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Freedom Fighters Wargame Club
Christmas 2009 newsletter
If you've never seen the Christmas tree on the Nordwind map it's at 41,10
(to the right side of the header image above)
FFWC Links
INDEX
There is a lot to read in this newsletter so please use the Index to make
navigating it easier.
Introduction from the Commander
Introduction from the Commander
Thanks for taking the time to read this 2009 FFWC Newsletter. I hope you
have had a good year and that the busy-ness of the season does not detract
from its significance for you and your family. In this newsletter you will
find a summary of the status of the club and the things that have and are
happening in it. It has been my privilege to take on the role of club leader
and I wish to honour those who have lead the club before me; to its founder
and most recent leader Commandant HOOK, JPershing and Goldfinger, I wish to
say thanks.
September saw Commandant HOOK resign from his leadership role and my
acceptance of its responsibilities. This is always a time of challenge as
change is effected and everyone seeks to find stability and direction. I
hope that the transition has been relatively painless and that the months
ahead will bring renewed energy into the club.
The club had its 10th Birthday on February 6th this year; an impressive
achievement. To celebrate, the 10th Year Tournament started later in the
year and will run into 2010, but more on that later in the newsletter.
Actually, in many ways it has been a difficult year for the club. The trend
in recent years has been a steady decline in numbers of games played, forum
activity and participation in tournaments. Correspondingly less new
scenarios have been created. Activity is at an all-time low. It is my
primary challenge and that of all members to see that activity increase.
Many ideas have been put forward on how to do that and I encourage you to
check out the forum to read what others think and to have your say.
Although the game is now over 10 years old and there are myriad reasons why
it is being played less, there are many signs in the wider Panzer General
community that indicate the game is still alive and kicking. Initiatives,
some of which are outlined in this newsletter, are ways we can all get
involved and find new reasons to enjoy playing Panzer General.
Anyway, that's enough from me for now. I hope you enjoy the newsletter.
Cheers
Commander El Condoro
Games played
There were approximately 175 individual games (a mirrored game = 2)
played at the club in 2009. *: This can only be an estimate as this
newsletter is produced before the end of the year. By comparison:
It's obvious that the number of games played has fallen
significantly since 2006.
Many 2009 games were Round Robins and Tournament games - see reports
below.
Medals and awards
Congratulations to the following players for their efforts. Remember to
nominate players for medals. See the Medals (and the Nominate form) link on
the forum and web site.
Medals
Bergsteiger: Medal of Valor
Various tournment medals for US vs World 08 and 09; Slugfest 08 and the
Random Team Tournament
Ribbons for games played
Crusher: Over 500 games
El Condoro: over 500 games
Blackdog: over 400 games
Garoth: over 30 games
Parade Square promotion
Karhu: 2 stars to Major General
Event: 4th Annual International Meeting in
New Hampshire
The fourth Annual FFWC International Meeting was held in New Hampshire again
this year and was a lot of fun for those who attended. A huge round of
applause and thanks to John (JPershing) who made his house, resources and
hospitality available. His generosity has been enjoyed and appreciated by
many over the last 4 years and is a source of much of the club's
camaraderie.
See photos of the meeting here:
http://ffwcpg2.org/annualmeeting/2009.html
Plans for the 5th Meeting are being discussed on the forum here:
http://freedomfighterswargameclub75675.yuku.com/topic/4006
Web site and forum 'clean-up'
The number of active forums has been reduced and all sections of both the
FFWC Forum and web site are accessible from the header.
Boot Camp and Recruitment by El Condoro (Commander)
There has been a steady flow, perhaps 'trickle' is a better word, of players
entering Boot Camp to receive instruction on how to play Panzer General II
by email (PBEM) at the club this year. Clayballs, as Sergeant Major of Boot
Camp, has done a great job of co-ordinating and following up these potential
recruits, together with Crusher and Panzer G. However, he has decided it is
time to pass the role on to another and has resigned from this post. I would
like to thank Don for all his efforts in this area and recommend you read
his article below from his days in the Royal Navy.
The main challenge of the Boot Camp and perhaps the club as a whole is the
retention of these new players. Most do not continue their playing beyond
the first one or two games and some do not finish Boot Camp. Given the
efforts of the Boot Camp Instructors it is important that the club tries to
include new players through any means available. If you have any comments or
ideas on this topic, please feel free to share them on the forum.
In 2009 the Boot Camp site has been simplified and made more accessible.
