Mike and I have been friends online for many years and it's finally time to face off in the Pacific. [8D]
He approached me a couple of months ago about starting a game and is happy to have one with a relatively slow pace. Once we get rolling, I'm hoping to get in 3-4 turns/week. He has had his game going with Ted for many years now and is eager to start applying some of his lessons learned to a new game. Despite being an AE Plank Owner, I have very little time and experience with actual games. I've never had a game make it into '43. I'm hoping that lots of reading and learning in the forums will help to make up for some lack of experience.
We're playing stock Scn 1 with the latest official patch. The twist for us that is completely new for Mike and an adjustment for me is that we're going to try 2 day turns. Everything we've read seems to indicate that it slows down the operational pace of both sides a bit as you have to be a little more cautious with your orders. We're hoping 2 day turns will also allow us to make some progress in time in the game despite a slow pace of play. We learned (thanks Alfred!) that there is a new command line switch that the Japanese player can run the game with that will allow switching between 1 and 2 day turns, so we're using only 1 day turn for the first turn, then Mike will switch it to 2 day turns. The first turn will be Non-Historical.
After taking some time to get all his nefarious plans set and for me to get some things behind me with work, Mike sent the first turn yesterday evening. Outside China, I can give orders only to TF's that start the scenario already formed. I'll finish up with that and China orders and hopefully send the turn back to Mike tonight. [8D]
Mike is not sure if he'll write an AAR from his side, simply due to the time involved. I want to write this one as much as I can make time for as I've found in the past that it helps me pay attention to little things from turn to turn that I might otherwise overlook. No guarantees as to how frequently I'll be able to keep up with the AAR, but full, non-spoiler participation from any readers is most welcome. I'm happy to listen to any and all advice and suggestions.
GENERAL QUARTERS! GENERAL QUARTERS! ALL HANDS MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS! SET CONDITION ZEBRA THROUGHOUT THE SHIP!
Hi guys. This is my one and only visit here. I'm pretty excited about this. As Mike said, we've been online friends for many years. A slow game will allow me to keep my game with Ted going easily.
I do want to thank Mike for graciously accepting my offer. (That will probably be the last nice thing I say about him. [;)] [:D])
I'm a bit concerned about 2 day turns. Frankly, it scares the hell out of me. [:D] We will do 1 day turns on occasion when there's a potential R&D issue. It should be pretty infrequent though and only at the end of a month.
I'm tempted to do another AAR. It is time consuming but as Mike said, it does help a lot. And being an empty nester, I do have the time.
Ahh, one last thing:
<Insert mandatory taunting here>
Now lets see if I learned anything from my other game....
signed up.stop. Very curious to watch two day turns unfold.stop. I have thoroughly enjoyed peeking in at Mikes ongoing epic saga. stop.
I hereby promise only to visit other Mikes AAR by accident. stop. As an AFB I look forward to the master of Industry manipulators eventual
demise. stop. Fair winds. stop.
Attachments
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1. Blackhorse’s house rules to enforce "Original Intent" for PP’s to transfer LCU’s:
a. Restricted LCUs may transfer to any on-map Corps, Army or Command HQs (only).
b. HQs may not be reassigned from an unrestricted Command HQ chain-of-command to a restricted Command HQ chain-of-command.
c. Engineer-type units, including base forces, can be assigned to any on-map HQs
d.Thai forces can leave Thailand for any purposes to max 4 hexes from the Thai border. Same for Indian troops within 4 hexes of Indian border.
Edit: After discussion we agreed to remove all other HR's. The game will be played with only this one.
Here's what I'm expecting to see from Mike in our game:
Meticulous planning. [:D]
This is probably no surprise to anyone who has read his AAR's for past games. I'm sure his economy will run very efficiently and it will be very strong well into the late game. Consequently, I expect to run into hordes of late war aircraft and well supplied, dug in troops trying to hold onto their conquests.
I expect him to have a fully detailed timetable for his land, air, and sea forces as they roll over the weakly defended SRA in the early war. He will probably know what his units should be doing in the first, second, and third months of the war.
Mike is not typically a crazy aggressive Japanese player. I don't anticipate any "go for broke" Portland attacks, nor any attempts to capture Pearl Harbor. [:D] One of the biggest joys of the game for him is managing, feeding, growing, and sustaining the Japanese economy and war machine. Any of the extreme strategies we've seen from other players would likely take away the opportunity to have a long war to play with his economy. [:D] Now, I would not rule out any attacks on Australia or India by any means. I will be sure to account for these possibilities in my plans.
