Yes, thank you djbent for putting this all together.

alright, gimme a second. i'll post some stuff here in a minute.

@tailborder: Your traditional power-alliances include E/F, F/G/I, and the ever dreaded juggernaut (R/T). What we saw in our game was what is sometimes referred to as the 'better juggernaut': A/R.

F/G/I? Not sure if I've ever encountered such a monstrosity.

ok, here's our list of "pros", name followed by g-rating, and * means they were involved before. Pete U and uclabb were considered pros based on their standings on FB dip, and the good recommendation of President Emeritus Babak.

out of this group, we need to select two to play in the game, two or three to commentate, and two or three to be mentors. these are my suggestions, completely open to revision. i have to ask braveheart to be a mentor, if agreed, as i had originally recruited him as a commentator. and fortknox, are you sure you'll have time to commit to the game with your football season schedule?

Ivo_ivanov (player) 445
fortknox (player) 231*
Dunecat (commentator) 341
Centurian (commentator) 372*
Pete U (commentator) 116*
Babak (mentor) 373*
uclabb (mentor) 88*
braveheart (mentor) 426

i took out maverob, BZD, and IKE b/c aside from one post of interest, they have not been very involved in discussions. if any of you three would like to be involved in the future, please let me know.

and here are our prospective students. i classified them based on: number of games finished, number of current games, and order in which they requested participation. a * means they have been asking repeatedly for a while or have otherwise been quite involved.

i have taken out of the list the applicants with no finished games - you four should finish some games and apply for the next game. i also think people with more than 8 active games are a bit suspect, though i am inclined to make an exception for bonotow, who has been expressing interest for a while. alternatively, bonotow could be a good candidate for the next game, provided he reduces his number of games paying at the same time. i am concerned that a few applicants have very few game messages (gm). but, we could go with these top 7.

1. tailboarder 2 finished, 3 current, 606gm*
4. Baron Samedi 4 finished, 4 current, 208gm
8. urallLESBIANS 23 finished, 4 current, 1211gm
14. Goldeye 1 finished, 6 current, 43gm
11. pc1000 2 finished, 3 current, 5gm
3. rador 18 finished, 7 current, 1124gm
12. denis 26 finished, 8 current, 1258gm*

6. mugence 43 finished, 12 current, 1354gm
7. Le-Roi 26 finished, 13 current, 1269gm
2. Bonotow 21 finished, 10 current, 674gm*

Sorry, Centurian... should be the central allies... A/I/G... F/G/I would be a fun one, though :D

And djbent, I can commit handle a game as long as the turns are 48 hours. It's friday nights that kill me, and I can get on late friday, early saturday, and saturday afternoons to communicate.

i realized i made a mistake, we don't need 7 students, we need 5. so, this would be my shortlist:

1. tailboarder 2 finished, 3 current, 606gm*
4. Baron Samedi 4 finished, 4 current, 208gm
8. urallLESBIANS 23 finished, 4 current, 1211gm
3. rador 18 finished, 7 current, 1124gm
12. denis 26 finished, 8 current, 1258gm*

tho i might swap out urallLESBIANS for Bonotow, for reason completed unrelated to our criteria (the name, while humorous, is kind of annoying).

discuss.

I'm still interested in commentating, but I serve at the discretion of the group.

oops, another mistake, thanks to Centurian for point it out. i left Jacob off the "pros" list:

Ivo_ivanov (player) 445
fortknox (player) 231*
Jacob (??) 428*
Dunecat (commentator) 341
Centurian (commentator) 372*
Pete U (commentator) 116*
Babak (mentor) 373*
uclabb (mentor) 88*
braveheart (mentor) 426

23, 18 and 26 games finished are still considered noobs? Wow you guys must play a lot.

no offense fortknox, but i'm thinking maybe the two players should be Jacob and Ivo. or maybe Babak should be one. i like Dunecat, Centurian and Pete U for commnetators - Dunecat has shown his interest, and Centurian and Pete U did a great job at commentating last time around. i'm not sure who is best for being mentors - i would also throw my name in the ring if need be, but it doesn't seem like i am needed and i'm just as happy to watch from the sidelines. g-rating=382.

How annoy would it get typing that over and over

@ C-K - indeed, i thought about that as well. but just b/c you play a lot of games doesn't mean you are any good =P

it would be great to have you in the next SoW game, once you finish a couple games. but do follow along with this one, i guarantee you will learn a lot from it.

Also how exactly does this differ from a regular game

For example I have 30+ games not a single win I am a noob

@denis - have you read anything about this? why sign up if you don't understand how it is different? go back to the beginning of the thread and read it, and check out ghost-diplomacy.blogspot.com to see how it works.

I wouldn't take any offense by being bumped by ivo, jacob, or babak. I'm just here to help... so you won't be offending me by finding more dedicated or better players to teach.

I can also mentor...
I don't know about commenting, though. I'll definitely add my $0.02, but I don't want to be depended on for it.

If we have so many profs that you can take out three of them, and we have three commentators and three mentors, could we also start two games?
Would make 10 pupils, 4 prof players, 2 commentators per game (4 in total), and three mentors in total (not fixed which pupil will contact them, thus not fixed on just one of those two games).

And of course I'd love to be in! One of my games will end latest Sunday I'd say (if everone enters orders, it will be tomorrow...), and in one I'll loose my last SC pretty soon as well :-( One is three days phase length, so no problem as well. One of the remianing is a gunboat. So no talking needed.

So I think I will be able to focus on the SoW.

@bonotow - great, that makes me more inclined to include you. please see the discussion for why we are choosing to just do one game for now.

@fk - thanks for being so gracious. i figured you wouldn't want to do the commentary, but a mentor role might be perfect. let's see how things shape up.

@Bonotow:
Limiting it to one game at a time increases the visibility for the one game and thus the whole school. Two would dilute focus and be more difficult to moderate for only the marginal benefit of training twice as many people at once. Instead of playing and splitting the veterans' attention, why not encourage the students who feel left out to watch the showcase?

Yeah you are right about that, but if we have so many veterans around to help with SoW that we can take out some of them and still have 10 left, I'd say we could make two games as well.
Not starting at the same time, but some days off maybe.

Just a suggestion.

I've already read that but have few questions can we ask for suggestions from thepro or is the instruction personal or at the whole group

@denis - you will be able to ask questions of the two pros in the game with you, as well as an additional two or three pros designated for that. you can't ask questions of the pros who are commenting about specific moves or anything, but you can read their commentary and ask why they said something, etc, in the thread. does that make sense?

We can certainly have a second game in a week or two, perhaps with Braveheart and Jacob commenting?

Denis, read carefully.

@bonotow - that might well be what we do.

ok thanks djbent I was just wondering about that. I'm about to finish one in less than 24 hours so I should have a few more finished by the time the next SoW starts until then I will follow along.

perfect =)