HansBolter
Posts: 7704
Joined: 7/6/2006 From: United States Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: tocaff Single ship TFs are a no no unless you're trying to slip a single transport into a base or it's a fast transport. To send numerous ships as single vessel TFs in the same hex to the same destination is a flat out effort to get around an opponent's air strikes. It's a gamey tactic, see the "Gamey" thread. Again, if 2 people agree on things at the start of a game and deal with eachother's concerns during it the only outcome will be an enjoyable game for both and that's what PBEM is all about. Win, lose or draw I play for the fun of it, not to abuse or be abused. Todd, you're starting to drive me nuts, buddy. I wish you would be more clear with me about these things. We started our game with no house rules but with the agreement to use common sense with regard to realism. I was sending in one ship transport TFs to "trickle" supply into PM without having to sacrifice my inexperienced fighters trying to provide LRCAP over large transport TFs. I accepted that this, coupled with air supply, was about enough to sustain the base, but not enough to build it up or allow it to sustain any kind of concerted bombing effort. You later sent me an email with a list of your standard house rules asking me if you had sent them to me before as apparently you did not remember. I reminded you that we had not set any house rules, but in the interest of being fair I immediately started abiding by them. I stopped sending single ship supply TFs to PM and decided to bight the bullet and run the gauntlet with some sizeable TFs. Your printed house rules also listed no 4E planes below 12,000 ft. I immediately raised my B-17s from the 8,000 ft. altitude I had been operating them at to the 12,000 ft. limit you preferred. Now in this thread you say it OK to send single ship supply TFs as long as the gamey move of sending multiple single ship TFs is not exploited (I know that some people feel that even single ship supply TFs is gamey as it exploits the game engines lack of responsiveness toward single ship TFs from a naval bombing standpoint). You also state here that you don't want to see 4E's being used below 20,000 ft. Please clarify things for me so I know what to do in our game. Are single ship supply TFs ok as long as the arrive solo and not in droves of multiple single ship TFs? I am not sure I am willing to agree to a minimum altitude of 20,000 ft. for 4Es. Historically, they bombed from 15,000 ft. Yes, I know your argument that bumping them to an ahistoric setting of 20,000 ft. is what you propose to offset their ahistorical bombing accuracy, but in point of fact, all planes in this game have better bombing accuracy than they did historically. I don't feel it is fair to penalize B-17s to offset their greater bombing accuracy without doing so to all planes accross the board. I've bumped mine to 15,000 ft. which is 3,000 ft. above what was listed in the house rules you sent me, but 5,000 ft. below your presently stated (in this thread) preference of 20,000 ft. I think we have played long enough for you to recognize that I am more than willing to be reasonable in aggreeing to anything that increases realism and historical accuracy even in the face of no prior agreed upon house rules. All I ask is that we be certain we are clear in what we are asking for. Merrill p.s. Incidentily, I was using the single ship supply TF to PM method against both you and Ralf as a result of my experience against the AI which always seems to have both it's bombers and escorts poised to strike hard at any attempt to get large supply TFs into PM. Once I dropped this tactic (and I did so in BOTH games unilaterally) I found that the live opponents must have had their Rabaul based bombers and escorts prioritized for other things as I was easily able to get several large supply TFs into PM unopposed against both of you. As a result, I am now much better off in PM than I would have been if I had stuck with the "trickle" approach. It shows how experience against the AI can't be used as a guideline of how to operate against a live opponent.
|