WiFcon for game designers

[brian brian]

All I could play was the first two turns, then some surprise health issues forced me to have to leave the Con. What happened after that, I can't say. I hadn't set up the Chinese in a long time and didn't really expect to be playing them. I like setting them up forward and making the Japanese work to get what they want, but I set up a bit too strongly in the north. My main mistake was putting only one unit in the hex SW of Wuhan, and Andrew exploited that. I also used up the best-factored units protecting the flanks of Sian, leaving the southern hexes a factor or two weaker than I would have liked. Japan got several lucky ground strikes on the first impulse and both of their initial attacks, +9 and +11 I believe, went to 23+ results. Later in the turn Japan hit a 14 and a 15 result so the combat dice evened out - something like rolling 2 5s, 3 11s, and 2 16s in the first seven attacks, but the most important thing was the good weather dice for the Axis, and having good success on the very first impulse. A few different rolls and things could easily have been much different.

Also, in a no oil game Persia was a complete non-factor. Japan needed no reserves to intervene there, nor had any reason to go there themselves. That is my favorite Japanese strategy and I hadn't thought through the implications of the difference in this game. A no oil game also greatly boosts Japanese production...at a cost of a -6 adjustment on their final score.

I still like my Chinese set-up, which has some Nationalists north of Sian (in supply) to help protect against an onslaught on the Communists, which can be quite vulnerable with supply issues and defending in desert terrain which stays clear even in otherwise bad weather. Andrew told me he uses the same set-up himself on occasion, and he definitely showed me some of the tactical weaknesses of how I did it.

[composer99]

Andrew's Japanese ran amok through 1943, but when the Americans finally came at them, they were an unstoppable juggernaut.
 
My table finished July/August 1945 on Friday, so when Andrew had to leave for a wedding that night I took over as Japan. I polished off Calcutta (rolled a 16 on a +5-ish attack after having failed to flip the defenders) and paved the way for an assault on Lanchow, but Andrew's position left me with inadequate land-based fighters and no strategic reserve available for counter-invasions after American landings. He had also not built as much lift as I would have liked.
 
While I had about as many CVs as the US (indeed, perhaps 1 or 2 more), his were all 4-5 weight with the odd 1-weight CVL, while mine were the Japanese mixed bag of 1-4 and 6-weight CV/CVLs. And he had about twice as many land-based FTRs which were all (so it seemed to me!) 11-13 range Mustangs, Hellcats & Corsairs, which outmatched anything I could send up against them.
 
My guess is Kevin (the US player at Andrew's table) decided this was the way to go, since the Allies were banging their heads against the Axis in Europe. As Andrew's partner put it, in Europe the Americans were a "little green goblin". In the Pacific, they were the big green machine. From ND1943 to MA1944 (at which point the game ended) they took Kwajalein, Truk, and landed in the Philippines.

[paulderynck]

ORIGINAL: composer99

Andrew's Japanese ran amok through 1943, but when the Americans finally came at them, they were an unstoppable juggernaut.

My table finished July/August 1945 on Friday, so when Andrew had to leave for a wedding that night I took over as Japan. I polished off Calcutta (rolled a 16 on a +5-ish attack after having failed to flip the defenders) and paved the way for an assault on Lanchow, but Andrew's position left me with inadequate land-based fighters and no strategic reserve available for counter-invasions after American landings. He had also not built as much lift as I would have liked.

While I had about as many CVs as the US (indeed, perhaps 1 or 2 more), his were all 4-5 weight with the odd 1-weight CVL, while mine were the Japanese mixed bag of 1-4 and 6-weight CV/CVLs. And he had about twice as many land-based FTRs which were all (so it seemed to me!) 11-13 range Mustangs, Hellcats & Corsairs, which outmatched anything I could send up against them.

My guess is Kevin (the US player at Andrew's table) decided this was the way to go, since the Allies were banging their heads against the Axis in Europe. As Andrew's partner put it, in Europe the Americans were a "little green goblin". In the Pacific, they were the big green machine. From ND1943 to MA1944 (at which point the game ended) they took Kwajalein, Truk, and landed in the Philippines.

I don't think the picture I saw in this thread earlier was from the game described, but it showed a Japan "on the ropes" and really reminded me of our current game in progress which had to be suspended until we move in a couple weeks. I photographed it so we could set it up again after the move. This onr of the pictures. MA/44 has just ended. The khaki and gray-blue markers are used for hex control.

[panzers]

I Still have about 60 pics besides the 45 or whatever Steve got. My computer is down and I don't have neither the time nor the money to have it restored or possibly replaced. I am really sorry that things did not work out as planned, but the pics will be there eventually. They do have a very good timeframe in there up until about mid '42, for I, basically was handling the massive american portion of the game and just did not have the time anymore to keep up the previous pace, but I did manage to get sporadic shots of other games as they wore on. Haven't forgot. Just very frustrated about my computer and why people feel so compeled to plant such fatal viruses that even have the windows name and logo attached to it.[:@]