Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

[Mike Solli]

SRA Phase II

Planning has begun for Phase II, which is the final phase of liberating the SRA and all of its liquid gold. The reason I haven't taken any oil fields yet is because the Allies still have numerous bombers (mainly Dutch with a smattering of Aussies) in the area. Taking the oil fields too early will result in enemy bombing and unnecessary damage to them.

This is a complicated operation, in several sub phases.

Sub Phase IIa - Invasion of northern Java and southern Sumatra:
Oosthaven, Merak, Kalidjati, Semarang and Buitenzorg

Sub Phase IIb - liberation of the major oil fields: Palembang, Miri, Brunei, Balikpapan, Samarinda, Tarakan

Forces: 2, 4, 21, 38 Divisions, 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 14 Tank Regiments, 1, 3, 21 Independent Engineer Regiments, 1 artillery battalion, a whole bunch of construction engineers and AS

I'll give more details once I figure more of it out.

Now we begin the real MEAT of the '42 war .... can't wait to see how Ted defends ...

Yeah, you and me both. Working on the plan. Got everything done except the air support and actual air units that'll be stationed on Java. I think initially it'll be just fighters, so I won't need a really large amount of AS.

[RangerJoe]

A great choice for invading the oil production bases is using the Fast Transport TFs. There is no base bombardment, only the units. There is also no mandatory shock attack either but no attack the first turn either. So the next turn can have another fast transport TF bring in AAA units plus a base force. Each fast transport TF also forces the defenders to bombard as well. There could also be a CVE TF for CAP as well since the CVEs are not affected by being in a base hex like the CVs and CVLs. Also depending upon the base and other factors, 5 or 6 Ansyu PBs can bring in a tank regiment with more PBs carrying additional supplies.

[Mike Solli]

A great choice for invading the oil production bases is using the Fast Transport TFs. There is no base bombardment, only the units. There is also no mandatory shock attack either but no attack the first turn either. So the next turn can have another fast transport TF bring in AAA units plus a base force. Each fast transport TF also forces the defenders to bombard as well. There could also be a CVE TF for CAP as well since the CVEs are not affected by being in a base hex like the CVs and CVLs. Also depending upon the base and other factors, 5 or 6 Ansyu PBs can bring in a tank regiment with more PBs carrying additional supplies.

That is a really good idea. My concern with the oil bases is that there will be a lot of damage so I ALWAYS use as many combat engineers as I can scrounge up when attacking them.

[PaxMondo]

A great choice for invading the oil production bases is using the Fast Transport TFs. There is no base bombardment, only the units. There is also no mandatory shock attack either but no attack the first turn either. So the next turn can have another fast transport TF bring in AAA units plus a base force. Each fast transport TF also forces the defenders to bombard as well. There could also be a CVE TF for CAP as well since the CVEs are not affected by being in a base hex like the CVs and CVLs. Also depending upon the base and other factors, 5 or 6 Ansyu PBs can bring in a tank regiment with more PBs carrying additional supplies.

That is a really good idea. My concern with the oil bases is that there will be a lot of damage so I ALWAYS use as many combat engineers as I can scrounge up when attacking them.

Mike, we're of the same generation as I was literally thinking the exact same thing when I read RJ's suggestion.

Having said that, I think his suggestion is the "new" trend for the JFB's. Players like Desert Wolf are ripping up all AFB players and this, along with a host of other things, is how they do it: speed. You won't find DW's AAR's here, he pretty much only blogs on discord because of the server rules here ... but if you follow his current AAR (he beat Nemo), you'll see what I mean. He's currently early '43, finishing up Karachi and trying to decide between OZ or SOV next. He's got so much supply, oil, fuel, and EXP that I can't see the allies ever catching up. All the rest of China and Asia and PI and DEI and Pacific Islands and Aleutians (and I think Pearl also, but I can't be sure) are his.

