To Measure Or Not To Measure - That IS the Question!

There are PSBs for either school of thought. One contends that your radars
etc. give you ranges. True enough. The contrarian school contends that ECM,
EW, etc. blur the positions, and their are time lags etc. to compensate for
so the not-measuring is a representation of those uncertainties. Some
say "It slows things down", other say "Not really". One group says "But how
can I contend with people whose eyes are better?" and others say "It isn't
about winning and what about differences in tactical skills anyway?".

This is ultimately a "Does To!" "Does Not!" style of argument. There is no
right answer, only one right for a given group. Most of my pals don't allow
pre-measure. I don't mind it. In Jon's PBeM game, I used the computer to
about 50% of its capability and won a rather hefty victory (the opponents had
some real life stuff interfering, in all fairness). I didn't mind this either.
Ultimately, I feel I can thrive in either environment. The challenges are
different but a good player can cope and adapt and prosper.

No one likes cheese. No one likes slow slow games. No one likes to see cheats
or to play with others not of their style of gaming. Welcome to reality. This
has always been the case. You find those of like mind, you tend to enjoy time
together. If you are open minded, as I am, you tend to enjoy gaming with
almost everyone.

I can "play to win" in which case I'll crank up the brain and look for rules
loopholes and try every trick in the book to get the job done because the
objective is victory - the more decisive the better. I can also play to
have fun where I don't care and am more concerned about who brought the beer
and what kind of pizza was ordered than whether I win. You have to go with the
style of game that fits best in your group. And if you have to run something
at a con, you have to go with the least problem-prone and the most
easily
administered in a situation where <insert demonic figure of choice -
Australian land or sea life seem appropriate> shows up at your table.

Why don't we put this one to bed? I'm not against OT rambles (The Great
Maker would have to blue-bolt me for being such a hypocrite) but surely
this one does boil down to a polar choice and both sides have made their
points. Seems to me people can make up their minds on their own and we can go
on to something new, yes?

Amen, Brother Thomas!

I agree with you wholeheartedly!

Just one small thing before I rest my case:

I believe in achieving like-mindedness by writing down the rules.
Fuzzy rules is just an arguement waiting to happen.

If you say "you can pre-measure, but not too much", I won't buy it. I
want to know what exactly is too much. A fixed number of measures? Ok. A time
limit? Ok too. Truely unlimited? Ok, you were begging for it...

But once it's settled, I *will* use that rule to its *fullest* extent. And
expect others to do the same.

Maybe it should be, "get out the stop watch you have 60 seconds to measure
prior to movement orders and missle placement." You get another 60 seconds
before you declare fire.

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