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JanSako -> Bottlenecks in the Pacific - jansako (J) vs AXE19999 (A) - Axe is welcome here! (1/22/2022 2:41:48 PM)
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In case it was not clear from the title, my opponent is welcome to read & engage in this thread.
The intention here is to provide a from time-to-time snapshot & collection of musings on the state of our game & maybe engage in a bit of strategic deception too [8D].
We are playing with LST's most excellent creation - Bottlenecks in the Pacific. LargeSlowTarget, you have my profound gratitude for what you have created here.[&o]
A few reasons why:
- DBB-C already does a great job of slowing down the pace of operations by limiting cargo capacity, so that was a great baseline to start
- Add the awesome quagmire that he made China into. After looking at the map for 5 minutes I began to feel like the Imperial army logistics staff must have felt. Pure dread. I have whole divisions isolated without ground connection, FFS! Every hex, I mean ever single hex you control must be garrisoned. Every singe hex you do not control is garrisoned by Chinese 'admin' units with 'decidedly not admin' Chinese Corps sprinkled throughout. Any offensive will be shedding units like... you get my point!
- U want to see 15-20 division JAP deathstacks in China, rolling over everything? Not here, siree! U want o see tank battles with hundreds upon hundreds of tanks battling it out across Burma? I don't think so unless you can make them nuclear powered & able to fly! (No wannabe Guderian-s needed here).
- This last bit I could not yet fully confirm, but the '4E bomber rules them all' have also been toned down (brilliantly I think, by halving the accuracy of the defensive guns). They will still be just as hard to shoot down outright, but I don't think the B-17 pilots should have the most kills in the allied air forces.
- Lots of other tweaks (i.e. Refineries do not produce supply), most pacific bases are c**p in the beginning, with no supplies or fuel to speak of until you actually send some. The Japanese homelands only has a fraction of the oil/fuel at hand than they do in Vanilla.
- My old beef with WITP was also solved (did I say my respects to LST yet?), that is the way bomb (hits) are calculated for aircraft with multiple bombs:
Stratbombing IRL? - "We are somewhere around the target, lets drop them & get the hell out of Dodge!" - the lead plane drops, then they all do & skedaddle. If the first plane is short, you just plowed up a whole lot of countryside for nothing. (The farmer would disagree, of course but, you know...)
Stratbombing in WITP? - "Make sure you ONLY drop one bomb, then we turn around I make another pass to see what else we can hit" (x50-100 other heavies doing the same thing in the night over a darkened airfield in the middle of the jungle someplace) - yeah, right... even during daylight, their defensive envelope (they need to be in formation to defend each other!!!) would get screwed completely & they would...well you get the point...
LST solved this (I think I have seen it in other modes since) by creating a single device for each loadout. So a plane with 6x500 lb bombs will drop a device called '6x500lb bombs' with an effect of X, BUT it drops just one. So in theory each bomber gets ONE roll for a hit & then goes home.
I am aiming to produce maybe one post a (game) month, right now it is December 31, 1941.
The game starts on Dec 7th PM. PH attacks have happened but Force Z is still alive! That's right, the Allied player gets to keep the 2 Brit battlewagons unless they suicide them. My opponent actually tried a few days later, the TF was detected but of course Betties from Saigon refused to fly that day. That night Force Z run a gauntlet of subs, barged into (or tried to) Kota Bharu & promptly run into Malaya Heavy Cover that were waiting just for this moment. A counter climactic naval battle ensued, with all 4 present BB's each getting a couple of hits from main guns, then the Brits withdrew. That was the last I seen of Force Z, for now.
State of affairs:
The glorious conquests of the Empire are going slower than I expected, although the name of the mod suggested something like that :-)
- My forces are about halfway down the Malayan peninsula, having it found pretty much empty so far.
- Hong Kong has fallen, still sorting out the garrison situation in China & shuffling units around.
- Rivercraft battles in China (I love this mod!) - my flotilla of river craft has been engaged in regular bombardment of Changsha with their 8cm guns (just because the Chinese can do nothing to them for now), then my opponent decided to do the same with his boats which prompted me to send mine after him up the Yangtze all the way to Chungking! Now most of mine are limping back, most of his are being carried by the current (I hope).
- Rabaul has fallen, more advances expected southbound shortly. (Ss well as the usual targets were taken - Guam, Wake, Tarawa)
- PI my forces are positioning themselves, I have not decided if I take Clark first & split his forces or Manila first & just herd them all together. On Mindanao he is defending the usual mountain hex just NE of Davao.
- Borneo is mine, I need to pick my next targets carefully cause he likes to strike MY oilfields from time to time & I do not have a whole lot of air support. That's right, the issue is not air units or planes, but air support squads!
- No major naval assets have been lost on either side yet, a number of small craft & transports etc but nothing bigger than a CL, except Ryujo who ate a couple-three Catalina torps off Luzon. Thing is I always lose Ryujo early in my games no matter what so I have expected that. (not counting the initial BB lost at PH, I think it was only 2 if that). I should have sent KB back for a second day strike but I was too rusty & they were about 15% planes down at game start.
- The usual in the hinterlands, convoys-convoys-convoys to bring in all the resources I can; training all the pilots I can, getting mad at the useless IJN Type 95 Depth Charges, waiting for Jake's to be semi-decent as ASW. Nothing different except reserves at hand are... not very large.
Oh, one more deviousness of LST's was that all R&D factories start at size 0!!! Will I be fielding late war planes in '43? Does not look like it, my friend... even if had the supplies to expand & then repair all of these factories which I don't.
The closing thought? I have not had this much fun with WITP in years!!!
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