A PBEM Made of Cheese (Full Version)

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PimpYourAFV -> A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/24/2006 4:43:38 AM)

I thought this game would be excellent for human vs human cause it isn't filled with cheesy exploits but alas... I learned the hard way this is not true.

Russia (me) vs Romanian cheese artist 1941
1500 points

After a struggle almost as long and grim as the fight for Stalingrad itself, I finally found someone who wanted to play a PBEM game. I was further astonished that not only did he want to play PBEM, but he even changed his multimod version and patch to match mine. Thankful for the offer and his efforts to make it happen, I requested a meeting engagement and agreed to his option settings but he snuck in one extra nasty twist without telling me. [:@] Already dark clouds were forming and vultures gathered.

He set the visibility to one (visibility 2 but all forest which reduced visibility to 1) with reduced spotting chance. Then he bought a company of flamethrower engineers, flame tanks and artillery. That is, nothing but flame and arty. [8|]

Anyways, I bought a mix of different infantry types, cavalry, AT guns, motorbikes, a scout car platoon and 2 sections of light tanks (one section flame) as I'm not a big user of armor.

Here's how the 'battle' went... I dropped paratroopers between him and the middle objectives of which a couple landed near his horde of flamers and they were barbequed as he went first. So i moved up my units to try and locate him over the next 4 turns and was continually ambushed and torched as I couldn't see anything at all. Apparently he wasn't moving any units at all and simply waited for me to get ambushed. I'm not a camper [>:] so I had to move. I managed to push his flamers back a ways but he used arty to take advantage of my inability to unsuppress my earlywar russian blokes. The pattern was... he camped, I got ambushed, he moved his flamers away, artied to suppress, then came back and finished off my units with more flame. Over and over. He lost some flamers due purely to the grit of my sooty troops but this is no way to conduct a battle.

He seemed to be enjoying it as his emails were full of bragging. On turn 4, I told him I was quitting cause the game was so unrealistic with nothing but flamethrowers and blindness and he actually wanted to play me again. I told him to find a mouse to play with who can enjoy his cheese.

With no one responding to my pbem thread and more than a little disappointed with this exploit used against me, I decided to hang up my PBEM gloves and stick to single player. Many thanks to Wild Bill for providing fun, challenging battles to make up for the total lack of human opponents for this game. [&o]








Alby -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/24/2006 4:58:15 AM)

Visibilty to 1 and all arty and flamers...LOL
thats about as gamey as it gets!! [:@]
dont let this one guy turn you off from PBEM!!!
what pbem thread BTW???
[&:]




PimpYourAFV -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/24/2006 5:07:35 AM)


My PBEM thread is in the 'Opponent Wanted' forum.




azraelck -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/24/2006 5:42:13 AM)

All I can say is damn. When he insisted on such a poor visibility I would be leery. Heck, just for him being willing to downgrade his version an remove any mods; I would be thinking something's up.

I personally don't play PBEM anymore. I got burnt out playing an AoW game that lasted two years. So now I stick to SP. At least SPWaW has AI capable of giving a fight; unlike AoW.




sabrejack -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/24/2006 7:00:22 AM)

Don't judge all PBEM-ers by that particular opponent! Lots of us manage to have really fun games on a regular basis. My problem is that I don't have time for all the people who are lining up to kick my backside... [:D]

If you want a decent meeting engagement, 20 - 25 visibility etc in either 8.3, 8.403 or H2Hfr I'm sure I could squeeze in a small game in the near future? What kind of size are you talking about? I don't have a lot of time at the moment, so big games are out. Maybe something around 2000 points?

If you're interested, send me a PM or an email to:

sabrejack@spwaw.com





PimpYourAFV -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/24/2006 7:32:21 AM)

The nice people always get beat up the worst. [:D]

I prefer in the 1500 to 2000 point range cause its a little more tactical. Though I wouldn't mind trying a big Somme-style battle with someone sometime if they don't mind mowing down a lot of my blokes. I sent you a pm sabrejack.




PimpYourAFV -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/24/2006 8:43:54 AM)


I forgot to mention in the above story that my units never ambushed his units so he most probably was also redoing his turns once he found out where my units were. [:D][8|]




Colonel von Blitz -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/24/2006 9:52:33 AM)

Oh...that just sucks! But like sabrejack said, don't judge all PBEM-ers by that one opponent. There's large PBEM community that does not cheat.

