TRDG

[TRDG]

Name - Tom Young, age 44 at the moment.

Nick - TRDG {stands for The Real Dirty German.}

Why that name, what does it mean to you...

The first time I ended up playing Flames of War (about 5 years ago), I was the first of our group to pick out an Army, and I went with the Germans, yep, for the cool toys you can field and their tactics. All the other guys in the Hobby shop yelled out "You dirty German you, I wanted to pick them!!" LOL.
Since then I was The Dirty German whenever I came in there to play a game or wherever they saw me, from work to the bars!!! One of the main guys is in Bagdad right now with the Army.
Then I signed up on the Flames of War site on a temporary computer at the Hobby store until I got a new one at home that that had internet access, my nick, The Dirty German.... Then I got home access and I had to start a new account for some reason, and to be "funny" Ha Ha, I chose The "Real Dirty German", get it, I would think you guys just might...
Anyways, this nick always reminds me about the good times in the past (after some very bad times) when I first really got into miniature WW II games, anf that got out of trouble...

Rate yourself on game experience and time spent, or want to spend on games...

If I had to rate myself here, between just starting, average and expert, I'd say advanced average + depending on the game at hand. I'm usually up for any kind of WW II game as long as it is interesting and fun to play with some kind of tactics involved, be it on the net or face to face. Sadly where I live, the face to face is becoming more rare, so I'm hanging on the net more, and working until 11 PM at night doe'snt help things either I should say.

Most favorite game you spend time on playing is... Flames of War

Record of this game as to win, draw and lose as best you can is...

Playing German, Win - 107 * Draw - 51 * Lose - 42 *

Playing Russian, Win - 53 * Draw - 22 * Lose - 19 *

As best as I can make out from my notes on this (not every game played, but most of them, say 80%), and this includes Mid through Late-War games against face to face opponents in the local hobby stores, no Early-War yet though, it is not out yet. At least the next edition, never played the old one, I'll wait until it is and give it a go.

General game experience from the past through today is...

Lets see here, my very first game was that tank board game in the 1970's, the one with the plastic Panthers, Shermans and AT guns with flags on the back...Fairly simple, but had a blast with my dad, which was a real surprise for me, let me tell ya!!!
Next I got into D & D at school in the early 80's, eventually running some tournies at the local library, by then AD & D as I remember.
Then college came around and I dropped out of this and went into the NES and Super-Nes console games, mostly RPG's then all the other console games through today, except the PS III, to much $ and not enough games yet!!! LOL

In early 2002, I had a bad streak in life, I lost my management job at K-Mart, lost the 3rd engagement (God, almost bit the bullet and got married) and started hitting the bars a bit to much (and other things), to say the least, enough said..... Hooked up with Wally world and finaly found Flames of War and some new more "wholesome" friends and a way better hobby than the above "stuff".
FoW eventually got me to get internet access and then other sites, including this one among others. I am now trying to get into the swing of net games and it seems to be working to a certain extent, kinda fun if you can find like minded gamers as well on the net.

Future game goals

I would like to have a site or two that I can come onto after work at night and just check out ongoing games, and post or run some orders, more than once a week to LOL, but that's just me, with a diversified variety ASL, FoW others as well here, maybe a ship and aircraft.
My next upcoming project (maybe) is to write an article on Flames of War for an E-Mag and see where that leads me, not a good writer as you can tell here, but I try.....

Likes and dislikes, game prefs might be...

I like having a tactical challange in my games, either playing in them or running em'. That said, I do get a little miffed when players and the people who run it leave the game for long periods of time with not a word as to from a "be back soon" to other basic info. I know people have lives and things happen that you have no control of, but a word or two goes a long way with me at least, I'm pretty understanding as long as I hear something as to time constraints, ya know??
I do love running armour, but I also like to mix things up and play mixed forces (infrantry, mech, you name it), playing for, and against, or running a game for either of them. Rules are fine and dandy, but to make things work well when playing net games, you can (and should) use house rules to make it fun and workable for everyone.

Best times and days/nights to play a game or shoot the breeze at The Zone for me is...

I usually have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off, and work until 11 PM (*CST), so 11:30 PM is when I'm hangin' here, if not a lunch break as well.



Cheers, feel free to start you own game Bio thread, I'm trying to get something standard here so any gamer, be they a beginner or an expert in any kind of game can post here. So others can see what each person is about, what they like, don't like, best times to hook up and play here, you know.

TRDG

The Real Dirty German

Tom Young

[Whiterook]

Awesome job with your Stats, Tom...and thanks for kicking us off! Job well done

So tell us a little of how you track your win-draw-lost stats in Flames of War...do you keep a running tally sheet, or a journal of games played? I'm curious, because I've seen everything from spreadsheets that track game data, to full blown journals that listed the games played, and how they progressed (something like the After Action Reports in the AAR sub-forum. Perhaps we are making some lightbulbs go off for some other gamers, here.

