own, 2019. 🙌

Both are entered in the league history of championship winners and 2nd place finishers, and deserve all due awe, honor and recognition ✨✨✨

If you want to learn, to observe brilliance, or both, then review the game in Triple A