The "Bell-Fey" Manoeuvr

[fanofbond]

Yea one time when we where playing AA50 Germany took out the UK on the then Italy took out the US same turn.  Then when UK’s turn came back around they took out Italy with their remaining Med reinforcements.  You guys never know what can happen after one of these “Bell-Fey” manoeuvrings

[gsh34]

Hey Robbie,

I am intimately familiar with the “Belfay” (by-the-way, there is no need to change the spelling in order to protect anyone.  If Belfay doesn’t want the move of leaving a naked capital open named after himself, he needs to stop doing it.)  I lived in the Twin Cities when Revised came out and played weekly games with him and Bunnell.  Man, when he is on your team, it is your responsibility to do a “Belfay” check every round.  He’s a big boy, it is perfectly legitimate to take advantage of an opponents naked capital if they leave it within range of take over.

Also, Mr. Belfay, if you are reading this, no harm or foul is meant by discussing your trademark move.  At least you are not a Vikings fan like Mr. Bunnell is.

Go Bears!!!
GSH34

[Gargantua]

Oh so it’s bellfay who’s losing his capital all the time? LOL.

Ouch.

[The Dessert Fox]

With your chess example there are many combinations that end in checkmate without a check ever being called probably the most common is scholar’s mate

1. e3 e5
2. Bb4 Nc6
3. Qh5 Nf6
4. Qxf7#

No check is called which would be symbolized with a + but checkmate is still achieved and so if we apply this to your question it is just a blunder by your opponent that meant you were able to take his capital by not being in a territory with a land border as the capital. Indeed this has happened to me. I forgot that Berlin was in East Germany and so left it open and when the Soviets attacked they used their Baltic transport to captured Berlin. I forfeited because I saw no easy way out from this.

[McLovin1985]

Hells no. Mistakes are part of the game, if the person isn’t able to learn off what they did wrong last time, then maybe it’s time for them to hang up their jeresy and quit before they start flipping tables in a fit of rage.

It’s funny though because if I spot something that my opponent forgot or I see is vulnerable my face lights up like a Christmas tree and I can’t stop looking at it hahaha, kinda gives it away… I need a better poker face.  :lol:

[Ruanek]

Taking advantage of mistakes isn’t just a good idea, it’s essential.  With the people I play with, they take advantage of mine anyway, so there’s no incentive for me to help them out there. :-)  The only exception is if they’re a new player.  Global 1940 especially can be a tough game to learn and it’s hard for someone completely new to Axis & Allies to be able to watch out for that along with everything else they have to do.  (Though that’s why I always try to make sure every team has at least one experienced player on it.)

[FieldMarshalGames]

History is full of military blunders…  sometimes you can only will due to the folly of your enemies.

If you playing someone who is NEW to the game or the particular variant…  I always give them a subtle hint.

[JamesAleman]

If you are only playing once that month, you spent 3 and a half hours setting up the game and playing maybe three rounds, and you are playing the U.S.: then you don’t want the game to end before you get into the war. So I would help the enemy early….if its round 10 or so, then no.

[lnmajor]

You make a great point there. :|

[robbie358]

@gsh34:

Hey Robbie,

I am intimately familiar with the “Belfay” (by-the-way, there is no need to change the spelling in order to protect anyone.  If Belfay doesn’t want the move of leaving a naked capital open named after himself, he needs to stop doing it.)  I lived in the Twin Cities when Revised came out and played weekly games with him and Bunnell.  Man, when he is on your team, it is your responsibility to do a “Belfay” check every round.  He’s a big boy, it is perfectly legitimate to take advantage of an opponents naked capital if they leave it within range of take over.

Also, Mr. Belfay, if you are reading this, no harm or foul is meant by discussing your trademark move.  At least you are not a Vikings fan like Mr. Bunnell is.

Go Bears!!!
GSH34

I just like the spelling like this.  Sounds fancy.  “Bell-fey”

[robbie358]

@JamesAleman:

If you are only playing once that month, you spent 3 and a half hours setting up the game and playing maybe three rounds, and you are playing the U.S.: then you don’t want the game to end before you get into the war. So I would help the enemy early….if its round 10 or so, then no.

Exactly my point.  It’s worse around turn 3 or 4 when you’ve been playing for 4 hours or so, teaching new people the rules, and putting strategies together with your allies, only for the game to end on something stupid like this.

I think that when you’re the Allies playing OOB rules, you can probably lose your capital and still be in the game.  When you’re the Axis and you lose Tokyo on US3 it’s impossible at that point.

[bellefeuille]

Having read many of the comments, I conclude that allowing one’s team mate to “bell fey” is nearly as culpable as “bell feying” one’s self.

Based on this observation I want to point out a couple things:

1. The Bell Fey only applies to island nations (Japan and UK).
2. In our group we only permit a maneouver to be given a name when repeated (must happen twice).
3. A certain party in our group (who seems fond of broadcasting the Bell-fey) far and wide has managed to Lose Germany under similar circumstances: leaving skeleton forces in UK’s way and then not being able to retake Denmark to close the straits because of the interceding French Cruiser.  And in a subsequent game letting his partner lose Germany to the Russian Transport.