[RangerJoe]

A great choice for invading the oil production bases is using the Fast Transport TFs. There is no base bombardment, only the units. There is also no mandatory shock attack either but no attack the first turn either. So the next turn can have another fast transport TF bring in AAA units plus a base force. Each fast transport TF also forces the defenders to bombard as well. There could also be a CVE TF for CAP as well since the CVEs are not affected by being in a base hex like the CVs and CVLs. Also depending upon the base and other factors, 5 or 6 Ansyu PBs can bring in a tank regiment with more PBs carrying additional supplies.

That is a really good idea. My concern with the oil bases is that there will be a lot of damage so I ALWAYS use as many combat engineers as I can scrounge up when attacking them.

Mike, we're of the same generation as I was literally thinking the exact same thing when I read RJ's suggestion.

Having said that, I think his suggestion is the "new" trend for the JFB's. Players like Desert Wolf are ripping up all AFB players and this, along with a host of other things, is how they do it: speed. You won't find DW's AAR's here, he pretty much only blogs on discord because of the server rules here ... but if you follow his current AAR (he beat Nemo), you'll see what I mean. He's currently early '43, finishing up Karachi and trying to decide between OZ or SOV next. He's got so much supply, oil, fuel, and EXP that I can't see the allies ever catching up. All the rest of China and Asia and PI and DEI and Pacific Islands and Aleutians (and I think Pearl also, but I can't be sure) are his.

Part of the new JFB trend is to only research the airframes in the upgrade line that you want to use. So some players might research the A6M3/A6M3a version, then go strait to the A6M8 version skipping over the A6M5s. The same for the Judies and Jills. That give the Japanese a great advantage in the quality aircraft department which, when combined with the ability to increase their production way beyond historical levels, really give the Japanese an undue advantage in the air. Against the AI I don't do that, I don't think players should do it when playing other players either.

[Mike Solli]

Pax and Joe, I hear what you guys are saying. I want to play the whole war. I don't want to play the game engine to win the game quickly. Ted is another old fossil like me. And Joe, I have a self made rule is that I won't upgrade an R&D model until that model becomes operational. Last game, I skipped models in the R&D system and really outclassed Ted in the air. It was fun but it didn't feel right. I'm not going to do that this game. There are plenty of ways to do better than history. The big one is the training program. Anyway, I know it's a game, but I want it to be somewhat reasonable.

[Mike Solli]

Ok, here goes the plan, modified a bit...

Phase IIa - Invasion of Oosthaven, Merak and Kaldjati:

Oosthaven: This is the invasion force for the liberation of Palembang.

Forces
21 Division
4 Tank Regiment
7 Tank Regiment
3 Independent Engineer Regiment
19 Independent Engineer Regiment
20 Independent Engineer Regiment
21 Independent Engineer Regiment

They will land at Oosthaven and push north along the rail line to Praboemoelih. One tank regiment will head west to liberate Lahat and Benkoelen. The remaining force will march up the road to the hex NW of Palembang and then into the base. The independent engineer regiments are there to reduce the chance of damage to the infrastructure. Once taken, AAA and AS will arrive by ship (proceeded by minesweepers) along with some IJAAF fighters for protection. This will take some time to occur so that the remainder of this phase will be completed, IIb which needs to conclude before Palembang is liberated to protect it from Allied bombers stationed at Batavia.

Merak and Kaldjati: These are linked, with two objectives:

1. Isolate Batavia.
2. Capture the northern half of Java down to Semarang and Djokjakarta. The main landing is at Kalidjati but Merak is invaded important to isolate Batavia from reinforcements from the area.

