Empire of The Sun Tag Team Game - Imperial Perspective

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el cid again
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RE: Commands

Post by el cid again »

ORIGINAL: Nemo121
REPLY: I expect to catch them at sea. They seem to believe leaving port is a good idea. It isn't. 

Depends on which direction they run really doesn't it? They can run 8 hexes, north, south, east or west. It isn't possible to cover that entire area with the footprint of KB's torpedo and dive-bomber squadrons UNLESS on Day 1 KB and 2 CVLs are split into 4 x 2 CV TFs and established at 4 hexes from PH in range to bomb it OR bomb any ships leaving the area...


The distance depends on the ship. Some are faster, some slower.

Anyway I plan a net of detection based on long range CV recon - land based recon and sub recon. They probably won't escape. And IF they do - they are not a problem for the ships I want to protect- nor any value to the defense of Hawaii.

As to Sallys etc for Pearl... I suggest we adopt Soviet nomenclature as we are both familiar with it... When you talk regiment I presume you mean sentai or hikotai/daitai correct?

Actually I meant the Army terminology - Sentai - and was translating into English. Three or four squadrons - group - the usual IJA unit.

So, in those terms I'd be happy to give you 3 regiments or, in other words, a bomber division for that mission... That's about 100 Sallys + replacements. That ought to be enough.

I agree - but will evaluate if I can feed that many that far away? I can always use them vs the Solomans or New Guinea.

Sid
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RE: Commands

Post by Nemo121 »

This is not meaningful in operational or strategic terms IRL. 
 
In your opinion. Again you state opinion as fact. I believe you are incorrect. Not being able to supply a ground offensive through India into Burma or supply bombers based in India sufficiently for a bomber offensive to close ports and airfields preparatory to an amphibious attack into Sumatra/Malaysia IS a major strategic blow.
 
In any case we agree sufficiently that I'm not interested in arguing over it.
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el cid again
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RE: Commands

Post by el cid again »

ORIGINAL: Nemo121
This is not meaningful in operational or strategic terms IRL. 

In your opinion. Again you state opinion as fact. I believe you are incorrect. Not being able to supply a ground offensive through India into Burma or supply bombers based in India sufficiently for a bomber offensive to close ports and airfields preparatory to an amphibious attack into Sumatra/Malaysia IS a major strategic blow.

In any case we agree sufficiently that I'm not interested in arguing over it.


This is unclear? While we agreed on some strategic bombing, you seemed to say that resource bombing was unrealistic - and that implied not on the table. Now you seem to be reversing that.

Surely you don't think 1000 supply points is the right value for repair? There is formal admission this is "too high" - and it may be a candidate for change down the road. But NOW it IS that high - and it is gamey to exploit this outrageous value.

Anyway - I proposed a deal with the Allies - and you ignored that. If we don't cut a deal (house rule) against resource bombing - AND IF you set the example how horrible it is - we face that by a vastly larger bomber force later in the game (and maybe not later even). Cutting a deal means we come out ahead. AND it means - if the Allies don't agree - I would go along with your doing it - in spite of being gamey. This is as close as I get to a compromise: suggesting how to get something worth several times as much from the other side - or you can do what is clearly wrong anyway. How did you miss that?

Finally - not everything I say is just an opinion. There actually are facts. Surely it is a fact that the cost to repair is nothing like what code is giving us here? Surely it is a fact that it is far too easy to damage resource centers than IRL.
Since you said both of these things are true - it is rather close to being argumentative to try to say it is only an opinion (implying not a valid opinion in your view). WITP has very simple algorithms - and the air guy wrote this week (privately) there are "many things that need reworking - fleshing out with proper detail". The basic bombing routines were meant to be valid for operational attacks on military units - not strategic attacks. And to the extent strategic attacks were meant - they were probably meant to be valid for industrial facilities - not resource centers. Further - these are abstract. We treat all the same - but they are not really that. Some could not be damaged at all - yet your bombers can take them all down. I think you are focusing on what is possible to do with game instrumentalities instead of what a commander would try to do IRL and allow the game to simulate the result. I think this is the focus of a gamer vice a simulator. Perhaps you might try - just this once - honoring the primary rule of RHS: the one about do what real commanders would do? Or your own rule - about "if it isn't physically possible" ? It isn't physically possible to take down 100% of resource centers by bombing - with rare exceptions we cannot evaluate (since we don't have them identified). Real commanders would not attempt what can not be done.

THERE IS a way to damage resource centers which is legitimate - fight on the g round. Have you considered doing it that way? If you damage them on capture - don't repair - and damage them again on recapture - you might achieve your goals in a way that no one could say was gamey.
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RE: Commands

Post by Nemo121 »

you seemed to say that resource bombing was unrealistic - and that implied not on the table.

