larryfulkerson
Posts: 39932
Joined: 4/17/2005
From: Tucson, AZ
Status: offline
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quote:
I know the screenshot issue has been dealt with before, but I feel that something, anything really, would hold at bay some of
the flames of anticipation.
Well then, how about an update on my PBEM with Thomas? We're playtesting Thomas's new scenario Pacific at War and this
time I'm the Allies and we're on turn 237 or so. We're doing half-week turns and we're doing the whole war so it's been ongoing for
the last two months or so. We can usually produce something like two or three turns per day. The story of the game so far is when
I get another carrier I traditionally rush it out to the front lines where I try to stage an assault on someplace or other and Thomas has
his airpower go after my ships instead of protecting the beaches so much and I lose the CV component of my carrier. D'oh. So now
I'm down to my last carrier and it's early '44 and I don't have the shipping to challenge Thomas anywhere important so it's quiet right
now. I've got about 40% of the fleet in a port getting repaired for the final assault. I'm leaning toward Tarawa this time. Thomas
tells me he's down to his last 3 BB's and so I'm hoping to be able to overpower his fleet with a lucky strike from my one remaining
carrier and then I can spend '44 and part of '45 trying to get close to Okinawa. Thomas and I have figured out that Okinawa is an
easier target than Tokyo and it's capture ends the war just like a capture of Tokyo would. I tried to grab Java right under his nose
and he moved every airplane he owns into the area and sank so many ships that I had to retreat. That was about 6 months ago
game time. He's got so many planes that I can't break into territory that he owns that has good defenses, like Java. So I'm
leaning toward maybe trying to grab Tarawa this time. I'm going to leap into the possibilities just as soon as some more of my ships
are up to 90% readiness at least. Most of them are in the low 70's right now so it'll be another three months or so of game time
before I'll be ready. Meanwhile there's lots of air-to-air over the Port Moresby area. We're squabbling over some real estate that
I don't particularly want just to have somewhere to fight the war. I'm thinking I can win a war of attrition.
The reason I'm not doing so well is that I tend to be too aggressive and attack too early before I'm really ready, with too few ships
and way too few planes. One carrier's worth of fighters isn't enough CAP to keep the Jap fighters off my ships. I'm outnumbered
in the air, always. I suspect he has the entire KB still intact, hiding it from the war, to be used around Okinawa in the final push.
It's looking like I'm going to lose this game. Of all the games Thomas and I have played I remember beating him only once. Which
is understandable since he's the author of these scenarios and knows them like the back of his hand.
There was a program about 18 months ago in game time, where I had the Marine Air Groups ( MAG ) parked in the Aleutians and
they were running some low-losses air raids on Kiska not so much to cause losses but to gain in proficiency. There were several
units that were at 100% proficiency when the program was ended due to the need for the aircraft out in the "field". And the eskimo
women had learned how to play poker and were getting good at separating the younger pilots from their money. It was time to
go.
I've run into a parking problem in the Port Moresby area. There's three airfields in the Port Moresby city hexes and there's another
airfield at Milne Bay and somehow I captured Buna at one point but I think Thomas owns it again now. It had an airfield and so I
could park about a dozen fighters there. The problem is I have about four dozen planes to be deployed so I've been rotating the
tired ones out and replacing them with fresh ones each turn. The Hellcats are out already and they are starting to replace the
late model P-38's I've been relying on the last two years or so. The P-40's are parked in Tasmania and New Zealand and don't
see much of the war anymore. They are obsolete now. Flying them just gets good pilots killed.
There was a front line in Burma where there was some pushing and shoving on the part of the Allies but the fighting got into tough
terrain and the losses began to pile up and so the attacking trailed off and now it's a quiet part of the front where there's no progress
being made by either side. I need the later model aircraft in India and Burma but there's no way to fly them to Ceylon, the traditional
jumping point that used to reachable from Broome but now with half-week turns the ferry radius is cut down to so little that that route
is no longer open and there's a need to carry aircraft as cargo. We'd rather not give shipchasers a carrier ability just so it can
carry a plane so we're hoping for a version of TOAW that will have little ships called subchasers, able to carry aircraft as cargo
It's the only way to get aircraft from Australia to India. The character of the game will change when that happens and more
playtesting will definatly be needed. I hope to be on one side or the other when the testing starts.
Thomas has produced about half a dozen smaller scenario's that cover just one area for a specific period of time. Like Guadalcanal,
and Midway, and the Battle of Santa Cruz and two more that I don't remember the name of right off the top of my head. We've
already tested them and it appears that the Midway scenario is unbalanced......the Japs win 95% of the time. Which is what real
life should have turned out as. We got in some very lucky shots at the right times and it turned the tide. But most of the time the
Japs don't bomb Midway, preferring to scuttle the Allied ships first and the rest was almost history.
The version of TOAW IV we're testing hasn't run into any bugs in quite a while now and I haven't posted any bug reports since
about.......well, I don't remember when the last bug report was posted. I remember that I posted it but I don't remember the verbage
or the situation or anything. It couldn't have been very important then. I'd like to see new updated graphics for the game map so
that the game looks more professional and less DOS-like but that's just me. We're told the UI isn't the final version yet so I can't
post any screenshots but I think that what we have now is much better than the old style control buttons. It's more intuitive and the
game mechanics don't get in the way of game play as much anymore. It plays faster than the old version.
The naval rules in TOAW IV has opened up the possibility of naval scenario's now. PAW is fantastic. I love it. The map
is beautiful and it's definately turning out to be playable. Thomas always wins so I'm not sure how balanced it is yet but I've seen
Thomas win as either side. Make that both sides.
Bob Cross has been productive and has written some naval scenarios himself. They have proved more than useful in testing. Short
scenarios that stand on their own, not very balanced always. His Pearl Harbor scenario almost always ends with the Japs
winning, as you might imagine.
Things are looking up around here. I'm glad to be one of the playtesters and doing what I'm doing. Wish you were here.
< Message edited by larryfulkerson -- 6/28/2016 2:38:28 AM >
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