Looking for ELO game

[Feinder]

Ok. Looking for a new/1st ELO game.
I suppose I'm "unranked". Not really sure if I'm any good at PBEM (having only played 3-4 players).

I'm available to play/start as either Axis or Allies, and offer the reciprocal game.
I can usually do one turn a night.
Are there "standard" House Rules? Like no diplo majors, etc? I'd rather use what is the usual that most players are using.

[ cautiously throws his hat into the ring ]

[boudi]

Hi Feinder,

I'm agree to play with you, reciprocal game, if you're OK.

You can fin ELO rules here :

https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopi ... start=1700

Formal ELO rules, long established that everyone knows and follows:

1. No major diplo
2. No Barbarossa before 1941
3. No diplo on Bulgaria

Recent ELO rules that most people follow:

4. No Allied DoW on Japan before historical PH
5. No diplo on DEI (Dutch East Indies) (although this is now limited by the latest patch)

Optional stuff that is commonly agreed by PM or chat:

6. No Italian navy outside Med before DoW
7. No using garrison transports as scouts
8. No using neutral ships / transports as scouts
9. No XP farming (or limits on specific types of XP farming e.g surface ships against coastal targets, maritime bombers against inland targets)

Under recent discussion in the forum:

10. Early attack on Tripoli (sorry I don't know any details about this one)
11. Retreating in China to try and trigger the US mobilisation penalty (not sure there is much support for this as a rule)
12. German navy blocking the Russian navy spawn points

[Feinder]

Awesome.

I'm fine with all of those, just two clarifications -

"2. No Barbarossa before 1941":
To confirm that, Axis may DoW Soviet Union, any time after 1941-01-01?

"6. No Italian navy outside Med before DoW":
Does this also mean that you cannot put land units on Transports to reinforce Abyssinia?

I can host the game boudi, do you want to start as Axis or Allies?

[boudi]

Feinder,

From my point of vue :

Axis may DoW Soviet Union, any time after 1941-01-01? YES

Does this also mean that you cannot put land units on Transports to reinforce Abyssinia?
You can, it's just warships that are forbidden. But there is a fairplay rule, don't use the italian transport ships in order to scout. They have to go to italian east africa directly.
However, the rules do not mention whether the British can block the Strait of Gibraltar immediately in the first round.
If this tactic is prohibited, should it be agreed that U-boats and the Kriegsmarine should not attempt to take advantage of this to enter the Mediterranean?
From my point of view, for the sake of consistency, if we allow the Italians to reinforce East Africa, the British no longer have the right to block Gibraltar until the Italians enter the war. That seems logical to me.

Would other players like to give their opinion?

You can start the game or if you prefer, both mirrored games?
If you only want to play one for now, I'd prefer to play the Allies, having played the Axis in my previous game.

[Feinder]

Does this also mean that you cannot put land units on Transports to reinforce Abyssinia?
You can, it's just warships that are forbidden. But there is a fairplay rule, don't use the italian transport ships in order to scoot. They have to go to italian east africa directly.
However, the rules do not mention whether the British can block the Strait of Gibraltar immediately in the first round.

My take would be that UK should NOT block Straight of Gibraltar.

If this tactic is prohibited, should it be agreed that U-boats and the Kriegsmarine should not attempt to take advantage of this to enter the Mediterranean?

I would say that, No U-Boats or Kriegsmarine in the Med before Italy joins as Axis. According to AI-bot, Uboats weren't in the Med until 09-41.

From my point of view, for the sake of consistency, if we allow the Italians to reinforce East Africa, the British no longer have the right to block Gibraltar until the Italians enter the war. That seems logical to me.

Agreed. And FWIW - As you're Allies, I have no problem with the Allies to having "watchers" set up to monitor Italian Transport traffic from the Med, just no blocking as above. It was not surprise to anyone that Italy joined the Axis, and I'm sure that GB was keen on tracking everything that sailed past Gibraltar!"

Would other players like to give their opinion?

You can start the game or if you prefer, both mirrored games?
If you only want to play one for now, I'd prefer to play the Allies, having played the Axis in my previous game.

For now, just one game. I'm not sure if I have time for 2 games at once. I'll start a game as me Axis, you Allies. If we're able to crank out turns, we can see about adding the second game.

Game is hosted, look for Feinder. Password is "FeinderBoudi" (mind the capitol B)

[boudi]

Nice.

I think you're in the Florida time zone, and I'm in the Central European time zone, so there's a 6-hour difference between us. During the week, I play from around 7-8 p.m. until 10 p.m. On weekends, I play all the time unless my wife has other plans.

[Feinder]

FWIW - I usu wrap up my work day, and can do turns starting about 6pm Eastern time, doing turns until Midnight Eastern (Midnight until Noon, your time I think). Sometimes I'm able to do a turn before I start work, but that's iffy. Weekends are more open.

[Old_Shane]

In order to minimise the the number of new rules - just get your transports out on the first turn. Then the Gibraltar blockade won't really matter to you. In fact, that blockade would serve to keep Italian ships in the Med. So one more rule that can be eliminated. Or, if Italian ships do leave then the rule that Allies can't DofW on Italy is expunged.

[boudi]

Good idea if you're Feinder agree with the Old_Shane's post we can leave Gibraltar open for the two first turns, and it will be closed at the 3rd turn ?

[LoneRunner]

IMO providing a long list of restrictive house rules makes the game less fun. One of my favorite games was where UK DOWed Japan simultaneous with the start of Barbarossa. The result was a no-holds barred exciting worldwide war. I lost but it was really cool to play out that what-if. And I would love to see someone try that again.

What-ifs make the game better. Just because Germany didn't place subs in the Med before 1941 shouldn't eliminate that strategy. As the Allied player I'd enjoy trapping a few German subs in the Med. But it might be fun to see someone test that plan.

If Italy wants to reinforce Abyssinia with troops and ships, why not? Just a gentleman's agreement that they don't use the naval units as scouts, using cruise to move around the Cape.

I haven't seen anyone using garrison transports as scouts. Maybe that would be annoying. But considering garrison units cost 50mpps, that would be an expensive one shot scout.

So, a few house rules are good but I'd recommend limiting the list as much as possible.

[boudi]

That's an interesting opinion to consider. Personally, I also play with virtually no rules (although I do follow the scout rules and don't block the Soviet navy's spawn points), but I thought that in ELO all these rules had become more or less mandatory. Perhaps that's not the case.

[petedalby]

“All is fair in love & war…”

But if you want a nice friendly game it’s good to agree on things which might unbalance the game.

I had a game once where my opponent embarked the 2 USA & the Panama garrisons onto transports and then parked them outside Vladivostok. As a result Japan could not interdict the port and reduce the MPPs to Russia. I was a little put out....

I like the ‘no DoW on Japan until PH’ because otherwise they can be seriously damaged if the UK sinks their LRATs and ATs. Japan is already quite fragile. Strong initially but vulnerable once the USA joins.

[boudi]

the ‘no DoW on Japan until PH’ is imperative, indeed.