Nope, that's what you read into it. One of the things I have been most consistent on is that I am in favour of strategic bombing of HI, repair yards, resource centres etc. I may have said that the way the game models it is not entirely realistic but, then again, a whole host of things in the game aren't realistic and we play in spite of them. Saying something is not modelled perfectly is not the same as saying that since it isn't perfect I will avoid the whole area.

Surely it is a fact that it is far too easy to damage resource centers than IRL.
No, I don't know that that is so.

Since you said both of these things are true
Now you are just making things up.


As to strategic resource bombing... I do believe that it would be possible to target attacks against resources of a military nature and that repairing them would be costly in terms of supplies redirected AND time. It is probably true that the game make the supply cost of repair too high but I would also argue the rate at which repair happens is probably incorrect also.

I don't have a phD in industrial management and this IS meant to be a FUN game. At a certain point in time the I am willing to accept the imperfections in the game and have some fun. Worrying about exactly how resources are to be repaired if damaged etc etc etc is way past the point where I no longer find it fun to consider house rules ( something you wanted to get away from in this game).


As to your point about damaging resources by ground fighting. LOL!!! I'd love to do that BUT you forbade me from invading India proper... You ban me from invading a place and then when I come up with the idea of strategic bombing it into the stone age tell me that I should ground invade it to do the damage instead. LOL!!!!


No Sid. Opinions do not substitute for facts here and at this point in time I'm quite happy that the veracity of the model is "good enough" to start a game. I'm not intereste in negotiating 50,000 painstaking house rules as, quite frankly, I am right at the cusp of no longe enjoying the prospect of this game. Now if you are unwilling to continue with a game in which the IJA engages in resource bombing then that's fine and I will step aside but, at this stage, I am highly resistant to any plans to add further house rules as I'm sick and tired of negotiating every tiny bleeding little detail. It isn't at all fun.



As to your comment in email that you control most of the SAA... Hmm, that's an army formation. Certainly you would be lent some divisions for the capture of the Phillipines but I see absolutely no need for you to keep them when they could be much more useful to us in China or speeding up the conquest of Burma.

It seems a bit strange to tell me that you control a large part of one of the three main unrestricted army formations... No, you control the invasion of the Phillipines for which I'm happy to lend you forces but to expect to take those 5 or 6 divisions elsewhere is unrealistic. In the same way as I don't expect to take over all the navy ships after they have done the job of covering my invasion convoys ( although I will be lent a few for the long term protection against British pobes) and expect to have to give most of the covering force back to your command so I expect most of the army units in the Phillipines and DEI to come back under army control once their objectives are achieved. You will be left sufficient for further offensive actions but certainly not the majority of SAA.


Anyways, let me know if my view that i'm not interested in negotiating a whole series of house rules to cover areas in which the game model may not be the best ( there are so many such areas that we could keep negotiating house rules forever under those circumstances) is unacceptable and I'll happily step aside. Maybe someone else will find enjoyment in interminable negotiations but I don't.


I'm not saying this out of rancour or upset... I'm just being very honest that a certain level of negotiation to get an agreeable game for everyone is fine but what is being indulged in now is, IMO, excessive and a real case of "perfect being the enemy of good enough". No offence Sid but one of the most important areas of any game model is internal consistency and going for perfection in one area when there are other areas of the model one could drive a good-sized bus through is, IMO, excessive.



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Well, that's that settled then.
el cid again
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RE: Commands

Post by el cid again »

ORIGINAL: Nemo121
you seemed to say that resource bombing was unrealistic - and that implied not on the table.

Nope, that's what you read into it. One of the things I have been most consistent on is that I am in favour of strategic bombing of HI, repair yards, resource centres etc. I may have said that the way the game models it is not entirely realistic but, then again, a whole host of things in the game aren't realistic and we play in spite of them. Saying something is not modelled perfectly is not the same as saying that since it isn't perfect I will avoid the whole area.


Well - it isn't consistent with either the primary house rule or with your 'physically possible' rule - which I liked so much I adopted it. [I must say your situation when you said that - facing massive coast guns taking years to emplace teleporting to Aden - was certainly outrageous. I believe that you are quite fair - and the fact you were the victim is not the reason you objected: that you would not do such a thing if the sides were reversed. Here that is the situation: you cannot really target a massive resource area in the sense you do a factory. Yet the same algorithms yield damaged centers on the same basis. I was just reading German literature on iron bombs and it is shocking the numbers they felt were required to do significant damage to a point target. Area targets are far worse.]
el cid again
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RE: Commands

Post by el cid again »

ORIGINAL: Nemo121
Surely it is a fact that it is far too easy to damage resource centers than IRL.
No, I don't know that that is so.

