Welcome Comrades to the 93rd edition of the Dispatch
With all the excitement the newsletter took a back seat for a few days, sorry about that!! It's all go and there's so much happening that I am all in a spin!! I'm not going to do a precise for this issue - I'll let the team do that for themselves! But let me be the first to welcome you all to Clan Week and the Live Chat event ... well, I imagine you are all aware of those by now And don't forget: Graphics Competition and Foundry Games. Anyways, hope you all enjoy this issue. Just a quick reminder - we still need some help, pretty much in all the divisions, but there is a callout for clan assistance in particular. Contact your favourite leader or, if you don't have one, me!
In the words of Harry Callahan:
You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?
Enjoy the fruit of our labouring fingers!
[player]thehippo8[/player] Chief Executive
If you would like to apply to join the news team, please visit the thread below for more details!
It's been a long stint for me as head of the Clan Team for the dispatch team, but it's finally time for me to call curtains on my efforts with the executive board of this fine Newsletter, as I move on to concentrate on the Clan Director responsibilities that have fallen upon my still slender shoulders. The Dispatch will hopefully announce a Callout for applications to the position in the ensuing days, so I hope you will all eagerly take the opportunity to try your hand at this very rewarding task!
We also have some exciting articles in this edition, as the reliable Swifte brings us a new article on a Successful Tournament franchise that makes the jump to becoming a full-fledged Clan Event!
And then we have a quite enthralling feature article, where The Voice presents a 3-part mini-series on What keeps a Clan Together! Part 1 is displayed below, along with credits to all the clan leaders that shared information in Voice's investigation.
Qwert pitches in with the update on the latest from CL5, with Group tables reflecting the latest points tally.
Finally, we're also joining in on the fun around GCCM, as we prepare for Clan Week & Koontz presents his 1st Challenge
As publication nears, I've managed to include one final article as well, so take a look at the link as BlackKnight throws down the Gauntlet to The Pack!
What Keeps Your Clan Together?by The Voice [spoiler=Part I]The fast and loose world of clans has forced clan leaders (CLs) past and present to improvise with regard to their retention strategies. With that in mind, I presented leaders with three multiple choice questions to gauge what measures they believe must be taken to keep a clan united and therefore competitive.
Responses were so great, I have broken this article into 3 segments. First up: What keeps your clan together? CLs were asked to pick 2 answers from the following choices: Camaraderie The Competition A Niche in the Clan World New challenges Active, Aggressive Recruitment Other – Please explain
Camaraderie [Annihilating the enemy as one, big family] It may come as no surprise that nearly all CLs who responded see camaraderie as one of the most important ingredients. What did surprise me were the differences in the examples some leaders gave. In addition to their active warring lifestyle, TNC leaders have their clan engaged in mafia and other forum games. For Gunn217, the foundation for the Pig Renters clan was a preexisting friendship that had been built in the real life and transferred electronically. “It makes it easy to stay together when the leadership know each other outside of CC. We started playing together so we could stay in touch and it has done wonders for our friendships. Berger and I talk on the phone every week to talk CC. To the chagrin of our wives, we've never been closer.”
The Competition [We’re the best/goofiest/drunkest/sexiest/chattiest/classiest] Competitions are the lifeblood of the clan community. It makes perfect sense that the opportunity to make a mark in Clan History has many leaders and players alike salivating. Without competition, out goes the “eagerness to improve,” as Benga puts it. Competition also has a way of strengthening the bond between clanmates. Gunn217 says, “When we are in a close war that is coming down to the wire our forum explodes with activity and each of us encourage the others to fight hard and work together.”
Like-mindedness [It’s like we can finish each other’s…] I regret overlooking like-mindedness when preparing the choices because it seems many clan leaders are of the same mind when it comes to its importance. Genoke (ATLANTIS) cites his clan’s desire to keep the discussion friendly and help each other, while the inception of The Fallen can be traced to clanmates possessing a similar frame of mind. According to IcePack, “Fallen started when we realized there was a group of players who wanted a very active, talkative group who were not competing at the level we wanted to see."
