Posts made by Mazer Rackham

Hi Jen.

My last post was deleted which is odd since the mods let a post from Daggaz stand where he’s flaming, baiting, and calling names, but such is forum “justice”  :-D

I’ll reiterate the important point from the deleted post: I don’t believe there is any place on CSub where we claim the articles are perfect or bulletproof without it being a tongue-in-cheek comment.

If you can find a counter point, wonderful.  Post it.  I don’t think you can find anything along those lines where it’s not meant fascetiously.

Back up your assertion or retract it  :-D

@daggaz:

Wow. What an arrogant crock of siht.

Daggaz, I, for one, was touched by your humility and openness to new ideas.  Clearly your expertise is unrivaled; I don’t know why other people bother to post without checking with you first!

You, sir, are the pinnacle example of what open forums are all about.

Thank you for taking the time to post.

Thank you for being you.

Whoa! WHOA!

In no way am I acting smug; I am smug.

And my point was that you’re critical of things you don’t understand, which is still quite true.

Have a spiffy day!

Actually Daggaz, the subscription system works remarkably well at keeping out people who criticize things before they understand them.

Such as yourself.

OH YES I DID!

:-D

Hey eum.

Solid ideas there.  For a long discussion of this topic, read the article on Caspian Sub.  It’s in the Policies Papers folder in the group’s files.

In fact, there are about 40+ pages of analysis on the Baltic that branch out into sucker punches and suicide fleets.  The first article is called “CSubP11 Baltic Part I - German Purchase”.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Caspian_Sub/

Peace

Fellas,

There are a couple other instances where SBRs are the correct move.  Here’s from Caspian Sub article #08:

The Exceptions (when you SHOULD SBR)
We have established that the base economics of the SBR are not worth it, but there some possible exceptions where an SBR is desirable.  Those circumstances are when there is a sunk cost, an opportunity for dollar transfer, or the unStrategy.

Sunk cost refers to the fact that everyone except Russia starts with a bomber already on the board.  You’re not building your starting bomber, so it may not be worth 15 IPCs to you.  If you are in a defensive position, it is a lousy defensive piece.  In that case the economics and some opportunity costs don’t apply you.  Bomb away.

Dollar transfer refers to the concept that although an SBR may be a bad economic move in and of itself, you may not care because other investments may be less effective.  The US, for example, is far away from the Axis powers.  That player may decide that the fastest way to get in the game is to build the long-flying bombers just to get active quickly.  That is likely sub-optimal (see Policy Paper #02 on US transports), but it is one reason why some people like the strategy.  For instance, is it worth $4 American dollars to kill $3 German dollars?  In some instances it is.

And lastly there is Sweet Mother Luck (the unStrategy).  Some guys like to take their chances.  If the AA guns are cold, you can rock a paycheck pretty badly.  But this isn’t exactly a ‘strategy’; it is more of a prayer.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Caspian_Sub/

Hey LT04.

Close, but there is one odd exception: if your capital falls (say Moscow to Japan) and you take another capital (say Berlin to Russia) then Russia gets the money from the Germans and can spend it the next turn.

Very minor point, but I just wanted to note the oddity.  You can’t collect income in the collect income phase, but you can collect someone else’s income  :-D

Peace

Squire, sure you know me.  My old avatar was CrazyStraw ;-)

Quite a long time ago a whole bunch of people changed their avatars to characters from Ender’s game.  I jumped on that bandwagon - you must have missed that thread.

As for your comments on KJF, it is only in systems with odd victory conditions that KJF has a major following.  KJF is only viable when the Philippines is worth $13 and India is worth more than central Europe.

I have some really important fantasy football to work on today, and I have a deep need to kayak in the flood waters, so I won’t be very active on this thread.  But you have my 2 cents.

@squirecam:

Lets just say I know what I am talking about.

Let’s not get crazy here; I certainly wouldn’t say that about you.

KJF only works under the screwy tournament rules that don’t apply to the games generally discussed in this forum.  Folks here tend to play TripleA domination or other domination games, and for those games the paper’s conclusions still hold up quite well.

KJF works in gimmicky games with weird rules, not box or Triple A games.

But by all means, you are certainly free to boycott CSub.  I would hate to see your game crippled by such bad ideas.

Leaving the group is surprisingly easy to do, and then you wouldn’t be tempted to rely on CSub and it’s “poor” papers.

For anyone else that just wants to have some fun and learn about the game, here’s a link:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Caspian_Sub/

You know, I’ve used all of those except Midway.  Z26 is surprisingly handy for approaching Africa with a loaded Aussie transport depending on Axis bmr placement.  Greenland can be useful in nutty games where the UK gets sacked.

Wake can be pivotal for KJF.  Gibraltar is the lynchpin of the Med in the first couple rounds.  SFE can be handy for stalling Japan or landing US troops in KJF.  Crazy Ivan must be loved and cherished by SOMEONE.

But I have NEVER used the territory of Midway in any way, shape, or form.

@Bunnies:

Oh, but you say I can’t put an IC on the moon?  Well, watch this (turns around, pulls down pants, puts an IC on top)

Yeah.  Who’s superbad now?

Why is it that when I laugh at BPW I also feel shame?

You know, it’s not hard for a fish to survive in the desert if he’s floating in a wide river of slobbery kisses.

Good grief people, it’s not like DF is going to sign your paychecks…

You know, I’m not usually into game mods.  I play with the original board and ziplock bags, and that’s the way I like it (my only mods are markers glued back-to-back and combining ~8 sets for extra pieces).

But looking at the blog, I gotta admit that thing is freaking cool  :-D

Satchel, that table is a TANK!

Hm… A tank made out of the indestructible grey plastic.  Awesome lethality!

Almost too great to think about it.  That way lies madness.

The internet DEMANDS an answer.  What is your answer?

I categorically reject this false “choice”.

There was not ONE tank listed in the options, when, in fact, we all know that tanks are STRONG!

Look, some of you are clearly missing the point.  Here’s the thing:

Tanks are STRONG!

BPW is right:

Tanks are STRONG!

Come to think of it, from Paper #07:

Appendix D: What Do You Mean You Can’t Destroy the AA Gun?  Your Guys Can’t Find Any Rocks?

Whatever happened to sweet, scorched earth?

In the old versions of AA, you couldn’t have multiple AA guns in the same territory.  That meant that if Germany lost Western Europe, the Germans would have their own AA gun firing at them on the retake.  We didn’t like that.

We liked destroying things as soon as they were going to fall into enemy hands.  Putting an AA gun on a defenseless transport was the only legal way to do it.

In AA4, you can just move the gun back to your capital with any other guns, so it’s less of a big deal.  But why can’t you just blow up your own stuff?  You can’t just push it into the ocean?  I mean, you have guns and bombs and stuff, why not just stomp on the AA guns with both feet, like a monkey?

Caspian Sub scientists have been working around the clock to answer this question and they have made a tremendous discovery: the gray plastic pieces are completely indestructible.  You will notice that an IC is never destroyed, AA guns are not destroyed, and plastic chips are simply recycled between you and your enemy.  We do not know what goes into the gray plastic, but be warned that the gray plastic is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.  Apparently it is made of the same substance they use to make the black boxes in airplanes, only it’s gray.  The only way to put an AA gun out of commission is to hide it under the ocean.  And notice that even that doesn’t destroy it; it simply cannot hit planes anymore.  If possible, build your own units out of this substance.

Use the bid on an AA gun?  No, seriously?

The only possible worse bid would be a sub that couldn’t defend itself against air attacks in a land-locked body of water, like say, maybe, a Caspian sub.