What's up with the strategies posted on this site?

Howdy,

Been visiting a few times recently. What is with the strategies posted on this site? I mean the actual one’s posted on the site…not message board discussion in general (although I have a lot of reservations there as well). Are those not the worst possible strategies ever to be printed? My goodness, they look like they were posted by some French General…LOL. I mean come on…German carriers, attack Canada, suicide assaults on Karelia, build a fleet and invade the US as Germany. Yuck.

I don’t mean to offend people…but those are rookie strats at best. Don’t you have any one to write something half useable and thought out?

SUD

I totally agree about the need to treat rookies with respect and to help them enjoy the game and grow with the A&A family. My concern is that we don’t actually do rookies any favours by providing poor strats. If you think about it, the standard means by which we learn anything new is a cycle. First comes enthusiasm but little skill. Then comes mediocre skill and disillusionment. At this point, either you support the person heavily and encourage them to continue…or they drop out. With enough support, the next step is reasonable competence with varying enthusiasm. Happy when winning, not so happy when losing. At this stage, it is consolidation of learning and lots of practice, with enough encouragement that they don’t drop out. Finally, you reach high competence, enthusiasm, and continued refinement & improvement.

I submit that the value in providing written strategies is primarily aimed to support people at stages 1 & 2. You are trying to equip them with enough knowledge that they can translate their enthusiasm into some competence and success. If you fail them at this point they become disillusioned. I submit that the formal strategies posted on this site, do not aid rookies in learning the game. I submit they detract from learning and are more likely to lead to disillusionment when success is NOT achieved.

Further, I believe that the onus is on the ‘owners’ of this site to ensure that officially posted strategies are indeed sound. I believe it is their responsibility to screen these strategies to that effect, with the express purpose of providing rookies with sound material with which to learn. I draw a major distinction between MB chat and strategy talk vs officially posted strategies. Try all sorts of wacky things on the MB…afterall, the game should be fun. But reserve officially posted strategies for things that are at least sound and well thought out. You can have many different levels of these strategies, from beginner to advanced, but they should be sound…not pure fantasy. Save that for the MB, or list them as wacky and crazy ideas that are not endorsed as a strategy.

What you are missing is that many people come here, see those posted strats and then blow off this site as worthless. I can provide you the MB links from a number of the on-line clubs where these exact statements have been made. The words are to the effect of ‘look at the ridiculous… hahaha’. That is precisely why I am here. I am hanging around, checking out the boards etc. And I see, that there are likely some decent/good/better players here. So, I don’t fully share the opinion of some others who frankly, have trashed this site quite a bit.

I hope you understand where I am coming from. I am not here to create dissent. I am not here to trash you. I will however point out things that I think are wrong and encourage you to improve. I have been very active in the on-line A&A community for a number of years. Part of my mission is to explore all sites I can and look to improve the overall experience that we provide A&A players. Part of that overall experience is sound discussion of strategy. I have my own personal preferences and style. They may differ from yours, and I have no argument with that. But, I can spot BS from far away…and so likely can many of you. So, lets have as many different strats as we can…but let’s make them sound, not BS, and lets make them as useful as possible to the rookie, not set them up for failure.

SUD

Again…please read the above post in view of the Officially Posted Strategies on this site.

MB chat is an entirely different matter. Blow your brains out with whatever wacky ideas you have, and have fun doing so.

But zap the crap from ‘Strategy’ on the site. They do you and every rookie a disservice.

SUD

hey guys calm down! I’m not the site basher I’m another new anonymous, I like the site, while i agree that some of the strageties seemed basic to me, without those basic srageties (which even without the internet we all seem to have evolved - which is really wierd) we couldn’t set someone up for the woo-woo. think about it, the first time I played 14 or more years ago (as germany) I attacked the caucasses, got my flank smashed and then realized that if i took karelia first, moscow was outflanked and doomed. well after that worked those darn commies realized that those nazis were coming thru karelia and left one man in the caucasses, one tank in moscow and something 20 units in karelia daring me to attack. and if you go all out (planes trains and autos) it works 60% of the time, so that’s cool until you loose and want the odds back in your favor, that’s hard to do on your own, sometimes your ways become set, and you need a rookie to throw something new at you. now instead of stacking 20 units in karelia you bait the germans in with 7 or eight. and keep reserves with tanks and planes in moscow ready to pounce on those unprotected tanks and infantry. a version i think works well by the way…. but that’s the cool thing about a site like this, you get here and you either get up to speed, where your ideas may help, or you say “man you guys are lame, I’m way smarter than you all”. either way you kick out some gibberish, and maybe one thing keys someone else in on a new plan to set up the loosers in his group for the woo-woo.
danwatkins01@yahoo.com

ps the french got a trip to the wood shed for a couple good reasons

1. they s–k.
   and … I can’t remember the others… just kidding. they lost out because no one really knew the best way to use new weapons such as the tank and the plane, much less motorized infantry. these three things general Guderian helped pioneer in germany amidst great resistance. luckily he was able to have the old guard leave service in time for new more lateral leaders to nurture his ideas, wereas in france in particular the old guard stuck around. so the germans who had less tanks, and lighter tanks, with only marginally better airpower were able to fight poland, while the french lost the opportunity to sieze the rhur, then come all the way back across europe and set the french and british up for the woo-woo by manstien’s stragety of attacking belgium, (a basic and well known tactic- pertinant to our stragety forum) then rolling thru the ardennes outflanking the bulk of the allied army (not hiding in the magnigot line), and basically using localized superiority to overpower and out maneuver your enemy. I’m not a nazi, they are evil repulsing people. but I love ww2 history, particularly the russian-german war.
   danwatkins01@yahoo.com

oh and one more thing about site bashing, then i’m outta here, why are you so concerned about image. how much cooler can a grown man (or young adult) be if he wastes eight hours on a weekend playing an imaginary game then chats on this “lame” site. or if he wastes eight hours playing the imaginary game, then runs around telling everyone how much smarter and cooler he is…. it’s just a game! strategy is not only guessing your opponents moves then countering,(something I think the site reflects) it’s also looking for a way to set someone up for the woo-woo. yeah i’ve tried many of those same strategies when I first started, typically attacking the us or canada or even uk with germany early is a mistake, however, when used as a spoiling attack, with expendable troops, often times you can buy yourself one more turn. besides the mark of a true srategist is making the rediculous plausible.
danwatkins01@yahoo.com