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ORIGINAL: mike scholl 1

My favorite "discovery" in the game was the little known program instituted by the Allied Powers to draft winos and borderline mental deficients into their Services, give them high level officer commissions, and place them in command of the great majority of air, land. and sea units that would be available to see acction during the first year of the war---thus forcing the Allied Player to expend the great majority of his "political points" (whatever they are) replacing these bozos with the competent officiers left sitting in the "O Club" when these idiots were given their commands.

ORIGINAL: herwin

ORIGINAL: mike scholl 1

My favorite "discovery" in the game was the little known program instituted by the Allied Powers to draft winos and borderline mental deficients into their Services, give them high level officer commissions, and place them in command of the great majority of air, land. and sea units that would be available to see acction during the first year of the war---thus forcing the Allied Player to expend the great majority of his "political points" (whatever they are) replacing these bozos with the competent officiers left sitting in the "O Club" when these idiots were given their commands.

You've encountered the National Guard, where interwar promotion was often political.

ORIGINAL: mike scholl 1

ORIGINAL: herwin

ORIGINAL: mike scholl 1

My favorite "discovery" in the game was the little known program instituted by the Allied Powers to draft winos and borderline mental deficients into their Services, give them high level officer commissions, and place them in command of the great majority of air, land. and sea units that would be available to see acction during the first year of the war---thus forcing the Allied Player to expend the great majority of his "political points" (whatever they are) replacing these bozos with the competent officiers left sitting in the "O Club" when these idiots were given their commands.

You've encountered the National Guard, where interwar promotion was often political.

In AIR SQUADRONS and on SHIPS and SUBS? I don't think so. And not all land units were National Guard. Sorry Harry..., can't agree with you in this case. In addition, the USA (which fully trained more than TWICE as many pilots in 1941 as Japan), has Squadrons arriving with training levels in the 20's and 30's. No offense, but that's nonsense.

ORIGINAL: herwin

ORIGINAL: mike scholl 1

My favorite "discovery" in the game was the little known program instituted by the Allied Powers to draft winos and borderline mental deficients into their Services, give them high level officer commissions, and place them in command of the great majority of air, land. and sea units that would be available to see acction during the first year of the war---thus forcing the Allied Player to expend the great majority of his "political points" (whatever they are) replacing these bozos with the competent officiers left sitting in the "O Club" when these idiots were given their commands.

You've encountered the National Guard, where interwar promotion was often political.

ORIGINAL: sanch

Park a PT tender in some dinky port; shuffle it to the dock to reload supplies every couple weeks, and ...

Presto! a complete functioning PT-boat torpedo factory in said dinky port (smart natives I guess).

ORIGINAL: Blackhorse

ORIGINAL: herwin

ORIGINAL: mike scholl 1

My favorite "discovery" in the game was the little known program instituted by the Allied Powers to draft winos and borderline mental deficients into their Services, give them high level officer commissions, and place them in command of the great majority of air, land. and sea units that would be available to see acction during the first year of the war---thus forcing the Allied Player to expend the great majority of his "political points" (whatever they are) replacing these bozos with the competent officiers left sitting in the "O Club" when these idiots were given their commands.

You've encountered the National Guard, where interwar promotion was often political.

For the British and Australians it was the case of having most of their best and brightest off fighting the active war against the Nazi's, instead of letting them putter around on the chance that the Japanese might attack. I've yet to read a revisionist history that suggests that Percival or Brooke-Popham were underappreciated geniuses.

For the Americans, the leaders were untested. With the benefit of hindsight, we can know who rose to the occasion. But at the time, no one knew. However, the problem was not National Guard commanders. The Guard divisions had been federalized for well over a year, and one thing the War Department got right was ruthlessly pruning overage or underqualified guard officers from their posts. The US Army did try to distinguish between Commanders who could train a division, and commanders who could better lead a division in combat. In AE, each US Division starts with the first commander who took the division overseas.

