Alphabet Command - Evoken & Paradigm (A) vs AndyMac (J)

[paradigmblue]

I've started a 3rd PBEM game, this time as part of a co-op team playing as the allies alongside Evoken.

I call this game "Alphabet Command", due to the different forces I control - Australia, Britain, Canada, France, India, Netherlands and New Zealand. Kind of an ABDA on steroids, without the first A. Evoken on the other hand controls U.S. forces and those of China.

Our opponent, Guctony, is a WitP veteran, and his first turn moves showcase what an experienced player can do with the Japanese OOB in Focus Pacific. It's not every day that you see a first turn invasion of Hawaii!

One thing is for sure, Evoken and I have our work cut out for us and then some.

Alphabet Command - December 7th, 1941 Part 2 - Aftermath of Infamy

[Bif1961]

Will be following this closely as he seems to have evil designs on HI. With that in mind, you can take the 4 American carriers and move them to Johnstone Island then to Palmyra. the reason for this is to be able to strike him when he goes back and forth from Kona. He will be using Kona to replenish his bombardment TF and if the KB stays north or west of PH you will have a window to sneak up on him from the south and attack any shipping coming and going from Kona. You might want to consider putting a hyper CAP on TF-Z and run them into his east coast of Malaya invasion. The CAP might be able to destroy many of his unescorted long range naval bombers from Indochina and your surface forces might be able to break into the hen house and scramble his TFs there and disrupt his time table.AT PI you might want to run all your PTs against his KB and you might get lucky if not against his invasion fleet at Vigan. use mines on your subs at Manila and mine Vigan and other likely invasion sites in the area and choke points, you mines work better than your MK-14 torpedoes. For your thundering herd seeking to escape from Manila and Hong Kong, try using separate ship TFs, that will cause him to expend his naval air assets against many single ship TFs instead of a few large fleeing TFs, that way some should be able to run the gauntlet and escape.


Good Luck, you will need it.

[paradigmblue]

Sadly, our game has come to a halt, as our opponent and my partner had an unreconcilable disagreement about a scenario change.

In the scenario, the Ki-85 heavy bomber (the army version of the Liz in Focus Pacific) had an armor rating of 2, which was in error. It should have been an armor rating of 1 instead, to match the allies 4E bombers. Evoken wanted to make the correction to the scenario, but Guctony was adamant about not making the correction. Due to the disagreement, Guctony decided not to continue the game. I understand both of their points - Evoken was correct that an armor 2 heavy bomber could be potentially game-breaking, and I also understand Guctony's reluctance to change the scenario after the game had started.

In any case, Evoken and I are now looking for a replacement Japanese player. Please let us know if you're interested - we'd love to keep the game going. Whoever takes over for Guctony will inherit an incredibly strong position for this early in the war, with minimal losses taken and very heavy losses inflicted on the allies.

If you've ever wanted to play an incredibly buffed Japan that has successfully taken the big island of Hawaii in the first week of the war, this is your chance.

[Bif1961]

The Liz was a failed attempt at the Japanese converting an American airline into a bomber, it was so bad even the Japanese decided not to build it and they sorely needed a long range strategic bomber. To end a game on such a minor point about a plane which was a total failure seems ridiculuous.

[paradigmblue]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

The Liz was a failed attempt at the Japanese converting an American airline into a bomber, it was so bad even the Japanese decided not to build it and they sorely needed a long range strategic bomber. To end a game on such a minor point about a plane which was a total failure seems ridiculuous.

Unfortunately, tempers ran high. By the end of the argument, I don't really think it was about the bomber as it was about two different ways of looking at the scenario. For Guctony, it was immutable, set in stone, and I think he felt that any change to it was tantamount to cheating. For Evoken (and I) who both muck around in the editor, balance changes are something that can be discussed, especially in an alt-history scenario like Focus Pacific.

I'm still bummed about it ending up this way, but I'm still holding out hope that a JFB may step in and continue to kick our asses!

[Bif1961]

I hope you find someone to pick up the game and continue on. It is a fantasy scenario based on alternate reality which no one could afford because the the great depression slashed budgets globally and the first cut and the deepest where the military budgets.

[paradigmblue]

There may be light at the end of this tunnel - forum vet and AI developer AndyMac may be taking on the role of Japanese commander. Fingers crossed!

[Bif1961]

I see Andy Mac has risen to the challenge. Good luck and I hope a very long and interesting learning experience for one and all.

[paradigmblue]

Thank you!

[Nomad]

Can you tell me which version/scenario you are playing? There seems to be multiple versions/scenarios available.

[Evoken]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i_o9Zn ... sp=sharing here is the scenario we are playing , i think paradigmblue didnt update the mod with this scenario yet but this is the one we are playing with. Allies are toned quite a bit in this version compared to original one

[paradigmblue]

As Evoken mentioned, this is an "in-house" version of Focus Pacific that I've continued to maintain. It's similar to the official versions, but with significant additions to the Japanese OOB, which makes them downright terrifying in 1941-1942, especially once Japan empties out Manchuko down to the 8,000 AV limit.