Armchair General's Revue February 4, 1999

First a few words, the rankings are getting into good shape now that so many of you have helped us in getting the accurate game start and finish dates. Many thanks to cwmcbride@ for his many hours inputting the dates. Your ranks and ratings should be pretty accurate now. The ranking points may fluctuate a bit as more logs are submitted as explained below. All games will be given 1 ranking point value until the log is submitted, at which point it will receive full credit, so get those logs in winners.

Also a hot topic this month was some rather upsetting mudslinging and harrassment e-mails being fired at a member from another member. DO NOT do this, as it will generally result in your suspension or expulsion from our gaming community. Gentlemanly competition is the rule here, let's keep our wits about us and have a good time.

Tournament play continued this month with the start of the Spring Classic. A new format is being tried, please work with us as we try and improve this area, by following the instructions you are given. If you have been resisting using the web site for game starts and other IAAPA activities, you really need to spend a few hours cruising around the site and getting familiar with everything. We've put alot of hard work into its design, and think it's really helped everyone to obtain the immediate service they want when beginning play. Bids are resolved, and play can begin immediately.

Remember when you were a rookie, and everything seemed so confusing? There was this strange play by e-mail process to learn, all those abbreviations everyone used, and the bid too. If you are assigned to GM a rookie game, please be sure to help them out as much as possible with examples and explanations. Let's try and take them under our wings during their first game, and give them a positive experience.

Election news, as you may have noticed, no ballots went out regarding the Presidential Election in January. That was because there were no Senators willing to run for the spot. We did get one challenger for the spot, but he was not qualified due to both longevity and Gov't experience requirements. If you have a desire to help out in government, let me know and I'll set you up as an assistant to one of the Ministers. From there you can become elected Senator by the Ministers and perhaps even be elected President by our membership at large. I look forward to guiding the IAAPA through the next year and into the next. I hope there are more enthusiastic members willing to give some time to help out the best competitive gaming organization in the World, the IAAPA.

3rd Annual Convention is coming up fast!

If you haven't heard, the Annual face to face A and A convention of IAAPA is being held May 28-31, 1999 at the Wytestone Suites in Fredericksburg VA. Here are the details:

The WyteStone Suites of Fredericksburg
4615 SouthPoint Parkway
Fredericksburg, VA 22407
Hotel Phone/Reservation Line is (540)891-1112

Room rates are:
The cost is $77.40 per night per suite, with no additional charge for second person. 3rd person or more over age of 15 is $4.50 extra per night.

The three closest airports are:
Richmond VA (RIC).....about 45 miles away, Washington DC Dulles Int'l....about 60 miles away, and Baltimore MD (BWI).....about 100 miles away.

There are some creative methods of arriving using mass transit from these airports, but I'd recommend a rental car, since there are alot of historical battlefields and such in the area, and the scenery is spectacular.

I was checking some rates on airfares, and found several for under $200 from New Orleans. I'm sure if you book early (like this month), you can get great rates.

As for registration fees, there are none, zip zilch nada, it's free, just bring your board and all your favorite gaming accessories like lucky dice, strategy manuals, diaries from Guderian, Kamikizi Headbands, whatever helps you win. Come meet the people behind those colorful screennames, and winning/losing records. Try and win the prestigous Annual Tournament, and get bragging rights for a year! Not to mention that the convention games get double credit for wins, and half credit for losses. There's hardly any risk at all to playing at the Con.

We got many requests for an East Coast Site, so this is your chance to drive in and let's have a big turnout.

Now a word about logs:

From the Minister of Logs

The site now has an explanation of the association's logs policy. Go to the association's site. Click on the "OnLine Stats" button. Find the link [underlined words] to "Logs: Why, What & How?" It is near the top of the Online Stats starting page. The policy on credit for game winners is, logs must be submitted for full credit for any game numbered 5000 or above. Logs are coming in more frequently now. The "tireless logs team" appreciates your efforts. In future Revues we will be pointing out some specific games which have creative strategies. All logs can be found in the OnLine Stats section of the site. Click on the link entitled, "List of all game logs currently on file. " It will take you to a page with lots of underlined numbers. These are the links to the game logs we have on file. Click on a high number to view a recent log. If you are interested in the games of General vs General, use the following procedure. Go to the home page of the IAAPA. Click on the "Dynamic Rankings" button. Click on each of the underlined words "GEN". Make a list of who the generals are. Click on one of the generals. All games of that member will then be displayed. Make a note of several that are Gen vs Gen. [use the list you just made] Return to the IAAPA home page. Click on the "OnLine Stats" button. Go to the logs. Find one of the game numbers you made a note of and click on it to view the log. You will quickly find that not all games have logs. It is unfortunate that many of our best games have been lost because no log was kept. Some of the most recent games have logs that are not yet on the site. Check later for those.