Since you said both of these things are true
Now you are just making things up.

REPLY: Unlikely. Much more likely is a miscommunication. Aside from the fact that is normal for most people, we are very good at it. I would not make something up. Neither would you. I acknowledge that - you should try to bear it in mind.


As to strategic resource bombing... I do believe that it would be possible to target attacks against resources of a military nature and that repairing them would be costly in terms of supplies redirected AND time. It is probably true that the game make the supply cost of repair too high but I would also argue the rate at which repair happens is probably incorrect also.


REPLY: Well - since it is abstract - it is hard to say. You repair up one point per day - typical of a Matrix simple algorithm. That means 365 points damage takes a year to fix. PROBABLY that is too long. But if the resource were a very unusual one - a hydroelectric dam - a point target rather than an area one - and one which EXISTS in RHS (in the form of oil) - it might take more than a year to fix. On the other hand, if you inflict a single point, it may be up in a single day, and that may be way too fast. For a simple mechanism it is probably acceptable.

I don't have a phD in industrial management and this IS meant to be a FUN game. At a certain point in time the I am willing to accept the imperfections in the game and have some fun. Worrying about exactly how resources are to be repaired if damaged etc etc etc is way past the point where I no longer find it fun to consider house rules ( something you wanted to get away from in this game).

REPLY: It is quite true - I don't like restricting players or long lists of house rules. On the other hand, I consider the primary house rule should have covered this. Same for the added rule about what is possible. But it may be that, after decades of study of every strategic bombing campaign in history, I may be assuming a general knowledge that is not in fact general. In any case - this is elegant argument on your part - citing my own principles against me!


As to your point about damaging resources by ground fighting. LOL!!! I'd love to do that BUT you forbade me from invading India proper... You ban me from invading a place and then when I come up with the idea of strategic bombing it into the stone age tell me that I should ground invade it to do the damage instead. LOL!!!!



REPLY: Ouch. Well - once again - you are being elegant. But it reveals two germane points:

1) As ususal we miscommunicated. You MISSED that I several times said "raids" were permitted.

2) You really intended to honor your agreement. Now I know this was the case anyway - from personality analysis in voice communication - but here is proof of it. Nemo is an honorable player in fact. I don't suppose it hurts to say so -
since you often feel I never have a positive opinion.

No Sid. Opinions do not substitute for facts here and at this point in time I'm quite happy that the veracity of the model is "good enough" to start a game. I'm not intereste in negotiating 50,000 painstaking house rules as, quite frankly, I am right at the cusp of no longe enjoying the prospect of this game. Now if you are unwilling to continue with a game in which the IJA engages in resource bombing then that's fine and I will step aside but, at this stage, I am highly resistant to any plans to add further house rules as I'm sick and tired of negotiating every tiny bleeding little detail. It isn't at all fun.

REPLY: Bombing of resource centers is the centerpiece of your strategy - apparently: "tiny bleeding little detail?"
I was writing on the basis you had said it was not valid - or I thought you had said so. I distinctly remember you saying something about bombing industrial centers BECAUSE bombing resources was probably unrealistic. Now perhaps that was in a context I misconstrued? On the other hand, I have undertaken not to be in the ultimatum business - which seems to upset you a good deal. I am close to despair that you will ever not think in gamey terms - but if I agreed to team with you - I guess it is my own fault - since you long made it clear you actually believe in "do whatever the system allows". I feel that this is not consistent with your "don't do the physically impossible principle" or my "don't do what real commanders would not do principle" and I believe you should reconsider your position on that basis. BUT

1) I now see you do not think whatever I read or heard meant what I thought it did - so I cannot appeal to an agreement that seems not to have been intended as a criticism of a proposal;

2) I see some sense of "the cost of repair may well be too high" -

3) I admit your point that some significant damage would indeed be possible

SO I suggest a compromise. What if you CAN bomb resources - but (within the limits of what you know) you do NOT attempt to bomb them to zero? Not sure what the target value should be - or how we might know what damage had been done - or repaired? But there is clearly a point at which one is engaged in overkill - and experience in running games on both sides for tests should allow you to estimate in the ball park. The first ball park that comes to mind is your suggestion when we first spoke: IF we disagree - we split the difference. Aim at 50%.



As to your comment in email that you control most of the SAA... Hmm, that's an army formation. Certainly you would be lent some divisions for the capture of the Phillipines but I see absolutely no need for you to keep them when they could be much more useful to us in China or speeding up the conquest of Burma.

