ORIGINAL: treespider
ORIGINAL: AW1Steve
What I feel is the limiting factor is not the strategy, the terain or ability, but the limitations of the game engine. THAT I can appreciate and accept. And until I learn to properly mod the editor (and find a PBEM opponent that's willing to let me try out my theory), I'll have to live with it.
Many,many thanks for gold information nuggets! [&o]
I greatly appreciate them, and learned a lot from them. [:)]
What the game engine does not represent well at all is the historical reality that DARWIN was not SYDNEY nor BRISBANE....nor was DARWIN going to be developed into a SYDNEY or BRISBANE in three months like the game engine allows.
The other thing the game engine does not represent well is the millions of tons of supplies that were shipped into Australia to build up the infrastructure at SYDNEY/BRISBANE et al. to support trrops that were stationed there and transited the area.
One of the reasons that the Allies went back through the Solomons and Papua is because the East Coast Australian infrastructure to support the intial moves into those areas was already partially in place. And once there it was easier to continue the momentum from there...rather than shift the momentum 1000 miles to the west from an undeveloped port.
One of the other things that the game engine does not represent well either is the relatively lack of supply spoilage. SYDNEY/BRISBANE et al had the warehousing facilities to accomodate the storage of supplies needed in the coming offensives...DARWIN did not.
Tree I've heard of a lot of limitations , but a "warehouse gap"? [:D] The US had a solution for that...it's called a large quonset hut. They were used for everything from indoor training facilities (Great Lakes had one when I went to Basic in the late 70's...I saw over a thousand recruits exercising in there at once) to warehouses,motor pools and even hangers.
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When I worked in the Museum on Guam we had boxes and boxes of photo's of Guam. Many of them showed this small island of less than 20k and only 200 troops turn into a massive floating ware house that supported the 3rd and 7th fleets,SUBPAC, the 20th and 21st Air Force and over half a million troops. That from a small , mountainous jungle covered island and in less than a few months.
I find it inconceivable that there would be any problem turning large,flat, barren areas of space into large "ware house districts" as was done on Guam, in North Africa and even in the UK .Docks, floating drydocks, various water tenders and support craft could rapidly turn Darwin into a rough , quick , Mega base.....if it had been so desired. I have absolutely no doubt that This could happen if it was considered inportant.
What I was wondering was how to defend Darwin while under attack and build it up till it was capable of defending it's self. And I wondered if it was at all possible to build up a supply route through the outback , overland from Alice Springs (Where the railroad ends, and the base can be built up to a pretty big base itself) through Tennnant Creek and Katherine. Alas , the answer is no. I CAN march troops (very slowly) overland from there. And I can do a "Berlin Airlift/Flying the Hump" type airlift for limited supplies.But that's it.
It appears that the key to holding Darwin and turning it into a mega base is 1st holding Timor. I'll be testing this in my game with "Satisfaction" (yes Andrew, go ahead and read this.....[:D]). Hold those small airbases, and Darwin doesn't come under ESCORTED air attack , so defense is quite possible.
But again , I'd like to thank everyone who responded [&o] , you've been VERY helpfull and given me a great deal to ponder.....and find a way around the limitations. [:D]