Consequently, I intend to play moderately to fairly conservatively for the first months. I don't think mainland India will be in any danger of being totally lost to conquest, but Ceylon is exposed. The available unrestricted forces in the theater will go to Ceylon to defend it early on. US forces will not race to defend Noumea or Lunga early on and risk getting crushed offshore by the KB and a very strong IJN. Nor will I risk them being pushed far forward, only to have supply lines cut and then lose them to an attrition campaign. Early US available forces will methodically defend Hawaii first and expand to defend and build up the island chain to Oz. This means at least some defenders for Palmyra, Canton Island, Johnston Island, as well as a stronger position on Pago Pago and then Suva. From that base of operations, I can expand to Noumea, Lunga, etc. In Oz, I'll make sure the Brisbane/Sydney/Melbourne region is defended first. Then I'll push up the coast toward Port Moresby.
The Darwin area is an exception. Here I want to fight and fight hard if I can. Any refugees from the PI and DEI will retreat to Darwin to defend and build it up. I'll try to push as much supply as I can get into Darwin in the early weeks of the war to hold the region over once the sea lanes become very dangerous. I also expect the two experienced Aussie divisions that arrive from the fighting in Egypt will go here, unless there is a crisis somewhere else by the time they arrive. I was on the winning side of a big fight in this area in a game many years ago and I'd like to deter Mike from invading or prevent him from capturing the area if at all possible.
In Malaya and the DEI I will turtle a bit and look for a chance to get in a good counter punch or two. I'm not going to try to hold any of these parts for long, but I want to disrupt Mike's timetable as much as I can. Slowing him down as much as I can without losing all of my naval forces in the region is my goal. I'll try to guard against a Mersing Gambit while retreating to Singapore and building forts. I think holding out in Singers as long as possible is more effective than trying to fight his troops in the countryside of Malaya. Also, the longer Singapore holds out, the longer I'll possibly be able to keep the Burma Road open. Even the first month or two of BR supplies getting into China can make a big difference in their ability to act as speed bumps. LOL
Since the well oiled machinery of his economy is Mike's baby, I want to hit and hurt his production where ever I can. Oil is of course the weak point. I think if I hurt his oil production, even a little bit, he will react quite strongly to (hopefully over) protect it. Anticipating that his economy will be strong, he should have no trouble producing as many LCU replacements as he needs, as well as hordes of aircraft. The one thing that there is a hard limit on his ability to produce is ships. I'm going to target his ships in every way possible as much as possible. Any xAK that I sink in early '42 will be an enormous amount of resources or supply that can't be moved. I'll especially go hunting for his TK's as much as possible, mainly with my subs early on.
Once I see how well (or poorly) I've been able to slow down his advance and where, I'll start to make offensive plans to take advantage of the game situation as best as I can.
1. Blackhorse’s house rules to enforce "Original Intent" for PP’s to transfer LCU’s:
a. Restricted LCUs may transfer to any on-map Corps, Army or Command HQs (only).
b. HQs may not be reassigned from an unrestricted Command HQ chain-of-command to a restricted Command HQ chain-of-command.
c. Engineer-type units, including base forces, can be assigned to any on-map HQs
d.Thai forces can leave Thailand for any purposes to max 4 hexes from the Thai border. Same for Indian troops within 4 hexes of Indian border.
2. No strategic bombing against targets in China/Manchuria at any time.
3. Stratosphere Sweep... as suggested by TheElf: "Simply: no fighter sweeps higher then the ALT with the second best MVR value" He later states that there is no need to limit CAP "target" or "patrol" altitude for various reasons.
Looking forward to this one!
Interesting HRs.
For the no strat bombing in China, I'm playing with it as Japan, and it kind of skews the game to not have to defend those bases. I think it gives Japan a big advantage (and impetus) in taking all of China and keeping it without any detriment to the economy. Having the extra industry will help a lot in the later stages when China is potentially cut off from Japan.
For the strat sweeps, the 2nd best band rule doesn't really work to solve the dive advantage problem. You'd be much better off simply flying a low layered CAP against high sweeps, and have a full arsenal of options for different airframes during different periods.