Merak Forces
38 Division
17 Artillery Battalion

Kalidjati Forces
4 Division - will head to Bandoeng then Batavia
2 Recon/2 Division - Speedy unit to Bandoeng, assist 4 Division then to Batavia
24 IR/2 Division - to Batavia
4 IR/2 Division - to Batavia
2 Tank Regiment - Tjilatjap then Djokjakarta
8 Tank Regiment - Semarang
I/81 NG - Bandoeng garrison
2x AS battalions (48 AS)
Yamada Det S-1 (18 Zeros) - initially will sweep Batavia
Yamada Det S-2 (9 Zeros) - initially will sweep Soerabaja
77 Sentai (15 Oscar Ic) - CAP over Kalidjati

Phase IIb - Invasion of Buitenzorg, about 2 days after IIa starts.

Buitenzorg Forces
16 IR/2 Division
2 Arty/2 Division
2 Engineer/2 Division

Phase IIc - Invasion of Miri, Brunei, Tarakan, Balikpapan and Samarinda. Details forthcoming.

Phase IId - Liberation of the remainder of Java.

Phase IIIe - Liberation of the remainder of the SRA. Ongoing.

Phase IV - Reduction of Darwin. Still haven't decided whether I will invade or it'll be a combination of bombers and naval bombardment. I'm leaning toward the latter this game.

[Mike Solli]

Oh yeah, I also have 1 Raiding Regiment and Yokosuka 1 & 3 SNLFs, the 3 parachute units. Not sure how I will use them yet.

[RangerJoe]

Oh yeah, I also have 1 Raiding Regiment and Yokosuka 1 & 3 SNLFs, the 3 parachute units. Not sure how I will use them yet.

Paradrop onto empty enemy bases, have a fast transport move in air support and other units, move in fighters if possible and transports even just float places if necessary to continue doing the same . . .

Paradrop onto enemy dot bases so he can't hide ships there. Especially if it is an AV of some kind supporting flying boats and/or float planes. Remember that the paratroopers will NOT face any CD guns but will make a shock attack.

Don't forget the two Islands in the Indian Ocean, the aerial searching from there can inhibit Allied ship movements. You won't have to bring in an entire unit for the air support, just some squads from an Air HQ.

Merak probably is mined . . .

Paradropping on an empty base cutting the Rangoon to China supply route is also a good option, even a Chinese base with a poor Chinese infantry unit could work.

[PaxMondo]

That is a really good idea. My concern with the oil bases is that there will be a lot of damage so I ALWAYS use as many combat engineers as I can scrounge up when attacking them.

Mike, we're of the same generation as I was literally thinking the exact same thing when I read RJ's suggestion.

Having said that, I think his suggestion is the "new" trend for the JFB's. Players like Desert Wolf are ripping up all AFB players and this, along with a host of other things, is how they do it: speed. You won't find DW's AAR's here, he pretty much only blogs on discord because of the server rules here ... but if you follow his current AAR (he beat Nemo), you'll see what I mean. He's currently early '43, finishing up Karachi and trying to decide between OZ or SOV next. He's got so much supply, oil, fuel, and EXP that I can't see the allies ever catching up. All the rest of China and Asia and PI and DEI and Pacific Islands and Aleutians (and I think Pearl also, but I can't be sure) are his.

Part of the new JFB trend is to only research the airframes in the upgrade line that you want to use. So some players might research the A6M3/A6M3a version, then go strait to the A6M8 version skipping over the A6M5s. The same for the Judies and Jills. That give the Japanese a great advantage in the quality aircraft department which, when combined with the ability to increase their production way beyond historical levels, really give the Japanese an undue advantage in the air. Against the AI I don't do that, I don't think players should do it when playing other players either.

Not disagreeing with you about the aircraft except for the timing. This has all been known, and practiced, for a LONG time. Way before the Lowpe v obvert "clash of titans", and that was how many years ago? I mean this has been handled in house rules for a long while, and I feel pretty well known how to handle it with the players.

No, what I'm talking about is that now, I see a preponderance of PBEM games being won handily by the IJ, and that is quite new, at least to me. And the one common denominator that I see in those games is SPEED. They attack and attack and attack and never let up, never lose the initiative. Using DW's current campaign there is no let up. He goes from campaign to campaign without break. Everything is in place, somehow. He really knows what he needs to accomplish a series of tasks, AND he has what he needs on time for that task. Amazing amount of planning, yes. But moreso, he really knows what he needs and how long to get all the pieces in place and starts that when they need to start moving.