It seems a bit strange to tell me that you control a large part of one of the three main unrestricted army formations... No, you control the invasion of the Phillipines for which I'm happy to lend you forces but to expect to take those 5 or 6 divisions elsewhere is unrealistic. In the same way as I don't expect to take over all the navy ships after they have done the job of covering my invasion convoys ( although I will be lent a few for the long term protection against British pobes) and expect to have to give most of the covering force back to your command so I expect most of the army units in the Phillipines and DEI to come back under army control once their objectives are achieved. You will be left sufficient for further offensive actions but certainly not the majority of SAA.


Anyways, let me know if my view that i'm not interested in negotiating a whole series of house rules to cover areas in which the game model may not be the best ( there are so many such areas that we could keep negotiating house rules forever under those circumstances) is unacceptable and I'll happily step aside. Maybe someone else will find enjoyment in interminable negotiations but I don't.


I'm not saying this out of rancour or upset... I'm just being very honest that a certain level of negotiation to get an agreeable game for everyone is fine but what is being indulged in now is, IMO, excessive and a real case of "perfect being the enemy of good enough". No offence Sid but one of the most important areas of any game model is internal consistency and going for perfection in one area when there are other areas of the model one could drive a good-sized bus through is, IMO, excessive.



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RE: Commands

Post by Nemo121 »

Well as you know I've advocated splitting the difference when we disagree on several occasions. My one concern with the 50/50 split for India is as follows:

1. I believe that since we're not simulating the civilian economy ( no civies are going to starve no matter how much of the industry I destroy) not military resources that 100% destruction of these military resources is entirely reasonable. I accept that the repair algorithm is definitely not accurate, too lenient in some cases, too harsh in others.

2. Factories, shipyards and oil wells are much more point targets than resource centres.


So, how about a division of resources elsewhere into two sectors:
a) HI, repair shipyards, airplane factories, engine factories, armaments, armour, merchant and naval shipyards... all of which can be bombed to 100% destruction. These sorts of point targets can be almost 100% destroyed if sufficient weight of material is applied ( and I've read some of the same German reports as you and know the whole argument that destroying the factory will not necessarily destroy the critical machine and so long as the critical machines are preserved production can resume in only a couple of days). Still, this is the game we have at the moment... When someone creates something better or allows something better to be modded I'll happily play it but I do believe that once you've gotten things as accurate as possible then you have to play the game given to you - and try to limit further house rules as much as possible ( this hasn't always worked well for me though ;) ).

b) some resources can certainly be bombed in a similar manner as other point targets, others cannot. So I think that splitting the difference between 0 and 100 is unrealistic as, I'm sure, you'd agree that SOME resources certainly could be targetted for bombing as they were quite point resources. So, if you were to say 1/3rd could be targetted, I'd say 100% could be targetted ( since we are only talking about militarily useful resources, not civie resources) and we split the difference to 66%.

Obviously though this is only on the understanding that the Allies go along with this... I'm happy for this to be represented to them BUT with three crucial points understood:
1. It would have to apply to China, Soviet Union, India, Australia, US and Japan, IOW ALL theatres including ourselves in 44 and 45 when the Allies are in range to hurt us.
2. No specific mention be made which gives India away as the origin of this... I assume Sneer has analysed my AARs and is preparing to stuff Ceylon to the gills with stuff. No need to make him even surer of this at present.
3. We present this as something WE want. It is up to the Allied players to figure out this benefits them. I don't, unless one is winning by a major margin and is turning it into a teaching exercise, believe in pointing out an opponent's errors and best courses of action to them until it no longer matters. So we shouldn't present this as something for their benefit. If they analyse things properly they will see that this will benefit them far more than us and will accept the deal. If they seek to haggle ( or refuse it) then 100% bombing of any target is back on the table.

If we were modelling the civie economy I'd be much more open to a lower % of bombing but we are modelling ONLY the military portion of that economy and I think that, therefore, much more of that economy should be open to bombing.


Oh, for what its worth, the Imperial Japanese Army air force will NOT engage in terror-bombing of cities. I believe it is a war crime and while civilian casualties would occur collaterally from HI, resource etc bombing these casualties are incidental and NOT the aim. I would like to piggy-back a request to our opponents that the terror-bombing of cities ( represented by manpower attacks in-game) not occur. They are, of course, free to disagree to this but this is a personal belief issue for me and I would like it asked. I presume that since the IJNAF isn't all that interested in strategic bombing then it certainly won't be interested in terror bombing, correct?


