Here come the Rebels! (Canoe v. Q-Ball)

[Canoerebel]

Cribtop, good idea. In fact, Feint 3 might end up being Feint 1.

[Smeulders]

I think that feint will prove to be very valuable. You're building quite a reputation with these sorts of things, so if you're springing into action all across the globe while staying suspiciously calm around the Indian Ocean might get you into trouble once the real invasion comes.

[Canoerebel]

That's a good point, too, Smeulders.

Also, if Brad happened to luck up on just one SigInt report of a major American unit prepping for a port in Sumatra, all of my efforts are for naught. It's unlikely he would receive such a report, but I suppose it isn't 100% impossible...and I've had troops prepping in Oz and America since around December 7, 1941.

On a separate note, I had hoped the increase in activity in the game - especially the Allied invasion of Wake - would stir my opponent to renewed interest in the game. But the turns are coming more irregularly now, and as usual Brad remains totally non-communicative.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

That's a good point, too, Smeulders.

Also, if Brad happened to luck up on just one SigInt report of a major American unit prepping for a port in Sumatra, all of my efforts are for naught. It's unlikely he would receive such a report, but I suppose it isn't 100% impossible...and I've had troops prepping in Oz and America since around December 7, 1941.

On a separate note, I had hoped the increase in activity in the game - especially the Allied invasion of Wake - would stir my opponent to renewed interest in the game. But the turns are coming more irregularly now, and as usual Brad remains totally non-communicative.

I've been steadily reading his WitR AAR and learning tons about how that game works. I think turns may be irregular due to blizzard conditions at his house.

[Canoerebel]

If he's treating his wife like he treats me, I'll bet he's encountered some blizzard conditions at home!

[:)][:(][:-]

[BletchleyGeek]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

If he's treating his wife like he treats me, I'll bet he's encountered some blizzard conditions at home!

[:)][:(][:-]

He's doing an excellent job there in Russia. If he's able to knock out the Soviet Union perhaps he'll be asking for a restart on your game

[JeffroK]

Nah, I think he will be for an interesting Winter.

At least his show in India should have given him practice at having his Army smashed.

[d0mbo]

ORIGINAL: JeffK

Nah, I think he will be for an interesting Winter.

At least his show in India should have given him practice at having his Army smashed.

ORIGINAL: Bletchley_Geek

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

If he's treating his wife like he treats me, I'll bet he's encountered some blizzard conditions at home!

[:)][:(][:-]

He's doing an excellent job there in Russia. If he's able to knock out the Soviet Union perhaps he'll be asking for a restart on your game

Are you guys talking about the Game That Shall Not Be Mentioned In The AE Forums??? [:D]

[yubari]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

That's a good point, too, Smeulders.

Also, if Brad happened to luck up on just one SigInt report of a major American unit prepping for a port in Sumatra, all of my efforts are for naught. It's unlikely he would receive such a report, but I suppose it isn't 100% impossible...and I've had troops prepping in Oz and America since around December 7, 1941.

On a separate note, I had hoped the increase in activity in the game - especially the Allied invasion of Wake - would stir my opponent to renewed interest in the game. But the turns are coming more irregularly now, and as usual Brad remains totally non-communicative.

I am now in February 1943 playing as the Japanese and have never seen anything like this. The most that the Japanese ever see is reports of radio transmissions at certain bases, or more rarely radio receptions of ships at sea.

[JeffroK]

ORIGINAL: d0mbo

ORIGINAL: JeffK

Nah, I think he will be for an interesting Winter.

At least his show in India should have given him practice at having his Army smashed.

ORIGINAL: Bletchley_Geek

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

If he's treating his wife like he treats me, I'll bet he's encountered some blizzard conditions at home!

[:)][:(][:-]

He's doing an excellent job there in Russia. If he's able to knock out the Soviet Union perhaps he'll be asking for a restart on your game

Are you guys talking about the Game That Shall Not Be Mentioned In The AE Forums??? [:D]

If AE cant take some comments about the "New kid in the block" it is indeed in trouble.

[princep01]

No turn since 2/16? I see Q-Ball busily commenting on WitE. It is a shame this game got dropped after so much effort. I'm sure Q-Ball will not suffer from want of an opponent, but that opponent will never be me.

Canoe, I did not like your game strategy and commented from time to time to that effect. However, you were very true to the strategy and it seems to have worked, even if it worked against an opponent that became disinterested at the critical moment. I really thought he had a chance for a 4-1 by waiting until the 4th quarter of 42 to launch multiple offensives against key point garnering locales. First, I thought he would really make a big effort in India to isolate and take Bombay, then move north if he could. The idea was to grab as many point cities as possible and hold as many as possible until January 1 43. Your build up would have stopped the drive north, but, with naval help, he probably could have worn Bombay down. Second, I expected simulataneous moves against Midway and maybe New Zealand/Taihti/other places he had not taken. Midway would have been dangerous w/o KB there to counter possible PacFleet intervention. Third, all the moves other than Bombay were to draw your CVs into play. A victory against the CVs and he may have gotten his 4-1.

HAving never read his AAR, I do not know his intentions other than the obvious move against India as the locus for grabbing a 4-1.

You did a really good job in force conservation and redeploying to India. As his interest waned however, the Allied offensive has taken on the look of Russian sailors crushing the skulls of baby seals on Arctic ice. Do you look like a Russian sailor or clubber of baby seals:)?

Were I you, I would not beg for turns or send any sort of recriminating note....simply send an e-mail that says GAME OVER and start a new one. Good luck in whatever you do. It has been a pleasure to read your AAR. You really did a good job of telling us your intentions and creating a open atmosphere for discussing the game and its issues.

Many thanks.

[desicat]

PrinceP01 - I disagree, CR has too much time and energy invested to just call it off. The invasion of Sumatra has been almost two years in the planning and I for one would like to see it.