A Niche in the Clan World [Now, You’re Speaking My Language] Some competitive clans can offer something unique to the clan scene. This is especially true with foreign language clans like Les Hussards du Dragon, Otpisani, and de Veroveraars Der Lage Landen. Speaking the same language can be highly advantageous; as QuikSilver from LHHD puts it, “It's easier for us to be understood in game chat. We don't take time trying to translate what we meant to say.” Other clan niches helped shape FISO and Mythology. “What keeps us together is what brought us together in the first place,” Vid_FISO says. “FISO stands for Fantasy and Interactive Sports Online, a UK based website that has been in existence for over 13 years.” Being a fan of Mythology is what brought the majority of us together in the first place on CC,” says Peantusdad, “But truthfully, since we became a fully competitive clan a couple of years ago, our focus has been much more along the lines of adding and building members/teams that are solid players, not just fans of mythology.
Communication [We need to touch base on All Your Base] Chatter is an essential way to remain competitive in games and stay present on the forums. Utilization of the forum and communication play an essential role. For Venimus, Vidimus, Vicimus, the clan forums provide a critical tool for keeping in close communication, whereas members of The Fallen often take the conversation outside of CC, utilizing both Skype and texting.
Stay tuned for my next question in the series![/spoiler][spoiler=Credits]Many thanks to all of the following clan leaders: Bruceswar, TheMissionary, BlackKnight_6, Genoke, Gunn217, Benga, IcePack, Mint-Murray, Freakns, mcshanester, Peanutsdad, Vid_FISO, Uckuki, and QuikSilver.[/spoiler] TNC vs Pack Videoby BlackKnight_6
Hello again my friends, and welcome to your favorite part of the Newsletter, "War Games", where you can find information about CC Tournaments! DaveH once again brings us his Tournament Tips and a report on the current status of the TPA. Animaniacs brings us a special edition of Join This? Or Not!
[player]Dukasaur[/player] Tournament Executive
Tournament Tipsby DaveH[spoiler=Creating tables from Excel]I have yet to find an easy way of creating a table in a tournament thread. For instance if you want a league table with name, played, won, lost etc. that you have in Excel, you either have to take a picture of the formatted table and upload it, or you can use Challonge or other suitable internet sites to keep track of results.
The problem in CC is that multiple spaces are ignored, so all the table data is concatenated. To try and compensate for this I have written the following software that creates a table. OK - it is not wonderful, as the different characters have unequal spacing, but it is readable and quicker to transfer from Excel to your thread than via a photo.
The routine allows you to specify the starting and finishing rows and columns of your table and then includes underlines (_) to space out the different columns according to the length of the text in them. Were the text of equal spacing (as say teletext font) then it would be perfectly in line, but as the font is not of equal spacing, it does wave about a bit!
Sub FormLines() ' ' FormLines recorded 12/12/2012 by DaveH ' ' specify the starting and finishing rows and columns of the table Dim iRowStart As Integer Dim iRowFinish As Integer Dim iColStart As Integer Dim iColFinish As Integer
Dim iLength(100) As Integer 'to hold the max text length in each column
' allow input of the 4 variables iRowStart = InputBox("Enter the Starting Row Number:") iRowFinish = InputBox("Enter the Finishing Row Number:") iColStart = InputBox("Enter the Starting Column Number:") iColFinish = InputBox("Enter the Finishing Column Number:")
'scan down for the longest name in each column For j = iColStart To iColFinish For i = iRowStart To iRowFinish - 1
'clear cell at start If i = iRowStart Then Cells(i, iColFinish + 2).Value = "" iLength(j) = 0 End If
'Find the longest word a = Cells(i, j).Value b = Cells(i + 1, j).Value If Len(b) > iLength(j) Then iLength(j) = Len(b) If Len(a) >= Len(b) Then If Len(a) > iLength(j) Then iLength(j) = Len(a) End If Next i Next j
'include the required number of underlines For i = iRowStart To iRowFinish For k = iColStart To iColFinish Cells(i, iColFinish + 2).Value = (Cells(i, iColFinish + 2).Value) & (Cells(i, k).Value) l = 0 If k <> iColFinish Then While Len(Cells(i, k).Value) + l < iLength(k) + 2 Cells(i, iColFinish + 2).Value = (Cells(i, iColFinish + 2).Value) & "_" l = l + 1 Wend
End If
Next k Next i End Sub
A table I use in the AFC tournament looks like the following after using this routine. Not perfect by any means but readable.