What's the point of cheating in SPWaW anyway, since it like cheating in solitaire? You can cheat the victory, but that way you'll never learn anything about tactics or the finesse of the game itself. IMO that learning part is the best part of the game: I've been playing against human opponents since the first SP, but still I consider myself barely average player and notice that after every game, I've learned something new...there is no other game that has given me this feeling and that's the reason I still consider SP to be the best tactical level wargame ever made!

-Colonel von Blitz-




Korpraali V -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/24/2006 10:39:07 AM)

Deleted




Alby -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/24/2006 3:42:37 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: TokyoBoyTensai


I forgot to mention in the above story that my units never ambushed his units so he most probably was also redoing his turns once he found out where my units were. [:D][8|]

There is a way to check ow many times your opponent has loaded the game, I forgot how at the moment...however, this function does not prove the turn has been replayed.




JEB Davis -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/24/2006 4:52:22 PM)

TBT,

I'm sorry to hear what happened to you, it was not fair. Don't let it kill your obvious enthusiasm for this great game. When I get into PBEMs (hopefully not too long from now), I hope that type of junk isn't what I encounter.

JEB




IBTyrone -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/24/2006 5:47:43 PM)

One of my biggest beefs with PBEM is trust. There is no place in PBEM for gameyness, and especially taunting when playing with a newbie. Possibly taunting might be acceptable if you've played someone many times before, but NOT in the first game. [:-]

That just is not right. The end result is one new promising player becomes disillusioned with what was a great game because of another player taking advantage of the new players naivete just so they can feel good about themselves. Because they were gamey. Riiight. [&:]

TokyoBoy, I've never played a PBEM, but I'd be willing to try one in your case just so you don't end up souring on the game just because of the ego issues of one player. [:@]

Most folks who play PBEM will treat you honorably. I apologize on behalf of the community to you.




Riun T -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/24/2006 6:31:41 PM)

One of my close buddies and I have what u could call extremely gamey battles and pride ourselves on how rediculous some of our purchases and equipment turns out to be [X(] He's a fantacy gamer by preferance with no military background and very parttime real history reader so I 'm not really suprised, BUT WE'VE known and fought for years. Point being neither of us would ever do that to a novice[:-] RT




Afrika Korps -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/24/2006 7:07:29 PM)

Lame. [:-]




pbhawkin1 -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/25/2006 12:29:54 AM)

Hi
Just to let you know I have started a DAR report on an Aussie Vs Japanese PBEM b/w myself and TBT.
20 turns
jungle
1500 points




PimpYourAFV -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/25/2006 1:24:54 AM)


I just discovered we can use custom maps for PBEM instead of the random generated maps for PBEM are just a rectangular block of one terrain type. It should be a lot more interesting and tactical to use those custom maps I think. I'd love to do a fight in a town or an assault on a heavily defended beach. Something about charging along the sand into a hail of machinegun fire coming from the trees makes my heart sing. [:D]




PimpYourAFV -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/25/2006 1:33:30 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: IBTyrone

TokyoBoy, I've never played a PBEM, but I'd be willing to try one in your case just so you don't end up souring on the game just because of the ego issues of one player. [:@]



IBTyrone, I'm sure you'd be an excellent and trustworthy PBEM player. I started a PBEM now with pbhawkins which is going fine (except I regret not using one of the custom maps I just discovered). I will start another with anyone who's interested if we can get past the version mismatches.




pbhawkin1 -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/25/2006 1:39:03 AM)

Hi TBT
am at work now and wll do my first turn later today.





PimpYourAFV -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/25/2006 1:43:25 AM)


That's cool pbhawkins. What a drag having to work on a Saturday morning. [:(] What do you think of using a custom map if we are up for a rematch after this battle?




pbhawkin1 -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/25/2006 1:44:51 AM)

sounds good. the generated maps can be a pain and unrealstic but then the custom maps can be unfair if one person is very familiar with it and the other not.




