Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[RangerJoe]

It seems to be a tutorial for the Japanese economy, aircraft R & D, and merchant shipping.

[hpalmer]

Felt that my first post needed to be on Mike’s incredible aar. I don’t have the game yet, have been eying it for some time but candidly am a bit intimidated by the level of complexity, that being said, after consuming 120 odd pages of this match, I’m pretty sold. Thanks Mike and I hope you and Ted pick things up again soon. I’d love to see Dutch harbor and Chunking fall to the emperor!

I have a newbie question to ask as well. Why does no one send surface ships in to Pearl Harbor on dec 7? You seemed to have great success with 4 DD task forces doing night runs, would detaching all or most of the DD escorts from KB to do a follow up series of runs into pearl at night contribute anything? Likewise, what about sending in a bombardment fleet to finish things off?

Just curious about how devastating and ahistorical the initial strike(s) could be. I get that house rules/gentlemanly conduct may prohibit this, but just curious if it is even feasible?

[paradigmblue]

ORIGINAL: hpalmer


Just curious about how devastating and ahistorical the initial strike(s) could be. I get that house rules/gentlemanly conduct may prohibit this, but just curious if it is even feasible?

I've had an opponent do a Dec. 7th Pearl naval bombardment - it was devastating. I don't remember exactly how he did it - it used the ships of the KB for the bombardment. I'm not sure if he merged them into another TF with the Dec 7 move bonus and changed the mission to bombard?

In any case, I've never lost so many ships at Pearl before or since.

[RangerJoe]

Mines at Pearl Harbor. If the mines are undetected, your ships will find them. There is also no night turn on the day of the Pearl Harbor raid, just the day am and pm phases. As far as bombardments go, there are PT Boats to send out first and lots of other undamaged or mildly damaged ships as well. Just ask someone who decided to stay around and an undamaged Arizona got into the KB . . .

[inqistor]

ORIGINAL: hpalmer

I have a newbie question to ask as well. Why does no one send surface ships in to Pearl Harbor on dec 7? You seemed to have great success with 4 DD task forces doing night runs, would detaching all or most of the DD escorts from KB to do a follow up series of runs into pearl at night contribute anything? Likewise, what about sending in a bombardment fleet to finish things off?

Just curious about how devastating and ahistorical the initial strike(s) could be. I get that house rules/gentlemanly conduct may prohibit this, but just curious if it is even feasible?

Allies player would have to put something outside, for your raiding TF to engage. It will be PT Boats most of the time, so it is waste of ammo. He might also sortie all undamaged ships in hope to catch KB, so your ships would do better protecting your carriers.
You can try bombarding PH, but there is some killer forts there, with BB grade guns. Anything below your own BB will be probably so hard damaged, that it will not reach friendly port.

Ship loses in initial strike are wildly random, but no matter your settings, you can't achieve historical aircraft loses on the ground (well, maybe if you set all planes to attack airfields).

[hpalmer]

Thanks for the thoughtful responses. Follow-up question, since the scope of this game clearly encourages playing out what if type scenarios, I'm curious about how valuable it would be to capture areas like Hawaii, New Zealand, Fiji, more of australia etc as an early game strategy to deny the allies significant repair and base facilities? Would the allies have a difficult time switching to the offensive in 42/43 without Pearl Harbor as a base? Has anyone attempted something like this and what would be the benefit from an "outside - in" strategy of taking the perimeter and then clearing the Phillipines and New Guinea etc afterwards?

Overall, just interested in the pros and cons of really ahistorical moves by the Japanese which could prevent the allies having a foothold to launch their counterattacks. Is it even possible to seize Hawaii and would the US have much difficulty recapturing it?

[Yaab]

Well, search the AAR forum for an old game between PzB74 and AndyMac. PzB74 (Jap) occupied the Line Islands (south of Pearl Harbor), and AFAIR, and they were a tough nut to crack

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.a ... ge=20&key=

[Cheesesteak]

There was the time PH was capped (intent being to take Portland), and then an invasion of SoCal was attempted. There's also a recent example of just how difficult PH is to take (BTS Mod).

