I'm upset about the way you moved our thread!

Although it was a very in depth and focused discussion that benefited the 42.2 community, it was riddled with talk of bids, and bidding is a house rule. I didn’t move the thread, but I support the moderator who did, and I advocate for all threads talking about bids be moved to the house rules forum.

New members and new A&A players go to the forums to learn and discuss the oob rules, and the word bid does not appear once in any of the rulebooks. The decision to move the thread may seem petty, and you may have a good argument for that case… but we must always think of new members and what they need to be introduced to the game properly.

If that is the case, YG, then that version (and others) are irretrievable and broken without modification or qualification;  there is nothing left to say about the OOB setup except to criticize it.

Black Elk went a step further and offered at least 3 HR paths and 3 opener paths…so that thread basically contained an entire answer/response to his “Black Elk’s 42.2 Strategy Guide”, which was precisely the reason I wanted to engage him and the others (in the correct forum).

New players are free to struggle to win as the Allies, that is the design choice that they made.  If anyone NEW tries to play that game (42.2) afresh,  they will put it away after 2-3 plays as (correctly) as broken and riddled with errors.

Now, his valuable insight into options and openers is placed in a part of the forum that is not apt.

I understand what you’re saying, the game has serious problems, but no one member or collection of members have a monopoly on the solutions. I and others have solutions thought of to be better than a bid system… but we keep them to the house rules even though the idea of bids are discussed in regular threads as “popular law”. The truth is… many new members come here because they see the flaws in the game, and in some cases they’re researching what to do and will know to read the house rule forum for alternative ideas. But to declare open season on the forums for house rule ideas becomes confusing and intimidating to new conscripts, and bids are still house rules no matter how popular they are. So is the game broken?.. I think a lot of us have come to that conclusion long ago, but it doesn’t mean there’s nothing left to talk about in the oob forums.

well, at least most of us megafans are on the same page in multiple senses of the word

I’m still focused on keeping the game alive through discussion and live play.  Viable live play has to include a balance (at least in G40, 42.2 and WW1), and viable discussion has to take that into account.  The irony is that at this point I would probably rather play and break several other games of this same genre than continue to play AxA, but it is the game that most of my friends know best and insist on playing regularly.

Every substantive discussion on G40 pre-assumes a UK anti-Italy bid+taranto.  Without that assumption, the game works poorly in completive play (though it is playable OOB, with 42.2 I might argue its not even that, with a <10% chance of allied victory).

We cant squelch that discussion simply because it has become advanced and evolved enough at this point to presume certain starting conditions (including ignoring the printed VC conditions as virtually unattainable and interjecting the bid)

Ultimately it’s up to David Jensen to chime in and outline how he wishes that the forums be organized… I will support his policies, but his policies need to be known. Perhaps the discussion of bids can be immune from the label of house rules to prevent these problems in the future… but it’s up to David, it’s his website.

All I can say is that probably G40 and 1942.2 are mostly on OOB rules and strategy but Houserule is a kind of sinkhole in which any related topic to a given forum is lost unless Forum title is at least inside the thread Title.

Any generic original nickname makes the thread much more difficult to be related to something more specific to a given game.

Submarine, for instance, doesn’t work same in 1914, G40, 1942.2, earlier game, etc.
Any closely related like a bid or balance talk is not about other games.

It is not easy to find better classification. But Google search cannot always help find all closely related topics.

If anyone has an idea to solve this issue, it is welcome.
Sometimes, auto-censorship (even if there is an urge to talk and tell our idea) seems the only way prevent a thread from opening pandora’s house rule box.

A house rule sub board within each board?

So If I talk about game strategy, in the real context of A&A.org’s competitive environment, league, and tournaments, I’m talking about HOUSE RULES if I mention a bid?

That’s ridiculous.

If you talk about making rules changes it goes to House rules. Pretty basic. Now look at the thread as a whole, and yes

Exactly, And im following what he told me with regard to house rules popping up in every forum, and people latter complaining about the volume of these threads….everywhere

Ultimately it’s up to David Jensen to chime in and outline how he wishes that the forums be organized… I will support his policies, but his policies need to be known. Perhaps the discussion of bids can be immune from the label of house rules to prevent these problems in the future… but it’s up to David, it’s his website.