rkr1958
Posts: 23483
Joined: 5/21/2009
Status: offline
|
Turn 17. May/June 1942. Reflection on this and my previous Global War AARs.
I'm not quitting this AAR, unless people are no longer interested. I just want to take a post for some of my reflections on this game and two previous ones, which I also posted in AARs.
Here is a list of these 3 AARs in reverse chronological order:
(3) Global War: Japanese Aggression (This AAR)
(2) Winston's Soft Underbelly -- A Dream Realized? http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3885082#
(1) My Historical Global War AAR http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3677581#
Though I've made many mistakes and probably at times been sloppy in my play, posting my play in these AARs has kept me faithful and honest to the game and to all sides. Though I must admit that I pull for the axis in the early game and for the allies in the late game. So maybe that has biased my play? You, the faithful audience, are the ones that are best qualified to make that judgement. Well, I digress ... I want to get back to my reflections ...
Now with respect to this current and on-going AAR, "(3) Global War: Japanese Aggression". This war has primarily been waged on and under the seas. There have been land actions, but small actions, if you call the land war in China, the conquest of France and the conquest of North Africa small. What I'm really saying is that Germany's land forces have set idle since the successful and total conquest of France on turn 8 (Nov/Dec 1940). Even with playing with the optional rule, "break Nazi-Soviet pact", Germany was unable to met the garrison requirement needed to break the pact in the summer of 1941. In 1942, when the fighting season for the Eastern Front returned, Germany did have the numbers to break the pact but, as the German and Italian player, I made the calculation that not going to war with the Soviet Union, which freed up significant ground forces for the west, and going on the defensive in the west gave them (me as the axis) the best chance of victory.
Now let me take a moment to describe how I determine victory. I determine victory by faction. The "raw" victory points (VPs) that a given faction has is the sum of the VPs of all countries in that faction. My factions are: Western Allies (USA-CW-Free France), Euro-Axis (Germany and Italy), Soviet Union, Japan and China. I calculated and determine victory based on "adjusted" VPs, which are raw minus historical. Historical VPs are 42 for the Western Allies, 0 for the Euro-Axis, 15 for the USSR, 9 for Japan and 1 China. Again, it's not the total number of VPs that a faction posses that determines the winner but the "adjusted" number of VPs. For this point in my game the adjusted totals are: Euro-Axis 20, China 0, Japan -2, Soviet Union -7 and Western Allies -12. So at this point Germany and Italy have a commanding lead over all other factions, especially the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. Thus, a significant part of the calculation I made as Germany/Italy for not going to war with the Soviet Union, transferring forces from east to west and building up defense in France, Germany and Italy.
Now, if this game was being played between live opponents instead solitary, I must admit that the German and probably Italian player would be so bored that they would "invade" the Soviet Union just to get back into the action. Thus, maybe a game like this is really only possible playing solitary. For me, I'm having a blast. I really enjoy the naval, convoy and production parts of MWiF and all these aspects are magnified greatly in how this game has unfolded. In all honesty, the strategy I employed as the Japanese player has been a total and utter failure. Japan is going down and they are going down fast. I don't see Japan lasting beyond 1943. If this game was multi-player, given the inaction of the German and Italian land armies and the early defeat of Japan, I could easily see it being conceded by the axis players so another and more "interesting" game could be started. Again, if I haven't been clear already, I want to stress that for me I'm immensely enjoying this game and the alternate version of WW-2 that I've created by playing it.
Now let me turn my attention to the past two global war AARs that I referenced above. Both games played entirely different from each other and from this third game. And, I immensely enjoyed them as I'm enjoying this one. However, the trajectory of each of the three games were vastly different from the others, which demonstrated for me the near infinite replayability, and hence enjoyment, of MWiF! In, "(1) My Historical Global War AAR", Germany annihilated the Soviet Union and threw the Western Allies back into the sea when they tried to establish themselves in France. Japan however, was soundly beaten by the USA with help from the CW. The communist Chinese took Manchuria and most of Korea from the Japanese. In, "(2) Winston's Soft Underbelly -- A Dream Realized?", Germany was crushed, totally defeated by the Soviet Union and Western Allies. Japan, though fighting tough, was beginning to crumble with the USA and CW establishing themselves in force in three different places in the home islands, including near Tokyo. This game was in turn 37 or 38 when I had to stop because of a game ending bug that resulted from the total conquest of Germany with Vichy France still neutral.
It is very hard to contain my excitement about MWiF and the gaming experience it gives me. I know that there's a lot of WiF experts that have problems with MWiF because certain rules are implemented or not implemented the way that they think they should be. I guess the biggest problem is the state of multi-player capability, specifically netplay functionality. Though, for me, multi-player play isn't an issue, I could see how it's important for a number of folks. However, I do see in a number of on-going and past AARs workarounds that allow for exiting multi-player games of MWiF. Well, climbing off my soap box ...
MWiF is giving me the most in-depth, "realistic", entertaining and fun WW-2 gaming experience that I have every had and will likely every have. This is a fantastic game and I appreciate Steve, Matrix, all the testers and contributions that have made it, and continue to make it, a possibility. I do hope that this game and this community is going strong 10, 20 or even 30 years from now. In reality, I would be happy to personally be going strong 30-years from now. 
_____________________________
Ronnie
|
Printable Version
RE: Global War: Japanese Aggression - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread