Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Jorge_Stanbury

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

quote:

ORIGINAL: Jorge_Stanbury

I agree Ceylon can be a nice trap, in my game I built airfields at Madurai and Tanjore, which are on range and without risk of naval bombardment; I was waiting for a possible Ceylon invasion.. in the end the invasion never came, thus ended up abandoning those bases and resupplying/ refueling Colombo which is now where most of the British fleet is parked

Too bad that didn't work out for you. What kind of naval strike planes did you have available?

I was actually planning to use USAAF heavy bombers to destroy the ports and airfields; because naval strike capabilities are very poor for the Allies in 42 some sorry collection of Vildebeest, Swordfishs, Banshees , you just need one CAP trap to get you and 3 months worth of replacement are gone..

The idea was to negate the use of ports and airfields so that the only way for Japan was to keep the KB on patrol perpetually or to eventually leave and be open for an allied landing once the KB was sighted somewhere else.. I don't know how this would had worked, but I am certain that by mid 42, I could had closed the ports and airfields of Ceylon by using all the heavies

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

There's a monument to the lost Bn at Fort Richardson, TX. I guess that's where they were mustered in before departing for Java.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

Lost Battalion of the Pacific, World War II. 131 st Field Artillery 2 nd Battalion. Mobilized at Fort Richardson, Jacksboro, Texas, 25 Nov 1940. Captured by the Japanese Forces 8 Mar 1942. Liberated 15 Aug 1945.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Ok, that I understand.

I suspect a lot of AFBs are not allowing upgrades to restricted units until they buy them out, and by then you are further down the AFV upgrade path skipping plentiful machines for the top of the line precious ones.

Years back M-M I think came up with a tactic of stripping the tractors from IJA heavy artillery since they are useless mouths. I argued at the time, and he eventually discovered, that those useless mouths acts as a damage sponge...soaking up damage that would otherwise go to the AFV in your example. With IJA heavy artillery, stripping off the tractors made the unit very fragile and subject to destruction very easily.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Thanks M-M! Very helpful! Just need the game to start.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

It would be interesting to see how a Portland option would play out, I bet Japan's normal expansion might be slowed a bit by the emergency reinforcements. I guess Japan would reap a VP bonanza with all the ships destroyed while building, if that is their status. Not sure on that one.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

It would be interesting to see how a Portland option would play out, I bet Japan's normal expansion might be slowed a bit by the emergency reinforcements. I guess Japan would reap a VP bonanza with all the ships destroyed while building, if that is their status. Not sure on that one.

EDIT AFTER TEST: Portland is impossible; the closest you can get a reasonable amount of troops is about ADAK Island in two days; still several days sail to Portland. That's after removing any ship under 15 kts from the Magic Transport TFs.

They made it about 95 sea hexes from Samah, so that seems to be the outer limit. Rangoon and/or Ceylon are doable, but not Sydney or Portland

Overall I hate these kind of gambits in a real game, because they tend to end the game early, whether it succeeds or not

quote:

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

How? Have it merge and pick-up the units at Sendai?

quote:

I can't believe I am going to play the Allies.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Pretty doable.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Alfred

I would immediately, with absolutely no correspondence entered into, walk away from a game if an opponent abused the first turn magic move bonus to take out Portland or any similar Allied game infrastructure.  Absolutely no tolerance for the resulting JFB whining about the necessity of doing so blah blah blah.

Think about it for a single moment.

1.  The first turn move bonus is in the game only to allow the AI to achieve the historical strikes.  As the game is designed it also allows a human Japan player to be in position for the historical Pearl Harbor, necessary as the game does not start on 26 November with the KB starting it's journey to Pearl Harbor.  The alternative to not having the bonus move is to hard code the Japanese forces to their historical 7 December 1941 positions.  That would kill off any alternative options, no Manila port strike in lieu of Pearl Harbor, no Mersing Gambit, no nothing.  Just the Historical 7Dec 1941 first turn option.  Swallow that pill you JFBs who insist Japan is only playable if it drastically deviates from the opening historical opening moves.

2.  AE is supposed to capture the historical capabilities of the respective PTO combatants.  Excluding the Emergency Reinforcements, only the Allied forces actually sent to the PTO are included.  How much fun do these JFBs believe they would have if absolutely the entire ETO forces were sent to the Pacific in 1942.

3.  The entire design philosophy of having future arriving USN ships destroyed on the stocks if the arriving base is captured by Japan, is predicated on the view that (a) the key shipbuilding yards are far away in the rear, well out of reach of any early Japanese moves using standard game mechanics, and (b) by the time, using standard game mechanics, Japan could threaten them, it is shame upon the Allied player for not properly garrisoning those locations.  Nothing wrong with Japan trying to capture Portland (or Seattle, or San Diego et al) in January 1942.  By then the Allied player has had time to set up their search patterns and send LCUs to garrison Portland, so some forewarning and forward/rear defensive preparation is possible.  None of this is at all possible on turn 1.

The scenario designer may just not have bothered including all that future OOB capability, it would produce exactly the same outcome.  Actually it would be even preferable as then the Allied player wouldn't lose all those VPs.  However just how many people would have bought AE if told;

"well AE is an attempt to accurately represent the historical capabilities and logistical constraints which confronted the historical leaders except almost all the jeep carriers have been removed, or there won't be any 2E or 4E Allied bombers built because their factories aren't in the game as Japan could have captured them on 7/8/9 December 1941.  And of course as you won't be getting those aircraft you won't be needing all those squadrons so there was no need for the designers to research the historical OOBs."

Of course it would be silly.  But if a serious game possibility, who for a moment would be surprised if the devs had not changed the game design so that all the jeep carriers arrived off map, all the aircraft were produced off map.  The slight affront to historical accuracy would be well worthwhile just to squash this silly notion that the historical industrial capacity (and future industrial expansion) of the USA could have been so easily destroyed and made smaller than the game industrial capacity of Japan (after it captures the SRA).


I'd like to see the next Super Bowl played where for the first quarter only Team A takes to the field.  No players from Team B take to the field before the second quarter and then when they do Team B can't field its offense roster (being forced to use just its defence roster) and touchdowns for team B score only 2 points with no conversions allowed.  See how far the fan base would support that game design philosophy. 

Alfred

quote:

I'd like to see the next Super Bowl played where for the first quarter only Team A takes to the field. No players from Team B take to the field before the second quarter

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
Pretty doable.