[rustysi]

Mike hasn't logged in for over a year. Anyone have any news?

[USSAmerica]

No word from him to me, either. Our game has been frozen since last July. [:(]

[Q-Ball]

Why don't you guys try his work e-mail:

Contact: Michael Solli, 614/692-6623, michael.solli.ctr@dla.mil

I remembered he works for the Defense Logistics Agency in Columbus (I am a Govt Contractor), and it's easy to find his contact info

His e-mail indicates "Contractor", so not sure if it's active, but that would be a clue

[Lowpe]

I thought he was very close to retirement?

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I thought he was very close to retirement?

If I recall correctly, he was military and close to retirement, then he retired and was hired as a contractor.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Why don't you guys try his work e-mail:

Contact: Michael Solli, 614/692-6623, michael.solli.ctr@dla.mil

I remembered he works for the Defense Logistics Agency in Columbus (I am a Govt Contractor), and it's easy to find his contact info

His e-mail indicates "Contractor", so not sure if it's active, but that would be a clue

If he is working for Defence Logistics, he could have got caught up in all the emergency building of overflow hospital space around the country. I.E. life got busy.

[rustysi]

then he retired and was hired as a contractor.

Yeah, they tried that with me... I said no.[:D]

[rustysi]

I.E. life got busy.

And that happened with him from time to time, but he always let us know.

[rustysi]

Just to be clear here, my concern is not whether he continues this AAR. I'm wondering how he is.[:(]

[rustysi]

ORIGINAL: USSAmerica

No word from him to me, either. Our game has been frozen since last July. [:(]

I thought you guys had started a game.

I'm beginning to get bad thoughts.[:(]

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

Just to be clear here, my concern is not whether he continues this AAR. I'm wondering how he is.[:(]

+1. Does anyone have other contact information other than his e-mail? He is about to turn 60 according to his profile.

[Mike Solli]

Hi guys. Just caught up on what everyone talked about on this AAR. I'm fine. Short recap...

I'm fine and have been for the year I've been away. No, I didn't deploy. I retired from the Army in 2014. I had been a contractor for DLA for about 5 months then got picked up by them. The email and phone number posted by Q-ball was my contractor info. It changed when I became a DLA employee. Yep, I'm 60 and retiring at the end of this year, which brings me to what caused me to fall off the map.

Our intent is to sell the house and buy something smaller. Been working on a lot of things to get the house ready to sell. Replaced flooring (I'll never do that again!) and carpeting (just moved everything so someone else could do it) in the house. Painted the outside trim, including replacing any boards that needed it. Cleared about a quarter acre of brush, filled in a pond in the middle of it. Graded it all and just planted grass last week. Finally done with all that stuff. Now, we're waiting until early spring to sell the house.

About this game. Ted has disappeared. I've tried several times to contact him, at both his work and personal emails (most recently today). No response at all. I am concerned for him. If he doesn't reply, then this game is done. That's too bad.

I did have a game going with USSAmerica, Mike. We had tried a 2 day per turn game. I wasn't thrilled about it but saw the reason why Mike wanted to do it this way and decided to give it a shot. To be honest, I really don't like playing multiple days per turn. I'm not sure I can continue it. I'll talk to Mike about it. Unfortunately, it's just not fun. I know that when the Allies go on the offensive, they'll have the same issues as the Japanese player does at the beginning of the war, but it caused a LOT of frustration for me.

So, with the majority of the house chores completed, I now have free time again. Unless Ted materializes, this game is unfortunately done. I'm going to just catch up in the forum and see what happens. The only thing I did with AE since disappearing was to occasionally open up one of the games, look at it briefly, and close it again. Time to relearn it, again. I guess I should check to see if there are any new patches.

Finally, I appreciate all the concern everyone showed while I was gone. It's amazing how kind people are to others they've never met.