[Canoerebel]

12/1/42 and 12/2/42

India: Intel reports 1st IJA Division at Calcutta. I don't know where it came from, as for the past few weeks recon has shown just 3k IJ troops there, and recon was always reporting little stuff like AA or engineers. Well, I have about 1500 AV crossing into Calcutta tomorrow. They aren't prepped for that target, so they'll take some lumps. But I don't mind having a plump target to beat up on for awhile. (1st Div. was treated roughly as it withdrew down the coast road to Bombay about six weeks ago). Still no supplies at Madras or Trivandrum, which is hampering my recon efforts a bit.

Wake Island: Quiet at the moment. I may try another diliberate attack in a day or two, trying for that elusive and most unlikely inside straight.

Oz: Allied carriers are due south of Tasmania, moving west. Transports are about to arrive at the port SE of Perth (Esperance?) to load the Exmouth invasion force. Still quiet up at Daly Waters.

[Canoerebel]

12/3/42

Calcutta: About 1600 AV cross the river and assault the IJ garrison at Calcutta, which includes a nearly full-strength 1st Division. To my pleasant surprise, the attack comes off at 1:1, drops forts to two, and inflicts about equal casualties. The combat report shows that the IJ division got a "minus" for mode, so apparently Brad didn't reset to combat. I'm really not sure what this division is doing here, since it will be exposed to nonstop attacks from the air. Calcutta is a major urban hex, so taking it won't be easy, but it's days as an IJ base are numbered.

Wake: The Allied units here are short of supply, but have recovered disruption and fatigue. I'll try a near-hopeless deliberate attack tomorrow. The Hiryu/Junyo TF showed up and finished off xAK California, which had taken damage from mines at Wake.

Oz: Allied troops are buzzing all around Daly Waters, trying to isolate the hex. If I succeed, I may move part of my army on to Katherine, to see if I can accomplish the same thing. I might as well see what I can get away with while Brad doesn't seem to be paying attention around these parts. Down south, I think D-Day for the Exmouth invasion might be less than two weeks. I need to use my carrier for protection from the big IJ airbases at Corunna Downs and Port Headland, but I don't mean for this to be a major operation. I'll post picket ships to the north to warn of any approach by IJ carriers.

[Canoerebel]

12/4/42

Wake Island: S-31 took out a Japanese AK carrying troops, but the rest of the convoy made it to the island and unloaded part of an SNLF. The following Allied deliberate attack came off at 1:3, knocked out a fair number of IJ troops, but did really bad things to the American units. Thus endenth the Wake Island campaign for all intents and purposes.

Oz: Still no signs of IJ activity around Daly Waters/Katherine.

India: The Allies are having great difficulty in getting supplies forward to Madras and Trivandrum. I've reajusted supply draw buttons to try to "entice" some to reach these bases. I need supply at Trivandrum to permit air recon of North Male Island. If it's vacant, I can take it by para-assault. That, in turn, will permit the Allies to recon Addu Atoll for a similar operation (or invasion if necessary). I also need North Male before I will load troops aboard transports for Ceylon.

[JeffroK]

Maybe in your next mail with QBall you could ask about WITE.

I think he has some problems with the Russians at the moment[:D]

[Canoerebel]

I just read part of Q-Ball's WitE AAR. Sounds like he was doing very well but is now getting chewed up by severe winter conditions. He's done very well, and it may be that winter conditions are too severe in the game and need tweaking.

I thought about preparing a new graphic in keeping with the "Home Alone" and "Somwhere in Time" graphics I did previously (to illustrate the fact that Brad left me behind when he went off to WitE land). I could use Colonel Klink threatening to send Schultz to the Russian front, or the Monty Python sketch "not much fun in Stalingrad," but I don't think they would come across as humorous at the moment. I'm sure Brad is pulling out his hair dealing with his situation, so I don't want to do something that might come across as taunting him.

But he has once again disppeared from view in this game.

[Bullwinkle58]

Been reading several AARs over there and that first winter's blizzards are certainly being gamed already. GG has a perennial problem in his games, same thing we see here with pre-set Allied production. Too close adherence to history and the game enters a different kind of twilight zone where the history is pre-known and gamed. Don't do the history, especially when it's critical to the historical record as that first winter was to slowing the Germans, and the history fan-boys howl.

I thiink for WitE to have long-term legs a random weather model is needed as an option. Else after a few games the thing is on rails. As I said, already players are doing very non-historic things weeks in advance because they know the blizzards are coming and how hard. The Nazis had no such Tarot cards.

Imagine the feelings here if "Halsey's Typhoon" were programmed into the EXE and the Allied player was going to lose X destroyers on that pre-determined date. And if the Allied player knew that, every game, on December 7th, as did the Japanese. Where, what, how much. Yuck.

[Canoerebel]

Yeah, if a game models historical forces and capabilities very closely, but if one side is able to avoid major strategic or tactical mistakes, but the other isn't, you may have some serious play balance problems. It sounds like the Russian side in WitE can avoid the uber mistakes made by Russia in 1941, but that Germany can't avoid the uber effects of the winter blizzards...so that German will start the 1942 offensive in much worse shape than it did historically.

Fortunately, this being a Matrix product, the designers are probably all over it making tweaks to iron out problems like this. But how much can they do?

[witpqs]

In addition to that being a Russian winter, the bigger problem was the lack of preparation on the part of the German forces. Should that be modeled, as I'm sure it is? I think it's a critical part of the whole deal so it has to be factored in. Heck, even a year later in Stalingrad they had warm weather uniforms! From what I've read, that first winter of the German invasion of the SU was not at all unusually severe. The problem for the Germans was that preparations were based on the political assessment that the war would already be decided by then.