The World at War ELO Tournament

[petedalby]

New ELO game begins - Race to Victory.

Umeu (Axis) vs petedalby (Allies)

Game ended with an Axis Minor Victory in August 1945 at game's end. This does Umeu a major injustice as I was completely thrashed with every major Allied power surrendered.

Great game against an excellent opponent but I don't think I ever had a chance. Learnt a lot though and will be putting those lessons into practice further down the line.

Restricting LRATs made the game more interesting / challenging and probably more realistic. We're just comparing notes on what, if anything we'd change if anyone fancies trying a similar option.

[petedalby]

New ELO game begins:

petedalby (Axis) vs Pekkavilamoura (Allies)

Usual ELO rules apply.

[ThunderLizard11]

[ELO Ended]
ThunderLizard11 (allies) [WIN] v. HARRIS45 (axis) [LOSS] - Allies resign in April '45 after the fall of Italy. Excellent game by Harris. Was well on the way to taking Russia but got bogged down south of Kuybyshev and then Allies landed in Greece drawing off units followed later by a France landing. The coup de grâce though was Italy falling which was a bigger than ususal problem because France originally surrendered to Italy not Germany - this was a unfortunate mistep that caused all of France to flip to allies when Italy fell. In the pacific, Japan was holding strong in China and the Phillipines with marine bombers handing out punishment to any transport in range. Very fast turn return by Harris and he is now a top player based on this last game.

[ELOs Started]
ThunderLizard11 (allies) v. HARRIS45 (axis) (rematch)
ThunderLizard11 (axis) v. arikogut (allies)

[

Thunder lizard do you ever play axis?

Not much recently but just started a new Axis game - I'll have to see if I remember how to play Axis!

[Pekkavilamoura]

The coup de grâce though was Italy falling which was a bigger than ususal problem because France originally surrendered to Italy not Germany - this was a unfortunate mistep that caused all of France to flip to allies when Italy fell.

Ouch! I remember having made the same mistake once, taking Paris with an Italian unit. After that you can actually give up right away, all the MPPs going to Mussolini's crap army instead of Wehrmacht. Respect for Harris for holding on for so long.

[HarrySmith]

Well done to HARRIS45 who I am also playing with Barbarossa just started by him.
Great to see you playing Axis Thunderlizard. Generally I try to play rotation between them but have also played Allies my last few games but that is due to their request.
Games that go to 45 on are in my opinion good games to actually play.

[LoneRunner]

ELO Game Ended:
LoneRunner (Allies) Win vs Old_Shane (Axis) Loss

Exciting game that extended into 1946. The Axis steamrolled southern Russia bypassing Leningrad and Moscow, crushed Stalingrad, then Kuybyshev, finally roaring onto the foothills of Perm. Simultaneously Axis units streamed through the Caucasus into Syria attempting to take the Suez from the back side. Meanwhile Japan knocked China out of the war and threw everything at India. In the frozen Perm hills and misty India marshes massive losses crippled both sides as counter-attack followed attack for months with neither side giving quarter. Cool.

Shane is an excellent opponent who surprised me with imaginative play and ferocious attacks. I was on the ropes in both Russia and India and the war could have easily gone either way. Great game Shane.

[HarrySmith]

ELO Game Ended:
LoneRunner (Allies) Win vs Old_Shane (Axis) Loss

Exciting game that extended into 1946. The Axis steamrolled southern Russia bypassing Leningrad and Moscow, crushed Stalingrad, then Kuybyshev, finally roaring onto the foothills of Perm. Simultaneously Axis units streamed through the Caucasus into Syria attempting to take the Suez from the back side. Meanwhile Japan knocked China out of the war and threw everything at India. In the frozen Perm hills and misty India marshes massive losses crippled both sides as counter-attack followed attack for months with neither side giving quarter. Cool.

Shane is an excellent opponent who surprised me with imaginative play and ferocious attacks. I was on the ropes in both Russia and India and the war could have easily gone either way. Great game Shane.

Sounds a great game by both parties. Those type of games are the best where either side is unsure of the outcome.

[Old_Shane]

It was great game. I really thought I had it. Then Bill stalled my progress near Perm and destroyed low supply units on the Burma - India frontier one by one. Kriegsmarine stopped Soviet supply for months but eventual lost every ship. I thought that Western Europe was getting too late to attack by the Allies (with so much air power engaged in India). But then it came like a whirlwind and that was the beginning of the end. There were many other smaller but significant battles all over the world that made the game quite interesting. I have played many good players that engage in meaningful dialogue during the game (you among them Harry) and Bill is no exception. Happy to play and learn from him again!

