pdeglopper2000 wrote:
<< <snip> This complaint strikes me (not having been part of the game in
question, though) as peculiar. MEPBM is a war game, not an RPG.
Complaining about min/maxing in MEPBM is like complaining about
someone min/maxing in chess by choosing to promote a pawn to a queen
rather than a bishop, or arguing that backstabbing an opponent in
Diplomacy or Illuminati shows one to be a power gamer. >>
Yes, accepted. My use of the term, min/maxing, was obscure to say the least
and misleading to say the worst. What I really meant to question was the
apparent compulsion to play 1650 positions by rote (i.e. ALWAYS attack here
first, ALWAYS retire certain character, ALWAYS target a certain nation for
steals, ALWAYS LAT for this item first, ALWAYS disband armies, etc) and the
critique that if you did not, then by inference, you were a BAD player. If
you are arguing that playing by rote is min-maxing and that, to be considered
a good ickle wargamer, I should also play by rote, then I will respectfully
have to disagree. To my mind (rambling and anarchic though it may be) such an
obsessive stricture will ultimately lead to stagnation (excepting the fickle
whims of the random number algorithm)? Or am I mistaken in this belief?
I, for one, would prefer the freedom to attack elsewhere (for example). The
freedom to develop and deploy variant strategies rather then the rote playing
of ordained compulsion. I should add, straight away, that I DO NOT advocate
the practice of such foul deviance in isolation. Corruption of your team
mates is to be encouraged ;-). Nor am I advocating completely nonsensical
stratagems (playing a team game does behove certain responsibilities, after
all). But surely the game is best enjoyed when it is dynamic and
unpredictable, rather than staid and rote. Or am I talking utter garbage (yet
again)?
Just consider the huge sense of achievement and satisfaction Joel and his
team mates will enjoy if they win 'that nameless game' despite my rebellious
intervention ;-). What better way to ensure unpredictability and challenge
than to seed the games with anarchic newbies? 
Mike Absolom.
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