Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ian R

I agree with Ranger Joe. Manipulation of the special movement, that represents the fact that those TFs had already gone to sea in the days preceding hostilities, especially to do things like Mersing that take advantage of knowledge of Allied dispositions, would be unacceptable.

Question for Alamander - what is the latest date that you have played to as the IJ in a PBEM?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ian R

Why did you stop in Jan 44?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Alamander

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ian R

Why did you stop in Jan 44?

Auto-victory, and real-life was placing demands on both of us. The game slowed after AV, a couple turns changed hands, then we both sort of dropped it. My opponent was a friend of mine, so it was sort of mutual decision with the idea that we would pick it back up later. But we never did. This was some years back.

Looking back on it, if we had picked it back up, I suspect that the empire would have collapsed pretty quickly, despite the AV. I was dangerously low on trained pilots and my supply reserves were not great. I did not have a sufficient pilot training program, overused my medium bombers badly, flying far too many supply intensive sorties, and was far too aggressive in defense of non-essential forward bases. I doubt that I would have survived to see the end of 1944.

quote:

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

But you hit AV. You probably could have done some changes to your situation without doing too much to change the AV but could probably have saved/generated more supplies. Of you still had fuel, you could have increased HI at the beginning of the game and it would have paid for itself in mid to late 1943. After that, the supply increase is the frosting . . .

quote:

ORIGINAL: Alamander

quote:

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

But you hit AV. You probably could have done some changes to your situation without doing too much to change the AV but could probably have saved/generated more supplies. Of you still had fuel, you could have increased HI at the beginning of the game and it would have paid for itself in mid to late 1943. After that, the supply increase is the frosting . . .

Neither of us really knew exactly what we were doing. I'm sure there are numerous things my opponent could have done better as well, such as focusing on higher VP objectives in 43 to prevent AV, instead of Centpac. He could have made short work of the Marshalls in early 44 and then moved on, rather than fighting a pitched battle there in 43. If I remember correctly, fuel was Ok, but not in abundance. I think the biggest mistakes that I made were overusing medium bombers, flying too many fighter sweeps, not leaving enough IJAF fighter squadrons on training missions, and not using idle groups (especially navy groups) to train. I remember thinking that my overuse of medium bombers was a major supply drain and that I could have accomplished the same objectives with less ground support or with more use of light bombers in place of the medium bombers.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ian R


This comment is not PBEM specific, but the US (and to a lesser extent, other allies) do not get the flood of specialised assault ships, escort carriers, DEs, DMS, etc that carried the two-pronged offensive from the Gilberts & Solomons to the PI until the end of 1943. I reckon your opponent should have made you play on while he turned that AV right around.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Alamander

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ian R


This comment is not PBEM specific, but the US (and to a lesser extent, other allies) do not get the flood of specialised assault ships, escort carriers, DEs, DMS, etc that carried the two-pronged offensive from the Gilberts & Solomons to the PI until the end of 1943. I reckon your opponent should have made you play on while he turned that AV right around.

Yeah... I suspect if he had to do it over again, he would have waited for those APAs and so forth before messing around with atoll invasions in the Marshalls. As I say, we were both inexperienced, and he probably did not realize all the difficulties that come with landing on atolls. So, he got stuck in the Marshalls with a couple of atolls taken and some not. We fought there for a while. He could have steamrolled them a few months later, while focusing on some higher-value VP targets earlier to prevent the AV. And yes, he probably would have turned around that AV in short order, since I did not have many competent fighter pilots in the reserve pool: certainly not enough to withstand the onslaught to come.