Euro WiF Con 2011

[marcejap]

Well, Ignacio worte almost everything. I played very bad Germany, i didn't have any strategy at all. I left Italy stay neutral at the beginning, and this was a bad move, since the french sent all his corps to face my units. I could have sent more corps to Syria and Algeria and try to take Suez. Ignacio played very very well the british. IMHO he made only one mistake: he didn't bring more fighters to Egypt. He lost 4 carriers there in naval air battle. Even Gibraltar wasn't covered by fighters for many turn, but i didn't take advantage of this.
Next time, maybe...

[warspite1]

Gents - thanks for taking the trouble to post [:)]

One question. Do all players at Euro Wif Con have their counter stacks like those in the picture during the game? I have mentioned this before, but personally I would find playing WIF with counters all over the place, like those in the photos, just too messy to handle [:-]. When I played the game with a mate of mine (almost 20 years ago now) the stacks of counters had to be neat, tidy and facing the same way - at all times!! Please tell me there are some other players like that? [;)]

[Joseignacio]

No, to be true counters at the rest or most of the rest of the tables were more nicely set, in fact one of them looked like a piece of art, with not only the counters in excellent order but also they were trimmed nicely too.

I must say I like to see them nicely set but I rarely take the effort to heve them oriented the same side, unless necessary, spceically when time is important like in the CON, and I also prefer not to include the conv and trs in the task forces not to move them inadvertedly so I put them adjacent to pots in the inner sea, like you can see conv and amph in the last photo.

I would say that in my games in Madrid too, the counters are like in the photos, with the exception of some that have been displaced a little (by Marcello?) for the photo, in order to show all the untis composing the stack. I don't care of orientation unless it's important, to show which unit is already moved (for example in land movement) and I don't put them exactly in the middle of the hex, but I usuallly don't let them be kind of between two hexes or sth. like that.

As you can see in this example of another game, they were better looking (the counters, not the players [:)] ), although there were nicer ones:



Anyway, they may have been less nice but in all the game there was no arguing about the position of any unit, it was clear enough. [:)]

[Joseignacio]

@ Marcello: Thanks for alllowing me post the photos. I usually tried to send planes to Egypt but in this case it was very difficult because I lost very early 3 from my 7 TRS (including the NEI and Free French), 4 were just not enough to move units around from Australia, Canada, the Channel operations and the Egypt-Greece connection.

Besides, the main problem was at sea, because there was no desert war till 41/42 so short ranger planes didn't have too much to do, my supply was safe because the italians didn't dare to search most of the times and the japanese didn't care most of the time, so I was not worried about my supply, only about cutting italian supply off and for this, planes which could only reach the 1 or 0 box were of no use.

As soon as I started all the CV possibles (the 2 or 3 earlier turns of the game) I started all the trs and amph possible, but it took as you know 1 year 2 months/ 1.5 years the earlier, to arrive.

Later on, with longer range planes, I would have shipped them but there was no need, since the american invaded Portugal and I could slowly rebase them, but I sent like 3 or 4 every turn and every turn the 3 or 4 died due to bad rolls. Plus some americans sometimes.

I usually dont let any plane in Gibraltar unless I see coming danger, I think 3 units there, one of them white printed should dissuade you unless you had Spain, which was not the case.I used Gibraltar sometimes for rebasing purposes for my long range bombers, and sometimes (at the end) it wass crowded enough!

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Joseignacio

No, to be true counters at the rest or most of the rest of the tables were more nicely set, in fact one of them looked like a piece of art, with not only the counters in excellent order but also they were trimmed nicely too.

Warspite1

Phew [;)]

Was time a big issue then? How long were you playing each day? Were there games that could not go the distance?

[Joseignacio]

Time was a big issue. It usually is in EWC, if I recall well, apart from several (many?) games ended earlier by surrender of one side, I think Markus (the organizer) said only 3 games in the history of the EWC had been carried till it's natural end (45+ or invasion of Axis?) in it's 15 year's history.

We were supposed to play about 12 hours a day along 9 days, but the truth is that the first day is partially lost because people can arrive at different hours (many people come from Germany and they start driving after work on Friday and arrive at the afternoon or even evening).

Although we had debated most of the matters by email, we still had to run trhough the increasingly bigger, messier, criptic, list of optionals and agree or debate its consequences and meanings and their combined effect with others, plus doing the setup. I was the last one to arrive to our table (I depended on Markus for taking me from Frankfurt to Hofgeismar) but anyway I arrived at the afternoon and we were the first or second table to start setting up.

Finally we were able to play the initial turns that night although some of the members were so eager to play for once, that against my will, we played till about 2 or 3 a.m..