[ThunderLizard11]

[ELOs Ended]
ThunderLizard11 [WIN] (allies) v. arikogut (axis) [LOSS] - Decisive victory for Allies with Berlin falling on the last turn (April '47). Great game by arikogut with frequent turn returns. Axis made a strong push into Russia got blocked at Stalingrad. The German retreat was masterful with Dneper defense lasting for over a year, Also a strong defense of the Balkans. By the end Allies had units from China and India swarming Europe and the last few turns Axis units were demolished.

ThunderLizard11 (allies) [WIN] v. Rudolf Steiner (axis) [LOSS] - Allies win by default in July '42 as no moves by Axis in over a month. Steiner tried an unusual move of not lanching Barbarossa at all and waiting for Soviet to initiate war in the east. By the early '42 Soviets had built up a massive army that flooded into Poland and Romania. At that point Steiner lost interest and abandoned the match. (update: Steiner resigned after we started new match)

[New ELO]
ThunderLizard11 (allies) v. Rudolf Steiner (axis) - rematch

[Pekkavilamoura]

ELO game ends:
Pekkavilamoura (Allies) WIN vs. aquavita (Axis) LOSS
Axis surrender in April 1944.
No Afrika Korps was deployed, the unmotivated Italian armies were swiftly finished off.
As the victorious 8th Army was refitting, Axis attacked Greece but couldn't take Athens by surprise. So the order was given to ship the troops to Greece. This was a welcome opportunity to open a second front much earlier than planned.
From there on things started to get worse for the Axis.
But rather than tactical warfare, the decisive factor was war economy; Axis invested heavily in troops but very little in research. By the time of Barbarossa the Allied research investment was around 4 times, by 1943 almost 7 times that of Axis.
Berlin fell Dec 1943, Tokyo April 1944.
Good game with good turn returns.

[firsteds]

Hi troops. I will post a new updated ELO ranking on March 2nd. So be sure to send any results to the list before then.

Firsteds

[ThunderLizard11]

ThunderLizard11 (allies) [WIN] v. Rudolf Steiner (axis) [LOSS] - Allies resign in June '42. Steiner tried Sealion which was a disaster for Axis as Soviet's mobilized. Germans stuck on Russia's border and not making progress. In Pacfic, DEI not invaded right away and yanks still hold the Phillipines and HK. Great trun return by Steiner.

[hasmat_slith]

New ELO game begins:

hasmat_slith (Axis) vs Pekkavilamoura (Allies)

[Feinder]

What does "ELO" mean? Is that a mod?

[HarrySmith]

Game ended HarrySmith (Allies) defeats HARRIS45 (Axis) with Axis resigning June 43.
A good game land and air game played by HARRIS45 but the naval part was missing. Italy was the best defended I have ever played someone but was on the verge of surrendering at the end. Axis got to Grozny, and captured Stalingrad but couldn't get any further in Russia and huge gaps were appearing which would of led to a collapse of the front. Allies landed up at Trieste and Genoa and that pulled German units to defend from Russian front. Allies preparing more landings in western Europe. Pacific was left to the US with no real challenge from Japanese. DEI , Thailand captured by Allies and Asian supply lines cut. In China Japan got to Chunking, captured Wanting, Chengchow but couldn't quite go on with it. I do believe Allies have a distinct advantage in this game now but we had a fun game , daily return rates some good battles.
New game begins
HarrySmith ( Axis) vs HARRIS45 ( Allies) were Ron can have revenge on me.

[HARRIS45]

Game with Harry was fun but I found his style of play combined with his intelligence/talent to present too many issues. I am somewhat embarrassed by early surrender and hope to improve the result at a later date. Regarding the comment on naval I have always struggled with the wisdom of spending precious MPPs early in game on sub tech advances and surface ship upgrading/reinforcement. Would appreciate hearing other players thoughts.

Harry and others have commented on apparent unbalance between Axis/Allies. I question whether the patches that awarded Russia NM enhancements in '42, '43 combined with MPP convoys via Siberia/Persia may have tipped balance?

[ThunderLizard11]

What does "ELO" mean? Is that a mod?

My understanding is ELO is from Arpad Elo who created a player ranking system for chess players using a statistical model where players would gain or loss points with each match based on a number of variables The SC:WAW ELO is a more informal system.

[Feinder]

New ELO game begins:

Feinder (Axis) vs boudi (Allies)

Usual ELO rules apply.

[LoneRunner]

New ELO game started
1939 World at War

petedalby (Allies) vs LoneRunner (Axis)

We are using the following house rules:
1. No diplo on Majors
2. No Barbarossa before 1941
3. No diplo on Bulgaria
4. No Allied DoW on Japan before PH
5. No Italian navy outside Med before DoW
6. No using garrison transports as scouts
7. No using neutral ships / transports as scouts
8. No XP farming

I'm looking forward to a fun and challenging game. Pete is always a tough opponent.