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RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 11:51 pm
by Sewerlobster
ORIGINAL: willycube
Thank you Sewerstarfish and Ullern deeply appreciate you gentlemen taking the time to answer my questions and you both did it royally and with great aplomb [not sure what that means but sounds good] it must have taken up a lot of room, the maps I mean. And I have heard of horror stories about the cat jumping onto the map and knocking all the counters around. Hope that did not happen to you, thanks for clearing up some game problems for me. Were there any divorces over this game?
Willy
Cats. The Generals of Anarchy. Movers of entire armies, pushing some off the edge of the world, if the occasional SS corps gets eaten -- so be it. Children, Minions of Anarchy. Shakers of tables, seperators of maps, launchers of small balls that wreak havoc upon once mighty stacks. Choose a gaming house without them if possible.
Truth is while WiF is a big game it's playable, I live in a row home: 12' wide at its widest, the gaming room not as long or as wide. WiFFe on two L-shaped folding tables works fine so long as you're willing to move or move your opponents pieces.
Divorce? Some guys have poker night, others bowling night, some even sing in a quartet, we play wargames.
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 11:55 pm
by Sewerlobster
ORIGINAL: gridley
Thats why it is great playing with long time friends, there was never "you cheating bas%&rd"
You, good sir, must have an entirely different class of friend.
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 12:32 am
by gridley
ORIGINAL: SewerStarFish
ORIGINAL: gridley
Thats why it is great playing with long time friends, there was never "you cheating bas%&rd"
You, good sir, must have an entirely different class of friend.
Yes, well we have taken 6 or 7 years off...that can filter some of the garbage out. I shouldn't have used the word never.
Our best "You cheater" was our one player who I'm sure had a gold plated horseshoe so far up...well you get the idea. Anyway one of the guys accused him of cheating...He accused him of being able to mentally control the dice. No lie. Funniest argument I ever saw.[:D]
By the way the player with the horseshoe once rolled 5 sixes and 4 fives(maybe not exactly but close....still all 5's and 6's) in a Naval Battle...never seen anything like it.
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 3:43 am
by Mad Russian
ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
ORIGINAL: praem
I've played in 3 different gaming groups - one was set up in an abandont shipyard, and housed a number of games. The other 2 where in 2-room appartments. The map was mounted on plywood and werry carefully placed under a sofa btw. gaming nigths. Vacuuming was done with the greatest of care - wouldnt do to have a front disapear into the machine
The main problem wasn't counters being disturbed and we never lost one to the vacuumer, but the dust settling on the map and counters was a problem [;)]
I used 4 glass sheets (30" by 30") over the maps so the counters were on top of the glass. This let us stack the glass and take down the tables (30" by 60") when not playing. I used large 6 sided dice in the corners as separators for the glass sheets, so the counters were not disturbed (some tall stacks needed to be subdivided). This arrangement meant only the top sheet of glass was subjected to the prevalent air pollution; the other 3/4 of the game was more or less covered/protected.
The sheet of plexiglass I used for my game table is a single 4'x 8' sheet as thin as I could get it. Getting that sheet onto the table top was interesting. I thought we had broken it about a dozen times before we got it to the table. [:-]
Let's just say that very thin plexiglass is VERY FLEXIBLE....[;)]
Good Hunting.
MR
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 5:02 am
by paulderynck
ORIGINAL: gridley
ORIGINAL: SewerStarFish
ORIGINAL: gridley
Thats why it is great playing with long time friends, there was never "you cheating bas%&rd"
You, good sir, must have an entirely different class of friend.
Yes, well we have taken 6 or 7 years off...that can filter some of the garbage out. I shouldn't have used the word never.
Our best "You cheater" was our one player who I'm sure had a gold plated horseshoe so far up...well you get the idea. Anyway one of the guys accused him of cheating...He accused him of being able to mentally control the dice. No lie. Funniest argument I ever saw.[:D]
By the way the player with the horseshoe once rolled 5 sixes and 4 fives(maybe not exactly but close....still all 5's and 6's) in a Naval Battle...never seen anything like it.
When playing with a bunch of different colored ten-sided dice it became evident that certain ones
seemed to roll more high than low or vice versa. One particular purple die rolled so many 10s so often, we finally outlawed it from the game. Rather than having someone searching for a particular die we now use a program on a laptop to produce all the dice rolls. It automatically tracks the stats and records each player's "luck" factor for the session and the game.
So now the age-old arguments about who was luckier can actually be supported with hard data!
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 6:17 am
by Froonp
ORIGINAL: paulderynck
Rather than having someone searching for a particular die we now use a program on a laptop to produce all the dice rolls. It automatically tracks the stats and records each player's "luck" factor for the session and the game.
So now the age-old arguments about who was luckier can actually be supported with hard data!
Interesting. Is it possible to find this program on the Internet ?
