The April Promotion Class

[Poor Yorek]

In casual meandering through the Site, it seems that this upcoming promotion class for April might well be one of the largest in quite some time. No joke. Is the "Fourth Age" of PG reawakening interest or simply normal variation?

Four is the largest number since five on 1Jan 2013 and six on 1 Dec 2012. We may well beat both.

Better get on with it: still have two more to go myself.

[vince hughes]

In casual meandering through the Site, it seems that this upcoming promotion class for April might well be one of the largest in quite some time. No joke. Is the "Fourth Age" of PG reawakening interest or simply normal variation?

Four is the largest number since five on 1Jan 2013 and six on 1 Dec 2012. We may well beat both.

Better get on with it: still have two more to go myself.

Your promotion has been put on hold for beer induced impropreity ... pending investigations

[Brett Nicholson]

There has been a lot of plays and with a lot of active new members; 'Liberation 44' is getting a lot of plays as well. I think this is the first time I've seen the top 10/30 days hunter list with each bounty tally at over 1,000 points. I am very content with leaving the NCO club and getting my commission as a 2nd Lieutenant and just earned my first tour of duty ribbon for completing 'Airborne IE' in it's entirety. Now if only I could get my face-to-face results out of the negative zone! Poor Yorek, you are more than welcome to take my old post as Sergeant Major -enjoy!

[Poor Yorek]

Poor Yorek, you are more than welcome to take my old post as Sergeant Major

Well, we all know that E-8's and E-9's are the backbone of any army (scrane is also about to make this step) and what "butterbars" are for (I think Patton is infamously quoted in this regard). Congrats on the ribbon.

Your promotion has been put on hold for beer induced impropreity ... pending investigations

Ha! Hic. er, haec, hoc .

Actually, Her Majesties Secretary is working in a time for my dubbing and investiture as KCB.

[Matt W]

Enjoy it while you can. Promotions get pretty hard later in life...

[Poor Yorek]

Enjoy it while you can. Promotions get pretty hard later in life...

Interesting that you say that. Speaking only for myself, I think I've reached that rank (or soon will, assuming 2LT Hughes doesn't bring me up on charges against the UCMJ ) where the plays-to-next-promotion is sufficiently large relative to my play rate that I've decided to "change gears" so to say. That is, I'm now looking more towards related plays; larger and/or longer scenarios. So, for example, I'm currently playing a few smaller scenarios in Fronte Russo to lead into the Serafimovich Saga. I'm also thinking about playing through the Continuation War part (at least) of Arctic Front Deluxe.

Speaking of cold, assuming hell freezes over and APL actually ships the first round of the Fourth Age games on time, I suppose it will be difficult not to partake in the new game playing frenzy that will ensue (a la Liberation or KSF). I'll also confess (it being Lent) that I'm "with child" to get and use those GD'43 counters!!

[Matt W]

I had the same experience and moved towards completing products and campaigns. Since I finished my tour of the products last PG year by playing something from every product I moved on and played a couple of true campaigns. I played the September Campaign from C&C with the full leader character rules (I had a blast) and Daniel and I played the full Brave But Futile campaign from Panzer Lehr which was remarkably bloody.

I continue to work towards completing products and campaigns and now the promotions are more just a sidelight. There are goals out here which have little to do with ribbons or ranks such as playing all of a nation's scenarios (I'm working on Poland every then and now, ditto with Romania).

[Brett Nicholson]

One of the things I like about how the statistics pan out is that we all have very different paths if you actually look at other's accomplishments on their home pages; which I do from time to time. On mine I believe I have the largest amount of British, Australian and Italian plays or units used. Of course a lot of Desert war/North African theater plays have contributed to that. Germany in most cases will be at the top as far as any one nation's plays go. Then there are the predominant American or Soviet Union players on the allied side of things or on the other axis end, those who have the Asian persuasion with either soley commanding or zealously annihilating the Japanese; and then those who go for the diversity of nations used and scenarios played, like Matt, Michael, Hugmenot and a few others; then there are the true snipers and hunters that with the components available will pioneer scenarios and/or games the least played; and then there are methodical players like myself with limited collections but do what they can to complete as many scenarios in some sort of either/or numerical or chronological order.

Honestly, I don't really start drooling over the prospect of a promotion or tour of duty ribbon but it is nice to have some sort of recognition for the many hours put into PG over the last year or so; there are worse addictions. It's not all about me and enjoy reading other's AARs and viewing their ratings; especially with scenarios I've already experianced for perspective or hindsight. Now with recent shared plays via Skype I've found myself on the verge of actually getting competitive.

I will now humbly accept my academy award and buzz off back to the 'Eastern Front' ;-)

[Poor Yorek]

Well, I don't want to rain on this self-deprecation parade, but woohoo! Made E-9 today (only had to slaughter a mixed battalion of Italians and Germans to do it)! Ok, perhaps not quite as important as defending my doctoral dissertation, but ... darn, no celebratory brewski because of Lent. Well, hullabaloo caneck caneck anyway! And there was much rejoicing!

[Brett Nicholson]

Congratulations again PY! I too had a fine time in the field today with my Aussies and Brits harassing Tenente Hughessolini's Italians near the gates of Tobruk. Not so much slaughtering but a good job of frustrating the Italian commander and scattering most of his units from the first line of defense. AND I believe it was my first shared match in this desert war campaign where I have so far, after 7 turns of 30, have not taken a single step loss yet *knocks on tin-pot helmet* ... just thought I would toot my own horn again