Report from your Internet team...

Quick summary of some completed projects...

All tournaments on the site should now be up to date. If something is not correct, contact Highcmmdr and get him to tell us to fix it :)
We have so far rolled 100,000 dice on the website so our GMless players are getting good use out of the IAAPA roller. The options for KAAC, TAAC and RIO (among others) will be implemented shortly...the beta should be on the site sometime next week.
All rankings on the site should now be correct. We have for the most part correct data for all games from 1 to the present --- however, we encourage you to check out all your games and ensure the information is all correct including game start date, game finish date, rank of your opponent and yourself at the time of game start, and comments on the game. If you have corrections, contact stats@REMOVETHISaxisandallies.net

Ongoing Projects

We have volunteers currently working on upgrading the site, including enhancing the warzone to allow live play, redesigning the navigation and graphics to be more functional and appealing, and refining access to the database
Our next big task is ensuring that logs are accessable as soon as possible after they are submitted.
We will be revising the testing process on the website for new members to streamline it while ensuring that players do know how to play Axis and Allies.

Tournament News

Greetings,
All is quiet on the tournament front for now. If you're playing in a tournament I have the following updates to add:

Spring 98 3rd round has been called for adjudication. Deadline is Feb 7th.
Summer 98 has had the 2nd round pairings sent.
Fall 98 has had the first round pairing sent.

If anyone is involved in one of these tournaments and hasn't heard anything please contact me asap and I'll fwd you the information. BrassTacs and myself will be doing the tournament games database entries over the next few weeks so have patience and hang on to your game info.

Thanks
HighCmmdr
Minister of Tournaments

Just a few reminders about game adjudications.With the Spring 98 Open 3rd round coming to a close on Feb.7, please be sure that I have your arguments and maps before or on that date. GM`s remember to make sure you have a good map (McD board preferred) and that you have both arguments and to send them to me (BrassTacs@aol.com) ASAP. Remember, only send the game up to the "last US turn" that has been played.

Players..........remember the game will be adjudicated according to your argument (strategy) and not the panel's skills. So even though things might not be going good for you or you`ve had some bad dice you can still win the advancement if your argument (strategy) is felt to defeat your opponents argument. The adjudication procedures are listed in the tournaments' section homepage. Feel free to e-mail me for answers if you need help or a more detailed answer.

Thank you,

BrassTacs@aol.com
akaPaleRider
Chancellor of Adjudication/Senator

From our Minister of Assembly

Dear IAAPA Members!

It is nice to talk to all of you again. Our current slate of seminars is scheduled through this month and into the first week of march. Please refer to the IAAPA War Zone chat room for details. We have had some very good responses to these seminars and I look forward to doing more. Having said that there are a couple of minor changes that you should be aware of.

1) This week (3 Feb 1999), Clyde, Our Esteemed Minister of the Logs, is doing a special seminar on how to log your games. Since most games need to be logged for full credit, I suggest you listen to what he has to say. This means of course that the rest of Feb's seminars have been postponed one calender week.

2) Some of you can not make these seminars. I have been very busy this last month with personal matters (namely my thesis), but I plan on releasing minutes for these seminars very shortly (certainly by march). These minutes form a synopsis of what we talked about and what conclusions (if any) were drawn. They are not as good as the real thing, so I encourage all of you to attend (every Weds at 8pm EST).

Finally, I want to remind everyone that the IAAPA Standards of Conduct apply not only to game messages between opponents but also to the BBS as well....which I do police. The discussions on the BBS have been very good and enlightening, but since we have had incidents in the not so recent past, I feel a reminder is necessary. It is alright to be opininated (I certainly am), just be nice about it.

Ian aka Polaris,
Minister of the Assembly

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