I try to this all the time, but I don't always guage what is needed so accurately, often I bring too much which means for the next operation I have too many pieces out of place OR not enough able to commit to get it done. Whatever, I'm not nearly as good a player.

On the flip side, what I'm not seeing is the Allied player reacting or anticipating the IJ moves. going back to DW game, I saw very few US forces there in India. Now maybe the allied player guessed wrong and sent them to OZ, not sure. BUT, IJ players know you have to get India B4 the US gets too many forces there (air+land). That tips the scale pretty quick so that you can't ever take Karachi, even Bombay can be too difficult. Then it just becomes a hit and run operation around Calcutta.

Anyway, just my thoughts ...

[Tanaka]

A great choice for invading the oil production bases is using the Fast Transport TFs. There is no base bombardment, only the units. There is also no mandatory shock attack either but no attack the first turn either. So the next turn can have another fast transport TF bring in AAA units plus a base force. Each fast transport TF also forces the defenders to bombard as well. There could also be a CVE TF for CAP as well since the CVEs are not affected by being in a base hex like the CVs and CVLs. Also depending upon the base and other factors, 5 or 6 Ansyu PBs can bring in a tank regiment with more PBs carrying additional supplies.

That is a really good idea. My concern with the oil bases is that there will be a lot of damage so I ALWAYS use as many combat engineers as I can scrounge up when attacking them.

Mike, we're of the same generation as I was literally thinking the exact same thing when I read RJ's suggestion.

Having said that, I think his suggestion is the "new" trend for the JFB's. Players like Desert Wolf are ripping up all AFB players and this, along with a host of other things, is how they do it: speed. You won't find DW's AAR's here, he pretty much only blogs on discord because of the server rules here ... but if you follow his current AAR (he beat Nemo), you'll see what I mean. He's currently early '43, finishing up Karachi and trying to decide between OZ or SOV next. He's got so much supply, oil, fuel, and EXP that I can't see the allies ever catching up. All the rest of China and Asia and PI and DEI and Pacific Islands and Aleutians (and I think Pearl also, but I can't be sure) are his.

Server rules? What is the difference? I find trying to keep up on an AAR in discord impossible because it always takes you to the most recent post and you can never keep your place...

[Seacat54]

Mike, we're of the same generation as I was literally thinking the exact same thing when I read RJ's suggestion.

Having said that, I think his suggestion is the "new" trend for the JFB's. Players like Desert Wolf are ripping up all AFB players and this, along with a host of other things, is how they do it: speed. You won't find DW's AAR's here, he pretty much only blogs on discord because of the server rules here ... but if you follow his current AAR (he beat Nemo), you'll see what I mean. He's currently early '43, finishing up Karachi and trying to decide between OZ or SOV next. He's got so much supply, oil, fuel, and EXP that I can't see the allies ever catching up. All the rest of China and Asia and PI and DEI and Pacific Islands and Aleutians (and I think Pearl also, but I can't be sure) are his.

Part of the new JFB trend is to only research the airframes in the upgrade line that you want to use. So some players might research the A6M3/A6M3a version, then go strait to the A6M8 version skipping over the A6M5s. The same for the Judies and Jills. That give the Japanese a great advantage in the quality aircraft department which, when combined with the ability to increase their production way beyond historical levels, really give the Japanese an undue advantage in the air. Against the AI I don't do that, I don't think players should do it when playing other players either.

Not disagreeing with you about the aircraft except for the timing. This has all been known, and practiced, for a LONG time. Way before the Lowpe v obvert "clash of titans", and that was how many years ago? I mean this has been handled in house rules for a long while, and I feel pretty well known how to handle it with the players.

