Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Rio Bravo

Joc-

*clapping hands and motioning out the dancing girls*

Regarding Auto Victory, great job putting the Allies in a position to fight the war to the bitter end.

Best Regards,

-Terry

quote:

Night Time Surface Combat, near San Francisco at 209,89, Range 2,000 Yards

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 11 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CVL Ryujo
CVL Shoho, Shell hits 1
CVL Zuiho, Shell hits 43, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CVL Ryuho, Shell hits 13, heavy fires
CVE Hosho, Shell hits 11, on fire
CA Chikuma
DD Mutsuki, Shell hits 3
DD Mikazuki
DD Kamikaze
DD Hatakaze, Shell hits 13, heavy fires

Allied Ships
CL Richmond
CL Raleigh
CL Detroit, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Strong
DD McCalla, Shell hits 1
DD Phelps, Shell hits 1
DD Farragut
DD Aylwin
DD Litchfield, Shell hits 1

quote:

Day Time Surface Combat, near San Francisco at 210,88, Range 7,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CVL Ryujo
CVL Shoho, Shell hits 10, heavy fires
CVL Ryuho, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
CVE Hosho, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CA Chikuma, Shell hits 7, on fire
DD Mutsuki, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Mikazuki
DD Kamikaze, Shell hits 8, heavy fires, heavy damage

Allied Ships
CL Richmond, Shell hits 3, on fire
CL Raleigh, Shell hits 3, on fire
CL Detroit, Shell hits 8, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Strong, Shell hits 1
DD McCalla
DD Phelps, Shell hits 1
DD Farragut
DD Aylwin, Shell hits 1
DD Litchfield, Shell hits 2, on fire

quote:

I know its often futile to hope for Japanese pools to run out but he has lost 343 planes during the last 6 days.

quote:

Ground combat at Port Blair (46,58)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 9864 troops, 62 guns, 94 vehicles, Assault Value = 679

Defending force 1605 troops, 13 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 11

Allied adjusted assault: 849

Japanese adjusted defense: 1

Allied assault odds: 849 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), disruption(-), fatigue(-), experience(-)
supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
2311 casualties reported
Squads: 21 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 159 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 16 (16 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

Allied ground losses:
33 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

quote:

Ground combat at Kohima (61,39)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 10625 troops, 126 guns, 30 vehicles, Assault Value = 333

Defending force 3877 troops, 38 guns, 6 vehicles, Assault Value = 83

Allied adjusted assault: 151

Japanese adjusted defense: 64

Allied assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 0)

Allied forces CAPTURE Kohima !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-), fatigue(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1385 casualties reported
Squads: 25 destroyed, 12 disabled
Non Combat: 41 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 11 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 13 (8 destroyed, 5 disabled)
Vehicles lost 4 (4 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 5

Allied ground losses:
78 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 10 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Kudos to Lowpe for trying something bold and entertaining. But, as Ross points out, when the wheels come off on an operation like this one, things do get ugly. Lowpe's going to have to fight against the natural tendency to lose interest. Watching replays in which carrier TFs get battered by surface combat TFs, while an army is threatened with utter destruction, isn't conducive to gaming pleasure. If things were going well - if Lowpe had taken LA and San Diego - he'd be flipipng turns like crazy now, no matter what's going on in his other game and real life. But it's incredibly hard to watch those wheels come off and maintain a reasonable level of motivation.

Someday we're going to see an elite-level Japanese player implement this strategy against a veteran but not-alert-enough Allied player. I think this strategy could work for auto victory, especially in one of the scenarios in which the IJ player gets lots of extra troops and ships.

In John III's game vs. NYGiants, he got off to a good enough start to pursue a strategy like this one. He took Alaska and Hawaii early on. But he just wasn't interested in pushing a West Coast/auto-victory strategy.

But I doubt this is a viable strategy in late '42 or early '43 if the Allied player has been building forts and has kept a decent garrison on the West Coast. I think the IJ player has to plan this from the outset and should strike the West Coast by late spring or early summer '42.

A relatively inexperienced Allied player would be in big doo-doo.

I'd like to see that "one of these days."

quote:

ORIGINAL: HansBolter
Hip Hip Hooray for the Omaha's!

quote:

ORIGINAL: Rio Bravo

Joc-

*clapping hands and motioning out the dancing girls*

Regarding Auto Victory, great job putting the Allies in a position to fight the war to the bitter end.

Best Regards,

-Terry

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
I was just thinking the opposite - this is going to end rather quickly, IMO.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Kudos to Lowpe for trying something bold and entertaining. But, as Ross points out, when the wheels come off on an operation like this one, things do get ugly. Lowpe's going to have to fight against the natural tendency to lose interest. Watching replays in which carrier TFs get battered by surface combat TFs, while an army is threatened with utter destruction, isn't conducive to gaming pleasure. If things were going well - if Lowpe had taken LA and San Diego - he'd be flipipng turns like crazy now, no matter what's going on in his other game and real life. But it's incredibly hard to watch those wheels come off and maintain a reasonable level of motivation.

Someday we're going to see an elite-level Japanese player implement this strategy against a veteran but not-alert-enough Allied player. I think this strategy could work for auto victory, especially in one of the scenarios in which the IJ player gets lots of extra troops and ships.