And, about the hard data, does it support luck for a player ?
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 9:41 am
by mutant1
We have played for 8 years, 3-4 hours once a week. We always make huge mistakes

You do not need a big room to store WIF, I have one custom built board for each map stacked under my bed
Stian
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:52 am
by micheljq
In Quebec city, a city of 500 000 people, it's very difficult to find WiF players, most gamers I know who play games each friday are intimitated by WiF and it's game lenght. In 1994, it was easy to find 5 players and play WiF on both theaters. Now we are only 3 playing Fascist Tide, I would like to play 4 maps, but we can't find other players.
A lot of friends are married with kids and cannot afford it. I am the sole married with a kid and being able to have one night a week to play. I also found that 2 of my gamer's friends, when playing WiF, they are becoming aggressive and gamey, they are usually not that aggressive and gamey when playing other games, to the point that one of them, I prefer not inviting him when it's about WiF.
We play with counter magnets, to keep those counters in place.
I remember when I was young one of my first apartments had long plumpering going near the ceiling, we used them to stack the Empire in Arms map when we were not playing.
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 12:23 pm
by SamuraiProgrmmr
I played with a friend. Our agreement was that we would play two games, swapping Axis for Allies and compare the scores to determine the winner.
This was necessary as we were constantly realizing that we had misinterpreted the rules so we played the 2nd game in the set with the same misinterpretations.
Most games were decided early as my friend consistently whipped my a$$ and I was so far behind that I would concede and we would start again.
I had a cabinet custom built that had slots for the plywood I mounted the maps on. This kept the cats from reigning terror between our weekly game sessions.
Before my wife and I got married, I got her to agree that (1) I was a gamer, (2) she wouldn't try to change that, and (3) the dining room table in our apartment was mine when I wanted it.
She is a good wife. Now if she would only play WiF.
Haven't played in about 10 years or so... my buddy got married and he was happier spending time with her than studying cardboard ....
It had nothing to do with the fact that I won the last game we played [:-]
It is a big game. It took some organization to play it. But OMG, what a game!
Kudos to Steve for being so faithful to the original.
In the words of Flounder "Oh Boy Is This Great!"
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 12:28 pm
by willycube
ORIGINAL: SewerStarFish
ORIGINAL: willycube
Thank you Sewerstarfish and Ullern deeply appreciate you gentlemen taking the time to answer my questions and you both did it royally and with great aplomb [not sure what that means but sounds good] it must have taken up a lot of room, the maps I mean. And I have heard of horror stories about the cat jumping onto the map and knocking all the counters around. Hope that did not happen to you, thanks for clearing up some game problems for me. Were there any divorces over this game?
Willy
Cats. The Generals of Anarchy. Movers of entire armies, pushing some off the edge of the world, if the occasional SS corps gets eaten -- so be it. Children, Minions of Anarchy. Shakers of tables, seperators of maps, launchers of small balls that wreak havoc upon once mighty stacks. Choose a gaming house without them if possible.
Truth is while WiF is a big game it's playable, I live in a row home: 12' wide at its widest, the gaming room not as long or as wide. WiFFe on two L-shaped folding tables works fine so long as you're willing to move or move your opponents pieces.
Divorce? Some guys have poker night, others bowling night, some even sing in a quartet, we play wargames.
Awsome Sewerfish great reply, probably a lot of dead cats around huh!! I guess were in trouble with cat lovers ugh!
Willy
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 12:59 pm
by micheljq
ORIGINAL: SamuraiProgrammer
I played with a friend. Our agreement was that we would play two games, swapping Axis for Allies and compare the scores to determine the winner.
This was necessary as we were constantly realizing that we had misinterpreted the rules so we played the 2nd game in the set with the same misinterpretations.
The first campaign we play it was quite a mess we were lost with the rules too.
Before my wife and I got married, I got her to agree that (1) I was a gamer, (2) she wouldn't try to change that, and (3) the dining room table in our apartment was mine when I wanted it.
She is a good wife. Now if she would only play WiF.
Haven't played in about 10 years or so... my buddy got married and he was happier spending time with her than studying cardboard ....
Same for me, and I must remind her regularly she already knew I was a gamer. Now why she does not wants to play with me?
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 2:35 pm
by Jagdtiger14
ORIGINAL: paulderynck
When playing with a bunch of different colored ten-sided dice it became evident that certain ones seemed to roll more high than low or vice versa. One particular purple die rolled so many 10s so often, we finally outlawed it from the game. Rather than having someone searching for a particular die we now use a program on a laptop to produce all the dice rolls. It automatically tracks the stats and records each player's "luck" factor for the session and the game.
So now the age-old arguments about who was luckier can actually be supported with hard data!
Is this a die roll program you have to be connected to the internet to use, or is it something I can download on to my laptop? Our host does not have a wifi router. Where can I get it?
