US Fleet ?

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War I] >> War Plan Orange: Dreadnoughts in the Pacific 1922 - 1930 >> US Fleet ?

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US Fleet ? - 2/27/2007 2:05:02 AM

E02z

Posts: 2
Joined: 2/27/2007
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Just getting started on this game and have an easy question...where the heck is the US fleet ?

The 1922 start has a fraction of the US fleet coming in over three years not the 60 days it was called for.

Is there a more historical mod or any tutorials on how to edit the arrival dates..I read the editor manual but that wasnt very clear.

Thanks

Post #: 1

RE: US Fleet ? - 2/27/2007 3:00:34 AM

Tankerace

Posts: 6400
Joined: 3/21/2003
From: Stillwater, OK, United States
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You can easily change the arrival dates in the database editor, where you see the delay feature this is the arrival date in yy/mm/dd format.

As to it being a historical.... Yes, the US fleet COULD have crossed to the Pacific within two months. However, just like in WW2, the US would not have left the East Coast undefended. Couple that with a shaky disollusion(sp) of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (something that, theoretically, doesn't happen in WPO has the 1922 Five Power Treaty isn't signed), the US would still have keep many ships, especially some of the newer ones, to guard the Eastern Seaboard. Only when Britain's true intentions were clear would the US deploy the entire fleet.

Which is also precisely why the RN does not rapid deploy, to make sure of US intent as well. WPO assumes a straight Blue-Orange War, but reflects the political uncertainty regarding a possible Blue-Red Orange War.

_____________________________

Designer of War Plan Orange
Allied Naval OOBer of Admiral's Edition
Naval Team Lead for War in the Med

Author of Million-Dollar Barrage: American Field Artillery in the Great War coming soon from OU Press.

(in reply to E02z)

Post #: 2

RE: US Fleet ? - 2/27/2007 7:12:41 PM

engineer

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Joined: 9/8/2006
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I've mostly been playing in the late scenario and have seen the Japanese AI launching carrier strikes on Singapore on their opening sortie of the game. Any uncertainty that this is a Blue + Red vs. Orange war gets resolved very quickly in that circumstance. I've tweaked the arrival date of the Atlantic Fleet (or Scouting Fleet as it was called) for September, 1927 under the fiction that the Japanese manage to sabotage the Panama Canal while the fleet is in transit and trap the battlewagons until the locks can be repaired. This accomplishes a play-balance goal of keeping the USA from concentrating overwhelming force in the Pacific before the Japanese get their chance to make a run for a perimeter. The same exploit would be available for the early scenario.

A Blue-Red war in 1922 seems highly implausible. Britain was having a miserable time of it. The last forces were being withdrawn from Germany. Eire was getting its independence. The Shia were revolting in Iraq (the more things change . . . ). I believe the last of the Anglo-Afghan Wars was winding down on the Northwest Frontier. Ataturk managed to face down the British and compel the Empire to evacuate Constantinople in the Chanak Crisis during the fall of 1922. The Dominions of South Africa and Canada strongly opposed renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Naval Treaty to force Britain to rely more on them and strengthen their position within the Commonwealth. Historically, their position prevailed.

The official and historical Plan Orange for 1922 was a cautionary campaign plan. It dumped the "through-ticket" for an advance through the Mandates. Eniwetok was the initial objective, the eastern Mandates would be cleared, then Truk would be taken. It was not an "island-hopping" campaign since there was concern that bypassed Japanese bases could be re-supplied and serve as "cruiser nests" for a guerre de course against the US supply convoys. The return to the Philippines was planned for the second year of the war following the construction and deployment of mobile dry docks that would permit the navy to keep their battleships in good repair at a distance from their permanent yards at Pearl and the West Coast.

The stock OOB doesn't have explicit dry dock AR's, so the US player should be liberal in converting large AK's to AR's at Mare Island as a substitute to follow the historical plan.

The third year of the war in the historical Plan Orange moved toward a blockade of the Home Islands. While no landings were planned for the Home Islands, a large amphibious assault on Tsushima was planned to isolate Korea from Japan. It was expected that a successful blockade would lead to diplomatic negotiations that would resolve the war favorably for the USA.

(in reply to Tankerace)

Post #: 3

RE: US Fleet ? - 2/28/2007 3:55:58 AM

E02z

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Joined: 2/27/2007
Status: offline

Tanker: thanks for the reply and I will see if I can tinker a little with the dates once I get my arms around this game.

I didn't expect a Red-Orange-Blue situation that is the idea behind the US OoB, interesting and certainly a worst case for the US. I had thought of it as more of a typical game designer's balance issue.

The only thing to mention would be if Red was a question mark at all, the fleet would be a the East Coast and the Army at the northern border. The lessons of Mahan's concertration of fleet were yet but a generation removed in 1922. Half of the US fleet would still not stop a British push so both fronts would be useless.

In any case, the whole three years (for still part of the fleet) thing is intersting as that is the time frame for the "second fleet" concept.

(in reply to engineer)

Post #: 4