I don't want to sidetrack this AAR too much, but properly addressing steroid and HGH use throughout the game would bring future linemen down in size.
(and yeah rugby has a serious doping problem as well...)
The NFL has pretty good programs for detection, but colleges less, and HS not really at all. The problem is in the HSes. It's not uncommon now for colleges to begin to recruit in 8th grade. My stepdaughter went to a Div 1 school on an athletic scholarship and they first contacted her in 10th grade, a decade ago. I have a friend whose son in 8th was visited by a recruiter for basketball.
To play in the NFL most guys start in elementary school. The weight training is 100% better than twenty years ago. There are the summer camps, the off-season conditioning, the club teams. My HS had three football coaches and all were full-time PE teachers. One big-time HS program near us has a staff of 11, including full-time weight coaches, indoor practice facility on Astroturf, whirlpools, massages, nutritionists, etc. Stuff most colleges didn't have in 1980.
All of this combines to get the NFL to a place the game and its rules were never designed to go. Just as the NBA outgrew Dr. Naismith's basket height a long time ago, so has the NFL outgrown a 100yd field and the current line of scrimmage rules. When I was a kid a big offensive lineman was 275. We have linebackers at that now. Dick Butkus went to the Hall of Fame playing at 245. The NFL is in nutso land now and I find myself less and less interested every year.
Raise your hand if you think the NFL will be around for a good long while. [;)]
The "cheerleaders" (snort) are interesting, sure, but watch a Fox broadcast now. Every time they do a pan down the row a corporate logo will fill 80% of the screen covering up the view of the women. Compare to the shots from the 90s. The money won.
Yes, he was very good in that movie. He was also very good in one of the "I Love Lucy" episodes. Lucy has a big crush on him, but does something embarrassing and mortifying. Then Ricky invited Holden to the apartment, so Lucy disguises herself using modeling clay (which ends up melting).
"Rats set fire to Mr. Cooper’s store in Fort Valley. No damage done." Columbus (Ga) Enquirer-Sun, October 2, 1880.
Yes, he was very good in that movie. He was also very good in one of the "I Love Lucy" episodes. Lucy has a big crush on him, but does something embarrassing and mortifying. Then Ricky invited Holden to the apartment, so Lucy disguises herself using modeling clay (which ends up melting).
OK, that's not in the attic. [:)]
Holden was huge, and then he seemed to just fade away. Sort of like Gary Cooper. Don't know if it was age, drinking, or something else, but the studio system was about as relentless as the media-driven life spans we see today in movie stars.
Yeah, when they want more money than the box-office draw of the day, their acting days are limited.
Lots of competition to be idol-of-the-month, or back then, idol-of-the-decade.
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
Mike's work schedule is needing lots of odd hours and overtime right now, so turns are a bit in fits and starts. We got one in today before we lost our power for several hours here. Over three inches of rain and 60+ MPH gusts. The summer that never was goes on in the northern plains.
1) June 1 opens hundreds of upgrades to the Allies, especially merchants finally getting some AA. About 75 ships go in on this first day. Two USN CVs as well. The 1942 upgrades are important for them, and I don't see a lot of need in the next few weeks for their services. If SNAGGLEPUSS goes it won't need them for sure.
2) S-36 sinks one of two PBs on ASW patrol near Donggala.
3) Night bombing fails everywhere. Bangkok is visited at 2000ft. and 5 of 6 B-25C are damaged. Day strat bombing is better as Medan loses 5 Oil, and Kweiyang's industry continues to burn with 11 Manpower hits and 8505 Fires. I have gone there many, many times now, and still there is no CAP. Yet there are large sweeps over bases with no Allied opposition day after day.
4) There is a lot of bombing all over the map by Japan amounting to the usual results. The Big Stack is hit pretty hard. Looking at the hexsides there (I am no expert on this part of the game to be sure) it seems my attempt to open one to the west has failed with the destruction of the lone Chinese corps yesterday. The BS is moving into the conflict hex with no retreat route. This will probably result in utter disaster, but they will at least severely damage the huge stack on the road east of Paoshan. There are only two LCU in Tsuyung, and I could march the BS to the city, but the 25-stack on the road could get there as fast and then there would be a city battle with the BS still having no retreat options. Better to forge ahead and see what happens.