My questions are:

1. Does letting your partner “Pooch” Germany and “pooching” Germany yourself meet our group’s criteria that you must “Pooch twice” to have a move named for you?
2. I propose that the appropriate name for this German form of the “Bell-Fey” would be the “Robbie”?

[knp7765]

Usually, if you make a mistake and lose your captial early in the game, don’t you generally have enough forces close by to take it back?  I can see where this could happen with Japan, UK and Australia, but with Germany, Russia, US and even Italy, there should be sufficient forces close enough to take the capital back. 
Also, doesn’t something like this usually happen with a small attacking force?  I mean, you would pretty much notice a large buildup within range of your capital, right?  eg.  Japan leaves Japan totally undefended not noticing an American transport with men on the Marianas.  Result:  US moves transport to SZ 6 and takes Japan.  In this case, I could see the possibility that all Japanese transports are out of range of Japan and thus Japan is pretty much taken out of the war.
Another example:  Moscow is left undefended as Russian forces are moved up to block German tanks.  Meanwhile, a Japanese tank manages to sneak up to Kazakhstan and Samara is unoccupied.  Result:  Japan takes Moscow with a single tank.  In this case, don’t you think there would be enough Russian forces to come back and retake Moscow?  Granted, the loss of cash to Japan and losing the Major IC would be a large setback to Russia, plus all the forces pulled back to retake Moscow would enable the Germans to push forward faster so it will probably be game over for Russia in another couple of rounds.  Or maybe not if the German advance isn’t fast enough and there are no other Axis forces to keep up the pressure.  I’m just saying that losing one’s capital doesn’t always mean game over.
This is something I like about the captured Major IC rule.  Since it drops to a Minor IC upon capture and the invading force can not upgrade to a Major, it at least gives the owner of that capital a chance at retaking their capital by not allowing the invader to suddenly plop 10 guys there for defense.  Assuming the battle for your capital was tough, there probably isn’t a heavy surviving invasion force so with them and maybe 3 new guys, at least you have a chance.  With 10 new guys, forget it.  Unless you just happen to have a stack of 20 tanks (plus 20 transports for Japan & UK) that were sitting around outside the capital.

[JamesAleman]

I’ve brought the Bell-Fey expression into my gaming group. Soon the Midwest will know the term and you can look for it on local news channels…for instance, weathermen might say, I guess that it is not going to snow after all, I guess I Bell-Feyed that forecast. :)

[The Admirable Admiral]

We call this “blooping” based on the high pitched sound we make in our game group, (bloop) when a single infantry takes an important but empty territory during combat movement because of carelessness or because there were other more important territories to defend. It rarely happens to capitals but has occurred a few times in the past. Usually this happens at the end of the game when both sides are getting tired and careless mistakes are bound to happen.

[gsh34]

@bellefeuille:

Having read many of the comments, I conclude that allowing one’s team mate to “bell fey” is nearly as culpable as “bell feying” one’s self.

Based on this observation I want to point out a couple things:

1. The Bell Fey only applies to island nations (Japan and UK).
2. In our group we only permit a maneouver to be given a name when repeated (must happen twice).
3. A certain party in our group (who seems fond of broadcasting the Bell-fey) far and wide has managed to Lose Germany under similar circumstances: leaving skeleton forces in UK’s way and then not being able to retake Denmark to close the straits because of the interceding French Cruiser.  And in a subsequent game letting his partner lose Germany to the Russian Transport.

My questions are:

1. Does letting your partner “Pooch” Germany and “pooching” Germany yourself meet our group’s criteria that you must “Pooch twice” to have a move named for you?
2. I propose that the appropriate name for this German form of the “Bell-Fey” would be the “Robbie”?

Comprising 1/2 of the Axis and Allies National Nomenclature Committee (Mr. Bunnell being the other half), I can say that the “Belfay” entered the lexicon in 2004 with the Revised ed.  It is defined as: The leaving open of one’s capital such that one ground unit takes it uncontested.

While Japan was most often on the receiving end of the “Belfay” move due to missing transport movements, it is clearly not a move restricted to islands just because Japan is an island.

I hope this helps to clear up any confusion on what exactly constitutes “pulling a Belfay”.

Thank you,
Dave
1/2 of the Axis and Allies National Nomenclature Committee

[gsh34]

@JamesAleman:

I’ve brought the Bell-Fey expression into my gaming group. Soon the Midwest will know the term and you can look for it on local news channels…for instance, weathermen might say, I guess that it is not going to snow after all, I guess I Bell-Feyed that forecast. :)

Excellent expansion of the word.  I can see powerful forces are already at working taking this expression (a “Belfay”) and expanding it to other fields.

I would propose that it could be used in sports also.  Such as the Chicago Bears pulling a “Belfay” in the NFC Championship game by not really showing up to play Green Bay.

We’ve done weather and sports, who else can help to embed the term “pulled a Belfay” into pop culture?  Anyone have ins with Lady Gaga?

Dave