As to raids:
Unless an opportunity to mount a raid an cut off and destroy several brigades presented itself I do not think I would be willing to divert the necessary forces ( several divisions probably) from China and elsewhere. They can do more good there than killing a couple of Brigades in India. I'll probably mount a few minor raids after Ceylon just to keep the Allies on their toes, try to cut off and destroy a few southern brigades and create the illusion that the conquest of India is on the cards. This uncertainty in the minds of our opponents can only be helpful to us.
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RE: Commands

Post by Monter_Trismegistos »

When you are trying to damage oil plants you are not aiming oil below ground - you attack oil wells, railroad trucks - infrastructure = point target. When you are trying to damage resource centers you are not aiming coal or iron ore below ground - you attack infrastructure = point target.

Fact that you added weird resources like fields producing food... well if you added resource centers to represent them, generally it is your fault because such things cannot be represented accurately. Now you must live with that - now it is possible to reduce it as any other point target. It's a consequence of adding things which cannot work properly.
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RE: Commands

Post by Nemo121 »

As to the "don't do it if you wouldn't do it in real life"... Well, in real life I would try to reduce the Allied ability to stage an invasion force overland into Burma.

I can't kill their troops quickly enough to do that BUT I can reduce their ability to generate supplies locally AND force them to bring them in from farther.  As every logistician in history will tell you the farther from ones depot you operate the less power you project with the point of the spear.
 
So, since I can't whittle down the spear point via attrition and win I have decided that the best thing to do is to force the supply depot to be as far away ( either in north-western India or, better yet, Aden) so that I am artificially lengthening the distance to the depot and thus decreasing the strength that can be projected at the spear point.
 
 
This is the acme of manoeuvrist theory ( defeating the enemy's strength by attacking his weaknesses... in this case the myriad resource=producing areas which are so widespread that the enemy cannot provide sufficient air cover to defend them all.... and most pleasingly to me... and one reason I find this approach particularly skillful and, thus, pleasing is that any attempt to defend the resource centres will just result in burning more of the supplies in the areas in which the Allies will soon be scrabbling for every ton of supply... IOW it turns the strength of the enemy defence into something which hastens the success of the strategy - obviously assuming that the enemy CAP isn't so massive that it cannot be penetrated with acceptable losses... still, if the enemy concentrates sufficient force in one place to create an impenetrable CAP the bombers will just hit one of the 20 or so bases this concentration has uncovered... Like I said, a skillful plan which allows one to lure the enemy into reacting in a manner which is both increasingly ineffective but also ( and this is where I find the skill) actually hastening his own downfall) and certainly not in keeping with the usual boring old attritional strategy one sees on the forum but I believe it will be effective if properly executed.
 
It is a sort of reverse Yamashita.... Lure the forces into position, reduce their local supply sources and then see them whither on the vine through insufficient supply.
 
 
 
The IJA headed by Yamashita certainly had the vision to imagine such a strategy and the staff officers to enact it. As such I feel it is entirely reasonable to say this is something I would have done had I been in command at the time... which I believe was what you wished the measure to be.
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RE: Commands

Post by jwilkerson »

ORIGINAL: Nemo121
you seemed to say that resource bombing was unrealistic - and that implied not on the table.

Nope, that's what you read into it. One of the things I have been most consistent on is that I am in favour of strategic bombing of HI, repair yards, resource centres etc. I may have said that the way the game models it is not entirely realistic but, then again, a whole host of things in the game aren't realistic and we play in spite of them. Saying something is not modelled perfectly is not the same as saying that since it isn't perfect I will avoid the whole area.

Surely it is a fact that it is far too easy to damage resource centers than IRL.
No, I don't know that that is so.

Since you said both of these things are true
Now you are just making things up.


As to strategic resource bombing... I do believe that it would be possible to target attacks against resources of a military nature and that repairing them would be costly in terms of supplies redirected AND time. It is probably true that the game make the supply cost of repair too high but I would also argue the rate at which repair happens is probably incorrect also.

I don't have a phD in industrial management and this IS meant to be a FUN game. At a certain point in time the I am willing to accept the imperfections in the game and have some fun. Worrying about exactly how resources are to be repaired if damaged etc etc etc is way past the point where I no longer find it fun to consider house rules ( something you wanted to get away from in this game).


As to your point about damaging resources by ground fighting. LOL!!! I'd love to do that BUT you forbade me from invading India proper... You ban me from invading a place and then when I come up with the idea of strategic bombing it into the stone age tell me that I should ground invade it to do the damage instead. LOL!!!!