5) Allies bombard at Bataan again. Two subs leave Soerbaja with a trickle of supply. More are inbound. All I want to do in the PI is hold the Japanese for a little while longer. Out of Java, out of Rabaul.
1) Seven night strat bombing missions see one succeed. Kunming sees 1 Manpower hit for 320 Fires.
2) Day strat bombing shows 5 Oil hits at Djambi. At Kweiyang the industry continues to burn with 8 hits and 3166 Fires.
3) Sweep of Singers by P-38s finds 17 Nicks and a bunch of Rufes. Two downed for each side.
4) Lots of inconsequential sweeping and troop bombing all over the map.
5) The Big Stack might be catching a break. A movement dot on the IJA uber-stack in the conflict hex points back into Tsuyung. No way to know if it's partial, if he's moving his arty home, or what. Maybe he thought I'd stop once I saw what was in the uber-. If it moves out of the way I'm very happy. I'll keep going west. If it's partial then every LCU not there is good for China. Still weeks to go to see.
I just don't know what's going on here. Japan has largely gone to sleep, with key objectives untaken. I can't press hard yet, but I'm building in places which will allow some serious pressing later this year. Has he given up on taking PBang? My subs see almost no TFs in key choke points. Even the early heavy traffic in the Sea of Japan has largely dried up. Am I missing them, or is fuel starvation a concern? Why is there no effort to defend the few industrial targets reachable from Burma?
An aside: Mike told me he has given up his AAR both for RL time reasons and because it didn't attract much traffic. I'm disappointed as I had hoped to be able to put the two side-by-side, but I understand the time issue.
Flipped a turn today while watching the Twins beat the Indians.
1) Strat bombing continues mixed. Just don't have numbers to do much yet. Bangkok failed, Djambi took 9 Oil hits. Undefended Kweiyang 11 Manpower for 6315 Fires. Used A-20A Havocs for first time in strat role and they left the Oscars in the dust, out-running them and taking no losses.
2) Prome hit heavily by about 60 heavy bombers. No CAP there. Minor damage. Prome is a pretty huge bastion now, well-supplied, heading for Forts 4. I have a stack of P-40Es at Calcutta, but I don't see any reason to feed them into destruction at Prome or Ramree.
3) Lancer and Chinese biplane CAP got up at Chengtu and destroyed 2 Sallys and damaged 6. AF damage very light.
4) Allies do some light sweeping and much reconning. Benkoelen AF bombed; it is vacant. Ketapang probe swept; it is vacant. Former dot bases NW of Baker Island reconned and AF construction is well along. Moved more Cats onto Canton to prep for SNAGGLEPUSS. Moving Marine paras to theater and prepping Marine Raiders for deep targets reachable by SST.
5) Very large asset quantities headed for Solomons. Has not been an active theater so decided to nail it down while it's free. I don't foresee PM being a battlefield in this game, so some defenses are moving to forward defense. Rabaul will shortly be a major submarine base.
6) Small Cat unit snuck into Cebu and is pulling stranded, starving PI infantry from surrounding islands into Cebu where there is a bit of supply. Southern PI was never finished by Japan. Allies still hold two bases on Mindinao, and several on mid-PI islands.
7) Spent some time in Tracker going through all the TOE upgrades and moving units which need to be near supply to do so. About 20 LCUs in Oz, NZ, US Army, and RAF base forces upgraded today, and more upgraded selected devices.
Yes, he was very good in that movie. He was also very good in one of the "I Love Lucy" episodes. Lucy has a big crush on him, but does something embarrassing and mortifying. Then Ricky invited Holden to the apartment, so Lucy disguises herself using modeling clay (which ends up melting).
OK, that's not in the attic. [:)]
Holden was huge, and then he seemed to just fade away. Sort of like Gary Cooper. Don't know if it was age, drinking, or something else, but the studio system was about as relentless as the media-driven life spans we see today in movie stars.
Well, Holden was a life long alcoholic and that really damaged his career. It caused a lot of on set issues and many directors just refused to work with him. But, if you have not watched "Network" in a while, I highly recommend it. One of the finest films to come out of the seventies (a great decade for cinema) and he won a lot of awards for the job he did. Truly a great role late in his life. Oh yeah, almost forgot "The Wild Bunch." Watch that one again.