No, what I'm talking about is that now, I see a preponderance of PBEM games being won handily by the IJ, and that is quite new, at least to me. And the one common denominator that I see in those games is SPEED. They attack and attack and attack and never let up, never lose the initiative. Using DW's current campaign there is no let up. He goes from campaign to campaign without break. Everything is in place, somehow. He really knows what he needs to accomplish a series of tasks, AND he has what he needs on time for that task. Amazing amount of planning, yes. But moreso, he really knows what he needs and how long to get all the pieces in place and starts that when they need to start moving.

I try to this all the time, but I don't always guage what is needed so accurately, often I bring too much which means for the next operation I have too many pieces out of place OR not enough able to commit to get it done. Whatever, I'm not nearly as good a player.

On the flip side, what I'm not seeing is the Allied player reacting or anticipating the IJ moves. going back to DW game, I saw very few US forces there in India. Now maybe the allied player guessed wrong and sent them to OZ, not sure. BUT, IJ players know you have to get India B4 the US gets too many forces there (air+land). That tips the scale pretty quick so that you can't ever take Karachi, even Bombay can be too difficult. Then it just becomes a hit and run operation around Calcutta.

Anyway, just my thoughts ...

What would a house rule limiting research to 6 factories per ac do?

Emergency reinforcement region trigger and amount can be edited?

[PaxMondo]

Part of the new JFB trend is to only research the airframes in the upgrade line that you want to use. So some players might research the A6M3/A6M3a version, then go strait to the A6M8 version skipping over the A6M5s. The same for the Judies and Jills. That give the Japanese a great advantage in the quality aircraft department which, when combined with the ability to increase their production way beyond historical levels, really give the Japanese an undue advantage in the air. Against the AI I don't do that, I don't think players should do it when playing other players either.

Not disagreeing with you about the aircraft except for the timing. This has all been known, and practiced, for a LONG time. Way before the Lowpe v obvert "clash of titans", and that was how many years ago? I mean this has been handled in house rules for a long while, and I feel pretty well known how to handle it with the players.

No, what I'm talking about is that now, I see a preponderance of PBEM games being won handily by the IJ, and that is quite new, at least to me. And the one common denominator that I see in those games is SPEED. They attack and attack and attack and never let up, never lose the initiative. Using DW's current campaign there is no let up. He goes from campaign to campaign without break. Everything is in place, somehow. He really knows what he needs to accomplish a series of tasks, AND he has what he needs on time for that task. Amazing amount of planning, yes. But moreso, he really knows what he needs and how long to get all the pieces in place and starts that when they need to start moving.

I try to this all the time, but I don't always guage what is needed so accurately, often I bring too much which means for the next operation I have too many pieces out of place OR not enough able to commit to get it done. Whatever, I'm not nearly as good a player.

On the flip side, what I'm not seeing is the Allied player reacting or anticipating the IJ moves. going back to DW game, I saw very few US forces there in India. Now maybe the allied player guessed wrong and sent them to OZ, not sure. BUT, IJ players know you have to get India B4 the US gets too many forces there (air+land). That tips the scale pretty quick so that you can't ever take Karachi, even Bombay can be too difficult. Then it just becomes a hit and run operation around Calcutta.

Anyway, just my thoughts ...

What would a house rule limiting research to 6 factories per ac do?

Emergency reinforcement region trigger and amount can be edited?

Not sure.

Yes, quite easily. In my mod, expanded by a very large amount to include AC as well as LCU devices.

[Seacat54]

Not disagreeing with you about the aircraft except for the timing. This has all been known, and practiced, for a LONG time. Way before the Lowpe v obvert "clash of titans", and that was how many years ago? I mean this has been handled in house rules for a long while, and I feel pretty well known how to handle it with the players.

