Shanghaid, the port for hijacked threads

Actionjick

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Some random thoughts generated by the chess clocks at tournaments thread.

I always went to an event with the goal of giving my opponents my best game, being a good sportsman and meeting new people. Winning would have been nice but I wasn't that good of a player to expect to win the event. Plus with the exception of Oktoberfest '86 and '87 every event that I competed in Fish was also playing. Figure the odds of beating him in an event. '86 was won by Ray Wolozyn and '87 by Mark Nixon. Formidable players also.

The focus of all our ASL extracurricular activities was to encourage people to get together and play. Oktoberfest was never about declaring a champion in our view. In Contact was supposed to be exclusively about getting players in contact with each other. Even the Series Replay of Guryev's Headquarters was to encourage players to try SOF.

A player posted that he was not an ASL player but took a copy of The General featuring Guryev's to his daughter's basketball game. He read the replay and took up ASL. For me that alone was worth the effort of doing the replay.

Fast players. It seems as if the only time an excessively fast player would be an annoyance, barring obvious acts of impatience, is during his Movement Phase. Zooming from hex to hex without giving the opponent a chance to declare a shot is a no no. We played that way against each other but allowed the First Firing player the ability to back up the moving unit a hex MF/MP to get a shot in.

That's about it for now. Civilization calls. 😉
 

fenyan

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Concur with many of your thoughts. I've always wanted to give my opponent, as a primary goal, a good game win or lose.

Our local tournament I view as an opportunity to meet other players and play longer scenarios. Like a social, leisurely event. Of course mini tournaments can allow you to play more good scenarios.

Guryev's Headquarters. I think it was the first scenario I played at a tournament as a pick-up game. Played really badly as a new player. However it's since become a favorite as I acquired a taste for Deluxe ASL. Someone recently asked me why I liked DASL. I think as a new player the randomness of close combat prevalent in many DASL scenarios was an equalizer vs a more experienced opponent.

Fast players. One of the many suggestions I read as a brand new player years ago was to play faster. The gist of it was the more mileage and to not agonize over every move and to learn from your mistakes. I am by no means a fast player, and hope I'm average speed. I generally don't mind slower opponents because it gives me time to think out my moves for my next turn. As for players that can move fast (especially with AFVs) the ones I know usually advise if they are moving too fast to go ahead and back them up for a defensive shot.
 

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Stavka's thread about the tournament using only scenarios published in 2023 got me thinking about scenarios for tournaments.

Wwbitd when you went to a SL tournament the scenarios were all fresh, sight unseen by most of the attendees. Usually designed by the tournament director. Using scenarios published in 2023 reminds me slightly of that.

That was hit or miss as far as the quality and playability of scenarios in a tournament situation. Playtesting was minimal and most playtest groups were small. I think that TD designed scenarios for an event has gone out of style but would be interested to know how it is still in practice.

If you ever meet Mark Nixon ask him to give you a copy of Mud Madness. Be sure to mention me as suggesting the request.
 

Actionjick

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Stavka's thread about the tournament using only scenarios published in 2023 got me thinking about scenarios for tournaments.

Wwbitd when you went to a SL tournament the scenarios were all fresh, sight unseen by most of the attendees. Usually designed by the tournament director. Using scenarios published in 2023 reminds me slightly of that.

That was hit or miss as far as the quality and playability of scenarios in a tournament situation. Playtesting was minimal and most playtest groups were small. I think that TD designed scenarios for an event has gone out of style but would be interested to know how it is still in practice.

If you ever meet Mark Nixon ask him to give you a copy of Mud Madness. Be sure to mention me as suggesting the request.
Btw Don Munsell was the first that Fish could recall that used published scenarios at an event. RIP guys.
 

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I think Blackpool uses new Bounding Fire scenarios.
Yes, the Bounding Fire tournament in Blackpool in November uses unreleased BFP scenarios. Last year, some from the ECZ pack were also in the mix.
 

Actionjick

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Posted on the listening to thread Inca Roads and Florentine Pogen by Frank Zappa. Fish and I had some musical tastes in common and Zappa was one of them although I was much more the Frank fanatic.

Both those songs are from One Size Fits All, the first Zappa I ever heard. Fish had never listened to that album and particularly liked Florentine Pogen for it's lyric " read em' and weep." As an avid gamer and someone who rolled a few dice in his time he could readily empathize with that particular verse.
 

Manilianus

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This week I was diagnosed with depression, ended up on sick leave and medications, today I've taken my first dose. To lessen the anxiety of potential side effects of taking pills, and lighten up the mood in general, I've decided that today is the day that I'm gonna spray me some countersheets - I will try to Bill Cirillo* my set as best as I can! Krylon ready, Oregon Deluxe ready, sheets ready, house evacuated.

If anyone comes to complaint because of varnish in the air, I'm going to defend myself that this is a pre-psychotherapy before actual psychotherapy kicks in.

*To Bill Cirillo a set - to make it a piece of art.
 
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Vinnie

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This week I was diagnosed this week with depression, ended up on sick leave and medications, today I've taken my first dose. To lessen the anxiety of potential side effects of taking pills, and lighten up the mood in general, I've decided that today is the day that I'm gonna spray me some countersheets - I will try to Bill Cirillo* my set as best as I can! Krylon ready, Oregon Deluxe ready, sheets ready, house evacuated.

If anyone comes to complaint because of varnish in the air, I'm going to defend myself that this is a pre-psychotherapy before actual psychotherapy kicks in.

*To Bill Cirillo a set - to make it a piece of art.
Post progress pictures. I've not seen Bill's set but loved Nadir's ones. He said that was where he got the inspiration.
 

Manilianus

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I've made it! Starter Kit 1 sprayed, clipped and sorted into a GMT tray (figured out it'll be better choice for SK counters than Raaco).

Before spraying:

25749


After spraying:

25750

Before and after clipping:

25751


Sorted into GMT tray:

25752

Overall an hour of spraying, two hours of drying, and an hour and a half of clipping (Ollie, how do you do that, my hands hurt already!).

Thank you, Bill!
 

Actionjick

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I've made it! Starter Kit 1 sprayed, clipped and sorted into a GMT tray (figured out it'll be better choice for SK counters than Raaco).

Before spraying:

View attachment 25749


After spraying:

View attachment 25750

Before and after clipping:

View attachment 25751


Sorted into GMT tray:

View attachment 25752

Overall an hour of spraying, two hours of drying, and an hour and a half of clipping (Ollie, how do you do that, my hands hurt already!).

Thank you, Bill!
Olli has three arms!
 

Manilianus

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SK 2 done, I've noticed some small "milky" effect on sides of couple of Italian counters, but otherwise it's fine. All in all this is pretty reversable, so I might just scrap gently the varnish off and repeat the process.
 

Gamer72

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About 35 years ago, my friend covered all his counter sheets with yacht varnish, which has mostly held up pretty well (although not so much on the Devil’s Den counters I’m playing with just now).
 

olli

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I've made it! Starter Kit 1 sprayed, clipped and sorted into a GMT tray (figured out it'll be better choice for SK counters than Raaco).

Before spraying:

View attachment 25749


After spraying:

View attachment 25750

Before and after clipping:

View attachment 25751


Sorted into GMT tray:

View attachment 25752

Overall an hour of spraying, two hours of drying, and an hour and a half of clipping (Ollie, how do you do that, my hands hurt already!).

Thank you, Bill!
Lol years of practice gets easier over time before the latest op last week on
My clipping hand I was still able to do around 15 counters a minute!
 
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