AFTER WEEK 15_________________Won__Lost__Tied__Percent__Pts Fr__Pts Ag AFC West_______San Diego______10___5_____0_____0.666____418_____331 AFC West_______Oakland________9____5_____0_____0.642____388_____315 AFC West_______Kansas_________7____8_____0_____0.466____325_____345 AFC West_______Denver_________6____9_____0_____0.4______314_____411 AFC East_______Miami__________11___4_____0_____0.733____482_____248 AFC East_______NY Jets________10___4_____0_____0.714____415_____293 AFC East_______New England____8____7_____0_____0.533____417_____342 AFC East_______Buffalo________7____8_____0_____0.466____348_____401 AFC North______Pittsburgh_____11___3_____0_____0.785____434_____285 AFC North______Cleveland______6____7_____0_____0.461____293_____391 AFC North______Cincinnati_____5____9_____0_____0.357____345_____411 AFC North______Baltimore______2____11____0_____0.153____220_____416 AFC South______Indianapolis___10___4_____0_____0.714____410_____275 AFC South______Tennessee______9____6_____0_____0.6______389_____383 AFC South______Jacksonville___4____10____0_____0.285____319_____393 AFC South______Houston________5____9_____0_____0.357____337_____447
(These "tips" started off as ones that I used to make it a bit easier in managing my own tournaments. Now, I am looking at other types of tournaments and scoring systems by all you innovative TO's out there. So, if you have a unique scoring system that you would like me to have a go at automating, please let me know and I'll be pleased to try and assist. Any queries on the above I'll be glad to respond to of course. Please note that I use Excel 2003, so there may be variation in the menu instructions if you have other versions of Excel)[/spoiler] TPA3 Wrapby DaveH
A bumper issue this week. In fact it is so large, we have invaded freestyle and clan sections as well. The almighty take over of Conquer Club has begun. Long live the foundry and all hail the mighty Cartographers. All in the name of The Great Community Map Project. Two polls down, plenty to go. But Seamus76 & Jane Austin brings us all of that news. Just remember, new competitions go into post two of page one of the thread. The latest one has a deadline of the 20th. So make sure your answers are in before then.
skychaser makes a surprise appearance today with a superb look at Three Kingdoms of China. A run down of what maps are where in the foundry. Labyrinth is still locked but lets hope that the last active games will finish soon so we can all play it again. But we have 3 new maps to play this week.
[player]koontz1973[/player] -- Foundry Executive New Maps and Quenched Maps
Stay Tuned for the next issue of the ConquerClub Dispatch for an interrogation of [player]Dako[/player]. Post any questions you may have for them here --> Interrogation with Dako
Submitting Your Own Articles
If you have a story you think the ConquerClub Community would find interesting, you can submit your articles to [player]thehippo8[/player] and you may just see your article published in the Newsletter!
Subscription
Did you enjoy this Issue? Have you subscribed to the Newsletter yet?
If you want each and every issue of the ConquerClub Dispatch delivered right into your Inbox, then Subscribe Here!
On the theme of more speed less haste ... I've updated to note Dako's interview link. The headline issue had been sorted (who would have thought that the capitalisation of a letter made a difference - computers are SOOO picky!). And happy birthday Gilli, nice to get in early
And don't forget: Graphics Competition and Foundry Games. Anyways, hope you all enjoy this issue. Just a quick reminder - we still need some help, pretty much in all the divisions, but there is a callout for clan assistance in particular. Contact your favourite leader or, if you don't have one, me!
The almighty take over of Conquer Club has begun. Long live the foundry and all hail the mighty Cartographers. 
All in the name of The Great Community Map Project. Two polls down, plenty to go. But Seamus76 & Jane Austin brings us all of that news. Just remember, new competitions go into post two of page one of the thread. The latest one has a deadline of the 20th. So make sure your answers are in before then. 