No, what I'm talking about is that now, I see a preponderance of PBEM games being won handily by the IJ, and that is quite new, at least to me. And the one common denominator that I see in those games is SPEED. They attack and attack and attack and never let up, never lose the initiative. Using DW's current campaign there is no let up. He goes from campaign to campaign without break. Everything is in place, somehow. He really knows what he needs to accomplish a series of tasks, AND he has what he needs on time for that task. Amazing amount of planning, yes. But moreso, he really knows what he needs and how long to get all the pieces in place and starts that when they need to start moving.

I try to this all the time, but I don't always guage what is needed so accurately, often I bring too much which means for the next operation I have too many pieces out of place OR not enough able to commit to get it done. Whatever, I'm not nearly as good a player.

On the flip side, what I'm not seeing is the Allied player reacting or anticipating the IJ moves. going back to DW game, I saw very few US forces there in India. Now maybe the allied player guessed wrong and sent them to OZ, not sure. BUT, IJ players know you have to get India B4 the US gets too many forces there (air+land). That tips the scale pretty quick so that you can't ever take Karachi, even Bombay can be too difficult. Then it just becomes a hit and run operation around Calcutta.

Anyway, just my thoughts ...

What would a house rule limiting research to 6 factories per ac do?

Emergency reinforcement region trigger and amount can be edited?

Not sure.

Yes, quite easily. In my mod, expanded by a very large amount to include AC as well as LCU devices.

At least it will limit it to 6 factories + engine bonus.

Operation Torch was largely ment to take pressure from the Soviets and get US forces in contact with the Wehrmacht.

If Japan is going to India that force has to be sent to the Indo-Pacific.

Then you have a very pissed off Patton, The Big Red One etc in the theater.
Transfer of CV-4 is triggered by the invasion of India.

That should make Japan pause and free the allied player to concentrate on protecting Australia.

[Mike Solli]

Another rule for both of us is to not break up para units to invade multiple hexes at the same time. Example: 1 Raiding Regiment dropped on and took Langsa (the base north of Medan), was withdrawn, then landed on and took Sabang (northern tip of Sumatra). Only one base at a time. I believe the US gets an airborne division later in the war. I see no issue with breaking it into 3 regiments and going for 3 targets at a time. But the Japanese currently have 3 small units (and get 2 Raiding Regiment soon, which will go to SE Fleet AO).

[Seacat54]

Another rule for both of us is to not break up para units to invade multiple hexes at the same time. Example: 1 Raiding Regiment dropped on and took Langsa (the base north of Medan), was withdrawn, then landed on and took Sabang (northern tip of Sumatra). Only one base at a time. I believe the US gets an airborne division later in the war. I see no issue with breaking it into 3 regiments and going for 3 targets at a time. But the Japanese currently have 3 small units (and get 2 Raiding Regiment soon, which will go to SE Fleet AO).

Some elite units can be used as air landing units for the second wave so that helps a bit.

[PaxMondo]

At least it will limit it to 6 factories + engine bonus.

This will only be "half-baked". Let me try though.

I don't see the issue with IJ and its RnD being the biggest issue. The biggest to me is that it can ramp up AC production far faster than realistically possible. If you look at US performance in this area during WWII, getting an aircraft into production once the design was complete (RnD complete) took months. In the game its instantaneous. Then, the ramp up first a big step up and then goes linear, in reality it is exponential with a SMALL exponent.

Right now, the way I rationalize the game to reality is by saying: RnD encompasses not only the Design of the plane, but also the production tooling and assembly line setup. Thus when RnD in game is complete this equates to production start in reality. OK.

So, to get this more aligned, the RnD repair factor in the code needs to be adjusted DOWN ... slow the RnD factory repair some more. How much? my best guess: about 25%. Decrease the probability of an RnD factory repair by about 25%, that will slow the development down significantly, bring it into reality far better.

Let's look at the IJ, the reality of IJ aircraft development.

