PaxMondo
Posts: 9750
Joined: 6/6/2008 Status: offline
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Alfred, " It is therefore a pointless exercise to focus on this particular game abstraction. " I agree very strongly with this. " But it is stretching credibility that if only for a different mindset, it was feasible for Japan to have created during the war, a logistical network able to perfectly mimic the game's Magical Highway." I disagree with the first part here, I think mindset is the determinant of almost everything. But "perfectly mimic the game", that I will easily concede. I am sure that more can be moved in the game than is feasible, if for no other reason that there is essentially no limit on the qty to be moved in a turn, only in how frequently that move will occur. The reason I state "... I don't require anyone to accept the "Miracle Highway " concept ..." is because of mindset. If the game you are playing is that the mindset of IJ remains historical, which is completely fine, rationale, and ok; then the Miracle Highway would never happen. This means PDU OFF, etc etc etc. Now, once you say: I want to play PDU ON, you are now saying that in this game there is going to be a change in the mindset of IJ. Good. Now, define that to yourself ... carefully. Depending upon how you do so, resources may or may not be committed to support a whole host of things: invade OZ, Miracle Highway, invade India, crush CHI, ... all of these were not done IRL as much as due to mindset as anything else (IJA/IJN rivarly, IJ didn't go on full war footing until '43 18 months AFTER US, etc etc etc). All I have ever said is that it could be done. Not that it should. Again, just because it didn't happen doesn't mean it couldn't. Mindset is everything. Pyramids. Ho Chi Minh Trail. Great Wall. Golden Horde. Man on the Moon. Set a mindset, limit becomes a tough word to define. As for the numbers, nothing to discuss here really. Either you beleive that a million people can be put to work or you don't. If you don't, you don't and nothing will change that. If you do, then the numbers are simple. Your argument would be that a million people could never be put to work <period> as serfs. Fine. My experiences are far different and my reading of history is not could it happen, but there are plenty of examples. That's all. This discussion is all for nothing anyway. It only matters in a PBEM game, the two sides either agree or there is no game. Can't really see what the fuss is about. I mean you could just as easily say: "the dams didn't get blown and the RR remain with routine local guerilla attacks interupting the flow of goods from Saigon to Shanghai". Its all "what-if" anyway, right? I mean we know the real outcome.
< Message edited by PaxMondo -- 11/11/2018 3:52:16 PM >
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Pax
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