As far as I can tell, a Regular Army division and a National Guard division formed at the same time, with similar training, was likely perform about the same in combat. The American system of Army mobilization was a textbook example of how *not* to do it, and many divisions in training had to provide 3 or more "drafts" of soldiers to form cadres for newer divisions. Those divisions that suffered more drafts, in some cases having to replace more than 100% of the original complement of soldiers, had far less unit cohesion, morale, and combat skills when they deployed.

ORIGINAL: Blackhorse
For the Americans, the leaders were untested. With the benefit of hindsight, we can know who rose to the occasion. But at the time, no one knew. However, the problem was not National Guard commanders. The Guard divisions had been federalized for well over a year, and one thing the War Department got right was ruthlessly pruning overage or underqualified guard officers from their posts. The US Army did try to distinguish between Commanders who could train a division, and commanders who could better lead a division in combat. In AE, each US Division starts with the first commander who took the division overseas.

ORIGINAL: herwin

ORIGINAL: mike scholl 1

ORIGINAL: herwin




You've encountered the National Guard, where interwar promotion was often political.

In AIR SQUADRONS and on SHIPS and SUBS? I don't think so. And not all land units were National Guard. Sorry Harry..., can't agree with you in this case. In addition, the USA (which fully trained more than TWICE as many pilots in 1941 as Japan), has Squadrons arriving with training levels in the 20's and 30's. No offense, but that's nonsense.

There's a cluster of skills that lead to promotion in peacetime. There's a second cluster of skills that makes a leader effective in wartime. They overlap minimally. Both the US Army and the US Navy had to cull their leadership in 1942-43. The British had been using the various colonies as a place to post their poorer commanders in 1939-1941. The manpower pool from which higher British commanders were drawn was very small and inbred, so the poorest leaders were still kept on as administrators. Luckily for the Allies, there was also a class factor in British postings, so there were decent Indian and Australian officers available to step in once the failings of the poorer British leaders were (slowly) accepted. However a mediocre British commander (Leese for example) was always preferred to a brilliant colonial (e.g., Slim). Slim just didn't 'smell' right and didn't fit in.

(The Brits still operate that way.)

ORIGINAL: JeffK

ORIGINAL: herwin

There's a cluster of skills that lead to promotion in peacetime. There's a second cluster of skills that makes a leader effective in wartime. They overlap minimally. Both the US Army and the US Navy had to cull their leadership in 1942-43. The British had been using the various colonies as a place to post their poorer commanders in 1939-1941. The manpower pool from which higher British commanders were drawn was very small and inbred, so the poorest leaders were still kept on as administrators. Luckily for the Allies, there was also a class factor in British postings, so there were decent Indian and Australian officers available to step in once the failings of the poorer British leaders were (slowly) accepted. However a mediocre British commander (Leese for example) was always preferred to a brilliant colonial (e.g., Slim). Slim just didn't 'smell' right and didn't fit in.

(The Brits still operate that way.)

Interesting comments, name a few examples of "so there were decent Indian and Australian officers available to step in once the failings of the poorer British leaders were (slowly) accepted"

Slim was British, we bagged him after the war. Leese was a good Corps Commander, OK at 8th Army, out of his depth when sent to SEA.

IMHO, it was more a case of getting through those in higher positions at the start of the war and bringing on the up and coming Lt Cols who had to learn their trade.

A number of the British/Australian Commanders in Malaya were competent beyond their AE ratings, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, with undertained troops ans 2nd line equipment (especially artillery) with equally 2nd Line aircraft in support would make it hard for anyone.

ORIGINAL: mike scholl 1


Of course every Military has it's weak links that only become obvious when push comes to shove..., but in this game the situation is rediculous. To think George C. Marshall would have allowed this situation to develope is to believe in the Easter Bunny.

ORIGINAL: USS Henrico

Somehow the history books left out:

Japanese High Command got the combat results first every day of the war and passed them on to the Allies. Admiral Nimitz woke up each morning to heartwarming comments from his counterpart along the lines of "Our submarine torpedoed your carrier. Nanana Banzai!"

ORIGINAL: Insano

The Japanese used aircraft engines to produce new aircraft but never used an engine to repair a damaged one.