<t> Collecting opinions on this issue, as discussion appears to be sparse. In a PBEM game, ticking "Free Setup" allows the Soviet player to pull units back from the line a considerable distance. <br/>
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I found one discussion on this issue, where Cameron noted that Free Set Up was intended as ...

<t> Before playing a PBEM++ game with a friend, I wanted to test the system to see when turn exchanges would be happening and how the system worked. <br/>
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To do this, I logged in under my PRIMARY USER account (which was created a few weeks ago), and issued a password-protected challenge.<br ...