The IJ had some fantastic aircraft developers. Jiro Horikoshi and Kiro Honsho are just 2 examples. World class. Put them up there with anyone. Willy Messerschmitt, Kurt Tank, R. J. Mitchell; sure; and Jiro and Hiro are right with them. So, they didn't lack designers. 1941, IJ still cannot build a 2 stage induction system. The game allows the Ki-49 Helen to be built in the game in unlimited numbers, it is far and away the best IJA bomber. Why was Ki-21 Sally built until war end and in 10x volume? The Ha-34 engine in the Helen required a 2 stage induction system that rarely ever worked. They blew up. Without it, the Helen could barely take-off, it was what is known as a "hangar queen". Ki-94? Great looking plane never getting into production because 2 stage induction couldn't be done. A7M? first flight was in early (March?) 1942. Flew great, except grossly underpowered because the engine was still a single stage, multi-speed blower that couldn't deliver. Didn't see one in the war until 1945 when the 2 stage blowers were finally starting to be working some of the time.

Now, the why of the 2 stage induction is a VERY long story. Moot, because it happened. What is relevant is that it caused the developers to "waste" all of their time working on projects with little (very small) incremental improvement. Let's use the A6M as the exemplar. The A6M in all of its version remains a 350mph plane. Period. Whether built in 1939 or 1944, it is still a 350 mph plane, which by early 1943 was too slow. Some players get all worked up about facing the A6M8 in 1942. I don't see why or how. Sandbox it. P39 .vs. any version of the A6M. Equivalent pilots. They are a match. Is the A6M8 better than the A6M2? Sure, marginally. In the sandbox, maybe 15% more pilots survive, maybe 5% more wins. Still basically a 50-50 fight. The P-39 ruggedness and armament negates the A6M MVR. Forget the date that the plane appeared in the war, it is a 1939 design. It is a plane that both the P39 and P40 are well able to compete against. Neither of those planes were used in Europe for a good reason: they were not competitive against the Me and FW designs. They were flown in the Pacific because they were competitive against the A6M and the Oscar. It was the Frank that caused them a lot of issue, but that wasn't until 1944.

In other words, the devs got it right in my mind. Advancing the A6M family; just a little sauce for the IJ players. Little impact on the allied player.

So, to summarize. Major issue is the ability to move from RnD right to HUGE production. Without a major re-write of the code, the best fix is simply to decrease the repair probability of an individual RnD factory. My best guess is about a 25% decrease (yes, that is a LOT). The intent would be that the IJ could still advance a plane, but it would take "National Will" (think the Man to the Moon project of the 60's or the Manhattan Project), and then only allow for ONE model to get advanced IF you chose to put all of your RnD on it. Yeah, it would basically remove the RnD aspect from the game entirely, but it is unbalanced the way it is. I would also suggest that if this done, that the variable be exported to the .ini file so that modders could use it.

[BBfanboy]

Great analysis Pax. But the developers wanted a game where the Japanese could give the Allies a good fight and they had to have a lot of aircraft to do that. So it is ahistorical by design.

[PaxMondo]

Server rules? What is the difference? I find trying to keep up on an AAR in discord impossible because it always takes you to the most recent post and you can never keep your place...

In discord, you can post whatever, however you want. AND you can exclude (aka BOOT) anyone you want.

Yes, it is a pain in discord always going to most recent post. You learn to use the search function to take you back to where you are in the thread. It took me over a month to read through DW's game. Lokasenna also has a good game on discord. Recommended reading as well. They can have their main game thread and then sub-thread imbedded within it. Loka does that a lot, sub-thread for each day's update.

[PaxMondo]

Great analysis Pax. But the developers wanted a game where the Japanese could give the Allies a good fight and they had to have a lot of aircraft to do that. So it is ahistorical by design.

I am sure you are correct. I'm not a dev, but I KNOW that a lot of time was given to game balance and that initially the IJ was not competitive at all. They had to give a lot of "Easter Eggs" to the IJ to have a game of it. That list (Easter Eggs) is long ...