Wing Leader PBEM round 2 - Coral Sea (SDR vs Barthheart)

[Barthheart]

I love the rounded counters on that Vassal mod.  Have you guys tried to cut the real counters?  If so I'm curious as to what size tool you used, i.e. 2.0, 2.5, etc.   I'm thinking of purchasing a cutting tool but don't know what size to get only because the airplane counters in this game are not standard sized counters.

The 2.5mm gives more pronounced rounded corners, from what I gather.   Closer to what you're seeing on this, but still viable for the smaller counters.

Been waffling about picking up a Deluxe one but dropping $50 on it has been a difficult affirmation to finalize, especially during the post-holiday & property tax season.   

Meanwhile, I have around six or seven GMT games desperately crying out for counter mutilation.  Been putting some of it off in the belief I may get a corner clipper in the next few months.  But if the desire to get one to the table arises, it'll be getting the $5 toe nail clipper treatment.


Unlike a large number of you other old & palsied wargamers, I handle my counters solely with my fingers.  Not tweezers or some such.  Never had a problem doing so, other than those damned fuzzy corners which can get caught on other nearby fuzzy cornered stacks, when lifting 'em.  So corner clipping it has been, for me.  >:D

Can't you clip just the fuzzy part?

Don't try to talk sense to these degenerates.... it'll only drive you mad..... 

[W8taminute]

So I've played the first scenario and am part way through the second and I must say this game is great.  Well worth the money.  I'm really liking how the combat differential system works followed by the damage table followed by the cohesion check.  Brilliant game!   O0

[Barthheart]

First batch of torpedoes did all of one hit on the Lexington...and cost me 3 planes..
Second wave inbound but now there's a pile of flak clouds...

Huge collection of Vals still have some dive bombing to do... if I can get rid of these damn Wildcats.....

[Barthheart]

Pin point flak from SDR throws off the torpedo bombers and they totally wiff the shot. Nothing. Nada.  :o  >:(

Luckily his Wildcats are shooting with the same accuracy as my Kates......

Now we'll have to do some real damage with the Val squadrons... 4 of them.

[W8taminute]

^I assume you're using Vassal to roll the dice. 

I haven't conducted any experiments between real dice and Vassal's RNG but my experience with dice rolls in Vassal makes me believe that it's algorithm needs tweaking.  Too many poor die rolls just like what you reported on for your last turn.

[Barthheart]

I found that there's actually nothing wrong with the dice roller in VASSAL. It's human nature to mistrust a computer with random things.
It's just annoying when the damn thing doesn't roll as well as I know I could! 

[W8taminute]

Understood.  There is something to be said for manipulating a pair of die in your hands and rolling compared to computing a random number using algorithms.  One includes physics in the random number generation, one does not. 

Overall though I'm ok with Vassal's RNG.  I've played three scenarios now of Wing Leader and the combat results, hits, and cohesion rolls seem to work out fine. 

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I'm 99% Barth's using his shady engineering connections to manipulate my dice rolls behind the scenes.  I'm busy turning my computer room into a Farraday cage to stop his evil mind beams in an effort to save my Wildcat pilots.  Man I've rolled nothing but garbage every single time the Wildcats need to make a check. 

[BanzaiCat]

You and LB should compare notes!

[jomni]

So this game is only on the vertical plane? Does not having the horizontal plane make the game feel strange.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Nope.  You always have to fudge something when trying to represent 3D on a 2D map.  I don't feel like the game's missing anything by not having a horizontal plane.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Remember kids, when you're chasing down a bunch of Val dive bombers in your Wildcats, don't follow them into your own side's flak barrages. 

[Barthheart]

Yer flak guys seem to be on the ball and only hit my Vals...  :'(

Good bombing runs... but the Vals don't carry enough ordinance... only light damage to the Lexington. 

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Looks the the flak gunners on the Lex were finally overwhelmed.  They scored a good hit on one of the last two Val squadrons as they made their attack run, but the other got through pretty much unscathed.  The gunners on the Sara were too distracted by the fireworks over the Lex and failed to score a single hit on the Kates that lumbered straight overhead of them.

[Barthheart]

Scored a couple of hits in a soon to be dogfight.

Vals manage to startle the Captain on the bridge of the Lexington with scary faces and knocked some landing lights off the deck.  :P

This has not been a Pearl Harbour grade attack that's fer sure.......