Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

The first was against Q-Ball and if you read “Against the Wind” then you already know that I got beaten in that one like a red-headed stepchild.

Kirk Lazarus: I know who I am. I'm the dude playin' the dude, disguised as another dude!
Ron Swanson: Clear alcohols are for rich women on diets.

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ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Madre de Dios! What carnage! The problem is concentrating the sheep and hoping a couple of prepubescent shepherds with slings can keep away a pack of wolves.

Of course, when you try to get them out in penny packets the carnage is bad as well...just not that bad. It is best to scatter them about by different routes (including East toward Midway, East of Mindanao toward Sorong, the Makassar Strait and East of Sulawese and even along the Northern coast of New Guinea). The Jap CVL's cant be everywhere.

Only an experienced player can be on the receiving end of that and not get discouraged.

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ORIGINAL: Kwik E Mart

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ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

The first was against Q-Ball and if you read “Against the Wind” then you already know that I got beaten in that one like a red-headed stepchild.

someday us redheads are gonna do something about this...

quote:

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish


The interesting thing is, no one is sure exactly where that phrase comes from. Are red-headed stepchildren beaten? If so, why?

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ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

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ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish


The interesting thing is, no one is sure exactly where that phrase comes from. Are red-headed stepchildren beaten? If so, why?

They're gingers. 'nuff said.

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"Beating you like a red-headed stepchild" refers to a terrible beating. It is a variation of "beating you like a rented mule."
Etymology (the origin of words and phrases) is notoriously hard to pin down. The etymology of this one obviously has something to do with child abuse. Some clues to the origin of its specifics:
A stepchild is often presumed to be less favored than biological children. If a parent was abusive, a stepchild might get the worst of it. (Similarly, a rented mule would be less valuable than one you own.)
A child having red hair might be an indication that they have a different father, thereby reinforcing that they are a stepchild.
Red hair is often associated with a fiery personality. (Similarly, a mule is considered an especially stubborn animal.) . . .



I believe that it is linked to the Viking invasions experienced in Britain and Ireland in the 11th century. The Vikings came down from their area, pillaged and raped and left a few red-headed children. Being so obviously different from the rest of the children in the area, they were subject to discrimination by parents knowing their origin was from an invading source. I can imagine that these children would have suffered the wrath of the local population who could obviously identify them as products of the Vikings violent influence on their culture. They were an easy target to vent the frustration of this phenomenon of force.

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They attacked the Allied force and did some damage: POW took two torpedoes and light cruisers Durban and Boise each took a couple of bomb hits that penetrated their deck armor.

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ORIGINAL: wpurdom

Step-children are well-documented throughout history and today to suffer a high level of child abuse and much higher mortality rates than children with birth parents.

Here's a few comments from Answers.com including a somewhat plausible but undocumented theory of origins relating to the Vikings:

quote:

"Beating you like a red-headed stepchild" refers to a terrible beating. It is a variation of "beating you like a rented mule."
Etymology (the origin of words and phrases) is notoriously hard to pin down. The etymology of this one obviously has something to do with child abuse. Some clues to the origin of its specifics:
A stepchild is often presumed to be less favored than biological children. If a parent was abusive, a stepchild might get the worst of it. (Similarly, a rented mule would be less valuable than one you own.)
A child having red hair might be an indication that they have a different father, thereby reinforcing that they are a stepchild.
Red hair is often associated with a fiery personality. (Similarly, a mule is considered an especially stubborn animal.) . . .



I believe that it is linked to the Viking invasions experienced in Britain and Ireland in the 11th century. The Vikings came down from their area, pillaged and raped and left a few red-headed children. Being so obviously different from the rest of the children in the area, they were subject to discrimination by parents knowing their origin was from an invading source. I can imagine that these children would have suffered the wrath of the local population who could obviously identify them as products of the Vikings violent influence on their culture. They were an easy target to vent the frustration of this phenomenon of force.

Kirk Lazarus: I know who I am. I'm the dude playin' the dude, disguised as another dude!
Ron Swanson: Clear alcohols are for rich women on diets.

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ORIGINAL: Alikchi

Things are looking good, sir. You're making excellent use of your surface forces. How's Hibiki?

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ORIGINAL: Cribtop

Nice move at Darwin. Were you on bombard or SCTF orders?

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ORIGINAL: aprezto

I am currently on the receiving end of a very capable compromise due to that whiley fox: PzB.