Thanks
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 2:45 pm
by gridley
ORIGINAL: paulderynck
When playing with a bunch of different colored ten-sided dice it became evident that certain ones seemed to roll more high than low or vice versa. One particular purple die rolled so many 10s so often, we finally outlawed it from the game. Rather than having someone searching for a particular die we now use a program on a laptop to produce all the dice rolls. It automatically tracks the stats and records each player's "luck" factor for the session and the game.
So now the age-old arguments about who was luckier can actually be supported with hard data!
I see our group is not alone in wishing for such a tool. We are now all eagerly awaiting your response.
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 6:15 pm
by chacal83000
Don't forget that such programs usually don't do REAL random numbers ! So a dice is more trustable ![;)]
Well u can find on google real randoms number program/pages, based on atmospheric noise...
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 7:07 pm
by SLAAKMAN
After completing 3 Global Campaigns as Italy I can truly boast of never cowering before the enemy or a hostile die. Two victories with one loss (I entered that campaign in may/june 43 so its only a half-loss [:'(] ) is not a bad record and the sparkly yellow "Italian Dice" I rolled served me well. However, some of my opponents use this mans strategy when confronted by an unfriendly die roll. They know who they are;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud7YNNA0Mwo

[:D]
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 7:20 pm
by gridley
ORIGINAL: SLAAKMAN
After completing 3 Global Campaigns as Italy I can truly boast of never cowering before the enemy or a hostile die. Two victories with one loss (I entered that campaign in may/june 43 so its only a half-loss [:'(] ) is not a bad record and the sparkly yellow "Italian Dice" I rolled served me well. However, some of my opponents use this mans strategy when confronted by an unfriendly die roll. They know who they are;
Well, it's easy not to cower before the enemy when you have rabbits do the fighting for you.[;)]
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 8:39 pm
by paulderynck
ORIGINAL: Froonp
ORIGINAL: paulderynck
Rather than having someone searching for a particular die we now use a program on a laptop to produce all the dice rolls. It automatically tracks the stats and records each player's "luck" factor for the session and the game.
So now the age-old arguments about who was luckier can actually be supported with hard data!
Interesting. Is it possible to find this program on the Internet ?
And, about the hard data, does it support luck for a player ?
I developed it in Visual Basic and plan to release it at the end of July. [;)] ...just kidding. It does need some better documentation to be added but I could post it somewhere if people are interested. It supports 6 players and does provide some results - Ack Ack, Ground strikes, air-to-air combat (including next worst), strat and carpet bombing (including the plus 1 or not). Other results you have to take the die roll(s) and look up yourself.
It tracks each players "luck factor" for each individual die roll, for the playing session and for the entire game. For the luck, you establish what a "success" is and then roll the die. Luck is measured against the actual odds of success or failure and normalized to a number between -9.9 and +9.9 for each roll. it also tracks the total number of dice that rolled one through ten throughout the game.
Caveat: This is only a play aid for the board game. It has nothing to do with MWIF nor is it intended to. I'm only mentioning it since you asked.
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 8:40 pm
by Mad Russian
ORIGINAL: SamuraiProgrammer
She is a good wife. Now if she would only play WiF.
Ummm....you might not want to change that. She PROBABLY plays other games your buddies don't play with you...........[:-]
Good Hunting.
MR
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 8:49 pm
by paulderynck
ORIGINAL: chacal83
Don't forget that such programs usually don't do REAL random numbers ! So a dice is more trustable ![;)]
Well u can find on google real randoms number program/pages, based on atmospheric noise...
I wouldn't trust that purple die I mentioned - except for its picture when it comes up on my laptop. I have run the progam through a million iterations and gotten respectable means and standard deviations for the totals for each number.
All dice are imperfect. Really good ones without any bias are expensive. (But admittedly less than the cost of a laptop [:)])
RE: Brave WIF boardgamers
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 8:53 pm
by Froonp
ORIGINAL: paulderynck
I developed it in Visual Basic and plan to release it at the end of July. [;)] ...just kidding. It does need some better documentation to be added but I could post it somewhere if people are interested. It supports 6 players and does provide some results - Ack Ack, Ground strikes, air-to-air combat (including next worst), strat and carpet bombing (including the plus 1 or not). Other results you have to take the die roll(s) and look up yourself.
It tracks each players "luck factor" for each individual die roll, for the playing session and for the entire game. For the luck, you establish what a "success" is and then roll the die. Luck is measured against the actual odds of success or failure and normalized to a number between -9.9 and +9.9 for each roll. it also tracks the total number of dice that rolled one through ten throughout the game.
Caveat: This is only a play aid for the board game. It has nothing to do with MWIF nor is it intended to. I'm only mentioning it since you asked.
I'm interested if you post it somewhere, keep me informed.