I know its takes the "real" feel out of some of the air war, but the 2nd band HR isn't a helper in that regard. It's a pain in the butt to work with and really hampers creative settings for both sides. It didn't help stop high sweeps when I used it, and some IJA planes were monsters late with that rule until the P-47N arrived. The Ki-84r dominates with the 2nd band rule.
Maneuvre bands work well to simulate different capabilities I've found in all stages of the war.
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
1. Blackhorse’s house rules to enforce "Original Intent" for PP’s to transfer LCU’s:
a. Restricted LCUs may transfer to any on-map Corps, Army or Command HQs (only).
b. HQs may not be reassigned from an unrestricted Command HQ chain-of-command to a restricted Command HQ chain-of-command.
c. Engineer-type units, including base forces, can be assigned to any on-map HQs
d.Thai forces can leave Thailand for any purposes to max 4 hexes from the Thai border. Same for Indian troops within 4 hexes of Indian border.
2. No strategic bombing against targets in China/Manchuria at any time.
3. Stratosphere Sweep... as suggested by TheElf: "Simply: no fighter sweeps higher then the ALT with the second best MVR value" He later states that there is no need to limit CAP "target" or "patrol" altitude for various reasons.
Looking forward to this one!
Interesting HRs.
For the no strat bombing in China, I'm playing with it as Japan, and it kind of skews the game to not have to defend those bases. I think it gives Japan a big advantage (and impetus) in taking all of China and keeping it without any detriment to the economy. Having the extra industry will help a lot in the later stages when China is potentially cut off from Japan.
For the strat sweeps, the 2nd best band rule doesn't really work to solve the dive advantage problem. You'd be much better off simply flying a low layered CAP against high sweeps, and have a full arsenal of options for different airframes during different periods.
I know its takes the "real" feel out of some of the air war, but the 2nd band HR isn't a helper in that regard. It's a pain in the butt to work with and really hampers creative settings for both sides. It didn't help stop high sweeps when I used it, and some IJA planes were monsters late with that rule until the P-47N arrived. The Ki-84r dominates with the 2nd band rule.
Maneuvre bands work well to simulate different capabilities I've found in all stages of the war.
Thanks for your observations and experience, Obvert! I've had no first hand experience with the second two HR's fixing any issues. They are in place in our game purely from the general consensus that they are "standard". I'd probably rather dump the 2nd MVR band rule, as I'll likely forget about it at some point with all the orders clicks that are coming my way. [:D] Strategic bombing in China/Manchuria I can take or leave.
I'm not quite finished with my China orders so the turn won't go back to Mike until tonight. It's easy to forget how chaotic China is at the start of the campaign. [:D]
Come turn 2 when I can start issuing orders everywhere, I'll be very glad to have China already in motion.
Mike and I have discussed the HR points that obvert made above and we've decided to streamline our HR's even more. We're dumping #'s 2 and 3, so the only HR will be paying full price PP to buy out units. I'll amend the HR post above.
Hi Mike. I just wanted to say hi. I want to follow your AAR. I don't want to spill any beans on someone inadvertently if I know to much information so I will probably not visit Mike Solli's AAR too often if at all.
After my one try at an email game with you guys in the past I really do not want to try another one. I find them too time consuming. I still keep in touch with you, Mike and Bob Trappaso. I had the pleasure of visiting Bob last summer in Virginia and hope to do so this summer.
I wished Mike well in the game but I will be routing for you[:D]
For what we are about to receive, may we be truly thankful.
Lieutenant Bush - Captain Horatio Hornblower by C S Forester
Hi Mike. I just wanted to say hi. I want to follow your AAR. I don't want to spill any beans on someone inadvertently if I know to much information so I will probably not visit Mike Solli's AAR too often if at all.
After my one try at an email game with you guys in the past I really do not want to try another one. I find them too time consuming. I still keep in touch with you, Mike and Bob Trappaso. I had the pleasure of visiting Bob last summer in Virginia and hope to do so this summer.
I wished Mike well in the game but I will be routing for you[:D]
Hi Bruce! Good to see you around! I haven't seen Bob around these parts in a long time. I didn't even know he had moved to Virginia. Tell him I said Hi the next time you talk!
1. Blackhorse’s house rules to enforce "Original Intent" for PP’s to transfer LCU’s:
a. Restricted LCUs may transfer to any on-map Corps, Army or Command HQs (only).
b. HQs may not be reassigned from an unrestricted Command HQ chain-of-command to a restricted Command HQ chain-of-command.
c. Engineer-type units, including base forces, can be assigned to any on-map HQs
d.Thai forces can leave Thailand for any purposes to max 4 hexes from the Thai border. Same for Indian troops within 4 hexes of Indian border.
