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ORIGINAL: Feinder

But your enterprising I-boat captain would provide some useful practice for some eager Cleveland-class DD captains... 

-F-

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ORIGINAL: Hornblower

I see mention of Panama canal being represented on the map in some way, shape or form. If that is the case, if I was an enterprising I-Boat captain, would I have the opportunity of trying to bomb the locks and deny this entry point to the Americans?

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The thing is, why would you make "the attempt" 'possible' when the only outcome of even a successful attempt would have been "no effect?"

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ORIGINAL: mdiehl

A torpedo wouldn't do jack. The lock gates are designed to withstand the pressure of about 500,000 tons of water and they were overbuilt for the job specifically with sabotage and other strategic considerations in mind. A torpedo detonating against one of them would be like shooting a bottle rocket at the wall of a brick outhouse. You'd need something more like a dambuster. Only the Allies ever came close to designing a weapon that could achieve that sort of destruction.

The only realistic model involving the Japanese player being given the opportunity to attempt to shut them down would always lead to the outcome "mission unsuccessful." Such an endeavor would be substantially less likely than a USN submarine penetrating the Sasebo yards, deploying Seals, and sabotaging most of the Japanese in-yard fleet in 1942.

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ORIGINAL: Feinder

Actually, it was an option in Victory Game's "Pacific War".  You could option to "expend" one of the sub counters (with float planes, or maybe it was the kind that your could bounce Emily's off of) at game start.  On a roll of "00" of 100, you had successfully bombed the locks at Panama and damaged the locks.  All reinforcements in 1942 would be delayed by 3 months (and in 1943, they were considered repaired).

-F-

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ORIGINAL: engineer

A coup that might work would be for Japanese merchant ships (loaded to the gunnels with thousands of tons of nitrates that had thoughtfully been prepped for explosives) to detonate while transiting the locks (a deliberate Port Chicago disaster) as an opening blow instead of or in addition to Pearl Harbor.  The practical problem is that this would have to precede a Pearl Harbor attack and get through inspections, etc.  Although conditions were pretty chilly between the US and Japan leading up to Pearl Harbor, I don't think Japanese merchant ships were forbidden entry or transit of the canal.   

Another, even less likely scenario would be for a surprise attack by a sucide commando team to blow up the lock machinery with high explosives.  

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ORIGINAL: Feinder

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The thing is, why would you make "the attempt" 'possible' when the only outcome of even a successful attempt would have been "no effect?"

I believe it goes in the category of "suspension of disbelief" (current Japanese production comes to mind [;)]).  In the case of VG's Pacific War, probably the game designer(s) put it in because they read an article about the mission to bomb the locks, thought it sounded cool, and presumed it was therefore potentially successful.  Or there are plenty of other cases where various "options" are included games, simply because they either increase playability (like Scen 19 of UV with more replacement pilots) or just some cool (and even wierd) if not impossible "what ifs".

I also remember there was an option in that same game (VGs Pacific War) to get the Tirpitz in 1943 or 1944.  I have no idea why (much less how it would even be feasible).  But besides thinking it was stupid thing to begin with, a single BB added to Japan's OB in 1943/4 wouldn't matter anyway.

In the Third Reich game, you could draw chits for various game option events.  As I recall, "FDR outfoxes the isolationists" and he USA joins the game in summer of 1941.  Others were Nationalist Socialist uprisings in Ireland, Iraq, and Turkey (separate events), activating them as German Minor Allys.  Another was Spain as active Minor Ally.  I dunno.  There were about 20 different possible events (each player could draw 2 chits, and I think there was an additional chit that was played in 1943, that was unknown to both players).  The point was more to "mix things up a bit", to compel a bit of difference from the "usual" flow of the game.  It didn't matter so much much that actual events were (likely) not even remotely possible.  But it allowed for additional replayablity, even after you played the same game with the same group of friends 30 times.

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ORIGINAL: crsutton

I owned Pacific war. Cost about 80 bucks and that was 20 years ago or so. It was truly a monster. I never even managed to punch the counters? That is when I knew that miliary boardgaming was coming to its end.

I wonder if anybody ever played a full game. Would have taken a heck of a long time. Oh wait, that is what I am doing now with WITP.....

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ORIGINAL: Feinder

Actually, it was an option in Victory Game's "Pacific War".  You could option to "expend" one of the sub counters (with float planes, or maybe it was the kind that your could bounce Emily's off of) at game start.  On a roll of "00" of 100, you had successfully bombed the locks at Panama and damaged the locks.  All reinforcements in 1942 would be delayed by 3 months (and in 1943, they were considered repaired).

-F-

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Remember all you need to do is warp a gate, so it don't work quite correctly.

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These gates are of enormous size, ranging from 14.3 to 25 m (47 to 82 ft) high, depending on position, and are 2.1 m (7 ft) thick; the tallest gates are required at Miraflores, due to the large tidal range there. Each gate has two leaves, 19.8 m (65 ft) wide, which close to a V shape with the point upstream; this arrangement means that the force of water pushes the ends of the gates together firmly. The heaviest leaves weigh 662 tonnes (730 short tons); the hinges themselves each weigh 16.7 tonnes (36,752 lb).