Korpraali V -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/25/2006 8:09:42 AM)

Yesterday I saw this thread and was totally surprised. I’d had no idea about TokyoBoyTensai’s thoughts or reactions. I wrote my answer here but deleted it soon (see my deleted post above). The reason for that was that I wanted to clear things personally, not in public. So I sent my answer to TBT and asked his opinions after reading mine. I’ve got no answer at all. So now I’m taking my answer here for all to see (I think someone recoqnized me already). Thanks TBT for trying to keep me anonymous, but I feel no necessity for that. Here’s my answer that I sent to TBT:
-------------------------------------------

Since I was that PBEM opponent, I think I have right to tell you my point of view. First of all, I'm sorry, if my poor English have tricked you somehow. If somehing remains unclear, I'd hope you'd ask first, before judging.


quote:

ORIGINAL: TokyoBoyTensai

I thought this game would be excellent for human vs human cause it isn't filled with cheesy exploits but alas... I learned the hard way this is not true.

Russia (me) vs Romanian cheese artist 1941
1500 points

After a struggle almost as long and grim as the fight for Stalingrad itself, I finally found someone who wanted to play a PBEM game. I was further astonished that not only did he want to play PBEM, but he even changed his multimod version and patch to match mine. Thankful for the offer and his efforts to make it happen, I requested a meeting engagement and agreed to his option settings but he snuck in one extra nasty twist without telling me. [:@] Already dark clouds were forming and vultures gathered.


He set the visibility to one (visibility 2 but all forest which reduced visibility to 1) with reduced spotting chance. Then he bought a company of flamethrower engineers, flame tanks and artillery. That is, nothing but flame and arty. [8|]


In 8.4 I usually play as spotting 80% on both sides. Spotting issue has been widely discussed in forums. however, in close distance it wouldn't change anything as far as I know. Forestry map was the first that the game randomly chose. I have no idea about what is the average Romanian-Soviet battle map.

About the visibility: Before the game in PM you suggested some messy weather. Then I suggested the visibility of 1 or 2, remember? I got no answer so I thought it was ok. Only after the game you said that you'd have liked more vis 6 to 8. So I think our thoughts were different.

Romanians don't have flametanks, you had them. My forces were: three companies of FT engineers (Romanian OOB has such of companies), two MGs of each companies changed to three tanks (R-2 and T-26), platoon of cavalry, 2x FO, 4x 81mm mortar, 6x 105mm FH, 2x Stuka + gun teams. So I chose the units according to the map, yes that's true. I thought you'd do so too, because in the buying screen you can see all the details of the battle. So if that's gamey, I'm sorry. I didn't knew that.

quote:


Anyways, I bought a mix of different infantry types, cavalry, AT guns, motorbikes, a scout car platoon and 2 sections of light tanks (one section flame) as I'm not a big user of armor.

Here's how the 'battle' went... I dropped paratroopers between him and the middle objectives of which a couple landed near his horde of flamers and they were barbequed as he went first. So i moved up my units to try and locate him over the next 4 turns and was continually ambushed and torched as I couldn't see anything at all. Apparently he wasn't moving any units at all and simply waited for me to get ambushed. I'm not a camper [>:] so I had to move. I managed to push his flamers back a ways but he used arty to take advantage of my inability to unsuppress my earlywar russian blokes. The pattern was... he camped, I got ambushed, he moved his flamers away, artied to suppress, then came back and finished off my units with more flame. Over and over. He lost some flamers due purely to the grit of my sooty troops but this is no way to conduct a battle.


Meeting engagement. Yes, I defended at first. Since you had most of the VHs I should have finally start to advance anyways. You should have only waited couple turns. Before that my tactic was to weaken the enemy. Then of course I use artillery to suppress before I attack. And that unability to rally -problem is still in 1941 bigger problem in Romanian side. Tell me if I'm wrong but isn't that pure tactic?

quote:


He seemed to be enjoying it as his emails were full of bragging. On turn 4, I told him I was quitting cause the game was so unrealistic with nothing but flamethrowers and blindness and he actually wanted to play me again. I told him to find a mouse to play with who can enjoy his cheese.


Actually I never get that last post. My habit is to use some rhetorics and try to be 'Romanian' in the battle. If that confused or hurt you, I'm really sorry. My intention was not that but made it fun to both of us. And 'full of bragging' goes anyways way too far, I think. I'm also sorry if my English made me look like that.

