Taming the Bear - Rader (J) vs. jzanes (A). A jzanes-free zone.

[rader]

I would define allied victory as Japan's cities in ruins. I was hoping to avoid that until early 1946 when the western allies conquered air bases in short range of Japan. But because of the Manchuria thing, it's going to happen in a matter of game weeks.

[SoliInvictus202]

ORIGINAL: rader
I could still occupy the entire Pacific (other than India and Australi whcih have significant HI), I could control the Solomons, Noumea, Pago Pago, Peal Harbor, etc, and none of that would make a fig of difference - Japan would be just as dead. That dosen't seem right to me.

why not just accept that the game engine is simply not flexible enough to account for such a possibility? - I doubt that the designers thought of the option that Japan might conquer India, Australia and Pearl Harbor and maybe land on the West Coast!....same with ground bombing of B-29s... same with other things that are so way off of any possible point of reference, that nobody would be able to model a game for it...

[rader]

It's probably because I'm a game designer [:D]

I look at all games as works in progress that can and should be constantly improved. Luckily some of the designers also feel that way about this game and are constaly releasing new patches. I looke at the ground bombing things as something that was overlooked much like the nuclear artillery thing early in the game. The game has always cried out for political rules, as demonstrated by the incomplete addition of the command system (with restricted commands, etc.), and by the fact that most everyone house rules the boundary thing with moving restricted units between China and Manchuria. I think it was originally envisioned to do something more than just have some units restricted so tehy can't board transport...

I'm point these issues out because I would like to see the game improve based on feedback of us "playtesters".

[SoliInvictus202]

ORIGINAL: rader

It's probably because I'm a game designer [:D]

I look at all games as works in progress that can and should be constantly improved. Luckily some of the designers also feel that way about this game and are constaly releasing new patches. I looke at the ground bombing things as something that was overlooked much like the nuclear artillery thing early in the game. The game has always cried out for political rules, as demonstrated by the incomplete addition of the command system (with restricted commands, etc.), and by the fact that most everyone house rules the boundary thing with moving restricted units between China and Manchuria. I think it was originally envisioned to do something more than just have some units restricted so tehy can't board transport...

I'm point these issues out because I would like to see the game improve based on feedback of us "playtesters".

I quite agree - I would also like to see some issues ruled out - but as mentioned several times on this forum, the "development" of this game was halted about 2 years ago or so... just one designer and one person that works on the AI scripts keep giving awesome support and keeps working on the game... - all others seem to have left...

which is exactly the reason why I can't stand all these reoccurring comments of "everything is as it should be - it's your fault because you don't know better" - and if this doesn't work.. "oh - great that you're so bright and we're so dumb"... the person in question knows that he was addressed.... (although I doubt that he reads this as he no doubt has green buttoned you, rader, and me - which I personally consider a great honour!

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: darbymcd
my guess is that you are on track for a minor victory at very least. What is the VP ratio?

+1

Which, as many have seen (most IJ players give up in late '43 as they won't even achieve this) is EXTREMELY difficult to do. Congrats on what looks to be a GOOD game.

[obvert]

It's mid-45 and teh KB is still afloat. This in itself is a minor victory! You must have some good amounts of HI stored to carry you through until 46, right?

What if you brought the entire airforce back toward and onto the Home Islands? You must be able to take some chunks out of those 4E raids.

[rader]

ORIGINAL: obvert

It's mid-45 and teh KB is still afloat. This in itself is a minor victory! You must have some good amounts of HI stored to carry you through until 46, right?

What if you brought the entire airforce back toward and onto the Home Islands? You must be able to take some chunks out of those 4E raids.

That's what I'm doing. In fact, I'm trying to get everything, everywhere, back to the home islands for the final stand. I probably do have enough HI stockpiled to last (especially since very soon I won't have any industry to spend it on). Problem is I don't have fuel to run the fleet, nor do I have enough troops, airframes, engineers, AV support, or supplies. I don't have high hopes that the final stand will last very long. In a month or two, he gets around 200 4Es a month, plus tons of fighters. He'll get more and better jets than me. He can probably bomb away the Japanese army from Korea before even bothering to land.

But I'll try to make a fight of it, and report it if it gets interesting. Banzai!

[rader]

Here's the scorecard.

[CaptBeefheart]

Rader: Are you forced to watch the replay in PBEM? I turned combat replay off years ago and haven't looked back.