These type of tracking are very valuable tools in tracking one's preogressing and expertise with a game: what's being done right and what needs to be done better; how to better play certain opponents or venues; and all sorts of other uses, including being just plain fun to keep accounts on!

[TRDG]

Thanks Emery, I am waiting for yours and others here as well!! LOL I used to track them very well and write them down in general, specifics include what Company I ran, (nation and type of) then what was against me, then terrain features, what worked for/against that force and what could be inproved on in general. My best Army is a tank Co, be it German or Russian, though Russian is much harder with Hen and Chick rules ( over 6 inch moves and they can't fire, nasty stuff, but you get a 2 to 1 advantage in tanks).

Cheers, so are you guys working on your bio's yet Emery, Magna, Hagen, PanzerBob, Airchallanged, Double douce, Miss Saigon, Pat, Duncan and others newer here?? (BIG evil grin)

Tom (WINK)

[Whiterook]

Ahhhh, very good....that's a great example of using a tracking of game stats as a tool in gaming. Nice! It really can be a great aid, especially when you play in a group, as you can well atest to. And by the way, I forgot to mention that, I had no idea that's what your handle stood for. Cool!

On the bio, yes, I will get to work on that and have something up in the next day or so.

TO ALL: Tom has thrown down the gauntlet folks...let's not disappoint his expectaions! He's keeping us honest!!!

[TRDG]

Net Game record so far


Wins - 2

My first net game was the first I've ever played, Advanced Squad leader, I played the German commander and ran "herd" over 7 other players on my team from time to time. It was a struggle sometimes as to getting feedback from team members, but the winning objective in Stalingrad was obtained in the last turn by a hair, a Russian hair as well!!

My second "win" was here on Mag's first old school BattleFront game, though I'm not sure it was a great victory as my forces took a beating and the Germans just did'nt like the hot African sand they were standing on, so they withdrew in the end.


Draw - 1

The second game here had me playing Russians and getting into a village that my Grandma (LOL) was hiding in. I had a lot of armour and infrantry thank god, because I needed every one of them. I lost all of my armour and a lot of infrantry, I cracked the village a bit, but that took extra turns after the stated limit in the game. The Germans did fail their morale and fled the field, but I could'nt hold anything, let alone an entire village for any counter attack!!!


Lose - 0

So far that is

Games started but never finished - 3


All ASL games here, not quite sure why they ended, computer fires, time constraints from the guys running it, and percieved lack of interest from forum members who were not playing the game, but were encouraged to post their thoughts or even vote in a poll per turn in a battle. A shame really since I think all of these games had some good potential to be very fun to play in my humble opinion.....


Final stats to date 2 -1 - 0 - 3 (not completed)


Still playing as of right now - 1

I almost forgot, sorry Rich!! I am playing in a WW II RPG, a Sarge in a Para unit during Operation Husky. No combat for me yet, but I hope to as soon as Rich gets some time off of work to crank it up!!!


Games I am running - 1

I am running a Flames of War game here and it is very fun and interesting, some player shifts, but that is to be expected.
I will have another FoW game starting soon on another site I beleave, and once Firestorm comes out, there will be a board game combined with miniature table battles in a campaign here at The Zone!!!

Cheers

TRDG

Tom

[PanzerBob]

Excellent Tom

I'll get on this once I'm back to work Tuesday.

Bob out

[TRDG]

Sounds good Bob, I bet that post will be just HUGE!!!!

Cheers, see ya Tuesday night!!

Tom

[TRDG]

This looks like this will be the basic table set for my other upcoming game on another site. I thought I edited the words so they could be seen, but no luck unless I blow up the pic size..... I'll just tell ya what they mean instead. LOL




The two green items on the side-middle of the table are a HMG and then a
AT bunker plus an HMG

The grey running in the middle of the battlefield is a trench line.

Right above the trench is a mine field.

Then on the right top is a marshy area.

Then some forest areas on the left top side, as well as on the German lower side

This battle will portray the first part of the Russian Bagration Operation in the town of Orsha, that the German Sturm division is defending. Against the 8th Russian Strel Korps Assault forces.

Cheers, more after the game "Reconnaissance in Force" over there begins.

Tom

[TRDG]

And a final pic of the table, just before the battle starts, again not the best pic unless I blow it up. But I'll get some closer shots soon I bet!! LOL







Cheers, Recon in Force in Operation Bagration, opening days of the battle for Orsha.

Tom

[PanzerBob]

Sand table certainly adds a nice touch, looks good Tom.

Bob out