Check it out at the
'Recruits (New Players)' page on the web site.
Tournaments by Crusher (Tournaments Co-ordinator)
As Tournaments Director I was asked to write an article about the most
recent tournaments. Going back to the Slugfest tournament that started in
2008, we have had three very successful tournaments including the ongoing
10th Anniversary Tournament. The Slugfest Tournament was a lot of fun since
it pitted two teams chosen by winning percentage against each other with all
the associated trash talk. Both the "Band of Brothers" and "Sapper's Heroes"
had their own distinctive style and the tournament was won by Band of
Brothers in a close finish. Next we had another USA vs World tournament with
14 players which the World team won going away. Hopefully the USA players
will step up again to try and win back the title.
To celebrate the club's 10th anniversary it was decided to go back to the
club's roots and have a straight elimination tournament using classic SSI
scenarios. With 16 players signed up to play it has been a success so far
and should be fun right to the end.
Greven has come aboard to help organize future
tournaments and is bringing some interesting ideas to "spice" up game play.
As long as you guys are interested in playing, the tournament team will
continue to offer challenging and, I hope, fun tournaments in the coming
year.
Thanks to all who have participated.
Round Robins by El Condoro (Commander, Round Robins
Co-ordinator)
Always a game open
Although Round Robins make up about 50-60% of all 2-player games at the
FFWC, there has been a decline in the number of Round Robins in 2009; 6
Classic SSI and only 2 Custom round robins have been played in the 2009
season.
The fun and attraction of this form of game is very evident. Playing against
4 other players (2 as defender and 2 as attacker) is a great way to get to
know other players, the characteristics of scenarios, and how to play them.
For example, I was pretty sure the Russians would always win the SSI
Leningrad scenario until I saw how Greven played as the Germans! It is also
a good way to get in a larger number of concurrent games, if that's what you
like.
The 2010 Round Robin season has commenced and the winners of the 2009
seasons will be announced as soon as the results are known.
4-Player games by Goldfinger (4-player Co-ordinator)
With the revitalization of FFWC, thanks to El Condoro, comes a renewed vigor
in 4-player games. So far the pace of games registered and completed is
greater than at any time last year. I'm hopeful this will continue as our
great club enters the new decade.
Some teams such as RAF (Von Luck & Bergsteiger), Banana Panzers (Raoul &
Wittmann), and Staghounds (Greven & EC) have changed players but kept
their name. Others such as Speedcops (Copyguy & Clayballs) and Happy
Gold (Mr. Happy & Goldfinger) have formed completely new teams. We still
have original teams that have stayed together through the years. The
scoring system is still the simple formula we have always used. Anyone
interested in forming a new team should contact me at:
goldfingerpg2@hotmail.com
There are a few changes to be implemented in 2010 that are outlined
below.
Ladders: Parade Square and Annual
Square
The Annual Square will be the focus of achievement for players each year
and will incorporate the possibility of promotion in rank from results
achieved on it. The traditional scoring system of the Parade Square will
be reinstated, including the loss of points for games played.
Details on the forum here:
http://freedomfighterswargameclub75675.yuku.com/topic/4063?page=1
'Panzer General' title
A new title will be created for one player each year who achieves
excellent results in both number of games played and results. The name
of this title is still to be finalised but only one 'Panzer General'
will exist each year. The 2010 Annual Square will determine who will be
the 'Panzer General' for 2011.
Details on the forum here:
http://freedomfighterswargameclub75675.yuku.com/topic/4064
Hints and Tips
There are many, many tips that can help to improve your game play in PG2. These are just a couple. Please feel free to share yours with others on the FFWC Forum. These will also be added to the 'Playing the Game' web page. Yes, other players may end up beating you with your tips some day but at least you'll get more of a challenge! :)
Using the overrun to resupply
When a tank (TNK class) overruns a target and has movement points remaining
(greyed hexes indicate this) it will automatically resupply at the end of
the turn if it does not move any further subject to normal resupply rules
(less than 3 adjacent enemy units). This is a great way to get that 2 ammo
Tiger back to full ammo and fuel without it wasting a turn to do so!
Attacking bombers with fighter escort
Fighters are generally used to escort bombers by keeping them adjacent to
the bomber's hex. If you attack the bomber the escorting fighters get their
attack in and can spoil the effect of your attack on the bomber. However, if
you attack the bomber with an 'expendable' plane all subsequent attacks
against the bomber are at full effect. So, if you have an 'expendable' weak
1 or 2 strength fighter handy attack the bomber with it to draw off the
fighters and then attack the bomber with your main fighter.