Cheers,
CC

[rader]

ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

Rader: Are you forced to watch the replay in PBEM? I turned combat replay off years ago and haven't looked back.

Cheers,
CC

Yes, this is the bane of my existence. If it wasn't for this, I would feel much better about finishing the game. Talk about a waste of real time in 1945 when the whole replay is 30 minutes+ of allied bombing... I didn't know you could turn it off!! How do you manage this? Just in the menu?

[CaptBeefheart]

I'm at work, but it's in preferences or options or somesuch in the upper left. Turn "combat replay" to off and all messages to the minimum interval.

You'll miss some intel no doubt, but even when I played Downfall I was skipping the combat reports they were so long. I would check air losses and ships sunk for unusual activity before wading into the combat report.

EDIT: I may be wrong about this. Thinking about it some more, there's no way to get around seeing what happens in the turn, which is I guess the "replay"--but you can minimize the messages and delays and turn combat animations off. I always do something else while the turn processes, including firing up a World of Tanks battle.

Anyway, back to work.

Cheers,
CC

[krupp_88mm]

i think you should get victory points for declaring war on Russia, weather such an action would have changed the course of the war is hard to know you could assign a probability to it, my guesstimate is it would increase the chance of russian surrender / sue for peace / leadership change or weakling their military enough to end the war by about 5-10%especially considering how far you penetrated into mongolia ect, they would of started sweating over bombing thier industries and sent reinforcements, hypothetically preventing a buildup and attack against Stalingrad.. then again maybe it wouldn't.

anyway you should get more victory points for doing more to the war effort of your axis partners in a critical theater

[rader]

By that logic, you should get victory points for releasing allied emergency reinforcements.. or rather these should be optional to the player receiving them at a VP cost. Not a bad idea. After all, these are being drawn away from Germany.

[desicat]

Anything other than hitting the Home Islands in 44-45 by the Allies is a waste of effort. Any Japanese forces in Burma, India, the PI, Oz, and Cent Pac are just sitting in self guarding POW camps. If the KB is preserved past late 43 it has outlived it effective combat usefulness and can no longer survive even a favorable CV battle.

The Japanese knew this at Leyte Gulf, that is why their CV's were thrown away as a diversion for the surface battle fleet....the Japanese knew the only way to stop the Allies was by making the price to take the HI's too high to pay in terms of casualties.

An Allied player, no matter how much ground they have lost, can adopt your plan to hit the Kuriles or Bonine Islands in 44 and begin the conquest of Japan from there.

The game is limited without a political element. Maybe the Allied player should have to designate timelines to reclaim say 5 certain important cities or geographic points from say a predetermined pool of 10 prior to beginning the game, this would put the rest of the map back in play and force some time pressure on the Allied player. This would be easy to do before an email match, the dates and points for capture could be mutually established in house rules....interesting to contemplate.

[rader]

Amazingly enough, we decided to have a pretty good turn in the air today...

[Erkki]

Wow! Let me guess, P-51D escorted raid of B-29s flew into CAP-trap of Ki-83s and J2M3s with some Geckos in the mix?

[rader]

I think the P-51s were on sweep, but other than that, correct.

It was over Tsitsihar in Manchuria. Decided to try to oppose the ground bombing. Some of the fighters have been redeployed from the South to meet this threat.

[PaxMondo]

rader, nice to see you updating this AAR ...

[obvert]

Amazingly enough, we decided to have a pretty good turn in the air today...

It wouldn't take more than one day a week like this to throw off the bombing plan quite a bit. Any of the other late war fighters coming to bolster the forces?

[rader]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Amazingly enough, we decided to have a pretty good turn in the air today...

It wouldn't take more than one day a week like this to throw off the bombing plan quite a bit. Any of the other late war fighters coming to bolster the forces?

Well, problem is that he soon gets over 250 4Es a month I doubt I could do this once a week. But we'll certainly try.

I should get a few Ki-202s and Ki-201s (rocket planes and jets) at some point, although I didn't make them a high priority early and R&D isn't that far advanced. Probably by Nov 1945 if I'm still alive. But that month he gets allied jets too, and tehy are better. I've realocated all available aircraft production to focus on the Frak for the army (with some Ki-83s, but they are engine hogs), and the J7 Shinden for the navy (maximizing production of these with the available Ha-43s).