No Sid. Opinions do not substitute for facts here and at this point in time I'm quite happy that the veracity of the model is "good enough" to start a game. I'm not intereste in negotiating 50,000 painstaking house rules as, quite frankly, I am right at the cusp of no longe enjoying the prospect of this game. Now if you are unwilling to continue with a game in which the IJA engages in resource bombing then that's fine and I will step aside but, at this stage, I am highly resistant to any plans to add further house rules as I'm sick and tired of negotiating every tiny bleeding little detail. It isn't at all fun.



As to your comment in email that you control most of the SAA... Hmm, that's an army formation. Certainly you would be lent some divisions for the capture of the Phillipines but I see absolutely no need for you to keep them when they could be much more useful to us in China or speeding up the conquest of Burma.

It seems a bit strange to tell me that you control a large part of one of the three main unrestricted army formations... No, you control the invasion of the Phillipines for which I'm happy to lend you forces but to expect to take those 5 or 6 divisions elsewhere is unrealistic. In the same way as I don't expect to take over all the navy ships after they have done the job of covering my invasion convoys ( although I will be lent a few for the long term protection against British pobes) and expect to have to give most of the covering force back to your command so I expect most of the army units in the Phillipines and DEI to come back under army control once their objectives are achieved. You will be left sufficient for further offensive actions but certainly not the majority of SAA.


Anyways, let me know if my view that i'm not interested in negotiating a whole series of house rules to cover areas in which the game model may not be the best ( there are so many such areas that we could keep negotiating house rules forever under those circumstances) is unacceptable and I'll happily step aside. Maybe someone else will find enjoyment in interminable negotiations but I don't.


I'm not saying this out of rancour or upset... I'm just being very honest that a certain level of negotiation to get an agreeable game for everyone is fine but what is being indulged in now is, IMO, excessive and a real case of "perfect being the enemy of good enough". No offence Sid but one of the most important areas of any game model is internal consistency and going for perfection in one area when there are other areas of the model one could drive a good-sized bus through is, IMO, excessive.




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RE: Commands

Post by Xargun »

The Japanese bombing resources ??? Why not ? The allies do it as soon as they can, so why not return the favor - especially in china. A realistic Japanese commander knows he will never capture Chungking, Kweiyang or many of the other interior bases - so why not blast them back to the stone ages. We can't do it anywhere near as good as the allied Heavies can, but if you have doubt ask Oliver about my 140+ Sally raid on the airfield at Chungking and how the chinese air force liked it.. Something like 50 planes killed on the ground - that will take the chinese months to recover - if they have the supply to 'buy' them into air groups.

I have no qualms about bombing resources I know I can't even capture. Now bombing Palembang is just stupid. But hitting India, Interior china or Oz is a legitimate target. And if the allied player doesn't like it, then he shouldn't be allowed to strat bomb you. Trust me, the allied player will be upset, whine and complain.... UNTIL his heavies start flattening you. You can ask Oli about that too.. His Heavies are killing me - and nothing can stop them.

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RE: Commands

Post by el cid again »

ORIGINAL: Monter_Trismegistos

When you are trying to damage oil plants you are not aiming oil below ground - you attack oil wells, railroad trucks - infrastructure = point target. When you are trying to damage resource centers you are not aiming coal or iron ore below ground - you attack infrastructure = point target.

You pretty much have to. But some mines are vast open pits immune to damage - the bombs might actually help in some instances! And how do you bomb a forest? [I admit one warrant officer Fujida ran two "strategic bombing missions" firebombing Oregon forrests - from a mighty E14Y1 Glen no less - but there was never any possibility of destroying enough to show up as a point on our scale. We didn't know we had been attacked.] I saw B-52 "strategic bombers" bombing jungle - and not cause any useful impact even on organized depots and camps. Now Japan has nothing in the league of a B-52 - it can lift 40 tons or ordnance at a time - and the idea it could haul enough bombs and fuel to do significant damage to NON point targets in India is technical nonsense.


Fact that you added weird resources like fields producing food... well if you added resource centers to represent them, generally it is your fault because such things cannot be represented accurately. Now you must live with that - now it is possible to reduce it as any other point target. It's a consequence of adding things which cannot work properly.