Notes:
Special article by Don Clayton (Clayballs)
"HMS Diamond managed to find HMS Swiftsure and rammed into her amidships"
In September 1953 I was a young Signalman serving onboard HMS Diamond which was a Daring Class destroyer. One of the features of this class of destroyer was that it was built with a bow for ramming submarines. Unfortunately, we decided to go for something larger like an 8000 ton Cruiser called HMS Swiftsure.
We were carrying out an exercise in the Arctic Circle, at night, in complete darkness. You could not see a hand in front of your face as anyone who has been up in the Arctic Circle will know what I mean, it was dark. We also had a gale force wind blowing with 52 foot waves, the height of a 2 storey house, this added to the freezing cold made my station on the upper bridge very unpleasant.
All ships were under strict “darken ship” conditions so all navigation lights were switched off. The formation was made up of 2 sections, the Main Body (HMS Swiftsure and other large ships) and the destroyer escorts. The destroyers were spread out ahead of the Main body giving anti-submarine protection. At 1945 hours a signal was received to reverse the course of the formation, which is a turn of 180 degrees. This meant that the destroyer escorts had to reverse their course, increase speed to max and pass clear of the ships in the main body which would continued on their original course until the destroyer escorts were reformed astern of the main body.
Bearing in mind the conditions and the fact that no lights were visible anywhere, HMS Diamond managed to find HMS Swiftsure and rammed into her amidships. Ships in the formation were only using low power radar which suffered from storm clutter and was clearly not easy to read. The collision became obvious about 2 minutes before it occurred, too late to take avoiding action at the speed HMS Diamond was doing. Our Assistant Gunnery Officer was on the upper bridge with me and as soon as he could see that a collision was imminent he had the foresight to dash down onto our foredeck and have the high powered water hose ready to use. I remained on the upper bridge petrified, I was wearing foul weather clothing with Wellington boots and would have had no chance of swimming if we sank.
Had it been HMS Swiftsure which collided with HMS Diamond I would not be writing this today, she would have cut through us like a knife through butter as our hull was one of the first welded versions with very thin plate. 52 feet of our bow was left inside HMS Swiftsure which included our paint locker. The fire onboard HMS Swiftsure burnt for the rest of the night and reached up to the control room and bridge. She never went to sea again and was eventually scrapped. Because of the heroism of our Acting Gunnery Officer we managed to control the fire and eventually extinguish it.
Our Captain faced a Courts Martial for hazarding his ship. A famous signal was sent between HMS Swiftsure and HMS Diamond which I received and sent from the bridge by signal lamp. The captain of HMS Swiftsure said to our captain – “What are you going to do now” our captain replied “Build a farm”. Within 30 minutes of the collision the gale abated and the sea dropped to almost a flat calm. HMS Diamond returned to the naval port at Chatham backwards. She had a new bow welded on and continued in the service.
I still consider this to be one of my miracles in life, things could have been so different. I don’t think that anyone died from this collision but there were some injuries onboard HMS Swiftsure. VARIOUS STUFF Open General
Luis Guzman and others are in the latter stages of the production and
testing of Open General, which is intended to be a replica of Panzer General
II but with the advantage of being open source when completed. All features
are intended to be backward compatible with PG2 but many optional new
features have been added and will be added in the future. As well as
gameplay enhancements for players, scenario designers will be given many new
options. For more information see the following links:
Open General code (free download):
http://luis-guzman.com/
Open General forum:
http://www.panzercentral.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=132
Panzer General I projects
If you like the original Panzer General there are a couple of projects worth
looking at.
PGX is Jeff Crouch's massive
PG-AG clone:
Free dlownload:
http://web.utk.edu/~pa117408/
PGF (Panzer General Forever) is
Radankort's PG1 remake. I haven't tested it but apparently there is an
online save-game function, which would be awesome!:
Free download and information:
http://panzergeneral2.com/pg1.htm
Online gaming
There are so many gaming communities that it would be silly to try to list
them all. These are the two online Panzer General online gaming sites that I
know of:
Panzer General 2: Warzone -
http://www.ewarzone.com/
Panzer General 1: Start a new game from Panzer General Forever (see above)
Online board games
Many board games have been adapted for online play using the Vassal game
engine. Check it out here:
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