Next days the dynamic tried to be the same at our table (always against my opinion, casuse I knew we would resent the lack of rest and we would be starting later sooner or later, which was kind of a crazy timetable), however, the tiredness made it's effect and we slowly went down to 2, 1 a.m., 12 p.m. and a more reasonable 11 p.m. or so. The earlier days my table was usually the last one, which loaded us with the problem of taking the key with us and some of us (Marcello, bless him) having to wake up early too to give it to the early birds.

Because of this, in our table we played several days like 14 or 16 hours except for a 2 hours break for dinner (lunch was at the place - sandwich or similar usually).

Also, the last days most teams play only half day if they see there is going to be no end or surrender, so they can go earlier back home, plus they need to pick the game too. This makes the CON about 8 dys long compensating the first and the last.

As you can imagine 12 hours* 8 days = 96 hours, when a normal game is like 200 if played at a good pace, I believe.

I think we were pretty fast - I was, although I knew that the fleets + convoys +escorts would be a pain in the ass and it was - but the mix of rules had us many times searching for interpretations that even the senior players were doubtful and sometimes proved wrong...

Maybe, like somebody suggested, for some other year we should try a later scenario...

Don't understand this:

Were there games that could not go the distance?

if it means what I think, it's answered above in this post... [:)]

[paulderynck]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Gents - thanks for taking the trouble to post [:)]

One question. Do all players at Euro Wif Con have their counter stacks like those in the picture during the game? I have mentioned this before, but personally I would find playing WIF with counters all over the place, like those in the photos, just too messy to handle [:-]. When I played the game with a mate of mine (almost 20 years ago now) the stacks of counters had to be neat, tidy and facing the same way - at all times!! Please tell me there are some other players like that? [;)]

Take heart. At home we are positively anal about this. Every counter has its corners clipped (so they don't hook on to one another) and are all faced the same way one move and then 90 degrees from that the next move so you don't make errors in moving units twice. We use long surgical tweezers for all moves so you don't mess up stacks with your pudgy, clumsy fingers. This also saves some wear and tear on the units.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Gents - thanks for taking the trouble to post [:)]

One question. Do all players at Euro Wif Con have their counter stacks like those in the picture during the game? I have mentioned this before, but personally I would find playing WIF with counters all over the place, like those in the photos, just too messy to handle [:-]. When I played the game with a mate of mine (almost 20 years ago now) the stacks of counters had to be neat, tidy and facing the same way - at all times!! Please tell me there are some other players like that? [;)]

Take heart. At home we are positively anal about this. Every counter has its corners clipped (so they don't hook on to one another) and are all faced the same way one move and then 90 degrees from that the next move so you don't make errors in moving units twice. We use long surgical tweezers for all moves so you don't mess up stacks with your pudgy, clumsy fingers. This also saves some wear and tear on the units.

I own 4 pairs of surgical tweezers, to go along with my 100+ 6 sided dice.[:D]

[Joseignacio]

I have always disliked those tools but I am starting to give in, it's too bad to do with my fingers...

[brian brian]

frequently when wandering around the room at US WiFCon, I began to think that the most dangerous players were the ones with the neatest stacks of counters. but this is not always the case. in general though, an opponent who has all those neat stacks probably has a better idea of what is in each stack and what they might do with it, as compared to the opponent reaching for a beer while he watches a naval battle on the other map.

[Joseignacio]

To be true, I usually planned my moves while the opposer was playing, at least until the 14 hours of playing / 7 hours of sleep started making me feel ill-like.

Because of that at the last stages of EWC I was not checking so carefully the builds and some moves that took me by surprise in the final Sealion, for example.

However, it also affected me my demotivation because of two terrible bad luck patch which lasted 2 x 24 hours each separated only by like 5 hours of normal luck. I never found any fleet and they always found me even when they were at the lower levels at the sea, the only places their planes could reach. It didn't really make things better that in the following air battle the usual result of Marcello's die were 19 - 20 followed by 4 - 5, while mine consistently 10, 11, 12 followed by occasional 15 (aborts). This made me have the Med in "stand by" and allowed him to reinforce strongly with german troops.

Because of my deceipt I was the last days playing Heroes of Might and Magic VI in my laptop everytime I didn't have to play to be able to evade from what was going on and try to keep some cool blood, and obviously I didn't planify in the other guy's turn, didn't see some moves (The italian almost arrived to the vicinity of South Africa before I realized, and invaded Sudan without me not knowing it and almost entered Egypt from there, thanks GOd I saw it in the last minute and railed a garrison there from Alexandria).