In John III's game vs. NYGiants, he got off to a good enough start to pursue a strategy like this one. He took Alaska and Hawaii early on. But he just wasn't interested in pushing a West Coast/auto-victory strategy.

But I doubt this is a viable strategy in late '42 or early '43 if the Allied player has been building forts and has kept a decent garrison on the West Coast. I think the IJ player has to plan this from the outset and should strike the West Coast by late spring or early summer '42.

A relatively inexperienced Allied player would be in big doo-doo.

I'd like to see that "one of these days."

quote:

ORIGINAL: poodlebrain

I can't help but think this will even further reduce the willingness of Allied players to be aggressive in their early defense efforts in other areas of operations. Defense of the West Coast has to take priority over defense of Australia, India or anywhere else since it is a game changer.

quote:

ORIGINAL: richlove

Let's talk about the bitter end for a minute. Assume Lowpe loses all his troops - how catastrophic is that? I've never played Japan, so I don't have a sense of where they'd be deployed, or what they should be doing at this point of the game. How does that change if he gets half of the troops out? Is his fuel or supply use off the charts? What does that mean to the later game?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Kudos to Lowpe for trying something bold and entertaining. But, as Ross points out, when the wheels come off on an operation like this one, things do get ugly. Lowpe's going to have to fight against the natural tendency to lose interest. Watching replays in which carrier TFs get battered by surface combat TFs, while an army is threatened with utter destruction, isn't conducive to gaming pleasure. If things were going well - if Lowpe had taken LA and San Diego - he'd be flipipng turns like crazy now, no matter what's going on in his other game and real life. But it's incredibly hard to watch those wheels come off and maintain a reasonable level of motivation.

Someday we're going to see an elite-level Japanese player implement this strategy against a veteran but not-alert-enough Allied player. I think this strategy could work for auto victory, especially in one of the scenarios in which the IJ player gets lots of extra troops and ships.

In John III's game vs. NYGiants, he got off to a good enough start to pursue a strategy like this one. He took Alaska and Hawaii early on. But he just wasn't interested in pushing a West Coast/auto-victory strategy.

But I doubt this is a viable strategy in late '42 or early '43 if the Allied player has been building forts and has kept a decent garrison on the West Coast. I think the IJ player has to plan this from the outset and should strike the West Coast by late spring or early summer '42.

A relatively inexperienced Allied player would be in big doo-doo.

I'd like to see that "one of these days."

quote:

ORIGINAL: poodlebrain

I can't help but think this will even further reduce the willingness of Allied players to be aggressive in their early defense efforts in other areas of operations. Defense of the West Coast has to take priority over defense of Australia, India or anywhere else since it is a game changer.

quote:

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Kudos to Lowpe for trying something bold and entertaining. But, as Ross points out, when the wheels come off on an operation like this one, things do get ugly. Lowpe's going to have to fight against the natural tendency to lose interest. Watching replays in which carrier TFs get battered by surface combat TFs, while an army is threatened with utter destruction, isn't conducive to gaming pleasure. If things were going well - if Lowpe had taken LA and San Diego - he'd be flipipng turns like crazy now, no matter what's going on in his other game and real life. But it's incredibly hard to watch those wheels come off and maintain a reasonable level of motivation.

Someday we're going to see an elite-level Japanese player implement this strategy against a veteran but not-alert-enough Allied player. I think this strategy could work for auto victory, especially in one of the scenarios in which the IJ player gets lots of extra troops and ships.

In John III's game vs. NYGiants, he got off to a good enough start to pursue a strategy like this one. He took Alaska and Hawaii early on. But he just wasn't interested in pushing a West Coast/auto-victory strategy.

But I doubt this is a viable strategy in late '42 or early '43 if the Allied player has been building forts and has kept a decent garrison on the West Coast. I think the IJ player has to plan this from the outset and should strike the West Coast by late spring or early summer '42.

A relatively inexperienced Allied player would be in big doo-doo.

I'd like to see that "one of these days."

As you say I don´t think its doable this late. But an early landing in say March/April when the Allies are at their weakest and perhaps only level 3-4 forts...scary scary!

But personally I don´t think a move on the WC is the best use of Japanese assets. I´m not going to expand too much of that in case I ever get around to playing Japan.. But I think with a competent Japanese player in a SCEN 2 environment and the right opening achieving AV could be done with a pretty big degree of certainty.

quote:

ORIGINAL: richlove

Let's talk about the bitter end for a minute. Assume Lowpe loses all his troops - how catastrophic is that? I've never played Japan, so I don't have a sense of where they'd be deployed, or what they should be doing at this point of the game. How does that change if he gets half of the troops out? Is his fuel or supply use off the charts? What does that mean to the later game?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

quote:

ORIGINAL: poodlebrain

I can't help but think this will even further reduce the willingness of Allied players to be aggressive in their early defense efforts in other areas of operations. Defense of the West Coast has to take priority over defense of Australia, India or anywhere else since it is a game changer.

The problem with that--and you're right--is that Oz or India can also provide an auto-vic. At this point in the game's life the top Japanese players have hyper-optimized the first months. The devs never imagined some things that are "normal" now. The amphib bonus is there to allow historical moves in the DEI, etc., not a San Diego landing. DBB in particular assumes, with its very historical Aussie OOB, that Japan doesn't go huge in an invasion.

I don't know the answer. But as an Allied player I sometimes feel as if I'm standing in mud while Japanese players are flying overhead.