vaned74 -> RE: ASW Thoughts (11/25/2010 7:19:53 PM)
|
Just a thought - I think we need to remember that most of the people playing AE are history buffs who have read or studied the various Pacific campaigns in some depth. What this means is that these folks are less likely to make the same mistakes as the sides made historically. So, that said, when I consider the Pacific War on a strategic level, I can readily think of any number of huge mistakes in strategy and industrial production that Japan made. On the Allied side, the mistakes I come up with are more on the operational-strategic or tactical side - and quite honestly, relatively few. For instance on Japan's side, some thoughts - knowing history, 1) what good Japanese player is going to route his merchants and tankers independently or in unescorted convoys? 2) what good Japanese player is going to neglect building up an escort fleet early? 3) what good Japanese player is going to neglect air-ASW until 1944? 4) what good Japanese player is going to not try and optimize port capacities, attempt to position repair assets along convoy routes to save damaged ships, etc? 5) what good Japanese player is going to decide to build a plethora of types of aircraft and not concentrate on streamlining production to a small set of mass produced proven airframes (proven in 20/20 hindsight...this applies to both sides - we have the straight mvr, cannon acc, numbers, etc all published for us)? 6) what good Japanese player is going to neglect pilot training early in the war? 7) what good Japanese player is going to split his carrier forces when fighting the Allied main forces? most keep KB concentrated in mass, and even build that mass, throughout the entire existence of it 8) what good Japanese player is going to decide to not start preparing his interior lines of defense early in the game, knowing that at some point they will be attacked? 9) what good Japanese player is not going to sock away fuel, resources, oil for a rainy day late in the game? 10) what good Japanese player is going to waste, as Mike correctly points out is the key, critical HI on projects like the CV Shinano, amounting to 10% of the entire 1941-1946 naval production of Japan in the game? I think hindsight almost always favors the side that lost and made the most strategic mistakes in a war game. In this case, it was clearly Japan. So, one can expect that in the game, Japan will do far better than it ever did historically. We need to be careful to factor that in when we consider if the game model itself is right or wrong in its execution. It could be that the industry production of Japan is quite right, the ASW capabilities are quite right, etc. It could just be that Japanese players know what mistakes were historically made and hence avoid those. By the same token, several mistakes the Allies made historically are oft not repeated in the game - ie, Mac doesn't forget to move supplies to Bataan for the inevitable retreat to it; Force Z doesn't sail north typically, good players seldom risk their precious early war Allied CVs in single carrier TFs, etc. These are more tactical or at best operational strategic as compared to Japan's mistakes which are on an entirely different scale. Just some thoughts. Canoerebel - keep up the great AAR! I always enjoy reading yours. Sorry for the digression.
|
|
|
|