So this is intended as informational. I think there are a growing number of USE players who are playing the various scenarios (esp. USSR 41) as light wargames in their own right, which is great and that is a fantastic addition to BGA. Some of those players are dipping their toes in trying the Main Event 39-4? full game, and I think its useful if you are doing that to have some realistic expectations going in:
1) If you get assigned the Western or Soviet faction you are going to have a lot of downtime - be patient, you will get your turn in the sun.
1b) Talking of patience there are going to be some bugs over the course of the game, be prepared to simply suspend play and report it to Lunalol who has been amazingly dedicated at fixing these things...
2) If you end up on a table with more experienced players you may not do very well. There is a lot of extra 'stuff' in the full game, and the way things connect together is tricky, and sometimes the individual scenarios are not always good prep for how something pans out in the context of the full game. So while you might be quite good at individual scenarios you may find those skills don't immediately translate.
3) You will suffer reversals. That is just part of the game. You will probably make about a thousand dice rolls over the course of the game... with that many rolls you will get some spectacular strings of bad luck (that is just the way probability works); expect, at minimum to see a turn where you roll four or five 1's in a row
don't let it get you down. There will be turns where you roll four or five 6's in a row, you just won't notice them 
4) Your sense of what is a good or bad position, when the game is won or lost, will be terrible. You will have no idea whether you are winning or losing - you will think you do but you will be wrong. If you really think you have lost don't give up, just set yourself some more modest objectives ('I'll hold out till the winter' or 'I'll get boots on the ground in Europe') and see where they take you - you could be surprised.
And following on from that last point bear in mind an important piece of etiquette - when you join a Main Event 39-4? table you are committing to play out the whole game, not just the fun bits for your faction. That is 3-6 months (real world) of play, no matter how badly your first 3-4 turns go. If you and your opponent have played the ending out you might call the game a few months from the end, but if you haven't you need the experience. Its not okay to quit the game in 1940 or 41... BGA won't even allow you to use the concede option that early, you would need to time out (and its quite rude to ask the other players to abandon the game to save you from a penalty the site is imposing to discourage precisely the behaviour you are engaged in). I will say I've played a number of games and almost all of my opponents have been great sports about this (especially Remty who played out a truly terrible Allied Pile-On right the way to the fall of Berlin) - which is why I thought a post about this would be worth making, because it having accurate expectations going in will help a lot.
1) If you get assigned the Western or Soviet faction you are going to have a lot of downtime - be patient, you will get your turn in the sun.
1b) Talking of patience there are going to be some bugs over the course of the game, be prepared to simply suspend play and report it to Lunalol who has been amazingly dedicated at fixing these things...
2) If you end up on a table with more experienced players you may not do very well. There is a lot of extra 'stuff' in the full game, and the way things connect together is tricky, and sometimes the individual scenarios are not always good prep for how something pans out in the context of the full game. So while you might be quite good at individual scenarios you may find those skills don't immediately translate.
3) You will suffer reversals. That is just part of the game. You will probably make about a thousand dice rolls over the course of the game... with that many rolls you will get some spectacular strings of bad luck (that is just the way probability works); expect, at minimum to see a turn where you roll four or five 1's in a row
don't let it get you down. There will be turns where you roll four or five 6's in a row, you just won't notice them 4) Your sense of what is a good or bad position, when the game is won or lost, will be terrible. You will have no idea whether you are winning or losing - you will think you do but you will be wrong. If you really think you have lost don't give up, just set yourself some more modest objectives ('I'll hold out till the winter' or 'I'll get boots on the ground in Europe') and see where they take you - you could be surprised.
And following on from that last point bear in mind an important piece of etiquette - when you join a Main Event 39-4? table you are committing to play out the whole game, not just the fun bits for your faction. That is 3-6 months (real world) of play, no matter how badly your first 3-4 turns go. If you and your opponent have played the ending out you might call the game a few months from the end, but if you haven't you need the experience. Its not okay to quit the game in 1940 or 41... BGA won't even allow you to use the concede option that early, you would need to time out (and its quite rude to ask the other players to abandon the game to save you from a penalty the site is imposing to discourage precisely the behaviour you are engaged in). I will say I've played a number of games and almost all of my opponents have been great sports about this (especially Remty who played out a truly terrible Allied Pile-On right the way to the fall of Berlin) - which is why I thought a post about this would be worth making, because it having accurate expectations going in will help a lot.