Not much to say about that. More resources makes the task of wiping them out harder at least. In that sense, the problem is less severe than it was (one could much faster wipe out the smaller number). We had a system with problems. I am attempting to mitigate those problems. I didn't make it easier to damage - or repair - these centers.
What I did is not germane to the issues - if there are any - of wether attacking them with bombers is possible to evaluate well - or not.
el cid again
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RE: Commands

Post by el cid again »

ORIGINAL: Xargun

The Japanese bombing resources ??? Why not ? The allies do it as soon as they can, so why not return the favor - especially in china. A realistic Japanese commander knows he will never capture Chungking, Kweiyang or many of the other interior bases - so why not blast them back to the stone ages. We can't do it anywhere near as good as the allied Heavies can, but if you have doubt ask Oliver about my 140+ Sally raid on the airfield at Chungking and how the chinese air force liked it.. Something like 50 planes killed on the ground - that will take the chinese months to recover - if they have the supply to 'buy' them into air groups.

I have no qualms about bombing resources I know I can't even capture. Now bombing Palembang is just stupid. But hitting India, Interior china or Oz is a legitimate target. And if the allied player doesn't like it, then he shouldn't be allowed to strat bomb you. Trust me, the allied player will be upset, whine and complain.... UNTIL his heavies start flattening you. You can ask Oli about that too.. His Heavies are killing me - and nothing can stop them.

Xargun


Well - I DID propose getting Allied agreement not to do it - because it cannot be simulated in this system properly.
Leaving aside my problems with strategic bombing in any circumstances ( and I have many such problems - ranging from moral to political to economic to operational ) - IF for the sake of discussion one admits it is an option -
there is a difference between bombing what can be bombed - and what cannot IRL. Further - Nemo is reading the technical tea leaves in a way that permits far more leverage from such an attack than is really possible to obtain (or strategic bombing would be hailed as a useful tool instead of an expensive failure). In a way - I PREFER to bomb a mine to bombing a city - not many civilian children live at such a site. On the other hand, I am an engineer, and I cannot imagine a place less susceptable to damage, or more able to rapidly repair it, than a heavy industrial site like a mine, already staffed with engineers and field hands, with heavy equipment and explosives present. There was only ONE uranium mine in German occupied Europe - we often photographed it - but we never bombed it. We could track what they were doing there but not realistically interfere with it. If you bomb a rice field or a forest or a gravel pit there is not going to be a massive cost to restoration of production - no way to shut it down for years without a thousand tons of repair parts invested. But in this case it appears that knowledge of what bombers can do and not is less general than I believed was the case.
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RE: Commands

Post by el cid again »


[quote]ORIGINAL: Nemo121


So, how about a division of resources elsewhere into two sectors:
a) HI, repair shipyards, airplane factories, engine factories, armaments, armour, merchant and naval shipyards... all of which can be bombed to 100% destruction. These sorts of point targets can be almost 100% destroyed if sufficient weight of material is applied



[quote]

There was never any question about this. I think we have a language problem here: I interpret "resources" to mean "resource centers as seen on the WITP map" - not a general description including ANY of the things you describe here. So perhaps the "disagreement" was a great deal less than it seemed to be. IF you meant these sorts of things - I would never have said a thing. I thought "resources' meant "resource centers." While oil is probably a similar thing - it is also full of point targets - wells - pump stations - storage tanks - pipelines - vehicle parks: I do NOT mean to include oil as "resources" either. There is oil in RHS that isn't oil - it is really rubber - and you cannot really kill a rubber plantation with bombers - but these are so tiny I cannot imagine you bombing them - and it hardly matters if you do.


















el cid again
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RE: Commands

Post by el cid again »


[quote]ORIGINAL: Nemo121

As to the "don't do it if you wouldn't do it in real life"... Well, in real life I would try to reduce the Allied ability to stage an invasion force overland into Burma.

REPLY: Applause. Good show.


I can't kill their troops quickly enough to do that BUT I can reduce their ability to generate supplies locally AND force them to bring them in from farther.  As every logistician in history will tell you the farther from ones depot you operate the less power you project with the point of the spear.

REPLY: And I am one of them - I am pleased you know this: more applause.

So, since I can't whittle down the spear point via attrition and win I have decided that the best thing to do is to force the supply depot to be as far away ( either in north-western India or, better yet, Aden) so that I am artificially lengthening the distance to the depot and thus decreasing the strength that can be projected at the spear point.


REPLY: Very similar to how I think: still more applause.

This is the acme of manoeuvrist theory ( defeating the enemy's strength by attacking his weaknesses... in this case the myriad resource=producing areas which are so widespread that the enemy cannot provide sufficient air cover to defend them all.... and most pleasingly to me...


REPLY: The only problem being - even today with B-52s we could not really do this. And I saw us actually try! Seemed stupid at the time - and now historians commenting say 'yep - it could never have worked'. BUT while this isn't realistic in the sense you stated (total shutdown) - nevertheless you are right that significant inefficiencies could be achieved. WITP fails to allow attacks on infrastructure (other than port facilities) - so I can rationalize at least some resource damage as "he took out the bridges needed to move them" (etc).

and one reason I find this approach particularly skillful and, thus, pleasing is that any attempt to defend the resource centres will just result in burning more of the supplies in the areas in which the Allies will soon be scrabbling for every ton of supply...