2. No strategic bombing against targets in China/Manchuria at any time.
3. Stratosphere Sweep... as suggested by TheElf: "Simply: no fighter sweeps higher then the ALT with the second best MVR value" He later states that there is no need to limit CAP "target" or "patrol" altitude for various reasons.
Looking forward to this one!
Interesting HRs.
For the no strat bombing in China, I'm playing with it as Japan, and it kind of skews the game to not have to defend those bases. I think it gives Japan a big advantage (and impetus) in taking all of China and keeping it without any detriment to the economy. Having the extra industry will help a lot in the later stages when China is potentially cut off from Japan.
For the strat sweeps, the 2nd best band rule doesn't really work to solve the dive advantage problem. You'd be much better off simply flying a low layered CAP against high sweeps, and have a full arsenal of options for different airframes during different periods.
I know its takes the "real" feel out of some of the air war, but the 2nd band HR isn't a helper in that regard. It's a pain in the butt to work with and really hampers creative settings for both sides. It didn't help stop high sweeps when I used it, and some IJA planes were monsters late with that rule until the P-47N arrived. The Ki-84r dominates with the 2nd band rule.
Maneuvre bands work well to simulate different capabilities I've found in all stages of the war.
Thanks for your observations and experience, Obvert! I've had no first hand experience with the second two HR's fixing any issues. They are in place in our game purely from the general consensus that they are "standard". I'd probably rather dump the 2nd MVR band rule, as I'll likely forget about it at some point with all the orders clicks that are coming my way. [:D] Strategic bombing in China/Manchuria I can take or leave.
Cool. Let me know if you need help combating early Japanese high sweeps in 42. They can be tough when their pilot exp is so good and they have the better airframes. A layered CAP seems to get decent results, not putting the early war Allied frames above their best manoeuvre bands. I usually keep them at or below 15k if possible.
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
The turn went back to Mike last night. I'm expecting the carnage to begin sometime today. I swear I heard "Tora! Tora! Tora!" in my dreams last night. [:D]
Good luck and good hunting as you play the Mohammad Ali to his George Foreman the first few rounds. If you want an all out defense of Darwin then I would suggest moving the 18th British Division there, as it is already at sea and you won't have to wait for the Aussie Divisions to show up at Aden later and ship them there. Also ship all the fuel and supplies you can from DEI, there will be enough left for whatever you plan to hold a little while there. You also have some other units afloat, like a Ghurka Bde that you can send somewhere other than India or Burma to hold on, Maybe Palmebang to make him try harder to take it and deny him that oil for awhile or Ceylon and maybe Wyndham. I have never played a game with 2 day turns and the idea frightens me as I have enough problems dealing with life one day at a time. If he doesn't bomb Manila to sink your sun fleet consider using them for mining his bases until the mines run out then use them with their nearly worthless torpedoes. The old S-boats have better torpedoes and the Dutch subs even better. Use them in the more restrictive waters of DEI to hunt the mini-KB. Putting one or two down there with subs really makes anyone nervous. What are you plans for your carriers in the early months of the war?
ORIGINAL: Bif1961
If you want an all out defense of Darwin then I would suggest moving the 18th British Division there, as it is already at sea and you won't have to wait for the Aussie Divisions to show up at Aden later and ship them there. Also ship all the fuel and supplies you can from DEI, there will be enough left for whatever you plan to hold a little while there.
I'm in a game with Mike Solli now. There were a couple of things I did to him early on that were effective. The most effective move was bringing all of the S boats and Dutch subs and placing them north of Darwin and covering the areas south of Lae and Rabaul, to keep him away from Port Moresby. He lost his first carrier in that area in late Jan 42.
Next, I brought the British 18th Div to Perth, then overland to Townsville, and then to PM. He never landed but boy that would have been a surprise [:D]
Finally, after PoW and Repulse were sunk, I made single ship TFs with the destroyers and let them run amok in the South China Sea. Mike hunted most of them down, but not before they trashed several invasion TFs. I delayed his Singapore plans by a couple weeks if I recall correctly.
Mike's a good opponent. This will be a game to watch.
; Julia Child