First a question: what is your objective?

PzB's objective was: take Soerbaja and Batavia
Secondary objective: take out forces where the opposition gives him the opportunity to do so quickly and with comparitively low loss of strength.
Tertiary objective: Reduce Java to either a zero or impotent allied presence.

The situation:
Soerbaja and Batavia are still only 'light' urban. The best defensive terrain is actually the mountain hex, or hex/bases. Of these there are only really two that suit and that's Bandoeng and Malang (I think that's the name, haven't got a map available) to the south west of Soerbaja.
He does not have enough native troops to defend both primary objectives strongly enough to stop you, so if he wants to delay your objective (assuming he realises it), he should therefore concentrate on one, which falls into achieving one of the secondary objectives, as the other one will be lightly held, if held at all.
His final choice might be to move everything to the mountain bases. This is the best approach for a protracted presence on Java, but it leaves the primary and tertiary objectives within easy grasp, although will not achieve the secondary objective.

The solution:
Recon. Know which choice the allies make. Recognise that the allies really don't have the option of attacking. The Dutch troops are just so poor, that even if he congregates all his troops into a mountain hex that you can effectively bottle the lot with a couple of regiments (since you also will obtain the mountain defensive benefit).
So, you recon Batavia, Soerbaja and the two mountain hexes. If he congregates in the mountain hexes you've achieved the primary PzB objective, if he doesn't, he has probably congregated in one of the two large ports. You then take the other bases around the map that can accommodate bombers, bring in at least a division and a couple of regiments against the congregated base, but make use of the fact they are ports, and setup bombardment runs (with AE support from other conquested bases) and supply sapping bombing raids, and pummel the defenders. In the light urban hexes of batavia and Soerbaja I have not seen the Dutch defenders manage to hold out.

If he moves on the mountain hexes, don't even bother about killing the troops. leave them there to wither, bombing them every day or so, and maybe putting a couple of arty units there to keep on whittling away at them. As I said, the dutch are very poor troops and will not be able to attack your defending regiments, and dutch training does not really start until mid-march (they are set to about 40 at start) and will be offset by fort levels as your regiments dig in.
In the future you may have to reassess, but there is only so much supply they can hold, and the bombing will reduce it to starvation levels in about 3 months. Then you can choose to kill them off if you fear a break out upon an allied counter invasion.

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I have spent some time lately contemplating Java. In real life the Japanese moved swiftly and efficiently to isolate Java from the east and west. They won the battle of the Java Sea and invaded at the end of February; the Dutch surrendered on March 8.

In my previous games, and in most other AARs I have read, Java usually doesn’t completely fall until around May ’42. What causes this disparity between the game and history?

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ORIGINAL: Speedy

Hi CF,

Time for me to get on board as well!

Firslty, good luck.

Secondly, you mention ultimately an occupation of Fuji amnd Northern Aus. Obviously, these plans may well be affected with how and what happens in the first few months of war but do you have any bigger ultimate objectives in terms of knocking the Allies out of the war? India invasion? All of Aus? Hawaii etc? I know in AE it's VERY hard to get any of these right, if at all, but just curious.

Regarding Java - my 2p. In my ongoing game vs Faber my Dutch boys help up the Japanese until the end of April 1942 after they'd invaded at the end of January 1942 IIRC! This has to be one of the earliest invasions of Java I've seen.

At the time I thought it was too early and that he couldn't have enough force to take it with being engaged in Malaya and PI. I was right in that he couldn't take it with what he bought. On the flip side I couldn't eject the couple of Rgt's he bought and so straight away he had a foothold, small BF and a Zero contingent on Java to slowly dominate the area.

Another hugely beneficial aspect of an early Java invasion (as has bene mentioned above) is it denies the Dutch another 2 months training and also (if done very quickly) squadrons of P40'E and B25's.

Like anything in AE, though, it's a Pros and cons thing. The pro was the prevention of the Dutch building up strength so it made it easier in due course to nullify Dutch threat (although I managed to hold out in Buitenzorg for 2.5 months until the end of April). The con was that the Japanese foothold can be tenuous and exposed since, naturally, the main Japanese bases and forces are far to the N/NE. Faber for example lost 5-10 ships in the invasion including CVL Zuiho and a BB due ot Vildebeast I'd moved down from Singapore.

In a nutshell though I think an early invasion of Java is better than a late one