REPLY: I see you are indeed a great captain. [Intended to be simultaneously humorous and serious]

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RE: Commands

Post by Nemo121 »

Joe,

In a VERY real sense we haven't even begun fighting yet ;). Sad but true [:D]


Sid,
and you cannot really kill a rubber plantation with bombers
Incendiaries +/- biowarfare via the release of pests which attack rubber trees and vectors of said pests.

nevertheless you are right that significant inefficiencies could be achieved
And in WiTP we CANNOT stop all supplies being produced... Aden is a massive source of free supply which we can do nothing about. We can, however, create such inefficiencies in TRANSPORT ( tieing down many dozens of AKs shipping it from Aden to Karachi and then even more inefficiency in transporting it by rail down to south-eastern India) that the bombing can have a major effect. I figure that about 50% of Allied supplies landed at Karachi will be "lost in transport" if it has to be transported overland to south-eastern India. This is a massive victory for us and will pay major dividends until such time as the Allies are able to take Ceylon and close the airfields which prevent the shipping of supply directly to south-eastern India.


As to the practicalities. Once one selects a city attack one gets a readout of ALL of the resource centres within range. We know what resource levels they start with and can measure how much we've destroyed. I can even keep an eye on repair efforts in-game. So, it will be easy to calculate the total resource level and then calculate what 1/3rd of that level is. Once I've damaged the difference I will stop the bombing of resources.



If you signify agreement with this I will post the proposal to the Allied side.



Also, am awaiting feedback on the SAA situation.... I posit that they are army troops and thus their disposition - after the invasion of the Phillipines is up to the IJA in-game... Obviously I'm happy to leave you a significant number of divisions but if we have 2 or 3 divisions earmarked for Hawaii and another 5 for the Phillipines you could end up with more of the SAA than the IJA. I would not have allowed this in real life.

After Hawaii and DEI are cleared up you will be able to aim the 2 to 3 divisions from Hawaii + whatever is left from DEI ( several Brigades) at Port Moresby and Noumea. That should come to about 5 division equivalents and be enough for your operations. I would like to keep most of the divisions from the Phillipines in order to speed up the capture of Burma and allow me to concentrate this whole force for my previously discussed plan for wrapping up China as quickly as possible and opening up that southern railroad ASAP.

The more forces I can commit to this operation the more I will be able to retask my tank units from bolstering the blocking forces to racing into the hinterland to take areas of great significance before they can be reinforced.
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RE: Commands

Post by Kereguelen »

ORIGINAL: Nemo121
nevertheless you are right that significant inefficiencies could be achieved
And in WiTP we CANNOT stop all supplies being produced... Aden is a massive source of free supply which we can do nothing about. We can, however, create such inefficiencies in TRANSPORT ( tieing down many dozens of AKs shipping it from Aden to Karachi and then even more inefficiency in transporting it by rail down to south-eastern India) that the bombing can have a major effect. I figure that about 50% of Allied supplies landed at Karachi will be "lost in transport" if it has to be transported overland to south-eastern India. This is a massive victory for us and will pay major dividends until such time as the Allies are able to take Ceylon and close the airfields which prevent the shipping of supply directly to south-eastern India.

You'll probably loose lots of supplies and shipping enroute to Ceylon yourself if you take it and the Allied side still holds the rest of India (the approaches to Ceylon are a perfect hunting ground for US S-Class subs with their limited range). And you'll have to commit a sizeable part of your airforce to prevent your airfields on Ceylon from being bombed to dust from India (Bangalore and Hyderabad are inland, thus no naval bombardment is possible to suppress their airfields). If your opponents manage to ship some 100,000 supplies from Aden to Bombay/Karachi before you're able to threaten the sealane from Aden, spoilage on the Indian roads should not matter much for them.
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RE: Commands

Post by Nemo121 »

Possibly, possibly not. It'll be interesting to see what happens in-game...
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RE: Commands

Post by jwilkerson »

Joe,

In a VERY real sense we haven't even begun fighting yet ;). Sad but true

I know, I had "tongue in cheek" ... but also kinda nudging to get the "other war" started one day ... uh .. the one against the Allies !!! [:D]
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RE: Commands

Post by Nemo121 »

*Fingers crossed we can start by the beginning ( or end of first week) of next month.*
 
*Fingers crossed twice over that we finish by the time I retire ;) *
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