They are just a reminder of what you want to do -nothing more. They do not, at all, change anything in the playing of the scenario. They give that person zero gain AND once the opponent starts firing, they are probably worthless.
You could tell your opponent that you have the arrows HIP'd but I would not remove them if my opponent said no. I would say that I am just telling you as a courtesy. The rules do not say anything about VASL (I think).
It's true the rules don't say anything about using VASL to play. However, VASL only exists to recreate the play of ASL. Not something else. So there is no reason to pursue an argument along those lines with you. There is no possible way, nor do the rules allow any possible way, to make HIP markings on the map in a real (not virtual) game of ASL. Therefore, I say that in a tournament, it not be permitted unless there is mutual agreement. It can slow down the game, for one thing. And if any of you have been to an ftf tournament, you'll know that time is of the essence. I'm all in favor of keeping the game as close to ASL as possible, especially in a tournament.
How are you hurt in any way by this? If anything, I think you benefit from a better game. Comparing VASL to F-t-F is a poor comparison. I can promise you, if I set up to attack playing Face-to-Face, I would take notes about how and why I set up and my plan of attack if for some reason we decided to leave it set up to play next week. Again, JMO, YMMV. -- jim
There are a lot of ways it could suck. For instance, what if my opponent insists on plotting every move like this for every turn? How much time do I want to sit around waiting for a supposedly better game -- which is highly debatable-- that if someone has to do this, that's going to make them better at gameplay. Better gameplay is through playing the game per the rules, not with virtual scaffolding of dotted lines that are HIP.
VASL PBeM might be a poor comparison, but not VASL live.
Online VASL shouldn't take any longer to play because my opponent is manipulating illegal (that is, not permitted HIP or cloaking by the rules) HIP constructs as a play aid. Remember I am talking about tournament play here, not casual play. Any tournament director worth his salt shouldn't allow unnecessary delays, but there are tournament directors, and there are tournament directors.
I can tell you, though, that if I was sitting around waiting for all this virtual prepping all the time, I'd find another opponent. YMMV, as you like to say. As for PBeM, it's a different animal, nothing can stop anyone from doing what they want and plotting the hell out of their moves beforehand.
Why not? I did that when playing Sand&Blood as the American attacker. It speeds up play enormously and increases the fun for everyone!
Did you inform your opponent and if they agreed, then why not, sure. If they didn't, there are a lot of reasons for why not, and you should know that as a tournament director. Do you allow this sort of thing in your rules of play for the VASL tournament? I didn't notice that you had, but maybe I missed it.
To me all this illustrates pretty clearly 'information requirements' appear quite absurd and over the top. This includes the taking of notes, written on paper or VASL'ized arrows etc. And if anyone would call the taking of notes 'cheating', with what justification could he call any of the other examples provided 'not cheating'?
von Marwitz
Of course information requirements matter in playing a tournament game face to face as they do in VASL live. It's not permitted by the rules. Although there are some players who don't care about the rules, as absurd and over the top that is. The rules do actually mention note-taking for HIP. The rules do actually discuss cloaking and how and when it is permitted. They don't discuss HIPing everything under the sun for the sake of one player's convenience. Any of us can ignore this obvious fact, but ignorance doesn't make it not so. Mutually agreement should be the order of the day.
I have no problem if an opponent wants to make notes on the board regarding his battle plan as long as there is no LOS being traced. Frankly, it probably speeds up play. I say, rock on.
Well, sure. If you agreed and your opponent disclosed it. That goes for all of us who agree that disclosure is necessary. But obviously some people don't think that manipulating files beyond the scope of the rules doesn't need to be informed or agreed upon. I say absolutely it must be disclosed and agreed upon in a tournament game (perhaps not PBeM). VASL is about playing ASL, not some other game.
As for what the rest of you want to do in non-tournament play, I care not other than I expect the opportunity for mutual agreement. But there should be specific and meaningful standards for what is allowed in tournament play that everyone abides by. This seems obvious to me in spite of some people shrugging their shoulders about it.
cheers!