I recently watched "Staglag 17" and "King Rat." Frankly, Stalag 17 just does not hold up. Not very well written with a lot of silly scenes in it. "King Rat" on the other hand, holds up well and is a brilliant film. A great novel as well.
An aside: Mike told me he has given up his AAR both for RL time reasons and because it didn't attract much traffic. I'm disappointed as I had hoped to be able to put the two side-by-side, but I understand the time issue.
Thats a shame. I love reading both sides of these AARs. Really helps me learn about PBEM in a way that just following along one side never can.
The movie file email was titled "Tit For Tat" and I didn't know what that meant. Not sure I do now. I think it speaks to a shift by Japan to try to hit the strat bombing basing since Batavia got roughed up today. Nothing fatal, but Batavia is pretty exposed and it has fewer engineers than PBang to fix runways. I also extended the perimeter for strat basing by moving heavy bombers deep into China to begin to threaten eastern China's industry. Fatigue kept them on the ground today for the most part, and their numbers are few, but it's a continuing evolution. It's possible the strat campaign is biting. Djambi, down to about 50 Oil from circa 200, recently went to AF 2 and today a very heavy CAP including 25 Nicks was found there.
1) A raid finally gets through at Rangoon. Only 3 Blenheims, but they start 312 Fires. Reducing the LI there would help pressure the huge garrison and put more supply on the water where I can get at it. Normally the refineries there throw off a lot of supply, but he has no oil supply from mid-Burma.
2) As above, Batavia is strongly swept (no CAP), then hit multiple times. Several B-17s are damaged on the ground and about 8 Runways points are recorded. Roughly 3 Bettys are downed.
3) The moving Big Stack is hit again and again, but casualties each day are in the 20s and 30s. It continues west at a mile a day. In the short term this is the biggest action brewing.
4) A Wellington unit moved from Burma all the way east to Lanchow (secure, with organic supply) hits Tsiaotso in eastern China. No damage is done, so it might have gone unnoticed. But a long list of industry is reachable from this location. Lanchow is away from heavy Japanese LBA, is at Forts 5+, and has over 1000 AV of defenders.
5) At Djambi as above only the A-20As hit the oil and are met by Nicks and Oscars. Five Havocs are lost, but intel is gained.
6) Prome takes in another Indian division. The Aussie 7th is very near too. All CAP has been withdrawn as AA is good, Forts as well, and there's no point in putting up five Hurricanes to be lost for nothing. Over 70 planes attack the AF for a bit of supply loss and damage to runways I'm not using.
7) One Chinese corps enters Rahaeng's hex which has three largish LCUs. The second is 3-4 days behind. Interesting to see if Japan fights outside the city to eject. The third corps continues west to cross the river unmolested and see what it can stir up over there.
8) In the Malaccan Strait the Dutch find a smallish TF and sink one xAKL. This looks like either supplies, or a support unit for Sumatra.
Adak Island expands fortifications to size 2 Magwe expands airfield to size 6 Prome expands airfield to size 4
Christmas Island expands airfield to size 3
Agra expands fortifications to size 3
Bareilly expands airfield to size 3
Madras expands port to size 7
Horn Island expands fortifications to size 3
Okha expands port to size 3
Ondorhaan expands airfield to size 6
...One of the finest films to come out of the seventies (a great decade for cinema) and he won a lot of awards for the job he did. Truly a great role late in his life. Oh yeah, almost forgot "The Wild Bunch." Watch that one again.
I recently watched "Staglag 17" and "King Rat." Frankly, Stalag 17 just does not hold up. Not very well written with a lot of silly scenes in it. "King Rat" on the other hand, holds up well and is a brilliant film. A great novel as well.
This is a great example of "different strokes for different folks." Stalag 17 is one of my favorite WWII movies. My whole family, including my WWII-vet father, agree. On the other hand, we universally deplore the 1970s as the black hole of terrible movie making. There were some isolated exceptions, but by and large the decade was a pit of despair for films.
"Rats set fire to Mr. Cooper’s store in Fort Valley. No damage done." Columbus (Ga) Enquirer-Sun, October 2, 1880.
Just opened the next turn, and the situation in northern China has evolved.
