|
obvert -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (6/7/2017 9:54:04 PM)
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: crsutton
quote:
ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
My comments about John focusing on Victory Points were not a criticism of his strategy. This is a game and the VP system is there for a reason. It works. I like the VP system and the way it provides the Japanese player with a fun way to work the end game. If I were a JFB, I'd work VP hard, twisting reality into all kinds of knots while working the system.
I suspect that John is not by nature a VP guy. We know he's a Navy man by preference, and I suspect that simulating real war Japanese doctrine (albeit, beefed up by mods and bolstered by house rules) is psychologically important to him. Ordinarily, I think he'd have attacked by now, in keeping with the Bushido Code. I suspect that he hasn't done so partly in response to some excellent tutelage by smart Forumites urging him to work the VP system hard. John has responded, and the current score is a testament to how competitive VPs can make the game.
But I think John has backed so far away from his natural tendencies that it's affecting his enjoyment of the game. His VP-productive carrier raid in SoPac while Death Star was in the East China Sea was an example. And the current position of KB in the DEI, while the Allies have been invading coastal China and shutting down Formosa's airfields, is another good example. There are good VP reasons for doing what he's doing, but militarily he's contorted himself into a painful and dangerous position.
Things can still change. There's a chance of a major action in the DEI in the next day or two that could help him a lot. But if the Allied carriers and supply TFs do link up with Death Star in two or three days, what does John do then? Does he keep working the VP angle, with KB steaming around the DEI looking for something to hit while the Allies reduce Formosa to ruins? Will he be satisfied working the VP angle, or at some point does he give in to the historic Japanese ethic? I'm guessing the latter.
I dunno. I think VP considerations skew the end game and as I have said before there should be a final objective (Tokyo) before a certain time or all VP go out the window. This will give the Japanese player another option-that is an all out defense of the HI with no regard for his losses (hey, isn't that exactly what they were planning to do?) Now, it is kind of absurd. It is like he is in a chess game and trying to run around the board snapping up your pawns while your queen is sitting next to his king. Oh wait! I can't use that analogy in this AAR because I have already used the queen sacrifice analogy to explain your foray into Sumatra. You no longer have your queen...[&o]
I didn't like thinking about VPs until I played into 45 as Japan. Then it suddenly made all kinds of sense. If the Allies are extending themselves so far as to allow the Japanese to make CV raids in So Pac (which would have caused major political and civilian backlash in reality) this is the game's way of allowing the Japanese player to prove an Allied overextension. Otherwise why not just never do anything until June 44, then sail the complete Deathstar and following armada of amphibs at Hokkaido, Formosa or any number of game ending targets and then set up B-29 bases to end the war by Jan 45?
VPs keep both sides honest and allow the subtitles of the game to be used and appreciated. As a Japanese player it's the only thing you live for. Otherwise even the good days of kami strikes and sunk CVEs suck when 8 divisions are unloading at Moppo. You have to be able to take enough of a VP tithe that some moves, however successful strategically, still have such a cost they prolong the war.
|
|
|
|