I suggested another game because that was something you had suggested in the PMs before the first battle. And I wanted to correct the things you thought were wrong in my unit selection, visibility and the map the game chose. Before the PBEM we all have different expectations and that's why it's important to try to discuss as much as possible beforehand. And I really tried.

quote:


With no one responding to my pbem thread and more than a little disappointed with this exploit used against me, I decided to hang up my PBEM gloves and stick to single player. Many thanks to Wild Bill for providing fun, challenging battles to make up for the total lack of human opponents for this game. [&o]


If you are disapointted in me, don't take it as a disappointment to PBEM. Find another opponent and go for it.

Ps. I never replay my turns. This is offending. My units as well as your units didn't assault due to lack of exp and morale.

-------------------------------------------------

I’m not an experienced PBEM’er. Maybe average/mediocore. I’m still learning and naturally making some mistakes. I had no idea about these thoughts of TBT before I read this. Was I really gamey?

And yes, I do hate cheating too.

TBT: In your next PBEM, ask your opponent before judging him/her.




Puukkoo -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/25/2006 2:04:34 PM)

It seems that Korpraali V has completely and honestly fooled his opponent on the field of battle. I don't believe that there was any kind of cheating attempted.




IBTyrone -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/25/2006 5:01:14 PM)

Thanks for the explanation, Korpraali. I appreciate you sharing your side of the story and taking the time to do it right.

Given TokyoBoy's explanation, I thought it was one of those guys on the fringes that don't participate regularly in the forums looking for an easy game against a newbie. It seems now it was just a misunderstanding between you and Tokyoboy. I hope the two of you get it worked out.

I apologize if I came across too harsh.




Afrika Korps -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/25/2006 5:46:18 PM)

I did not know Romanians had FT engineer companies...yikes....I have to check out that OOB.

[sm=sterb032.gif]




FlashfyreSP -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/25/2006 6:22:20 PM)

And now we see the "true" results of those "Haig tactics" as applied against a human opponent, versus the AI (which we all know hopeless when conducting anything but a true defense). Haig was wrong then, and he is wrong today.




Major_Mess -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/25/2006 7:48:02 PM)

I read this post, and I have thought about it for far tooooo long. Against my better judgement I wish to comment.


IMHO..........................

This should have been dealt with IN PRIVATE.

If I was a Mod on this Forum (no, I don't want to become one thanks) I would have turned totally Autocratic. I would have locked down this thread in a heartbeat. Then I would have PM'ed the author to strongly suggest that it should be deleted.

Where I come from, you accuse someone of cheating in public ...................... someone is going to get a bloody nose - whether they cheated or not.



And since I've put one foot in it already, here goes the other one ..................................



I've always found (through trial and error I must admit LOL) that one should not become judgemental until they have at least heard both sides of the story. That's only fair, isn't it?


I apologise if I have upset anyone with my observations ...................... flame away!



Major Mess ....................... admittedly grumpy right now[:D].




Korpraali V -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/26/2006 7:29:34 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: IBTyrone

Thanks for the explanation, Korpraali. I appreciate you sharing your side of the story and taking the time to do it right.

Given TokyoBoy's explanation, I thought it was one of those guys on the fringes that don't participate regularly in the forums looking for an easy game against a newbie. It seems now it was just a misunderstanding between you and Tokyoboy. I hope the two of you get it worked out.

I apologize if I came across too harsh.


No need for apologies. I believe they were directed to 'anonymous cheater' and tried not to take those comments personally.

And I too hope that we could work this out.




Afrika Korps -> RE: A PBEM Made of Cheese (2/26/2006 5:45:06 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: FlashfyreSP

And now we see the "true" results of those "Haig tactics" as applied against a human opponent, versus the AI (which we all know hopeless when conducting anything but a true defense). Haig was wrong then, and he is wrong today.


While I agree somewhat with this statement, this particular battle in no way realistically disproves Haig, as FTs are used in defensive in positions. I have never heard of FT being used in a standup fight where you get lines of them sweeping advancing infantry (in RL). SPWAWs game design allows for this if you are in the defense with your FTs, which is wholly unrealistic, but allowed by the game engine.

Haig tactics, in RL don't work, but in SPWAW they can...just like a wall of defensive FTs can...OP fire from a FT is murder.

I don't totally discount TBTs tactics in SPWAW.




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