WiFcon for game designers

[brian brian]

meanwhile, over in Asia

[brian brian]

detente in NW Asia



but what is the Spetsnatz up to?

[brian brian]

the Glorious Combined Fleet

[brian brian]

Uncle Sam knocked on the door to the Malay Barrier (Christmas Island), and no one was home...

[brian brian]

moving on to another game interrupted by odd misfortune, first traditionally via bad dice in France, and then bad news from home ... a player's home had been broken into and he had to leave. too many storm clouds at this WiFCon.



Italy .5 garrison points away from buh-bye

[brian brian]

pendulum not swinging back yet in China

[brian brian]

will Zhukov write the new Japanese Constitution?

[brian brian]

and finally folks, quiz time #1.... what turn is this?

[Froonp]

I was asking for People photographs [:D]

[brian brian]

and finally kids, quiz time #2 ... this game is similar to the previous one, but different than the first three games I posted. What is the difference?
hint: the answer has nothing to do with map position of the two sides.

[brian brian]

one last hint, from the Russian Front

[Froonp]

ORIGINAL: brian brian

and finally folks, quiz time #1.... what turn is this?

Difficult to say. It looks like a late game scene, but by the poor planes depicted, and the lack of the most powerful German & Russian land units, I think it is not 1945.

It looks like an early Russian pact breaking. Maybe 1942 ?

[micheljq]

The first pick is.. shocking? I see HQ Stilwell and communist chinese in europe URSS wow!

I am not a game designer though, I don't know if I can write in this thread.

[meisterchow]

ORIGINAL: Froonp

ORIGINAL: brian brian

and finally folks, quiz time #1.... what turn is this?

Difficult to say. It looks like a late game scene, but by the poor planes depicted, and the lack of the most powerful German & Russian land units, I think it is not 1945.

It looks like an early Russian pact breaking. Maybe 1942 ?

I think you may be right, but I'm just curious what German player would have deployed an He-51 when it should have been scrapped during setup?

[brian brian]

keep guessing on those last two games as to what the difference is. the turn of that first one is M/J 43, broken pact in 42 while the Germans were busy rolling bad in the Pyrenees.

my camera is already outside, so I had Steven take a picture of a very interesting unit in India on the table with a Japanese invasion. And the Japanese are not evacuating, they were reinforcing. Some quite surreal armor battles are about to develop on the plains of India.

[panzers]

I am sorry about everything, but Steve is right. I had a conputer virus that lookid identical to windows, desigbn and all, so watch out for tghat. I will explain that in another thread when I get back tomorrow. I hugfhly suggest everyone go to General to see about the latest fatal virus out there. Anyway, for now I am back. Brian Brian has continiation pic . I have already discussed to him what we want. It is getting increasingly difficult for me for I am MAR/APR 1944, about to go into MAY/JUN amd I am playing the Americans. I did manage to get a few more, but as Steve said earlier, it will have to wait until after the con. All you need to know is that they are they and I don't have any reasin that it would dissappoint. The pic brian brian had is the game that both England and Moscow, along with the Caucusus is conquered. So that game is no longer there. I have to go back for now. I will give you an overall synopsis of all the games so that when We do have all the pics ready, you will have a detailed description on what went on at all tables. So I don't bore you to death, I will do differents posts for each table. Gotta go to Lansing, running late, and thanks Steve for all the help and patience.
Note: the pic I am talking about is from table 2 and that was before I noticed that their were more pics

[brian brian]

ORIGINAL: micheljq

The first pick is.. shocking? I see HQ Stilwell and communist chinese in europe URSS wow!

I am not a game designer though, I don't know if I can write in this thread.

ORIGINAL: micheljq

The first pick is.. shocking? I see HQ Stilwell and communist chinese in europe URSS wow!

I am not a game designer though, I don't know if I can write in this thread.

At my first WiFCon I had to summon Mao to the Urals to help me. I had taken most of Manchuria, including a rail link to China, but not Harbin itself, missing by one pip on the dice. When the Axis came calling in Europe I had had enough and so had the Japanese by that point. One of my most memorable WiF experiences was getting an "X" roll on the Kaga with my 'Backfire' bombers (TB-3s of course) in the Persian Gulf. (The Kaga made the roll and was merely damaged, but it shook the IJN I think.)

Anyway a Russian<>Chinese rail link can be very handy in WiF. The Chinese can help prop up the Russians economically. This is of course totally fake, but that's how the game works at times. In the game I was just mentioning, in 1943 the Japanese played an O-Chit in the mountains of northern Korea to try and break this connection and help their European partners, but emergency Russian reinforcements railed in in the nick of time to stop that attack. (And Russia was eventually saved by the Western Allies launching a desperate 1943 Overlord featuring Chinese-style +2 assaults; by S/O 44 I was only three hexes from Berlin and the West was in Kiel, the Netherlands, and along the Rhine.)

The only problem is the Chinese can't declare war on Germany, so they can only hold positions in the line and perform defensive missions. In the game pictured above, Japan fell apart early. They went for an early attack on Russia but the Russian submarines retaliated with a vengeance, making several excellent search roll combos that took out 13 of Japan's initial 20 Convoy Points, with none on the production spiral at the time. Japan never recovered and the result is both Stilwell and Mao being present in Russia. Sending over Stillwell allows a pair of western airplanes to participate in the slugfest on the Eastern Front.

I had heard the news about the early Ru<>JP war before I had to leave WiFCon, but I had assumed the Russians had started it. (Richard Dagnall is playing Russia in this game). It had me thinking that maybe if you are contemplating a Russian attack on Japan, earlier is better, esp. with regards to the possibilities for the SUBs. But I think what would be important would be the actual values of those quite variable 1939 USE chits and it should be a US decision. Also I think if you launch in 39, the large quantities of bad weather on the way would slow all operations to an extent that Japan would be fairly well prepared by the summer of 1940 when actual combat would likely begin. But in that game it was a Japanese DoW anyway.

[Jagdtiger14]

Rader is the best player of all-time. His regular group in Canada is also full of awesome players. I'm proud to say our team in 2005 which included me, Steve Balk and Rich Gause stopped his 3 year WiFcon win streak and came close to a tie. We finished the game and it came down to the last impulse.

I'm curious what Russia was doing to help your China?
C

[SLAAKMAN]

Love that Turkish entry! [:D]

[Jagdtiger14]

Brian, Rader's game report is posted over at the WiF list. Playing USSR by committee is never a good idea. That said, with Germany concentrating in the west in 1941 why was the USSR not helping China??? Fine, take Persia and Iraq if you can...but China is worth way more and you can get Persia anyway. Rader mentions the south of China was left wide open...to call that "agressive" is putting a positive spin on a terrible set up. The USA never pressured Japan and the rst of the game seemed like a comedy of errors. Against a newbie or average opponent you might be able to get away with this, but with Rader...

Someone wrote that Steve Balk might win WiFcon this year??? I hope so!!!
C

ORIGINAL: brian brian

OK, switching gears to Andrew's table. This is an interesting game based on the premise that Super-Deluxe WiF is rather pro-Allied right now, which I agree with. This game is being played without any oil rule - a major concession to the Axis. I was looking forward to the challenge; Andrew is Japan and the German player is similarly tactically brilliant.

Someone (that would be me) set up the Chinese 'aggressively' and the Axis started S/O 39 and then N/D 39 with a total of six straight clear impulses in all zones. Japan was off to the races...