The entire Japanese stack has moved back into Tsuyung, out of the way of the oncoming Big Stack. This is good. However, there is a new movement dot aiming back up the yellow road through the mountains, to the east. My hypothesis is he's moving this vast concentration of power back to deal with Chengtu and Chungking. Probably leaving a stiff garrison at Tsuyung, but we shall see. That is a needed base if ever the road from Rangoon is to open, but I also want the Big Stack in Burma and Indo-China.
1) I-30 gets another xAK (Empire Glen) in the route between Calcutta and Chittagong. Escorts are few because Calcutta's building was focused on AF and not port, with is 5.5. No AKEs available, so the port is on rapid-build to get to DC-rearm status. I have xAKs to spare, but I hate giving them away.
2) Prome, devoid of CAP and all aircraft really, is plastered by scores of heavy bombers. 29 casualties and a lot of holes. The base supply is around 7000 even with large-scale construction and almost 2000 AV of garrison. I've said it over and over here and even in some AARs--Japanese players often rely far too much on air power because that's what they have a lot of. It is not decisive against fixed emplacements. It's a bother, it requires replacements and supplies to maintain an even keel, but it is not a substitute for taking land and standing on it.
3) Japan seems to have realized that strat bombing in this game is going to be a thing and it's not going to stop, so Batavia, home of some of it, is heavily targeted for a second day. A couple of P-38s are on 39,000 ft. max range, drop-tanked CAP, and they worry at the attackers in every way they can. The AF is damaged, but no planes on the ground. (They're off flying.) Four Bettys are damaged, one lost, plus a downed Zero. The P-38s are damaged and probably one is lost to ops.
RockyRoo PMs me from his secret bunker to be aware of the Fires rule re industry bombing. That industry destroyed by Fires is not repairable, and I should be careful to not firebomb supply-generation I might want to use myself someday. A valid point I had not fully thought through. I am firebombing now not because I like it but because with my tiny raids it's the most damage for the risk. In AI games I had never done it outside the HI at the end of things. I am getting good results on Oil from daylight efforts; Manpower/fire attacks have been to get at HI more than any other type of industry. But I need to ponder this some.
4) Heavy raids on Chengtu find up to 7 Chinese Lancers on CAP, and even with poor planes the Chinese pilots, who are very well trained right now, do a lot of damage. 4 Sallys are destroyed and 6 damaged. The AF attacks are disrupted.
5) The normal bombing near Rahaeng does little, but then the Japanese Shock attack the lone Chinese corps in the hex. A lot of readers might think I'm crazy to do this, but I have reasons. The Chinese corps is roughed up a lot and retreats, but Japan loses some men. Most importantly the attack tells me that my Wandering Band has forced three IDs to sit at Rahaeng for at least a month now, rather than being up-country threatening Toungoo while that base frantically builds and tried to pull in some supply (after being at 20 for a month, Toungoo two days ago rocketed to 815 supply.) Three IDs squatting to deal with three Chinese LCUs I see as fully expendable (they resurrect at Chungking at worst) is a great outcome. Right now another corps is aimed at Rahaeng about 20 miles out. It may be re-pointed to do mischief on the RR. The third is about to cross the river west-bound and may keep going to the coast to cut the RR south north of Tavoy. Crazy because I lost some VPs? Meh. I predict the Allies will net gain VPs this turn due to aircraft losses. The Chinese VP ratio rule is a powerful friend to the Allies.
Ground combat at Rahaeng (58,56)
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 38674 troops, 360 guns, 153 vehicles, Assault Value = 1268
Defending force 7932 troops, 38 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 268
6) Four P-38s sweep Djambi and now find 33 Nicks and 8 Oscars. A bit of closing the barn door after the horse is gone, but I like whacking on Nicks. Evidence the R&D program is catching? I don't know Japanese R&D schedules well enough to say. P-38s down a Nick for no losses to themselves.
7) With Wake secure and Rabaul undergoing explosive growth, multiple patrol units are moved in and start snooping. For SNAGGLEPUSS I need to know where the KB is, or isn't. Hard to tell from the movie, but it looks like Truk is clean, Ponape has a garrison of some kind, and Eniwetok is empty. Will confirm on the next turn. I would be perfectly happy if the KB were in the HI early for upgrades, or even if it were over getting ready to help on Sumatra or Java. Anywhere but Truk or Kwajalein.
